Chapter 38: Phantom of the Opera

The next morning, Ed awoke in his bedroom.

He did his morning routine and walked to the family room.

Ellen wasn’t there! It was his first time arriving first. It disturbed him. He checked his phone for the time. He was early!

Ed picked up the usual phone, and without dialing a number, a voice answered. “Hello?”

“This is Ed. I arrived in the family room first. Normally Ellen gets here before me, and orders coffee,” he said.

“No problem, Sir. I can bring your morning coffee. Is there anything else you’d like?”

“Perhaps a few pastries? Whatever you have.”

“Of course, Sir. It will be just a few minutes.”

The call ended. Ed hoped he hadn’t overstepped.

Ellen arrived, and his fears evaporated as they hugged.

“Did you order coffee?” she asked.

Before Ed could answer, a maid arrived with a tray. It contained the usual coffee jug, cups, plus a plate of pastries. The maid placed the tray in its usual spot, then left the room.

While Ed poured coffee, Ellen pounced on the pastries. “Mmm, yummy!”

“I thought a little variety wouldn’t hurt.”

Ellen sat on the sofa with a pastry, as Ed placed a coffee on the table in front of her. He then fetched the plate of pastries and put it between them on the table.

“We shouldn’t do this often or we’ll get fat,” she said.

“True.”

“Our attorneys will be here soon. The signing is at nine.”

“Oh, okay.”

They sat, sipping coffee together.

At nine o’clock, Ed and Ellen arrived at the boardroom. They sat beside each other, excited to get this task over.

The two attorneys arrived. They placed copies of the agreement in front of Ed and Ellen, who signed or initialed as indicated.

Ellen smiled at Ed, who smiled back at her.

“Now we can proceed with the wedding,” she said.

“Yes! Nothing can stop us now.”

“I have to leave for an appointment. Ed, I’ll see you for lunch?”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

They both stood and hugged.

Ellen left the room. The two attorneys gathered the signed documents and left.

Ed opened up his laptop to resume work on software bug fixes. He was glad there was no commute. It meant he could achieve more in less time.

Ellen traveled in her SUV with her security detail to the Duwamish longhouse.

There, she met Ahote, one of the tribal elders.

“Good morning, Ellen. Nice to see you again,” he said.

“Good morning. I’ve some things I’d like to discuss with the elders.”

“Then please sit down. Would you like some tea?”

“Thank you, yes.”

They sat down on a sofa. Another elder brought out tea. Before she knew it, there were four elders, including Ahote.

“First, I’d like to talk about Washta.”

“She is recovering in the hospital.”

“Yes. The person responsible is dead. My security detail killed him. They left no trace of him to lead back to you or Washta.”

“Oh, my!”

“The Villain who came to the longhouse looking for Ed. He followed Washta home, and used her as leverage to force Ed to come to him.”

“So, he was using Washta to get to Ed?” asked Ahote.

“Yes. Ed was lucky he didn’t get killed. I would have lost my future husband.”

“That was fortunate. What did you want to discuss?”

“I’d like to hire Shweabe, and train him to become a security guard. He’ll protect Washta.”

“I’m sure we can arrange that. You don’t have to pay him to protect his aunt.”

“He needs to take training, so that he can get licensed. I can provide some of my detail to cover until he gets his license. I already left one man at the hospital.”

“Oh.”

“And I’m thinking we can scale this up to create a tribal security detail. They can provide security for all the tribe.”

“You plan to pay for all this security?”

“I can afford it. I can arrange an annual endowment, paid to the tribe. You would pay individual salaries and equipment costs.”

“Wow! That’s amazing. Did you have an idea how many guards we’ll need?”

“No. I’d leave that in your hands. Shweabe helped chase the villain from the longhouse, and he took a video. His actions earned him the right to be first. His first assignment will be to protect his aunt.”

“Let’s begin with a few. We could increase it later,” said another elder.

“I agree. I don’t know how much money we’ll need,” said Ahote.

“My head of security can help you with that. I’ll also have my attorney contact you. Can you talk to Shweabe? I’ve not had a chance to,” said Ellen.

“Of course. Your actions do us honor. You care for the welfare of the tribe.”

“Well, I am marrying your medicine man. That makes me part of your tribe, too. Which leads me to my second item.”

Ed sat in the boardroom, working on his computer, when Conner appeared.

“Hey, Conner! Long time no see.”

“Hello, Ed. Got time to help me?” asked Conner.

“Sure. What do you need?”

“I’ve discovered some activity by Chinese agents. I think Noah should be informed.”

“Oh? Tell me more.”

“They have some agents working undercover at Microsoft. They introduced a remote back door into windows, via a Windows Update.”

“That’s serious. They could infiltrate computers worldwide.”

“I know. Most governments and organizations use Windows.”

“Can you access the back door?”

“I’m not as technical as you. It took me a while to figure it out.”

Conner shared what he knew, and Ed asked questions until he understood.

“Let me try this on my laptop,” said Ed. He tried the back door, and it worked! He was in!

“Oh crap! My laptop already has it installed.”

“I also know the names of the agents. They’re working on H1-1B visas.”

“That’ll be useful.” Ed wrote all the details. “Okay, I have it all.”

Ed picked up his phone and called Noah Johnson.

“Noah Johnson.”

“This is Ed Tanner, Diamond 9 4 0. I have more intel for you.”

“I’ll be expecting your arrival.”

Ed ended the call. He called the security detail.

“I need an SUV to take me to the CIA office.”

“Meet you out front in five.”

He ended the call and turned to Conner.

“I’m going to see Noah. Are you joining me?” he asked.

“Sure.”

Ed rode in the back of the SUV with two security guards in front. They arrived at the parkade under police headquarters.

He got out and one of his detail walked with him to the office of US Public Affairs. Conner floated along beside him.

“Hello, Ed!” said the cheerful receptionist. Ed followed her through security and into the meeting room. Conner floated in the corner, watching.

Soon, Noah arrived.

“Hello, Ed. What have you got for me today?” he asked.

“I have intel of Chinese agents. They’re working inside Microsoft. They installed a back door in windows via the Windows Update feature.”

“Woah! That sounds serious. Let me bring in one of our techs on this. Just a minute.”

Noah made a call, and soon another person arrived.

“Ed Tanner, meet Brian. Brian, meet Ed,” said Noah.

Ed repeated what he’d said to Noah and got a similar response from Brian.

“If this is true, computers worldwide are at risk. Can you show me the back door?” asked Brian.

“I tried it on my own and it worked. If you can fetch a couple of windows laptops, we can try it here.”

Brian exited the room and returned with two laptops.

Soon, Ed showed the back door to Brian. It worked. Brian swore.

“I must perform a binary analysis and track down the back door. This could take time,” said Brian.

“And I’ll have to bring in the FBI Cyber Crime division, then we’ll reach out to Microsoft,” said Noah.

“I have one more intel for you. I have the names of the Chinese agents. They’re working on H1-1B visas.”

“Hold that thought, Ed. Brian, please take your laptops and begin your analysis. This is your top priority.”

“Yes, Sir.” Brian left the meeting room.

“Okay, Ed. Now tell me the names.”

Ed gave Noah the names of the Chinese agents.

“Thank you, Ed. You’ve done your country and the world a huge service,” said Noah.

“Be careful in apprehending the agents. They might cause serious damage.”

“Understood.”

“Please instruct Brian to search beyond this back door. They might use this to cause a global outage.”

“I will. We’ll have many people working on this soon.”

“I’m going to experiment with some port blocking on my home router to block the back door access. If I have any luck, I’ll let you know.”

“You do that, Ed.”

Soon, Ed left the CIA office. Conner followed him outside.

“I think that went well,” said Conner.

“You deserve all the credit. You got the intel.”

“Well, I visited Redmond, and floated around looking over people’s shoulders.”

“You scored big time on this one.”

The security guard walked nearby, but ignored Ed’s talking to himself. They knew about his talking with spirits.

Ed returned to the SUV and went home. Conner floated away.

Ed returned home about the same time as Ellen. They met in the entrance hall and hugged.