Command Authority, page 25
part #5 of Last Hunter Series
“Is there anything you can’t break into?” he asked. “You seem to be the most competent person at breaking and entering that I’ve ever met, and having served in Confederation Intelligence, I’ve met some masters. I’m unconvinced you haven’t picked my pocket while I was standing here, scanned my credit chits, and purchased a luxury home on some island with me completely unawares.”
She chuckled. “You didn’t have enough money for that. I did order some nice jewelry, though. I promise I’ll share them with your wife and tell them they came from you.”
He laughed. “That’s all right. You go ahead and keep it. I’m sure that by the time we’re done, you’ll have earned it.”
It took about three minutes for her to break through the security on the hatch. Three minutes.
With a grin, she stepped through, and David followed her. The area inside was significantly different from the rest of the station. The intruders had taken the time to redecorate. He didn’t understand much about the alien’s version of taste, but this was obviously something they’d arranged to be more comfortable. Since they were in complete control of the station, he wasn’t sure why they needed to have such a secure entrance, but perhaps they’d discover the answer once they started exploring in more detail.
The blocked-off area was relatively large and included no lifts. There were stairwells, but when he opened one to look up and down, he saw they’d been sealed off a few levels up and down. This truly was an isolated area where they wouldn’t be disturbed.
Did that mean they’d intended to bring humans here in greater numbers? They hadn’t attacked the planet like they had the rest of the cluster. Or, as they’d assumed the Tardans had attacked the rest of the cluster.
They’d only visited one known system, so they’d made an educated guess about what they’d find elsewhere. What if they were wrong? What if none of the planets were being invaded except for New Copenhagen? It was, after all, the location where they’d intended to do their testing. Perhaps they’d settled for destroying everything in space and had left the inhabitants to their own devices while they perfected the art of inserting themselves into new hosts. Somehow, that was even more chilling.
That would be a less disastrous outcome than what he’d been anticipating. After seeing New Copenhagen and the widespread destruction there, David had assumed every system inside the cluster would be fully invaded. Perhaps they didn’t have enough people for that. Why cause trouble when you could orbit the planet and destroy anything that tried to lift off? Perhaps liberating the cluster wasn’t as complex as they’d feared. If there was any information on that, it would hopefully be on the computer once they found it.
Even though the area was significant in size, it didn’t take Lisa long to locate the computer. All she had to do was follow the signal. The hatch protecting the room where the computer resided was even more impressive than the one they’d broken through to get into the facility itself. Someone had really wanted to keep it secure.
That didn’t mean it was any better at resisting penetration, and Lisa had it open in a couple of minutes. Once again, she’d proved herself more than capable of breaking into anything. Confederation Intelligence had lost out when they’d failed to recruit her.
Of course, they’d had no idea she existed, so he couldn’t blame them. Them failing to find Port Royale was a glaring problem, though. They should’ve known about that, but it had seemingly escaped their notice.
Then he frowned. Had it? They’d been involved in researching the Tardan military vessel the exploration ships had recovered. That had been outside the system and one gate away from Port Royale. Had they truly taken their eyes off it, or had they been perfectly aware of who had moved in?
It was apparent to him that Confederation Intelligence—or at least some portion of it—was dirty. They’d been playing an off-the-books game. Was Bronson Rowe part of that? His presence here, working so closely with Admiral Allen during the middle of an invasion, made him wonder.
Tina was keeping the man busy while he was helping Lisa, but it might be better if he went to ask a few pointed questions. The situation here could blow up in their faces at any moment, and he was tired of being lied to. That might sound a bit ironic coming from someone that had once worked for Confederation Intelligence himself, but his tolerance for secrets had gotten significantly lower over the years.
Now that Lisa was inside the computer room, she should be safe, particularly since the station was being evacuated. Even if the enemy warships came straight in, the station wouldn’t be in danger for hours. That should be more than enough time for her to do what she needed to and for them to get away.
“I’ll need to go help Tina gather some more information,” he said as he watched the hacker start laying out her tools and equipment near the large computer. “We’re not going anywhere without you, so if something comes up, I’ll give you a call. When you finish, let me know, and we’ll arrange to meet you at the small craft bay. We won’t be able to get back to Hunter at this point, so we’ll need to go down to Argent. Are you going to be okay alone?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said with a wave of her hand, barely taking her eyes off what she was doing. “You do what you need to, and I’ll collect all the data I can. Regex and I will start sorting through what’s important and what’s not and try to pick the most important bits to steal. It’s always possible that we’ll get our hands on this computer again later, but I’m not going to hold my breath. As one of my old friends used to say, ‘always make hay when the sun is shining.’”
“I’ve never heard that phrase before,” David said with a smile. “I’m not even sure how one makes hay. I’ll lock the hatch behind me, so you shouldn’t be disturbed, but you’ll want to keep an ear out just in case. If someone gets down in here with you, I want you to avoid contact. Hide somewhere and let me know so I can come and get you. Don’t take any risks.”
“If somebody wants to get physical, you can rest assured I’m not staying where they can find me. Now, get out of here.”
He inclined his head for a moment and then made his way back out of the security area. Getting out through the hatch was as simple as signaling for it open and then pressing the button to force it closed behind him. If she ran into trouble inside, he had no idea how he could break it down, so he hoped that didn’t happen, or he might have to improvise something loud and destructive.
Once he’d gotten back into the lifts and journeyed up to the occupied part of the station, he contacted Tina. It seemed she was with Rowe in what amounted to a makeshift intelligence gathering room, collecting documents and drives that the man had been putting together since he’d relocated to the station.
Ten minutes later, David walked through the hatch and found them boxing up papers and drives. There were a couple of others taking sealed cartons and packing them onto a cart, probably to move them to the small craft bay. Tina was just turning toward him with a box in her hand, and Rowe was bent over the desk and sorting through piles of media. Rowe was so involved that he didn’t seem to notice his arrival.
His wife handed the box she was carrying to one of the people doing the loading and picked up a container made of metal as soon as the man’s back was turned. Without a word, she handed it to David and turned back toward Rowe while gesturing for him to get out.
Having never uttered a word, David retreated from the office while trying to look completely and utterly casual. He had no idea what she’d just handed him and no way to ask her. For that matter, since he’d verified it was locked, how did she know what was inside it?
Then he smiled. She had a knack for getting information she wasn’t supposed to have. That was why he was an analyst, and she was an operative. Maybe Rowe had said something, or perhaps even had it open earlier. It didn’t matter because she’d thought it important enough for him to take without the other man being aware he had it.
Of course, if it was that important, he’d quickly notice it was missing. With the haste of the move, he might not know where it went for a while, but it behooved David to act expediently. He needed to know what was inside this case and, if necessary, deal with it quickly before trying to get it back before its absence was noted.
Based on the size of the box and how it rattled a little as he walked, he didn’t think there were many papers inside, so that likely meant data chips. It was time for an unscheduled return to see what Lisa had been able to accomplish in the short time he’d been absent.
A few minutes later, he arrived back at the large security hatch and used his comm to call her. She sounded grumpy at having been interrupted, but she came and opened the hatch for him. Before she could turn away, he handed her the metal box.
“This came from Bronson Rowe’s office. Tina didn’t tell me what was in it, but the way she acted made me think it was critically important that we figure it out. If those are data chips inside—which it sounds like—we need to copy them quickly so I can get this box back where it came from before our friend from Confederation Intelligence notices it’s missing.”
“As if I don’t have enough on my plate already,” she grumbled. “We’re on the clock, you know.”
“I’m aware,” he said with a smile.
When they arrived in the computer room, he saw that she’d opened the back of the machine and had some of her equipment connected to things inside. She had a tablet set up and already seemed to have access.
While she was using one of her tools to try open the metal case, he gestured toward the computer. “Do you already have access?”
“Not yet. Even though I understand some of the basic hardware flaws, I haven’t been able to bypass the security measures yet. It shouldn’t take me much longer, but I don’t want to rush things and make mistakes. We’ll get one shot at this, and it needs to be perfect.”
The electronic lock on the case gave way, and she opened it to reveal dozens of data chips. David immediately recognized the significance of what he was looking at because the style of markings used on them was the same as the erased data chips they’d found aboard the Tardan wreck that Confederation Intelligence had parked outside the New Copenhagen system.
“These came from the group studying that Tardan ship,” Lisa confirmed. “I’d imagine whatever is on them will be very illuminating, though since the data is old, it’s not going to be earth-shattering.”
“I suppose we’ll find out,” he said as he watched her plug one of the chips into a reader. “Are they encrypted?”
She shook her head. “This one is in the clear. I’ll copy the data, and you can take this box back to wherever it came from. Depending on how long it takes me to copy the data from the Tardan military computer, I may have a chance to start going over some of this, but I can’t make any promises. I’ve got to focus on the big picture items, and this will just have to wait until I have time to give it a look.”
“That’s fine. Do the best you can.”
Her best was pretty good. Swapping chips out in a way that showed she’d done something like this many, many times before, she had whatever was on them copied over to her systems in less than ten minutes. That done, she put them all back into the metal box and locked it back up. Then she copied the drive to another one and handed it to him, along with the metal case.
“It’s all locked up the way you found it. So long as he doesn’t see you put it back where it came from, he should be none the wiser.”
Without sparing him another second, she returned to her tablet and began tapping on its screen. “I’m through the first level of security, and now I’m going to start on the new stuff. This is brand new to me, so I’ll be going slow. If you could avoid having to come down and interrupt me again, that would be great.”
“I promise you won’t see me again unless I come up with something else that demands your attention. Thank you.”
He retraced his steps back to Rowe’s office. The hatch slid open before he got to it, and for a moment, he was afraid that he was about to be discovered with the case in his hands, but it was only the helpers pushing the now fully loaded cart out. They’d stacked things significantly higher than he’d imagined they would.
The two edged to the far side of the corridor and allowed him to pass, so he took advantage of their focus on the precarious pile to place the metal box on the top of the stack. It had been neatly done, if he said so himself.
He watched the cart as it headed for the lift, and the man seemed unaware that there was a new box on the stack. Maybe he’d get away with this after all.
Even as he congratulated himself, he had reason to regret being so hasty. The stairwell hatch beside the lifts opened, and Rear Admiral Allen stalked out. He saw David standing there and scowled as he approached.
“What are you doing here?” Allen snarled. “Shouldn’t you be aboard that damned renegade ship with your commanding officer?”
“I’m making sure the last of our people get picked up like they’re supposed to,” David said. “I’m not a military officer, Admiral. My wife is assisting Mister Rowe in cleaning up his office. I’m simply providing a ride for her. We’ll be out of your hair shortly.”
“Speed it up. I want everyone off the station in the next thirty minutes. If you can’t have your people in hand by then, you’ll have to leave them behind. We’re not going to be caught with our pants down again. Move it.”
Without waiting for David to respond, the flag officer stormed into Rowe’s office and began yelling something similar. Tina stepped out almost immediately, probably having dodged around the irate officer.
She raised an eyebrow at him. “Did everything come out okay?”
“Perfectly. It sounds like the admiral wants everyone gone, but I’m not sure Lisa will be ready in time. I’m not going to leave until she boards our cutter. If that means we stay behind and cause a scene, so be it.”
“And I’ll be sitting right there with you. It sounds like the admiral is in a mood. I’d expect Jack told him something he didn’t want to hear. Let’s expedite our departure from this level and get out of sight. If he doesn’t see us, he might not think of us.”
“As always, I like how you think. Congratulations on your find. How did you know?”
“I saw the chips when he peeked inside to make sure they were there,” she said with a smile. “He had no reason to expect I would recognize the markings, so he was sloppy. As they say, ‘never rush. That’s when accidents happen.’”
He laughed as they made their way to the lift and headed for the small craft bay. He used his comm to send a short message to Lisa, letting her and Regex know where they’d be and what kind of timeline they were operating on.
Now it was up to the hacker and alien scientist to get the data off the Tardan computer quickly. He hoped they were up to the task because things could get sticky if the admiral really pushed matters. Far better for them to just get what they needed and leave with the rest.
With the arrival of enemies in the system, this had turned into a military matter. Everything he was doing now assumed they’d win that fight. He hoped so because if they lost the battleship, humanity was completely and utterly screwed.
27
Lisa continued working on the security bypass even when David called. Whatever it was could wait because she had to be dead on with what she did, or she could wipe the data they needed. Unless somebody was coming down to get her right now, it didn’t matter what he had to say. She had to focus.
Whoever had designed the security on this computer had been more cautious and paranoid than those who had worked on the other Tardan military computers. There were new programs watching everything, and there were subtle traps. Working on something like this was challenging in a way that she enjoyed deeply, but the constraints she was working under made her want to speed up. That would’ve been a mistake, so she slowed down instead.
Working step-by-step, taking incremental actions to bypass the security measures as she located them, she eventually mapped everything out and was able to subvert the security system to the point that she created herself an administrative account and shut the whole thing down. With the security out of the way, she could focus on the encryption on the drives. That was much more straightforward, though she acted like it was just as boobytrapped as everything else.
That turned out to be a good thing because someone had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure that none of the data on this computer was at risk if it ever fell into enemy hands. Too bad they’d never considered there might be someone skilled in their own computer operations and another person with the talents of an alien hacker like she had.
The thought almost made her sigh. She and Regex were better together than they were separately when working on computers like this. The expanded processing power Regex brought to the table allowed her to make leaps of intuition and see things that would’ve been beyond her. If this was what symbiosis was supposed to be like, maybe it wasn’t all bad. She told him so.
I’m warming to the idea myself. I don’t want to admit it because this wasn’t something I chose for myself, but to be bluntly honest, neither did you. Both of us fell into circumstances that left us vulnerable, and without one another, we’d either be dead or paralyzed. You’ve been a good partner in this, and I need to acknowledge that. As to what’s going to happen in the future, the more we work together, the more I think we might be able to do things we can’t even imagine right now.
