22 | BIGGER FISH
The explosion didn’t happen. The momentary burst of brick and glass before everything turned to oblivion didn’t occur, although Sam saw it clearly in his mind’s eye all the same.
The entire building shook, and several windows shattered under the shock wave, but the plane passed over their heads with a deafening roar.
Through the opposite window, Sam saw the nose of the plane rise high above the tail. It skimmed above the roof of the Park Center Plaza, narrowly avoiding the tall buildings in an adjacent block, and clawed its way back into the sky.
“Jaggard, are you still there?” the voice of the air traffic controller sounded from the overhead speakers as the roar subsided. They could hear bangs and crashes in the background.
“Only just,” Jaggard answered.
“How close is the plane?”
“It missed,” Jaggard said. “Pilot got control back.”
“Thank God for that,” Victoria said. “We’ve just broken into the cabinet. We’re about to kill the power. That’ll stop them from trying again.”
Sam found he was still staring out the far windows at the shrinking shape of the Boeing. He forced his eyes back to his screen, to find it empty.
All he had now was the blue screen of death. He looked across at Dodge’s computer, but his screen was the same.
“Okay, people, we’re still alive,” Jaggard called out, clapping his hands together. “But if we don’t get our act together, then pretty soon this country is going to go China Syndrome. You still up, Socks?”
“Barely,” Socks muttered. “Still trying to get into the security door system, though, and …” He trailed off, staring at his screen. “What the hell?”
“What is it, Socks?”
“I’m back,” he said. “Just like that. Fully operational.”
“How?” Jaggard asked.
“Something just ate the intruder.”
There was complete silence in the room.
“Say that again.”
“I don’t know how else to describe it. One minute I was getting smothered by the big mother, and the next minute this big black nothing raced out of nowhere and tore it to shreds, gobbled it up.”
“A big black nothing raced out of nowhere and gobbled it up?” Jaggard said. “Please try not to be so technical.”
“There’s always a bigger fish,” Dodge said.
There was a flash in front of Sam, and his central screen suddenly flickered back into life, followed by his left and right screens.
“I’m back,” he said in astonishment.
“Me too,” Dodge said.
The group dispersed around the room, and there was a chorus of agreement as one by one their systems came back online.
“Where’s the intruder?” Jaggard asked.
“No sign of it,” Dodge said a moment or two later. “Just fragments of code lying around on the hard drives.”
“Just fragments?”
“Yeah,” Dodge said. “Looks like they’ve been chewed.”
The silence in the room was absolute.
Dodge had called up the footage from a security camera on the roof of the hotel opposite and put it up on the large central screens. They watched the jet get closer and closer to the CDD building, pulling up at the last minute and clearing the roof by less than ten yards.
“So, do we know anything at all?” Jaggard asked.
“I know we were surrounded but the cavalry arrived in the nick of time,” Socks said.
“The cavalry?” Dodge jumped to his feet. “We are the cavalry! The first, last, and best line of defense, right? But these guys took us apart, and then someone went through them like a bad curry. We weren’t even on the same page.”
“Sit down, Dodge,” Jaggard said. “Let’s stay focused on this. Who are the bad guys? Who are the good guys who saved us?”
“The phantom of the Internet,” Socks muttered.
“And how can a bunch of terrorist hackers beat us at our own game?” Jaggard asked.
“The terrorists had neuro-connections,” Sam said.
Jaggard shook his head. “There’s no way of knowing that.”
“They had neuro,” Sam repeated. “I was running on the edge, flying by wire, and it still wasn’t fast enough. They had to be using neuro.”
“He’s right, guv,” Dodge said. “Had to be neuro.”
“Well, if they were using neuro,” Socks asked, “what the hell was the phantom using?”
Vienna looked up from her console. “Boss, I’ve traced lines in and out of the Chicago data center. I got a vid-cam feed. I think the terrorists were monitoring the place from a secondary location.”
“Can you back-trace it?” Jaggard asked.
“Yes, it’s also in Chicago. I’m narrowing down the exact location now.”
“Okay, I want Tactical teams en route. Dodge, you too. Check out a field kit and take Sam with you. As soon as Tactical has secured the location, I want you two to get inside their workstations. Find out how they managed to stick it to us so royally. Expect booby traps, self-destruct sequences, and suicide pills. And see if you can find any clues to the identity of this … phantom.”
The phantom, Sam thought. A ghost in the machine. Except it wasn’t a ghost. Someone was roaming around the Internet with powers they could only dream of.
“What about the neuro?” he asked. “If we can’t keep up with the bad guys, this will just be the start.”
Swamp Witch, who had been hovering at the back of the group, moved forward, the team parting to make a path for her, out of respect or fear, Sam didn’t know.
“We can’t afford to be compromised like that again,” she said. “I’ll discuss neuro-headsets with the Oversight Committee.”
Vienna was standing just outside the door when Sam went to leave. He steeled himself for the assault.
“Vienna,” he started, “I’m sorry about what happened—”
“It’s fine,” she said. “I just wanted to say thanks. I panicked and you didn’t. Simple as that.”
To his surprise, she reached out and gave him a quick hug. It was cold, awkward, and devoid of feeling, but he felt she was stretching outside her comfort zone even for that.
“Um, you’re welcome,” he said.