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

damaged in a data-storage mishap." Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    "Mishap," Nolan muttered, sharing a look with Gillette.
    Linda Sanchez, eyes wide, said, "You don't think I mean, he couldn't've cracked VICAP. Nobody's ever done that."
    Anderson said to the younger cop, "Try the state databases: Oregon and Virginia state police case archives."
    In a moment Mott looked up. "No record of any files on those cases. They vanished." Mott and Miller eyed each other uncertainly. "This's getting scary," Mott said. Anderson mused, "But what's his motive?"
    "He's a goddamn hacker," Shelton muttered. "That's his motive."
    "He's not a hacker," Gillette said.
    "Then what is he?"
    Gillette didn't feel like educating the difficult cop. He glanced at Anderson, who explained, "The word
    'hacker' is a compliment. It means an innovative programmer. As in 'hacking together' software. A real hacker breaks into somebody's machine only to see if he can do it and to find out what's inside - it's a curiosity thing. The hacker ethic is it's okay to look but don't touch. People who break into systems as vandals or thieves are called 'crackers.' As in safecrackers."
    "I wouldn't even call him that," Gillette said. "Crackers maybe steal and vandalize but they don't hurt people. I'd call him a 'kracker' with a k. For killer."
    "Cracker with a c, kracker with a k" Shelton muttered. "What the hell difference does it make?"
    "A big difference," Gillette said. "Spell 'phreak' with a ph and you're talking about somebody who steals phone services. 'Phishing' - with a ph - is searching the Net for someone's identity. Misspell 'wares' with a z on the end, not an s, and you're not talking about housewares but about stolen software. When it comes to hacking it's all in the spelling."
    Shelton shrugged and remained unimpressed by the distinction.
    The identification techs from the California State Police Forensics Division returned to the main part of the CCU office, wheeling battered suitcases behind them. One consulted a sheet of paper. "We lifted eighteen partial latents, twelve partial visibles." He nodded at a laptop computer case slung over his shoulder. "We scanned them and it looks like they're all the victim's or her boyfriend's. And there was no evidence of glove smears on the keys."
    "So," Anderson said, "he got inside her system from a remote location. Soft access - like we thought." He thanked the techs and they left.
    Then Linda Sanchez - all business at the moment, no longer the grandmother-to-be - said to Gillette,
    "I've secured and logged everything in her machine." She handed him a floppy disk. "Here's a boot disk." This was a disk that contained enough of an operating system to "boot up," or start, a suspect's Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    computer. Police used boot disks, rather than the hard drive itself, to start the computer in case the owner - or the killer, in this case - had installed some software on the hard drive that would destroy data.
    "I've been through her machine three times now and I haven't found any booby traps but that doesn't mean they aren't there. You probably know all this too but keep the victim's machine and any disks away from plastic bags or boxes or folders - they can create static and zap data. Same thing with speakers. They have magnets in them. And don't put any disks on metal shelves - they might be magnetized. You'll find nonmagnetic tools in the lab. I guess you know what to do from here."
    "Yep."
    She said, "Good luck. The lab's down that corridor there." The boot disk in hand, Gillette started toward the hallway.
    Bob Shelton followed.
    The hacker turned. "I don't really want anybody looking over my shoulder." Especially you, he added to himself.
    "It's okay," Anderson said to the Homicide cop. "The only exit back there's alarmed and he's got his jewelry on." Nodding at the shiny metal transmission anklet. "He's not