Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 28: The Asset
HENRY STARED at his coffee cup silently as the Colonel’s words sank in. He’d responded to a real threat, but his response had nearly caused a war. The cyber world bleeding over into the real world. All they’d need is for the president to start tweeting about it.
“I thought you would understand why we are concerned,” Schwartz said. “We provided the Chinese with the code for the viruses that caused their shutdown, compliments of your department head. They are reverse engineering them in order to develop a vaccine, so to speak, against ever being infected again. We’ve provided samples to all the major security software companies for the same purpose. That is not what brings me to your door.”
Henry nodded, unwilling to volunteer any information that could incriminate him. He calmed his nerves and looked at the Colonel, ignoring the captain, who had removed her hat and let her hair fall to her shoulders. He couldn’t afford to be distracted at this point. The colonel smiled.
“During our visit to the university yesterday, we discovered—or rather Captain Bernard discovered—that certain classmates of yours had once launched a hack attack against your company server to see if they could get through your defenses. Your company: Open Cloak Design. I like that name. The informant said you had managed to trace them through several proxy servers and immediately and without warning, corrupt their computers.”
“I don’t see what the big deal was,” Captain Bernard said. “We’ve been talking for twenty minutes and I’ve got full access to the server.”
“I’d thank you to leave our corporate development and testing alone,” Henry said.
“There’s nothing here of interest,” Bernard said. “A nice search engine being tested and a released computer optimization utility. The computer is as clean as every other computer we’ve tested.”
“We run our own optimization software on our computers and many people have reported improved performance for their computers based on our studies,” Henry said. “You should try it.”
“Obviously, we aren’t directly interested in either of those applications, though I suspect if we truly dissected the Open Cloak Optimization, we’d discover some of the same code that was used to erase the disks of our Chinese attackers,” Schwartz laughed.
“What is it you are after?” Henry asked.
“I want ... The United States Army wants a copy of the code you used to track through eight levels of proxy servers and then wipe out every computer even remotely connected to the attackers.”
“There’s no such code on his server,” the captain insisted.
“Of course not. Would you leave something capable of so much destruction lying around where a child might play with it?” Schwartz asked, turning on the captain.
She scowled and color rose in her cheeks. She closed her laptop.
“Henry, you are a unique individual and I’m very interested in your company and software. Interested enough to invest in it,” Schwartz said.
“I didn’t know the army invests in companies,” Henry said. “I would have to decline.”
“Yeah, I know. But there are ways we can probably satisfy both of our needs. As I said, I want a copy of the two pieces of the puzzle: the tracing software and the counterattack software. In return, I am prepared on behalf of my agency to do two things. I will make a deposit in your account of twenty-five million tax-free dollars. And I will keep the rest of Washington’s alphabet soup off your computers.”
Henry contemplated both offers. If that was really all, he could hardly refuse. It was a lot better than ending up in a prison in El Salvador. As if on cue, his doorbell rang. He caught his breath. Colonel Schwartz raised an eyebrow. Henry should have consulted with his partners, but instead he nodded at the Colonel.
“Allow me,” Schwartz said, standing from the table.
He put his hat on and Bernard hastily tucked her hair up under her own military cover. They went to the door and opened it. Four men stood there and demanded entrance for the FBI.
“This is a project for the Pentagon’s Department of Cyber Resilience,” Schwartz said. “Per 1998 Presidential directive PD-63, expanded under Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-7 of 2003, for Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection, you do not have authority to infringe on an operation of the United States Army engaged in activities critical to national defense against cyber intrusion. You are hereby directed to leave the premises, cease all investigation either personal or electronic regarding the attack on US cyber installations responded to by the US Army, and remove all surveillance of Henry Pascal, Open Cloak Design, and its employees, officers, and shareholders.”
Henry held his breath. Schwartz had poured that all out as if he were reading an order from the supreme court. Henry wasn’t positive how legal that whole line was, but apparently the FBI agents weren’t knowledgeable enough to contradict Schwartz, standing in the doorway. Schwartz handed his card to the lead agent and they left. He closed and locked the door.
“I’d get the code functioning on your server again to defend against future attacks. These guys seldom take no for an answer, though they will be too cowed to raise a fuss if they are rejected in the act of hacking,” Schwartz said.
“The code is stored offsite,” Henry said.
“That was smart. Why don’t the three of us go out for lunch and you can retrieve it while we’re out.”
“If you don’t mind, I need to do some checking to verify your claims. I’d like photos of you along with those I took of your IDs. I’d like to make a call to the Pentagon to ask for your office. And before I retrieve any code, I’d like your signatures on a limited license agreement.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Bernard started.
“No, it’s quite reasonable,” Schwartz contradicted her. “Here’s my card with the number of the Pentagon on it. If you would call directory assistance and ask for the number, you can compare them before you call. Do you have a license agreement we can sign?”
“Upstairs in the office. We can complete the transaction up there and then go retrieve the code.”
“And lunch,” Schwartz said. “Let’s not forget that!”
“I didn’t intend to do that kind of damage,” Henry said. “It’s valuable information.”
After lunch he’d retrieved his backup from the safe deposit box. Then he’d taken Schwartz and Bernard to the office on the fourth floor to install it and create a copy for the US Army.
“The top level is pretty simple. It’s actually buried in the search engine code as well. It simply applies the AI to the task of tracking down information through various paths and proxies. Once we settled in after discovering how wide the attack was on university research facilities, it only took about twenty minutes for the AI to trace the path through the proxies to the source.”
“How many computers did that get you?” Schwartz asked.
“One. It was the ice pick probing the wall of our corporate server. I had no idea about the attacks on all the other servers. I knew there had to be an organized attack, based on the information supplied by Dr. Hendon.”
“Then how did you get everyone else?” Bernard asked. Once she was in their office and settled in a chair, she’d adopted a much more casual attitude. Schwartz was watching everything Henry did and pointed out as she sipped a soda.
“That tech is actually buried in the Open Cloak Optimization software. The way the app works at the moment, it can be installed on only one device when purchased. We know we will want to offer an enterprise version that a corporation can use to deploy across its network. The question is, how widely we allow it—or the corporate IT allows it—to work. That’s actually what’s holding us up at the moment. The AI has a feature I call ‘Degrees of Separation.’ How far from the host do you want to deploy the solution? Zero degrees is the default and only setting on the current app. This computer only. The next would be one degree, which would deploy on all computers directly attached to the host. And so on.”
“Just for curiosity’s sake, how many degrees did you set the counterattack to?” Schwartz asked. Bernard sat up.
“I didn’t really know how far it would go, so I just set it like the movie. Six degrees,” Henry said.
“It’s possible that seven degrees would have plunged the world wide web into darkness,” Schwartz said. “As part of our agreement, allowing you to install it on your server and continue development, we want you to permanently set it to zero. Respond only to the direct attack.”
“I think that’s reasonable for the server. It’s what it’s always been set at. This is the first time I’ve ever set it at anything else.”
“Blessed mother!” Bernard said. “Colonel, we should not leave it in his hands!”
“Captain, in order to prevent it from being in his hands, we’d have to cut his hands off. You heard what he said. The code is not only in the counterattack software, but in the computer optimization software and search engine. I had a feeling that was involved.”
Henry shuddered at the implication. The code was in his head. They’d have to cut that off, too.
“No, we’re sticking to our deal. I think Henry and Open Cloak are going to continue to create valuable tools for the war on cybercrime. We’re not going to inhibit the development. Now, you should head out and change clothes. You should be at the university attending lectures and talking to students. Make sure there is no suggestion among them that points to Open Cloak.”
“Yes, sir.” Bernard snapped to attention. “How long should I plan to stay under cover at the university?”
“I think you told people you were there on a two-month study visa. Get through the first month and we’ll give you a cover to move elsewhere.”
“A month?” She tried to maintain neutrality. “Yes, sir.” She turned crisply and headed down the stairs. There was a bit of a commotion and shortly Chastity appeared at the head of the stairs.
“Who was that?” she demanded immediately. “And who are you?”
Chastity was used to seeing Lisa and Josh on the weekends in the office. Sometimes Leonard and Simon were there, too. But they didn’t casually bring guests into the office and to see an army guy intently looking at the server screen over Henry’s shoulder was a shock—not to mention being nearly knocked down the stairs by a female army person rushing to the front door.
“Chas, this is Colonel Nathan Schwartz, director of the Pentagon’s Department of Cyber Resilience. He’s here to ... license some software that I’ve had under development.”
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