Daemon by Daniel Suárez Read Free Book Online Page B

did you make Hadi and his coworkers promise not to tell anyone about your help?”
    “Because I was breaking the rules to help Hadi. That endangered my contract here. I made that clear to him.”
    “So you were asking Hadi to lie on your behalf?”
    “I was asking him not to tell people that I was doing his job.”
    Sarkar jumped in. “I was requesting advice merely, Jon.”
    Ross folded his arms. “Hadi, your exact words were that you had tried everything you could think of and wanted my help.” He turned back to Agent Straub. “A rogue process somewhere in his data center was broadcasting packets to the Web last night. Hadi couldn’t find it. The process was incredibly stealthy—possibly a kernel rootkit.”
    Sarkar shook his head emphatically. “There is no way to hide the source of network traffic, Jon. I told you this.”
    “Well, the test bed servers were definitely involved. Test servers are usually the weakest on security. They have beta software and they’re frequently reconfigured. So I had Hadi kill Icarus servers one through ten, and the packet broadcast stopped—even though it wasn’t supposed to be originating from there.”
    Agent Straub nodded, taking notes. “So you knew right where to look, then….”
    “That wasn’t my point.”
    Agent Vasquez ignored the discussion and picked up the phone. He dialed while Ross glanced at the computer screen. Sarkar had the Event Viewer maximized. “I see we’re starting the hunt on my machine.”
    Straub slid his credentials back into his suit pocket. “We haven’t ruled out an inside job.”
    “Of course. Forget the fact that I was the one who advised Hadi to shut that system down. Hardly something I’d do if I was the one running the exploit.”
    “You might, if you realized it had been discovered. It seems convenient that due to your involvement, the hard drives were erased.”
    Ross was poker-faced. “The rootkit destroyed the machine when I tried to shut it down. In any event, FBI forensics can reconstruct data from a wiped drive.”
    Vasquez hung up the phone. “They want us in the main data center.”
     
    As they moved down the hallway, Sarkar kept groaning softly and shaking his head. Ross didn’t take the bait. Sarkar finally muttered, “Jon, I had no choice but to tell them.”
    “Hadi, I’ve been in this business long enough to know better.“ Ross knew that no good deed goes unpunished, and though he hadn’t technically done anything wrong, helping Sarkar out with his little problem could result in the loss of his contract with Alcyone. Or worse, he thought, eyeing their FBI escort.
    “They were asking questions about what we did. This is the FBI, not human resources. They talked to us separately, and I knew that Maynard would mention you. Jon, what was I supposed to do? I do not wish to get deported.”
    Ross grimaced. “I should have known better than to get involved, Hadi.”
    “I am not a Muslim. I am a Hindu. You will tell them, won’t you?”
    Ross didn’t respond.
    Sarkar looked genuinely pained. “I am sorry, Jon.”
    “Ted Wynnik probably called the Feds in to force Accounting’s hand and have my contract canceled. He doesn’t like having people down here who don’t answer to him.”
    “Ted didn’t call the FBI, Jon.”
    “Then who did? You?”
    “No one did.”
    Ross stopped walking. “What do you mean?”
    “They came here on their own. Because of what the Icarus-Seven server did.”
    Ross looked back to the FBI agents. Straub motioned for him to keep moving.
    Just what have I gotten involved in here? Ross wondered.
     
    There were a lot of people in the data center. It was almost acceptably warm as a result. Sarkar’s boss, Ted Wynnik, leaned against a counter, glowering beneath thick eyebrows as he listened to two techs Ross hadn’t seen before. This was probably the A-team—the daytime shift. They looked at Ross with the special contempt reserved for young consultants.
    Half a dozen uniformed