Chapter 37

“Yes, I think I get the gist of it,” Robert said. “Nutshell, I believe it should accomplish the basics of what you’re trying to achieve. Of course, it’s going to take a bit of tweaking to get it to do some of the more sophisticated things you want, like the gradual build up to full potency and then the mutations to avoid easy elimination. But it’s definitely doable.”

I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I knew I was in the future, and these guys were geniuses and all of that. But he had spent less than five minutes looking at coding it had taken the three of us weeks to write! More than that, Katherine and Wafer were pretty darn smart in their own rights. And he really had a complete grasp of exactly what the program would do and how to fix it? Who did he think he was, the Picasso of Programming, the Caruso of Corrupt Coding, the Mozart of Master Server Manipulation?

“You see these three lines here?” he asked pleasantly, pointing to a section that had taken us a week and a half to write. “It’s going to alter the debits and credits just fine. But if we add just a couple of lines like this...” he said, suiting his actions to his words, “and throw in an equation you couldn’t be expected to know about, like this...” spending maybe another thirty seconds, “then the section looks more like this. You may not be able to tell just from looking at this, but now the ‘infectious’ nature of the virus starts a logarithmic progression from the dormant state as it approaches full potency, with this value representing random aberrations to further confuse any attempt to correct the impact as it evolves...”

Robert spent another few minutes explaining what he had just done in two minutes to increase the effectiveness of our work by ten fold. He said it matter-of-factly, without a hint of condescension in his manner, yet Katherine and Wafer were nodding as though listening to a lecture from a prominent professor. Frankly, I started getting totally lost. It reminded of when Solomon had first tried to explain his TDM to me. That thought finally brought the point home: okay, maybe he was a programming prodigy. An old one, of course.

“That sounds fantastic,” I said when he finally wound down. Wafer and Katherine also voiced their enthusiasm. “So, how long do you think it would take before you get the program written to the point you want it?”

Robert smiled. He had cleaned himself up since his arrival, including shedding his facial hair, and his smile glowed from his dark, shiny face. In spite of the wrinkles acquired in his years in the wilderness, Robert seemed younger and more energetic than what Solomon had described to me the day before. I wondered if that was what Hope looked like. Perhaps, after so many years, being able to do what he was best at had perked him up. Maybe it was a combination of both. I was just happy to have the help.

“I don’t seem to have a lot of choice, do I? Solomon explained you all have two days, max, before the operation has to go. So give me a day, with of course the excellent assistance of your two colleagues here, and we’ll see what we can do.”

“So you don’t need my help?”

“No offense, Barney, but I think you’ve done all you can do.” Of all the people in this society, he was the first one besides Solomon to seem comfortable with calling me by my first name. Even Katherine seemed a little embarrassed when she tried to be so familiar. I guess all of those years of forced informality had at least made him more relaxed in the way he related to other people. Not much of a silver lining, in my opinion. “You’ve got the basics of the economic programming in here, and I’m pretty sure I understand the rest of the challenge. Between the three of us, I believe we can lick most of the technical problems you’ve been facing.”

“No offense taken,” I answered sincerely. “In fact, I’m happy to leave this to people who are a hell of a lot more qualified than me to be doing it.”

“Oh, speaking of which,” he said apologetically, “there is one thing I should mention I intended to change.”

“If it will make it better, go for it. What is it?”

“Well, I noticed you intended the ‘incubation period’ to be nearly two weeks. Again, no offense, but I think that’s too long. As someone with direct experience,” he said somewhat sardonically, “I can tell you that, after you violate their holy-of-holies, the Zaibatsu are not going to be kindly disposed towards you. They’re going to have the SF tearing this planet apart to find you.”

“Well, yeah, we kind of figured that. But we wanted to make sure it had time to spread. If a few of us get caught in the meantime, I guess it’s one of the prices we’ll have to pay to make sure the virus is effective.”

Robert nodded understandingly.

“Yes, I can appreciate your reasons. However, I think I can write it in such a way that it spreads the way you intended, just at a much faster rate. Instead of two to three weeks, it shouldn’t take more than a day or two. Believe me, it’ll do the job you want, only not give the Zaibatsu as much time to find any of us before all hell breaks loose and they’ve got bigger problems on their hands.”

It was my turn to nod in appreciation.

“Hey, if you can do that, you sure have my blessings. I’ll leave it all in your capable hands, okay? In the meanwhile, I guess I’d better go see about the rest of my problem.”

With that I wandered off to find Teknos and Aimee. Geez Louise, I thought; I’m going off to another meeting! For a moment there, I felt like I was right back in the midst of the corporate craziness. Only the outcome of these meetings would ultimately be a lot more serious to my health. Not to mention to the rest of the world.

“As you can see from the plan of the foundation, the building is constructed using base isolation. In essence, that means the building ‘floats’ on this layer here,” Aimee said, pointing to a section of lines beneath the main structure.

Similar to a TotalVid projection, the building plans were a 3-D representation of how the near fortress had actually been constructed. This one showed the overall shell and foundation. Others showed smaller portions, down to what Aimee called ‘details’. What with different colored lines representing various materials or types of beams, layers showing electrical/mechanical and ducting systems, and configurations designating the structural system, I thought it all looked pretty detailed. Far too many details, in fact. Even though this information could be critical to my life, I was tempted to tune it out. What was worse, taking a risk on dying because of a lack of knowledge, or the higher immediate chance of being bored to death? It was hard to decide.

“Uh, right. So what’s that mean to us?” Teknos asked.

“Primarily, it means we can’t enter the building from beneath,” Aimee explained. “No connection to any underground systems. In fact, the building doesn’t really have a basement. It has this rather small compartment underneath, which is a backup energy unit for the Master Server in case the main power goes down. As you can see, all of the central HVAC systems are on the top floor. Of course, in a building where they want to keep it really well chilled because of all the computer equipment inside, that’s another positive feature of the design. In order to keep the main processing unit of the MS constantly cooled, there’s a pretty large chiller room immediately below it. As I’ll explain in a moment, that will be the most effective entry point to inject the virus into the system.”

“I’m no engineer,” I admitted to no one’s surprise, “but that seems awfully expensive to me. Why would they build it like that, as another security measure?”

“Sort of, but not the way you mean. It is a very expensive foundation system, but its purpose is to provide much greater stability during a major seismic event. Optimal or not, we’ll just have to walk in through one of the main entrances and hope to make it past all of the intentional security systems in the building, as opposed to the accidental one.”

I felt like pointing out her use of the ‘royal we’ meant me, but what was the point? We had never intended to sneak in through the servant’s entrance, so the lack of one didn’t bother me. It was much more important that she was there, with the plans, giving me the best chance of surviving I had imagined since we started to plan this little caper. In all, I had nothing but gratitude in my heart for her. Okay, maybe a little, tiny bit of lust as well, but this time I knew the lady was Solomon’s girl. And I was also pretty sure I had one of my own. Finally.

“You mean they have a lot of big earthquakes in Japan – uh, I mean the Tokyo Region?”

“Absolutely. It’s at least as bad as the western coast of the U.S., with which you are undoubtedly more familiar. But the danger of earthquakes is nowhere as significant as the defenses on the main floor of this building.”

Aimee triggered up another portion of the building plan.

“This is the main floor. You’ll notice there’s only one entrance to this level, which is a door nearly half a meter thick made of the strongest known alloys of its time. It’s still virtually indestructible. This is where most of the workers enter and exit.”

She pointed to a chamber just inside the door.

“This room is filled with identification devices of all types. Naturally, neural scans, but also retina scans, blood typing, DNA matching, and other types of equipment are available if the SF officers feel they’re necessary. This room right next to the ID room is the control center for the SF. Not only do they check everyone entering and exiting the building, they also monitor the rest of the building.” She pointed to a smaller area within the SF control room. “There is a small room inside of that chamber, even more highly protected, which contains two guards who are charged with viewing the next floor. Most especially the chiller room. I’ll return to that in a moment.”

She gave me a significant look. I already knew my ultimate target, and that I must pay very close attention when she addressed that particular area.

“In essence, this entire floor is dedicated to security. After the workers have been cleared, they can take one of these drop tubes up to their work area. There are no other forms of access to higher floors, and you’ll notice the drop tubes have no openings on the second floor. Therefore, this means of entry, as impossible as it would probably be, is also totally blocked to us.”

Aimee brought up yet another image, this one a cutaway of the second floor. It showed all of the floor plan while highlighting several significant features. The most important one, of course, was the base unit for the Master Server itself. This was the ‘chiller room’ to which she had referred. It was a fairly square area in the middle of the building, with the rest of the hallways and rooms on the floor equally spaced around it.

“You may have noticed there was a totally enclosed walkway from my office building into the MS building. That’s this squarish segment here,” she said, pointing to a short, nearly square object sticking out from the main body of the building, “which is the tunnel as it connects with the MS building. It serves as the entry for special maintenance staff, of which, of course, I am the chief maintenance officer.”

“As you can tell, the corridors surrounding the base room are spacious and empty of any noticeable features. In rather graphic terms, I’ve learned the SF call them ‘the killing zone’. It’s intended to be difficult for any intruder to survive as far as the chiller room, naturally,” she said rather grimly. I don’t think she sounded too happy to admit such an area existed, even if it was intended to protect the Master Server. “The rooms on the outside wall of the building hold either supplies and replacement parts, or equipment to serve various functions of the building, including the defense mechanisms.”

“Can’t I just sneak into the ducting system, like Solomon and I did in your building, and avoid all those things?”

“No,” she answered firmly. “Sorry, but the ducting system around the MS has too many ‘clean air’ filters to pass through them all in the time you’ll have. Besides which, I don’t have any information as to whether or not they’ve been booby-trapped. I’m afraid you’ll just have to take your chances on the second floor.”

“So just what do I have to watch out for?”

“Normally, of course, the killing zone remains inert unless activated. Including the President of the Tokyo Region and a few other officials, I am only one of a dozen people who could get you through that door and the fire room into the main corridor. That is why I must get you through this first door connecting the passageway to the MS building. I must pass several scans, including DNA, retina and a palm print, to establish my identity. Once you are through, Waymond Antonius Sampras will have my personal codes to open the other doors via electronic signal.”

She flashed another image, which was the entire building minus the foundation. It was not heavily detailed, but showed basic floor plans.

“The MS itself starts on the second floor, and extends up to the fiftieth. The technicians and other professionals who take care of the Master Server are in these offices surrounding the computer, much like on the first floor. They access their offices with guarded jump tubes, here and here. You won’t be able to use those jump tubes, Barnaby Smith, but then, you shouldn’t have to. You will enter the building here,” she said, flashing back to the second floor plan, “follow this route here, and your target is here.”

“What’s that first chamber here?” I asked, pointing to a fairly large room, maybe a reception area, just inside the door I was supposed to enter.

Aimee frowned.

“I’m not exactly sure. As I said, it’s called the ‘fire room’, but I haven’t been able to determine why. As far as I can determine, there is no boiler or other heating apparatus connected to the chamber. It may just be one of those archaic terms stuck on a room for one reason or another, eventually becoming meaningless. However, what is not meaningless is the nature of these hallways they call the ‘killing zone’. They have several defenses, all of them quite deadly. That is, of course, why no offices exist on the second floor. Those include both fixed and user-guided laser beams, nerve gas, acid sprays, and a few others I’m not sure of.”

“Feet, don’t leave me now!”

“I ... I beg your pardon, Barney?”