On the way back I think of two things: What I have found, and what I’m going to do about Phertipton.
“Honey, I wonder how many other people he’s scammed like me. Bring up a list of court cases his firm has been involved in in the last five years. Not all of them, but those that involve a charge of relative abuse or fiduciary irresponsibility.”
“Should I look for the judgments?”
“No, start by looking at filings. I suspect most, or all, of these were settled out of court.”
“This may be difficult. There are a lot of courts on Earth.”
“So true, so true. ... Wait! How did you find out about Lester Walsh’s connection to Phertipton?”
“Once you had detected the pattern, it wasn’t difficult.”
“Right! And he’s likely to be using that same pattern! Honey! Search out all the other lawyers that Phertipton has associated with, and see which of them have the same kind of “sinusoidal finances” that Walsh does. Those will be ‘traitor lawyers’, and it will be their clients who are being extorted.”
“I’ll have the search begun immediately.”
I head for the lab. Now that the new data isn’t flooding in, I’m having a much more relaxed time looking through my “stuff”.
The stuff has been disturbing in one way: It seems to be such a hodgepodge. The net I found seems to be from one technology, the “bug suits” from another, and the “bear suits” from still another! As best I can determine, I’ve found pieces of ten different technologies, and most of them are contemporary with Earth technology--advanced a few hundred years, perhaps, but still quite understandable as technology.
All except for the Honeycomb structure, itself. This seems to be technological, but it’s not a linear evolution from what we recognize as technology today. It is ... strange.
The storage boxes I found that first day turned out to be the only ones I found above rubble. Whoever looted this place did so quite thoroughly, and perhaps more than once.
I start thinking about the commercial applications of what I have here, and then it comes to me: Ah! I’ve solved the “Jack problem”!
“Honey, please record a message for Jack.”
“Jack we need to set up a new encryption system, from the ground up. I want this one state-of-the-art secure.”
A week later when the new system is set up and tested, I send Jack this message:
“Jack, you were straight with me when you said you’d leave after this mess got straightened out. Now I’m going to be straight with you: You don’t want to do that.
“Jack, I hit paydirt--big paydirt. I’m bringing home stuff that is so valuable it will put my past holdings to shame--the hobby has paid off in spades, and you should be with me to cash in on it.
“As a security precaution, I’m sending my data records to you over this new channel. These are not for you to look at, yet. These are my backups. But they are also ... collateral, if you will, that I still trust you, have faith in you, and want to see that you get rewarded for sticking with me. If for some reason I don’t make it back, you may unseal the records, and they become part of my estate, and you already know what arrangements I’ve made for you on that.
“Stay with me, Jack. We have some sweet times coming. I’ll be filling you in on details as I approach the Inner System, and it gets to be time to show off what I’ve found. Say you’ll stay with me, and we can start that revealing process right away.
“This will take some thinking about on your side, but let me know as soon as you can.
“Bull, out.”
I lean back, and mentally cross my fingers. Jack has been good to work with, and having him in on this would sure beat bringing in someone new.