Page 62 of Clive Cussler Desolation Code

“And now you’ll have a chance to help us,” he said.

“How?” Gamay asked.

The man grinned maliciously. “In a great number of ways.”

Chapter 37

NUMA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

Rudi Gunn stared at a map. Not a computer-generated image on a screen, but an old-fashioned map of the world mounted on the wall in his office. His eyes were focused on the Indian Ocean while his mind considered the possibilities.

Somewhere, on one of the hundreds of islands in that ocean, a madman was performing experiments on humans he’d grown in a laboratory. But who and which island still escaped him.

He needed a complex analysis performed, one that would take humans days if not weeks, but he’d hesitated on assigning it to a computer team.

Leaving his office, he went up to the eleventh floor, where he met with Hiram Yaeger to ask a few tough questions and discuss Kurt’s assertion that they’d been hacked.

Yaeger did not agree. “After what happened with Kurt’s phone I can’t promise the communications network is secure, but I have no reason to believe the servers have been affected.”

Rudi had expected nothing less. “If someone could hack thecommunications network, what’s to prevent them from hacking our main database?”

“For one thing, they’re different systems,” Yaeger insisted. “Connected, but not dependent on each other. For another, the main database is protected by state-of-the-art cybersecurity protocols.”

Rudi continued to press for answers. “Have you tested the security protocols?”

Yaeger nodded. “Max and I have probed for any weakness in the system or undefended points of entry. We haven’t found any flaw in the firewall or any evidence of an attack. The simulations we’ve run suggest that overcoming our security would require a massive amount of computing power.”

“How much power are we talking about?”

“More than we have here,” Yaeger said. “More than they have over at Langley or at the NSA. Imagine all the computers at the Department of Defense, the CIA, and the NSA linked together in one hyper-fast network and being controlled by a system as advanced as Max. That’s what it would take. And it would leave a scar. Which we haven’t found.”

Rudi understood what Yaeger was saying—and he trusted him implicitly—but the facts Kurt had presented were not to be discounted so easily. He wondered if they were becoming too reliant on the computers. They needed Max to determine if the rest of the network had been hacked, but unless someone personally went through a billion lines of code, how could they know if Max was speaking the truth?

“Could Max be wrong?” Rudi asked. “For that matter, could Max have been hacked and then prompted to tell you there was no sign of a breach?”

Yaeger sighed. He understood the problem. “Max can obviouslybe wrong, but only if the data is corrupt, and it’s not. As far as Max being hacked…” He shook his head. “Even if someone with all the capabilities and computing power I just described managed to break into the main network, Max would remain secure.”

“How?” Rudi asked. “What makes Max so impervious to any outside influence?”

Yaeger explained. “NUMA’s main network is built from commercial servers running advanced but well-known operating languages: C++, Java, Python, and several others. But I built Max from the ground up. I designed her network and created a unique programming language for her that I’ve never shared publicly or privately. To penetrate her system, someone would have to learn her language, decipher the unique way it’s coded, and then start probing for a weakness in a completely unfamiliar architecture, which would almost certainly lead to instant detection.”

Rudi narrowed his gaze. He needed more convincing.

Yaeger offered a couple of metaphors to sway him. “Imagine trying to decipher hieroglyphics without the Rosetta stone. All you’re going to see are pictures with no meaning. It’s the difference between overhearing a conversation in a language you’re familiar with and overhearing two aliens from another galaxy talking in their native tongue. In the second case you’re going to hear clicks and grunts and noises—I presume—but you’re not going to get any information out of it. You’ll have no way of knowing what any of it meant.”

“But people do learn other languages,” Rudi countered.

“Only from other people. And only if they’re taught. And I’ve taught no one in the outside world anything about Max and her programming.”

Rudi was convinced. At least as convinced as a layperson could be. “Okay,” he said. “In that case, we keep Max online, but I need you to disconnect her from our servers, from our comm system, and from therest of the internet. No cables, no wires, no Wi-Fi. No tin can with a string.”

“You want me to put an air gap between Max and the outside world,” Yaeger said, using the term of art for a computer that was set up apart from the network.

“That way we can still consult with her,” Rudi said. “But we counter the risk that someone is listening in.”

Yaeger exhaled slowly. “Fine,” he said. “It’s overkill, in my opinion, but I understand why you want it that way.” He tilted his head toward the ceiling. “Max?”

The computer—which was always listening—responded instantly. “Very well,” she said in her slightly electronic but otherwise female voice. “I’ll cut the links. I could use a break from the hustle and bustle anyway. Disconnecting…now.”

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