Page 106 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

Eric opened it and pulled out a grimy leather wallet and a beat-up Canon point-and-shoot digital camera. He held it up. “Quite an antique.”

“Check out the wallet,” Linc said as he unbuckled his Timex and handed it to Cabrillo. “There’s some cash and probably a fake ID. But there’s also a memory card in there. I think it goes with the camera. Didn’t know if you needed the camera to read it or not.”

“We’ll check it out. Could be interesting.”

“Hope so,” Raven said.

Juan saw the guilt in her eyes. Failing to capture Eidolon alive was still eating her up. He understood the sentiment. He’d feel the same way. If Overholt was right, Eidolon’s intel could have prevented a catastrophe.

Cabrillo hoped whatever baton they had managed to pass along to his brainiac researchers could take them to the finish line, but he didn’t see how that was possible.

Not by a long shot.

?

Eric Stone and Mark Murphy were perched in front of a large computer monitor in the research lab. Though using the same computer, they each had their own wireless keyboards for input.

They had already pored over Eidolon’s measly “pocket litter” Linc had recovered. The Panamanian driver’s license was easily dismissed as a fake, just as Linc had suspected. They also examined the dead man’s money under a microscope in search of microdots, hidden text, or numerical codes. They even looked for nano-fabricated data threads woven in with the paper fibers, but they came up short. If there wasany kind of code or message embedded in any of those bills, they couldn’t find it.

That left the old-school digital memory card.

They pulled the Canon ELPH to see what was on the SD card. They wanted to use the camera to view the photos on the disk to protect theOregon’s mainframe computer from any kind of virus attack that might be hidden in it. They scrounged around and found a Li-ion battery for it, but when they went to power it up they discovered a chunk of bullet shrapnel had smashed the processor—a lucky break for Raven, but a terminal outcome for the Canon.

Now that the camera wasn’t an option, they took other precautions to view the card.

The first thing Murphy did was create a virtual machine on the mainframe. This guaranteed complete isolation of whatever nasty bugs might be on the MicroSD card from infecting the rest of theOregon’s systems.

“I don’t think that’s enough,” Eric said. “Eidolon’s the devil. We need to chain him down in computer hell.”

“Go for it.”

Stone’s fingers danced across his keyboard as he pulled down a sandbox tool, adding an additional, isolated layer of protection for the virtual machine’s own operating system.

“That’s locking him in a steel box inside of an iron cage,” Murph said.

“Can’t take any chances with a trickster god like him.”

“Shall we proceed?”

“Indubitably.”

Murphy connected a card reader to the computer and Eric inserted the camera’s memory card into it.

“Whaddya think?” Murphy asked. “Time to upload?”

“I’d feel better if we sprinkled some holy water on it.”

“Yeah, me too, but it might start swearing at us in Babylonian. Will you do the honors?”

“My pleasure.” Eric launched his favorite antivirus software toscan the memory card directly while it was still mounted in the reader before uploading the picture files.

While it was running, Murph downloaded image analysis software into the sandbox.

Twelve minutes later, the antivirus software signaled the disk was virus free.

“Looks like we’re good to go,” Eric said. “Your honors.”

Murph uploaded the picture files into the image analysis program. Within moments, one hundred forty-seven thumbnail images appeared on-screen.