The scheme worked well. The listings had been accessed dozens of times by the first day, and Ken estimated some 2000 persons world-wide had seen them.

Late the next day the first ones started falling in the trap. Ken and Roger received sarcastic messages telling them that the routines they had released were not theirs, but had been developed by someone else. Most of the messages came from unprotected sites, so Roger had no problem finding exactly who had sent them.

As the days passed, the list grew considerably and it was time to move. Together with two CERT agents, Ken and Roger picked up a Hoover and started roaming around to the different sites, hoping to meet someone that might have anything interesting to say.

After cruising around for some hours, as their search turned out to be a total waste of time, they decided to stop at an old computer hardware store and try to get some answers there. The shop was run by an old oriental name Yu-Cheng Min, who was famous for his ability to unlock the most complex hardware security systems. Ken thought the WORM, natrually consisting of only software might be easier to destory using the proper hardware.

Yu-Cheng, slightly frightened by the two CERT guards cooperated willingly and agreed to do some research on the matter. Roger also managed to pick up a few items he had wanted since he was a child from Yu-Cheng's well-stocked store.

Some of the addresses on the list were foregin sites which Ken and Roger could not possibly manage to check out for themselves. Roger was quite surprised that so few of them were foregin. With information spreading so rapidly on the international EISDN networks, there should have been more. The only explanation was that the WORM had originated nationally, and for some reason did not want to or manage to spread outside the country.

It had started raining again. Just as the intensive sunshine seemed to last. They ran from the Hoover Deck to avoid getting wet with the sticky smelly rain. Inside they stared peeking and poking around in listings of security schemes for international network routers and bridges. The encryption schemes of course being way to hard for Roger to crack, some of the most intelligent mathematics working at CERT started joining in.

Many hours later they had reached a conclution. Unfortunately for Roger it seemed that the international network routers' security systems wasn't that hard to crack at all. There simply was no need for a massive security scheme. All these routers did was to convert and post information on to different networks around the globe.

Although the WORM was nothing but bits and bytes, Ken and Roger felt like they had trapped a prehistoric monster.

The tests went well. They discovered that the bunch of routines were constantly updated. Whenever the WORM picked up a new routine, it checked which routines that had not been used for a long time, and removed them. Therefor, the WORM would at all times consist of the latest versions of trojans, viruses and decryption routines. With so many hackers on the EISDN network, the WORM had plenty to feed on.

By letting the WORM get locked in a small ring of them emulated EISDN network, Roger was able to force it to run through his character conversion barriers. Each time the WORM had to leave parts of it behind.

All seemed well until they asked Mr. Brenauzcky for a troop of CERT guards to escort them. CERT was of course run by the government, and CERT guards in Lithia would be considered a threat by the government and would probably be destroyed within minutes. Ken and Roger simply had to go on their own. Mr. Brenauzcky predicted that they would have a much larger chance of surviving if they went alone. Suddenly the plan didn't seem that great anymore.

Still, Ken pulled the throttle and shot the unmarked CERT Hoover off the platform and into the dark wet sky. The trip to Lithia was quite a ride, so tried to get some much wanted sleep. Of course the Penasteroine had just started working, so sleeping was out of the question.

Ken found a fairly safe place to park the Hoover and they covered it as best they could with garbage and old scrap metal. Ken now noticed that they had landed close to what had been a small lake now with anything but water in it. On the left side, there were two high buildings with large antennas on top. On the right side, the remains of a small houses and some trees. It was pitch dark. Roger commented on the high antennas on the building and was wondering who would have use for such prehistoric equipment. Suddenly a ray of bright laser shot from the roof of the building and impacted heavily on the other side of the lake throwing up earth and dust. Ken and Roger jumped to safety behind the wreck of a car. Seconds later the laser fire was coming from the point where the first one had hit. They could hear the echos of the powerful laser generators in the distance. Again the laser fired from the far side of the lake. This time hitting something on the roof at impact. A large ball of flames and smoke shot up from the building and pieces of metal started raining down on them. Ken pointed to a small wooden boat lying at the shore. They both ran towards the boat as another laser shot was fired. This time hitting the base of the antenna making it tilt to one side. Again a shower of scrap metal fell on them. Roger started paddling for his life to avoid being scredded by the scrap metal. As they reached the center of the lake, a laser was fired from the other building towards the same point. Shots were fired back and forth. Sometimes missing the building hitting the hill behind it. Ken and Roger looked up at the rays passing only meters above them. It seemed like they had landed in the middle of a warzone. As they reached the opposite side of the lake, Ken could see that it had started burning on the far side of the lake. The firing stopped. They could hear people shouting, but because of the hills surrounding the area, it was hard to tell from where it came. They decided to take cover under a tree that had fallen into the lake.