A God in Ruins - Leon Uris [25]
Thornton was right, but even so, he was wrong, Darnell thought. What had he said: keep the darkness dark. As Darnell studied the meaning of the system, he assured himself that they would be clear of antitrust violations, unfair competition, and other government interference. After all, they were only going after a very small piece of the market.
However, Thornton would not stop with three hundred Bulldog networks once it had become the Rolls-Royce of the computer world.
Banks, insurance companies, car manufacturers, oil companies, police, airlines, mercantile chains, medical networks…all in secret.
A great central mainframe to be built in Pawtucket could drive thousands of networks. The senders and receivers could not operate unless both were positively identified through fingerprints, photos, and a DNA scanner.
Darnell did not go in fully convinced, but followed his own part of the work. He set up the university and military network, exciting and challenging the listeners. The military was particularly sought out, for any system installed for them would open the door to a hundred corporations. The bright people in his new thinking would exercise their minds achingly trying to break the Growler. To no avail.
Thornton growled in content as his friendly adversaries threw in the towel. The Growler flipped to one of several million code algorithms so that the sender and receiver had to be “married.”
But that was out there and this was down here. In the real world they were a long way from the financing to build mainframes.
Darnell had lingering doubts. He always held out hope that a universal benefit could be found somewhere in the system. It was Darnell’s upbringing, a matter of the soul to answer dirty questions. As Thornton went in, seemingly without scruples, Darnell wondered if he would be able to follow.
“What we are doing, Thornton, is tapping into man’s paranoia. Half the energy in a computer is to mistrust, and the walls go higher until we come to the ultimate weapon, the Bulldog. You see, mistrust begets mistrust, and the fucking computer industry is being built on greed. So, we’d be building a buffer around the corporate elites to carry on in total secrecy. That is the dark space, and we will control the night. The government eventually will make us give up the Growler.”
“Think about this, Darnell, because you plotted it. In another decade there are going to be millions of individual terminals and business networks, and a damned good part of them will be scamming the public. They are the ones the feds will go after, to clean up smut and thievery.”
“They’ll get around to us…”
“By the time the government does, much of the world’s commerce and defense will run on Bulldog networks. We will be too integral a part of the world’s being to fuck around with.”
“Keep the darkness dark,” Darnell mumbled.
“You’ve got it. All we do,” Thornton said, “is supply the technology. It is up to our clients to supply the morality.”
Refining the dream was slow going. Getting a full-sized network up and running was galactic in reach.
Ping, went the checkbook.
“I’m going to need twenty thousand dollars by the end of next week, Darnell.”
“Maybe we’re going to have to go to the bank or take in a partner.”
Thornton pondered long enough to empower his database of broken codes.
“Thornton, I don’t like you doing that!”
“Let’s see, First Union of Providence. It’s drug money. They launder it by transferring it to ‘Reserve Building Funds,’ which the bank invests partly in new construction. Bundles of cash come in. Checks are cut by the dozens.”
“Man, we’re dealing with some nasty dudes.”
“Well, how the hell do you think we’ve stayed alive? Besides, we’re not dealing with real bright people. Those stupid-ass bankers