The Codex File (2012) (52 page)

The third floor corridor was deserted as were the offices as Michael ran purposefully in the direction of the Data Warehouse. The East Wing of the building was eerily quiet, apart from the constant hum of computer hardware permeating the building, and the distant cries of workers trying to flee.

Turning another corner Michael stopped, his heart beating like a drum in his ears as he saw a sign on the wall:
Data Warehouse - authorised personnel only.
On the wall next to the sealed door was the retinal scanner which only admitted authorized personnel to the area. The override keypad which required an access code was positioned beneath the scanner. Michael gulped, squeezing the handle of the handgun for renewed confidence before punching the access code Simon had given him.

There was a brief pause before the door clicked. Tentatively he pushed it opened, unsure where Trevellion would be or how potentially large the Data Warehouse was.

The door closed and Michael found himself in a narrow corridor leading into a much larger, very long room. A few steps forward and the room opened up properly and he found himself looking at row upon row of servers, encased in gleaming metal cabinets. Multiple aisles filled the room. In between each row was sufficient space for a technician to work at a particular server if needed.

Without moving he listened intently for the slightest sound of movement or activity that would give him Trevellion’s exact position. But there was nothing. The only sound was the persistent hum of the hardware, processing its required operations, despite the onslaught from R.I.G.

Looking round he felt the knot in his stomach tighten as he scanned the equipment. It was the heart of UKCitizensNet’s infrastructure, and the reason his Colette and Clare had been murdered. All the lies, the deceit, and the lack of freedom people had over information in the country were symbolised in this mass of wires and microchips. He shivered as his gaze looked over the tall towers of machinery, unsure whether it was the cool temperature of the room or the sight in front of him that made him feel so cold.

Carefully, he walked down between the first row of servers, looking all around him for any sign of Trevellion. Emerging at the end of the row he was met with yet more aisles of servers. How many of these fucking things were there he thought with disgust as they stretched out as far as the eye could see.

Still there was no sound betraying Trevellion’s location. Or the fact he was even in the Data Warehouse at all. Where could he be logged in Michael wondered, slowly edging his way past the next row of machines.

Emerging again he stopped as he was reached rows of filing cabinets, the bank of servers finally reaching an end. At least not everything in this building was electronic he thought, gently running his hand over the cold metal cabinet directly in front of him.

Before he could progress any further he heard the slightest sound to his right. The sound of someone opening a filing cabinet. His heart raced. The knot in his stomach tightened. And he moved from one row of filing cabinets to the next, his gun raised in anticipation of Trevellion.

The sound of his heart pounding rose to a deafening crescendo each time he turned to look discretely down an aisle of filing cabinets. But each time there was no sign of anyone.

Continuing forward he could feel the sweat on his brow as he reached yet another row, turning to investigate. He felt the air almost being sucked from his lungs as he saw Trevellion standing in the aisle, holding a paper file, looking down as he read its content.

His grip on the handgun tightened as he turned fully into the aisle, slowly approaching his nemesis.

It took a few long agonizing seconds before Trevellion finally looked up from the file he was reading. A thin, almost indiscernibly, smile crossed his distinctive features as he registered Michael’s presence.

“
You know, I really didn’t think you had it in you. Kennedy kept telling me you were close to cracking. But he still thought you’d see it through to the end. I must admit I had my doubts.”

Michael continued walking until he was no more than ten feet away from Trevellion. The drawer of the filing cabinet, open at waist height, the only thing between them. Michael pointed the gun at Trevellion’s head.

“
I would have walked to the ends of the earth to find who was responsible for Colette and Clare’s death. I think that walk is over. You’re all that’s left now before I have my vengeance.”

A slight look of surprise crossed Trevellion’s face before his normal calm expression returned.

“
You took care of Kennedy as well, did you?”

Michael nodded, his right eye throbbing a little, still moist from where it was weeping.

“
Pity. He was a dedicated follower. A believer of the cause. You don’t find too many like him.”

“
He was a sadistic bastard that deserved what he got.”

“
That really depends on your perspective, doesn’t it?” Trevellion said patronisingly, looking into Michael’s left eye, the fire of his hatred burning bright.

“
Spare me your political rhetoric. There’s no justification for this or what you and others have done. It’s coming to an end tonight. UKCitizensNet is collapsing around your ears. The R.I.G has already hacked into the system and posted a statement on your homepage telling the country what a murderous sham this whole state network is. This is over. And so are you.”

“
Yes, I did notice the Guardian’s handiwork. Most irritating. But you are quite wrong about there being no justification for our actions. Our work is helping preserve the best interests of this country. And there are plenty of us that believe that and would die for that.”

“
Well, that’s quite fortunate then, isn’t it? Nobody with any decent moral code would condone, nevermind participate in this.”

Michael’s finger slowly tightened on the trigger as he looked down the barrel of the gun and at the centre of Trevellion’s head.

“
Not even your wife?” Trevellion said quickly, watching as Michael’s trigger finger began to twitch.

“
What did you say?” Michael replied with surprise, lowering his aim slightly.

“
This has nothing to do with morality. This has to do with power. The power of this country to push its own agendas,” Trevellion continued quickly.

“
What did you mean when you mentioned my wife?” Michael said angrily, waving his gun frantically at Trevellion’s head.

“
I knew you were going to come looking for me. It’s quite fortunate really that the system backups and core infrastructure of UKCitizensNet are housed with our information archive. I’ve dug out a file with a few documents I thought you might be interested in seeing.”

A look of growing confusion spread across Michael’s face, but his gun remained constantly pointed at Trevellion.

“
The state network tender was never an open tender. It just had to seem that way in order for us to get national buy-in to the project and support for banning of access to the former internet. In reality there were only three companies that could have ‘bid’ for the project: SemComNet, ACE Solutions and SW Technologies. Over a year before any public discussions about the tender were circulated to the press the government was planning its strategy for how to ensure SemComNet, a very discretely government-backed company, had access to all current knowledge on 5G Semantic Web technologies to ensure the project would succeed. We had some of the answers, but ACE Solutions and SW Technologies had made substantial progress in other areas. We needed that knowledge and had to retrieve it through covert means.”

“
What has any of this got to do with my wife?” Michael demanded angrily.

“
Not just your wife, but David Langley also. When the strategy was finalised the covert team running this project for the government approached both your wife and David Langley, revealing the plans for the state network and how this would serve the national interest. At that point they came over to work for us, in a covert sense at least. For over a year they were both supplying us with important information about their own company’s R&D pipelines.”

Michael blinked in disbelief, his anger welling up at the sullying of his wife’s name and integrity.

“
You’re lying. This is just a trick.”

“
Think about it. All those conferences and overnight stays Colette had to make, allegedly working for SW Technologies. They were all meetings and debriefs with SemComNet and Langley. If you don’t believe me, read the reports she filed to me.”

Michael shook his head angrily, waving the gun maniacally in Trevellion’s face. In his head he recalled all the nights Colette had been away, allegedly working. And he remembered one night in particular. The evening she’d been called away from Clare’s dance competition and the first prize she’d won. That had been for yet another ‘conference’.

But was it all for them?

For SemComNet?

“
No. I read the meeting minutes Vera Langley gave me. SW Technologies and ACE Solutions were contemplating some sort of collaboration to strengthen their tender bid in order to beat SemComNet to the contract. Colette and Langley were leading on the tender bids for each company. That was why they were meeting. They weren’t working for SemComNet.”

Trevellion sneered, a knowing look crossing his face.

“
The two companies themselves may have been planning that, but your wife and Langley fed us every bit of data about this potential partnership. Why do you think we chose them? They were perfectly placed within their own companies. And they were only too willing to help.”

Trevellion put down the paper file he was holding, turning it round to face Michael. Stepping forward, but with his gun still raised Michael leant forward and began to read the incriminating file. Scanning the title Jones’ words in the mobile home came rushing back to him.

“
I briefly saw a confidential Defence Department file about a project called CODEX which mentioned the establishment of UKCitizensNet. At the time, I couldn’t understand why the Defence Department was interested in the network. But now it all makes sense. Thanks to your wife’s files.”

The title on the cover of the file burned into Michael’s memory of Colette and his head began to swim, nausea rushing through him, bile burning the back of his throat.

CODEX file OP09/ST - UKCitizensNet implementation and development

Inside the file, which was several hundred pages deep, Trevellion had turned over the top right corner of a specific document. Turning to that place Michael began to read.

Memo from: Colette Robertson, Technical Director, SW Technologies

Recipient: CODEX

Subject: Brief update

Since the last CODEX meeting the project team preparing SW Technologies’ tender bid for the state network has met for the first time. Technical implementation issues are being examined by a separate working group who will report progress to the project team directly in due course.

The initial delineation of tasks is broken down as follows:

Project team:

Budgetary overview

Project deliverables

Project milestones

Redundancy estimates/scenarios

Regulatory framework

Ethical data collection

Technical team:

Bandwidth issues

Wireless access

IP synchronicity

Single network sign-on

Network services

Email services

The relevant project documents, including the Project Initiation Document (PID) and a preliminary Gantt chart detailing first phase project milestones and deliverables are attached. A more detailed brief of important ‘issues’ discussed, but specifically not recorded in the event of a Freedom of Information request, will be provided at the next CODEX meeting.

Most of the technical detail was lost on him. But as he read through the report there was no doubt it bore out Trevellion’s assertion of information gathering from SW Technologies and industrial espionage. At the bottom of the page was Colette’s familiar signature.

And one phrase in particular struck deep inside him, boring into his soul, eroding his perfect image of Colette:
Redundancy estimates/scenarios
.

Even now he could still remember the long hours she’d worked, even on her birthday. It had all been to safeguard the jobs at SW Technologies she had told him. Repeatedly she had told him this.

She lied to me.

Stepping back from the file he could feel the tears beginning to well up, his emotions threatening to overwhelm him. Everything he thought he’d known about Colette was disintegrating in his mind. The perfect woman with her perfect integrity had all been an illusion.

How could she have done this and not have told him? He might have understood. Or he might have been able to persuade her not to do it. Everything he thought he knew and held dear was a lie. And the root of it was standing in front of him.