MORSE: Erasing that copy would certainly be in the best interest of FreeNow, wouldn’t it?
WADE: I resent any insinuation that I would share in FreeNow’s “best interest.” As for Mrs. Shire’s computer—if you’d like to get back to that topic—upon hearing it contained the video, I asked that a copy be made at once and hand-delivered to me at the San Mateo County Sheriff’s station, where we could use better technology to look at it.
MORSE: Why not send it electronically? Hand-delivery took more time. Another delay.
WADE: I wanted to keep that video secure. Sending it through cyberspace did not meet that standard.
MORSE: Were you informing Homeland Security as these events occurred?
WADE: Yes.
MORSE: And what did you discover when you finally watched the video?
WADE: As it turned out, the technology available at the San Mateo County Sheriff’s station was not advanced enough. We were able to see something at the beginning and end of the video, but we couldn’t distinguish any letters. Remember that up to this point I had serious doubts that Hannah Shire was telling the truth. Now that it was clear the video did indeed contain some sort of message, I couldn’t take any chances. I took the flash drive to the FBI’s San Francisco Joint Terrorism Task Force. It took time for me to reach that destination. After some work at that office I and a number of agents were able to watch the video frame by frame. We discovered the “Phase” text at the beginning. And we saw the encrypted message at the end, proceeded by the word “Abort.”
MORSE: In other words, Sergeant Wade—Hannah Shire was right.
Chapter 45
Monday, February 25, 2013
The car ride seemed to take forever. Emily longed for her computer in the backseat. With her built-in Wi-Fi, she could be looking up information, checking the news, learning more about cyber terrorism—as if that would do them any good at this point. But what if the cops could somehow track her computer like they could a cell phone? She asked Dave if that was possible.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Never heard of it.” He picked up his phone. “I’m going to check the office again.”
Dave had called once already and talked to Ronnie. Had the FBI agent been back? Was anyone else asking about Emily? Or Dave?
No and no, Ronnie told him. She pestered him to tell her what was going on.
“If that agent shows up again,” Dave had said, “don’t tell him anything.”
Now Dave’s second call found nothing new. No one else had come around looking for Emily. Dave set down the phone, his shoulders sagging in relief.
“I keep thinking about my computer, sitting there at the office,” he said. “With that video on it.”
“I told you to erase it.”
He threw her a hard glance. “You want me to turn around and take you back home?”
“No. Sorry. I’m just . . . nervous. And scared.”
“That makes two of us.”
Emily fidgeted in her seat, every nerve itching to do something. Finally she couldn’t stand it any more. “Okay, here goes.” She twisted around in her seat to get her computer.
On the Internet she first went to Bay Area news and watched the segment of Cheryl Stein and Ashley Eddington that her mother had seen. Those two women looked so angry at her mother. How in the world would she and her mom get past that?
The sadness on the little girl’s face was heartbreaking. Emily found herself tearing up again. Then at the end was the stuffed dog. RAWLY.
Dave’s cell rang. He picked it up and winced at the ID. He showed it to Emily: his wife. “Hello.”
“Where are you?”
Emily could hear Tania’s voice through the phone. “I called the office and they said you hurried out hours ago.”
Dave glanced at Emily. “I had to take a sudden road trip.”
“Road trip. Where?”
“I’ll tell you all about it when I get home.”
“Why not now? What’s going on?”
“Tania, are you at work?”
“Of course, where else would I be?”
“Look, after work, don’t go home. Go to your parents’ and wait ’til I get there. I won’t be home until about 9:30 or 10.”
“What? What are you doing?”
“Just tell me you’ll go.”
“I . . . okay. But you need to—”
“And make sure you have candles and flashlights.”
“Dave. You’re starting to scare me.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Emily shut her eyes. She should never have gotten Dave into this. But if she hadn’t, Rutger would have caught her for sure.
“Look, Tania, I need to go now. Don’t want to stay on the phone for long.”