Palm Sunday (31 page)

“It’s focused on the eastern metropolitan areas.”

“That’s fine.” Mason hesitated for a moment, as if something else was on his mind. “Let me ask you something, Norbert.”

“Sure.”

“The programs you’re using for this, are they similar to what you used against the FBI?”

“Heck, no. We’re talking two different approaches altogether.”

“I’d like to discuss this with you.”

“I want to monitor the situation here for a while, then I can stop up.”

“I look forward to it.” The line clicked as Mason hung up. 

At Dulles airport, the first indication that something was wrong involved a group of German tourists who were trying to change their reservations to extend their visit for a day. It should have been a routine transaction, but the ticket agent was unable to persuade the computer to accept her entry. She smiled at the middle-aged man in front of her, and politely asked him to step down to the next computer.

The clerk at this station was also having problems.

“You mean it won’t let you input a request?”

“Exactly. I get my prompt as usual, and enter my session ID, but then it hangs.”

“Mine does exactly the same thing. Have you ever seen this before?”

“No, they go down sometimes, but not like this.”

The German man was growing irritated. “Is there a problem?” His accent was thick. The woman who had been helping him smiled apologetically.

“Computers are down, I’m afraid. I’m going to have to call our central reservation system.”

She motioned for him to follow her back to her station, where a line was beginning to form. He walked back with her, but there was a woman now occupying the front of the line, and she gave the German a dirty look when he stepped in front of her. He pointed to the lady who was helping him, in an effort to communicate the fact that he was following her instructions. The woman looked away.

The ticket agent picked up her phone and dialed the number of the central office, but it was busy. She hung up and picked the receiver up again. Nothing. She called out to the other clerk.

“Phones are dead.”

“What do we do now?”

The lines were lengthening, not only at their counter, but all over the concourse.

“I wonder if the power’s out?”

“Lights are on. Everything else seems okay. I’m going to try a pay phone to call central. You hold down the fort.”

Her coworker nodded as she left the counter to seek out a public phone. Meanwhile, the lines continued to grow. 

Klugman seemed genuinely happy to see Stanley and Katherine. “Welcome back,” he said.

Boyd was less enthusiastic. “Hey,” was all he could manage, without a smile. After the terse greeting he turned and walked to his cubicle.

Klugman looked after him with concern. “I’m sure he’s just…”

“Boyd?” Katherine finished.

Klugman laughed. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” His demeanor became serious. “We should probably have a quick meeting to bring you two up to date. After you get situated, we’ll talk.”

“Great,” said Katherine. She and Stanley went to their cubicles, while Klugman went to talk to Boyd.

“What’s up with you?” asked Klugman.

The anger in Boyd’s eyes was unmistakable. “What’s up? I’ll tell you what’s up. You let me work my butt off to keep the project on track, or as close to it as humanly possible, then you bring these two back in to steal the glory. I think it stinks.”

“This has nothing to do with glory, Boyd. When it comes time to divvy up the bonuses, I won’t forget who was here and who wasn’t. But we need Stanley and Katherine. It’s just like it always was. If the project doesn’t succeed, none of us makes out.”

“That’s fine. Just don’t expect me to pretend they didn’t abandon us when the going got tough.”

“From what Stanley told me, that’s not how it was,” said Klugman. “At any rate, it’s not something I can discuss with you. Just play nice.”

“Right.”

Klugman knew that Boyd was more bark than bite, so he didn’t press the issue. He returned to his office to prepare for the meeting, and shortly thereafter everyone gathered in the ScanDat conference room. Stanley and Katherine sat on one side of the long table, near the middle, while Boyd sat opposite them and nearer one end.

Klugman took his usual position at the head of the table, and started the meeting. “Okay, people. Now that we’re all here, let’s get to it. Boyd, give us an update on what you’ve been doing.”

Boyd responded in a monotone, his face expressionless. “Aside from my usual duties of maintaining hardware, building the project infrastructure, and keeping the computer center running, I’ve been trying to compensate for the absence of two key employees.” He concluded with a brief glance at Klugman, who was having none of it.

“Boyd, stop it. We have to cooperate if this is going to work.”

“Hey, don’t tell me about cooperation! I’m not the one who disappeared without saying a word, then stayed out for days while the rest of us struggled to take up the slack. Talk to them about teamwork and all that. I’ve been here busting my butt.”

An awkward silence followed.

“Boyd, you’re absolutely right,” said Katherine. “We had no right to take off like we did, and we truly appreciate the way you stepped up in a very difficult time. I only hope you can forgive us, and that you’ll believe that we had a very good reason that we just can’t go into right now.”

“She’s telling the truth,” added Stanley. “I know we’ve had our differences, but if you’ll give us a chance, we’ll do what we can to make it up.”

“What do you say, Boyd?” asked Klugman.

He hesitated. “Okay. But when this is over, I want to hear the reason why you bolted.”

Stanley nodded, and reached across the table and offered his hand, which Boyd slowly accepted. Katherine placed hers on top, and the ScanDat team was back in business. 

Once reports started to come in about congestion at the airports, Norbert made the visit to Mason’s office that he had promised.

“Come in, Norbert. Have a seat. What’s the word on phase two?”

“Very good. The web is already putting out stories about lines at ticket counters, and in a couple places things got a bit nasty. Apparently the typical American traveler doesn’t have a very high threshold of patience.” Norbert settled back on the couch.

“How long before we achieve maximum effect?” asked Mason.

“It should take about a day to reach the boiling point. We’ll definitely hear something on the evening news. Possibly sooner.”

“That’s great, Norbert, really fantastic.”

Norbert beamed. “It’s nothing, really, sir. Just a few lines of code where it wasn’t expected.”

“Don’t be modest. In fact, I wish you would indulge me and tell me exactly how you did it.”

“What do you mean?” asked Norbert.

“Explain to me how it works. I probably won’t understand, but I’m fascinated by what you do.”

Norbert leaned forward. “Most people couldn’t care less about this stuff. I’d be happy to explain it to you.”

“Please.”

Mason made himself comfortable, while Norbert gathered himself, trying to decide where to begin.

“When you log on to your computer, what’s the first thing that happens?”

Mason answered immediately. “It asks me for a user ID and password. I can change the domain name if I want, as well.”

“That’s correct,” said Norbert. “At least as far as you’re aware. In reality, the system is performing a whole series of self-checks, opening and closing files, checking hardware, stuff like that.”

“I see. So what does this have to do with the airline shutdown program that you wrote for phase two?”

“I can take advantage of those behind-the-scenes processes to gain entry into smaller systems, which often lead to larger systems. It’s all about finding a path to the target.”

“And this program you wrote,” said Mason. “How is it different from the one you used to shut down the FBI’s computers?”

“This one is more generic, more flexible. I didn’t know exactly what I would find in each system, so the program had to be more intelligent, so it could adapt to its local environment.”

“Why is that different from the FBI scenario?”

“In the case of the FBI I knew pretty much what kind of system I was dealing with–what security was in place, that sort of thing. Also, the FBI data center only had to be shut down for a few hours, which was pretty easy to accomplish.”

“That was a nice job, Norbert.”

“Thank you. Anyway, the airlines are going to have to recover on their own. In the FBI case, the infection I introduced was designed to stop its nastiness after five hours.”

“So it was the same mechanism, with a few adjustments?” said Mason.

“I’d say that’s a fair statement. I still used DLLs as a delivery instrument, but the contents of those files were quite different.”

Norbert went into a seemingly unending stream of technical detail about reusable components, object oriented programming, and various other topics that had Mason nodding. It was extensive detail about the design process.

“Could the FBI program be reused if necessary?” asked Mason.

“Not likely. Since they caught it after a few hours, I have to assume that they’ve developed a filter for it.”

“I have another project for you,” said Mason.

“What’s that?”

“I want you to modify the FBI program, combining it with certain elements of the airline project.”

“Modify it? How?”

“In two ways. First, I want the capability to disable the FBI again if need be. You said that using the same program probably wouldn’t work a second time. I don’t want to be left defenseless if they start to close in on us again.”

“What else?”

“I want the program to be target enabled.”

“I don’t understand,” said Norbert.

“Can you write it so that it prompts you for who to target?”

“Oh, I get it. In case some other agency starts to get too close.”

“Exactly,” said Mason. “Can you do it?”

Norbert tapped a pen against his leg, considering. “It’s a tall order.”

Mason allowed a look of disappointment to cross his face. “Oh, well, if it’s too hard…”

“I said difficult, not impossible.” Norbert paused for a moment. “But I guess it could be done.”

“Excellent. Could you build in a timing mechanism, so we could tell it for how long to shut down the target?”

“I can tell it when to stop being a nuisance, but just like with the FBI if they detect the problem before that time, they may be able to fix it sooner. Also, without knowing exactly who it would be used against, the coding will have to be very generic, very flexible, like the airline program.”

Mason nodded. “As long as we have something to use in an emergency.”

“I understand.”

“I’d like you to start work on this right away,” said Mason. “Keep me apprised of your progress, and as usual, this is highly confidential.” Mason’s tone and expression made it clear that the meeting was over.

Norbert rose to leave. “I won’t disappoint you, Mr. Mason.”

Mason smiled at him as he left, then reached under his desk and turned off the video recorder. He was terrible at remembering technical details, and thought he might need the information Norbert had provided before this was all over.

It was the first large-scale computer shutdown in American history, and law enforcement agencies at all levels scrambled to get a handle on the problem. Agent Sharon’s computer center was no exception; in fact, they were very much at the core of the firestorm. They had just recovered from their own shutdown when the public transportation system went into spasms.

With travel by air, rail, or bus at a virtual standstill in the eastern United States, the public looked increasingly to the government to solve what was clearly a case of sabotage. Within the Bureau there was a race to be the hero who solved the problem. That was why Dave Roberts was pressing Agent Sharon to isolate and correct the problem, and why he repeatedly called for updates. Even now Sharon was being informed that Roberts was asking for him on the phone. He picked up the receiver for the third time that hour.

“Agent Sharon,” he said.

“What’s your status?” asked Roberts, impatiently.

Sharon resisted the urge to tell him that it was the same as when he called fifteen minutes earlier. “We’re working on it. Hopefully we can identify the source while the trail is still relatively fresh.”

“Hold off on that,” said Roberts. “The Secretary of Transportation is raising hell to get things moving. That’s your first priority. Whatever is broken, have your people develop some kind of a patch.”

It was unbelievable. “With all due respect,” said Sharon, “the longer we wait to track down whoever did this, the less likely it is we’ll find them.”

“I’m aware of that, but we’ve got people stranded all over the place. If this isn’t fixed, and quickly, we’re going to have riots to contend with.”

“That might be the least of our problems,” said Sharon.

Roberts wasn’t listening. “We’ll do this my way. Concentrate on finding a fix, and worry about the criminal implications later.”

Sharon thought Robert’s order had ‘criminal implications’. He bit his tongue. “Very well. I’ll have my staff work on a technical solution.”

“Keep me posted.” As Roberts hung up, Sharon replaced the receiver and looked across the room.

“Justin, come here a minute.”

He hurried over. “Yes, sir?”

“New orders. We have to stop looking for the source of the attack, and work on getting the affected systems up and running.”

Justin was surprised. “With all due respect, sir, shouldn’t we be looking for the bad guys?”

“Of course we should, but that’s not Robert’s priority. What can I tell you? Welcome to politics.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do?” asked Justin.

“Hell, yes,” thought Sharon. “There’s one thing I want to try before we switch gears. Is Walthrop’s system still physically available?”

“Sure,” said Justin. “All we have to do is sync up the servers, and that would only take a few minutes.”