At 3:45 local time in the underground bunkers of Biosketch Technologies Inc. a fire started due to a short circuit, most probably caused by the overheating of a server-mirror as a result of a lampropeltis triangulum that had knocked out the cooling circuit and allowed it to enter, though it wasn’t clear how, the chassis.
The fire immediately activated the plant’s inert gas extinguishing system, putting out the fire immediately, but as a precaution the central unit decided to disconnect the server from all the others, turning off the firewalls, the honeypots, and the network intrusion detection system for one minute.
At 5:48 local time, Pavel saw as if by magic, appearing out of nowhere, a protected area that contained a very bulky database and all the procedures for the "Transtem 1.1" operations, starting from the purchase of raw materials to the finished product.
He also noticed that there was a particular path in an area of the disk reported as damaged; he managed to open it and found a sub area with what seemed like the same manufacturing procedures and a small database.
Pavel, after having quickly considered some hypothesis as to why the protection systems had suddenly collapsed, inoculated a program he had created to compress the identified data quickly and began to transfer the procedures from the main area, and then the whole area below that to his servers, shielding this action by simulating a disk cleaning operation.
The operation lasted more than an hour, during which Pavel remained terribly anxious since he knew perfectly well that the protection systems would definitely reactivate and that it was now afternoon in New Mexico. Finally, he deleted the software and logged out, having erased any traces.
Exhausted and with the pepperoni still weighing heavily on his stomach, he fell asleep; it was past 7:00 am.
121
"You did a great job, Ransley! All the major media outlets reported on the press conference and the television news in Europe transmitted part of the conference," Walton I. Reed said loudly during the evening meeting with Bain and Green.
"Catherine has been instrumental as always,” remarked Ransley Bain. “Anyway, I gave her $10,000. I hope you don’t mind, Colonel."
"You’ve done very well and, by the way, I think she hangs around you whenever she can. She's a discreet woman, I would say, and very smart."
"Yes, she’s attractive, although she’s not really my type."
"You can invite her to dinner, can't you?” laughed Reed. “Should I arrange for a casual dinner at my home? Green prepare yourself, you have to be there, too."
"Why not?” Bain replied laughing. “It might be fun and we always eat very well at your home, Colonel!"
"Ok, I’ll arrange it in Washington, D.C. in a week, Tuesday, 8:15 pm. I'll invite Catherine tonight. What about Anaïs?"
"She traveled with me, sir,” replied Bain, “then went to California, but she didn’t tell me where."
"Well, it's better she’s already left. That girl is able to put me under pressure with that inquisitorial look that she has, and in this period it’s better to have no special observers. Now, everybody go home.
“Jago, stay here a moment, I have to talk to you."
Walton I. Reed waited until Ransley Bain had left the office, then he said to Green:
"Kozloy wants to close the deal, we have to meet him in Switzerland. It was the only condition that he demanded for the exchange, I told him that it was fine with me."
"When?" asked Green.
"In two weeks. We have to choose a quiet place that won’t attract too much attention."
"Colonel, I’ll submit a couple of proposals to you within three days. I have to be sure that there is no risk of any kind, including having to deal with any meddlers. In any case, I think it would be better that Catherine Leed organize a press conference in Geneva, so we can also involve the Swiss in later partnership agreements. What do you think?"
"It sounds like a great idea Jago. You cannot always think that things will go unnoticed, despite taking all possible precautions; it's better in this case to come on the scene theatrically, that way no one will get suspicious."
"I finished the audit."
"And...?"
"Quality’s reducing the scaffold production by a day has nothing to do with the increase in the intensity of the brain waves or their frequency, Colonel. I surrender. I have no more ideas."
"Damn! Does Bain know about this?"
"No, sir. I finished the audit just before entering the meeting, and for the moment I wanted to talk about the outcome with you alone."
"Call Bain, please. We need to take a definitive position now."
Bain arrived a few minutes later and again sat where he had been sitting before.
"Nothing has been done," said the Colonel. "Reducing the scaffold production by one day has had no effect on the question of the brain waves. Ransley, at this point WE DON'T KNOW why, WE DON'T KNOW HOW, we just know when, and we don’t give a fuck about that!"
"Have there been other incidents of violence, Colonel?" Bain asked frowning.
"No, thankfully."
"We must remember that the violence originates from having suffered an attack or a provocation, perhaps the concentration of incidents that occurred was just a coincidence," Bain continued.
"Maybe, but...that American Airlines pilot?" Green asked.
"He had an argument with his superior before boarding, the company had changed his work assignments for the next month. He wasn’t happy with the changes and he hadn’t managed to convince them to change their minds."
"Ransley, but is the abnormal situation stable or fluctuating?"
"Absolutely stable. You have to consider that we’ve increased the dose of anxiolytic in the therapy which, in any case, achieves its optimum effect through accumulation. I believe that if other sporadic cases like these manifest themselves, it would be difficult to prove that the cause is due to the scaffold and tissue transplant."
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking? That is we forget about the fucking side effects so as not to screw up years of work and our wages. After all, the probability that they are going to bust our balls is very low."
"Exactly, Colonel," Bain replied with a serious face.
"I think it's ok. You know perfectly well that I'm always ready to follow you," Green said.
"Jago, please, we know perfectly well that you have nothing to fear because you’ll never be held responsible in any hypothetical and remote investigation," Ransley Bain replied sarcastically.
Jago C. Green raised his middle finger at Bain and turned to the Colonel: "I say it again. I’m always ready to follow you, sir."
"Well, the meeting is over. We’re all agreed, the project goes on in accordance with the protocol; however, we’ll continue monitoring the situation to limit the damage as much as possible. Good evening, gentlemen!"
Walton I. Reed clenched his jaw with satisfaction and was the first to leave his office.
122
"I was getting worried!" Anna's voice was agitated. "I’ve called you at least six times Pavel, has something happened?"
"What time is it?"
"Two in the afternoon."
"Say again!"
"Two in the afternoon, but how are you?"
"Shit, it's so late! I have class in fifteen minutes."
"I asked what happened to you. Hellooo?"
"I didn’t digest that pepperoni pizza, I couldn’t sleep and I had to take two anti-acid tablets. The result was that I collapsed at 7:00. But thank you, I'm fine now. I’m sorry, I have to go. I'm late, bye, Anna."
"Are you coming to dinner tonight?"
"I'm sorry, but I have to finish a very urgent job for the university. I'll call you around 9.00 pm to say good night. Besides it would be better if I have a light dinner after last night."
"So good afternoon, professor. Talk to you tonight!"
Pavel got to the classroom ten minutes late and gave the worst lesson of his life; he kept thinking about the data he had downloaded from Biosketch
Technologies Inc. and wanted to go home quickly to examine it. He answered the student’s questions without verve and he ended the question and answer session a quarter of an hour earlier than the usual lesson schedule, and finally went home after shopping at a supermarket.
At 8:30 pm he decided to have dinner, Italian pasta and tomato sauce. He put the grated cheese on and then prepared a fruit salad with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
He called Anna at 9:00 pm, and five minutes later he returned to his bunker to continue examining the data.
At 8:00 am he lay down on the bed still dressed and exhausted. That day, fortunately, he didn’t have to give lectures at the university.
He awoke in the late afternoon. He finished compiling the comparative analysis of the same partition of the two data bases and made it accessible and comprehensible to Mark Savannah, a psychiatrist and not an IT guy.
At 10:30 pm he sent the results in different encrypted data packets to avoid problems of speed and security.
"QRV? Digitrevenant69." Pavel wrote to Mark. It was 3:30 pm in Dallas and Savannah was in his office examining his patients’ medical records.
“QRV, How are you?" Mark replied.
"Fine, thank you, despite the fact that Anna is trying to kill me with her awful food…her sandwiches are great, but everything else...and you?"
"I'm working…Anaïs Degann knows where I am...she came to see me..."
"How the hell did she find you?"
"She managed to inject a RF-ID transponder under my skin. I told her about you and she told me about what’s happening at Biosketch Technologies Inc.. I’m convinced that Colonel Reed is trying to sell the technology of the scaffold and of the tissue to Grigoriy Kozloy, a former KGB officer, now FSB."
"Damn, that girl is smart or were you careless? FSB...but why them?"
"Good question, Pavel. I don’t know how to explain it. Reed, even if he’s greedy, has always stolen and been involved in illicit trade, therefore he doesn’t need money, he has already accumulated wealth. Frankly, I can’t understand it."
"I analyzed the data, I have encrypted and sent the results to you. The key is under the door."
"Yes, thanks. I understand."
"Now it's up to you, as you’ll see, the procedures differ: one is standard and the other not. Let me know your evaluation."
"So it was probably Green."
"At the moment, you have to focus on the data, afterwards we’ll take care of the other issues; however, I had an idea. I asked Jànos Kozma for his opinion, and he came to the same conclusion as me. As soon as you understand what's been happening, give me a call. Bye, Mark. I’m going to sleep finally!"
"Thanks, see you soon my friend."
123
Mark waited until the morning of the next day to work on the data sent by Pavel. That afternoon he prepared the whole sequence of the necessary security operations and finished the analysis of the medical records.
First, he downloaded the files then he decrypted them and finally put them in sequence on an external mini hard drive, following the instructions received from Pavel and canceling the transfer of data from one device to another. Soon afterwards, he called Marshall to say that he would be staying home to work all day.
Mark had to take several breaks, he changed clothes twice and finally went running for forty minutes to clear his mind. What he gradually discovered had left him in disbelief and he had needed to kick start his body to make his brain work faster in order to structure and place the information he had extrapolated from the data into a logical sequence, without making any interpretation that wasn’t objective, real and relevant.
He came back into the house completely soaked, he had run at a mild pace but still had a slight headache that irritated him. He walked towards the bathroom taking off his cotton T-shirt, wiping his face with it, and then took off his running shoes and remained barefoot.
"Well, I cannot say you don’t move fast," Anaïs Degann said, looking up at Mark’s well-shaped body as she put her tablet on the couch.
"You like to impress me, huh? You don’t call me to tell me when you get back, you don't pick up my messages between texts, you come into my house without keys or asking permission…you have a nasty character, Anaïs!"
"I have adapted myself to the situation, Mark. I don’t like to exist only when others want me to exist…you look tense."
"Pavel was able to send me the data bases and the procedures of the Biosketch Technologies Inc. system…and I'm very, very puzzled. I've almost finished analyzing and formalizing the data so that we can work on them, and I have to tell you that I have never seen anything like this. I'm gonna take a quick shower and I'll be right back," Mark replied.
When Savannah returned to the sitting room, he saw that Anaïs had set the table for brunch: coffee, milk, freshly made pancakes and a chocolate cake.
"Fantastic! I have to reword my previous statement, I feel like a worm. You're a woman worth marrying, Anaïs…where did all this come from? You didn’t have time to prepare it here."
"Why not? You've been gone more than forty minutes, and then the time it took you to shower, you didn’t even notice the smell coming from the kitchen. It’s a Swiss recipe, Swiss chocolate. Come on, we’ll enjoy brunch and then you’ll tell me what you have discovered."
During the brunch, Mark told her how he had spent the last two days, then they talked about the latest-generation fighter jets, and going to the UN peacekeeping operations in Sudan.
"In addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan, have you been sent to any other regions of the Middle East?"
"I was in the Libyan desert for four months with the Tuareg on a very delicate operation; guerrillas from Niger had fomented a rebellion among the tribes in Algeria, Burkina Faso and Libya; and together, with two other agencies, we restored tribal order and above all we foiled a terrorist attack in Niamey, Niger. I left some friends in the desert,” remembered Mark. “The Tuareg are incredible people, as is their friendship. They taught me some survival skills that we don’t even dream about. I would love to see them again and spend a little time with them."
"Could you tell me some of their sayings or proverbs?"
"We have no history because our fathers have written it on the sand and the wind has blown it away...God created the desert so that man could find his soul...there are several of them, Anaïs, and all are very impressive."
"Did you like the brunch?"
"A lot! I didn't think you were so good at cooking."
"I’m very glad that..."
She didn’t finish the sentence before Mark had glued his lips to hers and when he stopped, he began to kiss her eyes, then her hair and then her lips again.
He stood up, picked her up, took her gently in his arms and laid her on the bed. She decided to surrender to her desires again, despite the fact that her warning systems were all on alert.
His pale eyes, close to hers, started to cloud over and she watched as the fine lines of Mark’s face slowly relaxed, like his hands which would soon be slipping across her breast and then moving lower down, looking for soft geometries and delicate juices.
Time was suspended, craved and elusive, driven by the past, while the present brought them back to reality on two high speed, parallel tracks without switches.
Anaïs thought that their destiny was to be besieged by time and this calm moment, far from the real world, was only a brief concession to two people who lived life in the face of the storm, riding it bareback and chased by lightning. She could feel his breath on her skin, and his male scent overwhelmed her, while her fingers went up to tease his nipples, and then she explored them with her hardened and pointed tongue.
She looked at him; shortly, they were lost in an erotic and emotional whirlwind as their two wet bodies joined in a single breath, until she, first, would feel the height of excitement rise up within her, and that moment would be the prelude to the others, until he decided it was his moment.
Mark Savannah was a unique charac
ter, beyond the easy patterns of an absolutely CAVOK day, and for the first time Anaïs let her soul vibrate freely next to a man, leaving her naked and without defense, even though she was a sniper.
Tenderness was the last rational feeling that Anaïs felt before wincing with pleasure as he sank into her.
124
"Pavel will be awake now. I’ll try to contact him to arrange for a conference call so that he can update us on the status of the situation, and then it's time to make official presentations. Anaïs!" Mark said preparing some coffee.
"QRV?"
"QRV. Hello, Mark. I'm really curious to know..."
"Open the line for the call. We'll be busy for at least one hour; Anaïs Degann is with me. Do you have time now?"
"Of course, here's the invitation."
Mark opened the secure line dedicated to verbal communication from his tablet and introduced Anaïs to Pavel, after which he went straight to the point.
"I analyzed the two databases and the procedures that you downloaded, actually it includes all the supply chain data as well as the data of the clinical studies on the transplant patients. "Brainexe" is separate from "Transtem 1.1." The volume difference relates to the fact that the daily patient study data hasn’t been duplicated and is also not present in the second database.
“Instead, the procedures for the scaffold production were modified and a specific database, a kind of very small and rather rough therapeutic trial was created. They collected the reaction and behavior data of the patients to different stresses through trans-cranial magnetic stimulation, which interacts with neuronal activity and, consequently, is able to modulate and affect motor behavior and cognitive performance.
“The brain changes induced by this type of cerebral stress last beyond the stimulation period, and offer the possibility of manipulating brain activity with long term effects.
Black Hawk Day Rewind: An action packed spy thriller (Mark Savannah Espionage Series Book 1) Page 34