Lila

John's eyes were bright in the fluorescent light as he held her gaze, unblinking. "Lila, either he knew his father had video clips that he was going to use against Dane, or he suspected something like that. He was reminding me that we have the resources to call them into question. Not that he needed to—I would have thought of it—but Dane never was one to leave anything to chance if he could avoid it. There was a time—"

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"John, please, I'm sorry, but I'm not following. What exactly is it that Dane left for you?"

John sighed. "Either he knew there would be public footage released, or he anticipated that we were going to need to do some heavy lifting when it came to media files we'd put out in a legal case. Regardless… I… I think I can save him from facing charges from those videos."

Her eyes went wide. "How?"

"I can make it look like that exact video originally featured someone else."

Her mouth dropped open. "You can?"

He nodded. "But it's a huge risk, Lila, and I almost didn't tell you. Because even if I'm right, that that's what Dane wanted me to do, it's a much, much bigger risk than he would normally take around anything to do with his father. So big, in fact, that I almost didn't tell you because I thought I have to have missed something. But…"

"But?"

He looked down at his computer and frowned. "I don't miss things. I know Dane. We've worked together for almost a decade—even before Daniels' Security. There is no other explanation."

"How would you do it? What would it achieve?" she asked, breathlessly. But when he opened his mouth she held up a hand, "forgive me, John, but I need you to tell me this in terms like… like a child. I don't know much about technology except how to use it."

He pressed his lips together, but nodded. "Okay. Um. So… a video file has something called meta data. And that's like… like the recipe for the file. Except, it stores everything—not just all the code and everything that tells the video what to play, and what to look like, but also the date and time it was taken, and any information about what type of format it was, anything like that. It tells anyone who knows how to look, what's in the file."

"Okay."

"So, usually, the meta data is untouchable. You can even tell when a file is made from another file—it will hold the meta data of the original, and how it was or wasn't changed to become the new file—and what the meta data is for that file, too."

"Oh…kay…" Lila frowned.

John sighed. "Essentially, think of it as the DNA of the file—that tells you who the parents were, and how they looked different. Does that help?"

"Yes! Thank you!"

"So… Dane and I worked on a way of storing files and rendering them that… that instead of replicating and adjusting the meta data, it recreated it, except with whatever we wanted changed."

"What would be the point?"

"It would mean that we could make one file appear to be the same as another. Except different."

Lila frowned. "I'm sorry, I'm not following."

John ran a hand through his thinning hair until it stood up, and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Do you know much about the DNA of twins?"

"None."

John shrugged. "Well, if you have two identical twins, they have exactly the same DNA. Except for any genetic code that is changed by their life or environment, they have the same meta data… and yet, they can have slight difference in how they look."

Lila blinked and waited, but he was looking at her expectantly. "I'm sorry, John. I don't know how these two things related."

He sighed. "I can take a video, make it look like it has someone else in it, but to anyone who examines that video—say a police forensic examiner—it will appear to be exactly the same video."

"But they'll know it's not, because it shows something else."

"Precisely."

She shook her head. "How would that help Dane?"

"I can make those videos his father is sending look like they show someone else."

"But the other copies would still be in existence!"

John nodded. "But because the DNA of both files would be identical, it would be impossible to prove who the original video actually showed."

Lila swallowed and thought that through. "You're talking about Police. Court. Legal proceedings."

He nodded. "We could call the video files into question. Make them look like they actually were films of Dane's father. And make it impossible to prove which of them was actually the one filmed. So Dane could never be proven guilty."

"John, that's incredible! Do it! Why wouldn't you just do that?"

"Because you have to understand the risks. That absolutely incredible risks we'd be taking Lila, not only for Dane's potential case, but for any other future cases too."

"How?"

"If we make a duplicated file that shows Dane's father doing all the things we currently see Dane do, and then it goes to court, and the experts agree, there's no difference in the files, it's impossible to know which was created first, then Dane walks free—but so does his father. Those videos could never be used for any case in any court, ever."

"But—"

"And at that point, both legal teams now have physical proof that video files can be faked. From that point on, every video—and probably audio file, too—that ever comes into court, the experts can say without disclaimer, that they can't be sure it's the original file, or that it hasn't been doctored. This is why we never pursued the software. The impacts it would have on our entire society would be… mind-boggling. The number of criminals that would be released because the primary witness to their crime was video footage… I shudder to think. And Dane did too. He shut the project down without ever telling anyone about it for that very reason."

"So… you're saying we can save Dane from these particular charges and possibly bring down the entire justice system… or we have to let him face whatever comes?"

Lila dropped her face in her hands.

"Oh, and I haven't told you about the other files, yet," John said as if he hadn't just dropped a bomb on her.