The Canton Connection Read Online Free Page B

meeting.”
    “London.”
    “Yes. That’s pretty much it, sir.”
    Hoffkeit shifted uncomfortably. “Agent Maguire, what do you know about computers?”
    “I’ll be honest with you,” Jake said. “I understand how computers work, and I use them on a daily basis. But I’m not a computer expert.”
    “Ever take a programming course?”
    Jake thought back. “I learned C++ in high school. Can’t say I remember any of it.”
    Boy was he bombing this interview.
    Hoffkeit rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s more than I know about computers.”
    Bob leaned forward. “As you know, sir, the Bureau does have experts in computers.”
    “But can they perform field work?”
    Bob sat back.
    Hoffkeit was staring at Jake like he was the new savior for the Bureau. “What do you know about the Han Chu case?”
    Han Chu? Jake had been concentrating more on Stacy Stefansson. “It’s an interesting case, sir.”
    “In what respect?”
    Jake thought back to the murder scene. “It was an unfortunate murder.”
    “Just ‘unfortunate’? Agent Maguire, as of today the FBI has taken over this case. And I am appointing you as the lead investigator. I can assure you that this is far more than ‘an unfortunate murder.’”
    “Sir, I have a general sense about who Han Chu was and what his company does. But I still fail to see how any of this makes the murder a federal crime, unless I’m missing something here.”
    Hoffkeit stood up and faced the window. His eyes caught a glint of light off the city as he stared outside. “Agent Maguire, what do you know about Verisign?”
    Jake remembered the file that Bob had asked him to review. “It’s the company where the witness, Stacy Stefansson, works.” In fact, he knew very little about the company, aside from having seen its logo like a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval at the bottom of web pages to verify the pages’ authenticity.
    “And are you aware of what they do?”
    “They’re computer-related.”
    At this point Hoffkeit’s broad face broke into an ironic smile. “‘Computer-related’ is an understatement. They are the internet.”
    Jake’s first thought was that Hoffkeit had no idea what he was talking about. But Hoffkeit wasn’t a man who bandied about facts loosely.
    “My understanding,” Jake said, “is that the internet is a vast network of connected computers spanning the entire world. How could one company be the internet?”
    Hoffkeit was not offended. Instead, he stared at Jake intensely as if trying to impart knowledge ahead of the words he was about to say. “I don’t have to tell you how important the internet is to our GDP.”
    Jake had some vague idea that it was a large percentage.
    “It’s more than agriculture or energy,” Hoffkeit said. “And that number doesn’t even begin to reflect the dependency our business community has on the internet. Every company from Fortune 500 down to your local hardware store relies on the internet on a daily basis.”
    “I can see that.” But Jake still couldn’t see how one company could be the internet.
    “So can you see how important the internet is to our national security?”
    “Sure,” Jake said. “But wasn’t that why the internet was developed–to guarantee that information was spread over multiple computers?”
    “Agent Maguire, I hate to shake your faith in the resilience of the internet, but sharing information doesn’t mean it’s backed up.”
    “Still, the information is distributed among many computers. If one computer dies, only the information on that system is lost, not all the information on all systems.”
    “That, Agent Maguire, is where you’re wrong.”
    Jake had to think about what Hoffkeit had just said. He could see how a computer virus could quickly spread and take down many computers and servers, but how did all computers rely on one computer?
    “Is there a particular computer that you have in mind, sir?”
    Hoffkeit smiled and leaned against Bob’s desk.