store-bought throwaway, but she says she’s not done with it. Something about backtracking and matching a signal to other calls, locations, triangulation, or something.”
Chapter Seventeen
Frank left to return to the office to work on his suicide/murder, and to ignore Amos Wickwire. He had to tell Essie and his brother to leave Jack Burns alone, at least for now. They were not happy.
Ike and Charlie finished eating and made their way to Lee Henry’s Cuttery and Style. They announced their presence, and retreated through the back door to the ersatz Comcast van. A young man Charlie introduced as Travis Blasingame sat staring at the bank of computer screens and attacking a keyboard. Ike could only guess what all that activity meant, but no games appeared on any of the flat panel monitors.
“Travis, are we ready?”
“In a minute, Mr. Garland. I need to sync these two programs so that if one gets a hit, the other won’t keep searching for the same person.”
“Ike, you have some additional lists and papers. Tell Travis how you wish to proceed.”
Ike handed him the flash drive Karl had given him, the folder he’d received from Agnes, and the items forwarded to him from the Secretary of Education’s Office.
“There are a lot of names there, Travis. Too many names for us to handle easily, and there are duplicates that may or may not be obvious at first glance or may only seem to be the same person. I want you to merge all of them into one comprehensive list. When you’ve done that, apply two or three discriminators to reduce the number of people we need to look at closely.”
“No problem. Give me an hour to input all this and then I can start culling through the list. What discriminators do you want to use?”
“Okay. First, a prior history of violence, record of arrests, particularly at demonstrations, appearance on a police blotter somewhere, that sort of thing. After that, any time they may have spent in any form of law enforcement.” Travis eyebrows shot up. “I think whoever drove the truck knew something about apprehending a vehicle during a chase. Third, their proximity to Washington, DC. I am assuming for this first cut through the data, that the person driving the truck lived nearby, within a few hundred miles at least. I know some of the more vocal opponents to the committee’s work will be found in places like Texas and Idaho, but the guy was driving a truck. That is not an easy vehicle to escape in, nor an easy one to acquire for a one-time use.”
“How about we also look for stolen trucks, dark, older Silverados to be precise,” Charlie suggested.
“Yes, in the greater DC area. That should include Northern Virginia, Maryland, the south Philadelphia area, and perhaps even as far as the Eastern Shore.”
“Can do,” Travis said and began typing faster than before. “I’ll be awhile. You can wait here as the stuff begins to appear on the screen or go get a coffee somewhere. If you do, bring me one back.”
“There’s no coffee pot in this luxury home?”
“Could be but with the doors shut, and in spite of the filtered air, the aroma can get pretty overpowering, so no, no coffee pot.”
“Lee has got a whole kitchen setup, coffee, pastry, and so on. You should feel free to step in there if you need to. Oh, and restrooms, too.”
“Thanks, that’s a relief, or will be.”
Charlie said he had some calls to make and would stay in the van. Ike decided to head to the hospital. He stepped out of the van and closed the double doors.
***
After the doors closed on Ike, Charlie began to work his way through the backlog of calls on his phone. The fact that the director had turned him loose to help Ike did not mean the rest of his projects could be ignored, or that they ceased creating difficulties. Most of them were delicate in the extreme and time-critical, and he couldn’t simply drop them. He stayed with it for a half hour and then closed the phone.
“Travis, how about that
Chapter Seventeen
Frank left to return to the office to work on his suicide/murder, and to ignore Amos Wickwire. He had to tell Essie and his brother to leave Jack Burns alone, at least for now. They were not happy.
Ike and Charlie finished eating and made their way to Lee Henry’s Cuttery and Style. They announced their presence, and retreated through the back door to the ersatz Comcast van. A young man Charlie introduced as Travis Blasingame sat staring at the bank of computer screens and attacking a keyboard. Ike could only guess what all that activity meant, but no games appeared on any of the flat panel monitors.
“Travis, are we ready?”
“In a minute, Mr. Garland. I need to sync these two programs so that if one gets a hit, the other won’t keep searching for the same person.”
“Ike, you have some additional lists and papers. Tell Travis how you wish to proceed.”
Ike handed him the flash drive Karl had given him, the folder he’d received from Agnes, and the items forwarded to him from the Secretary of Education’s Office.
“There are a lot of names there, Travis. Too many names for us to handle easily, and there are duplicates that may or may not be obvious at first glance or may only seem to be the same person. I want you to merge all of them into one comprehensive list. When you’ve done that, apply two or three discriminators to reduce the number of people we need to look at closely.”
“No problem. Give me an hour to input all this and then I can start culling through the list. What discriminators do you want to use?”
“Okay. First, a prior history of violence, record of arrests, particularly at demonstrations, appearance on a police blotter somewhere, that sort of thing. After that, any time they may have spent in any form of law enforcement.” Travis eyebrows shot up. “I think whoever drove the truck knew something about apprehending a vehicle during a chase. Third, their proximity to Washington, DC. I am assuming for this first cut through the data, that the person driving the truck lived nearby, within a few hundred miles at least. I know some of the more vocal opponents to the committee’s work will be found in places like Texas and Idaho, but the guy was driving a truck. That is not an easy vehicle to escape in, nor an easy one to acquire for a one-time use.”
“How about we also look for stolen trucks, dark, older Silverados to be precise,” Charlie suggested.
“Yes, in the greater DC area. That should include Northern Virginia, Maryland, the south Philadelphia area, and perhaps even as far as the Eastern Shore.”
“Can do,” Travis said and began typing faster than before. “I’ll be awhile. You can wait here as the stuff begins to appear on the screen or go get a coffee somewhere. If you do, bring me one back.”
“There’s no coffee pot in this luxury home?”
“Could be but with the doors shut, and in spite of the filtered air, the aroma can get pretty overpowering, so no, no coffee pot.”
“Lee has got a whole kitchen setup, coffee, pastry, and so on. You should feel free to step in there if you need to. Oh, and restrooms, too.”
“Thanks, that’s a relief, or will be.”
Charlie said he had some calls to make and would stay in the van. Ike decided to head to the hospital. He stepped out of the van and closed the double doors.
***
After the doors closed on Ike, Charlie began to work his way through the backlog of calls on his phone. The fact that the director had turned him loose to help Ike did not mean the rest of his projects could be ignored, or that they ceased creating difficulties. Most of them were delicate in the extreme and time-critical, and he couldn’t simply drop them. He stayed with it for a half hour and then closed the phone.
“Travis, how about that
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