“Right, I knew something about that one.”
Kay chuckled. “He’d come back from that warehouse looking like he’d
just mud-wrestled an alligator, filthy from head to toe. But he kept at
it and did a great job. In fact, he really seemed to enjoy it.
The other thing he spent a lot of time on was the integration of the
company’s tape backup system.”
“You mean the computer system storing automatic copies of e mails and
documents and such?”
“Right.”
“Why did they need an integration of the tape backup system?”
“Well, as you probably could’ve guessed, Quentin Rowe’s company had a
first-rate system before it was bought out by Triton. But Nathan Gamble
and Triton didn’t. Between you and me, I don’t think Nathan Gamble
knows what a tape backup is. Anyway, Jason’s job was to integrate
Triton’s previous backup systems into Quentin’s more sophisticated one.”
“What exactly would the integration entail?”
“Going through all of Triton’s backup files and formatting them into a
shape that would be compatible with the new system. E-mails, documents,
reports, graphs–anything created on the computer system. He finished
that one too. The whole system is now fully integrated.”
“Where were the old files kept? At the office?”
“Oh, no. At the storage facility over in Reston. Boxes stacked ten
high. Same place where the financial records were stored. Jason spent
a lot of time there.”
“Who authorized those projects?”
“Quentin Rowe.”
“Not Nathan Gamble?”
“I don’t think he even knew about it initially. But he does now.”
“How can you be sure?”
“Because Jason got an e-mail from Nathan Gamble commending him on the
job he had done.”
“Really? That doesn’t sound like Nathan Gamble.”
“Yeah, it surprised me too. But he did.”
“I suppose you don’t recall the date of that e-mail, do you?”
“Actually, I do, for a terrible reason.”
“What do you mean?”
Kay Vincent sighed deeply. “It was the day of the plane crash.”
Sidney jerked upright. “You’re sure?”
“There was no way I could forget that, Sid.”
“But Nathan Gamble was in New York on that day. I was there with him.”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter. He has his secretary send out his e-mails on
a preset schedule regardless of whether he’s in the office or not.”
That didn’t make any sense to Sidney. “Kay, I suppose there’s been no
more news on the CyberCom deal, has there? The records issue is still
hanging things up?”
“What records issue?”
“Gamble didn’t want to turn over the financial records to CyberCom.”
“I don’t know anything about that. I do know that the financial records
have already been turned over to CyberCom.”
“What?” Sidney almost screamed out the word. “Did any attorneys at
Tyler, Stone look them over first?”
“I don’t know about that.”
“When did they go out?”
“Ironically, same day as Nathan Gamble sent Jason that e-mail.”
Sidney’s head was spinning. “The day of the plane crash? You’re
absolutely sure of that?”
“I’m real good friends with one of the mail-room clerks. They recruited
him to help transport the records to the copy department and then he
helped deliver them to CyberCom. Why? Is that important for some
reason?”
Sidney finally spoke. “I’m not sure if it is or not.”
“Oh, well, do you need to know anything else?”
“No, Kay, you’ve given me plenty to think about.” Sidney thanked her,
hung up the phone and headed for the cab stands.
Kenneth Scales looked down at the message he was holding in his hands,
his eyes narrowing. The information on the disk was encrypted.
They needed the password. He looked over at the one individual who they
now knew had to be the recipient of that precious e-mail. Jason
wouldn’t have sent the disk to his wife without sending the password as
well. That had to be the e-mail message Jason had sent from the
warehouse. The password. Sidney stood in the cab line outside Penn
Station. He should have just taken care of her in the limo. It was
neither his practice nor to his liking to leave anyone alive. But
orders were orders. At least she had been kept on a short leash until
they knew where the e-mail had gone. Now he had marching instructions