David Kessler - No Way Out

“We’re here,” said Juanita, still laughing, as the car pulled up at the white stone building.

“It’s going to be quite tricky without the source code.”

They were in David Sedaka’s office at the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics in the renovated LeConte Hall. He was sitting on a high-backed blue chair inside a huge wraparound cherrywood desk while Juanita and Andi — on similar chairs — sat facing him on the outside of the round end. It was the only part of the desk that wasn’t cluttered with papers, and that was because David had stacked them all up and moved them to the other side of the table to give them space.

“But you can decompile it at least,” said Andi, staring at David and admiring — in some inexplicable way — his geek-chic appearance. He was five feet six with unruly black hair and wore boxy, TV-screen glasses. She wasn’t drawn to him sexually, but he was the sort of person she could think of as a younger brother.

“Oh sure,” said David. “But without the original source code, I have nothing to compare it to for errors. And no explanatory documentation. All I can do is try to figure out how it works. And that’s going to take me some time. I hope I can finish before I fly out to Switzerland”

The room was flooded with light from a large window and the room itself was surprisingly large. Andi had assumed that academics lived in a very austere, comfortless world, all the more so when they were working in an old building that had been renovated to house a group of scientists who had previously been without a fixed home. David, they knew, had been a PhD for the last three years and was doing post-doctoral research into anti-matter. One of his predictions — that anti-matter can decay into photons without needing to come into contact with matter — was soon to be tested at the new Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland.

“I guess the first thing to look out for is lack of randomness,” said Andi. “Anything that interferes with the randomness of the selection, whether it has anything to do with African-Americans or not. I mean the glitch in Grand Rapids, wasn’t about race per se, it was about zip codes.”

“I’ll look for that and for anything that might interfere with referencing the database. Ideally we’d have a copy of the database itself. Maybe that’s where the problem lies.”

Computer programming as such, wasn’t his field. But like many physicists and others in science, he had some programming skills, along with his mathematical background and training. Also, he had a network of contacts on whom to call for assistance.

“We’ve got a hearing to get the source code on Friday. The software company’ll fight it vigorously and if they lose, they’ll appeal. So anything you can get from the executable will help. We might get the source code, but when is anyone’s guess.”

“I’ll decompile it right away, but I don’t expect to have time to look at it before the weekend.

“Whatever help you can give us,” said Andi, “I’ll appreciate.”

The prosecution’s first witness on Thursday was Dr Elaine Weiner, the doctor at the sex crimes and domestic violence unit who had examined Bethel. She was in her late thirties, but she exuded an air of confidence, like some one who had testified in court before and wasn’t intimidated by it. Of course, the real test would come when she faced cross-examination. But she showed no sign of one who was looking forward to the experience with dread. Quite the contrary, she gave Alex a brief, challenging eye contact that almost seemed to suggest that she was looking forward to crossing swords with him.

The first questions that Sarah Jensen put to Dr Weiner, established her qualifications, occupation and the fact that she was on duty on the sex crimes and domestic violence unit that night. Then the questioning turned to the facts of the case.

“And could you describe the events that occurred at ten fifteen of that morning?”

“Well at about that time, a girl whom I now know to be Bethel Newton was brought in by Detective Bridget Riley.”

“Can you describe her appearance?”

“She was bruised and shaken and visibly distressed. Her clothes were in disarray.”

“And what did you do?”

They were using the DOAR Digital Evidence Presentation System, which enabled the lawyers to present audiovisual evidence of a variety of types to the jury, whilst allowing the judge to over-ride anything that the jurors were not supposed to see. The judge, current witness and court clerk all had standard size computer monitors in front of them, whilst the lawyers had laptop computers and additional monitors at their tables. The jury had two huge monitors, positioned on the floor a few feet in front of the jury box, giving them all a clear view.

At any given moment, it was the lawyer conducting his examination who had control of what was displayed, subject to the judge’s override. Control could also be handed over to expert witnesses.

“I took her to the rape suite for a physical checkup and to collect evidence samples. Once at the suite, I had pictures taken showing external bruising to the alleged victim and conducted a forensic medical examination with a view to establishing the cause of her condition and to gather any potential evidence. Specifically, I took clippings from her fingernails and vaginal swabs for future DNA analysis. I placed these in the appropriate containers, sealed them and marked them for chain of custody. I then handed them over to Detective Riley.”

Sarah Jensen pressed the button that showed the pictures on the screens. Alex had stipulated to the pictures, in order to save time and avoid appearing to be unnecessarily stubborn, so there was no need to call the photographic officer who had actually taken the pictures.

“And can you confirm that these are pictures of Miss Newton on the day in question?”

“Yes, I can.”

The pictures showed bruising around her wrists consistent with restraint by a strong hand.

Sarah Jensen pressed the button to move onto the next image. Showing the evidence bags with Dr Weiner’s signature. The doctor was asked to confirm the authenticity of the signature, which she duly did. Later Sarah Jensen would ask the lab staff who had conducted the DNA tests to identify those same markings against the lab’s record log to confirm that this was the same evidence.

At the end of this fairly straightforward direct examination, Sarah Jensen said “your witness,” to Alex and sat down. The prosecutor expected some pyrotechnics on cross-examination, but Alex surprised her and the doctor by rising just long enough to say “no questions.”

The judge announced a twenty minute recess.

“How come you didn’t challenge her over the editorializing about Bethel’s state of mind?”

“The jury already heard it. And it wouldn’t make sense. Our defense is mistaken identity. Why shouldn’t she be visibly distressed?”

Andi shrugged.

In the press section, Martine left to do her report. She didn’t notice that a young black man in the spectator’s section was following her — just as he had yesterday. But then his efforts had merely been designed to learn her pattern of movements. Now he already knew the pattern.

“So, do you think it’ll help?” asked Alex, “or is it a complete waste of time?”

Alex had decided to phone David during the recess, to find out how he was doing with the jury selection software. He had been persuaded by Andi that it was worth looking into. But the question was, could David make any progress in finding any bugs in the software — with or without the help of his friends in the math and computing department?