Devil's Fork

CHAPTER 52

  THURSDAY

  Wuhan, China

  SLOTHMAN finished drinking his fifth cup of hot water for the night. He usually drank hot water when he had to stay awake late. It was a trick his mother had taught him.

  He had slept only a few hours in the last few days. He almost felt that he was a regular soldier. But tonight was the most frustrating. He had thought he installed a rootkit in the CIA’s servers. He thought he would quickly be able to finish his job and get whatever files NATPAC needed. He just wanted to go home and sleep. But a few hours after he had told NATPAC he was close to being able to extract files from their servers, he had realized that he must have made a mistake. His rootkit was not working properly. It was buggy. He tried to redo the process. The server he was trying to get into was also acting strangely, and he could only see a few strange files on it. The files were unrelated to the CIA and were mundane. After reinstalling his rootkit, he realized it was still acting buggy and he needed to fix it further. Meanwhile, his computer started acting strangely. He had to restart it several times.

  Now it was almost sunrise and SLOTHMAN imagined that NATPAC would walk through the door any moment asking for information. SLOTHMAN was ashamed that he had nothing yet.

  Suddenly the main door to the bullpen of computers and desks swung open. NATPAC walked in at a brisk pace. SLOTHMAN felt his stomach tighten. As NATPAC walked by him he smiled, pointed at him, and said, “Let’s talk in a few minutes.”

  NATPAC then continued walking towards his office. SLOTHMAN sat up straight and tried to work as fast as he could. He knew it would be fruitless because he would not be able to fix his rootkit in a few minutes. He needed hours. He watched as NATPAC disappeared into his office. SLOTHMAN did not like the feeling that he would not be able to enjoy the luxury of sleep until he finished a seemingly impossible task.

  As he sat working, SLOTHMAN suddenly heard a loud scream. He looked up. He could sense that it was coming from NATPAC’s office. He stood up, as he felt all of his nerves electrify. NATPAC was screaming at the top of his lungs. SLOTHMAN never would have thought NATPAC could scream that loudly. A shrieking holler flooded out of the office and filled the main bullpen.

  Is someone in there trying to kill NATPAC?

  The screaming became so loud that SLOTHMAN himself wanted to scream. He started to feel jumpy but did not want to move.

  Then NATPAC emerged from his office. He moved in the gear somewhere between walking and running. His face looked red. As he came out he did not even see SLOTHMAN. He swiftly marched past while vigorously trying to put his jacket back on. He started running once he got to the main door. Soon SLOTHMAN was standing alone in a silence that made him shake after hearing NATPAC’s yelling.

  He slowly walked towards NATPAC’s office. He stepped inside carefully and saw that there was nobody inside. The office was dark other than the white light of NATPAC’s computer. SLOTHMAN walked towards it. There was a message on the screen. He leaned forward to see it. His body stiffened as he read the message.

  DEMOCRITUS?