Daemon

-wideband transmitters?’
    FBI: ‘Clearly someone with tremendous technical know-how was involved. But that didn’t have to be Sobol. Don’t forget: Detective Sebeck was a signatory on eight offshore accounts and an officer in nine offshore holding corporations. Some of these accounts are years old. For godsakes, Detective Sebeck had a safe deposit box in a Los Angeles bank where we found twenty thousand dollars in cash and a forged passport with his picture on it.’
    NSA: ‘That’s quite interesting.’ He paused for effect. ‘I also find it interesting that there were several other Ventura County detectives besides Peter Sebeck who might have been assigned this case. And all of them had not one, but multiple offshore bank accounts. About which they claim ignorance.’
    This produced frowns around the table.
    CIA: ‘I don’t understand.’
    NSA motioned for a nearby aide to hit the lights. The room dimmed.
    NSA: ‘Look at this map.’ He pulled out a remote and a map of the U.S. appeared, via PowerPoint, on a wall screen. ‘Here, we see cities where these same detectives incurred credit card charges in the last two years.’ He clicked. ‘Now, we overlay credit card charges occurring on those same days for Ms Lanthrop.’
    The map showed the detectives didn’t travel all that widely. But they had an unusual habit of taking trips to cities on the same day that Cheryl Lanthrop was in them.
    FBI: ‘What the hell …?’
    NSA: ‘Same city. Same day. Note that they all took a trip to Grand Cayman at one time or another.’
    There was general confusion around the table.
    DARPA: ‘You’re saying that every senior detective in Ventura County was involved?’
    NSA: ‘No. I’m saying that the groundwork was laid to
frame
every detective – a precaution against a single point of failure in the Daemon. That wasn’t the only precaution …’ He clicked the remote. The screen changed to a still image from a security camera showing Lanthrop checking in at a business hotel. She was beautiful even here. ‘Our Ms Lanthrop. Memphis. Auburn hair, high cheekbones.’ The image changed to another security camera image. ‘Dallas. Blond hair, soft features, and ample bust-line.’ Another photograph. ‘Kansas City. Brunette, tall.’
    DARPA: ‘They’re different women.’
    FBI: ‘So this is the NSA’s attempt to bring the Daemon back into the picture?’
    NSA: ‘It’s not an attempt to do anything. These are the facts. It’s also a fact that Cheryl Lanthrop had no known medical or business experience prior to working at Sobol’s company, nor can we find any trace of her family or anyone who knew her prior to that time.’
    CIA: ‘She’s a doppelganger.’
    NSA: ‘It would appear so.’
    FBI: ‘But that just proves my point; these are sophisticated grifters who scammed Sobol.’
    NSA: ‘Your evidence is largely digital. E-mail, financial transactions, travel records. How do you know that Sebeck’s Lanthrop was anything more than a call girl?’
    FBI: ‘This is ridiculous. Occam’s razor kicks in here. Which is more probable: that a dead man set up a system for framing multiple detectives – simultaneously flushing half his estate down the toilet – or that a group of people abused a position of trust to swindle a dying rich man?’
    DIA: ‘But why was it necessary to have all the detectives involved? If a group of people were swindling Sobol, wouldn’t they want to have cops as far away as possible?’
    There was silence.
    FBI: ‘Well, it’s a fact that a cop was involved, and it’s a fact that someone orchestrated the stock swindle.’
    DIA: ‘So, does the Daemon exist or not?’
    They looked at each other in the semidarkness.
    NSA: ‘I think we can agree that – as far as the public is concerned – the Daemon
must
remain a hoax.’

Part Two
Eight Months Later

Chapter 25:// Lost in the System
    An exasperated sigh came over the phone line. ‘Look, I’m not interested.’
    ‘Well, then we’ve got something in common.’
    She laughed.
    Charles Mosely’s voice smiled. ‘I like your laugh.’ Thirty-eight-point-nine percent of the time his deep, rich voice elicited a positive response from females in the twenty-one to thirty-five demographic.
    A pause. ‘Thanks. You have a nice voice.’
    ‘I prefer using it for my art. But with the economy and all, here I am. I do apologize for the intrusion, miss.’
    ‘That’s okay. Sorry I was so short.’
    ‘Not a problem. Peace.’
    ‘What