Read Online Palm Sunday by William R. Vitanyi Jr. - Free Book Online Page B

his line. After gathering up their tackle and loading it into the car, they drove back to the motel, only five miles away. It was a small affair in an out of the way place. Stanley and his wife had first come here many years earlier, and he had brought Bobby here on fishing trips several times since. They left the fishing gear in the car and went to their room.
    “You can watch television while I shower,” said Stanley. “Then I’ll get to the palmtop.”
    “Okay.” Bobby turned on the set while Stanley used the shower. He finished quickly, exiting the bathroom fifteen minutes later.
    “Ah, much better. Now it’s your turn. Into the bath with you.”
    “I’d rather not.”
    “But you will.” Bobby knew that it was pointless to argue, and went to fill the tub.
    Meanwhile, Stanley placed his laptop on the single small table that came with the room and plugged it in. Like most motels, this one had a data connection, so he logged on to his private email account and checked for the file he had sent himself just before he and Bobby left their home. It was the one that he had downloaded while Slocum was at his house. He saved it to his laptop’s hard drive and logged off, and considered what he knew so far.
    Pascua. It could be a name, as he had originally thought, but he was becoming less convinced of this. That it was important–significant–he felt certain. He was equally certain that the palm unit itself had capabilities that went far beyond the ordinary. Coupled with the actions of Slocum and his associates, this seemed to indicate the involvement of forces that were well beyond his own sphere of activities. While this was intriguing, it also worried him. Not so much for his own sake, but for Bobby. Perhaps it was time to involve the authorities after all.
    As these thoughts went through his mind, he attempted to process the latest file. It was large compared to the earlier downloads, and yielded much more information. He was able to recover several nearly complete sentences, as well as a number of words and partial words. Most of it, however, was unintelligible, which Stanley found perplexing. If his software was able to decipher part of the file, it should be able to do the whole thing. It occurred to him that perhaps it wasn’t one file, but a combination of two or more files. Could it be that they were intermingled, perhaps in an effort to thwart any attempt to break the code? If so, it would follow that some other decoding methodology would have to be applied to the more resistant portion of the file. Unfortunately, the only other methodology immediately available to him was his wits; he had used up his electronic bag of tricks.
     The file, or at least part of it, was a communiqué or a bulletin of some kind. The intended audience was fairly generic, based on the use of the passive voice in the few passages he could read. Slocum was mentioned as having been ‘relegated’, but precisely what that meant was unclear. It also referenced the palmtop, indicating that its recovery was paramount. Most unnerving, however, was the fact that his address was listed. The remaining bits and pieces were a puzzle. Torn between curiosity and concern, Stanley pressed on. 

    ***

    When Slocum left Stanley’s house he went straight to his ‘secure’ apartment–a place he hadn’t even told the agency about–and set up Stanley’s computer. Slocum may not have been Stanley’s equal in matters electronic, most notably computers, but he had enough savvy to get into Stanley’s hard drive. After switching a few cables from his own computer to Stanley’s he was in business.
    He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he knew who he was looking for–the owner of this PC. He had to find the palm unit, and that meant finding Whipple. The man and his son had disappeared somewhere, and the only clues available might be in this computer.
    When someone wanted to hide, Slocum knew, especially if it was on the spur of the