furious whisper. “What are you suggesting?”
“I listened to your first conversation with Jason. You’re right, he did
sound panicked, breathing heavy, the works. You guys had a real
conversation. But now you tell me the second time around, he sounded
far different, that it really wasn’t a conversation. He talked, you
listened. No panic. Now, we know about this microphone in Jason’s
office, something that he never uses. If he never uses it, why is it
really there?”
“I… What other reason would it be there?”
“A microphone, Sidney, is for recording things. Sounds…
Voices.”
Sidney gripped the cell phone so hard her hand turned red. “Are you
saying…”
“I’m saying that I believe that you heard your husband’s voice over the
phone both times, all right. But I think what you heard the second time
was a compilation of your husband’s words derived from the recordings
taken by the microphone, because that was its real purpose, I’m fairly
certain. A recorder.”
“That can’t be possible. Why?”
“I don’t know why, yet. But it seems clear enough. That explains why
your second conversation with him was so different. The second time
around I gather the vocabulary was pretty ordinary?” Sidney didn’t
answer. “Sidney?” Sawyer heard a sob come over the line.
“Then you think… you believe that Jason is… dead?” Sidney fought
back the tears. She had already lived through one episode of believing
her husband dead, only to suddenly encounter him alive.
Or so she thought. The tears started to slide down her cheeks as she
contemplated having to grieve again for Jason.
“I have no way of knowing that, Sidney. The fact that I believe Jason’s
recorded voice was used rather than the real thing leads me to think
that he was not around to speak himself. Why, I don’t know. Let’s
leave it at that for now.”
Sidney put down the phone and clutched her head. Every limb was now
shaking like a slender elm in a windstorm.
Alarmed, Sawyer spoke earnestly into the phone. “Sidney? Sidney?
Don’t hang up. Please! Sidney?”
The line went dead.
Sawyer slammed down the receiver. “Dammit! Sonofabitch!”
A minute went by. Sawyer stomped around the small room.
Working himself into a rage, he finally slammed a heavy fist right
through the wall. He leaped for the phone when it rang again.
“Hello?” His voice was shaking with anticipation.
“Let’s not talk anymore about whether Jason is … is alive, all
right?” Sidney’s voice was devoid of any emotion.
“All right,” Sawyer said quietly. He sat down and paused for a moment,
deciding what line of questioning to pursue.
“Lee, why would someone at Triton want to record Jason’s voice and then
use it to communicate with me?”
“Sidney, if I knew the answer to that, I’d be doing cartwheels down the
hallway. You said a number of offices had them installed recently. That
means that it could have been anyone at the company who could have
jerry-built his mike into a recording device. Or maybe one of Triton’s
competitors could have done it somehow. I mean, if you knew he didn’t
use the microphone, other people would as well. I do know that it’s no
longer in his office. Maybe it has something to do with the secrets he
sold RTG.” Sawyer rubbed his scalp as he sorted through the additional
questions he wanted to ask her.
She beat him to it. “Only Jason selling secrets to RTG
doesn’t
make any sense now.”
Amazed, Sawyer stood up. “Why not?”
“Because Paul Brophy was working on the CyberCom deal too.
He was present at all the strategy sessions. He even made an
attempt
to take over the lead role in the transaction. Brophy, I now
know, was working with Goldman and RTG to learn Triton’s final
negotiating position and beat them to the punch. He would’ve known far
more about Triton’s bargaining position than Jason ever would.
The
precise deal terms were physically maintained at Tyler, Stone,
not at
Triton.”
Sawyer’s eyes grew wide. “You’re saying–”
“I’m simply saying that since Brophy was working for RTG, they
wouldn’t have needed Jason.”
Sawyer sat down and swore under his breath. He had never made