remaining lines. The next few lines were either unused or carrying network updates, which appeared as intermittent signal traffic, but not the type of anomalies that they were experiencing. Kilkenny moved on to the next line, which displayed a system log-in screen for an underground Ann Arbor Web server.
Kilkenny just shook his head in disbelief. ‘Guess what, Grin? It looks like some hotshot is using the university’s network to surf the Net.’
‘You’re kidding me. I wonder how that got bounced all the way up here.’
‘Well, I’m going to isolate the line so we can trace it back.’ Kilkenny filtered the line from the network bundle.
‘Hey, Nolan. That squirrelly signal we’re chasing just disappeared. You want to check that line again?’
Kilkenny switched the line filter off and on several times, and each time the mysterious signal reappeared and then disappeared.
‘Well, it looks like this is our anomaly,’ Kilkenny agreed. ‘I thought for sure we’d find something echoing across the line from the optical processor. Still, it seems strange that campus would route a signal up here; we are a little out of the way. In any event, Kelsey will be happy that her processor isn’t causing the problem.’
Grin walked over and sat beside Kilkenny. ‘I’ll be damned. How’d he tickle an outside line from campus?’
‘I take it that that’s not supposed to happen very easily?’
‘Hell no, or we’d have every student with a modem logging into the network and making long-distance calls for free.’ Grin leaned back in his chair and grabbed the phone off the lab bench. ‘Outside lines are accessible only to the system administrator. All other communications are regulated within the network. If this isn’t Carl, the people down on campus are going to be very annoyed.’
Grin dialed the number of his counterpart at the university’s Main Computing Center, Carl Moynes. The phone rang several times before Moynes’s deep voice filled the receiver. ‘Computing Center.’
‘Yo, Carl. Grin here up at MARC. We’ve got a little problem you might be able to help us out with. You got a few minutes?’
‘I’ll make the time,’ Moynes agreed cheerfully. ‘What can I do for you, old buddy?’
Grin punched a button and switched the phone into speaker mode. ‘Carl, I’m putting you on the speaker so my compadre Nolan Kilkenny can listen in.’
‘Fine by me,’ Moynes replied.
Grin smiled; Carl Moynes was a good man. ‘We’ve been tracking a peculiar signal on the network lines for the past few weeks, a real odd one. We originally thought it was something rebounding from that new processor we’re testing.’
‘I’ve been reading about that, a very radical piece of hardware. How’s that going anyway?’
‘The processor?’ The question caught Grin off guard. ‘It’s fine, but back to our problem. We wired up a signal skimmer so we could take a look at what’s passing over the lines, and we’ve found something that might interest you.’
‘Do tell, old friend, do tell.’
Grin interlocked his fingers and cracked his knuckles. ‘Carl, are you or any of your fellow computer gurus currently logged into the Warlocks of Doom?’
‘I’m surprised that you would make such an accusation.’ Moynes’s denial was deeply sarcastic.‘You don’t think that our fine upstanding group of computer scientists would utilize the university’s property for their own personal amusement, do you?’
‘Never in a million years,’ Grin responded flippantly, ‘but seriously, we’re sitting here watching someone log into the Warlock server over one of your outside lines.’
‘Give me a second and I’ll bring up the system status on that end of the network.’
As Grin waited for Moynes to check his system, Kilkenny leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder. ‘What’s up?’
Kilkenny angled the laptop toward Grin. ‘See for yourself.’
The hacker had broken into the Warlock server and was using it to access another phone line. They couldn’t hear the modern dialing tones, but the screen told them that the intruder was passing to yet another computer system.
The Spyder had successfully navigated through the U of M’s network hardware, where it opened an outside phone. A week earlier, it had observed a hacker intrusion, via the Warlock server, into the university’s network. That experience taught it a new means of reaching the outside world. The hacker’s intrusion was successfully blocked by an observant system administrator. Unlike the hacker’s attempt, each of the outside connections made by the Spyder was virtually undetectable. The Spyder also left no trace of its presence on the network’s system logs.
Late the previous night, the Spyder had uploaded its latest acquisitions to Roe’s E-mail address and downloaded its new instructions. Its current target was the Chrysler Corporation. An automotive engineer, currently pursuing an MBA at the university, had unknowingly taught the Spyder how to access Chrysler’s computer network when she logged on from her office at the Auburn Hills Tech Center. Recent news indicated that Chrysler was poised for a major push into alternative powered vehicles, and Parnell wanted inside information on the automaker’s financial structure, suppliers, and engineering data on their electric-vehicle systems.
Kilkenny watched as the hacker’s phone call was received by the next computer. The laptop’s screen cleared and the main log-in screen for the number-three automaker appeared in vivid color.
‘This guy’s busting into Chrysler,’ Kilkenny announced. ‘Carl, can you cut him off?’
‘I hear you,’ Moynes’s voice answered through the phone’s speaker. ‘I’m looking into it from our end, but I’m not showing anything active. Which line is he running through from your Cray?’
‘I’ll check.’ Grin ran back to the Cray’s operator station and began furiously issuing commands to the supercomputer. In a few seconds, the machine responded with a full report on current system activities. Everything appeared normal, with no network lines currently accessed.
Grin ran back to Kelsey’s lab. ‘Carl, I know somebody’s out there, but the Cray’s telling me that we don’t have any user lines open between your system and mine.’
‘This is very weird.’ Moynes sounded puzzled.
Kilkenny was checking all the diagnostic points from the laptop when he found something. ‘Hey, guys, the hacker is physically on line five leading out of the Cray. Carl, how’s that match up with your switchboard?’
‘Give me a second and I’ll check.’
Grin and Kilkenny could hear Moynes flipping through pages of a systems manual, looking for the physical addresses of his network connections. Normally, he would be able to track any network connection through his system-administration programs, but this intruder forced him to doubt what his computer was telling him.
‘I got it,’ Moynes’s voice boomed over the speaker. ‘Let’s say we bounce this guy off the system.’
‘Easy, Carl,’ Kilkenny replied. ‘We can’t just blast this guy. We’ve got to be a little more subtle.’
‘Fuck subtle,’ Moynes growled back. ‘I say we kick his sorry ass off my computer.’
Moynes was justifiably angry, but Grin knew that Kilkenny was right.
‘Hold on, Carl. I think I see what Nolan’s getting at. If we blast him, he’ll know he’s been tagged.’
‘And what’s wrong with that?’
‘Nothing, unless you want to catch the bastard,’ Grin explained. ‘This guy’s not one of our harmless student types, exploring the system. He’s a pro who’s just entered the Chrysler Engineering Projects Library.’
‘If you don’t want me to pull the plug, what do you suggest?’ Moynes replied bitterly, taking his system’s violation personally.
‘Cut him loose,’ Kilkenny explained, ‘but make it look like a maintenance shutdown. Issue a warning that the network’s integrity has degraded or something.’
Grin nodded. ‘Yeah, make it look like there’s a system failure that requires a full shutdown. That way, our hacker won’t know he’s been spotted.’
‘I can do that,’ Moynes agreed, ‘but taking down the whole network will tick off a lot of people.’
‘Carl’-Grin’s voice was calm and steady-‘it’s your call, but consider this: Whoever this hacker is, he’s good enough to punch through our network without either of us ever seeing him. Hell, it was dumb luck that we stumbled onto him at all. We have an obligation to try to catch this bastard, but we can’t do that unless we’re ready the next time he passes through. If we spook him now, he may never come back.’
Moynes relented. ‘That’d be just fine with me, but I see your point. I’ll start crashing the network. The boss is going to have a stroke when she hears about this.’
