Imagine (Fuzed Trilogy Book 2) Page 16

  Greg asked, “Who’s Jen?”

  “She’s kind of my research assistant.”

  He nodded. “Is she single?”

  Josh smiled. “Yes she is ... but she’s seven years old.”

  Greg said, “Oh ... anyway, the fact that the BOTIC chip is manufactured in China isn’t surprising.” He paused. “What is interesting,” he tilted his head slightly, “is that China doesn’t allow the BOTIC chip to be installed in any of their cell phones.”

  Josh’s eyebrows went up. “That is interesting.”

  Tim shook his head. “Time to take this to the Director.”

  24

  CONNECT

  The next day, Greg was ushered into Lee’s office. He stood for a few moments waiting for her to acknowledge him. She never looked around her giant monitors, so he sat down at the small conference table in front of her desk. After a minute, he cleared his throat. He could hear her typing on her keyboard, clearly ignoring him. Finally, he said, “Dr. Lee, I understand the concept of BOTIC, but how were you able to optimize the network without using central servers?”

  The typing stopped. He heard a heavy sigh and after a few moments, saw her head appear above a monitor. Only a little over five feet tall, she had to stand to see him over the giant screens. With little enthusiasm, she said, “Just a sec.”

  She sat back down and made a quick telephone call. Then he heard rustling papers. Finally, she came around her desk with an iPad. Sitting across from him, she began sketching out a basic diagram, and said, “OK, it’s really quite simple ...”

  As she spoke, Greg studied it carefully and asked questions about the chip’s algorithms.

  She drew a more elaborate diagram on a notepad and wrote out several equations.

  Greg nodded and asked increasingly detailed questions.

  She moved around the table to sit next to him so she didn’t have to keep turning her tablet upside down. As the explanations progressed, Greg found himself completing her sentences. When he did, she would raise her eyebrows, and her explanations became more animated. She talked and Greg listened for over an hour.

  Finally, Greg shook his head in amazement. “What an incredibly elegant solution. Dr. Lee, do you realize, in addition to a brilliant engineering concept, you solved an intractable mathematical problem?”

  She nodded, smiling. “Call me Jessica.”

  He slapped the tabletop enthusiastically. “Mathematicians are always making fun of us engineers, but you totally—”

  “Smoked ‘em!” she finished.

  Laughing, they high-fived.

  Lee said, “Well, enough about my incredible brilliance.” With an impish smile, she added, “Tell me how you figured out the dual-frequency firing problem and saved London.”

  Greg shook his head. “That’s a long story, and everyone knows it.”

  “Oh, no you don’t!” She shook her head emphatically. “If I had to explain BOTIC, you’re going to explain the Blaster.”

  Greg shrugged and began to recount the story, emphasizing the technical details.

  Like Greg, Lee asked questions throughout.

  He finished with the firing and implosion of the Blaster on the Antarctic mountaintop.

  She said, “Wait a minute! You said something about a cruise missile.” She wagged her finger at him. “Don’t gloss over that.”

  Greg looked surprised. “Did I?”

  She nodded.

  “Oops.”

  She gave him a challenging look.

  Greg glanced around unnecessarily and then with a sigh, launched into the real story behind the firing. He became very animated as he described the F-18 ejection, the SEAL shooting Josh, and the near miss of the Tomahawks.

  “You ejected out of a fighter?” She narrowed her eyes. “Is this for real?”

  Greg nodded.

  “They didn’t have any of that in the docudrama.” She shook her head. “I want to hear more detail, but,” she looked at the time on her phone, “I’m hungry. How about you?”

  “Starving.”

  “What do ya like to eat?”

  “Mostly unhealthy food.”

  “Me too. Got just the place.”

  Greg found himself in a noisy Irish Pub sharing delicious, deep fat fried bar food and cold beer.

  The conversation moved from engineering to childhood. They were both precocious and similarly ostracized, but Greg realized how they handled it was very different. Greg was happy to be a loner and avoid conflict at all cost. Lee waded into the middle of it, taking adversaries head-on. The results she recounted were sometimes victorious, often comic and sometimes tragic.

  Greg said, “I was the class Valedictorian, but I had the world’s shortest speech. I freaked out and said, ‘Being Valedictorian and having to talk sucks. Let’s graduate.’ I got a standing ovation. How about you?”

  She frowned and slowly said, “Probably would have been if I hadn’t been suspended my senior year ...” she grimaced, “for fighting.”

  Greg’s eyes got big. “Someone picked a fight with you?”

  “Actually ...” she shrugged, “I kinda started it.”

  He just looked at her.

  She gave a small laugh. “Kayla Richardson. We were friends, but always competing with each other. She used to call me Chairman Mao.”

  “Why?”

  “When I got involved in clubs and organizations, I kinda ended up running most of them. I really didn’t mind the name. It was kind of a compliment, but ....” She stopped and sighed. “One day Kayla got really mad at me over something. She told everyone that my parents dumped me. So I hit her.” She rolled her eyes. “I know that was stupid, but it really hurt when she said that. I’d told her about my parents sending me to the U.S. to get an education. In China, traditions die hard. My brother, the number one son, got all the attention and got to stay in China with our family. They sent me to live with some old relatives in California when I was five. My foster parents were OK, but really didn’t have time for, or interest, in me.”

  “Are your parents still in China?”

  “Yeah.”

  Greg asked, “What do they do?”

  “My mother’s a medical scientist. My father was in the military, but I don’t know if he still is or what he does ... and I don’t care.”

  Greg didn’t say anything but raised his eyebrows slightly.

  She hesitated and then gave him a slight sigh. “He only flew me back to China a few times. The last time I talked to my dad was when he called me on my eighteenth birthday. I told him I was going to become an American citizen. I even changed the spelling of my last name from L I to L E E. The conversation kind of went, uh, downhill from there.”

  Greg grimaced sympathetically and said, “I’m so sorry, Jessica.”

  She shrugged. “I still talk to my mother, but I haven’t talked to my dad in over ten years and that’s fine with me.”

  As they started their third round of beers, the conversation moved back to the events leading up to the first Blaster firing.

  With a frown, Lee asked, “So, are you saying that this Fuze guy I met was, like, the program manager for the original Blaster?”

  Greg nodded. “Totally, but he was more than just the manager; he came up with the idea to use a pilot laser beam to punch a hole in the atmosphere.”

  She looked skeptical. “Really?”

  “Absolutely. He’s like super smart.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, he looks part Chinese.” Smiling sheepishly, she added, “Uh, no offense.”

  Greg smiled. “None taken.” He continued, “And, somehow, he knew of the comet’s existence a year before anyone else detected it.”

  She shook her head, “How?”

  Greg shrugged. “The official explanation was that it came from one of our deep-space probes.” He narrowed his eyes. “But if that were the case, it would have come in through NASA, and I know for a fact Dr. Chandra was as skeptical about the information as the rest of us.”

 
“So if it wasn’t NASA, where’d the comet information come from?”

  He shook his head, “We never knew. We used to debate it all the time. Some thought the source was super-secret military hardware. Others were convinced the information came from aliens.” He grinned.

  Lee rolled her eyes. “OK, but I still don’t understand why the SEALs shot him, and you said they almost blew you off the top of the mountain with cruise missiles!”

  He shrugged again. “It was pretty sketch. I’m still not sure what was going on. I thought Commander Fuze was dead for almost a year.”

  “Wow. So, what does he say about it?”

  “He just says the government’s right hand wasn’t talking to the left hand.”

  Lee laughed. “That I understand.” She shook her head. “If I didn’t know you were there, I’d swear you were making this up.” She looked at him a little challengingly.

  Greg laughed. “Never thought about how bizarre this sounds.” He realized in his excitement and need to impress, he’d said more than he should have ... a lot more. There must have been a reason Fuze’s role in the operation was kept quiet, and he just gave it away.

  She patted him on the hand. “It has to be true. It’s too crazy to be fiction, and it’s obvious why they didn’t want this known. It would not only be embarrassing, it might have slowed down the deflection effort.”

  He leaned in close, and quietly said, “Jessica, I ... uh, I probably shouldn’t have shared all that. Would you mind kind of keeping that under your hat for now?”

  Lee looked surprised and then said, “Sure, Greg.” Smiling warmly, she added, “We brilliant engineers need to stick together, and, I ... probably said more than I should have too.”

  There was an awkward pause, and then Lee said, “Excuse me. Gotta go to the girl’s room.”

  As he watched her walk away, he knew Jessica Lee was the most amazing woman he’d ever met.

  She glanced back and caught him following her with his eyes. Smiling, she said softly to herself, “Got him.”

  25

  CIA

  Josh met Tim at CIA headquarters.

  He handed Josh a file.

  Opening it, he saw a picture of a cute little girl. Looking at Tim, he asked, “Jen?”

  “Maybe. You didn’t give us much to go on, but this is the most likely candidate.”

  She had black curly hair, mocha skin and intelligent, smiling green eyes. She was very cute and definitely multi-racial. “Where’d you get this?”

  “It’s from one of the social media sites designed specifically for kids. I pulled in some favors and got access.”

  Excited, he asked, “Where does she live and who does she live with?”

  Tim said, “We’re still working on that. For these sites, the children have to have the parent’s permission to register. She only has one parent listed, a G. Moore, but there’s no address or other information on him in the database, which is unusual.”

  With a slight smile, Josh said, “You mean like us?”

  Shrugging, Tim said, “Access requires a small monthly fee, so we’ll try to track him via his PayPal account.”

  Josh frowned.

  “Don’t worry; we’ll find her.”

  Greg arrived, and Tim led them to a small conference room. They didn’t have to wait long before Davidson joined them along with Carl Casey. Josh introduced them. “Greg, this is Brian Davidson, the Director of the CIA, and Carl Casey.” To Davidson, he added, “I think you remember Greg’s role in our Blaster op.”

  Josh saw Davidson smile slightly at Josh’s use of “our.”

  As Davidson shook Greg’s hand, he said, “Honored to finally meet you, Greg. Can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you did on top of Mount Howe, not to mention all your development work on the Blaster.”

  Greg stammered, “Thank you. It’s ... good to meet you, sir.”

  While Davidson and Greg talked, Josh said to Carl, “Never thanked you for providing the high cover for me at Mount Howe, and congratulations on receiving the Intelligence Star. If it hadn’t been for you and Tim, none of us might be here today.”

  Carl gave him a slight headshake. “It was almost too little, too late, and I have to confess I wasn’t sure I’d made the right call right up to the last second.” He smiled slightly. “Thought I might end up in the prison cell next to yours.” He added, “By the way, we really enjoyed meeting Elizabeth. She’s an impressive lady. Kelly fell in love with her and is already demanding we spend more time together.”

  Josh, trying to sound casual, said, “Uh, yeah, that would be great.” Changing the subject he asked, “So, how’s Caitlin doing?”

  Carl laughed. “She’s three-and-a-half and into everything. Last week, she was in the backyard with me. Before I knew it, she was filling the lawn mower’s gas tank with water from the garden hose.”

  Josh smiled. Trying not to sound too interested, he asked, “Pictures?”

  Carl immediately pulled out his phone.

  Josh saw the smiling face of a beautiful little redheaded girl. He was thankful she got Kelly’s looks, but in Caitlin’s eyes, he saw a little of his old self. She was unquestionably his daughter. Josh studied the pictures carefully, committing them to memory. He made encouraging comments to keep Carl in presentation mode. The next pictures were of his beautiful Kelly holding Caitlin. She looked very happy, but it was hard to look at her. Josh wasn’t an emotional guy, but he found his eyes getting glassy as he looked at pictures of his widow and beautiful daughter. Rubbing his eyes, Josh said, “Dang allergies.”

  The pictures were interrupted when a four star admiral entered the room.

  Davidson introduced Admiral Ken Shearer as both the Director of the NSA and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command. They sat down around a small conference table, Shearer and Carl on Davidson’s left, and Tim, Josh, and Greg on his right.

  Davidson turned to Tim and Josh. “So, what do we have?”

  Tim ran through the interviews they had with Armani, Bentley and Lee, only leaving out details like breaking and entering.

  When he finished, Davidson nodded. “Thanks, Tim. Turning to Admiral Shearer, he said, “Ken, what are your thoughts?”

  Shearer leaned forward and said, “The evidence that all the cyber-attacks are related is circumstantial, but very strong. We’re still investigating the social media hack, but I think we’ve come to the same conclusion.” He paused. “What worries me is that this wasn’t just a software attack, they hacked the hardware. They came in through this BOTIC chip.” He shook his head. “We’ve worked hard to counter software attacks, but hardware hacking is much more insidious and potentially dangerous.”

  Davidson frowned. “But to hack a chip, don’t you have to actually build a malicious circuit into the chip?”

  “Yes, but chip architecture is so complex and compartmentalized, a chip designer can insert a tiny circuit with a malicious program that no one would notice, or, in this case, one that allows unauthorized access to the chip’s functions.”

  Greg asked, “Why would they do that?”

  Shearer said, “It could be a simple act of vengeance by a chip designer or an insurance policy in case they’re fired, or ... it could be something more coordinated and malevolent.”

  Josh turned the question around and asked Greg, “Why do you think Dr. Lee did it?”

  Frowning, Greg said, “I think it’s different in her case. She believes her chip is capable of much more and wants to prove what it can do.”

  With a slight smile, Josh added, “She doesn’t suffer from a lack of self-confidence.”

  Shearer said, “Back to the question at hand. The other common thread between the attacks is that no one has claimed responsibility for them.”

  Davidson added, “Which means we have yet to figure out their motive.”

  Josh said slowly, “Maybe we should first ask, if someone really could control the BOTIC chip in everyone’s phone, what could they do?”

  Greg cleare
d his throat nervously. “If the hackers can control our phones and all the apps on them, they could bring civilization to its knees.”

  Davidson smiled. “Greg, I understand they might be able to shut our phones down and embarrass people on social media ... but bring civilization to its knees? I can remember the world before cell phones.”

  Greg nodded. “Yes sir, but social media was only the most recent and public attack. Remember, they successfully manipulated navigation apps, creating global traffic jams. Within a few minutes, they tripled the value of several stocks, and the BOTIC chip isn’t just in phones; it’s now in tablets, laptops and even cars.”

  Shearer glanced from Greg to Davidson and said, “I’m afraid I’d tend to agree with Greg. The hackers did all this, not by denying access, but by taking control of it and subverting information. They could potentially shutdown global communication, gridlock international transportation and even crash the world’s stock markets.” He paused. “They might not shut down civilization but if you control all the information a population sees, you control the population.”

  Davidson nodded thoughtfully. “The part I find disturbing is that the BOTIC chip is manufactured in China, but not allowed in Chinese phones.”

  Tim asked, “How does the Chinese government explain that?”

  Shearer said, “They claim they’ve allocated enough bandwidth and don’t need it. The real reason is probably that BOTIC allows phones to communicate with each other like walkie-talkies without going through a central server.”

  Greg asked, “Why would they care?”

  Shearer said, “Because it makes it harder to monitor cell phone conversations.” With a slight smile, the Director of the NSA said, “Trust me on that one.”

  Greg shook his head. “But why would the Chinese want to play hacker pranks on us?”

  Shearer said, “They may be probing our systems as a prelude to an attack.”

  Greg looked puzzled. “But aren’t we, like, their biggest market?”

  Davidson said, “Yes, but with their massive economic growth, we’re competing for decreasing resources, like oil.”