Havoc (8 page)

CHAPTER 21

As Alton and Mallory concluded their breakfast conversation with Anna and the others, Ernesto Vega began running a spectrum analyzer throughout his hotel room to check for electronic bugging devices.

After assuring himself of the absence of any eavesdropping equipment, he initiated a secure call to Control.

Some flunky answered the line.

“Connect me to Gantt,” snapped Vega.

“Stand by, sir.”

Vega peered out of his hotel room window as he waited. Was that guy standing outside the corner confectionary shop the same one who had been there two hours ago? He made a mental note to check again later.

“Gantt here.”

“This is Vega. Tell me what you’ve got.”

“We believe the Silverstar plans were on Wells’ phone. One of the guys you ran into at the Colosseum the other night probably has it. At the moment, we don’t know which one, and the phone’s GPS tracking has been disabled. If someone had used it to make a call, we’d still be able to triangulate on its position, but that hasn’t happened.”

“All this makes sense, but I don’t see how it’s going to help me track down the phone.”

“We may be able to help with that. We’re going to use IAFIS,” said Gantt.

“The FBI’s fingerprint-tracking database—how will that help?”

“Police have been using smartphones for several years to send in fingerprint scans to be matched to the millions of fingerprint records IAFIS contains. Normally, the user—a policeman, typically—has to initiate the search from his end.

“However, our tech guys have developed a nifty smartphone app that automatically scans and transmits the fingerprints of a phone’s user to IAFIS. It also transmits the results of the search, including any matches, back to us. The person using the phone isn’t even aware of it. And it works on any smart phone, not just the ones that already use a fingerprint scan for security.”

“So how are we gonna get the guy who has Wells’ phone to upload the app?” asked Vega. “Ask real nice?”

“We don’t have to. We can push it through, just like a text message. The program will auto-install yet remain invisible to the user.”

“So we wait for our mystery man to get curious and use the phone?”

“Exactly. The program is being installed while we speak.”

“And the FBI is okay with this?”

“What they don’t know, won’t hurt them,” replied Gantt.

“I see. That sounds promising. In the meantime, do you have any other leads?”

“Not yet, but we might in a day or two. We’ve uploaded the passenger manifests of everyone entering Rome the last few days. We’re checking to see if there are any known criminals or intellectual-property thieves on the list.”

“Kind of ‘rounding up the usual suspects,’ huh?” noted Vega.

“You could say that. This will be a top-dollar sale. Only a first-league player in the IP black market will be in the running.”

“That assumes the buyer is someone already on our list rather than a new player.”

“True. We’ll continue to comb through the records of Rome’s incoming passengers. I’ll let you know if we find anyone suspicious or if we get a hit on the fingerprint scan.”

“Okay. Don’t take too long. Our guests might decide to go home.”

“What about your contact there? Were you able to get ahold of him?”

Vega hesitated a moment before answering. “Yes, but I’m not sure he’s going to be able to help us.”

“I thought he’s the best,” said Gantt, “present company excluded, of course.”

“He is good—very good. But he hasn’t been able to learn anything—not yet, at least.”

“Well, that sucks. I was hoping he’d have learned at least a little something. Anyway, I’ll call you as soon as I know anything new.”

“Roger.”

Vega ended the call and stared at the ceiling. The statement about his European contact wasn’t altogether true, but what Gantt didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.

CHAPTER 22

Later that morning, Terry Langford paced the floor of his Roman hotel room as he waited for Brian McFarland, Vidulum’s Chief of Security, to answer his phone.

“Hello?”

“It’s Terry Langford.”

“Langford! Do you know what time it—?”

“Are you kidding me?” cut in Terry. “Our company is teetering on the brink of extinction, and you’re worried about getting your forty winks?”

“Fine,” grumbled McFarland, “but you had better have something meaningful to report.”

“I’ve made contact with Anna Wells. She and I left a meeting with a police investigator about an hour ago. He briefed me on the status of their investigation into Duncan’s murder.”

“You’ve had a busy morning,” said McFarland. “Good work. What did the police say?”

Terry recounted the morning’s conversation in faithful detail. “So they think one of the buyers may be Chinese,” he concluded, “and the two Americans who jumped in to help after Duncan’s murder are on their way out of town tomorrow morning.”

“It’s not much to go on, is it?” said McFarland.

“Not really. But at least the police now know the attack was premeditated. They’d have no hope of figuring out who the attackers were without getting that far.”

“True. So, do the police know why Duncan was in Rome?” asked McFarland. “That he was there to sell the Silverstar files?”

“Not until I told them,” replied Terry. “Duncan’s wallet was missing, so at first they thought it was probably a robbery—until I told them about his role in Silverstar.”

“I’m not sure whether to be glad about that or not,” mused McFarland. “On one hand, we can’t afford to let news of the theft leak out. But on the other hand, we’re short on leads and would benefit from anything the Roman police can dig up. Stay close to Anna Wells. The police will surely be keeping her in the loop, and we need any intel they’ve gathered.”

“You got it,” replied Terry.

“Langford, you realize you must find and secure the Silverstar files at all costs.”

“Don’t worry,” replied Terry. “I will.”

Terry ended the call and contemplated the best strategy for staying near Anna. While company loyalty alone conferred a sufficient motive for locating the ionic drive files, Terry had his own, equally-compelling reasons for remaining close to the widow’s side.

CHAPTER 23

Brian McFarland waited a few hours to call Vidulum CEO Leo Burton. McFarland debriefed his boss on Terry Langford’s progress.

“So we have to pin our hopes on Terry Langford tracking down the files before they’re carried off by whoever killed Duncan?” asked Burton.

“That’s our primary initiative, but not our only one.”

“What do you mean?”

“A good security chief always hedges his bets,” said McFarland. “I’ve enlisted the help of others as well. Do you remember the trip I took to Seattle the day after the files were stolen?”

“Yes.”

“The purpose of that trip was to recruit an old associate to come out of retirement to lend us a hand.”

“You told someone else—a person outside our company—about the missing files?” asked Burton.

“Yes, but he’s very trustworthy.”

“And why exactly did you involve him?”

“He’s an expert, you could say.”

“An expert in what?” pressed Burton.

“In getting this particular type of job done—getting our files back.”

“I thought that’s the kind of thing I hired you to do.”

“Sir,” said McFarland, licking his lips. “In my position, there are guidelines and laws I’m forced to follow. The resource I hired isn’t constrained by those guidelines. He’s limited only by his ingenuity. And not only does he track people, he ensures their inappropriate conduct doesn’t happen again.”

“What do you mean?”

“Sir, I don’t know that you’d want me to go into too many details. My marching orders were to track down the files at all costs, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

Burton hesitated for only a moment. “Good man, McFarland. Has this person made any progress?”

“Yes, sir,” replied McFarland, “but, like us, he doesn’t have the files in his possession yet.”

“So is it really worthwhile to use him?”

“I think so. He’s approaching this problem from an entirely different angle. If Terry Langford’s approach doesn’t work, his might.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” said Burton, “or we’ll all be out of a job.”

CHAPTER 24

The next morning, Alton and Mallory rented an Audi A4 and departed Rome for the historic city of Naples. While touring down the
autostrada
, Mallory received a call from Inspector Rossi. She switched the phone to speaker so Alton could participate in the conversation.

After exchanging greetings with the couple, Rossi launched into the purpose for his call. “Agent Wilson, I know you are not part of the official investigation in the Duncan Wells case, but you and Mr. Blackwell already had some good ideas. I am thinking that if I tell you what is happening now, maybe you will have more ideas—just in case there is something else I am overlooking.”

“Sure, Inspector,” said Mallory. “We’d be happy to help. What’s new?”

“Well, we are trying to identify the man who left his cigarette behind in the Colosseum. So far, we have a suspect, but we can’t prove he was at the Colosseum.”

“Why? No forensic evidence?”

“Not much,” admitted Rossi. “We have a partial thumbprint, but it doesn’t match anyone in Interpol’s database.”

“I’m sure Henry Gowin, my FBI colleague, already mentioned this, but you could also run the print through IAFIS, our US fingerprint database.”

“We only extracted the print yesterday afternoon. I have not seen Mr. Gowin since then to tell him about it.”

“I see. Well, let him know you have it, and he can run it for a match on our end.”

“Okay. Thank you. I will talk to him.”

Mallory took a moment to steady herself as the rented Audi bounced along a rough patch of asphalt on the scenic highway. “You said you have a suspect even without a match on the print?”

“Yes,” replied Rossi, “based on…how you say…circumstantial evidence. Two days before Mr. Wells’ murder, a Chinese national named Feng Wu arrived in Rome. His flight to Rome departed from Beijing. But to catch that flight, Mr. Wu took an earlier flight from the city of Tianshui in China’s Gansu District. This district is one of only three in China that sells the Hongtashan brand of cigarettes we found at the scene of Duncan’s murder.”

Mallory glanced at Alton in tacit acknowledgement of the advice he had given along these lines. “Wu certainly appears to be a likely candidate. Do you have any other suspects?”

“Well, there are other people from China, of course, but only one other person, a man, is from a district where the Hongtashan brand is common. We are going to look into that man, but his immigration form listed his age as sixty-seven. I don’t think this man is running down the halls of the Colosseum that night.”

“Yeah, I agree.”

“And we discover something else interesting about Feng Wu, our suspect. He works for Cúnchú, China’s largest manufacturer of electronic components, including computer storage.”

“That fits with the information Terry Langford provided,” said Alton. “That has to be our guy. Perhaps Duncan was there to make a deal with Wu and his associates.”

“I think this is a strong possibility,” replied Rossi.

“Have you brought him in for questioning?” asked Mallory.

“Not yet,” said Rossi. “We went to the hotel he listed on his immigration form, but he never checked in there. He is smart, this man. He went to a different place.”

“I hope you can track him down,” said Mallory. “Until you catch him and his friends, you’ll have a murderer on the loose in Rome.”

CHAPTER 25

Ernesto Vega answered his ringing cellphone. “Vega speaking.”

“It’s Gantt. I have an update. The Roman police ran a partial print through IAFIS. It didn’t match, but the police’s request contained a name as part of the search criteria: ‘Feng Wu’.”

“An Asian guy, huh?” asked Vega.

“Yes—Chinese, to be exact. We checked Italy’s flight records. Wu flew into Rome six days ago.”

“But you said the fingerprint didn’t match, right?”

“Right. Wu’s prints aren’t in IAFIS.”

“So why do the police suspect him?”

“According to their case notes, he’s from a part of China that sells a brand of cigarette found at the scene of Wells’ murder.”

“Seems like a shaky connection to me,” said Vega.

“Maybe, but it’s all we have for now. But if Wu
is
involved, it’s a huge break for us.”

“Agreed. Do we know where Wu is now?”

“No,” replied Gantt. “The Roman police are looking for him—without success, so far.”

“Is there anything we can do on our own?” asked Vega.

“Yes. Once we learned Wu is a suspect, we looked up his cellphone number. The next time he places a call, we can triangulate on his exact location.”

“Call me as soon as you learn anything.”

“Don’t worry. I will,” said Gantt. “This may be our best chance to recover the files.”