The Blue Nowhere

studied some of the pictures. She began to say something but her mother stepped into the doorway suddenly. Her dark face was even darker than before. “There’s a call for you.”
    “Me?” Gillette asked.
    “It’s somebody named Bishop. He says it’s important.”
    “F rank, what’s—”
    The detective’s voice was raw with urgency. “Listen to me carefully, Wyatt. We could lose the line any minute. Shawn isn’t dead.”
    “What? But Miller—”
    “No, we were wrong. Stephen Miller isn’t Shawn. It’s somebody else. I’m at CCU. Linda Sanchez found a message for me on the main CCU voice mail. Before he died Miller called and left it. Remember when Phate broke into CCU and went after you?”
    “Right.”
    “Miller was just coming back from the medical center then. He was in the parking lot and saw Phate run out of the building and jump in a car. He followed him.”
    “Why?”
    “To collar him.”
    “By himself?” Gillette asked.
    “The message said he wanted to bring the killer in on his own. He said he’d screwed up so many times that he wanted to prove that he could do something right.”
    “Then he didn’t kill himself?”
    “Nope. They haven’t done the autopsy yet but I had a medical examiner check for traces of powder burns on his hands. There weren’t any—if he’d killed himself there would’ve been plenty of trace. Phate must’ve seen Miller following and then killed him. Then he pretended to be Miller and intentionally got caught cracking into the State Department. He hacked into Miller’s workstation at CCU and planted those fake e-mails and took his machines and disks out of his house. We’re sure the suicide note was false too. It was all to stop us from looking for the real Shawn.”
    “Well, who is he?”
    “I don’t have a clue. All I know is we’ve got a real problem. Tony Mott’s here. Shawn hacked the FBI’s tactical command computers in Washington and San Jose—he got in through ISLEnet—and he’s got root access.” In a low voice Bishop continued. “Now listen carefully. Shawn’s issued arrest warrants and rules of engagement for the suspects in the MARINKILL case. We’re looking at the screen right now.”
    “I don’t understand,” Gillette said.
    “The warrants say that the suspects are at 3245 Abrego Avenue in Sunnyvale.”
    “But that’s here! Elana’s house.”
    “I know. He’s ordered the tactical troops to attack the house in twenty-five minutes.”

VI
    IT’S ALL IN THE SPELLING
    CODE SEGMENT
    ASSUME DS:CODE,SS:CODE,CS:CODE,ES:CODE
    ORG $+0100H
    VCODE: JMP
    ***
    virus: PUSH CX
    MOV DX,OFFSET vir_dat
    CLD
    MOV SI,DX
    ADD SI,first_3
    MOV CX,3
    MOV DI,OFFSET 100H
    REPZ MOVSB
    MOV SI,DX
    mov ah,30h
    int 21h
    cmp al,0
    JnZ dos_ok
    JMP quit
    —portions of the actual source code of the virus Violator—Strain II

CHAPTER 00101011 / FORTY-THREE
    E lana stepped forward, seeing Gillette’s alarmed expression. “What is it? What’s going on?”
    He ignored her and said to Bishop, “Call the FBI. Tell them what’s happening. Call Washington. ”
    “I tried,” Bishop responded. “Bernstein did too. But the agents hung up on us. The rules of engagement that Shawn issued say that the perps will probably try to impersonate state cops and try to countermand or delay the attack order. Only computer codes are authorized. Nothing verbal. Not even from Washington. If we had more time maybe we could convince them, but . . .”
    “Jesus, Frank. . . .”
    How had Shawn found out he was here? Then he realized that Bishop had called the troopers to say that Gillette would be at Elana’s place for an hour. He remembered that Phate and Shawn had been monitoring radio and phone transmissions for keywords like Triple-X and Holloway and Gillette. Shawn must’ve heard Bishop’s conversation.
    Bishop said, “They’re near the house now, at a staging area.” The detective added, “I just don’t understand why Shawn’s doing this.”
    But Gillette did.
    Hacker’s revenge is patient revenge.
    Gillette had betrayed Phate years ago, destroyed the carefully socially engineered life he’d made for himself . . . and earlier today he’d helped end the hacker’s life altogether. Now Shawn would destroy Gillette and those he loved.
    He looked out the window, thought he saw some motion.
    “Wyatt?” Elana asked. “What’s going on?” She started to look out the window but he pulled her back roughly. “What is it?” she cried.
    “Stay