Thorn nodded. This situation must have really angered McClain. Only on the job a couple of months and already they were carving away at his empire. Thorn would bet that Mac’s buddy the Prez had gotten an earful about this; obviously, it hadn’t done any good.
“You’ll be hearing from these people soon. Technically, the transfer of command won’t happen immediately, but as of now, whatever they want at DoD, you give them.”
Thorn nodded again. “Yes, sir.” Even though McClain had offered his nickname, he didn’t correct Thorn’s respectful “sir.” The man had came out of the Ivy League, and his just-one-of-the-boys routine was for show. He was not a bad guy, from what Thorn knew, but the story was, he was like a cat — dropped from anywhere, he always landed on his feet, and any business friendships were pragmatic before anything else. Not “What have you done for me lately?” but “What can you do for me now?”
“I’ll pass along whatever I hear,” the Director said. “Assuming you don’t hear it elsewhere first.”
Thorn gave the man another small and brief smile and left. It wouldn’t be that hard for him to find out about John Howard coming to visit — nobody had tried to hide it. But knowing it was Howard and being able to do anything with that was a horse of a different color. Howard was a private consultant now, not subject to Ellis’s command.
As he walked back toward Net Force HQ, Thorn rolled it around in his thoughts. Still too early to tell. He’d have to wait until he started getting calls from the DoD.
When he got back to his office, his secretary, who was on the phone, waved at him. She put the caller on hold. “General Ellis’s office for you,” she said.
Thorn smiled. “I’ll take it.”
No moss growing on the Marines…
Jay Gridley was annoyed. More than that, he was angry. He drummed his fingers on the clear plastic table in the holo room as he waited to meet the HPCMP’s liaison and thought about how irritated he was.
So it had finally happened. Net Force was moving out of the feds’ grip and into the military’s. Although Thorn hadn’t had the details, Jay knew that there had been a major systems failure during big simulations. Apparently the powers that be felt there could have been some outside cause of the crash and had been sweating blood trying to track it down. So much so that they’d arranged to take Net Force under their aegis just to make it a priority. That meant it had to be a truly huge event.
What was most irritating was, he’d had to come over here to meet someone
Plus, once he arrived, he had to walk the gauntlet: metal detector, explosives sniffer, bio-telltale. Had to take off the belt Saji had given him for his birthday and let it be examined by guards who let him have it back reluctantly, watching him as though they thought he planned to throttle their computer scientists with it. This on top of having to carry a smart-card badge that would set off an alarm if he went anywhere he wasn’t cleared to go, as well as an armed escort who had walked him to meet the HPCMP’s liaison and who was just across the room, waiting. It was like having a baby-sitter, and it was insulting, to say the least.
Jay knew that it had been that way at many military and government buildings since the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York’s Twin Towers and the Pentagon, of course, and he could understand that — U.S. security had been very lax in the good old days. Unfortunately, those days were long ago and far away.
He could even agree with the heightened security measures and the extreme caution. What bothered him the most, though, was the baby-sitter. Jay was a cleared, high-security employee and had been checked seven ways to Sunday, so what was the point of putting an armed guard on him? Jay wasn’t going to do anything. He was on their side. He was one of the good guys. He was here to help them find a computer breach.
If there had even been a breach. From what Jay knew of the HPCMP’s networks, sneaking in would be tough. For the last year or so, the Department of Defense had operated under new network protocols on their high-speed internal network. These were similar to but incompatible with commercial routers and networks. Any connection to an outside network had to be translated to standard packet protocols, and every such translation point was watched very carefully. Since the system was designed only for military projects, the efficiency and incompatibility were both desirable.
All of which made the entire process he was going through now seem like closing the barn door after the cow had gotten out.
He smiled to himself, ignoring the guard. It was true that Thorn hadn’t given him much background about Net Force’s forced move into the military, but that didn’t mean Jay didn’t have it.
Smokin’ Jay Gridley did
He knew Bretton, of course — you didn’t get to be one of the top cyber-jocks in the country without bumping into those few who could run with you. Or actually, a little behind you. Bretton was good — more a specialist in simulations and Human Behavior Modeling than security — but he had some chops.
One of the things Jay had found out was that the HPCMP didn’t just do sims. They coordinated immense computing power for other uses as well — modeling of new missiles, design of new weapons and vehicles, and other R&D. If there
Okay, so maybe they had reason to be paranoid.
He glanced at his watch, which wore an old analog face — an Omega Seamaster Chronograph Professional. When you looked closer, you could see that it was a pixel job — a datastore that also doubled as a watch, the display showing any one of hundreds of styles.
And right now it was showing that he’d been waiting for fifteen minutes.
Which started him fuming again.
It was another five minutes before a short, muscular man in uniform who looked like a recruiting poster walked in Bretton.
Jay tried not to let his irritation show. All the agencies were supposed to exude brotherly love these days, however their people felt.
“George — glad you could make it.”
Apparently his skills at acting were worse than he had thought, or else Bretton was just as unhappy.
“Yeah, thanks for coming, Jay.” Not much enthusiasm there. Practically deadpan.
This was great. All the hassle of getting here and the guy he came to help didn’t even want him here.
Jay wanted to sigh, but held it. This was why he liked cyberspace. What was it Saji said? Sometimes the journey of a thousand steps had to go the extra mile? He waited for a few seconds and tried to imagine how he’d feel if Bretton had been brought in to check up on Net Force security.
Let it go. Give the man some face.
“Yeah, well, I don’t know why they dragged me over here when they’ve got you,” he said, shrugging. “It’s not like I have a bigger hammer.”
Bretton grinned and the tension level dropped.
“Thanks, Jay, I appreciate that. The thing is, I haven’t found the problem yet, and as much as I hate to say it, I may not be able to. I’ve looked under more rocks than litter the surface of Mars.”
Hmm. If Bretton couldn’t find anything, it might be worth looking into.
“You’re sure it’s a break-in?”
“Yeah.”
Bretton tapped on the table and instantly the empty room disappeared. They were on a crowded street, packed crowds of tourists looking up into the sky where the huge flower of a nuclear fire had just begun to blossom. Everything was still; the scene frozen. The light was harsh and actinically bright, and Jay squinted to protect his
