Intentional Consequences

by Charles Harris

  ◆◆◆

  After lunch, Eva went by the hospital to see George Ball and Mary. On the way back home, Andy called.

  “Hey, I’ve been looking at some of the latest tweets and posts slamming Professor Williams,” he said. “I’ve got three photos I sure hope are fakes, but the quality is a lot better than the other ones I sent you. If I email them to you, can you check them?”

  “Sure. I’ll be home soon.”

  When she got home, Eva forwarded the photos to Steve Cole. He called back 30 minutes later.

  Cole said, “All three are fakes. Very high editing quality on the alterations, but high assurance on all. “You’re not going to believe this, but all three were made with our stolen decoy.”

  “Really? Did our geo-location data come through?”

  “Yep. Like a charm. All three were created on Friday in Menlo Park, south of San Francisco.”

  “Wow. That’s amazing. How granular is the geo-mapping? Facebook and PaprW8 are both located in Menlo Park.”

  “I’m pulling up a Google map now to drop a pin.” He paused. “Looks like it’s PaprW8. It’s not on the Facebook campus.”

  “So, does that mean we were hacked by PaprW8 or they got our software from someplace else, like China?”

  Cole said, “Given what we’ve learned about the data breach from the home invasion, I’d say the decoy was downloaded by someone in China and shared with PaprW8.”

  They talked about the possibilities. Just before the call ended, Cole said, “We should stay quiet about how we know what we know about this. It’s one thing to say VADS can analyze a file and detect alterations. It’s another to admit we can tell where and when the alteration was made.”

  ◆◆◆

  Whatever else Eva had planned to do that day fell by the wayside. She called Andy first. “They’re all fakes. Unlike the earlier photos, we can tell something about how these three were created that may help us. Please log every comment, tweet or site that includes any of those three photos. I’ll explain why later. If you find any similar photos, send them on. If you could call Valerie and let her know what we found, I’d appreciate it.”

  Dan was next. She gave him part of the news. “Dan, it’s stunning. We created a decoy version of our VADS software for hackers to download. They took the bait. Today, Andy sent me three photos from some negative tweets about Valerie. VADS determined the photos were made using the stolen decoy version of VADS. Andy’s compiling a list of all the threads where the photos show up.” She didn’t tell Dan that the VADS decoy had identified where the altered photos had been made.

  Dan said, “I didn’t know you could do all that.”

  Chapter 45

  Early Sunday evening, Bernbach received a call from Billings on their secure line. “You need to sit down for this one. You’re not going to like it.”

  Bernbach said, “OK. What is it?”

  “The two guys Franks sent after Andy Baker had a problem. One of them is dead and the other is in intensive care.”

  “What the hell happened? Where’s Baker?”

  “Baker’s fine. Still a breaking story on the rest. Best Franks has been able to tell so far, the two guys were in a Charger chasing Baker and a woman in a Porsche. One of the people in the Charger shot at them. The Porsche pulled off the road into a driveway and the Charger crashed. Somehow, there was a firefight and the woman in the Porsche killed one of the two men and seriously wounded the other one. The Sheriff called in the FBI.”

  Bernbach was silent.

  Billings said, “You there?”

  “I’m here. I’m just not believing what you said. They were supposed to scare Baker, weren’t they? How did all the rest of this shit happen?”

  “We don’t know at this point. Franks called it ‘collateral damage’.”

  “So now what?”

  “Franks says we’re OK.”

  “OK? With the FBI looking into who shot at a journalist who’s working on some story about a political conspiracy that supposedly involves me?”

  “Involves you?”

  “Never mind.”

  “Franks obviously doesn’t know anything about that. At least Baker has to be scared.”

  “Who was the woman in the Porsche?”

  “Her name is Eva Johnson. Married. Lives in a big house out on Lake Travis. Per Franks, her occupation is listed as artist. She’s married to Dan Johnson, the guy who runs JPAC. No idea what she was doing with Baker.”

  “You have to be kidding me. Dan Johnson’s wife is the person who shot the two guys in the Charger?”

  “That’s what I understand.”

  Minutes later, Bernbach was on the phone with Ward.

  ◆◆◆

  Dan spent most of Sunday evening locked away in his study, preparing for his trip the next day for his periodic briefing with David Bernbach in Westport. Bernbach would be sending his plane as usual. This time, Dan would be staying at the Delamar Southport hotel instead of Bernbach’s lavish estate. Not that he’d spend much time there, but it supplied a respectable hotel receipt and wasn’t far from Tara Hope’s very comfortable English manor house. He sent Tara his itinerary by Snapchat. She replied with a Snapchat photo of her standing naked in the moonlight by her pool. He smiled as he looked at the photo and closed the app. Like the other photos she sent every few days, thanks to Snapchat the photo disappeared 10 seconds after he opened it.

  Dan emerged from his study just before 10:00 p.m. and found Eva reading in the great room. “Any more news on those fake photos VADS found?” he asked.

  “Nothing so far. Busy evening for you.”

  “Yeah. I need to go to New York tomorrow. Primary campaigns are heating up. Have you talked with Andy about how his work is going?”

  “I called him about what we discovered on the fake photos.”

  “I’m worried about what happened Saturday. Whoever was behind that could decide to try again. Andy may be in over his head. I know you’re tough, but I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  “Are you telling me to stay away from Andy?”

  “Might not be a bad idea for a while to see what happens, especially while I’m out of town. We were all lucky on Saturday.”

  Chapter 46

  Dan landed at Westchester County Airport at 1:33 p.m. on Monday. John had him in Bernbach’s office in Westport 40 minutes later. They sat at the small round conference table overlooking the pond.

  “Another good flight up, I presume?” Bernbach said.

  ‘Yes. Very nice. Thank you for sending the plane.”

  “I noticed you’re staying at the Delamar Southport. I’m beginning to think you like Miss Hope’s company better than you do mine.” Bernbach smiled and waited for a response.

  “Well, uh, the Delamar is convenient. I don’t want to continually take advantage of your hospitality.”

  “Blushing doesn’t become you, Dan. Neither does lying. One of the many good things about wealth is it brings the opportunity to experience new things and new friends when traveling. I’m glad you’ve found Miss Hope to be as stimulating as she apparently finds you.”

  Standing, Bernbach added, “Now, before we get to your usual updates, I’d like to talk about some contradictions that could affect our relationship.”

  “Contradictions?”

  “Yes. I understand your wife, Eva I believe, has been spending some time down there with a young newspaper reporter who works for the Sentinel Observer in Boston. I also understand this young man is pursuing a political conspiracy story that involves me. I gather this reporter went to UT-Austin and has relatives in Austin. The most interesting aspect of all this is your wife was driving this reporter to see friends on Saturday when someone supposedly shot at their car and your wife ended up killing one man and fatally injuring another. I had no idea you’d married someone from the Special Forces. By the way, the injured man passed away this morning. Had a heart attack of all things. Then just to add to the drama, the Sheriff investigating the mat
ter decides to call in the FBI. While trying to learn whether this reporter may have named me as a potential target of his investigation, I discovered the FBI is already investigating a drone attack, whatever that is, and a home invasion and data breach at your property that are classified due to unstated national security issues. I must say your wife stays busy.”

  Dan started to speak, but Bernbach waved him off and continued, “Then I find your business partner in JPAC, Rakesh Jain, is out trying to put together corporate support for some sort of public service campaign to reunite America. I assume he’s planning to use JPAC to implement this. Although his motives may be pure, I’m sure you understand any program like this will threaten some candidates and help others. For those of us who believe continued conflict in American politics could help usher in a new era of single-party democracy, Mr. Jain’s exalted efforts are not helpful. Given the funds I’m already devoting to the 2020 presidential election, and our own little financial relationship, I was surprised these efforts somehow escaped your earlier status reports to me. Perhaps this was an oversight on your part?”

  Dan said, “The reporter you mentioned. The story he’s working on implicates you? I never knew who he was writing about.”

  Bernbach watched Dan, waiting for more.

  Dan said, “Really. I swear. Nobody told me who he was targeting.”

  “What did you hear?”

  “That he was working on a story about the influence of technology in presidential elections. Valerie Williams asked me to give him some background. I talked with him for about an hour when he was in Austin for a wedding. It sounded like he thought the Chinese might be involved, but he never mentioned you.”

  “What about your wife. What does she know?”

  “I don’t know. She and Valerie Williams are close. Both of them have spent time with the reporter. After the gunfight at the Ball’s house on Saturday, I got concerned and told Eva she should stay away from the guy.”

  “Where did she learn to shoot like that?”

  Dan told Bernbach about the drone incident and the home invasion, including the FBI and cybersecurity investigations, the security improvements they had made and the firearms lessons he and Eva had taken.

  “That’s quite a story. So, your cyber experts concluded the Chinese were involved in the data breaches? Did they get anything?”

  “Nothing from JPAC. But they did penetrate the Daneva Tech network.”

  “What’s Daneva Tech?”

  “It’s the software company Eva created with one of her CMU classmates. It makes digital editing software.”

  “Oh, yes. I have heard of them. Did they get her software?”

  “Not directly, but the hackers or somebody did end up with a version of the software.”

  “Really. What does it do?”

  “The software uses AI to create fake photos. It can also detect fakes.”

  “Back on the gunfight, as you called it. Did the reporter tell the police or the FBI I was involved in the investigation for his story?”

  “I don’t know. Eva might know, but I don’t.”

  Bernbach walked to the wall of windows. “We’ll come back to that. Tell me about your involvement in Mr. Jain’s annoying little project.”

  “He’s a JPAC client as well as the majority owner. You know we keep each client walled off and compartmentalized. Rakesh doesn’t even know the names of JPAC’s clients. He has no access to what JPAC does for you.”

  “Is he using JPAC’s normal services or do you have some new technology for his project?”

  “We will be rolling out some additional features limited to his project.”

  “Anything interesting?”

  “Uh, look, David, I can’t break that confidence. Let’s just say we’ve made some breakthroughs in our use of AI to create and test microtargeted messaging and to assess and capitalize on various voter trends and attitudes.”

  “Danny, that’s not exactly the answer I was looking for, given your consulting relationship here.” Pulling out his iPhone, he turned on the flat screen display on his wall and called up a photo of Dan and Tara Hope at the dinner party he had thrown several weeks earlier. They were standing together in the gathering room. “Such a great picture. You look so comfortable together.”

  Dan sighed and sat back in his chair.

  Bernbach said, “Here’s another one from dinner. And here’s one in the library after dinner when Miss Hope’s jacket was getting a little more interesting. These are classy photos, don’t you think? Up here, they’d look good in Town and Country or one of our local society magazines, especially given Miss Hope’s eligibility following her husband’s tragic death. I could send you copies of these if you’d like to share them with your wife.”

  Dan looked at Bernbach. Then he looked back at the screen and dropped his eyes to the table. “I didn’t expect that from you, given your emphasis on the importance of trust.”

  “Danny, Dan. Good to you for bringing up trust. Now perhaps you know how I feel about these little contradictions. I trusted you and you seem to have forgotten your end of the bargain. This is not a game for me. It’s deadly serious. Do you think I’m paying you and flying you around in one of my planes and giving you a taste of what it’s like to be wonderfully rich just because I like you? You’re very good at what you do, but if you want to step up to the next level, you have to learn to play with the big boys and girls.”

  Dan stammered. “I, I never meant to betray your trust. I appreciate your efforts to expand my horizons. Maybe I’m not cut out for this. Maybe we should terminate my consulting relationship with you. You can make your own decision about whether you want to continue to work with JPAC, which I hope you’ll do.”

  “Things like this are never easy, Dan. It’s hard to put Humpty back together again. Let me show you something else. This is an excerpt from one of our security cameras.” The dim screen displayed a video of Dan and Hope walking toward the guest cottage, laughing. Hope was carrying the bottle of Courvoisier. Her tux jacket was hanging open, flashing her bare breasts as she walked.

  Bernbach continued, “That’s just the preview. This is the main feature.” The screen switched to a video that had been made inside the guest cottage.

  Dan said, “Has Tara seen this?”

  “No, and neither has your wife, thanks for asking. Dan, you’re very bright, but you’re playing well above your head. Resignation is not one of your options here. You’re committed. Are we clear on that?”

  The video was still playing. Staring at the screen, Dan said, “I guess we are.”

  “Good,” Bernbach said as he terminated the video. “I do trust these videos won’t adversely affect your time with Miss Hope this evening.” He smiled at Dan. “I took the liberty of moving our usual team update session to tomorrow morning. I thought we could spend the rest of the afternoon delving into some details of the contradictions I mentioned earlier. Among other things, I want to make a list of deliverables for you. I’d also like to do a phone intro to a colleague at PaprW8 who’s working with me on several matters. Her name is Susan Ward. She’s the COO out there. As I think you know, I bought 9.9% of PaprW8 earlier this year. I’m encouraging them to drive more political marketing revenue.”

  After two hours of interrogating Dan, Bernbach had John drive him to the Delamar Southport. An hour later, Hope picked him up in her magenta Bentley Continental GT convertible. She was wearing tan slacks with a blue long-sleeved blouse that was barely buttoned. “Hi!” she said as Dan slid into the white leather passenger seat. “Can’t believe you’re finally back! Thought I’d leave the top up on the car. Small town prying eyes, and all that. Are you done for the night?”

  “I am with them,” he said with a grin. “I’m ready for the wine and you. Moon’s almost full tonight. Loved that last picture of you by the pool.”

  “It’s still a little chilly, but the pool heater’s on. We’ll see how you like that look in person.”

  As soon as they were
in the house, Hope slipped off her shirt and threw her arms around Dan, kissing him passionately. After a short break to pour some wine, Hope stripped to a sheer black thong and pulled Dan into her bedroom. Later, wearing a short black lace robe, she made sea scallops over linguini for dinner. After more wine, they made love in the warm pool and eventually found their way to bed. Thanks to Hope’s incessant hunger for physical satisfaction, neither of them slept much.

  ◆◆◆

  The following morning, Dan briefed Bernbach’s team for a couple of hours. Then Bernbach took him into his office for a debrief before having John drive him to the airport.

  “I thought we should double back on your assignments we discussed yesterday,” Bernbach said. “Why don’t you give me a summary?”

  “OK. First, you expect weekly reports on Rakesh’s project. Second, you want to be able to use the new technology we’ve developed for him. Third, you want a copy of the software code with the algorithms sent to PaprW8 and one of your Chinese companies. Fourth, you want me to do whatever I can to distance that reporter and the FBI from being interested in you or thinking you have anything to do with China. That includes keeping Eva away from the reporter, which you’ve made clear could be important for her own safety. Is that it?”

  “You’ve got it. Anything else before you go?”

  “Yes. I’ve made arrangements to fly back commercial, so I won’t need the ride on your plane. I have a car coming for the trip to JFK. After sleeping on it last night, I’ve decided I can’t help you with your list. I’m resigning, whether you think that’s an option or not. You can do whatever you want with your photos and videos. Once you play them, they’re played. I don’t intend to betray my business partner. I figure the worst thing that happens to me is Eva leaves me and I end up marrying Tara. On the other hand, the worst thing that happens to you is you go to jail for 20 years, along with some of your friends. I don’t intend to be in there with you. You can decide whether you want your people to keep using JPAC.”