18 years is a long time ago, and memories fade and get corrupted even after a short period of time, much less that long (its on reason we have statutes of limitations on most crimes).
You're absolutely right...I forgot the time diff as I wrote the story and some is just plain fuzzy after all this time. I spent hours on the phone with them that night and I was giving them guidance by memory since I was so familiar with the code. Somewhere in the course of that they ventured to ask for he source.