The Pattern by Jt Kalnay

Author:Jt Kalnay
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction, High Tech, Fiction
ISBN: 9781463610692
Publisher: CreateSpace
Published: 2011-06-16T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter

June 29th, 1994

San Francisco, California

Craig knocked softly at the president’s door. His head hung slightly between his shoulders. Stacey stood beside him.

“Stan. I have proof,” Craig said quietly.

“Proof of what?” Stan asked.

“Remember what we talked about? That our systems might be infected?”

Stan said nothing. He nodded his lead a little to indicate that Craig should continue his confession.

“They are infected. It was a video game. An adventure game that a lot of people play. I played it here, and at home. It was the entry point for a virus,” Craig said.

Stan remained silent. He raised an eyebrow and visibly inhaled and exhaled. His eyes narrowed an almost imperceptible amount.

“It gets worse. I think the virus may be in our auto pilot distribution. I think we need to shut down all our computers at the same time, disconnect all our network lines and phone lines, in fact power down the whole building, battery driven systems and all. When we come back up we should re-install operating systems from read-only disks or CDs on all new hardware. We should re-enter, by hand, from listings, our programs. It’s the only way we can be sure we’re quit of this thing,” Craig said.

“Can’t we back up from our daily or weekly tapes?” Stan asked.

“No. We’re not sure of the infection date so we wouldn’t know how far back to go.”

Stan nodded in understanding.

“When should we do this?” Stan asked evenly.

“As soon as possible. Today,” Craig said.

“And what about our software in the field?” Stan asked.

“We need to recall it and recommend that every company that has our software go through the same flush and quarantine. They should re-install everything they own from the day before they got our software,” Craig said. “We need to coordinate it so that all of our clients do the same thing at the same time we do. And if we could pull it off, find a way to simultaneously and contemporaneously shut down all the Marauder game servers on the Internet while we’re at it.”

Stan took another deep breath. He slowly placed his hands palm down on his glass desktop. He looked like a man counting backwards from one hundred.

“Are you sure about this?” Stan asked.

“Not a hundred percent sure. But sure enough,” Craig said. “Stan we make software for airplanes. We can’t take a chance and risk another crash.”

“Another?”

“Another.”

A long moment passed between them before Stan finally spoke.

“Perhaps you should have thought of that before,” Stan said evenly. He moved his hands back to his lap. There were small damp spots on his desk where his hands had been. He looked at Stacey.

“What’s your role in all this?” Stan asked.

“I noticed some problems when I was in London,” Stacey said.

“Any in Washington?” Stan asked.

“No.”

“Have any of our clients reported anything unusual? Asked any strange questions?” Stan asked.

“No.”

“Fine. Craig start working on a plan for this, what did you call it, quarantine and flush? Get it written up so everyone understands what’s going to happen. They don’t need to know why.

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