Digital Fortress Chapter 36

Manual abort? Susan stared at her c at oncealing, mystified.She knew she hadnt typed whatsoever manual of arms abort look across-at least non intentionally. She wondered if maybe shed hit the defective duration of keys by mistake.Impossible, she muttered. According to the headers, the abort command had been sent less than twenty proceeding ago. Susan knew the only thing shed typed in the utmost twenty minutes washer secrecy economy when shed stepped place to talk to the commanding officer. It was false to think the cover code could m otherwise been misinterpreted as an abort command.Knowing it was a waste of time, Susan pulled up her ScreenLock log and double-checked that her seclusion code had been entered ripely. Sure enough, it had.Then where, she demanded angrily, where did it necessitate a manual abort?Susan scowled and shut the ScreenLock window. Unexpectedly, however, in the split second as the window blipped a commission, well-nighthing caught her eye. She r e unresolved the window and studied the data. It make no sense. There was a proper locking entry when shed left customer 3, nonwithstanding the timing of the subsequent pass around up entry seemed strange. The two entries were less than iodine minute apart. Susan was certain shed been out-of-door with the commander for more than one minute.Susan scrolled down the page. What she see left her aghast. Registering three minutes later on, a second set of lock-unlock entries appeared. According to the log, soulfulness had unlocked her terminal while she was gone. non possible she choked. The only candidate was Greg drop bandaging, and Susan was kind of certain shed never given Hale her privacy code. Following good cryptographical procedure, Susan had chosen her code at ergodic and never written it down Hales scene the correct five-character alphanumeric was out of the question-it was xxxvi to the fifth power, over sixty meg possibilities. on the nose the ScreenLock entri es were as clear as day. Susan stared at them in wonder. Hale had in well-nigh way been on her terminal while she was gone. He had sent her tracer bullet bullet a manual abort command.The questions of how quickly gave way to questions of wherefore? Hale had no motive to poop out into her terminal. He didnt even know Susan was running play a tracer. Even if he did know, Susan aspect, why would he object to her tracking virtually guy named North Dakota?The unanswered questions seemed to be multiplying in her head. First things first, she said aloud. She would chew with Hale in a moment. cerebrate on the matter at hand, Susan reloaded her tracer and hit the enter key. Her terminal beeped once. tracer SENTSusan knew the tracer would take hours to return. She swear Hale, wondering how in the world hed gotten her privacy code, wondering what interest he had in her tracer.Susan stood up and strode immediately for Hales terminal. The screen was black, but she could tell it was not locked-the monitor was intent faintly around the edges. Cryptographers seldom locked their terminals except when they left Node 3 for the night. Instead, they merely dimmed the b rightness on their monitors-a universal, honor-code character that no one should disturb the terminal.Susan reached for Hales terminal. recognize the honor code, she said. What the hell are you up to?Throwing a quick glance out at the deserted Crypto floor, Susan turned up Hales brightness controls. The monitor came into focus, but the screen was entirely empty. Susan frowned at the blank screen. timid how to proceed, she called up a search railway locomotive and typedSEARCH FOR TRACERIt was a massive crap-shooter, but if there were any references to Susans tracer in Hales computer, this search would baring them. It mogul shed some light on why Hale had manually aborted her program. Seconds later the screen fresh.NO MATCHES FOUNDSusan sit a moment, unsure what she was even tone for. She tried a gain.SEARCH FOR SCREENLOCKThe monitor refreshed and provided a handful of innocuous references-no tweak that Hale had any copies of Susans privacy code on his computer.Susan sighed loudly. So what programs has he been victimisation today? She went to Hales recent applications menu to find the last program he had utilise. It was his netmail server. Susan searched his hard drive and eventually set his e-mail folder hidden discreetly within some other directories. She opened the folder, and additional folders appeared it seemed Hale had numerous email identities and accounts. One of them, Susan noticed with little surprise, was an anon. account. She opened the folder, clicked one of the old, inbound messages, and carry it. She instantly snatchped breathing. The message guideTO email protectedFROM email protectedGREAT PROGRESS DIGITAL shelter IS ALMOST DONE.THIS THING WILL club THE NSA BACK DECADESAs if in a dream, Susan read the message over and over. Then, trembling, she o pened another.TO email protectedFROM email protectedROTATING CLEARTEXT WORKS MUTATION STRINGS are THE TRICKIt was unthinkable, and and there it was. E-mail from Ensei Tankado. He had been writing to Greg Hale. They were working together. Susan went numb as the impossible truth stared up at her from the terminal.Greg Hale is NDAKOTA?Susans eyes locked on the screen. Her mind searched desperately for some other explanation, but there was no(prenominal). It was proof-sudden and inescapable Tankado had used mutation strings to create a rotating cleartext function, and Hale had conspired with him to bring down the NSA.Its Susan stammered. Its not possible.As if to disagree, Hales vowelise echoed from the past Tankado wrote me a few times Strathmore took a jeopardize hiring me Im getting out of here someday.Still, Susan could not accept what she was seeing. True, Greg Hale was obnoxious and arrogant-but he wasnt a traitor. He knew what Digital protection would do to the NSA there w as no way he was involved in a plot to release itAnd yet, Susan realized, there was cypher to stop him-nothing except honor and decency. She thought of the Skipjack algorithm. Greg Hale had ruined the NSAs plans once before. What would prevent him from trying again? merely Tankado Susan puzzled. Why would someone as paranoid as Tankado trust someone as unreliable as Hale?She knew that none of it mattered now. All that mattered was getting to Strathmore. By some ironic stroke of fate, Tankados partner was right there under their noses. She wondered if Hale knew yet that Ensei Tankado was dead.She quickly began closing Hales E-mail files in order to leave the terminal exactly as she had found it. Hale could wary nothing-not yet. The Digital Fortress pass-key, she realized in amazement, was probably hidden somewhere inside that very computer.But as Susan unsympathetic the last of the files, a shadow passed outside the Node 3 window. Her gaze shot up, and she saw Greg Hale approachin g. Her adrenaline surged. He was close to to the doors.Damn she cursed, eyeing the distance back to her seat. She knew shed never make it. Hale was almost there.She wheeled desperately, searching Node 3 for options. The doors behind her clicked. Then they engaged. Susan felt understanding takeover. Digging her shoes into the carpet, she accelerated in long, reaching strides toward the pantry. As the doors hissed open, Susan slid to a stop in front of the refrigerator and yanked open the door. A glass pitcher on top tipped precariously and therefore rocked to a stop.Hungry? Hale asked, entry Node 3 and walking toward her. His voice was calm and flirtatious. Want to share some tofu?Susan exhaled and turned to face him. No thanks, she offered. I think Ill just- But the linguistic process got caught in her throat. She went white.Hale eyed her oddly. Whats wrong?Susan bit her lip and locked eyes with him. Nothing, she managed. But it was a lie. Across the room, Hales terminal glowed brightly. Shed forgotten to dim it.