Part 14 (1/2)

STRUGGLING THROUGH THE deep snow along Twenty-Fourth, we followed the tracks of the sleds until they met the steep edges of the s...o...b..nks lining Ninth Avenue. Chuck was intent on finding the thieves, hurrying me along, but I was sincerely hoping we wouldn't find them, scared of what might happen if we did.

My fears proved unfounded when we got to Ninth. The footprints and drag marks became hopelessly muddled with other foot traffic. Any hope of following further evaporated into the swirling snow.

Chuck stood fuming, looking up and down the street.

Dark shadows materialized out of the white to trudge past us, walking along the ravine formed by the edge of the buildings where the s...o...b..nks ended. Like s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sing in the night. I nodded to one of them but got no response.

”Up to Penn Station?” I asked, knocking my boots together and s.h.i.+vering. I wanted to bring some news home to Lauren. I felt guilty.

Giving up on his chase, Chuck nodded, and we began climbing, hand over foot, up the steep slope of the s...o...b..nk edging Ninth Avenue. I followed him to the top, and we slid down the other side into barely ankle-deep snow.

In the distance, a gleam of headlights cut through the sleet of snow, and a low rumble vibrated up through my boots. At least they're still plowing. We headed uptown toward the oncoming lights.

”Are you so crazy about your stuff that you'd really risk our lives?” I asked Chuck, walking in step beside him.

”It's risking our lives not to be crazy about guarding our stuff.”

”Come on. The power came back on in less than a day on Christmas Eve, and even after Sandy most of New York was back up in a few days. There's not been any flooding or wind, just this snow.”

”People don't learn.” Chuck looked down and angrily shook his head. ”Critical systems are all interlinked, and this isn't just a physical storm.”

”So what, you think it'll take a week? Even most of Long Island-”

”Something is happening here that's never happened before.” He stopped and looked at me.

”You're always being dramatic. The power will probably be back on in a few hours.”

”Have you ever heard of the Aurora Test?” asked Chuck, continuing to walk.

I shook my head.

”In 2007, Idaho National Labs conducted a cyberattack exercise with the Department of Energy. They sent a 21-line package of software code from a thousand miles away, embedded as a virus in an email, into a DOE facility that caused an electrical generator to self-destruct by rapidly recycling its circuit breakers.”

”So get a new generator.”

”You can't buy these at Walmart. They're several stories high, weigh hundreds of tons, and take months to build.”

”Didn't they fix the problem once they found it?”

”Not really. Most of it's legacy equipment, built before the internet existed, and it's nearly irreplaceable.”

”If they built them before the internet, shouldn't they be immune from it?”

”They used to be, but someone had the bright idea of saving money by rewiring them using internet controls, just like our building. It saves money, but now everything can be attacked via the internet.”

He sighed. ”It gets worse.”

The snow plow reached us, so we stepped to the side, climbing up onto the s...o...b..nk while it growled past. A small light above the head of the driver illuminated the inside of his cabin through windows streaked with melting snow. He was hunched over, wearing a mask, and I glimpsed a picture pinned to his dash that I imagined to be of his family, a family he was away from as he endlessly roamed the canyons of New York.

The plow rumbled off into the distance.

”How does it get worse?”

”The US doesn't even make generators like that anymore.”

”So who does?”

Chuck trudged on in silence.

”Guess.”

I could see where this was going.

”China?”

”Yep.”

”So they can wreck them remotely, and we have no way of getting replacements.”

”They may have already wrecked them. Maybe no electrical grid for months or years. And it gets even worse.”

Now I sighed.

”It's more or less the same story for all critical systems-water, dams, nuclear reactors, transport and s.h.i.+pping, food, emergency and government services, even the military. Tell me something that isn't wired into the internet and uses Chinese parts.”

”Wouldn't they say the same about us from their point of view? I mean, if they attack us, wouldn't we just do the same to them? Mutually a.s.sured cyber destruction?”

”Not the same. We're the most wired country on Earth. Everything is accessible via the internet. In China, a lot of power plants and water systems still operate by switches and levers.”

”We view open access to the internet as a fundamental freedom, but other countries don't see it that way. They have limited access and control. We're totally vulnerable to cyberattack on a ma.s.sive scale, but they're much less exposed.”

”But then we would just bomb them, right? Who would risk that?”

”Not so simple. How do you figure out who attacked? Half the world has an ax to grind with America for one reason or another. We can't bomb everyone.”

”Sort of been the plan up until now, no?”

Chuck laughed. ”I do like the way you keep your sense of humor.”

We reached Thirty-First Street and began to battle our way along the block to get to the back entrance of Penn Station. The whole distance we were hugging the concrete walls of the huge New York City Post Office building, at first along the long line of s.h.i.+pping bay doors, and then along the side of a low wall that formed the edge of a kind of protective moat around the building. The guard shack halfway along the length of the building was empty, but there were lights s.h.i.+ning in many of the windows.

”What's that saying?” I asked, staring up into one of the windows as we pa.s.sed. The top of the Empire State Building loomed darkly over Madison Square Garden as we approached.

”Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor...I dunno. I think it's written on the front. We can go have a look if you want.”

”I think the mail may be late today,” I replied. ”I don't remember cyberattack on that list.”

Chuck laughed, and we kept walking.

Climbing on top of the s...o...b..nk at the edge of Eighth, we had our first glimpse of what emergency services had managed to accomplish so far. My heart sank. Hundreds of people were crowded outside the back entrance to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, with ma.s.ses more visible in the distance down Thirty-First.