Cyber Rogues (17 page)

“We have.” Schroder sat forward to bring his elbows to the desk and paused for a second to choose his words. “Melvin Krantz has already agreed to suspend his work with ISA in order to assume overall coordinating responsibility for the experiment. General Linsay will, from today on, take command of the military personnel involved, and will be responsible for selection, training, operational planning and setting up the basis for running the station. But the key people in the center of the whole thing are going to be the computer scientists. We’re going to need a good team up there and we want you to take charge of that end.”

Dyer looked at him through narrowed eyes. He had been half expecting something like this so Schroder’s statement did not come as a complete surprise. Nevertheless it was more than he’d had in mind.

“You want me to go up there . . . on the station?” he said.

Schroder nodded. “We need somebody in charge of the scientific team who understands learning systems. Who better than the guy who practically pioneered HESPER and who’s taken post-HESPER techniques further than anybody else in the business? You’re the obvious choice, Ray.” Schroder gestured toward Linsay and Krantz. “We’ve started recruiting already so I don’t have to tell you that we can’t give you much time. In fact I’m going to have to ask you for an answer today. I know you don’t have any domestic ties so it shouldn’t be an impossible problem. How do you feel about it right now?”

“I don’t know . . .” Dyer frowned to himself and rubbed his forehead. “What kind of team have you got in mind? Who’d be on it? There’s still too much I don’t know about. Exactly who would I be working for?”

“You know the experts in your own field as well as anybody,” Schroder said. “We’d give you a pretty free hand in picking whoever you want. There are one or two from certain places I’ve got in mind whom I’d like you to consider, but you’d have the last word. As far as approaching them goes, since it’s a security matter all you’d have to do would be give us a list of the names and we’ll take it from there. One exception to that might be if you wanted to include anybody from your own outfit at CUNY. You’ve got some good people there and there’d be no objection to you using them if you want to. Since you know them better than anybody, we could leave it to your discretion as to whether you want to raise the matter with them or not. I’m certain that you could handle it intelligently. As to who’d be your direct boss, he’s sitting right here—Melvin Krantz. I don’t have to spell out what his ISA background would mean in comprehending and directing a complex technical project. You’d have nothing to worry about as far as things like that are concerned.” A short silence ensued while Dyer digested the information. At last Schroder shrugged and threw out his hands.

“Well, that’s about it,” he said. “As I mentioned earlier, we need an answer today. We’re here to answer as best we can at this stage whatever questions you feel you need answered to make a decision on it.” Dyer thought for a moment longer and then half-turned to address his words to everybody in the room.

“I don’t have any questions,” he replied quietly. “If I started the whole thing off, where else do you think I’d want to be when things start happening? Count me in. And thanks.”

Schroder’s face split into a wide smile for the first time that morning. He rose from his chair, came around the desk and pumped Dyer’s hand vigorously while offering his congratulations. Then Lindsay and Krantz followed suit.

“There’s just one thing,” Dyer said when everybody had settled down again. “One advantage of using military people is that they can always vanish for a while without any awkward questions being asked. But I’m not in that category and neither are my people at the University. We’ve got jobs there and this is going to take more than a weekend. How do you plan on getting around that?”

“I’ve already talked to Vince Lewis,” Schroder replied. “We made the assumption that you’d accept and Vince has agreed to put out the story inside CUNY that you’ve simply been assigned temporarily to CIM for a special research project involving ISA. We can work out some cover details later that should be enough to keep everybody satisfied. I guess if you ended up taking some of your own people with you, we could extend the story to account for them too. With Vince in the know I don’t foresee any big problems there. Anything else?”

“Nope. I’ve got to hand it to you—you seem to have everything figured out.”

“As far as possible in a week anyway,” Schroder said. “Anyhow, if that’s it why don’t I order some coffee and while you’re here we can update you on the details of some of the other things we’ve been thinking about.” He leaned across to stretch an arm out toward the viset by the desk and then stopped halfway.

“Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you. We have a name for the experiment. There are two possible futures for our civilization if we allow it to continue evolving along the lines it’s going. A world run by a super-TITAN could turn out to be the greatest step forward in history or conceivably the end of the human species. The future has two faces—one totally good and one totally bad. The object of this experiment is to attempt to determine which is correct. Accordingly, the code name for your experimental world will be
Janus
.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Dyer wondered how Schroder and Krantz intended getting away with the audacious idea of hijacking a piece of state-owned astronautic engineering the size of Icarus C and using it for their own undisclosable purposes. Even with Presidential knowledge and approval, the action seemed too farfetched to be workable and would surely, he thought, attract more than enough political probing and publicity to scuttle the whole plan. A few days after his interview in Washington, however, items began appearing in the news which reported that commissioning trials of Icarus B, completed toward the end of the previous year, had revealed certain short-comings in performance and design. Enough had been learned, the reports said, for matters to be put right by means of an elaborate program of modifications. Moreover a perfect opportunity to test those modifications presented itself in the form of Icarus B’s twin, Icarus C, which was just in the right phase of construction to permit ready incorporation of the redesigns provided that no time was wasted in approving the change of plan. Once the improvements had been tested on Icarus C, Icarus B could later be brought up to the same standard; in the meantime Icarus B could continue to operate as at present.

Some protests were forthcoming from Congress, mainly in the form of a few pointed remarks about the technical incompetence and financial irresponsibility of some of ISA’s planning groups; but the economic arguments presented in favor of having two stations running efficiently later rather than inefficiently sooner were persuasive. Within a month all further work on the station was halted and the construction teams were pulled out and reassigned to other ISA projects. Two weeks after that the go-ahead was given for ISA to commence its modification program using its own teams of specialists.

Somehow the military had become involved in the whole thing too. Somebody conceived the notion that this unscheduled addition to the Icarus program would provide a good opportunity for the Army Corps of Engineers to give their people some valuable experience in space-engineering techniques. This unusual suggestion went through the higher levels of the Pentagon with singular lack of opposition. Shortly afterward came the announcement that a special unit was to be formed of volunteers from all three services to spearhead the venture. The unit would take over a disused Army base in Virginia called Fort Vokes, where training was to commence immediately in cooperation with ISA. A General Mark Linsay, formerly attached to the Special Electronics Weapons Trials Unit of the Army located in Colorado, had been appointed commanding officer of Fort Vokes.

Dyer was not involved in whatever maneuvering had gone on behind the scenes to culminate in these announcements, but he was impressed and more than a little gratified by the knowledge that he was evidently with people who knew how to get things done. For his part during this time, he gradually put together a list of specialists in various areas of computer and allied sciences, including Frank Wescott from CIT, and passed it on to Krantz together with a few more names from a list that Schroder had submitted, which also included Frank Wescott. Then, while Krantz was making discreet inquiries and putting out guarded feelers, Dyer turned his attention to the question of including some of his own staff from CUNY.

Chris, Ron and Kim were the obvious candidates. Dyer contrived a series of confidential talks with each of them in which he gradually revealed more of the situation as their reactions and attitudes became apparent. Ron accepted without any hesitation. Chris had to go away and think about it, and eventually came back to voice his uncertainty about how such a change in plans would affect the funding authority in London which was paying for his research fellowship. After some communication with London in which Vincent Lewis endorsed Chris’s claim that a temporary assignment to a vaguely defined project involving ISA would constitute a valid extension to the work that Chris had come to the U.S. to pursue, a grudging assent was obtained and the matter was settled; Chris was going too.

Dyer anticipated that things would not go as easily in Kim’s case; after all, what pretext could there be for spiriting a man’s wife away for six months or more, and for keeping her whereabouts a secret in a world that had forgotten the meaning of security and in which instant communication with any point on the Earth’s surface and beyond was taken for granted? To his surprise, however, Kim talked to him a few days after he had broached the subject and declared simply that there would be no problem. Dyer was curious but didn’t want to pry for information of a personal nature which had not been volunteered, so he accepted with thanks and left it at that.

So, subject to Krantz performing his part successfully, the team was in effect complete.

At about this time Lewis began mentioning to Richter that the CIM verdict on FISE wasn’t looking too hopeful and that a reappraisal of the University’s financial commitments had led him to the reluctant conclusion that internal funding of FISE would not be possible. Nevertheless there was some good news too, which would mean at least that Dyer and his team could remain usefully occupied without becoming a lost tribe within the University, wandering in search of something to do. Lewis then described the cover story that he had already worked out with Schroder, leading Richter to believe that it was genuine and pointing out that it would require its own cover story to conceal the so-called real version from inquisitive ears around the campus. Richter duly put Hoestler in the picture and Hoestler summed it up in a confidential chat which he had with Dyer later that same day.

“The verdict seems to be that CIM is pulling out of FISE and we can’t see our way clear to putting enough of our money in to keep it going,” Hoestler said solemnly.

“I see,” Dyer replied in an appropriately heavy voice, keeping his face straight.

“But we have been putting in a lot of work on your behalf nevertheless,” Hoestler went on. “Vince has sold ISA the idea of borrowing you and maybe some of your staff for a period to help sort out the screw-up on Luna. How does that appeal to you?” Dyer went through the expected motions of surprise and incredulity.

“What . . . the Moon? You mean you want to send us up there with ISA?”

“That’s right. I’m now free to tell you that it’s as good as fixed up . . . provided you agree that you want to go, of course.”

“That’s pretty short notice. I . . . I don’t know what to say.”

“Think about it, but don’t take too long,” Hoestler urged. “But one thing I must stress is that absolute discretion is essential, especially regarding the reasons for going there.”

“Of course,” Dyer agreed.

“Reinhold is still a sensitive issue. It wouldn’t do for everybody to know that there have been problems with TITAN. Therefore we intend explaining your absence by a slightly different story. Officially some members of the HESPER Unit will be going on a special research project with one of the ISA missions toward the end of this year. As preparation for that we’re sending you away to undergo training with ISA on their procedures and regulations for extraterrestrial duties. Is that clear? That’s the version for internal consumption here. If anyone asks you about it, that’s all you know.”

Dyer responded with a slow conspiratorial nod of understanding.

“Are we talking about the whole Unit?” he asked.

Hoestler shook his head. “Just you and the senior staff.”

“What about the rest?”

“We’ve already discussed that,” Hoestler told him. “We’ll arrange for one of the other section heads in SAP to take over temporarily till you get back. Anyhow, you leave that to us. That’s all under control.”

“Okay,” Dyer agreed after a few seconds of simulated thought. “I’ll have to ask for a bit of time though. I reckon I could get back to you on it by the end of the week. How’d that be?”

“Just what I was hoping you’d say,” Hoestler told him. “And remember, the real story is classified information. As far as you’re concerned it’s just a routine job with ISA.”

“I’ll remember,” Dyer promised.

When he emerged into the corridor outside, he shook his head sadly and smiled to himself as he took out his pocket viewpad and re-enabled it to accept incoming calls. Immediately a message appeared on the screen advising that Krantz had tried to call a few minutes earlier. Dyer returned to his office and immediately placed a call to Krantz.

“I have to be in New York tonight for an early meeting tomorrow,” Krantz told him. “I thought maybe we could get together for a couple of drinks. I’d like to update you on what’s been going on.”

“Sure,” Dyer replied. “You know, this whole situation is getting a bit weird. I haven’t gotten used to working for a remote boss yet.”

“It won’t be for much longer,” Krantz told him, smiling faintly. “That’s one of the things I was going to mention tonight.”

“What?”