Roger had been looking for a way to talk to Pete alone. It was the only way to bring up the subject of an opposition man on the inside. Now even with everyone gone, Roger had trouble bringing up the question. Finally, he didn't have to.

Warwick: Roger, I know it looks bad for my guys.

Roger: Yeah, Pete, it does. On any normal operation you would have been watching each one of them getting grilled about twelve hours ago.

Warwick: I know that, too. I've been waiting for Dunn to come down on me like a ton of bricks, but he hasn't done it. I figure him for the type with no field experience in a contested situation. Budget problems, cost overruns, project delays, I figure that's all he's seen.

Roger: You're avoiding the issue, Pete. Let's talk about your team.

Warwick: All right. There are only five or six people that know enough about the technology to do anything at this level.

Roger: That's what I figured. What do you know about their backgrounds?

Warwick: Three of them are too young to have any backgrounds. That was why I hired them. Two other have only been on the team for a few weeks. This operation looks to me like one where the planning goes back further than that.

Roger: I agree. How many does that leave, two people?

Warwick: Yeah two, but one of those is me. The other is my right arm, Tony White. He came on about two years ago. He came in already on the payroll. Had been with D.O.D. Intelligence. Top skills and pre-approved security clearance. That doesn't happen every day.

Roger: Of course right now, that's what worries me. No doubt his file was sealed from you so you don't even know what he worked on before this project. He's a ghost.

Warwick: I can't believe Tony would sell us out. He's put as much or more into this project than anybody. Roger, let me be honest with you - I don't want it to be Tony.

Roger: Look, let's talk to him. If he's involved and turns some information for us, he can get off easy. And, he could be in worse shape if we don't draw him out. The life expectancy for project recruits is not very high on a job like this. Especially if they know anyone else by name.

Warwick: All right, let's talk to Tony. But we have to do it alone. I want to know where we stand before Dunn starts sinking his teeth into the kid.

Roger: Unless I miss my guess, that's true for more than one reason.

Warwick: What do you mean?

Roger: I'll tell you later. Let's go see how Spike and Dr. B did with Dunn.

Pete and Roger found Dr. Boreskovich and Spike working on the electronic white board in the doctor's office. They were deep into the design specifications of MEMOREX 333's weaponry. The schematics were incredibly complicated and not very well formatted. Many of the engineering notes were just scribbles in Boreskovich's messy handwriting. Spike listened intently to the scientist as he described the underlying theories.

Roger: Looks like you two are back to the drawing board. Dunn shot down the other plan didn't he?

Spike: He said it sounded too dangerous for the other computer systems that would get involved. Actually, he's probably right about that. If I led 333 on a chase across the Net, he'd be bouncing all over people's systems.

Roger: So Dunn has turned into a concerned citizen. Restores your faith in bureaucrats everywhere, doesn't it?

Warwick: I see you're getting a close look at Dr. Boreskovich's designs. Have you found any flaws to exploit?

Boreskovich: No, Petrov, we look for parts to give Mr. Webb.

Warwick: Parts?

Spike: Yeah, I want to see if we can take any of the tools you built into 333 and make them independent objects. If we can, it might give me something to fight back with.

Roger: Spike, I never pictured you as the Rambo type. I can't wait to hear what Nancy thinks of this idea.

Nancy: What idea?

Roger: Oh, you're back from your nap?

Nancy: Yeah, now what idea?

Spike: It's not worked out yet, Nancy, but it looks like we may be able to isolate some of 333's weaponry code and package them into program objects that I could use against him.

Nancy: Wow, that's a great idea. Let's do it!

Spike: Okay, let's try to put a test program together.

Dunn was finally able to place his call to Washington. He never really knew what to expect when he called. It was safe to predict the boss would be wound up pretty tight. At this point, he didn't care too much what the boss thought about how things were proceeding. In a few hours, Dunn would be clear of him and the rest of the mess he was going to leave behind.

Dunn: Look, I'm not going to argue with you about that.

Washington: You've made it so hot around here I can barely move.

Dunn: I had no way to know what position you were in.

Washington: Releasing the warning to the media was never on the contingency chart. Where did you come up with that idea?

Dunn: It was the right move and it worked. Without it, all the attention would still be focused on the San Francisco branch and their recovery. Instead, they're circling the wagons around New York.

Washington: And Washington! I'm stuck in the middle of this media onslaught. Now the FBI has federal warrants for "related files." They're demanding everything. It's a field day for them. My shredder is starting to glow red it's so hot.

Dunn: That's unfortunate, but it's a better situation for the operation as a whole.

Washington: Well let's hit New York. That should draw the Bureau people off long enough for me to get organized here.

Dunn: Sorry, can't do that. We need as much time as possible.

Washington: Dunn, you've got to do something!

Dunn: I'll tell you what, I'll send off another message to the press. This time I'll tell them when the New York attack will take place. How about three hours from now?

Washington: Good enough. Do it as soon as we hang up. Now when will the transfers to the Bahamas begin?

Dunn: We should be receiving deposits in about an hour, but I can't predict how long the counterfeit transfers will last. If we get lucky, it could go on for a day or even two.

Washington: When will you pull out of there?

Dunn: As soon as I confirm the deposits are being made. I need to be out of the country when the Fed sees where the money is going and they start looking for the owner of that account.

Washington: Then we won't talk again until we meet in Madrid.

Dunn: Right.

The announcement came on CNN even before Dr. Boreskovich and Spike had a first prototype of their hybrid weapon ready. Another message had been received by the news network - the New York Federal Reserve Bank would be attacked at exactly midnight, less than three hours away. The communiqué was quickly identified as authentic, but beyond that, it confused all the experts. Debate had continued through the evening as to the intentions of those responsible for the computer sabotage. Most experts had agreed that an extortion demand of some kind would show up before any further demonstrations were carried out. The New York Federal Reserve Bank was seen as the mother ship of the Fed branches. Surely, payment or political prisoner release would be demanded to save the centerpiece of the system.

The bank was being given every opportunity to defend itself. It was taken by the psychological experts as another flagrant display of an ego-maniacal personality. The military counter-terrorism experts saw it as a way to take the stakes up to all or nothing. If the bank could not be protected now, the government would have to publicly admit its inability to stop the attackers. The FBI was privately working a different theory. Their experts believed the tactic was designed to draw all defenses to New York while a different branch was struck. They worked quickly to alter security codes, transaction ID numbers, and security passwords at the other branches. For them, the good news was that the San Francisco branch was just about to come back on-line with confirmed account integrity.

The CNN reporter in New York documented for the world what she could see from the street.

Reporter: A new level of intensity has reached the effort underway here in Manhattan. Bank officials and their security staff personnel are all staying up late tonight to defend themselves against this threat. We've seen scores of computer personnel and a dozen or so system security experts entering the building tonight. One group came in with a police escort from the mid-town heliport. Armed security personnel are on full alert tonight inside the building and the New York Police Department has surrounded the building's exterior with more than 200 officers.

About an hour ago I reported having witnessed a set of three large semis arrive and make their way to the rear loading dock. One of our camera men has taken his equipment to an office high above the bank and has a vantage point on the trucks and their crews. If we can get Charlie's camera . . . yes, there it is. We've been told this team of 'disaster recovery' experts is putting together a duplicate mainframe for the bank. The massive computer will stay on these trucks and operate the bank's systems from that precarious position, should it be needed. The technicians hope to have this mobile mainframe ready by midnight, but they admit they're under the gun for a record setup time.

With the clock ticking down and the pressure climbing, this scene promises to be a real nail biter as we come up to the witching hour.

This is Andrea Marks reporting from Wall Street.

Dunn had created the perfect decoy. A televised pressure-cooker for the news media to buildup even further. All four television networks had cut to the story as their exclusive programming. Viewers across the country tuned in to the countdown in numbers rivaling the O.J. Simpson verdict announcement.

No coverage at all was given to the efforts of a small team in Salt Lake City, Utah. Jim Slater and his system engineers had methodically moved through their recovery procedures. They were ahead of schedule by a good half hour when they brought their systems back on-line. It was 6:30pm in San Francisco and 9:30pm in New York and Nassau, Grand Bahamas Island.



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