Chapter 42 - THE KEYSTONE PROTOCOL
I grabbed Vance by the tactical collar and hauled him across the floor, stripping the encrypted titanium drive from his trembling fingers.
"The master key," I growled, pressing the cold barrel of my sidearm against his temple. "What is the authorization cipher?"
"Go to hell, Grant..." he choked out, gasping for breath as he coughed up toxic residue from the halon gas. "You can't stop the orbital relay. It's automated... it doesn't need me anymore!"
"He's telling the truth," Sarah called out, running into the vault and plugging her terminal directly into the keystone server rack. "The countdown at Mount Weather is down to three minutes! Grant, the satellite connection is hard-locked behind a twelve-digit cryptographic handshake. It requires the physical security key that was issued to the original operational commander of this sector."
"The original commander..." I murmured.
My mind raced back to the six traffic stops. The six illegal citations issued by the Sheriff's senior lieutenant on Route 7 before this nightmare began. Every single ticket had a unique eight-digit court citation number, followed by a four-digit jurisdiction code.
I reached into my inner pocket and pulled out the crumpled, blood-stained citations I had kept since day one.
"Sarah," I said, laying the papers beside her keyboard. "The citations. Look at the reference numbers."
Sarah’s eyes widened as she scanned the paper slips. "My God... the Sheriff wasn't just pulling you over to harass you. He was logging the encryption key into the public court records, piece by piece, hiding it in plain sight because he knew Sterling would eventually eliminate him once the system went live!"
"Six stops," I said, feeling the puzzle finally snap into place with deadly precision. "Six pairs of digits. Input them now!"
Sarah’s fingers blurred across the mechanical keyboard.
`AUTH: 0-7-4-1`
`NODE: 9-9-3-2`
`OVERRIDE: 1-1-0-8`
The central terminal let out a sharp, resonant chime.
On the massive monitors, the scrolling lines of red code froze in mid-stream. The violet tint suffocating the map of the United States began to recede, replaced by a clear, emerald green.
`KEYSTONE AUTHENTICATED. SOVEREIGN DIRECTIVE CANCELLED. ALL VEHICULAR TELEMATICS RETURNING TO LOCAL MANUAL CONTROL.`
Across the nation, millions of dashboard locks clicked open. Millions of headlights snapped back from eerie violet to warm white. The interdiction was broken. The roads were free.
Sarah fell back into her chair, laughing through tears of utter exhaustion. "We did it, Grant. We broke the grid."
I looked down at Vance, whose face was completely pale, stripped of all arrogance.
May you like
"It’s over," I said, lowering my weapon. "The law is coming for all of you."
Suddenly, the red alert sirens did not stop. Instead, their pitch changed to a rapid, piercing shriek.
