Doctor Who_ Blue Box - Kate Orman [74]
‘What about vaccinating the computers before that can happen?’
‘To do that, we need to analyse what Swan’s got. That’s why I went in there.’
‘All right,’ said his father. ‘But Xerxes’ trapdoor would only have affected computers running the new software.
Sounds like Swan’s program, or whatever it is, will only affect computers on the ARPAnet. That’s only a couple hundred machines.’
‘But it’s growing all the time,’ said Bob. ‘In the future, there could be hundreds more, even thousands of them connected through the network. Imagine if someone was prepared to wait twenty or forty years to take over all the military and science computers. They’d have a backdoor into every computer on the net – all that tactical and research information. Or they could simply cripple the net. Kill all those projects, and the military’s alternative communications capability.’
Bob’s father nodded slowly, digesting that. ‘If we can prove what Swan is doing, the charge against you will look like a well-meaning mistake instead of a crime. I may be able to pull some strings to get a search warrant. But I’d need some solid evidence. Have you got that?’
Bob shook his head. ‘Nothing that would convince the police. I mean, that’s what I was there to get.’
‘Then what can I do to help?’
Bob said, ‘Let me keep helping the Doctor. He needs a programmer he knows he can rely on.’
Mr Salmon took a good, long look at his son. ‘I don’t want to have to bail you out again,’ he said.
Bob gave him a shy grin. ‘I don’t want to have to be bailed out again.’
‘Do we have an agreement?’
They shook hands. Bob’s dad went to the freezer to fish out some frozen Chinese food for the pair of them.
‘I’m glad I don’t have to deal with that on a regular basis,’
said the Doctor.
Peri agreed. ‘My parents would’ve strangled you ages ago.’
The Doctor had been unusually quiet on the journey back to my apartment. Letting Bob take risks was one thing, but having to deal with an angry dad was quite another. I wondered if the Doctor just didn’t think of the danger, or if he hosted his sidekicks with their missions enough to let them face it. More likely, I thought, the magnitude of the problem wiped any thought of personal consequences from his field of view.
There was an email for the Doctor waiting in Bob’s university account. It was Swan, making her gambit: Trespassing can easily lead to
industrial espionage. I’ll forgive your trespasses if you’ll hand over the
instruction manual (or point me to it).
The Doctor barked with laughter. ‘She doesn’t know what to do with it! She’s asking us!’
Peri was chewing on the lid of her highlighter pen. ‘Hey,’
she said. ‘Why does she think you would have the manual?
Doesn’t she know it’s from another planet?’
‘She must assume it’s a product of military research,’
mused the Doctor. ‘In which case, she’s probably searching the ARPAnet for information about it.’
I said, ‘She must know they wouldn’t leave classified info lying around on ARPAnet where anyone could get at it’
‘Hence her demand that we tell her where to look,’ said the Doctor. ‘But she would also know that if she searches long and hard enough on the unclassified systems, she might put together enough clues to tell her where to look off the net. I doubt even a classified military computer would be a great challenge for Swan.’
‘Then why ask us at all?’ said Peri.
‘It would be far more efficient if we just coughed up the info,’ I said.
‘The crucial thing is that she doesn’t know what she has or what she can do with it. Not yet. The Savant hasn’t told her.
Which is interesting in itself... ah.’
A new email had arrived in Bob’s account. The Doctor opened it up: it was from Swan, but this time, it was just a list of Internet addresses. Each of