The HolyPhone Confessional Crisis

by Charles Brett

  Caterina entered the passwords. Both partitions opened. She looked at what was inside. There were a number of books, some with complex religious-looking graphics.

  “Before you ask, these are, or were, my personal books of devotion. You’ll find the complete works of the Blessed Josemaria Escrivá there, with commentaries. You’ll also find a number of religious pictures and high resolution facsimiles of Books of Hours.”

  “You won’t mind if we go through these to ensure that there’s nothing you are hiding,” continued Caterina rather aggressively.

  “No; take your time. You have the copy Davide made, yes? The passwords, if the copy was good, will work. I would, though, like to retain these. They have personal significance. I will, if you do not mind, change the password on these devices but if you need access again, please just ask.”

  Caterina was about to object when Conor intervened: “Thank you, Inma. Caterina will indeed look for anything untoward. I agree to leave these with you. After all, we have the copies and they must work because that was how we found the encrypted partitions.

  “I suggest, therefore, that I stay to ask more questions about the financial set up. Davide and Caterina need to leave for another appointment.”

  Davide bade Inma and Miriam farewell. Caterina was reluctant to move but could not resist following, not with Conor looking at her disapprovingly. Talk about an unsaid command, she grumped to herself as she left the room.

  Thursday, the Vatican

  The taxi ride to the Confessional Call Centre passed in silence. Caterina was not happy, with anyone, least of all herself. She was again irritated but desperately trying not to show it.

  Davide was pensive, and therefore quiet. On one level he was pleased that it looked as though Miriam and Inma might ‘get away with it’. He had warmed to Inma on the drive from Yuste though he found it hard to believe the transformation from a decidedly unattractive to a startlingly fetching woman in her prime could be so swift. Miriam he was less sure about. Had she seduced Inma? What had changed?

  He thought about the antagonistic Australian beside him. She’d been outright offensive yesterday and was not much better today. Indeed, if he thought back, she’d not been very agreeable at all since Conor had first introduced them. He hoped that her undoubted technical skills could be put to good use at the VCCC.

  The taxi pulled over. Davide paid, thinking he must ask Father Federico about recovering some of the now quite substantial expenses of the hotel and meals and other sundries. Quickly through the security they were shown into a small conference room. As he‘d requested yesterday, the payments part of the VCCC system destined for Latin America had been relocated and was powered up and humming, along with several screens. It wasn’t that impressive for something on which its equivalent for Europe and North America processed some $350 million a month. It was about the size of a tall fridge with specialised racks in which were mounted the three servers and disks and communications with lots of lights flashing. In addition, on a side table, Davide found a selection of disks, each with a label. He turned to Caterina.

  “It looks as if they’ve done all that we wanted. This is a disk with all the inputs that went from the Call Centre system into the Payments Processing System yesterday. This one has a record of what went out from the Payments Processing System to the outside world. Damn it! That name is too long. I’m going to call it the PPS in future.

  “This third disk has a record of all that came in from the outside and this has what was sent back to the Confessional Call Centre system. I’ve asked them to do the same for today and they’ve also placed a spare server in the rack on which they have mounted a couple of Linux virtual machines as well as a Windows one so that we can have some local processing for whatever you decide you want to do. Finally, here’re the access details.”

  Caterina smiled in genuine pleasure. Now she had a problem and some data and the power to use her skills. He face relaxed as she contemplated the possibilities. Davide could see the change. It was almost like with Inma, he thought, though in Caterina’s case it was not the first time he had seen how computer systems seemed to absorb her for the better. Mentally he crossed his fingers. Despite his distaste for her he recognised her technical skills were well ahead of his.

  “First I need to do some looking around. Do you mind? I want to understand the physical set-up and look for anything out-of-place. From the documentation that Father Federico supplied us, I don’t expect to find anything. These look like the standard Dell components that were invoiced. They are high-end and powerful. By the way, that was clever of you to ask for our own processing so that we don’t have to prejudice either our own laptops or this copy PPS when it is running.”

  She went over to the racks and started poking around, enjoying herself. After about twenty minutes she rose from kneeling and pronounced that all seemed physically normal.

  “Now it’s time to start seeing what’s running.”

  She sat down at a screen and began typing. Davide had no idea what she was doing. He sat and waited. This was her arena.

  “Damn! I knew it!”

  “What? Have you found something already?”

  “No, no, no. I knew I should have brought my laptop with me to breakfast so that I’d have it here. It has some software that I’m going to need.”

  Caterina paused to think. Could she ask Davide to go fetch it for her? She did need it but what she really wanted was peace for a couple of hours or longer. She wanted to organise in her mind how to approach the challenge of finding something she did not know how to look for. It was always this way. Maybe she should be honest.

  “Davide, may I bum a favour? I really do need my laptop and some time to myself to think. Could I ask you to go to fetch my laptop and not come back for three or four hours? If you are longer I won’t mind.”

  Oops! That didn’t sound too polite. She hoped he wasn’t going to go all prickly with her as he had on other days. In some ways he was worse than Conor.

  “No problem. I’m happy to do that. Sitting here like a dumb cherry isn’t much fun and I do understand your need for peace. I’ll be on my way and should be back late this afternoon. Call me if your timing needs to change.”

  Davide walked out, relieved. He didn’t wish to sit there doing little. At least if he went back he could do some of his own work. He needed to catch up and start thinking about what to do once this so-called sabbatical, because it was unpaid, was over. He’d done little preparation for almost three weeks and nothing for four days what with the Spanish diversion. He also needed his own space to think.

  Thursday, Central Rome

  After Caterina and Davide left, Conor suggested going out for a coffee. Inma was willing but Miriam was not.

  She explained herself: “Conor, you’re a policeman. You regard us as suspects, possibly criminals. I don’t particularly feel like socialising with you until we know that we’ll not face any judicial proceedings. It’s nothing personal. I don’t mean to sound rude, but let’s not forget our mutual positions.

  “Of course, if you gave us that formal ‘go free’ I’d be happy to join you for coffee or something stronger, but I don’t think you are quite there yet. May I suggest a compromise? What about ordering room service? Meanwhile you start with the additional questions that you are clearly dying to ask. At least we will not have your aggressive Australian colleague bothering us. Frankly, I don’t warm to her.”

  Inma looked mildly shocked. This was a harder, pushier Miriam. Actually she quite enjoyed it and certainly respected it. Miriam was right that they still had to protect themselves.

  Conor found himself surprised yet again. These two who were definitely pleasing to the male eye refused to roll-over as he had expected, even though their position was weak. They were cooperating so far. The way Inma had handled the encrypted partitions impressed him. It was interesting that their reaction to Caterina was much the same as his and Davide’s. Plus Miriam was right: being too sociable was not a
good idea. He asked the guardian outside to order coffee for four.

  “Four?” asked the guardian.

  “Yes, three for us, one for you.”

  “Ah! Grazie, Signore. What would you like?”

  Inma opted for an espresso doppio. Miriam and Conor preferred cappuccino. The guardian said he’d call right away and would ask for some pastries.

  Conor nodded assent and turned back to Miriam and Inma.

  “I think we’re past the two most significant hurdles, general cooperation and openness about account access and the encrypted partitions. We are, therefore, on solid ground though we, not you, have some verification to do, which Caterina has started.

  “Now, I’d like to know how this scam, for that’s what it is, worked from the viewpoint of taking the monies out of the Santofonino system. I suspect, from what you’ve already told Davide and me, that Miriam knows less. So why don’t you start, Inma, and if Miriam has anything to add, she chips in?”

  “You’re right, Conor. We knew almost nothing about the extraction process, at least until we went to Israel.”

  “Why did you go there?”

  Inma launched into a description of how Michele had sent that initial innocuous email. She described the meeting at Belvoir and how there they discovered the reason for it was that Michele’s boss, a cardinal with a Portuguese-sounding name, was feeling nervous and uncomfortable. She went through the time at Nahalal, including describing the underground almost bunker-like control room that Noach had created. She recounted their mutual frustration that they could not identify any obvious loophole to mollify the cardinal’s sense of unease and need for assurance. She spoke of their agreement to meet in Spain last weekend after each took on some tasks to try digging further.

  Inma finished a long while later by describing their repeated and mutual frustration on Friday and Saturday and how Michele and Noach decided to leave sooner than originally planned.

  “Have I forgotten anything, Miriam?”

  “I don’t think so, except perhaps how grateful I was to have seen Michele and Noach go on Sunday morning.

  “What Inma hasn’t said, Conor, was that both she and I agreed, before Davide and your Australian turned up at El Roble on Tuesday that we wanted out. I think Michele was feeling the same, though he had also said it might take a long period to achieve a gradual and therefore unnoticed withdrawal. I had — have — the feeling that he’s achieved what he set out to do. But Noach was not happy about any suggestions of winding down. Rather the reverse.”

  “I agree, Miriam. I’d add that you must remember the context. When the HolyPhone was first discussed nobody really expected it would take off. For Mariano it was a speculative play which, even if it met its unambitious original goals, would only generate small amounts. The success was, perhaps, what threw us all — because the amounts passing to us each month kept growing, even though we didn’t do anything additional.”

  “I understand. But the one thing that you have not explained so far was whether Severino or Weizmann ever indicated how they were taking the monies.”

  “They did not,” said Inma. “There was some talk of foreign exchange rounding. Does that help?”

  “Maybe. Anything else?”

  “There was mention of special transaction fees,” interjected Miriam, “and of rejected credit card payments. But the latter made no sense to me because if they rejected there would be no payment. We didn’t pursue this. Actually we did not pursue any of these because Noach said he would be examining the payment processing to see if he could find anything to explain the cardinal’s suspicions. Michele was always the one who knew about the financial structure because he created it.”

  “Miriam’s right. The way the work after Israel was allocated was that we were to look at the downstream side, after the monies reached the accounts under our control, and they would do the same for their accounts but would do all the upstream investigation. We were not offered any involvement, not that I personally minded. As Miriam said, once it appeared that someone was suspicious we found ourselves losing enthusiasm.”

  Conor had many more questions. They missed lunch but ordered some late panini with ham, tomatoes and cheese. These were light and good. Afterwards Conor continued. It was late afternoon before he left, calling Davide as he went out.

  Before going he went one step further by saying he thought the women were likely to be in the clear — assuming nothing they had told or shown him was proved false or misleading. They weren’t out of the woods but were coming closer. It would not be him who decided, though he did not indicate who would make the final decision, however hard they tried pressing him. He told them they’d have to be patient for longer for there was much to happen.

  Thursday, Lungotevere

  Davide was on his way back to the VCCC, walking in the cooling autumn evening along the Lungotevere beside the River Tiber rather than taking a taxi. He was regretting it because the weight of Caterina’s laptop was more than he had anticipated. Nevertheless, walking gave him an extra half-hour of peace without Caterina. She probably felt the same way.

  His phone went. It was Conor.

  “You’ve been a long time.”

  “Inma and Miriam had lots to say, yet nothing as specific as we need. I’ve just finished. Where are you?”

  “Curious you should ask now. I’ve just passed the Regina Coeli prison. Do you remember the old lawyers’ joke about it when the mani puliti investigations of the corrupt were going on?”

  “No, tell me — but quickly. I want to meet up with you and Caterina.”

  “It was that so many of their clients were locked up in the prison under investigation that life was much easier. In one visit to one place a lawyer could see multiple clients rather than have to travel all over Italy.”

  “Very funny, but I see their point. Are you going to the VCCC or leaving? Did you find anything?”

  “I’m returning to the VCCC. I left Caterina alone. She wanted me to bring her laptop but I also think she wanted mental space. Therefore I’ve been at the Residence Monteverde most of the day. She called me about half an hour ago, rather aggressively asking where her laptop was. I fobbed her off, saying she would have it within the hour.”

  “That sounds like our favourite Australiana, if such a word exists. I am in a cab and will change direction to meet you at the VCCC in about ten to twenty minutes.”

  It was nearer thirty minutes before Conor joined Davide and Caterina. The time between Davide arriving and Conor’s appearance, delayed by traffic yet again, was put to good use by Caterina. She was loading software onto the blade servers, looking extremely pleased with herself, yet didn’t explain why.

  Conor sat down, saying, “I had a good conversation with the ladies. I think they answered my questions. To cut to the chase, they don’t appear to have ever been in the loop about the money diversion out of the Santofonino processing nor how it was syphoned out into all their accounts. Their involvement was what they called ‘downstream’ and even there Miriam barely participated, only paying towards her father’s ramshackle church. Inma was more involved because she was investing through her firm to seed reinsurance pools to make the Opus Dei monies grow fast, almost certainly doing her professional reputation no harm. I’m not sure I understood all she described here but don’t think this part is urgent. She’s given us access to the records.”

  He summarised everything else they had told him. “I asked what they knew about the processing. The nearest they could come to revealing anything was mentioning their meetings in Israel and Spain of foreign exchange, of transaction fees and of failed transactions. This is as we surmised. Now we have some confirmation, perhaps that’ll help us refine where we look.”

  He gazed at Caterina, almost expectantly.

  “One other thing. Apparently there was talk of something to do with the sin analysis sales. I think we need to put these under our microscope as well. It’s probably time to pay a visit to Severino.”

&n
bsp; By this time Caterina was ready to bounce off the walls. She obviously wanted to say something as well as get back to her machines.

  “What have you got for us, Caterina? You look like the cat that has found too much cream.”

  “I have, I have! Guess what? There’s a software back door built into each PPS operating system. It is obscure and very well-hidden. I only came across it by accident. But it’s there. I don’t know whether anyone uses it. I hope you don’t mind, but I asked the Ops people here to monitor any activity on a specific IP port. To my surprise they came back under two hours later to say there’d been some traffic on this port, not that they knew what it was either.”

  “So?”

  “I think what Caterina is trying to tell us, Conor, is that someone from outside can get in and make changes that will not necessarily be visible. If we can track that access, we might learn who. That, to me, seems unlikely because anybody or anything — it could be another machine — would likely go through many levels of obfuscation to hide its source. Sorry to let you down, Caterina, but you’d come to the same conclusion eventually. On the other hand, watching what happens as a consequence could be revealing. Can you do this? Also, is this same weakness on this VCCC backup system on the primary one?”

  “Yes it is. I asked a VCCC operator to see if the same existed on the backup and the working primary. It’s exactly the same. It was after that I asked for the non-invasive monitoring of the primary.”

  “We will need to do more but that will need authorisation. I’m not going to propose altering a live system. You’ve done well. Any other progress?”

  “Isn’t that good enough for you? Thank you so much!” The sarcasm dripped from her voice. She was back to her usual self. “I suggest you two leave me alone and go visit Severino or do whatever you like.”

  She turned back to her screens, wishing to hide the welling tears. Didn’t they understand the implications of what she’d found? Sod them!