Bad Memory

It begins with computers misconfigured, shipments misdirected, a trickle of angry calls to the sales division.Bit within days the trickle turns into a flood, and the minor glitch into a major crisis.He calls himself "Hektor," his operation "Trojan Horse."With his carefully assembled underground team of "consultants," he has breached the walls of the Houston-based Simtec Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of personal computers.Bypassing the best security money can buy -- codes, gates, and guards -- he has come through the back door, and is attacking Simtec's computer network.The company is under siege.Barry Shepard, respected troubleshooter and number-three man at Simtec, has received a ransom note promising that a onetime one-million-dollar payoff will protect the company and its reputation from further damage.To Simtec, a million bucks is pocket change.It's also extortion -- the dirtiest word in the corporate dictionary -- and the company leaders vow to fight.But they're about to discover just how resourceful, how relentless, how absolutely ruthless the enemy is.Caught in an escalating spiral of demands and destruction, Simtec's every defense and counterattack is met with an even more damaging offensive.Hektor exploits the company's vulnerabilities with devastating psychological and technological assaults.Diane Hughes, the newly named CEO, faces a forbidding test of her leadership: She alone must make the choices that determine whether the company stands or falls.But Barry Shepard could pay the highest price of all.Hektor has made one final threat.If he carries it out, Simtec's crash will be heard all the way to Wall Street -- and the aftershocks will be felt throughout corporate America.And for Barry, his wife, and his daughter, the results could be terminal.From its suspenseful opening to its shocking climax, this is a novel about a technological nightmare written exactly as it could happen -- by someone who's been there.A time bomb is ticking down America's spine and loaded onto its hard drive. It's called Bad Memory.