The Genius Wars (26 page)

‘Cadel.’ There was an edge to Saul’s voice. ‘I’ve been a cop for more than twenty years. I know what I’m doing, okay?’

When he walked out of the room, he slammed the door behind him.

By seven o’clock that night, there were eight people in the house.

Three of them actually lived there. Three had been formally invited to attend what Cadel described as ‘a council of war’. But the other two were bored-looking men with guns, whose presence Fiona found unendurable. She was already upset about the blazing floodlights in the garden, and the temperamental alarm system that now protected every door and window. Men with guns were the last straw.

‘They can have their dinner elsewhere,’ she’d hissed at her husband, ‘because we won’t be cooking for them!’

‘There’s no question of that,’ Saul had promised. But despite all the scented candles she’d lit and ambient music she’d played since arriving home from work, Fiona remained edgy and unsettled. Even a warm bath (in a locked bathroom) hadn’t calmed her down.

Her reaction to Gazo’s reappearance, at about half past five, had been so abrupt – so uncharacteristically tense and distracted – that he’d quietly asked Cadel if it was all right to stay.

‘You have to stay,’ Cadel had replied. ‘I want to hear about Sonja.’

‘But I don’t fink your mum really wants me ’ere.’

‘It’s not you. It’s everyone. This is a pretty small house.’

‘Is it because of what I done?’ Gazo had lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘I mean – wiv Thi’s laptop, an’ all?’

‘No one knows what you did, except me. Now what did Sonja say?’

It turned out that Sonja hadn’t said very much. Although Judith had been trying to track down a neurological interface device like the damaged one on Sonja’s wheelchair, such an advanced speech synthesiser wasn’t freely available in Australia. And because Sonja’s new Dynavox was no more efficient than her old one, she’d been forced to spell out every word, letter by letter, during her conversation with Gazo.

The result had been a long, slow, stumbling exchange, spread over several hours.

‘But she’s doing real good,’ Gazo had been able to report. ‘She’ll be out soon. Day after tomorrow, they reckon.’

‘Did she say anything about me?’ Cadel had inquired, eliciting a snort from Gazo.

‘Are you kidding? You’re all she
does
talk about.’

‘Did you tell her about Com? And his car?’

‘Sorta. I didn’t know about the car, back then. I mean, I didn’t know they’d found it.’

‘Had she heard about the encrypted stuff on his laptop?’

‘I dunno.’

‘Did you ask her?’

‘How could I? You only just told
me
about it.’

‘Oh. Yes. I forgot.’

Cadel was missing Sonja more and more acutely, and not just because she was such a brilliant code-breaker. Whenever Sonja was around, it seemed easier to make the right choices. She had a stronger sense than he did of what should and shouldn’t be done.

‘Well … Judith’s coming over tonight, so I can tell her all the news, and she can pass it on to Sonja,’ he’d finally observed, at the conclusion of his quiet talk with Gazo. Judith had been asked to join them because she was feeling left out – and because she had lots of money. No one was quite sure how much a fullbody scan would cost, but it was bound to be too much for the overstretched police budget. Judith, on the other hand, might
consider footing such a monstrous bill – especially if she decided to commission a scan of herself, or Sonja. Everyone agreed that Cadel probably wasn’t the only one under surveillance; that was why Saul had been forced to don the
chador
, and Gazo the fake nose. So if Cadel wanted to avoid detection by scattering his image all over Sydney’s CCTV networks, his friends would have to do the same. Otherwise they would be advertising his whereabouts every time they went near him.

Unless, of course, they continued to wear ridiculous disguises.

Judith’s disguise that evening was a great big Dryzabone oilskin coat. She also wore a feather boa wrapped around her neck, and a flowery wedding hat pulled so low across her forehead that she could barely see out from under its wide, floppy brim. She had arrived laden down with cakes and fruit, which Fiona had accepted gratefully; the two women had discussed food for a while as everyone waited for Andrew Hellen to show up. Andrew had promised to drop in on his way home from work. He was needed, not only because he might have some idea of what a scan would cost, but because he knew things that Cadel didn’t.

Cadel was out of his depth. Even after pulling apart the computer-graphic malware, he still couldn’t quite understand how its scan component operated. You
could
insert a scan; Prosper’s image wasn’t an integral part of the program. But his visual data had been manipulated, somehow, and Cadel wasn’t skilled enough to identify exactly what had been done.

He was satisfied, however, that Dr Vee must have designed the bug – with a little help from someone else. Vee was an infiltration expert. He couldn’t have put together a visual-effects virus all on his own. Like Cadel, he had his limitations. Like Cadel, he would have required the assistance of a highly trained professional.

Unfortunately, there was no telling who that highly trained professional might be.

Andrew Hellen was unable to suggest any more names. Even after examining Com’s malware, he could only shrug
when asked if Raimo Zapp might be responsible for it. ‘Maybe,’ was all that he could say on the subject. But he did request a copy of the program, to show to some of his colleagues. And he did remark that it might be possible to flush out the mystery programmer, simply because the work itself was so ground-breaking.

‘If he hasn’t got a patent on it, and he’s been doing it secretly, then anyone can put up a hand and say it’s theirs,’ Andrew reasoned. ‘They’ll start making a lot of money off it, and your guy might not like that.’

‘You mean he might try something?’ Cadel hazarded, causing Andrew to nod. Then Saul jerked his chin at the USB flash drive that Andrew was holding.

‘So you think that program is worth a lot of money?’ the detective asked.

‘Oh, yeah.’ Andrew nodded again. ‘Millions.’

‘Which means that Prosper English must be rolling in dough,’ Judith declared. ‘Either that or he’s blackmailing the guy who invented this program.’

‘If it
is
a guy,’ Fiona weighed in.

By this time they were all sitting around the kitchen table, drinking tea and sampling Judith’s cakes. Even Fiona had dragged herself away from the stove, where various pots were steaming and bubbling. The whole room smelled of bolognaise sauce. Yet despite the cosy atmosphere, Andrew was looking slightly uncomfortable – perhaps because there were two armed men hovering in the shadows. Or perhaps he was alarmed by the fact that certain people were expecting him to do impossible things. Cadel had already asked him to identify the mystery programmer. Now, as the conversation veered towards the program itself, Fiona wanted to know if Andrew could scan Cadel immediately. ‘Just in case we decide to go ahead with this whole digital-double thing,’ she said.

Andrew was forced to explain that he couldn’t scan anyone. A specialist would have to be booked and paid for; the price would almost certainly be a five-figure sum. ‘I can’t tell you exactly how
much,’ he confessed, ‘but it’ll be a lot. And then there’ll be other costs on top of that …’

‘What other costs?’ Judith said sharply.

Andrew took a deep breath – but it was Cadel who answered. Having already discussed the whole process with Andrew, he understood how difficult and complicated it would be to insert his own digital double into Com’s malware. ‘The scan is just raw data,’ Cadel explained. ‘You have to use it as the basis for a computer model, and then that model has to be rendered –’

‘Doesn’t the program do it all for you?’ Saul interposed.

Cadel shook his head.

‘Not really,’ he replied. ‘There isn’t enough room. You have to use something that’s got a fair degree of finish to it.’ He glanced at Andrew. ‘Isn’t that right?’

‘That’s right,’ said Andrew.

‘And how long would this refining process actually take?’ Fiona wanted to know.

It was a question that Cadel hadn’t yet asked; he awaited the answer with as much interest as everyone else did. But Andrew seemed reluctant to commit himself.

‘It depends on how many scans you’re talking about,’ he murmured.

‘Well – let’s just say one to start with. One scan.’ Saul took over the interrogation. ‘If we manage to get that done tomorrow, how long will it take before Cadel has something he can stick online?’

Andrew hesitated.

‘Days? Weeks?’ Saul pressed.

‘It depends,’ Andrew finally admitted. ‘If you’ve got a couple of people working on the job, flat out … I dunno. Maybe three or four days. Maybe more.’

‘
Per scan
?’ Judith’s tone was so deeply unimpressed that Andrew regarded her for a moment, his expression thoughtful.

‘You don’t just push a button,’ he said.

Silence fell. The prospect of shelling out thousands of dollars for something that might take weeks to finish cast a gloom over
the entire table. Cadel was especially disappointed. He had been anxious to turn Prosper’s own weapon against him. What a perfect solution it would have been!

‘I can give you some names, if you want to get quotes for a scan,’ Andrew went on. ‘But before you do anything, you should talk to me first.’

Saul grunted. Fiona sighed. Judith said, ‘I’ll have to think about this.’

Then she rose, reaching for her feather boa.

‘Are you off, Judith?’ Fiona sounded surprised. ‘Don’t you want to stay for dinner?’

‘No thanks, darl, I’ve got things to do,’ was Judith’s firm response. She nodded at Saul. ‘I’ll give you a ring tomorrow, once I’ve made a decision.’

‘Drive carefully,’ Fiona pleaded.

‘Yes, for God’s sake watch yourself on those roads,’ Saul agreed, pushing back his chair. Soon everyone was standing except Cadel. He sat with his chin propped on his fist, lost in thought.

He only snapped out of his reverie when the visitors began to leave – and even then it was Fiona who thanked Andrew for coming. Before Cadel could utter a word, Andrew and Judith were both heading for the door, with Saul in attendance. And since Judith’s departure was so noisy (what with the rustle of her oilskin coat and her strident complaints about parking fines), Cadel abandoned all hope of thanking anyone himself. Had he attempted to do so, he probably wouldn’t have been heard.

But as Andrew left the room, he glanced back over his shoulder, acknowledging Cadel’s diffident smile with a raised hand.

‘Well …
he
was nice, wasn’t he? Giving up his evening like that?’ said Fiona, once the distant squeal of tyres told her that Andrew was well out of earshot. She then made for the stove, studiously ignoring her two uninvited, fully armed guests. ‘So it’s not six for dinner, after all. I take it you’ll be staying, Gazo?’

‘Uh – yeah. If that’s okay.’

‘Of course it is.’ Fiona began to stir the bolognaise sauce. ‘In fact the later you go home, the better. Since there’ll be less traffic around.’

‘I ain’t had no problems today,’ Gazo assured her. ‘I bin to the hospital and back, and no one crashed into me.’

‘Because you were in Thi Thuoy’s car,’ Fiona reminded him. But Cadel doubted that the car itself had protected Gazo.

‘I don’t think anyone will be hijacking SCATS for a while,’ he said, returning his computer to the gun safe. ‘If they did we’d probably catch ’em, because we’re on the alert now. And Vee must realise that.’

‘All the same –’

‘It’s like Judith’s house.’ Cadel wouldn’t let Fiona finish. ‘Vee knows we’re watching The Wife, so he hasn’t been near it. That’s why she can still live there.’ He heard an engine start up in the street outside. ‘What we
really
have to do is put a stop to that CCTV surveillance,’ he added. ‘If we could work out a way of doing that, we wouldn’t even need to get any scans done.’

‘Judith didn’t look too keen, did she?’ Gazo observed. He was leaning against the back of a chair. ‘I don’t reckon she’ll cough up that kinda money.’

‘I don’t think anyone realised it would cost so much,’ said Fiona. ‘Did you have any idea, Cadel?’

‘No.’ In his heart of hearts, Cadel had already given up on the digital-double plan. It was the kind of thing that could only be accomplished by people with unlimited funds – people like Prosper English, for example. Despite the worldwide investigation into Prosper’s finances, it appeared that he still had access to at least one substantial nest egg.

Unless, of course, Prosper had
blackmailed
the work out of somebody. Judith might have been right about that.

‘I don’t suppose we could cut some sort of a deal,’ Cadel speculated, without much hope. ‘Maybe we could get a few scans done in exchange for the rights to Com’s malware. Andrew said it was worth money, and if the guy who’s responsible starts to kick up a stink, it’ll mean that we can pin him down …’ A faint
noise suddenly silenced him; it sounded like the brakes on something enormous. ‘What’s that?’ he demanded, as a distant yell reached his ears.

Everyone froze. After a heartbeat’s pause, all heads turned in the same direction. A high-pitched squeal was growing louder and louder, underpinned by a deep, ominous rumble. Cadel heard clanking. There was a
thump
that shook the foundations. Close by, Saul screamed, ‘
Look out!
’

Cadel jumped to his feet.

‘What the –?’ said Gazo.

A door slammed. The metallic squeal was deafening. ‘
Move! Move!
’ someone cried, from behind Cadel. Gazo grabbed his arm. Footsteps were pounding down the hallway.

Then the house seemed to explode.

Jagged fragments whizzed through the air. Plaster rained from the ceiling. The noise was like a thunderclap as the wall in front of Cadel disintegrated. He fell.
Bang!
One end of a roof-beam crashed through the floor, which heaved like a dinghy in open water. Window-panes shattered. The lights went out.