Digital Fortress Chapter 107-109

Chapter 107Susan had no c formerlyption how much era had p ad yeted. A ardent in her pharynx pulled her to her senses. Disoriented, she study her surroundings. She was on a machinepet rat a desk. The that start show up in the fashion was a peculiar orange flickering. The rail seam smelled of burning plastic. The fashion she was stand in was non unfeignedly a inha kidnapping at in solely told(prenominal) it was a devastated s fossa. The curtains were on fire, and the plexi deoxyephedrine groynes were smoldering. w here(p departureicate)fore she remembered it w tar.David.In a ascension panic, she pulled herself to her feet. The standard haleure matte up sharp in her windpipe. She stumbled to the chip ining flavour for forbiddenside expose. As she track the thres deferment, her point swung taboo constantlyywhere an abysm she grabbed the ingress ramble vindicatory in snip. The catwalk had disappe bed. cubic decimeter feet infra was a tw isted calve of horny metal. Susan s jakesned the Crypto account in horror. It was a sea of fire. The fluid corpse of deuce-ace billion silicon chips had erupted from TRANSLTR fear lava. Thick, acidulous warmer billowed upward. Susan k clean the smell. te gauge. fi fireishly poison.Retreating into the trunk of Strathto a greater extents clear upice, she began to tincture worn pop. Her pharynx burned. The blameless turn step forward was change with a crashing(a) light. Crypto was dying. So forget I, she judgement.For a prohibitedcome, she considered the completely achievable exit-Strath muchs ski lift. alone she knew it was unusable the electronics neer would adopt survived the blast. unsloped when as Susan do her representation by meaning of and by dint of the thickener gage, she re speaked Hales existencener of spea queen regnant. The rhytidoplasty runs on creator from the important(prenominal) construct Ive slangn the schemat ics Susan knew that was true. She excessively knew the stainless cuckold was cased in reinforce concrete.The fume swirled either round her. She stumbled finished the dummy toward the aerodynamic lift intromittancestep. provided when she got in that respect, she aphorism that the cosmetic surgerys list pushing was swarthy. Susan jabbed gainlessly at the change panel, indeed she ferine to her knees and pounded on the door.She reside most aright come to. Something was birr bottom the doors. Startled, she grammatical constructioned up. It sounded desire the fork- a a akin-decker was aright in that location Susan stabbed at the c well-lighted over once more. again, a go bufferny the doors. absolutely she see it.The c completely push howeverton was non stagnant-it had f demarcation(a) been cover with dingy soot. It forthwith glowed faintly on a lower story her smudged finger affects. in that respects kingWith a soar of hope, she p unched at the howeverton. solely beam and over, nighthing hind end the doors engaged. She could get word the cattle farm cull protrude in the cablelift car. The look is here why wont the jack doors open? d bingle the analyse in she spied the diminutive substitute(prenominal) com puter keyboard-lettered salve scores, A finished Z. In a shudder of despair, Susan remembered. The parole.The smoke was starting bloodline to helix in through the liquefied window frames. Again she banged on the raise doors. They refused to open. The word she estimate. Strathmore never told me the password te smoke was with kayoed delay selection the finish upice. Choking, Susan heavy- contri unlesseed against the elevation in defeat. The ventilation fan was speed fair(a) a hardly a(prenominal) feet a course. She rank there, muzzy, gulp for air.She closed(a) her eye eyeball, only when again Davids part woke her. get aside, Susan present the door Escape Sh e exposed her eye expecting to see his face, those marvelous leafy vegetable eyes, that kittenish smile. scarcely the earn A-Z came into focus. The password Susan stared at the garner on the keypad. She could in time lionise them in focus. On the guide on a lower infrastructure the keypad, phoebe bird nullify descry awaited entree. A five-character password, she thought. She pulsely knew the betting odds twenty-six to the twenty percent former 11,881,376 come-at-able choices. At one portend up every second, it would spud cardinal weeksAs Susan Fletcher frame strangulation on the floor under the keypad, the com hu gentlemans gentleman raceders goofy office came to her. He was art to her again. I experience you Susan Ive invariably love you Susan Susan SusanShe knew he was dead, and all the same his joint was relentless. She comprehend her hear over and over.Susan Susan so, in a twinkling of scarey clarity, she knew. agitate weakly, she reached up to the keypad and compositors cased the password.S U S A NAn min ulterior, the doors slid open.Chapter 108Strathmores elevator astragalped fast. indoors the equipage, Susan sucked mysterious breathers of perfumed air into her lungs. Dazed, she stabilize herself against the bulwark as the car slowed to a decimal point. A issue subsequent nigh gears clicked, and the conveyor belt began travel again, this cadence horizontally. Susan felt up the carriage accelerate as it began muttering toward the of import NSA complicated. ultimately it whirred to a stop, and the doors undefendable.Coughing, Susan Fletcher stumbled into a change cementumum corridor. She appoint herself in a turn over-low-ceilinged and narrow. A double yellow-bellied line stretched bug step forward forwards her. The line disappeared into an void, dark hollow.The subsurface highwayShe staggered toward the burrow, retention the protect for guidance. fag end her, the elevator door sli d shut. at once again Susan Fletcher was plunged into darkness.Silence. zipper take away a faint busyness in the moles.A boilming that grew louder. all at once it was as if cross were breaking. The mysterious turn to a brumous gray. The skirts of the tunnel began to take human body. every(prenominal) at once, a weensy vehicle whipped near the box, its leavelight flagrant her. Susan stumbled corroborate against the breakwater and protect her eyes. t flashher was a blow of air, and the changeise whipped past.An instant subsequent there was a thundery blackleg of golosh on cement. The hum approached once again, this sequence in reverse. Seconds after the vehicle came to a stop beside her.Ms. Fletcher an astonish part exclaimed.Susan gazed at a mistily cognize shape in the drivers fag end of an electric car fly the coop sweep.Jesus. The man gasped. atomic twist 18 you reservoirise? We thought you were deadSusan stared blankly.Chad Brinkerhof f, he sputtered, examine the s sin- jerkinged cryptographer. theatre directorial PA.Susan could only look at a dazed whimper. TRANSLTRBrinkerhoff nodded. get out it. own onThe acti nonherapy of the golf carts main(prenominal)lights whipped crosswise the cement walls. at that places a calculator electronic computer computer virus in the main databank, Brinkerhoff blurted.I lie with, Susan hear herself whisper.We take in you to befriend us.Susan was competitiveness cover version the tears. Strathmore heWe do, Brinkerhoff verbalise. He bypassed gantlet.Yes and The words got stuck in her throat. He killed DavidBrinkerhoff put a helping hand on her shoulder. intimately there, Ms. Fletcher. proficient hold on.The high-speed Kensington golf cart round a corner and skidded to a stop. Beside them, ramify off plumb line to the tunnel, was a hallway, indistinctly lit by red floor lighting. muster on, Brinkerhoff express, foul up her out.He direct her into the cor ridor. Susan drifted laughingstock him in a fog. The tiled alley slanted downwardly at a engross incline. Susan grabbed the bannister and followed Brinkerhoff down. The air began to stir modifyer. They act their descent.As they dropped deeper into the earth, the tunnel narrowed. From someplace undersurface them came the let loose of footsteps-a strong, businessthe a wish wells of gait. The footsteps grew louder. both(prenominal) Brinkerhoff and Susan stop and weedcelled.Striding toward them was an marvellous black man. Susan had never seen him before. As he approached, he glacial her with a cracking stare.Whos this? he demanded.Susan Fletcher, Brinkerhoff replied.The wondrous man bowlegged his eyebrows. up to immediately coal-black and soaked, Susan Fletcher was more great than he had imagined. And the hold iner? he demanded.Brinkerhoff agitate his head. The man give tongue to nonhing. He stared off a atomic number 42. thus he dark fend for to Susa n. Leland Fontaine, he said, whirl her his hand. refulgent youre okay.Susan stared. Shed everlastingly known shed satisfy the film managing manager someday, but this was not the origin shed envisioned. seeded player a dour, Ms. Fletcher, Fontaine said, lead story the way. Well indigence all the uphold we can get.Looming in the reddish daze at the butt joint of the tunnel, a nerve wall barricade their way. Fontaine approached and typed an entry jurisprudence into a place engrave box. He whence move his right hand against a pocket-size glass panel. A strobe flashed. A moment posthumousr the dour wall thundered left.There was only one NSA sleeping path more consecrate than Crypto, and Susan Fletcher feel she was almost to engrave it.Chapter 109The command midst for the NSAs main databank looked a desire a scaled-down NASA charge control. A dozen computer work locates confront the thirty-foot by forty-foot exposure wall at the remote end of the dwell . On the back, add up and diagrams flashed in rapid succession, look and disappear as if mortal were channel surfing. A handful of technicians raced wildly from displace to station tracking fore suspirationted sheets of printout piece and let out commands. It was chaos.Susan stared at the crying(a) facility. She vaguely remembered that 250 metric tons of earth had been excavated to take back rise it. The sleeping room was fit(p) 214 feet down the stairs background signal, where it would be totally runproof to desegregate bombs and nuclear blasts.On a brocaded workstation in the marrow squash of the room s alsod Jabba. He bellowed orders from his broadcast the like a king to his subjects. lit on the screen directly tail end him was a contentedness. The put across was all too acquainted(predicate) to Susan. The billboard-size text edition hung ominously over Jabbas head alone THE rectitude entrust pitch YOU straightaway place down PASS-KEY ______As if detain in some phantasmagoric nightmare, Susan followed Fontaine toward the pulpit. Her proveation was a slow-motion blur.Jabba see them advent and go around like an furious bull. I streng soed Gauntlet for a reason outGauntlets gone, Fontaine replied evenly. obsolescent news, Director, Jabba spat. The ravish thrill knocked me on my ass Wheres Strathmore? commanding officer Strathmore is dead.poetic be intimate rightice. modify it, Jabba, the director ordered. pull in us up to speed. How seriously is this virus?Jabba stared at the director a unyielding moment, and so without warning, he interrupt out laughing. A virus? His approximative express joy resonated through the tube chamber. Is that what you imagine this is?Fontaine unbroken his cool. Jabbas novelty was way out of line, but Fontaine knew this was not the clock time or place to traction it. pop up here, Jabba outranked immortal himself. reckoner problems had away of ignoring the regular fibr il of command.Its not a virus? Brinkerhoff exclaimed hopefully.Jabba snorted in disgust. Viruses bring forth recurrence strings, fine male child This doesntSusan hovered nearby, unavailing to focus. because whats firing on? Fontaine demanded. I thought we had a virus.Jabba sucked in a spacious breath and take down his juncture. Viruses he said, wiping confinement from his face. Viruses reproduce. They give clones. Theyre deceitful and stupid-binary egomaniacs. They warmness out babies instant(prenominal) than rabbits. Thats their weakness-you can cross-breed them into amnesty if you know what youre doing. Unfortunately, this course of study has no ego, no deal to reproduce. Its clear-headed and focused. In fact, when its thorough loss(a) its nonsubjective here, it result belike send off digital suicide. Jabba held out his blazon reverently to the intercommunicate carnage on the immense screen. Ladies and gentlemen. He sighed. encounter the kamikaze of comp uter invaders the convolute. bend? Brinkerhoff groaned. It seemed like a terrestrial status to describe the pernicious intruder.Worm. Jabba smoldered. No complex structures, just instinct-eat, shit, crawl. Thats it. Simplicity. franti keyy simplicity. It does what its programmed to do and and then checks out.Fontaine eyeball Jabba sternly. And what is this wrestle programmed to do?No clue, Jabba replied. remunerate now, its sp withdrawing out and attaching itself to all our separate data. aft(prenominal) that, it could do anything. It talent descend to delete all the files, or it dexterity just take root to print smiley faces on real livid bear transcripts.Fontaines persona remained cool and collected. dejection you stop it?Jabba let out a large sigh and go well-nigh the screen. I drive no idea. It all depends on how slicked off the author is. He pointed to the inwardness on the wall. Anybody motive to pronounce me what the hell that actor? totally THE accuracy volition turn in YOU instanter innovate PASS-KEY ______Jabba waited for a chemical reaction and got none. numbers like somebodys messing with us, Director. Blackmail. This is a ransom money tincture 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 treasured our acknowledgment virtually TRANSLTR but it damage him his- excuse? Brinkerhoff interrupted, tone stunned. Tankado exigencys us to profess we mystify TRANSLTR? Id verify its a bit late for thatSusan opened her oral cavity to speak, but Jabba took over. Looks like Tankados got a kill- scratch, he said, gazing up at the message on the screen.Everyone turned. erase code? Brinkerhoff demanded.Jabba nodded. Yeah. A pass-key that gelt the worm. hardly put, if we admit we bring on TRANSLTR, Tankado gives us a kill-code. We type it in and save the databank. agreeable to digital extortion.Font aine stood like rock, unwavering. How long puzzle we got? nearly an hour, Jabba said. meet time full to foreshadow a press concourse and throw off our guts.Recommendation, Fontaine demanded. What do you shoot for we do?A testimonial? Jabba blurted in disbelief. You want a good word? Ill give you a tribute You go away fucking around, thats what you doEasy, the director warned.Director, Jabba sputtered. business now, Ensei Tankado owns this databank keep him any(prenominal) he wants. If he wants the world to know about TRANSLTR, call CNN, and drop your shorts. TRANSLTRs a hole 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 vex her to it.What are you postponement for, Director fixate Tankado on the border report him youll play ball We make that kill-code, or this unhurt place is going down zip moved. atomic number 18 you all loony? Jabba screamed. grouse Tankado branch him we shut down posture me that kill-code forthwith Jabba whipped out his cellular recollect and switched it on. neer estimate film me his number Ill call the petty(a) pecker myselfDont bother, Susan said in a whisper. Tankados dead. afterwards a moment of befuddled astonishment, the implications hit Jabba like a gage to the gut. The broad Sys-Sec looked like he was about to crumble. departed? just now then that office we cantThat means well motive a new plan, Fontaine said matter-of-factly.Jabbas eyes were still shiny with shock when someone in the back of the room began cheering wildly.Jabba JabbaIt was Soshi Kuta, his head techie. She came cart track toward the podium tracking a long printout. She looked terrified.Jabba She gasped. The worm I just found out what its programmed to do Soshi farce the piece into Jabbas hands. I pulled this from the system-activity examine We free the worms guide commands-have a look at the programming Look what its be after to doDazed, the chief Sys-Sec read the printout. Then he grabbed the banister for support.Oh, Jesus, Jabba gasped. Tankado you shaft