“You’re a fucking bitch, you know that right?” he growled.He had no intentions of burning the house down.It wasn’t his style and ten grand wasn’t enough to entice him.
“Yes.I know.It’s what makes me very good at this.”She hung up and lay back in the bed.With any luck she’d get another four hours of sleep before having to get up and head to the office.
Her day would be filled with mindless, useless meetings with leaders asking, ‘what’s the plan’, ‘where do we stand’, ‘anything new on x, y, z’.She was sick of it.Always the same bullshit and never enough money to actually do what needed to be done.
Years ago when she’d started the job as a young intern, she was full of bright ideas and excitement.She just knew that she could make a difference and change the way the world was going to be seen.
She was naïve.Naïve and stupid!She’d been shut down so many times by men and women inferior to her, she finally just learned to play the game better than anyone.She laughed to herself.
“Ironic,” she whispered. “I play games better than anyone.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
By the time Peters and Billings arrived the next morning, the men had completed their work and were waiting in the conference room, still sipping coffee, still revved up from the night before.
“Good morning,” smiled Peters.“Rough night for you boys?”
“Actually,” smiled AJ, “by our standards it was pretty damn exciting.For us.Not for you.”
Billings and Peters both went from grinning to frowning quickly.Wyatt and AJ described the fiber optic they found and detailed what it was doing.
“I’m not sure I’m following,” said Peters.
“Watch,” said Wyatt.He grabbed the name badge off of one of the young workers and waved it over the removed cable.As he did, the young man’s computer seemed to hum for a moment, the screen waving, then back to normal.
On another computer, AJ showed them what the hacker saw.The young man’s name, title, desk number, everything.
“Shit,” muttered the kid.“H-how did they do that?”
“It’s actually quite sophisticated,” said AJ.“This is someone who doesn’t just have a sound understanding of gaming and computers, but also of the government systems themselves.”
“But each department has different systems,” said Billings.“We have similarities, like spreadsheets or things like that but there are specific systems run by every department.”
“We know,” nodded Wyatt.“Remember, a lot of the systems used here were designed by G.R.I.P.”
“Wait.You’re connected to G.R.I.P.?” asked Peters.“I should have fucking known.”
“Those systems are the ones that are holding up right now.I’m not saying they will forever but for now they’re working.Someone out there knows exactly what they’re going for.We aren’t nearly big enough to go after all the gaming hackers, or shopping hackers looking for quick money on your credit cards.But we can find this person or persons, who seem to know what all of this is about,” said AJ.
“You think they’re trying to obtain classified information?” asked Billings.
“I think they’re willing to take whatever they can get.Classified information, funds, credit cards, anything.The IP addresses are completely random.Not surprising.It’s easy to make it bounce from one point to another all over the world.With the right timing, you can do it indefinitely and we’ll never track it down,” said Tanner.
Billings and Peters turned to Kiel and Ben, both men they were familiar with from past encounters.Ben held up his hands.
“Don’t look at me.I was a Ranger.One too many times without oxygen jumping out of planes and one too many times banging my head against walls.I’m the slow one in the room.”
“Same,” said Kiel.“We’re here for physical support.”
“Bullshit,” said Billings.“I’ve never met a stupid Robicheaux or Wolfkill.Don’t feed me bullshit, son.I don’t like it.”He was actually younger than both Ben and Kiel, but the men said nothing.
“All we’re saying, sir, is that these guys are the experts on this.However, we do agree with them that whoever is doing this is looking for something they can really use.Like classified information or military secrets.Something they can sell, use, release, or all of the above.”
“Fuck me,” mumbled Billings.“Do you realize what they could get into here?”
“Of course we do,” said AJ.“Why do you think we were up all night reinforcing your firewalls and safety systems?We’ve disabled the fiber optic cable and searched for any others.For now, you’re safe.But we suggest searching security footage to see who could have installed that cable and when.That will tell us how long this has been going on.”
“Any idea how far back we should go?” asked Peters.
