“You’ve already made yourself clear, Eric.”
“What about the equipment for our Yukon partners? Especially the satellite parts. They’ve been waiting on us for weeks. We need that station operational.”
“I want that station operating just as much as you do. They’ll have what they need in a few days.”
Severall’s face was hard. “That should have been taken care of first, Greg.”
“I had everything planned out,” hissed Kirigin. “You know we need the capital right now. “The women and the organ business are easy money. The ships are making those stops anyway.”
“Okay. We’ll finish what we started. We’ll drop the women. Then Harvest makes the scheduled stop at the Rupert port. Then the Yukon drop off immediately after. I really think this should be our main area of concern going forward. These side trips drain energy and resources better utilized in the service of our most important goal.” Severall rearranged himself in the chair. “I think I’ll grab a nap if you don’t need me for anything.”
“Sleep if you must,” said Kirigin absently, intent on his computer screen. “I’ll wake you when it’s time.”
“I trust we’re not going to have to deal with any of these people?”
“Of course not. I promised you, and I always keep my promises. You know that, Eric.” Kirigin looked at him intently. “You need to have more faith in me. Cartwright and Smythe will take care of everything, just like they did for MacLeish. Just as they will for us. They’re yes men,” he whispered very softly. “Both of them.”
“You’re right.” Severall closed his eyes.
Chapter 12
One of the team had booked rooms at the Thunderbird motel in Prince Rupert. The motel was one of those sad, serviceable places. The sheets looked clean, but the air stank of whatever products the cleaners had used. Kumari and Stuart were both online in one of them. Alex was with them. He’d stayed at the Crest a few times before on police business. It was a too high profile for this operation. Brandeis was in the room across the hall, on the phone with Ottawa. Alex had just gotten off the phone with Jeri Fernice. She didn’t have a lot to report.
Portchanal was heading up their end, but he did pull Fernice in, the least he could do. The VPD had run down Henry’s email address and traced it to a computer in an older midtown Vancouver apartment. The manager hadn’t seen him for days. They searched the apartment but found nothing. They took away his computer and the tech guys at VPD were examining it now. A search of the DMV database didn’t turn up a car registered to him.
Stuart plunked away at his laptop. Kumari sat on the other side of their small desk, laptop open in front of her, staring at the screen. Serious lack of sleep was affecting them all. Someone came in with a coffee urn and dropped it on the sideboard beside Alex. He poured three cups and quietly gave one to Stuart along with two sugar packets and another one to Kumari.
“I don’t drink coffee.” She reached for it absently, took a sip and made a face.
“We need you conscious,” said Alex. “Try some cream and sugar.” He pushed some sugar packets her way, along with the cream jug.
“I suppose me fully conscious would be more helpful.” She doctored the coffee and tried it again. “Hey. It’s not that bad. Was that the VPD sergeant you were on the phone with? The one you worked with to find the missing children?”
Alex nodded. “Jeri Fernice.” After she shared what little progress they’d made at her end, she mentioned she’d dropped into the Summit Security offices the night after Batlan was murdered. She hadn’t wasted any time checking them out.
“Fernice is on the team looking for the people taken off the ship in Vancouver.”
Kumari shuddered. “The ones who will be operated on for their organs.”
Alex nodded. “Stuart, pull up an outfit called Summit Security. They’ve got an office in Vancouver.”
Stuart did a search and pulled up their web page. “Not much here.” He was silent for a moment. “Timmus,” he said.
“What?” said Alex.
“Timmus; summit spelled backwards. It’s Greek, or Greek derived. It means clever.”
“Does it,” said Alex, extremely interested. “How do you know that?”
“I speak Greek. My mom’s parents are Greek; she speaks Greek; we visited Greece a couple of when I was growing up. I got interested in the language after that. I probably wouldn’t have noticed this normally, but the Greek letter, sigma, is part of Summit’s logo and the word just popped out for me. Guess I’ve got palindromes on the mind.”
“Excellent, Stuart,” said Kumari. “I’m not that good at languages,” she admitted, a little ruefully.
“But you’re so good at everything else. I was raised in a house where Greek was spoken. It’s a definite advantage.”
She rewarded him with a smile.
Alex fought to keep a straight face. He’s going to get her to say yes to a date, one way or the other. “So, summit and timmus form a palindrome.”
“Hey,” said Kumari. “Timmus means clever; geniy means genius; razum means brilliant.” She searched another word. “Pravo means my right, or freedom.”
“Pravo is the company listed as the owner when you tracked the ownership of Harvest, said Alex, wheels turning. “Hold that thought, Kumari.” He called Jeri.
“Hi again,” said Alex when she picked up. “I’m putting you on speaker.”
“What’s up.”
“I’ll explain in a minute. Besides the job offer, what else did Rory want to talk about?”
“Let’s see. He wanted to know whether Jas was on board with my taking their offer because there’s some travel involved, but that’s probably not what you’re looking for. He called me just as I was leaving the house to come into the office this morning. It was a short conversation.”
“Just a second, Jeri. Stuart, check Summit’s Vancouver site and see if Sanjit Rory is listed anywhere.”
“Not in Vancouver,” said Jeri. “You’ll find him listed with their Ottawa staff. He’s in Vancouver for a few weeks on a job. He got roped into interviewing me because the Vancouver office is super busy. Nice, old style, office space. Old Dominion Building. Lots of marble.”
“Jeri, can you remember anything else.”
“I told him I didn’t have time to talk right then. He did ask what I’d been pulled in on, kind of in passing.”
“Can you remember exactly what you said?”
“Only that it was related to the case I was working a few months back. I talked about our case when I met with him. He was interested in it because I demonstrated so much initiative.”
“And a willingness to mislead your superiors,” said Alex, with a grin, aware that Stuart and Kumari were listening closely.
“I think he liked that best,” Jeri lobbed back. “Not that you should be one to talk.”
Alex chuckled; Kumari and Stuart exchanged a glance.
“Spill. Why the interest in Summit Security?” Jeri asked.
“It’s just a hunch, but I think there might be something off about Summit. The company looks legit enough. I know this is a bit of a stretch, but Summit spelled backwards is timmus, which means clever in Greek and back to back, summit and timmus form a palindrome.”
“A palindrome. Palindrome Security. I saw that company name in the notes.”
“Timmus means clever. Then there’s Kirigin’s online monikers: geniy means genius and razum means brilliant. Then there’s the company listed as the owner of Harvest: Pravo, a Russian word which means my right or freedom.”
“Summit has contracts with Canadian Security Intelligence Service. I didn’t find that on their website, but not surprising. Contract work for CSIS isn’t something they’d want to advertise.”
Stuart and Kumari exchanged a glance.
“It wouldn’t hurt to check Summit out,” said Alex.
“Agreed.”
“Do you remember anything else?�
��
“No. It was a short conversation. As far as finding the people taken off the ship here, we’re running out of options. Henry, the driver, is in the wind. We’ve come up empty on a possible location for the clinic the trafficked victims were taken to. Nothing on our back channels. Your offices in North and West Vancouver are in the same boat. We might as well sit on Summit, and Rory too while we’re at it. It’s all we’ve got.”
“One other thing; what about the doctor that was connected with Batlan?”
“That was a dead end. I put a detail on him. Just in case.”
“Thanks, Jeri,” said Alex, ending the call.
“I guess there’s the possibility that they won’t find the people,” said Stuart quietly. “Before it’s too late, I mean.” Alex nodded. Kumari’s cell rang and she picked up.
“It’s Ottawa,” she mouthed to Alex.
“Put them on speaker.”
“Corporal Kumari here. You’re on speaker,” she announced. “Sergeant Desocarras and Corporal Stuart are here with me.”
“Corporal Donovan here.” The three could hear papers being shuffled at the other end. “Okay. First, Palindrome Security. We haven’t made much headway there since the last time I called.”
Alex leaned in. “We have something that might help. Specifically, a Canadian outfit with possible links to Palindrome Security called Summit Security. They have offices in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver. A colleague with another police agency informs me that Summit has contracts with CSIS, as does Palindrome.”
“Contracts with CSIS?”
“CSIS contracts out now,” said Alex. “Everyone does officer. Even us.”
“Right. Of course, sir. I know that.”
“Granted, it’s just a hunch, but get what you can on them. We suspect a link between Palindrome and Summit. We’re not sure about our chances, but we hope to rescue the trafficked victims still on the ship by the end of the day. That doesn’t give us much of a window. Take this as far as you can without arousing suspicion.”
“We haven’t made any headway and we’re working around the clock. We did find software code on several servers that’s not ours. We suspect it’s Kirigin’s. We’re state of the art here! No one has ever breached our security!”
“He didn’t breach your security,” Kumari reminded him. “He didn’t have to.”
“Yeah. Right. I was told to assure you that we haven’t tried to trigger the code we did find, or anything like that, so as not to tip Kirigin off. Once we have the okay from Inspector Brandeis, we’ll initiate it.” Kumari jumped in.
“Another avenue might be international IP addresses. For sure Kirigin’s bought some, probably through a shell company. He’s probably set up a private network. Kirigin would want that level of control. I’d concentrate on RIPE NCC and ARIN NCC.”
“Even with just those two, that’s a lot of buyers to sort through!”
“I know, but I’d start with RIPE first, which is the regional internet registry for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. Then have a look at ARIN, which covers North America.”
“Still. It’s a needle in a haystack.”
“But something tells me this needle is hiding in plain sight,” said Kumari. “Let’s just hope he’s still old school.”
“Would that be women’s intuition?”
Kumari opened her mouth to retort but Stuart beat her to it.
“Grow up,” he shot back. Kumari looked at him in surprise, but Alex also detected pleasure in the look.
“Sorry,” said Corporal Donovan. “Not trying to offend.”
“But you did,” Kumari mumbled and rolled her eyes. “Just listen for a minute. I think Kirigin likes it that he operates right under our nose. Because he thinks he can’t be caught. I mean. Look at the message on the Prince George detachment server.”
“That was kind of out there.”
Kumari raised both hands in frustration.
“Not at all,” she said as patiently as she could muster. “Not for him. I think operating in plain sight might be part of his modus operandi. It’s a thrill for him,” she said carefully. “Take for example, his online monikers: razum means brilliant; geniy means basically the same thing. Both are Russian, right. Pravo is Russian for freedom or my right.
“Pravo?”
“Pravo is the name of the company identified as the owner of his ships. It could be a holding company with ties to other companies and other ships. It appears that identifying with his country of origin, or his culture, whichever, is obviously of some importance to him. I would start with RIPE NCC and check the list of who they’re renting IP addresses too.” She pulled up their website. “I’m looking now and there’s not that many listed for Russia. It’s as good a place as any to start.”
“Palindrome will be buying IP addresses from ARIN,” said Stuart.
“Don’t forget Summit,” said Alex. “If Summit and Palindrome are linked in some way, that might show up in how IP addresses for those companies are paid for and distributed.”
“Summit is now on our radar.”
“Remember,” said Kumari, “Kirigin thinks he’s invisible and he can’t resist word games. Somewhere, he’ll let his guard down. Maybe get sloppy.”
“Freedom was a paedophile hosting site on Tor that was taken down by Anonymous,” said Stuart. “Pravo, or some variation of the name could be a replacement service. It’s just the kind of thing he’d love to do.”
“Exactly!” said Kumari. “We’re looking for links between Pravo, Palindrome and Summit.”
“Maybe something that reads the same forward and backward. Maybe other palindromes. Or names that form palindromes, like summit and timmus. Or other kinds of word play.”
“This is great! I’ll take this to the guys and get back to you soon as we have anything.”
“Okay.” Kumari hung up, looking a little disgusted. “Fuck,” she muttered.
“We’re the A-team, Kumari” said Stuart. “And they know it!”
That elicited a grin. “Ottawa hasn’t found any hard evidence they can link directly to Kirigin. Even when they get the go-ahead, it’s gonna take weeks to track those bits of software. If they can! I really think we have to approach this another way!”
“Did anything come in from that program you planted on Smythe’s computer?” asked Alex.
Kumari pulled up a screen. “Nothing has come to me, which means he hasn’t been online at all. I’ll check his computer now. Keys clicked while she accessed it.
“Nothing?” Alex rose from his chair and grabbed his jacket.
“Just a minute, sir,” said Kumari.
“What?”
“The keystroke program I planted on Smythe’s computer has been deleted.” Her voice betrayed that she was a little shaken by that. “Kirigin must have found it.”
“Shit,” said Stuart.
“I’ll get Brandeis.” Alex headed to the room next door. He and Brandeis were back quickly.
“Kumari, when did you last check that the program was in place?”
“Just before we got on the plane, sir.”
“So less than three hours ago. And it was in place then.”
“Yes.”
“Kumari. Are we jeopardized in any way?”
“No. Not at all. Kirigin won’t be able to track the software I planted back to me. I made sure of that. All he would know is that someone accessed Smythe’s computer and planted it. Or, that Smythe downloaded the program when he opened an email from someone. It could have been anyone. Smythe is so sloppy online! Unless Kirigin has been watching the background processes on Smythe’s computer closely, he won’t have any idea when it was planted.”
“But why would Kirigin go looking now?” said Brandeis.
“He must know that Smythe went onto the PG server uncloaked. That’s probably against Kirigin’s protocol,” said Kumari. “It could be that he’s just covering all the bases.”
“Neither do I,” said Brandeis. “Any sign of Harvest yet?”
Stuart checked. “It looks like the ship is heading east now towards Rupert. The Port Authority keeps close tabs on ships that are coming in to do business. Even if Kirigin is spoofing the ship’s AIS, he still has to follow Port protocol; it’s very tight. The ship’s captain gave notice the ship would be arriving at Prince Rupert before he left Vancouver. The ship is required to check in here, check in there, as they make their approach to the port. Even if Kirigin’s hiding the ship’s location, it will have to come into view soon. I’m monitoring the Rupert port closely and the ship hasn’t made contact yet.
“So, if the ship doesn’t follow protocol,” said Brandeis, “it would be flagged as problematic.”
“Exactly. Hence Kirigin’s charade,” said Alex. “Anything new on Killam’s account?”
Kumari pulled it up. “Nothing new here.”
Alex looked at his watch: 8:10 am. “What about the storm?”
“It’s nearly at the south coast of Alaska. They’re getting rain and snow. It’s supposed to be over us full force by two pm,” said Stuart.
The door opened and an officer stuck his head in. “Charlie Meighan from the Coast Guard’s here.”
“Bring him to the room across the hall,” said Brandeis.
A large map of the Hecate Strait took up the end of one double bed. A smaller map of the area adjacent to Prince Rupert and a blow-up of the Prince Rupert Port were laid out. Brandeis, Alex and Charlie Meighan, the master of the CCG Tanu hovered over them.
“We called you up here as back-up,” said Brandeis. “We want to take the people off the ship when they come into port. We’re hoping we don’t have to rescue them at sea.”
“Understood,” said Meighan.
Red Paint Page 12