Page 112 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

Even though she had access to all of theOregon’s two-hundred-plus CCTV cameras, she had decided to only follow Murphy wherever he went rather than randomly investigate the other crew members and departments. Her instincts had proven right. Murphy had been the key to finding the AGI system Peng was so desperate to locate.

And because she had tracked with Murph, she had not only seen but heard and recorded both Eidolon’s coded message and the probable location of theBaktun.

Now she had to transmit all of that information without getting caught. But with Murphy on his way up to take her to the waiting tilt-rotor, she had very little time to accomplish her task.

The main obstacle she faced was avoiding theOregon’s advanced Sniffer electronics suite. It could easily detect her unauthorized radio or satellite/cell transmission and blow her cover.

But she had already put together a plan. She would avoid detection by hiding her secret transmission within an authorizedOregontransmission.

Because she had already broken into theOregon’s mainframe, she had access to every aspect of the ship’s operations. One of the thingsshe had discovered was theOregon, like many other legitimate commercial cargo ships, automatically uploaded navigational updates every ten seconds to a commercial satellite system. Each update included longitude, latitude, speed, and time.

Linlin took a cue from the brilliant Eidolon. She exchanged decimal numbers from the navigational updates with her own encoded message.

She then set up a program that automatically uploaded those altered navigational updates. Unless someone had a reason to check every decimal number, there was little chance the ruse would be noticed. In fact, navigation systems tolerated minor rounding or fluctuations in such numbers.

But that wasn’t enough. After navigational updates were uploaded to a satellite they were then directed to a server on the other end for use by third parties. In this case, she noticed theOregonwas connected to a cargo service. But Linlin’s Guardian contact didn’t have access to it.

To solve that problem, she accessed theOregon’s satellite system on the mainframe and added a secondary IP address—just like adding a “cc” to an email. Now the adulterated navigational update containing her encoded information about Project Q would be delivered to an untraceable dark web Guardian server.

As soon as Eidolon’s message about theBaktunwas deciphered by Murphy and Stone, she encoded her message and then sliced it up into smaller fragments, feeding each one into one of the ten-second satellite updates. In less than three minutes, the first part of the message was delivered to the dark web server.

She had to wait another fifty-three minutes before Murph and Eric cracked the location problem. Once that was solved, she coded, sliced, and uploaded the second part of her message in just fifty seconds.

The more time-consuming task was to erase all of the logs that showed her accessing theOregon’s Cray computer. She also needed to delete all of the other digital breadcrumbs she’d left behind as she traipsed through the mainframe, including the security camera and navigational systems.

She was so utterly focused with her task she lost track of time.When Murphy knocked on her door it rang like a shotgun blast, sending a shock wave through her system.

“Coming,” she said as she frantically shoved her makeshift computer into her backpack with a sweep of her hand and tossed it onto her bed as she crossed over to the door.

“Murph! So glad you stopped by.” She waved him inside. “Come in.” She saw the hangdog look in his eyes, pretending not to know what was behind it. “Something wrong?”

Murphy shrugged. “No, actually it’s good news. The Chairman is arranging for you to fly wherever you need to go and he’ll pay your hotel expenses and stuff, too.”

“Really? Wow. That’s very kind of him. When will this all be happening?”

Murphy ran a hand through his mop of hair.

“Uh…now, I guess. You need to get packed right away.”

“Oh. So soon?” She pretended to be upset. In fact, she was thrilled to get off the boat and as far away as possible before theOregontechs figured out what she had done.

“Any idea where you want to go?”

“I’m still not sure. I think my aunt in Toronto is my safest bet. She hates the Communists.”

Lying was as easy as breathing for the Chinese spy. She had no intention of letting Murph or anyone else know where she was going. She glanced around the room. “I’ll need a few minutes to get packed up and ready. Do I have time to take a shower?”

“Sure. Do you need any help?”

“In the shower?”

Murph blushed. “No, I meant packing.”

Linlin smiled at his discomfiture. “Give me fifteen minutes and then come get me, okay?”

“Okay.”

She gave him a gentle shove out the door and shut it, desperately trying not to shout with joy.