Colony by Benjamin Cross (ready player one ebook .TXT) 📗

This is about you and your greed. Do you honestly think it’s in Russia’s interest to promote the neglect of the Arctic? To promote conflict? You short-sighted sonofabitch!”

“Mr Peterson—”

“Save it!” Peterson shouted. “You may kick-start your bankroll on this one, but this is only the start. What about the next project ten years from now, and the one after that, and the one after that, when it’s not you, but your children in the driving seat? You’re just plain deluded, you know that? You’re a power-mongering criminal, nothing more. And you’re certainly not a goddamn patriot!” He broke off, shocked at the vehemence of his own outburst. Then, just as suddenly, he started to laugh. Within seconds he was beside himself, his roars of hysteria echoing around the cavern. He removed his spectacles and wiped the tears from his eyes. “And you need me.”

“Excuse me?”

As quickly as it had started, Peterson’s laughter subsided. “I said, you need me.”

It was Volkov’s turn to laugh. “Well, now I am intrigued.”

A cocktail of fear, anger and loathing surged through Peterson’s veins, across his tongue and out over his lips. “One word, one letter. Stuxnet D.”

Volkov’s expression froze. For the first time since their encounter had begun, a quiver of uncertainty sounded in his voice. To most it would have been barely detectable. But to Peterson, it was as if somebody had smashed a gong over the bastard’s head. “You are lying.”

“Oh yeah? Check your goddamn footage!” Peterson began climbing slowly to his feet. “When I was in the security room on the Albanov, I uploaded the CCTV editor programme just as we discussed. But you’ll see I also uploaded something else from the data stick. A little something I left off the table.”

“And you expect me to believe that it was the Stuxnet programme?”

“No,” Peterson replied. “I expect you to believe that it was version five of the Stuxnet programme. Ten times more powerful than the previous version. Ten times harder to detect. Virtually impossible to eradicate without causing permanent, irreparable damage to the host system. It would’ve been transmitted straight back to your Unified Gas Supply System primary control centre on the mainland via your own security control signal. By now it will’ve spread to each and every one of your installations’ operating systems, nationwide.”

The two men stared at each other. Both knew that the original Stuxnet virus had been the most powerful computer worm of all time, specifically designed to attack SCADA systems operating national infrastructure, electrical grids, oil and gas installations and pipelines. It targeted specific critical sub-processes, altering them and cloaking those alterations from the relevant monitoring programmes, leaving critical errors undetected. The result? Catastrophic system failures.

What both men also knew was that Stuxnet D represented a massive advance in the potency of the virus, by allowing it to attack multiple sub-processes simultaneously at predefined intervals. It was the stuff of national security nightmares.

“You could not have obtained this.”

“Oh yeah?” Peterson’s eyes flashed. “You selected me, Volkov. What were your reasons again? My passion for the environment? My experience of clandestine eco-terrorism? But that’s not the half of it, is it? You’ve been funding my ventures for some time now, trying to woo me over and building up your goddamn evidence case file on me at the same time. Think about it. You know damn well that in me you’ve got a whole lot more than some jacked up, banner-waving hippy! You look at me like a piece of dog shit on your boot, but in me you’ve got the best. You think I’m not plugged in to the subversive underworld? I’m at the goddamn heart! You think I don’t have global contacts? I got a whole fucking international empire of contacts! I’m not the kind of person who can obtain Stuxnet on the black market? I’m exactly the sonofabitch who can obtain it. And if you weren’t so busy underestimating me, you smug fuck, you might’ve known all about it.”

Volkov stood quietly, just listening, his eyes searching Peterson’s for any sign of deception and evidently finding none.

“We’re both big players in our own separate little worlds,” Peterson continued. “Only me and my associates and our little global empire, aren’t in it for the money. We’re in it for the good of the planet, something the likes of you will never understand.” He watched as Volkov’s adamant expression finally wilted.

“And you know what clinches it? I did it for you, Finback. I did it for you, for God’s sake.” He was unable to stifle another full-on belch of laughter. “I thought it would impress you, you greedy, psychotic asshole! And now, well…” He moved his face closer, until their noses were almost touching. “I’d be interested to hear what Russia has to say when it emerges that the entire national gas infrastructure went bye bye on your watch.”

Volkov’s hand collided with Peterson’s throat. His fingers clamped into a vice-like grip as he shoved him back into the cavern wall and rammed the end of the pistol into his cheek. “How do I remove it?” he growled, composure a distant memory on his face.

“You don’t,” Peterson choked.

“Don’t fuck with me! Tell me how I remove it, now!”

“I’m telling you, you can’t!”

Volkov yelled out in fury, his pale cheeks flushed red with rage. He lifted Peterson from his feet and slammed him face-down onto the floor. No sooner had Peterson’s body hit the rock than Volkov was on top of him, his free hand moving feverishly through his pockets, around his person, searching. “Where is it?” he demanded.

“Where’s what?” Peterson replied, his voice muffled by the cold stone.

“The data stick. Where is it?”

“I destroyed it.”

“Bullshit!”

“Even if I hadn’t, you think I’d have it on me?”

Pain erupted in his back as Volkov drove a fist into his kidney.

“I’m telling you it’s not on me!”

“We shall see.”

Having patted him down and found nothing, Volkov thrust a gloved hand between his legs. Peterson screamed out as Volkov’s fingers searched around, crushing his testicles and