Killer App by Mark Philipson

Author:Mark Philipson [Philipson, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cosmic rays, Carbon elements, Murder, Machine learning, Instinct, DNA, Microchips
Publisher: Mark Philipson
Published: 2019-05-23T18:30:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

BRITT NOTICED A message alert from Ralph pop up on her screen:

Hey, Bladdy, what’s up.

Initial results from the first scan of Victim’s drive.

Britt had been waiting for this.

And?

Can we talk?

Come on over.

Ralph stepped up to Britt’s desk chewing the last remnants of a cup cake. He tossed the wrapper in the trashcan and licked chocolate off his fingers. “While running a deep scan of the main drive, I noticed sets of random numbers and letters. Right off the bat, it looked like a 256-bit encryption code ...”

Britt rolled her eyes. Sometimes the technical shit went over her head, sometimes, she could get a handle on the jargon and buzz words.

Ralph sensed this and got to the point: “I decided to break the code and I came up with this.” He opened his palm.

On a yellow sticky note, Britt saw a string of letters and numbers. She recognized this as longitude and latitude. A few seconds later she made the connection. The coordinates matched Jesus Martín’s home address.

Britt looked up. “Is there anything else?”

Ralph closed his hand. “Just another shit-load of encrypted data sitting on the drive. This is the tip of the iceberg.”

“Can you dig deeper on this, Blad?”

Ralph shrugged. “I have the key ... Piece of cake.” He pushed his eyeglasses up. “One thing ... You have to square it with the tech section chief and the division lieutenant.”

“I’ll let you know.”

When Ralph left, Britt checked Trahan’s calendar. Seeing she had no meetings scheduled, Britt messaged:

May I speak with you, Lieutenant Trahan?

Give me 5.

Britt waited. Four minutes and fifty-nine seconds later, she knocked on Lieutenant Trahan’s door.

“What can I do for you?”

“I need Technical Specialist Bladdington to do some work for me.” Britt waited to see the reaction.

The lieutenant squared her shoulders and sat up straight. “Is this related to the cases you’re working on?”

Britt nodded. “Yes. We found some encrypted data that may link at least one of the latest victims with Jesus Martín, the first victim.”

Britt waited for another reaction. A hint of a grin and slight nod sent good signals. The lieutenant keyed in a quick message. “Consider it done on this end.”

By the time Britt returned to her desk and sat she got word back from Trahan:

TS Bladdington has been assigned to you for 8 hours.

Thanks, Lieutenant.

* *** ***

“I’ll get on it when we come back from lunch, boss,” Ralph said, taking a big bite out of a chilly cheese hot dog and washing it down with a gulp of soda.

“How long do you think it will take?”

Ralph narrowed his eyes. “Two hours on the high side ... One on the low. And that’s if the same key applies to all the data. If not ...” Ralph put the bun down and threw his hands up.

“I’m counting on you, Blad.”

In her office, Britt stood over Ralph’s shoulder, hovering.

Ralph looked over. “You know, it’s a little hard to concentrate when you’re breathing down my neck like that.”

“Sorry.” Britt backed off. She wrung her hands together, wishing there was some way to make this job faster.

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