Exponential
Page 57
*
She found a shower after being rudely kicked off the couch by some sort of custodian and relished the hot spray that worked off some of the accumulated tension of the past day. Unfortunately, she couldn’t seem to find a towel and the robe she stuffed into the bag the previous night didn’t look fit for even hogs to wear with the mixture of soot and blood streaked through it. She used the wall mounted blow dryer to get most of the water out of her hair and dressed in spite of being a bit wet.
She made her way over to the library again to visit the computers so she could access to the internet. She didn’t know exactly where to start, so she thought that checking e-mail would be a good place. She was hoping for a response from one of the messages she sent out the previous day to the companies she was analyzing, but knew that it was improbable that anyone would bother responding to something so far-fetched. Most would consider her message a prank and simply ignore it, if it even made it through the junk mail filters at all.
In spite of her assumptions. She went to the web site that she used for her e-mail and checked her messages. She was surprised that she was already receiving junk mail since she set up her account only a day or so before. There was one potentially promising message from aamritage@sequitus.com. Sequitus Technology was indeed one of the companies she sent inquiries too. She felt as if her heart skipped a beat as she clicked on the message to read it. It began: “We reviewed your message and are very interested in understanding the means behind such a possibility of the loss or theft of encrypted information. We would like to discuss the matter with you further, please contact us.”
Then the message concluded with the name and phone number of someone at the company, ‘Annette Armatige’. They gave an 800 number as well, so she could at least make a call from a pay phone without having to find change.
Fearful elation was the best way to describe how she felt at the moment. Fearful in the fact that this again could be some sort of trick. She couldn’t be too careful. Elated in that she had some purpose. Something to do next. A lead to follow. She didn’t know how this would lead her to Chris, but she had to start somewhere. For that matter, she didn’t even know if she could believe the creep that told her that Chris was alive, but he didn’t seem to have any reason not to since he was confident she wouldn’t be around to tell anyone. She send the message to a nearby printer, picked it up and stuffed it into her purse.
Before she made the call, she had to think about how to go about setting up a meeting. If they were simply innocent victims of this scandal, she had little to worry about. However, she was not absolutely sure why Chris had them identified on his sketch. All of the companies she investigated based on his list seemed legitimate with nothing to do with Viiradium except perhaps the use of some of the products Viiradium made. However, she remembered that executives of one company often participated as board members of others. She was hopeful that it would be safe to do business with them, but after getting burned by the cops, there was no one she could really trust… except Chris. She just had to find him. She had to know what happened, why has he not contacted her. Of course! She has been staying out of contact. She purposely was staying out of sight to remain alive. Was he free? Was he being held in some way? There obviously was no way that he could contact her, so she had to pursue any lead she could to make progress toward discovering where he was. Was he waiting for some sort of rescue?
She didn’t want to ditch the car in case she really needed it, but the police would be on the watch for it now. It would be dangerous to drive it. Why not have ‘Annette’ and her people come here? This seemed like a great place. A place where there was a crowd would surely be safer, wouldn’t it? At least they always said so in the movies. She picked up her bag and left the computer area of the library to sort of wander around in search of a place to set up a meeting. The library itself? No. too much discussion was needed and it would not be a good place to speak out loud. A Cafeteria? Too much background noise. One of those student study lounges would be OK except there was no guarantee of privacy. There was the usual businesses that fed off the campus population: pizza and sub shops, bookstores, cheap restaurants and such. Perhaps a restaurant would be good. There was even some small casual snack bars on campus.
She had to think about how she would determine the safety of such a meeting. She wanted to observe their arrival and take note of any potential suspicious activity so she would have to scout around and choose the best place for them to meet with her. This whole espionage business made her feel like a spy or something. She knew now that she would never want to be a spy, it was exciting, but exiting in the way that discovering your parachute won’t open is exciting.
Eventually she found the perfect spot, one of those little gourmet coffee kiosks on wheels that only serve cups of coffee that are above three dollars. Oh, but they didn’t really call it “coffee”, rather phrases like “espresso mocha”, “cappuccino lift”, “Americana delight” and such. It was in a spacious hallway with a little cluster of upholstered seating nearby that nobody used much. It was fairly busy but most people didn’t have time to just stand around in an atrium and drink their hot brews – they would stop get their cup and go. The lounge area seemed perfect. Traffic, but at a bit of a distance. Plus she could get a cup and nurse it quite a while as she watched who came and went well before the time of the actual appointment.
She felt ready to call. There was a payphone nearby, so she drew out the crumpled message from her purse and dialed the number. After receiving a receptionist, she asked for Annette Armitage. When she was asked who was calling, Mara was caught a little off guard. She didn’t plan the call very well and never stopped to think that they would ask her for a name. After a moment’s pause, she replied, “It’s Anne… Smith… Please tell her it’s urgent.”
She knew it sounded lame, but she was not about to give out her real name after all that’s happened. After a few seconds of music, she was greeted with, “Hello, this is Annette…”
“Hello Annette, we haven’t talked before, but I sent your company an e-mail message a day ago and I received a response with your name and number. It is very important that we discuss this and I do not intend to discuss it over the phone.” She thought she sounded a bit demanding, and her words sort of came out in a blur, but she wanted to make sure this was pursued.
“I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?”
“Anne Smith.”
“And what was the details of your mail message?”
“The details have to do with the loss or theft of… ‘protected’ information. I cannot say anything more over the phone. We must meet. What I have to tell you will be worth your time and effort.”
Annette was intrigued by this conversation. The girl sounded young and even… scared? A little desperate perhaps. Was this whole thing simply a prank? If it had not been for the fact that they were investigating the security of their own data because of sensitive information and details were seemingly used against them somehow, she would simply have dismissed this whole thing. Plus Mike was pretty interested in tracking down this lead, so why not go the next step? Annette responded, “When can we get together?”
“The sooner the better. I was hoping today.”
“Do you know where we are located?”
“I know this is putting you out, but you must come to meet me. It sounds ridiculous, but a lot has happened and I do not feel comfortable just bringing this in. I know you will have a bit of a drive, but you must come here, to MIT. Believe me, you won’t be disappointed!”
MIT? That was a surprise? Why MIT? Annette wondered. This sounded intriguing indeed. It may have been a bit cliché but interesting nonetheless. She gave it a moment’s consideration and wondered how Mike would respond. Should they just pack the van and go? She hoped he wouldn’t be upset, but he was the one that said to follow this lead. “We can be there in about… two hours.”
Mara couldn’t contain her sigh of relief. “Great!” was th
e only response she could make. Then Mara briefly described the location of the building and the coffee kiosk and got a simple description of Annette – youngish, slim build, medium length wavy to the point of almost curly blond hair. Annette also said she would likely be bringing another gentleman along, Mike Ludwick, who was interested as well.
After hanging up, she had a couple of hours to kill. She wanted to make notes of all that had happened, especially with regard to the particulars of how the supposedly securely encrypted data was being “stolen”. Professor Tattinger’s description had been a good one because he simplified the problem with his description of the “magic” boxes and colored keys and such. She hoped she could do as good a job explaining the details to them.