FROM THE iPHONES at both robberies, we were able to establish that they ran the same program,” Newman explained. “In essence, it was capable of being triggered remotely. Then all it did was play an mp3. The amplifier was hooked up to the earphone jack, beefing the signal up to more than three hundred watts, which was then sent directly to the ceramic speaker.”

     “Any idea as to the nature of the ‘tune?’” Vanderwaal asked.

     “We were able to reverse engineer most of it from the ones and zeros retained in the phones’ digital memories,” Newman said. “It seems to be the combination of six discrete sine waves. When we analyzed their makeup, it looks like they all have an eight-cycle harmonic. Furthermore, the sine waves are all synchronized on that frequency.”

     “Physics was never my strong suit,” Vanderwaal admitted, although having spent so much meaningful time with Dr. Phillips, he was able to keep up. “Can you break that down into one-syllable words for me?”

     “Every eighth of a second,” Newman explained, “All of the six frequencies were at their highest points in their particular sine waves.”

     “And that would be significant, why?” Vanderwaal asked, even though he already knew the answer to this one.

     “That would be significant,” Newman repeated, “because when they all line up like that, they reinforce each other, effectively creating an eight-cycle sound generator -- that is, eight-cycle sound that is the dominant sound, although nobody can hear it.”

     “And that’s precisely the frequency the army says would produce all the blackouts at each of our crime scenes?” asked Vanderwaal.

     “Bingo!” Newman licked his finger making an imaginary mark on an imaginary scoreboard.