by Hammond, Ray
‘You’ll be late for work,’ she murmured.
He pushed himself away on one elbow.
‘Christ, look at the bloody time!’
He leaped out of Haley’s bed and headed for the bathroom. She snuggled back down into the warmth of the duvet, where he had been lying. She felt drowsy and she wanted to enjoy the feeling of the gentle warmth that was washing up and over her. This was one of the few good things about working from home. She didn’t have to face the Stygian Northern Line in the mornings: it was the last remaining route without air-conditioned business-class carriages and the London summers had been getting steadily warmer for most of her life.
*
‘Naturally, we can’t know what it is we don’t know,’ pointed out the desiccated mathematician redundantly. ‘But I, for one, do not believe that the Tye Corporation could be breaking deeply encrypted messages from the networks without having achieved some sort of major breakthrough. It would have to be a massive leap forward in computer processing power, perhaps an improvement by a factor of several thousand, or some completely new form of mathematics – something I am wholly unable to guess at.’
They had been talking for over seven hours with only one or two breaks for their physical comfort. Food had been brought in and cleared away again and more brought in and cleared. Chelouche and the WHO scientist had made their excuses and left. Parts of the session had been agonizingly technical as Mathison had demonstrated the mathematical impossibility of deciphering encrypted communications in the absence of a manufacturing key.
Jack felt hard stubble as he rubbed his chin.
‘What first made you think that Thomas Tye, or the company, had started hacking into encrypted comms?’ he asked Deakin.
‘It was the World Patent Organization,’ explained the intelligence officer. He had first taken off his jacket, then his waistcoat and he now pulled at his tie before opening the collar of his white shirt. Ron was always well turned out, even in the field.
‘You know that the WPO is another UN body?’
Jack didn’t. He had never really thought about the UN – like most people, he guessed. While business had become a global affair these days, the majority of people were concerned only about domestic issues and local politics. Despite the ease and convenience of electronic home-voting, it was as if the masses had collectively given up trying to understand or influence world issues. He shrugged a negative.
‘Nine or ten years ago things were a real mess. You had to file patents in different countries with different authorities. There were over one hundred different jurisdictions. Some of them followed one procedure, others another. Some authorities considered that filing first was the most important thing, some thought that inventing first – and being able to prove it – was all that mattered. We, the Americans, believed in inventing first but we were in a minority. The arguments kept the lawyers rich for years. Anyhow, the UN eventually realized that such intellectual property was going to be the equivalent of gold in the future and they stepped in. The WPO was established as a single, global patent office and it was agreed that filing for a patent first should be the key to awarding the patent. Our American methods were overruled. For the sake of global harmonization.’
Deakin ended his short history lesson on a note of sarcasm. He lifted his hand and ran it through his thinning hair. Then he sat back and hooked an arm over the back of his chair.
‘So now we have a first-past-the-post system. No good sitting in your backyard inventing cold fusion on your own, you’ve got to get your papers in as soon as you can prove you’ve got something unique, something that hasn’t been thought of before. It’s irrelevant when something was actually invented. There’s no such thing as the concept of prior art any more. The change was supposed to settle things for good, but it didn’t. The result is a lot of nerds and academics going to civil courts, squabbling over who thought of what first and who stole whose ideas. You can imagine.’
Jack could indeed imagine. Although he had done well during his years at Columbus, he had been appalled at the pettiness of academic life and its schoolyard characteristics. His tutor had urged him to become a postgraduate student but as soon as Jack had finished his degree in physics he had opted for a life of unequivocal reality in the US Navy – not least because the starting salary would ease things for his mother back home. Mathison’s attitude of aloof self-importance reminded him how little he liked academics.
‘So the WPO started a database of complaints and complainants. Every time someone made a complaint or sued a patent holder for IP theft, those details went into the files. After a couple of years they had enough data to go mining and guess what they found? Half a dozen companies that systematically challenged patents and developed bogus proof of their own development projects to show to the courts. Reverse-engineering specialists, all of them! These claim jumpers always accepted a pay-off before their case came before the international court. It was very lucrative but after the WPO published its evidence, the claim jumpers went away as quickly as they had arrived.
‘Then, about two years ago, they noticed a new trend. The Tye Corporation would file a patent and almost instantly another company or an academic institution would claim they had already invented the same damn thing and had been about to file for it themselves. Only this time, the plaintiffs were really respectable people – huge pharmaceutical companies, the world’s best universities, you know.’
Jack did know. He knew that almost half the flights between Hope Island and the USA were shuttling patent attorneys to and from meetings – another breed he didn’t like. He realized he was feeling irritable because he was tired. He also wanted a drink.
*
Few regions of the planet remained completely uninhabited or unobserved by humankind. Even the remote polar regions now hosted scientific research stations, while surveillance satellites continuously criss-crossed the hot arid wastelands of the equatorial wildernesses. Even the giant telescopes orbiting the moon and Mars were sometimes re-tasked to look back towards their point of origin.
For these reasons, it was agreed that the Tye Corporation’s new Russian allies would be party to one of the few concentrated-power tests that would be risked prior to the launch of commercial services. Afterwards there should never be a need for such tests to be repeated. But Tye Corp had to discover if their calculations were right – and the Russians controlled swathes of remote, unobserved territory.
As it turned out, the Russian Federation naval frigate dispatched to play sea-level observer and policeman at Ostrov Vrangelya – a small archipelago in the Chukchi Sea – found only one Japanese whaler to harry and dispatch. It was chased away to the south and ordered to stay clear of ‘forthcoming naval exercises’ as the crew of the Boris Dolokhov settled down to wait and watch in the Arctic cold at the edge of the paleocrystic polar ice cap.
The celestial event began, as scheduled, at eleven p.m. eastern-Siberian time and the sailors stared in awe as twelve miniature new suns appeared high above their heads in the dark blue northern skies. They could see the focus of the light beams on the nunatak five miles to the west and, relying on his superiors’ assurances that there was no danger to adjacent areas, the captain edged his craft nearer to the patch of intense illumination to assist in the capture of film and video images and the taking of measurements. They moved through the ice floes with only just enough speed to maintain their heading and after three hours they were within a mile of the ice-shore.
The captain ordered the engines to be disengaged and, in the near-silence, they heard loud reports as the ice at the edge of the island cracked. They could see huge lumps of ice breaking off from the almost vertical cliffs and falling into the sea. Then the sailors on deck felt the heat and some started to strip off their waterproofs and sweaters, even though they were still some distance from the light.
On the bridge, the captain heard the crackle of a walkie-talkie radio behind him.
‘Sir,’ began the very young firs
t lieutenant. ‘Forward lookout reports the sea is boiling.’
Then they saw steam.
*
Jan Amethier leaned forward. He had been quiet, chewing the end of a ballpoint pen during most of Mathison’s maths talk and Deakin’s background briefing on the patent disputes.
‘Finally the World Patent Office realized that other companies in which Tye was involved were attracting patent-filing complaints,’ the UNISA director added. ‘And these complaints also came from reputable organizations. All of them had meticulous evidence of their own development procedures and sworn statements from highly respected researchers. One of them in particular attracted attention: it was the patent for the solar-powered fuel cell that the Tye Corporation has sold all around the world. Then the WPO came to us – well, to the UN Secretariat, who then came to us.’
Jack nodded. ‘But what made you suspect they were breaking crypto? It could be straightforward commercial spying. That’s much more likely and I don’t think Tom would hesitate. There’s a whole industry of ex-spooks doing it – searching for keywords and voiceprints on the networks, using software agents to scan the airwaves, renting submarines to tap undersea cables. Hell, you can even lease your own time on NASA’s spy satellites! And Tom doesn’t need any of that – he already owns half the networks!’
‘That’s what we did think at first,’ agreed Amethier. ‘It seemed logical but everybody knows what goes on and everybody encrypts anything that’s sensitive these days. Then the WPO reported that patent filings from the Tye Corporation and Tye’s other companies were increasing rapidly and, as before, they were attracting what looked like legitimate complaints. It seemed to go way beyond anything that could be done by normal commercial theft. That’s when I threw the file over to Ron.’
‘As you know, I already had the Tye Corporation in my ongoing-observation portfolio,’ confirmed Deakin. ‘We keep tabs on all the powerful corporates and their executives. I’m sure you can understand why. It’s the people versus the corporations these days and we end up as the cops – it’s something the lawyers call parens patriæ – the UN has a duty to protect the people. At any rate, the director dropped it in my lap and I followed developments for a few months. I went to talk to some of the companies who had complained that their work had been stolen. Several of them said they’d had an approach from Tye’s people either to take their company over or with an eye to investing in them, before either party had filed a patent – you know, the Tye Corporation’s old tricks. They’d pretend to be interested in buying a company, Tye would stroke the young founders personally, get them to show all their intellectual property and then back out of the deal only to produce his own version a few months later. But these companies hadn’t publicized their developments.
‘Then I started to wonder if he was somehow getting inside electronic communications – as you say, the Tye Corporation owns what, forty, fifty per cent of the world’s networks? So that’s when I decided to develop something that we could go fishing with, something that couldn’t be got any other way than by intercepting communications. So I pulled the WHO on side and their people did the rest. Bingo! He files for a patent on a therapy based on genes that don’t do anything. They were in such a rush to file the patent first that they didn’t take the time to isolate the gene string to check whether or not Pfizer-LaRoche’s research results were right. They took things on trust just because the patent filing came from a famous and well-established research lab.’
Deakin stood and reached for another coffee flask, the tenth they had gone through during the meeting. More of a pre-operation briefing, thought Jack as he waited for the right opportunity to add something to their knowledge, something that had been burning inside him all day – the information that had prompted him to seek out Haley Voss, to finally consider consulting a lawyer and, perhaps, his old contacts in the American intelligence community.
‘So we want your help, Commander,’ said Amethier finally. ‘I realize that all this is only circumstantial. Perhaps Tye and his company have found a way of deciphering encrypted communications, perhaps not. Perhaps it is just a massive commercial spying operation. As Doctor Chelouche told us earlier, things are very delicate. If Tye has found a way to break into the world’s encryption system he could cripple any competitor he wants to. And he can read all our communications, Jack.’
‘He could then trawl through our entire knowledge base,’ added Deakin. ‘He could find out everything the various security services keep to themselves. Hell, he could even find out who really killed JFK!’
‘Who did?’ asked Jack.
Amethier brushed this deviation aside. ‘More importantly, he can find out what the governments of the world are planning. He could even engineer a complete collapse in the global economy deliberately!’
The UNISA director fell silent as his own vocalization made such an improbable threat seem more real.
‘You know what that would lead to,’ he then continued in a lowered voice. ‘We’d slip back a hundred years. Wars would break out all over the world. We might even have world war again.’
Amethier paused and then brought himself back from fanciful concepts. ‘At the very minimum, we’d have to alert every military force in the world that their security is compromised. The governments, security forces, the police, the banks . . .’ He tailed off.
Jack scratched at his stubble again. He realized how deeply concerned they were. ‘You want me to set him up for you? No, get someone else. You know that’s not my thing–’
Deakin snorted. ‘Jesus, Jack! Of course not. All of the irreversible options are out of the question in this case. Quite the opposite: we need you to keep him safer than ever! If Tye were to die suddenly that alone could bring the world markets down – even if it happened through natural causes. That’s part of the problem. His power is so great that things are very precarious. We’ve got to handle this as carefully as . . .’ he searched for an analogy that would resonate with his former pupil ‘. . . a covert agent-extraction. We need to gather hard evidence about whether Tye has found a way to unscramble communications. We’ve got to be sure before we do anything. We’ve also got to start a campaign to change public opinion about this man and his corporation. Tye’s got a huge approval rating at the moment. We’ve had market research firms checking by electronic poll every week and the people of the world love him. Schoolkids chant “Take Care of Our Planet” and their buddies answer “We hear!” There’s no way we could get him near a court as things are. It will take us a while to change that attitude. We thought Miss Voss could be useful there – with her book. Any idea who’s sending her the inside stuff?’
Jack shrugged. ‘Could be anybody. There are thousands of people with reasons to hate Thomas Tye. We’ve already got files on most of them.’
Deakin nodded. He didn’t doubt that. ‘I think we can persuade a publisher to go ahead with her biography,’ he stated. ‘You feed her the right stuff and that might start the process of changing how people think about him. Then we’ll have to gather enough evidence to get Tye, or the Tye Corporation, into the international court at The Hague. It might take a few years, but it has to be done.’
‘You haven’t said anything about Tye Aerospace,’ said Jack.
Amethier looked up sharply. ‘What about it?’
‘Did you know President Orlov has just visited Hope?’
‘Sure. Air traffic coordination,’ Deakin grunted. ‘UN ATM handed President Orlov’s plane on to Hope Island airspace.’
Jack nodded. Of course. ‘Did you know Anton Vlasik was in the party?’
‘We did not!’ snapped Amethier. ‘I thought he was safely in prison. What the hell’s that thieving bastard cooking up with Tye?’
‘Well, they were visiting for a demonstration of a surprising new technology. During this vacation I was intending to see a lawyer about how to proceed. I didn’t know whether I could do anything, what I should do, knowing Vlasik’s record . . .’
He ta
iled off, aware how far-fetched his claims might sound. Jack didn’t yet know how the technology worked, but he had seen the elaborate preparations. He had been at the Science Academy in Moscow two years earlier when Tom had first met the Russian leadership and started his negotiations. He had watched as ships arrived carrying the components for the giant satellites and their incredible extensions. He had watched hundreds of shuttle launches from Cape Hope. Damn, he had even met some of the all-female crews who were running the construction projects on the orbiting space stations. And, of course, he had seen that dazzling demonstration.
‘I have very few firm details, but the Tye Corporation is going to sell sunshine,’ he said simply. ‘To the highest bidders.’
Chapter Eight
Calypso helped the limping athlete out to join his mother in the waiting area. He was twelve years old and he felt he no longer needed his mom’s presence in the consulting room when he saw the doctor. Calypso winked at her over the top of the boy’s head, resisting the temptation to ruffle his bright ginger hair.
‘Nothing cracked or broken, Sonia,’ she smiled. ‘I’ve bound it up tight. Make sure he rests the ankle for a couple of weeks and . . .’ she turned to her patient and wagged her finger ‘. . . no more soccer for a month.’
Sonia, wife of a senior vice-president of marketing in Consumer Electronics, put her arm round her son’s shoulders and smiled her thanks. Calypso held the surgery door open for them and they eased their way down the short path to their Volante.
‘Come and see me again, Gary,’ she called. ‘But don’t make it too soon.’
The boy waved as he carefully lowered himself into the vehicle, holding his bandaged left leg stiff and proud in front of him, like a minor war wound. Calypso allowed the veranda door to bang shut on the outside heat and she checked the time on her LifeWatch. She had finished her appointments early. Apart from being available for Tommy on a twenty-four-hour basis, this weekly surgery for the children of the Hope Island community was her only prescribed duty.