Clancy,Tom - Net Force - Cybernation.txt

by Cybernation(lit)

saying something. She would be sore in new places ow. He was not done punishing her, and Jackson ild not get off just because he had run away to Ger- ny, but he could wait. All in good tune. Did he trust her? No, certainly not. She was a slut, and was out for herself, that had not changed, no matter : she said. Her skill would only buy her so much, but ' now, it was worth enjoying. When he went home, he ild find younger women who did not know the arts of we , and teach them to please him in the ways Missy did. they would not have her devious mind and need to : in control. Smart women, ambitious women, they were to be avoided. Young, beautiful, and stupid,

  218

  NET FORCE

  that was what he preferred. And if they got smarter with age? There were always fresh ones waiting to take their place.

  As he showered, lathering himself with her hard-milled soap, he hummed a little tune. The next part of the project was about to start. There was only so much they could do with their computers and advertising, and soon it would be up to him and men like him to make things really happen.

  He stepped out of the shower and dried himself with one of the huge towels Missy kept. He should go and practice his moves, now that he was relaxed. The ship's gym had room once you moved all the equipment back out of the way. Making love, having a hot shower, those were things that made a man want to go to bed and take a nap, but discipline must be maintained. He worked out every day, no matter what, no matter where he was, he found a way to do something. The fighting edge was one that grew dull if not sharpened frequently. It would be easy to justify a day off now and then. But if you could do that, you could justify two days off. Then four. There was no end to that, and the next thing you knew, you were fat and lazy, meat for some lean and hungry player who did not fool himself into thinking he still had the moves when he had let them rust away.

  He found his striped workout pants and rubber sandals, grabbed a clean towel, and headed for the door.

  Lying naked on the bed, Missy saw him. "You're not going to work out?"

  "I am."

  "But you must be tired."

  "Yes. That does not matter."

  "Why don't you come back to bed? You can work out later."

  "I could. I will. But I am also going to work out now."

  She shook her head, and he left. She could not understand. She was a woman. Women did not know the ways of men, not in the important things. Oh, yes, they knew

  219

  CYBERNATION

  what a man wanted in bed, but about honor and lipline and what made a man a man? No. They knew of these things. How could they? No more than i could know about bearing children. It was just not

  24

  Net Force HQ Quantico, Virginia

  In the conference room bright and early, Michaels listened to his team give their reports. Toni was here, Jay, John Howard, and Julio Fernandez.

  Toni said, "Police are certain that the car that rammed Senator DeWitt's vehicle did so deliberately. There were no skid marks before the impact, and the hit-and-run car, which has been identified from paint and chrome chips, has been located, only a few miles away. Area residents got a glimpse of the driver, but he was wearing a helmet and heavy gloves, so no one got a look at his features. He could be white, black, or even a woman."

  Michaels said, "And Jay thinks this ties to CyberNation. Jay?"

  Jay nodded. "Yep. Just one more log on the circumstantial fire, boss, but it's burning pretty good right now. I've been poking around and have found some interesting stuff out about their gambling ship. It never puts into port

  221

  CYBERNATION

  at least it hasn't since it was refitted and went I/sea more than a year ago." pThat's unlikely. How does it resupply and refuel?"

  i asked.

  |"Fuel, mail, food, everything comes in either by heli- or by special cargo ships that show up once a nth. Since the ship is in international waters, nobody bother it. There are no plans for the rebuilding and ng on file, nothing since the original vessel was char- Libyan registry means nobody pays any attention : as long as they pay the fees. There are webcams on- C, but only of the main casino and the outside. We don't what all is on the ship. I've culled reports from us web pages, posts by tourists, and if you put them gether, you come up with a composite picture that is

  ng a lot." "Such as?" Michaels said.

  *"Such as, half the ship. Here, take a look at the phic." Jay touched a button on his flatscreen, and a : drawing wireframe holoproj lit the air above the pro- tion port. "There are passenger cabins here and here, : these decks." Part of the 3-D schematic lit up in red. "The casino is here. This is the pool, here is a gym, tyer here a big dining hall, and an entertainment hall." I More of the image came to life in different colors. 1 "If this area is crew quarters, and you allow for these cks to be dedicated to engines, supplies, miscellaneous age, fuel, all that"-more colors flashed on-"then throw in a couple more big spots for the hell of it, still have a fair amount of the ship that looks to be And none of the reports can fill in those unused cks."

  "Maybe they are building more casinos?" Fernandez ntured.

  "Nope, no signs of construction, no construction stuff slivered on the supply vessels for at least the last six lis-I was able to get those manifests."

  222

  NET FORCE

  "So, what exactly are you trying to say here, Jay?" Toni said.

  He shook his head. "I dunno enough about ships to be sure, but it seems to me you wouldn't leave all that space empty."

  "That's generally true," Howard said.

  "So, if that's the case, what is on these decks? I'm betting it's something connected to CyberNation and not to gambling per se."

  "Such as?" Michaels said.

  Jay shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe computers. Some kind of production facility, for all those ads they run. They do those themselves, I found out, no outside agency involved."

  "Which means what, even if that's so?" Toni said. "Nothing sinister about that. They had some extra room, they put it to good use."

  Jay shook his head. "They don't need the room. CyberNation HQ is in Switzerland. They have a twenty- story office building in Geneva, and a big honkin' warehouse there, too. What's a ship half full of slot machines and card tables compared to that?"

  "You have a theory, though, don't you?" Michaels said.

  "Yes, sir, boss, I do. See, if they were up to something illegal, the Swiss police could go and knock on their door and check out that building in Geneva. But what if they had something going on down in the Caribbean? Who has the power to go and check it out?"

  Howard nodded. "Legally, nobody."

  "Exactly."

  "So you're saying you think the net attacks originated on mat ship?" Toni said.

  "I can't say that for sure. But if they did, how would anybody be able to find out about it? Or do anything if they could find out? Why does CyberNation have a gambling ship anyhow?"

  "Maybe we better find some answers," Michaels said.

  "I'm working on it," Jay said.

  223

  CYBERNATION

  1 the meeting broke up, Jay found himself alone with i Femandez.

  said, "Sounds' as if you have your work cut out you on this thing."

  lay smiled. "Maybe not. I might be able to crack their nel database. If I can find out who is working for maybe I can locate those people by other e-trails. i know, get hits on where they used their credit cards, long-distance phone calls, like that. If they've got : crack programmers working on that ship, that would another finger in their direction." ifou think you can blow past firewalls for a place like

  Nation?"

  f "Well, yeah, if I had a lot of time and a couple Urays to play with. But there's an easier way. Social leering."

  ez smiled. "I remember you talked about that," ssaid. "But is that legal?" ^Not in the strictest sense," Jay said. l^ln what sense is it legal?"

  |#Well, okay, not in any sense," Jay admitted. "But let's y, for instance, that I know som
ebody who knows some- who knows somebody who has access to the files, [ can trade him something for the information. That n't cost us anything."

  : to put too fine a point on it, but isn't that exactly kind of thing we are here to stop? Doesn't sneaking somebody's computer system and stealing informa- i constitute a crime?" 'Technically, yes."

  Fernandez gave him a wry grin. "Uh-huh." : "But look, we're not talking about some honest citizen house we're breaking into to steal his TV. I'm sure these are the guys who cost nations around the id millions and millions of dollars. People died as a of the net going down in places. These guys wear i patches and carry cutlasses. They're crooks."

  224

  NET FORCE

  "Slippery slope there, Jay. Blows right past the Fourth Amendment. Fruit of the poisoned vine and all like that."

  "Since when did you become a constitutional scholar, Lieutenant?"

  "I'm sworn to uphold and protect it. You are, too, given Net Force's charter. Once you start breaking the rules to get to the really bad guys, how long before you bend 'em to get to the plain old bad guys? And then the ones who are maybe not so bad, but that you don't like?"

  Jay sighed. "Yeah, well, you have a point. There is probably another way to get to the information without doing anything illegal. Be harder though. And what if while I'm doing that, they hit again, shut down a hospital and kill off a bunch of patients or something?"

  "That would suck. But still."

  "You obey all the traffic laws, Julio, all the time?"

  "Nope. And if I get caught, I don't kick, either, I pay the fine. But running a red light in the middle of nowhere at midnight when nobody is around is not the same thing, is it?

  "Suppose you get the stuff you need and we use the information to nail these guys. No harm, no foul, right? But then one of their lawyers finds out what we did? The bad guys, who are guilty, get off, and you wind up looking for work, or maybe spending quality time in a cell in some country club federate, doing the warden's taxes for five years. It's the Rule of Law, Jay. It's what separates the good guys from the bad guys. We toss that out, we're no different than they are."

  "Yeah, yeah. You're right. It was just a thought."

  "Can't hang you for thinking. Not yet, anyway."

  Toni took a coffee break, but she sat at her desk, fiddling with the computer. It had been a while since she had done any serious scrimshaw work-if any of what she had done while she was housebound during her pregnancy could be called serious-and she decided to check in on Bob Her- gert, whose on-line class had taught her what she knew

  225

  CYBERNATION

  : the art of scratching lines on ivory and then filling

  i with black paint.

  b's method ran heavily to stippling, of putting a lot ny dots on the smooth surface, using very sharp nee, some of which he made himself, since ordinary nee- i were too dull for the microscrimshanding he liked to Bob could put a realistic portrait on a piece of ivory than a dime, so detailed that you could only see thing properly under a big magnifying glass or even

  : were folks who didn't consider that art, but Toni I't among them.

  t Orford, Oregon

  had redone his on-line shop in the past year, adding material. Virtually everything he had produced for s last fifteen years was available for view, since he kept

  of it all.

  foni strolled down the wide aisles-floor space was in VR-and looked at the various pieces set out inspection. She had a more specific reason for drop; by than just checking. John Howard's wife, Nadine, bought her husband a set of faux-ivory grips for his iver for his upcoming birthday. The newer versions F that looked so much like elephant ivory it would fool st everybody, but cost a lot less, and didn't require Jumbo die for your sins. Nadine had asked Toni if might be interested in doing some artwork on them, ai had done a gun butt once, for one of Julio Fernan- t's buddies. The friend, an ex-green hat, had a cowboy r, and Julio had asked her to do something on panel. She had done a simple design, with a beret a thin scroll, with the words, "De Oppresso Liber" the scroll. 'To Free the Oppressed." The design and > were right out of the Special Forces T-shirt catalog,

  226

  NET FORCE

  so it hadn't been that hard. She wasn't pleased with the way it had turned out, the lettering wasn't perfect, and the shading was not quite right, though the recipient had seemed happy enough with it. Nadine Howard had something a little more complex in mind, and if Toni was going to do it, she needed some help.

  The store had been sorted according to her needs when she logged in, so it was easy to find the pistol grips. There were quite a few of them. There was a nice set given to a retiring sheriff by his friends, his badge and name on them. Some that had fancy lettering and geometric designs. Some with a portrait of a grandchild.

  The ones that caught her attention were a set showing the front and back of a nude black woman, who was crouched down hi an outdoor courtyard, over what looked like a tile floor, surrounded by Middle Easternlike structures. The detail work was intricate-the columns supporting the arched roof were carved, the balusters, rails, parapets of the building, all were exquisite. A domed roof showed in the distance in the back view. You could see the reflection of the woman's foot on the tile floor. And the nude herself was gorgeous. She had short hair, almost a crew cut, a nose that looked as if it had been broken, and with five-power magnification, you could see that her eyes were light-colored.

  She looked familiar.

  Bob drifted over. "Hey, Toni," he said. "How's it going?"

  "Hey, Bob. I might have some gun grips to do, and I thought I'd come and get some inspiration. This is beautiful work."

  "Thanks. That's Dirisha. Look close at the back of her hand, right there."

  Toni did. There was what looked like a small square with a tube sticking out of one side, extending out like a finger. She dialed up the magnification to get a better look.

  "That's a spetsdod" he said. "A dart gun. She's a char

  227

  CYBERNATION

  from a science fiction novel; I did this for the r."

  it's incredible work, Bob." Blanks." . should live long enough to get this good."

  it takes is practice, kiddo. If I can do it, anybody

  feah, right."

  /ell, okay, a little talent helps. But mostly it's hard Oops, gotta run, customer. See you around, Toni. line know if I can help you."

  Bob."

  bent to marvel at the gun grips again. Bob did his : under a stereomicroscope, and Alex, bless him, had rised her with one. Which, as it turned out, was in- in solving a case he'd been working on, so it I been a pretty good investment for that alone. But if was going to do work like this, it would take a lot than a good stereoscope. Whatever Bob had to say : it, it took a lot of talent and patience to produce a of art so detailed that under twenty-power magni- an, you could count every hair on the woman's eye- vs, and not a one was out of place.

  kthe Bon Chance

  line Chance looked at the numbers. New member- were up, way up, but not nearly at the levels that rNation wanted. It had been a good campaign, the bination pushes, but it had pretty much peaked, leaned back in the chair and sighed. Well, she'd 1 it to come to this. None of the governments they lobbied were ready to step on board: There hadn't t enough of a public clamor, and that was what it was to take. Politicians did not venture far from their

  228

  NET FORCE

  power bases, everybody knew that, and the way to get legislation passed was to get enough static from the voters so the elected officials knew which way to go. Politicians were, by their natures, followers, not leaders. They reflected public opinion more than they shaped it. That made for more longevity in their jobs, and getting reelected was more important than any single piece of law they might sponsor.

  So, it was time to step up things enough so that an outraged public would demand that those people who did their elected bidding got off the stick and fixed things
.

  Chance and her teams had to give them something to fix. Something it would take them a lot of time and money and effort to make right. And that meant taking down more than computer networks with software. It meant taking down hardware, and whether it was cutting cables or blowing up buildings, whatever it took was whatever it took.

  She looked at her watch. Keller's team would need to be told. She'd put in a call to him to let him know the schedule was being moved up again.

  Roberto would be tickled. He could cut loose, pull out all the stops, and that's what had always attracted him about this project. That and the money, of course. He liked being with her, no question, but she wasn't foolish enough to believe she came first.

  Well. Sometimes she came first...

  She grinned, and reached for her com. Things were going to get active around here.

  25

  b'" Diner

  i City, Karua* >. 1955

  e's Diner was a classic-or it would be, if it survived 5 1980s. Shaped like a fat hot dog bun, the front was from waist-height up. Inside, a counter with boo- patterns on the Formica ran the length of the e, and was utilized by sitting upon bolted-to-the floor ome-plated stools with red Naugahyde covering the tops. Joe's served burgers, fries, and toasted sandwiches for lunch. For dinner, the blue plate was sliced roast beef and mashed potatoes, both with thick gravy, and your choice of a vegeta- -as long as it was canned green peas or diced carrots, breakfast, you could get ham and eggs, bacon and or sausage and eggs, and they all came with hash s. If you were looking for health food, you'd starve death in Joe's, and nobody would feel sorry for you.

  230