Part 44 (1/2)
CHAPTER 119
”It's accelerating!” Sos.h.i.+ yelled from the backof the room. ”It's the wrong code!”
Everyone stood in silent horror.
On the screen before them was the error message: ILLEGAL ENTRY. NUMERIC FIELD ONLY.
”d.a.m.n it!” Jabba screamed. ”Numeric only!We're looking for a G.o.dd.a.m.n number!
We're f.u.c.ked! Thisring is s.h.i.+t!”
”Worm's at double speed!” Sos.h.i.+ shouted.”Penalty round!”
On the center screen, right beneath the error message, the VRpainted a terrifying image. As the third firewall gave way, thehalf-dozen or so black lines representing marauding hackers surgedforward, advancing relentlessly toward the core. With each pa.s.singmoment, a new line appeared. Then another.
”They're swarming!” Sos.h.i.+ yelled.
”Confirming overseas tie-ins!” cried anothertechnician. ”Word's out!”
Susan averted her gaze from the image of the collapsingfirewalls and turned to the side screen. The footage of EnseiTankado's kill was on endless loop. It was the same everytime-Tankado clutching his chest, falling, and with a look ofdesperate panic, forcing his ring on a group of unsuspectingtourists. It makes no sense, she thought. If hedidn't know we'd killed him ... Susan drew a totalblank. It was too late. We've missed something.
On the VR, the number of hackers pounding at the gates haddoubled in the last few minutes. From now on, the number wouldincrease exponentially. Hackers, like hyenas, were one big family,always eager to spread the word of a new kill.
Leland Fontaine had apparently seen enough. ”Shut itdown,” he declared. ”Shut the d.a.m.n thing down.”
Jabba stared straight ahead like the captain of a sinking s.h.i.+p.”Too late, sir. We're going down.”
CHAPTER 120
The four-hundred-pound Sys-Sec stood motionless, hands restingatop his head in a freeze-frame of disbelief. He'd ordered apower shutdown, but it would be a good twenty minutes too late.Sharks with high-speed modems would be able to download staggeringquant.i.ties of cla.s.sified information in that window.
Jabba was awakened from his nightmare by Sos.h.i.+ rus.h.i.+ng to thepodium with a new printout. ”I've found something,sir!” she said excitedly. ”Orphans in the source!
Alphagroupings. All over the place!”
Jabba was unmoved. ”We're looking for a numeric,dammit! Not an alpha! The kill- code is a number!”
”But we've got orphans! Tankado's too good toleave orphans-especially this many!”
The term ”orphans” referred to extra lines ofprogramming that didn't serve the program's objective inany way. They fed nothing, referred to nothing, led nowhere, andwere usually removed as part of the final debugging and compilingprocess.
Jabba took the printout and studied it.
Fontaine stood silent.
Susan peered over Jabba's shoulder at the printout.”We're being attacked by a rough draft ofTankado's worm?” ”Polished or not,” Jabba retorted, ”it'skicking our a.s.s.”
”I don't buy it,” Susan argued. ”Tankado wasa perfectionist. You know that. There's no way he left bugs inhis program.”
”There are lots of them!” Sos.h.i.+ cried. She grabbed theprintout from Jabba and pushed it in front of Susan.”Look!”
Susan nodded. Sure enough, after every twenty or so lines ofprogramming, there were four free-floating characters. Susanscanned them.
PFEE SESN RETM ”Four-bit alpha groupings,” she puzzled.”They're definitely not part of theprogramming.”
”Forget it,” Jabba growled. ”You're grabbingat straws.”
”Maybe not,” Susan said. ”A lot of encryptionuses four-bit groupings. This could be a code.”
”Yeah.” Jabba groaned. ”It says-'Ha,ha. You're f.u.c.ked.' ” He looked up at the VR.”In about nine minutes.”
Susan ignored Jabba and locked in on Sos.h.i.+. ”How manyorphans are there?”
Sos.h.i.+ shrugged. She commandeered Jabba's terminal and typedall the groupings.
When she was done, she pushed back from theterminal. The room looked up at the screen.
PFEE SESN RETM MFHA IRWE OOIG MEEN NRMA ENET SHAS DCNS IIAA IEER BRNK FBLE LODI Susan was the only one smiling. ”Sure looks familiar,”she said. ”Blocks of four-just like Enigma.”
The director nodded. Enigma was history's most famouscode-writing machine-the n.a.z.is' twelve-ton encryptionbeast. It had encrypted in blocks of four.
”Great.” He moaned. ”You wouldn't happen tohave one lying around, would you?”
”That's not the point!” Susan said, suddenlycoming to life. This was her specialty.
”The point is thatthis is a code. Tankado left us a clue! He's taunting us,daring us to figure out the pa.s.s-key in time. He's layinghints just out of our reach!” ”Absurd,” Jabba snapped. ”Tankado gave us onlyone out-revealing TRANSLTR.
That was it. That was our escape.We blew it.”
”I have to agree with him,” Fontaine said. ”Idoubt there's any way Tankado would risk letting us off thehook by hinting at his kill-code.”
Susan nodded vaguely, but she recalled how Tankado had giventhem NDAKOTA.
She stared up at the letters wondering if he wereplaying another one of his games.