Chapter 45
Chapter 45
I flung open the IT door, where I was met by Eddie, Jess, BP, Camp, and Casey all staring at a wall of screens. Clay stood behind them, studying the same screens and trying to make sense of the data. Eddie spoke first, and he was thoughtful when he did so. “We might have something.”
I waited.
“When they were taken, their phones were not. On purpose. To prevent us from tracking them. On a hunch, Jess cleaned them, and while none of the three had social media accounts, all three did have one peculiar thing in common. They all played the same game: Words with Friends. They played exclusively with each other. No outsiders.” Eddie paused. “You familiar with how it works?”
“Vaguely.”
“The computer generates a random rack of seven letters at the bottom of your screen. From those letters, the first player tries to form a word and places that word on the center square. Points are assigned to letters. The next player gets his or her own random rack of letters and uses them to construct a word that connects to either end of the first word or some letter in the middle.”
“I get the general idea.”
“Each of the girls has their own player identity, but for security reasons, they didn’t use their real names so, they used something random. Something that didn’t stick out. Miriam’s is ‘MAabc123.’ Ruth’s is ‘RA123xyz,’ and Sadie’s is ‘SA789def.’”
I was struggling to see where this led. “So?”
“Nobody else on planet earth would know who they are unless they told them. And again, for security reasons, they only played each other, or the computer.”
“Okay.”
Eddie smiled. “They also played their dad.”
I waited.
Eddie continued, “Three days ago, his staff reported his phone received an invite to play a game with a random person. The staff member declined. Then today, a second invite appeared.”
“Why is this important?”
“Because Aaron Ashley’s player name is ‘AAzyx321.’”
I was starting to put two and two together. “And why would you ask that player name to play unless you knew who was behind it?”
Jess nodded. “Correct.”
“Who’s asking him to play?”
This time it was BP. “Random player. ‘Scooteriq172.’”
“Any way to unpack who that is?”
“Not yet.”
“Has the vice president responded?”
As soon as the question left my mouth, the speakerphone on the table sounded. “No.” It was Aaron’s voice. “I have not. I wanted your input.” His voice sounded weak but stronger.
“Hello, sir.”
Eddie again. “We think it’s possible that one of the girls has access to a phone with this game, and she’s invited her dad to play.”
“Why doesn’t she just take a picture of herself?”
“We don’t know the answer to that. We do know that an invitation has been received, and she might use that interaction to send some sort of signal. Location. Anything.”
The speakerphone barked again, followed by muffled whispers in the background, interrupted by the signature voice of Senator Maynard. I couldn’t make out what he said, but his presence was noted. Aaron broke the silence. “Murph, unless someone on your end can recommend otherwise, I’m going to accept the invitation.”
Everyone in the room nodded at me. At the same time, it struck me as odd that we were discussing a game app on the phone of the vice president of the United States of America and whether he should accept the invitation to play the game. “Good call, sir.”
A member of the team had rigged it so we could see Ashley’s phone. In order to accept the invitation, he would click “Accept Challenge.” Which he did, causing five letters to spill off the top of the screen and line up in the center row, meaning whoever had invited him to play had created their first word. “ROLES.”
Eddie again. “Sir, this may be impossible, but we need to try to construct words where possible that ask for information.”
Ashley responded, “Affirmative.” A pause.
Jess this time. “Um, sir, no offense, but may I suggest that we cheat at this game?”
“You mean use AI to create words for us that do just that?”
“Yes, sir. But there’s actually an app that does it just for this game.”
Ashley again. “Apparently, a couple members of my staff are way ahead of you.”
The rack of letters was EIASOTS. My team began typing and waited for the results.
Ashley again. “‘Siesta’ or ‘oasis’?”
The team talked among themselves. “Sir, we vote ‘oasis.’”
“We do too.” Ashley entered the letters coming down from the O in “ROLES.” Six points were added to his score.
We waited, but nothing happened. Sixty seconds elapsed, which felt like an hour. “Sir, we have to wait until the other player responds. She might not have access to the phone right now.”
As he said that, the word “COLD” appeared next to the last S in “OASIS” to form “SCOLD.” Ashley’s new rack of letters was EOTENWP.
The team began speaking the possibilities. “‘Townee,’ ‘tween,’ ‘weep,’ ‘wept...’”
Ashley typed without asking for consensus. “WEPT.” After he entered the word, the game automatically advertised three other games, each with ten-second commercials, which offered no way to skip the ad. This obviously aggravated the vice president. “Anybody got a workaround for these ads?”
One of his staff members must have asked for his phone, because a drop-down menu appeared and a $9.99 button was selected, which blocked ads for thirty days. Ashley again: “Ten bucks, thirty days?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m in the wrong business.”
With the ads blocked, the assumption was that we could respond to moves more quickly, which might be helpful if the person on the other end was under duress or had a tight window. Both of which proved true.
Ashley asked, “Is it possible to crack the back door of this thing and determine where that game is being played?”
BP spoke this time. “Mr. Vice President, sir...” BP’s fingers were typing at warp speed. “Game companies, like social media companies, profess not to track that information, but they know where that phone is within about three feet.”
“Can you tell them that the vice president of the United States needs the information?”
“No disrespect, sir, but that would only make it worse.”
“And a warrant would take too long?”
“And probably get bottled up in the courts.”
“So our only hope is that you can break the encryption?”
“Yes, sir, but don’t worry, I broke into DOD and the White House and the CIA, and, well...”
“You did?”
“Yes, sir, it’s one of the reasons I have this job.”
“Son, I don’t care what you do or how you do it so long as it leads us to my daughters.”
“Yes, sir.”