Zero Day_ A Novel - Mark Russinovich [133]
Mike didn’t like the idea of sitting in a dead man’s chair, though. He’d never known anyone who was killed on the job before, and the whole thing made him queasy. But he couldn’t see passing up a good slot like this just because Buddy had been careless enough to get his head cut off.
Mike and his aging coworkers had talked a lot about the accident, and nobody could really figure out just how it happened. The line moved so slowly it seemed impossible that anyone could lie still long enough for that to happen, but apparently it had. Mike had given this a lot of thought, even talked to his wife about it. If the robots ever acted up again, he knew exactly what he was going to do.
Shortly before midnight, Mike Ruiz left his workstation with a clean rag and lubricant can. At the first robot he pressed the large blue plastic button that caused the machine to retreat from the assembly line five feet. Once in place Mike lubricated six points, then wiped them down. Finished, he pressed the button and watched the robot move back into place and resume operation.
Mike was halfway through the chore when the robots stopped doing whatever they’d each been up to. They then moved, as if standing to attention. Mike stepped back and gawked at the machines. He’d never seen them act like this before.
Then, without warning, all fourteen of them moved to their left and dropped down low. For just an instant, Mike was frozen in place. Then he understood how Buddy Morgan got his head chopped off. With a loud grunt, he dropped to the floor, pressing himself as hard to the vinyl surface as he could. Over his head, the nearest machine swung its arm violently forward as if swinging at a ball, just brushing Mike’s pants.
Never more terrified in his life, Mike crawled away as fast as he could, just as they’d taught him in the army. Finally, away from the robots, he rose, then raced over to the shift supervisor.
“Did you see that?” Mike asked breathlessly, looking back at the machines, which were now performing some macabre dance in unison.
“See what?”
“Those … those … things! They just tried to kill me, like they did Buddy!”
MEMORANDUM
NS rated 10
DATE:
April 18
FROM:
Dr. Daryl Haugen
Assistant Director
Computer Infrastructure Security Unit, DHS
TO:
Leonard A. Hayes
Senior Deputy Director, NSA
RE:
Interim Report, Summary of Events Related to Superphreak Virus and Resignation
Forgive me for wrapping up so many subjects in a single memo, but in my mind these are all intimately interconnected. First, as you requested, following is a summary of certain events related to the recent disruption in Internet service and the destruction of computers in the United States and Europe.
• We estimate that 800,000 computers were struck and suffered significant damage of one kind or another.
• To date, 23 deaths have been directly attributed to the various viruses.
• Three nuclear power plants shut down and took more than one month to come back online.
• The air traffic control system crashed in 11 airports, the largest of which was Chicago-O’Hare. No incidents occurred.
• The Navy lost contact with its ballistic missile submarine fleet for eight days. Emergency measures in place prevented any incident.
• The electric power grid in the Pacific Northwest was down for 3 days.
• We estimate a loss of $4 billion in the private sector and an additional $1 billion in government loss.
• Our efforts to portray this as a financial attack by the Russian mob have so far met with success. No credible source has linked this to any terrorist group.
Next, are the related subjects in which you expressed interest.
The law firm of Fischerman, Platt & Cohen went out of business. As I understand it, the death of the managing partner was the last in a series of unfortunate events leading to the demise of the once well-regarded firm. Its office space has been assumed by a branch office of the Department of Homeland Security, Manhattan District.
The murders of Sue Tabor and Joshua Greene remain unsolved. The murders