Part 19 (2/2)
”Any progress?” Jaggard asked, and his tone was not chirpy. He leaned forward on his elbows, staring across the desk at Sam and Dodge. He had called them into his office the moment they arrived at work.
”Nothing yet,” Dodge answered for them. ”We put the terrorists' hard drives through every kind of test, including spectromagnetic a.n.a.lysis, and we got nothing. They're as clean as the day they were manufactured.”
”Is it possible that someone replaced the drives?”
Dodge shook his head. ”Forensic examination of the screws and the cable ends says no. These are the original drives. They have just been zeroed.”
Jaggard nodded. ”That pretty much describes their owners as well. Zeroed.”
”What do you mean?” Sam asked. ”What's wrong with them?”
”We're not yet sure,” Jaggard answered. ”They are both in a deep coma. Looks like a ma.s.sive brain aneurysm. The problem is that the CAT scans don't show any evidence of it. Whoever did this to them has access to drugs or some kind of radiation equipment that we can't begin to imagine.”
”Would the CIA have that kind of stuff?” Dodge asked.
”I don't know,” Jaggard said. ”You want to run over there and ask them?”
”What about the neuro-headsets?” Sam asked. ”Any chance you could induce some kind of brain wave that could cause this kind of damage?”
”First thing we thought of,” Jaggard said. ”Had experts running tests on them all day. Worst they've come up with so far is to induce a mild headache by overloading the audio channels.”
”So they're safe?” Dodge asked.
”Better be,” Jaggard said, ”considering the Oversight Committee has taken Swamp Witch's advice and is insisting that we start training on neuro, effective immediately.”
”Cool!” Sam couldn't help blurting it out.
”You won't be so happy when your brain explodes,” Dodge said.
”We'll all be on them,” Jaggard said. ”Here and at Cheyenne. We're not going to get caught out again.”
Jaggard pushed a copy of the local paper, the San Jose Mercury News San Jose Mercury News, across the desk to Sam.
”You heard about this spam thing?”
Dodge nodded, but Sam shook his head. ”Happened while you were in Chicago.”
SPAM CANNED was the newspaper headline. was the newspaper headline.
Sam scanned the article quickly. Apparently, a gradual reduction in the amount of spam around the world had turned suddenly into a full-blown collapse.
”Spam servers around the world have been targeted and shut down,” Jaggard said. ”I want you on it. Find out who's behind the attacks.”
”Who cares?” Dodge said with a laugh. ”They're spammers. Let 'em burn.”
”The day before, it was online gaming sites,” Jaggard said.
”You think the attacks are related?” Sam asked.
”Possibly, probably, who knows?” Jaggard said. ”What I want to know is, what's next? What are they planning for tomorrow? As long as they're doing good deeds, then n.o.body really cares. But what defines 'good'? As they-whoever 'they' are-see it. What if they decided at election time that they didn't like one particular candidate? Would they crash all the support Web sites? Worse, would they hack the election software and rig the election?”
”Now you're giving me ideas,” Dodge said.
Jaggard ignored him. ”And I especially want to know whether it's related to the Chicago terrorists.”
”What makes you think that?” Sam said.
”I don't know. Maybe just the timing,” Jaggard replied. ”We have three separate incidents occurring within three days, and in each case we have no idea how it happened or who did it. Vienna and Kiwi are already looking into the gaming sites. I want you two on the spammers. If there is a link to the terrorists, or that 'phantom,' then I want to know ASAP.”
”On to it, guv,” Dodge said, and they both got up to leave.
”Stay for a moment, Sam,” Jaggard said.
Sam sat back down slowly.
Jaggard waited until Dodge had left, then said, ”I need to talk to you.”
”Is it my probation?” Sam asked.
Jaggard shook his head. ”That's not going to be a problem. We need you around.”
Sam said nothing, looking closely at Jaggard. He kept his face emotionless, although inside him a warm surge of pride was competing with a sudden, inexplicable fear.
”Your mother has been in contact,” Jaggard said. ”A message relayed by the authorities in New York.”
”Is she all right?” Sam asked, the fear growing rapidly.
”She's fine,” Jaggard said. ”It's not about her. It concerns a Derek Fargas.”
”Fargas?” Sam mentally kicked himself. He had meant to get in touch with Fargas but hadn't yet got around to it. The business with the terrorists and the phantom had simply got in the way. Fargas would understand, though, surely? Once Sam was able to explain.
”How well did you know him?” Jaggard asked.
Sam opened his mouth to reply, then shut it again quickly. Jaggard hadn't said, ”How well do do you know him?” you know him?”
He'd said ”did.”
When Sam arrived at his desk, his new CDD-issue neuro-headset was sitting in a plain cardboard box next to his keyboard. He sat and just stared at it for a while. The headsets were the thin, rubber-coated wire mesh style that they had used in Chicago. Looking closely at it, he saw it was a Neuro-Sensor Pro 3.1. A big step forward from the 1.2-version headset he had scored from Telecomerica. Glancing around, Sam saw that about half of the team was already wearing them.
Bashful and Gummi Bear, to his left, were staring at nothing with their eyes shut and laughing their heads off over some shared private joke. Socks was wearing his, although Zombie seemed to be having difficulty with the shape of his and kept taking it off, making small adjustments to the wires and putting it back on.
”Are you all right?” Dodge asked.
<script>