"I envy you. You always seem to know what you want. It's how you get there that's confusing at times. Of course working for Cecil is nothing like that little Hitler you worked for."
"How is Cecil?" Jake asked.
She thought for a second. "Not too good. He had a heart attack just before Christmas and hasn't returned to work yet. I'm not sure he will."
"Shit…Cecil. He was in good shape. He's one of the last old school guys."
"Yeah," she said. "That's why we're so shorthanded down here. To top it off, John was transferred to the Middle East on short notice in November and we don't expect a replacement anytime soon. I told him to lose the Arabic, but he wouldn't listen."
Jake shook his head. He felt nervous. He looked at his watch and around the room again. Finally, he set his gaze on the pillow and blankets.
"Let me explain those. I have a guest who is working on this case with me."
"The guy who answered the phone when I called from Germany."
"Yes. His name is Kurt Lamar. He's an ensign with the Naval Investigative Service. He was assigned aboard the USS Roosevelt to find out how computer chips were being pilfered from an important avionics upgrade to the A-7. It turns out a couple of technicians were working with a pilot who carried them onboard his A-7 and then diverted to shore complaining of some inflight emergency. We know the pilot made a drop at Camp Darby, but we're not sure who he sold the stuff to."
"That's similar to what was going on in Germany. Only the guy ripping off the chips was a tech rep for Teredata's F-15 avionics upgrade. My guy was clonked over the head and thrown into the Rhine. They just found him a few days ago."
Toni looked surprised. "This is crazy, Jake. The pilot we interrogated was blown up in the Genoa attack last week. I'm sure you heard about it."
"I haven't been listening to the news for the last week. I've been spending most of my evenings watching the guys who killed the tech rep."
"Four sailors were killed with a remote control car loaded with plastics. Kurt had two of the four figured out, and our pilot gave us the names of the others."
"Not without your patented persuasion I'll bet," he said smiling.
Toni shrugged her shoulders. "Well? I can't help it if people try to keep secrets. Do you think the bad guys would do any less?"
"No."
"See!"
Jake felt a shiver come over him, bringing goose bumps to his arms. The long drive with no sleep must have been catching up with him. "I hate to get back to business, but I really need some sleep. I need to talk through some of this case though. You don't think that these cases are unrelated do you?"
"No. But why haven't our Agency guys in Germany contacted me yet?"
"Because I haven't told them shit. You're the only American official notified so far."
"Pride runs deep with you, doesn't it?"
"It's not just that. I don't trust those bastards. Besides, I'm working for Teredata. The company has an obligation to report lost technology, but only after they're sure it's going to a foreign government. I'm still not sure that's the case. I'm a corporate investigator. I believe this transfer has more to do with economics than politics or national security. If I find out differently, then naturally I'll report it…in due time. Like I said though, I think this is corporate espionage."
"I think you're right, Jake, but when do we draw the line between national security and a foreign company's will and desire to become more competitive?"
"I don't want to philosophize over this, Toni," Jake said as he rubbed his eyes and then stroked his fingers through his hair. It was a legitimate question. Justifying his right to remain autonomous hadn't even been a consideration in Germany. He had asked Milt Swenson if the government was aware of the technology transfer. When Milt said no, Jake hadn't even questioned his intent. He knew that the last thing any government contractor wanted was the slightest appearance of impropriety. Future contracts relied on the performance of those currently in place.
"How serious was the transfer in Germany?"
"It depends on your perspective of damage," Jake said sarcastically. "I know you're not really into computers, but I'll try to explain the problem. The chips alone are important. More so, though, is what you do with them. This is the fastest chip currently in production, and probably the fastest that anyone could expect to come out with in the foreseeable future. So they are important."
Jake paused for a second contemplating how to explain the technical details.
"So, is this technology restricted for transfer to NATO countries?"
"Currently, yes."
"Are they the same as the chips on the A-7 contract?"
"No! They're similar."
"But…."
"Wait a minute. Let me explain further. Like I said, these chips are important. Put them in your normal PC and you've got one hell of a fast computer that can out perform anything currently on the market. And that's what Teredata plans on using them for, eventually. The German company that acquired them, Bundenbach Electronics, will probably use them for that purpose…and maybe more."
"Like what?" she asked, uncrossing her legs and moving closer to Jake on the sofa.
Jake felt the shiver again. He didn't know this time if it was caused by his lack of sleep, or what he was about to reveal to Toni. "Have you ever heard of transputer technology?"
She shook her head back and forth.
"Well, it's the greatest advance the Europeans have ever made in computer technology. It's a series of chips linked in parallel sequence that integrate speed, power and communications into the fastest microprocessor ever produced at unbelievably low prices. It's turning America's best supercomputers into relics."
"Why do the Europeans need these chips then?"
"They don't, if they want to produce a half-assed computer. If they combine a bunch of these transputer chips in parallel, they come up with the fastest computer on the market. But the technology isn't perfect. It takes some complex and sophisticated software to make the big machines work at peak performance. The Americans are the world's software wizards. Also, the transputer chips lack memory direction. In other words, when a bunch of people try to use the computer at one time, the computer gets confused. It can mess up someone else's work in a heart beat."
"How will the Teredata chips help that?"
Jake got up from the sofa and walked to the window overlooking the courtyard garden. The fading moon cast a ray of light over the upper portion of the building across the square. He turned and sat against the edge of the marble sill, and crossed his legs and arms.
"The Teredata chips combined with the transputer chips would give you the perfect computing system. Speed, power, everything. And, the system would be economical. On a small scale, you could make a personal computer microprocessor about one fourth the current size with about fifty times the processing speed. On a large scale…I don't even want to think about that."
She rose from the sofa and came over to the window. "I think we have a problem." She looked out the window and placed her hands over the warmth rising from the radiator beneath the marble sill. "Kurt found out something interesting last night. In fact, he just got back a few hours ago. That's why he's sleeping in my bed instead of the sofa as normal. I knew you'd be here this morning."
"What's the problem?"
"I told you we interrogated the Navy pilot. Well, we found a telephone number on him. We traced the number to the U.S. Department of Commerce in Rome."