“Any chance you want to do all the paperwork on this arrest as well?” he smirked.
“No, thanks.That one is all yours.But we do need to find out who the fuck this woman is that was directing them.None of them seem to know her name,” said AJ.
“Can we find anything on the e-mails or within the program?” asked one of the agents.
“Maybe,” said Tanner.“I’ll take a look when I get to the hotel.”The agent stared at him, frowning.
“That means you kept a copy for you,” he grinned.
“Of course, I did.I’m not stupid.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
While the boys were in Baltimore, Wyatt and Hiro were back at the Pentagon observing the organized chaos.Already this morning, they’d found fifteen loopholes in the programs for the drones, allowing them to enter, interfere with the systems and get damn close to actually breaking through the walls of the Pentagon.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” said Admiral Peters.“We thought we were safe.Your own systems made us feel safe!”
“Our systems are nearly impenetrable.Notice I said nearly.And they did give you safety,” said Hiro.“But you can’t expect them to be iron-clad when your own people are literally opening the doors for the bad guys to walk in and steal the house.”
“Hey, I think I found something,” said one of the young techs on the floor.Hiro and Wyatt walked toward his computer and he pointed to something.“I’m a floor manager and I can see what everyone is working on.Not everyone is getting attacked.Only those with a DOD extension on their e-mail.”
“Wait.Not everyone is a full-time employee?” asked Wyatt.
“No.Some of them are contract.We move them around to other departments but their e-mail access and internet access is minimalized to the absolute necessities.These people here are all full-time employees.”
“They’re attacking for access to the systems here,” frowned Wyatt.“It’s not just credit card information they want.They want full access to the internal systems.”
“What do we do?” asked Billings.
“Give us some time,” said Hiro.“I think we can create a strong wall for those permanent employees and then we’re going to make one a dummy.”
“A dummy?Like a dummy computer?” asked Billings.
“Like a dummy everything.We’ll guide through what to open and give access and watch what they do on the other end.Hopefully, our system will react in time to track the source.”
“Hopefully?” he frowned.“What if you don’t?”
“We’ve got a block deeper into the program.They’ll think they’re in but it will only lead them down a rabbit hole.Either way, we’ll have time to track where the invasion is coming from.It could be here in the U.S., it could be foreign, it could be anything,” said Hiro.
“I hate to think it’s our own people doing it,” said Peters.
“You know as well as I do that our own people have done worse, sir,” said Wyatt.“Give us some time.Right now, we need coffee and lots of it.This is going to be a long night.”
To say it was going to be a long night was an understatement.By 0300, the others were getting worried and had come to help work on the potential system.
Although they were there for support, Kiel and Ben really weren’t capable of doing anything with the systems.They did, however, know how to make fresh pots of coffee and keep it hot.
“We’re so close,” said Wyatt.“I can feel it.”
Ben grinned at the younger men and nodded at Kiel, handing him a cup of coffee.They both remember being this excited working on cases.As they got older, it was still exciting but they learned how to control the energy and rush; the excitement of finding something and following it to the very end.
“Oh to be young again,” smirked Ben.
“Fuck that,” smiled Kiel.“I’m happy being amaturegentlemen.”
“Mature?” grinned Ben.
“That’s what the girl at the security desk said.She called Billings and said she had two mature men with the team from Legacy.That’s you and me asshole.Mature.”
