Trevor Shockley
Karcher
American Lit-7
April 2, 2014
Book Report The Digital Fortress begins with introducing some of the main characters Susan and David. Susan works for the N.S.A and is the head cryptographer of it. David on the other hand is a professor of Modern languages. On short notice, right before a trip they were going to take to Stone Manor, Susan’s boss, Commander Strathmore, calls David for a favor he needs. Commander Strathmore needs David to travel to Spain to collect something for him. He needs David to get a ring. Commander Strathmore needs the ring because it holds something very valuable to him. The ring contains a kill sequence for an unbreakable code created by an enemy of the N.S.A., Ensei Tankado. Ensei Takado is a Japanese genius who despises the United States for wounds he inflicted when bombs went off in Japan. After he learned this he became very angry and sought to get revenge on the United States. So he creates a code that is unbreakable. This is an issue for the N.S.A. because they have a special machine the TRANSLTR. The TRANSLTR is a machine that can break through the hardest of codes within ten minutes. The TRANSLTR is the prize possession of the N.S.A. It reads E-Mails and breaks codes to protect national security. Ensei Tankado believes that the N.S.A. is violating the regular citizens’ privacy by having the ability to be able to look and see what is going on in people lives. Tankado decided that he wanted to change that. He creates a code and puts it on to the internet. But the lock on the code is locked with an unbreakable algorithm. That means that no one can open it unless they have the pass key. Tankado plans to sell the pass key to the highest bidder. Strathmore, thinking that he is doing the right thing to download the code, ends up infecting the TRANSLATR with a virus. So Strathmore decides to send David to Span to get the pass key, while Susan comes in to help break the code. Ensei knew that he probably going to die. (he ends up getting killed) So he made sure that if he was killed that the pass key would still be sold to the highest bidder and the N.S.A. would not have any control over what happened. So Tankado hired a man named N Dakota. N Dakota also owned a pass key, which in case Tankado was killed, the pass key would still be sold and N.S.A would be obsolete. The story is about how David travels all across Spain, trying to find this ring while also not knowing that he was being followed by an assassin who is killing anyone who has been in contact with the ring. While David is in Spain, Strathmore and Susan encounter many issues at Crypto, the building which TRANSLATR is located in. While they are trying to keep all the craziness that is going on, on the low down, a couple of people interrupt. Eventually, David finds the key, although he is now the sole target of this assassin, Hulohot. David goes through the streets of Spain trying to evade the assassin. Finally, the N.S.A. takes Hulohot down and David Is brought back. But almost as soon as David gets rescued, the virus in the TRANSLATR is unleashed. The cryptographers have a set amount of time before the virus breaks through the fire walls and lets the regular person see classified information; launch codes for missiles, secret agent names and where they are and also information about the President. The cryptographers all rush to stop this virus and find the kill code. They look on the back of the ring and find a riddle. Almost as time runs out, they finally find out the code and the virus in eliminated. After everything settles down, Susan and David take the trip to Stone Manor. The book ends by David proposing to Susan.

Digital Fortress is a very interesting book that keeps the reader on the edge of their sear. Of the many of interesting plot twist and turns, the best of them is when David is searching all across Spain and he doesn’t know that there is an assassin following him. Another one was when