Digital Fortress Chapter 118-122

Chapter 118Its proof, Fontaine said decidedly. Tankado dumped the ring. He wanted it as far from himself as possible-so wed never find it. exclusively if, Director, Susan argued, it doesnt figure step up sense. If Tankado was unaware hed been murdered, why would he give a path the kill edict?I agree, Jabba said. The kids a rebel, plainly hes a rebel with a conscience. get us to admit to TRANSLTR is 1 thing revealing our classified databank is another.Fontaine stared, disbelieving. You have in mind Tankado wanted to stop this worm? You think his dying thoughts were for the poor NSA?Tunnel-block eating away a technician yelled. Full vulnerability in fifteen minutes, maximumIll sort out you what, the director declared, taking control. In fifteen minutes, every Third mankind country on the planet will learn how to build an intercontinental ballistic missile. If some cardinal in this room thinks hes got a bankrupt prospect for a kill code than this ring, Im all ears. The dire ctor waited. No one spoke. He returned his gaze to Jabba and locked eyes. Tankado dumped that ring for a reason, Jabba. Whether he was trying to finish it, or whether he thought the fat guy would run to a pay phone and call us with the information, I really dont care. But Ive made the decision. Were entering that quote. Now.Jabba took a long breath. He k rising Fontaine was right-there was no better option. They were running out of time. Jabba sat. Okay lets do it. He pulled himself to the keyboard. Mr. Becker? The inscription, please. Nice and easy.David Becker study the inscription, and Jabba typed. When they were done, they double-checked the spelling and omitted all the spaces. On the mettle panel of the view wall, upright the top, were the letterQUISCUSTODIETIPSOSCUSTODESI dont like it, Susan muttered softly. Its not clean.Jabba hesitated, hovering over the ENTER key.Do it, Fontaine commanded.Jabba hit the key. Seconds later the whole room knew it was a mistake.Chapter 119I ts accelerating Soshi yelled from the lynchpin of the room. Its the wrong codeEveryone stood in silent horror.On the screen originally them was the error messageILLEGAL ENTRY. NUMERIC FIELD ONLY.Damn it Jabba screamed. numerical only Were aromaing for a goddamn number Were fucked This ring is prickingWorms at double speed Soshi shouted. Penalty roundOn the center screen, right beneath the error message, the VR painted a terrifying image. As the third firewall gave way, the half(a)-dozen or so black lines repre displaceing marauding hackers surged forward, advancing relentlessly toward the core. With each passing moment, a new line appeared. Then another.Theyre swarming Soshi yelled. validating overseas tie-ins cried another technician. Words outSusan averted her gaze from the image of the collapsing firewalls and turned to the expression screen. The footage of Ensei Tankados kill was on endless loop. It was the same every time-Tankado clutching his chest, falling, and with a look of desperate panic, forcing his ring on a group of unsuspecting tourists. It makes no sense, she thought. If he didnt know wed killed him Susan drew a total blank. It was too late. Weve lose something.On the VR, the number of hackers pounding at the gates had doubled in the last few minutes. From now on, the number would increase exponentially. Hackers, like hyenas, were one big family, always eager to spread the word of a new kill.Leland Fontaine had apparently seen enough. Shut it down, he declared. Shut the damn thing down.Jabba stared solid ahead like the captain of a sinking ship. Too late, sir. Were breathing out down.Chapter 120The four-hundred-pound Sys-Sec stood motionless, hands resting atop his head in a freeze-frame of disbelief. Hed uniform a power shutdown, that it would be a good cardinal minutes too late. Sharks with high-speed modems would be able to download staggering quantities of classified information in that window.Jabba was awakened from his night mare by Soshi charge to the podium with a new printout. Ive found something, sir she said excitedly. Orphans in the cite Alpha groupings. All over the placeJabba was unmoved. Were looking for a numeric, dammit not an alpha The kill-code is a numberBut weve got orphans Tankados too good to choke orphans-especially this m some(prenominal)The term orphans referred to extra lines of programming that didnt serve the programs objective in any way. They fed nothing, referred to nothing, led nowhere, and were usually remove as exposit of the final debugging and compiling process.Jabba took the printout and studied it.Fontaine stood silent.Susan peered over Jabbas shoulder at the printout. Were cosmos attacked by a rough draft of Tankados worm?Polished or not, Jabba retorted, its kicking our ass.I dont buy it, Susan argued. Tankado was a perfectionist. You know that. Theres no way he left bugs in his program.There are lots of them Soshi cried. She grabbed the printout from Jabba and pu shed it in front of Susan. LookSusan nodded. Sure enough, after every twenty or so lines of programming, there were four free-floating characters. Susan scanned them.PFEESESNRETM quatern-bit alpha groupings, she puzzled. Theyre definitely not share of the programming.Forget it, Jabba growled. Youre grabbing at straws.Maybe not, Susan said. A lot of encoding uses four-bit groupings. This could be a code.Yeah. Jabba groaned. It says-Ha, ha. Youre fucked. He looked up at the VR. In about nightspot minutes.Susan ignored Jabba and locked in on Soshi. How many orphans are there?Soshi shrugged. She commandeered Jabbas ending and typed all the groupings. When she was done, she pushed back from the terminal. The room looked up at the screen.PFEE SESN RETM MFHA IRWE OOIG MEEN NRMAENET SHAS DCNS IIAA IEER BRNK FBLE LODISusan was the only one smiling. Sure looks familiar, she said. Blocks of four-just like Enigma.The director nodded. Enigma was historys most famous code-writing machine-th e Nazis twelve-ton encryption beast. It had encrypted in blocks of four.Great. He moaned. You wouldnt happen to have one lying around, would you?Thats not the point Susan said, suddenly coming to life. This was her specialty. The point is that this is a code. Tankado left us a clue Hes taunting us, daring us to figure out the pass-key in time. Hes laying hints just out of our reach Absurd, Jabba snapped. Tankado gave us only one out-revealing TRANSLTR. That was it. That was our escape. We blew it.I have to agree with him, Fontaine said. I doubt theres any way Tankado would risk letting us off the hook by hinting at his kill-code.Susan nodded vaguely, but she recalled how Tankado had given them NDAKOTA. She stared up at the letters question if he were playing another one of his games.Tunnel block half gone a technician called.On the VR, the mass of black tie-in lines surged deeper into the deuce remaining shields.David had been sitting quietly, watching the drama unfold on the moni toring device before them. Susan? he offered. I have an idea. Is that schoolbook in cardinal groupings of four?Oh, for Christs sake, Jabba said under his breath. Now everyone wants to play?Susan ignored Jabba and counted the groupings. Yes. Sixteen. start out out the spaces, Becker said firmly.David, Susan replied, slightly embarrassed. I dont think you understand. The groupings of four are- tell apart out the spaces, he repeated.Susan hesitated a moment and then nodded to Soshi. Soshi quickly removed the spaces. The result was no more enlightening. PFEESESNRETMPFHAIRWEOOIGMEENN RMAENETSHASDCNSIIAAIEERBRNKFBLELODIJabba exploded. ENOUGH Playtimes over This things on double-speed Weve got about eight minutes here Were looking for a number, not a bunch of half-baked lettersFour by sixteen, David said calmly. Do the math, Susan.Susan eyed Davids image on the screen. Do the math? Hes terrible at math She knew David could memorize verb conjugations and vocabulary like a Xerox machine, b ut math?Multiplication tables, Becker said.Multiplication tables, Susan wondered. What is he talking about?Four by sixteen, the professor repeated. I had to memorize multiplication tables in poop grade.Susan pictured the standard grade school multiplication table. Four by sixteen. 64, she said blankly. So what?David leaned toward the camera. His face filled the frame. Sixty-four lettersSusan nodded. Yes, but theyre- Susan froze.Sixty-four letters, David repeated.Susan gasped. Oh my God David, youre a geniusChapter 121Seven minutes a technician called out.Eight rows of eight Susan shouted, excited.Soshi typed. Fontaine looked on silently. The second to last shield was ontogeny thin.Sixty-four letters Susan was in control. Its a perfect full-blooded amend square? Jabba demanded. So what?Ten seconds later Soshi had rearranged the seemingly hit-or-miss letters on the screen. They were now in eight rows of eight. Jabba studied the letters and threw up his hands in despair. The new l ayout was no more revealing than the original. P F E E S E S NR E T M P F H AI R W E O O I GM E E N N R M AE N E T S H A SD C N S I I A AI E E R B R N KF B L E L O D IClear as shit. Jabba groaned.Ms. Fletcher, Fontaine demanded, explain yourself. All eyes turned to Susan.Susan was stare up at the block of text. Gradually she began nodding, then broke into a wide smile. David, Ill be damnedEveryone on the podium exchanged disoriented looks.David winked at the tiny image of Susan Fletcher on the screen before him. Sixty-four letters. Julius Caesar strikes again.Midge looked lost. What are you talking about?Caesar box. Susan beamed. Read top to rear. Tankados sending us a message.Chapter 122Six minutes a technician called out.Susan shouted orders. Retype top to bottom Read down, not acrossSoshi furiously moved down the columns, retyping the text.Julius Caesar sent codes this way Susan blurted. His letter count was always a perfect squareDone Soshi yelled.Everyone looked up at the ne wly arranged, single line of text on the wall-screen.Still garbage, Jabba scoffed in disgust. Look at it. Its totally random bits of- The words lodged in his throat. His eyes widened to saucers. Oh oh myFontaine had seen it too. He arched his eyebrows, obviously impressed.Midge and Brinkerhoff some(prenominal) cooed in unison. Holy shit.The sixty-four letters now read PRIMEDIFFERENCEBETWEENELEMENTSRESPON SIBLEFORHIROSHIMAANDNAGASAKI enjoin in the spaces, Susan ordered. Weve got a puzzle to solve.