Chapter 18
"My purpose is not to get into a pissing contest with the Feds. I am sure I can win, since the voice on that tape said he mailed out twenty copies of the tape and twenty files to twenty people, in all. I am sure we could track them down easily, since the tape identifies the twenty people.
"No, my reason to hire your firm is two fold. One, your firm has contacts and dealings with the US Attorneys office, and you have a very good reputation. I am sure you even have more personal contacts formed over the years. You can't do what you do without developing some sort of relationship with the opposition, so to speak," I stopped and grinned.
He flashed a smile at me and admitted that his firm did indeed maintain relationships with several governmental employees and agencies.
"I was thinking, from my own point of view anyway, that if this firm contacted the appropriate persons within the federal government, perhaps these illegalities could be stopped? I would also be glad to settle for a lot less in that instance, than if we went to a trial and I had to go public with this damning information," I said and sat back.
"You understand, this all hinges on if we can verify this information. If what these documents purports to be are true, then those responsible will be very reluctant to reveal their own part in this illegal activity," Mark told me.
"Well, it should be easy enough. Notice the numbers along the top? Those are file numbers and internal addresses located within the computer. All you need to do is get a judge to issue a warrant and the rest, as the saying goes, is history," I told him a bit smugly.
"What is it you do for a living anyway, Mr. Wilshire? I am afraid that the information sheet I reviewed didn't contain that information," Mark asked me curiously.
"I am independently wealthy. I run a philanthropic agency, that distributes funds that my conservative 'blue chip' investments make. So in answer to your question, I do nothing at all except travel, and find worthy causes to donate to," I responded.
"What was your major in college?" he asked me curiously.
"Computer programming," I said, grinning.
He arched his eyebrows at me over that one.
"I can already see the government's counter claim that you set this whole thing up," he said still grinning at me. "You didn't did you? I have to ask," he said with a serious expression.
"I don't see how I could have. Notice the addresses on the file? Those are only generated by one computer, theirs. Also, a search of their computer's logs will show if this document was generated by their computer or not. Simple, really," I said.
He nodded, and finally got down to money.
"This could conceivably run into millions of dollars if they try to stonewall us, you know. The retainer you paid the company, while generous, would be eaten up in just a couple weeks in the event we have to go to trial," he said.
I nodded, and pulled out a cashiers check. I had stopped at the First National Bank in New York City, and had it drawn up, just this morning.
"I took the liberty of having this check draughted this morning. I will leave it with you as a deposit, in the event that the case does not get settled out of court," I said and passed it over. It was for five hundred thousand dollars, so I knew it was more than enough.
"Where can I contact you? Will you be staying in New York, or returning to your home in Boston? This might take a few days," Mark asked me.
I gave him my home phone number and address, which he wrote into a small personal notebook of some sort. He stood and said he would get on this right away, which was why he wanted the contact information.
"We might get movement on this as early as tomorrow. You understand it will take them some time to do an internal investigation, and to verify the authenticity of these documents. They will also want to know where you got these and who gave them to you, and will try to compel you with warrants and threats," Mark told me as we were leaving his office.
"United States Postal service gave them to me. I still have the envelope they arrived in, if you want it," I said in parting. He nodded and said he did indeed want it.
As I left his building, I felt that I had covered all my bases with causing the FBI's computer to print out the incriminating documents. While it was true that their computer generated and sent the file, the printing had been done in another location. God bless file transfer protocols!
A small graphics company had printed out the files for me in Maryland. I had taken steps to delete all evidence of where the files had been sent, just that they had been queued for printing. But that queuing information was no longer available.
I made sure to leave enough evidence pointing to the fact that someone with a high enough security clearance and enough computer knowledge, had done this. But I made sure that no single individual was implicated. Personally, I didn't care if they started investigating themselves, as what they were doing was illegal, anyway.
I made a tape and had a computer-generated voice explain that he was tired of his agencies duplicity and illegal activities, and railed against the injustices he perceived. The computer-generated voice then said it had mailed out 20 copies of this file, containing over 2000 names to 20 of the individuals from the list.
The computer-generated voice said in closing, "I hope this will cause the government to take its own laws more seriously. I already know that this will ease my conscience concerning the wrongs I have done my fellow citizens, in the name of government."
The voice then gave the names of the twenty individuals, mine included.
I had taken the tape, and copied it twenty times. I made sure to handle all the materials with plastic surgical gloves. The envelopes were similarly handled. I had bought 30 dollars worth of first class self-adhering stamps, and put enough on each envelope to make sure they got to where they were going. I took a damp sponge and wet the sticky back of each heavy-duty envelope, and sealed a file and tape in each one.
I then mailed out the twenty largish envelopes, from 7 different mail boxes in the D.C. area. I of course had gone back in time to mail them, in order to be able to give myself an alibi that I was somewhere else, at the time they were being mailed. All in all, it was a good plan, and I congratulated myself on it.
It was two days later. I was in my office in Boston, when I had a knock on the door to my office. It was Lisa, one of my researchers who doubled as the office secretary.
"Yes?" I called out.
"Sir? There is an FBI agent here, requesting to see you," Lisa said, full of curiosity.
"Ok. Close the door, and give me a minute. Then I will open the door, as a signal for you to send him in," I told her.
She nodded, and closed the door. I pulled out Mark Flemming's card, and called him. Since his personal number was the one on the card, I got him right away. I explained that I had an FBI agent in my outer office, and I asked him what should I do.
He was curious as to what the FBI agent had to say and ask, and asked me if I had a speakerphone. I admitted that I did. He said to turn it on, so he could hear as well as partake in the event, should the agent in question go 'out of bounds' in any way.
I did as instructed and opened my door, and signaled Lisa to send in the agent. A very large man entered my office wearing a scowl. Hell, he was huge! Ok, intimidation factor, right off the bat. I was not impressed. He had short hair, and was built like a tank. Square jaw, and dark flat eyes. He seemed to radiate a 'don't fuck with me' attitude, just by being.
He opened a leather case and flashed it at me, to fast for me to read anything or even take note of what it contained.
"Agent Marshal, FBI. We have a few questions we would like to ask you, and would you please accompany me to our offices?" he demanded more than asked.
"Agent Marshal? My name is Mark Flemming, and I am the attorney of record for Tom Wilshire. If you have any questions, you can ask them in the office where you are currently located. In no way will my client go anywhere with you. Is this clearly understood?" asked the voice of my attorney over the speakerphone.
Agent Marshal scowled even more deeply if that were possible. I decided to put an end to this portion of the interview.
"Agent Marshal, let me say at the outset that your attempt at intimidation is ludicrous at best, and is the worst possible way to get any form of cooperation out of me. I don't intimidate very well, not since I was a very young boy. Nine years of martial arts have taught me to deal with people like you, and you only inspire contempt, right now," I said politely to the agent.
The change that came over him, was amazing! He seemed to relax, and become more of a gentle giant than an imposing behemoth.
"Well, that's out of the way. Sorry, but it has worked very well for me in the past," he said, and I was astonished at his honesty about it.
"The agency has a few questions to ask if you don't mind, concerning the alleged tape and printout you received in the mail," he said as a statement of fact.
I nodded and then said, "Yes, I thought you might. So did my lawyer. Ask away," I said feeling magnanimous now that I had won our initial confrontation.
"Have you been contacted by any of the other people who were on the list you received?" he asked right off.
"No" I replied.
"Have you contacted of the people on the list you received?" He asked.
"No," I answered simply again.
So the questioning went. When did I receive the envelope containing the print out and tape? Where was I the day I received it, and the previous few days to its arrival? Things like that. The questioning went on, and my lawyer only objected to two of the questions as irrelevant or as a 'back door' way of trying to incriminate me.
The question that my lawyer really objected to was when I was asked, "Did you cause, or have caused, this information to be disseminated in any way?"
My lawyer had jumped on that, as not being possible, and the question being 'out of bounds'. He instructed me to not even dignify it with a reply. I just rolled my eyes a bit theatrically, and we moved on to other questions.
When the interview was over, he actually shook my hand, and apologized for his original entrance. I told him I understood, and that there were no hard feelings. I then went back to my desk, and told my attorney that the agent was gone.
"Was what you told him the truth?" My lawyer asked me.
I sighed. "Yes, everything I answered was the truth," which of course, it wasn't. When I mailed the envelopes to the 20 people, that put me in contact with them, but the government had no need to know that, now did they?
With my conversation with my attorney over, I hung up and got back to work. I had a list of possible organizations that needed some financial support, and quickly. I signed for three expenditures in excess of what my office manager and financial manager were authorized to disburse.
After that, I went back home and fired up my computer. I was startled when a program I had installed in it, informed me an unauthorized access was being performed from an exterior source. My normal firewall and anti-virus programs didn't say a thing. This was a program I had made myself, when I had discovered some holes in the protections offered by commercial software.
I activated a 'trace' sub-routine, and almost as soon as I did, the invading program disappeared totally! So whoever it was, had known I had tumbled to them. I wondered who it was. For some reason, I thought 'government' right off the bat. Call me paranoid, but I could think of no one that had any reason to invade my computer, except the government!
So, whoever it had been was familiar with the commercially sold software that most people used. They exploited the only way to get through the protections that were supposed to keep my computer safe. So who would know that the software had holes in it?
Well, anyone who bothered to look at the program's coding. I doubted most people even knew how to do that, though. No, this was someone, or someone in an organization, who was familiar with the gaps in normal protection. The odds at this time ('this time' being during a legal dispute with my federal government), led me to think it was them.
I pondered as to who else might want to invade my privacy, well, my computer, and could not really come up with anyone. But it did give me an idea for a new sort of program. Now if I could design a 'tag', and have it attach itself to the invading program...
I quickly became lost in thought, as I started designing the new program.
Edited by TeNderLoin