Michaels nodded. BFS was the Cray computer nicknamed the Big Fucking Sorter, at the National Security Agency’s newly refurbished underground complex outside Fairfax. INEST was the InterNational Education Statistics Terminal mainframe, based in D.C.
“Okay.”
“And what I did was, I ran the top two percent of grads from top computer schools in the U.S. and Europe for the last ten years. I found out who they were, then crossed them with public records — drivers’ licenses, property taxes, income tax, like that.”
“I’m still listening, but I’m getting older here. We getting to a point? I’ll stipulate that you are a brilliant fellow.”
Jay laughed. “Well, okay. So what it comes down to is a whole bunch of these guys and girls who were the wonder kids of their graduating classes at CIT, MIT, Zurich U, U of Q, and all, seemed to have taken up official residence in Geneva, Switzerland. Doesn’t mean they all went to work for CyberNation, of course, but the brightest of that bunch have been spending time and money in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for the last six months. They went to Switzerland, then to Florida.”
“Which means?”
“Guess which gambling ship has half a dozen flights from its deck to Fort Lauderdale each and every day? And records I can access show these folks tend to show up in the same cycle each week. I make that their days off. They live and work on the ship, hop the copter, and fly to town for Saturday R&R.”
Michaels nodded. Circumstantial, but a really big coincidence if that’s what it was. Occam’s razor would slice that one to confetti.
“I can nail it down some more, but I think we’ve got a nest of programmers and weavers on that ship, and they are taking some trouble to keep it quiet, if not absolutely secret. And of course, the big question is: How come? And I think we all know the answer to that. They’ve gone over to the dark side.”
“Well. I guess we need to find out for sure, don’t we?”
Jay shook his head. “Harder to do. We might catch one on the deck webcam or something, but the ship’s records aren’t going out to the public. I don’t think we got enough to get a court order for a search. Not that we could get one anyway. They don’t belong to us, and I doubt Libya cares.”
Toni appeared at the doorway. “What’s up?”
Michaels nodded at Jay, and gave her a quick rundown.
“Good work, Jay,” she said. “So what now?”
“Maybe somebody ought to take a trip to the ship and look around,” Michaels said.
“All one has to do to get on board is show up at the heliport and flash a little credit to get a ride out to the floating casino,” Jay said. “Most of the patrons come from the U.S. Mainland, a few from Cuba and the other islands.”
“You going to ask the FBI to check it out?” Toni asked.
“They don’t have any jurisdiction there,” Michaels said. “And between you, me, and the hidden microphone in my lamp, I don’t trust the CIA as far as I can fly by waving my arms.”
“What are you saying here, Alex?”
“It’s the dead of winter. A little trip to the Caribbean to gamble and take in the tropical sun would be a nice break, don’t you think?”
“Me, me!” Jay said. “I’ll do it!”
“Nope,” Michaels said. He looked at Toni. “What do you think, Miz Michaels? You up for a little work out of town?”
The look on her face was priceless.
After Jay was gone, Toni said, “You’re serious.”
“Yes, ma’am. We need to send somebody there to get the lay of the place.”
“And you don’t want to do it.”
“No, my wife would kill me if I went off like that, leaving her at home with a toddler.”
“Seriously, Alex. Why me?”
“As I recall, the last time I tried to avoid sending you on an assignment because I was being overly protective, I got my ass handed to me. I learned my lesson.”
“Really.” Her voice was as dry as the Sahara.
“Well, okay, I don’t think it is going to be particularly dangerous, if you must know. You aren’t going to have to do anything risky, just walk around and get a feel for things, get the routine down. I don’t want you skulking into parts of the ship that are off-limits to the public, no trying to swipe computer codes, like that. I’ll have Jay come up with some holographs of the programmers he’s found, you can study them, so if you happen to see one while you are there, fine, but the main thing is to gather information readily available.”
“For…?”
“For when and if we might need it. I don’t know exactly where this is going to lead, but let’s take a couple of hypotheticals and run with them. Suppose Jay is right. Say that CyberNation is responsible for the attacks on the net. And they are being mounted from this ship in the Caribbean. What can we do about it without proof? They are on the high seas, and our laws don’t apply. Sure, we could send a Navy destroyer or missile cruiser down to do a search — assuming we could convince the admiral commanding, Secretary of the Navy, the Joint Chiefs, and the president to go for it, not that likely a proposition. If we’re wrong, international outcry would blow whoever was responsible — that would be me — right out of a job. Even if we were right, every Third World country on the planet would scream to high heaven about American imperialism and gun-boat diplomacy. The drawback to being a superpower.”
“ ‘O! it is excellent to have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous to use it like a giant.’ ”
He looked at her, puzzled.
She grinned. “I’ve been waiting years for a chance to use that. Measure for Measure,” she said. “One of my political professors at NYU was a big fan of Shakespeare; he used to throw quotes at us like peanuts to overfed monkeys — we pretty much ignored them. The only other one I can ever remember came from Titus Andronicus. Not much chance to toss that one into a conversation.”
“They made a movie of that one, didn’t they? All about rape and murder and vengeance? Real upbeat, cheerful stuff.”
“Oh, yeah. The line was Aaron’s: ‘If there be devils, would I were a devil, to live and burn in everlasting fire, so I might have your company in hell, but to torment you with my bitter tongue!’ ”
“Must have been an interesting character, your teacher.”
“Oh, yeah. He went to work for State a few years after I graduated. One of the China hands now, I think.”
“Well, I’m impressed with your knowledge of the Classics. You want to go on this trip or not? I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have any trouble finding volunteers if you don’t.”
“Yeah, I heard Jay.”
“Well, I certainly wouldn’t force you. It’s up to you. But you can’t say I didn’t offer.”
She nodded, and thought about it.
“If we can get enough stuff to be sure CyberNation is the guilty party,” Alex said, “and that they are doing it from that ship, then we can maybe do something about it ourselves.”
“How do you mean?”
“John Howard’s boys and girls are bored, so he tells me.”
“The director would kill you.”
“Not if we were right. It’s within our charter, sort of — at least we won’t be sneaking into some foreign country. We have as much right to be out on the ocean as anybody, right?”
“That’s real iffy, Alex.”
“Not as bad as some we’ve done and gotten away with. Remember the trips to Grozny? And to Guinea-Bissau?”
“That’s how you justify it? Making it the least of several evils?”
“Why not? I remember situational ethics from college, too.”
She shook her head.
“Besides, it’s all vaporware right now. We don’t know for sure that Jay is right. Maybe after we gather a lot of little pieces, we can puzzle it together.”