No Way Out

He will pretty soon though, thought the Systems Administrator. It sounds like his luck is changing.

“He hasn’t?”

Greenberg’s colleague realized that he had made a faux pas

“I mean he just broke up with his girlfriend. He’s kind of… um…. Upset about it. But he tries not to show it.”

“Oh… well…I was wondering if you could tell me a couple of things? I know I should ask, but it’s just that I’m… kind of curious.”

“Like what?”

If she hadn’t sounded like such an airhead, his suspicions would have been aroused by this question. But she sounded too dumb to be a threat to security.

“Well like, he said he was five feet ten.”

There was muffled laughter at the other end of the line.

“Was he lying?” she asked, almost overdoing the girlish indignance.

“Well, I mean, not exactly lying… maybe just exaggerating.”

“And what about his eyes? What color are they?”

“What did he tell you?”

“Ah, no,” she said with another little nervous giggle, “ if I tell you that, then you’ll just say the same thing.”

“Well I’ve never really looked at his eyes.”

“Typical of a man! Could they be blue?”

“I… I think so.”

The Systems Administrator breathed a sigh of relief. If she was some sort of a criminal, with infiltration in mind, she certainly couldn’t slip in a ringer based on a mere description of Greenberg’s eyes and height.

“Okay now this time, you have to give me a straight answer without any help from me. How old is he?”

“Twenty four.”

“Do you… “ she broke off for a couple of second. Oh God this is gonna sound really silly.”

“No, go on.”

“Do you… by any chance… know what his star sign is?”

“I’m not sure. Oh wait a minute! Yesterday was his birthday.”

“So he’s a Virgo!” She blurted out enthusiastically. “And I’m a Taurus! That makes us compatible.”

She asked a few more questions. But that was really all she wanted.

Saturday, 29 August 2009 — 11:25

The fingers of “Lannosea” were flying across the keyboard. She didn’t even need to go to the public records office. All the records of births, marriage, divorce and death had now been put on-line and were available on the same terms as at the public records office itself. It always amazed her that so many people relied on a person’s mother’s maiden name for security purposes, despite the fact that some one’s mother’s maiden name is a detail so easy to obtain. She knew his name and she knew his age. She could search through the records based on his name and the quarter of the year in which he was born. But having his exact date of birth made the process even quicker.

So, after getting the information from the daytime systems administrator, she

had logged on to the public records and looked for the record of Paul Greenberg’s birth based on his age and birthday. This record included his mother’s maiden name: Ruth Berman. And he had already told her that he used his mother’s maiden name as his password.

But yesterday they might not yet have scanned the electropherogram from the new DNA profile into the computer. It normally takes four days from start to finish, and the judge had ordered it on Wednesday. They probably wouldn’t even run the actual comparison until Sunday morning. That meant that she had her window of opportunity now.

Using the information she had, she set about gaining access to the Ventura Local Database Index System. It took her a while to track down the IP address of the server that hosted the LDIS but once she did, she used the Telnet protocol to take her to the root prompt and from there she typed in “pgreenberg” as the username and “Berman” as the password. Her reasoning was that Greenberg was evidently a lazy person for using such a short and obvious password to begin with, so it was probable that he used some form of his name as his username.

In a matter of seconds, she had root control over the LDIS server!

She downloaded copies of the evidence sample file and Claymore’s reference sample file. She then copied over the data from Claymore’s reference sample file to the evidence sample itself, thereby bringing the evidence sample file into line with the Elias Claymore reference sample. Finally she deleted the old evidence sample file from the server and uploaded the false evidence sample file in its place.

When Alvarez got the report showing a perfect match, Claymore’s fate would be sealed.

Sunday, 30 August 2009 — 13:50

“You’re spoiling me,” said Alex, as Martine served him a plate that was full to toppling point.

Alex had invited Martine again for Friday evening dinner, which they had prepared together this time.

Like last week, Martine had stayed the night, as he had predicted she would from the overnight bag in her hand when he answered the door. But this time, she had stayed over till Sunday and was now reciprocating his culinary hospitality by treating him to a traditional English Sunday roast, complete with roast beef (he drew the line at pork), roast potatoes and parsnips, sage and onion stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, Brussels sprouts, carrots and peas.

“So they said they’ll courier the results over?” asked Martine

“As soon as they get them.”

They were talking about the DNA results of the new tests. They were due to get them today, in preparation for the Court hearing tomorrow.

“Any bets on what they’ll show?”

“Not with me. All bets are off.”

“She was looking at him across the table.”

“You look uncomfortable.”

“It’s the waiting,” he said.

“What about it?”

“The waiting is the hardest part.”

“For us or for Claymore.”

Alex shrugged sheepishly.

“You’re right. Here we are feeling sorry for ourselves when it’s Elias who’s fate is hanging in the balance.”

It was later, when they were clearing away the plates and loading up the dishwasher that the doorbell rang Alex went to answer it, looking through the spy hole first. It was a man in a brown uniform, a courier. Alex had been expecting this. He opened the door and signed for the envelope. In his excitement, he was already ripping it open as he walked back to the dining room.

“The DNA results?” asked Martine, meeting him in the corridor?

“Yes.”

Alex flipped past the first page to look at the crucial second page with its results. And what it showed was not good news.