Page 23 of The 24th Hour

He pointed a remote-control device at the eighty-inch screen on the wall to his right. A diagram appeared on the screen. Joe peered at it. Couldn’t quite make out what he was looking at.

Thordarson said, “Can everyone see okay? I’ll sharpen the contrast.”

Wooten cut the overhead lights, and after Thordarson brightened the picture, Joe walked over to the screen and Bao rolled her chair closer. Now, the 3D diagram was clearer.

“Beautiful,” said Joe.

“This program is part sandbox, part dream catcher. It’s a perfectly in-scale diagram of the globe. Right now, we’re viewing the northern hemisphere. Those pinpoint clusters of light represent individual devices signaling at 1,000 Hz or higher. Here’s a sparse concentration of pinpoints in the Arctic,” Wooten said. “Those are biologists’ devices likely studying and recording life-forms deep under the ice. And here, this is a military base in Croatia. These blips are coming from search engines powerful enough to hop over continents without being boosted by an outside network. And of course, they use the submarine fiber-optic cable backbone.”

Wooten toggled a switch on the remote and the map rotated.

“We’re seeking a signal of an IP address launched from a known location in Amsterdam or Bruges or Eastern Europe and coming toward a known location in Northern California, USA.”

Sveinn said, “Pete, roll back the tracking record to two weeks ago.”

Pete Wooten made some adjustments to the projector, winding back the time stream. The symbols on the diagram rapidly reassembled.

“Here we are,” said Wooten. “Two weeks ago.”

He jabbed a button on his remote, which brought the rotation and all other movement to a halt.

Wooten said, “Now, retroactively, we’ve identified devices that have been pinging the IP addresses of companies, individuals, targets of all kinds in Bruges, Amsterdam, Glasgow, and finally setting course for the City by the Bay. We developed an AI program that alerts us to a pair of hits that include Eastern Europe and Northern California. That’s when our SOC team”—he pointed to the room outside the office—“runs the IP addresses through our programs to get IDs on the signal. That signal carries the payload and starts the destruction when directed. So far, we don’t have those hits.”

Wooten pressed a button and the program sped up to present time. Joe found it mesmerizing to watch computer signals break apart and reform. He was impressed by the display, but unless it produced a suspected attacker, it was all lipstick and no pig. As he watched the light array cross the East Coast of the US, the machine beeped.

“There—and none too soon, I should add,” Wooten said, pointing to one glowing dot in a cluster. “That dot representsa device bearing a known twelve-digit IP address. It launched from Amsterdam and is searching now from a point in San Francisco.”

“It’s on the move,” said Bao.

Joe added, “Unless my eyes are failing, it’s crossing the bay.”

Thordarson said, “We’re monitoring that signal now. And this tag on the dot identifies the signal as a blacklisted entry. Not necessarily an attack, but an IP address that’s pinged a hospital server before. Oakland Pediatrics, I’m guessing. And we watch to see if the next stop is St. Vartan’s. Pete and I think that Apocalypto has at least one agent frequenting or living in this area.”

Wooten pushed in on the blinking dot. All watched as a dot the size of a pinhead slowly crossed the San Francisco Bay, heading toward the mainland.

CHAPTER 26

I WAS PACING the corridor outside the dozen courtrooms on the second floor of the Hall, waiting to testify in the Tyler Cates trial. Like most detectives, I took all of my cases personally, and I wanted Cates off the street and in a cell for what he’d done to Mary Elena Hayes, and possibly others. I would tell the court what I knew to the best of my ability, while keeping any trace of disgust from my face.

The double doors leading to Courtroom 8G opened. Louie Mack, one of the court officers, said, “Sergeant Boxer? You’re up.”

He held the door as I walked through. I squeezed Cindy’s shoulder and she touched my hand as I passed her sitting in her regular seat on the aisle of the last row. I kept walking, going through the gate in the bar and across the well to the witness box.

Bailiff Riley Boone extended the Bible. I put my left hand on the Good Book, raised my right, and swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but. Then I stepped up to thewitness box and took my seat. Below and across from me, my dear friend Yuki Castellano walked toward me. I stole a quick look at Mary Elena, sitting at the prosecution table beside Nick Gaines. Did she remember me? The lights were on, but was she home? I didn’t note any flicker of recognition in her eyes.

Yuki stepped over to the witness box in her smart suit and stiletto heels. Suppressing a smile, she said “Good morning, Sergeant Boxer.”

I acknowledged her greeting and Yuki asked me if I had responded to a scream for help on the second floor of Xe Sogni on the date in question. I told her that I had, and Yuki questioned me for about fifteen minutes. She asked me about the scream, what I’d found when I arrived upstairs, what I’d seen in the dim light, and if I could identify Mary Elena Hayes. I said I could and did.

“Sergeant, do you remember asking Ms. Hayes to tell you what had happened to her?”

“Yes. She told me, ‘He raped us,’ and that her name was Loretta.”

In response to Yuki’s questions, I told the court about finding Tyler Cates half naked at the end of a row of lockers and arresting him for aggravated assault. And that I had asked the ME, Dr. Claire Washburn, to come upstairs, evaluate the victim, and call an ambulance while I kept Cates restrained while awaiting backup.

I said, “Mr. Cates told me that Mary Elena had informed him her name was Olivia, not Loretta, and that she had begged him for sex, ‘hard and fast and right now.’ I had cuffed him and called dispatch for a team of police officers to cometo the restaurant. He was read his rights and arrested, then Mr. Cates was brought back to the station for booking.”

“He was questioned at the station?”

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