“This is madness!It’s not possible,” said Billings.
“I believe I just showed you that it is possible.The people doing this aren’t just some run of the mill hackers in Ghana or Haiti.These guys are sophisticated and I think organized, sharing information and attacking en masse.”
“What do you mean?” asked the Admiral.
“I mean, once they identify a weakness, an area that is ignored, they let their peers know and they attack.It’s like discovering a weakness in a defense and sending everything you have at it,” said Wyatt.
“If you’d just let us sit in there and do our thing, watching for weaknesses in your working systems, we might be able to help solve this puzzle,” said AJ.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Jamie.
“It would probably be a good idea to find these nine computers and wipe them clean.Close all their open windows, shut down any games or shopping sites, clear their cache and history, and clean it.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jamie.
She left the room, finding the nine computers that were lit up in red.She was surprised by how many open windows some of them had.One man had five travel sites open, eleven retailers, and three gaming sites.
When the four men walked into the room, the admiral stepped forward.
“These men are here under my orders.You do as they say and give them access to whatever they need.Clear?”
“Clear!” came the cry from the room.
“Let’s get to work,” nodded Hiro.
The process took much longer than expected.With a room full of computers and their own gamification systems, they really needed more than just four men.But it was all they had and they would find out what was happening one way or another.
“Is this the drone system?” asked Hiro to the young man at the desk.
“Yes, sir.We use it all the time.It helps us to become more proficient with the drones.This one had the capability to simulate weather.Although, right now it’s got a bug or something.”
“A bug?” frowned Hiro.The system was developed by G.R.I.P. and there was no way there was a bug unless someone planted one inside the Pentagon.“It would be highly unlikely that this system has a bug.”
“That’s what I thought, too.But when I try to simulate the drone in a storm with high winds, it’s like it can’t get out of the simulation.The drone shakes and waves until I reboot the system.”
“Don’t reboot the system again,” said Hiro.“Wyatt!Here, please.”
Wyatt quickly moved from the top level of workspaces to where Hiro was standing.
“Watch this,” he said nodding at the young man.
He began the program and they noticed that it was working with weather related issues as requested but when he tried to switch to non-weather-related issues, the drone seemed stuck in the other space.
“I can restart it,” he said.
“NO!” yelled Wyatt and Hiro.
“No, I think that’s what they want,” said Wyatt.“It’s behaving this way intentionally.The program is blocking the viruses and hacking attempts but every time you reboot, you’re giving it an opening to get in again.”
“I-I didn’t know,” said the young man.“I thought it was a problem with the program.”
“It’s okay.Let me take care of this from the back end.”
Wyatt’s hands were moving so fast on the computer, even Hiro, Tanner and AJ were amazed.Before they knew it, he was inside the program and inside the pentagon’s security systems.
“Who is Amelia Boerne?” asked AJ looking around the room.All eyes slowly turned to a woman on the lower level.She raised her hand.
“I’m Amelia,” she said softly.
