Tip of The Spear by SD Hatfield Excerpt

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SD Hatfield www.sdhatfield.com Tip of the Spear
Thank you for taking the time to read this excerpt from Tip of the Spear. This is my second novel
and for more details of my other projects please check out www.sdhatfield.com. If you like what
you read please feel free to share this with as many people as possible. Feel free to drop me a
line with comments, suggestions, questions or blind praise. Don’t forget, Tip of the Spear is
available in soft cover from all major book chains and in Kindle version on Amazon. Check my
website for links!
SD Hatfield
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TIP OF THE
SPEAR
SD HATFIELD
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Outskirts Press, Inc. Denver, Colorado
This is a work of fiction. The events and characters described herein are imaginary and are not intended to refer to specific places or living
persons. The opinions expressed in this manuscript are solely the opinions of the author and do not represent the opinions or thoughts of the
publisher. The author has represented and warranted full ownership and/or legal right to publish all the materials in this book.
Tip of the Spear

All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2010 SD Hatfield v2.0
Cover Photo © 2010 JupiterImages Corporation. All rights reserved - used with permission.
This book may not be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in whole or in part by any means, including graphic, electronic, or mechanical
without the express written consent of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com
ISBN: 978-1-4327-5713-7
Outskirts Press and the “OP” logo are trademarks belonging to Outskirts Press, Inc. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA
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This book is dedicated to two people
Roland Biggerstaff
The Geek with the Plan
And
Bill Hatfield
Never meet a conspiracy he didn’t like.
Thanks for your help!

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Chapter One
Danny entered the hotel, glad to be out of the harsh light of day. He was used to sitting in
front of a computer screen for many hours, and the sunlight seemed almost unnatural. The
sliding doors opened into a world that left Danny uncomfortable, to say the least.
People milled around the lobby in an aimless fashion, tourists who’d wandered in from
the warmth of the desert sun. Danny had never been to Las Vegas before, and would probably
have never come if it weren’t for the convention.
Every year the best and brightest in the area of Computer Security came to this show to
trade stories and tactics, and most importantly to learn from their peers. Some of the most anti-
social and private people in the word all gathered in one place. Danny laughed at the thought.
After taking a deep breath he surveyed the lobby. Looking past all the people he finally
spotted the registration booths at the back of the large room. Instinctively he walked toward the
general registration, and then paused. I almost forgot, he thought to himself, this isn’t a pleasure
trip. He changed course and walked to end of the line, to the registration booth for presenters.
Danny ran his fingers through his short blonde hair and took a deep breath.
The lady behind the booth looked up. “Can I help you?”
Danny’s gaze dropped from the lady to the computer terminal in front of her. I wonder if
that connects to main system or if it proxies to another secured terminal.
“Sir, sir, there’s a line forming. Can I help you?” The impatient voice derailed his train of
thought.
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Danny shook it off and smiled.
“Sorry about that. I’m Cutr, here to present tonight.” His eyes dropped back to the
terminal as she started typing. A slight sound of exasperation escaped her lips, Danny’s eyes kept
following her fingers. “Miss? I couldn’t help but notice you typed it in wrong, it’s Cutr, C-u-t-r,
no “e”.” Glancing up from her keyboard she cocked her head and typed a few more letters then
stopped.
“Sir, it would be much easier if you gave me your real name.”
“No, look closer, I know I’m under Cutr.” Danny shifted his weight restlessly as she
continued to type.
“Sir, it isn’t here. Now if you could just give me your name I will check that.” Her tone
caused the woman in the next booth to take notice. Danny looked around and saw that a line was
indeed forming behind him. “Please sir,” she pressed.
“Hand me the keyboard,” Danny reached over the counter. The lady started to protest but
thought better of it and handed the keyboard over.
Danny leaned across to see the screen and typed his name in. In a matter of seconds his
credentials appeared on the screen. Laughing to himself he handed the keyboard back to the lady.
“I don’t mean to be rude ma’am, but some of us “Security Experts” are on quite a few
lists and we can’t go around shouting our real names.”
“I understand sir.” She typed away. “I thought gatherings like this had some sort of truce
between your kind and the authorities?” She reached over to the printer and handed Danny his
badge. It looked right so Danny took it from her.

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“Theoretically, but never depend on everyone playing by the rules. The frog trusted the
scorpion. Where did that get him?” She nodded and smiled. Danny didn’t know if she
understood the analogy, but didn’t care much either. The badge found its way to his shirt and
Danny walked into the Exhibition Center.
Hundreds of tables were set up with various types of displays. Some were selling
computer software and others hardware. All the technology in the room was geared toward
security, and the concurrent lack thereof. Danny stood just inside the doors and marveled at what
lay out in front of him. Like a kid in a candy store he started up one aisle and down the next.
Software that could capture login names and passwords on one table and USB devices that made
that same software obsolete at another, the 17th Annual Technology Security Expo was in full
swing. Danny almost lost track of the time, so much to see.
He glanced at his watch and did some quick calculations. He had a few hours before his
presentation, but he had promised a short interview to a blogger at 3:00pm in one of the side
rooms. Hitching his pack onto his shoulder he asked one of the volunteers for directions and
crossed the length of the Exhibition Hall.
On his way Danny took a look at the people around the room and not just the displays.
Many of the exhibitors were younger men; jeans and black t-shirts were the uniform of the day.
Danny glanced down at his own black shirt, so much for being a non-conformist, he thought.
There were some women but not many, unless they were there with their boyfriends. The entire
mass of humanity was a ballet of the anti-social. No one was talking, most had headphones on or
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were buried into their laptops looking for a stray wireless signal to crash or random bit of code
they could steal from the ether.
Having made it almost to the meeting room Danny started to feel a little odd, as though
he were being watched. A quick scan of the crowd showed three suits within spitting distance. At
shows like this “suits” were law enforcement, usually Fed, looking for ways to catch up
technically with the same people in the exhibit hall with them. The bigger shows, like this one,
had some unwritten rules. Hackers, Crackers, and Script Kiddes were all welcome, but so were
the suits. It was an uneasy truce between the law and those outside of it. None of the suits Danny
saw seemed interested in him so he kept moving, reaching the conference room right on time.
Sitting at one of the tables was a blonde woman in her early 20’s, working on a laptop.
Seeing Danny, she stood up and moved over to greet him. “Cutr?” Danny nodded and offered his
hand. She grabbed it and pumped twice. Her handshake took Danny by surprise. “It’s so good to
meet you. I’m Kim, we traded some e-mails.”
Danny recovered his composure and followed Kim over to the table.
“Have a seat.” Kim pointed to the table she was working at.
Danny sat down across from her, dropping his pack to the floor.
“Now don’t be nervous, Cutr. In a few hours you’re going to be one of the most famous
hackers in the Northern Hemisphere!” She smiled at him, but Danny was focused more on her
words. “You sure don’t talk much, are you sure you want to do the interview?”
“Huh? Oh yeah, sorry, it’s been a long day. What was the name of your site?”
She lit up and started talking faster than he could follow.

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“Kim, slow down. One word at a time.”
“Right, sorry I get a little hyper sometimes.” Kim stopped and took a deep breath. “Well,
the main site is the Tech Security Blog, but knowing what a scoop I was getting with this
interview it links directly to www.whoiscutr.com.” Danny’s head turned to the side when he
heard that. Kim noticed and her expression suddenly changed. “That’s all right isn’t it? I should
have asked to use your name.” She started mumbling to herself. Danny waved his hands in front
of himself to slow her down.
“No, no that’s fine.” He tried to sound like it didn’t bother him. “I just didn’t think this
was that big of a deal?”
“Not a big deal? You really don’t get it do you?” Kim didn’t wait for an answer and
turned toward her laptop. “Ready to start the interview?”
“Sure, I think.” Danny shifted in the uncomfortable chair. “Just remember there are some
questions I just will not answer.”
“No problem.” Kim settled in to her seat. “So, Cutr, that’s not your real name, is it?’
“No, that would be stupid.”
“Can you tell me your real name?”
“No.” Danny clicked his tongue. “See, that’s one of those not-going-to-tell questions.”
“I had to try.” Kim’s index finger tapped on the table before starting to type again. “How
about this? How did you get the name Cutr?”
“My specialty is firewall penetration, cut through them like butter, so I took the handle,
Cutr.”
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“How long have you gone by that?”
“I don’t know, sort of feels like forever but I guess seven, eight years.”
“Can I ask how old you are?”
“Seventeen. Eighteen next month.”
“Wow, you’ve been doing this awhile.”
“Ever since my parents died.”
“Bummer.”
“Yeah.” Thoughts of his parents, muddied by time crossed through Danny’s mind. “I
didn’t have any other relatives and all they left me was my Dad’s old laptop. Do you know how
hard it is to hang on to something like that through five foster homes?”
“No. No idea.” Kim’s voice cracked a little and softened as she went on. “So, tell me
about the program you’re debuting today.”
“Like I said earlier, my specialty is cutting through firewalls. This program does that. So
far it has cut through every firewall it’s been tested on.” Pride swelled up in Danny, he had been
working on this for years and was starting to finally get the recognition. Kim typed as he spoke.
“Can you tell me how it is so successful?” She was greeted with silence. “Ok, how about
this? What can you tell me about how it works?” She stopped typing and stared at Danny,
waiting for the answer.
“Not a lot. For one I still have the patent pending, and for another it’s a little dangerous in
the wrong hands.” Danny took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I can tell you this, the
program is smart, meaning intelligent. It can determine how your firewall is set up and probe for
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weaknesses, cycling through different combinations and algorithms until it either finds or can
create a hole.” Danny leaned forward in his chair. “Imagine someone walking up to your front
door with a hammer. By using different amounts of force in different parts of door you can get
the door open. A light tap on a window or a massive blow to knock it down, it all depends on
what you want to accomplish.” Kim stopped typing, her mouth slightly open in surprise. She had
been writing for security blogs and magazines for years. Often someone claimed to have
developed what Danny was talking about, but no claims had ever stood up to the tests.
“I have to say, Cutr, if what you say is true this is indeed a powerful tool.” Kim typed a
little more before going on. “I have to ask, why?”
“Why what?”
“Well, why create such a program? What is the practical application?” Her tone had
changed from casual to cold. Danny sensed she was looking for something in his answer.
“I would like to say there was a grand purpose or that this was created to make me a
million dollars, it would be nice.” Danny paused, measuring his words carefully. “Kim, there are
bad people out there who do bad things. I’m a hacker, I break into systems and a lot of us are out
there. It would be great to break it down the way people want to, White Hats are good hackers,
and Black Hats are bad hackers, just like cowboys in the old Westerns. It isn’t like that; we all
operate in the gray area, no matter what color hat we wear. Why create this? Because if I didn’t
someone else would, and more than likely someone else will top this.”
“Then why bother? How will this help?”

13
“There is a dance that goes on in the computer security world. Someone creates a virus
that takes advantage of an issue with a computer operating system. In order to clean the virus
someone has to write code to remove the virus and fix the security issue. If the bad guys want to
attack that machine again they have to find another flaw and the dance repeats. Once I go out on
that stage to present my program and what it can do, I can guarantee you that half that audience
will leave thinking they have to find a way to stop it from working, the other half will try to find
a way to get their hands on it. If they ever did we need to be able to defend against it.” He had to
stop at this point. Danny could spend days without talking to anyone but, sometimes words
would just spill out. “Does any of that make sense?”
“I think so. You did it so we know it can be done, so you can fix what it can break before
it gets broken.”
“Yeah, something like that,” Danny chuckled.
“What about the Government?” The question took Danny off guard. He didn’t fear the
Government, but they tended to complicate things.
“What about them?”
“Wouldn’t they be interested in something like this?”
“Interested? Sure, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get it. Can we leave it at that?”
“Well, it’s just that, they could---“
“Stop there. Look, I think that’s enough. I have a little bit of time to get ready for my
panel so unless you have anything else, non-government related, I need to go.” Danny hated
shutting her down, but he didn’t want to get into what the Government might think.
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Kim bit her bottom lip, definitely frustrated. “Just one more thing I guess. After today
what’s next for Cutr?” It was a standard fluff question.
Danny sighed and slumped into the chair. “Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it. I guess,
once I turn eighteen I get out of the system and can come and go as I please.”
“You managed to get here all right.”
“We only live a few hours away.”
“Sorry, go on.”
“I want to travel, really travel all over the country maybe even Europe. Heck, I could
make a living being a traveling security consultant; I guess that’s what I want to do.”
“Sounds like fun. Thanks for your time, Cutr. Good luck at the panel.” Kim finished
typing and shut the lid on her notebook.
Danny glanced at his watch as she packed up her things. He had a little bit of time so he
pulled out his notebook. Kim walked out of the room as Danny connected to the Internet. Within
seconds of getting connected to the convention center’s network his system was under attack.
Today the attacks were harmless, just hacker war games to test new security set ups and
protocols. Danny didn’t worry about anyone actually getting into his system, and he wasn’t in
the mood to retaliate. Instead he just turned on an application that would log every attack so he
could go back later and see if it was anyone he knew. Instead Danny opened up one of his editing
tools and started looking over some of the code for his program. Projects like this were truly
never finished.
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Chapter Two
“…and that concludes the panel. I would like to thank our panelists: Walz, Cutr and
Darthflamer for participating and everyone in the audience for coming.” The moderator
continued on for a few minutes updating some of the afternoons other events. Danny sat and
watched as people filed out of the conference room.
“Not a bad turnout for your unveiling, eh?” Walz was leaning back, tipping his chair onto
two legs.
“No, Walz, not too bad.” The room held about three hundred and was almost full at the
start of the presentation. Danny had been nervous at first, but the nerves melted away once he got
rolling. “You had some good stuff. They seemed really interested.”
Walz half laughed at Danny. “What I had was nothing compared to you. I think your
demo caused some people to wet their pants out there.”
Danny and Walz had met online and had developed a friendship/rivalry; this was the first
time they had ever met in person. “Looks like you might put me out of business.” It was Danny’s
turn to laugh.
“C’mon, buddy, you know how it works. You set up the firewalls, and I knock ’em
down.” Danny stood up and reached over to pour a glass of water. The room had all but emptied
except for a knot of people surrounding Darthflamer in the middle of the aisle. “Why was he on
our panel anyway?” Danny asked, pointing toward Darth, who was signing autographs.
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“I asked when I saw him on the agenda,” Walz started in. “I guess he’s managed to create
such a blog presence that people actually think he knows what he’s talking about.”
“So it’s fame over professionalism.”
“Every time, brother.” Walz set his chair back on all four legs and stood up. “That
finishes my day, Cutr. What have you got planned?” Both men walked off the stage and toward
the doors in back.
“I should probably head home. It’s a long drive.” Leaving the conference room they
found themselves back in the Exhibition Hall. There were a lot more people then
when he came through earlier. Danny surveyed the hall; something felt weird. “What about
you?”
“I have to meet some people; they might have a job for me.” Walz was a little older than
Danny and specialized in creating firewalls to keep people out of machines and networks. “Want
to come along? They might have something for you.”
Danny thought about it for a second. “I’m gonna pass, but thanks I---“Danny didn’t
finish as he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. Instinctively he jumped as he turned around.
The hand moved with him and clamped down. On the other end of the hand was a large man in a
black suit.
“Relax, Cutr, I just want to talk.” Dark sunglasses hid the man’s eyes from Danny as he
started looking for a way to escape. Walz was long gone, nowhere to be seen. Danny tried to
wrench himself free but the man was too strong. The struggle was starting to draw attention.
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“HELP! HELP!” Danny screamed at the top of his lungs. The man in the suit grabbed
Danny’s other shoulder and shook him.
“Don’t do that.” Overpowering Danny, he pushed him back into the conference room.
Danny yelled again looking around desperately for help. He glanced at two more suits
coming out of the crowd toward them. No one was paying them any attention as the man shut the
door behind them and pushed Danny into a chair. Danny started to get up but the man pushed
him back down.
“Listen, kid, we can do this here or I can take you the local police station. Your choice.”
The man sounded incredibly relaxed for what just happened. Danny took stock of his options and
decided to see how deep he was in.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
The man pulled a chair over in front of Danny making sure his gun peeked from under
his jacket as he sat down. “Johnson, Agent Jack Johnson.”
“Agent?”
“NSA. CIA. Does it matter? Sorry for being so rough with you. We don’t have a lot of
time and we’ve all been a little tense lately.”
“What do you want? You aren’t supposed to mess with us at these shows.”
“I know, but the rules have changed. Cutr… Danny… we need your help.” It took a
second for it to set in that Johnson used his real name.
“You called me Danny.”

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“Danny Pearson, we’re the Government kid. Did you really think there was such a thing
as anonymity online?” Johnson laughed at the Danny’s naiveté.
“I guess not.” Danny thought about it for a second but decided to let it go. “So what do
you want from me? Am I under arrest?”
“In a way. You’ve been drafted, you and a handful of your hacker buddies.”
“Drafted? You can’t draft me, I’m only seventeen!”
“I told you the rules have changed. Danny, we’re at war.” The words hung in the air like
a cloud of dust.
“Did you say we were at war?” Danny had never been one to follow current events but he
was sure he would have heard about this. “That’s just a metaphor right?”
“Afraid not. Over the last year China has been increasing the frequency of their cyber-
attacks on the Pentagon. In the last six months they’ve even started attacking Wall Street and the
power grid.”
“I haven’t heard about Wall Street or the grid. How bad?”
“We’ve stopped most of them and keeping the media out it isn’t hard at this point. If
everyone knew there would be panic.”
“So you’re drafting me to help defend the systems?”
“Actually Danny, we want you running a special team to come up with a counter attack.”
Johnson reached up to his ear; Danny noticed the ear piece for the first time. “Ok, bring him to
the conference room. Sorry, they just caught up with Walz outside.”
“He getting drafted also?”

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“Yeah.”
“I don’t really have a choice in this, do I?”
“Drafted implies no choice. Look kid, my job is just to bring you in but let me tell you
something. Right now were in trouble. Your country needs your help.”
“You know, with what you’ve told me I could blow the whistle on all this, the people
deserve to know what’s going on.” Danny puffed his chest out thinking he had something to
bargain with.
“I thought you might say that.” Johnson pulled his sunglasses off and put them in his
pocket. “Why cause a panic? Danny, this project needs a leader, and with the software you’ve
developed you’ve shown you have the knowledge. Now all the people can ask is that you step up
and be a man. Think about the greater good.”
“What kind of attack are we putting together?” Visually deflated, Danny resigned himself
to his fate.
“I don’t know specifics, all the tech stuff is way over my head. All I know is they are
calling it the “V-bomb”, some sort of virus that can bring down systems permanently. The virus
is almost ready, but we don’t have a decent delivery system. The damn Chinese have ten times
the man power we have and a few years head start on us. Their firewalls are impressive, but we
only need one breach. Your software could be the key to that.”
There was sincerity in his voice, something Danny had never heard from a suit before and
there was a lot to think about. If what Johnson was saying was true then Danny had to help, but
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for years he had worked to stay out of the way of the Government, now he would be working for
them. The door opened and a suit came in leading Walz.
“What’s going on, Cutr?” Walz smirked.
“Thanks for the help, brother.” Danny smirked back.
Johnson explained everything to Walz again so Danny got to hear it all a second time. If
anything Johnson sounded more desperate this time.
“So the Chinese finally got tired of us, huh?” Walz was never a subtle person. “Well,
Cutr, I don’t know about you, but it sort of sounds like what we’ve been training for.”
“I guess so.” Danny knew he didn’t have a choice, but if he felt like he was volunteering
it would be easier on him. “When do we start?”
“Right now. The plane is waiting,” Johnson sighed. “As of now both of you are official
property of the US Government. All your stuff is being packed and shipped to CIA Headquarters
at Langley, which will be your home for the duration.”
“What about my foster parents?” Danny wasn’t too concerned. He didn’t dislike them but
appreciated the place to stay.
“They’ve been compensated and send their best wishes.” Johnson stood up. “Let’s get
going. Tomorrow you meet the rest of the team.”
“One more question.” Danny looked at Johnson. “Why me?”
Johnson smiled and laughed. “Look kid, we can build any weapon we want, real or
virtual, and it means nothing. The Chinese systems have firewalls that can stop everything we
throw at them. Until now. What you showed the world up on that stage gives us a chance. Right
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now we have a spear pointed at the heart of an enemy that can destroy our way of life, and you,
Danny Pearson, Cutr. You are the tip of that spear. Good enough?”
Danny nodded. “Thanks, I think I understand.”
Walz grabbed Danny by the shoulder, “Tip of the spear, buddy, not bad, better than the
butt.”
The two followed Agent Johnson out the door, flanked on either side by the other suits.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea before Moses, as the group passed through. Catcalls and jeers
were hurtled at the Agents leading the way. A few hours ago Danny had been explaining to a
reporter why he did what he did; now he would actually get a chance to put his words into
practice.
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Chapter Three
TEN YEARS LATER
"Cutr, this is Ajax. Do you read?" Danny heard the voice coming through his head set.
He stared intently at the screen. "Cutr, this is Ajax, acknowledge." The second time shook the
cobwebs out and Danny responded. I’ll never be used to this radio chatter, Danny thought as he
responded.
"Ajax, this is Cutr, read you five by five. What is your situation?" Danny waited for the
reply, still focused on his screen, a satellite image of a quiet suburban landscape overlaid with
numbers and symbols. One house in particular took up the majority of the scene.
"Team is in place and ready for your word." The voice belonged to Lieutenant Thomas
Anderson a lifelong military man, currently the field leader of the Sweeper unit.
Danny studied the map and focused on one section of the house that showed red.
Something from inside had been broadcasting a wireless signal, trying to connect to what used to
be the Internet. After the war any device like that was banned, there was no sense in letting the
V-Bomb sneak into a critical system. There was no time to second guess.
"Ajax, the word is go." In his mind Danny could hear the bolts of a dozen assault rifles
being slid into place. Last week on a sweep the team had taken out an actual broadcast facility in
an old woman’s basement. You never knew what you would get.
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"Acknowledged, Cutr. Ajax is go." Thomas's southern drawl sounded almost comical,
belaying the violence of what was about to happen.
Now all Danny could do was wait and see what happened. As much as he was the eyes
and ears of the team he often felt isolated. The van he ran the operation from sat almost a mile
from the events. Danny followed the blue dots that represented his team on the satellite image.
The team had surrounded the house; one dot moved forward to the front door.
“Cutr, I am at the door.”
Danny watched the dot that was Ajax move up to the door and, for a brief fraction of a
second, his screen flickered. Danny rubbed his eyes, thinking it was a trick of the light, but it
flickered again. Alarms started going off in the truck.
“Aw, Hell. We’ve been made!” Danny keyed the mike. A large red dot appeared in the
middle of the house, the signal they were tracing had become stronger. “Ajax, get in there and
shut that thing down!”
“Affirmative, Cutr. Team, go!” The blue dots filed into the house. Danny was
concentrating on another screen. Numbers and symbols ran across, and he typed furiously on his
keyboard. Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw another red dot appear on the
screen on the road heading for the house. “Technical, Technical, Ajax we have a mobile contact
headed your direction.”
“Cutr, we found the device, it’s a repeater. We’ve been set up,” Ajax’s voice crackled
over the radio. Danny sank into his chair and sighed as his screen started flashing.
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“Confirmed, Ajax, we are being hacked. V-Bomb in the wild.” Danny’s fingers flew
across the keyboard in an intricate dance. Every short cut, every script he had ever learned was
focused on blocking the virus. “I’m tied up keeping the firewalls working. Can you deal with the
Technical?”
“Affirmative. Don’t let it hit the uplink, Cutr, or we’re all out of a job.”
“No pressure, Ajax. You deal with the bad guys; I’ll deal with the bad code.”
Even as he said it Danny groaned. Sometimes his life did seem like a bad movie, awful
dialogue and all. In the past he had been the guy who cut through the firewalls, now he was the
one trying desperately to block access to the system. If the virus breached and made it to the
satellite uplink, the entire DOD system could be brought down.
Danny was in the zone, all that existed to him was his keyboard and the malicious code
knocking on the door. The V-Bomb was his baby. Every time he faced it in the open he felt a
tinge of regret, but he always had been able to contain it. His radio crackled, breaking his
concentration for a brief second.
“We have engaged, Cutr. Several individuals, armed, driving an old news van. I bet that
is where the real broadcast is coming from. We should have them neutralized in a-”
The radio died. Danny stopped typing. His screen showed a bright red mushroom cloud;
the virus had broken through.
In a flash he disconnected the satellite uplink and radio communications then stared at
the flashing screen, the sound of gunfire coming from a distance. Just as quickly, the mushroom
25
cloud disappeared and a static-filled image appeared on the screen. The image looked like an old
style website, one from before the war.
“What the hell is this?” He couldn’t make out the image in full but managed to get a few
screen captures to print. “I didn’t write this, this isn’t my virus.”
Then, just as suddenly, the image was gone, replaced by the mushroom cloud again.
Danny looked around the van, realizing he couldn’t hear gunfire anymore. He pulled the images
off the printer stuffing them into his shirt. With a deep sigh he pressed the big red button next to
his chair and all the screens went dark. Moving to the front of the van he started it up and drove
down to the rendezvous site. Smoke rose from the scene of the firefight.
Ajax stood in the middle of chaos, shouting orders. Danny stopped the van and got out.
“How’d you do, Ajax?”
Ajax took his helmet off and rubbed his closely shave head. “Jones took a shot in the leg,
took three prisoners. How about you?” His drawl was much thicker in person.
“It got through; I killed the uplink in time.”
“Good.”
“I suppose.” Danny wanted to tell him more but didn’t know what to say.
“Now, Cutr don’t tell me you’re sad you had to push that fancy red button of yours?”
Ajax chided him. The red button in the van was a localized electromagnetic pulse, designed to
fry non-shielded electronic components. Once the V-Bomb infected a system it was the only way
to remove it completely.
26
“Yeah, the geeks at the base are going to freak,” Danny grinned. “See you back at the
shop, Ajax. Take care of the boys.”
Ajax saluted Danny as he climbed into the van and headed back to base. The drive back
took about an hour. The entire way Danny kept one eye on the road and one on the screenshots
he’d printed. Before long he was pulling up to the fenced compound that made up the military
base he called home. Danny stopped the van at the guard shack and showed his ID. The guard
waived him through with barely a second look.
Discipline on the base had started to slack off lately, Danny chalked it up to the isolation.
There wasn’t much to do on the base. With no Internet available and very little television being
broadcast, it was hard to adjust for the media generation. Somehow the base library just didn’t
cut it and may have well been a museum. The van slid into its space in the Motor Pool, Danny
folded the printouts, put them in his pocket and jumped down from the driver’s seat.
“What the Hell happened, Cutr?” Danny spun around and found Ben Robertson from the
Information Technology division in his face. “What did you do to my van? Ajax said you had to
hit the EMP!” The distress in his voiced caused Danny to laugh. “You think this is funny, Cutr?”
“Yeah, I do.” IT guys always freaked out when this happened. “Look, Ben, the mission
was a setup, the target turned out to be a repeater. V-bomb got into the van’s system before I
could stop it.” Danny put his hand on Ben’s shoulder “I’m sorry, I tried.
Something was weird though…” Danny’s other hand reached into his pocket.
27
“Weird? How could anything more important happen?” Still distraught Ben pushed
Danny’s hand aside. “Do you know how long it will take to refit these electronics? What do you
mean weird?”
“Nothing, nothing at all. It just caught me by surprise.” Now wasn’t the time. Whatever
the meaning was behind the screenshots, Danny had to make sure who he could trust. He turned
and stopped. “Hey, Ben, look, I’m testing ISAC later tonight. Want to give me a hand?”
“Really?” Ben’s demeanor completely changed. His voice softened and his face became
less red. “I didn’t think you were that far along.”
“Yeah, I could use a hand bug hunting. Walz is still on a mission, and I would like a real
computer guy working with me.” Danny held the olive branch out. He didn’t really need the help
but it wouldn’t hurt. “Log in about nine and ping me, I’ll send you the tar ballz so you can
install.”
“All right. Cool. Thanks, Cutr. Hey, I’ll take care of the van. She’ll be good as new
before the next mission.” Danny nodded as Ben pulled open the rear doors to the van and went to
work.
Looking around the Motor Pool he saw another eleven vans just like his nice big black
one. All of them had computer geeks and mechanics crawling in and out making sure the
millions of dollars worth of computer equipment in each one functioned like it should. Sharing
the other side of the motor pool were the military vehicles that brought the gravity back to the
situation. It had been almost ten years since he had joined the program, a lot had happened since
then.
28
Danny kept walking. Before long he found himself in the barracks section of the base.
One of the few pleasantries his status brought was a private room, unlocking the door he slipped
into the dark of his home.
For just a moment he stood letting his eyes adjust to the subtle glow of his kingdom. The
whirr and hum of fans sang as the chorus of his electronic gospel washed over him. With a sigh
he flipped on the lights. The apartment wasn’t much larger than a studio in the city, a small
refrigerator and kitchenette, small television and a couch. The bed sat in one corner, covered in
clothes and books. Danny didn’t sleep much anymore. When he did the couch generally served
him well. Kicking his shoes off into one corner Danny sat down at the desk that took up the rest
of the room. There, in front of him, was the other thing his status brought him, a computer, new
shiny and full of life, or so Danny believed.
Let’s see what’s going on, Danny thought.
The screen jumped to life as Danny typed. Technically no network connections were
allowed since the V-Bomb had been released, but Danny and the other hackers on base had
managed to keep the system here clean. The Internet had not been reachable and instead of the
old-style pages filled with pictures and links the pages Danny surfed now were plain text that
could only be changed though manual input.
Reaching into his pocket Danny pulled the out the pages from earlier. The webpage he
printed was like the old ones, something that shouldn’t exist anymore, and these were buried in
his code. Danny put the pages in his scanner and, as they processed, he turned on the television
to have some noise in the background.

29
“… and furthermore the Sweeper units took no casualties during the operation,” the news
anchor went on. Danny turned around from his desk and watched. “The President today urged
patience in dealing the current economic crisis; he went on to state that, while it has been many
years since the war ended, we are not far off from getting things back the way they used to be.
And now for sports…”
There was a running joke around the camp that, whenever the President showed up in the
news, the station always used the same footage. Most of the time with a few slight changes. Like
the Internet, television and radio had been affected by the V-Bomb. The only real shows on
either were news or sports, some music if you caught it right. Frustrated, Danny flipped the set
off and turned back to his system. The last page fed through the scanner and appeared on the
screen. Danny leaned in for a closer look; a knock on the door just about put him on the floor.
“You in there, Cutr?” A voice announced itself. “You there?”
Danny sat still for a moment, caught between the computer screen and the door. Agent
Johnson had been a friend for years, but he had a knack for showing up at the worst times.
Taking a deep breath Danny flipped the power switch on the monitor.
“Hang on,” he shouted at the door. Quickly he grabbed the print outs from the scanner
bed, hid them under some books on the desk and walked to the door.
“About time,” Johnson chided as the portal swung open. “Can I come in?”
Danny looked at the agent for a second. He was older, a little grayer but the suit still fit
him well. Johnson was just as imposing as he was ten years ago when he and Danny first meet.
“Hello? You going to let me in?”

30
“Oh yeah sure, just spaced for a minute.” Danny stepped aside as Johnson stepped in.
“How was the mission?” Johnson never was a guy to mince words. Crossing the small
room to the fridge he pulled out a bottle of water.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Danny said. Johnson laughed and made room for himself
on the couch. “Pretty much by the book, until it turned into an ambush,” Danny got himself a
bottle of water also and sat in his desk chair.
“I heard it got pretty hairy.”
“Ajax and the boys did well. I had some issues.”
“Heard that also. You had to hit the button.” Johnson paused waiting for Danny to say
something, when the opening didn’t come he went on. “The boss said I’m supposed to reprimand
you for carelessness. If you hadn’t killed that uplink…” The pause for effect wasn’t well
received.
“Look, every time I come across that virus in the field it scares the Hell out of me.”
“It should, you created it”
“I KNOW!” Danny tossed his water bottle across the room. “Every day for the last ten
years I’ve thought about that.” Danny stood and crossed the room. “Every day. It was my code
that made it work, and you know what? We still don’t really know how much of an effect it had
on the Chinese. All we really know is they stopped fighting. And what good did it do us? Our
own super weapon took us down at the same time.”
“Danny, it’s not your fault.” It wasn’t often that Johnson softened. He and Danny had
grown close, but not quite father/son close. “Look, it was war. Things happened. It’s over.”
31
“No. Not while we have to sit here on this military base chasing down IPods and old
laptops.” Danny sat back down and buried his head in his hands. Johnson took a big drink from
his water. “Have I shown you what I’m working on?” Danny’s voice was muffled through his
fingers.
“No. Not in a while.” Johnson sat forward on the couch.
“Here” Danny took his laptop from his bag, turned it on and handed it to him. After a few
minutes of silence Johnson looked up from the screen.
“All right, I give up. What am I looking at?” Lines of white text filled the black screen,
the start of each line numbered in sequence with the next.
“That’s the V-bomb code,” Danny sighed.
“Are you crazy?” Johnson hit the power switch on the notebook. “Damn it, Danny!
That’s way too dangerous to mess with.”
“Not like that it isn’t. It’s just text. I’m using an old school utility called EDLIN. It lets
me sort through the code one line at a time. No code actually loads so it can’t execute. It’s safe.”
“Why?” Johnson looked shaken. “Why would you even pull that out?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I missed something. Maybe I can fix this.” Danny turned in his
chair away from Johnson. “I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“It always matters.” Johnson stood from the couch and walked over to the desk. “We just
need to take it one day at a time, kid. You and your team, you ended the war and saved lives.
Considering how young you all were, I think you did pretty well.”
32
“That would mean a lot more if I didn’t know you were getting paid to say that,” Danny
chuckled. “Thanks though.”
“No problem.” Johnson grabbed Danny’s shoulders and squeezed before going back to
the couch. “Now if we’re done with your daily affirmation we have business to attend to.”
“The mission?”
“Uh-huh. So about the screen caps you printed any idea what they are?”
“Should I ask or just assume you were spying?”
“You know the score. We keep tabs on all our assets; you, Walz, Trips, Tandy, all you
guys. Outside these rooms if you get near a keyboard it’s logged and recorded. You guys are the
ICBMs of the information age.”
“Same speech every day,” Danny reached under the books on the desk and handed
Johnson the pages. “It looks a lot like a website but I can’t tell much.”
“Hmmm.” Johnson thumbed through the pages.
“What do you think?” Danny could detect a little hint of concern in Johnson’s eyes.
“Some sort of echo on the wires?” The thought had occurred to Danny, but he was
surprised to hear it from the non-tech savvy agent.
“Maybe, but it was embedded in the virus code itself. It almost seems like a bread
crumb.”
“Bread crumb?” Johnson dropped the pages to his lap. “How do you mean?”
33
“More a feeling than anything else. If these images were put in there by someone they
would want them found. It’s not something you’re going to hide from an elite group of
government hackers, that’s for sure.”
“Let’s get this straight. Today’s mission was set up to get you these images? Danny, I
think you’re reaching a bit.”
“Maybe not me, but one of us. Trust me; no one else is going to come close enough to the
code to see this.” Danny wanted to say more, but the blue-eyed trust monster was rearing its head
in the room. “How many other people know about this?” He didn’t expect the truth but he might
get an idea.
“Just me. I pulled your logs when you got back.”
“So what now?”
“Are these your only copies?”
“Let’s say yes.”
“All right, for now. Don’t share with anyone. I want to follow up and see what I can find
out. If you think there is a message in here maybe the crypto boys can crack it.” Johnson stood
back up and started walking to the door. “You’re going to hate me, but I need you to stay in
tonight.”
“You’re putting me on restriction?”
“To be fair, you did destroy a hundred thousand dollars worth of computer equipment.
Staying in is the least you can do.”
“I suppose. Can I work on ISAC?”

34
“Sure. Just keep track of your connections and keep that laptop away from the uplink.”
Johnson walked into the hallway, closing the door behind him.
Danny sat at his desk and turned his monitor back on, the scanned pages hung on the
screen almost mocking him. After looking through them one more time he saved the files and
encrypted them. He had always known that his handlers spied on his systems and he had many
ways around it in the apartment, but in the field he was at their mercy.
With the heavier thoughts of the day behind him Danny turned to one of the few past
times he could be allowed anymore. Writing code. The problem with boredom since the war had
been one that many people had tried to address and as always the task fell to the creative types.
For the past few years Danny had been working on his ISAC program. ISAC stood for
Internet Simulated Artificial Chat, the program could simulate chat room style interactions
utilizing an artificial intelligence patterned after real world conversations. Danny and a few of
the others guys had set the system up on the base to try and alleviate the isolated nature of the
post war society.
For people Danny’s age, those who grew up with the Internet, the world was limitless and
knew no bounds. With the ISAC system in place people could at least get a feeling of that world
back. The challenging part was creating all the programming for all the different personalities.
Often to try and get the patterns right Danny would have other people on the base take part in the
chat sessions and “record” them, using the input to fill in the programming.
Danny opened up ISAC and logged in. Within seconds he was inundated with chat
requests from simulated friends. Scrolling though the lists of AI’s Danny looked for one in
35
particular. Whenever he had a bad day he always looked forward to one particular program and
there near the bottom of the screen was a chat request from Honey. Danny clicked on the request
and the chat windows popped up.
“Are you on tonight, Honey?” Danny typed. The Honey program was the one that he had
spent the most time on and he had her nearly perfected. Often he would test her out on the other
guys and they could not tell where the simulation started and ended.
“Hello, Cutr. How was your day?” Honey typed back.
“Glad you asked.” Danny smiled as he typed. “The mission was hard, but we did well
enough.”
“Good to hear.” The cursor blinked in place for a few seconds before continuing. Did
anyone get hurt?”
“No, not really,” Danny replied. It was taking too long to parse the questions; he’d have
to look into that. “How was your day?” The program was designed to learn based on asking and
answering questions. Normally the program would start by asking some simple questions and
then diverge from there. No two conversations were ever the same.
“My day was good. I am working on a project that is taking up a lot of my time, so I am
very busy,” the computer responded.
“Really? What kind of project?” Honey was based on another hacker Danny had known
back before the war. Danny had thought about asking her out but never had the chance. He put as
much of her into the program as he could remember.
“I don’t know if I can trust you.”

36
Danny stared at the words as they appeared on his screen. This was an odd response and
certainly unexpected. Normally Danny would continue the conversation but with the way today
had gone he didn’t really feel like it. Instead he exited the chat session and closed the program. It
had been a long day and somehow he had the feeling that tomorrow would be even longer.
Danny stood from his chair and stretched. “Even my own program doesn’t trust me,”
Danny said to no one in particular. He crossed the room and cleared off just enough space on his
bed to lie down. It wasn’t long before he was asleep and dreaming of his life before the war.
37
Chapter Four
Somewhere between awake and asleep, Danny lay in his bed thinking about what
happened yesterday. No coherent conclusions were being formed but he could not keep his mind
from swimming. Then the ringing started. It took several seconds for him to realize it wasn’t part
of the dream. Groggily Danny reached for his phone, “Hello?”
“Hey, Cutr, wakeup.” The voice seemed amplified in Danny’s muddled head but he
shook if off.
“Walz?”
“Yeah, Buddy. Look, meet me in the commissary in twenty minutes; you won’t believe
what I heard this morning.” He sounded excited; usually a harbinger of doom to Danny, but
Walz was one of the few friends he had.
“Sure, but give me thirty, I have to shower.”
“Cool, thirty minutes.” A click on the line signaled the end of the conversation.
Danny put the phone back in its cradle and stared into the darkness of his room. In his
dream he had been using an old cell phone to call his friends. To be woken up by an old analog
land line struck him as anachronistic, but that was the world they lived in. Jumping into the
shower remained one of the few things that hadn’t changed much. The water still was warm and
refreshing. Shampoo and soap still remained available. Even so, Danny couldn’t escape the fact
that utilities flowed only because they’d kept the virus at bay. If the control systems got infected
38
the only warm water available would come from whatever you could warm up on the stove, if
that still worked.
Danny finished his shower and put on clean clothes. He, Walz and the others weren’t
required to wear uniforms like the military personnel on the base, but before leaving his room he
grabbed his id badge, a definite requirement.
On the lower level of the housing complex the commissary was patterned after the food
court in any of a thousand malls that still existed across the country. The idea was to make the
troops feel at home during long deployments, something that the Pentagon decided during the
cold portion of the war and kept around after. Seconds after entering the large room Danny
noticed Walz waving to him. Danny waved back and headed for the Mexican food kiosk.
“How can you eat that this early?” Walz asked as Danny sat down.
Glancing down at the two tacos and beef burrito Danny shrugged. “Food is food. This
happens to be the best food.” Danny bit one taco in half and chewed.
“You are the oddest.” Walz brought a spoonful of corn flakes to his mouth. “So you
won’t believe what I heard this morning.”
“You already said that. What was it?”
“Slideshow was on an op last night with her team, and her sweeper van got hacked, just
like yours.” It took Danny a second to realize what he’d said. Walz noticed the pause and went
on. “She freaked out and shutdown. The techies are going over her rig now.”
Danny sat stunned. “Did you say like mine?”
“Yeah, except you hit the nuke button.” Walz gulped another spoon of cereal.
39
“I didn’t tell you about that. How did you know what happened to me?”
“Dude, c’mon. It’s a small base.” The grin told Danny that wasn’t quite the truth.
“You hacked my report, didn’t you?”
“Like you never read mine!”
“All right. All right. So much for Top Secret operations huh?” Danny laughed and
finished his taco. “Is Slideshow ok?”
“Shaken, but ok, for a newbie. These kids that came in after the war just don’t have our
constitution.” Walz chewed for a second. “You realize there are only five us left from the
original team?”
“I guess. I don’t think about it much,” Danny lied. Some nights it was all he could think
about. The original team that had worked on the V-Bomb numbered a dozen, twelve of the
brightest minds and security experts in the field.
“Yeah, me either. So, what about these hacks? There isn’t supposed to be anyone on the
other side that can get into our systems. That’s two in one day.” The concern showed on Walz’s
face.
“It’s your firewalls that are getting busted. You tell me.” Danny snapped back at his
friend. He knew what was coming next.
“It may be my firewalls, but it’s your program busting them,” Walz shot back.
“That isn’t in my report,” Danny threw up the words defensively.
“Doesn’t have to be. I know your work just like you know mine. Did you tell Johnson?”
“That it was my code? No.”

40
“I don’t trust him, Cutr. Not one lick.” Walz had a way of trying to sound folksy when
needed to be convincing. “Not as far as I can throw him. People like that have secrets.”
“You don’t trust anyone, Walz. And none of us should, not in this world.” Danny had a
speech prepared for this moment and was just about to launch into it, but Walz broke in.
“Speak of the Devil…” Walz motioned to the door where Agent Johnson had just walked
in. Scanning the room he saw the guys and made a beeline to the table. Walz shifted in his seat,
his discomfort not well hidden.
“Just hang tight, Walz, and don’t say anything about Slideshow or the code.”
“No problem,” he nodded in agreement.
“Good Lord, Cutr! Burritos at nine in the morning?” Johnson sat down at the table.
“Good op last night, Walz.”
“Thanks. It went smooth.” Walz looked away avoiding eye contact as he ate his cereal.
Danny noted the odd behavior but brushed it off.
“Cutr and I need to talk. Would you mind disappearing for a bit?” It wasn’t a request, and
Walz knew it. He picked up his bowl and drank what was left, dropping it a little harder than he
intended.
“I just finished, besides its payday and I have some mad overtime coming.” Walz finally
looked at Johnson and shot him a wink. “Right boss?”
“Go.”Johnson nodded and made a shooing motion to Walz.
“See you later, Cutr.” Walz picked his tray up and left the table whistling a tune to
himself that sounded a lot like the old, in the money song.
41
“What the Hell is up with him?” Johnson wondered out loud shaking his head.
“He doesn’t like you. None of them do.” Danny watched Walz walk away.
“Hrmpf. You like me don’t you Danny?”
“Not always, but yeah we get along.” Danny worked on his burrito hoping the subject
would change. Johnson sat waiting for more detail. “Look, you recruited everyone into the
program, at least the originals. They all had families and lives. You took that away from them-”
“They all came willingly,” Johnson stated with emphasis.
“Only someone in the Government can say that with a straight face,” Danny mocked. “I
had nothing more before the war than I have now after the war, except the guilty conscience.” He
paused longer than intended and decided to change the subject. “So did you find anything about
the site?”
Johnson sighed but allowed the course correction. He knew how Danny and the others
felt, it wasn’t that he cared all that much whether people liked him or not, it just made the job
easier sometimes, like now. “The crypto guys pulled an image. The image showed an old style
website. That’s about it.”
“That’s it?”
“For now, they’re still digging. They want to try and match it against the archives and see
if they can get more.”
“Am I the first one to report this?” Danny fished.
“This? Oh yeah, nothing even close.”

42
“Ok.” He knew Johnson was lying and it hurt. There was a very strict rule that none of
the operation details could be discussed between teams, especially things like this. That didn’t
stop anyone from talking; gossip was a spectator sport on the base. The fact that Slideshow had
seen the same thing could be hidden and it didn’t make sense for Command to hide it. Danny had
to play the game just like everyone else. “So, is that my next op?” Danny pointed to the folder
Johnson had put on the table.
“What? Oh yeah. Recon units pulled some signals up near Clarksburg. I want you and
Ajax to go check it out?”
“We going in guns blazing?”
“No, just you two. The rest of the team stays behind a few klicks for back up.”
“Why the kid gloves?”
“It’s a populated area that has had some issues with the President’s post war policies. We
want to keep as small as footprint as possible.”
“So they aren’t happy with the suspended elections and military presence? How would
have thought?”
“Well, he’s your boss, and mine, so cut the sarcasm. Hopefully we can shut it down
without bullets.” Johnson stood from the table and handed Danny the folder.
Danny glanced through at the signal records and maps. “Always a good plan. When do
we leave?”
“One hour. Be careful. See you when you get back.” Johnson turned and walked out of
the commissary.
43
“No rest for the wicked.” Danny turned back to his breakfast and flipped through the rest
of the folder’s contents. Robotically flipping through the pages he suddenly found himself with a
strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. Chalking it up the questionable culinary choices he
focused on the rest of his breakfast.

44
Chapter Five
The black sweeper van slid through the winding roads of the West Virginia countryside.
It would have been quicker and easier to take the Interstate, but the black vans had become a
little too well known and tended to draw attention. In the passenger side Ajax sat fumbling with
his gear.
“What’s the matter, Ajax? You don’t strike me as the nervous type?” Danny chuckled.
Ajax looked up from the gear, his face pale. “I don’t mean to offend you Cutr, but the
way you are driving leaves much to be desired,” Ajax drawled. “I still don’t know why you don’t
have drivers for these vans.”
“Well, it’s called plausible deniability, Ajax. If something happens to the van they can
only blame one person. Besides…” Danny swerved the van hard on purpose almost throwing
Ajax out of his seat, “…you should be wearing your seat belt.”
Ajax dropped his pack on the floor and grabbed for the seat belt, sighing loudly as it
clicked into place. “Now that just isn’t funny, Cutr. Not funny at all.” Both men laughed as the
bumpy ride continued.
“Let’s see, according the map we should be about ten minutes out. Why don’t you check
with the team? There’s a diner about three minutes ahead where they can wait for our call.”
“Ten-Four Cutr,” Ajax affirmed and got on his radio. “Sweeper Two, this is Ajax do you
read?” The radio crackled for an instant then sprang to life.

45
“Ajax, Sweeper Two, we are about two klicks behind. You should be getting close to the
target.”
“Affirmative, Sweeper Two. We have your beacon. There is a diner up the road. Sit and
wait for us there. Stay in the Humvee and be ready to go.”
“Ten-Four. Sweeper Two out.” The radio went dead as a blinking light started flashing on
the dashboard of the van.
“There it is,” Danny pointed to the light. “We’re getting a signal.” Danny slowed the van
and pulled off the road. “Time to switch. You drive. Keep going down this road until I tell you to
stop.”
“Can do, Cutr.” Ajax slid over to the driver’s side and got the van moving.
Danny flopped in the chair of his command console in the back of the van. Flipping a few
switches his heads up display came to life. On the display he saw an overlay of the area, the van
at the center of the display and he could see Sweeper 2 at a stop down the road. A blue light to
the top of the screen showed the source of the signal they were tracking.
“We should be passing right now.” The light indicating the signal on Danny’s display
moved closer and closer, until it was right on top of the van.
“You see anything out there, Ajax?” The van indicator moved past the signal indicator on
the display.
“Affirmative, small house, no vehicles in the driveway, no people seen. Should we circle
back?”
46
Danny thought for a second looking at the display. Sweeper 2 was less than two mile
away and would be able to show up quick if there were any problems. The first analysis of the
rogue signal started filtering in.
“All right, turn it around and stop across the street.”
“Affirmative.” Ajax guided the van into a driveway and turned around, pulling onto the
shoulder across the street from the house. “We are in position.” Ajax left the driver’s seat and
went back next to Danny. “What do you see?”
“Thermal shows the house is empty, signal is coming from the second story. Nothing out
of the ordinary… wait… what the Hell?” Danny totally concentrated on the signal coming from
the house. Flipping a few knobs he pulled his keyboard to the front and started typing.
“What? What’d you see, Cutr?” Ajax was a soldier, in a fight he had always been one of
the best. Before the war the number of missions he had been on was numerous, but technology
made him uncomfortable. Of all the people Danny interacted with, it always seemed that Ajax
was the one least affected by the technological black hole that developed after the war. “Cutr?”
“Sorry,” Danny mumbled. “There’s a second signal coming from the house.” He paused
again. “Looks to be directional.”
“What does that mean?”
“Signals can be broadcast either directional or Omni-directional. An Omni-directional
signal is broadcast in a circle so no matter what direction you approach it from you can see it; a
directional signal is like a cone. You only can see it if it’s pointing at you. Basically.”
47
“Oh, I see,” Ajax didn’t quite get it. Maybe he knew Cutr was trying to dumb it down for
him. “Can you read the signal?”
“Not totally. We’re at the edge of the cone so it isn’t quite strong enough.” Danny kept
typing. “The house looks clear; can I get you to go in?”
“Finally.” Ajax sighed. “It’s what I do. Should I call up the team?”
“No. Not yet. Be careful though.”
“Sure ‘nuff, Cutr.” Ajax went up front and grabbed his pack and rifle. After a quick
double check he threw the pack on and exited the van. It was mid-day and the sun was out. The
approach to the house was wide open with little cover. Danny didn’t think there would be any
trouble as he watched Ajax make his way across the yard.
Ajax approached slowly, alert, rifle at the ready. It only took a few minutes to reach the
door. “Cutr, do you read?”
“I got you, Ajax.”
“I am entering the house.” Ajax reached down to the door knob, it turned easily. “Not
locked,” he said into the radio. Slowly he pushed the door open into a kitchen. “Looks empty,
Cutr; I am proceeding upstairs.”
“Ok, looks like the main signal is coming from a room in the back of the house and the
other signal is coming from an upstairs room. Start there.”
“Moving up the stairs,” Ajax was breathing hard into the microphone. Adrenalin raised
his breathing and heart rate. “Top of the stairs, I see the bedrooms. Hang on.”
“What do you see?”

48
“I have cables crossing the hallway from one room to the other.”
“Ok, that’s ok. Until we know what they are don’t mess with them.”
“Affirmative. Entering bedroom facing the front of the house. Wait a second what’s
this?” The surprise in Ajax’s voice was apparent.
“What, what is it?”
“The cables lead to a Pringle’s can on a tri-pod pointed out the window.”
“Say again?”
“A Pringle’s can. You know those round cans?”
“Yeah, yeah ok that’s what I thought you said.”
“Why would they do that?”
“The cylinder shape with the foil inside is an old trick we used to use to make cheap
directional antennas. Can you move it to point at the van?”
“I can. Do you think that’s such a good idea?” Ajax sounded dubious of the plan.
“It’s the only way I can get anything out of the second signal.”
“Moving it.” Cutr watched as the signal strength grew. “Trees are blocking it from here,
is that enough?”
“Yeah, I can see it. Go ahead and check out the other room while I analyze this.”
“Will do. Ajax out.”
As if on cue, the screens Danny was staring at started blinking. On reflex he lifted the lid
of the big red button but stopped. He watched as the virus hit up against his firewall. It was the
same as last night, but a little different. Danny booted up a virtual machine on his system and
49
opened a hole in the firewall that pointed to it. The virus found the open hole and flooded the
virtual system. With the tickity-tack of his keyboard Danny cut the virtual machine off from the
other systems in the van and flipped the lid back on the big red button, he wouldn’t need it today.
“Ajax? Ajax, do you read?” Danny kept typing as he talked, shutting the virtual machine and
saving the files.
“I’m here, Cutr. The back bedroom is empty except for a couple of car batteries powering
an old PDA.”
“Well, unhook it and bring it in. I want to look at it.” Danny plugged a portable hard
drive into the main system and copied the virtual machine files over.
“Understood. Should I call the cleaners in?”
“No. Let’s clean it up ourselves. I’m coming in.” With that he unplugged his drive and
put it in his bag. A few clicks and no trace of the virtual machine or virus existed on the system.
“That’s not protocol, Cutr,” Ajax said with a serious tone in his voice.
“I know. Trust me. I’m coming over.” Danny jumped out of the van and ran over to the
house. Ajax met him at the door.
“I don’t think this is a good idea, Cutr.”
“Don’t worry. Do you have the device?” Danny reached his hand out. Ajax pulled the
unit out of his pocket and handed it over.
“Was the signal carrying the virus?” Ajax asked.
Danny was clicking and shuffling the device.

50
“Cutr! I’m asking you a question?” Danny had never heard that tone from his friend
before. He put the device in his pocket and looked up at Ajax.
“Uh-huh. The directional signal had the virus embedded, but the main signal didn’t,”
Danny furrowed his brow in concentration. “That isn’t the weird thing though.”
“That isn’t weird? Sounds like a trap to me,” his military training and instincts had kicked
in. “What is the weird part?”
“That device? The PDA?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s clean.”
“Clean?”
“No virus?”
“But it was broadcasting?”
“Yeah, it was.”
“How can that be?” Ajax rarely sounded surprised and Danny savored it a bit.
“I don’t know, but that could be a key. Look, I know it isn’t protocol, but I want to keep
this between us. If we report this I may never get a chance to look into this.” Danny pleaded,
pressing his hands together as if in prayer.
“No need for that,” Ajax relented pushing Danny’s hands away. “I trust you Cutr, if you
think this is best, then let’s go ahead and clean this place up. What do we put in our report?”
Danny hadn’t thought that far ahead. “I’ll say it was a false signal, an echo from a local
TV station. I can tweak some data to back it up.” Danny noticed the look on his friend’s face.
51
“Check in with Sweeper Two, tell them we had a flat tire and I’ll get to work.” He clapped Ajax
on the shoulder and went to work cleaning the site.
It only took a few minutes to clear the batteries and cables. Ajax dug a hole behind the
house and all the equipment was tossed in. Once the hole was filled in, they got back into the
van. Danny took his pen knife to the spare tire to back up the story and they headed back to base.
52
Chapter Six
The ride back was quiet. Danny couldn’t tell if Ajax was mad or just thinking and he
didn’t want to ask. Once back at the base he relayed the story of the wild goose chase and the flat
tire. Ajax backed him up and both went to file their reports. It was several hours until Danny
could get back to his apartment and look at what he had found. Time flew by and he didn’t come
up for air until his phone rang. “Yeah,” he picked it up.
“Hey, Cutr, Ajax. Did you find anything?” His voice was a mix of hope and dread.
“Not over the phone. C’mon over, and I can show you.”
“Sure.” Ajax hung up and showed up at his door about twenty minutes later. “So what do
you have?”
“Well, the PDA was old all right, but it was top of the line in the day. It had a second
wireless chip installed. That’s how it was able to send two signals at the same time.”
“So it was a trap?”
“Yes and no.”
“Explain.”
“Well if the “can antenna” had been pointed directly at the road than I think, yes it was
trap. The signal was designed to transfer the virus if it found a receiver code on the other end.
Just driving by would have tripped the transfer.”
“We could have been infected before we even knew it.”
“Exactly, but that isn’t what they wanted.”

53
“What did they want?”
“That’s the second part of the mystery. I caught the virus on a virtual machine,” Danny
waited for the protest of some sort he would have gotten from anyone else, but none came. Ajax
just nodded and Danny continued. “I took the virus code and ran it through the PDA system and
sure enough there was another layer of code in the virus.”
“A message?”
“A website address.”
“You mean like an old style or new style?”
“Old style, real old. In fact digging through the archives I almost missed it.”
“What is it?”
“The address leads to a website for a Mennonite community in eastern Ohio.”
“An Amish website?”
“It wasn’t exactly their website. It looks like something the Ohio Tourism Board put up
to attract tourists. I looked it up and it’s only about 6 hours from here. I’m thinking about talking
to Agent Johnson and trying to get permission to check it out.”
“Why? What in the world do the Amish have to do with these rogue signals?”
“Even better question and more important, this style pda would have been one of the first
to go down when the V-bomb hit,” Danny could tell Ajax wasn’t following. “Whoever had this
either never used it or had some way to keep it clean all this time.” A light went on in his friends
head.
“So they may know how to clean the V-bomb.”

54
“Or at least how to block it,” Danny was excited and couldn’t contain it. “Let’s go talk to
Johnson now-“
“No. Hang on a minute. How much of this is real and how much is speculation?”
Danny felt the excitement drain out of him. He knew Ajax would back him and so far he
hadn’t been one hundred percent honest with him and now he was asking him to put his career
on the line. It was time to be perfectly clean. “I should have told you yesterday, but then it was
just an anomaly.”
“What anomaly?”
“On the mission yesterday, when the virus hit something came though on my screen.
Here, look at this.” Danny pulled the images up on his computer screen; the old website came
into view for Ajax.
“Is this the same site?”
“Yeah, the way I figure it this image was sent through first as a bread crumb or point of
comparison. Then when and if we found the second signal we would know they were from the
same people. Ajax, someone is trying to tell us something.”
Ajax sat quietly staring at the image on the screen trying to absorb everything Danny had
said and what it could mean. “Cutr, if you can stop the virus, life goes back to what it was?”
“There’s been a lot of damage done, but instead of starting over we would be able to pick
up where we left off. So yeah, we would find our balance again and put the war behind us.” It
wasn’t the best answer, but it sure beat, I don’t know. “I can try and get permission myself, or I
can just go, but either way my chances are better with you on my side.”
55
“All right, all right, I think you’re a little crazy but you haven’t been wrong yet.” He
paused for a brief second, “I never thought I would say it, but let’s go visit Amish country.”

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SD Hatfield www.sdhatfield.com Tip of the Spear

Outskirts Press, Inc. Denver, Colorado

Tip of the Spear

Outskirts Press, Inc. http://www.outskirtspress.com

This book is dedicated to two people

Thanks for your help!

have never come if it weren’t for the convention.

that connects to main system or if it proxies to another secured terminal.

Danny shook it off and smiled.

“Sir, it would be much easier if you gave me your real name.”

indeed forming behind him. “Please sir,” she pressed.

thought better of it and handed the keyboard over.

lists and we can’t go around shouting our real names.”

badge. It looked right so Danny took it from her.

Danny walked into the Exhibition Center.

swing. Danny almost lost track of the time, so much to see.

crossed the length of the Exhibition Hall.

they could steal from the ether.

meet you. I’m Kim, we traded some e-mails.”

She lit up and started talking faster than he could follow.

“Kim, slow down. One word at a time.”

of himself to slow her down.

was that big of a deal?”

turned toward her laptop. “Ready to start the interview?”

questions I just will not answer.”

“No, that would be stupid.”

“Can you tell me your real name?”

about this? How did you get the name Cutr?”

“How long have you gone by that?”

“Can I ask how old you are?”

“Seventeen. Eighteen next month.”

“Wow, you’ve been doing this awhile.”

“Ever since my parents died.”

hard it is to hang on to something like that through five foster homes?”

about the program you’re debuting today.”

waiting for the answer.

little more before going on. “I have to ask, why?”

“Then why bother? How will this help?”

would just spill out. “Does any of that make sense?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Danny chuckled.

Government, but they tended to complicate things.

“What about them?”

“Wouldn’t they be interested in something like this?”

“Well, it’s just that, they could---“

what’s next for Cutr?” It was a standard fluff question.

“You managed to get here all right.”

“We only live a few hours away.”

typing and shut the lid on her notebook.

watched as people filed out of the conference room.

demo caused some people to wet their pants out there.”

“So it’s fame over professionalism.”

the doors in back.

to come along? They might have something for you.”

Danny’s other shoulder and shook him.

him back down.

decided to see how deep he was in.

“Who are you and what do you want?”

his jacket as he sat down. “Johnson, Agent Jack Johnson.”

time and we’ve all been a little tense lately.”

second for it to set in that Johnson used his real name.

“You called me Danny.”

as anonymity online?” Johnson laughed at the Danny’s naiveté.