Palm Sunday (42 page)

“In another three minutes it won’t matter. Pascua will be fully deployed.”

Norbert felt his blood run cold. “Who are you targeting?”

Mason smiled. It felt good to be on the other side of technical ignorance for a change. “How’s it feel, computer boy? What’s the matter, can’t keep up?”

“I don’t understand. You know how destructive Pascua is.” He hesitated. “Did you target the FBI?”

Mason laughed. “Yes, them. Along with a few others.”

“But that’s not the way it’s written. There are safety protocols.”

Mason leaned back and smiled. “I rewrote the program.”

Norbert’s head was swimming. “That’s not…possible.”

“Oh, I had help. A certain under-appreciated computer scientist was gracious enough to explain his greatest work of art. The rest took some research, but I was able to modify your address range selection criteria, and the security protocols have been completely removed.” Mason seemed quite satisfied with himself.

Norbert half stood. “You can’t do this. If you really have made those changes, then releasing it will have devastating consequences.”

“You don’t say?” He looked at his watch. “Well that’s a shame, because as of now, Pascua has left the building.”

Norbert slowly shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”

“Go check your log file. You’ll find that my portal emitted a single binary encoded object less than a minute ago. The signature matches the upgraded Pascua program. It’s on its way.”

Norbert slowly got to his feet and walked to the door. This time Mason didn’t stop him. He opened the door and stopped in the threshold, looking back.

“Mr. Mason?”

“Yes?”

“Why Pascua?”

“You mean why did I send it? I thought I had explained that.”

“No. Why did you name it ‘Pascua’?”

“Oh, that. It’s from Pascua Florida. Spanish for ‘Easter’.” Norbert didn’t get it, which showed in his expression. “That which rises comes from that which falls. There must be atonement.”

“Atonement?”

“For sin, Norbert. Evil has taken root, even here, and it must be purged.”

“What evil?”

“You haven’t been listening. Surf the net, boy. Even a well-intentioned person will eventually come across filth and perversion. What do you think is responsible for that?”

“Not what, sir; who. It’s people who are responsible.”

“And we shall remove the tools of iniquity.”

“Not we. You.”

Mason smiled. “Oh, it is very much ‘we’. If you hadn’t written Pascua, this wouldn’t have been possible. Thank you, son.” Mason returned to his to work as if nothing had happened.

Norbert rushed to his lab, hoping that maybe it was all a bad dream. Fifteen minutes later, he had confirmed Mason’s claims. Two minutes after that he was in the bathroom, puking his guts out. 

When Agent Sharon and Justin arrived at Slocum’s apartment, it was just as the police had left it. The local police let them in and then departed. Justin went immediately to the Alpha, surprised that anyone would keep such a powerful unit in an apartment.

Sharon joined him. “Whatever they were up to, it was no good.”

“Yes,” agreed Justin, “but what were they up to?”

The Alpha was shut down, and now it simply sat, darkened and silent.

“We’re not going to learn anything here,” said Sharon. “We’ll have to move this stuff back to the lab. I want to talk to the folks they arrested, too.”

“Will they still be at the local station?”

Sharon nodded. “Yeah. We’ll pick them up on the way back.”

Twenty minutes later they walked into the small police station. The sergeant at the desk looked up as they approached.

“Help you?”

“I’m Agent Sharon, FBI.” He showed his badge. “You’re holding three prisoners. A man and two women that were brought in earlier today.”

“Yeah, we’ve been expecting you. Paperwork’s already filled out. Just sign it and they’re yours.” He produced a stack of papers from a nearby shelf. “Sign three copies for each prisoner.” Sharon did as instructed, and showed his badge again, from which the sergeant copied down his name and number.

“Down the hall and to the right. Bring this copy with you. Do you need someone to help get them in your car?”

“That would be helpful,” said Sharon.

A few minutes later, Stanley, Katherine and Kayoko, hands cuffed, were unceremoniously escorted to Sharon’s car and placed in the back seat. Stanley protested that he didn’t want to go, which brought laughter from one of the officers. It was what Stanley expected.

“Have a nice ride.” The words echoed in his ears as the door slammed shut and the car pulled away from the police station. They drove for several minutes in silence before Stanley spoke.

“So I guess we’re on our way to the agency?”

Justin looked at him. “You mean the Bureau.”

“Yeah, right.” Stanley looked out the window at the lights in the houses they passed. He longed for the time when he and Bobby and his mother were a happy family. How things had changed since then.

Sharon looked at Stanley in the rearview mirror. “That was quite a setup back at the apartment. Where’d you get the Alpha?”

Stanley was in no mood for answering questions. “Compaq,” he responded sarcastically.

Sharon nodded. “I figured. It’s not a cheap toy, though. I’m guessing you had some pretty serious backers. Maybe from overseas?”

Stanley looked at Sharon’s face in the mirror. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, c’mon. We know you’ve been messing with the Internet, but I doubt you’re the top dog, so we can probably cut a deal if you give us some names. How about it?”

Stanley was suddenly hopeful. “Who do you work for?”

“We told you, we’re with the FBI,” said Sharon.

“And you have something to do with computer security?” Stanley was leaning forward now.

“My name is Agent Sharon, and yes, I have something to do with computer security. But I’m sure you already knew that.”

Katherine suddenly joined in. “Are you the ones who sent out the optical pulse?”

Sharon looked at Justin, who smiled. “I’m afraid we can’t discuss Bureau tactics with you.”

“Please,” said Stanley, “you have to listen to me. There’s something going on here that you don’t know about.”

“What might that be?” asked Sharon.

“There are others involved, a group of people who manipulate the Internet data stream. They’ve been doing it for years.”

“Right,” said Sharon. “So maybe I should release you and go arrest someone else.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” said Stanley. “Keep us in custody–that’s fine. But you have to shut down the agency’s operation.”

“The Agency?” Sharon thought he meant the CIA.

“Not that agency.” Stanley looked at Kayoko. “What’s it called?”

“National Communications,” she said.

“Never heard of them,” said Sharon.

“They exist, and they regularly tap into the Internet to extract information.”

“Look. I don’t know who you are–yet–but I do know that someone was messing with the Internet, and that someone was you.”

Stanley nodded. “Yes, we were in the data stream, but only because we were trying to stop the agency.”

“They’re starting to try to influence events,” said Kayoko. “They want to induce a societal profile, rather than simply monitor it.”

“A what?” asked Sharon.

“A societal profile. Look,” said Kayoko. “ I know this sounds crazy, but they’ve been doing it for years. They have devices planted all over that give them access to the fiber optic cables that the Internet runs on.”

“What kind of devices?”

Kayoko shook her head. “I don’t know, exactly, but they’re quite sophisticated. They somehow reflect signals from the fiber back to the agency.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about this agency for someone who’s not involved.”

“I used to work for them.”

“Used to?”

“We parted ways. I didn’t like the direction they were headed.”

They drove in silence for several more minutes. Sharon seemed to be mulling things over.

“Do you have any proof?” he asked.

“You can examine the logs from our computer,” said Stanley.

“We will do that,” said Sharon. “What about this agency?”

“We can tell you where they’re…look out!” Stanley’s shouted warning was too late, as a car darted over from two lanes away and rammed into them. Sharon lost control of the wheel, and they veered to the right, crashing into a parked truck. Steam billowed from under the hood as Sharon lay slumped over his now deflated airbag.

Suddenly someone was pulling Sharon’s door open. “Get out!”

Sharon was too dazed to respond, and Justin simply watched in stunned silence.

“Slocum!” yelled Kayoko. He quickly took Sharon’s gun from its holster, and opened the back door. Kayoko was nearest, and with Slocum’s aid she quickly got out from the car.

“Hurry,” said Slocum. “These two will come to their senses soon.” Everyone got out, and Slocum went back to the front seat to try to find the key for the handcuffs. It was in Sharon’s jacket pocket, and the cuffs were quickly removed. “Let’s get out of here.” Slocum walked towards Katherine’s car.

As they started to move away, Katherine stopped. “Wait a minute, Robert. Did you know that these guys are real FBI agents?”

Slocum stopped. “Are you sure about that?”

“Why would they lie to us?”

“I don’t know. Maybe so you would take them into their confidence.”

“Are we headed towards the agency?” asked Stanley.

Slocum shook his head. “No. But the FBI has a regional data center in this direction. That could be where they were going.” He walked back and pulled Sharon’s wallet out of his pocket, checking his identification. It appeared authentic. “Looks real, but it could be a forgery. It doesn’t matter, though. We still want to get away from here.”

“I don’t think so,” said Katherine. “If we stay, we may be able to convince them that our story is true.”

“And if they don’t believe you?” asked Slocum.

“Then we’d be in trouble.”

“There’s another issue,” said Stanley. “We don’t have any other way to fight the agency now.”

Slocum was hard pressed to counter this argument. With no equipment, and few resources, they were out of options. At least if they could persuade the FBI that the threat was real, there was a chance that the agency could be stopped. He went to Sharon’s side and tried to help him.

“Get your hands off me.” Sharon reached awkwardly for his gun, but his hand came out empty. He looked at Justin, who did not carry a weapon, and back at Slocum. “What do you want?”

Slocum motioned for Katherine to come nearer. She squatted down next to Sharon.

“Listen,” she said. “We could have easily escaped. Killed you–whatever. We chose to stay because what we told you is the truth, and we need you. You don’t know it yet, but you need us, too.”

Sharon was in pain, his arm injured. “I don’t need you.”

“Please, you have to believe me,” said Katherine. “Look, this is my colleague,” she pointed at Stanley. “We work for a company called ScanDat, and…”

“ScanDat? I’ve heard that name before.” His mind was still foggy, but then he remembered. “Yes–it was you! You were hacking into the Net, and you were using ScanDat as a base of operations. We should have shut you down.”

“Yes! We were raided some time back. At the time we thought it was by the agency we’ve been telling you about.”

“You were messing with the data stream.”

“Yes,” said Katherine. “But as we told you, we were trying to combat the agency. Please, it’s a very long story, but you have to believe us.”

At that moment Bobby jumped out of the back seat of Katherine’s car and ran up to his father.

“Dad!”

Sharon watched the reunion. “You don’t exactly look like terrorists.” He looked at Slocum. “Except maybe you.”

“Thanks,” said Slocum. He flipped Sharon’s gun around, and held it out. Sharon looked at it for a moment, and then slowly accepted it.

“Justin, we’re going to have to ride in their car. Help me out–I think I broke my arm.” 

Norbert didn’t waste much time in his lab. He spent all of seven minutes locating the name and address of a person he very much needed to speak with, grabbed a few CDs, took one last look at his beloved computer center, and left the agency. Not wanting to arouse suspicion, he didn’t even shut down his own workstation. He simply walked away.

They waited tensely in the FBI data center’s conference room, visitor badges prominently displayed on their lapels. But the badges were just for show. Sharon did not have them officially sign in, since he didn’t want to involve Roberts unless there were criminal implications. For the time being, his guests were simply another technical resource.

There had been no further incidents in the data stream since Stanley and the others were arrested, which didn’t exactly inspire confidence in their story. But Sharon couldn’t discount the fact that they were here voluntarily, and so far he had found no inconsistencies in what they had told him.

“So had it not been for your son finding the palm unit,” said Sharon, “none of this would have happened?”

“That’s right,” said Stanley. “All I wanted to do was return it to its rightful owner. People keep important information in those things.”

“But you couldn’t break through the security.”

“Not with any measure of success, at least not in the beginning. We eventually managed to access agency communications, but even that was only partially successful.”

Sharon nodded. He of all people understood the difficulty of deciphering the agency’s transmissions. That Stanley and his group got as far as they did impressed him.

“One part of your story confuses me,” said Sharon. “When Slocum came to your house and demanded the palmtop, you were willing to hand it over, right?”

“Of course,” said Stanley.

“But after the agency men shot up your house, you didn’t you go to the police. Why not?”

Stanley glanced quickly at Bobby. The boy had been largely ignoring the conversation up to this point, but now he looked at his father, obviously interested in the answer.