24 Declassified: 03 - Trojan Horse by Marc Cerasini Page B

Chappelle interrupted. “Then I wouldn’t have heard the bad news from the television report.”
    “We had bad intelligence, that’s all—”
    “Let’s drop this subject, Special Agent Bauer. Jamey Farrell and Milo Pressman brought me up to speed on that other matter.”
    Jack took a seat opposite Nina. “The other matter?” he said.
    “The computer you sent us for analysis this morning,” said Jamey. “Your instincts were correct. What we found connects up with another investigation—”
    Chappelle stared at Jamey. “Are you saying Jack knew what was on this computer?”
    “He reads the daily reports,” Jamey replied. “He knows Richard Lesser is a person of interest in an ongoing investigation.”
    Jack knew Jamey was trying to cover for him, but he wasn’t having it. “Wait a minute,” he said. “Are you saying this computer ties in with the Richard Lesser investigation?”
    This time it was Milo Pressman who spoke. “It sure does, Jack. There was a pirated movie download inside the hard drive, a copy of Gates of Heaven . I traced it right back to Lesser’s server down in Mexico. If that isn’t enough proof, there’s more. Inside of that download there was a hidden program—a Trojan horse virus.”
    “You said it was a pirated copy of Gates of heaven ,” said Jack. “That makes no sense.”
    Chappelle spoke up. “Enlighten us, Jack. Start with telling us how and where you got this computer.”
    Jack told them about Detective Frank Castalano’s visit, the murders at Hugh Vetri’s house—still not public news. He carefully left out the existence of the CD-ROM still in his pocket and the personal information on Bauer and his family the disk contained, hoping no one would ask why an LAPD detective contacted him in the first place.
    “I see Jack’s point now. Why would Hugh Vetri download his own movie?” Chappelle asked.
    “He knew the film was pirated. Maybe he wanted to see what the thieves really had,” offered Milo. “If he saw the pirate version, he might be able to trace it backward, to the thief who stole the digital file in the first place.”
    “Or maybe he knew about the Trojan horse and wanted to stop the virus before it spread,” said Jamey.
    “Any clue what this virus does?” Jack asked.
    Milo shrugged. “We turned it loose inside an isolated computer. So far, nothing’s happened. The virus is encrypted too well to crack easily. We might have to reverse-engineer the sucker to figure out what it’s designed to do.” Milo paused. “That, or we can catch Little Dick Lesser. If I know the guy like I think I do, he’ll crack pretty easily.”
    Jamey closed her eyes and quietly sighed. How stu pid can Milo be , she wondered. And instead of shut ting up, he just keeps on talking, digging his grave a little deeper with every dumb word out of his stupid mouth .
    “Dick Lesser’s fingerprints are all over this program,” Milo declared, throwing his hands in the air.
    “This is just the kind of crap he used to pull at Stan
    ford!”
    Ryan Chappelle looked at Milo and grinned.
    Here it comes , thought Jamey.
    “Mr. Pressman. Are you saying you know this Richard Lesser?”
    Milo, of course, never saw the hammer. “Yeah, sure,” he said, nodding. “I went to graduate school with him...When I was a TA, I had an office right next to his.”
    Chappelle placed the palms of his hands on the table, pushed himself to his feet. “Mr. Pressman, I’m authorizing you to take a helicopter to the Mexican border, pick up a car from CTU’s safe house and head south. I want you to link up with Almeida in Tijuana as soon as possible.”
    Milo blinked. “Hey, wait a minute. I don’t do espionage. I’m not a field agent.”
    “Neither is Fay Hubley. You’ll join her in Mexico, too. Don’t worry. Tony will be there to handle security while you hunt for Lesser.”
    “Me?” Milo cried, hand over his heart. “How am I gonna hunt Richard Lesser?”
    “You know this guy,” Ryan