they came after me.' He shook his head. 'I wish to God I'd never learned how to program. If I'd returned home after college as my father had wished, Robby would still have ten fingers.'
Jack had gone through his share of if-onlies about Emma, and he knew Munir wasn't seeing this from all angles.
'If you'd gone back to Saudi Arabia after college, there'd be no Robby.'
Munir gave him a strange look. 'Yes, that's true. I didn't think of that.'
'Is a nine-fingered Robby better than no Robby?'
Munir nodded. 'Most certainly.'
Jack stared at the monitor and shook his head. Bring the Internet down just by swapping videos. Who'd have thought?
'Okay,' he said. 'Now that we know what they're going to do, how do we stop them?'
'Do we know that they're going to do this? Everything points to that as their purpose but…' Munir shrugged. 'Why? This Septimus Order must use the Internet itself-to keep in touch with its membership, to… it must use it in many, many ways. Everyone does. Why cripple its own operations by bringing it down?'
Jack couldn't tell him about the noosphere and the Lady. Munir would think him crazy.
'Remember the reason you gave for the denial of service attacks? 'Because they can'? I believe that holds here.'
Munir kept shaking his head. 'But a DoS harms only the target servers. It doesn't inconvenience the attacker. This does. This…' He shot to his feet and began pacing. 'Do you realize how much the everyday operations of civilization are tied into the Internet?'
'Well, there's email-'
'Email!' He began flailing his arms. 'Email is nothing! Business will slow to a crawl. Companies have gradually been moving their transactions, their databases, their software online, into the cloud. Without the Internet there is no cloud. The computers that run banking, stock trading, transit systems, and traffic control systems communicate and route parts of their operations through the Internet. Communication networks depend on the Internet. We're not talking about losing eBay and Facebook. We're talking about commerce and finance and communication and even street traffic grinding to a halt. The result will be chaos.'
And worse than all that, Jack thought, we'll lose the Lady.
'So-' Jack began, but Munir was still rolling.
'But what makes no sense is that this will all be temporary. Chaos at first, yes, but then a mad scramble to repair the servers and routers and get them back online as soon as possible. Everything is backed up-or should be-and many systems are redundant, so it won't be terribly long before things are back to normal. The white hats will figure a way to block the botnet and the antivirus companies will release software to disinfect our computers. People will be enormously inconvenienced for days, perhaps weeks, but the status quo will return before very long.'
Don't count on it, Jack thought. Not if they're able to start the Change during the interval. A crashed Internet will be the least of your worries when you find yourself facing the Otherness.
'You're sure of that?'
'No one can say exactly how long. It's unprecedented. Of course, the botnet will still be out there, ready to do it again. But not for long, I think. A Jihad four/twenty killer will be developed very quickly.' He shrugged. 'So what's the point? Profit? Mischief? To go down in history?'
No, Jack thought. To end history.
He said, 'We still need to do what we can to stop it, right?'
'Of course.'
'Well, that brings us back to the same old question: Do what?'
'You and I?' Munir frowned. 'Nothing by ourselves. But I'm going to call ICANN and NRO and anyone else I can think of and tell them what I know.'
Jack wondered if he realized what he was getting himself into.
He held up a hand. 'They're going to want to know how you know what you know. They're going to suspect you're part of the plot.'
Munir stopped his pacing. 'They will? Why would they do that?'
'Hey, you're an Arab and the virus is named 'Jihad' and your code is part of it. That makes you suspecto numero uno in anybody's book.'
Munir stood silent in the center of the room with a stricken expression.
Jack felt for him. 'You could do it anonymously.'
He shook his head. 'No. That would be just another crank call. I'll need a face and a name if I am to be credible. I'll go in person if I have to, but I must raise the alarm. This cannot be allowed to happen.'
'Do you think anyone can stop it?'
'With enough time…' He looked at Jack. 'Four/twenty is the Prophet's birthday. Do we have that long?'
Jack shook his head. 'Not a chance.'
Murnir dropped into a chair and began banging away on his keyboard.
'Then I've no time to waste. I must find the numbers to call.'
'Think you'll find anyone on a weekend?'
He looked up. 'What day it is it?'
'Saturday.'
'Is it? With all that's happened, I've lost track.' He shook his head. 'I'll try anyway, but I might not reach anyone of consequence until Monday, because no one sees any danger but me.'
Jack turned to go. 'Well, good luck. And don't forget our deal: I don't exist.'
'Monday…' Munir said softly, as if he hadn't heard. Maybe he hadn't.
'Munir… our deal?'
But Munir's eyes looked out of focus and his thoughts seemed far away. 'Monday…'
'What about Monday?'
'No one of consequence around until Monday. That makes me think that if I were going to try to bring down the Internet, I would do it on a Saturday or a Sunday.'
A thought hit Jack like a gut punch.
'What'll a crash do to the airlines?'
'Short term?' Munir said without looking up. 'Complete chaos for a while. Reservations, scheduling-all heavily Internet based. It might even affect air traffic control.'
Gia… Vicky…
'Oh, crap.'
'The FAA may have its own closed system, just like much of the military, but I don't know for sure.'
'If you had to pick Saturday or Sunday, which would you pick?'
'Sunday, but I doubt it matters much.'
Gia and Vicky were due to fly back tomorrow… Sunday.
'I'll let myself out,' Jack said. 'I've got a couple of important calls to make myself.'
4
As soon as he hit the street, Jack speed dialed Gia. Cell phone technology had been in common use since the nineties and he'd been using it since the turn of the millennium, but he still marveled at the ability to reach Gia anywhere at any time. Didn't matter if she was over on Sutton Square or in Ottumwa, Iowa-he dialed the same number and she answered.
As he listened to the rings, he wondered what to tell her. Get on an earlier flight? Cancel her flight and stay there?
The sound of her voice when she picked up and her obvious delight at hearing from him dissipated the enveloping chill. He wanted to jump right into the reason he'd called but forced himself to engage in some brief, obligatory small talk. Then…
