The Interrogation of Simon Graham, Part 2

[Joe Manning 0]

I have an update for you, Marshall. Not sure what to make it of to be honest, but I'm sure you'd want to know about it. Our tech analysts have been poring through the data on Simon's ODRI device and the Quantum Trinities computer mainframe. We've been looking for information, as you requested, about his prior activities and the operations of the Quantum Trinities corporation. They've been finding a good deal of it, all of it unfortunately pertaining to Simon himself and his use of the Rainmakers assets -- no identities of ranking Rainmaker operatives revealed and no specifics about the organization's operating infrastructure. The analysts found something else though ... something curious.

 

Some of the timestamps on the mainframe data are awkwardly placed, as though they were modified. It was no accident that we found this; one of the analysts was acting on a hunch. You reported that the Deltan woman was admitted past the blockade because she had right-of-passage credentials granted by the Taurus Brothers years ago. When the Taurus Brothers denied this, we investigated the credentials and determined the methods by which the signature and the timestamp had been forged. Acting on that prior experience, our analyst took a closer look at Simon's data and found similar methods utilized on the timestamps of his records and log entries. We're not sure yet how many of the entries are so altered or for what purpose. It's enough work getting the content decrypted, especially the data on his ODRI, so it's going to take some more time.

 

For now, I suggest we assume that at least some of this data was forged. Maybe he was cheating Quantum Trinities. That would go a long way toward clearing them of complicity. But we can't be sure. Simon's pattern thus far suggests an angle that we won't see until it's too late ...

 

Minutes before show time and Marshall Savoy was running through her checklist of concerns. From the observation room on the other side of Simon's cell, her team was making last minute checks of the surveillance system that would monitor the call. Despite Savoy's objections -- admittedly mild -- the Taurus Brothers had authorized his deal. Conventional interrogation was simply proving too ineffective, and the idea of threatening Simon's daughter for information seemed redundant considering his request.

 

On the other side of the one-way mirror, Simon stared ahead with a blank expression on his face; he would be staring at his own reflection, but where Savoy was standing he appeared to be staring right at her. It was unnerving, but Savoy remained where she stood. It was good to be a little unnerved; unnerved would keep her on her toes, wary of any duplicity by Simon -or- outsiders. The possibility that Simon was not playing an angle here was the most distant one on her mind, so she reviewed her checklist one more time.

 

At the top of the list, every time she reviewed it, was the technical expertise Minos had demonstrated on numerous occasions. It had taken the Guardians two years to crack the Rainmakers' communication network after Minos rose to the head of the cult. Under his command, they relayed messages by uploading encrypted data packets into the computer cores of ships traveling through Bull's Head on predetermined courses, usually merchant vessels and Guardian patrol ships, turning those ships' crews into unwitting couriers. For two years these drops remained undetected until one of the packets was discovered in the core of a Guardian vessel. To the day, it was still unknown how the Rainmakers managed to deposit their messages into computer cores undetected. A few of their Adepts had been interrogated on the matter and the answer was always the same -- Minos was the only one who knew.

 

A week ago, they discovered another angle to Minos' communications expertise -- his use of Tranquility City's communications network to deliver similarly encrypted transmissions, broken down into thousands of pieces spread around the entire city before being reassembled at the destination. LaHaye and Systems Enterprises managed to catch a few of the fragments and assemble them into a phrase that identified Minos himself; that led to the blockade and the night of terror. Tapped into any comm network, Minos could pull off impressive stunts.

 

The background checks on Simon supported this analysis, starting with his role as a Quantum Trinities board member. Quantum Trinities specialized in building computer systems for the city's businesses, and Simon was the company's foremost programmer. His ODRI had been analyzed and found to contain extremely advanced software, including unique modules not previously encountered by either Bull's Head or the Federation. Several Grand Marshalls -- ones that would know -- had told Savoy that Simon would qualify to lead research teams in Federation space, such was the brilliance displayed by his handiwork. He was one of Bull's Head's brightest; a pity, Savoy thought, that he chose a life of crime and fanaticism.

 

"Link established with Qutar IX, Ma'am," Savoy's tech expert, Lawman Maybury, reported. He turned back toward Savoy and held out a small palm device, an old-model Starfleet communicator. "The Guardian station there will inform us when they have Ms. McCoy on the line."

 

Savoy took the device, glanced down at it, then passed it off to one of the guards beside the interrogation cell door. "He is not, under any circumstances, to touch this device. Place it on the table in front of him so that he can speak into it." She looked down at Maybury. "The first sign that he is attempting to relay any sensitive information to this woman, cut the transmission at once!" Seated next to Maybury was a specialist code-breaker brought in to determine if Simon attempted to relay any subliminal messages; Savoy made sure that he got her message as well.

 

Deborah McCoy of Qutar IX fit Simon's description well. She was one of the wealthier sharecroppers of that coreward world. The lives of the sharecroppers on Qutar IX were not without their grind, but McCoy had been kept in comfort thanks to periodic transfers of money into a fund she kept on Aldebaran. Background checks had shown no signs of shady activities on her part, no connections to any cults, no indications that she was anything but an estranged child being supported financially by the mysterious father she had never known well. She was the woman that the Taurus Brothers believed to be the key to breaking up the Rainmaker network by turning its captive leader against it.

 

Savoy still thought it was too easy. But years of training and experience had taught her to think that way.

 

The Marshall nodded to the guards at the door. They opened the door and stepped inside Simon's cell. Savoy turned her gaze back to the one-way mirror and watched Simon closely. Simon turned his head toward the guards and smiled. The microphones in the cell picked up his voice. "Gentlemen. Am I finally going to get my phone call now? I would cite that the time you've kept me waiting constitutes a violation of my basic rights ... but those have been violated in far worse ways." Simon's eyes turned back to the mirror, back to Savoy, as he said that.

 

Savoy reached past Marbury and held down the button that activated the commlink between the cell and the observation room. "We're watching you closely, Mr. Graham. And listening. The call is being piped through our system here, and we will not hesitate to terminate it and the deal if you give us due cause."

 

"Far too mistrustful, Marshall Savoy," Simon replied. One of the guards was checking the arm straps on his chair as the other placed the communicator on the table in front of him. "Think that I'm going to hack into Tranquility's net with the powers of my voice? Or ... perhaps ... deliver the code word that will instruct my followers which attacks should be carried out against Bull's Head next?"

 

Savoy's face hardened into scowl that she knew Simon could not see. "Whether you are toying with me or attempting to provoke me into withdrawing the deal, you are very close to losing your precious phone call, Mr. Graham."

 

Simon frowned; Savoy could not determine if the frown was genuine. "I am sorry, Marshall. That was uncalled for ... and I assure you, I was merely being facetious."

 

The guards nodded across the mirror and took up positions beside Simon's chair. Savoy depressed the comm button and looked down at her two experts. "He gets no leash. None. The first suspicion that he's pulling something, you cut the transmission without asking me."

 

Marbury nodded and pressed a finger to the earpiece of his comm headset. "Guardian outpost Qutar, Ma'am ... they've got the girl and they have put her on the comm line. She is standing by."

 

Savoy crossed her arms and looked into the cell. Simon was simply staring back at her, a small smile on his face now. A small tingle ran up Savoy's spine as she looked at that smile. Now, in the moment of truth, second thoughts were flooding through her. She had her orders from the Taurus Brothers, the people who contracted the Guardians to oversee Tranquility, the people to whom the Grand Marshalls answered. But the closer she got to giving Simon contact with the outside world, the more Savoy worried that this deal was not prudent. She had not reached her position as a Marshall within the Guardians by having instincts that routinely failed her. She had once been compared by one of her superiors to a gazelle, able to sense danger before it showed itself. The sense of danger was throbbing within her now. Minos could not be trusted. Nothing about him suggested a willingness to negotiate with the Taurus Brothers or the Guardians.

 

But her orders were clear. Nothing was more important to her than the career she could lose by directly disobeying the Taurus Brothers. She pushed the comm button. "Your daughter is on the line, Simon. Lawman Reese, activate the communicator."

 

The guard to Simon's left nodded, reached across the table, and tapped one of the communicator's controls. Silence hung over the observation room as everyone waited for the comm exchange. Simon kept his eyes pointed straight toward the mirror as he leaned over the table and spoke. "Deborah?"

 

After a moment, a female voice came over the observation room's speakers. " ... Simon?"

 

"Yes." Simon leaned back in his chair. "It is I."

 

There was silence again as neither side spoke. Savoy leaned against the bank of computer terminals and stared into the cell like a predator ready to swoop. You've got something up your sleeve, Simon, she thought. What is it? Show it to me. Maybury's finger remained poised over the Terminate control. Savoy could sense his tension as well. No one in the observation room was comfortable with this arrangement. For several seconds, their tension hung over the room like the oppressive haze before a storm. Finally, Deborah McCoy spoke, and her voice was like a crack of thunder.

 

"Minos has left Tranquility."

 

The line was cut on the other end. "No," Savoy groaned. The room swirled around her, and for a moment she was oblivious to everything but the widening smile on Simon's face. Fury boiled within her until she allowed her control to slip and her palm to slam against the one-way mirror. Simon's smiling face tilted to one side.

 

"Have the girl arrested," Savoy barked to Maybury as she moved over to the door and tapped the access code. She burst through the open doorway, reached over the table, grabbed Simon by his collar, and lifted him up so that his arms were wrenched against the chair straps. "Where is he?!" Simon's eyes widened in excitement, but he showed no fear and gave no answer. The guards looked at each other uncomfortably, not sure whether to restrain the Marshall. "Where is Minos?! Tell me or I'll make sure you suffer before you die!"

 

"Dear Marshall," Simon replied, his voice as calm as ever. "You should know that I haven't the slightest idea where Minos is or what he's been doing since your blockade started. I was given one distinct job -- be Minos for a few days -- and we Disciples do our jobs without being given or asking for any information but that which we need. As I have told you repeatedly ... you will get nothing useful out of me."

 

Savoy threw Simon back into the chair and glanced at the two guards. "Get him back to his holding cell." She turned toward the one-way mirror and the reddening face of her own reflection. "Inform the Taurus Brothers that we do not have Minos and that he is now off world.

 

"And find Qob! I want Manning and his crew brought back here!"