Tom Clancy's Net Force 6-10 by Tom Clancy

silat from her more than sixteen years ago. Toni had been thirteen when she’d seen the old lady, past retirement age even then, clean up her front stoop with four thugs brave enough to threaten an old pipe-smoking granny. Guru had come from Java with her husband as a young woman, raised a family, and been widowed before Toni had been born. Her husband had taught her the family martial art usually reserved for men, and she in turn had passed it along to Toni.
    It would not be polite to ask the old woman why she had come nor how long she planned to stay, but as usual, Guru was ahead of her. She said, “I will take care of the baby while you work.”
    “Thank you, but, uh, I wasn’t planning on going back to work,” Toni said. “Not for a while, at least.”
    “Plans change, best girl. I think maybe you will go back very soon.”
    “I don’t see how—”
    The phone jangled. Toni was tempted to ignore it, let the computer take a message, but Guru waved at her. “You should answer that,” she said. “I will go and check on the coffee.” She smiled.
    Toni shrugged. As she reached for the com, she saw the ID.
    “Hey, Alex. What’s up?”
    “Trouble here in River City,” he said. “Got a major blowout on the web. It’s like somebody poked a stick in a nest of fire ants, they’re running around, mad as hell, biting everybody close. You know, I wish your mother hadn’t gone home, I could sure use your help on this.”
    Toni stared into the kitchen at Guru, who was pouring the coffee from the pot into a carafe, humming to herself.
    It had to be a coincidence. Had to be.
    But deep in her soul, Toni didn’t believe it. What she believed was, Guru had known !
    She couldn’t have known that Alex would say that. And yet, there she was, making coffee, as if Toni had called and asked her to come up and watch the baby. She had come here, knowing Toni could use her help.
    How was that possible?
    “Toni?”
    “Um. Yeah. Guru is here.”
    “Really? That’s great. How is she?”
    “Fine. She came to watch Little Alex so I could go back to work.”
    Alex didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Coincidence,” he finally said.
    “She said I’d be going back to work sooner than I expected. She got here ten minutes ago.”
    There was a long pause. “Coincidence,” he said again. “I have to believe that. It’s too spooky otherwise.”
    “Tell me about it.”
    “Coffee is ready,” Guru said from the kitchen. “Hello to Mr. Alex.”
    “Guru says hello.”
    “I heard.” Another pause. “Well, you might as well come on down here. I really do need all the help I can get.”

    Net Force HQ Quantico, Virginia

    Michaels cradled the receiver and shook his head. Someday, he was going to have to sit down with that old lady and ask her how this tenaga dalam , the “inside magic” she claimed to know, worked. There was probably some scientific explanation, but damned if he could figure out what it was.
    Meanwhile, he had bigger problems. He voxaxed Jay Gridley.
    “Talk to me, Jay.”
    “We got it tracked to Blue Whale,” Jay said.
    “Which is?”
    “Major West Coast backbone server. Couple-three big nodes there.”
    “What happened?”
    “Don’t know yet, boss.”
    “Go find out.”
    “I’m gone.”
    Michaels stood and headed for the door. His phone was going to ring in a minute or two, and the director of the FBI would be on the other end of the connection, wanting to know what the hell was going on. Since he didn’t have anything he could tell her, he wasn’t looking forward to the conversation.
    His secretary looked up at him as he passed her desk. “I’m going to the bathroom,” he said. “When the director calls, tell her I’m indisposed.”
    Becky said, “Take your virgil with you. I don’t want her yelling at me.”
    Virgil was short for Virtual Global Interface Link, a device slightly larger than a cigarette-pack that was a phone, modem, computer, weavewire fax, GPS, credit card, scanner,