Binary - Michael Crichton [9]
'A few hours. Play with him if you want, but pick him up by evening. I want to get to the bottom of this.'
Graves couldn't make the arrest himself. He'd need federal marshals. 'You'll notify the marshals in San Diego?'
'They're waiting for your call,' Phelps said, and smiled. As much as he ever did.
Graves had fifteen minutes before he had to return to the airport. As he walked out of the travel agency, he heard a room filled with mechanical chatter. Curious, he paused and opened the door. He found that one office had been converted into a temporary hardware room. It had once been somebody's office, but now there were six teletypes and computer consoles installed there. He was reminded that the State Department (Intelligence Division) and the NSA had more computers than any other organizations in the world.
The room was empty at this hour. He glanced at the teletypes, noting their colour. When he first started working at State in the early sixties, rooms like this had contained five red teletypes and one blue teletype. The red machines recorded information from over-seas stations and embassies; the blue was for domestic data. Now, four of the machines were blue and only two were red.
There had been a shift in orientation for State Intelligence. Nobody cared any longer about the movements of an eighth assistant deputy minister in the Yugoslav government. They were much more interested in the number five man in the Black Panther Party, or the number three man in the John Birch Society, or the number six man in Americans for a Better Nation.
He sat down at a computer console, stared at the blank TV screen, and began typing in Wright's call numbers. The screen glowed and printed out the categories of stored information:
WRIGHT, JOHN HENSEN
001 FILE SUMMARY
002 PERSONAL APPEARANCE, COMPLETE
003 PHOTOS
004 PERSONAL HISTORY, COMPLETE
005 RECENT ACTIVITIES (2 WEEK UPDATE)
006 FINANCIAL HISTORY, COMPLETE
007 POLITICAL HISTORY, COMPLETE
008 MISCELLANEOUS
009 CROSS REFERENCES LISTING, COMPLETE
Graves stared at the categories with some distaste. It was disturbing that the government should have so much information on a private individual - particularly one who had committed no criminal act at any time.
Then on an impulse he pushed the 'Wipe' button and the screen went blank. He typed in 'Graves, John Norman', followed by his own call-up number. He sat back and watched the numbers print out on the screen:
GRAVES, JOHN NORMAN 445798054
INTELLIGENCE, DEPT STATE/INVESTIGATIONS (DOM)
TELEPHONE: 808-415-7800 X 4305
FILE CONTENTS CANNOT BE DISPLAYED ON THIS CONSOLE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION VQ
He hesitated, then punched 'Auth: VQ'
AUTHORIZATION VQ RECORDED
STATE NAME
After another hesitation, he punched 'Phelps, Richard D'.
RECORD CALL-UP NAME AS PHELPS, RICHARD D.
FILE CONTENTS CANNOT BE DISPLAYED ON THIS CONSOLE TO THE ABOVENAMED PERSON. CALL-UP PERSON IS ADVISED TO ACQUIRE NTK AUTHORIZATION FROM DEPARTMENT HEAD.
Graves smiled. So even Phelps couldn't call up Graves' file without a special need-to-know authorization. Who could call it up? Feeling whimsical, he typed out 'This is the President of the United States.'
The screen glowed:
RECORD CALL-UP AS PRESIDENTOFTHEUNITEDSTATES
IS THIS A CODE NAME
STATE GIVEN NAME
Graves sighed. Computers just didn't show any respect. He pressed the 'Wipe' button and returned to the question of Wright.
He didn't really know what he was looking for. Graves had supplied most of the computerized file contents himself. But perhaps someone else had added to it. He pushed the 008 sequence calling up miscellaneous information. That category had been empty two weeks ago. Now it contained an academic history of Wright's work in mathematics, prepared by 'S. Vessen, State/Anal/412'. Whoever that was. He had a moment of pleasure at the thought that State's analysis people were abbreviated 'anal'. It was fitting.
He turned to the information itself:
HX ACADEMIC - JOHN WRIGHT (BIBLIO FOLLOWS: 008/02)
WRIGHT STUDIED MATHEMATICS AT PRINCETON UNDER REIMANN.