"DeBaptiste, Mike - Rick Raider 02 - The Search for the Eternal Flame" - читать интересную книгу автора (DeBaptiste Mike)

"What do you think, Rick?" Debbie asked.
Rick shrugged his broad shoulders. "Who knows? Charlie could be right."
"I wonder if the newspaper has an account of the UFO sighting," Sally said. "I didn't see this morning's edition."
Neither had the others, and Debbie suggested they check the morning news online.
"Good idea," Rick agreed, and he switched on the computer in front of him.
The computer was networked with the University's computer system and, in turn, he'd be able to access the Internet for the Lake City Press website. Rick booted up the computer and typed the password to access the network. The computer beeped and an error message appeared on the screen.
"Yow! Not this again," Rick groaned. "It says 'Password Not Valid'."
"You could have typed it in wrong," Charlie told him. "Try again."
Rick again typed the password, being careful to do it correctly. A series of asterisks showed up in the password field and he clicked on the little OK box below it. Again the computer beeped and the error message popped up.
"The University's computer system must be down," Sally suggested, drumming her nails impatiently on the table top. "It happens now and then, you know."
Before any of the others could respond, the classroom door opened and Professor Manning rushed in. The young man was visibly distressed and he hurriedly called the class to order. The students went to their seats and Charlie and Sally sat down alongside Rick and Debbie.
"Something unexpected has come up," the professor announced, "and I will not be here for class this morning."
Charlie nudged Rick. "Great! We can play Star Death while he's gone."
"Shhh!" Rick kicked Charlie under the table.
Professor Manning continued. "I want you to work on your current assignments, paying particular attention to the database management routines of the software you are studying for household accounts."
He pointed to a table at the back of the room that had several computers on it. "You'll have to take turns using the old computers connected to the Internet through the telephone modems. Don't even try using the ones connected to the University's network and T-1 lines. The system's down."
He looked over to the table where Rick and his friends were seated. "Rick Raider, I want you to come with me. Take your books along for you won't be returning here."
Rick was surprised at the request. He nodded, grabbed his books and bag of cookies, and got to his feet. Sally and Debbie looked at him curiously, obviously wondering why the professor was taking him out of class. But Charlie wasn't interested in that. He had something more important on his mind.
"The game CD! Give it to me, will ya?" he hissed. "I don't want to work on my program. We'll party down fraggin' the Groggs."
"All right!" Rick slipped Charlie the CD case as the professor hurried to the door. Rick followed, trying to suppress a grin. He knew the whole class would soon be in an uproar battling aliens with Charlie.
"Come along, Rick." Professor Manning walked out into the hall and urged Rick to follow. "We have to meet Professor Blaine in the faculty lounge."
Professor John Blaine was the head of the Science Department, a very eccentric elderly man whom the students called by the nickname 'old Einstein'. Arriving at the lounge, Professor Manning opened the door and ushered Rick inside. There was no one in the room but Professor Blaine, and he was pacing across the carpet in an agitated manner.
"Ah, Rick Raider! Just the person I wanted to see!"
Rick had absolutely no idea why the man wanted to see him. His brow creased in consternation. "What is it I can do for you, Professor Blaine?"
"We must contact InterTell immediately," the elderly man said. "I know your father is an agent because he's done security work for us in the past. I'm hoping you'll go down to the headquarters with Professor Manning and me."
Rick's dad, Randolph Raider, was a top-gun agent with the government's InterTell Intelligence Agency, an organization specializing in undercover espionage the world over. What the professor didn't know is that Rick worked for InterTell, too, on a work/study program. He was one of only a handful of students throughout the nation being groomed for the agency's future.
"Of course I'll go with you," Rick returned, wondering why in the world the two professors wanted to contact InterTell. "I believe Dad is down at headquarters now. What's wrong?"
"Ah!" Professor Blaine threw his hands into the air. "Everything is wrong! Tell him, Professor Manning."
"The University's computer system is malfunctioning," the younger man said. "We can't figure out what's wrong with it. It's failing to respond to any of our attempts to direct or control it. It happened sometime during the night, but there's no sign of anyone having tampered with it."
Rick frowned. "Did you check out the entire system?"
"Yes, we checked the operating system software and reloaded the hard discs from mag tape, but nothing helped. At first we thought it was hardware failure, but all the internal diagnostics check the system out okay."
Rick's eyes widened. The computer was acting as if it had a mind of its own. "But how could such a thing happen?"
"We don't know," Professor Manning said. "And there's more. We contacted the newspaper offices a few minutes ago, and the very same thing has happened to their computer!"
"What?" Rick looked at the two professors. "Talk about a coincidence. This sure is strange."
" I have a theory, Rick," Professor Blaine said, beginning to pace the floor again. "Last night a UFO was sighted over Lake City. I saw it myself as I was leaving the campus after a late meeting. It was around eleven-thirty. It came from the lakefront, passed overhead, and it hovered over the Science Center for several minutes. Then it shot away southeast of town in the direction of the Kirtland Hills. I called the television station on my cell phone to report the UFO. I was told that the object had been picked up by their weather radar."
Rick nodded. "I heard about the UFO. But what does it have to do with the malfunctioning computers?"
"Everything!" shouted the eccentric professor. "I believe the craft was an alien ship and, by some means, its occupants caused our computer and the one at Lake City Press to malfunction. Both systems had extensive data on the forthcoming NASA space travel conference to be held here in Lake City next month. The data is gone, Rick. Vanished! The malfunctioning will make it impossible to hold the conferences!"
Rick's mouth dropped open and for a moment he couldn't think of anything to say. "But .......can't you get some back-up tapes," he finally asked, "or download the necessary data from the NASA computers?"
"We could," Professor Blaine replied. "But it took a lot of string-pulling to get the data the first time, and NASA will have a fit if we can't explain the malfunction. Besides, there is a system hardware/software problem somewhere. Even if we could reload the data into the computers, it seems the same thing would happen again."
Rick let out a low whistle. It all seemed so incredible.
"And you think aliens in a UFO are behind this?" he asked.
"Yes!"
"I agree with Professor Blaine," Professor Manning said. He looked very worried. "This appears to be a sabotage effort by an advanced intelligence that knows even more about computers than we do. It may be the first step in some kind of alien invasion!"
Rick was dumfounded. He felt his heart begin to thud in his chest. Could it be that Charlie was right and that Lake City was soon to be the target of invaders from space?
"Wait a minute," he said. "Couldn't it be another country, an enemy nation, sending their spies to steal computer data?"
Professor Blaine spoke in proud tones. "Lake University is foremost in computer technology and development. We were one of the first major links in the Internet and are always on the cutting edge, continually in contact with the leading developers in the industry."
He gazed intently at Rick. "No one on this planet knows how to wipe out data from a computer through the air. It's not a skill we have developed yet!"
Rick felt a sickening sensation in the pit of his stomach.
"Come on, let's go," he said to the two professors, gesturing for them to follow him. "My truck's out in the parking lot. We'd better get down to Dad's office. This is a job for InterTell!"