Chapter 3

Tuesday afternoons are better.

The taxi took about twenty minutes to come for me. I spent the time looking at the main data center. Impressive enough even with a casual glance. Even more impressive if you take time to really look at it.

Four stories that cover an entire block. Well, four that you can see. Seems like I heard that there are eight more floors underground. The only windows are on the doors. Only one set of doors on each side of the building. I’d hate to work where there wasn’t any way to see the outside world.

The most impressive thing about the building is the massive array of cooling towers on the roof. Plumes of steam rise from each of the open throats of the towers. Even on the hottest days the steam continues to head upward.

I could see two of the towers that were not sending out their plume. I suppose they have to perform some sort of preventative maintenance on those things from time to time.

Man, the amount of cooling required boggles the imagination. I’m trying to comprehend the amount of computing power that must be hidden within those walls. I simply can’t grasp it.

The taxi pulled up and I climbed in. Gave him the address and settled back for the ride. My mind drifted back over the last hour and a half. Nothing to do but think or sleep. I wasn’t tired so it was think.

For all the thinking I did though, I didn’t come up with many answers. The questions like who was the dead guy and why did he come to my office, and why was that little package addressed to me, couldn’t be answered at all. At least not yet.

Even more troublesome: Why did searchSquad show up? And, why did Mattingly show up with them?

Too many questions. Not any answers.

I suddenly had a thought and leaned forward to tell the driver to stop at the next pay phone. He eased the cab over at the next corner. I said, “Keep it running, I’ll be right back.”

I closed the privacy door behind me and punched the credit card button. When the choices came up, I selected PayPal and entered my data. When the screen opened up, I peeled the Thumby off of my belt buckle and plugged it into the usb slot.

I scanned down the contacts until I found MTSecurity. I clicked ‘connect’ and waited. The male voice said, “MTS.”

“MyTosi?”

“Yes. Who’s this?”

“Hey, MT, it’s PM Spade.”

“Hi PM. What’s tricks?” he said.

“MT, I need a security sweep on my office. And, I need it pretty quick, too.”

There was a little silence, then he answered, “I’ve got a couple of hours, starting in about ten minutes. Will that be long enough?”

“That ought to be more than enough, MT.”

“OK, ” he said. “What sort of equipment am I likely to need?”

“Well, I need an audio and visual sweep and a telephone landline check.”

“Can do. Where?”

“China Sam’s at the South West corner of Hemlock and Van Ness. We’ll be going east on Hemlock. I’ll be waiting for you inside.”

“Good enough, PM. See you in a few minutes.”

“Thanks, MyTosi,” I replied, “I really appreciate it. See you.”

Back in the cab, we headed on north toward the office. I had told the cabbie that we were going to China Sam’s, so it was going to be just right.

As the cab made it’s way thru the traffic, I wondered, again, how the early settlers decided on this place. All that leading burros first up a hill, then down and up another, must have been pretty exhausting. Those tough old dudes did it tho.

The taxi pulled up in front of China Sam’s. I paid the cabbie and stood a minute looking up the street. No sign of the CSI van and no squad car. At least none in sight. Good.

I went inside and ordered black coffee. I had just cooled it enough to sip some when MyTosi came in. He looked around for a few seconds until his eyes adjusted, then saw me at the counter and headed over.

I picked up my cup and cut him off. I looked over at the server behind the counter and inclined my head towards the booth. He nodded and came to take the new order.

MT is about 30. Slim, but not skinny. About five ten or eleven. Probably 150 pounds or there about. Black, curly, hair worn a little longer than I like mine, but it looked good on him. Dark brown eyes. Almost black.

I stuck out my fist and said, “Hi MT. Glad you could make it.”

He took my hand and shook with a firm grip. “My pleasure, PM. Long time, no see.”

I always enjoyed listening to MT. He has a deep south drawl that must be heard to be appreciated. Not your south Alabama oil worker drawl, and not the south Mississippi tone either. Probably from Atlanta, or he might even be a smooth talking cajun. I should ask him someday.

“Ya, I know it”, I replied. “We’ll have to get in touch more often. Did you bring your stuff?”

“Yes, it’s in the car. Should I get it now?”

“No, let’s finish the coffee first.”

He looked me in the eye and asked “What’s it about, PM?”

So, gave him a short version. Leaving out the part about the client and some other minor details. Like the package, for instance.

MT whistled and said, “Well. What have you done to involve the searchSquad?”

I told him I didn’t have a clue and that was one of my priorities. I said, “If you’re thru with the coffee, we can go get started.” he nodded and we got up. I paid the tab and we went to the door..

I asked him which was his car. He pointed to a little brown sporty model parked across the street. “Alright.” I said. “Here is the way we’re going to work this. I’ll walk down to the building and go up to the office. If everything is alright, I’ll come back down and go out onto the sidewalk and look to the East. If I don’t come back down pretty quick, or if I come down and look both ways, then you take off for home. Sound good to you?”

He said, “Sounds like a plan to me.” He crossed the street and got into his little car.

I walked up the street, staying on the side away from the entrance. I didn’t see anything out of place. I loitered a while across from the entrance, then walked over and went in.

I punched the third floor button and flinched as the lift started it’s agonizing way up. When the door opened, I hesitated a couple of heartbeats before I stuck my head out to look around. Nothing.

I eased down the hall. As I approached my office, I could see that the door was closed. I looked down where the body had been. CSI had done a good job of cleaning up the blood. There might not have been much left to leak out, though.

I turned the knob and pushed. The dead bolt was engaged, so I took out my key. Just as I was getting the key in the lock, the door was jerked open, and I was staring at the business end of a shiny .32 autoloader.

It was Doll Face. I said, “It’s OK. It’s just me. Point that canon down at the floor, please. Are you alright?”

She lowered the pistol with shaky hands and nodded a yes. “I’ve been worried, Phillip. Are you alright?”

I nodded and said, “Fair enough, considering. Look, I’ve got something that has to be done. Step out here for a minute.”

She look confused but came right out into the hall. I took her elbow and we walked a few paces down the hall. “I have a security guy coming to sweep the office. Just hang tight in there and I’ll be right back.”

She just nodded and went back to the office. I went back down the elevator and out into the afternoon air. I took off my hat and ran my fingers through my hair while I looked intently down the street to the East. As I turned to go back into the building, I saw the little brown job pull away from the curb and head this way.

I went back into the lobby and waited.

MyTosi walked past the door, then stopped and pretended to read something in his hand. He turned and walked thru the main doors. We got into the elevator for the jiggledy-jerk ride to the third floor.

As we got to the office door, MT put his black bag down next to the wall. He opened it to reveal a bunch of boxes and wires with little lights. He selected one of the larger boxes and plugged a cord into it and to the handle end of some sort of wand. The wand had a series of loops and what looked like a helix. He flipped a couple of switches on the box and a meter needle pegged to the right then settled down on the left end of the scale.

He said, “Okay. Let’s start.”

I nodded and opened the door. MT stepped inside with the wand held up head high. He only stepped one pace inside when he started turning the wand every direction. He pointed it at the walls and at the ceiling, all the while watching the needle display. He strode to the center of the room and kept rotating the wand. He lowered the wand and rotated again, this time pointing at the joint between the wall and floor.

When he finished the wall, ceiling, and baseboard scan, he walked up to each wall outlet and scanned them. He did this with both the electric outlets and the telephone. He spent some time on both of the overhead light fixtures too.

Satisfied, he moved over to the bathroom door, stepped in and scanned everything there. He came out and walked to the door, picked up his bag, and walked over to my desk. He put the box and wand back in the case and took out another box.

He unplugged the wall cord from my desk phone and plugged the cord into his black box, then strung another cord to the desk phone. When he had the box powered up, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a wireless unit. He punched in some codes and waited. The phones started ringing. After the tenth ring, he took the receiver off of the cradle and put it down on the desk. After about two minutes, he put the receiver back and unplugged his box.

He flipped a few switches on the box and looked at the result on a small screen. He turned and looked at me and said, “All clean, PM. No recording devices, no bugs, no wire taps. Just fine. You do have a mouse in the bathroom, though.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Yeah. He cleans up the dead insects around here. He’s good company late at night too.”

MT grinned and started packing his boxes back into the bag. “Do you have time for coffee?”, I asked.

He looked at his watch and said, “Yes, I do.”

I started for the coffee pot but Doll Face beat me to it. So, I eased into my chair behind the desk. I motioned him to the gents chair and asked him how much I owed.

“Five hundred is all, PM. It didn’t take long, and nothing to remove.”

I counted out the bills and pushed them over to him. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the fact that you broke up your day to help me out. Thanks.”

“Welcome, PM. You’d do the same for me.” We shot the bull for a while, then he said he had to get back to his office. I thanked him again and stood at the door until I heard the elevator start down.

I stepped back inside and almost yelled, “Woo hoo. That Perk knows his stuff. I wasn’t even in that temporary supplemental cell for an hour. I don’t know how he does it, but I’m sure glad he does.”

“I didn’t get hold of Perk” she said.

“Yes sirree bob. Now that’s what I call service. I’d recommend Perk to anyone anywhere.”

“Phillip, stop. Phillip.”

“What did you say?”

“I said that I didn’t get to talk to Perk. After the third try, Pinkie came on and said he was down at his cage doing something techy. I didn’t know what to do, so I left him a message to call when he got a chance.”

I just stood there. Flabbergasted. Almost in shock.

“Well, if Perk didn’t link me out, then who did?” I shook my head and walked over to sit at the desk.

Doll Face said, “You’re out. Isn’t that enough?”

I fired up a Lucky and muttered, “Yeah, I’m out. But by who, and why? I don’t like being in the dark.”

“Speaking of being in the dark,” she said, “tell me about Perk. I’ve heard you talk to him, but you haven’t told me anything about him.”

So, I started telling her what I thought I knew about Perk.

“Perk is about five foot, ten. About 180 pounds, I guess, and solid. I think he is in his mid-thirties. He has sandy hair and blue eyes, I think. He’s married and has some children. Two, maybe three.”

“Perk is, or maybe was, a hell of a pistol shot. He was the U.S. small bore pistol champ three times. That impressed me when I found that out.”

“It must have been a while back, though. Because, now he wears some gawd-awful thick glasses. The lenses must be heavy too, because the rims and ear pieces are larger than normal.”

“Perk works at the Excelsior hotel. He’s the security vice-president. I don’t know how many he has on his staff, but I’ll bet they know their stuff.”

“I said he ‘works’ at the Excelsior. I think that’s a cloak and that Perk really owns the hotel. Probably thru a blind corporation, so none of the other workers would have a clue.”

“In my line of work, there is always a need for someone like Perk. He is ‘Mr. Information’ and ‘Mr. Get it done’. If he doesn’t have the info on the tip of his tongue, he knows where to get it. He knows who can get something done, and done fast.”

“Perk is also computer programmer. There is no telling how many languages he programs in, but I know of six. And, he’s a top notch systems manager. I don’t know for sure, but I think he, and maybe some helpers, manage servers for third parties in addition to who knows how many of his own.”

“Besides having massive amounts of data at his fingertips, Perk’s cache must be huge, he is a master of cloaking. I’m not just talking about internet cloaking either, although he is one of the best at that. He seems to appear out of nowhere, and can go out the same way.”

“I don’t mean he can disappear into thin air. I mean he just seems to. You can be looking at him across a room, glance down, look back up and he’s nowhere to be seen. Almost supernatural.”

“I suppose you could say he is the ‘geek’s geek’. The one the geek goes to when he gets stuck.”

I stopped to light up another fag and take a sip of coffee. Doll Face looked up and said, “You really like him, don’t you?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do. And, I respect him even more.”

The conversation was interrupted by the ring of the ancient telephone. Doll Face spoke her magic words into the receiver, then said, “It’s Dink. Can you talk?”

I nodded and snagged the receiver from the desk set. “About time I hear from you. Where are you and what are you doing?”

“I’m glad to hear your voice, too, Mister Politeness. I’m just about half-way across the bay bridge, driving myself to our fair city. Why? Are you still stuck with those server mods?”

“Nah. Doll Face bailed me out on the server deal. Look, I need some things. Could you come by the office first thing in the morning?”

“Ya, I can do that. But, no freebies for a while. I just spent a bundle and I need to get my head back above the water line.”

I laughed and said, “No freebies. What have you spent your dough on this time?”

“Mmmmm. Let’s just say that I have arranged a very large swap involving about 10k dot infos.”

“Where did you say you’d been?”

“I didn’t say. But I’ve been over at Berekley for a week. Ok, I’ll be there in the morning. See you.” And, he hung up.

Dot infos. Berkley, huh. Wonder what that twerp has really been up to.

I looked up to see the wall monitor, but it was just the painting that showed. I looked back down at the desk and shook my head. No system. No monitor. No keyboard. It was like part of me was missing. Being connected had become a way of life for me. Being disconnected sucked. Wonder if you can have withdrawal symptoms when your computer dies?

The phone rang again, Doll Face looked up and said, “It’s Mr. Perk.”

I snatched up the receiver and said, “Hello Perk. How are you?”

“I’m just fine”, he replied, “More importantly, how are you? The message I got was that you were nabbed.”

“Yeah. It was searchSquad that got me. Funny thing is that Mattingly showed up to take charge. They took me to the main data center and threw me in a temporary supplemental cell. I was only in there for an hour or so before they cut me loose. I thought it was you who linked me out.”

“Now that’s strange. Nope, I didn’t even get your message until just a few minutes ago. I’ve been down at the cage getting three of my new babies on stream. Well, I’m glad you’re out. Is there anything else?”

“Yes, there is. Two things. First, I need to know who linked me out, and why, if that’s possible. Secondly, I’m out of computers here. Can you suggest some place where I can do some stealthy stuff without raising eyebrows?”

Perk was silent for a moment, then he said, “I can try to find out who got you loose. The hard part may be trying to find out why. This is going to cost some PM. I’ll have to get several fingers in this pie.”

“I can pay standard rates, Perk. What about the secure computer?”

“Standard rate is fine, PM. Yeah, I know a couple of places that might fit your needs. I’ll make a few calls and let you know.”

I said, “Great Perk. I’ll be waiting.”

After we had hung up, I thought about what he had said. The easy part was finding out the who. I might never find out the why. Network packets, proxies, and routers could be coaxed into giving up their secrets. Those secrets would be limited to who not why.

The phone rang again. It was Perk. He gave me a name and an address. He said, “The place is located downstairs. I think you’ll get a kick out of his place, PM.” I thanked him again and we hung up.

I looked at the notes I had made. ‘Bomps’ and an addy near Chinatown. Too far to walk, but in the neighborhood of someone else I needed to see. Two birds with one trip.

“Doll Face, do you know someone who will let you use their computer for a while?”

She looked up and said, “Yes, I know a couple. Why?”

“I need to visit with that bunch of UK spammers. Would you send some emails for me?”

She said, “Of course. Who and when?”

“Ask all of them to meet me on IM6 in three hours. Do you have your Thumby?” She nodded, so I continued, “Try to get all of these guys. TheEarl, Eruns, E4, SEOi, Berj, SonnyM, Kopper, Lucif, 4win, and the Irishman.”

“Which Irishman?”

I looked up and said, “hell, try to get both IW and GW.”

She said she would do her best and started gathering up her stuff. “Do we have any permpaper or permsacks?”, I asked.

She opened the bottom right drawer of her credenza and said, “Both. Right here. Do you need help with something?”

I told her no and to be careful going and coming. She said she would and took off. I waited until I heard the elevator on it’s way down, then walked to the door and snapped the dead bolt.

I went over to her desk and looked at the bud vase. I turned to the credenza and took out two sheets of the permpaper and one sack, placing them on her desk.

I walked over to the coffee stand and picked up a clean mug. I made my way back to her desk and emptied the water from the vase into the cup. I took the red carnation that was in the vase and placed it carefully in the cup..

Now that the water was out of the vase, I wondered what to do with the sand. I managed to bump and shake most of it into the cup. I put the vase down on one piece of the paper and wrapped it tight, then wrapped the other piece on loosely. I carefully put the little package into the sack and put the sack on my desk.

Now it was time to visit the rat hole again. I went to the bathroom and closed the door. After I got the shelf door open, I took out the mystery package. I sat down on the crapper and started working the package apart on one end.

It finally gave up and the open end revealed a red and white colored emblem of some sort. I shook the contents a little and it slid out of the tube into my palm.

It was a prism. About one inch on each side and about six inches long. The color was really something. It was a sort of watered-down gold with wavy streaks running the long direction of the glass. It was heavy enough for it’s size. Leaded crystal?

The emblem on the end wasn’t familiar to me. It is a sort of star shape, eight-pointed, instead of four or five, the star is made up of four arrowhead shapes arranged so that the points are touching in the center. Each base of the arrowhead has two pointy parts. Red background with this shape in white. If you turn the prism it can look like a funny ‘X’, too.

Very nice to look at. I wondered what it was for. Maybe it’s a paper weight. Just an ornament of some sort, maybe. Curious.

Who would send something like this to me? And, why? Was the European dude killed because of this? Better start getting some answers.

I put the prism back into it’s carton and closed up the secret door. I went to the desk and put the package down beside the sack. I snagged my jacket, hat, and coat from the rack and started getting ready to go.

I was about to put the package in the sack with the vase when I reconsidered. If they bumped together the vase might get chipped. So, I put the package in my left jacket pocket, put on the trench coat and my hat and locked the door.

I stepped out onto the sidewalk to an absolutely beautiful afternoon. I turned left to walk to the corner and flag a cabbie. There were two teeny-boppers in front of me. The exaggerated hip swaying must have matched up with whatever music they were listening to. Ah, the innocent life.

I stopped and dug out my deck of Luckies. I cupped my hands to get the match lit. That’s when they hit me. All I saw was one shoe. Black. Dammit. I have to pay more attention to the important stuff.

My shoulder hit the brick wall first. The pain was sharp, but nothing compared to what it felt like when my head followed suit. The intense blinding pain caused my eyes pinch shut in agony. Then I started to drift. Drifting on the sea of nothingness. Headed nowhere. Except maybe down.

Tuesday afternoons are better, huh? Yeah, right.