The Atrocity Archives (36 page)

"They said they could track down all our
installed software and offer us a discount for volume licensing!"

"And how precisely do you think they'll do
that?" I turn round and stare at her. "They're going to want to
install
snooping software on our LAN, and then read through its take." I take
a
deep breath. "You're going to have to get him to sign the Official
Secrets Act so that I can formally notify him that if he thinks he's
going to do that I'm going to have him sectioned.
Part Three. Why do you
think
we're still running old copies of
Windows on the network? Because we can't afford to replace them?"

"He's already signed Section Three. And anyway,
you said you didn't have time," she snaps waspishly. "I asked you
five
weeks ago, on Friday! But you were too busy playing secret agents with
your friends downstairs to notice anything as important as an upcoming
audit. This wouldn't have been necessary if you had time!"

"Crap. Listen, we're running those old junkers
because they're so old and rubbish that they can't catch half the proxy
Internet worms and macro viruses that are doing the rounds these days.
BSA will insist we replace them with stonking new workstations running
Windows XP and Office XP and dialing into the Internet every six
seconds to snitch on whatever we're doing with them. Do you
really
think Mahogany Row is going to clear that sort of security risk?"

That's a bluff—Mahogany Row retired from this
universe back when software still meant silk unmentionables—but she
isn't likely to know that, merely that I get invited up there these
days. (Nearer my brain-eating God to thee … )

"As for the time thing, get me a hardware budget
and a tech assistant who's vetted for level five Laundry IT operations
and I'll get it seen to. It'll only cost you sixty thousand pounds or
so in the first year, plus a salary thereafter." Finally,
finally
,
I get to pull the jug out of the coffee machine and pour myself a mug
of wake-up. "That's better."

She glances at her watch. "Are you going to come
along to the meeting and help explain this to everybody then?" she
asks
in a tone that could cut glass.

"No." I add cow juice from the fridge that
wheezes asthmatically below the worktop. "It's a /files/04/31/90/f043190/public/private
partnership fuck-up, film at eleven. Bridget stuck her foot in it out
of her own free will: if she wants me to pull it out for her she can
damn well ask. Besides, I've got a code blue report meeting with
Angelton and Boris and Andy and that trumps administrative make-work
any day of the week."

"Bastard," she hisses.

"Pleased to be of service." I pull a face as she
marches out the room and slams the door. "Angleton. Code blue.
Jesus."
All of a sudden I remember the modified camcorder in my jacket pocket.
"Shit, I'm running late … "

REPORT 4: Tuesday June 6th, 1989

CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET GAME ANDES
REDSHIFT, Ministry of Defense, June 6th, 1989

ABSTRACT
: Recent research in
neuroanatomy has characterised the nature of the stellate ganglial
networks responsible for gorgonism in patients with advanced
astrocytoma affecting the cingulate gyrus. Tests combining the "map of
medusa" layout with appropriate video preprocessing inputs have
demonstrated the feasibility of mechanical induction of the medusa
effect.

Progress in the emulation of
dynamically reconfigurable hidden-layer neural networks using FPGA
(fully programmable gate array) technology, combined with real-time
digital video signal processing from binocular high-resolution video
cameras, is likely within the next five years to allow us to download a
"medusa mode" into suitably prepared surveillance CCTV cameras,
allowing realtime digital video monitoring networks to achieve a true
line-of-sight look-to-kill capability. Extensive safety protocols are
discussed which must be implemented before this technology can be
deployed nationally, in order to minimize the risk of misactivation.

Projected deployment of CCTV
monitoring in public places is estimated to result in over one million
cameras
in situ
in British mainland cities by 1999. Coverage
will be complete by 2004-06. Anticipated developments in
internetworking and improvements in online computing bandwidth suggest
for the first time the capacity of achieving a
total coverage defense-in-depth against any conceivable insurgency. The
implications of this project are discussed, along with its possible
efficacy in mitigating the consequences of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN in
September 2007 … .

Speaking of Mahogany Row, Angleton's picked the
boardroom with the teak desk and the original bakelite desk fittings,
and frosted windows onto the corridor, as the venue for my debriefing.
He's sitting behind the desk tapping his bony fingers, with Andy
looking anxious and Boris imperturbable when I walk in and flip the red
MEETING
light on.

"Home movies." I flip the tape on the desktop. "What I saw on my
holiday." I put my coffee mug down on one of the
disquietingly soft leather mats before I yawn, just in case I spill it.
"Sorry, been up for hours. What do you want to know?"

"How long had it been dead?" asks Andy.

I think for a moment. "I'm not sure—have to call
Pathology if you want a hard answer, I'm afraid, but clearly for some
time when I found it after zero seven hundred. It had cooled to barely
oven temperature."

Angleton is watching me like I'm a bug under a
microscope. It's not a fun sensation. "Did you read the files?" he
asks.

"Yes." Before I came up here I locked them in my
office safe in case a busy little Tom, Dick, or Harriet decided to do
some snooping. "I'm really going to sleep well tonight."

"The basilisk is found." Boris said.

"Um, no," I admit. "It's still in the wild. But
Mike Williams said he'd let me know if they run across it. He's cleared
for OSA-III, he's our liaison in—"

"How many traffic cameras overlooked the
roundabout?" Angleton asks almost casually.

"Oh—" I sit down hard. "Oh shit.
Shit.
"
I feel shaky, very shaky, guts doing the tango and icy chills running
down the small of my back as I realise what he's
trying to tell me without saying it out loud, on the record.

"That's why I sent you," he murmurs, waving Andy
out of the room on some prearranged errand. A moment later Boris
follows him. "You're not supposed to get yourself killed, Bob. It
looks
bad on your record."

"Oh shit," I repeat, needle stuck, sample
echoing, as I realise how close to dying I may have been. And the crew
of that chopper, and everyone else who's been there since, and—

"Half an hour ago someone vandalized the number
seventeen traffic camera overlooking Monk's Road roundabout three: put
a .223 bullet through the CCD enclosure. Drink your coffee,
there's a good boy, do try not to spill it everywhere."

"One of ours." It comes out as a statement.

"Of course." Angleton taps the file sitting on
the desk in front of him—I recognize it by the dog-ear on the second
page, I put it in my office safe only ten minutes ago—and looks at me
with those scary grey eyes of his. "So. The public at large being safe
for the moment, tell me what you can deduce."

"Uh." I lick my lips, which have gone as dry as
old boot leather. "Some time last night somebody let a cow into the
park and used it for target practice. I don't know much about the
network topology of the MK road traffic-control cams, but my possible
suspects are, in order: someone with a very peculiar brain tumour,
someone with a stolen stoner weapon—like the one I qualified for under
OGRE REALITY—or someone with access to whatever GAME ANDES REDSHIFT
gave birth to. And, going from the questions you're asking, if it's
GAME ANDES REDSHIFT it's unauthorised."

He nods, very slightly.

"We're in deep shit then," I say brightly and
throw back the last mouthful of coffee, spoiling the effect slightly by
nearly coughing my guts up immediately afterward.

"Without a depth-gauge," he adds drily, and
waits for my coughing fit to subside. "I've sent
Andrew and Mr. B down to the stacks to pull out another file for you to
read. Eyes only in front of witnesses, no note-taking, escort required.
While they're signing it out I'd like you to write down in your own
words everything that happened to you this morning so far. It'll go in
a sealed file along with your video evidence as a deposition in case
the worst happens."

"Oh shit." I'm getting tired of saying this. "It's internal?"

He nods.

"CPU business?"

He nods again, then pushes the antique portable
manual typewriter toward me. "Start typing."

"Okay." I pick up three sheets of paper and some
carbons and begin aligning their edges. "Consider me typing already."

REPORT 5: Monday December 10th,
2001

CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET GAME ANDES
REDSHIFT, Ministry of Defense, December 10th, 2001

CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET MAGINOT BLUE
STARS, Ministry of Defense, December 10th, 2001

Abstract
: This document
describes progress to date in establishing a defensive network capable
of repelling wide-scale incursions by reconfiguring the national
closed-circuit television surveillance network as a software-controlled
look-to-kill multiheaded basilisk. To prevent accidental premature
deployment or deliberate exploitation, the SCORPION STARE software is
not actually loaded into the camera firmware. Instead, reprogrammable
FPGA chips are integrated into all cameras and can be loaded with
SCORPION STARE by authorised MAGINOT BLUE STARS users whenever
necessary … .

Preamble
: It has been said
that the US Strategic Defense Initiative Organisation's proposed active
ABM defense network will require the most complex
software ever developed, characterised by a complexity metric of >
100 MLOC and heavily criticized by various organisations (see footnotes
[1][2][4]) as unworkable and likely to contain in excess of a thousand
severity-1 bugs at initial deployment. Nevertheless, the architectural
requirements of MAGINOT BLUE STARS dwarf those of the SDIO
infrastructure. To provide coverage of 95 percent of the UK population
we require a total of 8 million digitally networked CCTV cameras
(terminals). Terminals in built-up areas may be connected via the
public switched telephone network using SDSL/VHDSL, but outlying
systems may use mesh network routing over 802.11a to ensure that rural
areas do not provide a pool of infectious carriers for demonic
possession. TCP/IP Quality of Service issues are discussed below, along
with a concrete requirement for IPv6 routing and infrastructure that
must be installed and supported by all Internet Service Providers no
later than 2004.

There are more than ninety different
CCTV architectures currently on sale in the UK, many of which are
imported and cannot be fitted with FPGAs suitable for running the
SCORPION STARE basilisk neural network prior to installation. Data
Disclosure Orders served under the terms of the Regulation of
Investigatory Powers Act (2001) serve to gain access to camera
firmware, but in many regions upgrades to Level 1 MAGINOT BLUE STARS
compliance is behind schedule due to noncompliance by local police
forces with what are seen as unreasonable Home Office requests. Unless
we can achieve a 340 percent compliance improvement by 2004, we will
fail to achieve the target saturation prior to September 2007, when
CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN is due.

 … 

Installation has currently been
completed only in limited areas; notably Inner London ("Ring of
Steel"
for counter-terrorism surveillance) and Milton
Keynes (advanced next-generation MAN with total traffic management
solution in place). Deployment is proceeding in order of population
density and potential for catastrophic demonic takeover and exponential
burn through built-up areas … 

 … 

Recommendation:
One avenue
for ensuring that all civilian CCTV equipment is SCORPION STARE
compatible by 2006 is to exploit an initiative of the US National
Security Agency for our own ends. In a bill ostensibly sponsored by
Hollywood and music industry associations (MPAA and RIAA: see also
CDBTPA), the NSA is ostensibly attempting to legislate support for
Digital Rights Management in all electronic equipment sold to the
public. The implementation details are not currently accessible to us,
but we believe this is a stalking-horse for requiring chip
manufacturers to incorporate on-die FPGAs in the one million gate
range, re-configurable in software, initially laid out as DRM circuitry
but reprogrammable in support of their nascent War on Un-Americanism.

If such integrated FPGAs are mandated,
commercial pressures will force Far Eastern vendors to comply with
regulation and we will be able to mandate incorporation of SCORPION
STARE Level Two into all digital consumer electronic cameras and
commercial CCTV equipment under cover of complying with our copyright
protection obligations in accordance with the WIPO treaty. A suitable
pretext for the rapid phased obsolescence of all Level Zero and Level
One cameras can then be engineered by, for example, discrediting
witness evidence from older installations in an ongoing criminal
investigation.

If we pursue this plan, by late 2006
any two adjacent public CCTV terminals—or private camcorders equipped
with a digital video link—will be reprogrammable by
any authenticated MAGINOT BLUE STARS superuser to permit the operator
to turn them into a SCORPION STARE basilisk weapon. We remain convinced
that this is the best defensive posture to adopt in order to minimize
casualties when the Great Old Ones return from beyond the stars to eat
our brains.

"So, what this boils down to is a Strategic
Defense Initiative against an invasion by alien mind-suckers from
beyond spacetime, who are expected to arrive in bulk at a set date. Am
I on message so far?" I asked.