9:26 A.M.
RIVERSIDE PARK
UPPER WEST SIDE
NEW YORK CITY
“What do you need?” said Singerman, tapping his earbud as he drove south, weaving in and out of the crowd of panicked pedestrians.
“They’re going after the Federal Reserve,” said Igor. “This morning, all four governors were murdered. The killers removed an eye and thumb from each one. Bill said you have some knowledge of the Fed.”
“Give me a sec,” said Singerman as he came toward the end of Riverside Park near Seventy-second Street. He charged the Suburban up a set of stairs and barreled out onto a crowded street, littered with cars not moving. He went right down along Riverside Boulevard, staying along the Hudson River, driving up onto the sidewalk and hitting the gas.
Singerman tapped his ear.
“Are you sure they have the fingers and eyes?” said Singerman as he weaved south on the sidewalk, barely avoiding people running to the north.
“Yes,” said Igor.
“That’s not good,” said Singerman. “They’re going after Fedwire.”
“What’s the exposure?” said Polk.
“Exposure is down to hard assets,” said Singerman. “Cash and gold.”
“Is there any way for me to provision inside the cordon and create redundancy?” said Igor.
“It’s a single-point-of-entry protocol system behind an iodine sheet field,” said Singerman. “It’s a single-track system and all data is outward facing. You need to be in the room itself.”
“What happens then?” said Igor.
“It’s a Risch algorithm,” said Singerman. “It’s complicated.”
“Risch is about antiderivatives?” said Igor. “I thought it wasn’t possible to build Risch and make it manageable? Too much computing power required over limited time.”
“You’re right, but it is possible, I did it with my professor,” said Singerman. “The problem is that was ten years ago. Someone this sophisticated will undoubtedly introduce some sort of higher-order pattern-unification algorithm to break away at it. Once inside the room, an experienced hacker will code a path into the core of the Risch. It will only require a matter of time to get to the metadata. Minutes, not hours.”
“Divert to the Fed, Aaron,” said Polk.