Computer Capers Read online

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  By Dan Kelly

  Computer Capers

  Daniel Kelly

  Copyright © 2012 by Daniel Kelly

  Smashwords Edition

  PUBLISHERS NOTE:

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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  Dan Kelly

  COMPUTER CAPERS

  PROLOGUE 1

  -Maui-

  It’s a typical sunny afternoon on West Maui’s beautiful Kaanapali Beach. The temperature is in the low 80’s and gentle zephyrs are blowing out of the west, caressing the minds and bodies of the sunbathers into a dreamlike state of euphoria unachievable anywhere else in the world. The men are buff and handsome and the bikini clad women are out of this world gorgeous. Joel Jergensen and Barbara Sheehan are silently enjoying the sights and their Mai Tais from their beach chairs beneath a huge colorful beach umbrella, the first time they’ve had a chance to get away and relax for over a year.

  Joel and Barbara work for a very much below the radar organization that provides analytical and strategical services to governments and large corporations all over the world. Known as Sentry to the insiders, the operation avoids publicity at all costs which enables them to perform at maximum efficiency because they don’t have to waste time and energy dealing with bureaucratic individuals whose only contribution to their efforts would be to get in the way. In short, Sentry is a think tank of the highest order.

  Sentry has an impeccable reputation for discretion and results and over the past 13 months the demand for its services has grown considerably. Although good old planet Earth has been in a state of disarray for quite some time now, the pace of its disintegration has accelerated significantly during the past year. Everywhere one turns, whether it’s in the economic, political or military arena, in the USA, Europe, Middle East or Far East, calamity has reared its ugly head or is threatening to do so. Sentry’s personnel have been taxed to its limits and the top dog, Hank Aldridge, decided to close up shop for a week to give his people some down time so they can relax, rest up and re-energize.

  Joel and Barbara have been an item for a little over two years now, beginning shortly after Barbara joined the company, surprising everybody because on the surface no two people could be more unalike. He’s Mr. Cool and she’s Ms. Fireworks. He holds a Master’s in Finance, a PhD in Economics and is a Rhodes Scholar. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Life from the School of Hard Knocks.

  In other ways though they are like two peas in a pod. They are both quick, analytical thinkers and both keep themselves in top physical condition. He enjoys cross country bike racing and she holds a 3rd degree black belt in Karate. They are both attractive people and always turn heads when they enter a room.

  Joel is 39 years old, six feet two inches of lean muscle, has dark brown hair worn in a crew cut, pale blue eyes that radiate intelligence and a James Bond-like demeanor that generates a great deal of curiosity wherever he goes. He’s the number two guy at Sentry and earns enough Ben Franklins to own and fly his own Cessna T182T Skylane.

  Barbara is 34 years old, 5’9” tall, a beautiful brunette with dark green eyes and a sense of purpose and self-confidence that oozes from every pore. She owns and, under the terms of her employment with Sentry, continues to actively participate in the operations of Intrepid Investigations, one of the top three private investigation firms in the United States. They make a very interesting couple and are key players on the Sentry team.

  Lying alongside Barbara is another impressive male who shares her affections. His jet black hair, his intelligent and always quizzical dark brown eyes, his well-muscled physique and his confident stance which can be intimidating when he wants it to be, all of these things combine in a way that make him stand out in any crowd. He’s just 32 inches tall, only weighs 80 pounds, has an easy temperament and a happy go lucky attitude about life, he loves to kibitz and entertain, but you don’t want to mess with him when he’s mad. He’s Barbara’s English lab Midnight who goes almost everywhere with her. He’s very intelligent and extremely well-trained and will defend Barbara and anyone else he likes to the death. He’s one dog whose appearance alone will get your attention. He’s absolutely not your run of the mill lab.

  Joel has been intermittently watching a Red Sox game on a small portable TV he picked up somewhere and it’s the top of the 8th inning with the Yankees at bat. The Red Sox are leading 3-2, there’s one out, a man on second and Alex Rodriguez is coming to the plate. Joel has been a diehard Boston fan since he was eight years old and hates the Yankees. The first two pitches wind up as foul balls and then the screen goes black and the sound vanishes.

  “What the hell? Oh come on. Not now!” Damn it!”

  Startled by his sudden outburst, Barbara violently twists in her beach chair, spilling some of her Mai Tai. This unleashes her infamous Irish temper which is barely under control at the best of times and she lets go with some extremely creative invective that has Joel convulsing in laughter despite his frustration over the TV going on the blink. This only spurs her on to more hilarious insults which have Joel gasping for breath he’s laughing so hard. Then, like someone turned off a switch, she stops spouting off and joins in the laughter. This is typical Barbara. She’ll blow her top and then realize how ridiculous she sounds and start laughing at herself. This is one of the many facets of her personality that make her so very special to “Mr. Cool”.

  Joel figures he can catch the rest of the game on the TV in the bar in the restaurant that sits at the edge of the beach about 50 yards away, but when he runs over he finds out that their set is on the fritz also. Resigned to the fact that he’s going to have to wait until he can tune into ESPN back at the hotel to find out how the game ended, he mopes back to Barbara to resume his girl gazing activities, an ideal tradeoff he quickly realizes, and finds her talking with a beach neighbor, an elderly guy whose marshmallow white body is in the process of being sunburned to a painful deep pink crisp.

  “Joel, Bill here says his radio stopped working at the same time your TV shut down. That’s a very unlikely coincidence if you ask me.”

  “I agree, especially since the restaurant’s TV is on the blink also. It’s probably a blown doo hickey or thing-a-mabob in a local transmission tower somewhere.” Just then Joel’s cell phone sounds off with a lick from the Best of Pete Fountain and the Caller ID tells him it’s their boss, Hank Aldridge, calling.

  “Hi, Hank. What’s up?”

  “Maybe nothing that we’ll be needed for and then again maybe big trouble with us smack dab in the middle of it. There has been a major media communications breakdown encompassing the States of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and California and as of now the technical gurus are stumped as to what is going on.”

  “You can add Hawaii to that list. We lost radio and TV transmissions here too.”

  “Joel, I hate to do this to you and Barbara
, but I want the two of you back here ASAP. I’m cancelling everybody else’s leave as well. I want all of us on board and ready to roll if we get the call. Something just doesn’t feel right about all of this and I want us to do our best to keep abreast of things as they develop so we can immediately respond with a game plan should we get the call.”

  “We’re on our way.”

  “That doesn’t sound good. Where are we going?”

  “Back to Chicago. I’ll explain while we’re packing.”

  As they’re walking back to their hotel, Barbara quips, “Doo hickey? Thing-a-mabob? Where did you pick up your technical lingo? Jargon R Us?”

  “Don’t be a smart ass. I’ll have you know that I’m loaded with electronics knowledge. I even know how to change the channel on the TV without the remote.”

  PROLOGUE 2

  -Chicago-

  Twelve hours later they’re sitting in Sentry’s conference room with seven other members of the ten man team waiting for the boss man who’s on the phone in his office off the conference room, alternately nodding and shaking his head but saying very little. By nature, Hank Aldridge isn’t a patient man when it comes to idle chit chat or dealing with someone who’s running off at the mouth, so they are all convinced that whoever is on the other end of the line is someone Hank respects and what is being said is very important.

  A few minutes later Hank hangs up and comes into the conference room. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting and I want to thank all of you for dropping everything and getting here as quickly as you did. That was Paul Wesley, Assistant Regional Director of Emergency Response and Homeland Security, West Coast Region. I called him to find out what they were doing to get to the bottom of the West Coast situation and although he is deeply concerned and perplexed about the recent media transmission breakdowns he has been given no authority to bring us or anyone else onboard to help them figure out what is causing it. So far, the engineers, technicians and other communications experts are at a loss as to what could be causing all of this mayhem. He also told me that about three hours ago the situation became more alarming. All cell phone communications in the six states affected by the breakdown have been rendered inoperable and even some landline communication networks are experiencing intermittent difficulties. Police, fire and medical response communications systems are also being interfered with on a random basis.

  “People, this is no damn fluke occurrence caused by some malfunctioning relay, transformer or some other electronic circuitry failure. My gut is telling me that someone is deliberately messing with us and is up to no good. There doesn’t appear to be any silver linings in the disruptive clouds amassing, no white knight on the horizon to save the day. Nobody has a clue as to what is going on and there’s a complete lack of a meaningful plan by state or federal governments to deal with the situation. If I was still on active duty, as a commanding officer I would be expected to have a plan of action to respond to any emergency situation or my ass would be on the next plane to oblivion.

  “I may no longer be on active duty, but I’m one pissed off officer who still knows how to develop a battle plan and I’m going to do so and declare my own personal war on the unknown enemy and commit Sentry to the perilous mission of search and destroy. I usually do a lot more thinking, pacing and swearing before I make any serious moves, but not this time. I’m hitting fast forward and placing Sentry into a vigilante mode and anteing up all of its resources to play what I believe is a game we don’t dare lose.

  “Our first priority is to find out how they are shutting down our communications networks and come up with effective countermeasures. Our second is to identify who the enemy is and determine why we are being attacked, yes I believe we have been attacked, and our third is to put him, her or them out of business. Your commitment to this last directive is optional, but if we wait for the bureaucracy to decide how to proceed with the elimination of the enemy, the tables could be quickly turned against us. When we get to that stage, anyone who wants to bail out will get no grief from me. I’ve also got a feeling that time is not on our side. This is a well-planned, highly sophisticated initial attack designed to put us on our heels and it makes perfect sense to strike again before we can recover and initiate a counterattack.

  “People, I believe we are about to go down a road that is fraught with more peril than any I have ever had to deal with during my entire military career, including being bombed and shot at. If we can’t come up with a way to stop whoever is behind all of this before they make a move on other areas of our way of life, America as we know it could be lost forever. I know I sound like one of those crazy doomsayers you see in the park, going off half-cocked at the slightest provocation. My actions may be premature, but my gut is seldom wrong and I’m going with it. The sooner we get a leg up on the situation the better our chances will be to nip it in the bud. Let’s take a break to get something to eat and then meet back here in an hour to begin to put a game plan together.”

  Hank returned to his office, closed the door and shut the blinds. In less than a minute, he was on the phone recruiting everyone he could think of who would be able to make a contribution to the success of his mission and to his way of thinking that’s exactly what he was preparing for. As of this moment, he was planning for battle and he wasn’t planning on losing.

  During that first minute, the team just sat there in stunned silence. They’ve seen their boss worked up before, but never like this, never with this sense of urgency. They’ve also learned to trust his instincts as did the men who served under him when he was a Four Star General in the army. At age 51, he still stands 6’3” tall, is built like a Sherman tank and is just as hairless. The steel gray eyes are as penetrating as ever and “can’t” isn’t in his dictionary. He has an uncanny ability to see the big picture when everybody else is seeing mud and everyone’s thinking that this could be one of those times.

  Henry Hank Aldridge has another nickname, Sledgehammer, because he has a habit of pounding on something for emphasis, although that was noticeably missing during his briefing. When Hank is really worried about something, the first thing to go is the histrionics. This reinforces their feeling that if they fail, Old Uncle Sam could really be in trouble.

  An hour later they’re all back in the conference room with Hank standing alongside a drop down projection screen with a pointer in his hand and his administrative assistant, Sandy, sitting at a computer workstation a few feet away ready to fill the screen with an ongoing summary of everyone’s remarks. The lady has a lot of exceptional skills, including being able to type over 120 words per minute and she can even chew gum at the same time.

  As Joel looks around the table he’s reminded that the rest of the Sentry team is also a unique mixture of personality types and appearances that holds credentials which would impress just about anyone.

  Collette Cummings – age 42, height 5’10”, a pretty green-eyed redhead, holds a Master’s in Political Science, former Independent Party strategist and campaign manager for President Weinstein, has contacts everywhere.

  Salvador (Sal) Peralta – has a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master’s in Journalism, former Chief Editor of the Tulsa Tribune and knows tons of people, age 44, a six footer with thick black wavy hair, deep blue eyes, movie star handsome but keeps a low profile.

  Perry Jacobs – Attorney-Criminal Law, former federal prosecutor in Chicago, gets the job done, age 39, height 6’1”, thinning dark brown hair, dark brown eyes that appear to turn black when he’s angry.

  Kirk Dodson – Holds Master’s Degrees in Criminal Justice and Police Science, former Chief of Police in Silver Lake, Wisconsin, takes no guff from anyone, age 47, height 5’11”, light brown hair cut short, hazel eyes, a sports trivia nut.

  Allison De Angelo – CPA, former Chief Auditor for the Securities and Exchange Commission, an exceptionally successful bulldog when it comes to uncovering fraud, age 37, height 5’7”, dark blond hair, dark brown eyes, on the chubby side, has a memory like a compu
ter, loves to tell jokes.

  Ashok Patel – has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science and a Master’s Degree in Information Technology, age 34, height 5’8”, jet black hair, dark brown eyes which always have a twinkle of mischief in them, skinny as a rail, a computer whiz kid who earned his degrees by the age of 19, graduating magna cum laude.

  Tania Russo – has a Master of Science Degree in Manufacturing Engineering, her whole life is devoted to making the U. S. once again the world leader in manufacturing re: ingenuity and American job creation, age 36, height 5’1”, auburn hair, dark brown eyes, a workaholic who seldom lightens up, but when she does she goes all out.