Metafire

"Yes." She said matter of factly.

Jack, who was amazed at his own ability to respond to the Major's first question, was visibly shocked at Jill's level of certainty. He decided right then to shut up and be absolutely silent and still. Two hours on the job, and Jill was giving final answers. The Major was calmly listening.

Jill continued, "I think the terrorists are on the Internet. I think they know it well. I would even venture to bet that they post their plans and their reasons there, if we just knew where to look."

"OK," thought Jack, "they are going to think she's crazy. She's crazy and probably stupid." He smiled a bit.

The Major noted her professional demeanor and said, "What do you know that makes you think this?"

"I was looking at the City Net. That's a directory of cities that are on the net. Somebody knew the cities were going to be blasted. The city information was copied out of each of the cities, just before they were blasted. Hundreds of home pages from each of the cities, from businesses and schools that were in those cities, survive on the net. Something like virtual cities -- cities that were."