Two-Step’s voice came over the headset. “This thing isn’t cooperating. It’s discarding my data packets as soon as I send them.” He was using the false IP address to send a continuous stream of large, corrupt data packets to the site. The attack, along with the flood of ping request attack Sandy and Gomez were sending, should keep the firewall busy enough to let Xia through so she could install a backdoor and let everyone in.
“Just keep at it,” Gomez said. “The response times to the pings are slowing, so we are doing something right.”
“Let me know when to go,” Xia said.
“Not yet,” Gomez said.
Jacob moved from incoming data stream to incoming data stream, linking with it and getting out before it hit the firewall. He wanted to know if the worm was getting through, but unless he linked with an outgoing stream and saw a refund, he wouldn’t know. He didn’t have time for that, so he would just have to have faith it was working. He linked with another stream, slowing it down, writing the request, injecting it with the worm, moving on, linking with another stream. Time moved differently in a net link, speeding up or slowing down, changing the perception of each moment, and Jacob lost any sense of how long they had been at the attack. He only heard the others in the distance, unable to hear what they were saying. He was in the task, not in time.
A scream ripped through his awareness.
“What was that?” Jacob asked.
“It’s Xia. She’s down,” Kat said through the headset. “I’m trying to get her out.”
“What happened?”
“I gave her the signal to go,” Gomez said, “and the firewall hit her with some kind of feedback.”
Kat yelled over the comm, “Monk, get up here! She’s seizing. Monk, now!”
“Everyone stay focused,” Sandy said. “Kat has her. Besides, there’s nothing we can do when we’re linked. Let’s finish this job.”
Jacob agreed and got back to the incoming streams, but he needed to know if it was working, if it was worth the time. He intercepted an outgoing data stream. It was a video packet. Nothing but porn. He moved to another to find more porn. More porn on the next. The next stream had the funds transfer for refund code. He tried another. A funds transfer. Three of the next five streams contained a funds transfer for refund. That was more than coincidence. The worm got through and worked. That wasn’t enough. The worm would be discovered soon, and people on the other side of the firewall would start trying to eradicate it. Gomez and the others had to get through before that happened.
“Guys,” Kat said, “Monk knows what hit Xia, and he can help her. He’s seen it before. The firewall sends a neuro-disruption signal at attackers. The SRS people who were here trying to hack this site got hit with it.”
“Bastards. They could have put that in the documents they gave us so we knew what was coming,” Sandy said.
“How are we supposed to get through, then,” Two-Step asked.
“The worm got through,” Jacob said. “We need to know why.”
“Is it because it’s going in as a command the site would get anyway?” Sandy asked.
“Could we send the backdoor in the same way?” Two-Step asked.
“It can’t be that easy,” Gomez said. “This system has to search for shit coming in on recognized command codes. It must be something else.”
Jacob agreed. Why did the worm get through? What was different? The size? The frequency of the attacks?
The attacks. Maybe it wasn’t the worm, but what was happening when he sent the worm.
“Kat, how is Xia?” Jacob asked.
“Monk took care of her. She’ll be fine. I don’t think she should link back up right now though.”
“Can Monk help anyone else if they get zapped?”
“Yes.”
“What are you thinking?” Gomez asked.
“Let’s send the backdoor in a data stream like I did the worm. We’ll know if it worked soon enough.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“If it doesn’t, one of you will send it on as many data streams as possible while the other two keep up the other attacks.”
“What good will that do if we know it doesn’t work?” Sandy asked.
“I’m thinking the worm got through when the system zapped Xia. With all of the other attacks, that little trick must have stressed the system and opened a crack. I’m going to go in the way Xia did, and if I’m right the backdoor will get through.”
“So you’re going to intentionally get your brain fried by this thing?” Sandy asked.
“If it works, I think you guys can handle it from there. I’ve got a feeling anyone on the other side of the firewall is busy trying to stop their bank account from being drained. Besides,” he added, “I’ll be fine. Kat will take care of me.”
“It’s worth a try,” Gomez said. He readied the backdoor and sent it embedded in a data stream.
They waited.
Nothing.
“Looks like I’m going in,” Jacob said.
“Kat, you be ready to get him out of here,” Gomez said.
“I will. Get ready Monk,” Kat said.
Jacob took a breath. “Are you sending?”
“We are.”
“I’m going in.”
Jacob linked with a data stream. A sound like rolling thunder surrounded him and he could see the firewall coming, a sparkle in the corner of his vision growing larger and coming up the data stream and he felt its presence at the edges of his awareness and pain stabbed at his mind.
He screamed.
Everything went black and silent.
◆◆◆
Jacob opened his eyes.
“Welcome back,” Monk said.
What happened? Jacob tried to ask, the words getting stuck on their way from his brain to his mouth.
“Don’t try to talk. You won’t be able to for
