DD signed that he needed five more minutes to complete the disk copy. Sean went upstairs and found a gym in one of the bedrooms. The only item of note was a small semi-automatic in the bedside drawer in the master bedroom.
On the way out, DD re-armed the alarm.
Even with the USB key, cracking Jack Langham’s password was proving difficult. DD’s first job was to find the password Jack used to log in to his home computer. Once he found that he would be able to find his work password and credentials.
He fished around in his rucksack and brought out a half dozen CDs. On one laptop DD loaded a program that automatically tried various combinations and permutations of letters and numbers in case the password was not an English word found in the dictionary. On another laptop DD started to load the information he knew about Jack — his name, address, telephone number, family names and names of work colleagues. These items went into a database which the program would use to find a password match. DD used different password cracking programs on the remaining laptops, leaving one computer free to keep in touch with base and for access to the Internet.
He looked around the room. In a way it reminded him of a circus performer spinning plates. DD needed to check each computer in turn to see how far it had got with its program.
Half an hour later one of the laptops bleeped. DD pounced on it. Flashing on the screen was the password Jack used for his home PC. Quickly DD typed this in and was rewarded with access to all the files on the disk. Using the same password he opened Jack’s email account and whistled. He picked up his mobile and dialled Lomax.
‘Lomax. Receiving you strength ten. How’s it going?’
Strength ten meant that Lomax was clear.
‘I’ve just got in to Jack’s private email account. You ought to see some of the pictures I’m looking at right now — they’re pornographic!’
‘So?’
‘Well Jack’s featuring in all of them — one way or another!’
Lomax considered the information. ‘Could be someone’s blackmailing him. Can you trace the sender?’
‘I’ll have a go, but don’t hold out much hope. It’s just too easy to mask email identities.’
‘Give it a try anyway. What about Langham’s work access?’
‘I should have more for you later today.’
‘Give me call when you do. Oh, one other thing’ continued Lomax. ‘London called. They changed their minds — or possibly had their minds changed for them. We’re clear to continue, for now.’
‘Thank God for that’, said DD. ‘But why?’
‘They didn’t say’ said Lomax. ‘But you need to be cautious. Remember your security procedures.’
‘I’m not likely to forget now, am I?’ said DD.
‘Explain’ said the President curtly.
‘Sir, the sub raised its buoy shortly after midnight. We squirted a pre-prepared acknowledgement, after which the sub sent back a code. Initially we didn’t look at the code too closely until later this morning — the fact that it had acknowledged our signal and responded in the correct sequence was good enough for the programming team, so they told the military that everything was OK.’
The President kneaded both temples with his fingers. ‘So now you’re going to tell me it’s not alright?’
‘This is the message we got back.’ Harris handed him a slip of paper with a word written in capitals.
OMWH
‘Well, what does it mean?’ asked the President.
‘The message stands for On My Way Home. It’s what we were expecting. But what the science team forgot was we should have also received a second string. It should have signed off with CET, standing for CETUS of course. At the moment, we don’t know why we didn’t get that second string.’
The President looked at Harris curiously. ‘Well, it’s not that obvious to me either — enlighten me.’
Harris looked down at the slip of paper. ‘I think it’s telling us that we are no longer in control.’
The President turned away and walked over to the window. He looked out at the green expanse of lawn and the breeze blowing the last of the autumn leaves. It was hard to imagine that a substantial threat lurked in the depths of the sea some several thousand miles away. But he knew better than to ignore it.
‘There is something else…’ Harris tailed off as the President turned around.
‘Let me have it Robert — I need to know everything.’
Harris steeled himself. ‘It means that somehow the computer systems aboard have been infected with a program which has forced it to ignore our instructions. The sub has turned rogue.’
‘We know that, for God’s sake’ said the President, voice raised. ‘What I want to know is what are we doing about it?’
Harris ticked off each item on his fingers. ‘First, we formed a high-level crisis team, which is in permanent session. Two, I’ve sent my best man to join the Anti-Submarine Warfare task force we sent earlier. We’re turning it around and having more assets join further north. Three, we involved the FBI in trying to track down how the project team security was breached. Obviously, if we get a handle on that, we might trace the person responsible.’
Harris glanced at the President. ‘Four, we have called in a few favours with strategic space command and have re-scheduled four of our military satellites to try and track the sub’s position.’
Harris cleared his throat. ‘Five, we have alerted all our military shipping in the southern Atlantic.’ Harris gauged the look on his President’s face. ‘We are close to the time when we need to alert all commercial shipping in the area.’
‘What would the effect of that be?’
‘Chaos Robert’, said Harris quietly. ‘We would need to keep every ship in port — even then there could be no guarantees’, said Harris despondently. ‘That sub could slip into the most heavily guarded ports in the world.’ Harris was startled at his next thought. ‘Could be, it might even move in on us. If that happened we would need to start protection measures at all of our naval ports on the Eastern seaboard. As of now.’ Harris looked at the President for his reaction.
‘Just let me get one thing straight, Harris’ questioned the President. Is this a random virus which it picked up somehow, or… something else?’
Harris twisted his hands. ‘None of us believe it’s a common computer virus. For one thing, the computer systems on the sub are not standard and anti-virus security on the project was tight. No. Stanislawski says his team leader believes it was made especially for the sub. Someone wrote this virus specifically to rob us of our most advanced underwater weapons system.’
Paradoxically, the President appeared to become calmer as the news grew worse.
‘If that’s the case’ said the President, ‘what is the object? Is it going to roam the ocean, attempting to sink every American ship and submarine in its path, or is there something else?’
‘That’s a possibility Robert’, said Harris. ‘If it’s a foreign power they might have wanted to snatch it from us. I don’t need to remind you of the importance of the weapon system. If we lose it to China, say, we can kiss goodbye to the billions we have already spent on this project and hand them a ten year lead in underwater stealth technology.’
The President seemed to make up his mind. ‘Right Harris, since only ships belonging to our navy have been attacked, I want you to take all necessary measures to protect them. Your number one priority is to find and stop that sub — by whatever means you feel necessary. Next I want you to alert the CIA and the Pentagon to a possible Chinese angle to this. If there’s any covert operation in chain, I want to know. I want an update at 8am every 24 hrs from now on. Meanwhile, I have some calls to make.’