Disclosure_ A Novel - Michael Crichton [73]
“No.”
“Good night, Tom.”
“Good night, Cindy.”
He went into his office and closed the door behind him. He sat behind his desk and looked at it a moment. Nothing seemed to have been touched. He flicked on his monitor, and began going through the drawers, rummaging through, trying to decide what to take out. He glanced up at the monitor, and saw that his E-mail icon was blinking. Idly, he clicked it on.
NUMBER OF PERSONAL MESSAGES: 3. DO YOU WANT TO READ THEM NOW?
He pressed the key. A moment later, the first message came up:
SEALED TWINKLE DRIVES ARE ON THEIR WAY TO YOU TODAY DHL. YOU SHOULD HAVE THEM TOMORROW. HOPE YOU FIND SOMETHING . . . JAFAR IS STILL SEVERELY ILL. THEY SAY HE MAY DIE.
ARTHUR KAHN
He pressed the key, and another message came up:
THE WEENIES ARE STILL SWARMING DOWN HERE. ANY NEWS YET?
EDDIE
Sanders couldn’t worry about Eddie now. He pushed the key, and the third message came up.
I GUESS YOU HAVEN’T BEEN READING BACK ISSUES OF COMLINE. STARTING FOUR YEARS AGO.
AFRIEND
Sanders stared at the screen. ComLine was DigiCom’s in-house newsletter—an eight-page monthly, filled with chatty accounts of hiring and promotions and babies born. The summer schedule for the softball team, things like that. Sanders never paid any attention to it and couldn’t imagine why he should now.
And who was “Afriend?”
He clicked the REPLY button on the screen.
CAN’T REPLY—SENDER ADDRESS NOT AVAILABLE
He clicked the SENDER INFO button. It should give him the name and address of the person sending the E-mail message. But instead he saw dense rows of type:
FROM UU5.PSI.COM!UWA.PCM.COM. EDU!CHARON
TUE JUN 16
04:43:31 REMOTE FROM DCCSYS
RECEIVED: FROM UUPS15 BY DCCSYS.DCC.COM ID
AA02599; TUE, 16 JUN 4:42:19 PST
RECEIVED: FROM UWA.PCM.COM.EDU BY
UU5.PSI.COM (5.65B/4.0.071791-PSI/PSINET)
ID AA28153; TUE, 16 JUN 04:24:58 -0500
RECEIVED: FROM RIVERSTYX.PCM.COM.EDU BY UWA PCM. COM.EDU (4.1/SMI-4.1)
ID AA15969; TUE, 16 JUN 04:24:56 PST
RECEIVED: BY RIVERSTYX.PCM.COM.EDU
(920330. SGI/5.6)
ID AA00448; TUE, 16 JUN 04:24:56 -0500
DATE: TUE, 16 JUN 04:24:56 -0500
FROM: CHARON@UWA.PCM.COM.EDU
(AFRIEND)
MESSAGE-ID: <9212220924.AA90448@RIVERSTYX.PCM.
COM.EDU>
TO: TSANDERS@DCC.COM
Sanders stared. The message hadn’t come to him from inside the company at all. He was looking at an Internet routing. Internet was the vast worldwide computer network connecting universities, corporations, government agencies, and private users. Sanders wasn’t knowledgeable about the Internet, but it appeared that the message from “Afriend,” network name CHARON, had originated from UWA.PCM.COM.EDU, wherever that was. Apparently some kind of educational institution. He pushed the PRINT SCREEN button, and made a mental note to turn this one over to Bosak. He needed to talk to Bosak anyway.
He went down the hall and got the sheet as it came out of the printer. Then he went back to his office and stared at the screen. He decided to try a reply to this person.
FROM: TSANDERS@DCC.COM
TO: CHARON@UWA.PCM.COM.EDU
ANY HELP GREATLY APPRECIATED.
SANDERS
He pushed the SEND button. Then he deleted both the original message and his own reply.
SORRY, YOU CANNOT DELETE THIS MAIL.
Sometimes E-mail was protected with a flag that prevented it from being deleted.
He typed: UNPROTECT MAIL.
THE MAIL IS UNPROTECTED.
He typed: DELETE MAIL.
SORRY, YOU CANNOT DELETE THIS MAIL.
What the hell is this? he thought. The system must be hanging up. Maybe it had been stymied by the Internet address. He decided to delete the message from the system at the control level.
He typed: SYSTEM.
WHAT LEVEL?
He typed: SYSOP.
SORRY, YOUR PRIVILEGES DO NOT INCLUDE SYSOP CONTROL.
“Christ,” he said. They’d gone in and taken away his privileges. He couldn’t believe it.
He typed: SHOW PRIVILEGES.
SANDERS, THOMAS L.
PRIOR USER LEVEL: 5 (SYSOP)
USER LEVEL CHANGE: TUE JUNE 16 4:50 PM PST