Price No Object Ch. 04

"Which we've been doing in the TCPD for decades ourselves." said the Chief.

"Yes sir." I said with a grin. "Well, that's what Cawthorne's evaluation looked like. Specifically, it said, and I quote: 'with a full commitment to the company and its longstanding values, Jeff Cawthorne will become an asset to the projects', close quote. In other words, either he was complaining openly about the long hours -or- he was leaving earlier than they expected him to. Doesn't say his work wasn't getting done, just that he needed to 'fully commit'."

"I get that." said the Sheriff.

I continued: "He did get a small raise, basically a cost-of-living allowance of 2%. Dwayne got a good raise, almost 15%, while Julie got a 12% increase. They didn't get evaluated again for another year, but nine months later there was a 'memo' put in Jeff's file, written by his immediate supervisor, which said that he had met with Jeff to discuss Jeff's 'lack of productivity', and that 'the company's expectations that Jeff put in more time at the office were clearly spelled out to him'."

Me: "Two months later, one month before the next evaluations, another note was put into Cawthorne's file, which said that his, quote, 'leaving early' was unacceptable. This note was written upon a form, not unlike a Counseling form in the Army, where Jeff was given an opportunity to reply in writing. He put down that he was consistently putting in 10 to 12 hour days without compensation, and that he believed the 'demands' that he stay longer just for the sake of doing so were both unethical and illegal. There was also a note near the signature block which state that Cawthorne had refused to formally sign the note."

Me: "And then the next evaluations. This time, they didn't even try to put it in nice words. They stated that Cawthorne was not meeting the company standard, was not putting in the time necessary to complete the projects... though they did not state that he didn't complete any... and recommended that he be assigned only to legacy projects that were not critical to the company's success. He also got a raise of zero dollars, i.e not even a cost-of-living raise. He left less than a month later."

Me: "Dwayne got another big raise, though only 12% of his latest salary. Julie got a 10% raise, but there was an additional note in her file that she may not have seen, which said that she should be reassigned to less critical projects in order to, quote 'decrease stress levels that she has been experiencing'. I'm taking that to mean that she also was beginning to complain about the long hours, and maybe for Dwayne as well as herself. And indeed, she was reassigned to a project that maintained existing systems only."

Me: "I need to add here that Julie's assigned project was listed on her eval, and Cawthorne's had been listed on his. But Dwayne's project was not listed; the box said '(redacted)'. And there is nothing in his file at all that would lead to that what that project was."

"Is that a problem?" asked Griswold.

"Yes sir, and I'll come back to that, also." I replied. "So now we're at the third year evals. Cawthorne was gone, of course. Julie got a 6% raise, with a note that it was the average raise and that raises were not as big overall. Dwayne got an 8% raise, but on his own portion of it where he can make comments, he stated that he had been verbally promised bonuses of $20,000 the previous year and that year, but had only seen one $2000 bonus. A note that probably wasn't part of the eval but attached later said that he had never been promised any bonus of any specific amount in writing."

"Ahhh, there it is." said the Sheriff. "They were dangling the bait to keep him hooked, but had no intention of paying it."

"So I read the riddle, sir." I said. "And I'm not really sure why. His eval said his work was excellent, and that it was also critical to the project... which they don't name. But if he was critical to the project, and the project was critical to the company, why not show him the green dollar bills?"

Griswold said "Maybe they thought he'd take the money and then quit. Wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened."

I shrugged, and said "That's as good a reason as any I've heard or thought of, sir. But before you say 'good asskissing skills', let me round out this picture. Julie didn't get a fourth year eval, because she'd quit months before. Her notice of resignation was in her file. Dwayne did get an eval, and his immediate supervisor wrote that Dwayne was, quote, 'an indispensable' part of the team, and that the bonuses that had been promised to him needed to be awarded', close quote."

Me: "And that's key, Sheriff, because he wrote that on Dwayne's evaluation, which meant Dwayne got a copy of it, and therefore it was officially in writing. In his own section of the eval, Dwayne wrote that he needed to be better compensated for the 16-18 hour days or else he would cut back on the hours he was working. All this was right at the time Dwayne and Julie were arguing about those long hours."

I finished up: "There was nothing more in Dwayne's file, at all. Nothing about his resignation, nothing about the $50K that Cawthorne said Dwayne had allegedly been offered and refused. And now I will circle back, and answer some of those questions. For example: Sheriff, did you read Orwell's book '1984'?"

"Griswold growled; "Yeah, but in the year 1984, maybe. I don't remember much about it."

I said "The name 'Charrington' was a character in that book. He was the guy who rented the main character Winston a room above a bookstore, where Winston and his main squeeze Julia were having a sexual affair. Winston thought Charrington was a good guy, but in reality Charrington was a member of the Thought Police... spying on people."

Me: "I asked Laura last night if she'd ever heard of a 'Charrington' project or security classification. She said she had, that it was part of the Government's secret agreements with BigCommo that most people don't know about, and would be pissed if they did. You may remember the movie 'Enemy of the State', which is more real than people would like to think is true." Griswold nodded.

Me: "Laura said she could look up 'Charrington', but doing so would alert the NSA and Director of National Intelligence Brendan Chapel. So we agreed that she shouldn't look it up right now. Also, I strongly suspect that that memo mentioning 'Charrington' was included by mistake, and it's the only mention of the project in what BigCommo sent us under subpoena and under duress. They redacted the name in some places, and didn't mention it in others."

Me: "And that, sir, is why I think BigCommo has not given us everything they should have under the subpoena. I will add that the partial letter that Detective Troy found at the Matheson home is not matched by anything in the Dwayne Matheson file... and it rightly should be."

"If BigCommo is the author of that letter, of course." said the Sheriff as he stood up, then held out his hand to indicate I should remain seated. "You've done a wonderful job on this, Crowbar. But I fear that you may not get this one to the Finish Line. The Swamp Frogs in Government are bad. The Swamp Frogs in the Crony Capitalist Big Boy companies are even worse."

"Yes sir." I said. "But I do have one trump card."

"That partial letter?" asked Griswold.

"No." I replied. "Auxiliary Detective Troy."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

8:45am, Thursday, January 7th. I got a call asking if I would agree to delay the meeting with the Satco Engineering CEO until the afternoon, and I said I would. I called Jack Muscone to let him know.

At 8:55am, I got a call on my personal iPhone. It was from Eddy the Bounty Hunter. "Commander," he said, "I've got someone willing to talk to you. But he wants to stay anonymous, so he's going to wear a mask our meeting. And he wants your guarantee that you won't try to arrest him. And he wants you to come alone. I'll be there with you, if that's an issue."

"Okay." I said. "but he can't have any weapons on him. And I have to bring someone. Tell him it will be the most trustworthy Police Officer anyone could ever hope to meet..."

Eddy said he'd arrange it. The place he wanted to meet surprised me... it was the small office space I kept for selling security systems out of, which was in the same building as Town Fitness Centers. I agreed. After I hung up, I went and got the most trustworthy Police Officer anyone could ever hope to meet... Teresa Croyle.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

9:30am. It was cold and blustery, and the skies becoming overcast with gray clouds that didn't threaten any rain or snow, but just made everyone feel gloomy. Teresa and I had on armor; her, underneath her 'bomber jacket' leather jacket with insignia on the shoulders and a woven TCPD badge over the heart, and over her uniform; me, under my beige trenchcoat and over my black mock turtleneck and khaki pants.

We parked in the alley behind the building and went in the back door. We didn't have to wait long. We heard what sounded like a van pull up. Seconds later, the back door opened, and Eddy the Bounty Hunter ushered in a short, slight man in a trenchcoat, muffler, and toboggan hat... and wearing a full-head ski mask with the merest slits for eyes and mouth.

Eddy was nearly as tall as me, similar in physique, and more pure blonde than my titian hair. He was also in his trenchcoat, and while the look was good, I worried as always that someone might mistake him for me and take a shot at him.

"I'll go watch the front door and the parking lot." Eddy said, and walked forward, giving us a little bit of privacy.

Our mysterious guest was talking through a little device that muffled and metallicized his voice. He looked at Teresa and said "Is it discreet? Is it right?"

"I'm Commander Don Troy, and this is Lieutenant Commander Teresa Croyle." I said. "She is discreet. I trust her more than anyone else on earth, and so can you."

"Please forgive me for asking, and for wearing this mask and using this voice scrambler." the man said. "If they ever found out who I am, and that I told you what I am about to, they would kill my family in front of me, including my dogs, and then they would torture me to death."

"I believe you." I replied.

"And don't try to record this conversation." said the man holding up another device. It was a bug-killer, very similar to my own!

I nodded, then said: "So... since you quoted the Conan Doyle character Charles Augustus Milverton in asking about Commander Croyle, shall I call you 'Porlock'? Or do you prefer another nom de plume?"

"Ah, very good, Commander." the man said. "Porlock will be fine; in fact, I like it. But time is short, so let me tell you my story, and then you can ask questions. First, do you know what the 'Charrington Project' is?"

"Some of it." I said. "It's either a BigCommo-Government joint project, or a security classification."

Porlock nodded. "Very close. And that is where my story begins. As you know, years ago there was a secret agreement between the Federal Government and BigCommunicationsCorp, whereby the Government, especially the NSA, gets to create backdoor tools to use the phone, satellite, and radio communications infrastructure of America and the World to spy upon and keep track of just about anyone they want to."

"Their abilities were already staggering." Porlock said. "FISA Courts were created to allow the American Government in the War on Terror to have the façade of a legal construct when they listened in on phone conversations of terrorists, but the truth was that they already could do that and often did. As a small example, people in the NSA were watching sex videos taped on personal cellphones that had been easily hacked. Apple was pathetic in claiming that their security was unbreakable; all the NSA did was create a dummy Israeli corporation to break the Muslim terrorists's iPhone open, to make it look like an effort was needed."

Porlock: "But I'm digressing, so back to what's relevant to you: in recent years, there was a project called 'Cerberus', named after the Hound of Hades that guards the River Styx leading to the Underworld. 'Cerberus' was a suite of security programs to protect America's most important communications assets, such as to bases and submarines that can fire nuclear missiles, communications between Air Force One and our strategic command centers, and to our Embassies and the like. I was part of the team of 14 programmers. No one person knew more than about a third of the entire system... and no one wanted to."

Porlock: 'Cerberus' has only been breached twice. The first time was by someone known as 'The Geek', who I believe you met some time ago, Commander." I nodded. (Author's note: 'The Nuclear Option', Ch. 02.)

Porlock then said: "The second time was by Dwayne Matheson. When he was hired, they didn't tell him what it was, but they asked him to hack it, as a test. He did so within three days. It had taken The Geek six weeks. And no one else ever did."

Porlock: "They put Dwayne Matheson on the Cerberus Team after they fast-tracked his Top Secret security clearance. He'd been with the company four or five months when he wrote a brilliant piece of code, a beautiful piece of code... and a dangerous piece of code. It was the genesis of 'Project Charrington'."

Porlock: "Matthew Willis has been part of BigCommo for several years, being groomed for leadership. He was made CEO fairly recently, when BigCommo transitioned from a big communications company with service and profit as its motives to a company dedicated to helping elements of the Government seize control and dominate the American People. That's been going on with several of the big companies, the crony capitalist companies."

Porlock: "Your friends of the Guardians of Justice, with help from the Israelis and from Japanese Intelligence under the late Takaki Misaki, exposed much of the insidious plans of Mitt Willis and the man you knew as 'Mr. C.'. Now Matthew Willis and Brendan Chapel have stepped in to fill the vacuum left behind by their deaths."

Porlock: "When Dwayne Matheson wrote that code, which surpassed anything anyone has ever had, Matthew Willis saw the light. He formed Project Charrington, and only he could think of that name so appropriate for a new suite of tools that could spy on people through MegaTech Industries's 'Alicia' smart devices in our homes and those wi-fi based alarm systems, and that could listen to anyone's cell phone conversations. But they could also take control of cars and steer them into a median or bridge support, or just conk out the entire electric grid that would then be blamed on a Russian, Chinese, or Korean nuclear missile EMP."

"And most insidious of all," Porlock said, the metallic voice chilling as he said it, "Charrington could break through anything. Anything the Russians or the Chinese have. Anything the Israelis have, which scares them shitless. And anything America has. Anything. It was what Brendan Chapel and the NSA needed after the disasters of Edward Snowden and of The Guardians of Justice."

Porlock: "They put Dwayne and a team of their most loyal programmers on the Charrington Team. They procured secret funding from Congress, shepherded through by Establishment Elites like the late U.S. Senator Samuel Russell. And as Brendan Chapel has consolidated his iron-fisted control of the Intelligence Community, he pushed Matthew Willis and BigCommo to make Charrington work, and work for him. In turn, Dwayne and his team were put under increasing pressure, made to work longer and longer hours."

Porlock: "And then... disaster. For them, anyway. Julie Matheson, who had been a Systems Analyst on the fringe of the projects, began burning out. And she could see that her husband was burning out. She begged them to give Dwayne some time off, and to cut his hours back or give him a weekend off, but they just relentlessly pushed on... and so she quit."

Porlock: "That brought them no pain. And they thought they had Dwayne wrapped up, because he thought he was doing the right thing for America, and he was loyal to the institutions of Government. He was no Edward Snowden, and he was certainly no Guardian of Justice. He worked his ass off for them because he wanted to."

Porlock: "But then he did begin burning out. And his wife was pushing him hard to cut back the hours, and then she pushed him hard to quit. Matthew Willis had personally promised him large bonuses, as much as $50,000 a year, but those were never paid to him."

"And so he quit." Porlock said. "And Matthew Willis, who is only 32, showed how bad his people skills are, and how badly he had misread the room. They cut Dwayne a check for $50,000 to stay, thinking the money is what he wanted. He tore up the check and stormed out, which shocked them."

Porlock: "And then things began falling apart for BigCommo. Turns out that Dwayne was the only guy who truly knew what was going on with that program, and other programmers... brilliant programmers themselves... could not keep going after he left. Some of them think Dwayne took something out, sabotaged it along the way, but I didn't think that was like Dwayne."

Porlock: "Anyway, they offered him huge checks, well into the five-figures, for him to just consult part-time and work with the team to fix some bugs. But he wouldn't do it. And now Charrington is at a standstill. What Dwayne could do in days, is taking a full team weeks to accomplish. And because they don't want one person to know too much, and don't want a repeat of the disaster if someone else becomes critical and then leaves, there's just no harmony in the work." After a pause, he said "That's pretty much it."

I nodded. "And it's tremendously helpful. Thank you for coming forward and talking to us, even though I know you would never testify in open Court. I do have a couple of questions. First, do you have any idea why they didn't pay Dwayne the bonuses they promised him? I mean, $50K is chump change for a project that big, not to mention how much Congress will spend on vaccines if someone even sneezes. Why wait until he's pissed off and out the door?"

Porlock: "I don't know, Commander. But it was a mistake on their part. And I'll tell you something else: if Dwayne had thought about it, he could've patented that code, or made them give him a contract worth millions to license it from him."

"Is that common practice at BigCommo?" I asked.

"Not really." said Porlock. "It's not the same as BigPharmaCorp, where they'll license a patented chemical process they use for their manufacturing processes. But Dwayne's code was so unique, and he was so indispensable to them, he could've pulled it off."

I said "Speaking of that, how much do we owe you for coming forward and speaking to us today?"

"Nothing, sir." said the man. "Dwayne wasn't a bad guy, and Julie was a really sweet lady. She didn't deserve to die like that. If what I told you helps bust Matthew Willis, that'll be all the pay I need. Of course, pay is no good if I'm not alive to spend it, so I won't testify. But as James Clavell said in his book Shō-gun, 'it is easy to find the solution, once given the answer.'. Maybe you can find the solution."

I took out my wallet and extracted five Benjamins, and said "You deserve something. So take this." Porlock tried to refuse, but I insisted, and he finally took the money...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Although we saw no one potentially spying on us, Porlock and Eddy wrapped up and took a couple of empty boxes out and put them in the back of the ubiquitous black van they'd arrived in. Teresa and I brought out a couple of boxes and they loaded them in, too. Porlock didn't reappear out the back, but had climbed into the shotgun seat.