usan returned to Node 3. Her conversation with Strathmore hadmade her increasingly anxious about David's safety. Herimagination was running wild.

"So," Hale spouted from his terminal. "What didStrathmore want? A romantic evening alone with his headcryptographer?"

Susan ignored the comment and settled in at her terminal. Shetyped her privacy code and the screen came to life. The tracerprogram came into view; it still had not returned any informationon North Dakota.

Damn, Susan thought. What's taking solong?

"You seem uptight," Hale said innocently. "Havingtrouble with your diagnostic?"

"Nothing serious," she replied. But Susan wasn'tso sure. The tracer was overdue. She wondered if maybe she'dmade a mistake while writing it. She began scanning the long linesof LIMBO programming on her screen, searching for anything thatcould be holding things up.

Hale observed her smugly. "Hey, I meant to ask you,"he ventured. "What do you make of that unbreakable algorithmEnsei Tankado said he was writing?"

Susan's stomach did a flip. She looked up."Unbreakable algorithm?" She caught herself. "Oh,yeah… I think I read something about that."

"Pretty incredible claim."

"Yeah," Susan replied, wondering why Hale had suddenlybrought it up. "I don't buy it, though. Everyone knows anunbreakable algorithm is a mathematical impossibility."

Hale smiled. "Oh, yeah… the BergofskyPrinciple."

"And common sense," she snapped.

"Who knows…" Hale sighed dramatically."There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt ofin your philosophy."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Shakespeare," Hale offered."Hamlet."

"Read a lot while you were in jail?"

Hale chuckled. "Seriously, Susan, did you ever think thatmaybe it is possible, that maybe Tankado really didwrite an unbreakable algorithm?"

This conversation was making Susan uneasy. "Well, wecouldn't do it."

"Maybe Tankado's better than we are."

"Maybe." Susan shrugged, feigning disinterest.

"We corresponded for a while," Hale offered casually."Tankado and me. Did you know that?"

Susan looked up, attempting to hide her shock."Really?"

"Yeah. After I uncovered the Skipjack algorithm, he wroteme—said we were brothers in the global fight for digitalprivacy."

Susan could barely contain her disbelief. Hale knows Tankadopersonally! She did her best to look uninterested.

Hale went on. "He congratulated me for proving thatSkipjack had a back door—called it a coup for privacy rightsof civilians all over the world. You gotta admit, Susan, the backdoor in Skipjack was an underhanded play. Reading the world'sE-mail? If you ask me, Strathmore deserved to getcaught."

"Greg," Susan snapped, fighting her anger, "thatback door was so the NSA could decode E-mail that threatened thisnation's security."

"Oh, really?" Hale sighed innocently. "Andsnooping the average citizen was just a lucky by-product?"

"We don't snoop average citizens, and you know it. TheFBI can tap telephones, but that doesn't mean they listen toevery call that's ever made."

"If they had the manpower, they would."

Susan ignored the remark. "Governments should have theright to gather information that threatens the commongood."

"Jesus Christ"—Hale sighed—"you soundlike you've been brainwashed by Strathmore. You know damn wellthe FBI can't listen in whenever they want—they'vegot to get a warrant. A spiked encryption standard would mean theNSA could listen in to anyone, anytime, anywhere."

"You're right—as we should be ableto!" Susan's voice was suddenly harsh. "If youhadn't uncovered the back door in Skipjack, we'd haveaccess to every code we need to break, instead of just whatTRANSLTR can handle."

"If I hadn't found the back door," Hale argued,"someone else would have. I saved your asses by uncovering itwhen I did. Can you imagine the fallout if Skipjack had been incirculation when the news broke?"

"Either way," Susan shot back, "now we'vegot a paranoid EFF who think we put back doors in all ouralgorithms."

Hale asked smugly, "Well, don't we?"

Susan eyed him coldly.

"Hey," he said, backing off, "the point is mootnow anyway. You built TRANSLTR. You've got your instantinformation source. You can read what you want, whenyou want—no questions asked. You win."

"Don't you mean we win? Last I heard, youworked for the NSA."

"Not for long," Hale chirped.

"Don't make promises."

"I'm serious. Someday I'm getting out ofhere."

"I'll be crushed."

In that moment, Susan found herself wanting to curse Hale foreverything that wasn't going right. She wanted to curse himfor Digital Fortress, for her troubles with David, for the factthat she wasn't in the Smokys—but none of it was hisfault. Hale's only fault was that he was obnoxious. Susanneeded to be the bigger person. It was her responsibility as headcryptographer to keep the peace, to educate. Hale was young andnäive.

Susan looked over at him. It was frustrating, she thought, thatHale had the talent to be an asset in Crypto, but he stillhadn't grasped the importance of what the NSA did.

"Greg," Susan said, her voice quiet and controlled,"I'm under a lot of pressure today. I just get upset whenyou talk about the NSA like we're some kind of high-techpeeping Tom. This organization was founded for one purpose—toprotect the security of this nation. That may involve shaking a fewtrees and looking for the bad apples from time to time. I thinkmost citizens would gladly sacrifice some privacy to know that thebad guys can't maneuver unchecked."

Hale said nothing.

"Sooner or later," Susan argued, "the people ofthis nation need to put their trust somewhere. There's a lotof good out there—but there's also a lot of bad mixed in.Someone has to have access to all of it and separate the right fromwrong. That's our job. That's our duty. Whether we likeit or not, there is a frail gate separating democracy from anarchy.The NSA guards that gate."

Hale nodded thoughtfully. "Quis custodiet ipsoscustodes?"

Susan looked puzzled.

"It's Latin," Hale said. "From Satires of Juvenal. It means 'Who will guard theguards?' "

"I don't get it," Susan said. " 'Whowill guard the guards?' "

"Yeah. If we're the guards of society, then whowill watch us and make sure that we're notdangerous?"

Susan nodded, unsure how to respond.

Hale smiled. "It's how Tankado signed all his lettersto me. It was his favorite saying."