Hardwired

Publishers Weekly - Cahners\\Publishers_Weekly

Data9000 Investigations, founded by Julie Blake and Vic Paoli (seen last in Cyberkiss, 1996) leaves its Silicon Valley office for the Johnson Space Center in Houston on this latest case. Margo Miller,Vic's former girlfriend who is employed by NASA, hires them to find the hacker who's jeopardizing Mission Control's communication system. In Houston, Julie and Vic learn that the world of of astronauts is a bit short on camaraderie. Because a delay in the upcoming shuttle mission could jeopardize NASA's standing with Congress, the duo are given a week to secure the computers. They learn from some astronauts that the computers went down on the last shuttle mission when the hacker's code came up on the ship's screen and a green light shone inside the shuttle. Now, all the crew members have the same dream about a green light. Julie finds an astronaut's body hanging in the lab of the mock shuttle. Then she finds another astronaut drowned in a testing pool. The deaths don't seem to concern anyone as much as agency politics: one astronaut is afraid Julie will report that she saw him lose his temper; another has cause to worry that he'll be dropped from the next mission. Vic identifies an outlaw satellite connection, but not even the government computers can crack the hacker's code. Julie and Vic's lives are threatened a couple of times before they finger the killer and hacker. Despite its hard-to-credit premise, this tale features two very likable protagonists who move the plot through the unusual space-program setting at a respectable clip.

Kirkus Reviews

Julie Blake, the author's pugnacious heroine (Cyberkiss, 1996, etc.), and her lover Vic Paoli, partners in Data 9000, their struggling computer investigations firm, are thrilled with a job offer from NASA. It comes from picture-perfect Margo Miller, in charge of p.r. at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, who had been a college buddy of Vic's. Someone is hacking into NASA's computers, shutting down software programs and threatening a delay in the next shuttle mission, only weeks away. Arriving at the Center, Julie and Vic meet icy Lisa Foster, the interim Director, who gives them a week to find the hacker. Meanwhile, the team of astronauts in residence for the upcoming shuttle mission, headed by John Garza, seems to be having a lot more than computer contamination problems, such as the apparent suicide of team member Gary Olander, followed by the drowning death—definitely murder—of Garza. There are rumors of alien sightings; reports of unauthorized biological experiments in space; a spy planted in the Center by a rabid group of anti-space activists; and rumblings of politically motivated funding cuts. With all of this, not to mention Julie's jealous dislike of Margo and the totally superfluous presence of Max, Julie's best woman friend, Vic and Julie still manage to uncover a nasty conspiracy.

Defying belief is an old game with Chapman, but this outing should come with a warning label: Computer ignoramuses, stay away! Welcome space groupies only!