Digital Fortress Chapter 118-122

Chapter 118Its proof, Fontaine said decidedly. Tankado dumped the repeat. He wanted it as far from himself as possible-so wed never find it.But, Director, Susan argued, it doesnt make sense. If Tankado was unaware hed been murdered, why would he guide away the kill code?I agree, Jabba said. The kids a rebel, but hes a rebel with a conscience. Getting us to admit to TRANSLTR is angiotensin-converting enzyme thing telling our classified databank is another.Fontaine stared, disbelieving. You think Tankado wanted to stop this worm? You think his dying thoughts were for the poor NSA?Tunnel-block corroding a technician yelled. Full vulnerability in fifteen minutes, maximumIll tell you what, the director declared, taking control. In fifteen minutes, every Third World country on the planet will learn how to build an intercontinental ballistic missile. If some integrity in this room thinks hes got a better candidate for a kill code than this reverberate, Im all ears. The director 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 bury it, or whether he thought the fat guy would run to a pay environ 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 knew Fontaine was right-there was no better option. They were running out of time. Jabba sat. authorize lets do it. He pulled himself to the keyboard. Mr. Becker? The inscription, please. Nice and easy.David Becker read the inscription, and Jabba typed. When they were done, they double-checked the spelling and omitted all the spaces. On the center panel of the view wall, near the top, were the lettersQUISCUSTODIETIPSOSCUSTODESI 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 119Its accelerating Soshi yelled from the back of the room. Its the wrong codeEveryone stood in silent horror.On the screen in the first place them was the error messageILLEGAL ENTRY. NUMERIC FIELD ONLY.Damn it Jabba screamed. Numeric only Were looking for a goddamn number Were fucked This ring is shitWorms 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-dozen or so black lines representing marauding hackers surged forward, advancing relentlessly toward the core. With each passing moment, a new line appeared. Then another.Theyre swarming Soshi yelled.Confirming foreign tie-ins cried another technician. Words outSusan averted her gaze from the image of the collapsing firewalls and turned to the side 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 ri ng 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 missed something.On the VR, the number of hackers hammering at the gates had doubled in the cash in ones chips few minutes. From now on, the number would increase exponentially. Hackers, like hyenas, were one big family, always eager to ranch the word of a new kill.Leland Fontaine had apparently seen enough. Shut it down, he declared. Shut the damn thing down.Jabba stared straight ahead like the captain of a sinking ship. Too late, sir. Were going down.Chapter 120The four-hundred-pound Sys-Sec stood motionless, hands resting atop his head in a freeze-frame of disbelief. Hed ordered a power shutdown, but it would be a safe(p) twenty 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 nightmare by Soshi bucket along to the podium with a new printout. Ive found something, sir she said excitedly. Orphans in the source Alpha groupings. All over the placeJabba was unmoved. Were looking for a numeric, dammit Not an of import The kill-code is a numberBut weve got orphans Tankados too good to leave orphans-especially this manyThe term orphans referred to extra lines of programming that didnt serve the programs objective in any way. They ply nothing, referred to nothing, led nowhere, and were usually take as part 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 being attacked by a around 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. in that respects no way he left bugs in his program.There are lots of them Soshi cried. She grabbed the printout from Jabba and pushed 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.PFEESESNRETMFour-bit alpha groupings, she beat upd. Theyre definitely not part of the programming.Forget it, Jabba growled. Youre grabbing at straws.Maybe not, Susan said. A lot of encryption 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(predicate) nine minutes.Susan handle Jabba and locked in on Soshi. How many orphans are there?Soshi shrugged. She commandeered Jabbas terminal 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-the Nazis twelve-ton encr yption beast. It had encrypted in blocks of four.Great. He moaned. You wouldnt happen to have one lying around, would you?Thats not the depict 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 move 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 permit 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 wondering 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 two remaining shields.David had been sitting quietly, watching the drama overspread on the monitor before them. Sus an? he offered. I have an idea. Is that text in sixteen 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.Take out the spaces, Becker said firmly.David, Susan replied, slightly embarrassed. I dont think you understand. The groupings of four are-Take out the spaces, he repeated.Susan hesitated a moment and thence 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 destiny 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 learn verb conjugations and vocabulary like a Xerox machine, but math?Multiplication tables, Becker said.Multip lication tables, Susan wondered. What is he talking about?Four by sixteen, the professor repeated. I had to memorize multiplication tables in fourth grade.Susan pictured the standard grade school multiplication table. Four by sixteen. Sixty-four, she said blankly. So what?David leaned toward the camera. His face change 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 growing thin.Sixty-four letters Susan was in control. Its a perfect squarePerfect square? Jabba demanded. So what?Ten seconds later Soshi had rearranged the seemingly ergodic 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 layout 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 staring up at the block of text. Gradually she began nodding, then broke into a wide smile. David, Ill be damnedEveryone on the podium exchanged baffled 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 end. 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 square make Soshi yelled.Everyone looked up at the newly arranged, single line of text on the wall-scree n.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 both cooed in unison. Holy shit.The sixty-four letters now read PRIMEDIFFERENCEBETWEENELEMENTSRESPON SIBLEFORHIROSHIMAANDNAGASAKIPut in the spaces, Susan ordered. Weve got a puzzle to solve.