The Rescue Mission
Chapter 6
Written by rachel76m
Edited by Don Kaufman

Wednesday morning at Secure-Sys

“So David, are you ready to try and crack Richard’s anti-virus program?”

“I hope so Ben, from what I have been told so far it is a very tough nut to crack. Wish me luck.” Okay I think I have everything with me. I have my hacker software tools, manuals, my laptop, etc. That should do it.

“Good luck, David.”

“Thanks, I think I will need lots of it.”

I left Central Security to go down the hall to R&D. Ah, here is the door. I open it after swiping my ID card in the reader.

”Good morning, David, we were waiting for you. Over there we have set up the test server with two workstations. Good luck. We will know in about an hour if you have given up or not.”

“That’s right, Beth. Because at 9 A.M., we need to get busy in copying the program and put it on disk for mailing and to put the program on a dedicated and secure server.”

“That’s fine, Doug and Beth. I am ready. If you hear me scream in frustration then you know it is a good program.”

“Well don’t scream too loudly. You don’t want to scare the birds outside our building.”

“Very funny, Doug, hah… hah!! All right, let me get busy while you two are doing something else.”

~~~000~~~

“Good morning, Ben. How is David doing in cracking the program?”

“He just left here about 15 minutes ago. So far I have heard a few screams (chuckling and snickering) of anguish. That tells me Richard did a good job so far. But it is still early in the testing. I will check in with them about 8:45 and see if he is still sane.”

“I know what you mean, Ben. (Chuckling along with Ben) Richard is very sharp. Well I need to get to my office. I am expecting a morning update on Richard from the hospital. Hopefully, the morning tests and exams will prove that the surgeries are taking hold and there are no further complications. I will check in with you a little after nine down at R&D. Don’t forget our department head meeting at 10 A.M.. When Brent and some of the others leave after their updates, we will have our security and financial meeting to discuss the other issues then.”

“Sounds good, Robert, see you then.”

Walking down the hall, I hear a scream from David. I just smile and continue on with my morning rounds. I see that everybody is busy at work. I stop by the break room to get a cup of coffee. I see Brent doing the same thing there. Brent looks up and sees me.

“Good morning, sir. How is everything going?”

“Oh everything is humming along fine. How far along are you on the verification schedule?”

“It is not too bad. I have found some with the typical syntax errors that are easily correctable. But, I am catching some with bad data flow parameters. I highlighted those and they are being sent back to the programmer to correct them. I figure about 90 percent of them are getting them right the first time. It could be better.”

“Yes, it needs to be a better percentage. It means we are not wasting our time in correcting these errors.”

“Sir, I have a question. I was just walking down the hall to come here. I thought I heard some screams of frustration coming from R&D. Is there a problem there?”

“No there isn’t, Brent. They are doing some bench tests on some different hardware and software setups for some of our products. They just want to make sure everything is okay with it before it goes out.”

“I understand that. We want to make sure there are no holes for a hacker to take an advantage of.”

“That is true Brent. Well, I need to keep moving along. See you later, Brent.” Boy, that Brent is nosey. He is fishing for information, that is for sure.

“See you later, Robert.” I wonder what is actually going on in that room. It has to be top secret of some sort; I hope it doesn’t affect my plans.

~~~000~~~

“Arrrghhh!!! Rats, not again. Let me try a different tactic. I will get through yet.”

“What’s the matter, David? That was your fifth attempt. Are you having problems?”

“I’ll say. Once I find a port on the first layer, it times me out before I can find the next port. This is crazy. My worms and Trojans are getting blocked and stripped off before finding the next port. How does the data get through?”

“We tried several tactics as well. You probably have not gotten to the Firewall yet. According to Richard’s notes there are four check points before the Firewall. The last check point is an unexpected header test. If you have gotten that far, there still is the Firewall itself then another battery of tests afterwards. This is the software version of 3D System being built in SC.”

“What?!?! You’re kidding me, right?”

“Nope, why don’t you try and tag behind the data and see what happens.”

“Sure, I will try that. Let’s see what happens then, Beth.”

All right, I will tag behind the data. All we are doing is just sending a simple text message to the folder titled “Test Folder” that has been protected with ID’s and passwords. So let’s see what happens. Let’s just go along for the ride. I attached the camera to the data header. …What the… it stripped off the camera … All right, let’s try a beacon…darn it…it stripped that off too…now I cannot follow it through the layers. Richard must have found another property that can be tested to see if it can pass through or not. It must be different from the usual parity check bit. I have been at this for about thirty minutes so far, and no luck in getting through. This is a very good program.

“So have you given up yet, David?”

“Huh?! No, I haven’t given up. I have few more tactics. This program is very good. I cannot even follow behind it. It is stripping off my camera and beacon as it goes through the first check point. He must have found another property that uniquely identifies the data. That’s about all I can say right now.”

“You’re right David, Richard found not just one more property but he found several more that identify the data. He incorporated them into the unexpected tests that you have not reached yet. Also, from his notes, he made it so tough, that once it is initiated it is even difficult for him to get through.”

“You’re kidding me?! Several more attributes? That’s incredible. So, all I am doing is just using tactics that everyone else knows; he put those as his first tests. Then if by chance you get through with those tests he springs the unexpected tests on you? That is very classy. He is forcing you to use up your energy in what you know before he springs the unexpected on you.”

“That’s right David, and that is before you get to the Firewall. If you get through the Firewall, you still have to do that over again and then some.”

“Wow. That’s incredible. How about getting out? Is it the same gauntlet?”

“Yes, you have to go through all of that again. There are no short cuts. It seems so chaotic, but when you look at it as a whole, it is engineered beautifully. It also catalogues your attempts and adds them to the anti-virus database in the program and to here on the server. In this case it will be our main frame here when implemented.”

“That’s right, Doug. What you are trying to do, David, is to get to a particular tree, but you have an entire forest to go though. The path is very hard to find. That is why the beacon doesn’t work. It detected the signal and stripped it off to keep you in the dark. The data knows where it is going because of the header information.”

“Why don’t you go in and try to find a way to disable the program and shut it down or compromise it that way. That will give you better idea of what is going on.”

“Okay, I will see if I can do that.”

All right, let’s see if I can access the program and tamper it that way….Wow, this is tough. I think Richard did this so that no one can come in and compromise it somehow. He must have set up the same parameters for the program. I cannot even open it in a text editor just to see what the EXE code looks like. If he wrote the program in a common language, then converted that to an EXE file, he must have encrypted that as well and surrounded it with his check point tests that he did for the firewall. This is too good. He also set up his infamous five-password system as well to protect the core program.

“I have a question, Doug and Beth. Did he do the same protection scheme to the EXE, the DLL and other related files like he did for the firewall?”

“Yes he did, David.”

“That is very smart; it is even protecting the core program along with his five-password system. There is one more test that I would like to try. It is to overwhelm it with an all out assault on the buffers and see if it cracks a hole to get through.”

“That’s a good idea. I know it is a desperate move, but it is how email programs can be compromised like we have seen commonly done before.”

“Okay, let me try that.” Okay, let’s overrun the buffers and see if it creates a hole or a crack in the program . . . . David hits ‘enter’ as soon as he types in the series of commands. He sees the results on the screen. There goes the subroutine. It is exponentiating the data… here comes the data flood. It is approaching the check points…..What?!?! This is too much again. It stopped the data in its tracks. Now the program is self-booting back to the original point. There must be another parameter check in that first check point. But, what is it? What a minute… I think I know how…Besides checking for bugs, worms or Trojans, there must be a detection scheme for data flow rates. There must be a check valve that allows so much data at a time. Once it exceeds that limit it shuts down all check points and basically creates a multi-layer dam that is impossible to breach. If by chance any gets to the firewall it is down to a trickle and then it gets easily snuffed out by the firewall. Very slick Richard. You have just thought of every possible scenario for an attack. Even that self-booting dumps the bad data in the memory buffers and starts fresh all over again. But, if it does that, is that an opportunity to bring the system down and get access to the data?

Okay, the system re-boots. Wait a minute, that re-boot was very fast. It was faster than most re-boots that I have seen. I will go in try again….This is nuts. It is those same check points at the ports. They were not even destroyed by the flood. I bet each time I try to flood the check points the re-boot will get faster and faster. I cannot access the hard-drive remotely. I wonder what would happen if I were able to access the hard-drive directly?

“Well Doug, you are right. You cannot even overwhelm and flood the program. It converted the check points into dams and blocked the flood. There must be a check valve for data flow rates to cause that trigger.”

“That is right David. Are there any other questions?”

“I have one. What would happen if I were to access the hard-drive directly? Which I know would be impossible for an outsider to get to, but if someone on the inside had access. I was just wondering.”

“I knew you would ask that question. Here is a hard-drive that you can access. See if you can get in.”

“Okay, thanks Beth.” Let’s plug in the hard-drive. Open my computer and see if we can access it. There is my C prompt. Change directory to E…on the display I see…

Unable to access Hard-drive.

Huh, unable to access?!?! “Beth, are you sure this hard-drive can be accessed? I cannot get in and see the directory at the E prompt. What else did Richard do to protect the hard-drive?”

“Why don’t you check out the CMOS program and tell me what you see there?”

“Okay Beth, that would be the next step. I will check out the CMOS program on my computer.”

I re-boot my laptop….I press the function key. Here comes my CMOS program, let’s check the hard-drive access rights here….Huh, how did this get here?

External Hard-Drive Disabled.

Huh? How did that happened? Let me enable it. Huh, now what?!?

Do not have permission to access External Hard-Drive.

It says I do not have permission to access it. Let me unplug the hard-drive and put another hard-drive there to make sure it works. . . .

External Hard-Drive Enabled

Yes, it does change. I can access the external hard-drive. Now let me plug the hard-drive that Beth gave me . . . .

External Hard-Drive Disabled

Oh, this is too much. Richard found a way to block access to an external hard-drive by the access data cord and the CMOS program via a software program. “All I can say right now is that Richard has just thought of just about everything to protect a hard-drive and its contents. Even if someone tries to do an inside job to access it. I have another question. If the hacker gets frustrated and cannot get access to the data and decides to fry the electronics with an EMF pulse, what will happen? There has to be some sort of backup system for redundancy.”

“That is true, David. That might seem like a good move to bring down a system. If there is a total blackout, is there protection at the servers for such an attack? We always hope that our clients have put in a good protection scheme if there is a physical failure. Have the data backed up periodically daily so that there is nothing loss. There should be UPS units at key components. Most of them have RAID devices; which makes them very busy in their own MIS departments. What we are providing is an additional layer on the software level, to protect access to the data on the hard-drives.”

The door opens, in walks Ben. “So, how did it go, David? Were you able to get through?”

“No sir, it is very well built. I think the only one who can hack it is Richard. But from what I was told, once it is installed even Richard would have hard time getting through. He thought of everything for the initial tests. But, Doug and Beth tell me that Richard found some new properties about the data that can be tested to see if it has a bug on it or not. It is incredible. Sir, I officially give it the green sign and go with it. I doubt if anybody could hack through it.”

“That’s good to hear, David. There you go, Doug and Beth, take it the next step and start making the copies and get them to our customers.”

“Yes sir. Come, David, we some work to do at our station we do not need to bug them now.”

“Yes sir, I am coming.”

“Bye David and Ben; see you later Ben,” said Doug and Beth..

~~~000~~~

“Ring…Ring…Ring…”

“Good morning, this is Secure-Sys, Cheryl speaking, how can I help you?”

“Good morning, I am Dr. Sarah Mitchell. I would like to speak to Mr. Bryson.”

“Yes, Sarah, Mr. Bryson is in, let me connect you with Linda.”

“Thank you.”

Click. “Hello Linda? Dr. Sarah Mitchell is on Line 3 for Mr. Bryson.”

“Thank you, Cheryl. He has been expecting a call this morning from her.”

Click. “Good morning, Dr. Mitchell. This is Linda, Mr. Bryson’s secretary. I will connect you in.”

“Thank you, Linda.”

Click. “Mr. Bryson, Dr. Mitchell is on Line 3.”

“Thank you, Linda.” Click. “Good morning, Dr. Mitchell. How is Richard doing this morning?”

“Good morning, Mr. Bryson. Richard is doing fine. The results from this morning examination look promising. So far no complications have developed. We have given the okay for bedside visitors. We would like to keep it to two at a time for now. The hours of visitation will be from 10 to 11 AM, 2 to 3 PM and 6 to 7 PM. When he is more stable, we will increase the hours and the number of visitors. We do not want to tax his energy too much. He still has a long way to go. He will be unconscious today and tonight. Hopefully we will be able to bring him around tomorrow morning and take the next step for his recovery. He has a mouth piece placed there for the airway and for drinking liquids. We are keeping it there just in case. We want to see if he can speak through the mouth piece without moving his jaw. Also it will help us determine how the larynx is healing. I suspect it might be still be raw, we are hoping that he might be able to whisper through the vocal chords. It can be done with practice.”

“That is good to hear. Hopefully he will be conscious enough and be able to participate in the meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

“That is our hope , too. It will help us gauge how his progress is coming along. If you will excuse me, I need to get back to my duties.”

“Thank you, doctor. I will announce the hours to the company for those who want to come by and visit. I know some will want to bring flowers and cards, is that okay?”

“Yes it is. But I think it might be best to have the flower arrangements be suited for vases or small stands for table tops. I do not think the hospital will take kindly to arrangements that are on easels or pedestals on the floor. We need to have room to access the bed and be able to do any emergency work that needs to be performed.”

“I understand that. I will put a memo out with those stipulations, thank you. I will be by tomorrow at least if I can’t make it today. See you then. Oh Sarah, I have a couple more questions. What is the security situation there? How is he monitored?”

“Do you think he might be endangered still at this point?”

“It is possible. But I was thinking of putting him in a room with the 3D System that he created. That way everything can be monitored and recorded.”

“That is not a problem. In fact we already have Richard in a room with that equipment. So, don’t worry about it.”

“Well, that is good to hear. I just want to make sure he is taken care of.”

“I assure you our patient will be well taken care of. See you on Thursday then.” Click.

Click. “Linda could you please come in, I need you to take some notes and have it sent down to Publishing to create a company memo.”

“Yes sir, I am coming in.” Linda comes into the office and sits down on a chair before Robert’s desk.

“Linda, for the memo I want it stated as such.”

“Richard Moore is doing well in the hospital. He is still unconscious at this time. The hospital has arranged visiting hours from 10 AM to 11 AM, 2 PM to 3 PM and from 6 PM to 7 PM. Only two people will be allowed at a time. If flowers are brought, only to be in vases or small stands for table tops, no easel or pedestal arrangements are allowed. Cards are welcomed.”

“Have it signed with my name on the bottom as usual.”

“That is good news sir. I will make sure Publishing gets it posted to all of the break rooms and the employees. If you will excuse me, I will get it down there.”

“Thank you, Linda. I need to follow you Linda; I am heading to Central Security at this moment.”

“Yes sir.”

They both leave and walk to their destinations.

~~~000~~~

Linda arrives down at Publishing to meet Carol and Jennifer.

“Good morning, Carol and Jennifer.”

“Good morning, Linda. What can we do for you?”

“Carol, I have a memo that needs copied and posted to all employees. It is an update on Richard. There are also visiting hours and some rules if you are bringing any flowers or cards during the visit.”

“That’s great Linda. Sure we will get the memo posted as soon as possible.”

Linda hands the memo over to Jennifer and Carol and they both read it.

“No problem Linda. I am sure we are all relieved that there are no complications at this time.”

“Thanks girls. Well I need to get back to my station.”

“See you later this morning at the meeting.”

“Yes, see you later.”

~~~000~~~

Mr. Bryson walks down to Central Security to check in with Ben and David to see how it is going. Entering into the room…

“So, David how did it go with the bench test this morning?”

“Well sir, I just want to say I am thoroughly impressed with the program. I could not even make a dent in it to crack it open. It is very well built. I threw everything at it sir. Even with latest hacking tricks, it did not bend. Richard wrote a very good one. I doubt if anyone can hack it. I give the program the green light.”

“I heard you scream a few times while you were at it.”

“I am sorry, sir. But, it is just drove me nuts sometimes that I could not find a way past his initial four check points. He made it very difficult.”

“That’s good, David. Your emotional outbursts just reinforced how good it is. So, I just want to thank you for participating in the project. So Ben, I take it that Doug and Beth are making the copies and getting it available on a secure server?”

“Yes they are, Robert.”

“That is good to hear. Linda brought down a memo from me to Publishing. It is an update on Richard and when the visiting hours are. They will be posting it soon to the break rooms and the employees.”

“How is he doing, sir?”

“Richard is doing fine David, considering the damage. The surgeries are holding and there are no complications at this time. He will be unconscious today and tonight. Tomorrow morning they will try to bring him around. Hopefully he will be coherent enough and that he might be able to communicate and participate in the meeting tomorrow afternoon.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“Yes it is David. Well I need to get back to my office and get the agenda put together for the meeting here. See you at 10 AM, Ben.”

“See you later, Robert.”

Mr. Bryson leaves for his office.

“Okay David. While I am at the meeting it is up to you as usual to monitor the cameras. If anything is out of the ordinary, let me know.”

“Sure will, Ben. Is there anyone you want to watch closely?”

“Yes, take note of Brent and his three friends and possibly Darrell. Especially before and after the meeting, I want to know of any exchanges between them, whether by word, physical exchange, etc.”

“Yes sir.”

“I need to be in my office get my notes together for the meeting. You have the monitors for now.”

~~~000~~~

10 AM arrives for the meeting. The leaders arrive for the department meeting. As soon as everyone is seated, Mr. Bryson commences the meeting.

“Good morning everybody, we have a lot to discuss. As you know it is being recorded, Linda will see to that it is archived and copied for records. First let’s discuss what’s happening in our departments before we get to the new business. Brent you are up first.”

“Yes sir. The verification schedule load you might have surmised has increased since Richard left us. He helped share the load as backup. But we are not behind schedule at this time. About 90 percent of the programming is correct at this time. I hope to improve this as I get back with the programmers to correct their mistakes.”

“Thank you, Brent. Yes, I hope it improves. It really needs to be100 percent by the time it goes out the door. We do not want to go through those patches to fix those holes, Brent.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Bryson.” Don’t worry, Robert, I am going to create a hole so big, there is no way you will be able to find your way out, heh, heh.

“Thank you, Brent. Darren, it is your turn.”

“Yes sir. The web store has just been updated with the latest information and prices. Everything is current at this time. There have been no breaches in the traffic patterns. There have been some upper limits reached a few times each week. But there has been nothing out of the ordinary. No crashes yet. It is very stable at this time. I am just awaiting word if there are any new products coming out so that an announcement can be made for our customers to take note of.”

“Good, Darren. As far as I know there is nothing new at this time. Publishing it is your turn.”

“Thank you, Mr. Bryson. Right now we are creating more copies for the current order. We should have another group together later today. Hopefully tomorrow we will finish that current order by noon time. We have already begun the blocking and layouts for the next order. Right now there are no current backlogs. We are trying to time it at the same time as the new DVD’s are being created and finished. We still have three orders on the boards. They should be finished as scheduled.”

“Good, thank you, Jennifer. Shipping Department, it is your turn, Bruce.”

“Well, we are shipping out the current packages to the retailers and whole sellers. Which is phase two of the current order, phase three will be tomorrow. The private orders are happening as they are received. Of course it depends on when the UPS and Postal trucks arrive. Some are on time, but about once a week they are a little late coming to us dropping off packages or picking them up. Which is typical; it depends on what comes into their station at the time from everybody else that needs their services.”

“That is true, Bruce. You can’t predict traffic patterns sometimes. You just do what you can when caught in a traffic jam and be prepared when it clears out. Dave, I believe it is your turn now.”

“Yes, Robert. As some of you might remember from the last meeting, a notice came out that our health insurance decided to raise our payments on certain items in our plan. Of course just to be fair, that cost is being passed on to all employees. I will have an office memo put out to reflect that change once I receive the final amount from them. From what it looks like, it should be about an additional $10 to $20 taken out your paychecks each month.”

That elicits a few groans from some of the employees. “Unnnhh. . . .”

“Sorry about that, but it is the times we are in. Just a reminder to you all, be sure your time sheets are turned in at the end of the week for each project you do. Also, be sure to check your pay envelopes once a month. It contains the update to your vacation days left and sick time. Another reminder here is to not use your sick time for vacation days, it is only if you are really sick or if you are pregnant and having a baby.”

That brought a few laughs, chuckles and giggles from them.

“That is it, Robert, there is nothing new at this time.”

“Thank you, Dave. Accounting Department, Debbie you are up.”

“Thank you, Mr. Bryson. Right now most of our customers are paying their bills on time. There are a few who are red flagged for following up if they reach the 45 and 60-day mark. Those who are flagged are generally from the private orders. Their turn around time in transactions usually is met within two weeks after the initial 30 days. Those are the international orders since they take at least that long to clear the banks through the cycles which don’t coincide with our calendar. We will have the quarterly report figures out soon; they are being compiled at this time. Once they are finalized, they will be sent to Publishing for the Quarterly Review for the company. Our prices are holding that we charge per order. We are making our profit margins very well. This is giving us room to grow or entrench our stability with our branches. We do have the lean periods from time to time during a given year. It all depends what is pushed for new products and that our customers will want to upgrade. Of course we hope that they do.”

“Yes, Debbie. We hope our customers take advantage of the new products or the updates to the new versions. But we want to make sure they are compatible with the current operating systems, which takes us to Beth.”

“Thank you, Mr. Bryson. In R&D we are constantly making sure our products are compatible with the current operating systems. This latest operating system put out by MS is our latest challenge. As big as it is, it does have some issues with backward compatibility on certain applications like they have done in the past. We are putting it through its paces. We have come up with some suggestions that we will submit to them to include in their next Service Package So far there are no compromises when our software is loaded by itself. But there are some headaches when someone might try and load one of our competitors software programs on top of it or even side by side. It will do a substitution on some of our modules and render our package and theirs inoperable. They are not designed to be on the same network as some of our customers might think. We have been getting reports from our call center that some people think that they are getting more protection by loading multiple security programs. But they end up weakening their systems when they do that.”

“Beth, I want you and Doug to write up a warning notice to make sure it is included in each of our boxes. We need to tell our customers of that problem. Get it down to Publishing and to Darren to post on the web site.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well that takes care of the company news. Onto the current news, I was in Washington, D.C. last week for a Federal meeting on Security. We discussed current issues; identify theft, terrorism alerts, and other issues in security. We listened to various suggestions from many different companies and what they are doing to secure their information and at any level of government. It is very daunting at times. But we must remain vigilant in watching the reports from the call center and tech support. Our branch office in Texas is very busy compiling that information and informing us, the state agencies and federal agencies if there is anything out of the ordinary. Right now it is the usual spammers and hackers trying their best to leave their mark saying that they are invincible. Some are proving elusive, some are easily found. Each time a new virus comes out; companies like Symantec, McAfee and the others have their hands full in just keeping up with them. Some of the viruses are not serious, but there will always be someone who will try something new. We all need to be vigilant and try to stay one jump ahead of them.”

“It has come to my attention on why Richard was let go before I left. Right now all I can say is that he was not meeting our expectations and keeping up with the work load. But when I came back, I received word that someone attacked him and he is in the hospital at this time. I have sent out a memo to everyone. On the memo it specifies some restrictions for times when you can visit him. I know some of you will want to go by and see him. They did set up a time slot for the evening. Right now he is unconscious at this time, but he is stable.”

Everyone gives a sigh of relief when they heard that.

“They are hoping to bring him around later in the week to see how he is doing. Someone really did a bad number on him. As you have read in the paper, he suffered multiple broken bones. His jaw is wired right now so that he cannot talk. He is immobile with leg and arm casts. That is all I have to say right now on the matter. We hope the police will find the person who did this and get them taken off the streets.”

“Well, that concludes this part of the meeting. You are all excused, except for the Legal and Security meeting.”

~~~000~~~

Brent, Bruce, Debbie, Darren and Jennifer all get up and leave.

Brent and Darren walked side by side for a while, when they got alone they whisper to each other.

“Did you hear that Brent? Richard’s mouth is wired up. He cannot talk.”

“Yes, I did hear that. That is good news. The nice part is he being in those casts; it means that he will not be going anywhere. That gives us the perfect opportunity to do our next step in the plan for change. I will stop by after work today and whisper some encouraging words in his ear. Heh, heh . . . ”

~~~000~~~

“Does everyone have their report ready to give?”

Everybody nodded yes. “Yes, Robert.”

“Good. Oh Beth, what you will be hearing is the latest problem for us. Save your questions until after the reports. Your questions might be answered by then.”

“Yes Mr. Bryson.”

“Let’s start with Ben.”

“I went and used the program provided by Richard. It does confirm our suspicions. Brent did originate the email to have it come from your PC to have Richard fired. It even had your signature attached. The other disturbing item is that Brent also embezzled money from the company. He tried to hide it, but it was easily traceable with that program.”

“How much money did he take?”

“He took about $50,000.00 dollars from several accounts in the last two months. This totaled to about $500,000.00 for the last two years after Richard got hired.”

“So you mean to tell me that he has been planning this that long. He must really dislike Richard and me.”

“That’s not all, Richard’s program revealed how Brent was able to go through the directories, and tried to rewrite the entries to cover his trail. Brent has a hacking program to do that. I did a search on the internet and found a rogue website that provides such tools.”

“That’s the hard part, Ben. There is always someone who wants to get money for nothing. Even the hackers will come up with methods to circumvent security. I hope Richard’s program will stop that in its tracks. Do you know where the money went?”

“Some of the money went to Brent’s account and his three friends. Some of the money went to other banks; probably to pay off his associates.”

“That sounds about right, Ben. Dave, it is your turn.”

“Well, the DVD provided to me contain Richard’s complete medical records. I was amazed that his parents did not tell him of his dual nature when he was younger. He had to wait and find out until he lost his family in the plane crash. Beth you need to keep this to yourself and Doug. Do not tell anybody else. Richard was born with both sets of gender organs. When Richard was beaten up by Brent and his friends, they also damaged his hands, arms and legs. He was kicked in the jaw once. He had a metal corset on that protected his vital organs and groin area.”

“No! Oh my God, I did not realize how badly he was beaten up.”

“I know, it is shock to all of us. Just hear us out for now. There will be a meeting downtown tomorrow and at the hospital discuss this further. Right now we are getting our facts straight before we meet with them. Oh and Beth. Since Brent did this, Richard is obviously not fired. He is still covered and employed by the company through one of our branches. Again I ask, please keep silent on this.”

“That is good to hear. I promise not to tell anybody but Doug and among us here in this room.”

“Thank you, Beth. This problem is bigger than what it appears to be. Is that it Dave?”

“That’s all I have, but hearing from Ben about the accounts being altered, I will go back and check my records and compare them with Accounting. I don’t remember anything out of the ordinary in the balances. It is possible Brent kept the amounts small and slowly accumulated the money.”

“The DVD that Richard provided for me contained an interesting program and a report. First of all it listed the complete background of Brent and his three friends. We knew that they graduated all together from the same university from their resume. They tried to stay together from company to company. The only answer that they put down on why they left the company was the standard “seeking better pay and benefits”. I asked our legal department to get their complete record from the UV Engineering Department. They found out that all four of them tried to crash the department’s computers at one time or another. They did this by hacking the admin password or setting off Trojans and worms into the system. They have been reprimanded and told not to do it again. If caught again, they would be expelled with no diploma. Since then, they toed the line and kept quiet. But what Richard did was to use his Rabbit Trails program to see what other activities’ Brent and his friends did in their spare time.”

“Ben, take a look at this report. It came from the sniffer program he created called ‘Rabbit Trails’. I think you will recognize some names on this list. It all stems from Brent’s activities and email.”

Ben takes a scan of the report. “Robert, I recognize a lot of names on this list. Here let me pass it around. I am sure one of us might know who some of these people are. Some of these handles are legends or myths that could not be traced. If Richard’s program was able to track them down, then he wrote a program that trumps the best search engines and sniffers; and he did it using a stealth mode style.”

Beth takes a look at the list, “Even I recognize some of these names, I am sure Doug might know some of others that I don’t. If these people are involved in Brent’s scheme, it is bigger than the Revolutionary War. This is a world wide coup that is waiting to happen. They want to change the status quo. I have been in some chat rooms that can be very scary. The chat rooms have simple names thinking that you will get advice on a current computer problem. But, there is a hidden agenda within the chat room. A lot of them say a change must take place. But, if they can pull off what I think they are talking about, it will put the world in chaos and only they will be able to reassemble the jigsaw puzzle. I mean the global economy will be shaken to its core. If Richard’s program can put a stop to that, then I am all for it.”

“Revolutionary War? That is cause for alarm, Beth. Mitch and Brenda what is your take on these events?”

“Well sir, we need to keep an eye on the four of them. When we have our meeting tomorrow downtown and at the hospital, I think we need to go over through every possible scenario. Even if Richard’s program works and secure our clients databases, it will not save every single one through out the USA or the world if the takeover went global. They are probably taking it one step a time and see if they can infiltrate and establish a beach head for something bigger.”

“That’s right Brenda. We are probably the first company to see if they can infiltrate and take over our resources and connections. Since we are not MS, they might be thinking we are a small and easy target. Most coups are military and done with strength of weapons and people. This is going to be an attack from within and with stealth; which is an entirely different approach. If other rogue groups want a copy of Richard’s program, it will probably fall into the hands of people who want to do us harm. Robert, do you know if this Rabbit Trails program can detect protected databases like the one Richard designed?”

“The Rabbit Trails program can detect any protected database. It all started with tracing Brent and his friends’ email and data streams. It then sniffs and follows the data. All you have to do is enter in one of the names on this list and it will seek out the associates from it. Richard discovered a way to go through the aliases and ghost addresses when they tried to disguise themselves and for him self to not get detected. Beth you tested Richard’s program. How did it go?”

“Doug, David and I threw everything that we knew of and tried to crack Richard’s program. The program is designed to stop all known and unknown viruses, Trojans, worms, hidden packets, beacons, cameras, etc. Even if someone came up with a new virus form it would detect it and strip it off from the packet. Richard found some new attributes that uniquely identified the data. It is designed to have four layers before and after the firewall. When you find the first open port where the data goes through, you encounter the first layer that detects all known viruses, Trojans, worms, beacons cameras, spoof and ghost addresses, etc. The program strips them off and you are left standing there and try to proceed any further. But the problem happens in finding the next port where the data is going. You usually get timed out before you find it. But it is just the right amount of time for the data. If you get through the second port, the next layer is another check point. It tests the data again. This happens one more time for the third layer. Then if you think you are very clever in getting past the third layer, the fourth layer is the toughest. Richard springs the unexpected attribute tests on the data. By this time your brain is on caffeine trying to figure out why you got stopped. But that’s not all. If you just happen to make it through that, there is the firewall to contend with. Then after the firewall, Richard set up four more check points again and hits you with the unexpected data test at the end. If by chance you make it through all that and you are able to get to the file you are looking for, you still have to go through that gauntlet again on the way out. The sneaky part is that Richard has figured out how to identify the intruder and has it marked at any checkpoint. That signature is added to the database for future identification and to trace you back to your origin. It is so well built, not even a scratch or dent was made. We even tried to flood it. It with stood the onslaught with ease. The four layers get turned into dams to block the data flood. If any of it gets by that, the firewall snuffs out the rest of it. When it was rebooted, it dumped the flooded data and rebooted faster back to where it was. There were no cracks in the program afterwards, and it even did not get erased or deleted. He also was able to find a way to block a direct attack on the hard drive if you try to do an inside job. That took David by surprise. Richard made it so complicated that not even he could hack it once it was initiated.”

“Thank you, Beth. Why Richard did this is that Brent was hacking into his software programs for our clients, that is when he became suspicious of Brent. A couple of weeks before I left for DC, he requested that he would like to do an investigation into the software packages for our important clients such as the police department, the courthouse and other government offices here locally in Jacksonville. He also requested a month old copy of our database to see if there is anything unusual there.”

“What did he find?”

“He found plenty, Brenda, as testified by Ben here. First of all, I was pleasantly surprised by a visit from Richard’s lawyer and a police detective from Knoxville this past Monday. During our meeting, Dave’s office was broken into. When we turned on the monitor we discovered it was done by Darrell. When he found Richard’s address and phone number he relayed it to Brent and his 3 friends who were on vacation at the same time. We called Richard immediately to see if he was okay. We spoke for a short bit before Brent showed up at his apartment. Richard was able to tell me that he sent me an email to open immediately. Richard then switched to stealth mode at his apartment and had the entire incident recorded at my office. It was not a pretty sight. They only had time to smash up Richard before a group of bees, wasps and gnats came in and chased them out of the apartment.”

“That explains the bites on their faces, arms and hands.”

Everyone chuckles when they hear that.

“I immediately signed the release papers to have his addressed released to the police officer and some old family friends of Richard. We all went to Richard’s apartment as quickly as possible. We were there when he was brought out, then later we went to the hospital to await word on his condition.”

“The next morning I opened up my email and found Richard’s email. He requested an audience with some of us and with the police department and the attorney general here in town. Richard gave us a 3D-video presentation on his findings. He also presented his gifts for us as well that you all have now.”

“I wanted to have Brent and his friends arrested right then and there. But Richard advised to wait. He wanted his program installed on the servers here and with our clients before Brent thinks he is ready to spring his trap. Richard thinks the best time to catch them is when they think they are in control of the servers. Once they think they are seated safely, this is when we will have our trap ready. The program gets initiated when they try commandeering the operating system and the data files. Brent and his friends will be caught with their hands in the cookie jar and not be able to get out to warn the others. In addition, this sting will snare the other co-conspirators as well. The Rabbit Trails program will be unleashed to sniff out their point of origins.”

“I would not be surprised if some of the co-conspirators are international. They are probably waiting to see what happens. If all goes well from their point of view, they will try the same thing elsewhere. But if we can stop them here, they will still think they are safe because Brent and his crew are caught but not themselves. But the Rabbit Trails program will track them down no matter where they go. Richard said he would like to see Brent’s face when he tries to get out of the cookie jar and when he is carted off to jail. So would I.”

“Is there anything else we should know before we adjourn the meeting?”

“Yesterday, you asked to me review the conversations you had as you went through your rounds. I was able to confirm that the stories they came up with do have holes in them. They got mixed up on the baseball game dates and times for one thing. Also, we have word from Detective Torres that they were recorded yesterday while arriving at Richard’s apartment. That will be the biggest piece of evidence time conflict that will convict them.”

“Yes, Ben. I did catch their mix-ups on the baseball games. I agree that recording at the manager’s office will be crucial. Have you figured out how Brent was able to get the key card swiped to enter Dave’s office?”

“I have given it some thought. But Detective Torres told me that Brent used some type of electronic device that allows him to put a wired blank card in the door lock; it then imprints the code onto the card and allows him to enter the room. These devices can be found in specialty shops that cater to the espionage groups, which in turn are visited by the criminals who want an edge in their capers.”

“Thanks, Ben, I was wondering how Darrell got into my office.”

“Tomorrow morning we have a meeting downtown with the AG and the Detective Torres at 10 AM. We will be discussing this information and confirming our positions in getting the servers protected at our clients IT departments as well as here.”

“Since the meeting is tomorrow at 10 AM, do you want us to leave at staggered time intervals like yesterday?”

“That is a good idea Ben. Since it takes about half hour to get downtown. I suggest we leave 2 to 5 minutes apart starting at 9:10 AM. Beth, I want Doug to attend the meeting tomorrow. Is that okay?”

“I have no problems with that, Robert. He can give more credence on what is happening in the chat rooms than I can.”

“Good. It’s now noon time and time for lunch. The meeting is adjourned.”

Everyone gets up and goes their separate ways to their offices.

~~~000~~~

Beth walks back to R&D to give an update on the meeting.

“Hello, Beth. How did the meeting go?”

“Hello, Doug. Everything went fine until we had the security meeting. I was given some details on the beating Richard received from Brent and his friends. Besides beating him up, they also focused on his hands and jaw so that he cannot talk or communicate. They tried to damage his male organs, but he had a metal corset on to protect himself.”

“They did that to him? They’re cowards!”

“I just about said the same thing. Doug; do you remember those chat rooms that I sat near by and watched you participate in?”

“Yes, I do. I want to show you some wild talk that some groups are having.”

“I want you take at look at this list. I was given a copy of it from the meeting. See if you recognize any names on there.” Beth hands to Doug the list of names.

Scanning over the list, Doug became wide-eyed and alarmed by the names. “How did you get this list? Where did it come from?”

“It came from Richard when he tracked down Brent’s associates with his “Rabbit Trails” program.”

“This is bad, very bad, Beth.”

“I know, I mentioned my concerns to the group. They want you attend the meeting tomorrow morning to confirm our suspicions with these chat rooms.”

“They do huh? Well, I will make plans to be there. Fortunately I was able to transcribe some of the chats with a recorder nearby. We were able to copy and paste the texts to a word editor as they typed in on the scroll lines. I will explain some of it during the meeting. When did Richard put this together?”

“About two weeks before Robert left for his trip to DC. Richard became suspicious of Brent’s intrusion and hacking into his programs for the last several months. He requested from Mr. Bryson to bring home some old versions of our client’s software and a month old database from us. Richard discovered the hacking and proceeded to put his findings together. He even discovered that Brent was embezzling company funds at least that long. Ben said it had been going on for the last two years when he confirmed it. It turns out this embezzling started soon after Richard was hired two years ago. He was able to get an email to Robert before he was attacked.”

“Embezzling? That greedy son of a b….! Well that’s good to hear. So, let’s get our information together and get it ready for the meeting tomorrow.”

“Well, I need to go out and get lunch, Doug. Did you bring yours this time?”

“No I didn’t. Why don’t you go grab your lunch, here is $10? Get me the usual from the sandwich shop down the street while I start getting the info together.”

“No problem, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

~~~000~~~

“So what do you think of the latest meeting, Brent?” Then Darren takes a bite from his sandwich sitting across from Brent in his office.

“The meeting went as expected. But in a way I am glad to hear that Richard is stiff as a board in the hospital,” chuckles Brent. Then he takes a bite from his sandwich.

“We haven’t heard anything or seen anything in the papers on how the investigation is going. I am still concerned that we might get tracked down some day.” He takes a sip from his soda.

“No, don’t worry. Everything is under control. I sent an email to one of the associates explaining what is happening here. They wrote back indicating they will not be able to spring their assault until they get the latest hospital report. They want to make sure it is all clear and there won’t be any interference from Richard or anyone else that could jeopardize the operation. What can go wrong? I have made sure all of the software going out has our backdoor codes to get access to the secure areas. I even discovered Richard cleaning up the programs after I approved them. But when I saw the subroutine missing, I rewrote them in again before they were sent to the Copy room for mass production.”

“Yes, that was close. You knew he was suspicious of your actions.”

“True, but that is why we visited him earlier this week to make sure we are not impeded with our plans. Don’t forget I’m going to visit him later this evening.”

“Do you think he is a security risk? I mean would they post guards to make sure no one goes after him again?”

“I doubt it. He is wired up and cannot talk anyway. By the time he comes out of it there is nothing nobody can do. We will have established our corner and wait for the other players to do their advancement to take over the government entities. It is the perfect plan.”

“I hope so, Brent. I still think there is a chink in the plan somewhere.”

“You are getting too pessimistic and paranoid, Darren. In fact you can come with me this evening and we will see for ourselves when we visit him.”

“I know I am getting worried. But, we invested a lot time and money in this plan. We all been over it forward and backwards. But I think there is something missing. I cannot put my finger on it. We had this in the planning stages two years ago or so before Richard got hired. But it seems Richard was thwarting our plans, or seems to slow down some since he got here. You know he is a good programmer, Brent.”

“You know I am a better programmer than him. He just came out of college. He has no real-time knowledge on how security systems work. But what irked me the most is Robert promoting him to assist me in proofing the programs for final approval about six months ago. Robert had no right to do that.”

“I know what you mean, Brent. That kid is just fresh out of college and he starts making suggestions on making our website and software more secure. But you know Brent; the colleges are teaching these students to be better programmers.”

“Perhaps, but it still takes in the field experience and being under pressure to get it done. He had none of that when he got here. Oh, look at the time, Darren. Why don’t we meet up together after work today and go down and visit the mummy?”

“Sounds good Brent, see you later today.”

Brent gets up and walks to the break room and cleans up. He then returns to his office to continue with the day’s activities; humming a simple jazz number along the way.

~~~000~~~

The rest of the day is normal at Secure-Sys; everybody went about their tasks for the day.

~~~000~~~

When five o’clock rolls around, everybody gets ready to end the day.
Brent and his friends get together outside the building and they all decide to take a trip to the hospital together to meet there at in an hour in their own cars.

Arriving at the hospital, Brent inquires where Richard’s room is. Walking down the hallway toward elevators, they enter in the next available one. Going up several floors and getting out at the fourth floor; they walk over to the nurse’s station to enquire which wing and room.

“Hello ladies, we are here to visit Richard Moore, where is he located on this floor?”

“Hello, yes, Richard is down the hall on the right. We are only allowing two at a time right now and five minutes in the room. But you will have to wait a bit. There is someone down there already. We have a sitting area nearby if you like.”

“That’s no problem, nurse. We can wait for our turn. Hey guys, I’ll go down and check the room. You can wait in the sitting area.”

“You go ahead, Brent, we’ll wait over there.”

Brent walks down the hallway to the room, and sees a man sitting in an aisle sofa near the room and stops near Richard’s door which is closed.

The man looks up at Brent, “Waiting to go see Richard?”

“Yes, I just wanted to see how he is doing.”

“Well he is just lying on the bed right now unconscious. It is going to be a while before he comes around. They did a bunch of surgeries the last few days.”

“That’s okay I just want to drop off a get well card signed by some friends.”

Then the door opens to Richard’s room and out come two women.

Hmmm….looks like we have a dad, mom and their daughter coming for a visit. She sure looks hot. I wonder who she is.

“Our five minutes are up, dad. It is your turn to go in if you like.”

“Thanks dear. But I think I will wait, there are other people who want to stop by,” looking toward Brent.

“If you don’t mind the wait, I brought some other friends as well. We won’t be too long,” Brent turns around and goes back to the waiting area. Brent returns with three in tow. “We know about going in at two a time. We won’t take up the minutes. You got the card, Brian?”

“Yes, here it is, Brent.” Brian hands the card to Brent.

“If you will excuse us, it won’t take too long.” Brent and Darren go into Richard’s room and close the door.

“Will you look at that Darren? He’s all tied up and he has no place to run.” Chuckling as he approaches the bed. Brent puts the card on the small table in the corner of the room with the other cards and flowers.

“Yes, we all did a number on him. When he wakes up, it will be a brand-new world.”

“I should say so. If you will excuse me, I need to whisper something to him.” Getting next to him, Brent begins to whisper into his ear: “I know you are sleeping, perhaps you can hear me. You know who is talking now.”

Just then the pulse rate starts to quicken on the monitoring devices.

“Yes, you can hear me. I see that your heart is beating faster. But I will leave soon. But know this; I will always be the better programmer than you.”

Then the pulse rate starts to slow down.

“You can’t stop what is about to happen. The Revolution will be in full force when you wake up. It will be a New Dawn on the world. You will be a Nobody and useless in the new society. You will be out of sight, out of mind as they say. Good bye Richard.” Brent gets up and lets Darren have a few words.

“Hello, Baby Richard.”

Just then the pulse rate starts to quicken on the monitoring devices.

“Ooh, I think you are mad. Well tough it, if you can. Not! Good bye Richard this is the last time I will see you. Mr. Bryson will not save you now. He is going to be a Nobody like you.”

Then the pulse rate starts to slow down.

Darren gets up and leaves with Brent out of the room. They smile and nod their heads to Brian and Michael when they come out. Then Brian and Michael enter in the room.

Brian walks over to the bed and bends to whisper into Richard’s ear. “Hello Little Ritchie, I have just come to say good bye as well.”

Just then the pulse rate starts to quicken on the monitoring devices.

“You will not win. We have the upper hand now. You are the biggest loser of them all. You will not catch us now. We have outsmarted you this time. Heh, heh,…”

Then the pulse rate starts to slow down.

Brian gets up and steps away and Michael has his turn.

“Sorry you are in this predicament. But you brought this upon yourself by interfering with our plans. It’s all about power, you little twerp.”

Just then the pulse rate starts to quicken on the monitoring devices.

“No one can save you now. We told you we will get our revenge on you. We have the girls now. You have nothing. You’re the social outcast now. If those are your friends out there, we will take them from you as well. You will be . . . all . . . alone.”

Just then the pulse rate starts to quicken to a higher rate on the monitoring devices and starts beeping loudly.

Then all of sudden some nurses comes into the room about ten seconds later. “Get out of the room now. I do not know how, but I think you have been here long enough.”

Then the pulse rate starts to slow down; as the nurses attend to Richard.

“Yes, nurse. We were just finishing here. We will leave now.”

Brian and Michael leave the room and see concerned faces on the visiting family. Turning, they see Brent and Darren down the hall waving their hands to get down there quickly. All four leave together as quickly as possible and enter the elevators.

“What did you say to him in there?”

“Oh just like you, Brent. I think the tipping point was when I told him you will have nothing, we have the girls now, we will even take your friends from you; you will be all alone.”

“You knew he was hearing you?”

“Of course Darren; I knew he was hearing us. When I saw the heart rate went up the first time. I decided to push it a little further and really get him worried,” laughing Michael.

“That was close, Michael. But we did give him some words to worry about,” chuckles Brian.

“I know. Did you check out that chick in the hallway? She is hot.”

“Yes, I did see. How can you not miss her? I bet she could use a new friend when we are in charge now.”

Then all four laugh together. The door opens to the elevator on the first floor. They all leave and drive their cars and head back to their apartments.

Chapter 7: Wednesday morning at the hospital.