Ли Чайлд - The Sentinel

‘I understand. And I agree. But the Center is worried about exposure. About attracting attention. Tipping our hand.’

‘Tell them there’s no danger of that happening. The interference was a one-off. A fluke. A drifter, some kind of ex-military cop read the situation and stepped in. He won’t do it again. He’s been told to leave town.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I’ve operated in this town for more than fifty years. I have contacts.’

‘Are they reliable?’

‘This is coming direct from the police department.’

‘OK. That’s good. But what if the drifter doesn’t leave town?’

‘Then I’ll take local action.’

‘Like you did with the journalist?’

‘Exactly like that.’

‘All right. I’ll talk to them. Try to get them to start surveillance up again, at least.’

‘That’s not enough. We have to take Rutherford, and fast. They don’t understand what it takes to whip up the hysteria. I’ve used everything. Local press. Whisper campaigns. A whole army of bots on social media. It’s holding for now, but it can’t last. The bubble will burst. Something else will happen and take the spotlight. Rutherford needs to disappear while everyone in town still hates him.’

Rutherford led the way to his favourite diner. It was on the ground floor of an office building on the main street, three blocks from the coffee shop. Reacher wasn’t encouraged by the exterior but he had to admit that the designer had done a credible job with the inside. The colour scheme was pure fifties with plenty of chrome, and the booths along both sides of the room all had their own mini jukebox. There was an old-fashioned pay phone on the back wall, and a line of Formica-covered four-tops down the centre. The side walls were covered with giant paintings of cars. They were all convertibles. Cadillacs and Chevys. Turquoise and pink. Speeding down scenic highways or parked by snow-topped mountains and sparkling lakes with happy nuclear families spilling out with picnic sets and footballs.

There were no other customers in the place so they helped themselves to a booth midway along the right-hand wall. It was below a turquoise Chevrolet, where Reacher could keep an eye on the doors to the street and the kitchen. A moment later a waitress emerged. She smiled at Reacher as she approached but her expression cooled when she saw who his dining companion was. Reacher ordered two cheeseburgers and coffee. Rutherford ordered one, then they sat in silence until the waitress delivered their mugs.

‘Did you see the way she looked at me?’ Rutherford pushed his mug away.

‘I’ve made myself unpopular in certain circles from time to time,’ Reacher said. ‘But to have a whole town mad at you? That’s quite an achievement. What did you do?’

‘Nothing.’

‘OK.’ Reacher took a swig of coffee. ‘What didn’t you do?’

‘I guess my big sin is that I didn’t do enough to avoid catching the blame for the mess the town’s in.’

Reacher’s mind jumped to the traffic signals and the police computers. ‘Are you the town treasurer? Some kind of municipal accountant?’

‘No.’ Rutherford rocked back on his bench. ‘Why would you think I was?’

‘Nothing in the town is working. Usually that’s because bills haven’t been paid.’

Rutherford smiled for the first time since Reacher had met him. ‘If only that was the problem. That could easily be fixed. The town’s situation is much worse. It is kind of connected to money, though. We’ve been hit by a ransomware attack.’

‘I have no idea what that is.’

‘Ransomware? It’s a malicious program that locks up a computer network. The computers themselves and the data they use. All the records and information from all the different departments. And all the phones and laptops and tablets, if they’re connected.’

‘OK. So how do you get it all unlocked and working again?’

‘You have to buy a key.’

‘From where?’

‘From whoever attacked you.’

‘For real?’

‘Oh, yes. More and more towns are getting hit. Sometimes several at once if they share services.’

‘What does this town share?’

‘Nothing. We do everything for ourselves.’

‘So you were targeted specifically? Why?’

‘No special reason. We just made it too easy. Our infrastructure is a hacker’s wet dream. A hotchpotch of old, out-of-date systems. Vulnerabilities all over the place. No viable defence. And you have to understand, this is a growing phenomenon. Cities are getting hit. Hospitals. Police departments. Corporations, too. But they usually try to hide it and pay up quietly.’

‘Corporations pay?’

‘Sometimes. Most times? I don’t really know.’

‘Doesn’t paying up encourage more attacks?’

‘Probably.’ Rutherford shrugged. ‘But what choice do they have?’

‘The town’s not going to pay, is it?’

Rutherford didn’t answer.

‘Seems to me that this kind of thing needs to be stamped out,’ Reacher said. ‘Not encouraged. It’s one thing to make them think you’re going to pay. Set up an exchange: the cash for the key. But the assholes who attacked you shouldn’t walk away with a cent. They shouldn’t walk away at all. You should check that the key works. Then find their base and burn it down. Identify everyone involved and burn down their houses. Send them a message not to try it again.’

‘I kind of wish we could,’ Rutherford said. ‘But that’s not how it works.’

‘Why not?’

‘We’re not talking about cases stuffed full of banknotes. No physical cash is involved. It’s always virtual currency that these people want. Bitcoin, usually. There’s not a physical key, either. Just more computer code. It’s delivered remotely via the internet from an address that’s so scrambled it’s impossible to find out who sent it. Sometimes it’s from somewhere in the US. Usually it’s Russia or Iran or someplace like that.’

‘Could you break the code?’

‘In theory. There are specialist companies you can hire. I have a friend who founded one, actually. She was an FBI agent. A cyber crimes expert. But all those companies are expensive. And there’s no guarantee they’ll succeed. Even if they do there’s the issue of time. How long can you afford to be without your critical infrastructure? And some ransomware has a built-in time limit. If you don’t pay up within x days or weeks or whatever, your data gets permanently wiped.’

A waitress appeared with a coffee pot and topped up Reacher’s mug. She was a different woman. Younger, a little taller, and much friendlier. She smiled at Rutherford rather than scowling at him then turned to Reacher and tipped her head to the side.

‘Do I know you from somewhere?’

‘Unlikely. I just arrived in town today.’

‘Of course. I knew I recognized you. That’s why. I saw you getting out of a car, just across the street. An Impala, right? Silver? Smart-looking man driving it. A banker, maybe?’

‘Insurance.’

‘See? I wasn’t far off. Is that interesting work, insurance?’

‘Why are you asking me?’

‘Isn’t that man your boss?’

‘I don’t have a boss.’

‘So you’re independent?’

‘That’s the general idea.’

‘That must be nice. Anyway, your burgers will be out soon. Holler if you need anything in the meantime.’

Rutherford waited until the waitress was back in the kitchen. ‘But anyway. Ransomware. If you don’t pay to get the key, you have two choices. Start again from scratch, which is slow and super expensive.’ Rutherford hesitated. ‘Or wipe everything off all your computers and load a clean copy from your backup.’

‘Option B sounds good. Why doesn’t the town do that?’