Chapter 23 - Clue Tube

Long after Sarah had settled into a deep drunken sleep in the master birth below, Finne had his newly disguised maritime hide out headed south parallel to the shore line under the minimal power of the 15 horsepower outboard motor generally used for docking and emergencies.


Finne knew he was open to inspection and more visibility under way at the late hours after midnight versus amongst the radar invisibility of the tankers, but dawn was coming and that brought with it infinitely more visibility from commercial fishing traffic leaving port, recreational watercraft, and the U.S. Coast Guard. Finne remembered Jack’s instructions clearly: go dark and avoid all military, government, education, pharmaceutical, and commercial R&D. That didn’t leave much room for friends, especially on the water. Finne had chosen the slow and steady ride under the tiny motor versus putting the STARBIRD under sail to make some minimal changes to the boat for disguise. Finne tied off the rudder and the little engine to sail forward without his control. Using a few leftover cans of paint and brushes that weren’t unloaded from the boat before setting out into the Chesapeake, he carefully leaned over the stern and painted over the name STARBIRD changing the letters B and D to G and L renaming the vessel STARGIRL. He also changed the home port from Washington, DC to Newport, VA. With daylight, the increased water traffic and the associated radio sighting reports and communications would be monitored by at least three federal and five defense agencies with interest in these waters. The name change wouldn’t get them to Florida before it was questioned, but it would get them back to the Virginia shoreline.

After he had cleaned up the deck and put all identifying information and attention drawing features below, Finne had changed course back to the East under the limited power and re-tied off the rudder and engine to sail on their own towards the distant shoreline. Thoughts of the resources deployed to save him and Sarah from intended assassination weighted on him like a lead vest. Finne knew that an equal and possibly more powerful group was still hunting them down. He needed to know more about the connection between him and Sarah. He needed to know what she had been doing and who she was connected to for the many years since he last saw her. Finne went below and looked in on Sarah. She had passed out in her clothes above the covers and was snoring. Finne let her be and returned to the galley where he retrieved a sleek black neoprene briefcase from under a hidden compartment under the galley bench. This was Finne’s stash in case of emergency. In the compartment he kept Sig Saur 40 Caliber handgun and 100 piece box of ammunition, several false identity credentials that Finne had developed under cover at TIGTA, an encrypted satellite phone, a disposable mobile phone, and a universal communication based pc in the briefcase.

While the STARGIRL slowly encroached on the shoreline, Finne logged onto the PC and started digging through various police and treasury databases looking for hits on Sarah. Finne logged into each system he used with a different user ID. His undercover identities had positioned him amongst the matrix of Treasury, Homeland Security, and Defense law enforcement and intelligence communities. With each persona, Finne had credentials to access the criminal investigative information he needed to develop a profile of Sarah. Using these identities, Finne was invisible to the grid. One thing Finne and TIGTA did well was classify and compartmentalize undercover identities and information. None of Finne’s identities officially existed and therefore could not be traced back to anyone.

Sarah was not a saint and had a rap-sheet. She had been convicted twice for DUI in her twenties. When she was thirty-three she plead guilty to a conspiracy to distribute marijuana charge and was put on two year probation – Finne guessed this was a bigger charge and she had a good lawyer. Most recently, she was convicted of reckless driving and lost her license. There was nothing in the criminal files that perked Finne’s attention. Finne decided to take a different investigative path.

He opened a web browser and opened the Homeland Security Video Network (HSVN). HSVN was a very high-bandwidth network used to share all homeland security video among the various agencies. HSVN is used for sharing and streaming everything from classified video conferencing to the distribution of field based intelligence video assets to command and control centers. The website content was highly dynamic and was configured to the specific of the user’s security clearance level. Finne was signed in under a Top Secret-SCI credential from a long closed case file. He had access to almost all of the content from closed cases but was restricted from seeing the open case video traffic based on his credential’s need-to-know. Finne knew he could surf through the open case video and likely find a hit on Sarah. She was a club girl and spent her time in public and amongst some of the most surveilled establishments in any city in the world. He didn’t, as he knew linking into an open case would draw more attention and risk exposing his identity and worse his location. Finne clicked through several discreet paths to a well known asset amongst special agents and officers within Homeland Security and its associated intelligence partners, informally known as “Clue Tube” or CT for short.

Clue Tube was a top secret implementation of the You Tube video storage network purchased from Google. Videos that hit Clue Tube were post trial investigative materials. It included all of the video surveillance assets collected and associated with each case or major program. Much like You Tube, users of Clue Tube tend to find and share videos virally amongst themselves. The intended purpose for CT was to help investigations of previously tried individuals. The main attraction to the CT video database was the infinite spectrum of bizarre human behavior. Videos of surveillance targets showering, having sex, taking a dump, fighting, singing, and living life not knowing they are being recorded. Finne generally avoided Clue Tube as it was more a distraction to him then a tool. However, he thought he could learn something from the marijuana distribution conspiracy conviction he learned about Sarah. Likely there was a lot more to the case then is summarized in the justice network. Finne began searching on Sarah and discovered a two year trove of video files associated with a much larger investigation known as “OPERATION ROCK CRUSHER” associate with suspected mob associate, Tony Gautrachs, and the Club Atlas.

Finne soon found more than he had expected and a lot more than he wanted to find.