Okay.
Eight spaces to fill. To fill with a code.
Okay, so who knows the code?
Weber knows the code.
He was the only one who knew the code.
just then a voice exploded in Race's ear and he almost jumped out of his skin.
“Professor. What's happening?'
it was Renee.
'jesus, Renee. You scared the shit out of me. What's hap- peg? Well, Ehrhardt shot Weber and then I shot Ehrhardt and now I'm sitting in front of the Supernova trying to figure out how to disarm it. Where are you?'
'I'm back in the office overlooking the crater. Ehrhardt cut my bridge...
'Got any ideas on how to disarm this thing?'
“No. Weber was the only one—”
'I know that already. Listen, I've got eight spaces to fill and I need to fill 'em fast.'
'Okay. Let me think…'
00:01:09 00:01:08 00:01:07
'One minute, Renee.'
'All right. All right. They said in that telephone transcript that their Supernova is based on the US model, right? That means the code must be numerical.'
'How do you know that?'
“Because I know that the American Supernova has a numerical code.' She must have heard his silence. “We have people inside your agencies.'
'Oh, okay. Numerical code it is then. Eight-digit code.
That leaves us with about a trillion possible combinations.'
00:01:00 00:00:59 00:00:58
'Weber was the only person who knew the code, right?' Renee said. 'So it has to be something to do with him.'
'Or it could be a number that's completely random,' Race said dryly.
'Unlikely,' Renee said. 'People who use numerical codes rarely use random numbers. They use numbers that have significance to them, numbers that they can recall by thinking of a memorable event or date or something like that. So what do we know about Weber?”
But Race wasn't listening anymore.
Something had twigged in the back of his mind as he'd been listening to Renee something about what she had just said.
'All right,' Renee was saying, thinking aloud. “He was a Nazi during the Second World War. He performed experiments on human subjects.'
But Race was thinking about something else entirely.
They use numbers that have significance to them, numbers that they can recall by thinking of a memorable event or date…
And then it hit him.
It was the New York Times article that he had read on his way to work yesterday morning—before he had arrived at the university to find a team of Special Forces troops waiting for him in his office.
The article had said that thieves were finding it easier to break into people's bank accounts because 85 per cent of people used their birthdays or some other significant date as their ATM number.
'When was his birthday?' Race said suddenly.
“Oh, I know that,' Renee said. 'I saw it in his file. It was in 1914 sometime. Oh, what was it? That's it. August 6. August 6, 1914.”
00:00:30 00:00:29 00:00:28
'What do you think?' Race yelled over the roar of the indoor rain.
“It's a possibility,” Renee said.
Race thought about that for a second. He scanned the room around him as he did so—saw Ehrhardt sitting with his back up against the wall, cackling through his blood- filled mouth.
'No,' Race said decisively. 'That's not it.'
“What?”
00:00:21 00:00:20 00:00:19
For some reason, Race was thinking with crystal clarity now.
