Doomed to Circle 9

By Allen Brown

Corruption in government, in business, in religion, in everyday life is evident daily in media reports. This story is about two brothers at opposite ends of the country collaborating using steganography as a secure means to communicate in their plans to eliminate the worst of modern-day sinners. A young suicide bomber brings their actions close to home in Oregon and eventually leads to their exposure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Oct 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640828483

Book preview

Mysteries

As you read this book, you may want to consider several unanswered mysteries about the two brothers and their vigilante operations.

1. What was in the sack on the Big on Faiths fishing boat?

2. What was Drake Roth connections in the New York City area?

3. What was the outcome of the meeting of Roger Zanier and Drake?

4. What was in the God versus Software book?

5. Why did Deane Roth keep an electronic journal?

6. Why did Edith Siddo become involved?

7. What should Chloe Duber have done with her discovery?

8. Should there have been FBI awareness of Dennis Chatweg’s home activities?

8. What made Elsie Daly become a suicide bomber?

9. Where are the people (bodies) that just disappeared?

10. Why wasn’t there stricter surveillance of Drake Roth?

11. What happened to Lyn?

12. Where is Drake Roth now?

Anagrams are used extensively in the present book for names of people and places and things. The anagram key is provided as an appendix. As you read, you might try to identify anagrams—for example, Deane Roth, a main character, is an anagram for Dante Hero.

Chapter 1

Friday, April 8, 5:30 EST

Normal office hours had ended in many parts of Washington, D.C. Dennis Chatweg, chief of the FBI Public Corruption Data Unit, sat alone in his office, talking to an imaginary group.

What is going on? Leaders of corporate America and key government people disappearing! A few dying . . . under strange circumstances . . . but most just disappearing. Gone! What is going on?

209 miles to the north, the fishing boat Big on Faiths was quietly leaving Fedora Don marina on Staten Island, New York, with a crew of two, fishing equipment, and a large weighted sack.

Chapter 2

Front page of the Hartford, Connecticut, Courant, Sunday, April 17

Prominent Banker Still Missing

The FBI has joined local state, county and city police in investigating the disappearance of Delaney Mourner.

Mourner, president of the Hartford First National Bank since 1992, was reported missing when he did not return from his annual fishing trip to Tipton Lake.

Mourner’s wife, JoAnn, reported his disappearance more than a week ago. She said he had not called home and there was no answer to calls she made to his cell phone.

Mourner’s three fishing companions, all Hartford residents and employees of the Hartford First National Bank, told police their fishing trip was an annual outing. They said the trip ended as planned and they all were departing the lake at about the same time.

The bank CFO, Eth Mannicefan, said Mourner was still packing his Bronco SUV as the others were leaving. Mannicefan said Mourner seemed to be in good spirits and anxious to get home with his catch of walleyes.

His vehicle has not been located.

The Lodge at Tipton Lake said Mourner had paid with cash when checking out. They had not observed anything unusual during his stay or when he checked out.

Bank vice president Mega Ran said Mourner had not contacted any of the bank staff. Ran said Mourner’s absence would not affect the bank’s local or overseas operations.

Authorities are continuing to question employees and guests at the resort.

Mourner had been under scrutiny for several months by the Connecticut Banking Commission for possible money laundering. Before his disappearance, he had been convicted of perjury for statements made under oath to the commission. (Continued on page 3.)

Chapter 3

NW Honeysuckle Drive, Corvallis, Oregon, Sunday, April 17

Deane Roth mused, God, when this is over, some people will say we did a great service to our country. Some will say we were heroes. Some will say we should be doomed to Hell . . . I wonder how you will judge us.

Deane Roth didn’t really believe in God, at least not in a personal watch over me, help me God, but it was a convenient way to talk aloud about personal issues, much like Tevye’s supplications in Fiddler on the Roof. Deane glanced at the out-of-place book God versus Software, a Christmas present from Timothy Ursine. The book was nestled defiantly between software references Software Robots and Virus Takeover.

Talking softly to himself, he continued, "But if you in this world are going to condemn me, I am going to ask your world, How did you justify Dresden? How do you justify killing 35,000 civilians in the name of doing good? And Hiroshima? Are you going to claim that the bombardier did good killing 66,000 people, but a vigilante killing evil people is wrong?"

Deane shook his head slightly.

Ahh, Tim . . . our beloved Reverend Doctor Timothy Ursine . . . if only I could include this in our dinner discussions.

Deane’s smile morphed to a slight frown and thinking creases appeared in his forehead. He didn’t like the term vigilante, but his brother did. Old West justice right now, Drake had said. Deane thought it was interesting, even ironic, that brudder Drake would advocate justice right now. Deane would have preferred the term social adjudicator, or culture curator, or simply public server. That had a modern ring to it, like the servers used to process Internet traffic. Well, they were deep into it now, for better or worse. Nineteen justiced so far.

Deane’s frown lines slowly increased. Are we really doing good? Does Drake ever have self-doubts?

I wonder, Deane said aloud, softly. Probably not. In Drake’s business, self-doubt was not a trait commensurate with long-term breathing.

Deane sat staring through the sliding glass door in his workroom that led to the garden.

"God versus Software."

Deane mused, Now there was an interesting book . . . emphasis on free choice and how far technology has advanced life since Adam and Eve . . . or since the dinosaurs, depending on your beliefs. Was technology good or bad . . . was left unanswered. But the epilogue was really interesting—predicting teleportation, transfer of a human body from one place to another by controlled quarks and leptons. A software error there could cause . . . and that was also left unanswered. A lot of unanswered questions about God.

Deane turned back to his computer and clicked on his Newspapers 1 search list. The computer and its high-speed Internet connection began exploring online newspapers throughout the country. Newspaper names scrolled down the monitor. The display stopped its movement when the computer encountered keywords stored in its memory. It found Delaney and Mourner together and stopped abruptly.

Deane started to click on the link to page 3 for the rest of the story, but stopped.

Nothing really new. They’ll never find him. He’s toast! Deane said softly to himself. He copied the story to the Mourner folder on his flash memory stick.

Deane clicked on Resume Search.

Chapter 4

Deane and Drake Roth were born on Staten Island and raised in the Stapleton section. They were the only children of Myron and Margaret Roth, second-generation citizens who had spent nearly their entire lives in lower New York state and northern New Jersey. Staten Island is formally the Borough of Richmond of New York City. Before the Verrazano Bridge was built connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn, the island was almost rural. Bridges to New Jersey, and ferries to Brooklyn and Manhattan, were the connections to the outside world. Myron Roth rode the Manhattan ferry daily to his clerk job in the financial district in lower Manhattan. Margaret Roth was a loving, nurturing home person. She would have been a good Italian mother, if she wasn’t Austrian.

Deane was less than a year older than his brother, but seemed to naturally take to the roll of leader and guardian. They were brotherly close and brotherly competitive throughout their early childhood and into their early high school years at Wenprod High School. Drake called Deane Deano, and Deane called Drake Drako. Even their friends were the same until Deane’s senior year. At that time, Drake yearned for self-expression, even freedom. Deane tried to steer his brother to Deane’s own social groups, but they were not Drake’s type. While Deane was overwhelmed with senior activities, football, and college preparation, Drake took up with a different crowd as his mother had said. She did not like to have his seedy clique of buddies in her home but bit her lip.

It wasn’t until Drake was absent from Deane’s graduation ceremony that Deane realized their youthful bond was truly fractured.

Deane graduated ninth in his high school class of 180 and won a full-ride scholarship to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon graduation at MIT, a second scholarship provided for his graduate studies in computer science at Stanford University. It was there that he first realized the importance of software documentation. This became his master’s degree thesis topic and an additional presentation paper at NAECON, the National Electronics Conference. The NAECON conference abstract read, "Software development starts with a requirement, a need, and progresses through coding, testing, and final operation. The link that ties the steps together is documentation. Specifications, designs, test plans, test procedures, operational instructions, and more. Good software documentation costs money, but saves much more than it costs. Good documentation minimizes the cost impact from personnel changes during software development. Good documentation minimizes the cost impact of future software modifications. Good documentation for the user results in happy customers. ‘The bottom line’ is that good software documentation adds to the corporate bottom line."

After receiving his master’s degree, he was hired in succession by two California Silicon Valley software firms. His documentation advocacy was in large part responsible for his rapid promotions in these firms. Large cost savings were indeed realized by his insistence on thorough, clear, right now documentation of software development. His reputation as a documentation guru was the reason he was wooed to the high-paying position he now held as Information Manager for Northwest Winds Corporation in Corvallis, Oregon.

Deane met Lacey Din while she was in graduate school. She seemed shy, perhaps even withdrawn, to many of her classmates. But in the computer lab with Deane, she sparkled, she smiled, she laughed, and oh yes, had a nice body. She was a senior, an English major, taking introductory computer science as a final elective. She did the final editing and proofing of his thesis and the NAECON paper. It was a memorable year for him. The brain cells and the hormones were all in sync.

Deane and Lacey married soon after he obtained his first professional position. Everything was still in sync for the first few years of work—and play. They laughed, they traveled, they worked at having a baby. They tried many things and many ways. Preliminary physicals and lab results had left some doubt. The final examinations left no doubt. It wasn’t until Lacey was twenty-seven that they realized they would never be able to have children of their own. They attended group and individual counseling sessions. They considered adoption. For almost two years, they tracked down adoption procedures and options and made applications. As they got more involved, Lacey became more despondent rather than expectant. She entered further counseling sessions alone. When this became known to one of the adoption agencies, it terminated the search then in process. Deane and Lacey then found this information had spread to other adoption agencies. Their adoption ideas died.

Lacey Roth’s substitute for children was quilting.

Deane had his work, but Lacey had drifted aimlessly until a neighbor invited her to the local quilting club. Almost overnight Lacey seemed to find her calling. She attended every quilting class in the area and, within six months, was being sincerely complimented on her work. The next year she was elected president of the club. On weekends she persuaded Deane to go with her to quilting shows even out of state. She was a tireless worker for the club at the Oregon State Fair and a winner of countless ribbons and trophies. Her designs, both complex and simple, were considered art. Photographs of her works had appeared in several national magazines. The uniformity and delicate nature of her hand quilting, never any machine quilting, consistently passed the closest scrutiny. Flawless and outstanding were terms she often heard about her quilts and quilted lap robes. In the club, she was jokingly called the stitch in the ditch queen or the purist. She volunteered at the historical society and was one of the few allowed to help restore antique quilts and samplers. During her four-year presidency of her quilting club, she twice attended the national quilting convention. She was either a club officer or the chairman of some club endeavor from then on.

Her crowning achievement was the creation of her quilting website. She persuaded Deane that it would be easy, she would do all the work, all he had to do was put it on the Internet. Indeed, he did the computer work but she was its mother. She called it Family Quilting. Initially it was going to be just a place to display the club’s work. But it quickly grew, first providing design and how to information and then expanding to facilitate the exchange and purchase of materials. Many websites had chat rooms where viewers could exchange comments—she had a quilt room, where viewers could post photos of their own quilts. The website was now second only to the national guild website in getting quilting daily visit hits.

As an adjunct to her quilting endeavors, Lacey began getting into digital photography in an amateur way. Her photos of the quilts in her club and quilts at the historical society were now the primary pictures used on their website. Her photo last week of Reverend Ursine standing next to his first quilt was a winner. Deane still wasn’t sure how his wife had roped Timothy Ursine into quilting, but he became a real aficionado.

Deane actually enjoyed keeping up the website, and now it served