by Van Fleisher
She laughed but explained, “Sorry. We just had Indian tonight. But let’s try to keep you on the streets, and let’s talk tomorrow.”
Zoe quickly opened the door, and both she and Demi jumped.
Demi exclaimed, “Oh, I was just coming in. Who were you talking with?”
***
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Jennifer was still awake when Vijay finished his call with Zoe. “What’s the latest with the FBI cooperation?” she asked, rather coolly.
“They’re thrilled with the new data feed and are confident that this will slow down or even stop killings.”
“Have they asked VitalTech yet about supplying the data?”
“No. Not yet.”
The only sound was the rustling of the comforter as Jennifer rolled over, away from Vijay.
***
CHAPTER 16 – ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE
Washington, D.C. Zoe arrived at her office with one thing on her mind - What is going on with Demi? Five minutes later, it was possibly the last thing on her mind.
Two judges and a state senator had been shot, one of the judges fatally. Zoe took small consolation that none of them were Final Notice shooters, so she didn’t have to get involved. There was a message from legal that they needed to speak with her, and there was a memo that all presidential candidates and Supreme Court justices were to receive protection. The Secret Service would protect the candidates, and the Supreme Court Police would guard the justices.
Protection for presidential candidates usually doesn’t begin until much later in the nomination process. President Obama received his protection eighteen months before the election, the earliest ever, based on threats, and Hillary Clinton, as a former First Lady, already had protection when she ran. Now, over twenty candidates would be eligible to receive protection, but they could choose to refuse it. John McCain had refused, believing that the security would act as a barrier between himself and the electorate. But even that short while ago, the nation was less divided.
She looked at Ninad’s new app and almost panicked at the number of orange and red dots crawling all over the D.C. map until she realized it was filtered to all VT2 users. So, she held her breath and filtered for Final Notice recipients only. Although that significantly reduced the crawling dots, there were still twenty or more, and then she laughed. It was still rush hour. No wonder there were so many angry people out there.
Ninad had programmed a number of automatic alarms so the system self-monitored, signaling when there was a potential incident. He had already imported the Secret Service agents into the GPS tracking system so that they would be visible. She could see a number of them around, mostly near the White House, but soon there’d be many more, jetting all over the country as the candidates pressed the flesh and tried to connect with voters. Assuming the Supreme Court Police and Justices get trackers, it would start to get pretty busy.
Her desk phone rang. It was Legal and Sue Parks, a senior attorney was her way to Zoe’s office.
Zoe hadn’t interacted with many people from Legal, and she didn’t know Sue, who was probably a little older than herself and was all business. Sue asked, “How long have we been receiving information from VitalTech?”
Zoe looked it up and printed the original letter of agreement dated two-and-a-half years ago.
Sue looked at it and asked, “And when you stopped receiving the information the other day, what did you do?”
Zoe stated that she called Vijay Patel, and Sue asked what his explanation was.
Zoe explained that Vijay had sold the business, was on the Board of VitalTech, but was not in an executive position. She also covered the fact that VitalTech’s new CEO was unhappy when he learned of the information sharing and that he had probably pulled the plug.
“But you haven’t spoken with VitalTech’s CEO or anyone else at VitalTech to confirm that, correct?” Sue asked.
Zoe realized that in dealing with Vijay, that step was not as apparent as Sue just made it. She explained that from the outset, all of her VitalTech dealings had been with Vijay. The VitalTech data that the FBI had been receiving was a continuation of what Vijay had set up when he was CEO. Vijay was also collecting that data as part of an ongoing product improvement project he was coordinating for VitalTech. Vijay’s project involvement ceased, and both Vijay and the FBI’s data feed stopped at the same time.
Sue continued, “Eric mentioned that you are now getting a new report directly from Vijay Patel, but not in his capacity with VitalTech?”
Zoe confirmed.
Sue expressed her concern. “That puts us in a very vulnerable position if it gets out that we are conspiring with someone who does not have legal access.”
“And that’s why I advised Assistant Director Hawke. I was concerned about the legal issues, but of even more importance to me was the potential loss of the information. Without it, we have no line of defense to protect our judges, politicians, or anyone else from people who may kill because they have nothing to lose.”
Zoe explained the incident with the Supreme Court justice and how using this system, even before it was fully functional, almost saved his life.
Sue asked, “My understanding is that the new system that Vijay Patel has developed is significantly better than the one you received in the past. If a request is made to VitalTech and they grant our request to resume the original report, how will you deal with the gap in quality?”
Zoe was starting to realize that there was no easy way out of this and that she just had to hope that Vijay wasn’t found out. So, she decided to withdraw her request to ask VitalTech to restore the information feed formally, and she apologized to Sue for wasting their time.
But Sue wasn’t done. “While we appreciate the importance of the report, we cannot allow you to utilize stolen or pirated property. I’ll be drafting a cease and desist order that will be with you before the day is out. I’m sorry.”
***
Zoe called Vijay and explained the disaster that her legal people had delivered. Zoe and Vijay agreed that there was nothing more they could do to ensure that Vijay’s system would continue, but they also decided to risk the consequences and keep the information flowing as long as they could, at least until the elections were over.
Vijay gave Zoe an update on the mysterious information feed. Alek had found the access point created by the fake FBI visit. It was relatively crude and had already been de-activated, possibly by VitalTech system security. It would have been sufficient, however, to deliver names of Final Notice recipients from a defined geographic area, for example, Boston.
The new mystery feed, however, did include everything in the original report, plus the GPS tracking feature. It was created five days before the Supreme Court justice was shot, which was possibly enough time to help someone identify an appropriate Recipient. The one they chose would have been straightforward to enlist, given his high level of militancy.
Zoe suggested that perhaps the two system breaches were independent of each other. They were using the same idea, so maybe the genesis was related, but the Supreme Court target was in a different league than the gang killings. She also raised another point. “The guy who whacked me over the head seemed to be waiting for someone. Could he have tracked me by my VT2?”
Vijay thought about that. “Yes, but if that’s the case, the report coming out of VitalTech either contains some extra sophistication built-in, along the lines of what Ninad developed to identify routes, speeds, convergence on targets, etc., or they were tracking you.”
Zoe shuddered at that thought and added, “That would also indicate that whoever is behind the effort has an agenda that we need to stop ASAP.”
And at precisely that moment, Zoe’s computer sounded one of those piercing urgent alerts that Ninad had incorporated into the new system.
***
Zoe opened the alert. It was from Des Moines, Iowa. A Final Notice recipient was headed in the direction of a town hall meeting, where a Democratic presidential
candidate was holding an informal meeting. Iowa had been pretty busy with candidate visits for the past month. Zoe called the Des Moines FBI office and spoke with the Special Agent in Charge, who was en route to the venue. He advised that, based on the alert pushed out by Ninad’s app, the presidential candidate was safe and had been locked down, apparently against her will, and that the local police were also responding. He patched Zoe through so she could track what was happening in real-time.
Zoe listened in as the FBI and police neared the venue to intercept the suspected Recipient. She reminded the agent to try to capture the suspect alive, just as a burst of shouting erupted. “What’s going on?”
The agent replied that the police had been diverted to a shooting a short way from the venue. After what seemed to be a much longer time than it was, the agent advised that the suspect had been shot.
Zoe almost screamed with anger, “How? Why?”
The agent said he would try to get her connected to the scene and the bodycam of the local police officer in charge. A few seconds later, Zoe was viewing the scene and talking with the officer. The officer explained that they were two blocks from the targeted venue and that shortly after arriving, a call came in from a witness that a man had been shot.
Zoe asked for details of the shooting. The officer confirmed that the witness saw a man walking toward the venue, when a car coming from the direction of the venue, stopped in the middle of the street near the man on foot. The driver quickly exited the vehicle, approached the man on foot, and fired two shots. He then hurried back to his car and drove off. Police were looking for the shooter, but the shooter’s car description was vague.
Zoe asked for confirmation that the victim was the Final Notice Recipient, and the officer confirmed.
Zoe tried to make sense of what had just happened. She knew it wasn’t a coincidence. Was there a handler who saw the police activity and, rather than abort, decided to silence the Recipient?
***
Des Moines, IA. Vik Vasin was pissed off. He’d had to spend a week in Des Moines to train his Zombie, and then somehow, the police had been tipped off. That meant that their knowledge about the D.C. judge job wasn’t a one-off. He called the number he’d been given, using his single-use, prepaid, throw away burner phone, and explained what happened. The voice said to wait for further instructions. Vik grimaced at the thought of how long he would have to wait – in Des Moines – for further instructions. An hour later, a much happier Vik Vasin received a call to fly to Las Vegas ASAP to assist with a “business deal” in process. He wiped his gun and casually dropped it into the Des Moines River before heading to the airport.
***
Washington, D.C. Zoe was disappointed that they didn’t have a suspect to question, but Vijay’s system had probably prevented a presidential candidate’s execution. She called Hawke and gave him an update. He shared her disappointment but then told her that a warrant had been issued for Vijay’s arrest.
Zoe erupted, “How the hell did that happen?”
“Legal was concerned about our exposure and contacted the CEO of VitalTech to see if there was any wiggle room for us to use the data that Vijay was supplying. The answer was ‘No’ and Mike Kalin, VitalTech’s CEO, apparently was livid, threatening to expose the FBI’s illegal surveillance. He immediately filed a formal complaint, and charges were filed. Agents will be bringing Vijay in later today. You can advise him if you want.”
Zoe was incensed and incredulous. “His system prevented an assassination today, and as a reward, we arrest him!?” But before she fully vented on Hawke and the system, she got a hold of herself and gave in, “I’ll call him now.”
“Thanks, let me know when you’ve done it,”
***
“Vijay, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am, but I have some very disturbing news.” She paused and drew in a deep breath, bracing herself to deliver the injustice. “I have just been advised that a warrant for your arrest has been issued for a number of cyber-crimes. I expect that FBI agents will be with you soon to search your home and bring you in for questioning and to appear before a magistrate. I have spoken with the Boston field office and explained the situation, but all they can do is make the process as easy as possible.”
Vijay sat in total disbelief. All he could say was, “Seriously?”
“I’m afraid so. Our legal department was looking for a way around the legality of the information feed, and they decided to ask Mike Kalin. I guess it slipped out that you were already providing the information, and Kalin erupted and filed charges.
Zoe continued, “I explained to Hawke that your system prevented an assassination attempt, but there’s nothing he can do, and I appreciate that you will now want to stop the data feed.”
Vijay found his voice, “That’s great. I helped stop a crime, so I get arrested?”
There wasn’t much that Zoe could say to make everything right, “I know. That’s what I told Hawke. Look, Vijay, I think that whoever is doing this spotted the police as we closed in on the Recipient and killed him so as not to leave loose ends. If Alek can find where the mystery feed is going, we have a chance to stop them.”
Vijay’s head was reeling with various emotions and fears. “I apologize for any lack of enthusiasm, but cheering you on from jail doesn’t make me feel any better. I’ll remind Alek how important finding the destination of the data is, but I’ll also warn him that his help may garner him the same reward that I received.”
“I’m sorry, Vijay,” Zoe added lamely. And she was. “But you don’t have much time. I can’t say too much, but they will come with a warrant to search your office, computer, phone, and home. Call your lawyer and don’t answer any questions until you have your lawyer with you.”
A resigned Vijay sighed. “I thought you said they’d make it easy.”
“As easy as possible. I’m sorry, Vijay.”
***
CHAPTER 17 – RELATIONSHIP ISSUES
Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Vijay struggled with whether or not to kill the FBI feed. Part of him wanted to do it for what he perceived as a moronic lack of gratitude, but part of him knew how important it was to stop the killings. He called his lawyer, filled her in on the impending arrest and the background, and asked her about shutting down the data feed that prompted the warrant. Her advice was unequivocal – shut it down immediately.
He called Alek and summarized his call from Zoe, along with her belief that finding the destination of the mystery feed was critical. He told him that in light of his impending arrest and advice from his lawyer, he had shut down the data feed. He also told him that the system had helped stop an assassination in Des Moines, but that he would leave any decision about continuing to help the FBI up to Alek, adding that continuing to access the VitalTech system might also land him in jail.
With the easy conversation out of the way, he found Jennifer in Karima’s room, playing joyfully with Kari, Fritz, and Ceci, the nanny. It pained him to take her away from that happy scene, to hear what he was about to tell her.
Jennifer was beyond angry, but she controlled her voice with icy calm and asked a few questions: “Who filed the charges?”
Head down, Vijay replied, “Kalin.”
“Are you going to continue providing the data?”
“I’ve already stopped it.”
“When will the FBI be here?”
“Soon, and they may want to search my office.”
“How long do you think they’ll hold you?”
“Jen, I’m so sorry. I don’t know. When they take me in, please call my lawyer. She’s expecting your call.”
Jennifer was mainly outraged by the injustice of the charge in the face of all the help Vijay was providing, but her anger also stung because she had known he was making a mistake – and told him so – but he wouldn’t listen. It was a shock, and the sheer number of unknowns was overwhelming. Still, she put on a brave face and made sure she knew exactly what she needed to do.
And so,
when the doorbell rang, they were both the composed, prepared, professional couple that was actually pretty easy for them. The agents were very polite and almost apologetic. They managed to only partially fill one small box with papers, as there weren’t very many in the office. Vijay kept everything on his very backed-up computer, which the agents took as well.
Jennifer called their lawyer as soon as Vijay and the agents left, reading off the list of crimes that Vijay was accused of, including: Intent to defraud, Hacking, Intellectual property theft and piracy, and Illegal access to communication. And then she called her parents in California.
***
Washington, D.C. Zoe wasn’t a drinker, but a part of her was urging her to change. Vijay had always acted in the best interests of justice. Now, despite his efforts to help Zoe defend the potential targets, he’d been charged with a crime. Hopefully, she thought, Real justice will prevail, and Vijay will be acquitted; but in the meantime, it will be too late for those killed as a result of not having the best information.
