I get flown down to a border town. I get ushered into a room where there is a laptop computer, a few desks and tables and an equipment cabinet. I shoo the government people out of the room. I then open the equipment cabinet. I observe that one of the little drawers, inside the equipment cabinet seems to have more evidence of use that the other drawers. I pull the drawer open and read what just might be a password, off of the bottom of the little drawer. I use the password and, as if by magic, the laptop reveals its secrets. I write the password down and then change the password.
I call for the head person of the government team. I show her that I have solved the password problem. I then ask her if they captured people, when they raided the facility.
The lady tells me, "I can't tell you that."
I lecture the lady, "If your supervisor will allow me the information about captured people, I can probably give you a great deal more information now, than you can get by mining the laptop.
The lady looks at me hard. "Okay, but you damn well better produce. The lady then goes out and apparently talks with someone. The lady comes back in with some guy who reeks of supervisor.
Supervisor boy then gives me three names. One of the names is a girl name, a secretary, as it turns out.
I tell supervisor boy, "If you will let me talk, privately, to the lady, I can convince her and I can break a lot more information, now, than is contained in the laptop."
Supervisor boy is not happy, but he finally agrees.
I lecture the government lady, "I got the password, for the laptop, from Consuela, how else?"
The lady laughs, "Consuela is just a secretary, why would she have the ..."
I laugh, "This is the only operation in the history of the world where a secretary didn't know everything non technical that goes on, in the operation."
The lady muses, "You realize that you are signing Consuela's death warrant."
I laugh, "What is important is that Consuela thinks that I am signing Consuela's death warrant and that you, girl to girl, can get Consuela into the USA government witness protection program, but only if Consuela furnishes enough good information that it satisfies your pendejo supervisor."
The lady muses, "Consuela is a secretary, not a drug trafficker or a hit man, She has no real criminal background. She will break open like a piñata. Yes, it will work."
"I get double what they paid me to come here and find the password, double just for piñata girl."
The lady muses, "You are the most underhanded, conniving person I have ever met. However, that way lies promotion." The lady then goes out to talk with her supervisor. The lady comes back with Consuela.
I show Consuela the laptop computer, open and displaying data. I tell Consuela, "You gave me the password. How else did I get the password so quickly?"
Consuela snarls. "Bésame el culo, gabacho. (kiss my ass, non Mexican.)"
The government lady says, "Consuela, either you tell us everything, or the cartel will kill you and your family,"
A defeated Consuela then says, that she will tell all.
As if by magic, three government people appear in the room, in note taking and translation mode,
I exit the room and begin to recover data from computer hard disks that have been erased.
(Actually, the 'erasure' of data merely wipes out the pointers to the data, not the data itself. As the data begins to appear, I have help from a Mexican speaking government guy. I then wave in the supervisor. "I'm recovering data, as I was hired to do. There is time sensitive data in this hard disk and other hard disks. I can show you how to get that, gonna cost you.") ...read more