Danielle shrugged her shoulders and settled back in her chair.
For the next hour, she related the incidents leading up to meeting
with him and lastly why she believed the computer held something
of significance. “I think a person I knew may have been murdered
for this computer. And yes, this is my take on the matter.”
Rand, who had reclined in his chair during her story, straightened
up and patted the desk. “Murder? So we shouldn’t take this lightly.
Hmm … and you say this program is called STAR.” He cradled his
face with his thumb and index finger. “There was a virus program
called STAR a few years back. I don’t recall all the specifics, but
I believe it was a spyware program. That’s it. Didn’t amount to
anything.”
“I wouldn’t know the purpose of the program except to say there’s
more than a general interest,” Danielle said.
“By who?”
“By a political consulting firm, I think.”
“That doesn’t seem to offer us much. Speculative, huh?”
Alex offered, “Danielle and I think that this political organization
has a distinct reason to want this computer. And we want to know why.”
Rand tilted his head slightly and furrowed his brow. “I haven’t
heard anything that offers any semblance of a computer virus. Let’s
head to the lab.” He sprung out of his seat and picked up the computer.
Danielle pulled herself out of the chair, followed by Alex. Together,
they stepped down the corridor to a room marked Private Lab.
The lab was quiet, with only a few students: one with thick
eyeglasses and another with a ponytail who seemed in control,
lingering around a computer at a table a short distance away. They
looked up and returned to their work, disinterested in the three of
them.
Rand placed the computer on the counter and connected a
monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Then he booted up the computer.
As they waited, he unscrewed a side access panel and pinched the
latches holding the panel in place. From a drawer underneath the
counter, he snagged a small pen-sized flashlight. Then he focused on
the hieroglyphics written on the various boards and internal written
hints within the computer.
After Rand pressed the power button, the computer whirred and
beeped a couple of times. Electricity flowed through its circuits as the
computer stirred to life. The monitor displayed a number of responses
as programs flashed across the screen with system checks.
Rubbing his hands together, Rand placed them on the computer
keyboard. “Okay, girl, show me what you’ve got.” He punched
in a few commands and said, “I’m checking out the system.” He
proceeded to examine directories and program files, stopping now
and then without saying a word before he checked the system profile,
ram, hard drives, various peripheral cards, and protocols.
Rand turned and faced them. “Nothing unusual … but it’s odd
that I couldn’t find any data. No letters, memos, e-mails, calendar,
tasks, or notes. You know, it’s similar to driving into a ghost town;
everything appears normal until you realize there are no people.
Maybe your friend cleaned the computer. He could have stored the
data on a CD or on a thumb drive, but the data is missing,” he said
with a perplexed look on his face.
He slowly tapped his index finger on the counter. “Wait a
minute.” He again resorted to his penlight to survey the innards of
the computer. “A-huh.”
“Find something?” Alex asked.
“Do you see it?” Rand pointed to a metal object inside the
computer.
Danielle and Alex peered into the computer and then turned and
shook their heads in unison.
Rand patted the top of the computer cabinet. “This computer
has three hard drives, but only the first and second ones are being
accessed. The third is not. Then there’s a docking station, although
the actual unit is missing. So …”
“What does that mean?” Danielle inquired.
“Well, what we’re seeing is what somebody wants us to see. It’s
like viewing a screen that is a pure façade.”
“I’m lost.” Danielle tried to glean something from the monitor
while Alex seemed unfazed by Rand’s discovery.
Rand swiveled around on his chair and addressed them. “In every
theatrical performance, you have a main stage. And behind every
presentation on center stage is a series of stagehands preparing the
props and assisting the actors for the next scene. It’s like having two
main stages, but one is hidden by a curtain. We’re only seeing one and
not the other. The other program has not been queued to perform.”
Danielle asked, exhaling deeply, “And?”
“It’s equivalent to another dimension, but our eyes trick us into
believing there is nothing else there. In Owen’s case, he must have
hidden the data and special instructions behind the curtain. In other
words, we are seeing a show, but not the real show.”
Alex scratched his head. “Where do we go from here?”
“Right. We need to find the key to unlock it. Owen must have placed
a backdoor somewhere on the computer. It could be a combination
of keystrokes or accessing computer programs in a certain manner.”
He stroked his chin with index finger and thumb again. “Surely, he
left some type of key to access it. And we don’t know if it means
something. But certainly he wants to hide something.”
“This is like the Wizard of Oz.”
Danielle ignored Alex’s comment and asked, “Do you think you
can find it?”
Rand screwed up his face, deep in thought. “I’d like to try. And
based upon what you’ve told me, apparently he wanted you to find
it. That makes me think it’s possible.”
Danielle shook her head. “But Brooke and I tried earlier. And it
seems to me you could find the answer.”
“Obviously,” he continued, “he must have said or written
something for you to find, otherwise why would he lead you to the
computer?”
“He said ‘source code’ and ‘access.”
Alex and Rand began exchanging ideas about the depths of
computer security and hacking into computers and then the Internet
and the ability to access a computer from great distances. Danielle,
with her eyes glued to the computer, raised her eyes and faintly
smiled. “Besides the set of books, he did kind of … mixed in with
the books, oddly, was a book titled Nerds 2.01: A Brief History of
the Internet. I shelved it with my books on computers back in New
York.” She furrowed her brow, searching Rand’s eyes for some eureka
expression, but he remained expressionless.
She knew, for her, the sands of time were running out.