The bank surroundings were enough to affect anybody. Nancy found herself going under the spell of security, structured procedures, and formality from the moment she arrived in the systems department. At MicroLabs, her systems manager job usually seemed like a process of loosely controlled chaos. Random user demands bouncing off programmers and analysts faster than they could be counted. Her computer department's mission was to please its internal customers. In the electronic information age, the bank's systems group had become the core of the firm's operation. It's mission was to carry out the business of the bank. They did it with the weight of the world on their shoulders.

After passing through four security checkpoints, Nancy and her escort arrived at the front entrance to the system operations room. The computer center contained dozens of computers, four of them mainframes. Data storage devices stretched down four rows of 30 cabinets each. A robotic tape mechanism fed cartridges to 15 tape drives. Nancy continued following as Slater led her to the opposite side of the raised floor room. When they reached a thick glass and steel backdoor, he pressed the buzzer on an intercom. An obvious security camera pointed down at them from above the door. A moment later, the locking mechanism released and the two went into a dark hallway that sloped down in front of them. Thirty feet and three more security cameras later, they went in through the only entrance to the 'Pod.' Short for Production Operations Department, everybody just called it the Pod.

The Pod was the nerve center of the bank's operations. It looked like the interior of a submarine. Dark except for a couple dim lights overhead and the glow from the control consoles that ringed the room. The stations were labeled with the function for that area: network access, transaction integrity control, data propagation, branch status, systems hardware telemetry. The list went on. Each console was staffed by an operator. Every three-station group had a fourth person overlooking the others. Maybe twenty people altogether. Nancy recognized some systems as commercial products, but the majority were dedicated function systems developed on contract to the bank.

The Pod Nancy stood in was identical in configuration and procedure to a room at every other Federal Reserve Bank and they were all networked together 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The shear mass of high-tech gear and the professionalism of the operation made Nancy feel like she was in a fortress. Maybe MEMOREX 333 wouldn't have it as easy as she had thought. Maybe they could hold him off.

Slater gave her a quick tour and then briefed his staff on the situation. No one seemed too concerned about the threat. The way everyone looked at her, Nancy felt like they were more worried about her presence in the Pod.

Nancy: Let me just ask you this, Jim, are you taking this seriously?

Slater: Oh yes. Bank regulations require that I take this seriously. Do I think we're in any danger? No, not really.

Nancy: Did you see what happened to AFX this morning? Doesn't that worry you?

Slater: Ms. McGill, you work in computer system management at one of the top computer companies in the world. You know that security is typically last on your list of priorities. No one wants to pay what it costs to be safe. AFX is no different than MicroLabs. But here at the bank, security is our top priority. Security is why people trust banks to hold their money. We take security very seriously. We pay what it costs to be safe.

Nancy: I see.

Slater: Mr. Bookman instructed me to assess the situation, so that's what I'm doing. Now, let's talk to your team, shall we.

Why do some people make it so hard for other people to help them? Slater couldn't have a bigger ego problem. He should look into getting some help with that, too. Maybe 333 would give him a healthy dose of humility. Nancy pushed her temper back underneath a professional exterior.

It had been almost two hours since Nancy, Dunn, and West had left the Boreskovich project site. Spike, Roger, and Pete Warwick were digging through diagnostic file data looking for a clue of something to use against MEMOREX 333. Nothing was so obviously flawed that it opened him up to attack. As much from frustration as anything else, they just started talking about 333 to each other. Maybe an idea would come from a brainstorming session.

Roger: What's frustrating about this is what you said about 333, Spike. That he's sort of hobbling around like he might come apart at the seams any minute. So why isn't this diagnostics file telling us why?

Warwick: It sounds to me like 333's carrier form is not stable. The diagnostics assume carrier integrity because it should just come unglued otherwise.

Spike: Then why isn't he coming unglued?

Warwick: 333 must be actively holding it together himself with his own processing capacity. That would explain why he went after AFX sooner than we thought he would. He's spending energy to keep his own matrix together.

Roger: Why would he do that? And how did he learn to do that?

Spike: He has a survival instinct built-in. He's using it. 333 must have picked up the matrix stabilization algorithms in those first few seconds right here in the lab. He probably started using them right then, too.

Roger: He is an impressive piece of work, Pete.

Warwick: Yeah, falling apart from an engineering perspective, but still solid enough to go haywire and run amok anywhere he wants to. Very impressive work. I wish Tony hadn't been so ready to wire in that other supercomputer. MEMOREX 333 never would have been born without it.

The ringing telephone grabbed everyone's attention. Every time somebody called, things got worse. Pete Warwick picked it up anyway. Relieved to hear a friendly voice, he punched Nancy into the speaker phone. Over the next half hour, Pete and Roger described what they knew about 333's infiltration methods. Pete Warwick read the methods in a straight series from 333's diagnostics file. On the other end of the call, Jim Slater had a 3-D model of the bank's security scheme displayed on the console in front of him. It showed the onion skin layers of defenses to the primary transaction systems.

As Pete described each of 333's capabilities, Jim Slater tagged the corresponding layer 'vulnerable' and the 3-D model darkened its representation of that defense. In order for an intruder to hack in, every defense on a given access circuit would have to be defeated. Nancy watched in amazement as the dozens of layers were tagged vulnerable in the exact order presented by the bank's 3-D model. Coincidence? The word wasn't even in Jim Slater's vocabulary.

Slater: That's it Warwick. That's the last one. 333 has the solutions to every one of our defense layers. They match from the outside to the inside, in order.

Warwick: In order? They mapped to your defenses in order?

Nancy: I was watching, Pete. Your list matched perfectly.

Slater: Somebody's playing games with us.

Roger: Slater, you're right. They're saying we can't stop them even though we know the target. From what I've seen, I agree. We won't stop 333 from getting in there. If you've got a panic button nearby, I suggest you hit it!

Slater: Panic is a four-letter word around here Mr. Tango. There's not going to be any panic. We can increase the defensive layers. We'll make them hold.

Roger: You still don't get it, Slater! They knew we were going to discover the target. They told it to us. They had 333 send us this diagnostic file intentionally. Somebody has orchestrated the whole situation!

Nancy: Mr. Slater, you've got to power down now! It's your only chance.

Slater: I need the authorization of the United States Secretary of the Treasury to power down this system. I don't know of anyone who has ever asked for that permission and I don't intend to be the first. As long as there's a chance of . . .

Slater was in the middle of his sentence when the lights in the Pod flickered. Nancy hardly noticed it, but everyone else was frozen in their tracks. They looked around at each other, no one saying a word. Were they listening for something, Nancy wondered? Slater walked closer to the console that held the 3-D security model display. He flipped a switch that moved the model from 'definition review' mode to 'live monitoring.' The group of technicians and engineers that were looking over his shoulder at the console stood waiting for the information. In the background, Nancy could hear Roger's voice asking what was happening. She couldn't divert her attention from the screen to answer him.



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