Hidden Lines

Hidden Lines
A proposal for a NaNoWriMo story.

Writer’s Digest Writing Prompt
Illegal Download 9/9-9/15
http://forum.writersdigest.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=20879&posts=3&sta...

The post:

Brian
Posted 2008-09-09 2:19 PM (#206316)
Subject: Illegal Download 9/9-9/15
Elite Veteran
Posts: 618
Location: Inside the Writer's Digest office

Your best friend has been arrested for illegally downloading music. While in jail, he asks you to go to his house and clear everything off his computer. As you start deleting files, you notice a folder called "Top Secret." Out of curiosity, you open it—and are shocked by what you find.

Please limit your response to 500 words or fewer.



My response:

huntemann
Posted 2008-09-17 8:57 AM (#208564 - in reply to #206316)
Subject: RE: Illegal Download 9/9-9/15
Regular
Posts: 76
Location: Cold New Hampshire

Jason is a writer for a small tabloid on the Cape. He makes a living by spreading rumors and gossip about the people who live on Cape Cod. His big break into the media happened several years ago during the investigation and murder trial for that poor fashion writer in Truro.

He doesn't make a lot working for the tabloid. Maybe that is why he stole the music off the net.

But, when he asked me to do this chore, he wasn't so much concerned about his purloining of the tunes.

"That I can handle," he whispered. "But, you've got to cleanup my hard drive before they look for more than music." His eyes gave away the urgency of the request.

So, here I am, sneaking around a dark apartment, trying to figure out what needs to be erased. I can't erase everything. That would be obvious.

'Tampering with evidence?' He's in jail, not me, and I don't want to join him. I'm not looking for 'music evidence' anyway. That would be tampering.

First off, I unplugged the Internet before turning on the computer. Then, during POST, set the date a day before his arrest.

That way, any cleanup I do will look like it happened two days ago.

Searching.

There isn't much music here anyway. Old stuff... way past copyright. Junk and old columns he wrote months ago. Address books, tax forms, email... Oh, oh. Maybe that's what he's worried about. Did he send/receive some illegal email?

... Nope. Just junk and stuff for work. Legit I guess.

But what's this, 'Top Secret'?

Files labeled 'Secret' and not encoded are usually a joke. Jason is a jokester.

But he was actually concerned. Let's take a look. ...It's just a list. A list of 9 digit numbers.

There were almost 400 numbers, most starting with the same 3 digits. Sort of like Social Security numbers.

What the heck are you into, Jason? ID theft? I ain't touching this!

But the numbers weren't followed by names, bank accounts or credit card numbers. They were followed by file names. Files of more numbers. Numbers in vast groups of more numbers, arranged in pairs, with funny labels like Chromosome 5, Chromosome 14, and Chromosome 22.

What’re you doing with Chromosome maps of hundreds of people? And, why’s it 'Top Secret'?

Jason, is this left over from that murder trial?

That investigation and trial turned over some rather ugly legal rocks. The police chief tried to get DNA samples from every male in town during a DNA dragnet.

It was a privacy issue as I recall. Some gave samples, some didn't.

The argument was that DNA is too private. Has everything about your lineage, who's related to who, and who isn't. It's all there. Nobody trusted the cops to keep that kind of dynamite private.

Looks like they didn't! Jason, what were you going to do with this information?

Hit the delete button and get out of here. Remember, defrag and reset the date.


Pages: 2
Words: 500



NaNoWriMo:

My friend Jim (who has published one novel) keeps giving me excuses for not trying NaNoWriMo this year.

"I can't think of a good plot. My characters are too cardboard. Who cares anymore."

I challenged him: "If I give you a few characters, setting and time period, plot and a few subplot suggestions, would you look at it and try to start one?

"They have to be good, believable, and worth 30 days of sweat."


Here is what I gave him, in addition to the above:

Characters:

Jason

Single, 24 years old, MS in Biology with a minor in English. His knowledge of DNA, genealogy, and police procedures gives him intimate understanding of the files Melanie found on his computer. He got the files semi-illegally... while on work-study assignment in his senior year at U-Mass, he worked in the lab that did the DNA assessment for the Truro police. He thought he could do his graduate thesis on DNA tracing with the files from work. So he took a copy home with him. Okay, it wasn’t so semi-illegal... a serious breech of confidentiality.

He realized the crime he had done, so changed his thesis topic to something else. But, the data was so compelling he just couldn’t throw it away... until now.

When he got his MS, he wanted to work in a forensics lab, until his arrest for pot while in college was discovered and excluded him from consideration in any law enforcement job. His arrest, in Truro, and some raunchy things he wrote about the murder investigation, put him on the outs with the police. That’s why they are giving him such a hard time for swiping music.

He grew-up in Provincetown, but doesn’t advertise that because of the reputation the place has for ‘alternate’ life styles. He does like women. It’s easy for him to get dates, but it never results in anything long-lasting. He talks about his love life freely with his best friend, Melanie.

He covered the preparation for the trial in Barnstable as a stringer for the ‘Cape Cod Inquirer’ during his 2006 summer vacation. But when he went back to school, he got the job at the lab and only occasionally sent in short pieces to the paper. They were good, and the paper wanted more, but he had to concentrate on school.

Without a forensics job, he still needed to eat. So, he took a reporter’s slot full time at the newspaper. But, he’s barely surviving.


Sylvia

Divorced, 44 years old, BA in Journalism, editor/owner of the ‘Cape Cod Inquirer.’ She has lived on the Cape most of her life. She worked for the ‘Boston Globe’ a few years, but inherited enough from her ‘old-money’ parents to start her own newspaper in 1998.

She was married for ten years while she worked for the Globe and the start-up years of the Inquirer. They were planning to have kids, but kept putting it off, until she caught ‘Jeff’ spending some of her inheritance without her knowledge. And, he was spending a little too much time with her office assistant, Bert. They are both gone now.

She likes Jason, both for his writing and for his body, but has refrained from venturing farther than work related things because of their age difference and her experience with the Jeff-Bert thing in the office. She tries to appear to be ‘all-work’ all the time.

She is connected, knows all the mayors, councilmen, police, firemen, and the upper-crust summer folk who are part of the Cape scene. And, because of her knowledge, she can send a reporter to get a story where most Cape-Codders wouldn’t know to look.

The potential for the DNA knowledge base Jason has would be a real double-edged sword. She is part of the old Cape families and knows that disclosure of the true lineages of its inhabitants would damage reputations, inheritances rights, custody, marriages and all sorts of salacious innuendo would be confirmed. It would hurt many people... her friends... her relatives... but a gold mine of stories.

She doesn’t know he has it. For a while.



Melanie

Single, 24 years old, in 2nd year Law School. Was almost arrested with Jason when they were smoking pot, but dived out the window and avoided the police. She is plain, flat, brunette, and a virgin. (She's not really plain or flat... but that's her opinion.) She considers Jason her best friend... darn it.

She knows the law, knows Jason, and knows just a smidgeon about computers. And, she can sense Sylvia’s desires when she sees her talking to him. In fact, she can fathom any woman who talks to Jason. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

I’ve got to look elsewhere for romance and leave my relationship with Jason as is. He has other girlfriends!


Hacker

Age and origin unknown, but knows quite a bit about the Cape... could be local.

Seems to be able to hack most private computers without a decent firewall. Was snooping around Jason’s machine and saved a copy of the DNA database before Melanie deleted it.

He has stashed copies of hundreds of Kiddy-Porn photos on several computers and sometimes uses them to blackmail people. He downloads them into their computer, then threatens to turn them into the police unless they do something for him... usually involving only small amounts of money via PayPal.

When they pay up he gives them the file names and locations. (Little do they know the files are still there unless they overwrite them first.)


Bruno

The arresting cop. He hated that stupid Jason for some of the stories he’s written about his relatives. Has been looking for an excuse to send him away for good.


Setting and Time Period:

Truro, Cape Cod, MA

A real location and a real murder in 2002. Look up all the particulars you want (resources below). There has been TV coverage too. This story is to take place now.


Plot:

The “A” story

Jason had already decoded the lineages of the 400 DNA records he had. Judges who fathered unacknowledged children, politicians who are responsible for several love children, inherited fortunes not shared with all family members (now known by DNA), all sorts of complicated relationships that may have not been criminal but would be devastating if revealed.

He would be in deep trouble for having the data. He is already on the wrong side of the police for the pot and music episodes. So, if they discover the ‘Top Secret’ files they could nail him for a federal offense.

He asked Melanie to get rid of the files, and she did... or so he thought, until he gets an anonymous e-mail from the Hacker, who has copies, and points out that Jason was the only possible source for the data. He tells Jason to do him a favor or he will send the files to the cops.


The “B” story

Melanie loves Jason but won’t tell him.

Sylvia wants Jason but is afraid and embarrassed to admit it.

Bruno hates Jason and is gunning for him.

Jason is scared of prison and was disappointed his shortsightedness that resulted in the pot arrest will keep him from doing good forensic work. Now he only wants to live inconspicuously (and get laid once in a while).


The “C” story

Jason must learn that the rules of decency in society have a price if violated. He has been concerned with himself too much lately. He has to open his eyes to see the real people around him.

Sylvia must learn that some information must remain confidential. It’s better for people to not have secrets. But, her business is important to her, it’s based on revealing secrets. She has to draw the line between nosy gossip and heart damage.

Melanie can’t hide from her emotions. She must take the risk of sharing them (with others, not just Jason) to find happiness.


Resources:

The Cape Cod Times (a real newspaper) has the full story of the murder, investigation and trial in Truro and Barnstable from 2002 to 2007. Their web site has many links to their stories.
http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/worthingtontrial/

Some of their stories are:
http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/worthingtontrial/dnasweep6.htm
http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/worthingtontrial/acluwants11.htm
http://archive.capecodonline.com/special/worthingtontrial/worthingtonmurder6.htm...