Read Online The Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver - Free Book Online Page B

very thick and unruly and tended to fall into her face.
    After hands were shaken and introductions made she returned immediately to Gillette. She twined a mass of hair around her fingers and, not caring who heard, said bluntly, “I saw the way you looked at me when you heard I worked for Horizon.”
    Like all big commercial Internet service providers—AOL, CompuServe, Prodigy and the others—Horizon On-Line was held in contempt by true hackers. Computer wizards used telnet programs to jump directly from their computers to others’ and they roamed the Blue Nowhere with customized Web browsers built for interstellar travel. They wouldn’t think of using simple-minded, low-horsepower Internet providers like Horizon, which was geared for family entertainment.
    Subscribers to Horizon On-Line were known as HOLamers or HOLosers. Or, echoing Gillette’s current address, just plain HOs.
    Nolan continued, speaking to Gillette. “Just so we get everything on the table, I went to MIT undergrad and Princeton for my masters and doctorate—both in computer science.”
    “AI?” Gillette asked. “In New Jersey?”
    Princeton’s artificial intelligence lab was one of the top in the country. Nolan nodded. “That’s right. And I’ve done my share of hacking too.”
    Gillette was amused that she was justifying herself to him, the one felon in the crowd, and not to the police. He could hear an edgy tone in her voice and the delivery sounded rehearsed. He supposed this was because she was a woman; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doesn’t have jurisdiction to stop the relentless prejudice against women trying to make their way in the Blue Nowhere. Not only are they hounded out of chat rooms and off bulletin boards but they’re often blatantly insulted and even threatened. Teenage girls who want to hack need to be smarter and ten times tougher than their male counterparts.
    “What were you saying about Univac?” Tony Mott asked.
    Nolan filled in, “March 31, 1951. The first Univac was delivered to the Census Bureau for regular operations.”
    “What was it?” Bob Shelton asked.
    “It stands for Universal Automatic Computer.”
    Gillette said, “Acronyms’re real popular in the Machine World.”
    Nolan said, “Univac was one of the first modern mainframe computers, as we know them. It took up a room as big as this one. Of course nowadays you can buy laptops that’re faster and do a hundred times more.”
    Anderson mused, “The date? Think it’s a coincidence?”
    Nolan shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    “Maybe our perp’s got a theme of some kind,” Mott suggested. “I mean, a milestone computer date and a motiveless killing right in the heart of Silicon Valley.”
    “Let’s follow up on it,” Anderson said. “Find out if there’re any recent unsolved killings in other high-tech areas that fit this M.O. Try Seattle, Portland—they have the Silicon Forest there. Chicago’s got the Silicon Prairie. Route 128 outside of Boston.”
    “Austin, Texas,” Miller suggested.
    “Good. And the Dulles Toll Road corridor outside of D.C. Start there and let’s see what we can find. Send the request to VICAP.”
    Tony Mott keyed in some information and a few minutes later he got a response. He read from the screen and said, “Got something in Portland. February fifteenth and seventeenth of this year. Two unsolved killings, same M.O. in both of them, and it was similar to here—both victims stabbed to death, died of chest wounds. Perp was believed to be a white male, late twenties. Didn’t seem to know the victims and robbery and rape weren’t motives. The vics were a wealthy corporate executive—male—and a professional woman athlete.”
    “February fifteenth?” Gillette asked.
    Patricia Nolan glanced at him. “ENIAC?”
    “Right,” the hacker said then explained: “ENIAC was similar to Univac but earlier. It came online in the forties. The dedication datewas February fifteenth.”
    “What’s that