“Interesting, and how did it isolate the password?”
“He went through everything we know about them and eventually found that the password was the name of a small town near Cancun, Mexico.”
“What was its significance?”
“It’s where they spent the first night of their honeymoon.”
“Max knew that?” Holdren asked.
“Obviously.”
“And the contents of the file?”
“Only partial success there. It appears to be the plans for the encoder, but not the plans for the actual devices.”
Holdren raised a hand to cover his face. He slowly shook his head. “All right, if that’s all there was congratulations on getting at least that much. One more thing....”
“Yes?”
“Put someone on the addresses the file segment was sent to. We’ll need to investigate each one thoroughly.”
“Max is already working on it.”
Holdren closed the phone and picked up his tea. It was cold. He motioned for the waiter over to bring a fresh cup. While waiting, he considered the conversation. The barn’s computer seemed to be getting a little too smart.
Holdren waited in the car with Romax while the armed response team cleared the house. It had taken them longer than Max’s two-hour estimate to find this house. It took nearly three. Was that an indication of how good these CHAOS people were or was it more an indication that Max wasn’t as good as his programmers thought? Neither answer appealed to Holdren. Perhaps when this operation was under control, he should spend some time personally looking into CHAOS.
When the office-in-charge came to the car, his hood was pulled back from his face, and his gun slung over his shoulder. Holdren let down his window, and smoke billowed out into the night air.
“Mr. Holdren. There was only one occupant. He is being restrained. We found no sign of weapons or explosives.”
Holdren tossed his cigarette to the curb and opened his door. “Thank you. You may take us to him now.”
“Yes sir, this way.”
Romax had joined Holdren by the time they reached the edge of the brown lawn. The front door lay back against the side-wall, its hinges, and multiple bolts were shattered by the force of the battering ram the response team had used. Holdren and Romax followed the officer to the rear of the house to a room filled with computer hardware.
For a moment, Holdren thought their suspect was a child. Then he focused his attention on the person and realized he was a dwarf, a little person, a damn midget.
He turned to Romax.
“This, this is what gave us so much trouble?” he asked Romax.
Romax met his gaze and shrugged.
Holdren turned to the officer who had led them in. “Take your men and search the rest of the house. Don’t interrupt us, but if you find anything noteworthy I want to hear about it when we finish questioning this person.”
“Yes, sir. All right, everybody out.”
The officer and his two men left quickly, and Holdren closed the door behind them. He took a chair from one corner and pulled it to a comfortable talking distance from the suspect. Sitting down, he took a pack of cigarettes from an inner pocket and lit it. Taking a deep drag, he exhaled in the dwarf’s face.
“Louis Russell?”
The dwarf blinked as if the smoke was burning his eyes, and then said, “Yes?”
“Mr. Russell, you have been in contact with a Caitlin Maxwell. She gave you something tonight, something that didn’t belong to her. I want you to give it to me and tell me everything you’ve learned about it.”
The dwarf held Romax’s stare for several seconds, and then met Holdren’s gaze. “Sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“That’s the wrong attitude to take,” Romax counseled.
“Louie, you don’t mind if I call you Louie, do you?”
Without waiting for a reply, Holdren continued, “Louie, this is a matter of national security. We don’t want to have to bring charges against you. We feel like you don’t really know what Maxwell was getting you involved in and we’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. If you answer our questions truthfully, to the best of your knowledge, then I’m sure the special prosecutor will take your behavior into account.”
Holdren paused to take another drag on the cigarette.
“I don’t know a Caitlin Maxwell.”
“See, that’s just what I mean. She probably didn’t even use her real name. Now that shows she wasn’t honest with you. If she lied about her name, then she probably lied about everything she told you tonight.
“I’ll bet she told you she came by this computer file by accident. That someone sent it to her without explaining how they came by it, even that she doesn’t know what’s in the file. Am I close?”
Holdren could see the indecision in the dwarf’s eyes as he lowered his head. The little guy was unsure of himself. Either he really hadn’t known Caitlin Maxwell before tonight, or he didn’t know her well enough to trust her. They would soon have everything they needed from him.
Something changed in the dwarf’s eyes as he raised his head to meet Holdren’s gaze. His hesitancy, his indecision was gone.
“No, John wouldn’t do me that way. I trust him.”
“John? Are you perhaps referring to John Q. Blalock? You should know that the two of them are in this together. They’ve arranged the theft and sale of technologies critical to national security.”
The dwarf frowned. “I think I need to talk to a lawyer before I say anything else.”
Holdren’s gaze met Romax’s, and they shared a subtle smile. “Lawyer, Louie? You don’t need a lawyer. You aren’t under arrest. You’re just being questioned about your connection to someone who has violated national security. What would you need a
