by Bob Blanton
“Go get your shower,” Alex said, giving Jason a gentle shove. “We’ve got a movie to catch.”’
“Okay, boss.”
Clouds in Paradise
On Monday, Matthew and Jason had grabbed an outside table; actually Matthew, who still brought his lunch to school, had grabbed the table, and Jason was just helping to secure it after he’d gotten his lunch from the school cafeteria.
Emily and Alex walked up with their lunch trays, “Hi, guys, Brea is just behind us, we gave her cuts so she didn’t have to wait in line.”
“Great,” Matthew said. “She’s always complaining about missing out on the good food.”
“If you can call this good food,” Alex said. “Can you believe they’ve closed the campus?”
“Well three rapes along the North Coast in just six weeks is pretty scary,” Emily said. “The school doesn’t want to be responsible for a student wandering off and getting caught by those thugs. I’m surprised it took them until today to do it.”
“I can’t believe the first two barely made the news,” Matthew added.
“Hey, guys,” Brianna said, “I guess we’re stuck eating out here at Chez Matthew for awhile. Good thing we have a reservation. No quick trips to the mall for sushi.”
“I’m happy to stay here until they catch those guys,” Alex said. “I’m scared to death every time I leave the house.”
“The press is calling them a wolf pack,” Emily added.
“That’s an insult to wolves,” Matthew said.
“Well, let’s just hope they catch them before they hurt another woman.”
“Have you noticed how down everyone is?” Emily said. “It’s like something sucked the life out of every girl on campus. We’re all walking around like Zombies and it’s only been two days since the story broke.”
“It has to be stressful, worrying about what will happen every time you go out alone.”
“Well I’m not going anywhere alone,” Brianna said.
“That’s because I have to drive her everywhere she goes,” Jason whispered to Matthew.
“A good thing,” Matthew whispered back.
◆ ◆ ◆
On the way to class after lunch, Emily grabbed Matthew. “Matt, can’t you do something to help?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, I’m just scared,” Emily said. “I have to drive home after tennis practice, and it’s usually getting dark by then. We’re all potential victims.”
“I’ll try to keep tabs on you girls to make sure you’re safe, but make sure you have your cellphone with you and a speed dial set for 911,” Matthew said.
“It didn’t help those three women. One of them said she tried to call 911 but her phone wouldn’t work.”
“I remember that. They’re telling all the girls to try to pair up whenever they go out.”
“I know, but it’s not always that easy.”
◆ ◆ ◆
After school Matthew did some research on the case. The Sheriff’s Department had jurisdiction, and based on the last newspaper article, a Detective Harkin was assigned to lead the investigation. After some poking around with his portal, he was able to find Detective Harkin’s desk and actually listen in on a couple of conversations about the case. He learned that they had three different samples that had shown up on two of the three victims. They had run it against the criminal database but there weren’t any matches. Based on the stories from the women, they believed that the rapes were opportunistic. The women were not targeted; instead three men seemed to be out hunting for potential victims, and preying on whomever they found who was vulnerable. Detective Harkin was wondering how the men were profiling their victims.
◆ ◆ ◆
On Tuesday night Matthew checked in on Sayid. He was reading a book so Matthew went back to his homework. Every few minutes or so he would check again; it was about 10:00 p.m. when he saw Sayid had put the book away and was checking his watch. Matthew decided he should stay tuned in for a while. Sayid kept checking the time on his watch as he wandered around his den. At 10:10, he took out a cellphone; Matthew noticed it wasn’t his usual cellphone. Sayid entered a passcode to unlock the phone; Matthew noted the number, 786786. Sayid then dialed 757 555 7386. Matthew memorized the number so he could alert Agent Caruthers of it if necessary. Since his Arabic was still pretty weak, Matthew only recognized a few of the words Sayid said, “I have … plans … two months… sarin… yes … delivered.”
Sayid hung up the phone, took the battery out, set the phone on the floor and stomped on it with his foot. Then he tossed the crushed phone into a trashcan.
The only non-Arabic word in the conversation was sarin; at least it didn’t sound Arabic to Matthew. Matthew closed his portal and looked it up on the web. He read the definition on Wikipedia, ‘A highly toxic synthetic organophosphorus compound used as a chemical weapon due to its extreme potency as a nerve agent’.
“Oh my God,” Matthew gasped.
After further reading, Matthew discovered that because sarin has a very short shelf life, in modern times it was deployed as a binary chemical weapon, where the stable components were combined to form sarin as the gas was deployed, or just before.
“I need to get this info to the FBI. Geez that’s all we need, a gang of rapists and a sarin attack. I have to find a way to alert Caruthers.”
◆ ◆ ◆
The next day after school, Matthew went into Encinitas and found a homeless woman who seemed to have her act together. It looked like she had only been homeless for a short time. He offered fifty dollars to buy a prepaid phone for him. When she agreed, he gave her thirty dollars, promising to give her the fifty dollars when she brought the phone back. He told her to buy a cheap, prepaid flip phone that he had identified would work. Since she looked like she was just down on her luck, he only hoped she spent the money he gave her on food instead of alcohol. “What an expensive way to get a burner phone,” he thought.
That night Matthew looked up the area code 757 and saw that it was for an area of Virginia that included Arlington. Then he used his portal to make the phone appear to be from Arlington, Virginia, and sent a text to Agent Caruthers. “Sarin attack planned trace # 757 555 7386 -- Ranger 0.”
“I hope they can figure this out,” Matthew said to himself.
◆ ◆ ◆
“Hi Emily,” Matthew said as she answered her door. “Ready for another study session?”
“Sure, come on in.”
“How was practice today?”
“It was okay. Everyone is a bit flat, you heard there was another rape reported this morning.”
“I know. It’s pretty scary that the police aren’t any closer to finding them,” Matthew said, as he followed Emily into the study.
“I wish we could help.”
“Well we can try,” Matthew replied. “I’ve got copies of the police files.”
“What? How did you?”
“I found the detective in charge and then listened in on a few of the meetings. Then, like I said, I copied the files.”
“Are you crazy? How did you get copies?”
“You told me to help!”
“I know, I just don’t want you to get caught.”
“I won’t. I used my portal to make the copies. They’ve got most of it pinned up on the wall, so it was easy to take pictures. The rest I just had to open the portal between the pages in the files.”
“Aren’t you clever. Did you find anything interesting?”
“There’s a fourth victim, Jeri Blakeman,” Matthew said. “The police are keeping it confidential. And that one of the victims had been raped before.”
“That is awful. How would one cope with it happening to you twice, and what are the odds?”
“That’s just it. The detective thinks the rapists are profiling the women somehow, identifying ones that would be easy victims.”
“How awful.”
“I’m hoping we can help figure out how they’re do
ing it. They haven’t released the names or any details of the victims, but they’re in the files. They’re all late teens or early twenties. No similarities in size or looks other than all being women. And all three live within twenty miles of Encinitas. I’ll have to check on the fourth one later.”
“Why would they restrict themselves to women who live close to Encinitas? The rapes haven’t all been that close.”
“That’s right they haven’t, so somehow Encinitas figures into how they’re selecting their victims.”
“Maybe the rapists live in Encinitas, or have a job there, like a delivery driver.”
“That’s what the cops think, so we should look for another angle,” Matthew said. “Some other reason that Encinitas is important.”
“Something the women do that’s in Encinitas, that they’d want to be close to. Something that other women who live farther away go somewhere else for.”
“Exactly, so what do women want to do close to home?”
“Hair dresser, nails, grocery shopping, exercise class, doctor, church.”
“Doctor,” Matthew said. “The one who’d been raped before would be seeing a therapist maybe.”
“Sure, I would definitely be seeing one,” Emily replied. “Do you know the name of the therapist?”
“Not in the files. Maybe it didn’t come up in the interview. Let’s see, her name is… Fiona McMurtry.”
“She goes to Dr. Sharma. I’ve seen her in the office!” Emily exclaimed.
“You have?! What about the other two, Samantha Culver and Joanna Schreiber?”
“I’ve met a Samantha, but I don’t know her last name. Why don’t you check?”
“I guess I could, but…”
“You just have to look at the appointment calendar,” Emily said. “No real harm in that.”
“Okay, here goes,” Matthew said. He opened his portal in their therapist’s office. It was closed for the night, but the calendar was on the receptionist’s desk. Matthew flipped through the pages. “Samantha Culver has an appointment in two weeks and Joanna Schreiber had one in February.”
“Definitely a link, but I would have thought they’d be right into their therapist after being attacked.”
“They’re seeing a therapist the police sent them to. Someone who specializes in crime victims and helping the victim remember things to help the police. Once the police’s therapist talks to them a few times, they’ll hand them back to their regular therapist, Dr. Sharma.”
“We have to let the police know about this.”
“Definitely. I guess I’ll have to buy another burner phone,” Matthew said.
“I’ll get it,” Emily volunteered.
“No I should do it. I used two homeless women to buy the phone.”
“Why two?”
“One to buy the phone, one to put the minutes on it.”
“Oh, well I’ll pay for it, how much?”
“One hundred dollars.”
“One hundred!”
“You have to pay them more than the phone is worth, or they’ll just keep the money or the phone.”
“Okay, I’ll give you the money when you leave. We might as well do some studying.”
◆ ◆ ◆
“Enough studying for today,” Emily said, as she closed the study guide.
“Fine by me.”
“Have you been checking on Sayid lately?”
“Yes, and it’s worrying me,” Matthew replied. “It looks like he’s up to something with sarin.”
“What’s sarin?” Emily asked.
“It’s a nerve gas. It was used in a terrorist attack in Japan about twenty years ago. And the Syrian government used it against the rebels during their civil war. That was a war crime, of course.”
“So what’s Sayid planning?”
“I don’t know. I, or rather Ranger Zero, gave Caruthers a heads up.”
“Is there anything else you can do?”
“I just hope I see something that will give me a lead so I can figure it out. I gave Caruthers the phone number that Sayid called. But Sayid destroyed the phone he used, and he was very precise about the timing of the call. So the other phone is probably a burner as well. And it’s probably not turned on except to check for text messages once in awhile or if they’ve arranged a call.”
“That doesn’t sound too promising,” Emily said.
“I know. I’m going to try to get into Sayid’s phone tonight to see if I can learn something else that will help.”
“How?”
“I have the passcode he used on the burner phone. I’m hoping it’s the same one he uses for his personal phone; it’s a three-digit repeat and the three digits are considered lucky to Muslims. He’s always used his thumb print to unlock his personal phone whenever I’ve been watching, so I haven’t been able to get the code.”
“I hope you find something. This is scary. It seems like there is another terrorist attack every month,” Emily said.
“Don’t let it freak you out. You have to look at the statistics. You’re far more likely to be killed in a car wreck than caught up in a terrorist attack, probably more likely to be hit by lightning in fact. The terrorists’ real weapon is fear, by making unpredictable attacks they try to instill fear in everyone that they could be killed at any moment. You’re not afraid to drive or go out in the rain, so don’t let the fear paralyze you. Besides what are the odds we’d be involved in two terrorist events in one year?”
“I know, but San Diego isn’t doing so well with the odds lately. Sayid and the wolf pack.”
◆ ◆ ◆
That evening Matthew set his alarm for 3:00 a.m. before he went to bed. When the alarm woke him, he quickly checked on Sayid. He was sleeping and his phone was next to him on the nightstand. Matthew checked the rest of the house to make sure that Sayid’s butler was also asleep and there wasn’t anything likely to wake Sayid up. Then he took his portal back to Sayid’s bedroom. First he put the phone in silent mode and disconnected it from the charger. Then he entered the passcode to see if it worked. The phone unlocked. “Yes!” he said.
Then Matthew put his portal beneath the phone and guided it to the bathroom by using the ceiling to navigate. “One limitation of only having one portal,” Matthew thought. “It’s hard to see where you’re going when you want to carry something.” Once in the bathroom he checked what apps Sayid had on the phone. There was Snap Chat, so no history there. No other apps on the phone of interest besides email. Fortunately there was only one email app, so Matthew opened it and starting checking out the emails. Sayid had several different accounts consolidated under the same app.
He perused the recent emails to see if he could find out anything. Most of them were in Arabic, so they weren’t much help, but he found several emails that confirmed the establishment of futures trading accounts at several different firms. Two of the accounts were in the U.S., one in Germany, one in the U.K. and one in Japan. There were also emails confirming money transfers into them. Among all of the accounts, he summed up about thirty million dollars. Matthew wrote down the information on each of the trading accounts and the account numbers and routing numbers for each of the bank transfers.
Then Matthew looked through the browser history. He saw that Sayid had visited the pages for each of the brokerage accounts. He also saw several visits to offshore banks that had been used to transfer the money to the trading accounts. He came across several visits to the login page of a bank in the Cayman Islands. There hadn’t been any emails from that bank and there were no names stored in the browser cookies or anything else to help identify the account or the owner.
Looking at the photos on the phone, Matthew didn’t see anything suspicious. There were only photos of some children and a woman who he assumed was Sayid’s wife or maybe his sister. There were no other documents on the phone, so Matthew put it back to sleep and carefully maneuvered it back to the table beside Sayid’s bed.
Sayid rolled over in his sleep shocking Matthew. He
almost dropped the phone. It took him a half a minute to calm down enough that he place the phone back in exactly the same position it was in when he found it. He reconnected the charger and took it out of silent mode. He saw that Sayid was still sleeping, so he closed his portal down.
Matthew got out the burner phone again and sent Caruthers a text with the account numbers from the brokerage firms and the various banks. He added a note that Sayid seemed to be amassing a lot of money for some reason. He signed the text Ranger Zero again.
It had taken over an hour to accomplish everything, so it was after 4:00 a.m. before Matthew got back to sleep. He only had 1½ hours to sleep before he would have to get up at his normal early rise time. “Good thing I can get by on five hours,” Matthew thought.
The next couple of mornings, Matthew checked out Agent Caruthers to see what she was doing about his text message. He checked on the web and discovered that the FBI had an office just off I-805 and Mira Mesa Boulevard. Checking the directory in that building, he’d found Agent Caruthers listed. “No wonder she was able to get up here so fast when the Sheriff pulled Alex and me in,” Matthew thought. Checking her desk calendar, he’d seen that she held a morning briefing at 7:30 each day with her team. “Okay, I can make that time,” Matthew said. “I’ll just get up thirty minutes earlier for my workout, then I can sit in on this while I’m cooling down.” He was able to sit in on the briefing the second day, and from that it was clear Agent Caruthers and her team were aggressively looking into the information he had provided.
◆ ◆ ◆
On Friday Matthew got a second burner phone and texted Detective Harkin. ‘All four women are seeing Dr. Sharma’. Then Matthew tuned his portal to watch how the detective reacted.
“Jones!” Detective Harkin yelled. “Find out where this text came from. Cassey, call this Dr. Sharma and find out if this is correct. How did we miss this?”
“We had no reason to ask them about a therapist, and it looks like none of them volunteered the information.”
“Wouldn’t the therapist we’re sending them to have figured it out?”
“Obviously not. And we haven’t released any names, so how would anyone know?”
