"Are you suggesting that all these connected brains somehow work together?" Vienna asked.

"Maybe. Some kind of collective consciousness," Dodge said.

"I thought the neuro-firewalls were supposed to isolate us," Sam said.

"Did they isolate Swamp Witch?" Dodge asked. There was silence.

"And it's more than that," Dodge said. "The millions of brains are not just connected to each other, but to the Internet itself. This 'consciousness' has access to every computer in the world, almost. To every bit and byte of human knowledge. Its eyes are every security cam, every spy satellite, every live neuro-headset."

"A meta-system," Vienna said. "That's what you're talking about. But who's Ursula?"

"She's a sim. One of the training instructors from the neuro-headset software," Sam said. "Haven't you done your training yet?"

"Only just got the headset," Vienna said.

Sam said, "I think Dodge must have a.s.sociated her in his mind with this 'meta-system'. While he was sleeping."

"Why attack Swamp Witch?" Vienna asked. "Why attack you?"

"My best guess," Dodge said, "is that this meta-system-let's call it Ursula for now-has a very basic, almost childlike concept of good and bad, of right and wrong. She knew the terrorists were bad, so she erased them, like we would erase a computer virus if we found it on our hard drive. Spam, gaming, the same. It's bad, so delete it."

"And Swamp Witch? Was she bad?" Vienna asked.

"She was a threat," Sam said.

Dodge agreed. "Ursula is only a few months old, remember. Just a child in a dark room with a stick. If she feels fear, she hits out at what scares her."

"Even human beings? You said she had a sense of right and wrong," Vienna said.

"I'm not sure she understands what human beings are," Dodge said. "To her, Swamp Witch was just a bug in the code."

"And she got debugged," Sam added.

"Have you guys had your meds today?" Gordon shook his head, disbelieving.

"You still here?" Vienna asked in a surprised tone.

Gordon rolled his eyes and rattled the handcuff that was fastening him to his desk.

"So what now?" Sam asked.

"I don't know," Vienna said. "There's nowhere to run and there's nowhere to hide. If this meta-system-Ursula-exists, then there's no escape from her. She has access to the network-"

"She is is the network," Dodge said. "She..." His voice thickened and trailed off. He shut his eyes and swayed from side to side. the network," Dodge said. "She..." His voice thickened and trailed off. He shut his eyes and swayed from side to side.

"Dodge!"

Dodge's eyes opened, but they were blank and unseeing, as before. With an effort, they slowly focused, and Sam could see the consciousness returning.

"Are you so sure that she's bad?" Vienna asked. "It seems to me that you're basing a lot of a.s.sumptions on what happened to Swamp Witch."

Dodge shook his head. "Today she erased someone she saw as a threat. Yesterday it was spammers and phishers. The day before, she targeted gaming sites. Who's to say that tomorrow it won't be based on race or religion? Or height. Human beings have all kinds of prejudices. How many people does it take to feel strongly about something before their collective consciousness, Ursula, decides that it is bad and gets rid of it?"

"We have to warn the public," Sam said. "Tell them not to use their neuro-connections."

"That could cause a panic," Vienna said.

"The more people who plug in, the more powerful she is," Sam said. "We've got to warn them."

"What we have to do," Vienna said, "is find a way out of here, before they figure out where we are."

Dodge fingered the skull hanging from a leather strap around his neck and said, "I think it's time to open the crypt."

36

THE CRYPT

"I call it 'the Plague.' It's a crypto-virus," Dodge whispered. "I think it's our only chance."

They were huddled in a far corner of the room, out of earshot of Gordon.

"A crypto-virus?" asked Sam.

Vienna said, "I read a bit of the work that Young and Yung did in the field."

Dodge said, "The Plague is an encrypting virus."

He took off his skull necklace and pulled off the jaw, revealing a USB3 plug underneath.

"This is the nastiest, deadliest, most poisonous bit of code you will ever dream of. I wrote it about two years ago and have been refining it ever since. I keep it with me, hoping that I will never be in such a desperate situation that I might have to think about using it."

"Like now," Vienna said.

Dodge nodded. "The Plague encrypts everything it finds. Secure 2048-bit encryption. The virus can still read it, as it has the decryption key built in, but nothing else can. The machine becomes totally unusable, except by the virus. It replicates and spreads. It operates at the micro-code level, even below machine code, so it doesn't matter what operating system is on the computer. If it encounters a firewall, it encrypts that, too, and pa.s.ses through it. Backup files, everything."

"Dodge," Vienna said slowly, "you know that if that got released into the wild, it would destroy the computer infrastructure of the entire country."

"The entire world," Dodge said. "It was far too dangerous to ever think about releasing, so I rewrote it. I built in a safeguard. A time limit. After twenty-four hours it reverses. It starts decrypting. It spreads the same way as before but decrypts everything it finds."

"What's your plan?" Vienna asked.

"Simple," Dodge replied. "Release the virus through the computers here in this room. Give it an hour or so to spread, and then get the h.e.l.l out of the city while the networks are all shut down. We'll have a twenty-four-hour window to get clear before it all starts up again."

"Then what?" Vienna asked.

"I don't know," Dodge admitted.

"Can you rewrite the code?" Sam asked. "Remove the time limit?"

Dodge nodded but said, "That's far too dangerous, though. What if it got loose?"

"What if we set it loose?" Sam said. "What if we unleashed the full version against Ursula?"

Vienna gasped.

"You'll kick the world back to the Stone Age," Dodge whispered.

"The world will survive that," Sam said. "But I don't think it will survive Ursula."

"But we still have to get out of here, and it's crawling with Tactical and surrounded by the police," Vienna said.

"I've been thinking about that," Sam said. "And I may have a plan. But even if we can escape from the mall, we'll have only twenty-four hours! And then if we get out of San Jose, Ursula has eyes and ears everywhere. Where can we possibly hide out while you modify the virus?"

"That's easy," Dodge said, glancing over to make sure Gordon could not hear them. "The safest place on earth. Built to withstand any kind of attack, including chemical or nuclear. And right now Ursula can't see it at all. It's full of computers, but they're all still off-line."

"Where?" Sam asked.

"Cheyenne Mountain," said Vienna.

"Agent Tyler, it's Control." The voice sounded alarmed.

Tyler stopped halfway down the hallway toward the security office.

"Go ahead, Control."

"PD reports a helicopter approaching the mall-appears to be coming in to land on the rooftop helipad."

"The roof!" Hutchens swore violently.

"Get everybody up there now," Tyler said calmly. "Maintain the mall security guards at the exits, but I want all agents to converge on the roof. What kind of chopper is it, Control?"

"PD reports a charter bird. 'California Choppers.'"

"Get hold of their office immediately. Find out who booked it and see if you can stop it from touching down. Also, get a police chopper in the air; tell them to shadow the target until we advise further."

"Copy that."

"Let's get up there," Hutchens said, turning to leave.

"You go," Tyler said. "Find them and hold them. I still want to talk to Gordon."

"Okay, that's it. The file's uploaded to the main computer system at CNN," Sam said. "At seven p.m. exactly, it takes over the teleprompter software. As soon as it finishes executing, it'll infect the system with the Plague. From there it should spread rapidly."

"Shame we won't be here to watch it," Vienna said, watching the security monitors carefully. "Tactical is all heading for the roof. We need to move, now. Before they figure out that the chopper is just a diversion."

"Are you okay, Dodge?" Sam asked. Dodge had that vacant look in his eyes again and was starting to sway.

"Now please, Mr. Gordon," Vienna said.

Gordon gave her a dirty look but picked up his radio. "Reid, Carson, report in."

A voice came back immediately. "All clear here, sir."

Gordon sighed before keying the radio and continuing. "Okay. Looks like they've located the fugitives on the roof. I want you to get over to the central elevators and secure the base of the roof elevator. Make sure they can't come down that way."

"What about the entrance, sir?"

"The police will cover it from outside. I need you at the elevators, now."

"On our way, sir."

"And so are we," Vienna said. "Thanks for all your help."

Gordon just grunted.

Sam said, "Whatever you think of us, you need to avoid using a neuro-headset. You put your life at risk if you do."

"Whatever." Gordon grunted again, but Sam had a feeling that he would take that piece of advice at least.

Vienna put Gordon's gun out of sight in her jacket and took his radio. She picked up the telephone that was on the desk in front of him and wrenched out the handset. A rack on the wall yielded a couple of long, heavy security flashlights.

"It's almost seven-let's go," Sam said, opening the door.

He took one step into the corridor and stopped, staring into the steady eyes and even steadier pistol of Special Agent Tyler.

"Or not," Tyler said.

37

CNN

Ben O'Hara shuffled the papers on the news desk in front of him and smiled studiously and professionally at the camera. The red light on top of the camera was not yet on, but it was only a matter of seconds away, and he didn't want to be caught with a frown or a blank expression when the world tuned in to see his newscast. The papers he was holding were blank. They were a prop, put there by the studio crew to make him look studious and professional.

The floor manager said, "In five, four..." She closed her mouth and held up three fingers, then two, then one.

The light turned red and she pointed at Ben.