Chapter 3

It was late February and I was walking across Kogan Plaza really not paying attention to where I was going. That was evident because I crashed right into someone. Books and papers went everywhere and I looked up at the person I had collided with.

It was a woman, and she was a prime example of the gender. Half an inch smaller than my five eleven foot height. Her hair was light red. I think they call that strawberry blonde. She looked to be middle or late thirties. I was to find out later I was way off in that. She was beautiful and had a kind of breathtaking quality about her. It was cold out and she was wearing a tan leather jacket with a shearling collar. Her legs were covered by some kind of tight leggings. Her jacket ran to her thighs. What I could see of her legs were spectacular.

I could see her bright blue eyes checking me out as much as I was checking her. She then looked at the mess of books and paperwork that was at out feet.

“Oh I’m so sorry,” I said bending down to try to collect as much as possible quickly.

She was bending over collecting pieces herself. Several people circle around us and the mess we had created, moving past the obstruction in the walkway across the plaza. We were about twenty feet inside the Baussell Walk gate.

I gathered the stuff up into a pile and handed it to her.

“Thank you,” she said. In the two word reply I noted a hint of accent, though I could not say of what kind.

She gathered it all into her hands and I watched her form as she continued on through the gate with a slight shake of my head.

It had been a long time since Kelly the day before finals last year.

I got off the Metro at the Foggy Bottom/GWU station and started down I Street. Passing through the gate I crossed 23^rd St. I took the H street entrance to the Science and Engineering Hall.

The class was pretty small considering that there were a number of graduate and undergraduate students enrolled. Studies on the Use of Distributed Systems in International Endeavors the catalog said. It was basically a class about using large server farms to process data from worldwide client locations with the attendant security requirements.

The first visiting professor had a background in Google systems and was very familiar with the vast server arrays used by the company, not only to service their search, video and advertising business, but also the data services business they provide for third parties. Today was to be a new instructor. The syllabus had only covered the first segment. I assumed the next visiting professor would provide one for their segment.

As I entered the room I saw that Professor Clark was talking to a woman at the front of the class. Our visiting professor I assumed. As I got to my seat she turned around. I recognized her immediately as the woman I had bumped into in Kogan Plaza.

After everyone was seated Professor Clark called for our attention. “I would like to introduce Dr. Cecelia Winthrope. Dr. Winthrope is the visiting professor for this segment. I will let her explain the scope of the subject.”

“Thank you Professor Clark. I expect that all of you are very knowledgeable in the protocols and processes necessary to secure central server arrays for attacks over their network interfaces. We will be discussing physical security and what can be done to harden server systems from attack vectors which are not normally seen as vulnerabilities.”

I found I was right. Dr. Winthrope had some kind of indiscernible accent. It was not British, though it seemed closer to that than say New Zealand or Aussie. Her lecture was interesting and in some ways surprising. Many of the things she discussed were not subjects typically covered in cyber-security courses that I had taken.

At the end of her class she passed out a syllabus. Then just as we were getting ready to leave Professor Clark called for our attention.

“Those in the graduate program will not be surprised to find that I am hosting a mixer at my home for Dr. Winthrope. This social aspect of academia might be less expected by some of our undergraduates, but I assure you you are welcome too. You’ll find my address and other information up here on the desk. Please join us Friday.”

Friday afternoon my phone rang as I trekked down I Street toward the Metro station. I checked out the caller ID determined to let it go to voicemail unless it was Jordan. Instead I saw it was Prof. Clark.

“James?”

“Yes sir. What can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to make sure that you were planning to come over tonight.”

“I wasn’t really planning on it Professor.”

“These social occasions are a part of the graduate experience too. I wish you’d come. Dr. Winthrope wants to get to know the whole class outside the normal classroom setting. She hasn’t a lot of experience in teaching, being primarily dedicated to working in her field.”

“I didn’t take one of the information sheets,” I said finally, hoping to put him off.

“No problem. I’ll text you the time and address now.” I heard my phone ding and realized he already had.

I had not really attended any social functions since spring. I started my car once a week or so to ensure the battery would not die, sometimes running errands, but had been taking the Metro everywhere else. The direction sheet had listed both address and directions for the Metro. I could have figured that out, but decided to take the car anyway.

Professor Clark was in Georgetown, not exactly a cheap place to live. He was in the low cost section. Homes sold for no more than $1.1 million. The place was nice despite that.

I noticed that most of the class was there, as well a quite a number of professors, teaching assistants, and some others I did not know. I let Clark see me so he knew I was there. I decided I would spend a short time and then head back home. I kept to the periphery, trying to look like I was listening to one of the conversation groups while really sending out ‘don’t talk to me’ vibes.

“I was hoping I would run into you again,” I heard the sweet voice say to me.

I turned and found bright blue eyes looking into mine. She was wearing a white blouse and black skirt. The skirt was just above her knees. Three inch heels made her legs look very nice.

“Mr. Sutton, isn’t it?”

“James, Dr. Winthrope.”

“James then. You don’t look like you’re having a good time.”

“I guess parties are not really my forte,” I answered.

“Really?” she looked as if she did not believe me. “You are such a handsome young man, I cannot believe that.” She touched my arm as she spoke. I noted she was not wearing a wedding ring.

“Where are you staying?”

“The Fairmont. Are you familiar with it?”

“Yes. Have you been to Washington before?”

“Oh I’ve been here on business fairly often. I’ve not had much time to really get to see the city though. I could use someone to show me around.” Her hand moved down my arm to touch my elbow before pulling away.

Was she coming on to me? That’s bats I thought.

I saw her glass was empty.

“James. Would you mind getting me another drink?”

“Sure.”

I walked over to a table where bottles of wine and plates of snacks were placed. Dr. Winthrope was drinking white wine. I poured the glass. When I turned around I saw she was talking to Dr. Hendricks, one of the SEAS (School of Engineering and Applied Science) department professors.

I took her the drink, planning to leave as she seemed to have moved on to someone else.

“Thank you James,” she said as I handed her the drink. “Michael you know Mr. Sutton?”

“Yes. How are you?” He put out his hand and I shook it. Then he turned and said, “You’ll have to excuse me. I see Ben is over there. I need to speak to him.”

“It appears it is just us again James,” she said smiling at me. Then her tongue ran along her top lip, wetting it. She smiled again. “Are you all right? You look a little nervous?”

“No ... I’m fine.” I was feeling a little flushed.

“So how do you like the course so far? Did you enjoy the last visitor?”

This was a more comfortable subject. “I suppose. It seems like a kind of a spy vs. spy juggling act to me.”

Her eyebrows raised and I could see I had lost her.

“It’s an old comic. In it there is a spy dressed all in white and one dressed all in black.”

“White for the white hat and black for the black hat?” she asked referring to the common hacker slang.

“Not really. The comic doesn’t differentiate as one being better than the other. It’s mostly just a point of one doing something and the other countering it. Then the first counters that. Its an unending, mostly useless cycle.

“So a company places their servers on line and a hacker tries to compromise them. Then the company places security so the hacker loses access. Then the hacker compromises that security and the company responds, and on and on. A never ending cycle.”

“The alternative would be to have no internet at all, would it not?”

“Perhaps. But compare that to the power system. Very much more vulnerable than the Internet to disruption, but seldom disrupted, except perhaps by mother nature. Why is that?”

“The power system is more difficult to disrupt remotely. You must have physical access to the hardware to attack it.”

“Exactly. Of course the move now is to install more Internet enabled remote access points on the power grid, which will make it more vulnerable to remote attack, just like the net.”

“I think you will enjoy my upcoming course work. We will talk more about physical access to systems and defending against compromises resulting from physical access.”

“I guess I’ll try to look forward to it,” I said.

“You seem oddly unenthused about the subject for someone in their last semester of study.”

“To be honest cyber-security was not my first choice. It’s complicated.”