Free FATAL eMPULSE by Mark Young Page B

generous, indeed.”
    Richard folded his hands on the table and considered what he should say next. “Let’s be frank. You got yourself into a bit of a pickle. I know you are under investigation for releasing classified information. If they can prove this—”
    “That’s a bold-faced lie. I never—”
    Richard held up his hand. “Whoa, slow down, Scott. First, we both know better, don’t we?” He let that statement sink in for a moment.
    Unknown to Scott, military leaders and intelligence officers—when they learned someone had gained access to the plans—began to sweat bullets. Heads might roll if their secret got out. And Scott knew what he had done. Denial had just become second nature.
    Richard acquired the plans of a system that had already been used against the enemy—most noticeably against Syria in 2007. He had targeted this design once he saw its effectiveness. Israeli jets penetrated Syrian airspace without detection and destroyed a facility at Dayr az Zawr believed to be used to develop nuclear weapons. The Israel’s F-15s and F-16s caught the air-defense system, provided by the Russians, with its pants down.
    The Israelis—with Americans looking over their shoulders—zapped the Syrian air defense using two integrated programs. One identified as NCCT—network-centric collaborative targeting—by the military allowed operators to locate targets with minimum manipulation by human hands. Once NCCT found these targets, it handed the locations off to a system dubbed the Suter program. This second system electronically reduced the size of the target and zapped it with electronic impulses to corrupt the enemy’s system. Senior Suter entered that system—bouncing from network to network—until it penetrated the enemy’s communications loop, providing false information and signals that confused the enemy, even creating false targets and threats.
    It was this system that Scott sent to Richard. And Richard, in turn, sold to the Russians.
    Richard continued. “I said
if
they can prove it, you face substantial time in a federal penitentiary. That is, after the government gets through wringing every bit of information out of you. They might use words like
espionage
and
treason
at your trial. They really frown on that sort of thing. Do you understand where I’m going?”
    Scott squirmed as he contemplated his situation.
    “On the other hand,” Richard enjoyed the man’s discomfort, “I could protect you. And, as I mentioned before, offer you a very generous amount of money for what will total one day of work. How many others would promise you two million dollars? Right now, I understand you can’t even find work in your field. Something about being blacklisted because of trouble with you last employer.”
    “Those were lies they spread. They said I tried to sabotage the project. An outright lie. They can’t prove anything—because I’m innocent.”
    “Whoever set you up, Scott, they made it look like you purposefully inserted malware in the program you were asked to create after handing the plans off to an unknown party.”
    “I don’t understand how that happened. I never programmed that virus. It would have been idiotic for me to do that.”
    Richard nodded, trying not to smile. Henderson did not plant that virus. One of Richard’s contacts did and made it appear as if Henderson did it. Scott became an investigative target early on when they learned about his fight with the company over patent right and dividends. The company did not see it the same way, and Henderson flared up in front of witnesses. After they discovered the virus with a little help from Richard’s people, the company summarily fired Scott. Then Richard spread rumors throughout the industry about the incident, and Henderson could not find work anywhere. Now, Scott was ripe for the plucking.
    Henderson ran a hand through his thinning hair. “How can you protect me? And what do you want me to do?”
    A moment of decision.