Page 55 of The Devil's Ransom

“How? Why didn’t you take them right then?”

“Because we didn’t know it was them then. We can’t just rip someone off the street in a foreign country based on suspicion. We needed proof, and now we have it. The men in that apartment were involved in this attack, and that laptop is now being tracked. When it settles down, we’ll try again. You just keep working the ransomware. That’s your mission. We’ll work the cell.”

Hobbes nodded, happy with the words. It was clear the team would be wiped out, and with it, any evidence of his culpability.

The television inside the Oval Office switched to a breaking news story, and the president turned to it, saying, “At least we have some good news. Finally breaking ourselves from the Russian monopoly for a ride into space.”

The screen showed a rocket on platform 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the closed captioning on the screen scrolling along.

The first launch to the International Space Station with a compliment of both NASA astronauts and civilians.Alsothe first NASA manned launch of the Valkyrie rocket from Auriga Systems. A new world of space hasopened up.

Wolffe said, “Yeah, a bunch of civilians and a billionaire. What could go wrong?”

President Hannister smiled and said, “I’m with you. It worries me to no end, and I’m not sure if this is good or bad, to be honest, but it’s better than relying on the Russians.”

Hobbes turned from the screen and said, “I thought that launch was next week?”

“No. Well, it was, but the weather pushed it into the first bit of the launch window. NASA still has oversight of the launchpad, even if Fitch owns the rocket.”

Hobbes nodded, now wanting to leave the room. He said, “Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir? I’m sorry I haven’t cracked the code, but you must understand, that’s expected.”

He didn’t mention, of course, that he’d done absolutely nothing to crack the code, given that it was his own.

President Hannister said, “No. Thank you for coming. Just keep us informed if you make any headway. You have Wolffe’s secure number, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

Palmer led him back to the West Wing entrance and said, “We appreciate what you’re doing here. It’s like that space launch. American commercial enterprises helping the national security of the United States. The NSA couldn’t help us with this problem, and the only ones in the past who could help us with the launch were the damn Russians. Now that’s changed.”

Hobbes chuckled and said, “I don’t think I’ve been a lot of help, but thanks. And I don’t know anything about space launches.”

Palmer patted him on the back and said, “You don’t need to know about space. Your help here on earth has been invaluable.”

Dylan Hobbes walked back to his car without another word. He’d been disingenuous with that answer. While he dealt in the realm of cyberspace, he knew a great deal about Auriga’s spaceventures. It was the target he’d chosen for his ultimate objective. He’d followed the company’s rise and thought it the perfect vehicle—no pun intended—to return America back to what he’d known in his youth.

There had been two things that had united the U.S. in his life. One was theChallengerdisaster in 1986. The other was 9/11. He’d been a college student in 1986, but had seen how it had coalesced the feelings of patriotism in the United States. Later, much later, he’d seen the same thing when the twin towers fell. And he’d decided to re-create both in a single strike. Remake the partisan bent of the United States into one of unified goals.

He’d watched Skyler Fitch spend his billions on creating a commercial space tourism company, eventually becoming the leader in both government and commercial spaceflight against a host of competitors. Government, in that his rockets resupplied the International Space Station, and commercial in that those same rockets took rich people into space for brief moments solely for the bragging rights of having been there.

This launch was the first combination of both. In a race to beat the Russians yet again—who’d actually sent a civilian camera crew to the space station for a Russian movie—this one was the first fully civilian crew to fly to the space station.

The members included an actual retired NASA astronaut, the billionaire himself, a former fighter pilot who was now a senator on the subcommittee on space and science, and a schoolteacher from Little Rock, Arkansas.

That final person was key. He remembered theChallenger,the last time a teacher had been sent into space, only to disintegrate on live TV for all to see. She was key to his plans. If the destruction of the spacecraft could be blamed on an enemy, the entire UnitedStates would forget about their petty political differences and coalesce around a new feeling of national unity.

The Cold War had been frightening for many reasons, but in Hobbes’s mind, it had also provided a unifying theme. No matter how bad the politics got inside the United States, there was always a threat. He wanted to re-create that time.

If it involved a war, so be it. That was the price of saving this democracy. Wars had always saved America. Name one that hadn’t. Every single war the United States had entered had caused a rally around the flag that made the people realize they lived in a better country than the petty disagreements seemed to show.

Stock market crash in 1929? World WarII took care of that. Splinters at the edge of the reconstruction after? Korea took care of that. Infighting among the political parties over petty differences? 9/11 stopped that in its tracks, at least for a little while. Yeah, there had been some issues with Vietnam, and Iraq had most certainly been a debacle, but that was because nobody had shown the public what was at stake. They had no idea, and he was going to change the calculus.

No longer would people like him, who spent their entire lives protecting the fragile fabric of democracy in the United States, be pilloried by some elected asshole out for points. The entire architecture of the United States would turn to fight, and in so doing, the entire population of the United States would quit its petty political disagreements to join together against a greater threat.

That had been the plan initially, but with the ransomware attack against some top-secret organization inside the U.S. government, Hobbes had decided to protect himself instead of proceed. But now, he might be able to do both.

He drove out of the White House complex, went far enoughaway to be clear from whatever electronic devices were monitoring that area, then pulled over to the side of the road, dialing a number he’d promised he would never use again, routing the call through the Bluetooth in the car.

The phone rang and rang. He knew that even with the time change he was within daylight hours, and wondered if he’d been cut free. Like the guy didn’t want to talk anymore because he’d heard of the issues from the ransomware cell.

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