"S. Andrew Swann - Zimmerman's Algorithm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swann S Andrew)

possibility of Lionel's tip actually panning out. The theft of the Daedalus was big newsтАФthe high-tech
robbery of the century. Any copsтАФand any FedsтАФinvolved in its recovery would get an immediate boost to
their careers.
Gideon wondered if it might all be wishful thinking on his part. Maybe Rafe was right and he had let
himself be conned. The Daedalus theft had gotten enough airtime that LionelтАФor the driver he was friends
withтАФprobably had seen enough of it to invent the story. Gideon wondered if, right now, Lionel was
drinking, smoking, or shooting up the hundred bucks that he'd given him, having a good stoned laugh at his
expense.
"Have you ever seen one?" Raphael asked.
"A Daedalus?" .
"Uh-huh."
Gideon shrugged. And kept watching through the binoculars. "Just the pictures in the news, like
everyone else. Oversize filing cabinet mated with an air-conditioning unit."
"Can't be disconnected from external power for more than twenty hours, or the chips fryтАФright?"
"Something like that. Lionel said that the guy was bringing a refrigerated trailer."
"That's how they hijacked it in the first place."
Gideon knew that Rafe was saying that Lionel would have known to add that detail. Everyone with a
TV would know that the Daedalus couldn't last long without its massive cooling unit.
Nightline had gone into depth explaining the peculiarities of the Daedalus. The processors in the thing
were made from a high-grade ceramic superconductor, as near room temperature as anyone had been able
to get themтАФ but they still needed to be kept at an unhumanly low temperatureтАФminus twenty Fahrenheit.
The computer itself was about the size of a stack of four briefcases. The rest of the thousand-pound
machine consisted of refrigeration units and a backup power supply.
Twenty-five of the things had been built to date. They were the most powerful supercomputers ever
created. They made a Sun Worksation or a Cray look like a pocket calculator.
And if anyone let the cooling system go, it would become a fifty-million-dollar paperweight.
"When you got the warrant for this stakeout, did you get one for Con Ed?" Raphael asked.
Obviously, if the computer was here, the thieves had to have it plugged in somewhere. Gideon had known
that and had checked it out as soon as he heard from Lionel. "It didn't amount to anything. All they have is
the meter reading from about six months ago."
"Six months?"
Gideon nodded. "The building's empty. They cut off the power back in August."
"What's that, then?" Raphael said. Gideon lowered his binoculars and looked at him. Raphael pointed
toward the front of the building.
"What's what?" Gideon asked.
"By the front," he said.
Gideon raised his binoculars again, and turned away from the parking area where he had been
concentrating most of his attention. The place was an old brick structure, and the window and front doors
were boarded over with graffiti-clad plywood. The streetlights washed the stairs to the front, so it was hard
to make out the small light that hung in the alcove just above the boarded-up entrance. Knowing where to
look, though, Gideon could see a small cage set in the upper part of the doorway's arch. Inside it, a dim
yellow light glowed. The bulb was almost lost in the sodium shine of the streetlight, but it was obviously lit.
"Good eyes."
"Power's supposed to be cut?" Raphael asked.
"Supposed to be." Gideon nodded. "Now do you believe we've got something here?"
"Something," Raphael said. "Though your informant probably handed you a meth lab."
Gideon hated to admit it, but his brother was probably right. He usually was about things like this.
Irritating, but that was one of the reasons Rafe was the FBI agent and Gideon was just a District cop. The
more Gideon looked at this old building, the more he wondered why someone would stash a supercomputer
here. But something was going on here.