“Confessions” Serial, Tech Wars 22
The team had a superb dinner at the nearby Lord Milner Hotel. They even had a fine selection of the best South African wines. Jauncey, who knew something about wine, toasted the couple with a 1986 Alto Rouge Cabernet Sauvignon.
Andy took a sip of the ruby red liquid and nodded appreciatively. “We may be in a semi desert, but they sure know how to feed us and the wine’s as good as it gets.”
Jauncey smiled. “Anything the Rawdon family has touched has the mark of quality about it.”
Jauncey paused to drain his glass of wine, then continued. “I think it’s time we stopped running and went on the offensive.”
“Too right,” Andy confirmed. Sally also murmured her agreement.
“OK, so I believe you want to set up a ‘sting’ operation to flush the baddies out.”
“Our idea is to set up a false property deal that they will find irresistible, figure out a way of pulling them to the site itself, where we’ll have either SWAT or a large police presence waiting for them,” Sally said.
“OK, but surely we need to find the top man or woman and neutralize them.”
“Agreed. We’re working on a way to make this so big that the heads of the cartel will want to be there when it goes down. Failing which, we’ll have to find a way to get one of their team to reveal his or her identity in exchange for a deal over sentencing.”
“Right. Tomorrow we’ll set up your office. D’you have all the equipment you need?”
“We’d better have.” Sally grinned. “I don’t see too many shops around here.”
Jauncey laughed. “True, but seriously, if you do need anything at all, just let me know. I’ll have it flown here.”
• • •
The Professor was suitably impressed with Peter’s headquarters and the team members. The place was buzzing. The team members were clearly excited by the rapid progress made by the ExoTech engineers headed by Jeff Burht. They had considerably reduced the estimated time for building the program and were even finding it had capabilities way beyond their expectations.
Amanda, Professor Erskine’s assistant, would remain in that position for the meantime but she would also train as an “ExoEngineer” and would transfer to that division once she was fully trained. The Professor’s fertile mind was already working on ways to extend his Supply Chain program as he began to understand the full ramifications of ExoTech. His name was quite well known amongst the techies on the team. They were only too keen to help a man who had made significant advances in computer technology before the arrival of ExoTech.
Peter sent an encrypted email to Jauncey on the Milestone 3 ExoTech system which was already capable of performing a number of basic functions, well before the launch of Milestone 5. It was a relief for both Peter and Jauncey that they could communicate safely in a way that was not traceable.
• • •
The only reason that Johannsen escaped with his life was that the cartel heads had no one that they felt could effectively replace him. They grilled him for hours, finally coming to the conclusion that he had been outwitted, something that had never happened before. Their biggest problem was that this time Brett and Sandy had disappeared without a trace. Johannsen now felt a bit like a boxer who would wait for his opponent to attack before counterattacking. The only chance of hunting the couple down was to wait until they moved against his cartel. It could be dangerous, but he figured that they did not have any other options at that point.
• • •
The following morning Andy and Sally woke to a bright cloudless sky and a cool breeze that was likely to keep the heat away. After a good breakfast at the hotel, they went for a brisk walk before having to settle down in front of their computers. Heading out of the little village of Matjiesfontein, they crossed the main road which eventually links the cities of Cape Town with Johannesburg a thousand miles away and walked across the parched veld to a small hillock overlooking the area.
Sally turned to her man. “This Karroo has a kinda fascination all of its own, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, and what I like about it most is that our baddies could never creep up on us. From our base you can see for miles in all directions. Apart from those little thorn bushes and a couple of aloes, which wouldn’t hide a dwarf, it’s all grass and rocks.”
Sally sighed. “You can be incredibly unromantic sometimes.”
“Not all the time though,” Andy said as he suddenly turned to Sally, grabbed her by the arms and planted a long kiss on her lips. She giggled and responded passionately. Sally finally broke away with a broad grin.
“If we can see the baddies coming for miles, I guess our moment of passion will be widely advertised in the hotel and beyond.”
Andy looked at her seriously for a moment. “So what? The last few weeks’ve been all business – or should I say, about our survival. Not much time for romance but I fully intend that we should make up for it now.”
“Oh, goodie goodie!”
• • •
Peter came through to the office where he had installed Arthur, who was working on his laptop.
“Just had another note from Jauncey to say that they’re settled in to their new premises and are feeling a whole lot safer than before. Sally and Andy are planning their campaign against the baddies and they send their best wishes.”
Arthur smiled. “Sounds good. To be honest, I’m still rather anxious about their David against Goliath act. I’m darn sure that the gang that’s going after Sally, and what she’s uncovered about its scams, is a big organization. My own opponent was not in the same league and I’m hopeful he’s given up.”
Peter nodded. “I just wish we were ready to launch Milestone 5. It would give them even more functionalities from ExoBrain but at least they can safely communicate with us with the Milestone 3 tech.”
• • •
Sally spent most of the morning re-reading all the data she had previously accumulated on the cartel and its scams. As she did so, an idea began to form. By lunchtime she felt she had the basics for their sting operation. Andy had gone to speak to Jauncey at her request. “No point in you hanging around here,” she had said, “until I’ve gotten back into the data I researched before you took me on this wild adventure.”
• • •
Andy and Jauncey sat under a beach umbrella on the lawn outside the Lord Milner Hotel drinking Pimm’s and munching on a dish of cashew nuts from nearby Mozambique. Jauncey looked at Andy anxiously. “D’you think you can pull this off?”
Andy gave a small shrug. “Not sure. To a large extent I’m relying on Sally to come up with the basis of the sting. Once she has it, you and I can go ahead and plan it.”
Jauncey nodded. “You’ve got a very bright lady there.”
“Yeah. But she’s stuck her neck out a bit too far on this caper. I believe we’re dealing with a group that has massive resources. They’re not just criminals trying to steal a few bucks. I get the impression that they’re part of the effort to destroy the power of the middle class, allowing the elite to maintain control over us for all time.”
Jauncey shook his head. “I hope you’re wrong, pal. I can’t see us making much of a dent in their operation.”
“No, you’re right. But what we want to do is prove that such a group exists and persuade the authorities that they should look into it. The higher we can reach up their chain of command the better. The main objective is to expose the way they’re using social media to take property, money, shares, whatever, and render their victims helpless to fight against it.”
“Which is what happened to Sally originally?”
“Right. Not only did they take her old man’s farm, but they motivated him to commit suicide in the hope that Sal would at least receive an insurance payout. That didn’t happen either, because the insurance company proved that her father had deliberately killed himself. So, you could say she was pissed – to put it mildly!”
Jauncey sighed. “We’ve sure got a tiger by the tail here!”
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.