Spyder Web

41

Kilkenny returned from Washington late on Thursday evening, after a day and a half of meetings with representatives from the agencies involved in Barnett’s sting operation. Iverson and Kilkenny were the prized speakers at these briefings, providing both theory and real-world experience in dealing with the Spyder.

Kilkenny’s wounds were healing quickly, and five days after the accident, the soreness had eased greatly. He was still worried about Kelsey, despite the favorable reports his father had passed on about her condition. He’d spoken with her only once while he was in Washington. The sound of her voice eased his concerns a little, but it did nothing for the anger he felt toward those responsible for her injuries. The people who did this to you, Kelsey, Nolan thought, are no better than those monsters I killed in Haiti.

Since his Mustang was impounded and undrivable, Kilkenny borrowed his father’s Explorer and returned to MARC. In the computer lab, he found Grin hard at work on deciphering the Spyder program.

‘Ahem.’ Kilkenny coughed over Grin’s shoulder. ‘Whatcha working on there, big guy?’

‘Geez, Nolan!’Grin yelped as he bolted up in his chair. ‘Don’t do that.’

‘Sorry, just an old habit, I guess.’

Grin’s anxious expression quickly melted back into an elfish smirk. ‘So how was your trip to Washington? Meet any powerful movers and shakers?’

‘Nothing quite so glorious.’ Kilkenny took a seat next to his friend. ‘The President was out of town and things were quiet on the Hill.’

‘Too bad. I hear those state dinners are real nice.What did you find out about our problem?’

‘There are some very dangerous people on the other end of this Spyder, people who don’t mind killing anyone who gets in their way.’

‘So when are they going to arrest the bad guys?’

‘As soon as they get enough evidence to hang ‘em. To paraphrase the head of the CIA, we have to catch these guys in the act to build any kind of case against them. That, my friend, is where you and I fit in.’

It wasn’t quite the answer Grin was hoping for, but it would do for the moment. ‘What’s the plan?’

‘Sit, wait, and watch the Spyder do its thing. Speaking of which, has there been any action since I left?’

Grin shook his head. ‘It’s taken a couple of peeks outside, but it’s not playing around like it used to.Maybe it’s pouting.’

‘I don’t think so.’ Kilkenny laughed.

An audible fast-paced beeping began to emanate from the laptop computer connected to the Spyder. Grin clicked a mouse button and brought the monitor out of its screen-saver mode to display the Spyder’s status.

‘What’s with the alarm?’ Kilkenny asked.

‘You like it?’ Grin asked proudly as he scanned the laptop computer’s report. ‘It’s my Spyder early warning system. I wrote a little piece of code that ties into the bypass you brought back from Chicago. Every time the Spyder goes to work, the program signals me that something’s happening. Looks like it works.’

On the laptop’s screen, a graphic depiction of the Spyder’s penetration began to unfold. The first box on the screen was labeled Spyder. A line ran from it that connected to a box labeled MARC–Cray. From there, the Spyder passed through several other systems as the route grew across the screen. Eventually, the Spyder passed through sixteen networks, creating an electronic maze that would be difficult, if not impossible, to trace without Iverson’s bypass.

Grin moved the cursor onto the last box in the series and double-clicked the mouse on it. The box expanded, filling the screen with what the Spyder was seeing and doing.

‘The bypass program not only does everything we were doing before,’ Grin said excitedly, ‘but also lets us see what’s going on inside the Spyder’s twisted little brain. Check this out.’

Grin clicked on one of the icons that ran across the top of the screen. The screen split into two windows: one that showed a server’s user screen and one that illustrated a graphic depiction of the Spyder’s internal program calls.

‘That looks like a debugging tool,’ Kilkenny surmised.

‘Right. It’s what Iverson used to check the Spyder program’s stability. Good piece of coding, too — I was impressed. This tool’s helping me quite a bit in deciphering what’s going on in there. Very radical stuff.’

‘I’m pleased that you’re enjoying yourself.’

The lab’s phone rang twice, indicating an outside call coming directly to the lab. ‘MARC computer lab.’

‘Nolan, Kathy Ullrich from the FBI. Is the Spyder on-line?’

‘Yes, it is. Oh, wait a minute, Kathy. Grin’s shaking his head. I guess it’s finished and has closed the connection. Let me put you on the speaker.’

‘Grin,’ Ullrich’s voice called out over the phone, ‘did you get a list of penetrated systems?’

‘Yes, and I’m printing it out right now. What do you want to know?’

‘We know that the Spyder is using a handful of E-mail addresses as dead-letter drops. As soon as it accessed one of the drops, we began backtracking the connection. Here’s what we got.’

In reverse order, Ullrich read back the names of each network that the Spyder had passed through. Her list stopped three systems short of MARC.

‘It looks like we got a good match,’ Kilkenny announced.

‘This is good, gentlemen. We just need to keep the connection open a little longer to get a positive trace. Grin, have you and Iverson been able to figure out any pattern to its transmissions?’

‘According to Iverson, it’s completely random,’ Grin replied. ‘There’s no rhyme or reason governing when the Spyder opens a line or which route it takes to get wherever it’s going. The only thing it seems to like is having other traffic on the system. I guess it doesn’t want to be the only user on the network. Regardless, when it decides to jump, and how many computer systems it decides to pass through, is totally arbitrary.’

‘I guess that means we just wait until it moves again.’ Kilkenny sounded a little discouraged. ‘Are you having any luck with the other side of the drops?’

‘No, they haven’t stayed on long enough for us to trace it all the way back.We lost the last one at a Comsat over the Atlantic, so our hackers could still be anywhere. British Intelligence just got their Gatekeepers this morning, so they won’t be up and running until later today. Once they’re in place, we should have enough overlap to cover the whole trail from London to Ann Arbor. I have to go, so keep in touch if anything develops.’

‘You got it,’ Kilkenny replied.