When The Chips Are Down

by Aiden Vaughan

  * * * * *

  Jaime Orlando’s coverage of the troubles at the Camp Chinquapin boot camp and the daring escape of Timothy and Cody was a media sensation. Jaime’s exclusive confrontation with Roland Thomason, the footage of the actual secret prison, and the story line from the text messages and phone calls he received from Jason gave KHHT news huge ratings. The story was quickly picked up by the other networks and by that evening made the national news.

  Ruth Fiorre told Jason if he wanted the story to have a high profile and get maximum coverage to split up the interviews. So Saturday was the day that Jason and Daniel had agreed to be interviewed by Jaime. Jason agreed to do the interview, but only if they did it at the hospital where Tim and Cody could observe how it went. That way they would see how the process worked and what it would be like for them on the next day. Jason and Daniel’s story was a compelling one. They were careful not to use Joe’s, Martin’s or Dominic’s name during the interview. Their descriptions of how they became involved, searched for and discovered the secret compound where Tim and Cody were being held prisoner, and how they made their escape made for a great interview.

  * * * * *

  The improvement in Tim and Cody’s condition was remarkable on Saturday. Their bodies still had a lot of healing to do, but their demeanors had changed. Instead of fear and worry, they both began to show more confidence and optimism, now that they were free from the camp. Things were further improved the first thing in the morning when Jason brought over Laura to meet Cody and Tim. She went with Jason to purchase new clothes for both of them after talking with them about their sizes and what they wanted. Cody and Tim were delighted to have something to wear that wasn’t a camp uniform.

  Tim was especially pumped up later in the day when Jason brought Teresa Barnwell over. They held each other in an embrace for a very long time, hugged and kissed each other, and had tears in their eyes. They then held hands nearly the entire time that Teresa visited. “I don’t want to ever let you go again!” Tim said.

  “You are right to say that,” Jason said. “Of all the people you need to thank for your rescue, Teresa was the most important. She believed in you when no one else would, and she went to bat for you when she interpreted from your letters that you were being abused. I never would have gotten involved in your rescue if Teresa hadn’t convinced me that something very wrong was going on at the camp!”

  Later Jason had a private talk with Cody. “Is there anyone from your family that you would like me to contact for you, or ask to come visit? It must be tough for you not to have anyone here to visit you.”

  “Thank you for thinking of me, Jason. My family life is an unbelievable soap opera. Some time I’ll tell you the whole story. I am used to being pretty much on my own. I just got tired of all the family infighting, divorces, and power struggles for control of the money. Little did I know that my half brother would screw me over so badly when he somehow got custody of me. I guess the only family I trust are my grandparents on my mother’s side. They are the only ones in the family who weren’t interested in the money struggles. Just like me, they have spent most of their lives living right on the coast in the Malibu area. I would really like to see them, but they are getting old, and my grandfather hasn’t been well lately.”

  “Let me see what I can do, Cody. I am sure that they would like to visit you, especially now after your ordeal. Do you know their address or telephone number?”

  * * * * *

  Sunday, Dr. Messina cleared both Cody and Timothy to give their interviews to Jaime Orlando. “You are both recovering nicely from your wounds. You both still have a long way to go to be completely healed, but there is no physical reason that you can’t talk to the media if you so desire.”

  The interview that Cody and Timothy had with Jaime Orlando was riveting. Both boys turned out to have a natural stage presence in front of a camera. They told their stories with such conviction and passion that even Jaime had to wipe away a tear at one point.

  The coverage of the rescue continued to be big news throughout the weekend. Jason worked with Ruth Fiorre to coordinate the release of the story to the media. Jaime’s exclusive coverage got him the number one spot on all of the KHHT newscasts throughout the weekend. By Saturday afternoon, Child Protective Services had decided to close down Camp Chinquapin for good. All the camp inmates stayed there for now, while a determination was made on whether they should be released to their parents or guardians or placed in the care of the state. And in Sacramento, at least one politician was already proposing new regulations and oversight for similar types of camps.

  After Cody finished his interview with Jaime, Jason came up to him and said, “Come with me, Cody. There’s someone who would like to see you.”

  When they got back to Cody’s room, his grandmother was there. The Whatever Foundation had purchased an e-ticket for her on a commuter airline so that she could come up for part of the day. She could only stay for a few hours due to the condition of Cody’s grandfather, but that was enough. At last Cody was reconnected with some family who loved him. Cody was all smiles as he gave her a huge hug, then sat with her and got caught up on what they had been doing. At the end of their visit, she told Cody, “When you are recovered from your injuries and released from the hospital, I want you to come to Malibu and stay with us as long as you like. I know you want to be close to the beach again and we would love to have you live with us.”

  “Grandmother, that’s the best offer I have heard in a long time! I can’t wait to go back there. The beach is my home.”

  Chapter 25

  The Chips Fall Into Place

  (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday Morning)

  Although the main thing occupying Jason’s attention over the weekend was the boot camp rescue and the recovery process for Timothy and Cody, there were other things that demanded his attention. Friday morning, an overnight package had been delivered at Jason’s house from Paul Schwartz, the man in Boston who was testing the DCC chips. With all of the incredible activities of Friday, the package was overlooked in the commotion until late Saturday afternoon, when Bill Hunter remembered the package. Jason had spent most of the day at the hospital so he didn’t have any time to even open it until Saturday evening.

  The report from Paul Schwartz was a bombshell. He had thoroughly tested the chips in several different computers and with different software applications. In all of the tests, the same problem kept recurring. Paul said in his report that the chips were very fast and good on the surface, but were fatally flawed in one important area. The floating point unit portion of the chip, the part that handled multiple decimal point calculations of different sizes did not compute correctly. It was not something you might not notice immediately, but it could affect the results of critical data in common software applications like spreadsheets, financial analysis programs, dots per inch computations in graphics, and scientific and engineering calculations. Without the ability to make totally reliable calculations the chips were fatally flawed and thus worthless. Paul concluded his report by saying that it was very hard to believe that someone within the DCC chip company didn’t know about this prior to the product release.

  Jason immediately got on the telephone and called Joe Connor. He had wanted to touch bases with Joe regarding the boot camp case, but now he wanted to get Joe’s take on this new development in the DCC chip case.

  Joe was still at his cabin near Yosemite, but was planning to return to the Silicon Valley on Sunday. “Things are heating up here in regards to the boot camp. It is being shut down, and the Child Protective Services agency has taken over its management. Now they and the sheriff’s department are trying to figure out what to do about all of the kids placed in the camp. The agency is thinking that a lot of the parents or guardians who signed their kids up for Camp Chinquapin might not be suitable custodians, given what went on in the camp. This is causing an uproar, especially among the parents. Each case has to be evaluated on an individual basis, which means that
the parents have to come up to Camp Chinquapin and have a hearing with the agency and their son or daughter who was sent to the camp. In many of the cases, it is like the shoe is on the other foot. Now the kids are allowed to give input on whether or not they want to return home! Of course their other choice could be placement in the foster care system. Hopefully, most of them have another relative who could take them in if they are totally estranged from their legal parents or guardians.”

  “I guess we opened up a giant sized can of worms,” Jason replied.

  “Not only that, but there is some pressure heating up regarding the whole escape plan that you completed. People are wondering how two teenagers could pull off such a sophisticated operation. I have a feeling that you are about to receive a visit from the Mariposa County Sheriff!”

  “Daniel and I gave our interview with Jaime Orlando, the reporter I have been working with today. We were very careful to keep your name, and that of Martin and Dominic out of the story. We just vaguely mentioned that we did have some outside help.”

  “Well, thank you for that, Jason. That is our agreement! That’s why I am leaving here tomorrow, in case they discover that you two were staying with me at the cabin. As long as we are not in Mariposa County, I don’t think that they have any jurisdiction over us. Given what happened at the camp, I hardly think that they will try to prosecute for trespassing or breaking and entering!”

  Jason then described the contents of Paul Schwartz’s report. “This puts an entirely different spin on the whole DCC case.” Joe said. “Now it clearly is an inside job! I think the hijackings were a diversion to keep people from finding out that their new line of chips was a dud!”

  “I agree,” Jason replied. “The question is who in the company was responsible? But also the question remains as to why the last hijacking, the one where my friend Justin was grabbed, still remains unreported?”

  “That is significant for two reasons. The first is that I think whoever is responsible for these thefts wants to throw the police off the trail. The crimes were really not necessary at all, but were done as a diversion. Not having a crime reported when seemingly it happened has to be another type of diversion. The second reason is financial. DCC has been absorbing huge losses from these hijackings. They must have some insurance, but most likely not covering the full amount of the losses. Now a third crime isn’t even reported. There has to be a reason for not reporting it that is financially advantageous to either the company or the people inside the company who are responsible for the thefts.”

  “What you are saying makes a lot of sense, Joe. Now the question is who? Who is responsible in that company?”

  “Be very careful at this stage, Jason. The people responsible have already shown us that they have a violent streak, and if you back them into a corner, they will strike at you!”

  “You are right about that, Joe. After reading the press reports about the hijackings and seeing what they did to Justin, I will not go back there without some odds in my favor and an escape plan if things get out of hand! Thank you for your help in that regard!”

  After he finished talking with Joe, Jason then called Daniel to tell him about the report. “That explains a lot about why nothing much has developed to solve that case,” Daniel responded. “They basically don’t want it solved!”

  “I think we need to go through everything that we learned during our tour and interviews at the DCC plant last Monday,” Jason said. “Maybe we can discover a new clue or slip up that someone said now that we know the real motive for the chip hijackings.”

  “We also need to keep this information to ourselves right now, Jason. I don’t think that we should mention this to Richard or his dad until we know more. I would hate to think that Mr. Liu is somehow responsible or involved, but stranger things have happened, as you know. Even if he isn’t involved, which I am hoping and assuming is true, it might get mentioned accidentally to the wrong person and blow our cover as student reporters.”

  “We do need to get Captain Garcia involved in this,” Jason continued. “You know our parents will go ballistic if we put ourselves in any kind of danger again. At the same time, we need to go there and find out who is responsible for the cover up while the iron is hot! If the police are with us, I think we won’t be in much danger when we go back.”

  “Don’t we need more information about who is responsible before we go back?” Daniel asked.

  “Yes, but the Research and Development section has to know about this,” Jason asserted. “We need to go back there and confront Dr. Ramanathan with this report as soon as possible.”

  “The first day that we could do that is Monday. But school starts up, and I have to be there. The choir has an important festival competition next Friday.”

  “Oh yeah, school!” Jason replied. “We can go after school then. We can talk about it more tomorrow when we are at the hospital.”

  After finishing his conversation with Daniel, Jason put in a call to Captain Garcia’s cell phone, but was only able to leave a message. Jason spent the rest of the evening reviewing the tapes of his interviews at the DCC chip factory.

  The next morning, Jason received a call back from Captain Garcia. “Jason, you certainly have had a busy week. Even when you go on vacation it seems that you are solving mysteries!”

  “Captain, I know what you are going to say about putting myself in harm’s way, but I really had to act, and act fast. It would make you sick to see what was done to Timothy and Cody in that camp prison!”

  “What you and Daniel did was another remarkable accomplishment! In fact it is so remarkable that the sheriff of Mariposa County wants to talk to you about it. What you did at that camp created quite a stir back there! They are not used to the idea that two teenagers could stage such a sophisticated operation with that kind of intense media coverage in Mariposa County.”

  “Yes, I know. I heard about that from my friend who has a cabin there. But remember, Captain, you are partially responsible for that by giving my cell phone number to Jaime Orlando!”

  “Touché on that point. I don’t think either of us thought you would turn his request for an information sharing agreement into an overnight media sensation!”

  “The reason I called, Captain, is because there has been a big break in the DCC case. I just received a report from a technology specialist back in Boston, who tested one of the new DCC chips that were of the type that were stolen.” Jason filled Captain Garcia in on what he had found out from the report.

  “You really are on a roll this week, Jason. That turns the whole case around, and now certain things about it are making more sense. Unfortunately, I can’t meet with you today. I have an important family obligation to attend. Besides, we couldn’t do anything about the DCC case today, because they are closed. I wasn’t kidding about the Mariposa County sheriff, however. He is sending his top investigator, Lieutenant Marvin Lehman here tomorrow, and he wants to interview you about what happened.”

  “Tomorrow is a school day, Captain. Our spring break is over!”

  “Sorry, Jason, but I am going to have to pull you out of school tomorrow. You know that the Camp Chinquapin case has become a major story in the news and there is a lot of pressure to find out what actually went on. Given all of the intense media coverage, I don’t think anyone at your high school would be surprised if you had to miss class Monday. You aren’t behind in any of your classes are you?”

  “No, I am doing fine in school. I’ll have some classmates pick up any homework and share class notes. I don’t think it will be too intense of a day since everyone is just getting back from spring break. You aren’t going to pull out Daniel tomorrow, also, are you? He has an important concert coming up and needs to be at school all week.”

  “No, I think that the Lieutenant will be content just to interview you. From what you said in your television interview yesterday, this was first your idea, and Daniel agreed to help you make it happen.”

  “Yes, that is pretty much th
e way it went down.”

  “Then it’s settled. I will call the school administration tomorrow morning and give them a heads up. I will come by your house and pick you up at 8:30. Lieutenant Lehman said he would try to arrive at headquarters by 9:00 AM. By the way, your parents have a right to be at this meeting if they want to. I will be happy to act in your interests if they don’t wish to attend. I will halt the interview if I sense that he is trying to entrap you in any way, or make you provide incriminatory information. I would be appalled if the Lieutenant actually was thinking of charging you with anything, given what went down. But I know he has a lot of questions for you, Jason.”

  “Okay, Captain, but since you are making me take the day off, there needs to be some action on the DCC case. I wanted to talk to you about that anyway after the interview is over. We need to strike there while we have the advantage of this report.”

  Before he and Daniel went over to the hospital, Jason called Justin Thorne to find out how he was doing and ask him a question. “Hey, little buddy, this is Jason! How are you? You sound good on the phone!”

  “Oh, yeah, Jason. I am feeling a lot better. I’m surprised that you have time to call me. Our whole family was blown away by the news coverage lately. What you did for those two boys was totally amazing! You really are a hero, Jason! And I can say that from personal experience!”

  “Thanks for the compliment, but I don’t see myself that way. I just do what needs to be done to help other kids in trouble. I did it for Tim and Cody just like I did to help you when you were in need of it. Speaking of that, Justin, are you having problems with flashbacks or other fears from that horrible day?”

  “It hasn’t been too bad. I have had a couple of nightmares about it, but I have been too busy lately to worry about it very much. I took your advice about trying to do simple easy things with kids on my Little League team and at school, and already there are two other guys who play ball with me just informally several days a week. And Dad has agreed to take us all to some professional games on some upcoming weekends.”