Chapter 02 #2
“Many things. The coding language, formatting habits, and embedded metadata were a near-perfect match to Nammota’s known work.
And his studies in cyber-criminality at Stanford could explain his knowledge of the craft.
Nammota’s first big hack mainly focused on malpractice at Avoss, and it coincides with Coleman’s time working for that company.
The more we looked, the more Coleman’s profile matched our working theory of Nammota’s capabilities and methods better than any previous suspect. ”
“Was that enough to get an arrest warrant?”
“No, the judge deemed it too circumstantial. But on January 2nd, Homeland received an anonymous tip. It was an internal security feed from an office at the Campbell Imperial, in Seattle, time-stamped December 21st, late evening.”
This time, my eyes travel to Evora, a few seats away to my left.
She looks livid, face struck by shock. I can’t control my mind from racing with theories.
Did she have any involvement in this? If she can’t have Lex, then no one can?
As if compelled by my stare, she turns to me, eyes veiled with confusion.
No, she wouldn’t do this. She cares for Lex. She knows prison would destroy him.
“Can you tell us what was in the clip?” the prosecutor continues.
“A man and a woman having a discussion. At one point, the man casually mentioned being Nammota. Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have taken it seriously, but that was different.”
“How so?”
“The couple in the clip were the defendant and Miss Walker.”
“And that was enough to establish probable cause?”
“Yes. We obtained both an arrest warrant and a search warrant and waited for Coleman to return to work after the holidays.”
“Why?”
“We needed the arrest to be quick enough so that the suspect wouldn’t have time to destroy any evidence.
Had we arrested him at his residence, we were concerned he might have had enough time to delete critical files.
So, while one team executed the arrest at his workplace, another team simultaneously executed the search warrant at his apartment to secure any digital devices and other potential evidence. ”
“Have you found more evidence since the arrest?”
“We seized an arcade machine at Kelex where the high score spelled out Nammota. Upon looking at the data, the scores happened late into the evening, after most employees were likely gone. We also interrogated a few of the people working for the defendant, and we discovered Coleman goes by Lex and his gaming tag is Luthor.”
“And why is that relevant?”
“Nammota has always taunted investigators with quotes from Lex Luthor—an infamous villain of the DC franchise. The name ‘Nammota’ itself is ‘Atom Man’ spelled backward, and it happens to be one of Lex Luthor’s aliases.”
Fuck. The more he talks, the less optimistic I am about us winning. Maybe ten years wasn’t that bad, after all. Definitely better than a lifetime behind bars.
Ifucked up. Waiving my right to a grand jury was a terrible idea. In my defense, I was set on accepting the prosecution’s plea deal, so there was no need for the whole charade. By impulsively refusing it, though, I stacked the cards against me.
Now, Ms. Collins doesn’t have to convince twelve people that I might be guilty.
Only one judge who somehow hates my guts.
I have the feeling she could sit there perfectly silent, and the judge would still take this to trial.
But she’s a shark, lethal with every one of her questions, and the judge won’t even have to make excuses for himself.
At least my counsel isn’t completely useless, but even their astute questions to Mr. Grant aren’t enough to undo the damage Ms. Collins did.
“Were you among the teams that searched my client’s residence or place of work?” Mr. Goldberg asks.
“I was at his residence when we first searched it, yes. I later joined the team that searched his office.”
“Did you find anything that indicates my client partakes in illegal activities, like you’re implying?”
“We found some evidence with the Donkey Kong machine and—”
“Those are circumstantial at best. A joke any bored employee could have pulled off. What kind of setup would a hacker as renowned as Nammota have?”
“On Nammota’s scale, I’d say a server, which could be remote, and one or more high-performance computers.”
“And did you find any of that?”
“Not yet. But Mr. Coleman has investments throughout the country and the world, so it may take us a few weeks to get warrants and search them all,” Mr. Grant explains.
“So, you don’t have actual, hard evidence that my client—a paragon of society who founded a company that aims to improve the lives of disabled minorities—is the hacker known as Nammota.”
“We’re confident we’ll find it. What we have for now is a near-perfect match between Nammota’s known code and your client’s.”
“That’s called a hunch, Mr. Grant.” My lawyer turns to the judge, seemingly appalled, and says, “Your Honor, I don’t even understand why we’re here. The prosecution’s case is so weak, it shouldn’t even have led to my client’s arrest, let alone brought us to this hearing.”
Ms. Collins stands with energy to protest, “Your Honor, we have the defendant confessing on tape.”
“A mere jest,” Goldberg counters. “A joke between lovers.”
“Should we watch it? I have it right here,” Collins confidently suggests, lifting a USB key.
“That’s enough,” Judge Ward demands, bringing his gavel down with one hard hit. “Again, this isn’t a trial, but a preliminary hearing. Although I expected the accusation to bring forth more thorough evidence, I believe there’s sufficient doubt to bring this case to trial.”
I’m not even surprised. This was so expected that my heart doesn’t sink further into my knotted guts.
My body remains perfectly still as whispers erupt from behind me, the clicking of computer keys intensifying.
With my eyes unfocused somewhere above the judge’s head, I vaguely listen to the charges the judge brings up against me.
Computer fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, unauthorized disclosure of classified information, espionage, transmission of national defense information …
The list goes on and on, all of it sounding like it’s from another lifetime.
It feels like it. A life where I had nothing to lose, so no reason to fear the repercussions.
I was daring and bold, always eager to push myself further, to go bigger, to do what no one else had ever done.
What no one else could ever do. All noble causes, so I could tell myself it was for the good of humanity and this country.
But in reality, I was just a bored man who needed something to excite me, to give it all meaning, to leave as a legacy.
I had never, not in a million years, thought I’d find it elsewhere, in something as absurdly common as love.
But then, I’d also never thought someone like Andrea could exist. Someone so painfully perfect for me, so ideally tailored to my intellect and desires, that I’d never long for anything else in my life.
She’s more excitement than I can handle, and being with her gives my entire existence meaning. As for the legacy … the life we were going to build together would have been far superior to any of this.
But again, I’d never thought I, of all people, could have that. And maybe I was right all along. It certainly looks like it’s too late for this alternate ending, for this fulfilling journey we were going to have together.
My past has caught up with me, and now’s the time of reckoning.