25-12-2018, 05:56 PM
Cheating and Rivals Pt. 77-81
Cheating and Rivals Part 77
The Bunker was tense as Colonel Banks and the strike team approached the old warehouse close by Nats Park identified by Mike and his team. They followed the strike team's progress on the big monitors on the walls. But Mike barely noticed. He felt dead inside.
Mike felt claustrophobic in the Bunker. He didn't care about the mission. Frankly, at that moment, he didn't care about the 2 girls. He left the Bunker and went to his dorm room. He laid in the bed and stared aimlessly at the ceiling.
Sometime later there was a knock at his door. Mike didn't get up. After a moment the door opened. It was Mitch. He had a grim expression on his face.
"We got the girls," Mitch said. "They're safe."
"Good," Mike said, standing up. He frowned at Mitch. It was good news, so why the grim face?
"Ethan didn't make it," Mitch told him, a dark shadow over his face. "The girls were boxed in. He led the charge. He saved the girls. But they got him."
Mike slowly nodded, processing this information. He felt his eyes watering up. Colonel Banks had been his jailer. His torturer. His tormentor. But also Banks had been, in a way, his mentor and supporter. And maybe even a friend. "That's too bad," he managed to say, his voice almost cracking with emotion.
"Ethan got this, from the leader," Mitch said. It was a cell phone. He offered it to Mike.
Mike took the phone from Mitch. Also a folder paper. It was covered with blood. He looked questioning at Mitch.
"Ethan wrote that, just before he died," Mitch explained. "He told me to give it to you."
Mike stared at Mitch. Then he stared at the folded piece of paper, covered with Colonel Bank's blood. It literally held the proud soldier's last thoughts, before he died.
Mike opened the paper. It said "Do your job!"
Mike closed his eyes. The quantum computer. If they had a working quantum computer, none of this would have happened. The terrorists' plans and communications would've been opened to them. They would've known about the plans against the President's daughters weeks ago. They could've stop them. None of the good guys had to die. Ethan Banks would still be alive.
Mike felt responsible. He'd held back. Not completely. But his heart had never been into it. All because of his "superior" morals. Now Mike had a taste of how the world really worked. Morals and idealism were fine in theory. Standing on your high horse maybe felt good. But there were consequences. In the real world, people died.
And then suddenly it clicked in Mike's head. It was like pieces of a puzzle coming together. Or, maybe, the clouds parting and secrets revealed.
Mike knew how to solve the X-factor problem.
Clutching the cell phone, Mike pushed passed Mitch and ran into the corridor. "Where are you going?" Mitch yelled.
"The Bunker!" Mike yelled back.
****************
The mood in the Bunker was sober. Even JJ looked grave. Colonel Banks was well respected and liked. It seemed like the victory of saving the girls was negated by his death.
Suddenly Mike burst into the room. "Plug this in!" he yelled to a technician, handing him the cell phone.
"Mike, what?" Maria said.
"I know how to solve the X-factor problem!"
"What?" Maria said.
"Not a complete solution but I think it'll work!"
"What? How?" Brent and Abraham said at the same time.
"I can be the X-factor!" Mike told them. "I can watch Hal's decision tree and nudge him when he's going in the wrong direction!"
"That's not possible," Brent scoffed. "Hal's too fast. You can't even read it. How can you understand it?"
"I don't need to understand it!" Mike said excitedly. "I can see it! I can feel it!"
"Okay, okay, okay," Maria said, trying to calm everyone down. "Let's say you can feel it. What do you mean by nudging Hal? Nudge him how?"
Mike shook his head in frustration. It was all so obvious! Why couldn't they see it?! He just needed to get to a computer, access Hal's code. He could make the changes himself. But he knew it would take time. And his instincts were screaming this was urgent! Colonel Banks died for this! They had to get into the ISIS leader's phone, and they had to do it now!
Maria saw Mike's frustration. In a soft calming voice, she said "Mike, we're your team. Tell us what you need."
"I need ... there's got to be ...," Mike sputtered. In his head he saw these things as patterns. As colors. As geometric shapes. It was hard to put into words. "I have to be able to slow Hal down, and speed him up ..."
Maria pursed her lips, thinking, applying Mike's words to what she knew about Hal's complicated algorithms. "You mean growth and delaying functions?" she said, translating his thoughts.
"Yes!"
"Exponential?" Brent asked.
"No, not sensitive enough."
"Logarithmic then," Abraham said.
"Yes! In all directions ..."
"Multi-dimensional? Like a matrix?" Maria asked.
"No, too confining ..."
"I don't know ...," Maria sputtered, looking at Brent for help.
"He's talking about a sphere," Abraham offered.
"Yes!" Mike said. "That's it!"
Brent, Maria, and Abraham looked at each other. It was going to take a lot of work to Hal's code. But now they understood what Mike needed. They went to their respective teams and began working.
***********
The updates to Hal were almost complete. Mike stood by his terminal, watching their progress on the big screens on the wall. Alan Bigebers approached.
"I've tied everything into the user interface," Big told Mike. He pointed to some icons on the screen. "You can control Hal here."
"Thank you," Mike said, his eyes still on the screens.
"The other day when we talked," Big said. "Four zeros. Captain Kirk's destruct code right?"
Mike turned and looked at Big. After a long moment he said, "The last time we ran the simulation, you slowed Hal's decision trace. I need it to run real-time."
"You got it Mike," Big said agreeably. He looked intently at Mike and whispered "But tell me. Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"
Mike stared at Big for a long moment. Then he turned back to the screens.
***********************
The GUI was a series of 7 concentric circles with the ISIS leader's cellphone at the center. Each circle represented a layer of defense, the outermost (layer 1) being the weakest, the innermost (layer 7) the strongest.
Hal quickly defeated layers 1 and 2 with those layers vanishing from the GUI. It took longer but then layer 3 disappeared. Mike didn't have to do anything. Hal had gotten through layer 3 before.
"This is it," Brent said. The intensity in the room increased. They'd never gotten pass layer 3.
Mike concentrated on the 1s and 0s flittering across the big screen. They were moving too fast to be intelligible. Mike's finger tips hovered just above the screen icons. With a light touch he pressed the buttons, nudging Hal this way and that. The layer 4 circle went from dark blue to light blue to still lighter blue. The circle hovered there, almost but not quite disappearing as Hal, with Mike's help, attacked the layer 4 defenses. Suddenly the layer 4 circle disappeared! They were through!
"Holy fuck," Brent gasped. "He's doing it."
Now people turned to watch Mike. His eyes were locked on the big screen, his hand hovering over the control icons. But sometimes he closed his eyes. It was like he was Hal.
"How's he doing it?" someone said. "His eyes are closed."
"I don't know. The Force?" someone else quipped.
The layer 5 circle disappeared. Then layer 6.
"We're almost through," Maria said excitedly, her eyes going between the big screen and Mike. "Just layer 7 left."
JJ was watching too. "Come on kid. Do it, do it," he said in a low voice.
Suddenly the layer 7 circle disappeared! The door to the cellphone was open! Mike was breathing hard from exertion, his brow covered with perspiration.
Maria's fingers flew over the keyboard as she ran searches against the ISIS leader's emails.
"Look for Twins!" JJ yelled.
"I know! Do you think I'm stupid?!!" Maria snapped.
Then Maria found the key email. She displayed it on the big wall screens and the entire room read it. That's when they knew the truth. Twins didn't mean the 2 girls. It meant 2 operations.
JJ was on the phone immediately. "Crash it down! Crash it down!" he yelled, shouting the Secret Service code phrase. "The girls were a diversion! The real target is the President!"
"No," Mike said, staring at the screen, the one word coming out like a painful groan. "Jen ... Anna ..."
Cheating and Rivals Part 78
Mike rushed to the exit.
"Where are you going?!" JJ yelled.
"I've got to get to the rally!" Mike said. "My wife and daughter are there!"
"No! You've got to stay here!" JJ ordered. He motioned towards Mike's computer station. "We've got to decrypt more emails! We might be able to break ISIS right now! This is our chance!"
Cheating and Rivals Part 77
The Bunker was tense as Colonel Banks and the strike team approached the old warehouse close by Nats Park identified by Mike and his team. They followed the strike team's progress on the big monitors on the walls. But Mike barely noticed. He felt dead inside.
Mike felt claustrophobic in the Bunker. He didn't care about the mission. Frankly, at that moment, he didn't care about the 2 girls. He left the Bunker and went to his dorm room. He laid in the bed and stared aimlessly at the ceiling.
Sometime later there was a knock at his door. Mike didn't get up. After a moment the door opened. It was Mitch. He had a grim expression on his face.
"We got the girls," Mitch said. "They're safe."
"Good," Mike said, standing up. He frowned at Mitch. It was good news, so why the grim face?
"Ethan didn't make it," Mitch told him, a dark shadow over his face. "The girls were boxed in. He led the charge. He saved the girls. But they got him."
Mike slowly nodded, processing this information. He felt his eyes watering up. Colonel Banks had been his jailer. His torturer. His tormentor. But also Banks had been, in a way, his mentor and supporter. And maybe even a friend. "That's too bad," he managed to say, his voice almost cracking with emotion.
"Ethan got this, from the leader," Mitch said. It was a cell phone. He offered it to Mike.
Mike took the phone from Mitch. Also a folder paper. It was covered with blood. He looked questioning at Mitch.
"Ethan wrote that, just before he died," Mitch explained. "He told me to give it to you."
Mike stared at Mitch. Then he stared at the folded piece of paper, covered with Colonel Bank's blood. It literally held the proud soldier's last thoughts, before he died.
Mike opened the paper. It said "Do your job!"
Mike closed his eyes. The quantum computer. If they had a working quantum computer, none of this would have happened. The terrorists' plans and communications would've been opened to them. They would've known about the plans against the President's daughters weeks ago. They could've stop them. None of the good guys had to die. Ethan Banks would still be alive.
Mike felt responsible. He'd held back. Not completely. But his heart had never been into it. All because of his "superior" morals. Now Mike had a taste of how the world really worked. Morals and idealism were fine in theory. Standing on your high horse maybe felt good. But there were consequences. In the real world, people died.
And then suddenly it clicked in Mike's head. It was like pieces of a puzzle coming together. Or, maybe, the clouds parting and secrets revealed.
Mike knew how to solve the X-factor problem.
Clutching the cell phone, Mike pushed passed Mitch and ran into the corridor. "Where are you going?" Mitch yelled.
"The Bunker!" Mike yelled back.
****************
The mood in the Bunker was sober. Even JJ looked grave. Colonel Banks was well respected and liked. It seemed like the victory of saving the girls was negated by his death.
Suddenly Mike burst into the room. "Plug this in!" he yelled to a technician, handing him the cell phone.
"Mike, what?" Maria said.
"I know how to solve the X-factor problem!"
"What?" Maria said.
"Not a complete solution but I think it'll work!"
"What? How?" Brent and Abraham said at the same time.
"I can be the X-factor!" Mike told them. "I can watch Hal's decision tree and nudge him when he's going in the wrong direction!"
"That's not possible," Brent scoffed. "Hal's too fast. You can't even read it. How can you understand it?"
"I don't need to understand it!" Mike said excitedly. "I can see it! I can feel it!"
"Okay, okay, okay," Maria said, trying to calm everyone down. "Let's say you can feel it. What do you mean by nudging Hal? Nudge him how?"
Mike shook his head in frustration. It was all so obvious! Why couldn't they see it?! He just needed to get to a computer, access Hal's code. He could make the changes himself. But he knew it would take time. And his instincts were screaming this was urgent! Colonel Banks died for this! They had to get into the ISIS leader's phone, and they had to do it now!
Maria saw Mike's frustration. In a soft calming voice, she said "Mike, we're your team. Tell us what you need."
"I need ... there's got to be ...," Mike sputtered. In his head he saw these things as patterns. As colors. As geometric shapes. It was hard to put into words. "I have to be able to slow Hal down, and speed him up ..."
Maria pursed her lips, thinking, applying Mike's words to what she knew about Hal's complicated algorithms. "You mean growth and delaying functions?" she said, translating his thoughts.
"Yes!"
"Exponential?" Brent asked.
"No, not sensitive enough."
"Logarithmic then," Abraham said.
"Yes! In all directions ..."
"Multi-dimensional? Like a matrix?" Maria asked.
"No, too confining ..."
"I don't know ...," Maria sputtered, looking at Brent for help.
"He's talking about a sphere," Abraham offered.
"Yes!" Mike said. "That's it!"
Brent, Maria, and Abraham looked at each other. It was going to take a lot of work to Hal's code. But now they understood what Mike needed. They went to their respective teams and began working.
***********
The updates to Hal were almost complete. Mike stood by his terminal, watching their progress on the big screens on the wall. Alan Bigebers approached.
"I've tied everything into the user interface," Big told Mike. He pointed to some icons on the screen. "You can control Hal here."
"Thank you," Mike said, his eyes still on the screens.
"The other day when we talked," Big said. "Four zeros. Captain Kirk's destruct code right?"
Mike turned and looked at Big. After a long moment he said, "The last time we ran the simulation, you slowed Hal's decision trace. I need it to run real-time."
"You got it Mike," Big said agreeably. He looked intently at Mike and whispered "But tell me. Are you a good guy or a bad guy?"
Mike stared at Big for a long moment. Then he turned back to the screens.
***********************
The GUI was a series of 7 concentric circles with the ISIS leader's cellphone at the center. Each circle represented a layer of defense, the outermost (layer 1) being the weakest, the innermost (layer 7) the strongest.
Hal quickly defeated layers 1 and 2 with those layers vanishing from the GUI. It took longer but then layer 3 disappeared. Mike didn't have to do anything. Hal had gotten through layer 3 before.
"This is it," Brent said. The intensity in the room increased. They'd never gotten pass layer 3.
Mike concentrated on the 1s and 0s flittering across the big screen. They were moving too fast to be intelligible. Mike's finger tips hovered just above the screen icons. With a light touch he pressed the buttons, nudging Hal this way and that. The layer 4 circle went from dark blue to light blue to still lighter blue. The circle hovered there, almost but not quite disappearing as Hal, with Mike's help, attacked the layer 4 defenses. Suddenly the layer 4 circle disappeared! They were through!
"Holy fuck," Brent gasped. "He's doing it."
Now people turned to watch Mike. His eyes were locked on the big screen, his hand hovering over the control icons. But sometimes he closed his eyes. It was like he was Hal.
"How's he doing it?" someone said. "His eyes are closed."
"I don't know. The Force?" someone else quipped.
The layer 5 circle disappeared. Then layer 6.
"We're almost through," Maria said excitedly, her eyes going between the big screen and Mike. "Just layer 7 left."
JJ was watching too. "Come on kid. Do it, do it," he said in a low voice.
Suddenly the layer 7 circle disappeared! The door to the cellphone was open! Mike was breathing hard from exertion, his brow covered with perspiration.
Maria's fingers flew over the keyboard as she ran searches against the ISIS leader's emails.
"Look for Twins!" JJ yelled.
"I know! Do you think I'm stupid?!!" Maria snapped.
Then Maria found the key email. She displayed it on the big wall screens and the entire room read it. That's when they knew the truth. Twins didn't mean the 2 girls. It meant 2 operations.
JJ was on the phone immediately. "Crash it down! Crash it down!" he yelled, shouting the Secret Service code phrase. "The girls were a diversion! The real target is the President!"
"No," Mike said, staring at the screen, the one word coming out like a painful groan. "Jen ... Anna ..."
Cheating and Rivals Part 78
Mike rushed to the exit.
"Where are you going?!" JJ yelled.
"I've got to get to the rally!" Mike said. "My wife and daughter are there!"
"No! You've got to stay here!" JJ ordered. He motioned towards Mike's computer station. "We've got to decrypt more emails! We might be able to break ISIS right now! This is our chance!"
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