Chapter IV

After leaving the Tetragrammaton laboratory Crow sighed. As he figured, he could only hope to get his findings at least partially translated and try to figure out, whom else might he question. Without the resources from the Central Database he could only rely on this type of information. Being absolutely sure that it was Revan who stood behind the database failure he had to admit that the attack was perfectly timed. As a firm non-believer in coincidence, he presumed – and this presumption was growing stronger every minute – that the second hack had to do with his investigation. Feeling a need to confirm his suspicions and to find out what exactly happened, Crow decided to question the computer technicians, who were attempting now to restore the database.

Suddenly, while thinking about his further course of action, he was stopped by three Security Officers.

"Investigator James Crow?" One of them asked.

"Yes," was the answer.

"We're running a random blood test. Please give me your hand, Sir!"

Crow stretched his left hand towards the Security Officer, who took out an EPPT. Within a brief moment the officer took a sample of the investigator's blood. Two seconds later the results were ready.

"Thank you, Sir, it's positive. Let's go!" said the officer to his companions.

"Wait a moment!" Crow said, before the three officers left. "I have a few questions to you, Officer…"

"Jones, Sir."

"Were you present at the moment of finding Frank Revan?" Crow asked while getting his notebook ready.

"No, I wasn't there," was Jones' answer.

"But I was," the other officer said.

The investigator looked at him with his notebook ready and asked:

"What's your name, Officer?"

"Patrick Smith."

"So you came to arrest Frank Revan and found him dead, right?"

"Yes, along with other three officers."

James noted meticulously.

"Where did you find him?"

"In the Tech Section."

"Did he tamper with the computers?"

"I'm not sure, Investigator. But the fact is, that one of the computers was switched on."

"Did you find something after searching him?"

The Officer thought for a moment and then answered:

"Yes, we did."

"What was it?"

"It was a floppy disk. I have delivered it to the Evidentiary yesterday, about 1:00 PM."

"Thank you, Officer. It's all I wanted to know."

As the security staff left, the investigator decided to head straight to the Evidentiary and, after obtaining the needed piece of evidence, question the computer technicians.

The Evidentiary Storage Officer, who was having his duty hours, stood up as soon as he saw the investigator.

"Investigator James Crow speaking. Is there any piece of evidence brought yesterday early afternoon by Security Officer Patrick Smith?"

The Officer started to check his logs and, after a moment, answered:

"Yes, sir, there is such an entry."

"What item is it?"

"It's a floppy disk," the officer stated.

"This is the thing I'm looking for. Get it for me." Crow ordered.

"Yes Sir!" The Officer replied and headed towards the archives.

In the meantime James heard someone calling him:

"Crow!"

James looked back and then turned around as he saw another investigator. It was Investigator Watts.

"You're investigating Stein's case, right?" Watts started, in a fairly quiet voice.

"Correct" James sighed, "It seems that at least two Departments know about that. But," he changed the subject, "what was the other case, which Miller planned for me, but eventually handed it over to you?"

"Ah, this one" Watts recalled, "It appears that the Terrorists have an infiltrator within our ranks."

"Great, that will be two now." Crow immediately thought about Revan.

"How do you know?" This time he asked aloud.

"One of the Sweepers was found dead yesterday." The other investigator started.

"Any motives?"

"I'm not sure."

"What do you mean?"

"The victim was found without his overcoat, helmet, boots and gloves."

"Interesting" Crow immediately took a mental note.

"Have you found something about Stein?" Now it was Watts who was asking.

"Hm," James thought for a while, "I have few pieces of a puzzle, but I can't assemble anything yet."

In the same moment the Evidentiary Storage Officer brought the floppy disk and placed it on desk.

"Thank you, Officer." Crow said while taking the disk, "Watts, I'll catch you later."

After these words he headed towards the Tech Section, in order to, as he named it, get the next piece of the puzzle. He wondered, whether Watts will figure that actually James didn't tell him the whole truth. A theory, although still vague, started to form in the investigator's mind and he preferred to keep it for himself.

The Tech Section was placed next to the R&D Department, so James could get there right away. As he reached the section, he saw a group of computer technicians, who were working on bringing the Central Database back online.

All of the seven servers, where the database had been stored, had to have their hard drives formatted. In fact, the process was somewhere half through. In the meantime, three other technicians brought about thirty external drives, on which the backup data had been stored.

"Investigator James Crow," the investigator started, "I have a few questions regarding the database malfunction. I need only one of you."

One of the technicians put away the external drives and faced Crow, who asked him the first question:

"What's your name?"

"Mark Anderson."

The answer was noted and the next question came:

"What did exactly happen that brought the database offline?"

"A virus was planted into a system. It seems that it was specifically designed to damage the database content."

"Why hadn't it been picked up by the anti-virus scanners?"

"It is a new virus, written quite recently."

"But the scanners at least should had qualify this file as suspicious." Crow opposed.

"They should," Anderson agreed, "But they hadn't. Whoever had written this thing, he really knew what he was doing."

"It seems that this whoever was Frank Revan," the investigator pointed, "he was found dead few hours ago in this very room. And he carried this." He showed him the floppy disk.

The technician looked at the disk and asked:

"May I copy it? We will have to research this virus more thoroughly."

"Yes, but if you want to do it, do it now. I must return the disk to the Evidentiary."

It didn't take Anderson long to copy the disk's content. Right after he finished, he returned the piece of evidence to Crow.

"It's a single, executable file," the technician explained, "Revan, if this was his job, must had accessed the database, plant the virus there and launch it right there as well. This guy was very capable; in fact, he was one of the better guys here in the Tech Section. What a mess, we won't be able to clean it up at least until tomorrow. The e-mail will be also out of business until we bring the central servers back online."

"How does it look with the medical computers?"

"The second group is taking care of the situation now. No worries, all medical records are fully backed up."

"And the rest of the Database?" Crow asked.

"The thing is, it isn't," Anderson said.

"What do you mean it isn't fully backed up?" the investigator asked, thinking that in his job being on Prozium is indeed a good idea.

"The A, B and C Class documents are backed up in hundred percent, Anderson explained, "But backing up of the first pieces of data from the Monitoring Centre was scheduled for tomorrow. Now, we have absolutely nothing to back up."

"Did Revan know about that?"

Anderson nodded.

"What was the status of the Monitoring Centre before the hack?"

"All Libria gates were monitored, but nothing more. The rest of the system should become fully operational in about six weeks."

"All right. Thank you, Anderson." Investigator Crow closed his notebook and headed back to his office. His theory started to take a more distinct shape and he wanted now to sketch the scheme on paper.

Getting a blank sheet of paper and a pencil, he indeed started to make notes:

07.05.2040 – disappearance of Martin Stein

07.05.2040 – house searching ( various German notes found ), found Stein's private lab. A CD found, but no computer or laptop. Car missing. Stein doesn't give any hint about his disappearance.

07.05.2035 – Central Database failure. The cause: virus planted by F. Revan.

F. Revan, a computer technician, found dead with a piece of hard evidence ( an infected floppy disk ). Cause of death: poison. Further comments: He must have known that his previous hack was detected. Apparently, he didn't care about any precautions.

But where the hell did he get cyanide?

08.05.2040 - Database backup: all data from the Monitoring Centre irreversibly lost. Revan knows the data hasn't been backed up yet.

08.05.2040 – Watts told me that a sweeper had been found dead one day earlier, without his helmet, boots, gloves and overcoat. That could be a perfect disguise… Must ask Watts for further info.

10.05.2040 – Expecting to get the notes at least partially translated, being particularly interested in Stein's comments found in the book. Why does he use German? To hide his doubts? And what is this "vital research"? Something related to Prozium I assume.

James looked at his notes once again to see whether it makes any sense and felt, that something vital was still eluding him. He needed evidence. The Vice-Council needed evidence.