Quantum (19 page)
Authors: Tom Grace
Dexter, Michigan
‘What are you going to do now?’ Sean asked as he pulled his Explorer up to the barn.
‘I’m not sure,’ Nolan replied pensively.
The ride back from Kelsey’s condo had been quiet as Nolan struggled to find some course of action.
‘Dad, you had some jewelry made for Mom, right?’
‘Yes, some rings, a few necklaces, and a charm bracelet.’
‘Do you know what kind of records a jeweler keeps?’
‘Very detailed ones, especially for custom work. Every piece I bought came with an appraisal that described it fully for insurance purposes.’
‘Including the inscriptions?’
‘Yes,’ Sean replied. ‘You think there might still be a record of the ring Wolff bought for Elli?’
‘That’s what I’m going to find out,’ Nolan said as he began walking toward the garage inside the barn.
‘Not like that, you’re not,’ Sean said firmly. ‘Take a quick shower while I pull the Viper around. Do you want me to call Urban’s and let them know you’re coming?’
‘No, I don’t. After this morning, I’m a little worried about announcing my plans publicly.’
‘May I help you?’ an attractive, stylishly dressed woman said, greeting Nolan from behind one of the jewelry shop’s countertop display cases.
‘Yes,’ Nolan replied, introducing himself. ‘Is the owner in? My grandfather is an old friend of the family, and I’d like to have a word with him.’
‘Yes, he is. I’ll see if he can come up front.’
Nolan saw that behind the main display area, the shop split into two levels, each a half flight of stairs up or down from where he stood. The woman descended to the lower level and disappeared behind a gray metal door. A moment later she reappeared, followed by a blond man wearing a light blue smock.
‘Mr Kilkenny, a pleasure to meet you. When your grandfather was in a few weeks ago for your grandmother’s birthday present, he mentioned that you might be in the market for an engagement ring soon. What can I do for you?’
‘No rings today, unfortunately. What I’m looking for is a little information. Do you still have your father’s records?’
‘Of course. I still see a few of his pieces from time to time for cleanings and repairs, that sort of thing. Why do you ask?’
‘Well, I’m looking for the details about a ring your father made back in the fall of 1948. I’m trying to find out what was inscribed on the ring.’
‘If my dad didn’t pitch it, then it should still be down in the files. What’s the customer’s name?’
‘Johann Wolff.’
‘Wait here a minute, and I’ll see what I can do.’
The jeweler disappeared into the shop’s lower level, leaving Kilkenny alone in the glittering display area.
‘Excuse me,’ the saleswoman said, ‘but while you’re waiting, would you like to take a look at our ring selection? We’ve just completed a new series of rings that are simply stunning.’
‘Why not?’
Nolan looked down at the felt-covered tray of beautifully crafted rings, each a unique work of art. Simple gold bands gave way to more complex geometries; stones ran the gamut from traditional diamonds to more playful displays of brilliant gems.
‘I think I found what you’re looking for,’ the jeweler announced as he climbed up from the lower level.
He laid an old brown file folder on the glass display case, next to the tray of rings Nolan had browsed. He opened the file to a yellowed page of handwritten notes.
‘The customer was Johann Wolff, a referral of your grandfather’s. In December of 1948, Mr Wolff purchased a fourteen-karat yellow gold engagement ring. The ring was an original design. The style of the ring was a heavy band, high polish. The ring was inscribed as follows…’
The jeweler flipped through the next few pages until he reached a sheet of graph paper that contained a long string of numbers.
‘Not terribly romantic, as far as inscriptions go, is it?’ the jeweler opined.
‘No, but it’s exactly what I’m looking for,’ Nolan replied. ‘Can I get a copy of this?’
‘Sure.’
‘Another thing. After I leave, put that file in your safe.’
‘Why?’
‘The people who shot up the street in front of your store on Wednesday are also looking for this. If anyone else comes in here asking about this ring, tell them you gave the file to me.’
As he walked out of the store, Nolan pulled out his phone and pressed the speed dial for Grin.
‘Yo, this is Grin.’
‘Hey, Grin, it’s Nolan. Do you have any of the image files from Wolff’s notebooks handy?’
‘I got a couple of Zip disks in my backpack.’
‘Great, bring them with you. I’m downtown right now. Meet me out at my place in half an hour. I’ll fill you in on the rest when you get there.’
Dexter, Michigan
Grin arrived right after Nolan and parked his yellow VW bus next to the red Viper. With any luck, he planned to have the thirty-five-year-old vehicle restored to her original glory by the end of summer.
‘I’m here,’ Grin said as he stepped out of the van in cutoff jeans, a tie-dyed tank top, and a pair of yellow-and-black-checkered high-top canvas sneakers. ‘What’s up?’
‘I found Wolff’s key,’ Nolan said. ‘Let’s head upstairs and crack Lobo.’
Nolan led the way up to his loft. Grin set his backpack on the kitchen table and began pulling out disks and printouts.
‘Let me fill you in on what I got so far,’ Grin said. ‘For starters, do you know anything about quantum computing?’
‘Just what little I’ve read in the journals.’
‘Well, you know how in a digital computer, like the one sitting on your desk over there, information is stored in a series of ones and zeros – bits?’
‘Yeah. I remember that much from my high-school intro to computer class,’ Nolan replied.
‘I’ll bet you do. In a quantum computer, the quantum bits, or qubits, exist in multiple states simultaneously. I won’t get into all the wave/particle duality and superposition stuff, but bottom line, a qubit can represent a whole lot more information than the plain old digital bits you and I are used to playing around with.’
‘I read about a couple of research projects where they assembled a rudimentary quantum computer.’
‘One team of people from IBM, MIT, Berkeley, and Oxford put together a hydrogen-chlorine processor and used it to sort an unordered list. We can do the same thing using conventional programming algorithms, but a quantum computer can sort a list of one million names about five hundred times faster. On more complex problems, the quantum advantage grows larger exponentially.’
‘Don’t tell me Wolff built a quantum computer to encrypt his notebooks.’
‘No, they didn’t have the technology required to tackle that kind of problem back then. Heck, the big-brain folks working on quantum computing today are just scratching the surface. Like conventional computers, though, quantum computing comes in two distinct parts.’
‘Hardware and software,’ Nolan offered.
‘Give that man a cigar. About six years ago a guy at AT&T labs named Shor wrote a quantum algorithm for factoring integers. On paper, this piece of code looks like it’ll smoke anything written for digital machines. Shor scared the hell out of all those folks who write data-encryption software because an algorithm like his could eat those codes using big-bit prime-number keys for lunch.’
‘Lucky for them nobody has a machine to run it on.’
‘Not yet they don’t, but in about twenty years quantum-programming techniques are going to turn the computer world upside down. You think that Y two K stuff was bad? Internet security will evaporate the second machines capable of running quantum programming go on-line.’ Grin paused to catch his breath. ‘Getting back to Wolff, this cipher of his reminded me of some of the research papers I’ve seen on quantum computing, so I pulled a few of them off the Net to see if my hunch was right.’
‘What’s your conclusion?’
‘Johann Wolff developed a new form of mathematics and, as a by-product, wrote his quantum encryption algorithm. And if you think elliptical curve schemes were hard to crack, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Do you want to know the really wild thing about this?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Algorithms, whether they’re quantum or conventional, are essentially a list of instructions that tell you how to do something. You and I are spoiled. We’re used to writing up our programs, plugging them into a computer, and letting the machine do all the grunt work.’
‘That’s why people made computers.’
‘That’s right, but Wolff didn’t have a computer back when he did this. There were only a handful of crude digital machines in the entire world in 1948, and quantum computing is something the long-term research types didn’t start looking at seriously until the early nineties. From today’s point of view, Wolff’s algorithm is an astonishing piece of programming. The fact that he wrote it over fifty years ago is almost unbelievable. The thing that really blows my mind is that not only did he write this little mathematical symphony, he played the thing in his head and used it to encrypt his notebooks. Wolff’s cipher is a truly incredible piece of work,’ Grin said respectfully. ‘I tried graphing portions of Lobo, and it’s working with something on the order of eleven dimensions. The mind this guy must have had – the focus! We’re talking Einstein and the Rain Man all rolled into one.’
‘I get the picture. But can we decode his notebooks?’
‘Yeah, but you and I have some serious work ahead of us. You see, we got his key and his quantum algorithm, but no quantum computer to run it on. We’re going to have to reconstruct this algorithm using conventional programming techniques.’
‘Well, let’s get at it. Cracking Wolff’s code is our ticket to getting Kelsey and Elli back unharmed.’
‘Say no more. I’m staying right here until we get plain text coming out of this thing. I’ll need caffeine and some coding music. Whaddya got?’
‘How about Diet Coke and the Ramones?’
‘It’s a start.’
Grin cracked his knuckles and began spreading out a schematic flowchart of the programs they would have to write. Nolan handed him an ice-cold can as a pounding bass and a grungy three-chord guitar riff roared out of the recessed wall speakers, flooding the loft with hard-driving sound.
Moscow, Russia
‘Working late, I see,’ Orlov said as he entered Avvakum’s office.
From behind, he saw her convulse as if suddenly struck by an electric shock. Startled, she quickly turned around to face the unexpected visitor. The sight of Victor Orlov standing in her doorway did little to ease her discomfort.
‘I didn’t expect you, sir,’ Avvakum said as she quickly stood.
She absently brushed a few strands of hair out of her face.
‘I don’t doubt that. Please, sit down.’
Avvakum complied automatically, still trying to compose herself. Orlov unbuttoned his blazer and sat down on one of her guest chairs.
‘What can I do for you?’ she asked, her voice aquiver.
‘You are already doing what I hired you to do, Lara. According to Oksanna Zoshchenko, you are making excellent progress. This pleases me.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Unfortunately, I’m not here to discuss your work. It seems that we have a security problem.’
‘Oh?’
Orlov’s eyes narrowed, and Avvakum felt his gaze boring into her; his manner changed perceptibly.
‘
Da
. I have many talented people, such as you, in my employ. A group of these people care for all the computers in use by my various businesses.’ Orlov pointed at the machine on her desk. ‘The network your computer is attached to is monitored by these people. They see everything that moves across that network, including the E-mail message you sent yesterday to a man named Nolan Kilkenny.’
Avvakum’s heart seemed to stop for a moment, pausing until a surge of adrenaline sent the muscle galloping in her chest.
‘Since you contacted him, I assume you know who Kilkenny is and what he represents.’
‘He works with Sandstrom, the man who made this discovery.’
‘You fucking whore! Is this the gratitude you show me for rescuing you from that rathole in Sverdlovsk? These men are my competition, my enemies! The message you sent might have compromised everything I’m trying to accomplish here. This is a race between them and me – winner take all! I intend to win. I will win.’
‘At any cost?’ Avvakum asked bravely. ‘Is murder and theft an acceptable part of this competition? You’ve killed one man and stolen the lifework of another. How can you justify that?’
Orlov stood and struck her across the face with the back of his hand; the blow nearly knocked her to the floor. Her cheek went numb, and she tasted blood in her mouth as her lip split and began to swell.
‘Dr Avvakum,’ Orlov replied icily as he wiped her saliva from his hand, ‘
this
is how the game is played.’
‘If this is how you run your business, then I want no part of it.’
‘I’ve already made that decision. You have violated my trust. Zoshchenko is already looking for your replacement – someone better suited to work in the private sector. I expect you to stay on until your replacement is found and brought up to speed on the project.’
‘No, I can’t continue working for you any longer.’
Orlov struck her again, splitting her lip further. Avvakum turned back to face him, her bloodied lip ballooning out grotesquely.
‘I’m not giving you a choice. You are going to remain
right here
,’ Orlov growled, pointing at her desk, ‘in this building, until your replacement is found. All your access to the outside world is gone. You will be under armed guard twenty-four hours a day.’
‘You’re insane. Do you actually think I am going to continue to work for you? You can imprison my body but not my mind.’
‘You will continue to have access to project materials on your computer, but that access has been reduced to read-only.’ Orlov leaned down so that his face was just inches from hers. ‘What you do while you are here is your concern, but any attempt to damage project materials will be dealt with harshly.’
‘Are you going to kill me, too?’ Avvakum said defiantly.
‘If that had been my intent, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.’ Orlov stood up and buttoned his blazer. ‘The quality of your work during the remainder of your time here will greatly affect the nature of your eventual severance from my employ. Work or die, Dr Avvakum. The choice is yours.’
Orlov walked out of her office. As he turned and disappeared down the corridor, a large muscular man in an ill-fitting tan suit filled her doorway. His stony face lacked any sign of intelligence or even humanity.