The Sirani Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  “Hmm.” Manny nodded.

  “Deep learning is used in many, many things we use today. Virtual assistants like Alexa or Siri, computer translations—”

  “They’re sometimes really bad,” Dominik said. “We tried once to use it for an email in English. It was terrible.”

  “True. But if you were to correct those mistakes, the machine would learn and the next translation would be better. Another example relevant to this moment is how great deep learning is in medicine and pharmaceuticals. It does all kinds of diagnoses for diseases and tumours and is also able to create personalised medicine for an individual genome.”

  “That’s what Doctor Jan was doing.” Petra’s mouth was slightly agape. “That was the best short description of AI, ML and DL I’ve ever heard. Can I please steal it?”

  Roxy giggled. “Oh, please do. I did a lot of reading and learning about this when I realised how much it could help in my field.”

  “Doc?” Manny turned his back on the scientists and stepped into my personal space. I leaned back, but he moved even closer. “Can we trust these people?”

  “I need context.” I didn’t know what kind of information Manny wanted to share with them.

  “You can trust us,” Emil said. “We work with projects that have the potential to earn millions of euros. The non-disclosure agreements we sign threaten us with our livelihoods if we so much as breathe a word of the projects we are working on.”

  “Which brings me to a question.” Roxy tilted her head. “Why are you so readily answering all our questions about Doctor Novotný’s work? Isn’t his cure also protected?”

  “Not any more.” Emil crossed one arm in half a body hug. “The whole project rested on his shoulders. He was the only one capable of making this work. The investors knew the potential this had and gave him everything he needed and more. And he never demanded anything he didn’t need. Just the best equipment and people.”

  “And pay,” Petra said softly. “He fought for us to be paid far above the average salary for scientists here. He believed that people should be paid their worth. He valued each one of us.”

  “Not one of us would betray him, his work.” The director looked at his scientists as they all nodded enthusiastically. “And now we won’t betray the trust of whatever it is you need to ask or share.”

  Manny turned to look at me.

  “I don’t see any signs of deception.” Or inappropriate eagerness to gain information.

  He turned back to the scientists. “How loyal was Doctor Jan?”

  “Very.” Emil’s answer was immediate and confident. “He’d adopted us as his tribe and treated us as such. If one of us published in a journal, he would go to great lengths to defend us and our article to any critics. That was one of the reasons we loved him. He made us feel important to him.”

  “Just how great would those lengths be?”

  Emil, Petra and Nikola were shaking their heads. The others looked disgusted.

  “He would never do anything illegal, never something that could harm others. Never.” Petra’s voice got firmer and louder as she spoke. “If anyone says that he did something bad, and that after his death, we will not stand for that.”

  Emil put his hand on Petra’s shoulder. “Petra’s right. We won’t stand for it. The man we knew and loved was working on a cure for opioid addiction because he wanted to help people.”

  Manny glanced at me and I nodded. I only saw truth in their nonverbal cues.

  “Did Doctor Jan leave any of his personal effects here when he went on sabbatical?” Ivan asked.

  “His tablet.” Dominik turned towards the door. “He left it in my office. When I phoned him the next day to ask if I could bring it to him, he told me to keep it until he returned.”

  “Can we have it?” Ivan looked at Emil. “We can go through legal channels if it will help protect you.”

  “That won’t be necessary.” Emil shook his head. “I’ll deal with any investor or anyone who has anything to say about us co-operating with the police. I pride myself in running a company that is completely transparent in our ethics and goals. It’s only in the development phases that we have to keep things very confidential in case of intellectual property theft. No. You can have his tablet.”

  “I’ll go get it.” Dominik left the room.

  Roxy looked at Emil. “We’ll treat any information we find in there with the utmost sensitivity and confidentiality.”

  “I know.” He paused when Dominik came rushing back into the room. He took the tablet from Dominik and handed it to Ivan. “The news said Doctor Jan was working for a psychopath, creating a drug that the psychopath believed would cure fanaticism.”

  “What?” The corners of Roxy’s mouth turned down. “Being fanatical about something cannot be found in a virus, genomes or genetics. That doesn’t make sense at all.”

  “That’s why we don’t believe it.” It wasn’t Emil’s tone as much as his micro-expressions that caught my attention.

  “Who believes this?”

  “Conspiracy theorists are already jumping on this. They are saying this is a sign they were right all along—being a liberal, a fascist or an extremist of any kind is genetic.”

  “Bloody hell.” Manny turned to the director. “Emil, am I right to think that we can call at any time if we have more questions?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Doc? Roxanne? Any more questions?”

  “No.” I looked at Roxy who was shaking her head.

  We left the building five minutes later. Colin was standing outside his SUV waiting for us. He straightened when he saw us. “How did it go?”

  “We have a gift for Francine.” Roxy pointed at Ivan. “We have Doctor Jan’s tablet.”

  “Frey.” Manny stopped in front of Colin. “Do you know where that paparazza is staying?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “Take me there. Now.”

  “Okay.” Colin drew out the last syllable as he opened the passenger door for me. “You can tell me about it on the way there.”

  Chapter FIFTEEN

  “ANYTHING?” MANNY STORMED into our hotel rooms, going straight to where Francine was sitting on one of the sofas. “Do you know where that bloody woman is?”

  Roxy shook her head with a smile and walked to Vinnie in the kitchenette. Colin closed the door behind us and took my hand with a reassuring squeeze. We settled on the sofa across from Francine. Ivan sat down next to Daniel on the other sofa, Phillip reading a newspaper on the third sofa.

  “She’s turned off her phone, so the virus I put on her phone is useless. And before you ask, I tried to power it up, but I think she’s removed the battery.” The admiration was clear on Francine’s face. “She knows how to disappear.”

  “Not what I want to hear.” Manny rubbed both hands over his head.

  Ivan frowned. “Wait. You put a virus on her phone?”

  “Just a little one.” She winked and looked at Colin. “Ty lost Bree? How’s that possible?”

  “Clearly he’s an incompetent criminal.” Manny sat down next to Francine.

  “He’s not a convicted criminal, Millard.” Colin’s tone was terse, his facial muscles tense. “But he’s one of the best if you want someone followed.”

  “And she gave him the slip.” Francine smiled. “That’s my kinda girl.”

  “Do you have anything on his assistant?” Daniel asked.

  “Let me ask.” Ivan got up and swiped his smartphone screen. He walked to the large windows overlooking the park behind the hotel and spoke quietly in Czech.

  Manny continued his grumbling about wasting time going to Bree’s hotel only to find that she’d gone in shortly after we’d stopped at Jarda Zonyga’s hotel. But she’d left again twenty minutes later. I thought about her sitting alone in Colin’s SUV while we interviewed Antonin Korn.

  “Have you looked at Bree’s incoming and outgoing calls?” I wasn’t surprised when Francine nodded. “Anything interesting?”

/>   “In my opinion, yes.” She glanced at Ivan when he asked a loud question into his phone, his posture tense. “For an investigative journalist who is here to investigate a story, she made very, very, very few calls. And received even fewer. I counted seven outgoing calls in the last twenty-four hours and nine incoming. I checked the numbers and they’re nothing to pay attention to.”

  “Are you sure?” I needed to know that she had done her due diligence.

  “Oh, I made very sure of that. I have a bad feeling about this and don’t want anything to happen to Bree.” She rolled her eyes when Manny swore. “I like her.”

  Ivan walked back from the window, putting his smartphone in his trouser pocket. “My team found Bree’s assistant, Tobie, in an Italian restaurant having dinner. He was expecting Bree to join him, but he said that he’s used to her not showing up. Usually, that means she’s following a lead.”

  I uncrossed my arms when I realised I had folded them tightly across my chest to protect myself from the angry expression on Ivan’s face. “What else did you find out?”

  “Our IT guys traced the hack.” He sat down, but didn’t relax into the sofa. “The person who hacked our police station and deleted all the footage of Tomas Broz and of Bree coming in and leaving... that person was in Bree’s hotel.”

  “Holy hell.”

  “My team did some more checking and found that a call had been made from that hotel to the news station that first reported about Doctor Novotný’s death and that he’d been working under duress for a madman.” His lips tightened. “We can’t say for sure it was Bree, because the call originated from the hotel’s phone system, not a mobile phone. And the hotel’s system is old—too old to pinpoint from which room a specific call was made. All local calls are free and unregistered. Only international calls are registered on the system.”

  “I want that paparazza arrested.” Manny pushed his fists on his thighs. “Tonight.”

  “I don’t know about this.” Francine looked at me. “What do you think, girlfriend? Did Bree hack the police station? Did she leak the story about Doctor Jan’s death?”

  I took my time to consider everything I’d learned about Gabriella Reuben. And everything I’d observed in the time we’d spent together. “There are no absolutes in human behaviour analysis, but in my experience and opinion, Bree showed no indication of deceit or that she was conspiring against us.”

  “You think she’s being set up, Doc? By whom?” Manny’s frown deepened, then he looked at Francine. “Do you think Shahab has the computer and technical skills to do this?”

  “We know that he worked in Iran’s cybercrimes division for a few years when he just started out.” Francine shrugged. “It’s not that hard to hack a police station, or to reroute a phone call so it looks like it came from a different country.”

  “Not hard for you maybe,” Daniel said. “I’m pretty decent with computers, but I can’t do that.”

  “I can sho—”

  “Please don’t continue.” Ivan pretended to shudder. “I don’t want to have to arrest you.”

  “Ooh, that would be fun.” Francine winked at him. “But Daniel is right. Maybe this is too far above Shahab’s skillset.”

  “He could’ve hidden his skills. I know some extremely smart people who play dumb all the time.” Roxy’s attempt not to look at Vinnie was so obvious, my eyes immediately went to him as she tilted her head away from him.

  Daniel and Ivan chuckled when Vinnie shook a spoon at Roxy.

  “Do we need to worry about Bree?” Phillip had been quiet this whole time. “Is her life in danger?”

  “I would say yes,” Daniel said. “But I have a feeling she can look out for herself.”

  “I did more digging into Bree.” Francine’s voice was just above a whisper. “She was terribly bullied and attacked when she was a child. When she was seventeen, she started taking self-defence lessons.”

  “What kind of self-defence?” Vinnie asked.

  “Krav Maga.” Francine winced. “She only took a few lessons. Said she wasn’t made for violence.”

  “Huh.” Vinnie was disappointed. “Krav Maga would’ve been perfect for such a pint-sized woman. Man-woman. Shit. For Bree.”

  “She’s a woman, honey.” Roxy put her hand on Vinnie’s chest and looked into his eyes. “A woman.”

  “Yeah, I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of that.” He looked over her head at us. “So what do we do? Should we look for her?”

  For a few seconds no one spoke.

  “If that paparazza is everything you’re telling me, then we should maybe give her some rope.” Manny grunted and looked at me. “Some space to do whatever the blazes she’s doing.” He looked at Francine. “Are you going to just sit there and look pretty or are you going to tell us what is on Novotný’s tablet?”

  Francine fluttered her eyelids and pressed her palm against her chest. “You think I’m pretty.”

  When Manny swore, she smiled and held out her hand towards Ivan, wriggling her fingers. “Gimme.”

  Ivan got up and handed Francine Doctor Jan Novotný’s tablet. “Don’t upload anything to that cloud folder you created. I would like to keep a very tight lid on whatever we find and I’m not as confident in your cloud as you are.”

  “Non-believer.” Francine’s revulsion was exaggerated and so fake, it made Ivan smile. She took the tablet and tapped the screen. “Don’t worry. I’ll keep all the secrets I find here safe.”

  “Why don’t I find that reassuring?” Ivan’s relaxed expression belied his words. A small frown formed when his phone pinged. He swiped the screen, his frown deepening. “I have to go.” He looked at Daniel, then at Manny. “My boss said the bigger bosses want to see me.”

  “Do you need me to intervene?” Manny moved to the edge of the sofa.

  Ivan’s eyes narrowed for a moment in thought, then he shook his head. “Let me first see what this is about. I’ll let you know if I need reinforcements.”

  “Hmm.” Francine tapped the screen of Doctor Novotný’s tablet, her mouth twisting. “It’s password-protected.”

  “That’s my cue.” Ivan nodded at us and walked to the door. “I’ll let you know what the bosses say.”

  There were a few murmured greetings, but our attention was mostly on Francine. She continued tapping. “I tried that crazy code Doctor Jan burned on his skin, but it’s not working. I need time.”

  “And here you thought it was going to be easy.” Roxy giggled when Francine threw a cushion towards the kitchenette. She pulled at Vinnie’s arm. “I’m hungry. Cook for me. Now. Feed me.”

  “You ate dinner.”

  “That was three days ago!” She put her fists on her hips. “I’m going to wither and die if I don’t have... pumpkin chip cream pie! Yes, that’s what I need to keep me alive.”

  Vinnie laughed. “I don’t have the ingredients for that, Rox.”

  “They’re working.” She nodded towards us. “We can go shopping.”

  “Don’t go too far.” Francine glanced up. “I plan to crack this baby quickly and we might need you and your terrible shoes to make sense of any science stuff.”

  “Ten minutes?” Roxy looked at Vinnie. “There’s that twenty-four-hour shop two blocks away.”

  They continued talking, but I lost interest. I sat back in the sofa and let Mozart’s Symphony No.14 in A major flow through my mind. I went through everything I’d learned so far. Doctor Novotný’s work that involved the worrisome ability to create a chemical weapon that could kill one or thousands depending on the targeting and the delivery method. Antonin’s unadulterated fear of Shahab. The role Antonin as well as the thief Tomas Broz had played in Shahab’s plan.

  But this was where I stalled. We didn’t know what Shahab’s end plan was. Of equal importance, we didn’t know what motivated him. My assessment of Shahab was that he wouldn’t execute a terrible act just because he could. He was driven by a strong motivation and in the year we’d investigated and search
ed for him, we’d not once come across something that could explain his plans for a chemical weapon.

  We’d been able to create an acceptable profile of Shahab’s professional life, but his personal life had proven problematic. The Iranian authorities had given us his date of birth and parents’ information, nothing else. They’d said that after carefully going through everything they had on his personal life, they’d come to the conclusion that none of that would assist us in finding him. Not even President Godard had been able to get us information about his life outside of work. And Francine’s efforts had been fruitless—there was nothing about Shahab’s private life stored in any of the places she’d hacked.

  I moved on to go through all the data we’d gleaned from Antonin’s operation. I’d just started contemplating the probability of Shahab working with a partner when Roxy and Vinnie returned, laughing and carrying three large shopping bags.

  They went to the kitchenette and Phillip joined them, smiling when Vinnie forced Roxy into a chair by the kitchenette counter and made her promise not to help him. Colin and Daniel started talking about ingress and egress methods when stealth was required in an operation.

  I went back to Mozart.

  An hour and twenty minutes later, we’d all had a slice of Roxy’s pie and the others were in their bedrooms. Colin had convinced everyone that it would be to our benefit to rest while we could. At least until Francine had gained access to Doctor Novotný’s tablet. No one had seemed enthused about leaving all the work to Francine, but had reluctantly agreed to rest.

  I hadn’t.

  My mind would not allow me to sleep, so I had a relaxing bath and returned to the living area to Francine punching the air and hopping in her seat. “I knew I would get you, you Evel Knievel.”

  “What’s an Evel Knievel?”