Nolan brought up the Gatekeeper control software and gained direct access to the device. A moment later, the Gatekeeper’s program began scrolling up Nolan’s screen.
‘It’s dumping, but I don’t have a clue as to what I’m looking at. Did you guys come up with a new programming language for this thing?’
‘Yes, it’s true, we’re gluttons for punishment here at Moy.’ A perverse sense of masochistic pride seemed to run through computer programmers and engineers, a character trait evident in Iverson. ‘Once you’ve finished the dump, I want you to load the file into a text editor and check a few things for me.’
The download finished and Nolan brought the program file up on the screen. Iverson walked him through a few key areas of the program, looking for any changes that would account for this Gatekeeper’s deviant behavior. Each of the major points matched the program Iverson was looking at in Chicago. Everything in the incredibly long file seemed to be in order, leaving them with no further clues. Nolan hit the Home key and the file jumped back to the beginning.
‘What you just ran past me checks out.’ Iverson sounded as puzzled as Nolan was. ‘I don’t know what to tell you.’
‘Looks like I’m back to square one.’ Nolan was disappointed that they’d come up empty-handed. Absentmindedly, he skimmed over the credits in the header of the Gatekeeper program. ‘Thanks for your help, Bill. I see your name’s listed here with the other programmers for version one point one. It’s nice that your company lets you sign your work.’
‘We’re proud of what we do and-’ Iverson stopped abruptly. ‘Can you read me that version number again?’
‘Sure, version one point one.’
‘That’s weird. One point one was just a beta test. I didn’t think we released any units with that batch of code. It still had a couple of nasty bugs.’
‘Could those bugs explain our problems?’ Nolan’s question was a shot in the dark, but they had long since exhausted the questions that made any sense.
‘No,’ Iverson replied quickly, ‘the bad code would have caused the Gatekeeper to lock up on you every now and then, but nothing that would have sent it off hacking.’
‘I thought as much, but at least this one hasn’t bombed out on us.’ Something else about the version number bothered Iverson, but Nolan didn’t know why.
‘That surprises me even more,’ Iverson admitted. ‘Can you send me a copy of that code? I’d like to run it past some other people on that project.’
‘I can do better than that. Professor Newton and I are leaving for Chicago in an hour for a long weekend. We can meet at your office and have a closer look.’
‘Great, I’ll make arrangements here.’ Iverson sounded relieved, since some problems just weren’t diagnosed well over the phone. ‘I think there’ll be a few people here interested in hearing about your experience.’
Nolan hung up the phone and transferred the Gatekeeper file to an optical disk, which he tossed into his Eddie Bauer briefcase. He also gathered up some realtime copies of the hacker in action, to demonstrate to the people at Moy what they were all up against.
‘Are you out of here?’ Grin asked.
‘Yeah, I got to pick up Kelsey and drive to Chicago. She didn’t need this hacker nonsense, not with all the time she’s been putting in with the chip fabricators. She’s wiped. My sister-in-law is taking her out for a little shopping therapy while I help my brother renovate that old house of his. Hey, keep an eye on our friend while I’m gone.’
Grin caught the pager Nolan tossed his way and clipped it to his belt. ‘Will do. Just have a good time. Say, if you don’t mind my asking, when are you going to do something about Kelsey? She’s too good to let get away.’
‘I thought you didn’t believe in marriage, something about it being an archaic ritual that diminishes women to the level of property.’
‘I didn’t say anything about marriage; it’s just that I’ve gotten to know the two of you pretty well over the last few months, and you make a great team. Just something to think about during a long drive to Chicago with a pretty lady.’
‘You’re right on one count-Kelsey Newton is a very special lady. ’
32
April 29
‘Ian, I’ve something you ought to take a look at,’ Roe announced as she entered Parnell’s office.
Parnell looked at his watch and saved the document that he was working on. ‘You’re a bit early-we’re not scheduled to meet until noon. What’s so urgent?’
Roe sat in the leather chair in front of Parnell’s glassandsteel desk. ‘We’ve made a little headway at Chrysler, but only a piece of what you wanted is there.’
Parnell thumbed through the report; the financial data he had requested was listed as ‘Inaccessible’ from that system. ‘It was a long shot, trying to punch through from the engineering side to finance, but worth a try anyway.’
‘There is some troubling news at the end of the report.’
Parnell flipped through to the last page and read the Spyder’s status report. The device was operating nominally, as always. Parnell’s brow furrowed when he reached the item regarding an attempt to dump the Spyder’s operating program. ‘What does this mean?’
‘Someone is taking a close look at the device, closer than we’d like. Unfortunately, it can’t tell us who or why, so we don’t know if it has to do with that experimental processor it’s attached to or something else.’ Roe didn’t have to elaborate on what ‘something else’ might be.
‘Any thoughts on what we might do about it?’
‘Unfortunately, we’re not going to get anything more detailed about this situation without going there. Actually’-Roe mused for a moment-‘that might not be a bad idea. They’ve gotten a fair amount of press regarding that optical processor. Perhaps I could arrange an interview to see how things are progressing. That might get me close enough to see what they’re doing.’
‘Excellent idea,’ Parnell agreed. ‘I’ll have Paulette make arrangements for you to fly out this afternoon. After all, we wouldn’t want our source to disappear suddenly.’
In the building across the riverfront park from the latemodern tower that housed Parnell’s office, two watchers from Axton’s team sat armed with cameras and laserdriven sound amplifiers. From their vantage point in the unleased space, they had a clear shot at Parnell’s corner office. Teams had been staked out here around the clock since Kang Fa’s last visit to London, without much success. If Parnell was involved in something illegal, he was doing a good job of not discussing it during business hours. This afternoon, Neville Axton sat in with the watchers, taking his measure of the man in the other building.
‘Interesting, lads-that’s the first time I recall Parnell mentioning an outside source for his information. Interesting, but strange,’ Axton mused.
‘How so?’ one of the watchers asked.
‘Well, it’s their language,’ Axton explained, still not clear himself about this train of thought. ‘They never come out and say who their source is, but Roe mentioned that someone was looking “at the device.” I wonder what she meant by that. Very odd.’
33
