Discovery

by Douglas E Roff

  The Diary of Thomas Beneviste was a comprehensive and meticulous set of volumes that could be corroborated, with identifiable references to specific people, places and events. Sometimes these details were clear, detailed and understandable; other times details were cryptic and obtuse. What Thomas was, what he did and a great deal more were startlingly revealed in this book. But the Diary, though written over a lifetime, could just as easily be construed as the ravings of a delusional madman or, worse, an ably written draft of some imaginative work of fiction. There was no proof offered that any of his bizarre story was true. Of course, in a diary, that was to be expected.

  Edward asked Hannah to read the parts he highlighted and to take them all at face value, at least for the time being. That would be a good starting point.

  Aside from the Diary and the English language portions of the Book there was still a mountain of easily verifiable documentary evidence contained in the Library, now in Portland somewhere, and soon to be safely shipped to Barrows Bay. These source documents were not all written in unknown ancient script; most, in fact, were written in old dialects of modern languages spanning hundreds, if not thousands of years. This lent credibility to the hypothesis that something very real and most peculiar was going on. Just what that something was remained elusive to Edward.

  In the months since the Library had arrived in Portland both Edward and Bitsie had spent only a modest amount of time sifting through the physical materials in their various forms. There were dozens of crates in the six forty-foot shipping containers loaded with hundreds if not thousands of stacked plastic boxes of materials that had been sorted, identified and dated, presumably over a long period of time by Beneviste himself.

  Placed on the top of Box 1, Crate 1 in Container 1 were the eleven hand-written and leather embossed volumes comprising the Diary of Thomas Beneviste, together with the Book of Gensarii and some additional personal items.

  A chilling preface to the first volume of the books comprising the Diary must’ve been written just prior to his death. The assessment of the state of affairs between humans and the Gens Collective was described as dire indeed and despairing of the future for both species.

  Also, in Box 1 were a series of letters addressed to his wife; all were sealed, unstamped and unsent. There were hundreds. Some were addressed to her at what must have been their long-time residence in Chicago, while others were addressed to her at their home in Tucson. None had been opened.

  Save one. The last one.

  These letters, written about once a month in longhand, had abruptly ceased about three years earlier. Pima County records later confirmed this to be the approximate time when Mrs. Beneviste suddenly passed. Cause of death: suicide.

  The normal process of receiving, digitizing and uploading data to the DL Main staging computer in Portland hadn’t been followed once Bitsie fortuitously found the Book, the Diary and the letters. Instead, and contrary standard DataLab Project protocols, Bitsie poked around the materials she had been led to believe contained important and explosive information detailing the history, organization and financial dealings of the biggest Mafia organizations from coast to coast. Since gathering the data had been personally handled by Adam at the request of the Seattle field office of the FBI, Adam had been anxious to see what had been netted and if it was likely to be of any interest to the Feds. None of the supposed mob materials were to be uploaded to the DL Main until reviewed and decisions made about possible use in criminal trials. There was no way that these mob financial records, or the revelation of their existence, could ever be allowed to get back in the hands of the mob and their lawyers.

  What Bitsie found was far different from what had been expected. By her, the FBI and Adam.

  Though disappointed by what had been found and the massive perceived waste of time, Adam informed Regional Director Berg of the bad news. And, unable to deliver any good news to FBI Joint Organized Crime Task Force, Adam didn’t really care about some dusty old diaries and related old fantasy nonsense. Rather than bother Adam, who could be quite inflexible in his field of vision, Bitsie contacted Edward for guidance first.

  These were not mob materials, Bitsie discovered. These were something else entirely.

  The Diary, letters and the Book, along with a sampling of translatable items were sent to Edward in digital form, in an encrypted communication through secure channels. Edward was in Portland the next day, rummaging around a mountain of paper and trying to decide whether this was an elaborate hoax, a practical joke or the discovery of a lifetime. Possibly two lifetimes.

  After two days of non-stop, caffeine fueled investigation, he decided there was enough weirdness in the materials to merit further exploration. He ordered everything to be left as is; nothing was to be uploaded to either the DL Main or a staging computer, at least until further notice after an intensive review. Documents would be translated as directed and as required. Languages used in documents would be identified and dialects classified chronologically.

  Old documents were then to be authenticated via language context by experts. In addition, they would attempt to determine the age of the documents by paper content, paper characteristics and ink as well as other traditional methods of document dating. Radiocarbon dating would then be attempted in addition to testing and analyzing the chemical and biological composition of the paper. Every aspect of the source materials in the Library would be rigorously and scientifically tested to objectively arrive at a singular conclusion: could any of these documents be authentic or are they just excellent fakes? That the documents were authentic didn’t necessarily imply that the assertions made in them were true. It was merely a preliminary step but an important and essential one.

  It was Edward’s initial thought that the source documents, after being carefully restored and digitized in Portland, were to be sent to a secure facility in Barrows Bay, BC. Thus, the cache of documents would be kept away from the US authorities including the FBI and anyone else nosing into the matter. This would be done immediately after Hannah, if she took the job, was given an opportunity to do her own thorough and robust evaluation of the source materials.

  It was against this very preliminary and superficial examination of the Library that Hannah and Edward arrived at the Workshop in Portland.

  Chapter 43

  Edward and Hannah arrived at the DataLab Project complex just before lunch and were greeted in the lobby of the building by Dr. Bitsie Tolan and Tony Adamson. Bitsie Tolan was an MIT graduate with a Ph.D. in the field of predictive analytics, while Tony was a senior operations manager in charge of the DataLab Project field office in Portland. Both were supposed to report to Dr. Adam St. James but really their de facto boss was Edward.

  The modest yet new building comprised eight floors, plus the underground parking garage. While the DataLab Project took up the top four floors, it was unclear who took up the other space. There was no tenant directory near the building entrance and no signage on any of the offices indicating who occupied the space. There was no onsite building management or landlord building security in evidence anywhere.

  Two of the four elevators served floors five through eight of the building exclusively; the other two ran to floors two through four. Both sets of elevators employed digital fingerprint technology as an added layer of security. An intercom system at the front entrance allowed contact for deliveries to be made, but never beyond the lobby. All other visitors had to be escorted by tenant personnel from front entrance to meeting place then back out through the lobby and front door. Tenants were expected to provide their own security personnel, all of whom were well armed and humorless.

  Employees of the tenants seldom interacted and came and went quietly. People smiled and were friendly, but none ever stopped to chat.

  Ownership of the building was in the name of a numbered federal Canadian corporation, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. That corporation, in turn, was owned by an offshore corporation in Panama whose shareholders were n
ot publicly disclosed.

  The four chatted on their way to the main lobby of the DataLab Project offices on the eighth floor. Introductions would be handled once inside a secure conference room, one of four located on the DataLab Project premises. They settled in the largest of the four conference rooms on the eighth floor, which had a nice lunch laid out on the far end of the conference room table.

  “Lunch is looking good,” Edward said looking in Bitsie’s direction. “It’s nice having a home cooked meal. You really shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble, Bitsie.”

  “Thanks Edward. I’ve forgotten how insincere you can be when you really apply yourself.” Turning to Hannah, she continued, “Edward can’t seem to grasp that a woman might not want to cook, play with dolls or get pregnant. One of the outstanding minds of the seventeenth century. Thank God my ‘work husband’ is Tony. At least he gets it. Most of the time, anyway.”

  Hannah said nothing to all the witty repartee, preferring to smile and instead focused her attention on the Edward/Bitsie dynamic. Edward had failed to give her any advanced intel on the Portland pair, instead leaving it up to her to forge a relationship with each on her own. While the reasons for his refusal to give her any of their back story were murky at best, she would quickly find out why.

  Adam had only mentioned his two colleagues in Portland a few times in passing and, even then, only remarked that one was easy to work with while the other wasn’t. On the other hand, Adam was no prince when it came to getting along with colleagues, so it seemed both appropriate and prudent for Edward to stay mum on the subject.

  Bitsie began, “So you must be Hannah, Adam’s main squeeze. This really is a family business.”

  Bitsie was just about as tactful as Adam and often said things in a way and with a tone that she really didn’t intend. However, her distaste for Adam, as well as all things circling around Adam, was evident. They rarely spoke directly to each other anymore, preferring instead to use intermediaries in their joint effort to avoid conflict and outright warfare.

  Hannah said nothing to the slight. “I haven’t taken the job yet and perhaps I won’t. If I do, you may want to lose the attitude. I won’t be working for you, but we will still be working together. Let’s at least try to make our business life pleasant.”

  Bitsie smiled then turned to Edward, “Does she know? She doesn’t know, does she? When were you planning on telling her, Edward?”

  “Tell me what?” Hannah said. Everyone was now looking hard and long at Edward, who said nothing. He stood up, lunch plate in hand.

  Edward said, “OK. Now that the pleasantries are concluded, let’s establish some ground rules and get everyone up to speed on the important background before we get down to business. Bitsie and Tony technically work for Adam, and Adam, in theory, works for me. Tony gets along with everyone and keeps the peace. Bitsie gets along with no one and has reserved a special place in hell for Adam whom she simply detests. Hannah will work for and report directly to me if she takes the job, which has just today been offered but not yet accepted. I would hope we can all be civil to Hannah, at least until she agrees to take this position. Then you can all have a free for all if that’s what you all want. Asa long I’m not around to watch, of course.”

  Edward paused for effect, then continued, “Bitsie, unfortunately, is under the mistaken impression that because I want Hannah to coordinate certain of her activities with the office here in Portland that this somehow means Hannah will be reporting to Bitsie. This is incorrect. She works for and reports exclusively, directly and only to me. The work she does and the results of the tasks she undertakes based on her team’s field research will probably come here for further analysis, testing and verification. That’s all. I hope we are all now clear.”

  Three heads nodded tentatively in unison.

  “What is essential to understand, and to internalize from this moment forward, is that the jobs the three of you do, along with every other member of our very small team, are critically important to the success of the project. Are we clear on this point too?”

  Once more, three heads nodded in unison

  “I will direct Bitsie’s data modelling and data management activities and her research assignments into the Library, while Hannah conducts field operations. The two assignments are inextricably intertwined, so you must learn how to work together if not actually find a way to get along. But whether you do get along or don’t, I don’t really care. Just get the work done and try not to aggravate one another unnecessarily. I will be checking in with Tony daily, who is the only actual grownup in the room. That includes me too, of course.”

  Turning to Bitsie, he said “You may not know that Hannah just dumped my son. Had enough of his nonsense. So really you two should get along just fine. See if you can’t find some common ground you can both agree on. Like … I don’t know … loathing my son.”

  Edward continued, “Everyone here in this room has more than ample reason to justify some incredibly massive egos. But in the end, none of you work alone and the team is the only thing that matters to me. Just don’t let the nonsense and emotion cloud your work or judgement. Are we clear?”

  Everyone nodded one more time, although Hannah didn’t in fact have a clue what Edward was blathering on about. How could she? She was five hours into a possible new life and new occupation and still didn’t fully understand the apparently complex hush-hush job she was being asked to undertake.

  “Good. Let’s move on. Hannah is here to understand what we have found so far so she can decide about coming aboard. Then I will have a separate and confidential conversation with her about the job description, her duties and assigned personnel. That will include what we intend to do here in Portland, which is really Bitsie’s domain. That job is authentication and verification of documents, as well as digitizing the things I wanted uploaded. Later Bitsie will construct profiles of our target groups and do other predictive assessments as required. Further, she will develop other behavioral models and conflict models as demanded by the data on hand.”

  Edward paused to make sure this diatribe was sinking in. Then he continued, “I will hire someone else for this team to lead our efforts in translation, decryption and document language analysis. This is very different from the authentication and verification process which is managed by Bitsie. All that work will be performed for Bitsie by various document experts at labs in San Francisco, Omaha and Boston. So, Bitsie is the manager, not the worker bee.”

  Edward looked at each of his colleagues carefully. Everyone paid rapt attention as he continued his message. All were happy to let him carry on while they ate, which had begun in earnest.

  “Tony will coordinate among the parties, including with the yet to be identified language and cryptography experts. I have people in mind for those positions but we’re probably a few months away from making any formal offers. But maybe sooner, depending on how things develop.

  “Everything we do will be compartmentalized and isolated. Other than about ten people who will comprise the core of our little project, nobody else will be given any background or reasons for why we need something done. Consultants and other retained experts need only be told that we need something reviewed, evaluated, analyzed, translated or decrypted. No pillow talk, or shared confidences with anyone not strictly authorized in writing by me to have any familiarity with this project.”

  He continued, “Adam will handle the software side of all our tasks, although he will not initially be told about Hannah or other potential resources. At least not right away. That means you, Bitsie, will make absolutely no effort to cause trouble by letting this factoid slip to Adam. Eventually, by the time the entire team is assembled, and all core tasks are clear, full disclosure will be made to everyone who needs to know. The time for that disclosure however is not now and the timing of that decision is reserved solely to me.

  “Just so you know, Maria and Agustin Suarez, who you all know, are working on assignments re
lated to this project and have detailed knowledge of what we have so far. Rod and Cindy Suarez, who you’ve also met, will also be involved. But unless there is a problem they can solve protecting you here, you won’t be seeing much of them at all.”

  Turning to Hannah, he said, “Hannah, you may see more of them after you leave Portland. Along with Adam and me. Unavoidable in the long run, so if that factors into your decision then now you know.”

  He turned away and continued, “Any questions so far?” Edward scanned the room. He wanted no questions, as none would be germane to the work at hand. His facial expression was ‘then, let’s move on’.

  “Excellent. Then Bitsie, why don’t you walk us through what we have so far.”

  Chapter 44

  Bitsie moved to the head of the conference room table as everyone else leaned over concentrating on the lunch array comprised of tasty Mexican food treats spread out before them. The pull-down screen behind her was white and blank but already the lights were somehow magically beginning to slowly dim. The computer projector came alive as Bitsie began to use the remote which seemed to coordinate all the mechanical activity in the room. This was largely unnoticed by the crew there assembled, due to the presence of freshly made chips and salsa and round tin foil dishes of Oaxaca black refried beans, tacos, tostadas, enchiladas and burritos. And one large flour tortilla cheese crisp with a side of guacamole in a pizza size box, just as Edward had requested.

  A special round aluminum container with a white cardboard top, sealed along the edges was set aside and labeled CARNITAS/EDWARD.

  Hannah looked at Edward and said, “That stuff will kill you, old man. And fast”

  “This and the deep-fried flour tortilla chips, for sure.” Edward paused, smiling and said, “So I’m ‘old man’ now? What happened to ‘Dad’?”