Chapter 5
Over the next month or so, the newly acquainted pair spent many evenings together, slowly working through the data to find understandable correlations and definable proof beyond hints and suggestion. It was like a three dimensional dot to dot with millions of dots to choose from, But every individual pattern of connection only had relatively few dots in use. However, altho initiated under pretense of concern and determination to use the data to bring down the company, their acquaintance had quickly been able to bloom into a good strong friendship, this already had been beginning by the end of their second meeting. By the end of their third it was quite clear they were likely to become very good friends. A convenient side effect of this was that they were able to work together well, with their overlapping and yet completely different fields of expertise, each could often tell the other they were outright wrong, but without the usual response of self defence. They quickly came to trust each other, and then Teddy began to tell some of the stories of his time on the run so far. It seemed Theodore had led a rather uneventful life before the incident with the company, asides from one particular incident he had explained to Marcus early on, his voice seeming to flit between showing off, humbling, and downright shamed, which basicly involved him being taken to court. He had been hacking some systems he hadnt been supposed to, and had arranged for himself to gain access to a large university computer network by jumping some unexpected bridges between electronic devices, he had used a smartphone to bridge the gap between external internet networks that were public, and the universities own internal high security network, in doing so, just for fun, he had stripped every photo he could find using another one of his virus designs, and then posted everything on a webpage linked to the university. As he had described this part of the story, he had seemed quite proud of himself. Then, he started to describe some of the unfortunate aspects of the story, he bagan too seem honestly remorseful. Initially he smiled to relate the funny things, people having pictures of themselves as younger children shown, pictures of cool teenagers being hugged by their mothers, and the like. Then, there was the downside, along with the computer's owned and operated for the school itself, the virus had also taken the images from the students machines as well, and this is where the major difficulties arose, as he had unwittingly released images of many students girlfriends, supposedly 'for his eyes only', into the public domain. And, as if this was not bad enough, there were a small selection of images concerning things like fighting, images of people who had been hurt, and finally, the worst thing was a few pictures that contained things taste suggests best left unmentioned. Suffice to say these final ones included the face of the instigator, and fortunately led to a police infused end to the unmentioned depravity. Overall, Theodore seemed to be painfully aware of his oversights with this particular prank. He had not intended to cause trouble, he had simply wanted to test his skills and then show off his power in a non-threatening way. He had not expected to be showing such controversial pictures, and he had not expected to cause more than a little fun, he had not intended to upset anyone so deeply. Fortunately the consequences had not been so dire as one might expect. Due to his conduct in the court, and the level of humility and natural remorse he showed, the judge had decided to waive the need for a punishment in favour of drafting his expertise into a job that would excite his passions enough to keep his hacking confined to a sensible environment. The judge had ordered him to attend a work interview with the company, and had then stated quite simply that if he were to take the job, and keep his activities confined, his case would be dismissed, but in case of refusal, he would be convicted in the harshest possible way. Ultimately, it had felt like an opportunity, and as theodore stated that he had related this to the judge, things had settled well, and he narrowly avoided conviction. This job was of course the same job that had led to the collection of the data that theodore and marcus were now studying so diligently. Before acquiring this job, theodore had been working up a pittance with basic outsourced tech roles, system support and web design. It barely paid his rent, and he had frequently needed to borrow money. He had divulged to Marcus that he had been perfectly capable of hacking banks or something to gain himself an income, but he was determined not to perform anything that would be considered sinful online. He was not religious, but he was in possession of good principles, this being the reason the judge had afforded the opportunity in the first place. he often wondered what might have happened if the judge had not been aware of the company, and had sufficient connections to make it happen. Whilst he was relating these things to marcus, he kind of re assessed them, and it occurred to him that it was possible the judge was in the employ of the company in some way, maybe even had only been on the case for that reason. Maybe he had recieved the opportunity because they needed someone to do the job he had been doing.
"All these thoughts of the company's tendrils are making me paranoid. but its an age old problem isn't it? The classic case of 'Am i paranoid if they are really after me?'" Theodore had said to Marcus.
"I think we should assume they have a much longer reach than we think. I am already considering how likely it is they have dicovered my connection to you."
"Well, so far, i dont think they will have had the opportunity. Unless they are following me, but if they are, they would have intervened the moment i began to access the data. Also, i have not, as yet, used any electronic connection that could lead back to myself. Even that tablet, it has stayed offline since i used your phone to prepare it. So far, the fact we have actually begun to succeed in our explorations, proves they do not know where i am. However it leaves us in the dark somewhat as to whether they are still looking."
"Yes. What a quandary. At least we can be confident in our momentary safety. There is no profit for them to allow us to continue, therefore there lack of intervention proves a temporary safety. But, i feel our days are numbered... Maybe we should consider moving along our plans?"
"Yes, i think we should."
So it was that after a month of building a case, and also a friendship, that Marcus and Theodore decided it was time to make their move. They had discovered enough information to cause a huge uproar about the company, and whilst the picture of the rat itself was rather disturbing, it was only illegal on the technicality that direct genetic tampering was outlawed. Amongst the other things that were researched they had found other things similar in that they had the technicalities of illegality, but different in that they possessed no clear images to display the vulgarities of the research. The simple truth remained: The data was too complicated to absorb without serious effort, and the data was where the proof was. So, they decided to simply push ahead regardless.
"How are we now, for preparation?" asked Marcus.
"Well, we have the copy prepared, and i have also used the small usb stick to seperate and simplify the arrangement of a few projects so that we can be sure the news people can have an instant hit of information, at least enough to show the gravity of this situation."
"So, is there anything else we need?"
"I think we should print some pictures so that we can actually get them to look."
"Excellent idea Teddy. Saves the need to ponder over how best to write a covering letter i suppose."
"Yeah. I think we should send a letter containing only the full data copy, the simplified usb stick, and a printout of the rat photo. Actually, maybe we should write out a brief explanation of the sequence of events as well? I know what to do actually..." Theodore stopped and picked up his tablet. He fiddled with it, whilst talking slowly in fits and starts, explaining what he was up to.
"I am now adding a couple of simple files, it'll make the usb stick act like an autoplay cd... As soon as they insert it, it will attempt to do as i have told it. In this case, i have instructed it to open out background story file (which ill write later) and another file to explain what to do, bit like a readme i suppose. I have only instructed it to open text files, so they shouldn't fear any programming."
"Excellent. Well, i suppose we should get to work on those writings then?"
"Yes."
They completed their package, and Marcus took it to a courier office, and made arrangements for delivery the next day.
"All these thoughts of the company's tendrils are making me paranoid. but its an age old problem isn't it? The classic case of 'Am i paranoid if they are really after me?'" Theodore had said to Marcus.
"I think we should assume they have a much longer reach than we think. I am already considering how likely it is they have dicovered my connection to you."
"Well, so far, i dont think they will have had the opportunity. Unless they are following me, but if they are, they would have intervened the moment i began to access the data. Also, i have not, as yet, used any electronic connection that could lead back to myself. Even that tablet, it has stayed offline since i used your phone to prepare it. So far, the fact we have actually begun to succeed in our explorations, proves they do not know where i am. However it leaves us in the dark somewhat as to whether they are still looking."
"Yes. What a quandary. At least we can be confident in our momentary safety. There is no profit for them to allow us to continue, therefore there lack of intervention proves a temporary safety. But, i feel our days are numbered... Maybe we should consider moving along our plans?"
"Yes, i think we should."
So it was that after a month of building a case, and also a friendship, that Marcus and Theodore decided it was time to make their move. They had discovered enough information to cause a huge uproar about the company, and whilst the picture of the rat itself was rather disturbing, it was only illegal on the technicality that direct genetic tampering was outlawed. Amongst the other things that were researched they had found other things similar in that they had the technicalities of illegality, but different in that they possessed no clear images to display the vulgarities of the research. The simple truth remained: The data was too complicated to absorb without serious effort, and the data was where the proof was. So, they decided to simply push ahead regardless.
"How are we now, for preparation?" asked Marcus.
"Well, we have the copy prepared, and i have also used the small usb stick to seperate and simplify the arrangement of a few projects so that we can be sure the news people can have an instant hit of information, at least enough to show the gravity of this situation."
"So, is there anything else we need?"
"I think we should print some pictures so that we can actually get them to look."
"Excellent idea Teddy. Saves the need to ponder over how best to write a covering letter i suppose."
"Yeah. I think we should send a letter containing only the full data copy, the simplified usb stick, and a printout of the rat photo. Actually, maybe we should write out a brief explanation of the sequence of events as well? I know what to do actually..." Theodore stopped and picked up his tablet. He fiddled with it, whilst talking slowly in fits and starts, explaining what he was up to.
"I am now adding a couple of simple files, it'll make the usb stick act like an autoplay cd... As soon as they insert it, it will attempt to do as i have told it. In this case, i have instructed it to open out background story file (which ill write later) and another file to explain what to do, bit like a readme i suppose. I have only instructed it to open text files, so they shouldn't fear any programming."
"Excellent. Well, i suppose we should get to work on those writings then?"
"Yes."
They completed their package, and Marcus took it to a courier office, and made arrangements for delivery the next day.