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George of the Bureau was very eager to please, after the Volont encounter. All three of us knew he’d have to tell Volont anything he was asked. We also knew that George was now under a bit of a cloud with his own bureau, and would have to watch his step very carefully. It was never mentioned. We just knew that George could be used only so far before he’d be required to report something. We were all trying to avoid crossing that line. After he had sent his fax to his partner, applying for a wiretap order, he drove to Dyersville and purchased a modem for us. With software and a special offer from a local server. All right. Guilt can be great.

Then we had to find out where Stritch’s server was, in computerese.

‘‘Don’t we need Herman’s computer for this?’’ asked Hester.

I smiled all over myself. ‘‘Nope. Downloaded it all last night.’’

It was easy, once we had the modem hooked up to the PC in the back office. Hooking the modem up was a bit more difficult than I had anticipated. George, frugal to the end, had gotten the least expensive modem. Internal. External modem, we could have done in fifteen seconds. Internal, thirty minutes.

‘‘Jesus H. Christ, George!’’ I said. ‘‘I’m gonna have to tear this whole machine apart . . .’’

Ah, but he didn’t have to pay for a modem case, though.

‘‘You saved eleven dollars?’’ asked Hester. ‘‘Really?’’

So after I got the cover back on the PC, it was easy, like I said.

Entered the name of Herman’s server (Widetalk), our area code and telephone number, country (United States of America(1)), which set the keyboard commands. We connected using our ModoMak3564, which had hardly cost us a thing, configured the port to Com1, set the Databits to 8, Parity to None, Stop Bits to 1.

Then, it was a simple matter of doing his network protocols: the TCP/IP settings, which were server-assigned with an IP address: Primary DNS 699.555.123.6, with no secondary, no primary or secondary WINS, using IP header compression and the default gateway on remote.

We engaged the ‘‘call forwarding’’ mode, and were done.

As far as the e-mail service knew, we were now, for all intents and purposes, Herman Stritch. We had his default number, which was the modem line into his residence. I wanted to use one for Cedar Rapids, because that’s where they were gonna be, and that’s where Colonel Gabe would know they were.

We hesitated for about ten seconds. Then I called an officer I knew with the Linn County Sheriff’s Department, and asked for a number that would be used by a modem there. By a prisoner. He hesitated, so I let him talk to Hester and George.

That taken care of, we were simply going to call the Linn County jail number, have our call forwarded to the appropriate line, and call Colonel Gabe. Just as soon as Melissa confirmed what we needed to know about who the brains was behind the Stritches’ computer system.

Melissa called within half an hour. Damn me for a sexist. The whole thing was set up by Nola Stritch. In a computer sense, neither Herman nor Billy could find their ass with both hands.

Two minutes later, and George’s partner called. The order had been granted.

‘‘Okay,’’ I sighed. ‘‘Way to go George.’’

‘‘Just what did you say in that application?’’ asked Hester.

‘‘Well, nothing that wasn’t true,’’ said George.

‘‘Great piece of jurisprudence,’’ said Hester.

Thus armed, we sallied forth.

By now it was 1750, and the Stritch family should have been in Cedar Rapids for about an hour. Booked in, and all settled for supper. Good.

In looking for an address for Colonel Gabe, it had become immediately apparent that he was using other people’s e-mail addresses, and seldom the same one for more than an hour. Fascinating. We also noticed that Herman Stritch nearly always contacted Colonel Gabe via our man Borcherding. Mr. Free Press himself.

We decided to be cagey. At George’s suggestion.

‘‘I’m not comfortable with being Herman right at first. This has got to be something that Nola is going