The fireplace in Chateau1 Villette's drawing room was cold, but Collet paced before it nonethelessas he read the faxes from Interpol.
Not at all what he expected.
André Vernet, according to official records, was a model citizen. No police record—not even aparking ticket. Educated at prep school and the Sorbonne, he had a cum laude degree ininternational finance. Interpol said Vernet's name appeared in the newspapers from time to time,but always in a positive light. Apparently2 the man had helped design the security parameters3 thatkept the Depository Bank of Zurich a leader in the ultramodern world of electronic security.
Vernet's credit card records showed a penchant5 for art books, expensive wine, and classicalCD's—mostly Brahms—which he apparently enjoyed on an exceptionally high-end stereo systemhe had purchased several years ago.
Zero, Collet sighed.
The only red flag tonight from Interpol had been a set of fingerprints6 that apparently belonged toTeabing's servant. The chief PTS examiner was reading the report in a comfortable chair across theroom.
Collet looked over. "Anything?"The examiner shrugged7. "Prints belong to Rémy Legaludec. Wanted for petty crime. Nothingserious. Looks like he got kicked out of university for rewiring phone jacks8 to get free service...
later did some petty theft. Breaking and entering. Skipped out on a hospital bill once for anemergency tracheotomy." He glanced up, chuckling9. "Peanut allergy10."Collet nodded, recalling a police investigation11 into a restaurant that had failed to notate on its menuthat the chili12 recipe contained peanut oil. An unsuspecting patron had died of anaphylactic shock atthe table after a single bite.
"Legaludec is probably a live-in here to avoid getting picked up." The examiner looked amused.
"His lucky night."Collet sighed. "All right, you better forward this info to Captain Fache."The examiner headed off just as another PTS agent burst into the living room. "Lieutenant13! Wefound something in the barn."From the anxious look on the agent's face, Collet could only guess. "A body.""No, sir. Something more..." He hesitated. "Unexpected."Rubbing his eyes, Collet followed the agent out to the barn. As they entered the musty, cavernousspace, the agent motioned toward the center of the room, where a wooden ladder now ascendedhigh into the rafters, propped15 against the ledge16 of a hayloft suspended high above them.
"That ladder wasn't there earlier," Collet said.
"No, sir. I set that up. We were dusting for prints near the Rolls when I saw the ladder lying on thefloor. I wouldn't have given it a second thought except the rungs were worn and muddy. Thisladder gets regular use. The height of the hayloft matched the ladder, so I raised it and climbed upto have a look."Collet's eyes climbed the ladder's steep incline to the soaring hayloft. Someone goes up thereregularly? From down here, the loft17 appeared to be a deserted18 platform, and yet admittedly most ofit was invisible from this line of sight.
A senior PTS agent appeared at the top of the ladder, looking down. "You'll definitely want to seethis, Lieutenant," he said, waving Collet up with a latex-gloved hand.
Nodding tiredly, Collet walked over to the base of the old ladder and grasped the bottom rungs.
The ladder was an antique tapered19 design and narrowed as Collet ascended14. As he neared the top,Collet almost lost his footing on a thin rung. The barn below him spun20. Alert now, he moved on,finally reaching the top. The agent above him reached out, offering his wrist. Collet grabbed it andmade the awkward transition onto the platform.
"It's over there," the PTS agent said, pointing deep into the immaculately clean loft. "Only one setof prints up here. We'll have an ID shortly."Collet squinted21 through the dim light toward the far wall. What the hell? Nestled against the farwall sat an elaborate computer workstation—two tower CPUs, a flat-screen video monitor withspeakers, an array of hard drives, and a multichannel audio console that appeared to have its ownfiltered power supply.
Why in the world would anyone work all the way up here? Collet moved toward the gear. "Haveyou examined the system?""It's a listening post."Collet spun. "Surveillance?"The agent nodded. "Very advanced surveillance." He motioned to a long project table strewn withelectronic parts, manuals, tools, wires, soldering22 irons, and other electronic components23. "Someoneclearly knows what he's doing. A lot of this gear is as sophisticated as our own equipment.
Miniature microphones, photoelectric24 recharging cells, high-capacity RAM4 chips. He's even gotsome of those new nano drives."Collet was impressed.
"Here's a complete system," the agent said, handing Collet an assembly not much larger than apocket calculator. Dangling25 off the contraption was a foot-long wire with a stamp-sized piece ofwafer-thin foil stuck on the end. "The base is a high-capacity hard disk audio recording26 systemwith rechargeable battery. That strip of foil at the end of the wire is a combination microphone andphotoelectric recharging cell."Collet knew them well. These foil-like, photocell microphones had been an enormous breakthrougha few years back. Now, a hard disk recorder could be affixed27 behind a lamp, for example, with itsfoil microphone molded into the contour of the base and dyed to match. As long as the microphonewas positioned such that it received a few hours of sunlight per day, the photo cells would keeprecharging the system. Bugs28 like this one could listen indefinitely.
"Reception method?" Collet asked.
The agent signaled to an insulated wire that ran out of the back of the computer, up the wall,through a hole in the barn roof. "Simple radio wave. Small antenna29 on the roof."Collet knew these recording systems were generally placed in offices, were voice-activated to savehard disk space, and recorded snippets of conversation during the day, transmitting compressedaudio files at night to avoid detection. After transmitting, the hard drive erased30 itself and preparedto do it all over again the next day.
Collet's gaze moved now to a shelf on which were stacked several hundred audio cassettes, alllabeled with dates and numbers. Someone has been very busy. He turned back to the agent. "Doyou have any idea what target is being bugged31?""Well, Lieutenant," the agent said, walking to the computer and launching a piece of software. "It'sthe strangest thing...."
维莱特庄园客厅里的壁炉冷了，然而科莱中尉却在它跟前走来走去，一边读着国际刑警组织给他发来的传真。
一切出乎他的意料。
根据官方所做的记录，安德烈。韦尔内是一位模范市民。警方没有任何有关他的犯罪记录，甚至连一张违规停车的罚款单也没有。他先后在预科学校以及巴黎大学受过教育，并以优异成绩获得国际金融专业的学位。据国际刑警组织说，韦尔内的大名经常出现在各家报纸上，并且都是些正面新闻。很明显，此人曾参与过苏黎世储蓄银行安全系统的设计，从而使它成为当今世界电子安全系统的领头羊。根据韦尔内个人信用卡上的资料显示，他是一位艺术书籍的爱好者，各种名贵酒类的嗜好者；他酷爱古典音乐--他所珍藏的唱片里大多数是勃拉姆斯的作品，显然他是用几年前购置的那一套特别高级的立体声系统来欣赏这些音乐的。
一无所获。科莱不禁叹了口气。
今天晚上，从国际刑警组织提供的情报来看，唯一的亮点显然就是提彬的仆人留下的指纹了。在屋子另一头，PTS 的首席检察官坐在舒服的椅子上，读着交上来的调查材料。
科莱望过去。"有什么新发现没有？"
检察官耸耸肩："这是雷米。莱格鲁德留下的指纹。他因犯了轻微罪行而受到传讯。没什么大不了的。好像是他为了享受打免费电话的便利，重新装了电话插孔而被学校赶出来了……后来又去偷偷摸摸，抓起来放了出去，放出去又被抓起来。有一次做急诊气管切开手术，他还在医院开具的账单上做了手脚。"他抬起头，吃吃地笑。"说什么对花生油产生过敏反应呢。"科莱点了点头，他想起有次警方到一家餐馆去做调查，那家餐馆没在菜单上注明肉辣酱里含有花生油。结果有位客人坐到桌上才吃上一口，就因对花生油产生过敏反应而猝然死去。
"莱格鲁德为避免被人抓起来，可能就住在这里。"检察官一副很开心的样子："他那天晚上够幸运的了。"科莱叹了口气：说："好啦，你最好还是去跟法希上尉说吧。"
检察官阻止了他，就在此时，另一位PTS 的特工人员急匆匆地走了进来。"中尉，我们在谷仓里发现了一些东西。"从那位特工急切的神情来看，科莱只好猜测可能是发现某人的尸体了。
"不是的，阁下，是更多的--"他迟疑了一下："令人感到意外的东西。"
科莱擦擦眼，跟着这位特工来到谷仓。他们进得那散发出霉气、有如洞穴的地方，那特工走到屋子中央，那里有一架木梯，高高地通向屋椽，紧靠在高悬于他们头顶的草棚上。
"梯子原先不在那里吧。"科莱幽幽地说。
"是的，阁下。那梯子是我弄上去的。刚才大家还在罗尔斯轿车附近提取现场留下的脚印时，我看到这架梯子倒在地上。要不是看到梯子中间的横挡坏了发了霉，我才不会多想。梯子没有其他特别的用处。它刚好够着那个草棚，所以我把它竖起来，爬到上面去看。"科莱循着那架倾斜得厉害的梯子望过去，目光终于落在那离地面很高的草棚上。难道经常有人爬到上面去吗？从这里往上看，那草棚宛如一个无人的舞台，不过，从这里显然很难看清它的全貌。
一名PTS 的高级特工出现在木梯的顶端，他正俯身朝下看。"中尉，你肯定很想上来看看吧。"他用那戴着橡胶手套的左手朝科莱挥了挥。
科莱疲惫地点了点头，走到那架破旧的梯子下面，抓住了底部的横档。梯子被设计成旧式的锥形，科莱越往上爬，梯子就变得越窄。科莱快爬到梯子的顶端时，踩在一节细小的横档上，身体几乎失去了平衡，顿时觉得身体下面的谷仓在眼前旋转起来。于是他提高警惕，继续往上爬，终于爬到梯子的顶端。那位已在上面的特工，向他伸出了手。科莱伸手一把抓住，这才勉强地来到草棚的平台上。
"喏，就在那边。"PTS 特工指着里头一尘不染的阁楼，说："从这里往前走，我们只发现几个脚印，不过，我们马上就拿去做鉴定。"科莱借着着微弱的光，斜视着远处的墙。那到底是什么东西呢？在离他们老远的墙壁上，建了一座装备精良的计算机工作站--它由两个铁塔一般的中央处理器、一台带喇叭的平面视频显示器、一台硬盘驱动器，还有一套多频道的似乎已经充好电的音频控制设备组成。
究竟是什么人，竟跑到这地方来干这种勾当？科莱朝对面走去，一边问："你们注意到那套设备没有？"
"那是听音哨啊。"
科莱觉得有些头晕："你是说窃听器吗？"
那名特工点了点头："是的，是非常先进的窃听器。"他向一张堆满电子零件、使用指南、仪器、电线、焊接棒以及其他许多电子组件的设计桌做了个手势。"那人很清楚他在做些什么。这里的许多仪器，跟我们的设备一样先进，这其中有微型话筒、可充电的光电池，还有高容量的随机存贮器芯片等。他甚至还拥有新式微型驱动器呢。"这倒是给科莱留下了深刻的印象。
"这是套很完整的系统。"那名特工说着，递给科莱一件比袖珍计算器大不了多少的装置。从它上面垂下一条大约一英尺长的电线，在线的末端，粘着一块邮票大小、薄如胶纸的金属薄片。"它主要是由配置了充电电池的高容量硬盘录音系统组成。电线末端的金属薄片，就是集话筒与光电充电电池功能于一身的装置。"科莱很了解它们。退回到几年前，这些看似金属薄片、利用光电池的话筒，从技术上讲在当时是一项巨大的突破。而如今，硬盘录音设备就可安放在比如说灯的后面，而金属薄片大小的话筒则可嵌入灯的底座里，并染上与之相匹配的色彩。只要装上这样的话筒，使它每天能接收机小时阳光的照射，光电池就会给系统持续充电，那像这样的窃听器就能继续使用下去，而不受到什么限制。
"那接收方法呢？"科莱问道。
那名特工朝一根绝缘电线做了个手势一一那根线从电脑后面伸出来，沿墙壁而上，穿过了谷仓屋顶上的一个洞眼。"他们是通过简单的电磁波，利用屋顶上的小天线接收的。"
科莱知道，这些录音设备通常安置在办公室里，并利用声音来激活，为的是节省硬盘的空间；白天，它被用来录下别人谈话的片断，到了晚上，为避免被人发现，再把压缩的声音文件发送出去；然后，硬盘会自动进行清理，准备第二天再次录音。
他把目光转移到堆满几百盒音响磁带的架子上，这些磁带都标有日期，也都编了号。
有人一直在忙得不可开交呢。他转身问那名特工："你知道他们在监听谁吗？"
"这个嘛，上尉。"这位特工走到计算机前，并启动了一份软件，说："我觉得最奇怪的是……"
收听单词发音 |
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chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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parameters
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| 因素，特征； 界限； （限定性的）因素( parameter的名词复数 )； 参量； 参项； 决定因素 | |
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ram
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| (random access memory)随机存取存储器 | |
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penchant
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| n.爱好，嗜好；（强烈的）倾向 | |
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fingerprints
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| n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 ) | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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jacks
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| n.抓子游戏；千斤顶( jack的名词复数 )；（电）插孔；[电子学]插座；放弃 | |
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chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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allergy
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| n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症 | |
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investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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propped
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| 支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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tapered
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| adj. 锥形的，尖削的，楔形的，渐缩的，斜的 动词taper的过去式和过去分词 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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squinted
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| 斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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soldering
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| n.软焊；锡焊；低温焊接；热焊接v.（使）焊接，焊合( solder的现在分词 ) | |
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components
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| （机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分 | |
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photoelectric
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| adj.光电的，光电效应的 | |
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dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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affixed
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| adj.[医]附着的，附着的v.附加( affix的过去式和过去分词 )；粘贴；加以；盖（印章） | |
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bugs
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| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
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antenna
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| n.触角，触须；天线 | |
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erased
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| v.擦掉( erase的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；清除 | |
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bugged
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| vt.在…装窃听器（bug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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