“Remarkable,” said Desh, his voice filled with respect. He had wanted to begin his search for Kira Miller by identifying the scientific journals he knew would be indispensible to her, but he had been far from certain this would be possible. But Griffin had done so almost instantly, and without even breaking a sweat.
“Quite effective, wouldn’t you say? If you have the computer skills to get information that establishes instant credibility, like dropping the name of the officer who interviewed Tripp, the world is your oyster. Once you've laid out your bona fides, people will tell you just about anything.”
“So it appears,” noted Desh with amusement. “Thanks for the demonstration.”
“You're quite welcome,” said Griffin with a wide grin. “So now what?”
“Can you hack into each journal’s database of subscribers?”
“I'll try not to be insulted that you phrased that as a question,” said Griffin. “That's like asking Mozart if he can play chopsticks. This is why you’re paying me the big bucks,” he added, and then immediately began racing through icons and menus at an Olympic pace.
“Once you're in, ah . . . Amadeus,” said Desh, “I’d like to focus in on people who bought online subscriptions to all three journals, or even two of the three, about nine months to a year ago. Chances are, this will be Kira Miller.”
“This might take a while,” warned Griffin. He got up and walked the few paces to his tiny kitchen, effortlessly lifting one of two large wicker chairs from around the small dinette and dropping it beside his own chair. Desh sat down appreciatively and continued to watch Griffin as he juggled multiple screens and programs with seemingly superhuman agility.
After about an hour he was finally able to hack into the journals’ systems, but his subsequent analysis of subscriber databases was fruitless. Over the past year, in fact, not a single person had begun subscribing to more than one of the three journals, either online or by snail-mail.
“She must have decided she could live without them while she was in hiding,” suggested Griffin.
Desh pursed his lips in concentration. His best chance to find her was to count on her not making mistakes. “All right, Matt,” said Desh, “let’s try a thought experiment. Let’s imagine she has your level of skill with computers,” he began.
Griffin looked amused at this thought. “My level of skill? My imagination may be prodigious, but that’s a lot to ask of it,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
Prodigious. Desh was amused once again at the giant’s choice of words. “I wouldn’t want to strain your imagination, Matt,” he said, rolling his eyes. “So let’s make this easy for you. Suppose you were on the lam. And you knew that other computer experts were plugged in and trying like crazy to find you. Would you anticipate they’d try to track you through your online journal subscriptions like we just did?”
“Absolutely,” came the immediate reply.
“So what would you do if you were still determined to get journals you needed?”
Griffin considered. “I’d put up relays,” he responded after only a few seconds of thought. “I’d break through firewalls and shanghai any number of Internet-connected computers around the world, using them as relays, routing the incoming journals through a tangled web of these before it reached me. With enough relays, I’d be virtually untraceable.”
Desh considered. “And what if you didn’t want searchers to even have the satisfaction of knowing you were out there and receiving the journals,” he said. “Even if you were untraceable. What if you wanted the world to think you really had vanished—that you might be dead even?”
Griffin answered almost immediately. “In that case, I’d just hack into the journals and steal the subscriptions. Then there would be no subscriber record in the databases for experts to find. And you wouldn’t have to pay for it either,” he noted. “In fact, now that I think about it, that’s the best reason of all to do it this way.”
“To save money?
“No. To save an identity.”
Desh’s eyes narrowed. “I see,” he said as Griffin’s meaning registered. “Because the only way to buy an online subscription is by using a credit card.”
“Exactly,” said Griffin. “So if those searching for you uncovered your purchase, even if they couldn’t trace you, the false identity you used would be blown.”
“Okay. Suppose she did steal the subscriptions. Could you track such a theft?”
Griffin gazed at the ceiling as he considered the various facets of the problem. “I think so,” he said finally.
“Come on, Matt,” chided Desh. “Someone with your prodigious talent? Should be a snap for you.”
“I’ll take that as a challenge,” said Griffin.
“Good,” said Desh, determination burning in his eyes. “Because that’s exactly the way I intended it.”
7