Netminder

by Jeff Adams

People dying because medical records can’t be accessed….

  Past, present, and possible future mixed with screams of my names—both Winger and Theo.

  They asked me to do more… to make it stop… to fix it.

  I almost fell out of bed trying to get untangled. Once I did, I drew my legs up to my chest and leaned against the wall.

  This was what a panic attack felt like. I’d had emotional outbursts before, but this was amped up.

  Blackbird even running tests was wrong. Even a small number of targets could be catastrophic for the people impacted.

  If I couldn’t stop it, what did that mean for the world?

  I wasn’t in this alone. Split Screen worked on it to, but could I fully trust her? I’d know soon.

  Was anyone working on this from the outside. It’d been five days since Lorenzo pinged me. And even though it had only been a day since I had contact with Dean and Coach, it felt like the world had closed in.

  Eddie was gone too.

  I’d asked the guard when I returned if he knew anything. He just shook his head.

  Precious few people knew where I was—Coach, Eddie, and Mitch. If Split Screen hadn’t been able to report in before the TOS network went out, no one would know her whereabouts either.

  Even awake and with the dream in the past, my lungs were tight, and my heart thumped loud and fast.

  I couldn’t stop rocking.

  Was it better to stand up and walk around or sit and try to take deep breaths?

  At least I wasn’t doing this in front of anybody—other than whoever watched the camera.

  There were options—always. Any program could be rewritten to accomplish the goal. This was not a no-win scenario.

  The key was figuring it out fast enough.

  My track record for doing that was solid so far—if only I could be sure this time. If I screwed it up, the consequences were unimaginable. If the internet takedown doesn’t happen and they blamed that on me or my code….

  How I brought this to an end had to be total. It also had to result in the capture of those responsible, so my friends were safe.

  Eddie was on my mind too. Even though he double-crossed me, he ended up in that position because he knew me. I can’t imagine what it was like for him to find out from his father what I did and then be forced to act like nothing had changed between us. He’d kept his cover perfectly—clearly better than I did. There was nothing I pinpointed, right up to the moment he walked out on me in New York, that gave away the secret he’d carried.

  Complete and absolute destruction was required.

  Just like Dean had destroyed the laptop at the computer science competition….

  That’s what I had to do.

  I stood and quickly got dressed.

  It had to be bigger than what Dean did since I’d target a number of computers, and I didn’t know exactly where they were located. But I think Dean provided what I needed to execute the final move.

  I knocked on the door, so I could be escorted back to the workroom.

  It was possible I’d make a huge mess doing this, but I’d take the chance. Since Split Screen had the agent list, it would be possible to round people up—if not for TOS than other authorities.

  And if there was collateral damage along the way, that could be cleaned up far easier than a global internet outage.

  The guard opened the door and simply nodded before he stood aside so I could walk in front toward the elevators. If I did this right, it’d be the last time I made this trip.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  SPLIT SCREEN, Cobb, and Wildcat weren’t present when I arrived in the workroom, but plenty of others huddled around keyboards. After a few minutes consulting with someone charged with integrating AI components, I took the time to check on some things.

  Dean hadn’t returned, but I could proceed without him. My phone sat on the desk, where I’d left it, connected with the standard lightning cable connection to the computer. If I could access the way Dean had gotten into the computer, I’d be able to pair it with the phone to accomplish my plan. I opened some command line windows and typed.

  I poked around the open connections to the phone and found the outbound connection Dean had opened.

  The networking information from Split Screen and Dean would help me lock on to all the right computers with a destructive script. I wished I could place a TOS phone next to every computer. The same EMP that I neutralized my tracker chip with could be used to wipe disc drives and completely fry the hardware.

  Since I couldn’t create an EMP in all the networked computers, I’d refine what Dean had done—go after the power supplies and force a surge. If the surge couldn’t happen for any reason, the bot would force the unit to overheat and reformat the hard disk.

  At the same time, the bot would send back a GPS location that I’d store—somewhere I’d have to figure out—so agents could be dispatched to recover anything still there. It’d be better if people were ready to make arrests, but there was no time to orchestrate that.

  Westside, Split Screen, Wildcat, and Cobb returned. She didn’t look my way. I could clue her into my plan, but if she had flipped to Blackbird’s side, my access would get shut down. I wouldn’t take that risk since I didn’t know when I’d have this chance again.

  Even if I told her, she likely couldn’t help because it might get suspicious if she and I worked together. It was already difficult to code in the middle of the room and not get found out.

  Still, if I brought her into the loop, I might get access to her TOS phone. The combined power of our phones would easily take out the electronics inside this building unless they were shielded. The attack would then be two pronged—my bots for the external computers and an EMP wiping out this facility. I needed to run a sweep for Split Screen’s phone, so I could tie it into mine and the contact lenses for control.

  There might be some electronics outside the building that got fried, potentially the streetlights or equipment in the building next door, but most of the damage would stay contained.

  “Winger.” Westside startled me. I looked up from my monitor as he approached. “Your framework looks mostly solid. There are a couple things I’m going to go over with these guys, but there’s no reason we can start integrating.”

  “Yeah,” Cobb added, coming in behind him, “we were sure you were gonna try to sneak something in there, but not only does it look like it will do what we need, it’s actually more fortified then we expected.”

  What I’d built in stayed under the radar. The task hadn’t been easy, and I’d pushed myself with my coding technique. My professors would be impressed.

  “What’s the integration plan?” I asked.

  “You and Cornerstone will lead the efforts,” Split Screen said. “It’s your framework, and he has the most knowledge of everything we’re trying to do, so that should make the work go fast. We expect to run the first test by this time tomorrow.”

  Crap. I wanted this to end today and, and I hadn’t expected a buddy. More challenges to keeping my work hidden.

  “Terra’s working so we’ll have the infrastructure in place tonight,” Split Screen continued. “Assembling servers with various functionalities so we can try turning off their IP’s. We’ll also hit the targets outside our network to validate. Let’s get to work so our timeline doesn’t change.”

  Cornerstone followed me to my desk. “Are you going to be sticking around after Override’s complete?” he asked as he brought his chair over.

  “I have no idea what they plan to do with me once we’re finished,” I said. The nervous quiver was more for cover because, regardless of outcome, I wasn’t going to stay.

  “You’re cool to work with, so I hope you stay.” Cornerstone seemed to be in his middle twenties, and I had to admit he was good to collaborate with. “I’ll put in a good word for you if I can. Seems a shame that they would get rid of someone as obviously talented as you are. And it’s gonna be pretty epic if we pull this off. It�
��ll make a lot of money for all of us.”

  How could Cornerstone not see the big picture?

  Did he think much of the money would flow into his pocket? That was for whoever ran all this with maybe some bonus pay to those close to the top. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the project team was wiped out too, so they wouldn’t go bragging about what they’d done or try to undo it once they figured out how bad the impact was.

  It surprised me Cornerstone could be so blind to consequences of what we were doing.

  Ultimately tomorrow’s test had to provide a perfect cover to destroy everything.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  NOT BEING able to test any aspect of my code made me increasingly anxious to the point that I felt a little sick to my stomach. Ideally, I’d be able to give it a controlled test to ensure that it would execute the destruction I planned for Blackbird. As it is, there could be a typo that I’ve missed that prevents it executing.

  Even in previous missions where I couldn’t test, there was normally an opportunity to make refinements. This was either going to work or not, and if it failed, the odds of a second chance were slim.

  This code proved to be the most complex I’d assembled on the fly. I knew what needed to be done and the theory behind it. All the ways that I usually worked went out the window. I decided to leave Split Screen out of it so if I failed, her cover would be intact to try again.

  Under the guise of confirming that we were integrating everyone’s code snippets into the general framework correctly, I huddled at my keyboard. The only people who talked to me were Split Screen to check on my overall progress and Cornerstone with status updates from the teams finishing their components. Lucky for me, the artificial intelligence team was running behind.

  The phone screen lit up indicating an app update. Split Screen sent a new message.

  “What’s that?” Cornerstone asked as he passed the desk.

  Shit.

  “Just saving scripts back to my library. I’ve created new stuff, and I want to save the snippets. You never know when they’ll come in handy.”

  “Oh, man, great idea.” He seemed excited and even more importantly didn’t question my story. “I didn’t even think of that.”

  When he dropped into his desk, I pulled up a window on my computer to read Split Screen’s message.

  I got the agent list out to my private cloud since I wasn’t sure how safe anything else was. I wish we could talk for even five minutes away from this room, but that would be way too suspicious. I saw some extra code you’d written into the framework. No one else seemed to, but it looks like you’re working on a plan. I’m working on countermeasures too, but I don’t get much time at a keyboard. I hope yours works. If you think I can help, let me know.

  Getting the agent list out was excellent. Hopefully we’d soon get that into the hands of people who could round them up and get TOS agents released. On the other hand, that she’d seen some of what I’d done in the framework was a concern because if she could….

  I couldn’t go down that rabbit hole. We’d worked together before, so of all people, she’d be the one to spot anything.

  Everyone’s concern at the moment focused on the AI team, because we weren’t going to make our test deadline if they didn’t complete soon. Cornerstone and I predicted it would take at least an hour to integrate into the framework and possibly longer.

  I took one last look at everything, including the destructive code I’d unleash. I’d even tried to hide it better because of Split Screen’s comment. It all looked right to me, and the trigger I’d set in the contact lenses was ready. I’d activate it as soon as the test began, and after that it could only be stopped because it completed the job or if I turned it off.

  Ideally it would appear to Blackbird as though something had gone catastrophically wrong.

  I also tied my phone to Split Screen’s. Her TOS phone pinged from inside the building in a room on the first floor. It hadn’t moved since I’d found it. The lenses would also trigger the EMP.

  The last thing I set up was reporting to my cloud server. I’d have a report of what connected electronics were taken out, as well as which ones the bots couldn’t affect and where they were located. I had to believe the protocols TOS had with agencies like Homeland Security, the CIA, and FBI were still in place and they could use the information even if TOS couldn’t.

  Cornerstone came in and dragged his chair next to my desk. “AI team is finished, and we can pick up their code.” He reached around me and logged in, so he could pick up the files. He either trusted me completely or didn’t care what my other windows were—he just plowed on. Thankfully, I’d already closed what he shouldn’t see. “I figured we could do the final work together and get this done faster.”

  Split Screen and some others came over.

  “How long?” Wildcat asked.

  “I’d say we’re still in the hour-ish time frame,” I said and looked to Cornerstone who nodded eagerly.

  “Good. We’ll notify Westside.” Wildcat left as Split Screen and Cobb went to the whiteboard and marked off some of the to-do list.

  THE HOUR zipped by, and we finished getting the AI put into the overall framework and plugged into all the components that needed access to it. We also completed the review of the entire sequence.

  It looked solid. Too solid.

  I had confidence this would likely do everything it was designed to. My backdoors were still in place as far as I could see without digging in too much to verify.

  “Looks good to me,” Cornerstone said.

  “Yeah. It does. Let’s send it on.”

  I got up and let Cornerstone log in and drop the file onto the server.

  Westside, Split Screen, and others immediately huddled around a monitor. Cornerstone and I came up behind them once the file was in place. From behind everyone it was impossible for me to see what specifically they were looking at.

  Only a small bit of the right corner of the screen was visible, and it was too far away to read any of the text. No doubt they were reviewing the code one last time before they authorized the test.

  Cornerstone leaned over and whispered, “I’m going to go make sure everything’s ready with Terra. I think we did good, Winger.”

  “Yeah. I think we did. You need any help?” I probably shouldn’t offer help, but it was better than just sitting around.

  “Nah, I’m good. Besides, if there’s any questions one of us should be here.”

  All I could do was wait.

  “HOW’S IT look?” I asked, stepping through the group to get to Westside and the others.

  “Some of this is really elegant for how quick it came together,” Cobb said.

  I winced at the unwanted compliment. On the other hand, they liked what they saw and that should keep people safe.

  “I wish you could be happy about this, Winger,” Split Screen said.

  “I didn’t really have a choice but to give it my best, did I?”

  Westside locked eyes with me for a moment before looking back at the screen. “You should be proud, Winger. They’re right about the quality. I especially like where you tried to add code you didn’t think we’d see.” He spun around so quick that the people nearest him stumbled back to get out of the way. “I can tell by the surprise on your face that you really thought you’d get away with it. I’m particularly disappointed in you, Cobb.” In a fluid movement Westside turned away from me, pulled his gun and shot Cobb at point-blank range.

  Screams filled the room, and Split Screen flinched. Cobb had been right next to her. Wildcat turned a disturbing shade of gray.

  Cobb dropped to the floor.

  Westside spun around and held the gun on me. “Quite clever how you were going to attempt to hijack and destroy every computer in our network. You almost got away with it. Two lines of code looked out of place, and it had been bothering me in the last review. I just figured it out.”

  Fuck.

  “I wish I could’ve convinced
you to be on our side,” Westside continued. “Now you can watch us succeed knowing you failed.” He waved over one of the guards. “Don’t let him move.”

  The guard trained his gun on me.

  I didn’t need to know the outcome.

  Time to make the last move.

  I pulled up the menu on the contact lenses and activated the pulse along with the order for the bots to attack the servers.

  “Five,” my phone said.

  No! I hadn’t disabled the audible countdown.

  “Four.”

  “What’s that?” Westside looked up from the monitor.

  “Three.”

  “What did you do?” Westside asked, anger and panic tinged his voice.

  “It’s his phone,” Cornerstone said from my desk.

  “Two.”

  He grabbed a keyboard and drove the corner of it into the phone.

  “One.” The sound warbled.

  Cornerstone looked up to Westside. “The screen’s dark.”

  The green dot was gone. He’d hit the phone just right.

  Sparks flew from the computers and lights. People yelped as phones crackled in their pockets. My phone might not have pulsed, but Split Screen’s did.

  I put my hands over my head as more electronics snapped across the room.

  “You….” Westside howled, and he charged me. The room was in chaos as people moved away from anything electrical. Some small fires broke out.

  Westside barreled into me but not before I got into a crouched position to take his blow. We went to the ground.

  The lights went out. I didn’t know if they’d all blown or if the pulse had zapped the power in the building.

  Westside’s fist connected with my jaw. He had me pinned.

  People scrambled to get out of the room.

  He tried to get another blow in, but I blocked him. I bucked, threw him off balance, and used the opportunity to get off a couple of punches of my own.

  The building rocked with an explosion. What the hell was that? I hadn’t expected anything to blow up.