Vision Impossible by Victoria Laurie

again. “What we’re proposing is to have Agent Rivers assume Des Vries’s identity, move into the condo in Toronto, and make contact with Kozahkov. If Kozahkov reveals that he has the drone, then we’ll set up surveillance on him until he attempts to move it. If Kozahkov doesn’t have the drone, then we’ll use him to get you two into the auction.”
    Dutch shifted in his chair. “I’ve been poring over the file on Des Vries, and his assets don’t make him wealthy enough to bid on the drone.”
    “Oh, he won’t be bidding on the drone,” Tanner said. “He’ll be providing something else even more valuable.”
    My interest was piqued when Tanner motioned to Gaston again to explain the plan. “We’ve set up a very carefully timed leak through very specific channels we know are being monitored by Boklovich,” he began. “We’re going to acknowledge that one of our drones has been stolen, and that it was carrying a prototype of a very sophisticated weapon, and while that is a cause for concern, we’re not overly upset because the prototype had a fail-safe.”
    “A fail-safe?” I repeated.
    Gaston nodded. “We’re going to suggest that Intuit was designed to work only a handful of times before self-destructing, and as it typically takes hundreds of demonstrations for a competent computer programmer to reverse engineer a highly sophisticated device like Intuit, it would be useless to anyone who might want to buy it for mass production, or to use it beyond one or two missions.”
    “Is that true?” I asked, thinking that if it was, I’d be pretty ticked off that we’d been suckered into such a dangerous mission when all they had to do was wait for the stupid thing to mechanically fail on its own.
    “No,” said Tanner. “The rumor is not true. Intuit’s software will continue to work normally and could most definitely be successfully reverse engineered, but we’re counting on the rumor being taken seriously by Kozahkov, Boklovich, and the drone thief. If any of them buy into it, they’ll all be anxious to get rid of the drone quickly before the rumor can spread to every potential buyer willing to pay big money for the technology.”
    “Ah,” I said, understanding the ruse.
    “Agent Rivers will pose as Des Vries,” Tanner continued. “Once the two of you move into the condo, he’ll set up a meeting with Kozahkov to determine if Viktor has the drone. If he does have it, then Agent Rivers will tell the Chechen that he’s heard a rumor that Intuit will be useless past one or two demonstrations. If Kozahkov hasn’t yet heard about it, he’ll check, and after he verifies the rumor, he’ll be highly motivated to set up an auction with Boklovich. The minute Kozahkov attempts to move the drone, we’ll go in and nab it.”
    “And if Kozahkov didn’t steal the drone and he doesn’t have Intuit?” Dutch asked.
    “Then you are to offer him yet another story,” Tanner said. “You’ll tell Viktor that you’ve been able to acquire a copy of the actual software for Intuit straight from Professor Steckworth’s computer. Tell him that you’ve managed to get a clean copy on a disk that doesn’t contain the fail-safe mechanism and can be duplicated without all the difficulties that come with reverse engineering. The software will be like the goose to the drone’s golden egg, and Kozahkov will jump at the chance to help you sell it by promising an introduction to Boklovich in exchange for a percentage of the eventual sale. With Viktor’s help, you’re a shoo-in to get an invite to the auction where we know that Boklovich won’t hesitate to offer both the drone and the software for sale. Knowing him, he’ll offer them separately to help drive up the price for each.”
    “Will you actually provide me with a copy of Intuit’s software?” Dutch wanted to know.
    “Yes,” said Tanner, a bit stiffly. “We will give you an encrypted copy of it. We’ll also give you a password to allow you to get