part0013

Leyna remained in the deep sleep she’d been in overnight. Henberlin didn’t know whether or not he wanted to talk to her about the video just yet. He’d already arranged for a friend of Leyna’s to come and sit with her while he left to go to the meeting with the Shield Oil techs. He felt relieved to get away. The awkward conversation with the friend made it sink in that things in his marriage were never going to be normal again. Getting back to the normal activities of his work environment—where he knew how to execute the activities expected of him—couldn’t come fast enough.

He concentrated on work as he drove to his office. Before heading down the hill to the downtown area, he made one stop at a large department store. In the electronics department, he purchased a pre-paid cell phone. He activated it when he got back to his car and threw it into the glove compartment.

His coworkers paused, stunned when they saw him walking down the hall to his office. He grabbed the proposal file listing the system specifications of the computer systems he planned to propose to Shield, then made his way to the meeting.

He found the group session already in progress, taking place in one of the specially-equipped media rooms. Inside, projected on a drop screen in a split presentation were, on one side, columns of raw data and on the other, a three-dimensional color representation of the same data. They all stopped as Henberlin entered, but he asked them to keep going. At an appropriate break in their discussion, they brought Henberlin up-to-speed on a new concern that had popped up in the data.

“It’s something flaky that we didn’t expect to see. There’s more data than originally anticipated for this particular reservoir,” the Shield analyst said with a puzzled tone.

“Kyle?” Henberlin said, looking for an explanation or hypothesis.

“It’s the data that Stephen provided me, straight up. Before you got here, we looked at the original file size specs on the delivered media, and the file we’re looking at here has the same specs.”

“Could it be a precision difference because our system can compute in more detail?”

“Probably not,” Kyle responded, “but our system will be able to identify the anomalies a lot quicker. We were discussing a filter we could develop that would help us clear the mystery.”

“It’s also possible that Stephen loaded more into the data sets because he thought it would be a good test of your system’s power. It would be so like him not to share his intentions with anyone,” the Shield analyst offered. “At any rate, it’s on the right machine to comb through the data and give us an idea what we’re up against.”

“Another chance for us to show off,” Henberlin replied. “Do you guys need more time? I can come back.”

“Why don’t we go over the proposed configuration, and then have you give us a timeline for delivery of the first block of systems?” the analyst suggested.

“Great, I’ve got those right here.”

When the meeting ended and the Shield people left, Kyle tried to approach the data problem again. Henberlin told him it had to wait. He said Kyle should look into it further and tomorrow they would decide what to do. Tomorrow would be a normal day, he hoped.

Alone in his office, Henberlin closed the door. He pulled the new pre-paid phone from his desk drawer and dialed the phone number Hec Taylor had given him .

“This Jian Liu.”

“What’s this all about?” Henberlin asked with impatience.

“Ah, Neo Henbrin. It looks like your wife kill my daughter.”

“Have you shown this to the police?”

“What do you want?” The frustration of his wife’s situation and finding out about it from Jian Liu caused him to clip his words.

“Nothing can bring my daughter back. Your wife is free for now, but maybe someday I will make her pay.”

Henberlin flashed to his feet. Holding his phone in front of his face, he shot back, “What do you mean, make her pay?”

Jian Liu ignored the desperate query. “Yanmei was working on a matter with me and I wish to continue the efforts in her honor. Yanmei supplied me with information about your computer system. It is very good information and I want the rest of it.”

“I can’t help you with that and I don’t care about any of it. She shouldn’t have supplied you with anything. I only want you to leave my wife alone.”

“Of course. But Yanmei did give me good information, and I want more.”

“I can’t help you.”

“Can you help your wife? She can’t kill my daughter and not pay something. You can help her pay.”

Henberlin remained silent as he evaluated the answer.

Jian Liu let the silence run on for a full minute then added, “She’s awake now, talking to her friend. When we left you the video, we installed the cameras from your apartment in your house. We don’t care what you and your wife do or say in your home, so go ahead and remove them.”

He angered at the sound of the dial tone but, halfway through redialing the number, Henberlin stopped himself. He needed to think this through before contacting Jian Liu again. Instead, he called Delaney and told him about his meeting in jail with Hec Taylor and about his conversation with Jian Liu, leaving out any mention of the video and his wife’s involvement in the murder. When he hung up, he went straight to Delaney’s office.

The wait in Delany’s lobby didn’t last long. When Delaney took Henberlin to the back, he didn’t take him into a meeting room but straight to his smaller office. When he stepped inside, Henberlin saw Kyle sitting in a chair in front of the desk next to the wall. Henberlin looked at Delaney and said, “What’s this?”

Kyle looked dumbfounded, like a student who’d snuck outside school grounds for a smoke—only to find a teacher who’d done the same thing.

Delaney cleared his throat. “Well, no offense, Neil, but some of the information we passed on to Yanmei is a little beyond your technical capabilities. You’ve both been involved in this without knowing about the other.”

Not knowing what to think, Henberlin could only look at Kyle dumbfounded. After a few seconds he shrugged. Then he could feel heat building in his head as the kernel of anger grew. “Why would you need me at all when you’ve got Kyle’s information at your beck and call? The only thing I can add that he can’t is pricing. I don’t think that’s the kind of information Jian Liu is after. You could have left me out of this and none of it would be happening to me right now.”

“For appearances. Jian Liu would ask Yanmei to corroborate information from within R.E.S. You were a second source—at least, we made you look that way. Also, we presented you as the main source for information on the encryption capability of the new operating system. That’s their main target. Your developers hit a home run with that technology. The more the American military look at it, the more they want to take it away from commercial entities. The Chinese got wind of the coming ban and they want to get everything they can on it before the operating system becomes classified.

“Yanmei had been supplying them with bits and pieces of crippled real code, but before they could get deep enough into it, Yanmei would tell them of the bug. Then she’d delay them while she worked on getting updated versions—versions the Americans crippled in a different manner.”

“So the American military is pulling our strings and they’re about to take away the product that we’re all counting on?” Henberlin said, waving his arm and pointing his finger between himself and Kyle.

“I didn’t say it was the military, but the military’s concerns are being respected. Anyway, who it is doesn’t matter to you. They still need your help. You can walk away right now if you want, there’s nothing forcing you to continue to supply information. Unless, that is, you wish to continue doing something for your country and its allies. Yanmei wanted to make sure the Chinese didn’t get their hands on this new technology. The computers and the reservoir simulation software were reason enough for her to foil their plan to steal technology. But for the encryption, she had a special earnestness in preventing them from getting their hands on it. Preventing them from hacking into government and business databases, something they seem to accomplish with ease, gives us a more secure country and economy. We hope you’ll want to continue with us to complete ours and Yanmei’s objective.”

During Henberlin’s private discussions with Yanmei, they’d never discussed her mission. He had no idea of the level of dedication she felt toward foiling the Chinese plan to steal the new technology. He did know what seemed to make her tick with regard to her own future. She anticipated a limited time in her current occupation. This required her to develop an exit strategy from the oil patch, an exit that involved leaving and never looking back. He always felt she spoke metaphorically. With his current knowledge that they were being recorded whenever they were in the apartment, he wondered if she had been telling a truth about her intentions, acting to gain his sympathy or providing inert conversation that wouldn’t alert any third party eyes and ears watching their activities.

Working against her father and the Chinese meant she had to be cautious. The CSIS people thought she’d been discovered by the Chinese and eliminated. Henberlin knew his wife killed Yanmei, but he couldn’t share that truth .

He looked at Kyle and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

Kyle cleared his throat. “Not completely sure, to be honest. I didn’t think it would hurt to supply the technical points needed to deliver sabotaged information to the Chinese. That changed when Yanmei got murdered. I wonder if they’re coming after me next.”

“What did Delaney tell you about that?”

“That it was possible,” Delaney answered for him. “We don’t know what they know about the false data, or if they know at all. We do think they know about Kyle. If they know about the false data, they probably know where it came from.”

“If they didn’t know you were involved before, they sure know now. They’ve been following me for quite a while. They must be following you too, Kyle, and even you, Delaney. If they see us all together, they’ll think it was us.” Henberlin’s words came faster and louder.

“Calm down, Neil. We don’t know that. My cover as a reservoir simulation software developer goes pretty deep,” Delaney said matter-of-factly. “They may see our meetings as regular sales activity. You came to work to meet with the people from Shield Oil, why wouldn’t you also meet with me? No reason to believe we’ve been made.”

“If they don’t think it was us, wouldn’t that be why they killed Stephen Albin?” Kyle asked. “Wouldn’t they think he falsified the data?”

“That could be one explanation,” Delaney said.

“Do you have others?” Henberlin asked, as his eyes searched the office’s nooks and crannies for motion-sensitive video cameras.

“Everyone said Stephen had erratic tendencies. Maybe he knew Yanmei was passing bad data and told her father. Her father takes them both out in the apartment to make it look like a jealousy killing with Henberlin as the cause. Maybe Albin knew nothing, but they still used him to present the same motive. People are looking into it.” Delaney then changed subjects. “You said Jian Liu wanted you to continue to provide data.”

Turning to Kyle, Delaney asked, “And the analyst from Shield Oil noticed the false data you included in the data file?”

Kyle nodded, then looked at Henberlin, who raised his chin in understanding.

“So one analyst discovered it,” Delaney said. “Do you think the Chinese will?”

“I don’t see how they wouldn’t. I’ll have to rework the data sets and try to get them by Shield again.”

“Right. Meanwhile, Neil, you have to meet with Jian Liu and tell him there’s been a delay with the data. We have to stall. That is, unless you’re going to walk away.”

Henberlin’s eyes shifted between the other two men who waited for his response. “Not sure. What about the sales? Can we proceed with the contracts and installation of the systems?” Henberlin’s financial emergencies weren’t going to let up and sticking it to the VP of Sales still had its appeal.

“By all means. You have to make it look like business as usual. Shield Oil is moving forward. If the Chinese see R.E.S. starting to drag their feet, they’ll think something’s wrong. They expect a salesman to think sales first, so you have to keep pushing for the contract.”

Henberlin nodded in slow-motion. “In that case, I need a contract for a system from you too. That’ll make our meetings more plausible. You could be the first and I’ll use that to get Shield Oil to make their commitments as well. I’ll tell them your order is in front of them in the production line unless they order more than five. You don’t care when you get a system, so your order serves a bigger purpose. Is that salesman enough?”

Delaney smiled. “Okay, but I want you to call Jian Liu again. Get him to tell you what Yanmei told him. If he leaves anything out and asks you to supply information he already has, then we know he’s got some doubts about that information, or he’s testing you. Whatever he asks you to supply, tell him you don’t have firsthand knowledge and you’ll have to find out who does.”