by Louise Penny
“But if it doesn’t exist how can it matter?” asked Nichol. “Old file, old company, old news.”
“Old sins have long shadows,” said Gamache. “And this is an old sin.”
“More fucking quotes,” mumbled Nichol under her breath. “What does it even mean?”
“It means, what started small three decades ago might have grown,” said the Chief, not looking at Agent Nichol, but reading her screen. “Into something…”
He looked at Nichol’s face, so flat, so repressed.
“… big,” he finally said. But the word that had actually come to mind was “monstrous.”
“We’ve found the shadow.” Gamache turned back to the screen. “Now it’s time to find the sin.”
“I still don’t understand,” she muttered, but Gamache suspected that wasn’t true. Agent Yvette Nichol knew a great deal about old sins. And long shadows.
“This’ll take a few minutes,” she said.
Gamache joined Superintendent Brunel, who was standing by the window looking at her husband, clearly longing to watch over his shoulder.
“How’s Jérôme doing?”
“Fine, I suppose,” she said. “I think tripping that alarm shook him. It came earlier than he expected. But he recovered.”
Gamache looked at the two people seated at their desks. It was almost seven thirty in the morning. Six hours since they’d begun.
He walked over to Jérôme. “Would you like to stretch your legs?”
Dr. Brunel didn’t answer at once. He stared at the screen, his eyes following a line of code.
“Merci, Armand. In a few minutes,” Jérôme said, his voice distant, distracted.
“Got it,” said Nichol. “Les Services Aqueduct,” she read, and Gamache and Thérèse leaned over her shoulder to look. “You were right. It’s an old company. Looks like it went bankrupt.”
“What did it do?”
“Engineering mostly, I think,” she said.
“Roads?” asked Thérèse, thinking of the alarm Jérôme had tripped. The road construction schedule.
There was a pause while Nichol searched some more. “No. Looks like it’s sewage systems, mostly in outlying areas. This was in the days when there was government money to clean up the waste dumped into rivers.”
“Treatment plants,” said Gamache.
“That sort of thing,” said Nichol, concentrating on the screen. “But see here,” she pointed to a report. “Change of government. Contracts dried up, and the company went under. End of story.”
“Wait,” said Jérôme sharply, from the next desk. “Stop what you’re doing.”
Gamache and Thérèse froze, as though their own movement would somehow betray them. Then Gamache stepped over to Jérôme.
“What is it?”
“They’re out looking,” he said. “Not just guarding the files, but now they’re looking for us.”
“Did we trip another alarm?” Thérèse asked.
“Not that I know of,” said Jérôme, and glanced over at Nichol, who checked her equipment and shook her head.
Dr. Brunel turned back to his monitor and stared. His pudgy hands were raised over his keyboard, ready to leap into action if need be. “They’re using a new program, one I haven’t seen before.”
No one moved.
Gamache stared at the screen and half expected to see a specter crawl out from the corner of the monitor. Picking up pieces of text, files, documents, and looking beneath. For them.
He held his breath, not daring to move. In case. He knew it was irrational, but he didn’t want to risk it.
“They won’t find us,” said Nichol, and Gamache admired her bravado. She’d spoken in a whisper and Gamache was glad of it. Bravado was one thing, but silence and stillness were the first rules of hiding. And he was under no illusions. That’s what they were doing.
Gilles seemed to sense it too. He tipped his chair forward quietly and put his feet on the ground, but stayed where he was, guarding the door, as though their pursuers would come through there.
“Do they know we’ve hacked them?” asked Thérèse.
Jérôme didn’t answer her.
“Jérôme,” Thérèse repeated. She too had lowered her voice to an urgent hiss. “Answer me.”
“I’m sure they’ve seen our signature.”
“What does that mean?” asked Gamache.
“It means they probably know something’s up,” said Nichol. “The encryption will hold.” But for the first time she sounded unsure, like she was talking to herself. Convincing herself.
And now Gamache understood. The hunter and his hounds were sniffing around. They’d picked up a scent, and now were trying to decide what they’d found. If anything.
“Whoever’s on the other end isn’t some hack,” said Jérôme. “This isn’t some impatient kid, this’s a seasoned investigator.”
“What do we do now?” asked Thérèse Brunel.
“Well, we can’t just sit here,” said Jérôme. He turned to Nichol. “Do you really think your encryption is hiding us?”
She opened her mouth but he cut her off. He’d had too much experience with arrogant young residents during grand rounds at the hospital not to recognize someone who would rather eat a juicy lie than an unpalatable truth.
“For real,” he cautioned, and held her pasty gaze.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But we might as well believe it.”
Jérôme laughed and got up. He turned to his wife. “Then the answer to your question is that the encryption held and we’re just fine.”
“She didn’t say that,” said Thérèse, following him to the coffeepot on the woodstove.
“No,” he admitted, pouring himself a cup. “But she’s right. We might as well believe it. It changes nothing. And for what it’s worth, I think they haven’t a clue what we’re about, even if they know we’re here. We’re safe.”
*
Gamache stood behind Nichol’s chair. “You must be tired. Why don’t you take a break too? Splash some water on your face.”
When she didn’t respond, he looked at her more closely.
Her eyes were wide.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Oh, merde,” she said under her breath. “Oh, merde.”
“What?” Gamache looked at the monitor. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS filled the screen.
“They found us.”
THIRTY-FIVE
“I found something,” Chief Inspector Lambert said into the phone. “Better come down.”
Chief Superintendent Francoeur and Inspector Tessier arrived within minutes. Agents were crowded around Lambert’s monitor, watching, though they scattered when they saw who’d entered the room.
“Leave,” said Tessier, and they did. He closed the door and stood in front of it.
Charpentier was at another terminal in the office, his back to his boss, typing at lightning speed.
Francoeur leaned over Chief Inspector Lambert.
“Show me.”
*
“Jérôme!” Thérèse Brunel called, and joined Chief Inspector Gamache and Nichol.
“Show me,” said Gamache.
“When I brought up the old Aqueduct file, I must’ve set off an alarm,” said Nichol, her face white.
Jérôme arrived and scanned the monitor, then he reached in front of her.
“Hurry up,” he said, swiftly typing in a few short commands. “Get out of that file.” The error message disappeared.
“You didn’t just set off an alarm, you stepped on a landmine. Jesus.”
“Maybe they didn’t see the message,” said Nichol slowly, watching the screen.
They waited, and waited, staring at the static screen. Despite himself, Gamache realized he was looking for some being to actually appear. A shadow, a form.
“We have to go back into the Aqueduct file,” he said.
“You’re insane,” said Jérôme. “That’s where the alarm was tripped. It’s the one place we need
to avoid.”
Gamache pulled a chair over and sat close to the elderly doctor. He looked him in the eyes.
“I know. That’s why we need to go back. Whatever they’re trying to hide is in that file.”
Jérôme opened his mouth, then closed it again. Trying to marshal a rational argument against the inconceivable. To knowingly walk back into a trap.
“I’m sorry, Jérôme, but it’s what we’ve been looking for. Their vulnerability. And we found it in Aqueduct. It’s in there somewhere.”
“But it’s a thirty-year-old document,” said Thérèse. “A company that doesn’t even exist anymore. What could possibly be in there?”
All four of them stared at the screen. The cursor pulsed there, like a heartbeat. Like something alive. And waiting.
Then Jérôme Brunel leaned forward and started typing.
*
“Aqueduct?” said Francoeur, stepping back as though slapped. “Erase the files.”
Chief Inspector Lambert looked at him, but one glance at the Chief Superintendent’s face was enough. She started erasing.
“Who is it?” Francoeur asked. “Do you know?”
“Look, I can either erase the files or chase the intruder, but I can’t do both,” said Lambert, her fingers flying over the keys.
“I’ll take the intruder,” said Charpentier, from across the office.
“Do it,” said Francoeur. “We need to know.”
“It’s Gamache,” said Tessier. “Has to be.”
“Chief Inspector Gamache can’t do this,” said Lambert as she worked. “Like all senior officers, he knows computers, but he’s not an expert. This isn’t him.”
“Besides,” said Tessier, watching the activity. “He’s in some village in the Townships. No Internet.”
“Whoever this is has high-speed and huge bandwidth.”
“Christ.” Francoeur turned to Tessier. “Gamache was a decoy.”
“So who is it?” asked Tessier.
*
“Shit,” said Nichol. “The files are being erased.”
She looked at Jérôme, who looked at Thérèse, who looked at Gamache.
“We need those files,” said Gamache. “Get them.”
“He’ll find us,” said Jérôme.
“He’s found us already,” said Gamache. “Get them.”
“She,” said Nichol, also reacting swiftly. “I know who that is. It’s Chief Inspector Lambert. Has to be.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Thérèse.
“Because she’s the best. She trained me.”
“The whole entry’s disappearing, Armand,” said Jérôme. “You lead them away.”
“Right,” said Nichol. “The encryption’s holding. I can see she’s confused. No, wait. Something’s changed. This isn’t Lambert anymore. It’s someone else. They’ve split up.”
Gamache moved to Jérôme.
“Can you save some files?”
“Maybe, but I don’t know which ones are important.”
Gamache thought for a moment, his hand clutching the back of Jérôme’s wooden chair.
“Forget the files. It all started with Aqueduct thirty years ago or more. Somehow Arnot was involved. The company went under, but maybe it didn’t disappear. Maybe it just changed its name.”
Jérôme looked up at him. “If I leave, there’s no saving Aqueduct. They’ll dismantle it all until there’s no trace.”
“Go. Get out. Find out what became of Aqueduct.”
*
“They’re trying to save the files,” said Lambert. “They know what we’re doing.”
“This isn’t some outside hacker,” said Francoeur.
“I don’t know who it is,” said Lambert. “Charpentier?”
There was a pause before Charpentier spoke. “I can’t tell. It’s not registering properly. It’s like a ghost.”
“Stop saying that,” said Francoeur. “It’s not a ghost, it’s a person at a terminal somewhere.”
The Chief Superintendent took Tessier aside.
“I want you to find out who’s doing this.” He’d dropped his voice, but the words and ferocity were clear. “Find out where they are. If not Gamache, then who? Find them, stop them, and erase the evidence.”
Tessier left, in no doubt about what Francoeur had just ordered him to do.
*
“You OK?” Gamache asked Nichol.
Her face was strained, but she gave him a curt nod. For twenty minutes she’d led the hunter astray, dropping one false trail after another.
Gamache watched her for a moment, then returned to the other desk.
Aqueduct had gone bankrupt, but as so often happened, it was reborn under another name. One company morphed into another. From sewers and waterways, to roads, to construction materials.
The Chief Inspector took a seat and continued to read the screen, trying to figure out why the Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté was desperate to keep these files secret. So far they seemed not simply benign, but dull. All about construction materials, and soil samples, and rebar and stress tests.
And then he had an idea. A suspicion.
“Can you go back to where we tripped the first alarm?”
“But that’s nothing to do with this company,” Jérôme explained. “It was a schedule of repairs on Autoroute 20.”
But Gamache was staring at the screen, waiting for Dr. Brunel to comply. And he did. Or tried to.
“It’s gone, Armand. Not there anymore.”
“I have to get out, sir,” said Nichol, rattled into courtesy. “I’ve stayed too long. They’ll find me soon.”
*
“Almost there,” Charpentier reported. “Another few seconds. Come on, come on.” His fingers flew over the keys. “I’ve got you, you little shit.”
“Ninety percent of the files are destroyed,” said Lambert from across her office. “Not many places he can go. Do you have him?”
There was silence, except for the rapid clicking of keys.
“Do you have him, Charpentier?”
“Fuck.”
The clicking stopped. Lambert had her answer.
*
“I’m out,” said Nichol, and sat back in her chair for the first time in hours. “That was too close. They almost got me.”
“Are you sure they didn’t?” asked Jérôme.
Nichol lugged herself forward and hit a few keys, then took a deep breath. “No. Just missed. Christ.”
Dr. Brunel looked from his wife to Gamache to Nichol. Then back to Thérèse.
“Now what?”
*
“Now what?” Charpentier asked. He was pissed off. He hated being bested, and whoever was on the other end had done just that.
It’d been close. So close that for an instant Charpentier had thought he had him. But at the last moment, poof. Gone.
“Now we call in the others and look again,” said Chief Inspector Lambert.
“You think he’s still in the system?”
“He didn’t get what he came for.” She turned back to her monitor. “So yes, I think he’s still there.”
Charpentier got up to go into the main room. To tell the other agents, all specialists in cyber searches, to go back in. To find the person who’d hacked into their own system. Who’d violated their home.
As he closed the door, he wondered how Inspector Lambert knew what the intruder was looking for. And he wondered what could be so important to the intruder that he’d risk everything to find it.
*
“Now we take a break,” said Gamache, getting up. His muscles were sore and he realized he’d been tensing them for hours.
“But they’ll be searching for us even harder now,” said Nichol.
“Let them. You need a break. Go for a walk, clear your head.”
Both Nichol and Jérôme looked unconvinced. Gamache glanced at Gilles, then back at them.
“You’re forcing me to do something I don’t want to do. Gilles here teaches yoga
in his spare time. If you’re not up and headed for the door in thirty seconds, I’ll order you to take a class from him. His downward dog is spectacular, I hear.”
Gilles stood up, stretched, and walked forward.
“I could use some chakra work,” he admitted.
Jérôme and Nichol got up and made for their parkas and the door. Gilles joined Gamache by the woodstove.
“Thanks for playing along,” the Chief said.
“What ‘playing along’? I actually teach a yoga class. Want to see?”
Gilles stood on one foot and slowly moved his other leg around, lifting his arms.
Gamache raised his brows and approached Thérèse, who was also watching.
“I’m waiting for the downward dog,” she confided as she put on her coat. “You coming?”
“No. I’d like to read some more.”
Superintendent Brunel followed his gaze to the terminals.
“Be careful, Armand.”
He smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll try not to spill coffee into it. I just want to go back over some of what Jérôme found.”
She left, taking Henri with her, while Gamache pulled his chair up to the computer and started reading. Ten minutes later Gamache felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Jérôme.
“Can I get in?”
“You’re back.”
“We’ve been back for a few minutes, but didn’t want to disturb you. Find anything?”
“Why did they erase that file, Jérôme? Not Aqueduct, though that’s an interesting question too. But the first one you found. The construction schedule on the highway. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe they’re just erasing everything we looked at,” suggested Nichol.
“Why would they take the time to do that?” asked Thérèse.
Nichol shrugged. “Dunno.”
“You need to go back in,” Jérôme said to Nichol. “How close did they get to you? Did they get your address?”
“The school in Baie-des-Chaleurs?” Nichol asked. “I don’t think so, but I should change it anyway. There’s a zoo in Granby with a big archive. I’ll use that.”
“Bon,” said the Chief Inspector. “Ready?”
“Ready,” said Jérôme.
Nichol turned her attention to her terminal, and Gamache turned to Superintendent Brunel.