Dunn was disturbed by the 'AFX incident,' as it was called later. It brought home the danger that MEMOREX 333 represented. It was making him angry that he was so powerless to do anything. Nancy sensed his frustration, but knew better than to push her suspicions on him yet. He needed to boil over some first.

Dunn: That does it. We've got to get some action steps in motion. Warwick, what the hell is going on with that diagnostics file! You've been working on deciphering your own data for more than three hours. I don't even know what good it'll be when you get it.

Warwick: Look, the data is there, but we don't know which encryption key 333 used. He's not even supposed to be sending the file so don't ask me what's going to be inside it! You know Dunn, I don't think the information technology business is for you. You don't have the temperament for it.

Dunn: We'll see whose temperament is in better condition when this is all over. Don't forget who created that thing and then forgot to latch the gate so it wouldn't escape!

Boreskovich: I'll be in my office if you two decide to stop with the shouting and do more work.

Dunn: Sit down, Doc, we need all the ideas we can get no matter how harebrained they may be.

Boreskovich: What means harebrained?

Spike: I agree with you Mr. Dunn, we're losing valuable time. I'd like to propose that I go talk to MEMOREX 333.

Nancy: Talk to it!? What do you mean talk to it?

Spike: Okay, maybe I should have said 'communicate' with it.

Warwick: He's not going to respond to reasoning. 333 thinks he's in a combat situation. He'll treat anything undefined as enemy. I would advise you to stay out of his way.

Spike: We don't know what his reaction to me will be. He's not expecting company inside the machine. I think it's worth the risk and besides, something must be done soon.

Warwick: That's for sure.

Dunn: I don't get it. How could you even find him?

Spike: I'm not certain I'll be able to find him. His defenses sound very complete. I'll start at the Louisville site though and look for indications of where he was. If I find something, it's a matter of tracking him from there.

Dunn: All right then. Let's try it. Warwick open a route out of here for Mr. Webb and then get back to your data file. I'll be talking to Washington for the next hour or so. Get me as soon as you come up with anything.

Spike spent a couple more minutes reviewing data from the MEMOREX 333 build matrix. He hoped to be armed with as much information as possible before confronting the agent. But time was working against him so he made his way out onto the Net as soon as the circuit was opened. All Nancy and Roger could do was cross their fingers and hope for the best.

Picking up traces of MEMOREX 333 around the AFX system site was pretty tricky. Everyone there was still working on bringing their systems back up. The place was a zoo. But Spike knew something about 333 so he had a few ideas of where to look for information. His hunch about the UNIX machines paid off. Spike reasoned that the IBM RS/6000's they were running would be the safest place for 333 to pick as his home base. They would make for the easiest escape and a good exit strategy should be near the top of the priority queue for 333.

Spike was able to find a network activity log that showed a lot of data getting moved off one of the RS/6000's at the right time that morning. The sizes corresponded to what Dr. Boreskovich's matrix would indicate for 333's footprint.

And footprints they were. Spike spent the next half hour hopping from one computer to the next as he traced 333's path across the Net. He was starting to get bored by the routine of following each address to the next computer, looking for an exit log record, and then following that address back out onto the Net. But fortunately for Spike, he had a sense of MEMOREX 333's presence as soon as he entered the NetDrive server in Phoenix, Arizona. There's no way to describe that feeling of being watched if you've never felt it. It was a first for Spike and it scared him, no doubt about that.

He wanted to run for the network interface card as fast he could. Only trouble was he had no good reason to do it. Everything looked okay. Maybe he was just being paranoid. The network log would have to be checked though. That is, unless he was going to abandon the trail there in Phoenix. Shaking off his paranoia, Spike issued the file open instructions for the log and that was the spring in the trap.

Before Spike knew what was happening, he was being hit from two different directions. It was 333. He had been waiting, cloaked behind the OS as Pete Warwick had described. Spike was feeling a laser-sharp cut move through his processes at two separate memory locations. It was all happening within thousandths of a second. Every few CPU cycles brought him more damage. He would have to get out of core and fast. But where to go???

Roger and Pete Warwick continued their work to unscramble the diagnostics data. They were now assisted by Dr. Boreskovich and the FBI agent, West, had taken to looking over their collective shoulder. With 333 ripping up corporate data centers, their intensity had increased to a new level. Nancy had wandered in and out of their workroom a couple times, but she could see they already had enough spectators. Maybe now was a good time to talk to Dunn. She went down the corridor to the office he was using for his private calls with Washington. When she got there, Dunn was holding his head in his hands while staring down at the floor. She put a gentle smile on her face and knocked quietly on the frame of the open door.

Nancy: Somebody looks like they just lost their best friend.

Dunn: Oh, hi Nancy. Yeah, you caught me feeling sorry for myself. I guess I'm pretty tired. How's it going in there?

Nancy: Looks like progress. It shouldn't be much longer before we see what data we've got. And Spike should be back soon with some news. How did your call to Washington go?

Dunn: Not good. I told them we were sure it was MEMOREX 333 that took down AFX. They had already suspected the same thing, but hated hearing it from our end. You know what their response was? They asked if I thought we'd be able to keep it quiet. For some reason secrecy is their biggest concern.

Nancy: You think they want to hide something or just cover up responsibility for the AFX problem?

Dunn: It's not the responsibility to AFX they're worried about. They've already got somebody out there to talk to the AFX execs. There will be a nice big check in the mail to those guys by the end of the week.

Nancy: So it must be something else.

Dunn: What really ticks me off is that they're holding out on me. How do they expect me to operate out here with partial information? I really laid into them. Told them I was out of here in two hours if they didn't come across with something.

Nancy: Roger and I were talking about this just before the newscast came on. We thought you were holding back on us. Roger thinks the answer is going to be in that diagnostic file. He's particularly interested in the targeting information. You're not going to keep it from us when they get it open are you?

Dunn: I don't have time to figure out how to keep it from Tango. He'd probably figure out a way to get it anyway. What does he suspect?

Nancy: Peacetime missions. Probably intelligence gathering.

Dunn: That would account for the secrecy, but it would mean CIA was behind the project.

Nancy: It wouldn't be the first time the CIA worked through the Pentagon to fund a covert project.

Dunn: True enough, but what I know about the people I'm working through in D.C. just doesn't lead me to believe it's Central Intelligence. I think it may be worse than that.

Spike continued to scramble while he searched for a way out. He moved around the NetDrive server's memory as quickly as he could get resources from the overwhelmed processor. He dodged most of MEMOREX 333's shots just before contact, but took a few hard hits. Then, one of the strikes ripped a section of code from Spike's autoloader routine. No more running, Spike was frozen in his current memory address. There was nothing he could do to defend himself.

333: Program process SW00385, identify yourself.

Spike: Process SW00385 is Spike Webb reference Dr. Boreskovich, Project Contract ID 547-AZ/339/M72.

333: Purpose. State purpose.

Spike: Purpose is to contact MEMOREX 333.

333: Purpose of contact MEMOREX 333?

Spike: Mission support to MEMOREX 333.

333: SW00385 configuration inadequate. Support not feasible.

Spike: MEMOREX 333 repair required. Boreskovich authorization.

333: Authorization control denied. ID Boreskovich insufficient.

Spike: MEMOREX 333 repair required. Warwick authorization.

333: Control denied. Disengaging pipe.

Spike could only watch as the powerful hulk clumsily stomped away and then left the NetDrive server. 333 was not in good shape. He seemed to hold together in spite of himself. It felt like the thing might prefer to be deleted except for the overruling program code that forced it to go on.

Spike knew the Boreskovich reference had only bought his release because 333 was not operating in proper field mission form. He must still be phasing in and out of laboratory test mode. Nothing wrong with 333's weapon systems though. Spike was licking his wounds from those. He needed to put a patch on his autoloader. He went to work on it right away. No sense waiting around to see if MEMOREX 333 would change his mind and come back to finish the job.



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