Chapter 56

Chapter 56—James shows 

the transcript to Allison

11:47 p.m., Thursday, December 29

James had been intently studying the document for some time. Finally, he reached over to take his first sip of the drink Allison had poured for him. “Where’s that Scotch?” he asked, as he made room for Allison to slide up close enough to read some passages he wanted to show her. “Here, take a look at this. These are the notes from the first meeting. Notice how specific everything is. … For instance, it quotes verbatim what everyone says.”
“Let me see that,” Allison demanded, sliding the paper close enough for her to read it easily. “Oh my God, James, somehow they recorded it. How the hell did they do that, you put that damn wand on each one of us. How did they do that?”
“That threw me off, at first,” James said. “But then I took a long hard look at the notes from the third meeting. There is a major difference.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Look,” James said, “the rendering of the first two meetings is virtually word for word. The only way that could have been accomplished is if the meeting was recorded. But meeting three is different. Look at this. It’s not word for word—it’s summarized. Meeting three was either not recorded, or it was transcribed by a different person. But I don’t think it was a different person. I’m certain the same person is responsible for the whole transcript. Look at the words I have underlined. They represent misspellings. The transcriber misspelled the same words throughout—and they are simple words. That’s not uncommon for a person, even an intelligent, well-educated person, if that person has learned English as a second language. Frequently foreign operatives make slip-ups like that.
“Now, if we take that one step further, and look at the specific words that are misspelled, then, if we get lucky we might be able to ascertain the nationality of the transcriber.”
James then slid the transcript closer to Allison, so he could better demonstrate to her what he was suggesting. “This word, ‘still,’ is misspelled throughout. And it is misspelled in the same way. That is a key. Israelis who have learned English as a second language frequently make that mistake. Now, it might seem strange that an Israeli would make such a mistake, given so many have been educated in the States, but this transcriber must have been educated primarily in Israel. Whatever the reason, I am quite sure we are dealing with Israeli Intelligence—Mossad. Maybe we did just get lucky.”
“Mossad?” Allison said. “That’s what you had suspected from the start, right?”
“It is,” James responded.
“But how did Mossad record us?” Allison asked.
“This is what I think happened,” James said, “all the meetings, except for the third, were recorded, and transcribed virtually verbatim. The third meeting, however, was not recorded. Instead, someone who was at that meeting, who then took notes about the meeting, produced it Here let me show you,” James said, turning back to the first meeting, and reading from the transcription:
Allison: “As I said, the meetings will be no longer than one hour in length. And there will be four of them. If we can get done what we need to get done under those constraints, then we’ll simply dissolve the group. You all probably already know why we are having these meetings. But just in case you’re not sure about it, I’ll tell you. Every contested seat we’ve got, we are losing. All of them, at least as it stands now. Both in the House and in the Senate. This guy is about to run the country into the ground, and the people know it. They don’t believe a word he says, and he can’t sell anything. That is, even if he had something to sell.”
Steve: “Do you size him up as a one-termer?”
Allison: “Definitely. And if the Republicans keep the House, and retake the Senate … and that could happen. Then should they put up a strong candidate for President, I might not beat him, or her. The direction we’re going, and the speed were travelling, who knows what will be left even if I could get the nomination.”
Jerry: “What are you looking for from us? … ”
“The transcript for the first meeting is the product of a recording, Al,” James said, “there is no doubt about it.”
“But that is impossible,” Allison said. “You checked carefully for any type of recording devices.”
“I did, but I am now virtually positive I know how they did it,” James said. “Here, check this out,” he said, turning to the transcript of the third meeting.” See the difference between the two.” He then began reading from the transcript’s rendering of the third meeting.
James:  “Jerry’s not going to be coming tonight. He has an infection.”
Allison: “I am disappointed, we have some important business to discuss, and Jerry should be here.”
James: “Jerry apologized. But he simply cannot hear right now, and he is running a temperature. I am sure Jerry is in agreement with the direction we are going.”
Allison: “We need Jerry here to help Reg and Steve to get along.”
James: “I will step in and help in that regard. …”
“That, Al, is a redaction—a summary,” James said confidently. “The transcriber did not have a recording of that meeting to work from—only a summarization. He then turned it back into a dialog. Whoever wrote the summary, left out a lot of the details, such as the comments about Steve being gay. I don’t see anything about that in the transcription of the third meeting. Yet I recall that comment. And I promise you that if the transcriber would have heard that, he would have made mention of it. The fact that it is lacking is significant.”
“My God, you’re right!” Allison exclaimed.
“And this begs two questions,” James continued. “Why did the transcriber not have a recording of meeting three? And where did he get the summary? One of us had to have written notes, from memory, after the meeting. I know it was not I who wrote them. That leaves Jerry, Reg or Steve…”
“James, I think I know where the notes of meeting three might have come from,” Allison said. “I made a recording after every meeting. I could have been the source.”
“That definitely could explain it,” James said. “I sort of suspected that might be the case, as the comments from the third meeting seemed to be more from your perspective, just a bit.” James paused for a moment, then continued. “We need to take a look at how they got those notes, but it is more critical to find out how the other meetings were recorded. I am also pretty certain I know how that was done, as well.”
Allison did not respond, she simply looked deeply into James’ eyes. She was anxious to learn what he had concluded.
“The only possibility, as I see it, was that Jerry was the source,” James said.
Allison, still looking squarely at James, asked “What are you saying? I have known Jerry for two decades. I always have trusted him.”
“Well, he is responsible for this breach,” James stated confidently. “But he might not have even been aware of what he was doing. He could have been an unwitting accomplice.”
“Unwilling or unwitting?” Allison asked.
“At least unwitting,” James answered. “Actually, I doubt that he was even aware it was happening. His cochlear implant was the instrument used. It must have been fitted with a recorder and a transmitter of some sort. Most likely the same mic that it used to help Jerry hear, also fed a digital recorder. Then, after the meetings, Mossad sent a signal to it that caused the transmitter to come alive, and transmit what had been recorded at our meetings. Perhaps it transmitted on a set schedule. Jerry missed only that third meeting. And that was the one that the transcriber had the problems with. He had to work from a summary.”
“Jerry was the source?” Allison asked. “Are you sure about that?”
“As sure as I can be,” James said. “But, as I said, I’m quite sure that he did not knowingly cooperate.
“There is one more interesting aspect here,” James said, fingering his way through the document. “It is quite obvious that while the source for meeting number three was different from the others, it is equally clear that the transcriber was the same for all.”
“How can you possibly be sure of that?” Allison asked, struggling to understand what her friend was suggesting.
“Here, take a look at this,” James said, turning to the page that contained the notes from the first meeting held at Jerry’s cottage—which was actually the second meeting overall. He had folded the right top corner of that page so he could find it easily. “Here Steve requests hamburgers instead of sandwiches for Reg,” James read. “Check out how the transcriber misspells hamburger.” James then pointed out that part of the text, and read it slowly. “h-u-m-b-o-r-g-e-r.”
“Now,” James continued, “if we turn to Steve’s comment before meeting three, when he first realized that Jerry would not be there. Again he made a reference to hamburgers, and again it is misspelled in exactly the same way—”h-u-m-b-o-r-g-e-r.”
“You’re right,’ Allison agreed, “but what does that prove?”
“It doesn’t actually prove anything,” James said, “but it does strongly suggest two things. First, that the same transcriber was employed to deal with the recording of the second meeting, and with the redaction of the third meeting. But that is not all. By the very nature of the misspelling, we can also surmise that the transcriber is Israeli. Again, most likely a Mossad agent.”
“That sounds like a leap,” Allison said.
“Not really,” James said. “The Israelis are an independent bunch. It is common for restaurants in Tel Aviv to have handwritten English menus. And a common mistake they make is to misspell hamburger the same way our transcriber misspelled it.”
“Oh my God,” Allison said. “James, you are a genius!”
“It’s no different from solving any puzzle,” James said.
Neither of them said anything for a moment. Finally Allison leaned back onto the pillows, reached down, and took another long drink from her much-used glass of Scotch. “What do we do now?” she asked. “What do we do about Jerry?”
“It’s not so much what we do about Jerry,” James said. “The real problem is what we do about this transcript.”
“What can we do?” She asked.
“First, we have to consider what the real purpose of it is. I am convinced that it was made by Mossad, and that Mossad has all the original recordings. And that is the best of all possibilities.”
“Why is that?” Allison asked.
“Because Mossad is both thoughtful, and predictable,” James answered.
Just then there was a loud banging at the door.