Zero Day_ A Novel - Mark Russinovich [28]
At the counter Nicolau smiled as he counted out the coins for his time. Nicolau thought Maria was hot, but wondered if she had been raised in a convent. He and his friends talked about traditional girls like that, though none of them had ever met one who had been. She sure dressed like a nun.
12
MANHATTAN, NYC
IT CENTER
FISCHERMAN, PLATT & COHEN
TUESDAY, AUGUST 15
10:25 A.M.
Stepping outside the building, Jeff was surprised to see it was midmorning. A slight breeze was coming in off the Atlantic and the air was clear, invigorating after the sterility of the IT Center. He walked around the corner to a deli he’d spotted earlier, where Daryl had agreed to meet him. He was looking forward to seeing her again. Quite apart from her ability to help him in his work, he’d always enjoyed her company.
For the last day the world outside had not existed for him. Nothing mattered but the pixels on the screen, accessing the operating system, the story he discovered as he inched his way toward solving the problem, the bits of information that formed together in time to crack the mystery, and the final recovery of the blocked, stolen, or destroyed data. Though this one was not solved—not yet.
Daryl was due any minute. As he entered, he realized that the deli might have been out of Seinfeld, with a dozen people ensconced in booths or sitting on stools. He took an end booth, placed an order for coffee, then sat drinking as he waited.
He felt bad about leaving Sue with such a mess, but he had to take a break and rest to think clearly. He glanced over at two men and one woman working on laptops with Wi-Fi and wondered how many viruses each had without knowing it. Two other men in business suits were sitting at a small table having an animated conversation. From the few words he picked up they were talking baseball. Apparently the Yankees were losing.
As a barista cleared a table beside him, Daryl Haugen entered, glancing first left, then right. She was wearing her usual garb of jeans, with a tight white blouse. He waved a hand; she spotted him, smiled warmly, and came over. Sitting across from him, she placed a half-empty bottle of water on the table, then flopped her laptop bag onto the floor. She looked stressed, very, very tired—and lovely.
There was no denying her beauty. He’d once sat in a meeting, bored out of his mind, only to realize he’d been staring at her. Her returning look had not been pleasant, and he’d been careful ever since. Still, simply being with her was an appealing experience.
For an instant he couldn’t help comparing her to Sue. Daryl had a freshness, a spontaneous way of behaving, about her that was quite engaging. Sue was more artifice and calculation. The two women could not have been more different, and his response to each was night and day. He felt relaxed and open around Daryl, but on guard with Sue, making sure that he kept within the bounds of professional interaction.
“No coffee?” he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I had plenty earlier. It gets me wired if I’m not careful. How have you been? How’s it going in the cold, cold world of private enterprise?”
In the years since he’d left the CIA the two had run into each other at the occasional conference. But mostly they’d exchanged e-mails and talked over the phone about difficult problems they’d encountered. Jeff was by nature a puzzle solver, while Daryl was the most gifted computer expert he’d ever encountered. Together they made a great team, but their different lines of work didn’t offer many opportunities for collaboration.
“I’m doing fine,” he said. “Business continues to boom. I do it all myself so I don’t have to waste time with employees. It keeps me busy. My main problem is reminding myself to keep increasing my fees. Computer security is a pretty hot topic for many companies. But who am I telling? How do you like CERT?”
“It’s US-CERT, and I like it a lot.” She grinned and for a moment the tension in her face vanished.
In the wake of 9/11 came recognition that cyberspace was vulnerable to attack and that something needed to be