“Our kids watched this?” asked Abe in shock.
“No.And yes.It looks like they only went about forty-two seconds before they left the game and backed out.Good for them.But they were in long enough,” said AJ.
“Damn,” muttered Nathan.
“Again, we want to emphasize that they didn’t see our files, our names, our business information, addresses, nothing but they were damn sure trying.Which only tells me that’s what they’re doing to other kids and their families.Hell, I say kids but there are probably adults playing this as well.”
“Okay,” nodded Luke.“So, our kids are safe.Our information is safe.But everyone else on the planet is vulnerable.”
“Yes,” nodded AJ.“And from what we can see, they’re getting in and out quickly because they’re profiling these kids.Some inner-city hard-working kid with an allowance debit card with a few hundred on it, isn’t who they want.They’re looking for kids with big credit cards from mom and dad, or phones that accept charges billed to their phone billing addresses.And.They’re finding out what mom and dad do for a living.”
“Wait.They’re looking for something in particular?” asked Joseph.
Hiro tapped a few keys and more than three dozen names, emails, and account information appeared.
“Those are government emails.That’s DOD and DOJ,” gasped Conor.
“They’re targeting the government.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Luke, Hex, Cam, and Eric stared at the screen of men in uniform, their breasts covered in ribbons, arms laced with gold hash marks.These were the men charged with protecting our country but at the moment, they seemed completely oblivious, and seemingly unwilling to hear what was happening.
“Gentlemen, we appreciate your stellar skills and your concerns, but there have been no breaches in our security and certainly no one accessing through gaming,” smirked General Billings.
“No offense, General, but the average age of the men and women on your tech, data, and security breach teams, is twenty-three.Twenty-three, sir.If you polled them right now, they absolutely play video games and I know that to be true because we found a few names in these lists,” said AJ.
“These are intelligent people.Excellent at what they do but the fact remains that they are still kids in many respects.They learned much of their love for technology through games.You currently use gaming as a training tool for many of the things you do.Drones, missile systems, unmanned camera and aircraft devices,” said AJ.“Again, no offense, sirs.But you’re fools if you think gaming isn’t a way in for hackers and spies.”
The other men in the room hid their smirks.AJ was like his father.Direct and to the point and if you didn’t like it, that wasn’t his problem.His only job was to stop these types of attacks internally and externally.
“What is it you suggest?” asked Admiral Peters.
“Allow us to come in and search your systems,” said Luke.“Let us just look at the back-end to see if anyone has tried to come through.”
“I thought you could do that anyway with all your stealth techniques and super-spy shit,” smirked the general.
“Oh, we definitely could,” grinned Cam.“We could be in and out and you’d never know it.We’re trying to do this with you, not against you.If they’re trying to get into the systems via these kids, you might never know.Now, if you say you don’t want us to look into this, then we walk away and we’ll make note of this call.If you give approval, we’ll send a few folks up there today and begin work tomorrow.”
General Billings hit the mute button and the men just grinned at one another.They could all read lips and the technology on their end blocked the mute feature on their end.They heard everything.
“They do know a thing or two about this shit,” said the admiral.
“Yeah but letting them into our systems seems like we’re admitting something.”
“They could get into our systems without our approval, Tom,” said Admiral Peters.“You and I both know these guys are better than the ones we have.”
“Not Baxter.We hired him at seventeen when he already had one PhD in information technology and science.The kids a bonafide genius.He can keep up with them.”
The team made note of the young man’s name, just patiently waiting for them to come back ‘live’ to the conversation.
“Sorry about that, gentlemen,” said General Billings.“Alright.Send your team and we’ll connect you with one of our best.His name is Baxter Smith.A real genius.”
“We’ll be there bright and early in the morning,” said AJ.The screen went black and they all turned to AJ, Hiro, and Tanner.“I want to take Wyatt with us.He has his PhD and might relate better to this kid.He’s definitely older but doesn’t look it.He also understands gaming better than anyone I know.”
“He does?” frowned Eric.The three tech team members chuckled.
“Who do you think developed the gaming system the DOD uses for their drones?” smirked Tanner.
