36 | THE CRYPT
“I call it ‘the Plague.’ It’s a crypto-virus,” Dodge whispered. “I think it’s our only chance.”
They were huddled in a far corner of the room, out of earshot of Gordon.
“A crypto-virus?” asked Sam.
Vienna said, “I read a bit of the work that Young and Yung did in the field.”
Dodge said, “The Plague is an encrypting virus.”
He took off his skull necklace and pulled off the jaw, revealing a USB3 plug underneath.
“This is the nastiest, deadliest, most poisonous bit of code you will ever dream of. I wrote it about two years ago and have been refining it ever since. I keep it with me, hoping that I will never be in such a desperate situation that I might have to think about using it.”
“Like now,” Vienna said.
Dodge nodded. “The Plague encrypts everything it finds. Secure 2048-bit encryption. The virus can still read it, as it has the decryption key built in, but nothing else can. The machine becomes totally unusable, except by the virus. It replicates and spreads. It operates at the micro-code level, even below machine code, so it doesn’t matter what operating system is on the computer. If it encounters a firewall, it encrypts that, too, and passes through it. Backup files, everything.”
“Dodge,” Vienna said slowly, “you know that if that got released into the wild, it would destroy the computer infrastructure of the entire country.”
“The entire world,” Dodge said. “It was far too dangerous to ever think about releasing, so I rewrote it. I built in a safeguard. A time limit. After twenty-four hours it reverses. It starts decrypting. It spreads the same way as before but decrypts everything it finds.”
“What’s your plan?” Vienna asked.
“Simple,” Dodge replied. “Release the virus through the computers here in this room. Give it an hour or so to spread, and then get the hell out of the city while the networks are all shut down. We’ll have a twenty-four-hour window to get clear before it all starts up again.”
“Then what?” Vienna asked.
“I don’t know,” Dodge admitted.
“Can you rewrite the code?” Sam asked. “Remove the time limit?”
Dodge nodded but said, “That’s far too dangerous, though. What if it got loose?”
“What if we set it loose?” Sam said. “What if we unleashed the full version against Ursula?”
Vienna gasped.
“You’ll kick the world back to the Stone Age,” Dodge whispered.
“The world will survive that,” Sam said. “But I don’t think it will survive Ursula.”
“But we still have to get out of here, and it’s crawling with Tactical and surrounded by the police,” Vienna said.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Sam said. “And I may have a plan. But even if we can escape from the mall, we’ll have only twenty-four hours! And then if we get out of San Jose, Ursula has eyes and ears everywhere. Where can we possibly hide out while you modify the virus?”
“That’s easy,” Dodge said, glancing over to make sure Gordon could not hear them. “The safest place on earth. Built to withstand any kind of attack, including chemical or nuclear. And right now Ursula can’t see it at all. It’s full of computers, but they’re all still off-line.”
“Where?” Sam asked.
“Cheyenne Mountain,” said Vienna.
“Agent Tyler, it’s Control.” The voice sounded alarmed.
Tyler stopped halfway down the hallway toward the security office.
“Go ahead, Control.”
“PD reports a helicopter approaching the mall—appears to be coming in to land on the rooftop helipad.”
“The roof!” Hutchens swore violently.
“Get everybody up there now,” Tyler said calmly. “Maintain the mall security guards at the exits, but I want all agents to converge on the roof. What kind of chopper is it, Control?”
“PD reports a charter bird. ‘California Choppers.’ ”
“Get hold of their office immediately. Find out who booked it and see if you can stop it from touching down. Also, get a police chopper in the air; tell them to shadow the target until we advise further.”
“Copy that.”
“Let’s get up there,” Hutchens said, turning to leave.
“You go,” Tyler said. “Find them and hold them. I still want to talk to Gordon.”
“Okay, that’s it. The file’s uploaded to the main computer system at CNN,” Sam said. “At seven p.m. exactly, it takes over the teleprompter software. As soon as it finishes executing, it’ll infect the system with the Plague. From there it should spread rapidly.”
“Shame we won’t be here to watch it,” Vienna said, watching the security monitors carefully. “Tactical is all heading for the roof. We need to move, now. Before they figure out that the chopper is just a diversion.”
“Are you okay, Dodge?” Sam asked. Dodge had that vacant look in his eyes again and was starting to sway.
“Now please, Mr. Gordon,” Vienna said.
Gordon gave her a dirty look but picked up his radio. “Reid, Carson, report in.”
A voice came back immediately. “All clear here, sir.”
Gordon sighed before keying the radio and continuing. “Okay. Looks like they’ve located the fugitives on the roof. I want you to get over to the central elevators and secure the base of the roof elevator. Make sure they can’t come down that way.”
“What about the entrance, sir?”
“The police will cover it from outside. I need you at the elevators, now.”
“On our way, sir.”
“And so are we,” Vienna said. “Thanks for all your help.”
Gordon just grunted.
Sam said, “Whatever you think of us, you need to avoid using a neuro-headset. You put your life at risk if you do.”
“Whatever.” Gordon grunted again, but Sam had a feeling that he would take that piece of advice at least.
Vienna put Gordon’s gun out of sight in her jacket and took his radio. She picked up the telephone that was on the desk in front of him and wrenched out the handset. A rack on the wall yielded a couple of long, heavy security flashlights.
“It’s almost seven—let’s go,” Sam said, opening the door.
He took one step into the corridor and stopped, staring into the steady eyes and even steadier pistol of Special Agent Tyler.
“Or not,” Tyler said.