Daniel Suarez - Daemon

“You conclude that from one intercept?”

“This is one of dozens of intercepts, the transcripts of which you will find in your presentation binders.”

“How much money are we talking about here?”

Philips placed the laser pointer on the nearby podium. “We have an e-mail intercept from a Thai gang that mentions a ten percent gross payment.”

“Ten percent of gross ?”

“All online transactions. The CIA estimates worldwide revenue from online gambling and pornography at approximately seventeen billion U.S. dollars per year. In truth, no one really knows. But if we use this as a baseline and extrapolate, assuming that the Daemon has—”

“You’re talking about a couple billion dollars a year.”

“There is anecdotal evidence that these payments represent an outsourcing of the IT security function of these criminal gangs to some unknown entity.” She paused, either for effect or to gather her courage—even she wasn’t sure which. “We suspect that the entity is not a living person but a massively parallel logical construct. I believe it’s Sobol’s Daemon.”

The room erupted in talk for several moments until someone in the back shouted over the din, “How do you know it’s not just another gang?”

The noise died down to hear her response.

Philips nodded. “Because that was the first thing the Russians thought. Quite a few hackers died at their hands in an effort to identify those responsible. At some point the Russians were presented with evidence that convinced them no living person was behind this attack. We don’t know yet what that evidence was—but we have operatives attempting to get their hands on it.”

The division chief just looked at her. “This is reckless conjecture. We’ve got Detective Sebeck convicted and on death row, Cheryl Lanthrop dead, and Jon Ross on the run. This situation is under control.”

The most senior NSA suit spoke. “I disagree. Right now the media is stoking a panic on cyber crime. A public discovery that Sobol’s Daemon was preying on Internet business could spook the financial markets.”

A visiting analyst from the FBI Cyber Division shook his head. “The facts don’t support the media panic, sir. Overall reported incidents of computer break-ins this year are down slightly—not up. In fact, we could spin the demise of gambling and pornography sites as a positive.”

Philips regarded the FBI agent, then turned to the room in general. “Anyone have anything on the media’s current fascination with cyber security? Does anyone know what’s driving it?”

“Sebeck’s trial?”

The FBI analyst began to hold court on the topic. “The government has few real controls over either the Internet or private data networks. This manufactured panic is addressing an actual deficiency in the cyber infrastructure. It’s the invisible hand of the market in action.”

Philips looked impassively at him. “Unless it’s already too late.”

The NSA section chief raised an eyebrow. “Is your copycat Daemon up to something more than demanding tribute from pornographers, Dr. Philips?”

She revealed no emotion. “For one, I believe it is Sobol’s Daemon.”

“Highly unlikely.” The FBI analyst looked ready to disprove anything. He just needed fresh grist for his logic mill.

Philips continued. “Gentlemen, there are loose ends all over the Sobol case. There’s the poisoning death of Lionel Crawly—the voice-over artist for Sobol’s game Over the Rhine . What dialogue did he record that we have no knowledge of? The introduction of a strange edifice in Sobol’s online game The Gate at almost the instant of his death. And then there are the back doors in his games—”

“There are no back doors in his games.” The FBI analyst scanned the faces in the room. “It’s a fact.”

The NSA chief kept his eyes on Philips. “Your Internet traffic analysis was interesting, Doctor, but if you have evidence linking Sobol’s Daemon with the Daemon attacking G/P sites, then where is it?”

“In Sobol’s game maps.”

“Steganography? Didn’t you explore that last year?”

“Fleetingly—before Sebeck’s arrest. But let’s not forget that Sobol was an extraordinarily intelligent man. He was able to envision multiple axes simultaneously.”

“Is that a polysyllabic way to say he thinks outside the box?”

A senior cryptanalyst nearby removed his glasses and started cleaning them. “No offense, Dr. Philips, but if Sobol’s games contained steganographic content, you should have readily detected it by plotting the magnitude of a two-dimensional Fast Fourier Transform of the bit-stream. This would show telltale discontinuities at a rate roughly above ten percent.”

Philips aimed an anti-smile in his direction. “Thank you, Doctor. Had I not spent the last six years expanding the frontiers of your discipline, I’m sure I would find your input invaluable.”

The division chief cleared his throat. “The point is still valid, Doctor. How could Sobol hide a back door in a program using steganography, of all things? Doesn’t that just hide data? You can’t execute steganographic code.”

The FBI analyst couldn’t hold back. “Even if he was storing encrypted code within art asset files, he’d still need code to extract the encrypted elements—and we would have found the extraction routines in the source.”

Philips turned to him thoughtfully. “Yes, but the back door isn’t in the code. It’s in the program —but it’s not in the code.”

Her audience looked confused.

The division chief shrugged. “You lost me there, Doctor.”

The senior cryptanalyst offered, “You mean the relationship of things within the program?”

“Ah, now you’re seeing it.”

The division chief cut in. “What brought you back to the stego angle? The DDOS attacks on G/P sites?”

“No.” She paused again. “Jon Ross brought me back to it.” She turned back to face them. “For the last several weeks I have been exchanging e-mail communications with the man known as Jon Ross.”

The impact of this revelation left her audience stunned briefly. Then there was frantic movement; previously untouched presentation binders were grabbed and thumbed through hastily.

“Why weren’t we informed of this?”

The NSA chief interjected, “The Advisory Panel was informed.”

“What evidence do you have that these e-mails are authentic?”

Philips was calm. “The first e-mail made reference to a conversation Ross and I had in person at Sobol’s funeral.”

The FBI analyst nodded slowly. “No doubt he claims innocence and that the Daemon really exists.”

“He’s doing more than that. He’s pursuing the Daemon, and imploring us to do the same. Which leads us once again to the back door in Sobol’s software. Because it was Jon Ross who helped me find it.”

“That’s convenient for him.”

“I thought so, too. That’s why I asked for a face-to-face meeting.”

The NSA chief nodded in apparent recollection.

The FBI analyst looked surprised. “And he agreed?”

“After a fashion.” Philips nodded to the back of the room, and the lights dimmed again.

The screen filled with an animated 3-D environment. It was a narrow, medieval-looking city street, with buildings leaning over it in irregular rows. Few in attendance recognized it because none of them had the time or inclination to play online computer games. A title in plain Arial font briefly appeared superimposed over the image:

Session #489: Elianburg, Duchy of Prendall

Philips narrated. “What you’re looking at is Sobol’s game The Gate. This is an online role-playing game—meaning that tens of thousands of users access game maps from central servers. The game covers a large area of virtual space. Jon Ross requested a meeting at this specific location; at the corner of Queensland Boulevard and Hovarth Alley in Elianburg.”