Approx. 1,889 words
“What makes you think I had anything to do with this virus, Colonel, anything at all?”
“I don’t think, Rawlings, I act upon the evidence only. The Article 32 investigating officer and the United States Secret Service have built a pretty strong case against you. The virus you disseminated has had, and will continue to have, a devastating effect upon the government and the people of the United States.” Colonel Hawthorne used a number 2 pencil while doodling on his legal pad. Specialist Rawlings, sitting on the other side of a heavy wire mesh in the interview room was unable to see what the colonel was doing. As far as he knew, the colonel was making notes.
“The only points we have in your favor, Rawlings, is that there was no violence involved and no deaths have occurred. Yet,” he added.
“And you think there will be deaths, Colonel?” Rawlings asked.
“It’s inevitable. In just a few days, you’ve managed to wipe out the entire infrastructure of the United States government. There are thousands of experts working on a solution at this moment, but they face immense obstacles.”
“Will I be charged with murder, Colonel?”
“That’s possible, but highly unlikely, Rawlings. Murder requires intent, which I don’t think the government will be able to establish. They may, however, decide to charge you with voluntary manslaughter or reckless endangerment, both of which I believe they can prove, if they really want to. With a sentence of three to five years, for a hundred or more instances, you might as well call it a life sentence. You’ll never see daylight for several centuries. What I do know is they have already charged you with sabotage, and with our current involvement in the Middle East, they could ask for the death penalty. In spite of the fact that you’ve probably destroyed the retirement I’ve spent thirty years of my life working for, I’ll defend you to the maximum extent of my abilities. As an officer of the Judge Advocate General’s office, I have had considerable experience on both sides of the court room.”
“But even you will admit, Colonel, very few defendants in a court martial ever get off.”
“That’s because of the very detailed nature of an Article 32 investigation, Rawlings. It’s the military equivalent of the grand jury investigation for civilians. The purpose is to determine if there is sufficient evidence to warrant bringing a case to trial. Military officers are not interested in making headlines, they don’t have to run for re-election, their task is merely to determine if the charges can be proved.”
“And they’ve decided they can convict me?”
“There is always a chance I can get you off, Rawlings. The extensive safeguards the Army has built for protection against viruses like this will work in our favor. If I can show the court it would be highly unlikely you could have created this virus, perhaps even impossible, and even more difficult for you to have spread the virus, they may feel sorry for you and perhaps I can get you acquitted.”
“Answer me one question, Colonel, if you will, please.”
“Certainly, Rawlings.”
“Do I have the same protection for anything I tell you as if you were a civilian lawyer? I mean, privileged communication, that sort of stuff.”
“Yes,” the colonel answered. “Absolutely nothing you tell me can be used against you in any court of law. I am forbidden by military regulations, as well as my oath as an attorney, to reveal privileged information.”
“And even though I may have cost you your retirement, you’ll still defend me?”
“You have my word as an officer, Rawlings.”
“Okay then, I did it. I’m guilty, and I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. I saw it as the simplest and most effective means of shutting down the chemical weapons program and preventing the government from continuing to develop chemical and biological agents. Now that you know, is there any way you can use that in my defense? I mean, the government has sworn for decades that we are not involved in such research, I just made them stop, once and for all, so they don’t have to keep spreading the lies.”
“Good intentions do not constitute a valid defense, Rawlings. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency does not, and will not, produce chemical or biological weapons to employ in combat. Major General Wilson is a personal friend of mine as well as head of DARPA. I know that he personally feels the same way. The only use for the chemical and biological agents developed for DARPA is to allow us to create defenses against such agents.
“Unfortunately, you’ve also put a stop to that research as well. If the Army can’t protect our soldiers from attack by chemical and biological agents, it’s very likely many of them will die on the battle field.”
“That’s why you say I could be tried for their deaths?”
“It’s not only soldiers, Rawlings. The government funds medical treatment and medication for millions of veterans. Those people have already served their country and are entitled to that treatment.
“But it’s not just veterans. The government is the biggest funder of medical research which helps us to find cures or treatment for hundreds of diseases and conditions.
“On top of that, more than 40 million citizens collect social security benefits, either for retirement or medical care. You’ve managed to stop that also. The immensity of the damage your virus has caused is incalculable. There are many who suspect you may have single-handedly brought the United States government to an end. You may have destroyed the most powerful, and yet peaceful nation mankind has ever seen. How you bypassed all our technological safe guards is beyond me. I’m sure it’s quite a surprise to technical experts all around the country also. If you had applied your abilities to help our nation, rather than destroy it, I’m sure we’d be pinning a medal on you instead of court-martialing you.”
“It was easy, Colonel. All those experts are just too damned smart for their own good.”
Colonel Hawthorne was amazed that Rawlings could take such pleasure for the results of his treachery. “And you feel no guilt, Rawlings?”
“Why should I? They’ve spent billions defending their computer networks from virus attacks. The entire nation runs on computers. When I erased all the data, I simply shut them down. End of story. They weren’t smart enough to prevent it or stop me.”
“You shut down a lot of good work performed by those same computers, Rawlings.”
“So what? Now they’ll just have to learn to do it over again, the way is used to be done. If they ever switch back to computers again, they’ll have to watch out for someone else like me.”
“But how did you do it, Rawlings? How is it possible to infect millions of computers with a virus, when those computers are protected with the best anti-virus technology we can create?”
“You’re a military man, Colonel. You’re accustomed to thinking in terms of the direct frontal assault with overwhelming superiority. You’ve never had to think like an ant.”
“An ant? What the hell is that supposed to mean, Rawlings?”
“Ants are tiny little things, Colonel, almost helpless by themselves, Colonel. Yet together they can undertake huge projects and successfully complete them. Termites, too! A few termites can’t do very much damage, but tens of thousands of them can destroy the most expensive and grandiose buildings ever constructed.”
“I’m sorry, Rawlings, I don’t know much about insects or computers. You’ll have to be a little more helpful if you want to explain it to me.”
“I didn’t spread a single, massive virus all at once, Colonel. Like you said, anti-virus protection would have stopped that. I wrote a code consisting of 143 lines, and spread it one harmless line at a time. Because the individual lines were not destructive, they were never picked up by anti-virus software. I started over a year ago, and every computer shared those lines when it networked with another.
“The final step was to assemble the individual lines into the finished virus and then activate it. I chose April 16th as D-Day, the day after most income tax returns would have been filed. Then my virus caused each of the infected computers to begin writing nonsense data to every track and sector on the active hard drive, and then over-write the backup files automatically. That’s why I named my virus Iraqi Freedom. While your defense experts were looking for programs capable of mass destruction, I was spreading harmless lines that would eventually become the weapon. And it looks like I achieved my goal, doesn’t it?” Rawlings had a smug smile on his face, quietly feeling as though he was superior to anyone and anything on the planet.
“Well, not exactly, Rawlings. You see, I’m not really an attorney…”
On the other side of the interview room, Rawlings jumped to his feet. “But I wouldn’t have told you those things if you weren’t my attorney, Colonel. I believed I was talking to my attorney. You’ll never be able to use that information at my court martial!” Rawlings didn’t look so smug now. In fact, he looked truly frightened and concerned for his own future.
“You’ve no need to worry about that, Rawlings. There will be no court-martial. You see, I’m not really a JAG officer; I’m assigned to the John F. Kennedy for Special Warfare. I’m an expert in Psychological Warfare.
“The Secret Service is responsible for investigating all forms of computer crime. They discovered your first lines of code almost from the first, and quickly identified you as the source. But they had no way of knowing how big the entire program would be when compiled, and they didn’t know when the bomb would activate the virus, so they came to me for help.
“You see, today’s date is actually January 28th. Through small doses of drugs and repeated conditioning, I’ve been able to make you think the date is April 28th, and the virus has already destroyed our computer networks. From there, it wasn’t difficult for me to get you to tell me what I needed to know to identify the virus and remove it from our networks. I’m temporarily on loan to DARPA myself, Office of Computer and Electronic Security. By tomorrow my staff will have written an anti-virus program to seek out and destroy your virus.”
Rawlings looked hurt now, almost to the point of tears. “Then what will they do to me, Colonel?”
“You’ll receive psychiatric treatment and a medical discharge, Rawlings. The irony is, the very computer programs you tried to destroy will be used to pay for your continuing medical treatment. We are not the bad guys, Rawlings; no matter what you happen to think. We feel sorry for you because you are less fortunate than we are and we will try to help you, just the same as we are trying to do in Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
Colonel Hawthorne closed his legal pad and stood up to leave. At the door he paused to press the button to summon the sentry. “I’ve finished here,” he said into the intercom. “You can have Specialist Rawlings taken back to his cell now.”