Spyder Web

39

Sean Kilkenny picked up his son at the hospital’s main entrance, which overlooked the Huron River Valley. Spring was in full bloom and the view of the river, as it flowed along the Nichols Arboretum, was spectacular.

‘Ready to go home?’ he asked as he tossed Nolan’s overnight bag in the back of his Explorer.

Nolan thanked the orderly who had wheeled him down and then climbed in the passenger side. ‘I’m ready to get out of here, if that’s what you mean.’

‘I understand. After my recent experiences with your mother, I’m not too fond of hospitals, either. Are you interested in stopping by MARC before we head home? I’ve got a few things I’d like to take care of, if you feel up to it.’

‘Sure, I want to check in with Grin anyway. Say, did Mosley get my gear out of the wreck?’

‘Yes, right after he swore Grin and me to secrecy over this whole mess.’

‘Good, he got you both in the loop. I hope the bypass is still in one piece. I don’t want to make another trip to Chicago just yet.’

‘I wouldn’t think so,’ Sean agreed. ‘I’ve been meaning to ask you about that, Nolan. Grin is a brilliant young man and a very hard worker, but when I asked him to explain what you and Kelsey were after, I got a dissertation about ten levels higher than I could comprehend.’

Nolan could easily picture Grin soaring way past his father with the intricate details of neural-network systems — not a topic for the faint of heart. ‘Grin’s a little wired about the whole thing. I admit, it’s a very interesting situation we’ve found ourselves in, and that little black box in Kelsey’s lab is an exciting topic of discussion all on its own.’

Nolan filled the remainder of the ten-minute ride with a layman’s tour of Spyder technology, which was everything he’d gleaned from Iverson during his visit to Moy Electronics. The narrative continued with the CIA’s current theory on how this Spyder had come to Ann Arbor and who was now controlling it. Sean Kilkenny pulled his truck into the MARC parking lot, stopped in his usual space, and sat behind the wheel, digesting what he’d heard.

‘So we’re not dealing with some kid joyriding a PC through our computer; we’re up against some damned industrial spies.’

‘Sure looks that way, Dad.’

As they entered the MARC building, the receptionist flagged them down. ‘Nolan, Cal Mosley just called for you.’

‘I’ll phone him from the lab.’ Nolan then looked over his other message slips and stuffed them in his pocket. ‘Where’s my stuff, Dad?’

‘In my office.’

Kilkenny searched through his dark blue Eddie Bauer bag for the box that Iverson had given him on Sunday. His soft-sided bag didn’t look all that bad, considering the rough ride it had been through in the Mustang’s trunk. He found the box still well protected by his clothing and completely intact.

‘It takes a licking; let’s hope it keeps on ticking. I’ll be down in the lab.’

‘Just let me know when you’re ready to go home, son.’

In the MARC computer lab, Grin was hard at work running a system diagnostic. It was a tedious procedure that more often bored the system administrator to death while it ran. True to form, Grin sat back, his feet propped up on the main console, reading a book on the mythologies of early man. The cover illustration of a ceramic Earth Mother caught Kilkenny’s eye.

‘What are you reading there, Grin, a five-thousandyear-old Playboy?’

Grin’s focus shifted upward from his book to cast a look of disdain in Kilkenny’s direction. ‘Thank you for that commentary from the culturally illiterate. You may now crawl back into your dark corner and warm yourself by the glow of your television.’His stern look broke into a wide smile as he got up to greet Kilkenny. ‘Good to see you back, man, but geez, you look terrible.’

‘Really, I hadn’t noticed. But enough of this pleasant chitchat. Are you ready to go to work?’ Kilkenny held up the box of Iverson’s special hardware.

‘You bet.’Grin shared Kilkenny’s enthusiasm for taking on their unwanted intruder. ‘Mosley briefed me about that thing in your lab, and you’ll be happy to know that it’s been very quiet all weekend.’

Kilkenny was looking forward to putting a computerized noose around the stainless-steel rat that had infested his lab, though he would have preferred putting the real thing around the necks of those responsible for it being there. ‘Let’s see what we can discover about our friendly little Spyder.’

Like the Spyder, Iverson’s bypass was a simple black cube equipped with connector ports for external communications lines. Grin brought the Cray off-line while Kilkenny powered down the experimental optical processor. They followed the standard procedure so the Spyder would be unaware of a sudden severing of its communication link to the university network. Grin joined Kilkenny in the latter’s lab after the system successfully shut down.

‘Well, Dr Grin, the patient is under. Shall we perform surgery?’

‘I’d prefer to use a hammer, Dr Kilkenny, but I’ll be happy to assist you.’

‘Excellent.’ Kilkenny held out an open hand. ‘Phillips screwdriver, please.’

The procedure took only fifteen minutes, in which Kilkenny mated the bypass to the Spyder. Once connected, the bypass would provide complete access to the Spyder’s program and a view on everything that the device was doing. The bypass tied in exactly as Iverson had promised and, after double-checking all the connections, they brought the optical processor back on-line.

Grin returned to the main lab and scanned the MARC network screens and his message file. ‘The network is up and running again, with only a few users bitching about the downtime.’

‘If they don’t like our service,’Nolan replied, ‘they can just take their business elsewhere.’

Grin laughed hard enough that Kilkenny didn’t need the speaker phone to hear him. Both men knew that the MARC computer lab was one of the finest supercomputer facilities in the country, and one of only a few in the Midwest that was available to outside researchers.

‘Don’t let your old man hear you talking that unbusinesslike trash. After all, we exist to serve our customers.’

‘Thank you for that “total quality” reminder, Mr Demming. Now let’s see what our unwelcome guest is really made of.’

Kilkenny unwound a patch cable and connected his laptop computer to the interface connection on the bypass module. After loading the communications software that Iverson had provided, he accessed the joint memory of the two black cubes. A menu of options appeared on the laptop’s monochrome screen.

‘Hmm, what to do first,’Kilkenny mused while looking over his options. ‘I think I’ll request a listing of the Spyder’s operating code.’

‘Hold on,’ Grin’s voice called out from the speaker. ‘Let me get over there and pull up a chair. I’d love to see what makes this thing tick.’

Grin perched himself on the lab bench as Nolan made the request. Almost at once, the drive light on the laptop flashed on to indicate that information was flowing down the portable computer’s hard disk. A few minutes later, the download finished and Nolan checked the size of the file.

‘Boy, that program is a hog!’

Grin glanced down to the bottom of the screen, where a status line showed only twenty-two megabytes of disk space remaining on the laptop. ‘Good thing you had some room to spare. What now?’

‘If you’d be so kind as to bring that phone line over here, I’m going to transmit this file to Bill Iverson at Moy.’

Grin disconnected the phone and handed the line to Kilkenny. ‘Why not use the network? We’ve got a line into Moy, and it’ll go a lot faster than your modem.’

‘This is why,’ Kilkenny replied, pointing at the Spyder. ‘Big Brother is watching us. Here, call the number on this business card; it’s Iverson’s direct line. He knows your name; just tell him you’re with me and that we’re sending him the Spyder program.’

Grin slipped the card into his shirt pocket and began walking back to the main lab. ‘I’ll be sure to tell him to have plenty of disk space free.’

‘I think he’ll know what to expect.’

Grin made the call and, once Iverson was ready, Kilkenny began transmitting the file.Even with high-speed modems, the transfer took almost twenty minutes. Iverson signaled Kilkenny over the modem line that the download was successful. With that program in hand, Iverson could dissect the instructions that the Spyder’s controllers used to manipulate the device.

Grin returned to the lab as Kilkenny was reconnecting the phone. ‘What now?’

‘Wait and watch. This bypass will allow us to keep a closer eye on the Spyder than our jury-rigged laptop, and I’ll find out more about what happens next when I go to D.C. That reminds me — I’d better give Mosley a call.’

A mischievous smile appeared beneath Grin’s pointed goatee as he sat down in front of Kilkenny’s lap-top. ‘Well, while I’m just sitting around, maybe I’ll just take a little peek at that thing’s fancy hacker program.’

‘Grin, the Spyder is classified so high that no one in the government will even acknowledge that it exists.’

The tone in Kilkenny’s voice caused Grin to pause and turn in his swivel chair toward him. Kilkenny stood with his arms folded across his chest and a look of dead earnest on his face.

‘Let me give you a little fair warning, as one who knows firsthand about government secrets. Don’t let so much as one byte of that program out of this room or you and I might both find ourselves living in some dark hole in the ground.’

‘I know, I know.’ Grin pressed his hands against his heart with false sincerity. ‘Mosley read me the riot act yesterday. Rest assured, not one government secret will pass from my lips.’

Kilkenny accepted Grin’s word. ‘That said, let’s take a crack at it; I’m just as curious as you are about how they accomplished this. Also, see if you can stash a copy somewhere for future reference. I expect that once this is all over, we’ll be asked to turn over all materials related to the Spyder.’

Grin’s jaw dropped slightly before curling back into a smile. ‘Nolan Kilkenny, you sneaky devil! You read my mind.’

‘Great minds think alike, as they say.’

Kilkenny picked up the phone and dialed the number that Mosley had left with the MARC receptionist. After two rings, a receptionist answered and informed him that he’d reached the Detroit office of the FBI.

‘Nolan Kilkenny calling for Cal Mosley, please.’

The operator put Kilkenny on hold as she made the connection.

‘How are you feeling, Nolan?’Mosley asked, his gravelly voice booming over the phone.

‘Been better, but I can’t complain.What are you doing at the FBI?’

‘The kind folks at the Bureau loaned me a little desk in the corner while I was in town. It’s not as cozy as my rabbit hole at Langley, but it beats working out of a hotel room.’

‘Very true. I’ve got two things I wanted to talk to you about. First, Iverson’s bypass is in place and working as advertised. I’ve already dumped the Spyder’s operating program and sent it off to Chicago.’

‘Good work. The FBI agents you were working with are out making the installations at the Internet servers. They should be back in Detroit on Thursday to monitor the situation with the Spyder.’

‘Grin will like that. I think he’s kind of sweet on Harbke.’

‘I heard that, Nolan!’ Grin shouted back, loudly enough for Mosley to hear. ‘My relationship with Special Agent Harbke is strictly professional.’

‘I stand corrected. Grin is interested only in Agent Harbke’s mind and has taken no notice of her other attributes.’

Mosley’s laugh roared through the receiver as a wadded-up ball of computer printouts struck Kilkenny’s chest.

‘I may be a gentleman, but I am not blind.’

Kilkenny threw his hands up for a cease-fire. ‘All right, Grin. I won’t speculate about your love life anymore.’

‘Thank you very much.’With a curt nod, Grin accepted Kilkenny’s surrender and sat down. ‘Now I can get back to work.’

‘That’s a strange guy you’re working with, Kilkenny,’ Mosley observed.

‘Grin is definitely a book you shouldn’t judge by its cover. The man is brilliant, but not without his eccentricities.’

‘So I’ve noticed,’Mosley agreed. ‘What was the second thing you wanted to discuss?’

‘The Washington trip. What’s the plan?’

‘We’re booked on Northwest flight one oh two two, a nonstop from Detroit to Washington leaving tomorrow morning at seven-forty-five. Bring any notes or material that you might think helpful. The DCI is a very inquisitive man, and he’s been known to grill guests at meetings like these. I expect that he’ll want to hear about your experience with the Spyder.’

‘I’ll see what I can scrounge up,’ Kilkenny promised. ‘See you in the morning.’