Paolo Bacigalupi - The Doubt Factory

“Shhhh.” She put her fingers to her lips. “I’ve got some things I need to do, that’s all. It’s probably better if you don’t know what they are. It’s no big deal. I promise. Just be good for a while, until I get back.”

Jonah was frowning, his brow knitted. “You’re going down to DC,” he said. “You’re going down to DC, and you’re not going to take me.”

A WEEK LATER ALIX WASon the Acela with Moses, cruising south. The Acela ran smooth and fast, down through Connecticut countryside before plunging into the heart of New York City. Minutes later the train emerged, rushing for Philadelphia, Baltimore, and, as Jonah had guessed, Washington, DC.

“Are you sure Jonah isn’t going to rat us out?”

“Will you calm down about that? I know him. He’s mostly just pissed I’m not bringing him along.”

“How did you persuade him to stay?”

“I told him that if he kept his mouth shut, I wouldn’t turn him in for his bomb-threat prank on Seitz last fall.”

Moses warned, “You know this is just a scouting trip, right? We aren’t going to try anything this time.”

“I know.”

“It probably won’t work,” Moses said. “A lot of these things, they’re just about trying different approaches. Learning about the people involved. Learning how their systems work.”

“I know.”

“We tried this before, you know. We never got past the front desks.”

Alix smiled. “I know.”

“You act like you’re listening to me, but I don’t think a word I’ve said has actually stuck inside that head of yours.”

Alix leaned back in her seat, watching the greenery and buildings rush past. “I heard you.”

“What did I say?”

“The program you’ve got isn’t as good as the one Kook wanted to use before. This is only a keystroke logger. We need to get it installed on Dad’s computer, which is basically impossible, because it’s inside all these layers of security that you can’t get past without someone like Kook doing the hacking, and even if she was she wouldn’t have access to their main servers, and blah blah blah…”

“I’m serious, Alix.”

Alix patted his hand reassuringly. “I know you are. But we’ve got Dad’s swipe card already, and I’ve got the key to his corner office. I think that counts for something.”

“Yeah, well, just because you can grab his wallet off the kitchen counter—”

“And clone his key card. I did that, too.”

“Only because I gave you the machine to do it! Don’t get cocky, Alix. Sneaking around and snooping through your dad’s stuff at home isn’t the same as this. This is real. We’re talking about real—” He broke off, leaned close, and lowered his voice to a whisper. “We’re talking about real breaking and entering .”

She leaned over and kissed him. “You’re cute when you worry.”

“Why are you so calm about this? When Kook and Cyn and Adam and Tank and I were doing this, we never figured out how to crack the Doubt Factory. Never. We figured out how we might have gotten inside, but after that Kook needed some way to get on the network, and for that we needed security keys…. It was a mess.”

“But we’re already further along than that,” Alix pointed out. “Anyway, I’m sure we’ll work it out. Dad knows I’m coming down to DC for vacation with Denise and Sophie, seeing the nation’s center of political gridlock and all that, and letting Denise check out Georgetown for the millionth time. He’s not going to even see this coming.”

Moses scowled. “You know what the problem with amateurs is?”

“Too much confidence?” Alix asked brightly.

“That’s right. Too much confidence.”

“You told me that last week.” She kissed him again. “I think you’re forgetting something, though.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“This time, you’ve got me.” She smiled so dazzlingly that Moses was almost fooled into believing their scheme would work.

“Mr. Banks? Your daughter is here to see you.”

Alix waited at the front reception, tapping her fingers on stainless steel. In her head, Moses’s instructions kept repeating themselves.

“Look at the tags for the security people. Pay attention to their uniforms. Watch how they make your visitor pass.”

The man smiled at her and said, “Elevator four.”

She went in and the doors closed. She’d never thought about how infuriating it was to have no buttons on the elevator, but right now it felt like a serious crimp. She could only swipe a building pass and then get on an assigned elevator and finally ride up to the preprogrammed floor.

So the first hurdle was to get inside the building, which was owned by some other company. Then to get access to the elevators, then to ride up to where Banks Strategy Partners was located on the tenth floor. Alix had grabbed Dad’s swipe card and office key at home, but they had no way of grabbing his computer password. Hence the keystroke logger.

“I can get us into the main office building, but after that it’s all on you. You’re the one who has to get passes for the elevators and keys for your dad’s offices,” Moses had said.

“How, exactly, do you break into an office building where you aren’t invited?”

“Don’t worry about it. I just need to bump into the right worker.”

“How is it that easy?”

Moses had laughed and held up her keys. Somehow, he’d gotten them out of her purse, while it was on her shoulder….

“That’s amazing!”

“Here, let me see your bra….”

That had led to a pleasant distraction.

Focus, Alix .

She rose up through the levels, fighting a feeling of claustrophobia in the button-less elevator.

This can work. This isn’t crazy. This can work .

She had the USB key in her pocket, loaded with the little virus. A simple keystroke logger. Nothing fancy. Not like the Stuxnet-modified worm that Kook had created before and taken with her when she left. Just something simple that most anyone could use with a little training. All Alix needed to do was get the logger onto the computer. Just a few mouse clicks on the right computer and she’d be done.

“Will it set off an alarm?”

“Kook wrote it before she left. It’s not something that’s out in the wild, so it’s got a good chance of sliding past their alarms.”

“How good is a ‘good chance’?”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want.”

“I’m just asking.”

“It doesn’t report to anywhere else. It doesn’t try to get access to networks. It just wants to sit and listen right on the computer. It’s pretty innocuous, as far as viruses go. It’s the best chance we’ve got.”

“It just wants to listen,” Alix muttered to herself, trying to master the jittery energy that was popping just beneath her skin. “No one will notice.”

The elevator door slid aside and Dad came out to greet her, pushing through BSP’s emblazoned doors.

“Alix! Great to see you!”

He won’t see it coming from me. He won’t even know it’s happening .

Alix went into his arms and let him hug her while she checked for where the swipe cards unlocked the main office doors.

Hug him back, idiot .

Alix made her arms tighten around him, remembering how it had used to feel to be hugged by him, how safe and happy she’d felt. Now it felt more like being hugged by rose thorns. It was all she could do not to show how her skin crawled.