by Estes, Danny
When at last the pair exited the building, Jill emitted an audible sigh. “So that’s all there was to it? All I had to do was hand over those sheets of paper and all those involved would have been prosecuted?”
“In truth, no,” Randolph eyed her, deciding they deserved an expensive meal. “Had you done what I just did, it would have been swept into a drawer of I.O.U’s, then held till a day he needed them to save his butt or put someone higher-up under his thumb.”
“So you’re telling me we just used my men to gain us a reprieve on a miner infraction of the law?” Jill puffed herself up, preparing to make a scene in the middle of a public walkway—not a good thing considering they were still wanted.
But before Jill went ballistic, Randolph grabbed her arm, got into her face and hissed, “You know me better than that. Now drop the attitude and I’ll explain.” When it looked as if she had settled, Randolph enlightened Jill’s naiveté. “As you know, this is the information age—whoever holds the most information wins. Any and all transactions revolve around this one goal. Had you gone in with this information alone, nothing would have happened save when it benefited Mr. Sterling. However, I informed Mr. Sterling if he followed through on this matter I’d supply him with dirt on people he would like to have under his thumb.”
“But I didn’t hear you say that.”
“That’s because you’ve been trained to react to a situation without really listening, while I’ve learned the hard way information is the true gold of our age.”
Jill thought this over before asking, “So when will he act on my case?”
“Just as soon as I, uh, we make good on my promise.”
“And just how do we go about that?”
Randolph turned her into the Ah La Palette restaurant, and watched the entrance through reflected glass and mirrors, or any surface offering a reflection till they were seated where he could keep his eyes on it directly. “I’m in hopes Mr. Hilden’s files will have some tempting offerings. If not, all I need do is see who’s infringing on Senator Sterling’s holdings and acquire some leverage he can use.”
“I thought you only went after the guilty?” Jill whispered across the table.
“At his level no one’s an innocent, as you so eloquently pointed out, but so you understand, I have my own levels of innocent and those who surpass those levels will be targeted.” Randolph took note of their waiter approaching, and waved Jill silent to concentrate on the meal and the two men who walked in a minute after they’d arrived. He then took note of all other dinners, and made certain he and Jill enjoyed a full-rounded meal, taking two hours to see the change in faces, noting dinner selections and what drinks were served. This then identified the two men he was watching were not here for the ambiance of the establishment, and to his pleasant surprise, Jill informed him so.
“We’re being followed,” she announced softly as she dabbed a napkin to her lips.
“So you’ve noticed?”
“How could I not? They were so obvious when we walked out of the elevator in the Senator’s building. I was just wondering if you’d seen them and therefore chose this place for verifying they were indeed on our trail.”
“In point of fact, no. I choose this place because we deserved it.”
Jill took some surprise in this and giving Randolph a smile, her eyes softened and she said, “Thank you, the luncheon was quite spectacular. I’ve never been so treated in my life.”
“You’re quite welcome. Now, have you any ideas how to lose those two without going through the kitchen?”
“What, you’re trusting me?”
“Why not? You keep saying we’re partners. So, partner, how do we go about it, as I couldn’t have any of my surprises stashed on me to visit the senator.”
Jill smiled. “As I had an understanding why you made certain these clothes were reversible, why don’t you give me a few minutes in the ladies room before heading for the men’s?”
Randolph eyed Jill across the table, and crocked a finger, mouthing, “No one is to get hurt,” whereby she smiled, wiped her mouth, and announced she’d be just a moment. While Jill was in the ladies room, Randolph paid the bill in his brother’s establishment, regretting what the next few minutes was going to cost Mick. But as Randolph really had no choice if he and Jill were to lose their unwanted escorts, his brother would simply have to absorb the cost till Randolph could apologize properly later, after he cleared his name in those murders Mr. Hilden slandered his name with.
After leaving a considerable tip, Randolph left for the men’s room and entered a stall. After inverting pants, jacket, removing goatee and working in place a different-colored rug on his head, he waited for Jill’s distraction. When a loud explosion sounded in the ventilation vents, followed by alarms, Randolph walked out, took a hold of Jill’s arm, and hurried out like all the other panicked diners.
An hour later, while they changed clothes in a department store, Randolph had to ask, “And how did you manage that?”
“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten I’m trained in demolition. How hard do you think it is to make a bomb out of house hold items?”
“Okay, I’ll grant you that, but I know we hadn’t ordered anything which would cause that explosion.”
Jill smiled and leaned into his ear to whisper, “A man’s playground is not exclusively for men’s toys.” She kissed his cheek and pushed away to find Randolph a bit startled with that admission. She patted his face in affection and added, “Not everything fits nicely in a woman’s purse.” Jill became serious after this, and while Randolph looked over the latest video-cams for sale, she asked, “So who were those men?”
“Probably Senator Sterling’s. It would’ve served him well to have kept tabs on us, in-case turning us over was more advantageous then running us in the field.”
“And we trust him why?”
“I never said I trusted him. I said we can work with each other,” Randolph corrected, checking out a video-cam, and considered what it would take to adjust the resolution and zoom for the first step in taking down Mr. Hilden.
Chapter Nineteen
Two months later, after careful research into an apartment’s security system and available hard lines, Randolph set up four work stations, one counter measures station and two remotes, unplugged for diagnostic program checking, plus inexpensive amenities for the two of them while living in the apartment. Although this was not very comfortable for Randolph, Jill made a good point for not following his normal route of setting up shop, and it galled him to know she was right. Mr. Hilden knew Randolph’s MO, thus he was sure to have Mr. Stanton and company checking out warehouses throughout the city. Randolph also had to admit lying low, allowing Jill to do his errands, was also advisable so as not to come into contact with Mr. Hilden’s roaming people, who Randolph couldn’t possibly know were working for him. Besides, Randolph told himself, Jill’s face is still not associated with the killing of that sheriff; it will be my face paramount in all law officers’ posters and not hers.
When it came time to consider his specialty equipment, Randolph held a short, heated argument with himself. The smells of constructing, and the oddity of having such equipment arrive at an apartment building in the west side area of Harcuss—a college district in the city of Barbella, twenty miles from Willing—just screamed something wasn't kosher. Randolph had to leave this up to Jill to construct, from the plans he gave her as soon as he had her enrolled, at a small workshop the local college rented.
Dressed in tight-fitting, Tom boy-styled clothes of yellow and green, sporting no less than twelve bracelets on each arm and hoop ear rings, Jill’s softer side gave Randolph a playful embrace and a farewell kiss before bouncing out the door. She was absolutely bubbling over with pride that Randolph entrusted her to carry out this part of his plan; not that it mattered, he had no other choice. The equipment he needed would have to be custom made for the job, and Randolph never knew what was required till he’d done his homework. So while she bui
lt some basic tools he used in any job, Randolph surfed the hard line net, matching businesses to the county grid to understand who was where and what possible run-ins he might have on the electronic highway. Even though he had circumvented countless counter measures before, new programs were designed and implemented every day, and unless he attended to them, one could infiltrate Randolph’s own system. Which does happen, as I’m not infallible, he reminded himself. In fact, Jill returned later that day to find Randolph in a very black mood, staring down on a box full of hard drives with a worm on each he couldn’t trace down.
“Love, what’s the matter?” Jill asked, concerned, laying her burden down and wrapping her arms around his neck.
“We’ve a smart-alack kid in that college who I may have to deal with,” Randolph said in irritation. Jill glanced at the box of hard drives as Randolph elaborated. “As soon as I hit the node near the college, a program hit my inquiry and traced me back to my fire wall, where it’s sitting, and no matter what program I’ve designed to counter it, it leeches on to the new drive and embeds itself, and I’ve yet to discover how.”
Jill let go and picked up one of the drives. “Is it on this one?”
“It’s on all of them!” Randolph exclaimed in disgust.
“What does it do?”
“At present, I don’t know. Like normal when I hit an unknown, I pull it out and run programs to dissect it. After that, I can learn its purpose, but as soon as I hook it up to a clean drive, it invades the programming so I’ve no way of activating it.”
“Well, how’s about I make an inquiry or two at school? Perhaps I can find out what it does. You know they have an excellent computer theory class,” she reminded him.
If he’d been located in a warehouse, Randolph would have simply ordered boxes of drives and worked the problem out, but being forced to down size in all avenues by his choice in work environment, eyebrows would be lifted if he tried that here. So mulling over the advantages and disadvantages, Randolph reluctantly agreed, only he couldn’t have her take any of his drives; they had information on them he’d not like anybody to discover. So instead Randolph sent Jill out for a new laptop from the local store then took two days setting it up like any college kid’s drive before introducing it to the worm.
Jill gave Randolph a peck on the cheek after breakfast, then took her arm load of books and new laptop with her as Randolph worked on another possible theory on the worm’s programming. Hypothesizing the very flow of electricity as its catalyst, he took a palm computer with a lower voltage, reduced its usage even further so the CPU acted like a vacuum tube compared to today’s technology, then he hooked up the leads to his screen and connected it to an infested drive. What he saw rolling across the screen floored him. It wasn’t a program at all, but rather an algorithm which hadn’t been used in a hundred years! For a time, Randolph watched the peaks and valleys roll along, hitting every circuit, resister, and diode, anyplace the current flowed. To this revelation, Randolph stood and walked away to stare off into space, so he could puzzle over how to purge something embedded in the very thing that gives society life. This is far beyond me, he thought to himself as he put his hands a top his head. It’s the ultimate in security measures, and not built by some smart-alack kid, either. This is far too sophisticated for some college kid. No this is a corporate-financed worm, one designed to do…what?
Randolph took out a beer and settled on the couch, and nursed the drink, thinking.
That’s where Jill found him some hours later, when she triumphantly walked in declaring, “John, love, I’ve got it!” She displayed a chip before his up-turned face with the biggest smile on her lips. “I was told all I need do is insert this chip into my computer and the worm will be neutralized.”
Not liking the note in that, Randolph still gave Jill a smile when she handed him the chip.
After a quick examination, Randolph plugged the chip in a new clean drive and checked the programming out, and had to sit back in wonder at its genius. Jill’s arms encircled his neck, before she kissed his cheek. “Did I do good?”
Still looking at the registration code, asking for identification of the user, Randolph asked her, “Uh, when you asked about the problem, did they happen to look at you oddly?”
“Now that you mention it, I did get some raised eyebrows. Whys that important?”
Randolph disengaged her arms. “Jill, please don’t take this personal, but I need to speak to your other half. Now.” Her eyes turned sad, then they dilated and her posture changed slightly, letting Randolph know when she changed places.
“What’s up, sweetie?” Jill asked, her eyes sweeping the room.
“Jill, I need you to search your memories—did anyone follow you?” Randolph asked urgently.
Upon hearing his tone, Jill stood straighter, folded her arms, and looked inward. After a bit she looked squarely at him. “I can’t be sure, but they may have.”
“That’s it then. We’ve been nailed!” He jumped up, gathered the drives and shoved them into the oven, setting the dial to high. Jill asked no questions but headed briskly into the bedroom, gathering up clothes for the pair of them as Randolph activated a special chip in each computer that would melt them down into useless sludge. He then snatched up the few tools he’d been able to make, and wondered how long the pair of them had till the local police arrived. Not having had the time to acquire a proper DNA scrambler, Randolph pulled out a box of insect fumigator canisters and headed for the bathroom, tossing a mask to Jill in passing before he pulled the tabs. After dropping one in the bathroom, he open all drawers and cabinets and moved to the next room. In this manner, business like, the pair of them moved with practiced efficiency. After Randolph set off the last canister, he crawled into the kitchen cabinets after Jill, and down the escape hole he’d cut out into the lower apartment he’d rented under another name. Closing up the hole, Randolph followed Jill out the door and moved swiftly down the hall to the elevators. As Jill pushed for the elevator, Randolph gathered their masks and ditched them in a carry bag she held, before he combed his hair back, trying to look publicly presentable as they watched the elevator pass them by going up.
While they awaited the elevator to come down, the unmistakable sound of multiple feet moved swiftly down the hall overhead. Randolph grimaced, hating his paranoia when it was right. But for the moment he gave thanks and followed Jill on the elevator when it opened on their floor.
Randolph pushed the ground button. “They’ll have the lobby covered, as well as the stairs and service door.”
“Don’t forget the garage,” Jill added.
“That’s why you’re driving.” Randolph sighed as she fished out the keys and he took up the luggage. Even though Randolph knew Jill’s car had been tagged, it made little difference in their choice, for both of their DNA could be retrieved from the car’s interior. By necessity that made the car their next priority to scramble.
Randolph hit the passenger door as Jill piled in.
“Any preference on our heading?”
“Some place underground with lots of exits so I can trash the car,” Randolph replied, buckling up.
“Hmm, monorail station should do.” She activated the lifters before setting them in motion.
“And, Jill,” Randolph warned as she pick up speed, “try not to kill anybody, they’re just doing their jobs.”
“Okay, sweetie…” Jill smiled over at him before her face hardened.
Randolph knew that look. He grabbed the door handle when they neared the exit. Jill gunned the motor and crashed through the blockade, rammed a car on the street jarringly before she changed gears and hit the boosters. Pushed back into the seat, Randolph felt a momentary tingle in his feet from the fast-acting officer who got off an electrical pulse shot, meant to fry the motor. Fortunately it was a glancing blow.
Jill called out, “Hold on!” before turning sharply, slamming into another car to keep them from rolling over because of their momentum.
Shaken by the suddenness, she hit one more car before righting theirs and punched up the map of the city. Belatedly knowing what she sought, Randolph took over so she could keep hands and eyes on the street. With blaring sirens notifying them of oncoming police cars, Randolph cussed under his breath and dug out a police scanner from under the seat.
“You really aren’t used to this kind of business,” she observed, as he worked the controls to pick up the signals of the tracking cars.
Not sparing Jill a glare, Randolph answered, “Being around you, I’m taking a crash course.”
“Speaking of crashes, sweetie, hold on!” Jill made another hard turn, and purposely slammed into some parked cars to aid in making another tight corner going the wrong way down a one-way street. With a glance of Jill’s face as she dodged the oncoming traffic, Randolph could swear she was really enjoying this. As coded calls came over the scanner, Jill picked up, as he did, the interception street the police were shooting for to shut them down.
“Randolph,” Jill said seriously, “as they only have my face on video, why don’t you jump out and I’ll lead them a merry chase?”
“No dice. If you’re caught, they’ll have your picture match up in minutes. Then knowing who you are they’ll bury you so far under in maximum security, I wouldn’t be able to get a remote controlled ant in the building to see you.”
“They have things like that?” Jill asked, shifting into a higher gear.
“I’m being facetious,” Randolph told her. Jill let a smile touch her lips as they heard the next junction was being blockaded. “If you avoid this one, they’ll know we have a scanner,” Randolph warned.
“I’m quite aware of that, sweetie, but you told me not to kill anyone.”
“And that still holds.”