Dire Means Read Online Free Page B

producers, investment bankers, and several prominent CEOs. Each client had Mark or Carlos on speed dial.
    While Mark played the “people person” of the duo, Carlos was technologically brilliant. A gadget freak, Carlos constantly took apart and reassembled computers, cell phones, pagers—anything that had a circuit board inside was a candidate for dissection.
    Of particular interest to Carlos was electronic surveillance. Through his tinkering, he developed a device that could recreate screen images of a nearby computer by reorganizing electromagnetic radiation interference from the computer’s motherboard and monitor. It was the ultimate form of computer surveillance. Though that feat alone was impressive, Carlos wasn’t satisfied. He continued to refine his invention, barricading himself in his apartment for hundreds of hours of intense experimentation and testing.
    One day he arrived at Mark’s place, bursting through the door and excited to the point of hyperventilation. He handed Mark a hollowed out novel with a bookmark antennae no thicker than a strand of angel hair pasta dangling from the bottom. Inside was a device that Carlos claimed could capture and reassemble the electromagnetic interference of computer monitors passively. It was the ultimate in undetectable electronic eavesdropping.
    Carlos had Mark turn on a laptop in the next room and told him to open some random programs, browse web pages, and type a document on it for two minutes. Afterward, Carlos connected his device to his own laptop in the next room and played back for Mark every one of Mark’s laptop screens in perfect clarity. Such electronic surveillance in and of itself was not earth shattering, but to do it passively, without any two-way connection to the source computer, was a breakthrough. Carlos had created his invention by building on a little-known technology called TEMPEST.
    “You’re out of control! This is bigger than you know!” Mark said as he high-fived Carlos.
    “No, it is exactly as huge as I thought it would be. Keep this quiet until the patent is finalized,” Carlos said. He took back the mock-book and left with it tucked under his arm.
    Over the next weeks Carlos continued to perfect his new surveillance device and included Mark in its development. He named the device the TellTale. They planned to market the TellTale through their company, with the goal of moving from a service-based business to retail sales.
    Life was on the verge of being as good as it could get for Mark, until the first in a series of misfortunes occurred. He discovered that his girlfriend of three years had siphoned off nearly all the money in both his checking and savings accounts and opened several lines of credit in his name. A misstep on her part prompted a creditor’s phone call to his apartment to verify the purchase of a $2,500 armoire scheduled for delivery to the home of another man. The painful and surprising end of that relationship galvanized Mark’s determination to control the elements of his life. His preoccupation became an obsession.
    A week later, he and Carlos were out on a new computer installation job, finishing their project ahead of schedule and grateful to be pulling up stakes early when Carlos’s phone rang.
    “Yes…What? Yes…Which hospital...I’ll be right there,” he said. His face was pale and his hand trembled as he flipped his phone closed and slid it into his pocket. “Beth and the girls were in a traffic accident,” he said on his way to the door.
    Mark hurried after him. “Can I drive you to the hospital?” he asked.
    “No, I’ll call you!” Carlos shouted over his shoulder as he ran to the parking lot.
    “What hospital?” Mark shouted, but Carlos was too far away to hear. There were twelve hospitals in a ten-mile radius from where Carlos and his family lived in West LA.
    Mark called Carlos’s cell several times during the next hour. He finished up the job, and called again. Carlos didn’t answer.