Zero Day_ A Novel - Mark Russinovich [48]
Sue backtracked on the thread, but the name didn’t appear again. Someone using the name Dante had mentioned Superphreak in a discussion about security code in the e-mail program Outlook Express. But there was no information about this Superphreak, no hint of who he was or what he was up to.
Checking, she found that the site had an open chat room, so she entered under the handle Dragon Lady. As luck had it, Dante was in the thread. She typed:
Posted: Dragon Lady @ August 17
I have a question for Superphreak. How do I contact him?
Sue waited, biting her lower lip. Was Dante still in the thread? Maybe he’d gone on to something else. It might be days, weeks even, before he returned to this chat room. Five posts appeared over the next fifteen minutes, then:
Posted: Dante @ August 17
I cn pass mesg myb. Wht do u wnt?
Sue’s heart was pounding. For an instant she considered waking Jeff up, then decided against it. She forced herself to concentrate, then typed:
Posted: Dragon Lady @ August 17
Looks like he does really good work. Have him contact me.
She gave the Yahoo e-mail address she used when she was forced to register one on Web sites. She watched the chat room for another half hour, but Dante didn’t make another entry.
Just in case, she went to each of the forums she’d visited earlier and posted this message:
Posted: Dragon Lady @ August 17
I like your work. Contact me ASAP.
Again she listed the Yahoo address, then sat back in her chair.
Without giving it any thought, she crossed her fingers. Okay, fat’s in the fire. On the couch Jeff stirred, then lay motionless. The sound of his deep sleep overwhelmed the all-but-silent-whir of her hard drive kicking in.
20
HELSINKI, FINLAND
KRUUNUNHAKA DISTRICT
THURSDAY, AUGUST 17
11:43 P.M.
Oddvar Thorsen lit a cigarette, blew smoke toward the ceiling, then stared back down at his screen and read again:
Posted: Dragon Lady @ August 17
Looks like he does really good work. Have him contact me.
Someone was looking for Superphreak. That was interesting. For a moment he wondered if the poster was even a woman, let alone an Asian woman. He thought about Lucy Liu in that movie with Mel Gibson, Payback. Now that would be hot!
He considered for a moment if the query was of any value to him, then copied the e-mail address and dropped it into his Thunderbird e-mail “To:” box.
Subject: lady looking
Dragon Lady at dlady1312 @ yahoo.com is looking for you. Sys u do gd work. Know her?
Dante
Superphreak was peculiar. Kind of surly and more than a bit arrogant, he acted as if he were the only one who knew anything about code. Thorsen might hear back, or he might not. He wondered once again what this was about, not that it mattered to him. But since he did work with Superphreak from time to time, and it was always best to stay on someone’s good side, he’d sent him the heads-up.
Thorsen turned back to his specific problem. He was being paid to speed up the load time of certain encrypted codes. Even with newer and faster machines, start-up times were noticeably slower once a computer was infected. He’d been instructed to fix the problem, but was making little progress. He took another pull on his cigarette and turned to the work.
Two hours later his computer pinged. Thorsen opened Thunderbird.
Subject: RE: Lady looking
Date: August 18 01:38 AM
To: Dante
u know hr? Wht does she wnt?
Superphreak
21
MANHATTAN, NYC
IT CENTER
FISCHERMAN, PLATT & COHEN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 17
11:58 P.M.
Trying not to nod off, Jeff focused on Sue. Since midafternoon, she’d been working on an untainted stand-alone server. With her work CDs, she’d rebuilt the firm’s standard operating system, then made a copy of the last nightly backup, before installing it into the server.
Jeff had spent fourteen hours searching through the copy of the nightly backup, seeking out the same signs he’d found in the melted-down server with the virus. He’d found no sign of a rootkit, no indication