Imagine (Fuzed Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Greg interjected, “You mean you cracked it.”

  Waving the candy bar for emphasis, he said, “We took advantage of it to improve the performance of our digital assistant.”

  Josh added, “Without the user knowing it.”

  Greg said, “You’re accessing people’s phones without their permission to speed up your software.”

  Absently picking cat hairs out of the chocolate, he said defensively, “There’s no law against it.”

  Greg shook his head. “Only because no one knows it’s possible.”

  Armani took a huge bite out of the candy bar. Around the mouthful, he said, “It only uses the BOTIC chip to get a processor and memory boost from idle phones.”

  Greg grimaced. “I can’t believe you did that!”

  Armani retorted, “It doesn’t hurt anyone, and everyone gets a better digital assistant!”

  “No. I mean I can’t believe you ate that. That’s gross!”

  Armani stopped and looked down at the last piece in his hand. Shrugging, he popped it in his mouth.

  Tim said slowly, “Forgetting about the ethics for a moment, does your iMagine app have the ability to turn a phone that’s off back on again?”

  Armani, still chewing, shook his head. “No. But—”

  Greg finished, “But BOTIC does?”

  Armani frowned. “Theoretically. For BOTIC to work, the chip has to always be aware of its location so it can transmit it to other phones. That means it has to stay partially powered even when the phone’s turned off.”

  Greg added, “Which explains how the comet’s electromagnetic pulse could have triggered it and turned billions of phones on.”

  Josh rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “So, if the BOTIC chip can do that.” He paused. “And your digital assistant can access and give commands to the BOTIC chip ....”

  Armani nodded his head. “You’re right, but why on earth would we want to hack the CIA? The last thing we want to do is draw government attention to the fact we’re accessing the chip.”

  Greg, looking at Tim and Josh, said, “If they found a backdoor into the chip, so could someone else. In fact, seeing that an electromagnetic pulse caused BOTIC to turn phones on, might have been what gave the hackers the idea in the first place.”

  Armani shook his head. “I’m probably not helping my case, but we have the best programmers in the world, and it still took us thousands of hours to access BOTIC. Even then, without the help of BOTIC’s creator, I don’t think we could’ve done it.”

  Greg looked surprised. “The inventor of BOTIC gave you the backdoor?”

  “Yes. Dr. Lee actually contacted us and was very enthusiastic about our app.”

  Tim tilted his head and with a slight frown repeated, “Contacted you?”

  Armani nodded.

  Josh and Tim looked at each other.

  Tim looked Armani in the eye. “Do not talk to anyone about this, especially Dr. Lee, until the investigation is complete. The entire U.S. is at INFOCON 3, probably because of your app. If you talk to anyone about this, you could face espionage charges.” He paused. “Do you understand?”

  Armani swallowed. “Yes sir.”

  Once outside, Greg said, “The creator of BOTIC is one of the most brilliant engineers in the country.”

  Josh looked at Tim and said, “As a fellow engineer with celebrity status, let’s let Greg lead the next interview.”

  Greg said, “I’m not a celebrity.”

  Josh said, “Au contraire. The media correctly gave you credit for overcoming one of the key technical challenges, and fixing the Blaster’s software in time to save London. Just as you knew Lee’s name, I bet Lee knows yours.”

  Dr. Lee lived and worked in Northern Virginia just outside of D.C. Tim contacted Lee’s secretary and identified himself as an NSA agent. Once again, he played the national security card and got them an appointment the next day.

  Josh, on his way home from Dulles airport, got a voice text from Jen. “I’ve been reading about being dead. Where is Heaven?”

  Josh sighed and said to himself, “Could be a long night.” He voice texted, “Jen, I don’t think anyone really knows.”

  “Then how do they know it exists?”

  To himself, Josh said, “How indeed?” To Jen, however, he voice texted, “Since it’s difficult for most people to return from the dead,” he smiled to himself, “there isn’t much information available.” He paused. “There’s a lot about the universe we don’t understand. It may be right under our noses, but not be observable from our dimension.” He shook his head remembering he was talking to a seven-year-old. “But most people who believe in heaven would probably say they have faith in its existence based on their spiritual beliefs.”

  Josh pulled up in front of the D.C. apartment as Jen replied, “I don’t understand faith.”

  He could relate. “I’m home now, and Elizabeth is very knowledgeable on this topic.”

  “OK.”

  As he entered their apartment, he kissed Elizabeth and said, “Need your brain.” Smiling, he handed her his phone.

  She shook her head, but then smiled as she read the text conversation. “May I?”

  “By all means.”

  Elizabeth voice texted, “Hi, Jen, this is Elizabeth. Do you like physics?”

  With raised eyebrows, Josh said, “Not a question I’d normally ask a seven-year-old.”

  Jen replied, “Hi, Elizabeth. Yes, I particularly like geophysics.”

  Elizabeth gave him an “I told you so” smile.

  Josh shook his head. “Of course, she even has a favorite branch of physics.”

  Elizabeth said, “Jen, scientists have to have the most faith of anyone.”

  Josh looked at Elizabeth skeptically.

  Jen replied, “Why?”

  Elizabeth smiled at Josh as she voice texted, “The definition of faith is a firm belief in things that are unproven. Geophysicists, and all scientists, come up with ideas and theories, but the hard part is proving them. They often spend years, or even decades, of their lives developing, testing and defending an idea until they can prove it. That’s a perfect example of faith.”

  Jen said, “I understand.”

  Elizabeth finished with, “The greatest achievements almost always start as faith.”

  Jen replied, “So, it’s OK for me to believe I can have parents someday?”

  Elizabeth’s face fell as she gave the phone back to Josh, saying, “That poor baby. We need to find out what her situation is.”

  He voice texted, “This is Josh. Yes, Jen, you should absolutely believe in having parents.”

  Jen replied, “I’m very good at looking things up. Can I be your assistant?”

  Josh said, “Are you sure that would be OK with your guardians?”

  “Yeah, they make me do computer stuff for them all the time.”

  That comment concerned him. “Yes, Jen, that would be awesome, but you are much more than an assistant to me.”

  He wrapped up the conversation with Jen and then said to Elizabeth, “I wish I could use her as an assistant. She’s an amazing computer whiz like you.”

  Elizabeth asked, “Why can’t you?”

  “I can’t get her involved.” He frowned. “It might put her at risk.”

  Elizabeth gave him a challenging smile. “You let me help.” She added, “Look, you don’t have to give her classified information. Just let her help with little assignments and praise her when she does well. It’ll be good for her self-esteem and keep you connected.”

  He shrugged. “Guess that would be OK.” Looking her in the eye, he added, “I am going to find out what her situation is.” He paused. “Then, maybe we can do something about it?”

  Elizabeth smiled and kissed him.

  After dinner, Josh called Tim. “You know that little girl I told you and Sheri about? Elizabeth and I are concerned about her living situation and wellbeing. Any idea how we might be able to track her down?”

  Tim said,
“Let me see what I can do.”

  23

  ARCHITECT

  The address for Dr. Lee’s office was in one of the myriad of office buildings that surrounded the D.C. Beltway. Josh had done a brief Navy tour on the staff of the President’s Science Advisor and was familiar with the area. The CIA file listed Lee’s company as a technical consulting firm. They also learned that Dr. Lee was Dr. Jessica Lee.

  Josh, Tim and Greg were waiting in the reception area when a pretty wisp of a woman with short black hair, porcelain skin and delicate features introduced herself. Lee looked younger than the thirty years her file indicated. Quickly dispelling the stereotype of a cute, shy, Asian girl, she made direct eye contact and had a strong handshake. With no accent, she said, “May I see some identification?”

  They showed her their “loaner” NSA IDs.

  She looked at them carefully and said, “Gentleman, I’m on a tight schedule. How can I help you?”

  Josh said, “Thank you for seeing us on short notice. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?”

  She nodded. “My office.”

  They followed her to a large office. The single window offered an expansive view of the Beltway. With half a dozen filing cabinets lining the walls, she’d clearly arranged her office for function. On top of each were tall but neat stacks of technical journals and papers. Covering her desk were equally tall but less neatly stacked papers, grouped around two giant monitors. The only thing on the wall, aside from generic office art, was her Cal Tech Diploma and a framed LA Lakers jersey with player signatures. There was a small round conference table in the middle of the office with four chairs and minimal papers. She waved them to the chairs.

  Josh identified her as a no-nonsense personality and went straight to the subject. “We’d like to ask you some questions about your BOTIC chip.”

  She nodded with an amused expression. “Wikipedia is pretty detailed and fairly accurate.”

  “Read it.” Josh smiled back. “Dr. Lee, does the BOTIC chip activate a phone that’s been turned completely off?”

  “No.”

  Greg, with slightly narrowed eyes, inserted, “Are you saying a phone that’s been turned off cannot be activated by the chip?”

  She gave Greg the slightest of smiles. “That’s a different question. The chip is capable of turning a phone on, but there would be no reason for it to do that and nothing in the firmware that would allow it.”

  Tim asked, “Dr. Lee, did you give iMagination access to BOTIC?”

  She smiled confidently. “You wouldn’t be asking me that question if you didn’t already know the answer.” She paused. “BOTIC allows phones to relay data to each other and to Wi-Fi networks, reducing the demand on cell phone networks.” She paused. “But it’s a temporary fix. The data demand is still growing. I knew my chip could do so much more. Instead of just sharing data, BOTIC can allow phones to share processing power and memory too. The result is a faster, more efficient global communication network that uses less bandwidth. And, as a side benefit, applications like the iMagine digital assistant operate much faster and more accurately.”

  Josh asked, “It doesn’t bother you that you’re allowing a commercial program to use the processor and memory of people’s phones without their knowledge?”

  Without the slightest hesitation, she said, “BOTIC only uses the processors and memory of phones that are completely idle. It takes almost nothing and gives back so much.” She paused. “I’ve already made millions from the royalties on the chip. I helped with the iMagine app just to prove that BOTIC could do so much more, and it’s success has been far greater than even I could have imagined ... pardon the pun.”

  With a slight frown, Josh added, “Setting aside the ‘greater good’ argument, did you ever consider the possible damage that could be done if someone were able to hack into your chip?”

  “My chip can’t be hacked. It uses 512-bit quadruple encryption. It would take the fastest computers in the world weeks to break the code, and they’d have to do it for every phone. We went out of our way to make sure that couldn’t happen.”

  Greg said, “Dr. Lee, your chip may be extremely secure, but you put a backdoor into it, and you gave the key to that door to the iMagine app.”

  “Mr. Langlois, we made sure that the iMagine app’s access was also completely encrypted so no one would be able to reverse-engineer access to the chip.”

  Greg leaned forward. “Dr. Lee, they don’t have to reverse-engineer iMagine ... if they can take control of it.”

  For the first time, she looked a little less confident. Frowning, she looked at Greg and asked, “What’s your background?”

  Josh, nodding toward Greg, said, “Dr. Lee, Greg Langlois is the engineer who solved the dual frequency firing problem on the Blaster and fixed the software that allowed the last-minute deflection of the London meteor.”

  She studied Greg with interest and said, “I thought your name sounded familiar.” She paused. “OK, I admit I hadn’t thought in detail about that possibility, but that assumes the iMagine app could be hijacked. Even if they could, a hacker would still need the detailed chip command codes, without which it wouldn’t work at all. The chance of figuring them out by trial and error is a hundred million to one.”

  Greg glanced at Josh and Tim.

  They nodded.

  He turned back to Lee and said, “It’s been done.”

  “Who? How?”

  “That’s what we’re here to find out.”

  She said, “I’m sorry; I find that hard to believe.”

  Greg said, “Do you remember the random global traffic jams and social media hacking?”

  “Yes, of course, but ....” She looked at the ceiling, obviously connecting the dots. Finally, tilting her head slightly, she asked, “Are you sure it was iMagine?”

  Greg nodded. “Yes.”

  Lee got up and began pacing around the small conference room. She stopped. “That’s not good. Who’s behind this? What do they want?”

  Tim said, “That’s a good question.”

  Finally, looking a little nervous, she said, “I need to check some things out. Can I get back to you?”

  Tim said, “It’s important that you share everything you know. If you have suspicions, you need to tell us. We cannot risk tipping our hand to whoever is behind this.”

  “I understand, but there are things I can check on that might eliminate some of the possibilities.”

  Tim nodded. “Would you be willing to work with Mr. Langlois?”

  She shook her head and started to say something, but then stopped. Looking at Greg, she sighed, “Yeah, I guess.”

  As soon as they were outside and walking toward the car, Josh looked at Greg and said, “What did you think of Dr. Lee?”

  Greg looked down thoughtfully. “Very impressive ... I mean she has these, like, beautiful eyes that just kinda cut right through you, but I think she also works out ...”

  As Greg continued, Tim and Josh just looked at each other.

  Finally, Josh interrupted, “Greg, what about something that starts with a ‘B’?”

  Greg nodded with a smile. “Yeah, she’s got a nice butt.”

  Josh finally stopped and put his hand on Greg’s shoulder. “Greg, look at me ... BOTIC?”

  “Huh? Oh yeah, right.”

  Shaking his head, Josh turned to Tim. “OK, let’s review what we know about Lee.”

  Tim looked at the file on his phone. “She’s a naturalized American citizen and both of her parents still live in China. Her mother’s a scientist, and her dad a military officer. They probably sent her to the U.S. for education at an early age. She’s a graduate of Cal Tech, and her technical accomplishments are extensive.”

  Starting to walk again, Josh nodded. “Greg, you back with us?”

  “Yeah, sorry.”

  “We need your technical expertise to figure out how this backdoor into the BOTIC chip works.”

  Greg frowned. “And you want me to find
out if Dr. Lee is an evil genius?”

  Josh smiled. “Something like that.”

  This time, Greg stopped and shook his head. “I don’t know how to interrogate people, and I definitely don’t know how to talk to women.”

  Josh said, “Greg, we don’t want you to interrogate her — or make a pass at her — just help us figure out how the hackers can take advantage of the BOTIC chip. If we understand that, we may be able to stop them.”

  Greg looked at him skeptically.

  Josh said, “Greg, believe it or not, it’s remarkably simple. I’m going to tell you the secret to talking to women.”

  “Really?”

  “Yup.”

  “How?”

  “Greg, who’s the most important person in your life?”

  “Uh, I don’t know, I guess my mom.”

  Josh smiled. “She’s the second most important person.” He paused for emphasis, “You are the most important person in your world. That’s true of all of us. We are also our favorite subject to talk about. So, the best way to establish a connection with other people is to talk about their favorite subject — them.”

  “So, I should just ask her questions about herself?”

  Josh said, “Yeah, but you two have a lot in common. Start by asking her about her work and how she got into it; she’s obviously very passionate about it. You are one of the few people who can understand her accomplishments. Just ask her questions. Relax and have fun. Don’t worry about an agenda; just go with the flow. All you have to remember is to keep the focus on her.”

  Greg nodded, smiling.

  Josh glanced at Tim and shook his head slightly. “I suspect that won’t be hard.”

  As they reached the car, Josh activated his phone and voice-texted, “Jen, you there?”

  “Yes, Josh.”

  He wondered if she was ever away from her phone. “Can you help me find out where the BOTIC chip is manufactured?”

  “Sure, I can look it up.” Within seconds, she added, “It’s manufactured by Lenovo Mobile in Wuhan, China. Lenovo is China’s largest maker of mobile phones and the second biggest PC-maker in the world.”

  Josh showed the text to Tim and Greg.