Part 27 (1/2)
”We think his death and Ki Bowles's death might be linked.”
”Because Enzio died?”
Enzio Lamfier, the other bodyguard. ”Yes,” Romey said. ”Gulliver was supposed to be with him,” Lenox said. ”That's why I asked if you'd heard from him.”
Romey frowned just a little. ”I do know that our people searched the entire Hunting Club grounds and didn't find anyone else who was hurt.”
She almost said ”dead,” but knew better. But Lenox didn't look relieved. Apparently she knew that much. ”So,” Romey asked, ”did you ever tell Gulliver what the others were doing?” ”On which case?” Lenox asked. ”On the Bowles case.”
”He said she was difficult. He said she was hard to guard. She didn't listen to them. He had to know where the others were all the time or she might die.” Lenox wiped at her face. ”She died anyway, didn't she?”
Romey nodded. ”I'm afraid so.” ”He was right, then,” Lenox said.
He might have been right or he might have been using Lenox to find out where the other bodyguards were at all times.
”It would seem so,” Romey said.
”Promise me you'll tell me when you find him,” Lenox said.
Such a small request from such a desperate woman.
”I promise,” Romey said.
But she had a hunch she wouldn't find Gulliver-at least not easily. And maybe not even alive.
39.
The computer tech stood three meters away from Van Alen's desk, s.h.i.+fting nervously from foot to foot. The tech was a heavyset woman whose expensive clothing didn't quite fit-either she ate more than her weight-loss enhancements could keep up with or she didn't have weight-loss enhancements.
She certainly never exercised. Even the skin on her face jiggled as she moved from side to side. Van Alen had only seen aliens that had jiggling skin. She found herself staring at it, hoping that the woman-named Fifine (”Don't call me Fifi, please”) Ito-wouldn't notice.
”I found an encroachment.” Ito threaded her hands together. Her fingers were startlingly small given the size of the rest of her.
Van Alen placed her own hands on her desk and leaned forward. It was a position she used to intimidate. She hoped that intimidation might get this woman to speak quicker, since she'd already been in the office five minutes before she admitted to the ”encroachment.”
Van Alen had called her because the maintenance team had been stumped. The power had cut to Van Alen's building, but something had kept the computer systems' separate line up. The maintenance team thought it could be that the ”something” was built into the separate line (they would have to check and that would take time) or because someone had deliberately maintained the power to the separate line.
They didn't know yet. They wouldn't know for hours.
So Van Alen figured a computer tech might know.
Well, she hadn't figured it exactly. That had been one of Flint's suggestions.
If the maintenance team has no idea what happened, call in computer experts. And have them look for these things . . .
”What do you mean, an encroachment?” Van Alen asked.
”Something-something rather sophisticated-used that momentary glitch to search our network.” Ito licked her lips as if she were afraid of Van Alen's response.
”Search our systems?” Van Alen felt cold.
Ito nodded.
”Did it take anything off our systems?”
”Not that I can tell,” Ito said. ”It was looking for something very specific.”
”What, exactly?” Van Alen asked.
”I don't know. It's like-a net came into the system and tried to catch something, then disappeared. I have evidence of the net, but not evidence of what it was trying to catch.”
”Can you tell if it caught anything?” Van Alen stood up. Her back hurt when she leaned forward too long.
”I don't think so,” Ito said. ”The sophisticated something remained the same size going in as it did coming out. If you think of the net a.n.a.logy again, a net full of, say, fish would make a bigger wave in the water than a net that didn't catch any.”
Van Alen's understanding of water and fish and nets was almost as poor as her understanding of computer networks. But she did get water displacement images.
”Can you be sure nothing left the system?” Van Alen asked.
”I can't be sure. I can be reasonably certain. Honestly, though, ma'am, this thing was beyond my capacity. That's why I'm calling it sophisticated. We don't have anything in Armstrong that I know of that can run into a full computer network filled with so much data, pinpoint one area, and then remove it without leaving so much as a trace.”
”But you just said there was a trace.”
”Of the search. And only because I was looking for it in those two seconds. Whatever it was, it was looking for something very specific. When it didn't get that something, it vanished. Or . . .” Ito's voice trailed off. She continued her back-and-forth s.h.i.+fting. ”Or?” Van Alen asked, not liking that she had to continually prompt this woman. ”It left something.” ”As in a virus?”
”As in an alert or a message system, something that might contact whoever set the program up in the first place.”
Van Alen frowned. She had heard of things like that. ”Shouldn't you be able to find that?” ”Eventually,” Ito said. ”But we're working with a sophisticated program. For all I know, the power glitch and the resulting trail through our computer networks was a Trojan horse.”
”Something snuck in here?” Van Alen at least understood that metaphor. She'd used it a few times herself in court cases.
”And it'll attack when it's ready. Or . . .”
This woman had irritating speech patterns. Van Alen wanted to shake her.
”Or?”
”It will send information out of the system when it finds the information. Not an attack so much as a prolonged search.”
”In other words,” Van Alen said, ”you have no idea what happened.”
Ito flushed. Her face turned so red it almost looked painful. ”No. Something came into our systems during the glitch. I think the glitch was designed to mask that. While we were all dealing with a momentary power issue-which distracted us and shut down our external security-something got into our computer systems.”
”Which should have shut down but didn't. Do you know why?”