The Blue Nowhere

wider than they normally were. Bishop frowned, wondering who was on the other end of the line. In a respectful voice Mott said, “Please hold a minute.” The young cop then handed the receiver to the detective as if it were a bomb.
    “It’s for you,” the cop whispered uncertainly. “Sorry.”
    Sorry? Bishop lifted an eyebrow.
    “It’s Washington, Frank. The Pentagon.”
    The Pentagon. It was after 1:00 A.M. East Coast time.
    This is trouble . . .
    He took the receiver. “Hello?”
    “Detective Bishop?”
    “Yessir.”
    “This’s David Chambers. I run the Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigation Division.”
    Bishop shifted the phone, as if the news he was about to hear would hurt less in his left ear.
    “I’ve heard from various sources that a John Doe release order was issued in the Northern District of California. And that that order might concern an individual we have some interest in.” Chambers added quickly, “Don’t mention that person’s name over the phone line.”
    “That’s right,” Bishop responded.
    “Where is he now?”
    Brazil, Cleveland, Paris, hacking into the New York Stock Exchange to bring the world economy to a halt.
    “In my custody,” Bishop said.
    “You’re a California state trooper, is that right?”
    “I am, yessir.”
    “How the hell d’you get a federal prisoner released? And more important, how the hell d’you get him out on a John Doe? Even the warden at San Jose doesn’t know anything . . . or claims he doesn’t.”
    “The U.S. attorney and I’re friends. We closed the Gonzalez killings a couple of years ago and we’ve been working together ever since.”
    “This is a murder case you’re running?”
    “Yessir. A hacker’s been breaking into people’s computers and using the information inside to get close to his victims.”
    Bishop looked at Bob Shelton’s concerned face and drew his finger across his own throat. Shelton rolled his eyes.
    Sorry. . . .
    “You know why we’re after this individual, don’t you?” Chambers asked.
    “Something about him writing software that cracks your software.” Trying to be as vague as he could. He guessed that in Washington two conversations often went on simultaneously: the one you meant and the one you said out loud.
    “Which, if he did, is illegal to start with and if a copy of what this person wrote gets out of the country it’s treason.”
    “I understand that.” Bishop filled the ensuing silence with: “And you want him back in prison, is that it?”
    “That’s right.”
    “We’ve got three days on the release order,” Bishop said firmly.
    A laugh from the other end of the phone. “I make one phone call and that order becomes toilet paper.”
    “I imagine you could do that. Yessir.”
    There was a pause.
    Then Chambers asked, “The name’s Frank?”
    “Yessir.”
    “Okay, Frank. Cop to cop: Has this individual been helpful with the case?”
    Aside from one slight glitch . . .
    Bishop responded, “Very. See, the perpetrator’s a computer expert. We’re no match for him without somebody like this person we’ve been talking about.”
    Another pause. Chambers said, “I’ll say this—I personally don’t think he’s the devil incarnate like he’s made out to be ’round here. There wasn’t any good evidence that he cracked our system. But there’re plenty of people in Washington who think he did and it’s becoming a witch-hunt in the department here. If he did anything illegal he’ll go to jail. But I’m on the side that he’s innocent until proven otherwise.”
    “Yessir,” Bishop said, then added delicately, “Of course, you could also look at it that if some kid could crack the code maybe you might want to write a better one.”
    The detective thought: Okay, now, that remark may just get me fired.
    But Chambers laughed. He said, “I’m not sure Standard 12 is all it’s touted to be. But there’re a lot of people involved in encryption here who don’t want to hear that. They don’t like to get shown up and they really hate it if they get shown up in the media. Now, there’s an assistant undersecretary, Peter Kenyon, who’d shit bricks if he thought there was a chance our unnamed individual was out of prison and might end up on the news. See, Kenyon was the one in charge of the task force that commissioned the new encryption key.”
    “I was wondering.”
    “Kenyon doesn’t know the boy’s out but he’s heard rumors and if he does find