[Rogue Warrior 18] Curse of the Infidel Read Online Free

lamp. The LEDs revealed a forest of large mainframe computers and peripheral equipment.
    We’d had to guestimate the room’s arrangement, and my little light now revealed that our guesses were more than a little off. Working with layouts from other data centers, we’d assumed that the machines would be pushed back near the walls, with a large open area at the center. But here the large units formed a corridor immediately inside the room, and to get to the operator area, you had to walk between them. This actually made my job easier, though; there would be a lot more area to work in when I removed the access panel from the machine.
    Assuming I could find the right one.
    The bank used an IBM System Z, a rather impressive computer system. The machine cases themselves are high couture—for silicon. The large black boxes with the occasional slash of blue were joined together by bundles of wires that ran along the floor and some of the sides of the units, a bit like ivy without the leaves.
    It took me several minutes to find the right box. I narrowed it down to three based on the outside covers, then used a small plug-in device to see which one had the right addresses in the system.
    I’m parroting what Shunt told me—I have only the vaguest idea of the technical details of what I was doing. From my perspective, I was plugging what looked like a fancy thumb drive into a diagnostic panel on the bottom of the machine. If the LED light lit, I had the right machine. It took all three tries—when I got to the last one, I had to cross my fingers: there was no backup plan if the device didn’t work.
    Unit located, I opened the front of the case and looked for the support processor unit, which looked like a stamped card with two little boxes for plugs. I put a jump wire and card into the left opening. Then I counted off cards until I found the bulk power hub. This contained a long row of connectors, which looked very similar to the network connectors you might use on your own home computer. I slipped Shunt’s doohickey into the third hole, connected it to the jumper, then pushed a little switch at the very end of the doohickey.
    Then I stood back and waited.
    According to Shunt, the device would open a path for him within two computer cycles or some other odd measurement of time that only he knows. He would call Mongoose once he was in. At that point I could dismantle everything and go grab a beer.
    But instead of Mongoose, I heard Shotgun blaring in my ear.
    “Hey, Dick—those guys are breaking into the bank. Shit!”
    The next second, the bank alarm began to sound.
    We had reached the most marvelous stage of any operation—the condition known to aficionados as SNAFU. As in Situation Normal: All Fucked Up.
    *   *   *
    Somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic, Shunt and his assistant were hunched over a pair of computers, attempting to connect with the mainframe I was kneeling in front of. According to our plan, he would get into the system—his little doohickeys made the computer think he was a diagnostic routine—and once there, call and tell me I could shut everything down.
    Apparently, his coding wasn’t as perfect as he thought.
    “Shotgun, pack up,” I said over the radio.
    “I’m ready to go.”
    “Dick, I don’t like the looks of this,” warned Mongoose. “You better get out of there.”
    “In a minute. You hear from Shunt?”
    “Negative. I hear police cars.”
    “Stand by.”
    I pulled out my sat phone and quick-dialed Shunt. It probably only took a second or two to connect, but it certainly felt like forever.
    “I’m working on it,” said Shunt, answering.
    “I have two idiot bank robbers downstairs, and cops on the way,” I told him. “Make it work now. ”
    He answered with a string of curses, echoing my unvoiced thoughts. Then he was quiet. “Try the backup address switcher,” he said finally. “Then go back and move the dip switch forward.”
    “What the hell are you talking about,