Digital Fortress Chapter 123-126

Chapter 123An ashen technician ran to the podium. Tunnel blocks about to goJabba turned to the VR onscreen. The attackers surged forward, entirely a whisker away from their go once against on the fifth and final w on the whole. The databank was running out of time.Susan blocked out the chaos around her. She have Tankados bizarre heapage over and over.PRIME diversion BETWEEN ELEMENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKIIts non even a question Brinkerhoff cried. How can it have an answer?We need a number, Jabba reminded. The kill-code is numeric.Silence, Fontaine said evenly. He turned and turn to Susan. Ms. Fletcher, youve gotten us this far. I need your best guess.Susan took a deep breath. The kill-code entry field accepts numerics only. My guess is that this is several(prenominal) sort of clue as to the correct number. The text edition mentions Hiroshima and Nagasaki-the ii cities that were hit by nuclear bombs. Maybe the kill-code is related to the number of casualties , the estimated dollars of damage She paused a moment, reading the clue. The word contravention substantiatems important. The eyeshade disparity between Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Apparently Tankado mat up the two incidents differed somehow.Fontaines expression did not change. Nonetheless, hope was fading fast. It seemed the political backdrops surrounding the two most devastating blasts in history needed to be analyzed, compared, and translated into some magic number and all within the next five minutes.Chapter 124Final case under attackOn the VR, the PEM authorization programming was now creation consumed. Black, penetrating chores engulfed the final protective shield and began forcing their way toward its core.Prowling hackers were now appearing from all over the world. The number was doubling almost every minute. Before long, anyone with a computer-foreign spies, radicals, terrorists-would have access to all of the U.S. governments classified development.As technicians tr ied vainly to sever power, the assembly on the podium studied the message. Even David and the two NSA agents were attempt to crack the code from their van in Spain.PRIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELEMENTS RESPONSIBLE FORHIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKISoshi thought aloud. The elements responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki Pearl Harbor? Hirohitos refusal toWe need a number, Jabba repeated, not political theories. Were talking mathematics-not historySoshi fell silent.How about payloads? Brinkerhoff offered. Casualties? Dollars damage?Were looking for an exact figure, Susan reminded. Damage estimates vary. She stared up at the message. The elements responsible collar thousand miles away, David Beckers look flew open. Elements he declared. Were talking math, not historyAll heads turned toward the satellite screen.Tankados playing word games Becker spouted. The word elements has multiple meaningsSpit it out, Mr. Becker, Fontaine snapped.Hes talking about chemical elements-not sociopolitical onesBecke rs announcement met blank looks.Elements he prompted. The periodic table Chemical elements Didnt any of you see the movie Fat Man and Little Boy-about the Manhattan Project? The two atomic bombs were different. They used different fuel-different elementsSoshi clapped her hands. Yes Hes right I read that The two bombs used different fuels One used atomic number 92 and one used plutonium 2 different elementsA hush swept across the room. uranium and plutonium Jabba exclaimed, suddenly hopeful. The clue asks for the difference between the two elements He spun to his army of workers. The difference between uracil and plutonium Who knows what it is?Blank stares all around.Come on Jabba said. Didnt you kids go to college? Somebody Anybody I need the difference between plutonium and uraniumNo response.Susan turned to Soshi. I need access to the Web. Is there a browser here?Soshi nodded. Netscapes sweetest.Susan grabbed her hand. Come on. Were going surfing.Chapter 125How much time? Jabba demanded from the podium. on that point was no response from the technicians in the back. They stood riveted, staring up at the VR. The final shield was getting dangerously thin.Nearby, Susan and Soshi pored over the results of their Web search. Outlaw Labs? Susan asked. Who are they?Soshi shrugged. You neediness me to open it?Damn right, she said. Six hundred forty-seven text references to uranium, plutonium, and atomic bombs. Sounds standardised our best bet.Soshi opened the link. A disclaimer appeared.The information contained in this record is strictly for academic use only. Any layperson attempting to construct any of the devices described runs the risk of radiation poisoning and/or self-explosion.Self-explosion? Soshi said. Jesus.Search it, Fontaine snapped over his shoulder. Lets see what weve got.Soshi plowed into the document. She scrolled past a recipe for urea nitrate, an explosive ten times more powerful than dynamite. The information rolled by like a recipe for mere lyterscotch brownies.Plutonium and uranium, Jabba repeated. Lets focus.Go back, Susan ordered. The documents too big. Find the table of contents.Soshi scrolled backward until she found it.I. Mechanism of an Atomic BombA) AltimeterB) Air Pressure DetonatorC) Detonating HeadsD) volatile ChargesE) Neutron DeflectorF) Uranium PlutoniumG) Lead ShieldH) FusesII. Nuclear Fission/Nuclear FusionA) Fission (A-Bomb) Fusion (H-Bomb)B) U-235, U-238, and PlutoniumIII. History of the Atomic WeaponsA) Development (The Manhattan Project)B) plosion 1) Hiroshima 2) Nagasaki 3) By-products of Atomic Detonations 4) Blast Zones Section two Susan cried. Uranium and plutonium GoEveryone waited while Soshi found the right section. This is it, she said. Hold on. She quickly scanned the data. Theres a lot of information here. A whole chart. How do we know which difference were looking for? One occurs naturally, one is man-make. Plutonium was first discovered by-A number, Jabba reminded. We need a number.Susa n reread Tankados message. The prime difference between the elements the difference between we need a number Wait she said. The word difference has multiple meanings. We need a number-so were talking math. Its some opposite of Tankados word games-difference means subtraction.Yes Becker agreed from the screen overhead. Maybe the elements have different poesy of protons or something? If you subtract-Hes right Jabba said, turning to Soshi. Are there any numbers on that chart? Proton counts? Half-lives? Anything we can subtract?Three minutes a technician called.How about supercritical mass? Soshi ventured. It says the supercritical mass for plutonium is 35.2 pounds.Yes Jabba said. Check uranium Whats the supercritical mass of uranium?Soshi searched. Um 110 pounds.One hundred ten? Jabba looked suddenly hopeful. Whats 35.2 from 110?Seventy-four point eight, Susan snapped. But I dont think-Out of my way, Jabba commanded, plowing toward the keyboard. Thats got to be the kill-code The di fference between their critical masses Seventy-four point eightHold on, Susan said, peering over Soshis shoulder. Theres more here. Atomic weights. Neutron counts. Extraction techniques. She skimmed the chart. Uranium splits into barium and krypton plutonium does something else. Uranium has 92 protons and 146 neutrons, but-We need the most obvious difference, Midge chimed in. The clue reads the primary difference between the elements. Jesus Christ Jabba swore. How do we know what Tankado considered the primary difference?David interrupted. Actually, the clue reads prime, not primary.The word hit Susan right between the eyes. Prime she exclaimed. Prime She spun to Jabba. The kill-code is a prime number appreciate about it It makes perfect senseJabba instantly knew Susan was right. Ensei Tankado had built his career on prime numbers. Primes were the fundamental building blocks of all encryption algorithms-unique values that had no factors other than one and themselves. Primes worked well in code writing because they were impossible for computers to guess using typical number-tree factoring.Soshi jumped in. Yes Its perfect Primes are essential to Japanese culture Haiku uses primes. Three lines and syllable counts of five, seven, five. All primes. The temples of Kyoto all have-Enough Jabba said. Even if the kill-code is a prime, so what There are endless possibilitiesSusan knew Jabba was right. Because the number line was infinite, one could always look a little farther and find another prime number. Between zero and a million, there were over 70,000 choices. It all depended on how large a prime Tankado decided to use. The bigger it was, the harder it was to guess.Itll be huge. Jabba groaned. Whatever prime Tankado chose is sure to be a monster.A call went up from the rear of the room. Two-minute warningJabba gazed up at the VR in defeat. The final shield was starting to crumble. Technicians were rushing everywhere.Something in Susan told her they were close. We can do this she declared, taking control. Of all the differences between uranium and plutonium, I bet only one can be represented as a prime number Thats our final clue. The number were looking for is primeJabba eyed the uranium/plutonium chart on the monitor and threw up his arms. There must be a hundred entries here Theres no way we can subtract them all and check for primes.A lot of the entries are nonnumeric, Susan encouraged. We can ignore them. Uraniums natural, plutoniums man-made. Uranium uses a gun barrel detonator, plutonium uses implosion. Theyre not numbers, so theyre irrelevantDo it, Fontaine ordered. On the VR, the final wall was eggshell thin.Jabba mopped his brow. All right, here goes nothing. Start subtracting. Ill take the top quarter. Susan, youve got the middle. Everybody else split up the repose. Were looking for a prime difference.inside seconds, it was clear theyd never make it. The numbers were enormous, and in many cases the units didnt match up.Its apples and goddamn oranges, Jabba said. Weve got gamma rays against electromagnetic pulse. Fissionable against unfissionable. Some is pure. Some is percentage. Its a messIts got to be here, Susan said firmly. Weve got to think. Theres some difference between plutonium and uranium that were missing Something simpleAh guys? Soshi said. Shed created a second document window and was perusing the rest of the Outlaw Labs document.What is it? Fontaine demanded. Find something?Um, sort of. She sounded uneasy. You know how I told you the Nagasaki bomb was a plutonium bomb?Yeah, they all replied in unison.Well Soshi took a deep breath. Looks like I made a mistake.What Jabba choked. Weve been looking for the wrong thing?Soshi pointed to the screen. They huddled around and read the text the common misconception that the Nagasaki bomb was a plutonium bomb. In fact, the device employed uranium, like its sister bomb in Hiroshima.But- Susan gasped. If both elements were uranium, how are we supposed to fin d the difference between the two?Maybe Tankado made a mistake, Fontaine ventured. Maybe he didnt know the bombs were the same.No. Susan sighed. He was a cripple because of those bombs. Hed know the facts cold.Chapter 126One minuteJabba eyed the VR. PEM authorizations going fast. Last line of defense. And theres a crowd at the door.Focus Fontaine commanded.Soshi sat in front of the Web browser and read aloud. Nagasaki bomb did not use plutonium but rather an artificially manufactured, neutron-saturated isotope of uranium 238.Damn Brinkerhoff swore. Both bombs used uranium. The elements responsible for Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both uranium. There is no differenceWere dead, Midge moaned.Wait, Susan said. Read that last part againSoshi repeated the text. artificially manufactured, neutron-saturated isotope of uranium 238.238? Susan exclaimed. Didnt we just see something that said Hiroshimas bomb used some other isotope of uranium?They all exchanged puzzled glances. Soshi dementedly scrolled backward and found the spot. Yes It says here that the Hiroshima bomb used a different isotope of uraniumMidge gasped in amazement. Theyre both uranium-but theyre different kindsBoth uranium? Jabba muscled in and stared at the terminal. Apples and apples PerfectHow are the two isotopes different? Fontaine demanded. Its got to be something basic.Soshi scrolled through the document. Hold on looking okayForty-five seconds a voice called out.Susan looked up. The final shield was almost invisible now.Here it is Soshi exclaimed.Read it Jabba was sweating. Whats the difference There must be some difference between the twoYes Soshi pointed to her monitor. LookThey all read the text two bombs employed two different fuels precisely identical chemical characteristics. No ordinary chemical extraction can separate the two isotopes. They are, with the exception of minute differences in weight, perfectly identical.Atomic weight Jabba said, excitedly. Thats it The only difference is their weights Thats the key Give me their weights Well subtract themHold on, Soshi said, scrolling ahead. Almost there Yes Everyone scanned the text. difference in weight very slight gaseous diffusion to separate them 10,032498X10?134 as compared to 19,39484X10?23.** There they are Jabba screamed. Thats it Those are the weightsThirty secondsGo, Fontaine whispered. Subtract them. Quickly.Jabba palmed his calculator and started entranceway numbers.Whats the asterisk? Susan demanded. Theres an asterisk after the figuresJabba ignored her. He was already working his calculator keys furiously.Careful Soshi urged. We need an exact figure.The asterisk, Susan repeated. Theres a footnote.Soshi clicked to the bottom of the paragraph.Susan read the asterisk footnote. She went white. Oh dear God.Jabba looked up. What?They all leaned in, and there was a communal sigh of defeat. The tiny footnote read **12% margin of error. Published figures vary from lab to lab.