I am pleased to present part 1 of my new short story:
Copyright © 2017 by Gerold F. Eberl III
For those who prefer a PDF version, it can be downloaded here:
April 16, 6333 Earth Standard
NOVA Galactic Enterprises Research and Development Shipyard, Petric System
“I still can’t believe they’re actually planning to land that thing on a planet.” Alex Ramsay looked out the window of the Director’s office; the titanic hull of the Atlas cargo ship stretched out for over a hundred kilometers below them.
Director Kevin Meisner followed Ramsay’s gaze, “I know what you mean, but the engineers say they can do it. Just don’t expect me to be anywhere nearby when they try.”
“I’m with you on that. So you’re really planning on leaving after this project?” Ramsay inquired; Meisner had been the Director of the project and the administrator of the shipyard for over a decade; they had worked well together, Ramsay didn’t relish having to break in a new director, and he didn’t want the position himself, he was quite happy as Security Chief.
In a way Meisner lamented the decision, he enjoyed his job, but it was time to move on, “Yeah, it’s official now; with the twins getting older, only being home one week out of every three isn’t working.”
“Their birthday is coming up isn’t it?”
“Next month. Four years old.” Meisner smiled and looked at the hologram of his family on the desk, “You know with the push to get the Atlas done by the deadline I had to arrange that week off six months in advance. Paul’s grown up and on his own, and while it was just Miranda and I it wasn’t so much of an issue. But I don’t want my kids growing up thinking of their father as the hologram that appears in the room every other day.”
Ramsay nodded, “Fair enough. So it’s onward and upward then, to one of those senior director positions that are opening up.”
“Director of Aerospace Research.” Meisner specified, “I’ve heard the office has a very nice view.”
“In that tower, it damn well should.” Ramsay remembered growing up in the complex that surrounded NOVA Galactic’s headquarters building on Rawson 8, a monumental structure that towered over seventy kilometers above the planet’s surface.
“Speaking of, they’re saying Oshiro might be retiring, and it seems like it might be more than just rumors this time.” Meisner added.
“Like we haven’t heard that before.” Oshiro was the General Director of Research and Development, and this was probably the fifth time in the last eight years that Ramsay had heard of him retiring, “Still you might be right, I’ve heard some talk about replacements.” The slight smirk on Meisner’s face told Ramsay everything, “You’re angling for it?”
“Well it would be nice.”
While it wasn’t impossible, Ramsay very much doubted Meisner had a chance, “I heard that the short list was down to Kwan and that guy from Medical…”
“William Jagger.” Meisner finished, “I realize it’s a long shot, but you can’t blame me for trying. If nothing else it puts my name out there.” A quick glance at the time caught his attention, “I have to get going, still have a ten hour flight back to Rawson 8.”
Ramsay frowned, for him it would have been eighteen hours, “Go ahead and rub it in to those of us who don’t have clearance for an in system jump.”
“Become Director and you can have the perks.” Meisner smirked as he hastily got up, “But if I don’t get back for this weekend Miranda’s going to kill me, we have reservations at The Vineyard.”
“Fancy.” And expensive Ramsay thought as he too stood up. It was one of the finest restaurants on the planet, boasting hand prepared meals served by actual humans, and true to its name, it had the largest wine selection in the system, “Celebrating that promotion?”
The prideful nod that Meisner responded with verged on arrogant, but he felt like he deserved to tout his promotion, at least a little, “To be honest, we had to make the reservations before it was a done deal, but… it worked out.” As he made his way to the door he changed back to business, “Now, I already gave the standard briefings to everyone, so you know the drill; try not to blow the place up while I’m gone.”
Before Ramsay and Meisner could make their way to the door an alarm sounded, Ramsay immediately recognized it, “What the hell? That’s the lockdown alert.”
Suddenly the face of the facility A.I. shimmered into existence on a display and its baritone voice came over the comm., “This facility is now on lockdown, this is not a drill. All non-security personnel please remain in place until security arrives to escort you to your living quarters.”
There was something seriously wrong, and Meisner was almost in shock at the timing as he gawked at the hologram of the A.I. Finally he managed to regain his composure, “Wait, if were both in here, who the hell authorized the lockdown?”
As he spoke the office door opened and a very out of breath man ran in, swallowing as he tried to speak, “I, I did.”
It was Bruce Finch; Ramsay immediately recognized the head of his cyber security team. Finch must have run all the way from the security office and used an override to get in, “What the hell is going on? Why didn’t you contact me?”
Still out of breath Finch flopped onto a couch in the office, “Comm.’s… lockdown. Security breach.”
That got, Ramsay’s attention, “What kind of breach?” He demanded.
Finch finally caught his breath enough to make a sentence, “We were running a routine security audit, it looks like someone downloaded confidential data without authorization.”
“Looks like?” If Finch locked down the entire facility over something trivial Ramsay was not going to be happy.
“What data?” Meisner interrupted.
“It was something from the engineering database; my team is working on figuring out exactly what.” It was abundantly clear that Ramsay wanted more of an explanation, “But that’s not why I initiated the lockdown; whoever this was did a damn good job of covering their tracks. We got lucky catching it. This was planned, and executed using a very sophisticated program, even the A.I. didn’t pick it up. Lee was auditing the security logs, it was sheer luck he caught it, in fact it’s not what was in the logs, but rather what wasn’t. There should have been…”
“Skip the technical stuff.” Ramsay didn’t need an explanation he wouldn’t understand, “Bottom line, how bad is the breach.”
Finch’s look of bewilderment said more than words, “We don’t know yet, it could have been someone’s cookie recipe.” He glanced out the window, looking out upon the shipyard, “Or, it could have been designs for the whole ship.”
“Shit.” Meisner dragged his hands through his hair, “When did this happen?”
“Two days ago.” Finch replied.
“Two days!” In the world of corporate espionage it might as well have been an eternity; but Ramsay’s main concern was that he was the Chief of Security, if this got out his career was over, “So whoever did this could have sent the data off station by now.”
Meisner flopped into a chair; the gravity of the situation just hit him. The Atlas contained some of NOVA Galactic’s most advanced technology; in fact it was the new reactor technology that had made it possible to construct a vessel that large. If the exclusivity of that was lost it could amount to a financial loss of hundreds of trillions or even more over the next few decades. It became clear that even if he missed his dinner it wouldn’t matter, he had nothing left to celebrate.
“I don’t think they got anything off station yet.” Finch replied, bringing a clear glimmer of hope to everyone in the room, “No ships have left since the data breach and no one has redirected the long range transmitter, we’d definitely know about that. If someone tried to send it our security protocols would have detected it and even if they were compromised it would have been detected on the receiving end.”
The security measures on the station may have been draconian but it appeared they had done their job. Only allowing weekly transports, directing all communications through a secured relay on Rawson 8; with two days Ramsay was concerned that the spy may have found a way around such measures, but it seemed he or she did not want to risk detection. Whoever had done this needed to be caught, “Alright, I’ll be back to security in ten, keep your team on it, find out where that hack originated. Even with communications locked down we still have everyone’s personnel files, have Price and Sharma put together a team and start tearing through them, look for anything suspicious, no matter how innocuous.”
“There are over fifteen thousand people on this station; it’s going to take time to go through all of those.” Finch said with surprise.
Ramsay glanced at Meisner who gave him a quick nod, “Well, no one is going anywhere until we catch whoever did this. So we better get to it. Oh, and have security posted at every docking bay and at the communications control room, the spy might get desperate if we start closing in.”
It was a massive undertaking, and Finch would need all the help he could get, “Um, Chief, if it’s alright I’d like to bring in Dr. Lobek to help out.”
Though a little surprising; Ramsay didn’t consider it an unreasonable request, “From the A.I. team?”
“When it comes to computers she’s the best we’ve got.” As much as Finch hated to admit it, she was even better than he was, “And with the lockdown it’s not like she’s doing anything else.”
Ramsay nodded, “Alright, prioritize clearing her of any suspicion, along with all security personnel, if she checks out then its fine.” Finch nodded in response and quickly made his way for the door.
“What about the omni-directional?” Meisner inquired about the emergency communications unit as Finch left.
“The power switch is manual.” Ramsay replied, “And the relay is in a locked cabinet in the security offices, there have been at least five people in there at any given time. No one’s gotten near it, and no one is going to. Well I guess this ruins your weekend; and you can’t even let your wife know.”
“Unless we catch this bastard in the next fifteen hours.” Unfortunately, Meisner knew that was unlikely, “Still, under the circumstances I think Miranda will understand, at least I hope she will. Just find whoever did this.”
* * *
The scene in the security office was beyond frantic, everyone was working double shifts; some on tracing the source of the breach, others reviewing personnel files. They had managed to clear a number of people so far including Dr. Lobek and almost everyone in security, but that still left thousands more. The worst part of it was the human component; there were almost three thousand very angry people who expected to have a week off, and were now effectively under house arrest in their living quarters.
Ramsay looked out at the chaos from his office, the best thing he could do right now was let everyone do their jobs and get them whatever support they needed. There must have been fifty reports on his desk’s display, and more came in every few minutes; unfortunately most of them were about minor anomalies in personnel files, he had yet to hear from Finch’s team, which meant they had little to show for nine hours of effort.
Finally, after two more hours of looking at dead end leads, Finch and Lobek came to Ramsay’s office, both looking fatigued and very frustrated, “Rachel, thank you for helping out.” He hadn’t seen her yet and he wanted her to know her efforts were appreciated.
She just smirked, “Well, help here or sit in my quarters? Either way my strip poker night was ruined, it’s just no fun unless you’re playing with real people.”
It had been a while since Ramsay had spoken to Dr. Lobek, but just as he remembered, she was not shy, and her sense of humor was as peculiar as ever. Her inappropriate remarks had resulted in at least two sexual harassment complaints, but she was undeniably good at what she did, and that was what interested Ramsay, “Look, you help catch whoever did this and you can count me in on your next game; just tell me what you found out.”
Lobek approached Ramsay, leaning in almost uncomfortable close, “Wear layers.” She whispered before backing off, after that her demeanor was completely professional; before she spoke she pulled up a holographic station diagram on a display, “Whoever did this was very good, what little there was to go on had us chasing leads all over the station, but all of those traces eventually converge here.” She enlarged a portion of the station, “Sector G living quarters. We’re fairly sure that’s where it originated.”
Finch spoke up, “And knowing when the hack took place we can narrow our suspects to the people in that area at the time.”
“How many?” Ramsay inquired, still a little flustered by Lobek.
“Eight hundred ninety four.” Finch’s stern expression conveyed his disappointment with such a large number, “We’re working on narrowing that down.”
“I’ll do what I can.” Lobek interrupted, “But, it’s going to take a lot of time, if it can be done at all; this hacker didn’t leave much of a trail.”
“Do we at least know what they took?” That information could help Ramsay and Meisner mitigate damage if they couldn’t stop those responsible.
There was some obvious hesitation on Finch’s part, “While were not absolutely certain yet, it looks like engineering schematics for the Atlas.”
“Specifically, reactor schematics.” Lobek clarified with a starkly contrasting confidence.
“Shit.” Ramsay frowned; it was almost a worst case scenario. From a financial standpoint it was the single most valuable innovation on the ship, “Okay, failure is not an option, we need to find who did this and recover the data.” Ramsay walked toward his door leading to the main security office and got everyone’s attention, “Listen up, we have a list of eight hundred ninety four priority suspects, Mr. Finch will give you the details. I want all of your efforts focused there for the time being. Even if they’re already cleared, take a second look. Someone on this list was the source of the breach, let’s find them.”
Finch walked out of Ramsay’s office and began coordinating the teams; Lobek looked at Ramsay, “I’ll see what I can do about narrowing the suspect pool a little; and don’t forget poker night.” She added flirtatiously.
Despite the fatigue that was obviously setting in, work in the security office continued at an incredible pace. Everyone knew that the lockdown would only end one of two ways, with the perpetrator caught and the data recovered, or when Headquarters confirmed the data had gotten out and the damage was irreparable. As they continued to trace the hack, clearing suspects became easier, until Lobek finally had it down to a single level, leaving just eight people. She smiled, it was a small enough group to bring in, and if she examined their quarters she might be able to determine exactly where the hack had originated. Though yawning from exhaustion she felt excited as she rushed into Ramsay’s office, “I’ve got it down to eight people. Bring them in let me examine their quarters, and I think I can give you the hacker.”
Bloodshot eyes greeted her as Ramsay looked away from what he was working on; a rush of adrenalin cured his fatigue as he pulled up her list, “Eight people? That’s a suspect pool we can work with.” With a quick gesture he pulled up personnel files, “And it looks like three of them had access to the reactor schematics.”
“Damning, but not necessarily conclusive given the hackers obvious skills.” Lobek reminded him.
“True. I’ll have some security teams bring them in; you get Finch and whatever equipment you need, then get up there. I’d prefer not to keep innocent people in holding any longer than necessary.”
As Lobek quickly left his office and Ramsay took his pistol out of his desk and put on his holster, “Open comm. Security. Security Teams two and three, assemble outside of the main office.”
Two security teams for eight people was probably overkill, but Ramsay didn’t know what to expect. It was almost certain that one of those people was the culprit, how far would they go faced with imminent discovery? He honestly wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or relieved when no one resisted; though all of them were obviously angry and demanding to know what was happening. He couldn’t give them details but they deserved some reassurance before security took them away, “I realize this situation must be upsetting but I’m afraid I can’t offer any explanation, except to say that we hope to have this resolved in a few hours and get everything back to normal.”
A cacophony of angry protests rang out, and Ramsay couldn’t blame them, he likely would have been just as upset had the situation been reversed. Ignoring them he looked at the team commanders, “Take them to security, for the time being keep them in the low security area unless they cause problems.”
“Yes, sir.” Both commanders responded as they directed the group to the lift.
As the lift opened Lobek and Finch got off with some equipment, making way for security to file on with the detainees, “They didn’t look happy.” Lobek commented.
Ramsay shrugged, “Would you be?”
“Probably not.” Suddenly she smiled seductively, “Though under better circumstances some handcuffs could be fun.”
“Please stop there.” Finch could live without any more insights into the workings of her mind.
As she turned to Finch her look was one of almost, disappointment, “You really need to learn how to relax and have some fun.”
“And you need to learn that there are some details of your life that people don’t want to hear about.” He replied.
“Can we get to work, please?” Ramsay interrupted.
“Oh very well.” Lobek’s voice was filled with feigned acquiescence, “Once we find the terminal that was used it should be easy to identify it.”
“And then we’ll know which one of them to lock up and this will finally be over.” Finch added.
“Almost.” It wasn’t quite the end as far as Ramsay was concerned, “Everyone can get some sleep, but we can’t risk lifting the lockdown until we recover the data and make sure there are no copies.”
It didn’t take long to rule out a terminal, a matter of minutes, but each time it seemed to feel like hours. Finally when they came to the fifth terminal Lobek cracked a smile, “Got you. This is it, the source of the hack.”
“Whose quarters are these?” Finch inquired.
Ramsay sighed, “Amanda Lane’s. She’s a programming supervisor for the reactor control systems, and she definitely had access to the data.”
“And quite possibly the computer expertise to pull this off.” Lobek said flatly as she continued to look through the computer records, “She tried to hide the fact that this terminal was used, but that’s not so easy to do.”
Finch smiled, “It’s always the audit trails that get them.”
“Any sign of what she did with the schematics?” Ramsay demanded.
Lobek tried some things but her frustration was evident, “Nothing that stands out, the hack came from here but as to what she did with the data, that I can’t tell you.”
It was not what Ramsay wanted to hear, “Fine, get a forensics unit up here to tear these quarters apart, maybe they can give us a lead; I’m going to go have a chat with Ms. Lane.”
* * *
Four security officers barged into the low security holding area, startling everyone, “What the Hell is going on?” Dr. Alan Brooks demanded. They had been in here almost an hour without explanation and he was growing impatient.
“Sir, you need to back up and sit down.” The commanding officer responded, “Someone will be here in just a few minutes to explain the situation.” Reluctantly Brooks did as he was told as the guards turned to converge on someone else, “Amanda Lane you need to come with us immediately.”
“What’s this about?” She demanded defiantly as two guards took her by the arms.
“Bring her.” The commander ordered without further explanation.
Lane soon found herself cuffed and deposited in a windowless conference room that was doubtlessly meant for interrogation. After a few silent minutes the head of security Alex Ramsay walked in, “Care to tell me what I’m doing in here?” She inquired as calmly as possible.
Ramsay made no attempt to hide his frustration, “Are we really going to play this game? Just tell me what you did with the data, so we can recover it, and I’ll tell the civilian prosecutor that you were cooperative. You’ll still do some time, but it’ll be nothing compared to what you face if you insist on doing this the hard way.”
“Data?” She asked, completely baffled, “What are you talking about?”
“You’re not helping yourself.” He snapped.
Her composure began to waiver, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The reactor schematics; the ones that you stole.” Ramsay shouted as he pounded his hand on the table, “Now, last chance, what did you do with them?”
“I haven’t stolen anything.” She insisted, “And I want to talk to an attorney.”
“When you tell us what you did with the data, you can take that up with the civilian prosecutor. Until then you’ll get nothing, or did you forget the contract you signed.”
Lane was fighting the tears she felt rolling down her face, “I told you I don’t know anything about stolen data. I haven’t done anything.”
“We traced the hack to your terminal; you were the only person there at the time.” Ramsay said as intimidatingly as possible, “And we confirmed it was your biometric I.D. that was used for access. We don’t need you to confess, you’re going away no matter what, for a litany of cybercrimes at least. All I need from you is to know what you did with the data.”
Tears spilled forth as she broke down and buried her face in her cuffed hands, “I told you I didn’t do anything, I don’t know what’s going on. Please, you have to believe me.”
“It’s a hell of a performance.” Ramsay admitted as he turned to leave, “But I’m not buying it. I’ll give you a little while to think about the situation, because it’s not going to get any better.”
“Convincing act.” The Deputy Security Chief Tanya Reed confronted Ramsay as he stepped out of the conference room, “I was observing.”
“Don’t tell me you bought it.” He replied.
She shook her head, “No more than you did, but you have to admit she missed her calling, she should have gone into acting.”
“Unfortunately you’re right, questioning her like this isn’t going to get us anything.” It was clear from his furled brow Ramsay was planning something, “Move her to a cell for the time being, and have Dr. Clark set up set up the room for bio monitoring. Next time I talk to her I want to be able to call her on every lie.”
“Pity we can’t just do an active neural scan.” Reed replied.
It was an idea that had some appeal, but it wasn’t worth it, “It certainly would be easier, but even with her consent there would be legal issues. Might make the company happy if we got the data back, but if word of it ever got out we’ll be the ones losing our jobs and taking the blame. We have the situation contained for the moment, so we’ll stick to proper procedure.”
“It was just a thought, I’ll have Dr. Clark get up here and let you know when everything’s ready.” A concern stopped Reed as she walked away, “You should get an hour or two of rest; you look like shit.”
While the observation was abundantly obvious, Ramsay tried to downplay it with some humor, “Good, it would be a shame to be as miserable as I am right now and not have everybody else know about it.” Nevertheless, he took the advice; even just a few hours of sleep would help.
That little bit of sleep was equally refreshing and tormenting, as Ramsay made his way back to work and found Reed and Dr. Clark outside of the interrogation room, “She’s in there, waiting. I brought Dr. Clark up to speed on the situation.” Reed informed him.
Dr. Clark handed Ramsay a neural comm., unit, “This is secured, I’ll be able to communicate with you from observation. If she lies at all we should be able to tell immediately.”
Ramsay placed the device behind his ear, “Testing.”
“It’s working just fine.” Clark confirmed.
“Alright, let’s try this again.” The sooner Ramsay got the data the happier everyone would be. Lane scowled at him as he walked into the room; her feigned despair had apparently given way to anger, “Ms. Lane, have you reconsidered your situation?” To no great surprise she remained silent, “Very well, you may have noticed some changes to the wall panels. Since you have refused to cooperate, we will be conducting bioscans, if you lie we will know; and before you protest, you agreed to this when you signed your contract. This can be very simple; I just need to know what you did with the stolen data.”
A heavy sigh escaped Lane as she tried to maintain some composure, “I already told you, I don’t know anything about any stolen data.”
“According to the scan, she’s telling the truth.” Clark told him through the comm.
How was that possible, Ramsay wondered; he had heard of spies being trained to resist interrogations; biofeedback to control her reactions, it was the only explanation. The only way to get to her would be to throw her off balance, make her lose control, “Convincing, but we confirmed, the data was accessed using your biometric identification.” He pulled up a display of the access logs.
Lane truly looked shocked, “That’s impossible.”
“Really? Accessed 2214 station time, using your neural I.D. scan.” He replied, “Oh, you bounced your hack all around the station, messed with the time codes, but that was just to make it difficult for us to figure out that you moved the data to some type of unauthorized device. To get to the data in the first place, you still needed to use your authorization, well we found you it’s over, do everyone, yourself included a favor, and don’t draw this out anymore.”
The look on Lane’s face became even more bewildered, “Wait, you said, 2214? It’s not possible, I have a VR system, I was in a game for almost three hours that night, the device logs, they can prove it.”
“With how you hacked our system you expect me to believe you couldn’t falsify some records on a VR simulator.” Ramsay scoffed.
“She’s telling the truth.” Clark once again said via the comm.
“What?” Ramsay couldn’t believe it, “Are you sure the scanner is working properly?”
“Yes.” Clark took some offense at what Ramsay was insinuating, “Are you sure you’re interrogating properly?”
Ramsay needed some answers, “Is it possible she’s conditioned to control her responses?”
“There’s an easy way to find out.” Clark replied, “You need to ask her something a typical person would instinctually lie or recoil about, don’t need an outright lie, just something she would wish to conceal, details of her sex life would probably be the fastest way.”
At the moment, Ramsay wished he could have Lobek conduct the interrogation, she would probably enjoy this. However, he had a job to do; he just had no idea how he was going to write this up in his report, “So Ms. Lane, how’s your sex life?”
“What?” She exclaimed.
As much as he didn’t want to Ramsay pressed, “Oh come on, you must have a boyfriend; maybe more than one; I bet you’re into some kinky stuff.”
Now Lane was visibly angry, and pulled on her cuffs, “I have a boyfriend, and what we do together is none of your damn business! What the hell is this about? I thought you were looking for missing data.”
“I need to talk to you now.” Clark said over the comm.
“We’ll pick this up once you’ve calmed down.” Ramsay told her as he stood up and walked to observation, “She’s lying, right?”
“Wrong.” Clark replied, “At least according to this equipment.”
“How is that even possible? We know it was her.” Reed inquired.
Clark shrugged, “I can only tell you what the equipment says. She is either telling the truth or the best liar in the galaxy. She believes what she’s saying, and when you pressed her at the end, it was a completely normal response, not what you’d expect from someone conditioned to lie.”
“But this could still be an act.” Ramsay concluded, “Is it possible her memory was wiped and replaced?”
“According to these readings I very much doubt it.” Clark replied, “But I could do a medical workup to make sure. A perfect memory replacement is very difficult and requires specialized equipment, and since no one hijacked my infirmary, she didn’t have access to it. That means there will be anomalies if her memory was altered.”
“Alright, check it out.” Ramsay turned to Reed, “Take her back to holding. Then retrace everywhere she’s been over the last few days, maybe we can turn up something new.”
Reed left the room and Ramsay moved to follow her, but Clark stopped him, “Alex, I know what I’m doing with this equipment, I’ve reviewed thousands of interrogations using it; the company insisted on it for this job. I can tell you right now, you’ve got the wrong person.”
“Then we have even more problems.” He hoped she was wrong, but he couldn’t escape the feeling that she might be right, “But right now she’s our best suspect, so keep that thought to yourself for the time being. On the chance someone framed her I want them to think they succeeded.”
Clark clearly didn’t like it but she nodded in agreement. It truly was baffling; Lobek and Finch had ruled out tampering across most of the major systems, the only fake records they found were the access logs and the subsequent download. The records for the security sensors showed no signs of tampering, and they put her in her quarters alone at the time of the hack. Even if someone else had been there, faking the I.D. scan would have been virtually impossible, and forcing her to access it under duress would have triggered a failsafe and locked her out. Ramsay hoped the forensic team could discover something, because without some new information he was at a dead end.
After making a detailed scan of Lane’s quarters the forensic team had taken anything that could be moved to their lab for analysis. A small swarm of drones meticulously ran detailed scans of every item while most of the team huddled around a display. Only Max Tyson, who was supervising the scans, noticed him, “Chief.” He acknowledged.
“Find anything?” Ramsay asked. Without a word, Tyson shook his head, his face conveying obvious frustration. It was not what Ramsay wanted to hear, and he almost left but then he noticed the VR system Lane had mentioned on a table with dozens of other items, “Has all of this been cleared?” He inquired before he touched anything.
“Scanned, cleared, and logged. There’s nothing of interest there.” Tyson confirmed.
Curiosity prompted Ramsay to pick up the VR system; he had the same kind, just a generation older. As he turned it in his hand and the light hit it perfectly he noticed something that he never had on his device, the tiny serial number on the data chip, “Did anyone take the chip out of this?”
Tyson looked over with a confused glance, “Why would we, scan showed it was factory original, just a typical assortment of games and simulations.”
“Well keep at it.” There was no need for Ramsay to say anything more, but the tiny doubt that Clark had planted in his mind was growing, “All of the data you collected is logged into the system?”
“It’s incomplete but what we have so far is there. Not sure that it will be much help.” Tyson replied, “Is she being as uncooperative as we’ve heard.”
“Worse.” Ramsay answered as he left, somewhat dismayed by how quickly the gossip had traveled.
What he needed now was some uninterrupted time to review what they had learned. Despite the evidence pointing at Lane, something wasn’t right, “Privacy mode.” He ordered as he entered his office, no one would be able to see in his windows from the outside or enter without his authorization. Falling into his desk chair, he pulled up the scan data Tyson had mentioned. At first glance he was correct everything looked normal, but that serial number continued to bother Ramsay.
Rubbing his brow in an effort to alleviate his stress he had an idea of how to proceed, but it would be difficult without access to an interstellar network, he would have to rely on data stored on the station, “Retrieve all available technical data on the Varo Mirage Personal VR device; model number VM-814 E. Filter for any data pertaining to the unit’s data chip. Also pull up any available marketing from the company that shows the data chip.”
Even with the filters it was a great deal of data to review; fortunately he knew what he was looking for, he just needed to verify one thing in the technical data then he could have the A.I. run an analysis. It didn’t take long to find what he wanted, like most devices the data chip could be inserted either way, the question now was whether it was placed serial number up at the factory or whether someone had flipped it, “Computer, run an analysis on all retrieved marketing data, and identify any that show the chip serial number.”
A second later the A.I. responded, “No matches found.”
Now he truly was intrigued. The forensics scans were still pulled up and he had the results of the VR device scan in front of him. According to the analysis, there were no fingerprints, skin oils, or even DNA traces on the chip; someone had removed it at some point, taking great care to return it without leaving evidence, except they didn’t put it back the right way. He needed to talk to Lane again, this time without anyone else around.
Fortunately it was late by station time, and since he had given almost everyone orders to get some sleep, there were a minimal number of personnel in security at the moment. He didn’t want anyone overhearing let alone gossiping about the conversation he was about to have.
Ramsay looked around as he entered the detention area, there were a few personnel outside in the security office but aside from Lane he was the only one there. Lane’s holding cell was the only one with a light on making it stand out against the nighttime lighting. Ramsay approached her cell, as far as holding cells go it was fairly comfortable, much better than a prison at least. Lane was still awake, her attention focused on a tablet, “Reading?” He asked.
The scornful frown Lane cast was far more powerful than anything she could say, “Employee handbook, trying to figure out just how much more you can fuck me over.”
Admittedly Ramsay may have deserved that; without a word he pressed a few controls on the panel next to her cell, “I just deactivated the surveillance for this area, so the conversation we are about to have can in no way be used against you. I’ve been authorized to offer you a deal. Tell us where the data is, and you won’t be referred for any felony charges, just misdemeanor. You’ll still be fired, lose any benefits, but at least your life won’t be ruined. We just want the data back. I’ll get the guarantee in writing.”
Lane stood up, “Wow, that’s a really great offer, and I’d take it. If I had anything to do with stealing the data, but as I told you I didn’t! I can’t help you because I don’t know anything!”
“That… was the right answer.” Finally Ramsay was inclined to believe her, only a complete idiot would have faced decades in prison instead of what he had just offered her, “I apologize for that but I had to make sure.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Lane demanded.
“I’m inclined to believe you, there are things that just, are not adding up.” Ramsay told her, “What I need from you is just a little patience and just answer a few questions.”
“I’m through with questions, if you believe me then let me out.” She snapped.
“I can’t do that yet, please just hear me out.”
She stared at him like he was an idiot, and gestured around her cell “I don’t exactly have a lot of options.”
Her cooperation would be essential so Ramsay tried to be more polite than he had been, “You said you were in a VR game when the hack occurred.”
“Yep.” She replied, making no attempt to hide her frustration.
“Yet the device records contradict that.” She was going to protest but he continued, “So, I need to know. Have you ever removed or changed the data chip on that device.”
She seemed surprised by the question, “No, it’s the same one it came with. I haven’t even used one tenth of its capacity; there’s no reason to change it.”
“Okay; then I need to ask, did anyone else have access to that device, anyone at all?”
“Not that I can think of, I kept it in my bedroom. No one goes in there but me, except…” She trailed off.
“Paul Langston, your boyfriend?” Ramsay finished.
“No, no.” She said as her breaths became shallow, and tears began to flow, “He wouldn’t he, he… couldn’t. How would he even…”
“Ms. Lane. What I’m going to ask of you might be difficult, but I need you to stay in holding for the time being and try to act like we did not have this conversation. Rumors travel fast around here and assuming you’ve been set up, I don’t want to tip off whoever did it until we have them; or you could end up in an even worse position.” By the look on her face Ramsay wasn’t even sure if he had gotten through, “Amanda, can you do that? I promise you that I will find who did this and get this sorted out.”
She nodded, “If he did this to me…”
Ramsay knew exactly what she meant, “Just hold on for a while.”
There were only a few ways this could have been done, and each less likely than the last. What he needed now was an expert opinion, so in the dead of night he found himself at Dr. Clarks door, he pressed the chime several times before he got a response, “Who the hell is there?”
“Emily, its Alex. Sorry for the hour but I need to ask you something.”
After a few silent seconds the door slid open; Emily Clark stood there in a robe, half asleep, “This couldn’t wait?”
“Not this time.” He replied as he entered, “It’s about Ms. Lane; you said that a failsafe would have been triggered in the system if she had tried to access that data under duress?”
“That’s right. It detects certain stress patterns, denies access if any flags are set off; actually it’s quite reliable…”
“Fascinating.” He interrupted, “But you’re saying that she couldn’t have accessed it against her will?”
“It’s very unlikely.” Clark confirmed.
With the theory he was about to voice Ramsay hoped he hadn’t gone crazy himself, “What if she wasn’t aware she was doing it?”
Suddenly Clark was wide awake, “Interesting, though she’d still need to enter other access codes and be seated in front of the scanner; I suppose it might work but, what are you thinking?”
“Ever hear of project Walford 19?” He asked.
“The spy project?” She confirmed, remembering a short lecture on it from her medical school, “Human proxy’s way the hell back, wasn’t that thousands of years ago?”
“Yeah.” Ramsay hesitated, “I need to know, could a reprogrammed VR device be used that way, to turn someone into an unwitting puppet.”
Clark’s eyes went wide as she pondered, “You said whoever did this was a damn good hacker?”
“That’s right.”
“Maybe.” She answered hesitantly, “I suppose the way those work it’s theoretically possible, but there are numerous safeguards in place to prevent that, you’d need to talk to a computer expert, but as I understand it, to even have a prayer of pulling it off you would need to have access to the devices unencrypted source codes. Considering the security those companies have, that’s not exactly easy to get.”
“But if you did have it…” He insinuated.
“Again, theoretically possible.” It was a lot of supposition, but she couldn’t deny the possibility, “Look, I believe she’s telling the truth, but without some hard evidence, I very much doubt anyone will go along with this.”
“That’s the problem.” He agreed, without some sort of proof all he had right now was wild speculation, “If that was done to her, would there be any way to detect it?”
The truth was Clark did not know, “Maybe; I know you’re getting tired of hearing that, but I can’t say for certain, it’s not exactly a common case. It might leave some memory anomalies, but, the only way to detect those would be a full neural scan. Without a medical emergency we can’t do that while she’s still in custody, even with her consent.”
“There might be a way around that.” Ramsay replied.
Clark was unsure, “And that would be?”
“If you were acting in a capacity as her personal physician, rather than as a doctor hired by the company, it shouldn’t raise any legal issues.” He replied but it was clear from his tone there was a catch, “However, I’d need someone from legal to draw up the documents for you to sign to that effect, and we’d need Meisner’s approval.”
Clark looked defeated, “With a prime suspect in custody? You think he’ll risk it?”
“If she’ll agree, I think I can convince him.” He replied, “You said it yourself, it will get us answers, so we’ll either recover the data or we’ll know definitively she didn’t do it.”
“But you think he’ll buy the VR device theory?” She pressed.
“I think…” Hesitation filled his reply, “We should talk to Lobek first. She is our top specialist when it comes to computers.”
“Okay.” Clark was clearly not happy about the idea.
“Problem?” He knew what it was but, still he asked.
Clark had to be careful not to violate medical ethics, “You know what she’s like, but… never mind, she is damn good with computers.”
When she found out what Ramsay wasn’t telling her she would no doubt be upset, but he wasn’t going to risk giving anyone the full details until he had some confirmation of his suspicions. He had already told her more than he wanted to, but her cooperation was essential, “I’d like to keep as much of this to ourselves as possible. If we’re right, we still have a spy out there, who is no doubt keeping tabs on the situation; the fewer people who know the full details the better, and that includes Meisner.”
Considering that keeping those secrets was grounds for termination she was obviously hesitant, “Great… Well if things don’t work out I’ll just blame you for everything.”
“Glad you’re on board.” Ramsay wasn’t worried, he had moved past that a few days ago, he would either recover the data, or lose his job; she couldn’t make that any worse.
The meeting in Meisner’s office was tense, largely due to the presence of Phil Hendricks, the head of the legal department on the station. Despite drafting the documents, he had made it quite clear that he was unhappy with the situation, “You have the evidence that she stole the data, even without recovering it, we have enough for a successful prosecution. Now, you want to jeopardize that over some absurd theory.”
Ramsay really hated dealing with Hendricks, and honestly hated the man in general, “Look, that data is vital to the company.”
“And how can I know that, you won’t even tell me what it is.” Hendrick’s interrupted.
“It’s above your clearance.” Meisner stated flatly.
That did not deter Hendricks, “So read me into it, you have that authority.”
A long pause preceded Meisner’s response as he held back his frustration, “You don’t need to know the details; all you need to know is that we have to recover that data.”
Hendricks glared at Ramsay, “Your security team has been trying, and failing. Maybe it’s time to bring in a team from the company that can get results.”
Ramsay tensed and leaned forward on the conference table, “I’d think very carefully about your next words.”
“Fine. I’ll put it in terms you can understand.” The arrogance in Hendricks voice was palpable, “If you and your team had done their jobs in the first place, we wouldn’t have this problem. Now you seem intent on sabotaging what little success you’ve had, which is exactly why the company hires people like me, to stop people like you from doing stupid things.”
“Enough!” Meisner slammed his hand on the table. He had to put an end to this before Ramsay assaulted Hendricks, “I’m not going to have us coming to blows over this.”
“Yes, that’s…” Hendricks started.
“And you shut up.” Meisner commanded turning to Hendricks, “If you ever speak like that to someone on this station again, you can look for a new job.” Hendrick’s looked like he was about to protest but Meisner’s glare made him reconsider. Looking to Clark and Lobek, Meisner calmed himself and continued, “Now, both of you think this is a legitimate possibility, that she was in some way, hijacked?”
Hendricks rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything; Lobek chose to ignore him, “It certainly wouldn’t be easy, but it is possible.”
Clark continued, “The fact is that the only way we will know for sure is to conduct a neural scan and examine her memories. If she is willing, I don’t see the harm in that.”
“You wouldn’t.” Hendricks interjected, “But understand; legally, if you do this, and the fact that we were discussing this ever becomes known at trial, there is a very good chance any case against her will fall apart, and she will walk.”
Ramsay had other concerns, “Back to reality. This is the only way to know for sure, and it will confirm one of two things. Either she did it and the scan will tell us what was done with the data, and with how sensitive the data is, it would be better to recover it and let her walk than to lock her up and let the data walk.” He looked at Hendricks mockingly, “Or it will confirm that she was set up. In which case we still have a spy on the loose, and the moment we lift the lockdown that data and the spy are gone.”
Hendricks leaned back and crossed his arms, “Ultimately, Director, the choice is yours, but know that if you approve this, it will be against the advice of counsel.”
Meisner picked up the tablet that sat in front of him. A moment passed before he finally endorsed the plan, “Do it. Dr. Clark, until this is resolved…”
“Ethical concerns, of course.” She said as she got up to leave, “I’ll need to meet with my patient in private. The scan shouldn’t take more than an hour.”
“I’ll let security know and have her moved to the infirmary.” Ramsay replied as she left.
Hendricks stood up to leave as well, “I tried; it’s your asses on the line now.”
“What an asshole.” Lobek commented as the doors closed behind him.
Ramsay and Meisner glanced at each other in agreement, “Be glad you don’t have to deal with him very often.” Meisner replied.
As they left Meisner’s office Ramsay leaned toward Lobeck, “Be glad you don’t have to fight the urge to shoot him.”
She just laughed, “Why the hell does the Director keep him around?”
“He is decent at his job, when he’s not being a complete ass. But primarily, because his father is high up the ladder in legal and he has a lot of powerful friends.” Ramsay explained.
“Nepotism 101.” She concluded, “So, he’s even more pathetic than I thought. Not sure whether or not to be impressed by that.”
“How about disgusted.” He opined.
“That goes without saying.” She replied, “By the way, what were you holding back in the meeting.”
“What do you mean?” As far as Ramsay could tell there was no way she could have known.
She quickly cut in front of him, once again getting uncomfortably close as a conniving smile appeared on her face, “Please. I’m very good at reading people; you’d know that if we’d ever played poker. You have a suspect don’t you? Someone you don’t want anyone to know about yet. So, are you going to tell me?”
It was as if she was teasing him, and he could feel his pulse quicken, “If Lane’s scan says what I think it will, you’ll be the first to know.” He stepped around her to escape the situation and started walking to security.
“Playing hard to get.” She said as he walked away, “I can work with that.”
That exchange left Ramsay both intrigued and unsettled. She could certainly be alluring when she wanted to, but he felt like he was a moth about to fly into a fire, and that was a distraction he couldn’t deal with right now. If Lane was being set up he needed to be focused, the most likely suspect was the boyfriend, Paul Langston. The name was certainly an alias; but Ramsay had reviewed his personnel file earlier and there was nothing to trigger any suspicions, assuming it was a fake it was well crafted. Additionally, Langston had a clean record, there was nothing to use against him. Ramsay could question him, but without any evidence, he would walk away unscathed. The only way to get him would be in the act, but convincing Meisner to allow such an operation wouldn’t be easy, even if he could prove Lane was innocent.
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