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RamRomRun
Chapter One
Tomale Bay California has a beautiful sunset most days, today's is special. With the cloud formation over the horizon just right the pink and orange colors make the sky a gift from the Gods and food for the soul.
A lone sail boat is following the wind westward toward the setting sun. As we watch from above one solitary cigarette boat cuts a straight line through a field of slower boats moving in all directions at once. The fast boat is the only one moving in a straight line toward the sunset in the distance. Back to the sailboat, we move in for a closer view. A young couple is sitting at the helm dreamily watching a beautiful sunset in each others arms. Looking in the direction of the sun like this makes the ocean black with sparkling diamonds as the sun moves across the surface of the Pacific. In a dead calm the lone sailboat drifts lazily westward miles from shore. A curious seagull, from a group of drifting stragglers, lands on the sailboat's mast surveying the scene before it. Miles away, roaring sea-ward, the Cigarette boat is skipping over the waves. A last look, through the rigging of the sailboat, at the setting sun, and the lazily floating sea-gulls far from shore, give an unreal sense, as if this were a good photograph of a Hollywood stage set, rather than the real world.
Bright and early Sunday morning at John and Joan Goodman's house, the family is preparing to go boating for the day. John is working at the counter of the kitchen sink putting food in a cooler. John is 34 years old and still relatively "lean and handsome," but years of working in front of a computer are taking their toll with "crows feet" around his eyes and a spare tire around his waist, making his 190 pounds sound light. At 5' 11' he is of average height with thinning short brown hair, thin nose and lips and a strong chin. He looks like a man you could trust.
His wife, Joan, is a year younger than John and still very attractive. She is tall and thin at 5'6" and 120 pounds, and still looks like the co-ed John married. Joan is very level headed. She is the calm oasis in the middle of the family storm. Having studied marketing in college Joan instinctively knows how to promote anything, she is a natural for bake sales and fund raisers.
Their son Mark is an average twelve year old with John's thin hair and a muscular build. Mark loves sports and computers in that order and nothing else interests him now. His sister Stephanie is eleven years old, lanky shaped, all arms and legs, and still is mom's best pal. She has a sharp mind like her mother and a ready wit like her father. This is a close-knit family, who get along very well. In this family love is "everyday and real" not a future goal.
"Honey are you and the kids ready ?" John asks, as he glances over his shoulder, to find his wife and children busily carrying food and clothes toward the car.
"We're moving as fast as we can captain Blye!" John can be exasperating at times like this. He is trying to be funny and at the same time rush everyone to finish faster and it doesn't work that way.
Joan is directing Mark and Stephanie to load the car with the clothes and towels while she and John fill the coolers with food and drinks. The children carry what they have out to the car, slamming the screen door as they go. Joan turns to John.
"Who is waiting for whom, NOW??"
Joan moved to the sink gently pushing John out of the way and finished loading the cooler. While John, at the sink, turned on the water and washed his hands. Drying them on a paper towel he says:
"Well with your help we can leave now. I want to get on the bay before sunset." (softer and more serious) "Have you spoken to Cathy this morning, are she and Paul going to meet us at the boat?"
Joan, (serious now, as she closes the cooler), "I called her twenty minutes ago, she and Paul were leaving then. They'll get to the boat before us because Paul wants to pay for today's gas so he's going to fill the tanks for us."
John (surprised and happy) "Hey that's great! But, he didn't have to do that! Well let's go!"
They each grabbed a side of the cooler and carried it out the door, with Joan in the lead.
A maroon Jeep Cherokee with it's rear door open, is sitting in the driveway in front of the garage door. The garages are separate from the house, so, as you leave the house from the small side door you are facing the garages and the back of any vehicle parked in front of them The Jeep back door is still open to receive the last of the days provisions. There is space for two more cars in front of the garages and enough room to park two more cars in front of the house. Making a perfect open space between the house and the garage, when all vehicles are put away. The house is situated on the very top of a small hill (in a row of several hills and valleys) and the long severely sloping driveway is to the right leading up in front of the house. Standing in front of the house and facing it, we can see a lush green valley stretching left and right behind it. From our view the three garages and parking area are on the right and a small orchard is on the left. The garages are Johns pride and joy at home. In the last stall he can pretend to know something about woodworking in his small shop while working on his latest project. There are three stalls in all, the other two are for the family cars, Joan's Cherokee and John's Acura Legend. Over the garages Joan has her private office where she can get away from it all. Being a "calm oasis" takes its toll and Joan sometimes needs a quiet spot to "think and plan." This area of the world where they live is called "farming country" and they love it. There are just enough neighbors to be friendly, but, not enough to have waiting lines everywhere you go. During harvest time the air has a fresh clean smell that people in the city would kill for. Here the words "fresh vegetables" take on a whole new meaning.
The children are in the back-seat arguing. John and Joan came out of the side door next to the garage carrying the cooler and put it in the back of the Jeep then each moved around the car in opposite directions, John to the driver's side and Joan to the front passengers side. Joan on hearing the children argue in the back seat said: "That's enough arguing for one day!"
Mark, (argumentatively), "She started it, I just want to read my magazine."
Mark moves away from his sister and slides over against the door behind his father. Putting his sports magazine up in front of his face.
Stephanie, (Pleadingly), "He won't let me listen to my tapes! He says they're to loud even with the ear phones!"
Joan, (Placatingly), "Just lower the volume a little bit and he won't hear it!"
John, (Happy and raring to go), "OK Gang, Lets go!"
As they drive down the steep driveway leading to the public road in front of their property each is deep in their own thoughts.
It is only a thirty minute drive east across the peninsula that is this part of California, to the marina where the boat is kept. The roads around their home are all country lanes with rolling fields and stubby hills ambling away in the distance. They literally live at the end of the highway. When they give friends directions to their home from San Francisco they begin with "go to the end of the highway and continue."
Chapter Two
At the marina on the bay at Palo Alto CA. John and the bank own a 36 foot Sea Ray center cabin Sun Cruiser with twin inboard engines. This SeaRay is a great looking boat and is the perfect size for the way John uses it. The cockpit is the main social area of the boat.
It is a large open area bounded on three sides two of which are the back half of the sides of the boat and the third is the stern of the boat. The aft (rear most) section, of the cockpit, has a flat teak hatch "engine cover" doubling as the floor. When in place, as it usually is, it looks like a very attractive floor, when removed, it allows good access to the motors. Several deck chairs and a small table are usually placed here to allow more than four people to eat together. Slightly forward of this deck and up a step, still in the cockpit, is the forward bench, an upholstered curved bench big enough for three people to sit on and forms an alcove on the left forward side of the cockpit. The back of this bench has two fold down vinyl covered seats and a drink caddie built into the inner wood, this back area faces the open section of the cockpit. Across from the bench is a single high back swivel chair (the Captain's Chair). This chair is directly in front of the steering wheel and control panel, and is on the right forward side of the cockpit.
This boat is equipped with a Loran (electronic directional finder), two different depth finders, a ship to shore radio, every up to date safety device, and a full set of gauges for each engine. Above this area from the windshield all the way back to the stern is a canvas canopy, on folding aluminum struts, that give the boat a boxy cabin cruiser look when in place. The Canopy is divided in half, front to back, by a stylish wing like bar "cross wing" that has decorative side arms rising from the cockpit sides and a transverse bar that is used to hold the radar beacon and other navigational devices and also the closed sections of canopy. This bar looks like a roll-bar in a race car. When the canvas is folded into the struts (as it usually is) it gives the back of the boat a sleek "speedboat" look. The front "roof" section, over the driver's bench, is usually kept covered to protect the driver from the sun and any bad weather. Between the Captain's chair and the curved bench is the hatch leading below.
This hatch is made up of two parts. The top is a smoky plastic material so you can see through it but limits the amount of light flooding the cabin below. This section slides up onto the "dashboard" area. The bottom section is two pieces of teak wood that folds in half and pins against the outside wall to allow access below. Down a flight of six teak steps is the "center cabin".
As you enter the cabin on the left is a teak and vinyl booth big enough to seat four in the table position or sleep two in the bed position. Across from the booth is a small sink with hot and cold running water, a gas/alcohol stove which folds down for more counter space, a drink well for bottles of liquid refreshment, several hanging hold-alls for various condiments and other kitchen necessities, and below all this is a small refrigerator and storage space. Every other spare space around this area (ten feet long by twelve feet wide) are tucked storage cabinets under and over and around everything. To the right of the stove/refrigerator space is the single "head" (toilet).
This "head" is just big enough for one person comfortably, with a wash sink, counter and toiletries cabinet along the outside wall. A curtain folded and tied against the door wall opens up to enclose the occupant and allow them to shower without getting water on the wood or outside the room. Under the sink is the flushing motor and other plumbing necessities. When the "head" door is closed, the outside panel is a full length smoky glass mirror. The boat manufacturers used Teak, and color coordinated carpet to cover every inch of this section, giving it a comfortable warm feeling. Forward of this cabin is a "U" shaped double bunk that is a seat and step allowing access through the overhead hatch to the bow and upper deck.
This bunk converts into a comfortable bed for two simply by adding a center piece. Behind the central cabin is what boating people euphemistically call an "aft cabin" which is a tiny space under the cockpit that is to short to stand in but is perfect for sleeping. This area is actually quite large, although very low, about eight feet long and twelve feet wide, it is only four feet high, big enough for a very large double bed. This room is "off limits" to everyone else, Stephanie has declared it her's. Above the mid cabin is a flat deck just in front of and slightly below the drivers windshield.
This section is perfect for sunbathing since it is one of the largest open areas without any other purpose to claim it on board the boat. The sides of the boat are raised enough to create a well in the "cockpit area" that protects passengers from the elements and yet is open enough to give access to the sea from all directions.
The raised portion of the boat is slightly indented from the sides so that it allows a walk way from the back cockpit at the "cross wing" forward to the bow of the boat on either side. There is a stainless steel railing that runs around the entire boat, with only a break at the stern to allow access to the swim platform which extends several feet from the back of the boat. From the bow "pulpit to the stern swim platform the boat is 41 feet long, but since both the pulpit and the platform extend beyond the fiberglass the official length is 36 feet. All in all a great boat.
Chapter Three
It is a bright beautiful day as the maroon Jeep pulls into the parking lot of the marina. The weather is perfect and we see lots of cars in the parking lot today. Between the parking lot and the water are the dry dock boats, out of the water and up on stands of one form or another. Most of these boats are in varying degrees of disrepair with tools and boat parts everywhere. John and his family thread their way twisting and turning through the maze. Normally they would go directly to their slip (#11) at the left side of the marina, bypassing all the repairs, but this morning Paul, a long time family friend and coworker of John's moved the boat to the gas dock to top off the two fuel tanks and wait for the Goodmans to arrive. Mark and Stephanie reach the boat first, rushing aboard to find Paul and Cathy Clint. Paul is just coming up from below, while his wife Cathy finishes some cleaning she found left over from last week below. Paul Clint is 41 years old and just beginning to grey. He has a muscular build for his medium six foot one inch frame and a great tan for someone working in computers. Paul's English ancestry shows in his hard to read face and the computer squint lines under his eyes suggest some long hours of tedious working conditions. Cathy Clint is another story. Her face tells all for anyone who cares to look. The little tiny crease lines from smiling in the sun have taken over and Cathy really could care less. She is a bubbly and outgoing fun person that everyone loves to be with. At 5' 7" Cathy is tall and slender and still very attractive at 38 years of age. Paul and Cathy never had children and have adopted John and Joan's kids as their own. Now they greet the children like long lost relatives. Mark stops to talk to Paul while Stephanie rushes below to say hello to Cathy
Paul, (happy to see them), "Hey Mark! Hi, Stephanie! How are you guys doing. You still reading that crap Mark (indicating the Sports Magazine)?"
Mark, (excited to see Paul Clint), "Hey Paul What's up? You ready to get beat, I brought my game board this time and you won't get ahead of me again.
Paul, (laughing), "We'll see about that!"
Back on the dock John and Joan are just coming around the last bend before the boat and now see Paul and Mark talking, Stephanie and Cathy are nowhere in sight.
John, (a little teasingly), "Hi Paul, how ya doing and where is that beautiful wife of your's."
At this moment Cathy comes up from below all smiles and stands next to the fold down seats behind the driver's bench. At his fathers arrival Mark moves around Cathy and goes below.
John, (Leering at Cathy), "Hey love! lets go and leave your old fogy husband behind."
John climbs on board the boat, puts the cooler down on the open fold-down seats and gives Cathy a bear hug all the while making faces at Paul.
Cathy, (blushing, calls to Joan), "I'm going to kick him good today!"
Cathy playfully pokes John as she pulls herself free of his bear hug. Moving toward the railing she reaches over the side of the boat to take the towels Joan is carrying.
Joan, "Just leave enough life in him to get us back here tonight."
Joan jokes with Cathy as she boards the boat and pushes her husband aside to go below with other supplies she is carrying. Cathy follows Joan below leaving Paul and John talking in the cockpit.
John, (smiling at Paul), "Thanks old pal, you didn't have to put gas in the tub, we had enough left to take care of today."
Paul, (serious now for a moment), "It's your boat I just don't want to feel like a free-loader."
Paul moves from behind the wheel to take the cooler from John and stow it below.
John, (momentarily serious, says as he follows Paul below), "Never that old buddy, never that!!"
Top of page
Chapter Four
After helping stow the provisions John moves behind the wheel to check out the gauges, as everyone else moves below for one task or another. John begins his weekly ritual safety inspection. It's John's job to check the boat mechanically and structurally before they go anywhere. He first maneuvers himself by the rear facing seats to raise the engine deck cover. This is a large section of the cockpit floor that doubles as an engine cover. While John has it raised he pins up the canvas with conveniently placed snaps made for this purpose. Bending down into the engine area he pulls out the oil dip stick, wiping it with a paper towel he brought. After re-inserting the dip stick and removing it again to check the oil level he replaces it once again and continues his inspection. He checks the bilge for excess water, oil and odd debris all the while sniffing for a strong gasoline smell. Finding nothing out of the way he replaces the engine cover and begins an overall inspection of the boat. First checking lines for excess wear and then making sure the safety equipment is in place and working. Last but not least he crowds below harassing everyone to move faster so they can get started "sometime before sundown" his favorite line. The inspection over and everyone more or less in place, John again moves behind the wheel to start the engine. The Sea Ray fires right up and John now does a visual area inspection before moving the boat into the channel.
John, (as a captain to his crew), Paul, will you and Mark release the lines?
Hearing his orders Paul moves aft to untie the aft line and at the same time Mark comes up through the forward hatch and unties the forward line. They both stow their respective lines. John then sounds the single "boat moving away from dock" coast guard horn blast.
Paul, (very crew-like), "Aye aye Captain!"
John maneuvers the boat away from the dock and heads out the channel to the bay. Joan and Cathy strip down to their bathing suits and come up from below moving around the outer walkway to stretch out on the fore-deck in front of John. John Leers at them making rude gestures and whistles until they're settled then leaves them alone.
As we pull back away from the boat and get an overview of the channel leading to the bay. There are a few other boats moving along the channel and no-one is in a special hurry. With the sun in front of them the water ahead looks covered with diamonds as the sun's rays reflect back at them. They are finally out of the cannel and heading north northwest toward San Francisco and the bay area. The first sight they encounter is the Palo Alto airport and some early morning weekend flyers out for a ride in the clouds. Then on a north-northwest course it is 43 miles to Angel Island in Marin County across San Francisco Bay, their destination today. John sets the controls at optimum fuel and speed (about 24 knots) and settles back for a long ride. Paul sits with John for a while but Mark calls him to play and he wanders below to face Mark's challenge.
John (thinking while he's driving), Cathy looks good in her new suit, but Joan looks fantastic. How Joan manages to keep herself looking so good and do all she does is a mystery to me. I'm a lucky guy to have such a great looking wife. I wonder if I could get Paul and the kids to stay topside for awhile so I could take Joan below? Paul and Cathy wouldn't mind but the kids would be scandalized.
Paul and Mark are playing at the small table while Stephanie is lying down in the forward berth reading a novel and listening to her "walkman".
Paul , (mock disgustedly), I think your cheating young man, how else could you beat me?
Mark, (Braggingly), Of course I beat you, what did you expect? When you challenge the best you deserve what you get.
Paul, (rising from the table), Well that's enough for me, I'll leave while I still can.
Mark, (Tauntingly), Chicken! Boy I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it myself
Paul got up from the table and moved up the stairs to sit next to John. John seem is deep in thought as Paul sits down.
Paul, "What's up old pal, you look like you're solving the worlds problems."
John, "The same old thing we have a new upgrade and they expect my grammar checker to be top knotch."
Paul, "Is Ned still riding rough-shod over everyone in the department?" Ned Carlson is a company supervisor at John's work and heads up John's department. Ned is the one that stepped into Paul Clint's job when Paul suddenly took a sabbatical.
John, "Its not like when you were there buddy. No friendly persuasion, it's the sledge hammer over the head for any who dare to lag behind now."
Paul, "I would still be working in that department if it weren't for those terrible deadlines, and that damn "completion date fiasco". You can never tell whether it will all come together or fall apart at the last minute like it did for me."
John, "Ya, that was a shame. How were you suppose to know the beta testers would hit a brick wall after all the testing they completed? Gee, everyone thought it was finished even the board of directors. No one could have foreseen a last minute collapse of the main module like that."
Paul, "Even the beta testers thought it was done. They assured me that it was "in the can" and we could deliver on Monday. So I announced it to the press and the rest is history. Paul Brogan called it that "completion date fiasco" and said he would have to move me to save face with the buying public. I now think I should have fought harder to stay on. That Ned really wanted my job, but I could have won if I ate enough crow."
John, "It seemed like Ned knew it would happen and was waiting by the sidelines ready to jump in and save the day. You'll find a good department to work in after you come back."
Paul, "Are they still using nick-names for the various department people?"
John, "Yes, They need a way to distinguish us hard workers from the Tech'ies so that people will know who works on the programs and who only play with the technical "hardware software" interface side of the programming." "Those guys never get their heads out of the bottom of the computer. They call themselves "RAMROMs". They spend so much time on theory that they can't even carry on a conversation! Well. I don't care as long as they keep us integrated with everyone else out there! That is their job, their only job and they can have it. The ROM Department works on those sections of programs that use Read Only Memory."
That section of every computer that is written by the manufacturer and allows so many different machines to work with the same software and all other hardware. It is like an instruction manual for each computer that only the software can read. The people who work in this department must know what every manufacturer is putting in the ROM BIOS chip (this is the basic instruction chip of every personal computer) in his computer so that their software will run uniformly with every brand. This is also the chip that translates a typed character into an "A" on the screen or on the paper from the printers. It is the RAMROMs job to solicit key data from computer companies all across the country to assure that the programs put out by HTD (High Tech Devices, where John works) will work on every new system out there. Programming is a complicated science and when someone makes a change in the manufacture of a new product, like when IBM came out with the Micro Channel Architecture (that they thought would revolutionize computing, and, instead flopped) it is necessary for programmers to add special drivers (drivers are a bridge between one system and another) to their programs so the program will work with the new "system."
Paul, "The secrecy always got to me. I could never understand why they needed such tight security when the most secret thing they are doing is programming games. The competition couldn't be that fierce."
John, "You wouldn't believe the competition. We have people calling all the time looking for information on how certain programming aspects are handled, especially areas that we just perfected. They act like we're giving away "Share-ware" (free programs)." It is not only the competition it is the manufacturers who insist on secrecy, "God forbid someone outside their own companies should know what they put in their ROM chip."
Paul, "Well, I'm glad I'm out of it for a while, I needed the rest."
John, "Well 90 days off is a good rest "old buddy". "How about a beer?"
Paul, "A beer sounds great and I'll get them."
Paul got up and went below to the refrigerator to retrieve two beers. Mark is engrossed in his magazine and Stephanie seems to be asleep. Paul returned to the seat next to John and handed him a beer. Taking a swig from his beer Paul said:
"This is the life, great kids, great boat, a beautiful day and two beautiful wives sunning themselves right before our eyes."
John, (agreeing), "You got that right!"
Chapter Five
John, (noticing a long black cigarette boat and motioning toward it), "Boy, someday I'm going to have one of those babies, sixty miles an hour and barely touching the waves. Look at that thing jump from wave to wave. It must be 40 feet long and powered by 1000 horses. Those red painted flames look real enough along the side of the boat."
Paul, "Ya! Great looking boat, they sure can move out. That baby is throwing up a hell of a "rooster tail."
John, "I've always had a secret desire to own one, but the hundred thousand dollar price tag brings me back to reality."
Paul, "You could buy a lot of boat for that kind of money."
Paul and John sit quietly for awhile each in his own thoughts watching the cigarette boat roar away. They both notice a "Square Rigger" sailing ship working its way down the bay to the left of their track.
As they get closer they both see a large banner on the side of the ship advertising a local San Francisco restaurant that they both have been to many times in fact the restaurant is almost on their way in the bay. The Square Rigger is flying the "Jolly Roger" and the crew are dressed up as pirates.
John, (Talking to Paul), "That pirates flag reminds me of the story I heard last week up in Tamale Bay. An old fisherman talking about a young couple who went moonlight sailing. They left one night about three hours before sunset and were only going to drift around in the moonlight and come back. They were never heard from again. The couple and the boat just disappeared off the face of the earth. The fisherman said a long black cigarette boat with two crazy looking "Bikers" on board were seen roaring around the bay the night the couple disappeared. It seems that drug smugglers will board a boat on any pretext and kill the crew and passengers and dump them overboard to the sharks. The smugglers then use the boat for a single drug shipment, because the boat is not suspected by the coast-guard. The smugglers then sink the boat, without a trace. This happens so often the Coast Guard put out an advisory to all boaters, "Be wary of all unknown boats approaching and don't let anyone board you unless you know them." Just what a father on the water with his family and friends wants to think about."
At that moment a roaring sound brings John back to reality. He sees the Cigarette boat heading straight for them at high speed. The cigarette boat comes uncomfortably close for all the open water around them and cuts across their bow. Now John is paying close attention. The cigarette boat is meaner looking close up with those painted flames looking more real and menacing by the minute. The driver of the cigarette boat is a broad squat looking fellow hovering over the wheel like a "TROLL" about to devour the instruments. His leather jacket and beard give him a "Biker" quality John doesn't like.
Paul, (nervously), "That is a sleek looking boat, but don't you think he's a little to close."
At this point the cigarette boat falls behind and cuts across their wake then speeds up and cuts across their bow again. Without saying anything John gets up and motions Paul to take the wheel as he moves below. A moment later John comes up on deck with his stainless steel shark rifle in his hands. At this moment the cigarette boat is on their port side, having made another circle and the driver is only 10 feet away from John. John notices the dark menacing features of the man and the surprised smirk as the driver finally notices the shark rifle. The driver looks from the rifle to John's face and laughs out loud, mouthing, "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH THAT", then powers up the boat and speeds off. The incident over almost before it began, John feels foolish standing there with the rifle in his hands, so he ducks below to put it away. The children noticed the rifle:
Mark, (excitedly), "What's going on dad?"
Stephanie, (curiously), "Ya! What was all that noise?"
John, (embarrassed), "Nothing important, I thought I saw a shark."
John moved away from the stairs and over in front of Paul to take the wheel.
John, (a little less embarrassed now), "I might have overreacted a little, but there was no need for him to dog us like that!"
Paul, (Placatingly), "Hey, I'm on your side, he was too close. There is no reason to crowd us with all this open water around here."
"Look he's harassing others boats as well, this guy is a menace on the waterway"
Chapter Six
The two men settle down again to watch the scenery pass by. Shortly they passed under the Oakland Bay Bridge. As they head toward Angel Island which is straight ahead they see in the distance that restaurant that was being advertised on the "Square Rigger". It doesn't look very busy, but, during the day you can't see much from the water. Now they are passing near Alcatraz Island (on their left) the forbidding "rock" with its guard towers still standing and the burned out wardens house that the American Indians set afire and got themselves kicked off the island for. Their attention getting plan backfired when the federal government decided to make Alcatraz a National Park and let visitors sight-see there, instead of giving the land to the Indians. The island is very un-welcoming, there is only one docking space available. The rest of the island being to rocky for a boat to land. Angel island is no exception to land the boat they have to wait their turn to unload passengers and supplies at the municipal dock then John moves the boat away to an anchorage and uses the rubber raft to row ashore. He ties the raft and joins his family and friends walking toward the trails and picnic area.
Joan, "Everything all right?"
John, "Everything's fine. It should be there when we're ready to go home. After you my dear."
They all walk off away from the pier heading toward the picnic area.
Chapter Seven
In a small marina deep within a winding canal off Sausalito. A fast twin outboard motor boat with two men aboard begins to move toward the canal and San Francisco bay. The two men are rough-looking seamen types with dirty clothes and whiskey breath. As they come into the bay they stay to the right hugging the coast as they pass under the Golden Gate bridge. Once past the old military base on the right they speed up heading directly out to sea. The water is rough out here and the small boat bounces along climbing up the front of each wave and down the back. A short time later (when they are more than 12 miles out) they come to a small trawler just sitting there drifting with the waves. The small boat tied up along-side the trawler and the men board the larger boat. The trawler captain had the main hatch open and they immediately began off-loading bundles of high grade weed. The small boat is soon full and the two men take off. A few miles away the Coast Guard, having monitored the exchange, set out to intercept the small boat and the trawler.
This Coast Guard Cutter is no ordinary boat. She is a Cyclone-class patrol boat. At 170 feet she is large enough to handle heavy artillery, but agile enough to accelerate from zero to 35 knots in 100 seconds. With stinger missiles and grenade launchers she can stop most any private yacht afloat. On Loan from the Navy these ships have seen recent duty off the coast of Haiti.
The small boat isn't aware of any danger until the Cutter is within sight (about 5 miles away on a clear open sea) although her maximum speed is only 35 knots, overloaded as she is she is a sitting duck. The cutter passes near the trawler on her way after the speeding small boat and radios back to base to send out a second boarding party for the trawler. The cutter captain feels certain that the speed boat will have drugs, but the trawler may now be empty. As soon as the small boat sees the cutter they begin evasive action but it is to late. In a few minutes the Cutter is on top of them and moving between the small boat and shore. When the cutter is a 1000 yards from the small boat it fires a salvo across the small boats bow and begins hailing the two thugs to "heave to". The men on the speed boat attempt to out maneuver the Cutter and head out to sea but the faster boat soon overtakes them again and this time the salvo almost sinks the small boat, forcing them to stop their engines and raise their hands until the boarding party got there.
One of the men captured is the brother of Jesus de Christos, the local Cartel representative in northern California and when Jesus hears of his brothers capture he went on a rampage, killing the four men who were with him. After he ran out of ammunition it still took several of his trusted men to calm him down. Drug shipping in California is not what it used to be. These new Coast Guard ships seem to know where every mule boat is off-loading and just appear from nowhere.
Chapter Eight
John arrived with the maroon Jeep and parked it in the parking lot outside High Tech Devices on Monday morning. High Tech Devices is a series of buildings just off a secondary road near California 101 close outside of San Jose. As John leaves the jeep heading for his building he waved to people and shouts greetings here and there. A few ask how his day on the water went.
John, (happily), "It was a great day, the water was beautiful and the sun never left the sky."
As John walked into HTD he greets everyone he sees and is greeted in return. There is a friendly by-play with everyone from the Janitors and security guards to the department heads and administration people. John reached his desk at twenty to nine, its a little early and this office is informally gathering itself for the coming day. As John clears debris from his desk and settles down a fellow employee wanders over to talk to him.
Travis Magee, "How ya doing John?"
Travis is a round happy fellow, slightly overweight and progressively balding, he always has a happy smile and is a good man to have around when anything to do with computers is amiss. Travis and John go back a long way. They knew each other in college. Travis is also a friend of Paul Clint, Paul was the interviewer that hired Travis at HTD.
John, "Good Trav and you."
Travis, "Great! How's that grammar module coming John, have you got it reading minds yet?"
John, (laughing), "Reading your mind is no contest Trav all I have to do is look at your face."
Travis, (in mock anger), "Wouldn't you be surprised!"
John, "I hope you had a good week-end Trav, mine was great and I'm raring to go."
Travis, "We're getting there John, its slow going. I'd like to get together with you later to coordinate our spell checker module with you. I think we can integrate some code that will save us both a lot of time. Margaret, my top programmer, has come up with a new algorithm that has put a good spin on the way the checker reads lines. You'll find it interesting."
John, "I Like the way that sounds buzz me when your ready and I'll "come a runnin" old buddy."
Travis walked away. Back at his desk John moved some papers off it to lay out the "Data flow diagram" used to show the path that information will travel within his module at every level. In John's case it shows the way his grammar checker scans words and phrases within the typed text (user entered material). Then compares what it finds with listed, words, rules and instructions. Then based on what it finds it makes choices. " Send the user a message questioning whether this verb is passive or that sentence is to long? Should this sentence starting word be capitalized or is this comma out of place?" There are square, diamond and round figures representing different levels of data motion and different level choices. The page looks like a genealogy chart with all its hierarchical levels splitting off data in every direction. Showing, "if the answer is no, it ends, if yes it goes to more choices". Always cycling toward the lower section of the large paper with extensive branches and sudden dead ends. Programming is an art and one of the most difficult jobs of a programmer is to keep his personality from overpowering the end result. Programmers spend so much time and effort producing their segment of each program that they feel everyone else should defer to their way of thinking. John is one of the better programmers. He accepts constructive criticism magnanimously and never holds a grudge, always willing to help others and share a shortcut he's found. This quality makes him one of the company's favorites among the programmers. Sitting at his desk John fires up the computer and starts testing his module. He types a test line and backspaces to add an odd grammatical structure. He then moves the mouse to access the grammar module of the program. A menu appears in the middle of the screen over the typed material. The menu asks "This structure may be incorrect, there are two contradictory verbs." "Do you want to correct this?" It then gives possible choices of entry to "correct" the writing error. John chooses "correct entry" and waits while the computer replaces the incorrect phrase with a new phrase.
John's co-workers are a good, dedicated group who like what they do and accomplishes miracles when necessary. John is quite the miracle worker himself. He built this grammar module from scratch and it is one of the best in the business.
Looking over his module after lunch he begins segment testing again, He is trying to streamline a bit of code that compares nouns in the main word processor. The day passes slowly with John, his head buried in the computer monitor, adding library functions (segments of code that have already been tested) to an already complex maze of programming code.
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Chapter Nine
John's company uses the programming language "C:" to program in. C was developed by Bell Labs to allow programmers to write in an English like language that can be converted into machine language (this is called compiling). The compiler is a translator that changes the English like language used in C (or any programming language) into 1s and 0s that the computer understands. Of all the programming languages available today C is one of the most powerful and universal. C allows programmers to write in a relatively simple language that can be converted into machine language.
Like a painter or a photographer, John starts with an idea of the end product and begins to sketch in details as the idea takes shape. Once the idea is fully formed and John knows what it should do, he begins to add color (the code) and brings his creation to life. With as few brush strokes as possible (coded twists and turns) he makes it do what he wants it to. Like the photographer he plans out a map of the action the program will perform using pseudo code, (English words used to explain segments of code) and later this pseudo code will be used along with the actual programming code. Each line of C code would then have a following line of explanatory pseudo code. for example:
"scanf("%s", &name)" [Accept the person's name], would be the pseudo code and with "scanf("%s", &name)" as the actual machine code the computer would understand.
It is not uncommon for a programmer to write several hundred thousand lines in a program so any help locating a single line later on is appreciated and this pseudo code is usually written physically next to the programming code it describes.
John is good at his job, and the "walkthrough" people (a group of peers that evaluate an ongoing program) never have trouble understanding his work. The day ends with very little change to Johns original module, but there is always tomorrow. At this stage in programming progress is very slow.
Driving home that Monday night John is deep in thought about the module and the 35 minute drive passes quickly. Once at home he is greeted by a smiling Joan who can't stop talking about an up coming bake sale and the kids trip to Seattle Washington. The kids are not at home but expected shortly.
Joan, "After I dropped the kids off this morning I stopped by to see Claire Steffer about the bake sale Friday. She's supplying the muffins and managed to get MacDonalds to donate an Orange Juice and Coffee dispenser for the sale. Claire says we should earn about $500.00 for the trip, that will send one of the kids, now only 18 more to go." As John sits for dinner the chatter blends into the background of family life
The next day is more of the same for John until Travis brought in a sample of the module from Margaret. This changes everything. Coupled with Johns own module it behaves strangely asking questions not familiar to John about the test text. And it doesn't take John long to see that this could be something interesting . After testing it he realizes that it seems to divine messages out of ordinary missives. The combination module searches for any type code, not just English grammar. This string actually looks at a lot more than simple grammar and spelling.
Chapter Ten
As Joan is talking to Cathy Clint on the phone, her two children are leaving for school.
Mark, (hurrying out the door), "Have a nice day mom!"
Stephanie, (Preoccupied with her clothes), "Ya, bye mom!"
They both leave by the side door and walk down the steep hill toward the street. Joan is holding the phone talking to Cathy.
Joan, "How far away are you now? Don't hit the kids they walking down the driveway now!
Cathy, "I'm just pulling into your driveway now and I see the kids. I'll be right in!"
Cathy ends the phone call and maneuvers up the steep driveway to park in front of the garages. As she gets out of the car Joan greets her from the side doorway.
Joan, "Good morning, I've got nice hot coffee."
Cathy, "Just what I need, the drive over is getting worse and worse. Crossing Canyon Blvd. is like taking your life in your hands. The drivers today don't respect anything and your driveway gets steeper every time I come."
They enter the back door and as Cathy sits at the table Joan heads for the stove and the pot of coffee. Turning back to Cathy with the pot in one hand and a cup in the other, she crosses to the table and, placing the cup in front of Cathy she fills it from the pot.
Joan, "I've been looking forward to spending some time with you this morning, we don't get to spend much time just the two of us. Yesterday was great fun but there is always something to worry about when we're on the water."
Cathy, "Ya, I love our days together like that. You know Paul and I love the children and boating is always great fun, but it is always hectic. I like the quiet times when we can be by ourselves to talk. By the way, how is the Shriners fund raiser for children's hospitals coming, you were working hard at that the last time we talked."
Joan, "It's going good, you know I think what the Shriners are doing is wonderful, and they help children all over the world."
Cathy, "You know you can count on me to help if you need me. And how is John's module coming? They can never work fast enough over at HTD. What exactly is John doing in this upgrade."
Joan, "The same as always, he is upgrading the Grammar Checker."
Cathy, "I know you told me before, but what the hell does the grammar checker do?"
Joan, "Well it's like an English book on line, in the program. When a word is typed the program compares it to a list of English words and then compares the word's position in the sentence with English rules. When the words transgress a rule the program notifies the user and offers alternatives. It is really neet. This upgrade John is making it more intuitive. The idea is, each choice for corrections in a program has reasons for its inclusion. The program will be able to weigh the differences and choose the choice with the most correct aspects. Sort of like a game of chance with the winner being the one with the best odds. John says it won't be right all the time but, the probabilities show it could be right 95% of the time."
Cathy, "That's spooky, a computer program that speaks better English than my English Teacher."
Joan, "John doesn't think it will ever replace humans but it will come pretty close. He keeps adding "programming code" hoping to change the overall effect without destroying the module. He has it now so that you don't have to access it at the end of the page, as others are done. You can turn his module on when you start the paper and it will jump in as you type, at the end of a paragraph and sometimes at the end of a sentence if the error is big enough and can be recognized!"
Cathy, "Wow that sounds great, they must love him at work."
Joan, "You know how that Ned is, nothing satisfies him."
Cathy, "Well, if John pulls this off Ned will have to take notice."
Joan, "John really doesn't care if Ned notices, as long as it gets done, then the board of directors will have to take notice. This is John's baby all the way. Travis Magee is helping John but staying out of the line of fire. One of Travis' employees is working on a new search string, they call it an "algorithm", to use for the module which will help it find more errors faster. Travis handles the spell checker and they can both use the same or a similar algorithm."
Cathy, "This sounds more and more like science fiction everyday."
Joan, "Not to change the subject but, John wants to go to Tomale Bay this weekend if you and Paul are up to a long rough ride? I'm not crazy about going outside the bay, the waves are always twice as high and the wind twice as strong, but John loves the coast and he always comes up with some great tasting Abalone."
Cathy, "Paul loves to dive with John so he'll be looking forward to this trip. It will give us time with the children, while the boys play by themselves."
Chapter Eleven
At John's desk, John is working hard at his computer when Travis approached him. John looked up and Travis hands John a computer disk.
Travis, (with a satisfied smile), "This is the search log that Margaret was working on. I think she has it nicely tuned for you. It will find anything in a paragraph that is there."
John, "Just so long as it gets along with the rest of the module I'll be satisfied."
Travis, "Margaret thinks she has it perfect for you so be nice, and thank her. She worked long hours on this, and most of the extra time was to add your search parameters. This is Friday and you better catch her before she leaves for the weekend."
John, "OK, OK. But, first lets try this baby out!"
John inserts the disk into his computer and accesses the module He works for a few minutes at the key board then he says:
John, "Now I'll just add this sample text and see what it does."
As they both watch the program doesn't seem to do anything. A menu flashes on the screen and then disappears. John turns to Travis.
John, "It doesn't like my sample text, but I'll play with it for a while and see why not."
Travis, "OK, I've got to go back to work anyway."
As John goes back to his computer Travis walks back to his area. The next paragraph John feeds into the module the new search strings seems to like better and returns "WHYITlgnap" with question marks waiting for an answer. John does not know what it is waiting for and hits enter. The menu clears off the screen without doing anything.
The next hours have the new module finding several misspelled words and some non-agreeing verbs, and more gobble di gook, but nothing spectacular .
John visited Margaret's cubicle and thanked her for the module, telling her he hadn't finished testing it yet, but would spend more time with it. The day ends without John getting this new module working correctly, but there is always Monday.
Chapter Twelve
John, Joan and the children arrive at the boat, followed closely by Paul and Cathy Clint. Everyone is carrying something. They begin the weekend boat loading ritual and finally cast off to move the boat to the fuel dock where they fuel up and head out.
If we could see from high enough over the this area we would notice that this area is all a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water. The inner section is the inner bay then the northern tip is San Francisco by the Bay. The far west is the picturesque California Coast with route 1 winding down to Monterey and the pier with some of the best sea food snacks on the planet. Back up north, in the bay, we come first to Alcatraz Island on our right and later Sausilito near the bridge. Across from Alcatraz is the well known Fishermen's Wharf on our left. As we travel still further west we pass under the Golden Gate Bridge heading out to open sea. Taking almost the identical route the ill fated smugglers from the previous week took. Now the heavy waves of deep water are rocking the boat on this relatively calm day. This heavy wave action is typical of the deep water pacific ocean with long rolling waves moving the boat sharply upward as it struggles to climb to the top of the wave and then speeds up as it slides down the other side. As the boat makes it way up the coast it zig zags along moving first into the waves and over them then back across them toward shore. This path may be longer but will prevent the steep waves from capsizing the boat by hitting them directly on the side.
The view pans high above California showing the coast line from the Golden Gate all the way to Tomale Bay State Park. We see John's boat round the bend at the Point Reyes Light House still heading north toward the Tamales Bay State Park. The boat heads into one of the small bay inlets and soon Paul and John busy themselves anchoring. Inside the inlet the wave action is all but gone as a wall of rocky shore and pine trees stand between the windy and rolling sea and this calm bay area. As soon as the boat is anchored and swinging with the drift the children get out the rubber raft, inflate it and put it overboard. John and Paul ready the snorkeling gear and bid their wives good-bye as they step off the aft swim platform into the bay. Below the surface we see the two men swimming down from the bottom of the boat then we change our perspective to see them from above. For several seconds they drift downward then move to the right where they see some abalone clinging to rocks along the bottom. Abalone is a tasty mollusk that inhabit the waters along the California Coast. They are Gastropods, that is they are snail like with a flattened and slightly spiral shell lined with mother of pearl. John and Paul enjoy the sport of finding and the pleasure of eating these delicious mollusks. As the men move toward harvesting some the scene moves back aboard the boat. Joan and Cathy are sitting on deck chairs in the open cockpit of the boat. The children are using the rubber raft as a diving platform and jumping off and swimming around then climbing back aboard and jumping off again. The gulls overheard are singing to this tranquil group. Reminding them that they are special people in a special place. The world is all right by them.
Off shore several miles from the cove at Tomale Bay is a sleek black cigarette boat, with flame stripes on the sides, impatiently pacing back and forth across a 1000 yard stretch of sea, waiting and watching. Out of the sea mist comes a slow squat fishing boat with none of that bustle of squawking sea gulls you see around a real fishing boat. Only a few lone gulls doggedly following, searching for food. The lone pilot smokes incessantly in the wheel house of the fishing boat. He impatiently maneuvers at the last minute intending to drift alongside the cigarette boat, and instead, slams into the smaller boat setting the driver and passenger rocking back and forth. The small boat driver shouts a few choice names at the fishing boat driver and jumps onto the larger boat tying his craft alongside. The fishing boat pilot comes down from the wheel house to help the two rough looking characters off-load his cargo (the sooner they are off his boat the better he will feel thinks the pilot). The unloading doesn't take long as they stow several bales of "weed" under the long bow of their boat. The transfer finished the two thugs jump back into the cigarette boat. The two boats separate and the cigarette boat speeds off toward shore alone, leaving the fishing boat to drift on its own.
Our high speed Coast Guard Cyclone cutter scrambles out to sea. The men on board cutter running in every direction ready-ing the ship for high speed pursuit and any action necessary. At the same time a helicopter took off from shore heading in the same direction as the Coast Guard Cutter.
The cigarette boat from the earlier rendezvous spots the helicopter on its long range radar and speeds up heading away from the Coast Guard cutter and helicopter and into a maze of shore inlets. At their cruising speed of better than seventy five miles an hour they can outrun almost any boat afloat, but the helicopter poses a problem if they are seen close up they can be identified. The men aboard this boat know that if they don't get into shore and a hidden cove fast they will be caught by the Coast Guard and can expect a long prison sentence. By shear force-of-will they manage to find a hidy-hole and the cutter passes right by them, shortly after that the helicopter flew over them several times, never seeing their hiding place.
Chapter Thirteen
It was not so long ago that this chase would never have happened at all. The U.S. has a new weapon in the drug war, it's spy satellites. The Coast Guard uses the satellites to spot off-shore rendezvous and to intercept the participants and board them. The drug cartel is beginning to panic, knowing, that every time they off load near the American coast a satellite might be watching them. The Cartel has offered a fortune for anyone able to break the satellite codes. With the codes broken they could find out when the satellite was approaching and cover and illegal activity. There are several civilian companies involved in programming, coordinating and positioning the satellites.
HTD is one of the civilian companies involved in programming the satellites software and is actively working on setting up more interceptions and overlapping fly-over surveillance. There is an entire division at the company whose task it is, is to keep an open link to the satellites as they fly over the California Coast and monitor what they see. They then pass this down-link off to the Coast Guard. Who are more familiar with the coast and know when two fishing boats are laying a net rather than a pair of smugglers trying to avoid detection. The employees of the other sections of HTD think the secret part of the company works on games for leading game manufacturers
John's part of HTD does not involve itself with the secret work. That section is off limits and kept top secret. The people in this secret section all have heavy security clearance and have had some CIA training so they know when someone is attempting to get information from them. The commercial section of HTD is more interested in dollars than spies and since no serious security problems have arisen the company missed a simple security breach that would otherwise have triggered a major investigation. The employee in question had never been in jail, but his brother had and for drug smuggling, which gave him possible ties to the Cartel.
Chapter Fourteen
As John tested his module with Margaret's code added he began seeing interesting twists and turns to the code. John got a hold of that day's e-mail in the company and put the module to work on every message , as samples of text. It didn't always pick out grammar errors correctly, but it occasionally found possible secret missives moving around the company. One note, using a very basic text code, said: "lets meet at the cafe around 7:00 PM" another said "We need to step up acquisition of boats! This did not worry John as he felt that these messages could be random or the program may be mistaken entirely, about the translation in the first place. None of this was really making sense to him at this point. After all the module was only suppose to find grammar errors not "secret spy messages." It wouldn't be long before strange incidents at the plant would make him become more suspicious
The company has people in the ROM department (a very few) who must know exactly what is going on in each area of programming so that each are coordinated with one another. They are always the ones that find the smallest error and bring the house down with re-writes which are always at the last minute of a programs life. At John's company there are four people who do this coordination. Whenever a programmer writes any code accessing special memory or printers or any other device outside the computer, the programmer must bring in one of these coordinators to help him coordinate his work with that of the accessed hardware's manufacturers. At HTD these coordinators are referred to as "RAMROMs" because they specialize in the deepest secrets of the computers and have access to all the specifications of hardware manufactured outside HTD. These people are also always in on every new project in the company. These are the same people Paul referred to earlier and John called them "Tech'ies" nick-named "RAMROMs"
These people are also CIA trained and cleared so that they can work on the satellite software as well as the other more commercial aspects of the companies product. This job of interfacing with all aspects of the companies product is rather simple because all the manufacturers use a basic code and similar instructions in their BIOS chips. In some companies these programmers are more accurately called checkers or quality control people simply comparing one set of instructions to another. Although this aspect is crucial and complicated, most basic programmers know the proper codes and simply need these access codes verified. In most companies there would be no need for RAMROMs. However, at HTD they are working on government projects that require a very high degree of perfection which makes this extra quality control necessary. These "RAMROMs" are not very well liked because they are secretive, nosy, and have the last say on anything to do with programming code.
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Chapter Fifteen
Paul is having a department interview at HTD this morning. He has been talking to supervisors about joining the more secret game section. He will need to be CIA cleared and trained, but he seems thrilled at the prospect of coming back to work. This section pays more than the commercial section, it just requires total secrecy. Most people in the company think they build games or security segments for gaming tables in Los Vegas. Security is tight so no one outside the section is sure what is done there.
Paul has been summoned by Frank Sponda, the division head, of project "Overview", the project that handles coordinating U.S. Government satellite earth viewing times and positioning. Frank Sponda is familiar with John Goodman's work, but since he is so deeply involved with "overview" he doesn't know John personally. Frank has been with the company since day one. He is 50 years old, and a recent bachelor, for the second time. Frank grew up in those years before the Vietnam War and by the time of the draft was to old to serve, 26 years old was the cut-off and he reached that age before his name "Sponda" came up in the draft lottery. At High Tech Devices, Frank reached supervisor early in his career and has been one ever since. He was one of the originators of project "Overview." Although people in the company know the name "Overview" very few know it is not a game programming project. "Overview" encompasses the militaries efforts to move U.S. military satellites into position in a coordinated way around the parameter of the U.S., so that every border is in view by a satellite all hours of the day and night. The satellites have a few minute view of a given point on earth and then the next one moves into place some time after that. Currently what happens is the satellites move on around the world and will be in this approximate position again in ninety minutes. The physical dimensions of the earth view they have is approximately a 30 mile circle (1/2 degree) at any given moment. This circle is actually a band around the earth 30 miles wide and given enough time it completely circles the earth. During the cold war the U.S. put dozens of satellites into space revolving the earth looking at every nook and cranny of the Soviet Union and every other country. Over the years the Military have also coordinated with the weather bureau so that a ring of stationary weather satellites could be put up as well to cover the planet and give civilian weather men a space eye view of weather movements on earth. A ring of relatively stationary commercial satellites have been placed in orbit to reflect radio and television and telephone communications around the world. These "stationary" satellites are not really stationary at all. They are sent into space in an "equatorial orbit" (circling around the equator). By matching the earth's rotation to the speed and distance of the satellite it is possible to put the satellite in position anywhere above a specific point on earth. Weather satellites are put up this way so that they see exact areas and can report on conditions in those areas. The rotation and speed coordination is similar to putting something on a large record. Anything in the center will be revolving slowly, and anything further out will be revolving faster, depending on how far out it is, but both are in a straight line from the center. As long as the satellites revolution around the earth is in the same direction as the earth's rotation and positioned correctly in its distance above the earth (approximately 22,000 miles), to us here on the ground it will appear stationary. However, in fact it will be moving thousands of miles an hour (17,300MPH) above the horizon. During the 50s and 60s the U.S. Government figured out that if they "piggy back" spy cameras on these stationary satellites as well as all the other rotating ones the military and civilian sectors were putting up, we could see everything that happened on earth. This happened because of a simple breakthrough in photography. Someone developed a camera and lens that could be positioned thousands of miles above the earth and still read the license plate on a car.
The National Cartographers have for many years used a series of fixed positions on earth to determine a ships location at sea. A device called a "Loran" would get a radio signal from one fixed location and as the operator used the device a second signal would come in from another locator. Maps with the exact location of each radio beacon are kept by sailors and when they receive the signals they simply draw coordinating lines on the map from each beacon using the numbers given by the beacon. Where-ever the lines intersect is exactly where they are on earth within a very few yards (meters). This system of beacons has been enhanced with a satellite system that working together can locate a sailor within the area of a small row boat anywhere on earth. This system is now being used by car manufacturers to put a location device in cars which allow the driver to look at a map in the car and know where he is exactly. In the future road side map reading will be a thing of the past. On-board mapping is already being offered to some new car buyers here in the U.S.A.
By the year 1995 the combination of these technologies, both photographically and electronically, as well as land and space have been honed to such a point that they could make out the face of an individual person from outer space. By using computers and electronic enhancement the military has been able to keep tabs on any group of dissidents and criminals working outside of buildings or camouflage areas. The biggest short-coming is the extremely limited time over each specific location. Also, the earth is so large that to have people watching every moment of every day would be a monumental task. The cameras (for later viewing) fill-in but are always behind the times. When they are viewed the satellite has passed the location the operator is seeing. So HTD is one of a very few companies working for the Military with the express purpose of coordinate all satellites revolving and stationary around the world so that they have a recorded view of the borders of the United States and anything heading our way from around the world.
The actual surveillance is broken down to several modes:
First, overview, where the widest area of viewing is possible.
Second, suspect activity, where a very narrow area is watched by teams of surveillance people for any illegal activity.
Third, Crisis intervention, where an uninterrupted view of a given area is possible.
The first , "Overview" can be done after the fact, either by viewing the film or by cursory surveillance as the satellite is passing overhead.
The second "Suspect activity" requires people watching in "real time" or "now time" exactly as the satellite passes certain points on earth. This second stage, recordings are being made on earth to be used later either to identify people or events and to be an accurate record of those people and events.
The third class "crisis intervention is when the people watching are in touch with and coordinating ground crews working in the areas under surveillance or attempting to apprehend people in these areas.
This is where HTD is at its best, they have the trajectory and timing of every satellite and spy camera scheduled to pass a given point anytime day or night. In combination with the military, HTD can move a satellite a small distance off course to accommodate specific viewing needs. The people at HTD are working day and night to build a network of visual surveillance around the United States. At this moment the attack on the U.S. is from illegal drugs and this "Overview" system is in, or will shortly be in, a unique position to stop the attack in its tracks. Simply by moving the satellites and surveillance ships and planes in a coordinated effort the American borders of the USA will never be unprotected!
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Chapter Sixteen
Paul is greeted by Frank Sponda outside Frank's office and ushered into his inner office. Frank Sponda is about 175 LB's and medium height with dark thinning hair and a air of confident assurance. Frank came up the hard way in this company. He was hired from college while still working on his degree, he finished college nights and went on to get his Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Frank liked the importance of working on government jobs and the secrecy it entailed. This secrecy added mystery to his solitary bachelor life. Although Frank was seen with many women, and married briefly twice, over the years none had captured his interest for any length of time. He was a devoted company man.
As they talked each man sparred with the other, trying to get to know the other somewhat better than a cold file or, worse, office gossip, could describe. It didn't take them long to discover that they had a lot in common. In addition to loving their work they both, loved the sea and snorkeling was a minor passion for both. Paul explained about his friends John and Joan and their children and how they had spent the previous weekend snorkeling for abalone off Tamale Bay and Frank was duly jealous having snorkeled off the California coast all his life. Frank loved the Tamale Bay area especially since it was near-by and easily enjoyed by anyone interested. Paul mentioned that even if he didn't get the job John and he would love to have Frank snorkel with them some week-end. At this Frank told Paul you have the job, now lets talk about Tamale Bay!
The details of Paul's job where simple enough, he would work with a team assigned to "ship patrol" coordination. He would take over as team leader (his specialty) as soon as he was up to speed with the other scientists and knew their individual projects. Paul couldn't wait to tell John about his job and Frank Sponda. At lunch, after hearing about Frank, John reacted predictably by calling Frank Sponda on the company phone and inviting him to come along the very next week-end for a little snorkeling and water fun. Frank loved the idea and after getting permission to bring a date he agreed to meet John and Paul in the cafeteria the next day for lunch (to meet John). They agreed to be at the dock Saturday at 8:00 a.m. for a day of fun in the sun.
At the luncheon meeting nothing special happened except, Frank showed special interest in Johns comments about his new "spy algorithm." Frank mentioned that he could use the algorithm to check out his new girl friend, "to see if she really loved him". Since they were all busy and it was Paul's first day on the job the lunch was very short, and they all agreed to meet on Saturday.
Saturday dawned drizzly and foggy, John almost called off their days Boat ride, but it was agreed they would not go all the way into the San Francisco Bay (too dangerous in the fog) but would stay local and do some fishing and getting to know each other. The children decided to stay at home rather than on board the boring boat with all the old folks. That left 3 couples to hit the high seas for a day of local boating. Frank got along with Joan and Cathy immediately, and told John and Paul not to take their eyes off these lovely women or they would lose them. At Franks flirting, his girl friend Ellen kicked him and mentioned that he might need to learn long distance swimming before the day was over. Only when he promised he loved all three equally, except Ellen more equally, did she relent and let him live just one more day! Ellen Bannister, (Frank's girl friend) fit right in with this group, she had a quick wit and easy going personality. In her early 40s, Ellen had recently lost her husband of many years and was working locally as a marketing executive for the company that has HTD's account, her and Joan had a lot in common. The group didn't actually get into the bay at all. The weather was so bad that they only made it as far as the pass leading from the rivers and back waters around the marina into the bay itself. They made a turn in the pass and went back to the marina. It was decided that the three couples would go to John and Joan's house for dinner and relax. Later in the day they all discovered they had something else in common, they all liked to play Canasta, (a group card game). Although it was a long day everyone enjoyed each others company so much no one wanted to call it a day. Finally at midnight Frank and Ellen declined another hand of cards and were the first ones to leave. After Frank and Ellen left for the evening, John and Paul agreed they were a great couple and would make good friends.
Chapter Seventeen
Monday Morning found John hard at work at his desk. The module was coming together smoothly, however, Margaret's algorithm was acting up again and John was trying to decide to either fix it or leave it out of the new upgrade. As he fed it more E-mail from the company computer he began to see many hidden notes in the mail moving around the company. To John this did not make sense since these people could just as easily walk up to each other and whisper whatever they wanted to say. Too many of these messages had to do with a government spy satellite that John had never heard of and he dismissed it as his own over-worked imagination. While manipulating the module he discovered a key sequence (using "Ctrl-F8" instead of "F8") that seemed to access a here-to-fore unknown main menu. As he worked with it he realized that he had been using the wrong embedded opener for this module and was actually calling up a secondary module within the primary module. Margaret wrote down the symbol for "Ctrl" which is "^" and called a carrot used in combination with F8 (^F8) and John had mistaken it for "F8" alone. By using the correct key sequence he always got the main menu and now the module worked like a dream. He couldn't believe how quickly and smoothly it searched and retrieved. Like a room within a room the main module had a secondary search program inside it that searched for something other than grammar but actually used the same libraries and comparison lists that the main module used. This was very efficient use of these libraries and comparison lists. There is a virus using this type of programming called "Trojan Horse", that when accessed attaches itself to files already in the computer and does damage in one way or another. This module is the opposite of a virus. When John used the correct call-up code it made all the difference in the world. This module was a dream. This was exactly what Travis first said it was and now John was curious why his first impression was so wrong. As he went back over his notes he realized that he transposed the original opening sequence and was using an incorrect sequence all along. As he used it again, this incorrect sequence recalled the wrong screen and acted, as it had before, not very well as a grammar checker. The more John thought about it he realized he needed to question Margaret because she might have had something else in mind that he could use in the module.
Chapter Eighteen
When John went to Travis' department, Margaret was happy to see him and loved talking about the module. Margaret is another of those people who love what they do. Slightly over-weight, she couldn't care less, she used to tell people she actually dreamed in computer code. She was married to a guy who was crazy about her and thought her coding everything made her mysterious. When John asked her, she explained that she loved crossword puzzles and the secondary commands opened a deeper word scanning module that Margaret designed for her puzzle solving. When John explained that it seemed to find hidden code in random text, Margaret explained that she was always fascinated by code and put dozens of search strings in for simple code, so code deciphering was definitely part of this new module. She had never tried it out on any real coded material but always wanted to. She couldn't understand where John would come up with coded material here at HTD. The more Margaret talked the more John was reluctant to go into detail with her, sensing that it might alarm her, instead he passed it off as random notes from random sources rather than from the company Email and decided that if he had time he would look into it himself.
As John left Margaret he was puzzled by what he learned. Margaret felt sure that if the module "divined" secret code from random notes then it must be correct and the notes were something more than random notes. This was beginning to go to far afield for him and he dismissed it as paranoia and went back to work. Like so many of us, John couldn't see the obvious.
At his desk John is testing the new module and finding some interesting connections in the English language that he never saw before. As he is feeding a new segment of E-mail into the module Ned Carlson (John's supervisor) came up to his desk.
"John I'd like to talk to you. Have you got time to stop by my office now or would you rather come later?"
"Now is all-right Ned, give me a second." John shut down his test module. As soon as he was all the way out he shut off the computer and got up to follow Ned.
Ned has been with the company several years and has progressed when others failed. It seemed that Ned liked Paul Clint's job and made no bones about it that he would push Paul out. Shortly there-after Paul stumbled in the completion date fiasco and hero Ned stepped in to save the day.
When they arrived at the office Ned moved around to the back of his desk while John sat in front.
"Well! What's up Ned?" John Asked.
"How are you coming with your code John? When can we put it in the can?"
John, "It's coming good, I'm working on a new algorithm that Margaret from Travis Magee's section gave me. It seems to work pretty well. I think I need another couple of weeks three at the most. What's the rush. Are we going to announce early again. "
Ned, "No, I'm just putting completion dates together. Maybe this time we'll get it ready to ship before we announce."
John, "Ok, well I will have something cleaned up and ready to package very soon four weeks at the latest!"
"Oh, by the way John, you mentioned a new module Margaret Obrien worked up for you. How is it working out and will you be able to use it in your finished module?"
"As a matter of fact I will be using it, it works great and speeds up the search string. I will be writing a memo congratulating Margaret and recommending her for a raise for her help in this."
"This is exactly the type of employee involvement in each others projects that the company is always talking about."
"That's great, I'll take a look at the finished product and if it works as you say I'll be glad to approve a raise for Margaret." "Did I also hear that you suspect the module has other uses?"
"Ah, no, not really, I ah I'm not sure what you mean. When I first got the module I played with it and it did not work very well until I realized that I was accessing it incorrectly. There seemed to be two different access codes and when I put it into my module I disconnected all but the final usable access and now it works great with no anomalies."
"Ok, I was just asking, anyway thanks and have a good day."
John left Ned's office and went for a little leg stretching walk to think this conversation over in depth. The company was humming along smoothly, with just a touch of pressure building as the announcement date moved into view. There really is no timetable for programming, you either have what you need or you don't. If everything works together and accomplishes the job it was designed for, that's great but usually at this stage (development) nothing seemed to work together at all. Ned's questions about Margaret's module upset John and set him thinking and questioning why Ned was interested, and more importantly how he knew any of it. John, himself had told Ned during the conversation about the module from Margaret, but Ned knew about it and knew about the odd behavior of the module from the beginning. Only Travis, Margaret and John knew all these facts about the module and none of them would have mentioned anything to Ned.
Chapter Nineteen
At his work desk, John put in Margaret's module and used the correct access sequence to get the main menu. He then began a final testing sequence before calling in the RAMROMs. This was a good sign because you never called in the coordinators until you were certain that your project was finished. John decided that since everything was working so smoothly with Margaret's module accessed correctly he would eliminate the other calls (access codes) for the finished module and no one would be able to access Margaret's puzzle breaking segment. At least not outside the company. It only took John the rest of that day and half of the next day to finish his testing and he called Eddy McMeel, one of two RAMROMs he worked with regularly.
Eddy showed up later in the day with Myer Lands, the other RAMROM that worked with John and the three of them began a process called "walkthrough".
Where Eddy is bookish, Myer is sporty looking. Myer's tanned skin is quite a contrast to Eddies pasty white skin. The two together look like opposites ends of a suntan add. As computer specialists, no-one John knows has more knowledge or experience than these two testers and John actually feels honored that they like working with him.
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Normally "walkthrough"s are done by a larger group of programmers, each critiquing the others work, but here at HTD, the traditional "walkthrough" was done earlier in the programming. Usually in C programming it is possible to use several different code sequences to accomplish a specific task, the walkthroughs actually determine why specific code was used in a specific area and if possibly one of the other sequences could accomplish the task better. This specialized "walkthrough" was done at the later stages to help the beta testers, by assuring the most use-ability of the program by the largest number of different people out there. In the computer industry there are thousands of manufacturers making various parts for the final computer. Not all of them use the same standard or "care as much" about quality in the final product. The RAMROMs reduce the program failure rate by incorporating various drivers in the final program so that it works with more than one standard. Like teaching an automobile driver to drive a motorcycle and a small truck. Although the vehicles are slightly different (as are the manufactured parts of a computer) the end result is the same. These same drivers are used in the industry to coordinate printing and any outside use of a program. In order for a program to work at its best with a particular type of printer it must have drivers that match the printers capabilities.
Once this process is finished for John the pressure will be off him and he can begin to experiment with the other side of Margaret's module.
Chapter Twenty
In an office somewhere on the HTD grounds a solitary dark figure is rummaging through a file cabinet. The gloved hands are rifling through each draw methodically, and quietly. In the hallway outside this office a security guard has noticed something strange. There seems to be a light on in Mr. Brogan's office at nine p.m., when everyone should be home. The guard saw Mr. Brogan leave four hours ago and no one has signed in since. There has never been a break in or night time theft at HTD so Gerry blundered into the office with a lot of noise and loudly asked who had a light on. When no one answered he proceeded to search the office without calling for back-up, his second mistake. And, when he went into Mr. Brogan's inner office he never noticed that the door, from the secretaries office to the inner office which he pushed hard, didn't make a sound as it completed its swing, this was his fatal mistake. Now, fully into the inner office, he never heard, or saw the intruder behind him swinging the nasty looking black jack, which turned out to be Gerry's last mistake of his life. Either Gerry McTieg's head was softer than normal or the intruder used more power than he intended, because the blow ended the guard, Gerry McTieg's, life before he hit the soft carpet on office floor. The intruder escaped, aware that he now had a very big problem, an unconscious guard attracted a lot less attention than a dead guard. But, that was too late now to change. Gerry died so quickly that he didn't have time to bleed much. At HTD on Thursday morning the police were still on the grounds investigating the murder of the guard. Everyone was talking about it.
As John arrived he was amazed at how everyone stopped what they were doing and had a solution to the mystery of "what happened to Gerry McTieg". It seemed that everyone knew everything until you asked them a specific question then no-one actually knew anything first hand.
The only actual facts in the case at the moment were that Mr. Brogan's secretary arrived at 8:30 a.m. and found Gerry sprawled out in the inner office dead. The police were questioning everyone they could think of without any success. By noon the police pulled out and the investigation was turned over to the Federal Bureau of investigation. Since this was considered a defense plant the FBI had jurisdiction.
The hum drum routine of the company was totally disrupted by this intrusion. The normal mundane work-day was now filled with speculation and innuendo. As is always the case the workers looked for conspiracy in and out of the plant. The investigators, however, felt it may be a lot simpler than that. It seems that Mr. Brogan, who was a seemingly happily married man of 15 years, was dating a married woman and her husband didn't like it. The next day being Friday, the FBI leaked this simple solution to the hired help and over the week-end most employees accepted that Brogan's peccadillo was at the bottom of the problem and dismissed it.
In reality the FBI had many leads, not the smallest of which was the professional way the break-in was conducted. And the lack of clues itself told them a lot about who they were dealing with. So, no simple solution here, merely a simple excuse to conduct the investigation more quietly.
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Chapter Twenty One
As the days passed after Gerry McTieg's murder and the robbery in Mr. Brogan's office went without any conclusion the company began to settle down. Paul started work in Frank Sponda's section and loved it. The secrecy seemed to disappear once he was inside the sector. It seemed the United States had quite a few satellites spinning around the world keeping tabs on everyone they could think of. As a consequence they had satellites moving into position at U.S. borders every 12 seconds through-out the day somewhere along the U.S. borders. The major concentration is in the lower California and Florida Peninsula areas. HTD was coordinating a schedule that would have every inch of U.S. border of the mainland covered with a satellite every few minutes. Satellites take 90 minutes to circle the Earth and are in position for 4 or 5 minutes over a particular area. They can have their cameras turned so that they can actually stare at a single spot for about 6 minutes of every 90. However since there are so many satellites concentrated on this hot area they actually will have about 42 minutes of each 90 covered by fly-by satellites "seeing" the hot areas every 13 minutes for a period of almost 6 minutes. That will leave 7 minute spans of no view at each area. This short time of "no view" will allow the Coast Guard and the DEA to cover the United States like a blanket without missing anything important. Since unloading drugs takes more than seven minutes in most cases the Government will have some view of every unloading. So, the careful coordination of these satellites is crucial to the United States defense against the drug invasion. If the Drug Cartel ever knew the exact timing of these fly-bys they could work out a process of "unload and cover" that would make them seem more legitimate to the watchers. Paul loves the interaction with his crew and is moving right into the job. The programmers in this department are setting each satellite to coordinate with another so that they will be linked and cover the designated areas in the highest time periods. Even darkness is no barrier to the infra-red cameras on board these babies. They are even using those satellites that are "stationary" for an overview to enhance the close-up pictures taken by the spy satellites. These "Geostationary" satellites are put in orbit 22,300 miles above the earth (spy satellites are only 170 miles and a speed of 17,300MPH) and a speed of 6,850MPH. This speed and altitude cause the satellite to remain over one specific spot on earth continuously, much like a record spinning. The center of the record is moving slower than the outer tracks, but both remain in "geosyncronous" position. These stationary satellites don't have a very good view of a small area, but, by superimposing the orbits of the spy satellites a viewer can see an area of hundreds of miles at one time.
John is surprised at how good Paul is getting along in his new job, although Paul won't talk specifically about anything, he says that making games "appear more real" is harder than he ever knew and the people are great to work with. Paul is one of those people who get totally immersed in their work and can't see anything else. In John's section of the company things are moving along fine.
The module is "in the can" as they say, meaning it is finished and usable and ready to be delivered when the new upgrade is finally all complete. The company expects to deliver in the next few months and now the marketing people are going crazy trying to get the most interest in their product.
Now that Johns portion of the new upgrade is complete and accepted by the RAMROMs, John has been working intermittently on Margaret's module. It seems to have a mind of its own and keeps coming up with weird codes and sinister messages. Right after McTieg died one note said "I couldn't help it he just walked right in" (these notes are not exact, they may contain bad spelling and missing letters, but the program comes up with the most likely message) it actually said " I cudnt hp it h wukd in on me". Since there is room for doubt John doesn't believe they are real. He thinks the program will tend to read into random letters any message it can make up. John is also spending time enlarging his module's libraries (those lists that the computer checks against to verify something (like spelling), it must have the word spelled correctly, and also have these misspellings so that the computer knows when to pull a word and compare it to something)) because he knows the next upgrade is coming and the libraries are where the most expansion is needed. As he works he plots out Sunday's dive trip. Frank and Ellen will be joining them and the weather promises to be perfect so they will have eight people on board, who need food and drink for the day and also facilities. This is not a big problem but it is one that should be thought out in advance. It is no fun to be 20 miles from the nearest hamburger or coca cola when you really need one. As John planned, the libraries went smoothly and the day passed quickly.
Chapter Twenty Two
At the boat John and Joan have arrived with the children, and Paul and Cathy were right behind. Frank and Ellen arrived before Paul and Cathy had everything unloaded from the cars and pitched in until everyone was aboard and ready to go. After the usual pre-trip procedures John used this time to pull a surprise life preserver check. John rarely thought about the life preservers but he did like to have everyone on board familiar with where he kept them and how to put them on. Since Frank and Ellen were new to boating with John it was time. When they first started boating this was a safety precaution John promised himself he would not forget, but because they only went out with Paul and Cathy he felt ridiculous repeating the procedure, but with Frank and Ellen it really was necessary. They simply would all go to the nearest life preserver stowage, take a preserver and put it on. Someone always needed help and this time it was Cathy, she got the preserver with the sticking catch and someone else had to fasten it for her. When all were familiar with the way the preservers worked and where they were stowed again, John started the engine and they were off. The sun was perfect today and the sky was slightly streaked with high thin clouds. The water was a lot rougher than the weather would lead you to believe. This sometimes forewarned a rough ride outside the "Golden Gate" and a small boat like this had to watch such roughness. A boat this size doesn't have a chance in thirty foot seas, even ten foot seas are really too rough for this 36 foot piece of floating plastic. So, when it was rough they stayed inside the bay and avoided open areas like the plague. As they moved up the coast they didn't see many other pleasure boats. The sun shone on the turbulent water like little diamonds sparkling in every direction. As they moved further into the bay from the pass they noticed the white foam streamers stretching northward into the wind, indicating strong wind and current. This was going to be another choppy uncomfortable day in San Francisco Bay. Where they are so far south into the bay (46 miles from the Golden Gate Bridge) the signs all around them told let them know that high seas would plague them every inch of their trip today. There had been a storm at sea and this current roughness must be the tail end of the storm. Faced with sea sickness and unhappy fellow travelers it didn't take John long to decide to head back to home port and fish close to shore there. This was going to be a short day on the bay again. In sight of the marina John spotted some sea trout kicking up the water and anchored near them. They were barely anchored when a small fishing boat equipped with twin hundred horse engines cruised near them very curious about what John and his group were doing. Because of the extremely rough water the boats moved erratically in the water, John's at anchor road up and down on every wave, the fishing boat bounced up and down then rolled frantically as the driver turned her in-between the waves. As the fishing boat moved slowly by several hundred feet away the driver seemed to be on the radio as he struggled to keep his boat pointed into the windblown waves and still see John's boat. Suddenly the driver was no longer on the radio and the fishing boat was now speeding directly at them with a second man holding something long aimed at John's boat. Having watched the fishing boat closely from the moment it appeared until it turned and attacked, John was not totally off guard. When the driver put down the radio phone and gestured toward John's boat, John started his engine and mobilized everyone into their life jackets then worked with Paul and Frank to pull the anchor in. John managed at the last second to get the bow aimed at the attacker before they started firing. This gave the attacker the smallest target and gave John a small weapon, his boat, to ram the attacker with. The little fishing boat raced in firing a small machine pistol at the control console and anyone standing on Johns boat. By now John had everyone below except Paul and Frank. The women and children were in the aft cabin which was actually the center of the boat and had the most protection between it and the outside.
Again and again the small fishing boat attacked, raking the larger boat with the machine gun fire from the man standing next to the driver. John couldn't get close enough to hit the attacker, either with a blast from the shotgun Frank held or with the bow of his boat, but he tried. At the last second the fishermen would turn ninety degrees and speed out of range, only to turn back in and make another run. Paul is hovering in the stairwell with the ship to shore radio in one hand and ready for anything as Frank, lying flat in the cockpit, keeps jumping up on Johns cue whenever the other boat comes close enough for his gun. At one point Frank hit the spotlight on the bow of the fisherman but that was all he ever hit. The fisherman on the other hand seemed to hit every part of John's boat including under the waterline because the SeaRay was taking water at what appeared to be a very bad rate. It seemed like forever for the Coast Guard to respond. Paul reached them on the radio as the first shots were fired, eight minutes ago but, under fire eight minutes can seem like forever. Suddenly the Coast Guard were there overhead, in a rescue helicopter, firing at the speeding fishing boat with great blasts from a large caliber gun peppering all around and into the fishing boat. These thugs are anything but dumb, they got the message loud and clear and immediately broke off the attack running away across the small bay with the Coast Guard chopper close behind like a buzzing bee trying to sting and intruder. John now turned toward shore and the marina figuring that the closer they were when the engine quit and the boat sank from it's many holes the better. John called everyone up from below so that when they had to abandon ship they could do it together. He figured that all that water coming in would eventually stall out his engine. As luck would have it John actually got the boat into the repair slip, of the marina, without incident and had to shut the engine off himself. Everyone disembarked and John opened the engine hatch to see how much damage there was. As the light hit the top of the engine the first thing anyone saw was the ten sticks of dynamite strung together in the well behind the carburetor, and right on top of the cooling manifold he never saw anything else. That was all John needed he immediately jumped on the dock and yelled for everyone to run far away from the boat. Where the boat was tied there was the wooden dock, the giant hydraulic boat lift and other boats. Within minutes the marina was swarming with police, Coast Guard and the bomb squad.
While John was discovering the dynamite the escaping boat was being soundly harassed by the Coast Guard helicopter. It was firing almost continuously at the little boat which dodged and weaved miraculously under this ferocious onslaught. All the while the driver of the escaping boat was heading for the nearby ship yard and a hundred large ships under various degrees of repair. The bay was too small and the attacker made the shelter of the first large ship and disappeared in among the maze of wharves and ships haphazardly placed here and there. Even from the helicopter it was impossible to pick out that little boat.
At John's marina the bomb squad removed the bomb from his engine and took it away to study. They can tell a lot about a bomb from the way it is made and what kind of explosive is used. They told John the bomb was designed to go off when the motor had been running for several hours. It had a switch that needed high temperature for some time before it would blow. When John told the police that he had intended to go up to Tamale Bay for the day and everyone knew it. The police figured someone wanted the boat to blow up in the middle of San Francisco Bay. They would have been just about even with Alcatraz when the bomb blew them to little pieces. The entire family, including the two extra couples were now in for a long session with the police trying to figure out who wanted them dead, and just who exactly the target of the bomb was. The police were most concerned that John or anyone on board the boat didn't use drugs or owe money to loan sharks. Each member of John's group spent time with the police interrogators going over and over the incidents of the day. When the police finally believed that they were neither drug users nor gamblers the search began to focus on a business connection with John and HTD since all the men on board worked there. About 11:00 PM that Sunday night while still at the police station answering questions the FBI showed up and took over. Special Agent in charge Edward Mitchell introduced himself to John and explained why the FBI was especially interested in this explosion. It seemed they got wind of what had happened to John and his party and decided that maybe there was a connection between the McTieg murder and this latest HTD employee mishap. The FBI provided the motive when they informed John that HTD was a defense department contractor and that the Colombian drug cartel wanted very badly to infiltrate the secret satellite programming done there. The Coast Guard reported that the small boat got away clean and then turned up on fire in the middle of the shipyard and sank an hour later. When they recovered it any evidence that might have been on-board was burned away.
Chapter Twenty Three
The day after John's boat was attacked John spent a lot of time talking with Special Agent Mitchell. John found out that HTD was not only a defense contractor but was working on a highly secret system that would keep the American coast line from the Atlantic to the Pacific under Coast Guard surveillance. With dozens of Coast Guard watchers seeing every inch of the coastline in real time any type of smuggling would eventually be detected. The more John heard the more he realized that the messages he was intercepting were, not only real but dangerous to himself and the secrecy of the government work. All those mentions of spy satellites didn't make sense until he learned of their connection with HTD, now each had a different meaning and he and the FBI went over all the files John had copied from the e-mail and re-deciphered them. Although this link seemed extremely helpful to the FBI, the senders and receivers of these missives are not stupid, and there were no traceable names or identities. Special Agent Mitchell asked John to work with them and John agreed. Someone from the bureau would stay with John all the time he was at the company. Any notes deciphered are copied and sent on to the FBI headquarters in Washington DC for further analysis. Several days later John intercepted a note that was written in a very complicated code and referred to the McTieg killing and the attack on himself as "unfinished business and must take top priority to complete satisfactorily." This note prompted the FBI to put John's family under twenty four hour protection and to place undercover people all over the plant. The paranoia level at the company among the FBI and the security people is at fever pitch and John, for the first time in his working life, can't wait to leave the plant and get home. Five days after his Saturday encounter on the high seas, John is on his way home when a speeding pickup truck sideswiped him at the very end of the highway sending John's car into the ditch. From his car in the ditch John saw the pickup stop and backup closer to where John went off the road. The driver of the pickup get out and shouted to John, saying he was sorry and asking if he could help John? Seeing this helpfulness from the pickup drive John dropped his guard and got out of his car. As soon as John was away from his car and in the open the other driver dropped down to one knee and pulled a gun from behind him. On seeing the aggressive moves from the driver John lunged away from where he was and rolled into the ditch in front of his car. Suddenly a car came out of nowhere and rammed the kneeling attacker sending him flying against the back of the pickup. Everything happened in rapid fire then. The driver of the car that rammed the attacker jumped out of his car and raced over to see if the attacker was dead. At the same time a passenger in the ramming car ran over to John, all the while aiming his pistol at the fallen gunman. He identified himself as John's FBI guard. In the mean time a passenger in the pickup truck slid over and drove the vehicle away leaving the fallen gunman to his fate. The FBI man who was talking to John jumped back in the car and raced after the fleeing pickup truck leaving his partner and John behind.
The FBI man who had driven the car up walked over to John. At this point John had recovered sufficiently to get himself up of the grass and mud and head for the tarmac. The FBI man said, "he's dead, I've called for the police and my partner will catch that creep who drove away."
"I didn't see you guys following me, that was pretty close."
"We were only a few cars back but it happened so fast there was nothing more we could have done. These guys are really professionals."
"Well I'm glad you were, another few seconds and that shooter over there would have had me dead to rights."
"From now on we ride together with an escort in front and back. These people must think you know a lot more than we can see right now"
"I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what we're missing that they know, and I can't come up with anything"
"Things are happening so fast now that something has to give very soon, I just hope it isn't me"
"Don't worry, you have the FBI all around you now. Let me call a tow truck and we'll get your car out of this ditch"
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Chapter Twenty Four
The next day after the car attack Margaret O'Brian didn't show up for work. Sensing a connection the FBI sent someone to her house and she was not there. As John and special agent Mitchell talked about this latest problem a loud explosion rocked the company. Everyone rushed to the windows facing the Special section of the company, where Paul Clint worked and saw the building falling from the sky as the pieces of exploded building rained back to earth. At first it was not possible to accurately assess damage but as the smoke settled John could see a huge hole in the ground and in the side of the building where an explosion from the parking lot had taken out a large section of building. Several cars in the parking lot were still burning from the explosion and soon another car exploded of its own accord adding more confusion to an already shaky group of people hovering around outside. Soon the fire trucks arrived and several ambulances to take away the injured. John and special agent Mitchell rushed over to the still smoldering building and found several injured employees wandering around not sure what to do. As soon as the emergency trucks arrived the people began herding the injured into ambulances and taking them away. Altogether there were twenty eight people injured, no-one seriously. Paul was slightly cut from flying glass but otherwise unscathed. Special agent Mitchell was summoned by his supervisor to a special meeting in which John Goodman and Paul Clint were also invited. John and Paul suggested that Frank be included only because he was a friend and since he worked in Paul's department he knew more about the secret work than even agent Mitchell, and the FBI man agreed.
At the meeting FBI supervisor Grouper informed the men that it had been decided to close the company for a week for a vacation and give the contractors time to do some repairs. Grouper told the men the FBI needed anything they could come up with because this situation was getting completely out of hand. They were still looking for Margaret Obrien without any success. As John listened he realized that closing the company was not the best way to handle this problem because several of the attacks were not at the company. John spoke up and suggested that closing the company actually put HTD people at more risk than with it open. It is easier to protect these people when they're together than when they're separated all over San Francisco. By keeping the company open the FBI could put a small squad of national guard in charge of security outside. The FBI would be inside the buildings and that would be as safe as they could get. But separated they were sitting ducks and could not all be protected. After a little argument Grouper and Mitchell agreed with John and decided to reopen the plant the day after tomorrow. John further suggested that they might be able to trick some of the conspirators to come out in the open by falsifying a note of their own. Since John and the FBI knew the codes used and the delivery method and the cartel didn't know they knew, it would be a simple job to make up a note and send it into the e-mail like the others. The notes were sent with different sequences for identity this way the sender and receiver knew which notes were intended for them. It was only a matter of trial and error to see which sequence would attract the correct people. No-one in the cartel would know which was authentic and which was fake. After much planning John and the FBI did exactly that and a note was sent to Chili Pepper (the code name of the cartel contact) that suggested that, he Chili Pepper and his contact, might meet to agree face to face about what to do next. With agents swarming all over the company and the surrounding towns it was a simple matter to have gas readers, electrical repairmen, telephone linemen and other inconspicuous everyday workers, converged on the expected meeting place. This was a local motel, used by the looser segment of the local society, an named, "Blue Shade Motel."
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Chapter Twenty Five
The note worked like a charm at first. The note was sent by e-mail inside the company and an answer came back within the morning. The meeting was scheduled for that night at the Blue Shade at 8:00 PM sharp. A company security man named Kevin Bacon met a sometime/parttime accountant from the company named Claire Steffer (Joan Goodman's bake sale friend) at the motel. The FBI let them stay in the room for about 20 minutes then broke in. When the FBI broke in on them they were getting undressed to go to bed but the room got very crowded very fast. The loving couple were brought to police headquarters to answer some questions. After several hours grilling the FBI let them go realizing that they must have picked the secret note sequence of some cheating spouses and not the drug people they were after.
Back at the plant the next day John devised a new note using a different senders sequence. This brought an immediate response that had them all laughing and sad for someone. " I told you my wife suspects something, what are you trying to be the local fatal attraction, no meetings. In fact I think we better break it off before there is real trouble. Even though this couple didn't seem right the FBI staked out the motel anyway and caught Steffer and Bacon going at it again. These two couldn't be separated with a crow bar.
The FBI decided to wait several days before trying again. They felt that someone was bound to catch on that company e-mail was being tapped and stop using the message center. As it was, it looked like the FBI was staking out the motel and that was all right with everyone. The next sequence John sent out caught two young men cheating on their wives with each other. This encounter was kind of sad, when the wives picked the men up at the local police department the shock and revulsion in their eyes was unmistakable. These two were out of the closet for sure now. One of the wives shouted the classic line at her husband as they left the building. "I could fight a women, but how do I fight another man?" Another dud this wasn't working as John had planned. Somewhere the bad guys were waiting for another note, or were they on to John and the FBI? At this point John and Special agent Mitchell had no idea what anyone else knew or thought they knew.
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Chapter Twenty Six
As the weeks passed John and Special Agent Mitchell were getting very nervous, their plan was not working, and they were not sure what to try next.
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