Terminal Compromise

"I wish I were. h.o.m.osoto took over my company and killed Max."

The New Senate Office Building Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C.

"The Senator will see you now," said one of Senator Deere's aides. Scott and Tyrone entered her office which was decorated more in line with a woman's taste than the heavy furniture men prefer. She stood to greet them.

"Gentlemen," Nancy Deere said shaking their hands. "I know that you're with the New York City Times, Mr. Mason. I took the liberty of reading some of your work. Interesting, controver- sial. I like it." She offered them chairs at an informal seat- ing area on one end of the large office.

"And you are?" she said to Ty. He told her. "I take it this is official?"

"At this point ma'am, we just need to talk, and get your reac- tions," Ty said.

"He's having labor management troubles." Scott thought that was the perfect diplomatic description.

"I see," Nancy said. "So right now this meeting isn't happening."

"Kind of like that," Ty said.

"And him?" She said c.o.c.king her head at Scott.

"It's his story, I'm just his faithful sidekick with a few of the pieces."

"Well then," Nancy said amused with the situation. "Please, I am all ears." She and Tyrone looked at Scott, waiting.

How the h.e.l.l was he going to tell a U.S. Senator that an organ- ized group of anarchistic hackers and fanatic Moslem Arabs were working with a respected j.a.panese industrialist and building computer viruses. He couldn't figure out any eloquent way to say it, so he just said it, straight, realizing that the summa- tion sounded one step beyond absurd. All things considered, Scott thought, she took it very well.

"I a.s.sume you have more than a headline?" Senator Deere said after a brief, polite pause.

Scott proceeded to describe everything that he had learned, the hackers, Kirk, Spook, the CMR equipment, his articles being pulled, the First State and Sidneys situation. He told her about the anonymous doc.u.ments he had thus far been unable to use.

Except for one which he would use today. Scott also said that computer viruses would fully explain the banking crisis.

Tyrone outlined the blackmail cases he suspected were diversion- ary tactics for another as yet unknown crime, and that despite more than $40 millions in payoffs had been arranged, no one had showed to collect.

"Ma'am," Tyrone said to Senator Deere. "I fought to get into the Bureau, and I made it through the good and the bad. And, I always knew where I stood. Akin, I guess to the political winds that change every four years." She nodded. "But now, there's something wrong." Nancy tilted her head waiting for Ty to con- tinue.

He spoke carefully and slowly. "I have never been the paranoid type; I'm not conspiracy minded. But I do find it strange that I get so much invisible pressure to lay off a case that appears to be both global in its reach and dangerous in its effects. It's almost like I'm not supposed to find out what's happening. I get no cooperation from my upstairs, CI,

"So why come to me?" Nancy asked. "You're the police."

"Are you aware that Pierre Troubleaux is alive?" Scott asked Nancy, accidentally cutting off Tyrone.

"Alive? How's that possible?" She too, had heard the news.

They told her they had spoken to Pierre and that his death had been a ruse to protect him. The reports on Pierre's prognosis brightened Nancy att.i.tude.

"But, it's not all good news. It appears, that every single copy of dGraph, that's a..."

"I know dGraph," she said quickly. "It's part of the job.

Couldn't live without it."

"Well, ma'am, it's infected with computer viruses. Hundreds of them. According to Pierre, the head of OSO Industries, Taki h.o.m.osoto, had Max Jones, co-founder of dGraph killed and has effectively held Pierre hostage since."

The impact of such an overwhelming accusation defied response.

Nancy Deere's jaw fell limp. "That is the most unbelievable, incredible...I don't know what to say."

"I have no reason not to believe what Pierre is saying. Not yet,"

said Tyrone.

"There are a few friends of mine working to see if dGraph really is infected." Scott whistled to indicate the seriousness of the implications.

"What, Mr. Mason, what if it is?" She thirsted for more hard information.

"I'm no computer engineer, Senator, er, Nancy, but I'm not stupid either. Pierre said that at least 500 different viruses have been installed in dGraph since h.o.m.osoto took over. A rough guess is that there are over four million copies of dGraph. Legal ones that is. Maybe double that for pirated copies." Nancy main- tained rapt attention as Scott continued. "Therefore, I would venture that at least eight to ten million computers are infect- ed."

Scott paused as Nancy's eyes widened.

"Knowing that viruses propagate from one program to another according to specific rules, it would not be unreasonable to a.s.sume that almost every micro-computer in the United States is getting ready to self destruct." Scott sounded certain and final.

"I can't comprehend this, this is too incredible." Senator Deere shook her head in disbelief. "What will happen?"

"Pierre doesn't know what the viruses do, he's not a programmer.

He's just a figurehead," Scott explained. "Now, if I had to guess, I would, well, I would do everything possible to keep those viruses from exploding."

"One man's word is an indictment, not a conviction," Nancy said soberly.

"There's more," Tyrone said, taking some of the onus off Scott.

"We've learned quite a bit in the last few days, Senator, and it begins to pull some of the pieces together, but not enough to make sense of it all." He slid forward in his chair. "We know that Scott's hacker's name is Miles Foster and he's tied up with the Amsterdam group, but we don't how yet. We also know that he is ex-NSA and was a communications and security expert out at the Fort." Nancy understood the implication.

"When I asked for information on Foster from NSA I was stone- walled. I a.s.sume that I somehow pushed a b.u.t.ton and that now they're retaliating. But, for the life of me, I don't know why."

Tyrone shook his head in frustration. "It doesn't make any sense."

"At any rate," Tyrone said waving off the lack of cooperation, "I checked into his background since he left the Agency in '87. He went freelance, became a consultant, a Beltway Bandit." Nancy Deere nodded that she understood but she listened with a poker face. "We have him traveling to j.a.pan shortly after his resigna- tion, and then several times over the next few months. He has been to j.a.pan a total of 17 times. Since his credit cards show no major purchases in j.a.pan, I a.s.sume that he was somebody's guest. The tickets purchased in his name were bought from a Tokyo travel agency, but we can't determine who paid for them."

"Seventeen times?" asked the Senator.

"Yes ma'am. Curious."

"How do you know what he used his credit cards for, Mr. Duncan?"

she asked dubiously.

"We have our means. I can't get into that now." Tyrone held the party line which meant not confirming or denying that the FBI could access any consumer and credit data base in the world. In fact though, the National Crime Information Center is linked to hundreds of computers world wide over the Computer Applications Communications Network. They can generate a complete profile on any citizen within minutes of the request. Including all travel, credit card and checking activities. Scott found this power, entrusted to a few non-elected and non-accountable civil servants unconscionable.

"I have no doubt," she said caustically.

"There's more." Tyrone spoke without the benefit of notes which impressed Nancy. "The case concerning Max Jones' death is being reopened. It seems that the former Sheriff in San Mateo county was voted out and the new one is more than willing to a.s.sist in making his predecessor look bad." Tyrone spoke without the emotion that drove Scott.

"So what does this prove?" she asked.