Satyr Play 02 Pt. 01

Edmund allowed himself to be cuffed and pushed from the room.

The moment he was in the antechamber, Edmund made a loud click and scanned his red eyes around the room. He planted his feet as he stared at Karl.

"MONSTER!" he screamed, yanking his arms apart. The links between the cuffs surrendered with a ping, and Edmund was leaping at Karl, claws out.

A single loud crack filled the room, and Edmund's head exploded in a red mist. His twitching body collided with Karl's, and the two fell in a pile.

Karl bellowed for someone to get the body off him, so Arnd and Heller dragged it to the side. Karl was gagging as he was covered in blood.

Heller trembled with relief now that Edmund was dead. The hooked claws and long teeth completed the resemblance Edmund had to the stories his grandfather told him.

The dead man in the room might have been the assassin sent because of his report.

He looked back at the officer whose shot saved Karl. The woman's calm and lovely eyes stared back, her expression blank. Ah, a second assassin then and an expert shot, too. He glanced at Karl, who he now assumed was also a member of the Hidden Races. He must have reported Edmund to the Hidden Races Council as well. They were damn lucky they were sent a second assassin.

The Council moved quickly. Another shiver ran down his spine.

He'd be revisiting all his childhood nightmares tonight.

Chapter 7

"No firewall is unbreakable! For every lock, there's a key!"

Graham rolled his eyes as he listened to Kent spewing his favorite catchphrase for the umpteenth time. He'd reach across the table and slap him if he weren't such good friends with the security tech nerd.

"I'm just telling you what I heard. This young chick in Japan submitted a school project incorporating a firewall that has yet to be penetrated," Graham insisted.

"Ohhhh... a Japanese schoolgirl? I bet she hasn't been penetrated yet, either!" Kent giggled.

"Dude! Gross!" Graham hissed as he gave his friend a warning glance then looked to see if anyone overheard them. Their shared interest in hardcore hentai was a secret they both needed to keep that way to keep their jobs.

Kent nodded his head with an apologetic look across the table. "Seriously though, send me the address, and I'll take a look."

Graham tapped a few things on his tablet and set it down again, returning to his sandwich. "Done," he said around a big bite, and a piece fell out of his mouth.

"Dude! Gross!" Kent said with a big grin on his face. They both burst into laughter, and Graham struggled to keep from spewing the rest of his mouthful.

After they'd eaten, Kent passed a comic book to Graham containing a micro USB drive with the latest three episodes of their favorite lolicon hentai series. Kent then made his way back to his desk. He nodded to a few coworkers on the way. He didn't notice that most ignored him.

He so loved working for the NSA. He loved hacking into other people's computers. Now that he was working for the good guys, he had permission to do it! He hadn't caught any terrorists yet, but he'd only had the job for a little under five years.

Kent returned to his desk and frowned when he got there.

Someone had left another box of tissues and a small bottle of hand lotion next to his keyboard. Worse than that, there was—he hoped it was yogurt, dripped across the keyboard and on his mouse.

"You think that's funny, but it's pathetic!" he called out to the mental morons who played the prank. He thought he heard chuckling, but he wasn't sure which jerks were laughing at him.

He pushed the lotion and tissue into the trash can immediately. Once, he'd taken them home as, Hey! Free lotion and tissues! Then he'd discovered they were both laced with capsaicin. His cock and right hand had been in burning agony for days.

He unplugged the soiled keyboard and mouse, setting them aside to rinse off later. These were just decoys, anyway. Unlocking his drawer, he pulled out his real keyboard and mouse. It wasn't the first time someone messed with his desk. He'd gone to his manager once, but that had yielded nothing. So he took care of it himself.

He'd thought that once he was clear of the jocks and mental weaklings in high school and college and had a real job, the abuse would stop. What made its continuance doubly disappointing was the fact that tech nerds surrounded him! The very people who'd endured the abuse alongside him through their school careers.

Giving himself a shake and taking a deep breath, he pulled up the email Graham sent him. Work always made him feel better. He loved sneaking past someone's firewall to peer into their inner network and the data they were trying to hide. It gave him a feeling of satisfaction and power.

Kent was pre-authorized to go wherever he pleased on the net, aside from government or military sites, as he'd passed every certification test the NSA had. His skills were second to none. He came and went without leaving a trace. Senior management valued that.

Making his way to the Japanese school's firewall, he saw it was one for which they had backdoor access. So, with a contemptuous snort, he slipped inside. He polled the available access and found the computer lab.

Paydirt!

He found the open port for the schoolgirl's project. He set up a scanner to read all packets coming to and leaving the port and started a log to record the data. That done, he backed out, ensuring he left no backtrace, and smiled to himself. Tomorrow morning, he'd have something to review. He'd find the key to the lock on that innocent-looking port. He couldn't wait.

The rest of the day was fairly dull. He rinsed off the decoy keyboard and mouse and reinstalled them before heading out. He went home and spent the evening slipping past the firewalls of his favorite animation studios to make copies of their latest creations. Two more episodes of Graham's favorite Loli series. He thought the lead character was a little too sweet-natured, but his friend was obsessed with her. Whatever, it made Graham happy.

He checked his dark web bulletin board and served a few requests for illicit vids to his customers, depositing the bitcoin in his offshore account. He wondered how Graham would react if he discovered Kent provided a means to distribute the real stuff. Would he turn him over to the authorities or ask to be included? As Kent didn't know for sure, Graham could never learn this secret.

The next morning, he rushed in and retraced his steps to the Japanese school's computer lab. He saw the log file was still there but hadn't grown very much. So, not a lot of traffic. He transferred the log file out, and cleared all references of the transfer from the school's network. Once more, he slipped out of their network, erasing his tracks.

Now, the real work could begin. Kent opened the log and reviewed the packet data. There was the header, and that was fairly straightforward. He extracted the source and destination addresses, but when he examined the data, it was encrypted. No matter. He applied his analysis tool to identify the type. That took a little time, and Kent felt his excitement rising the longer it took. This might be something good!

The tool finally pinged, and he felt slightly disappointed as it displayed the match. It was such a simple and antiquated encryption method it was one of the last to be checked. Damn. He decrypted one of the packets and looked at the contents. He looked at the packet's data, and all he saw was a series of gibberish characters. More encryption used inside the encrypted packet? He extracted the characters and started his analysis tool on that. The long wait and no match this time. Maybe it was another key? A key inside a key was a possibility. He needed to look at another packet to see if its data differed.

He created a script to extract the data from every packet he collected, and soon, he had a folder with two hundred and fifty distinct files. He ran a comparison script, and all the files came back as unique. So, there was a chance that this wasn't gibberish but hidden data. He thought there was a very good chance. It was just using an unknown encryption method. Sweet!

Kent requested access to the NSA's decryption engine. Based on a massive series of supercomputers, it would look for patterns at a pace no human mind could ever achieve. While he waited for permission, he prepared the input file for decryption, inputting each data file he'd extracted and adding the header data next to each.

He had time, so he investigated the destination address. The packets went to an IP based in New York. Hmmm...

A little more poking, and he had the company data. VRL Investments in Manhattan. Why was a Japanese schoolgirl's high school project communicating with an investment house in the US? With a little more spelunking, he discovered the student, Jun Imamura, was the daughter of Minister Imamura, a high-ranking official in Japan's government.

He poked at VRL's firewall, and it refused him access. None of his backdoor access methods worked, so he wrapped his packets in the antique encryption and borrowed some IDs from the stolen packets.

Running his connection test again, he was pleased to see he was inside. Before him was a listing of the company directories. He dipped inside one and brought up a listing of files. Spreadsheets. The date stamps on the files were yesterday.

He set up a download script to grab a sample, then pushed back in his chair with a deep sense of disappointment. The firewall in place at VRL was so simple to break. Worse, he found no evidence of the mysterious encryption. He knew the packets shipped from the school to the investment house, but after scanning the network, he found no sign of the packets.

Verdict: dull with anomalies.

A call from his section chief drew his attention away.

It took all day for his access request to finally come back with an affirmative, and he had to speak with three senior executives to explain his findings. They found a public record of Minister Imamura's business dealings with the New York investment house. That was above board. The combination of this relationship and the undisclosed use of an unknown encryption technology between his daughter's project on the Japanese school server and the US company's network made the executives take an interest.

He immediately fed his prepared data file into the decryption engine and headed home.

The next day, he rushed in, hoping to see the report, but saw a note requesting his presence in a conference room. Grinning, he quickly sent a few of the files he'd pulled from VRL's server to his supervisor, then rushed upstairs and knocked on the conference room door before entering.

His boss was inside as well as his boss' boss and two other people, a man and a woman he didn't recognize.

"Good morning, Director Yosman. Supervisor McCalin," he said, greeting them in ranking order. He glanced at the two strangers.

McCalin had a weary look on his face. "Kent, let me introduce you to agents Gerrod Kaiba and Fran Sparling. They will be heading up the investigation of the currently unbreakable cipher."

"Unbreakable?" Kent asked in surprise, and his face lit up. "The Engine failed?"

"Yes, it failed. Try not to get too excited about it," the supervisor said.

"Sorry, sir," Ken muttered, glancing at the smile on the director's face.

"May we assume the VRL Investments firewall uses the same encryption?" McCalin asked.

Kent smirked at his boss. "You may not. Their firewall was a joke. I was able to slip inside easily. Just before the meeting, I sent you a few sample files found inside."

With an annoyed frown, McCalin linked his laptop to the projector, then pulled up one of the email messages. He opened one of the spreadsheets, and his face showed shock and embarrassment. "What the hell is this? Didn't you check any of these?"

The screen was showing the file contained odd text:

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua..."

Below this was a photo of two women of extra-large proportions squeezed into latex outfits. They were engaging in some very risqué behavior.

The supervisor opened two more and found the same content in each. The images just became more graphic. He was red-faced, and his eyes nervously flicked to his boss before they locked on Kent in rage. "This is decoy data!"

Kent was shaking his head in shock and embarrassment. "There was no sign of the site being counterfeit. Every test I ran against it confirmed I was inside."

"Inside a honeypot," McCalin growled, and Kent's ears burned with humiliation.

The supervisor turned his head to his boss. "I think we can safely say VRL is using a very advanced firewall if one of our best can't recognize he's been tricked."

Kent appreciated the off-hand compliment, but he was too angry. He wanted to take those bastards at VRL down!

"What about the Japanese side of this. We know the school project has a firewall, which is claimed to be impenetrable. Is it?"

"I-I haven't tried to break past the firewall there yet," Kent replied.

McCalin tapped a few keys on his laptop, and Kent's desktop appeared. "Okay. You can demonstrate to us now how to get inside." He slid the computer over to Kent.

Glancing at the others, he set up the connections and brought them to the computer lab through the school's firewall. "This is the port where the project is running. I collected packets the port sent and received but did not attempt to enter. I will do so now."

Following what he did for VRL, he used a previously provided packet's header ID to get past the firewall. Sure enough, there was a directory with folders and files. "We're inside, but I think we're in the decoy site. The file names are the same."

"So we don't know what's really behind these firewalls, nor what data is transferring between them," the Director said.

"No sir," McCalin admitted.

The senior official sat back and pondered that for a bit. He didn't like not knowing. He looked at the young man, glowering at the screen. It was clear from his expression that he felt the same way. "Can you get past this firewall?"

"No firewall is unbreakable! For every lock, there's a key!" Kent said with a tight voice.

The Director nodded. "Concentrate on the one at VRL. Let's not set off an international incident if we can avoid it. Try not to show your hand but get inside. Find out how it ticks. I'll give you until next Tuesday. That's when I want to send our agents here to speak to the principals at VRL. Get them something more than the link with the Japanese school project."

Kent nodded and felt a cold sweat break out on his forehead. It was Friday. Including the weekend, he had only three days to crack this bitch. He wasn't going to be getting much sleep in those days.

He just had to find that fucking key.

Chapter 8

Henry walked in the front door of VRL and smiled at the receptionist, who was beaming a bright and cheerful smile at him. As he made to walk by, she crooked her finger at him to invite him closer. He changed his path to approach her desk.

"Good morning, Kiera!" he said.

"Late morning, Mr. Gable?"

"Yes, I, uh... slept through my alarm." He saw the clock was indicating nine-forty-five, but he hadn't been sleeping well due to the suicide he'd witnessed last week. He'd stayed in and rested all weekend, trying to catch up on the sleep he was losing. He hadn't been able to get it out of his dreams. He hadn't spoken to anyone either, as he hoped he could just put the whole thing behind him. That wasn't going so well. He pushed it out of his mind once more. "Please call me Henry."

Her smile widened as she looked up into his eyes. "Henry, Mr. Duncan asked me to direct you to his office when you arrived." The tip of her pink tongue danced lightly across her upper lip.

"Ah! Okay, thanks. Have a good day!" he said as he turned to head off to the security offices. He felt her eyes on his ass as he walked away, and his face burned a little. He didn't have these issues when he was skinny little Stanley.

He passed through the gauntlet to get into the inner sanctum of the Security Department, greeting the uniformly large men inside with a nod and a smile, then walked over to the private office of their chief. The door was open, so he knocked on the door jamb.

"Good morning, Mr. Duncan." He still felt awkward using the man's given name.

The chief looked up, and he wasn't smiling.

"Not a good morning?" Henry asked cautiously.

"I don't know if having the damned NSA poking around your network classifies as a good start to the day," the huge redhead growled.

"The NSA? They can't get in, but having their attention at all is probably not a good thing," Henry sighed.

"Thanks for the enlightenment. Join me on a visit to the CEO's office."

Henry heard his tone and knew it wasn't a request.

They made their way back out to the lobby and took the elevator up to the top floor. Henry glanced in the door on his way past his office, and Marisa looked at him in surprise.

They got to the CEO's office, and her assistant gestured for them to enter.

Camila smiled at them, but her smile dimmed when she saw the grim expression on the security chief's face and the concerned look on Henry's.

"What's happened!" she asked cautiously, looking to Henry first, hoping for a less grim outcome.

The security chief would not be denied. "The bloody NSA is trying to snoop on our network. I got a notice from Stan—Henry's firewall that the spooks were spending too much time poking about. They pounded on it all weekend. They know it's got smarts they can't get past, so it's got their attention."

"So? They're not allowed to see past the firewall without a warrant," Camila said.

"Commercial firewall apps have backdoor access written into them. That's why I wrote my own," Henry said.

"You should have created one that looks like a boring commercial product, which lets them in to see fake data," the security chief grumbled.

Henry smiled. "I didn't have mine emulate any commercial products as I didn't want to piss off those developers and get sued for copyright infringement. Anyone who gets past the initial gate but doesn't have a valid key is taken to a dummy environment with fake data files. Spreadsheets filled with Lorum Ipsum text and image files pulled from their local Internet cache folders."

"I'm still not hearing anything we need to be concerned about," Camila said, looking at Roy.

"I'd like to know why they decided to look at us at all and why they are so persistent in their attempts to get in," the security chief said darkly.

"Do you want me to hack their network to find out?" Henry asked.

"WHAT?!? NO—Don't be daft! I don't want you to be poking your nose about in the Federal Government's network!" the big man barked in alarm, then saw the suppressed smile on Henry's face. He looked at Camila and saw she was smiling, too. His expression turned sour. "Oh, let's all have a big laugh at the only one with any sense when it comes to security matters."

"I'm sorry, Roy, but you walked right into that one," Camila said with a smile. She raised her hand to forestall his next protest. She looked to Henry. "Without breaking any laws, see what you can learn about our new best friend." Henry nodded to her and dropped his smile when the security man fixed an eye on him.

"Just you be really careful with these jokers. They're bad business to mess with," the man huffed and received a nod.

With a final glower, Mr. Duncan turned and left, closing the door behind himself and leaving Henry with Camila.

She smiled at Henry. "So, Henry is settling in with your new neighbors?" She used his new name to reference his new identity.