Dopplegänger
IV
Jörg Lampe stared Tojo in the face and demanded, "Where did you get these?"
"I told you I'd bring you something that would make your eyes pop out of their sockets." Tojo said. "Where I got them is none of your concern."
"You stupid kid!" The shop owner yelled, slapping the boy hard enough across his face to leave a mark, "This stuff is so hot that no fence in the city in his right mind would touch it. Who ever broke the museum probably has the feds after them by now. Just how did you think you'd get away with ripping them off, are you crazy? You life won't be worth a plugged nickel!"
"I didn't rip off anybody," Tojo smiled, "That was my heist all by myself."
Lampe's jaw fell open for a moment in disbelief. "You're the museum thief?"
Tojo just nodded his head. Lampe scratched his head. "I can't help you myself, but I do have some connections. I might be able to get you in contact with some, foreign collectors that might be interested in this stuff, for a referral fee of course. Meanwhile, you'd better lay low till this blows over."
"How long?" Tojo asked.
"At least a month." Lampe said.
Inspector McClane spent the bulk of the morning on the phone, and his computer trying to piece together the details of the Professor's story. He'd managed to come up with a detailed dossier for Doctor Umataro Tenma that mostly collaborated the Professor's story. The man had been quite a well respected scientist in the field of robotics, but he had been such a workaholic that he'd allowed his marriage to fall apart. The doctor had managed to retain custody of his only son Tobio after his wife Hoshie had sued for divorce. A year later, the boy was critically injured in a traffic accident. The child lay in a coma for many months and had been transferred to a research hospital, Tenma having signed documents that would allow his son's body to be given to science research. About a year and a half later, Tenma set fire to his laboratory at the ministry of science and trashed his house. He was committed to a mental hospital, and his wife was awarded possession of his estate. Shortly after that Hoshie Tenma simply disappeared, McClane could not find any trace of Tenma's ex wife after that. It was like she had just vanished from the face of the earth.
As for the boy, he could find no death certificate, nor any record of his treatment following several months of his being in the hospital in a coma. He did find records of Tenma's consent for Tobio's body to be donated for research in the event of his death. The signature of a doctor Hazama Kuro appeared on one of the documents, but he was not able to find any information about this person. There the record trail on Tobio Tenma ended, there were no hospital discharge records, no morgue records, nothing. It was as if the boy also had also vanished from existence. The paper trail on Tobio dried up just about the same date as it did for his mother. That fact, and a photograph of the boy bothered McClane. Tobio's photograph as a nine year old resembled his teenage robbery suspects description to a 'T'.
Tojo walked into his bedroom to find the secret compartment in the floor open and its contents missing.
"Looking for these?" Hoshie asked.
The boy turned about to see his mother standing in corner of the room.
"I know what you've been up to." She said. "I defended you at school but I knew the truth. I know who you've been hanging out with, and what you've been spending your money on. That lowlife Lampe spilled his guts when I threatened to turn him over to the police. My son the jewel thief. Has a nice ring to it."
"I don't understand." Tojo said.
"It's rather simple actually." Hoshie laughed. "We've burned though your father's money living in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in New York. While you've been hanging out with the youth tong gangs I've made a few connections of my own. I think I know someone who can put your talents to good use but you'll need to take your directions from me from now on."
"I don't understand." Tojo stuttered.
"What's the matter son, have I surprised you?" Hoshie asked. "After your near fatal accident your father gave you up for dead. He even donated your body to a science research laboratory. I didn't find out about that until our divorce was finally settled. Your father's lawyers did their best to hold up that settlement for as long as they could, and for a while I was in pretty bad financial shape. That's when I hooked up with a Kin Sankaku. He made me an offer I couldn't refuse moving some of his goods between Japan and America. He's one of the largest dealers in gems, both legitimate and otherwise. He used his influence to locate you, and he also had a connection with a high priced doctor that brought you out of the coma. I had to change my identity and fake my death, and in a way your father actually did us a favor by signing those medical documents. The two of us have effectively vanished from the world's eyes without a trace."
The look of astonishment on the boy's face didn't go unnoticed by his mother.
"That's right son, It seems that we are in this together now." She laughed. "Kin Sankaku needs to talk to you, and you need to listen to him. I'm deeply in debt with him, and perhaps your talents are what will get me out of the little bind I'm it. Things may yet work out just fine for the two of us."
Kin Sankaku's office was located in the middle of some very expensive prime real estate on 5th Avenue just to the west of the diamond district on 47th street. Tojo fidgeted nervously in the elevator which made its way rapidly from the street level to the top of the building.
"Don't say anything except to answer the man's questions." Hoshie snarled at Tojo. "Above all, be polite. This man is well connected with the mob, you don't want to cross him."
"You're afraid of him, aren't you?" Tojo asked his mother.
"Your damned right I am." she replied. "You will enter behind me, and avoid making direct eye contact with him. Look down on the floor if you have to."
Hoshie knocked on the door and waited. "Come in, I've been waiting for you." the voice inside announced. She slowly pushed the door open and entered, Tojo followed slowly behind his mother.
The plush penthouse suite was decorated with some expensive taxidermy heads, all of which were trophies that Kin had brought back with him from various safari trips he'd been on. It was obvious that the man prided himself as a big game hunter, he wore a pith hat and dressed in shorts as if he expected to find himself out on the Savannah upon leaving the building.
The man behind the desk smiled with a mouth full of perfect white teeth. "So I finally get to meet this genius son of yours." He announced. "I hope he is as smart as you bragged."
"What is it you want from him?" Hoshie asked in a soft voice.
"For now, I just want to get to know him, and see what he is capable of." Kin Sankaku replied. "Come here son. I want to talk to you."
Tojo walked confidently up to the desk and leaned against it, resting the palms of both hands on the edge of the ebony top. Hoshie glared at the boy, the expression on her face screamed "show respect!"
Sankaku didn't seem to take any notice of the boy's physical attitude. "Come over to my side of the desk, I want your attention over here," he demanded.
Tojo straightened up and complied. He stood behind Kin Sankaku as the man rotated the computer monitor on his desk toward the boy. "How good are you with on line security systems?" He asked.
"I've hacked my way into a few," the boy said deadpan.
"Steal anything?" Sankaku asked.
"Only information," the boy said. "Though if I had an off shore account to transfer funds into that might have been different."
"Smart." the man said as he started typing on his keyboard. "What do you make of this?" he asked pushing the keyboard and mouse towards where the boy was standing.
Tojo moved closer to the desk and studied the computer monitor screen. He reached for the mouse, and noticed Sankaku motion for him to take it. The boy continued where the man had left off, and quickly had a terminal screen open that scrolled quickly through page after page of encrypted text. He opened another window and began to enter code, creating a small script that he launched. The program immediately bombed and left him with a blank screen. He closed the window opened a new one. He quickly rewrote his hack. This time, the script replicated itself, launching multiple copies faster than the system on the other side could shut them down. While the task he created ran in the background he typed away in another foreground window, and was rewarded with a document that displayed on the screen. Sankaku pushed the boy away from the computer and examined what was now on the screen.
"Good work." He said. "It would have taken me several hours to get this far."
"What am I looking at?" Tojo asked.
"You've hacked into the first layer of a bank security system." Kin Sankaku told him. "Ever hear of Fort Knox?"
"Sure, who hasn't?" the boy smirked. "The US government's legendary gold repository."
"Legendary is probably the right word." the man replied. "These days gold is traded electronically without changing hands, at least most of the time. There are secondary storage caches of the metal all over the country. What most people don't realize is that there is very little of the stuff in Fort Knox these days, its been transferred out to many smaller repositories. One of the largest is right here in NYC, in the main branch of a major bank. We just hacked into their computer system. That document you managed to decrypt has the details of the next transfer of gold between the US and a foreign power. What you are going to do is to gain control of their security systems and make it possible for us to enter the vault and take possession of some of the bullion."
Tojo laughed. "You do realize that gold is heavy."
"We won't have to move it very far." Sankaku said. "Besides, we will have some unwilling help. You will be making sure of that."
"I don't understand." the boy replied.
"Don't worry, you will." Sankaku told him.