Daemon

You assured me of that. You assured the board of that. That’s why we hired you.’
    ‘I don’t think our systems were breached. Not from the outside. I think it’s an inside job.’
    ‘Call the FBI.’
    ‘We can’t do that.’
    ‘The hell we can’t.’
    ‘Understand this, Russ: they can flush our entire network down the toilet with a single keystroke – from just about anywhere in the world. This company is hanging by a thread.’
    The room got deathly quiet. Still staring, Vanowen spoke with the sort of calm voice that usually precedes violence. ‘Explain this to me, Garrett.’
    ‘It gets much worse.’
    ‘Worse? How the hell can it get any worse?’
    ‘Watch.’ Garrett motioned for Vanowen to follow him.
    Vanowen’s office was huge, with a double-height ceiling and windows. Several sets of sofas and leather chairs were placed about the room, with a wide plasma-screen television on the far end and a conference table nearby, encircled by chairs. The place was easily a couple of thousand square feet.
    Vanowen reluctantly got up from his desk and followed Lindhurst to the plasma screen. Lindhurst was already fiddling with a remote he had picked up from the credenza there.
    Vanowen settled into a conference table chair. ‘I’ll see that the people behind this go to federal prison for the rest of their lives.’
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘What the hell’s that supposed to mean?’
    ‘You’ll see in a moment.’ Lindhurst gestured to the plasma screen. ‘Have you used this video conferencing system yet? It cost seventy thousand dollars.’
    ‘Goddamnit, Lindhurst—’
    ‘Okay, look, this system is jacked into our corporate network. I put something out there that I want you to see.’ Lindhurst used the remote to navigate to an intranet Web page, which filled the screen. ‘I found an e-mail in my inbox this morning. It was from the system administrator – the
new
system administrator. The person who took my rights away. That e-mail contained a hyperlink – which I copied to this network share.’ He navigated to another page and clicked a hyperlink. ‘Here is what I saw …’
    Vanowen looked impatiently at the screen.
    The seventy-inch plasma monitor suddenly went black and after a few moments a whooshing sound effect escorted a whirling logo into the center of the screen. It was a stylized emblem of the words:
Daemon Industries LLC
.
    A professional-sounding female announcer came on, along with cavorting corporate music. It was like an infomercial or network marketing video. Her voice was cheerful. ‘Welcome to the Daemon Industries family of companies. In just a moment you’ll hear some of the exciting new opportunities available to you in this fast-growing global organization. An organization to which your company now belongs. But first, a word from our founder …’
    Vanowen frowned. ‘Lindhurst—’
    ‘Shh!’ He pointed.
    The screen faded in on a man in his mid-thirties. He was sitting in a chair next to a fireplace. The chirpy corporate Muzak continued in the background. Words appeared at the bottom of the screen:
    Matthew A. Sobol, Ph.D
.
    Chairman & CEO Daemon Industries LLC
    Sobol nodded once in dour greeting.
    Lindhurst hit the pause button on the remote. Sobol froze in mid-nod. ‘That’s him.’
    ‘That’s
who
?’ Vanowen squinted at the words on-screen. Heturned back to Lindhurst. ‘Never heard of him. Is this the person who broke into our network?’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Call the FBI.’
    ‘Won’t do any good, Russ. Matthew Sobol’s dead.’ Lindhurst handed the rolled magazine to Vanowen.
    Vanowen just glanced down at it, then with some reluctance took it. He unrolled it and moved it to arm’s length so he could see the cover with his myopic eyes. The same Matthew Sobol was on the cover of the magazine. It was eight months old. The headline read:
Murderer From Beyond the Grave
. ‘That guy?’ Vanowen tossed the magazine onto the nearby conference table. ‘That was a hoax.’ He motioned to the plasma screen. ‘So is this. My kid at USC could probably make this video on his Powerbook.’
    ‘Russ, someone managed a coordinated global attack that not only stole rights to our worldwide network, but they did it months ago without raising a single alarm. They didn’t leave a trace. Matthew Sobol was one of the few people who could have pulled it off.’
    ‘You’re frighteningly gullible. Jesus, some hackers got into our network, and they’re trying to put