by JM Addison
Chapter 18
“You said you were doing some research?”, Dell began.
She had to put her emotions on hold again and try to stay focused on the matter at hand. “Yes. I discovered what the ‘Tomb of Rivest’ actually is.”
Dell’s fork stopped moving as he gave her a wide eyed look of surprise. He thought, ‘finally, we might just begin to get through this maze of wonder. “Well! Don’t keep me in suspense! What the hell is it!”
She gave him the brief version of her discovery of the drawing among the papers he brought her from Chris’ place, her trip to the MIT libraries and conversation with Professor Tattinger. She left out all his comparisons of boxes with colored keys and left it as simply an algorithm thought to not exist that could turn the world of computer encryption inside out. It turns out that such an algorithm is likely to exist or, if not an algorithm, at least some method that has been discovered at Viiradium, a company whose very existence depends upon encryption technology.
While she told the story, he didn’t pay much attention to his breakfast. When she finished her yarn he returned to the task of eating while giving some thought to Mara’s revelations. He did not fully understand all of the details behind how data encryption worked, but he didn’t have too. The bottom line is that Mara was really on to something. The trick was figuring out if Viiradium was only trying to ‘save’ themselves by keeping this knowledge a secret, or were they exploiting this knowledge and actually using it in some way to access or steal otherwise private military or corporate information? In both cases, he could see how a large corporation might turn to drastic measures to keep the secret a secret.
His police instincts began to go into overdrive and he began thinking about all of the past incidents starting with the old investigation of the missing mathematician that disappeared and was filed as an unsolved case. Then with all that has happened to Mara and her family, certainly a warning flag went up in his mind and he knew he had to do more investigating in spite of the pressure to back off. Could they even influence the police? Sure! It really does happen more than he would like to admint.
Deals made on the golf courses across the country of silent kickbacks for political favors. Scenarios that could be somewhat sarcastically summarized, “Just ignore us as we bury these hazardous wastes in a vacant area of your county – let us make it worth your while!” If that scenario was a possibility then why not, “Get your police force off our backs. We are a great support to the community and very large employer. We will make it worth your while to leave us alone.” Mix in a few favors, and voila! The police are ‘influenced’ not to investigate Viiradium. “Oh, and by the way, there is one particularly difficult detective – a Detective Taylor I believe? – he really needs to move on to more important cases and to stop using his nose as a can opener.”
He could see how such a deal would be all it takes to bring the boss down hard on him. It wasn’t the boss’s fault. He was probably threatened every bit as much as Dell was to let go of this case. The whole thing only served to fuel his anger even more. There were crimes going on here, at the very least kidnapping, assault and murder, practically right in his own back yard and he wasn’t able to do anything about it.
Mara had been working on finishing her breakfast finally spoke, “I need to do some more work.”
“What are you talking about! You of all people have to stay clear of Viiradium, they have already tried to get to you, there’s no doubt they would try again if you gave them a chance.”
“What I mean is: companies don’t do these kinds of things – people do. I need to find out more about the people. Obviously, it is not common knowledge within the company that this ‘tomb’ even existed let alone has now been discovered. My brother was a math genius who must have stumbled onto their discovery and has disappeared as a result. I believe only a select few know about it within the organization. I have to start someplace, so I want to start with the people that make up the organization. I want to know who sits on the board of directors, I want to know what other boards our own executives might be sitting on. At least that’s a start and most of that knowledge is a matter of public record, especially with publicly held, stock trading companies like Viiradium.
“What would really then be helpful is to find out things like personal investment records, you know, who owns what. Phone records, spending records, who do they hand out with. But I can’t do those kinds of things, that’s were the police come in and that means you – if you really want to help like you say you do.”
He had to give her a lot of credit. She should be having a nervous breakdown, but instead, she shoves her feelings aside and is staying peculiarly focused on identifying, classifying and hunting down the perpetrators.
Her strategy made sense too. You had to start somewhere and ninety nine percent of investigative work was of the tedious variety – sifting for clues in an endless trail of papers and documents.
The police part would not be easy. An investigation like this normally would be conducted over a period of several months with a staff of dedicated detectives and auditors examining countless leads. There was only the two of them, one was not only not a police officer but in fact a fugitive and wanted by the bad guys, the other about as useless as an NFL Pre-Game Show. Their best chance was to produce some sort of concrete lead. Something that would hold up under scrutiny that he could sell to his boss. His boss was fundamentally a good guy and if presented with some type of evidence, he would do the right thing, never mind the political pressure. At least that’s what Dell hoped.
“I thought I would start with the MIT Library again, only because it’s somewhat familiar and I can find my way around. I can at least find out about some of the publicly available financial information, who’s who in what company and their respective boards and such. A lot of that I can find through on-line sources. I could go through some of the municipal offices to see what else I could learn. I may have to visit them in person if they don’t have some of the details on-line. I was thinking about the so-called ‘silent’ partners or board members, especially of companies that are privately held and do not issue stock.
“I know quite well the organization chart of the Viiradium upper management since I am a human resource manager. We pretty much know all of the management, at least by name. I’ll start my digging with those people and go from there.
“Also, the information from Chris had not only the sketch of the flow of data but also included some names which appear to be names of companies. I started to check them out last night , but I need to do more thorough work.”
Dell responded with a sigh, “I normally would strongly object to any involvement from a witness, especially one that’s a victim as well. In your case, not only a victim, but a fugitive. However, right now, I hate to admit, it sounds like the best plan we can hope for. At the end of the day, we need to compare notes to see what turns up. You give me any information you can find that seems promising, and I’ll attack it from the police perspective. It’s going to be tough getting things like phone records, in fact it used to be impossible, but I should be able to cover up my information requests under the guise of day to day investigation work.”
She was quite shocked at his support. ‘Almost too easy’ she thought. She realized she was being paranoid again, but being paranoid is what’s kept her alive so far. She couldn’t help but appreciate his disarming smile of encouragement and even felt herself blush a little under his appraising look.
She looked out through the window and said, “I really hate to take the car downtown. It kind of stands out and I would have to find places to park and such. If we drive over to the Clarendon Hill area, you can drop me off at the Tee at Russell Field.” The Tee is the term the locals used for the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority or MBTA. “I could take the orange line crossover to get to downtown when I’m through at the libraries.”
“How will you get back?”
“I’ll just get off at the e
nd of the red line and catch a taxi or a bus back, it isn’t that far from here, or from where I’m staying for that matter.”
“Mind if I ask where exactly you are staying?”
“Not letting anyone know is my one way of feeling a little safer. So I don’t mean to be rude, but I would rather not… Sorry.”
“Well, I can understand that. But, if you needed help and I knew where to find you, It would sure make things easier. Especially since it’s your safety that you are thinking of. It would be safer if someone knew where to get to you in an emergency.” Then he added rather ominously, “And I have a feeling, before this is over, there will be emergencies.”
After considering it thoughtfully, she decided that he was probably right. He only seemed in a position to help. She opened up her purse and handed over a yellowing card she picked up at the check-in desk of the motel.
He looked at it and felt genuine remorse at what she was going through – trapped in a dumpy place like this one was. He understood she needed to feel safe and no doubt staying with him would only add to her anxiety, so he understood, but he still felt bad for what she was enduring. He slipped the card into a shirt pocket and pulled out his wallet to pay the bill.
