The Abacus Equation

  Chapter 42

  At eight o'clock sharp Ian came into the meeting room. He looked content and energized. A big difference from this morning when he was tired and worn down. He opened the meeting: “I see that everyone is available. Juergen asks to be excused, he had an urgent appointment.”

  He continued: “the last couple of days were filled with surprises and commotion. Ten years we were able to build and construct the foundations of our project Abacus. And now that we are able to fully launch the project with a complete staff, we have been plagued by set-backs, information theft, accidents and plain murder. More than ten years I have worked on this place, this dream. Each time under the assumption that those who shared my dream and worked with me, did so because of the same drive. A safe haven where, decoupled from political, military and religious forces, teams could work on new technologies and innovation. To gradually grow into a new society that could model for the world. A world where the night has fallen. In this world conflict Abacus is neutral and we will be forgotten amidst the turmoil of a global war. Also the coming years we will be able without disturbance to work, to innovate, to invent. All projects within Abacus are fully active. This means that we are completely independent from the outside world for our food, energy, needs. But we will not be an island. From this place we will expand as development aid through Africa and for once learn from past mistakes."

  He stopped, realising it was neither the time nor the audience to exalt for the future. So he continued: “but it became painfully clear that not everyone shared that dream or vision. But that also this project was abused to gain power and wealth. To my annoyance and anger, I saw that human characteristics like greed and power have poisoned the project. All the way up to the top and into the roots of this organisation. Nevertheless we were able to correct the situation and thanks to the efforts of some stubborn people we were able to identify the guilty ones, the rotten apples.”

  Ian gave the floor to Abdi: “our inspector Abdi will give us an overview and the conclusions based on his investigation of the past days.”

  A bit theatrical Abdi rose. It reminded Pieter of a closing scene from one of Agatha Christie's stories, where inspector Poirot would invite all of the characters to join him in the stately salon of the old mansion where the murder was committed.

  “Since a couple of months we knew, thanks to the research of Vince Smith and his team, that at irregular intervals classified information leaked to the outside world. The technology and techniques that were used were sophisticated. Very sophisticated. That raised the suspicion that we were dealing with a group of specialised and gifted computer experts. When we brought this to the attention of Ian, he decided to only share this with Vladimir. At that time it was Ian's plan to give each of his close collaborators a specific area of responsibilities. He had in mind to give Vladimir all areas related to security and to Juergen all that was related to research and innovation. As more people arrived in Abacus and started to work on their projects. The results and successes booked by the teams could, and still can, be called astronomical. So also the intensity of the info thefts increased. Vladimir contacted some of his old friends who in their turn developed specific sensors to be placed on laptops, tablets, mini frames, mainframes and so on. Than it was a matter of waiting patiently.

  Jonathan was an annoying development. Ian had made believe that Jonathan was a computer freak from the Navy. Charged with the protection of the Abacus computer system and that he would quickly solve the thefts. He was announced on the evening that a large coup was prepared to sell some very lucrative laser guiding systems to the outside world. The timing of Jonathan's arrival was inconvenient. Already the day after his arrival he got briefed by Ian and Vince's team, when he was suddenly interrupted by a phone call from Iveta. The message was that Ian had forgotten to tell him something.”

  Iveta tried to protest, but Abdi continued.

  “The car that picked up Jonathan was driven by Juergen. Juergen, as computer expert having all of the privileges on Abacus' systems, had switched all of the surveillance cameras into self maintenance mode. He drove Jonathan outside Abacus under the pretext that he had to urgently inspect the robot system as he had found out that the robots themselves were key to the information thefts of Abacus' defence system. Jonathan, not suspecting anything, judged that was indeed reason enough and had a high priority. Especially since Juergen informed him that someone was tampering with the software and that everyone was looking towards traditional PCs or computers as leak. But those robots were also connected to mainframes and could be hacked into to make a way to the outside world. They went to the meadows where Juergen knocked him out and dragged the body towards the grazing herd. The robots that had been loaded with the old software were activated and interpreted the lying body, maybe regaining consciousness, as a predator. The robot came dashing up, making the noise of a predator. The herd got into a stampede and Jonathan was no longer able to escape. It was the perfect accident and it would probably also be catalogued as one if it were not for that one shell that was found. That is why we continued to search and were able to unravel a lot of inconsistencies.”

  “When during the meeting with Ian, where also Marsha, Iveta and Juergen were present, Vladimir talked about his sensors and the information they had gathered some people became nervous. When he also hinted that there was sufficient evidence to point at individuals and when also Ian announced that Pieter had proven beyond doubt that Jonathan was murdered, they became worried. With such a big transaction coming up, even I would have become nervous. And as always, when people are nervous, they make mistakes. With Vladimir for instance. Only very few people knew that Vladimir would not touch one drop of alcohol because of his scheduled surgery. Yet last night some people tried to create the impression that Vladimir started to drink and party heavily. And because most of the visitors of the bar their observation ability already had been troubled, they were pretty successful too. Till one visitor of the bar was brought back to sobriety in a rather unpleasant way and assured us that Vladimir had not touched liquor that evening. The bartender confirmed this. Also his assistant, Marsha, was not that drunk but a royal portion of sleeping powder did a good job at creating the same effect. And that was needed because Iveta had to seduce Vladimir. For her a piece of cake. When she left the sleeping Marsha and finished romping with Vladimir, she lured him into an early skinny-dippy. A slender person like Iveta would never be able to knock down a massive man like Vladimir, so Juergen stood ready in the garden to hit him and drown him in the pool.”

  Iveta jumped on and shouted: “but no, the blood sample showed clearly that he was drunk like hell. Look at Kitwaela's report.”

  Abdi was not to be thrown off his balance. “You are right Iveta. Only the blood sample did not come from Vladimir, but from Brian. When Pieter exited the lobby, you came out of the group to help him. And while you were nursing him, you had the ability to take some blood. A bleeding nose can provide just the right quantity, no? That was quite smart, because, coincidence or not, Brian and Vladimir had the same blood type. Only Brian's liver is in a much better condition. A more thorough blood examination brought that to the surface. The work of Dr. De la Fayette was crucial, also in finding some bruises that could not just be explained by h