Read Zero Day: A Novel for Free Online

Internet—and this assumes we’re dealing with more than one and not a single virus with different manifestations—they’re going to cause a lot of trouble, not just in home and business computers but in government and military ones as well.”
    “Well, that’s good,” Carlton said.
    “Excuse me?”
    “I mean that they are going after computers in which my department has a direct concern,” he said hastily. “Not that the viruses are good as such.”
    Daryl bit her tongue. She needed this fool’s help.
    “I’m saying that’s the kind of thing we are so effective at interdicting,” Carlton added, dragging his eyes away from her chest. He’d first met Daryl when she’d worked at the National Security Agency in 2000. She’d been assigned to liaison with his Cyberterrorism–Computer Forensics Department at the CIA. She’d been unexpectedly forthcoming, even providing some source data they’d lacked, which proved quite accurate. But the best part of the arrangement had been her drop-dead looks. He’d suggested drinks more than once, but got nowhere. Neither had anyone else in the department.
    He’d been more than pleased when he learned that she’d left NSA and was now assistant deputy executive director CISU (Computer Infrastructure Security Unit)/DHS and head of a team at US-CERT (Computer Emergency Readiness Team), which technically reported to him at DHS, where he was now chief of counter cyberterrorism. US-CERT was expected to operate independently, alerting him only when they came upon an issue of national security. This was the first time she’d ever asked to work in the field. He doubted he even had the authority to refuse, but he was damned if he was going to acknowledge any limits to his power.
    “Aren’t the hospitals cooperating?” he asked, squaring his shoulders to look more forceful.
    “Sure,” Daryl confirmed. “But I don’t know what they’re holding back, thinking it’s not important. The virus or viruses will have left tracks. I can’t trust others to find them. That’s not what they do. They just want to get their systems functioning. We need to educate ourselves quickly. The protections at one of these infected hospitals were much better than those of, say, nuclear power plants.” She met his eye to see if she was making her point. “We need to know, George. We can’t sit on this.”
    For a moment Carlton wondered what she knew, and if that was meant to be a veiled threat. “Well, of course you should go. Thanks for keeping me in the loop. Keep me posted.”
    He watched her retreating figure with more than a little regret and sighed. These computer types were always getting worked up over nothing. The few attractive women among them were the worst.

6
    KELLOGG, IOWA
    SKUNK RIVER NUCLEAR GENERATING STATION
    MONDAY, AUGUST 14
    11:43 A.M.
    Barnett Favor scanned the computer screens with a practiced eye, then leaned back in his chair. He’d begun his shift at six that morning and had just finished lunch. On most days he “assumed the position,” as he jokingly called it—closed his eyes and took a catnap. Either of the other two men on the shift, or the computers themselves, would alert him if he was needed. Favor crossed his hands comfortably on his stomach and closed his eyes.
    The Skunk River Nuclear Generating Station was a General Electric boiling-water reactor, located on the Skunk River some forty miles east of Des Moines. It provided nearly half of the electricity of the city, while the rest of its output was distributed throughout the eastern rural stretch of the state and into western Illinois. One of the last nuclear power plants completed in the United States, it had undergone an extensive overhaul in 2005 and was now entirely modern.
    In the years since the disaster at Three Mile Island, when multiple human errors had caused a partial core meltdown, enhanced reliance had been placed on computers to handle the complex decision-making necessary if something