Chapter 8

When they finally arrived back at Al's apartment, Al invited Bonnie and Art in. Art declined, saying he had a bushel of paperwork to complete before he could knock off for the day. Bonnie didn't have her car, but decided to accept Al's offer of coffee, then take a taxi home. While Al made the brew, Bonnie wandered around his apartment, touching something here, picking up a photo there, and generally getting to know the place, and Al as well. She decided that she liked being with this guy. He was fun to talk with, and she was definitely attracted to him.

They called HAK-N-SAK back while they sipped coffee, and had a three-way conversation. Al wasn't surprised to learn the companies Bonnie was interested in from past murders were also owned, at least in part, by Gonnosuke, or one of the companies it controlled. Al told Hak that he had not been able to save the file he had sent to a dihedron, but had managed to save it just fine to a polyhedron.

>>You know, man. Dihedrons are made by one of the companies I snitched the files from. >>

>>Yeah, so what? >>

>>Could they have something in the crystal that keeps it from storing files encrypted like this? >>

Al whistled then glanced over at Bonnie to see if she caught what Hak had said. >>You may be onto something there, Hak. I don't know enough about computer hardware to answer. I'll dig into it. >>

>>Be careful what you're digging into, man. You almost went belly up in the tank once over this. Maybe next time it'll be the old flush city. >>

>>Gotcha. I don't think they could flush me down the toilet though. Too big. >>

>>Bonnie, you still there? >>

>>Yeah Hak, I'm here. >>

>>Take care of this guy, would'ya? He may be a great programmer, but I don't think he's got half sense when it comes to bad guys. >>

>>Yeah Hak, I know what you mean. :-) A little dotty. >>

>>Ok, guys, enough of this BS. I said I'd be more careful and I will. Have you made any headway in breaking the encryption of those files yet, Hak? >>

>>Not much, man. I'm digging on it though. It's not one of the standard programs. I'm actually having to work at this one. I'll let you know when I've got it. >>

>>Ok, man, see you. Bye Bonnie. >>

>>Bye Hak. >>

Bonnie excused herself shortly after they finished their talk with Hak. Al phoned a taxi for her and they waited outside the apartment until it arrived. Al was feeling a little uncomfortable being with this very pretty lady that he couldn't quite trust.

He squirmed for a couple of minutes, then decided he had to say something. "You know, I'm sorry about what happened before. I usually have better control over my temper."

"I'm sure you do," she smiled. "If you didn't, you'd have been in jail years ago."

The smile helped to soften her words, but didn't do much for Al's comfort level. He remained silent until she had entered the taxi. They exchange good-byes, and Al watched her drive off. He had an almost uncontrollable urge to go after her, but then realized he couldn't even if he wanted to. No car.

Hirano Muso sat before the black lacquered desk and waited for his brother to speak. The silence had grown oppressive for the younger man and he was beginning to sweat. He could feel it on his face, and under his arms. Now he could feel a tiny stream of perspiration beginning to run down the small of his back. It was annoying but he knew he couldn't move.

The men who worked for Muso were loyal to him. Any one of them would face death willingly if Muso said it was needed. He also knew that any one of them would just as willingly kill him if Kiso told them to.

Finally Kiso shook his head and spoke in a low voice. "Twice again you have failed me, brother. I promised our father I would look after you, but he did not know you were going to disgrace our family this way. You had to run from the police like a dog with its tail between its legs. Then, you lost two of our best men in a senseless car crash. You should have instructed them beforehand to submit quietly to a traffic citation if they were stopped. The police had nothing on them except speeding."

Muso sat quietly. He was outwardly calm, but inside he was a caldron of seething thoughts and emotions. He knew his brother was stronger and faster than him, but was prepared to fight if his brother decided to kill him. As for committing suicide, he knew it would be the honorable thing to do if his brother requested it, but he couldn't see himself actually doing himself in.

Kiso stared at his brother, then spoke again. "Since you are my brother, and since my father asked me to take care of you, I am going to give you one more chance. You have one week to insure that no one starts manufacturing polyhedrons. If you have not completed this task in one week, I will no longer protect you."

"I do not care what methods you use just be sure that they cannot be traced back to the Shishi. Do not get yourself in trouble with the local police, if you are caught, do the honorable thing. Remember you are a Hirano."

Archie Gates, better known as HAK-N-SAK, was, as usual, seated at his horse shoe shaped computer desk. He had four of the latest and greatest computers available to man surrounding him. One was reserved for the bulletin board service he ran and another was used primarily for work. The third computer was his pride and joy. It had eight separate modem ports, so that he could be talking on one line, downloading files on another, and doing data searches, or whatever on the rest. He had never had all his lines in use at once, but it was nice to know they were there if he needed them. The fourth computer was used mostly for play, and for developing new personal software.

He has been using strictly numeric code words to try to break down the encryption of the mystery files. Before he went to bed last night, he had set the fourth computer up to start using alpha characters. He reasoned that the code would be at least four characters long for security reasons, so he started with four letter combinations, starting with AAAA, and ending with ZZZZ. He checked the progress of the program and saw it was now up to six letter combinations, starting with the letter "r".

He was just cleaning up some administration items on his bulletin board a few minutes later, when the fourth computer beeped at him. He turned around, expecting to see a random combination of letters that the computer had mistaken for a word. Instead he saw what could only be a file structure.

"Son-of-a bitch, I've gotcha now!" he nearly screamed.

Archie looked at the six-letter combination that had decrypted the files. "Shishi," he said aloud. "I wonder if that has some special meaning." Archie was singing as he started copying the encrypted files to a special subdirectory in an unencrypted format. Beating the encryption scheme was better than sex for him. The challenge was what he lived for.

He soon had the files he had filched from all of the companies in their own sub directories. All, that is, except the one that had almost gotten him caught last night. That one appeared to be the same encryption scheme, but used a different code word. He sighed and set up two of his computers to start working on this file.

Soon, Archie was going through the files he had decrypted. He was very methodical in what he did, so first he checked to see if there were any similarities between the files in each subdirectory. One file was the same in all directories, so he started with that one. The name of the file was SHISHI.LST. When he opened the file, all he saw was what he assumed were a list of Japanese names. The first five names on the list each had a star following the name.

? Hirano Kiso *

? Egawa Naoyki *

? Takatani Goro *

? Sakurada Isami *

? Kosaka Mamoru *

? Hirano Muso

There were another fifty or sixty names on the list, but the only ones Archie recognized were the two Hirano's from his research a few nights before. "Almost looks like a membership list," he thought. "This may have opened up a bigger can of worms than I realized" he muttered to himself. Archie thought for a minute then decided to get on the net and see if he could find out anything about this Shishi, before he went any further.

Al could hear the phone ringing. He knew it was the phone, but he didn't know what to do about. His sleep fogged mind told him to answer it, but he wasn't quite sure how. Finally he came awake enough to pick up the phone and hit the on button. "Hello."

"Hi, Al. I just wanted to let you know we got down here." It was Linda. He glanced at the bedside clock. It was showing 11:30 PM.

"Oh, hi Linda. Good. It's good to know you guys are safe."

"What happened when we were leaving? I saw the black car, then Lt. Slavens took off after it. We just kept on, but it's been driving me crazy ever since."

Yawning, Al filled her in on the car chase and the end of the black Honda. "Linda, do you have access to a computer?"

"Sure. Why?"

"There are some things I need to talk to you about, and I don't want to do it over the phone. I thought a computer might be best."

"Why not talk in person, Al? I'll be back up there late tomorrow afternoon."

Al could feel a cold hand grip his stomach. "What do you mean? We agreed that you'd stay down there a couple of weeks."

"No, Al. I agreed I'd leave the girls down here a couple of weeks. I have no intention of letting these guys run me off. Besides, I think I can help. There's no use arguing, so just shut up."

Al became aware that he was gripping the phone and slowly tried to relax. Linda sounded as stubborn as Sam had been at times. "OK, I guess I can't control you, but please be careful. I'll get Art to give you some protection if possible. If not, maybe you could move in here for a few days. It's a fortress now."

"Al, I'll be fine. I'm not going to stay at the house anyway. Mom and Dad offered to let me stay with them."

Al felt a little relieved. He knew Linda's parents, not well, but well enough to know that her fathers military background would come in handy. He was a no nonsense kind of guy, who was probably good at protecting his family. "OK, Linda, let me know when you get in. I really do need to talk with you."

She wondered what Al wanted so badly, but decided not to push it. "Good night, Al. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night, Linda."

Al had composed himself and was just dozing off when the phone rang again. What the hell? He punched the phone.

"Al Green speaking."

A soft feminine voice seemed to purr in his ear. "I hope you don't mind that I called so late. I just wanted to know if Linda had made it to her friend's house safely"

Al smiled sleepily to himself as he recognized the sexy voice in his ear. "Yes, she did. As a matter of fact she just called to let me know."

"I'm glad. I know I haven't known her long, but she seems very nice. The two girls are darlings. If I ever have kids I hope they'll be as well mannered and polite."

Unable to control himself, Al smiled. This was a subject he really enjoyed. The girls were the greatest kids on earth in his mind, and he was proud as a peacock when someone else noticed. For an instant the thought went through his mind that Bonnie might have an ulterior motive for saying what she did, but he tried not to judge her.

He spent several minutes telling her how smart and beautiful his nieces were before he realized he was sounding like a proud grandparent. He was a little embarrassed, but Bonnie didn't let on that she knew. "Bonnie, I really am sorry about what happened at the Hospital. I trust both Art and Linda, and they both trust you. It seems foolish of me not to trust you as well."

When he finally slowed down, Bonnie yawned and told him she had better get to sleep. "You know, I'm sorry about everything at the hospital too. You seem like a nice guy, Al. I think I'd like you for a friend."

"In that case, why don't you come over tomorrow. We could fix some lunch and I'll fill you in on everything I know about this mess. That is, if your promise is still in effect that you won't print anything until I say so."

Bonnie assured him that the promise was still in effect, and they said goodnight.

Tuesday, August 14, 2035, PM

Al was awakened around 8:00 AM by the phone. As he stretched and yawned, he wondered how his body could feel so good, so soon after the beating he had taken. There was no more soreness in his chest, or anywhere for that matter. "Al Green speaking."

"Al, this is Art. I just got a call from Modern Electronics. They were shut down yesterday because of the funeral and today was the first day back to work since Friday. The secretary gets in early and she found the place had been trashed."

"Oh God. Anything missing?

"I haven't heard yet. We've got a crew checking it out, then they'll go over everything with the secretary. I'll let you know what I find out. From what I've heard, there is very little security at Modern. I think you should get some Pinkertons in there at least."

"It's a little late for that now, Art."