Part 20 (2/2)
”What if they do to you what they did to Swamp Witch?” Sam blurted.
”They won't,” Dodge said darkly.
”How do you know?”
”Because you are going to protect me, wingman.”
Sam stared at him for a moment, then strapped on his headset. ”Hit it,” he said.
They started in the swamp, breaching security with callous disregard for protocol. They swept through the interior network with their scanners blazing, illuminating every nook and cranny of the structure. Sam ran his scopes at full power, checking and rechecking Dodge's system every few fractions of a second.
”Code fragments,” Dodge's voice said inside Sam's head. ”Chewed up and spat out. Same stuff we saw after the terrorists attacked us. Same stuff we saw in Chicago.”
”Why leave it lying around?” Sam asked. ”Why not wipe up the traces?”
”I don't know,” Dodge said. ”Am I still clean?”
”As a whistle,” Sam said.
”I want to check out the firewalls,” Dodge said. ”Try and find out how they got in. Stay with me.”
”No problem,” Sam said.
The firewalls were solid. No holes, no tunnels, not even a small data leak.
”So they disabled part of the security and enabled it again when they left?” Sam suggested.
”I don't think so,” Dodge said. ”These aren't toys, and they're overlapping protective fields so that you'd have to crack two firewalls simultaneously. Impossible unless you had a tunnel like the terrorists used, one that has been filled in and welded shut.”
”How, then?”
”I don't know,” Dodge said. ”Maybe they just pa.s.sed through the firewalls, like ghosts pa.s.sing through a solid wall.”
”You're not suggesting ghosts?” Sam almost laughed.
”No, that's not what I mean,” Dodge said. ”It's possible, theoretically, to bypa.s.s any software on any system, if you're able to program on the fly in machine code.”
”Theoretically,” Sam said, running a security check on Dodge's CPU cycles. ”But a few days ago, you were saying it was impossible to program in real time. n.o.body could write low-level machine code on the fly.”
”Which is why we've never considered it before,” Dodge agreed. ”But what if somebody could? Some genius. Some freak.”
”Still not possible,” Sam said. ”Machine code is different from machine to machine. The CPUs in the routers use different addressing and bit-and-byte order from the firewalls, and they are different from the servers. You'd have to be coding them all simultaneously.”
”If you're free tomorrow, my grandma needs an egg-sucking lesson,” Dodge said. ”Let's head out of the building; I am going to release some search spiders and hunt for more of that chewed code. See if the phantom has left a trail.”
”Dodge, think this through,” Sam said. ”The phantom wipes out the terrorists. So the phantom is on our side, right?”
”You'd guess so, wouldn't you,” Dodge said.
”Then someone wipes out the spammers and the gamers.”
”Did the world a favor.”
”Then someone wipes out Swamp Witch,” Sam said carefully.
”And you think it's the phantom doing it all?” Dodge said. ”But why help us fight the terrorists, then attack us? Whose side is the phantom really on?”
”Its own,” Sam said. ”Maybe it has its own reasons for taking out the terrorists. As for Swamp Witch, maybe she just went digging a little too deep and stumbled onto something she wasn't supposed to. Maybe the phantom was just protecting itself. Protecting its ident.i.ty.”
Dodge nodded. ”First, delete all the incriminating evidence in her computer. Then delete all the incriminating evidence in her brain.”
”The phantom is probably watching us right now,” Sam said.
”Probably.”
”That's what you want,” Sam realized. ”You want to be attacked! You're poking a stick into the hornet's nest, trying to stir up some trouble.”
”And when it comes, we'll be able to see where it's coming from,” Dodge said.
”You're relying on me to protect you!” Sam said with horror.
”Isn't that what you get paid for?”
”Dodge, the phantom swatted Swamp Witch like a fly. It's too risky.”
”No,” Dodge said. ”I'm going now, while the trail is still hot, and-” He broke off, staring at his screen.
”What have you got?” Sam asked.
”Returns from the spiders. That chewed-looking code. They're finding it all over the place.”
”How could that be?” Sam asked.
”I don't know. Maybe the phantom is hiding in the machine code, trolling along the lower levels of the Internet like some big-a.r.s.ed shark cruising around the ocean. But when it breaks surface, that's where it's leaving the crushed remains of the code. Maybe if we a.n.a.lyze the pattern of code fragment sites, we can find the source, track its location.”
”This is nuts,” Sam said. ”Let's at least wait until Vienna gets in. She and Kiwi can help me cover your backside while you go do your bait-dangling thing.”
”I'm not going to let this trail get cold.”
”Dodge, I'm serious. It's not just the Internet firewalls the phantom is breaking through; it's getting through neuro-firewalls as well. Into your brain!”
Dodge shook his head, concentrating on his center screen.
”No way. I'm getting out of here,” Sam said, reaching for his headset. ”Seriously, the phantom probably knows what we're thinking right now. It knows we're after it and-”
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