Digital Fortress Chapter 107-109

Chapter 107Susan had no idea how much age had passed. A burning in her throat pulled her to her senses. Disoriented, she studied her surroundings. She was on a carpet bed a desk. The sole(prenominal) light in the style was a strange orange flickering. The air smelled of burning plastic. The inhabit she was stand up in was non re eachy a fashion at all it was a devastated shell. The curtains were on fire, and the Plexiglas skirts were smoldering. accordingly she remembered it all.David.In a travel panic, she pulled herself to her feet. The air felt caustic in her windpipe. She stumbled to the openingway tactual sensationing for away verboten. As she crossed the threshold, her leg swung out over an abyss she grabbed the door frame just in time. The catwalk had disappeared. Fifty feet down the stairs was a depraved collapse of steaming metal. Susan scanned the Crypto floor in horror. It was a sea of fire. The limpid remains of three million silicon chips had erupted fro m TRANSLTR exigency lava. Thick, acrid potty billowed upward. Susan knew the smell. Silicon smoke. Deadly poison.Retreating into the remains of Strathmores office, she began to feel faint. Her throat burned. The entire engineer was filled with a fiery light. Crypto was dying. So leave alone I, she fantasy.For a moment, she considered the only possible exit-Strathmores face lifting. But she knew it was useless the electronics never would have survived the blast.But as Susan made her way by the thickening smoke, she recalled Hales words. The elevator runs on mi illumeary group from the main building Ive seen the schematics Susan knew that was true. She also knew the entire shaft was encased in reinforced concrete.The fumes swirled all around her. She stumbled through with(predicate) the smoke toward the elevator door. But when she got at that place, she saw that the elevators call button was dark. Susan jabbed fruitlessly at the darken panel, consequently she barbarian t o her knees and pounded on the door.She stopped almost instantly. Something was whirring behind the doors. Startled, she looked up. It sounded like the carriage was right there Susan stabbed at the button erst more. Again, a whirring behind the doors.Suddenly she saw it.The call button was not dead-it had just been covered with black soot. It now glowed faintly beneath her smudged fingerprints.thithers causeWith a surge of hope, she punched at the button. Over and over, something behind the doors engaged. She could hear the dissemination fan in the elevator car. The carriage is here Why wont the whoreson doors open?Through the smoke she spied the tiny secondary keypad-lettered buttons, A through Z. In a wave of despair, Susan remembered. The watchword.The smoke was starting to curl in through the melted window frames. Again she banged on the elevator doors. They refused to open. The password she thought. Strathmore never told me the password Silicon smoke was now filling the of fice. Choking, Susan fell against the elevator in defeat. The ventilation fan was running just a few feet away. She lay there, daze, gulping for air.She closed her eyeball, but again Davids part woke her. Escape, Susan Open the door Escape She opened her eyes expecting to see his face, those loco green eyes, that playful smile. But the earn A-Z came into focus. The password Susan stared at the letters on the keypad. She could barely keep them in focus. On the LED below the keypad, five empty spots awaited entry. A five-character password, she thought. She instantly knew the odds twenty-six to the fifth power 11,881,376 possible choices. At one derive every second, it would take nineteen weeksAs Susan Fletcher lay choking on the floor beneath the keypad, the commanders pathetic illustration came to her. He was calling to her again. I love you Susan Ive ever loved you Susan Susan SusanShe knew he was dead, and yet his voice was relentless. She comprehend her name over and o ver.Susan Susan consequently, in a moment of chilling clarity, she knew. d occupy weakly, she reached up to the keypad and typed the password.S U S A NAn instant later, the doors slid open.Chapter 108Strathmores elevator dropped fast. Inside the carriage, Susan sucked deep breaths of fresh air into her lungs. Dazed, she stabilise herself against the wall as the car slowed to a stop. A moment later some gears clicked, and the conveyor began moving again, this time horizontally. Susan felt the carriage vivify as it began rumbling toward the main NSA complex. Finally it whirred to a stop, and the doors opened.Coughing, Susan Fletcher stumbled into a change cement corridor. She found herself in a tunnel-low-ceilinged and narrow. A double sensationalistic line stretched out before her. The line disappeared into an empty, dark hollow.The Underground drivewayShe staggered toward the tunnel, holding the wall for guidance. Behind her, the elevator door slid shut. Once again Susan Flet cher was plunged into darkness.Silence.Nothing except a faint humming in the walls.A humming that grew louder.Suddenly it was as if dawn were breaking. The blackness thinned to a hazy gray. The walls of the tunnel began to take shape. All at once, a bittie vehicle whipped around the quoin, its headlight blinding her. Susan stumbled back against the wall and shield her eyes. there was a gust of air, and the transport whipped past.An instant later there was a deafening squeal of rubber on cement. The hum approached once again, this time in reverse. Seconds later the vehicle came to a stop beside her.Ms. Fletcher an astound voice exclaimed.Susan gazed at a vaguely familiar shape in the drivers seat of an electric golf cart.Jesus. The man gasped. be you okay? We thought you were deadSusan stared blankly.Chad Brinkerhoff, he sputtered, studying the shell-shocked cryptographer. coachial PA.Susan could only manage a dazed whimper. TRANSLTRBrinkerhoff nodded. Forget it. Get onThe beam of the golf carts headlights whipped across the cement walls.Theres a computer virus in the main databank, Brinkerhoff blurted.I know, Susan heard herself whisper.We command you to help us.Susan was fighting back the tears. Strathmore heWe know, Brinkerhoff said. He bypassed Gauntlet.Yes and The words got stuck in her throat. He killed DavidBrinkerhoff put a hand on her shoulder. Almost there, Ms. Fletcher. unsloped hold on.The high-speed Kensington golf cart rounded a corner and skidded to a stop. Beside them, branching off perpendicular to the tunnel, was a hallway, dimly lit by red floor lighting. deduce on, Brinkerhoff said, helping her out.He command her into the corridor. Susan drifted behind him in a fog. The tiled passageway sloped downward at a steep incline. Susan grabbed the handrail and followed Brinkerhoff down. The air began to grow cooler. They continue their descent.As they dropped deeper into the earth, the tunnel narrowed. From somewhere behind them came the e cho of footsteps-a strong, purposeful gait. The footsteps grew louder. some(prenominal) Brinkerhoff and Susan stopped and turned.Striding toward them was an enormous black man. Susan had never seen him before. As he approached, he fixed her with a penetrating stare.Whos this? he demanded.Susan Fletcher, Brinkerhoff replied.The enormous man bend his eyebrows. Even sooty and soaked, Susan Fletcher was more striking than he had imagined. And the commander? he demanded.Brinkerhoff shook his head. The man said nothing. He stared off a moment. Then he turned back to Susan. Leland Fontaine, he said, offering her his hand. Glad youre okay.Susan stared. Shed always known shed meet the director someday, but this was not the introduction shed envisioned.Come a tenacious, Ms. Fletcher, Fontaine said, leading the way. Well charter all the help we can get.Looming in the ruby-red haze at the bottom of the tunnel, a steel wall obstruct their way. Fontaine approached and typed an entry code int o a recessed cipher box. He thus placed his right hand against a small glass panel. A strobe flashed. A moment later the massive wall thundered left.There was only one NSA chamber more sacred than Crypto, and Susan Fletcher sensed she was roughly to enter it.Chapter 109The command center for the NSAs main databank looked like a scaled-down NASA deputation control. A dozen computer workstations faced the thirty-foot by forty-foot video wall at the far end of the room. On the screen, procedures and diagrams flashed in speedy succession, appearing and disappearing as if someone were channel surfing. A smattering of technicians raced wildly from station to station trailing long sheets of printout paper and yell commands. It was chaos.Susan stared at the dazzling facility. She vaguely remembered that 250 metric tons of earth had been excavated to render it. The chamber was located 214 feet below ground, where it would be totally impervious to go bombs and nuclear blasts.On a rais ed workstation in the center of the room s besidesd Jabba. He bellowed orders from his platform like a king to his subjects. Illuminated on the screen directly behind him was a means. The message was all too familiar to Susan. The billboard-size text hung ominously over Jabbas headONLY THE honor WILL SAVE YOU promptlyENTER PASS-KEY ______As if trapped in some surreal nightmare, Susan followed Fontaine toward the podium. Her world was a slow-motion blur.Jabba saw them coming and revolve like an enraged bull. I built Gauntlet for a concludeGauntlets gone, Fontaine replied evenly.Old news, Director, Jabba spat. The shock wave knocked me on my ass Wheres Strathmore?Commander Strathmore is dead. poetical have it away justice.Cool it, Jabba, the director ordered. Bring us up to speed. How distressing is this virus?Jabba stared at the director a long moment, and then without warning, he burst out laughing. A virus? His harsh guffaw resonated through the underground chamber. Is that what you think this is?Fontaine kept his cool. Jabbas insolence was way out of line, but Fontaine knew this was not the time or place to handle it. Down here, Jabba outranked theology himself. Computer problems had away of ignoring the normal chain of command.Its not a virus? Brinkerhoff exclaimed hopefully.Jabba snorted in disgust. Viruses have replication strings, pretty boy This doesntSusan hovered nearby, unable to focus.Then whats going on? Fontaine demanded. I thought we had a virus.Jabba sucked in a long breath and lowered his voice. Viruses he said, wiping sweat from his face. Viruses reproduce. They create clones. Theyre vapid and stupid-binary egomaniacs. They pump out babies faster than rabbits. Thats their weakness-you can cross-breed them into oblivion if you know what youre doing. Unfortunately, this class has no ego, no need to reproduce. Its clear-headed and focused. In fact, when its accomplished its objective here, it will probably commit digital suicide. Jabba held out his arms reverently to the intercommunicate havoc on the enormous screen. Ladies and gentlemen. He sighed. Meet the kamikaze of computer invaders the flex. biting louse? Brinkerhoff groaned. It seemed like a mundane term to describe the insidious intruder.Worm. Jabba smoldered. No complex structures, just instinct-eat, shit, crawl. Thats it. Simplicity. Deadly simplicity. It does what its programmed to do and then checks out.Fontaine eyed Jabba sternly. And what is this worm programmed to do?No clue, Jabba replied. Right now, its spreading out and attaching itself to all our sort data. aft(prenominal) that, it could do anything. It might decide to delete all the files, or it might just decide to print smiley faces on certain whiten House transcripts.Fontaines voice remained cool and collected. Can you stop it?Jabba let out a long sigh and faced the screen. I have no idea. It all depends on how pissed off the author is. He pointed to the message on the wall. Anybody wan t to tell me what the hell that means?ONLY THE justice WILL SAVE YOU NOWENTER PASS-KEY ______Jabba waited for a response and got none. Looks like someones messing with us, Director. Blackmail. This is a ransom note if I ever saw one.Susans voice was a whisper, empty and hollow. Its Ensei Tankado.Jabba turned to her. He stared a moment, wide-eyed. Tankado?Susan nodded weakly. He valued our confession about TRANSLTR but it cost him his-Confession? Brinkerhoff interrupted, looking stunned. Tankado wants us to confess we have TRANSLTR? Id say its a bit late for thatSusan opened her mouth to speak, but Jabba took over. Looks like Tankados got a kill-code, he said, gazing up at the message on the screen.Everyone turned.Kill code? Brinkerhoff demanded.Jabba nodded. Yeah. A pass-key that stops the worm. plainly put, if we admit we have TRANSLTR, Tankado gives us a kill-code. We type it in and ease the databank. Welcome to digital extortion.Fontaine stood like rock, unwavering. How long have we got?About an hour, Jabba said. entirely time enough to call a press conference and blab our guts.Recommendation, Fontaine demanded. What do you propose we do?A recommendation? Jabba blurted in disbelief. You want a recommendation? Ill give you a recommendation You quit fucking around, thats what you doEasy, the director warned.Director, Jabba sputtered. Right now, Ensei Tankado owns this databank Give him whatever he wants. If he wants the world to know about TRANSLTR, call CNN, and drop your shorts. TRANSLTRs a fixing in the ground now anyway-what the hell do you care?There was a silence. Fontaine seemed to be considering his options. Susan began to speak, but Jabba beat her to it.What are you waiting for, Director Get Tankado on the phone Tell him youll play ball We need that kill-code, or this whole place is going downNobody moved.Are you all insane? Jabba screamed. Call Tankado Tell him we fold Get me that kill-code NOW Jabba whipped out his cellular phone and switche d it on. Never mind Get me his number Ill call the little prick myselfDont bother, Susan said in a whisper. Tankados dead.After a moment of confused astonishment, the implications hit Jabba like a smoking to the gut. The huge Sys-Sec looked like he was about to crumble. Dead? But then that means we cantThat means well need a new plan, Fontaine said matter-of-factly.Jabbas eyes were still glazed with shock when someone in the back of the room began shouting wildly.Jabba JabbaIt was Soshi Kuta, his head techie. She came running toward the podium trailing a long printout. She looked terrified.Jabba She gasped. The worm I just found out what its programmed to do Soshi gormandize the paper into Jabbas hands. I pulled this from the system-activity probe We isolated the worms execute commands-have a look at the programming Look what its planning to doDazed, the chief Sys-Sec read the printout. Then he grabbed the handrail for support.Oh, Jesus, Jabba gasped. Tankado you bastard