Free The Doomsday Device by Darrell Pitt Page B

fit together?” Chad asked.
    “You may have heard of the rise of militia groups in the United States over recent years,” Mr. Floyd said. “They are isolated groups, very often numbering less than a few dozen individuals who band together against the government.”
    “Why are they against the government?” I asked.
    “They generally share a belief that the government is working against them and they have to take up arms to protect themselves.”
    “Where would they get that idea?” Chad asked sarcastically.
    Mr. Floyd ignored him. “Most of these groups are harmless, although a number of them have turned to violence over the years. As they break laws the government is required to step in and bring them to justice.”
    “I saw something on television about the Freeman movement,” I said.
    Mr. Floyd nodded. “They were one of the more violent groups. There have been others. Confrontations between the FBI and these groups have resulted in shoot outs and deaths.”
    “I still don’t see what this has to do with Ebony and the others,” Chad said.
    “We believe that your sister and the others were collateral damage,” Agent Palmer said. “We think your friend Ferdy was their real target.”
    “Ferdy?” Chad said in disbelief. “He can barely tie his shoelace. Why would they want him?”
    “Ferdy is challenged,” Agent Palmer agreed. “But he is far from stupid. Prior to leaving The Agency his IQ was measured to be three hundred and ten.”
    “Three hundred and ten?” I said. “Isn’t the average around one hundred?”
    “It is indeed,” Mr. Floyd confirmed. “Ferdy not only has a staggering ability to remember information, but he also has a unique ability to work with numbers and patterns.”
    I was finding this a little hard to believe. We had grown to accept Ferdy as one of our group over the last few months. Particularly since he had been so badly treated by The Agency, we had made a point of making certain he felt like an integral part of our dysfunctional family. In that time, however, apart from his amazing abilities to single-handedly wipe the Trivial Pursuit board with us or throw a car thirty feet, he had displayed little in the way of survival skills.
    He could barely change channels on the television without our help and Chad’s comment about his inability to tie his shoelace was not far off the mark. I had persevered in helping him carry out normal day to day tasks, but it had been a long battle. I had seen improvements, but it had made me sometimes wonder if he wouldn’t be better off in some sort of institution.
    An IQ of three hundred and ten?
    Really?
    “Assuming you’re right,” I said. “How can Ferdy help them?”
    Agent Palmer continued. “Doomsday is sealed within a tube constructed from T5K. That’s an incredibly dense metal only recently developed by the British government. It’s unlikely that even a nuclear blast could break it open.
    “A sophisticated locking mechanism keeps Doomsday contained. The code that operates that mechanism is called Barricade. It has some two hundred billion unique combinations. We believe it’s unbreakable, even by the world’s most sophisticated system.”
    “But if a computer can’t break it -.” Chad started.
    “How can a human?” Agent Palmer asked. “The human brain has between eighty and one hundred and twenty billion neurons. For most of us those neurons are sitting dormant while we carry out important duties like watching TV or eating our meals.
    “Ferdy’s brain is differently wired. He is able to focus his brain solely on a problem until he comes up with a solution. He is able to examine a problem from both a human and computer perspective. He can make leaps in thinking beyond any computer. He can see patterns to which the rest of us are blind.”
    “So you think Ferdy can crack this code?” I asked.
    “We think he can,” Mr. Floyd confirmed. “Apparently, so does Jeremiah Stead.”
    “So where is Stead?” I