Sea of Fire

Chapter Thirty-Four

"Boss, would you please authorize the uploading of a benevolent systemic virus?"

The man in the doorway was portly Matt Stoll. The young computer genius was standing there with his arms at his sides and his expression deadpan. Unless there was a crisis, Paul Hood had learned to take nothing the technical wizard said seriously. Stoll was not just a proudly archetypical nerd, he was a proudly archetypical nerd on steroids. It was not enough for him to be smart. He was aggressively intelligent, still driven by the curiosity and precociousness that must have made him an elementary school terror.

"A benevolent virus," Hood said, playing along. "What did you have in mind?"

"Something that would allow users of National OnLine Operations to enjoy a functioning Internet provider," Stoll said. "Every time I open an attachment, I get booted. Every time I download a photograph, I get booted. Every time I try to access data, I'm told that the system is busy."

"Matt, am I wrong in believing that we do most of our on-line work through U.S. Governet?"

"You are not incorrect," Stoll said in his characteristic monotone. "I am talking about a system I use at home. However, our computers here have the juice to really spruce up the service."

"Permanently?" Hood asked.

"No. For just an hour. To show those NOLO incompetents what they could have if they upgraded their systems and paid more attention to customers than to their stock prices," Stoll said.

"I'll tell you what," Hood replied. "No."

Stoll seemed unfazed. "They are an evil empire, sir. This is a crisis situation. It is within the parameters set by the NCMC charter to involve ourselves."

"The charter also specifies the process by which executives other than the director, deputy director, and acting directors may request operational status for a project," Hood said. "Write a report and submit it to the CIOC. If the committee backs this, you will have my full cooperation."

"I could have done it without telling you," Stoll pointed out. "You wouldn't have known about it unless you saw it on the news or read it in an intelligence briefing."

"Possibly. Why didn't you?" Hood asked.

"Because the individual we are investigating, Jervis Darling, is a major stockholder in NOLO-Australia," Stoll said. "I did not want any moves against a holding controlled by him to be traced back to me or to Op-Center. It might raise flags."

"Thank you," Hood said.

"You're welcome," Stoll replied.

The technical officer stepped from the doorway and left. The encounter was strange but not unprecedented. Telling someone the damage he could do was Matt Stoll's way of complaining. He was a tech guy and a perfectionist. He had vented about cable networks, long-distance phone carriers, and other high-tech systems in the past. It was like Mike Rodgers beefing about the bureaucracy at the Pentagon or Bob Herbert venting about what he could do with one-tenth the budget allotted the CIA or the FBI.

Stoll was right about one thing, though. "NOLO contondere," as it was referred to in the stock pages, was an ineffectual disaster. It made money because it was a monolith, nothing more. If he started thinking about that, Paul Hood would get pissed as well.

The phone beeped. It was Lowell Coffey.

"Paul, there has been a strange twist since our last conversation," he said. Coffey proceeded to tell him about the discussion with FNO Loh. "She spoke to the military intelligence people in Singapore who liaise with the prime minister's Office of Strategic Information," Coffey went on. "They confirm business ties between Darling and Mahathir bin Dahman. He's invested in the Malaysian's building projects, commercial aircraft plants, and water-processing facilities."

"Do you know what the paper trail looks like?" Hood asked.

"If you're asking whether this is public knowledge or not, it is," Coffey replied. "Darling puts money in Malaysian banks, and bin Dahman draws on that as needed."

"Is there a public record of Darling's holdings?" Hood asked.

"No," Coffey said. "The government has learned that Darling gets private stock for his money. Nothing actionable, though."

"It's a lot of stock, I'm sure," Hood said. "An improportionate amount compared to what other investors get. I'll bet that bin Dahman takes a big hit every time Darling invests."

"He does," Coffey said.

"This could suggest that bin Dahman is using real estate and privately held businesses to pay Darling for services rendered," Hood said. "Such as providing him with nuclear materials."

"It makes sense," Coffey said. "What's your view on Darling himself? He's got a helluva reputation down here. He's got a mega-fortune. Why would he risk all that to do something like this?"

"I've been wondering about that," Hood said. "Maybe it's tied into something you said a minute ago. He got away with murder and liked how it felt."

"You mean Leopold and Loeb, the sequel?" Coffey asked. "Bored rich man gets his kicks planning the death of millions of people?"

"You answered your own question."

"Yeah," Coffey replied. "Jelbart and I were talking about this as a power grab, but you may have something there. You don't even have to run that one past Liz Gordon. It's simple but neat."

"It's a starting point, anyway," Hood replied. "Meanwhile, what's your next step?"

"We're sailing back to Darwin to wait for Bob, then I guess it's on to Cairns," Coffey said. "We're obviously going to have to take this investigation directly to Darling."

"I agree," Hood said. "And when you do grab him, I want you to do me a favor."

"Sure," Coffey said.

"Tell him he runs a lousy on-line service," Hood said. "Tell him for Matt Stoll."

Coffey was confused, but Hood told him not to worry about it.

Hood hung up. He felt more involved than he usually did in evolving situations. For one thing, unlike Mike Rodgers or former Striker leader Colonel Brett August, Coffey was keeping him plugged into every development in the field, however small. For another, the diverse resources of three nations were available to him. It was as true in crisis management as it was in mathematics: one point was simply one point; two points defined a line; three points created a plane, and a plane was something you could stand on. The United States, Australia, and Singapore created a plane.

There was something else that gave Hood comfort as well. For all his clout, Jervis Darling was still a business-man at heart. He was a potentially twisted one, yes, but a corporate tycoon nonetheless. Unlike the rogue generals and megalomaniacal politicians Hood and his team usually faced, he understood this breed. He could sit in their chairs and imagine the decisions they made.

But there was still a storm in the distance. One that Paul Hood could not anticipate. One that Op-Center and its allies might not be able to control. It had to do with the circus, of all things. Bob Herbert once told the CIOC that a crisis was like the big top.

"You can't afford to grab the ringleader and lose the other attractions," Herbert had said. "While we're all packed shoulder to shoulder in the grandstands, those rampaging elephants and runaway clown cars will crush us flat."

Hood hoped that if Darling were involved, he knew where the nuclear materials were headed and who was handling them. Otherwise, the toll in the grandstand could still be catastrophic.