Death of Secrets (19 page)

Colleen spoke up. "It doesn’t always work, though, Mike.
I’m sure you know that better than any of us here. I’m not some kind of
anarchist, but I know I don’t like the thought of anyone reading my mind, let
alone the government. How well are the checks and balances going to work when
one side knows all the cards the other side is holding?"

"Yeah, but Colleen, realistically, they’re not going to be
reading your mind. There are 300 million people in this country. At worst it’d
be like the e-mail and phone meta data-gathering – a huge vault of information
that no one ever looks at, in the case of the average person. Mostly, if this
technology is what he says it is," Mike nodded at Jakarta, "it’d be
used for things that need it – think of how much harder it would get to conceal
evidence of a murder, or rape, or other serious crimes."

Jakarta asked, "Can you be sure no one will ever use it?
Have we forgotten Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover already? Somewhere there has to be
a limit to how much of our privacy we give up. Somewhere, there has to be an
end to what the government knows."

Mike chewed on his lower lip, thinking. That was a hard
argument to beat, especially since he’d just been telling Nathan a few days ago
that he didn’t want to bring in law enforcement because he was afraid of the
records being abused.

He looked over to Kathy, searching for some kind of support
there. For her part, she didn’t know what to say. She wanted to take his side,
but found herself agreeing with Colleen. The idea of someone able to read her
mind
creeped her out. She settled on taking Mike’s hand in hers and
saying nothing.

Reluctantly, Mike returned to his seat, without saying
anything. Jakarta looked at him, then looked away and said, "I hope it
sets your mind at ease to know that I’d never consider selling the information
to terrorists, or some such nonsense. I may be suspicious of our government,
but I still like it better than anybody else’s. I only want to help keep it as
honest as possible."

Mike didn’t reply, and Jakarta let it drop. He turned back to
his keyboard, and resumed work. Colleen gazed at the young hacker with his dark
tinted lenses and his all black clothing.

The man who'd driven them there walked up to the assembled
group at the computer. When his understudy tapped him on his shoulder, Jakarta
turned to Colleen and her friends. "Excuse me just a moment, would
you?"

They all made noises of assent as Jakarta and the other man
walked outside the door.

"Why are we keeping them here?" the driver asked.
This man better fit the stereotype of the computer nerd. He looked like he
lived on Doritos and delivered pizza. His unkempt mop of brown hair hung down
over thick glasses. His name was Jerry Garver.

"They've got a lot invested in this. Letting them watch me
do this part will give them closure on it. Our security will go out the window
if they try to keep asking us questions about it after we're done. You've seen
how easy it is for the feds to track them. They'd lead the law right here, and
we'd end up in federal prison. If we let them watch, they'll have security
about the resolution of the thing."

"It's a security risk just to bring them here, let alone
give them access to our network. Are you sure you aren't trading a smaller
threat for a bigger one?"

Jakarta shook his head. "I'm not stupid. They don't get
anything like real access to our network. Except for being out here talking to
you, I’m right there watching them when they’re near our machines. So you'd
better settle down and let me get back in there if you're concerned about
security."

Jerry crossed his arms. "If they find out about the
rest…"

"Look," Jakarta responded. "It’s not like
they’re going to get involved in your compartment or anything. Use the workshop
down the hall and lock the door. I’ll let them watch me sabotage the EG code to
set their minds at ease, they’ll spend the night, and then you’ll take them
away somewhere. They never saw where you drove them, so they can’t give
anything away once they’re gone. Relax, I have it under control."

"Are you sure you're not thinking three feet lower than
your brain?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Jakarta said, turning to go back
inside. For a brief moment he turned back to his associate and smiled.
"Ms. Christina is beautiful, to be sure."

Jerry watched his friend go back in the computer room. In all
the time he’d worked with Jakarta, he’d never worried so much as he did when he
saw how his friend looked at that blonde girl, Colleen.

Jakarta returned to the computer, gently nudging Colleen aside
and resuming his place in front of the keyboard. She scooted out of the way to
let him work, but didn't move any further than necessary.

The young hacker began rattling his keyboard. Kathy and Mike
watched in ignorant fascination as windows and boxes flashed up on the screen
momentarily only to be clicked away almost as fast.

"What are you doing now?" Kathy asked.

"Well, what we're doing now is compromising other,
innocent systems to route our connection through. He gets access to some other
machine – probably some home user who doesn't understand the need for security
on a high speed Internet connection – and
that
machine sends out your
requests, instead of yours. Then the compromised machine sends the information
on to you once it gets it. The advantage is that anyone on the machine you're
trying to hack who looks at an IP address for the intrusion to their system will
see the compromised machine's IP, not yours. It’s a way of hiding
yourself."

"Whoa," Kathy said. "So someone might have been
using
our
home computer for that?"

Colleen laughed and turned around briefly to face her roommate.
"Kathy, you were using
my
home computer.
No one
is going to
hack my computer. They had to come bust it up before they could get at
mine."

Jakarta diverted his attention from the screen long enough to
say, "Perhaps that’s true of your computer, but not your boyfriend’s.
Using that thing made it easy for us to figure out where you were planning to
meet Kathy, when I made my ill-advised attempt to get the flash drive from her
by force."

Colleen blushed, and was in the middle of saying, "I never
thought of…" when she caught something out the corner of her eye, spun
back around, and jabbed a finger at the screen. "Look at that one. There's
your middle man."

Colleen leaned her head in very close to Jakarta's, and said
softly, "I love watching someone do this well."

Kathy turned to Michael, nodded at the two hackers, and winked.
He let a tepid smile tug up the edges of his mouth briefly and Kathy leaned
close to him to whisper, "Think we can find a way to leave them
alone?"

Mike nodded, then spoke aloud. "You guys don't keep
anything to drink around here, do you?"

Jakarta snapped his fingers. "Please excuse me. I totally
forgot common courtesy. He pushed a small button on a box on the desk and got
an electronic squawk in reply.

"Jerry, could you come show our guests to the
kitchen?"

There was a brief reply, and a minute later their driver
appeared at the door of the computer room. He beckoned with his finger.
"Come with me, please," he said.

Kathy and Mike stood up and Colleen asked, "Mind if I stay
with you?"

Jakarta shook his head, and she used the opportunity of
everyone moving to sit a little closer to him. Mike and Kathy followed the
other man out.

***

Nathan wished for someone else to bounce ideas off of. Sitting
here brainstorming wasn't getting him the answers he wanted. If he only had
another brain – just someone to respond to his theories about what Mike might
be doing – he felt like he could make infinitely better progress. The hotel
manager had gotten bored and left – no doubt violating several company
policies. But Jacobs was glad of it. Were the man still here, he might violate
a few company policies of his own and ask the manger, breaking several rules of
classification in the process.

Of course, what he really wanted was to have Mike himself right
there.

What if Mike had actually found Jakarta? That instant message
had sounded like they were looking for him, maybe they pulled it off. Nathan
found himself holding his breath. If Mike had actually done it, it would be
immensely
good news for the government. Unless, of course, between the stress and the
influence of that girl, Mike ended up
liking
the man.

But it didn't seem very likely. Nathan still hadn't satisfied
himself that Jakarta would be capable of the kinds of wanton violence that Mike
had gone through. The highest probability was that this case involved someone
other than a simple computer hacker. He could hope all he wanted, but the
chances of his friend finding one of the country’s most wanted fugitives were
slim to none.

Then a new thought hit him. Could Mike actually be working
with
Jakarta?

He simply couldn't imagine his friend knowingly cooperating
with any criminal scheme. It wasn't possible. But he might get duped into it –
cooperating without realizing what was going on.

Or, it might not even have to be like that. Mike might just
have gone looking for Jakarta based on his reputation. If he was frustrated
enough with that flash drive, and wanted to know what was on it, then he could
have gone out hunting for the famous hacker, to get his help decrypting it.

Jacobs threw up his hands in frustration. This wild speculation
was getting him nowhere. He needed to talk to Mike if he wanted to get anything
like a real idea.

But of course, he wouldn't have even come out here if he knew
where Mike was.

He ran through all the possibilities in his head. Where could
his friend have gone – assuming he wasn't dead or something. He might have gone
home – that would be crazy, of course, but it was a possibility. Just in case,
Nathan picked up the hotel room phone and dialed Mike's unlisted home number.

After six rings, Mike's voice mail picked up. The message
recommended trying his cell number if you urgently needed him, and as soon as
he heard that Nathan slapped his forehead. He left a message, but he didn't
expect to hear back. As soon as he hung up he immediately punched in the number
of the pre-paid phone he had given Mike.

No answer there either, and that bothered him. The whole point
of that phone was to give Mike a way to stay in touch while hiding. Nathan left
another message and went back to thinking. Where else might the Congressman
have gone?

Aloud, he said, "Well, as long as I'm trying stupid ideas,
I might as well try all of them." With that he picked up the phone again and
dialed his office. Pushing aside his moral qualms about it, Nathan asked an
officer on duty to track down a phone number for Kathy Kelver. He found a cell
phone right away, but even before the duty officer said anything about it,
Nathan already knew that was sitting in the Longworth House Office Building.
After a longer search, the NSA came up with the main office number of Kathy’s
dorm. Once he had it, Nathan hung up and dialed that.

When he identified himself as being with the government and
looking for Ms. Kelver, the person on the other end of the line said, "Are
you sure she’s not in any trouble? You’re the second cop looking for her
tonight."

Jacobs blinked. "I think I better speak to the other
officer," he replied.

There was a delay, and then a gruff voice said,
"Yeah?" into the phone.

"This is Nathan Jacobs of the National Security Agency. I
was trying to reach Kathy Kelver or Michael Vincent."

"The more I've learned about this case, the more I've been
expecting to run into federal agents. And here you are, finally. This is
Detective Sam Franken of MPD."

Jacobs blinked. The DC Metro Police Department was involved?
That gave things a whole new dimension and one, he was sure, that his friend
Mike wouldn't like. "You're investigating Ms. Kelver?" he asked, just
to figure out how much the cop knew.

"Not really. I've been investigating a homicide. She found
the body. I came over here tonight to try to interview her roommate, but found
neither of them in. I take it you're investigating her, then?"

"Not exactly," Jacobs replied. "But still, it
sounds like we're beating around the same bush. I think we need to meet,
Detective Franken."

"Yeah," Franken replied, "I think we do. I’m
going off duty shortly here, so if we could do it sooner that would be
better."

"How about an hour from now?"

Franken agreed. "Sounds good to me." He named his
favorite restaurant, where the owner gave him free coffee. He added his cell
phone number as well.

Jacobs took the information down, they signed off, and he hung
up. Once off the phone, he stood up from the chair and began to pace. This
changed everything. Mike's desire to avoid police involvement was now out the
window. Nate wished he could warn him, but to do that he'd have to know where
he was. Which he didn't.

Which brought him back to the reason he was here. This
Detective Franken hadn't added anything to his store of information. Walking
back and forth in the small space of the room, Jacobs wracked his brain,
wondering where Mike might have gone.

He was still pacing half an hour later when someone knocked on
the door.

Pounded, more like it. Two thumps on the hotel room door, and
then nothing, as if all the visitor's energy had been expended in those two
knocks. Nathan went to the door and looked through the peephole.

He threw open the door. "John, right? John Lincoln? You
were with Mike and Kathy? Where are they?"

The difference in John's face made Nathan take a step back. He
went from anticipation to disappointment so fast it was hard to see the
changes.