Craig Kreident #1: Virtual Destruction (43 page)

“And we don’t,” Paige said, her voice turning brittle.
 
“But ignorance is even more dangerous, and it’s probably caused a whole lot more harm.”

Craig took another swallow of the beer and felt the coolness slide down his throat.
 
He was still dehydrated from his experience in the VR chamber, but the bitter fruity taste of the Red Nectar Ale was refreshing.
 
If he didn’t watch himself, he’d drink it too fast, and it would all go to his head.

Paige ran her finger along the top of the pint mug, changing subjects.
 
“Do you investigate these sorts of cases often?”

“High-tech crimes,” Craig said, nodding.
 
“If I have a specialty, that’s it—although in this area, with Silicon Valley and the weapons labs and all the cutting-edge industry, it’s getting to be more and more common.
 
In fact, it turns out this case ties with another one I made a mess of last week.”

“How?
 
Did you find something else?”

Craig shook his head.
 
“Defective computer chips.
 
Ever wonder why Lesserec’s simulations were just a little
too
vivid?
 
I had worked on a case where NanoWare Technologies were dumping defective chips.
 
T Program is used as a beta test site for new hardware, and were shipped some of their doctored chips.
 
Lesserec added them all to the VR simulation workstations.
 
He got more than he bargained for—and so did I.”

Craig took another sip of the beer.
 
“Hey, this stuff is pretty good.”
 
After a moment of silence drowned out by the music, he asked, “So what’s next for you?”

“This whole thing has caused a public relations debacle like nothing the Livermore Lab has ever seen.
 
Of course, the whole IVI demonstration has been canceled.
 
The foreign nationals are not coming out here, and the President himself is ‘reassessing’ the entire concept of Virtual Inspectors.”

“Is this going to be another shakeup just like the Laser Implosion Fusion Facility?
 
Dr. Michaelson seems to carry that sort of luck along with him.”

Paige waved her hand in dismissal.
 
“The LIFF situation involved mismanagement and poor planning,” she said.
 
“This one’s even worse because actual crimes were involved at every step of the process.
 
But who would have thought that Lesserec’s unauthorized handling of the VR chamber would have opened up a new, high-visibility market for the lab?”

Craig nearly choked on his beer.
 
“Lawrence Livermore is going into the entertainment business?”

“No, no,” laughed Paige.
 
“Medical applications—psychotherapy for one.
 
Lesserec had obtained quite a bit of information from Duane Hopkins about his son’s medical condition.
 
After seeing the way those handicapped kids reacted, Lesserec wanted to expand the use the VR chamber to the medical field.
 
So I guess something good did come from that, as warped as Lesserec was.”

“You’ll be pretty busy then, I take it,” Craig said, not knowing quite what he was fishing for.

“And you’ll be off on another high-tech case before long, I suppose,” Paige said.

“I suppose,” Craig answered, then looked down at his pint glass picking, it up and running his fingers nervously along the bottom.

“Tomorrow’s Saturday.
 
I’m still going swimming,” Paige said.
 
“I wouldn’t give that up.”

Craig looked up at her.
 
He let his smile grow.
 
“Should I bring my suit?”

She laughed.
 
“Maybe you won’t be quite so formal this time.”

“I’ll try not to,” he said.
 
“But it’s difficult for us FBI types you know.”

She raised her glass, and he raised his.
 
They clinked their mugs together.
 
When the band started playing again, they couldn’t hear their words.
 
Craig slid his hand across the table and held her hand; they sat looking at each other across the table.

AUTHORS’ NOTE

Although the majority of this novel occurs at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we have taken certain liberties in describing the people, events, and circumstances of that facility.
 
The Virtual Reality lab, T Program, Building 433, and the Laser Implosion Fusion Facility do not exist, and the characters live only in the authors’ imaginations.
 
While we have attempted to depict the Plutonium Facility accurately, we have altered certain details and aspects as the story required.
 
The toxicology and hazards of HF are similar to how we have described them here, with some minor modifications.

The views expressed herein are totally those of the authors and are not to be construed as those of the U.S. Government, the Department of Energy, the University of California, the Department of Defense, the FBI, or the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

DEDICATION

To GORGIANA ALONZO, who helped me make sense of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and its intricacies (KJA)

To MARVE ALME and CLIFF RHOADES for steering me to LLNL (DB)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We relied on the help and advice of many people for the writing of
virtual Detrcution
.
 
Some of those who contributed greatly (and in no particular order): our editor Ginjer Buchanan, our agent Richard Curtis, the crew in B Division (Bob, Jim, Chris, TT), A Division (Marv and Len), and LASNEX (Dave, George, Menoj, Judy, and Alex), Walter Scott, Rod Hyde, Warren White, James S. Johnson, Walter Jon Williams for his marvelous book
Days of Atonement
, John Stith, Lil Mitchell, Avis Minger, Dan’l Danehy-Oakes, Lori Ann White, Michael C. Berch, Claire Bell, M. Coleman Easton, Dan marcus, Michael Meltzer, and—of course—Rebecca Moesta Anderson and Cindy Beason.

Also by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason

ILL WIND

A supertanker crashes into the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling oil. Desperate to avert environmental & PR disaster, the oil company uses an oil-eating microbe to break up the spill. But the microbe, becomes airborne . . . and mutates to consume petrocarbons: oil, gas, synthetic fabrics, plastics. When all plastic begins to dissolve, it’s too late. . .

IGNITION

NASA—you have a problem.
 
In this high-tech action adventure from Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason, terrorists seize control of the Kennedy Space Center and hold the shuttle
Atlantis
and its crew hostage on the launchpad.
 
But astronaut “Iceberg” Friese, grounded from the mission because of a broken foot, is determined to slip through the swamps and rocket facilities around Cape Canaveral and pull the plug on the terrorists.
 
With their years of experience in the field, Anderson and Beason have packed
Ignition
with insider information to create an extremely plausible, action-packed thriller.

ASSEMBLERS OF INFINITY

Nebula Award Nominee
.
 
The crew of Moonbase Columbus make an amazing discovery on the far side of the Moon—a massive alien structure is erecting
itself
, built up atom by atom by living machines, microscopically small, intelligent, and unstoppable, consuming everything they touch. The mysterious structure begins to expand and take shape, and its creators begin to multiply.

Is this the first strike in an alien invasion from the stars?
 
Or has human nanotechnology experimentation gone awry, triggering an unexpected infestation?
 
As riots rage across a panicked Earth, scientists scramble to learn the truth before humanity’s home is engulfed by the voracious machines.

FALLOUT—Craig Kreident #2

They call themselves Eagle’s Claw, one of the most extreme militia groups in the United States.
 
They have infiltrated the Device Assembly Facility at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, and the most frightening display of nuclear terrorism is about to unfold.

Only the Nebula-nominated collaboration of Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason could masterfully blend hard-as-nails high-technology with hard-driving intrigue to deliver such an explosive thriller.
 
FBI Special Agent Craig Kreident—the unforgettable hero from
Virtual Destruction
—returns in this breathtaking tour de force of terrorism, cutting-edge technology, and raw emotional power.

Written by two insiders who have worked at the nation’s nuclear design laboratories and high-security research facilities, including the Nevada Nuclear Test Site,
Fallout
is a pulse-pounding thriller of an extremist group and stolen nuclear weapons, as well as a detailed portrait of what happens behind the fences of government facilities.

“Prisons”

On a harsh prison planet, the warden and the staff are as much prisoners as the convicts, but a risky prison break might free them all.

Also by Kevin J. Anderson

RESURRECTION, INC.

In the future, the dead walk the streets—Resurrection, Inc. found a profitable way to do it.
 
A microprocessor brain, synthetic heart, artificial blood, and a fresh corpse can return as a Servant for anyone with the price.
 
Trained to obey any command, Servants have no minds of their own, no memories of their past lives—scame Danal.
 
He was murdered, a sacrifice from the ever-growing cult of neo-Satanists who sought heaven in the depths of hell.
 
But as a Servant, Danal began to remember.
 
He learned who had killed him, who he was, and what Resurrection, Inc. had in mind for the human race.

CLIMBING OLYMPUS

They were prisoners, exiles, pawns of a corrupt government.
 
Now they are Dr. Rachel Dycek’s
adin
, surgically transformed beings who can survive new lives on the surface of Mars.
 
But they are still exiles, unable ever again to breathe Earth’s air.
 
And they are still pawns.

For the
adin
exist to terraform Mars for human colonists, not for themselves.
 
Creating a new Earth, they will destroy their world, killed by their own success.
 
Desperate,
adin
leader Boris Tiban launches a suicide campaign to sabotage the Mars Project, knowing his people will perish in a glorious, doomed campaign of mayhem—unless embattled, bitter Rachel Dycek can find a miracle to save both the Mars Project and the race she created.

BLINDFOLD

Atlas is a struggling colony on an untamable world, a fragile society held together by the Truthsayers.
 
Parentless, trained from birth as the sole users of Veritas, a telepathy virus that lets them read the souls of the guilty.
 
Truthsayers are Justice—infallible, beyond appeal.
 
But sometimes they are wrong.

Falsely accused of murder, Troy Boren trusts the young Truthsayer Kalliana…until, impossibly, she convicts him.
 
Still shaken from a previous reading, Kalliana doesn’t realize her power is fading.
 
But soon the evidence becomes impossible to ignore.
 
The Truthsayers’ Veritas has been diluted and someone in the colony is selling smuggled telepathy. Justice isn’t blind—it’s been
blinded
.

From an immortal’s orbital prison to the buried secrets of a regal fortress, Kalliana and Troy seek the conspiracy that threatens to destroy their world from within.
 
For without truth and justice, Atlas will certainly fall…

CAPTAIN NEMO:
 
The Fantastic History of a Dark Genius