Part 25 (2/2)
Sat.u.r.day, January 15th, 3:30 p.m. Quantico, Virginia Fernandez came back to himself in the computer room, sitting next to Joanna. She was waving her hands at her computer station, calling up a rapid blur of images and words and numbers from the holoproj in front of her. And she was cursing like a sailor while she did it.
”G.o.d dammit! How the h.e.l.l can this be happening?”
She waved her hands again, then tapped furiously at the keyboard on the desk.
Fernandez kept quiet, knowing this was not the time to fill her ears with foolish questions.
Whatever was going on, though, it didn't look good.
”No, no, no, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! Don't route there, you'll crash the-dammit, dammit! Stop!”
Jay Gridley came running into the room, and excited as he was, he must already know what was going on.
”Winthrop, you see what the h.e.l.l is happening?”
”I got it. Jesus Christ!”
Gridley slid into a chair in front of another workstation. ”Man, oh, man! The kickouts at FedOne just blew.”
”We need to scramble some programmers, Jay-”
”Already did it. Boss is on the way in, so is everybody else who can warm a seat.”
”You call Fiorella?”
He spared her a glance from the flas.h.i.+ng holoproj in front of him. ”Didn't need to. I bounced her virgil's location. It's within a couple of feet of the boss's. She's with him.” He waggled his eyebrows. ”Isn't that that interesting?” interesting?”
”Old news,” Joanna said. ”You need to pay more attention to RW around you, Gridley.”
”Screw you, Winthrop.”
”In your dreams, monkey fingers.”
”In my nightmares, you mean.”
Fernandez felt like a fifth wheel. He didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't gonna ask, but whatever it was, it was bad.
”The blast doors on FedTwo just slammed shut,” Joanna said.
”See 'em,” Gridley said. ”Maybe we can reroute the-ah, p.i.s.s! FedThree just rolled over too. We got a major infection here!”
”A virus?” Fernandez said.
”Not a virus, a G.o.dd.a.m.ned plague plague,” Gridley said. ”Somebody got past the best antivirals we have and threw a replicant bomb. The bugs are reproducing and going through the federal financial systems like water through a fire hose. The only way we're gonna stop it is to shut down everything it's contaminated and flush it one system at a time.”
”c.r.a.p,” Joanna said. ”c.r.a.p, c.r.a.p, c.r.a.p!” She leaned back, watching the screen flash stuff that was meaningless to Fernandez.
”Well, I'll say one thing,” Fernandez said, ”you sure know how to show a boy a good time.”
”Hold up, hold up,” Joanna said. ”I got something.”
”You can stop it?” Julio said.
”No, I can't. But I think I can find where it came from. Jeez, I can't believe the guy is that dumb. Jay?”
”I see it, I see it! I've got a lock! How'd you do that, Winthrop?”
”I found a ghost on my station from when he broke in here. There wasn't anywhere to go with it, it petered out, but just in case, I set up a scan-and-match.”
”What does that mean?” Fernandez asked, despite his resolution not to ask stupid questions.
”It means that even if our perp bounces his signal, we can backwalk it-if we hurry, and if the sig is a match.”
”Good work, Winthrop!” Gridley said. ”You ready to run him down?”
”I'd like to kick his a.s.s personally, but much as I hate to say it, you're better at this part than I am, Gridley. Go get him.”
Gridley smiled. ”You know, you're not so bad after all-for a white girl. I'm gone.”
When Toni and Alex arrived, there was a lot of commotion in the computer center. Jay, Joanna, and half the regular programmers were there, stations lit and working. Julio Fernandez stood next to the doorway watching.
”Julio,” Toni said. ”How is it going?”
”I'm not the guy to ask. I'm catching about one word in twenty. It's nasty, this thing. Gridley calls it a replicant bomb.”
”Oh, s.h.i.+t,” Toni and Alex said together.
”But Jo and Gridley apparently got a lock on the bomb thrower. Gridley is running him down somehow. I didn't understand most of that part.”
”Thanks, Sergeant,” Toni said.
”No problem, Commander.”
Alex moved to where Joanna sat, and as Toni started to head for her office to a.s.sess damage reports, Fernandez's smile stopped her. ”Something funny I'm missing?” she asked. ”I could use a good laugh.”
”No, ma'am, nothing funny.”
”Why the grin?”
”Oh, I was just, you know, musing.”
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