Run the Numbers

Chapter Nine

It had been a very long night for Don and he sat at his desk rubbing his face in his hands. David came rushing in looking just as tired but spoke with far more energy in his voice.

"We got a hit from homeland security. One Dimetry Yokonovitch entered the country on a phony passport this morning. They were about to grab him for questioning but Jarvis and Terry were there and instructed immigration to let him pass and they are tailing him now along with a homeland security agent. Mark Reynolds from homeland security is on his way here and he is not happy."

"No he is not!" a tall man dressed in a suit said as he entered.

David said "This is Sub Director Mark Reynolds; LA Division Homeland Security."

Mr. Reynolds ignored David and walked directly up to Don.

"Homeland Security take precedence over all domestic concerns Agent and your people had no business interfering with my people detaining a known security risk entering this country. Dimetry Yokonovitch is high up in the Russian mafia and has strong affiliations that are known to be Al Kida allies. This data that you lost that is up for sale contains the formula to make a biological weapon does it not?"

Don opened his mouth to answer but Reynolds cut him off.

"Which makes this a case of National and Homeland Security and that takes jurisdiction over the FBI's concerns in this matter. Keeping that kind of volatile information out of the hands of known enemies of this country is paramount and any other consideration is secondary to the safety of the United States of America."

Don was clearly fighting to control his emotions and spoke in a voice of forced calm that was riddled with sarcasm.

"First of all Mr. Reynolds we did not loose anything. The data was stolen from Bio-Genetics Technologies Inc., who came to the FBI to recover the stolen data and apprehend the thieves. Secondly there were two hostages taken by these men because the data was encrypted and they can't sell it until it has been decoded. We believe that Yokonovitch may be the buyer, but that is not certain yet. So far he is the only candidate that we have seen coming into the country. We were able to track the thieves to their hide out but they evacuated before we got there. Given the actions of the thieves we are certain that they are working against a timeline and that the exchange is going to happen very soon so we want to tail any potential buyer. Third but MOST important; the lives of the two hostages are not secondary! We want to recover those hostages as well as the stolen data and tailing the buyer may be our best chance to do that!"

Don never raised his voice but in fact spoke more softly as he went on. By the time he finished the anger that he felt at the lives of his family being described as secondary was abundantly clear in his tone and in the steely look in his eyes.

Mr. Reynolds was slightly taken aback by the response of this agent but before he could formulate a reply, Don's boss stepped in and said, "Sub Director Reynolds, Agent Eppes could we continue this discussion in my office."

Don turned his back on Reynolds and marched off without another word. Mr. Reynolds stared after Don stunned by the reaction he had gotten from this FBI agent and non to pleased at being spoken to as if this man had every right to publicly dress him down. He stiffly followed Director Merrick to his office.

After closing the door Assistant Director Merrick said, "Don when was the last time you got some sleep?"

Don felt more secure behind closed doors and spoke more freely.

"I'll sleep when we have Charlie, dad and that data back."

Don saw the look of surprised confusion on Reynolds face and said, "My brother is an FBI and NSA consultant in applied mathematics with top security clearance. The men who stole the Bio-Gen data abducted him because he has the ability to decode it. Charlie must have refused to aide them so they kidnapped my father to force him to work for them."

Mr. Reynolds looked stunned by this news.

"Your brother has top security clearance? I know the names of everyone with that kind of clearance. Eppes, Eppes…" A memory seemed to click into place and he looked up at Don and said "Dr. Charles Edward Eppes is your brother?"

Don had calmed down somewhat at this point.

"You know my brother?"

"By reputation only, this changes things considerably. Dr. Eppes has knowledge of highly classified information. Troop placements and movements, defensive strategies... If Yokonovitch gets his hands on Dr. Eppes and finds out who he is, it would be disastrous."

Reynolds looked at Don and realized why he was being so defensive. He could clearly see the strain of this situation in his face.

"Look, I have a job to do that sometimes requires me to be dispassionate. It is difficult to put thoughts of individual lives in priority against the lives of thousands. I didn't mean to make it sound as though the lives of your brother and father were unimportant. Perhaps we can start over Agent Eppes."

Michael returned around noon with the disk that Charlie had requested and an old model Cadillac with darkened windows. When he entered the room Charlie was standing in front of the wall, which was covered, in complicated mathematical equations.

He seemed oblivious to his captors as they discussed where Michael had gotten the car but when his father moaned and began to move his head from side to side Charlie dropped the marker he was holding and stepped quickly over to his father's side.

"Dad?" He touched his father's forehead, which was hot with fever. "Dad, hold on." Charlie looked over at the two men talking and said, "He has a fever which means that the bullet wound is getting infected!"

Charlie ran to the bathroom and grabbed the only other towel and wetted it down then went back to his father's bedside and used it to wipe his brow.

"Dad can you hear me?"

Alan opened his eyes and looked up at Charlie and smiled weakly.

"I was just resting my eyes."

Charlie sighed with relief and stood up to get some more water but a wave of dizziness swept over him making him stagger and fall to his knees.

"Charlie!" Alan yelled and tried to get up but cried out in pain and fell back on the bed.

"I'm alright dad, just tired. Don't try to get up; you need to rest. I'll get you some water"

Trevor stepped over to the bed with a glass of water, which Charlie took but glared hard at the man who had done this to his father.

"He needs medical attention now!"

Trevor didn't look as sure of himself as he did before but his reply was the same as the last time Charlie had demanded his father be given medical attention immediately.

"Then you had better get back to work professor."

Charlie checked the bandage that he had wrapped around his father's waist and saw that the wound had started to bleed again.

"Dad, you need to lie still."

Alan looked over and saw the marker on the wall and then at Charlie.

"You have to let me go Charlie." he whispered. "You can not let this kind of information get into the hands of people like this."

Charlie understood that his father meant to give up so that Charlie wouldn't be forced to complete this task and his face drained of color.

"Dad, I know what I have to do. You have to trust me and hold on."

All of this chatting was wasting time; something they were running out of. Michael stood up and spoke in a commanding tone to Charlie.

"That's enough whispering over there. It's time to get back to work, professor."

Charlie turned quickly on the men watching them and shouted.

"What do you think we are doing, planning a great escape? If you want your data you had better back off and give me some space!"

Charlie was breathing hard with the venting of his emotions and his head was pounding so hard that he was finding it a little difficult to focus.

Trevor checked his watch and said to Michael "He has a point." Then he turned to Charlie and said, "Alright professor, we are going to go over to the truck stop and get some lunch. I'll move the car so you can't get away in it and we will be able to see the door to this room at all times. We'll give you the space you want but when we come back you had better have made some progress!"

Charlie stood up slowly from his father's bedside and said, in a calmer voice "I already have. The algorithm should be complete by this evening. I will have to test it and you can verify that the decoded data is there."

Michael and Trevor exchanged a guarded look but said nothing. They picked up the keys to the car and the room and left locking the door behind them.

Charlie turned back to his father and said, "Dad, they will never see that data after the first time it runs through the decoding program. When they try to run the disk it will erase itself as the disk plays. You have to hold on Dad; if you don't then neither of us has a chance."

He still felt dizzy and nauseas so he sat down next to his father for a few minutes.

"Don will find us Dad. He has been looking out for me since we were kids."

Alan knew that Don was doing everything he could but he privately feared that he might not be able to get to them in time.

"Charlie, take your time with this. Once they have that disk..."

Charlie sighed and said, "I know Dad, but try not to worry. I have a plan that will work if Don doesn't come charging to the rescue, but he will, Dad. He always has."

Charlie paused for a moment lost in thought.

"Remember when Don got in trouble for burning down the old garage?"

Alan turned his head to Charlie wondering why he was thinking about something that happened over twenty years ago.

"He didn't do it, he was covering for me. I thought I had worked out how quickly the fire would spread and what direction it would burn but I was wrong. Don knew I'd get grounded for a month and he wanted me to be able to go to that camp so he told you that he started the fire."

Alan smiled weakly and said, "I know."

Charlie opened his eyes wide and said, "You knew?"

"Well we figured it out a week later when your mother found some notes in your room about the speed and nature of combustible out gassings or something to that effect."

Charlie shook his head and said, "You know what the worst part was? I felt so guilty that I was miserable the whole time I was at camp."

Alan reached out and took Charlie's hand. "That's why your mother and I never said anything to you boys about what we discovered. Both of you learned a valuable lesson about responsibility and accountability."

Charlie looked at his father with an expression of deep respect then said, "Try to get some rest pop." and he got up and went back to work on his calculations.

Charlie worked through the day to finish and by seven o'clock he felt that he had cracked the code effectively. The dizziness that had plagued him since he removed the pressure bandage from his head wound had grown steadily worse and he was a little unsteady on his feet. Alan dosed fitfully but as long as he stayed still and quiet the bleeding seemed to have stopped although there was a deep stain on the bed where he had lain.

While their captors were gone, Charlie had gone into the bathroom and managed to detach one of the two towel bars on the wall. He hid the bar over by the folding table underneath several pages full of calculations.

When Michael and Trevor returned to the room at seven thirty they demanded to see what progress Charlie had made on the decryption. Charlie hooked the palm pilot up to the laptop and put the disk into the drive. As the first of the encrypted material began to pass from the palm pilot through the number sieve on the laptop and to the disk a read out displayed.

What they saw was a screen full of undistinguishable numbers. As the program began to run the numbers slowly started changing. After several minutes of this Michael said, "So what are we looking at professor?"

Charlie put his head in his hands and sighed.

"Patience is a virtue gentlemen. This is going to take some time. The encryption is unbelievably complex. Who did this encryption anyway?"

Trevor frowned and said, "Why? Does that matter?"

Charlie still staring at the screen said, "I would like to meet the mathematician who wrote this; it's brilliant."

After half an hour Trevor looked at the display and saw what looked like the outline of a complex molecule although most of the image was still covered by the changing numbers.

"This is it! The number sieve is working."

Michael also stepped over to the screen and looked duly impressed. "How long will it take to decrypt all of the data?"

Charlie was over with his father applying a fresh towel to his forehead and said, "At least 12 hours give or take. So now that you have what you want it is time to keep your end of the bargain."

Trevor, who was bent over the computer screen watching the numbers changing quickly and one by one disappearing from the data image stood up and said, "In 12 hours give or take, your father will get the medical attention he needs."

There was a tone of finality in his words that sent a shiver down Charlie's spine and he knew that these men would never live up to their word.