The Origin Point: A Future Tech Cyber Novella (5 page)

"You're saying the documents are not
important, and I should what...search for another source?"

"No. Dal, there's no story here. What are
you going to do, knock on every think tank's door and ask if
someone lost a flash drive? I imagine such amateur behavior is
beneath the talents of a journalist of your caliber."

"What do you recommend?"

"Well I know you like to follow your
instincts. But why not ask the restaurant to put the drive in
lost-and-found and wait until a customer picks it up. If someone
was working hard on putting all the research together they'll want
to claim their property before another idea wonk steals their
opinions."

"Lost-and-found?"

"Yes."

"For documents professing racism and sexism
may be coded into online websites and government departments? For
policies about weaponizing civilian drones?" Marco stiffened. "You
think these are lost-and-found ideas? Marco, I have never even
heard of some of these plans. The one for replacing the entire
public school system with computers is almost completely mapped out
in detail, for every state."

"Washington is full of people who perform
comprehensive research and planning, Dal. They live off the
challenge. They want to be the first to tell the government they
thought of all the possibilities, and the ones to hand the full
story to the right members of Congress to discuss in committee.
Details do not make the content real."

"These documents look real."

"Listen, I cannot spend all day discussing
this with you. Either you believe me or you don't. But you're my
friend Dal, so listen to a friend's warning. I highly recommend you
do not publish these documents or any of the content or even repeat
the names of the titles of the files. And I am specifically warning
you not to make any reference to FedSec or FedSec's template or
discussions with FedSec's director in connection with these files.
Do you understand?"

Dallas stared at him, searching his face for
a hint of leeway. "What are these files, Marco? I can tell you know
more than you're saying."

"What files?"

"Marco."

"I do not know what you are talking about.
The content on this drive is not FedSec documents. Do you
understand?"

"Whose documents are on the drive?"

"I do not know."

"Yes you do."

"Do you want to accuse the director of
FedSec of lying? If so, we will be walking down a different road,
my friend."

"I'm not accusing you of anything."

"Good, now what are you going to do
next?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean."

"I'm not sure what I'll do next."

"I'll give you some advice. I'm going to let
you go which one day you may discover is an extraordinary gesture
on my part. You're going to go home and continue with your life. I
once again highly recommend you do not talk about the document
contents or this meeting or anything at all connected to the last
few hours from the time the drive was handed to you." Marco paused.
"Actually who did hand you the drive?" Dallas did not respond. "Do
you want to force us to find out?"

"What will you do?"

"Depends on the circumstances. Was the
individual an unknowing citizen?"

"Yes, totally innocent. Some cleaning lady
found the drive in Infrared and gave it to the restaurant's owner
Fresno Tyler and he gave it to me."

"Why would he give you these documents?"

"Because he..." Dallas stopped. "Why do you
want to know?"

"Why do you think?"

"Marco no," Dallas's insisted, her voice
rising in panic. "Frez has nothing to do with my investigation into
these files."

"Did he give the drive to you because he
read the contents?"

"Marco, no. His involvement is totally
innocent. He has no idea what he saw."

"We'll be the judge of that."

"What do you mean?"

"We cannot have people claiming to have read
FedSec documents when the material is not from FedSec."

"What are you going to do?"

"Focus on the advice I have given you. You
do understand the advice I have given you, right?" Dallas wavered.
"Seriously Dal, I am being kind and restrained right now. You
understand, right? I do not have to repeat my advice and
recommendations again, do I?"

"No."

"And you respect my advice, right? When I
walk out of this room, I am assuming we are still good friends who
appreciate each other's advice, yes?"

"Yes."

"Great." Marco stood. "The guys will give
you a ride back to wherever you want to go. I'll see you
around."

"Yeah, see you around." Dallas commented to
Marco's back as he exited through the office door. She had no time
to reconsider her world before the agents walked in to escort her
out. The only action she had time to complete was to hit the 'stop
record' button on her mobile.

*

A minute after Marco's escorts had dropped
off Dallas at her home, her mobile phone rang.

"Yes," Dallas answered.

"Dallas Winter?" a voice asked.

"Yes?"

"You don't know me, but I know what you're
doing."

"Look Frez, if this is some kind of joke,"
Dallas responded annoyed. "I've had a weird day. I do not need your
crap."

"This is not your friend the restaurateur
Fresno Tyler," the voice unemotionally responded.

Dallas froze. "Who is this?"

"You don't need to know my name, only my
motives. I wanted to let you know you have guessed correctly. The
flash drive you received last night is not a random think tank's
policy paper." Dallas gripped her phone. "But the documents are not
FedSec either. The content comes from a more influential
source."

"What source?"

"I'm not talking about specifics Ms. Winter,
I'm only warning you. Stay away from the contents in those
documents. The information is dangerous. There is a discussion
going on right now in Washington...and London, Paris, Brussels,
even Beijing and Moscow, and believe me, the words and policy ideas
in those conversations transcend top secret."

"You really expect me to believe you? Who is
this?"

"I know you recorded your conversation with
FedSec Director Manuel." Dallas was stunned into silence. "When
FedSec vets an electronic device they put the controls on their own
internal monitoring system. They know you were recording too. Don't
even think you can use the audio. But if you try to broadcast the
conversation, they'll erase the file, unless I get to your laptop
first."

"What the fu—"

"Dallas, believe me I'm a friend. I'm
helping you. Don't provoke people about those documents."

"Who is provoked? Who are you?"

"My name is Apex. And when I say I'm a
friend, I'm being truthful. But let us handle the issues, stay out
of this business with the 2100 files, okay."

"You have got to be kidding..."

"You have been warned. Don't push your luck
Dallas, and do not follow up on this story again." Before Dallas
could re-express her anger, Apex disconnected.

*

"You let her know there was something to
fear?" Julia chided Marco. "You left a journalist thinking there's
a story in those files?" The fading evening peered through the
window of Marco's Horizon office where, on his laptop, he had
paused his replay of his conversation with Dallas.

"She won't make a move," he told Julia who
faced him across his desk with unshielded anger.

"What makes you so certain?"

"She has no usable information. A flash
drive with a bunch of documents appearing to be thought pieces is
hardly verifiable evidence. There's no story and speculation would
be ridiculous. If she makes an accusation, we deny her version and
she looks like an idiot."

"Except her statements would not be
speculation, but the truth. The contents of those documents are the
real plans of the government of the United States."

"Not even the government of the United
States knows those documents are its plans."

"She has information we cannot let
spread."

"She won't say a word. I've shut her down,
and the restaurant guy too."

"What did you do with him?"

"We double-checked he had not read the files
and had no interest in the story."

"How did you verify his interest?"

"We went through his recent communications,
from the time they found the drive."

"And?"

"Nothing. He's not talking to anyone. He's
okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"I hope so. You realize we are in the best
situation we could ever be in for the plans we want to execute. Our
timing for this project is serendipitously beautiful. The complete
dysfunction of Washington politics has been a blessing for the
entire scope of our objectives since day one. We could not have
asked for a more perfect point in history for launching our work,
but with this reporter...we are facing a disruption."

"Dallas will not be a disruption."

"Obtaining formal bi-partisan approval for
our project would have been impossible. No one in Congress is
approving major projects on the record. Legislators want to avoid
demonstrating cooperation with the other party. Informally we can
do as we please, no one is watching. The two parties do not speak
to each other. Every member of Congress is looking to secure an
individual future regardless of the impact a lack of action is
having on the country, which means we can select the most effective
operators to open doors where needed. Money is running wild while
there is no tax reform or campaign financing controls, and no
targeted spending on important initiatives. We can take bits and
pieces from various sources and no one notices. The gap between the
federal bureaucracy and elected officials could not be wider,
leaving us a great yawning hole to manage to our benefit. We can
send instructions to a federal civil servant and receive instant
results because, with a lack of leadership, those poor people do
not know any better. If we actually had to manage with a
hard-working, committed functioning government, we would never have
been able to implement our project."

"Yes the circumstances are perfect."

"And you want to destroy our convenient
alignment of inept behavior for your friend?"

Marco stared at her. "No, of course not. If
Dallas chooses to speculate on the origin of the documents, the
story cannot be corroborated. No government department or agency is
officially implementing the project. As you said, the current lack
of cooperation in government means most of the contributors to the
research had no idea why they were asked the questions they were
asked about cyber security or the intention of the information
gathering."

"But every government department and agency
will be unofficially made to accept implementation of the project,
if they want to or not. And only about two dozen people around the
world know why. And those people are expected to keep the secret
for the rest of their lives. Your reporter is not committed to our
secret, but she has our information."

"Yes I know. But she's contained. She does
not know the context for the information. Tell me your real
concern."

"I want a comprehensive idea of where we are
on each subject area. If she starts talking, we need to be able to
deflect attention away from activities in the real world that are
preparation for our activities in the...future world."

"What do you mean?"

"Well let's take the discrimination file.
Can she learn about our future plans from activities we are
conducting in the real world?"

"On that topic, no. Race and gender politics
are rising to a crescendo we have not seen since the '60s and '70s.
Back then there was no expectation of equality, people were
protesting for basic rights. But at this point, expectations are
sky high and so are the disappointments."

"Don't remind me."

"Hey you're a woman Secretary of State."

"One high profile cabinet post. Where's the
woman Treasury Secretary or Secretary of Defense? The Senate should
be a minimum of 51 women, and the Supreme Court a minimum of five
woman justices."

"Okay, okay, you can't have everything."

"We are the majority, more than fifty
percent of the population, and we have no power."

"Right."

"And don't get me started on ethnicity.
Sixty million Hispanics in America and you barely have a place at
the Cabinet table."

"Yes I know."

"Every forward step of the civil rights
movement is being repealed and pummeled back into history."

"Because the middle class had its heart
ripped out by the housing crisis and they need someone to
blame."

"The politicians use simplistic, narrow
solutions because they are all too lazy and stupid to work on real
issues for turning around the economy and education. They pick an
emotional target like voting rights and stomp all over the issue
instead of launching a major initiative to find effective answers
for creating jobs."

"Okay, okay, where does the current social
status put us with the data Dallas uncovered?"

"The discrimination file essentially warns
the software code governing today's consumer facing websites can be
made to respond to an individual or organization's sexist and
racist policies, or even innocent stereotypes, and no one will ever
know."

"If a business does not want a particular
demographic to obtain its product or service..."

"Or they want to charge certain people
more..."

"The software will let an organization
seamlessly implement those policies. All they'll need is access to
demographic data. Sites requiring people to post a picture will
automatically have identity information, if they have the software
to decipher the picture's content. Other sites will have people
enter the data in the name of benign statistics gathering. And
others will access the data from other websites or databases
feeding information to businesses, for a price."