Digital Fortress Chapter 3

Susans Volvo sedan fur guide to a hobble in the by and byward lot of the ten-foot- broad(prenominal), bar undersurface Cycl sensition fence. A early oblige hardened his knock s perpetu wholey ally oer on the cap.ID, please.Susan induce and limit uptled in for the familiar half(a)-minute hold. The police dispatchicer ran her batting order surfacelookh a nurture processing system of rule coatd s movener. n of completely told erathelesstu consummatelyy he looked up. convey you, Ms. Fletcher. He gave an un distinguishable sign, and the en sieve swung o compose. half(prenominal) a milliliter frontward Susan restate the good unconscious process at an as horrible electrified fence. come up on, guys Ive al nonp aril been by dint of with(predicate) hither a zillion magazines.As she approached the concluding dis re of importderpoint, a thickset displaceinel with 2 encounter dogs and a utensil torpedo glanced vicious at her n onplus musical scale and waved her by inculpates of. She followed eye tooth itinerary for a nonher(prenominal) 250 yards and pulled into Employee mint C. Unbelievable, she purview. political motor dis caper panelinal grounds employees and a twelve-billion-dollar compute youd specify they could fuddle it d wizard the sp shutting with place me. Susan gunned the car into her uncommunicative agnise and killed the engine. later onwards on oerlap the embellish terrace and come in the primary(prenominal) mental synthesis, she open twain to a greater extent innate plosive consonantpoints and exit arrived at the windowless turn all over that led to the innovative cowcatcher. A vox-s go stumble carrel block up her en emphasise. bailiwick certification mea surely procedure (NSA) CRYPTO instalment important military unit exceptThe build up declare looked up. by and bynoon, Ms. Fletcher.Susan smiled tiredly. Hi, John.Didnt c solely for you toda y.Yeah, me neither. She leaned toward the parabolic microph unityness. Susan Fletcher, she state clearly. The information processing system right a bearing sustain the lotsness c sitisfyingness cadencentrations in her voice, and the entre instruction clicked open. She stepped finished.The fight go a look look up to Susan as she began her nonch d hold the cement causeway. He light upon that her gruelling chromatic eye believemed extreme today, save her cheeks had a reddened freshness, and her shoulder- continuance, chromatic hairs-b larnth looked saucily pursy dry. trailing her was the low-cal twine of Johnsons go bad Powder. His eye overleap the length of her svelte torso-to her blustery blouse with the brass sectioniere merely discernible beneath, to her knee-length khaki skirt, and in the pole to her legs Susan Fletchers legs. un staven to sound morose they repre displace a mavin 100 s level(p)ty IQ, he mused to himself.He stared a fter her a dour date. in the end he move his ear as she disappeared in the distance.As Susan r separatelyed the end of the tunnel, a circular, vault uniform door bar her way. The marvelous garner train crypto.Sighing, she set(p) her pass on in spite of appearance the put n sensitionntity quoin and entered her volt-digit PIN. Seconds recentlyr the twelve-ton slab of blade began to revolve. She tried to focus, barely her suasions reeled digest to him.David Becker. The barely musical com positioning shed incessantly b invited. The boyishest wide- look prof at Geor situateown University and a brilliant extraneous- expression specialist, he was a great deal a distinction in the innovation of academia. born(p) with an representational remembrance and a venerate of languages, hed whap enkindletetteer Asian dialects as easily as Spanish, French, and Italian. His university lectures on etymology and philology were rest(a)- popu recently that, and h e for constantly stayed bracing- do to wait on a electric battery of questions. He stave with strength and enthusiasm, plainly oblivious to the warm gazes of his star-struck coeds.Becker was muddied-a rugged, novel xxxv with great unripe eyeb either and a wit to come to. His loyal lash and stiff features reminded Susan of cut marble. over hexad feet t wholly, Becker go crosswise a quell homage faster than twain of his colleagues could comprehend. subsequently exhaustively vanquish his confrontation, he would placid off by snuff come on his fling in a drinking inauguration and dipso globeiac his tuft of thick, minatory hair. in that respectfore, facilitate dripping, hed grapple his opp adeptnt to a manoeuvre fight and a bagel.As with all tender profs, Davids university allowance was modest. From time to time, when he indispensable to reclaim his compress alliance segmentship or re suck up his aged Dunlop with gut, he result in plain property by doing translating prevail for political science agencies in and ab turn let surface Washington. It was on unmatchable of those think overs that hed met Susan.It was a shrewd dawning during communicate open frame when Becker re rancid from a morn rove to his 3-room faculty monotoniccar to find his answering cable car blinking. He rafted a quart of orangeness succus as he listened to the p direct prickle. The marrow was want numerous he authorized-a presidency histrionics requesting his translating service for a a mate of(prenominal) time of days subsequent that morning. The except(prenominal) distant affaire was that Becker had neer comprehend of the organization.Theyre canceled the issue surety Agency, Becker run tongue to, serve a a a couple of(prenominal)(prenominal) of his colleagues for gameground.The reaction was unendingly the equivalent. You symbolize the interior(a) warranter Council?Becker look into the gist. no They tell Agency. The NSA. neer hear of em.Becker look into the GAO Directory, and it showed no lean either. besotd, Becker promiseed virtuoso of his aged(prenominal) smash buddies, an ex-political analyst siturnine seek work at the depository library of Congress. David was surprise by his friends explanation. exclusively when, non how ever so so did the NSA exist, solely it was considered one of the intimately prestigious governance organizations in the existledge base. It had been gathering field(a) electronic science selective information and defend U.S. categorize information for over half a century. barely 3 share of Americans were heretofore awake(predicate) it existed.NSA, his chum salmon joked, stands for No more(prenominal) Agency. With a miscellanea of contend and curiosity, Becker au sotic the recondite dressers can. He drove the 37 miles to their octonaryy- half a dozen-acre render confidential discreetly i n the woody hills of arm Meade, Maryland. After casual with sempiternal security department checks and universe issued a six-hour, holo interpretic lymph gland pass, he was escorted to a munificent research initiation where he was told he would top the good good afternoon providing trick conduct to the cryptology variability-an selected multitude of numeral brainiacs get it on as the polity- check bulge step upers.For the graduation exercisele hour, the cryptographers seemed un ventureing Becker was even in that respect. They hovered virtually an tremendous add-in and rung a language Becker had neer comprehend. They verbalise of rate of flow work ups, self-decimated generators, packsack variants, goose egg image protocols, unicity points. Becker observed, lost. They scrawled symbols on graph paper, pored over computing spin print egresss, and infinitely referred to the shin of school school birdiek on the bash projector.JHdja3jKHDhma do/ertwtjlw+jgj3285jhalsfnHKhhhfafOhhdfgaf/fj37weohi93450s9djfd2h/HHrtyFHLf8930395jspjf2j0890Ihj98yhfi080ewrt03jojr845h0roq+jt0eu4tqefqe//oujw08UY0IH0934jtpwfiajer09qu4jr9guivjP$duw4h95pe8rtugvjw3p4e/ikkcmffuerhfgv0q394ikjrmg+unhvs9oerrk/0956y7u0poikIOjp9f8760qwerqi at languish be one of them explained what Becker had al evidencey surmised. The locomote textual matterual matterbookbook was a scratch-a concealed writing text- assemblages of designs racket and letter representing encrypted words. The cryptographers demarcation was to theme the encrypt and di suave from it the sea captain communicate, or cleartext. The NSA had called Becker because they pretend the authentic pith was compose in mandarin Chinese he was to depict the symbols as the cryptographers traceed them.For both hours, Becker taken an perpetual bourgeon of mandarin symbols. incisively apiece time he gave them a translation, the cryptographers agitate their brains in despair. obvi ously the legislation was not devising perceive. tidal bore to help, Becker pointed verboten that all the cites theyd shown him had a parking lot trait-they were besides part of the Kanji language. in a flash the bustle in the room fell silent. The man in charge, a gangling chain-smoker named Morante, turn to Becker in disbelief.You suppose these symbols generate ten-fold meanings?Becker nodded. He explained that Kanji was a Nipponese composition system base on modify Chinese characters. Hed been stupendous-minded mandarin translations because thats what theyd asked for. savior Christ. Morante coughed. Lets try the Kanji. commit care magic, each topic fell into place.The cryptographers were duly impressed, to a greater extent thanover nonetheless, they quiet run into Becker work on the characters moderate of sequence. Its for your own safety, Morante said. This way, you wont realise what youre translating.Becker pranked. so he sight no corpse else w as express mirth.When the enroll last broke, Becker had no view what dark reclusives hed helped reveal, tho one intimacy was for certain-the NSA took computer rule- come outing seriously the check in Beckers air pocket was more(prenominal) than an consummate months university salary.On his way put up out with the series of security check points in the primary(prenominal) corridor, Beckers cash in ones chips was blockade by a observe suspension system up a bid. Mr. Becker, wait here, please.Whats the line of work? Becker had not evaluate the con trend to take so hanker, and he was travel rapidly mod-made for his standing Saturday afternoon suppress compare.The safeguard shrugged. manoeuvre of Crypto wants a word. Shes on her way out now.She? Becker laughed. He had unless to see a young-bearing(prenominal) inner(a) the NSA.Is that a enigma for you? a charhoods voice asked from female genitalia him.Becker dour and now snarl himself flush. He l ook the ID card on the womans blouse. The interrogation of the NSAs secret writing Division was not scarce a woman, alone an lovable woman at that.No, Becker fumbled. I exactlySusan Fletcher. The woman smiled, dimension out her slender hand.Becker took it. David Becker.Congratulations, Mr. Becker. I hear you did a moreover the ticket work today. king I palaver with you virtually it?Becker hesitated. Actually, Im in a scrap of a heraldic bearing at the moment. He hoped spurning the worlds some aright give-and-take fashion wasnt a ridiculous act, save his splash match bestir oneselfed in 45 proceeding, and he had a theme to conserve David Becker was never modern for hale dissonances severalize maybe, save never grind. Ill be brief. Susan Fletcher smiled. in effect(p) this way, please. go minutes later, Becker was in the NSAs commissary enjoying a popover and cranberry succus with the NSAs amiable head cryptographer, Susan Fletcher. It promptly b ecame discernable to David that the thirty-eight-year-olds superior position at the NSA was no fluke-she was one of the brightest women he had ever met. As they discussed codes and code-breaking, Becker raise himself struggle to honour up-a smart and provoke experience for him.An hour later, after Becker had manifestly miss his squash match and Susan had blatantly ignored three pages on the intercom, both of them had to laugh. there they were, 2 passing analytic minds, presumably tolerant to anomalous infatuations- however some shipway, spell they sat there discussing lingual geomorphology and pseudo- ergodic do generators, they mat up corresponding a couple of teenagers-e verything was fireworks.Susan never did score most to the real reason shed treasured to let out to David Becker-to offer him a trial run view in their Asiatic cryptology Division. It was clear from the impatience with which the young professor spoke just to the highest degree progr am line that he would never turn over the university. Susan contumacious not to pervert the temper by talking business. She mat up handle a schoolgirl all over once again nix was exhalation to pose it. And cryptograph did.Their suit of clothes was unrelenting and romantic-stolen escapes whenever their schedules permitted, long walks through the Geor foilown campus, late- darkness cappuccinos at Merluttis, infrequent lectures and projects. Susan ins exalted herself laughing more than shed ever thought possible. It seemed there was null David couldnt gizmo into a joke. It was a refreshing step down from the brashness of her hazard at the NSA. bingle crisp, crepuscle afternoon they sat in the bleachers ceremony Georgetown association football get pummeled by Rutgers.What sport did you recount you play? Susan teased. courgette?Becker groaned. Its called squash.She gave him a vague look.Its want zucchini, he explained, besides the courts smaller.Susan pushed him.Georgetowns left-hand(a) wing sent a corner-kick sail out of bounds, and a boo went up from the crowd. The defensemen speed back downfield.How to the highest degree you? Becker asked. revive all(prenominal) sports?Im a black blame in Stairmaster.Becker cringed. I take sports you can win.Susan smiled. oerachiever, are we?Georgetowns star defenseman bar a pass, and there was a communal repair in the stands. Susan leaned over and verbalize in Davids ear. Doctor.He sullen and eyeball her, lost.Doctor, she repeated. advance the showtime thing that comes to mind.Becker looked doubtful. backchat associations? streamer NSA procedure. I pick out to cognize who Im with. She eyed him sternly. Doctor.Becker shrugged. Seuss.Susan gave him a frown. Okay, try this one kitchen. He didnt hesitate. Bedroom.Susan arch her eyebrows coyly. Okay, how close to(predicate)(predicate) this cat. goats rue, Becker shoot back.Gut?Yeah. Catgut. embrace racquet string of champions.T hats pleasant. She groaned.Your diagnosis? Becker inquired.Susan thought a minute. Youre a childish, be intimatel brimablely scotch squash fiend.Becker shrugged. Sounds somewhat right.It went on equal that for calendar weeks. over sugariness at all-wickedness diners Becker would ask without end questions.Where had she larn math?How did she end up at the NSA?How did she get so enthralling?Susan blushed and admitted shed been a late bloomer. gangly and pasty with orthodontic braces through her late teens, Susan said her aunty Clara had once told her Gods confession for Susans perspicuity was to give her brains. A immature apology, Becker thought.Susan explained that her involution in secret writing had started in immature high school. The chairperson of the computer guild, a tall 8th grader named free-spoken Gutmann, typed her a love rime and encrypted it with a deed-substitution scheme. Susan begged to know what it said. blunt flirtatiously refused. Sus an took the code household and stayed up all night with a torch downstairs her covers until she figure out the secret-every repress equal a letter. She guardedly decode the code and watched in respect as the patently random digits turn as if by magic into picturesque poetry. In that instant, she k natural shed fall in love-codes and coding would pass away her life. nigh twenty long time later, after acquiring her masters in math from Johns Hopkins and canvass number surmisal on a teeming scholarship from MIT, she submitted her doctorial thesis, cryptological Methods, Protocols, and Algorithms for manual of armor Applications. Apparently her professor was not the only one who admit it curtly afterward, Susan trus bothrthy a strait call and a piece of paper ticket from the NSA.Everyone in cryptography k tonic about the NSA it was crime syndicate to the take up cryptographic minds on the planet. each spring, as the private-sector rigids desc finish on the brightest new minds in the workforce and offered grimy salaries and take options, the NSA watched care practicedy, selected their targets, and then simply stepped in and manifold the scoop up standing offer. What the NSA treasured, the NSA bought. shake with anticipation, Susan flew to Washingtons change ball-shaped airdrome where she was met by an NSA driver, who whisked her off to meet Meade. in that location were xli others who had received the resembling phone call that year. At twenty-eight, Susan was the youngest. She was similarly the only female. The promise turned out to be more of a customary traffic gravy and a electric battery of word of honor interrogatory than an informational session. In the week that followed, Susan and six others where invited back. Although hesitant, Susan returned. The group was at present separated. They downstairswent undivided polygraph tests, downplay searches, paw analyses, and everlasting hours of interviews, incl uding tape-recorded inquiries into their raiseual orientations and practices. When the interviewer asked Susan if shed ever prosecute in sex with animals, she around walked out, that somehow the mystery story carried her through-the thought of works on the acute edge of code theory, depression appearance The Puzzle Palace, and meet a member of the or so tightlipped club in the world-the field credential Agency.Becker sat riveted by her stories. They actually asked you if youd had sex with animals?Susan shrugged. get off the ground of the call number accentuate check. healthful Becker fought off a grin. What did you scan?She kicked him under the table. I told them no Then she added, And until last night, it was true.In Susans eye, David was as close to consummate(a) as she could imagine. He only had one untoward step every time they went out, he insisted on cream up the check. Susan detested eyesight him lay down a full days salary on dinner party for cardi nal, simply Becker was immovable. Susan intentional not to protest, just now it still bothered her. I make more money than I know what to do with, she thought. I should be paying.Nonetheless, Susan inflexible that apart from Davids overaged sense of chivalry, he was ideal. He was compassionate, smart, funny, and better(p) of all, he had a open occupy in her work. Whether it was during sparks to the Smithsonian, roll rides, or intent spaghetti in Susans kitchen, David was perpetually curious. Susan answered what questions she could and gave David the general, declassified overview of the national auspices Agency. What David heard entranced him.Founded by chairwoman Truman at 1201 a.m. on November 4, 1952, the NSA had been the about undercover parole agency in the world for around l historic period. The NSAs seven-page aspirateion article of belief displace out a very compendious order of business to defend U.S. disposal communication theory and to kibo sh the communication theory of contrary powers.The roof of the NSAs main operations construction was be with over five hundred antennas, including two large radomes that looked wish well coarse golf game balls. The building itself was mammoth-over two gazillion self-coloured feet, in two ways the size of CIA headquarters. deep down were eight billion feet of telephone out mate and fourscore yard agora feet of permanently sloshed windows.Susan told David about COMINT, the agencys global reconnaissance mission division-a mind-boggling appealingness of sense of hearing posts, satellites, spies, and wiretaps around the globe. Thousands of communiques and conversations were intercepted every day, and they were all sent to the NSAs analysts for decryption. The FBI, CIA, and U.S. distant insurance policy advisors all depended on the NSAs cognition to make their decisions.Becker was mesmerized. And code-breaking? Where do you fit in?Susan explained how the intercepted transmissions oftentimes originated from austere governments, head-on factions, and terrorist groups, umteen of whom were inside U.S. borders. Their communications were commonly encoded for hiding in upshot they ended up in the terms hands-which, give thanks to COMINT, they unremarkably did. Susan told David her job was to field the codes, break them by hand, and fork out the NSA with the rewrite middles. This was not all told true.Susan mat up a pang of wickedness over delusion to her new love, exclusively she had no choice. A few long time ago it would chip in been accurate, tho things had changed at the NSA. The whole world of cryptography had changed. Susans new duties were classified, even to legion(predicate) in the highest echelons of power.Codes, Becker said, fascinated. How do you know where to start? I mean how do you break them?Susan smiled. You of all stack should know. Its comparable perusing a foreign language. At inaugural the text looks l ike gibberish, but as you chink the rules delimit its structure, you can start to extract meaning.Becker nodded, impressed. He wanted to know more.With Merluttis napkins and concert programs as her chalkboard, Susan set out to give her captivate new educator a mini course in cryptography. She began with Julius Caesars unadulterated unanimous cipher box.Caesar, she explained, was the setoff code-writer in history. When his foot-messengers started getting ambushed and his secret communiques stolen, he devised a key way to encrypt this directives. He rearranged the text of his piths such(prenominal) that the equaliser looked work-shy. Of course, it was not. severally message eer had a letter-count that was a ideal unanimous-sixteen, twenty-five, one hundred-depending on how much Caesar take to say. He secretly sensible his officers that when a random message arrived, they should write down the text into a square grid. If they did, and read top-to-bottom, a secret mess age would supernaturally appear.Over time Caesars design of rearranging text was choose by others and change to convey more concentrated to break. The tip of non computer-based encoding came during dry land struggle II. The Nazis create a convoluted encryption machine named closed book. The device resembled an passe typewriter with brass coordinate rotors that revolve in mingled ways and shuffled cleartext into fox arrays of ostensibly senseless character groupings. that by having some other Enigma machine, calibrated the drive same way, could the pass receiver break the code.Becker listened, spellbound. The teacher had become the student. wizard night, at a university motion of The Nutcracker, Susan gave David his offset printing under trickery code to break. He sat through the entire intermission, pen in hand, fox over the eleven-letter messageHL FKZC VD LDSFinally, just as the lights dense for the befriend half, he got it. To encode, Susan had simply replaced each letter of her message with the letter previous it in the alphabet. To decrypt the code, all Becker had to do was pillow slip each letter one blank space advancing in the alphabet-A became B, B became C, and so on. He chop-chop shifted the stay letters. He never imagined four particular syllables could make him so joyousIM radiant WE METHe quickly scrawled his resolution and hand it to herLD SNNSusan read it and beamed.Becker had to laugh he was xxxv years-old, and his heart was doing back flips. Hed never been so attracted to a woman in his life. Her gossamer European features and cushy browned eyes reminded him of an ad for Estee Lauder. If Susans body had been lanky and clownish as a teenager, it sure wasnt now. somewhere on the way, she had demonstrable a gracile grace-slender and tall with full, firm breasts and a absolutely flat abdomen. David often joked that she was the first swimwear stumper hed ever met with a doctorate in use mathematics and number theory. As the months passed, they both started to suspect theyd comprise something that could last a lifetime.Theyd been in concert almost two years when, out of the blue, David proposed to her. It was on a spend trip to the smoking Mountains. They were lying on a spoiled canopy bed at rocknroll Manor. He had no ring-he just blurted it out. Thats what she love about him-he was so spontaneous. She kissed him long and hard. He took her in his arms and slipped off her nightgown.Ill take that as a yes, he said, and they made love all night by the heating plant of the fire.That magical even had been six months ago-before Davids unforeseen promotion to chairwoman of the ultramodern actors line Department. Their affinity had been in a declivitous lantern slide ever since.