"Cutr, this is Ajax. Do you read?" Danny heard the voice coming through his head set. He stared intently at the screen. "Cutr, this is Ajax, acknowledge."

The second time shook the cobwebs out and Danny responded. "Ajax, this is Cutr, read you five by five. What is your situation?" Danny waited for the reply, still focused on his screen, a satellite image of a quiet suburban landscape overlaid with numbers and symbols. One house in particular took up the majority of the scene.

"Team is in place and ready for your word." The voice belonged to Lieutenant Thomas Anderson a lifelong military man, currently the field leader of the Sweeper unit.

Danny studied the map and focused on one section of the house that showed red. Something from inside had been broadcasting a wireless signal, trying to connect to what used to be the Internet. After the war any device like that was banned, there was no sense in letting the V-Bomb sneak into a critical system. There was no time to second guess.

"Ajax, the word is go." In his mind Danny could hear the bolts of a dozen assault rifles being slid into place. Last week on a sweep the team had taken out an actual broadcast facility in an old woman’s basement. You never knew what you would get.

"Acknowledged, Cutr. Ajax is go." Ajax's southern drawl sounded almost comical, belaying the violence of what was about to happen.

Now all Danny could do was wait and see what happened. As much as he was the eyes and ears of the team he often felt isolated. The van he ran the operation from sat almost a mile from the events. Danny followed the blue dots that represented his team on the satellite image. The team had surrounded the house; one dot moved forward to the front door.

"Cutr, I am at the door."

Danny watched the dot that was Ajax move up to the door and, for a brief fraction of a second, his screen flickered. Danny rubbed his eyes, thinking it was a trick of the light, but it flickered again. Alarms started going off in the truck.

"Aw, Hell. We've been made!" Danny keyed the mike. A large red dot appeared in the middle of the house, the signal they were tracing had become stronger. "Ajax, get in there and shut that thing down!"

"Affirmative, Cutr. Team, go!"

The blue dots filed into the house. Danny was concentrating on another screen. Numbers and symbols ran across, and he typed furiously on his keyboard. Out of the corner of his eye Danny saw another red dot appear on the screen on the road heading for the house. "Technical, Technical, Ajax we have a mobile contact headed your direction."

"Cutr, we found the device, it's a repeater. We've been set up," Ajax's voice crackled over the radio.

Danny sank into his chair and sighed as his screen started flashing.

"Confirmed, Ajax, we are being hacked. V-Bomb in the wild." Danny's fingers flew across the keyboard in an intricate dance. Every short cut, every script he had ever learned was focused on blocking the virus. "I'm tied up keeping the firewalls working. Can you deal with the Technical?'

"Affirmative. Don't let it hit the uplink, Cutr, or we're all out of a job."

"No pressure, Ajax. You deal with the bad guys; I'll deal with the bad code."