Craig Kreident #1: Virtual Destruction Read Online Free Page A

don’t have the authorization to—“
    Craig tapped the paper again with his forefinger and gave a Mount Rushmore smile. “I have all the authorization the law requires, sir.   After we’ve secured the clean room, you’re welcome to call. . . “ Craig searched his memory trying to recall the name of the senior VP of NanoWare.   “Ms. Ompadhe—and by all means send her down.”
    “Daniel,” Craig nodded to one of the men, “would you keep our friend company while we gain access to the clean room?   Then please see that he makes the right phone calls.”
    “Yes, sir,” Daniel said.   He pulled up a chair and sat next to the security guard.   He nodded at the fidgeting man.   “So, do you watch baseball?”
    Craig motioned for the other three agents to follow him down the slick hall.   Their shoes scuffed like muffled gunfire on the carpet.   When they were out of earshot, one of the other field agents, Ben Goldfarb, lowered his voice and spoke to Craig.   “I thought we couldn’t legally forbid them from using the telephone.   That’s not kosher is it?”
    Craig stared in feigned surprise at Goldfarb, pointing to himself innocently as if saying moi?   “I didn’t forbid him to use the telephone.   I just said I’d appreciate it if he didn’t, and I didn’t tell Daniel to forbid him either.   I just told him to stay there.”
    Goldfarb grinned, making small wrinkles around his dark eyes. “Yeah, but your meaning was implicit.”
    “Implicit doesn’t carry the law, Ben,”   He sighed, then let his demeanor soften now that he didn’t have to keep up the ‘tough agent’ facade.   “Look, I’ve been investigating these high-tech crimes long enough to know how little time it takes the bad guy to wipe the slate clean.   Five minutes worth of warning, and people can delete all sorts of incriminating files.   A diskette or two tossed into an incinerator will cause us months of reconstruction work, if not irreparable harm to our case.   A surprise inspection means just that—surprise.   Once we’re in position and babysitting them, they can do whatever they want.”
    True, before his time several blunders had been made during overzealous investigations against supposed computer crimes.   Most infamous was the Secret Service raid on a gaming company in Texas, that had been botched every way imaginable, from bogus charges to incorrectly filed paperwork, which had generated a lot of bad press.   That sort of thing happened when technologically illiterate agents tried to investigate a high-tech case.
    Craig specialized in that kind of work, though.   It took a smart agent to catch a smart bad guy.   Like in this case.   And NanoWare was no innocent bystander.
    Operatives in Malaysia and Singapore had traced bootleg microprocessor chips that had been flooding the market.   The path led through several sham corporations, directly back to the Silicon Valley company NanoWare.
    “Here, sir,” Jackson, ahead, pointed to a double airlock door with a flashing light mounted outside.   Through large, thick observation windows in the hall Craig could watch people in white garments, masks, and hair nets moving around cabinets of glittering microchip fabrication apparatus.
    “Okay, let’s go inside,” Craig said, stepping up to the airlock door that led into the changing room.   “I want you to suit up for the clean room.   Everything by the book.   Do minimal damage.   Our primary objective is to secure this facility, not to damage it.”
    They stepped to the door to the outer clean room, walking across a gray mat of stickum to pull away all the loose dust from the soles of their shoes. They passed into the changing area and rummaged in the cubicles for spare outfits.   A bin of dirty uniforms sat beside a sink. Wooden benches lined the walls near blue metal lockers.   Racks of folded white jumpsuits stood next to a box full of nylon hair nets and bins of thin plastic booties marked