High Noon: Cyber Division, #4

By Vannetta Chapman

High Noon

Cyber Division Series 

 

Nora Brooks and Randall Goodwin face their toughest assignment yet as they follow a cyber terrorist into the canyons of Zion National Park.

 

A dozen EMP attacks have been planned to occur on the same day at the same time—high noon. Nora Brooks is going to need all the technical expertise her partner possesses, as well as the rappelling skills of National Park Ranger, Tom Anderson. Together the three might be able to stop the attack in Zion, but even if they do there's no guarantee that the other eleven attacks won't proceed as planned.

 

Hiking and rappelling on one of the hottest days of the year, a hiker left for dead, a gunshot wound, drones, and a rocket set to launch destruction…in this final episode of Chapman's Cyber Division series, Nora Brooks will confront terrorism as well as the mortality of both her and her partner. Will trusting Tom Anderson turn out to be the worst decision she's ever made? Or the one decision that just might save their lives?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vannetta Chapman
• Release date: Jun 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393303381

Book preview

"Then I heard something

like the voice of a great multitude

and like the sound of many waters

and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder,

saying,

Hallelujah! For the Lord our God,

the Almighty, reigns."

~Revelation 19:6

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

~Henry David Thoreau

1

They landed in Las Vegas, Nevada just past midnight on June eighth, picked up the rental car, and grabbed a meal on the way out of town. Randall drove for an hour and a half, then woke Nora, who took them the rest of the way into Utah, then past St. George and Washington, skirting Red Cliffs National Conservation area. She woke Randall when they reached Springdale. She had the sense of mountains towering on both sides of them, but in the darkness there were only shadows piled one upon the other.

Pulling into an all-night service station, they gassed up and grabbed coffee that had been brewed hours before.

As they walked back out to their rental, Randall sipped the coffee. Sure there’s not any Starbucks here?

Do you see a Starbucks?

All I see is stars. Randall craned his neck as he raised his arms over his head, stretched and cracked his back. 

Randall was African American, six-foot-four, and had the shape and physical bearing of a professional football player. Randall’s father had enjoyed a successful NFL career, but Randall had gone a different direction. His near-genius IQ, coupled with his ability to read computer code as if it was his native language, had landed him a spot on the Agency’s cyber squad, and as Nora’s partner.

They were a good team, maybe because they were so different.

Randall had attended MIT. Nora received both of her degrees at Texas Tech.

Randall could do phenomenal things with a computer. Nora preferred chasing the perps who had dedicated their lives to cyber terrorism.

And while Randall was twenty-seven, muscular, and athletic, Nora had passed the ripe old age of thirty-eight. She had no misconceptions about being an athlete, and she didn’t care about that. She only needed to be able to run fast enough to catch the bad guys—marathons weren’t on her bucket list.

The town of Springdale was less than six hundred residents and located immediately outside the entrance to Zion National Park. Nora’s boss, Director Anderson, had arranged for someone to meet them at Zion’s visitor center. Ten minutes later they were standing in the empty parking area briefing Daryl Tillotson, a park map spread across the hood of his vehicle.

Do you think we need to ask all visitors to vacate the park? The man in charge was pale with small bifocals and thinning hair.

Would that even be possible? Nora asked.

Probably not.

Then stop worrying about it. The important thing is to keep everyone away from this area. She stabbed the park map with her finger, then turned to glance at Randall, who was leaning against their rental, studying the open tablet in his hands. Are you still showing Behunin Canyon as his location?

That’s what the data is telling me, boss. He glanced up at her, worry coloring his normally sunny expression. Though data sometimes lies—or rather, misdirects.

We’ll deal with that when and if we have to. She turned back to the park’s manager. I don’t want anyone near that canyon. Understood?

Sure. Yeah. I got the call from your…uh…boss. We’ve shut it down and there’s a park ranger waiting there for you now.

Nora resisted the urge to shake the man. She’d specifically said no one was to be in the area, which included park rangers. Now she’d have to use precious moments to send the person packing when they reached the designated parking area.

The park manager seemed eager to be rid of them and get on with his day, or perhaps he planned to go back to bed. Continue four point four miles up this road. You’ll see the parking area on the left.

They followed the Virgin River as the sky began to lighten. The gorge cut from the river was as spectacular as the descriptions she’d read—sixteen miles long, up to two thousand feet deep, and at times thirty feet wide.

Wow. Randall tapped his window. I googled this place, but the internet does not do the real thing justice.

And let that be a life lesson for you, Randall.

His face crinkled into a smile. It’s sweet how you look out for me, boss.

I’m not your boss.

Uh-huh. He gave her a once-over. Nice digs you’re wearing. Where’d you find them?

In the bottom of my closet, and I’m very proud that I can still fit into them since I haven’t hiked in ten years. She threw him a sideways look. I guess you ordered yours online?

"As soon as we received the go on this mission. Had to express