Digital Fortress

When his right arm circled her waist from behind, it felt like she'd hit a steel bar. She gasped in pain as the wind went out of her. His biceps flexed against her rib cage.

Susan resisted and began twisting wildly. Somehow her elbow struck cartilage. Hale released his grip, his hands clutching his nose. He fell to his knees, hands cupped over his face.

"Son of a-" He screamed in pain.

Susan dashed onto the door's pressure plates saying a fruitless prayer that Strathmore would in that instant restore power and the doors would spring open. Instead, she found herself pounding against the glass.

Hale lumbered toward her, his nose covered with blood. In an instant, his hands were around her again-one of them clamped firmly on her left breast and the other on her midsection. He yanked her away from the door.

She screamed, her hand outstretched in futile attempt to stop him.

He pulled her backward, his belt buckle digging into her spine. Susan couldn't believe his strength. He dragged her back across the carpet, and her shoes came off. In one fluid motion, Hale lifted her and dumped her on the floor next to his terminal.

Susan was suddenly on her back, her skirt bunched high on her hips. The top button of her blouse had released, and her chest was heaving in the bluish light. She stared up in terror as Hale straddled her, pinning her down. She couldn't decipher the look in his eyes. It looked like fear. Or was it anger? His eyes bore into her body. She felt a new wave of panic.

Hale sat firmly on her midsection, staring down at her with an icy glare. Everything Susan had ever learned about self-defense was suddenly racing through her mind. She tried to fight, but her body did not respond. She was numb. She closed her eyes.

Oh, please, God. No!

Chapter 65

Brinkerhoff paced Midge's office. "Nobody bypasses Gauntlet. It's impossible!"

"Wrong," she fired back. "I just talked to Jabba. He said he installed a bypass switch last year."

The PA looked doubtful. "I never heard that."

"Nobody did. It was hush-hush."

"Midge," Brinkerhoff argued, "Jabba's compulsive about security! He would never put in a switch to bypass-"

"Strathmore made him do it," she interrupted.

Brinkerhoff could almost hear her mind clicking.

"Remember last year," she asked, "when Strathmore was working on that anti-Semitic terrorist ring in California?"

Brinkerhoff nodded. It had been one of Strathmore's major coups last year. Using TRANSLTR to decrypt an intercepted code, he had uncovered a plot to bomb a Hebrew school in Los Angeles. He decrypted the terrorist's message only twelve minutes before the bomb went off, and using some fast phone work, he saved three hundred schoolchildren.

"Get this," Midge said, lowering her voice unnecessarily. "Jabba said Strathmore intercepted that terrorist code six hours before that bomb went off."

Brinkerhoff's jaw dropped. "But… then why did he wait-"

"Because he couldn't get TRANSLTR to decrypt the file. He tried, but Gauntlet kept rejecting it. It was encrypted with some new public key algorithm that the filters hadn't seen yet. It took Jabba almost six hours to adjust them."

Brinkerhoff looked stunned.

"Strathmore was furious. He made Jabba install a bypass switch in Gauntlet in case it ever happened again."

"Jesus." Brinkerhoff whistled. "I had no idea." Then his eyes narrowed. "So what's your point?"

"I think Strathmore used the switch today… to process a file that Gauntlet rejected."

"So? That's what the switch is for, right?"

Midge shook her head. "Not if the file in question is a virus."

Brinkerhoff jumped. "A virus? Who said anything about a virus!"

"It's the only explanation," she said. "Jabba said a virus is the only thing that could keep TRANSLTR running this long, so-"

"Wait a minute!" Brinkerhoff flashed her the time-out sign. "Strathmore said everything's fine!"

"He's lying."

Brinkerhoff was lost. "You're saying Strathmore intentionally let a virus into TRANSLTR?"

"No," she snapped. "I don't think he knew it was a virus. I think he was tricked."

Brinkerhoff was speechless. Midge Milken was definitely losing it.

"It explains a lot," she insisted. "It explains what he's been doing in there all night."

"Planting viruses in his own computer?"

"No," she said, annoyed. "Trying to cover up his mistake! And now he can't abort TRANSLTR and get aux power back because the virus has the processors locked down!"

Brinkerhoff rolled his eyes. Midge had gone nuts in the past, but never like this. He tried to calm her. "Jabba doesn't seem to be too worried."

"Jabba's a fool," she hissed.

Brinkerhoff looked surprised. Nobody had ever called Jabba a fool-a pig maybe, but never a fool. "You're trusting feminine intuition over Jabba's advanced degrees in anti-invasive programming?"

She eyed him harshly.

Brinkerhoff held up his hands in surrender. "Never mind. I take it back." He didn't need to be reminded of Midge's uncanny ability to sense disaster. "Midge," he begged. "I know you hate Strathmore, but-"