Then after a having a very good supper and getting a peaceful nap he awoke and realized that the VHS cassette tape had be placed in the special recorder that the NSA had developed reversed the input feed of the sensors. This would conceal the video playback in a standard player. Now with this understanding review of the tape will be easier to follow. The other thing he found out after reading the NSA doc's was that 101 frames of the video was a still frame full of important documentation. The NSA playback machine had a fingerprint reader sensor that would put into a 101 frame play. He found out that his fingers were not authorized. Now he had to call..........
With the unit playing in the background his ten your old son walked in, and asked, "Why are you listening to a recording of an old acoustic modem dad? Play it back through an acoustic modem and read it off with a terminal program. You over think everything. Guys used to use VHS and an acoustic modem to record large batches of data before drives started to get somewhat affordable."
"Huh?"
"I thought you were smart dad. Geez. I bet even mom would have figured that out already. If you can't figure it out I know some old retired guys from the Legion of Doom who do computer tutoring down at the senior center on weekends as part of their community service. I bet any one of those guys could read that data for you. Heck I bet they still have their old acoustic modems in a box somewhere."
"Um, Bennie, do you know who the Legion of Doom are?"
"Yes, dad. They are a bunch of "mostly" white hat hackers that you and your chronies persecuted during "The Great Hacker Crackdown." I'm telling you they are good guys. Bit Trapper and Covenant are over at the senior center every Saturday teaching blue hairs how to send email. I bet they would be glad to help."
"I can't take Secret Service business to a couple of criminals."
"Dad, you guys never busted Bit Trapper, and Covenant is a good guy. So why haven't you already called your buddies over at Langley to look things over then. They have that huge data recovery center with atleast one of every type of media storage and playback ever created along with some genius level hackers of their own."
"well, I didn't know what it even was until two minutes ago when you told me, and there is something that doesn't feel quite right about all of this. The investigation is "officially" closed, but there is something about it that just screams coverup. I'm not even sure why the agency had me looking at it in the first place, and then they ordered me to close it as soon as that cop dead filed the death."
"Who got killed dad?"
"They ruled it natural causes. Some nobody named Jerry Twelve."
"BWHAHAHAHAHA!!! Dad, that's Danger Mouse. He's an old original founding member of the LOD."
"Well he had a heart attack. Its no wonder. He was surrounded by junk food boxes and soda cans."
"That doesn't sound right pop. He had a reputation for being a health nut. He was always preaching about it on the IRC chats when he wasn't on some crusade about exposing some government coverup or another."
"REALLY?!? Something definitely doesn't sound right then. I have to think about this. You can't talk to ANYBODY about this for now. Especially not those old hackers."
"Well can I atleast ask one of those guys if they have an acoustic modem we can borrow. Maybe whatever is on that tape is something you can read without being a computer nerd."
"Okay, but if they start asking questions just say never mind and leave."
"Alright, I'm headed over that way this afternoon to volunteer in the kitchen. If one of them is around I'll ask."
"gahaaa gurgle gurgle," thought Bennie. "Learning to swim wasn't that bad after I figured out how to get out of the bag," he mused as he remembered the day his step dad, agent Bean, fished him out of the river. "I need to stay focused. Find Bit Trapper and ask to borrow a modem without arousing suspicion." "Oh great. There he is reading that Passion Fruit Adventures garbage out loud to that gaggle of old biddies in the library again. Might as well get my chores done in the kitchen first."
"HEY! Its Bennie the Bean! Smartest kid in the creche," exclaimed Covenant who was swiping a Jello(tm) cup out of the fridge.
"You know I have no idea what that means right?"
"You should read the book kid. Its pretty awesome."
"Yeah, maybe never."
"So, what's up kid."
As Bennie moved over to the sink and started running some water he replied, "Not much just need to get on these dishes."
"Nothing exciting happening?"
"Nah! not really. I'm playing with something. I might have to go hit up the 2nd hand stores to find an old acoustic modem for a project I'm working on."
"What's the project?"
"I'd rather not say it might be stupid, but if it works it could be kinda cool I guess. Still I don't want to look stupid if it doesn't work."
"You know I have a PP9600 with compression I don't use anymore if you just need a modem. I mean I do still have my old 300 baud manually switched in a box somewhere, but why use that when I have something a LOT faster you could use instead?"
"Its the acoustic part I need."
"Really?" Covenant said as his eyes narrowed a bit, and then he shrugged. "whatever kid if you want you can stop by my place and borrow mine later. I'll be home most of the afternoon."
"Cool that would be great. Right now I need to finish these dishes. thanks you," Bennie replied, but Covenant wasn't listening. He was already headed out the door with his purloined snack.
Bennie and agent Bean spent several hours trying various configurations reading back the recording through the borrowed acoustic modem before they started scrolling what looked like reasonable data across their terminal screen and copying it to a text file. It felt more like a father son project as they worked through the night and into the predawn hours. When they saw the last of the data cross the screen the sun wasn't up, but the sky was starting to lighten in the east. A few seconds of white noise played, and then for the first time they heard John's plane recording.
They looked at each other in astonishment and burst out laughing.
W H A T ! HOLY CRAP ! That's too much. I mean how could we have even expected that you HAD a heart :-D
So what happened Les? Wife asked you to take out the garbage once to often? Having sex with your mistress? Explaining how to use her alarm system to old Mrs Smith ONE MORE TIME ! Paying the bills for your kids Christmas gifts ? You know - - - - - "A Mans Four Stages of Christmas
He believes in Santa Claus
He doesn't believe in Santa Claus
He looks like Santa Claus
He IS Santa Claus. So What happened? You gonna be OK?
I had some hard pressure on my chest that would not go away. I had my wife dial 911 and was transported to the hospital. Went though all the testing and stuff. They finally pushed a tube up my arm artery into the heart and placed a stent into a blocked artery somewhere. Been discharged and now have a new batch of pills I have to take and other stuff to do.
I have enough work to do and now I have to do more stuff!!!
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