Run the Numbers
Chapter Six
Charlie had fallen into a semi-conscious daze while lying in the back seat and he was a little difficult to rouse when they arrived at the old house. Trevor and Michael again had to practically carry Charlie into the house. They got him up to the bedroom where Devlin was working and laid him on the bed. Charlie opened his eyes and saw the room spinning. It was too much and he leaned over the edge of the bed and vomited before passing out.
Trevor wiped up the mess while Michael went back to the car to retrieve the scanner. He plunged the device into the lap top and began typing furiously. It only took half an hour for Michael to hack into AFIS and another five to come up with results on the scanned palm print from the scanner.
"Jackpot!" he said, as a page printed out.
Michael did some further searching and found out that Charlie wasn't the only one from his family listed in the system. Trevor had just come back into the bedroom and upon hearing Michael's comment immediately pulled the sheet from the printer.
"Jackpot indeed! It looks like this guy is the real deal, a true bonafide genius."
In a guarded tone Michael said, "Check out the second page just printing."
Trevor then found the bio of Don Eppes and read it thoroughly.
"This could work to our advantage."
Michael looked incredulously at Trevor.
"Are you nuts? You said yourself that we don't need complications with the FBI and this guy's brother…"
"Calm down, The FBI is already involved. We knew that Slocum would go to them but with the professor as a bargaining chip we have a better chance of getting out of a tight spot if they get too close. FBI or not, this Agent Eppes won't risk us killing his little brother."
Trevor was more interested in Charlie's father and continued. "Now it says here that our little genius lives with his father. I think I may have take a little trip to Pasadena."
Michael looked over at Charlie and said, "What about him? Do you think he will be able to work all busted up like that?"
"He'll be fine, and yes he'll be able to work because he won't have any choice. Now, can you get me into the FBI system so we can see if anyone has figured out that the professor is missing yet?"
It took considerably longer for Michael to hack into the FBI computers and Charlie woke up while he was working. The sun was setting and it took him a moment to clear his head and to process everything that had happened that day. He sat up slowly and looked around. Michael was working away at the laptop on a desk in the corner of the room seemingly oblivious to Charlie, and Trevor sat watching him from a chair by the door.
"How are you feeling?" he asked Charlie.
Charlie turned toward the man who had spoken and asked, "Where am I?"
Trevor regarded him before answering.
"What is more important; where you are or who you are?"
Charlie knew that he had had an accident and when he woke up in the hospital he hadn't remembered his name. The swelling in his brain from the injury had subsided somewhat and he had a clearer recollection of the day's events although everything was still pretty fuzzy. He did know that these two men had kidnapped him from the hospital and that they were dangerous so he had to be careful.
"What do you want with me?"
Trevor got up and poured a glass of water from a pitcher on the dresser and handed it to Charlie.
"Drink this, you're dehydrated." Charlie hesitated. "It's alright. It's just water."
Charlie was very thirsty so he drank it but then repeated his question.
"What do you want from me?"
"You are here because of your particular expertise, you see I have a job for you Professor Eppes."
Charlie just looked at this man disbelievingly for a moment as the man sat down again in front of him.
"You have had a rather difficult day professor. How's the head? Still a lot of pain?"
Charlie didn't answer but handed the glass back for more water. This man was acting very oddly for a kidnapper but he was correct about Charlie being dehydrated. Trevor got up and poured some more water into the glass and gave it to back Charlie.
"How did you get injured anyway?"
Michael stopped typing for a moment to hear what their captive's response would be to this question. Charlie didn't trust this man no matter how polite he was trying to be.
"I don't remember."
Trevor could tell that Charlie was lying but didn't press the issue.
"Well that is really neither here nor there. There is data on this palm pilot..." he said picking up the device that was still connected to the laptop on the desk "…that has been encrypted with some kind of mathematical algorithm. You are going to decode the information for us."
He shook his head and said "No. I won't."
Charlie expected this man to become angry by his refusal but instead the man smiled the kind of smile that sent chills down his spine.
"Oh, but you will Professor Eppes."
Michael printed off some pages and took them before leaving the room without giving Charlie a second glance. Trevor opened the top drawer of the dresser and pulled out a set of clean clothes and put them on the bed next to Charlie.
"I imagine that you'd like to get out of that." he said indicating the hospital gown that Charlie still had on. "We'll come by later and bring you something to eat. In the meantime I suggest that you start working. Everything that you need to do your job is here in this room."
With that Trevor left the room and Charlie heard the door being locked behind him. After they had gone down to the first floor Michael handed his sheets to Trevor.
"The FBI is looking for this guy. The LAPD was called to Grant Park because some woman and her kids found him all smashed up. It was being reported as a mugging."
Trevor tutted and said, "My goodness little Charlie is having a bad day isn't he."
Michael shook his head. "I'm not so sure that the initial report was correct though. I wanted to get the name of the officer who found him and when I hacked back into the LAPD computer the file was gone. If the LAPD was investigating a mugging the file wouldn't just disappear. There are only two reasons for it to be gone; 1. The incident was discovered to not be a crime; or 2. If this guy is under some sort of government protection and they don't want a public record of him. The latter makes no sense because he is clearly listed as a consultant for the FBI and this guy teaches full time at Cal Sci."
Trevor began to pace the kitchen as her thought.
"Well let's assume that he had some sort of innocent accident and wound up in that park. He didn't know his name because he was listed as a John Doe by the hospital but he was conscious enough to add up some numbers impressing the staff. So how did the police or the FBI for that matter know to change the police report? Unless…"
Trevor picked up the bio sheet on Charlie looking it over.
"The police report said that he was found in Grant Park right, well he lives with his father about two blocks from there. This accident he had happened at home. When his father came home it would have been easy to track down what had happened to him especially with a brother working for the FBI."
Michael slapped his hand on the table and said, "That damned tattoo of Devlin's!"
Trevor frowned and said, "So what."
Michael was frustrated by Trevor's nonchalance.
"Devlin is lying in that hospital's morgue. That tattoo is very distinctive and would tie him to us. The fact that a mathematical genius was abducted from the same hospital puts that squarely on us! The FBI will know that we have him Trevor."
Trevor started looking worried.
"But Devlin never worked for Bio-Gen, there isn't anyway to trace him to us."
Michael got up and started pacing.
"Look you said yourself that all kinds of added security was placed on the lab after you were fired. The whole reason that the formula was encrypted is because they thought that you were trying to steal the compound. I disabled the surveillance cameras when we hit the lab but what if they added a separate surveillance system that I didn't know about and couldn't block. Devlin's face was hidden but not that damn tattoo. If they have a video of us on that day they can tie Devlin to us."
"Ok let's assume that you are right and they have tied both Devlin and Professor Eppes' kidnapping to us. They still have no idea how to find us and they don't have any clue as to how soon our buyers are coming."
Michael was not happy about this. Their plan was falling apart.
"That's right; Yokonovitch will be here the day after tomorrow. What if he can't crack this code before then?"
This is where Trevor was less concerned "Oh this guy can crack the code and I know just how to motivate him. Never the less make sure that we are ready to leave quickly if we need to."
Trevor grabbed the sheet with Charlie's address on it and turned back to Michael.
"I know that you say your hacks are untraceable, but with the heat on no more hacks into the FBI database. We have all we need to go on. Keep an eye on our guest."
"Where are you going?"
Trevor took the keys and said, "To get some motivation for Professor Eppes."
