The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella (16 page)

"Where did you receive the flash drive
containing the documents?" the interrogator asked. After Dallas
provided a brief but complete answer, he continued along the same
lines:

"How did you receive the drive?"

"Under what circumstances did you receive
the drive?"

"On the night in question, were you under
the influence of alcohol? Drugs? Duress?"

"Had you previously seen the documents?"

"Had you previously seen similar
documents?"

"Do you know what the documents mean?"

"Have you shown the documents to other
people?"

"Do you plan to show the documents to other
people?"

Two hours later, Dallas was permitted to
leave. She did not see Marco or any other apparent senior official
as she followed her escort back to the car and accepted the ride
home.

At FedSec, Marco and Julia replayed the
interview over an encrypted conference call with Carter. The voice
and body sensors had detected no signs of stress, a reading Julia
attributed to preparation, which Marco denied. As the repeated
questions and answers continued to completion, the listeners held
their comments.

"We played the interview for you to help you
understand the breach we believe has occurred," Julia stated to
Carter after the recording had finished. "The sole purpose is to
allow you to express any concerns you may have and we will deal
with them. We do not want you to feel at any time that we are not
responsive."

"We also believe," Marco firmly stated.
"This...breach, if we wish to give this incident a name, was not
material. As you have heard, Winter has very little
information."

"Yeah, she could be a really good liar, but
in general, I guess I'm not alarmed," Carter responded, to Marco's
relief. "Whatever she read is not directly connected to our work,
and from her answers, pretty much sounded like she did not have any
additional information."

"You really feel that way?" Julia asked
incredulously. "She's running a campaign through her writing to
reveal the contents of the documents."

"There's not enough in her answers to prove
that accusation."

"There's more than enough to take
action."

"If we take action we might draw attention
to ourselves and risk scrutiny we do not need."

"We are already receiving scrutiny because
of her."

"Not in a threatening way. Arresting a
high-profile journalist for writing about documents we claim are
not ours would be a much more direct risk."

"But we do not know the depth of the threat
she has unleashed."

"And we don't need to create attention where
none should exist."

"If I can intervene," Marco firmly stated to
break up their bickering. "As of this very second, no people but us
have noticed any connection between Dallas's reporting and our
program. FedSec has not received a single request from any other
press or organization asking for comments about her work. Nor have
any internal departments or external businesses asked for more
information. No suspicion has been ignited."

"FedSec is not mentioned in her articles,
but other government departments are taking feedback," Julia
clarified. "Officials are being asked to comment on the content of
the articles, and to provide more information and insight into the
possible connections to the government."

"Right, but since most government
departments participated in the initial research and development
they have answers for those questions. They know policy papers have
been prepared, and they know people are speculating about future
government initiatives and plans. No one is surprised. We also have
not heard about anyone going back to the restaurant, to Infrared,
to claim the drive. Dallas asked the restaurant owner, and no
customer has been looking for property lost on that night. Which
means we cannot see an agenda with whoever had or saw the
documents. I think we can agree, we are safe."

"We are not safe."

"Okay Julia, I disagree. But even if trouble
were looming, the focus of our efforts should be our financing and
build-out schedule. We have said many times we are setting this
system up for the long-term."

"I agree, but a prospective view should not
mean we are not vigilant."

"Of course we're vigilant," Carter insisted.
"But we are also smart about how we use our time. Marco is right,
let's switch to the financing and infrastructure build-out. We need
our foundation to be stabilized or all the other discussions are
useless."

Fuming Julia declared, "We have nothing to
discuss on financing and infrastructure. I have both programs under
control. But if you two find those topics more important than
infiltration and sabotage from external forces, I'll leave you to
discuss the fine points. I have other work to do, if you'll excuse
me." She rose to depart.

"Julia..." Marco cried, holding up a hand to
her as she prepared to leave the room.

"You both know how to reach me." She turned
and left.

Carter let out a sigh. "Wow, she's a little
unhappy."

"She's very concerned about this project,
and any potential fallout if our true intentions were ever
revealed."

"We are all concerned about leaks, but she
seems to have another issue. What am I missing?"

"Nothing."

"Julia is extremely smart and knows this
project better than anyone. If she has insight we've overlooked, I
want to know."

"There's nothing I'm aware of."

"All right, but still, talk to her, find out
if there's more to her concerns. I do not want any surprises. And I
don't want her pissed off."

"Yeah sure, I don't want any surprises
either. We've come this far with our objectives, the next steps are
critical to making sure we finish and win."

*

No further articles emerged under Dallas's
by-line as Julia decided to respond to her own instincts by
doubling down on her efforts on behalf of the project and
accelerating the implementation timetable. "We have sufficient
detail to present the blueprint, as is, to the current group of
world political, business and law enforcement leaders," Julia said
to Marco. "We are ready to move. This year, not next, we take the
outline of the experiment to the President."

Marco bristled. He had never wanted to
involve the President of the United States in the project plan.
With only four to eight year governance mandates, a democratically
elected leader did not have the control or influence required to
ensure COSA was accepted and implemented over the long-term.
"Aren't we being hasty?" Marco cautioned. "We do not need to take
any details to the President so soon."

"I've had enough of waiting to be exposed by
forces we cannot control. Once the President completes his portion
of the work, we will truly be on our way."

"What exactly are we going to tell him?"

"We say we have a functioning deal involving
multiple enthusiastic participants. We are informing him of the
existence of COSA, as an experiment in global surveillance. The
U.S. government is not quite paying for the system. No legislation
was required to pursue research in the field. We have only utilized
existing resources to merge online databases from businesses and
government to test for efficiencies."

"I'm sure the legalese is paper thin."

"You only need to worry about the law if
there is someone planning to challenge your actions. COSA fits
neatly into all of our administrative mandates. And the system can
be reconfigured at any time to comply with government directives.
The current existence of the project transcends time, all we needed
to do was make sure there was a base to stand on and we have built
one. The information the President will receive is simply an
advisory. There's no wrongdoing if private interests create a
service the government later decides to use. We are going to
present the details to the President in a format highlighting the
voluntary and experimental connection to government departments. He
can take the data to the G8 and NATO meetings, and ensure other
world leaders understand how their voluntary participation would be
appreciated. Once everyone has signed on for the experiment, we can
cement COSA into place and the system will be set forever."

Although the President was expected to
attend both the Group of 8 and North Atlantic Treaty Organization
summits in Europe later in the year, no separate cyber security
briefing had been prepared to include COSA and its experimental
mandate. Instead, Julia was expecting his advisors to accept her
recommendation to have the President informally announce the
program to the allies, and seek global support.

"Does the President understand the
implications?"

"His staff has to brief him. We provided all
the materials, we do not need to take further action."

"Are we expecting G8 and NATO
cooperation?"

"Yes of course, the groundwork has been
completed."

"And you're okay with all of the plans, and
the current state of our...our situation."

"If you mean your friend Dallas, some
unknown hacker and the other forces challenging this project, no
I'm not okay with the situation. But I've been too busy making sure
we are ready to worry about their feeble attempts at sabotaging
us."

"Okay, okay...we are set. A global rollout
is a
fait accompli
."

"Yes, we are set. We are finally ready for
the next level."

*

Although the breach at Horizon had provided
Apex with a trove of valuable information about COSA, she was still
searching for the program's detailed development plans, especially
the outreach to global leaders, businesses and other organizations
planning to participate in the project. The faster GCS was able to
claim more adherents to COSA, the harder the system would become to
dissolve. Each entity could act as another's redundancy, making a
data breach at one facility only a temporary operational blip on a
company's time. Apex needed to ensure she exhausted all options to
inflict permanent damage or at least debilitate an organization's
basic functions. With security at the Horizon offices
re-established by Carter's cleanup, she had to consider an
alternative route to GCS's confidential data, and decided one may
exist through the electronic devices Julia and Marco juggled
between home and office.

In the build-out of electronic gadgetry into
consumer uses, people had already sacrificed security for
convenience. Even high-ranking government officials responsible for
cyber security were vulnerable to the appeal of innovative personal
devices adapting rapidly into popular use, at the expense of
outmoded models favored by internal electronics experts championing
a rigorous security blanket. Given the variety of options used to
access confidential documents, Apex hoped to find a breach by
cross-referencing Julia's personal mobile, tablet, home laptop and
main office desktop at State with the same devices owned by Marco,
and identifying an opening a clever tech could enter. Government
departments were notoriously weak with their technology protection
infrastructure. With millions of technology jobs left unfilled by
the lack of attention to science education specialties, all sectors
competed for the few graduates and experienced programmers who were
available to work. But a hierarchy of preference had developed in
the talent search world. Qualified and coveted technologists
usually preferred first to accept positions offered by innovative,
driven entrepreneurs either founding their own companies or going
to work for those who were coming up; next option were the
established Silicon Valley technology companies and competitors in
other cities who could provide sufficient benefits and steady pay
along with free lunch and recreation; those searching for high
salaries in exchange for time-consuming work weeks turned to
management consulting and financial engineering; then the
government appealed to the patriotically-driven or selected from
military-mandated assignments; until finally at the end of the line
all other industries, non-profits, education and other government
departments waited for the few available hands who would be willing
to launch their careers in organizations where neither high pay nor
prestige would be readily forthcoming.

Within the cut of desperation among the
government departments, Apex expected to find a mistake. She only
needed one errant path, and she could be in on their systems within
minutes. Running a series of proprietary search applications
developed by her own companies, Apex leaned back to take another
look at the documents Dallas had uncovered, and contemplated the
uphill battle lying ahead.

With some of their plans, the government
would always be able to claim the conveniences and efficiencies of
COSA far outweighed any potential concern about privacy. In the
consumer file found among the policy documents on the flash drive,
GCS was proposing unlimited access to financing for consumers who
defaulted all of their personal banking and investment information
to COSA. The functionality's appeal to consumers would be
overwhelming. In the distant past, traders had to rely on physical
property as a medium of exchange. Pure gold had been the standard
used by all nations as absolute proof of financial viability. When
governments determined they could print money without restraint,
paper became the mechanism through which they built developed
economies using only the whimsical acceptance of high finance
arbitrageurs as the definers of fiscal value. For the future,
physical currency would disappear from the public's view, and the
paper dollar would be replaced with digital accounts displaying the
availability of funds to pay for services using vaporous digital
code as the intermediary. Under COSA, the system would extend
credit far beyond the balance available in an account, without
spending limits. If an individual's checking or savings balances
fell to zero, the system would automatically search the entire
Internet for available sources of loan funds. Based on the
consumer's personal data including education, employment and prior
loan histories, a program would scan thousands of offers from all
forms of lenders, all over the world, and extend a line of credit
or a short-term loan. The consumer’s pre-defined prerequisites,
from a cap on the amount borrowed or annual interest rate, to the
location of the funding institution, would define the parameters
for an acceptable lender. Once the account received approval,
before the next bill was due, the system, without input from the
consumer, would transfer the funds, and spending could continue
with impunity.