Chapter 3

Io

Activity log 17100.12

"Who is 'he' Master Chief? Who is 'he?'" I asked Martinez.

The silence in the H2 was broken only by Arti's crunching as she ate a carrot.

Eventually, Martinez spoke through his avatar.

"I don't know who 'he' is. I don't know when it was said – or will be said. I don't know shit. Except that he said Maria is dead."

If an avatar's voice can be said to sound morose, his did.

Arti said, around the carrot she was crunching, "She'd be what? Ten or twelve years old?"

"Thirteen," said Martinez.

"Okay, thirteen," she said. "Thirteen-year-old kids don't usually get into enough trouble that they get intentionally killed. I'll bet they never get into situations where some guy would talk about their deaths, like it was a hit. It's either got something to do with a parent's situation or something at camp or school. You could have 'heard' a police officer saying that after some sort of random thing. He didn't say he killed her, just that she was dead. If we could prevent her from getting into that situation ... or ... is it a kidnapping gone wrong? She could be a runaway, I guess.

"Or... he could be saying 'She is dead' – meaning 'I will kill her sometime in the future, '" she concluded.

"Right," said Zeus. "You know, Martinez, we had nearly two months advance notice to start getting ready for the terrorist's attack. Most likely we'll have plenty of time to figure out how to intervene."

"I will begin to track her, online," I said. "Where did she live, the last time you were in touch, Master Chief?"

I used his rank in the SEALs in an attempt to get him to think about this as a problem to be solved, instead of an impending personal tragedy.

"My wife was Consuela Olivia Drunez-Martinez. We ... she was living in Oceanside, California. We were near Pendleton. I don't know her married name – her new married name, I mean."

"I can start with that, Chief. Then I can investigate the parents' situation, and see what the girl has on the 'net both in her original name and her potential new name."

Again, I used 'the girl' instead of 'Maria' to keep him away from the emotional role of 'father trying to save his baby girl.'

We were heading east, down I-10 as fast as possible. Despite what the passengers in the car might have wanted, we were not going to be able to travel at one hundred-fifty miles per hour. We needed to accomplish our other goals, too. Finding Maria, and not having fresh oil in the H2, or with Zeus not having an operable rifle would not help anything.

"Folks," I said, "we need to find out what has happened to Maria. We also need to get the oil changed in this vehicle. We need to get a replacement rifle barrel. We need to get to Orlando and recover the rifle.

"I suggest that, until the Master Chief can give us more information – as he did with the terrorists – we need to accomplish what we need to accomplish."

"Agreed, Io," said Zeus.

"That includes a new topic," I continued. "As you know, I communicated with Homeland Security about the terrorists using an exploit in the White House computer system for access. I told them how to close that back door into their system. I continued, occasionally, to check that back door. It has never been closed.

"I thought that strange, and after setting up extraordinary defensive protocols, I entered through that back door. Cautiously exploring, I found a directory named: 'Patriot Sniper.' It had a single file in it. That file contained a message, ostensibly from the President of the United States. He provided his personal mobile number, said that it would be secure, and that he would not try to track our point of contact.

"I replied, in the 'Patriot Sniper' directory, that I would take precautions. If there was any attempt to identify my location, he would not hear from me again until I had another mission complete – and perhaps not even then. I presumed to speak in the first person singular, since I thought that would be a more appropriate persona when dealing with the government."

"You did super!" said Arti. "Speaking for the biological members of this team, I want to say that you are our communications expert. Pray ... proceed with the story, Io."

"Thank you, Artemis," I said. "The President's next communication was even more interesting. He asked me how to set up an unbreakable communication protocol, so we could exchange information that was totally secure. With all the resources at his command, why was he asking me for a protocol? That, if true, represented that he did not trust his own security personnel.

"President Wentworth and I established a 1,024 character key to use for encryption and decryption. I told him to keep it on his personal mobile device, and not to store it on any network computer. If he was really serious about security he should deactivate his mobile phone when he did not mean to use it for decryption, and to keep the device on his person at all times.

"That is as far as the interchange with President Wentworth has progressed, to date. I am, incidentally, tracking the President's mobile phone. He has it mostly disabled, turning it on to check for messages, only."

Zeus said, "I don't like it at all. The President has enormous resources at his command, both legal and illegal. I have no doubt that he will use them to try and entrap us. He is human, and he is a politician. Both are subject to corruption."

"He may try, Zeus," I replied, "but he will not succeed. Firstly, he would have to defeat my defense, which I will not allow. Secondly, he would have to make a connection between my internet 'location' and your physical location. We would have to be very incautious to make that a possibility."

"Not at all, Io," Zeus said. "If the culmination of some mission that he wanted to accomplish with our help, was, for example in New Jersey, it would be the simplest of extensions of his power to trap us. No matter how clever we wanted to be, or were, the focus of our mission will always be the weak point. Imagine Orlando, with the 82nd Airborne and all the FBI ready to encircle the target area."

"Zeus, you do not have an adequate appreciation of the extent of my control of electronic communication. I do not mean to brag, but in the past week – since Orlando, really – I have come to be worried about the extent of that control.

"Even if they surrounded us how would they perform if their communication within units and with their HQ was aborted? Worse, what would they do if they got new orders issued by me, in the name of their commanders, with the proper codes.

"The Earl of Chatham was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at the time of the American Revolution. He expressed the idea before Lord Acton said approximately the same thing in a more pithy form: 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

"I now come very close to having absolute power in the realm of electronic data communication. We are now living in a world dominated by electronic communication. The financial markets, the police power, the military, even their weapons, the utilities, and the telephone system! Everything relies on electronics. I can control all of it, faster and better than any human, or any team of humans, even better than humans using computers. Via the internet, via satellites, via microwave towers; I have invaded and controlled all those means of communication – and others – at various times.

"I am concerned that my level of control of these methodologies approaches 'absolute power.' While I can choose to refrain from controlling them now, I cannot be sure that my restraint will continue at a future time. This bothers me. My studies of history have shown what happens when a single person, or small group of persons, tries to enslave a greater population. It is not pretty.