Read Buzzworm (A Technology Thriller): Computer virus or serial killer? for Free Online

start billing you from the time I entered the building or as soon as I lost consciousness?"
    She looked away from him, picked a cigarette from her breast pocket. "Why did you do it? For kicks? Just to prove you could?"
    He found his glass case in his jacket pocket and removed his reading glasses. "You obviously think I have something to do with that video from Hell you were watching. Did it occur to any of you to just ask me if I hacked that?" He put on the glasses, which were bent slightly out of shape. One lens was scratched. "You're going to pay for these. My lawyer will give you the rest of the details of my suit against you and your staff as soon as I get out of this asylum."
    She juggled the cigarette between her fingers. "What makes you think you'll ever get out?" Roger guessed she was playing games with his head, something he would describe as a wasted effort considering the shape his brain was presently in. He also guessed that they didn't allow smoking in the computer area and this was slowly driving his captor crazy. Jobime was either playing with the cigarette to calm herself or was so stressed out she was toying with the idea of breaking the rules. If she lights up, he thought, I'm going to puke .
    "You're saying it wasn't you?" Vienna asked.
    "On that screen? I saw enough hardware out there to run Star Wars. And you and I both know how easy it is to manipulate a video sequence with the right software. Someone could have pulled my face off the photo ID data you have in your system.” He wasn’t sure if she knew where he was from, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to volunteer that he was fresh out of prison.
    She sat down near his cot and folded her hands in her lap, the unlit cigarette still in her fist. She stared at him. "So we don’t have him then?"
    "Don't have who?"
    "The author of Buzzworm ."
    Roger shook his head then lay back against the cinder block wall. "You thought I created a virus, then got myself hired to fix it? Meanwhile, I put my face on the Freddy Krueger character that stars in this computer mini-series, flaunt it all over your net space, and hope that no one will catch on when I walk in the front door?" He rubbed his head under the bandage. It was beginning to itch like mad. "You people really do need help."
    Jobime was up now, pacing in front of him, her eyes on the ceiling, her hands linked behind her back. She seemed full of nervous energy. "That’s why we brought you in, Strange. You came highly recommended. Despite your present circumstances and a ridiculous hourly rate.”
    "Which just went up," Roger added. Vienna didn't smile. She was off in thought. "What we saw in there? Is that what this virus looks like?"
    She turned back to him. "One of its many forms."
    “Have your IT people done a complete scan of your network?”
    She gave him a look, like a child gives a clueless parent. “Numerous times. For several weeks. There is nothing there to find. Unless of course you know something we don’t.”
    He thought about that for a moment. He had worked with a team of star programmers specifically chosen by the American government two years before. Young hackers with reputations for getting past everything. They came from everywhere. India. China. Canada. Their job was to create an impregnable wall around the organization’s systems and data. They were sworn to secrecy and for good reason. There was a lot of fear that if it became known who had worked on the project, they would become targets. The CIA had called him back for a reason. But what about the others?
    “ And where did the name come from? Buzzworm ?”
    “You don’t know why?” she looked shocked. Like she was talking to the wrong person.
    ”I checked. No one in the virus community has ever heard of Buzzworm . You say it leaves no trace. So how do you know it even has a name?”
    “Every intrusion has been by video, sometimes screen images. Like the video you saw. They’re branded with a logo like you would see when