The StarSight Project

by S. P. Perone

  Returning his attention to Shane’s workings, he noticed that there had been a lull in the operation. The operating system that executed the neural networks was idling, waiting for operator commands. Max concluded that Shane had taken a break. Perhaps he was making entries in his research notebook. Max didn’t know, but he knew that Shane was still on-line, and would probably return to his work. Max was determined to hang around the rest of the evening until Shane was finished.

  By about nine thirty, Albuquerque time, Max knew that Shane had finished for the evening, and he also knew what he had to do. Max had gotten some information from Shane’s trials of the new neural network program, but unanticipated opportunity had allowed him also to obtain valuable classified data. This time he had found one of the “keys” to the interpretation of the clusters that Shane’s program was extracting from the database it was examining. He didn’t understand it yet, but he would.

  More importantly, he had intercepted Shane’s late night e-mails to Carson and Nagle. From these it was clear that the project meeting in San Francisco next week was going to be exceptionally significant. Moorhouse had abruptly called for a major expansion and a change in policy, opening up the project to additional scientists. More importantly, this transformation was to occur incredibly fast, if they were planning to obtain security clearances within a few days. That was unheard of!

  Max knew that he would have to travel to San Francisco next week. He needed to be there. It looked like the project might go through a major evolution at this meeting, and Max would only be able to get the needed information by direct snooping. He didn’t like to do it, but he was good at it. He had experience with all of the necessary devices: telephone “bugs,” directional beam sound receivers, night-vision goggles, and so on. He had used them many times before, and it looked like he would have to again.

  Fortunately, Max could always justify a “business” trip to the Silicon Valley of high tech companies in the greater Bay Area. He would pick one or two places to visit where CryptaGen was interested in the particular technology; throw in a couple days of vacation; and, he would be able to get his surveillance jobs done. The only problem was that he also had a very important engagement on Saturday, which would take him over a thousand miles in the wrong direction. The key, however, was in getting to San Francisco at least 4 hours before the StarSight team arrived. He knew they would be staying at the Fairmont, and, with his laptop computer, he could hack into the Fairmont’s registration computer, select the rooms assigned to each of the StarSight team, and get the magnetic code for each room key. With his disguise as a telephone repairman, he could get in, set up his “bugs,” and arrange to record everything from his own room in the hotel.

  Max’s thinking was that, especially with new people on the team, without previous experience in handling secret or classified information, slips of the tongue were inevitable. Max would be there to pick them up. He was also prepared to steal any relevant materials, which he could not access otherwise. For example, Shane had told Carson and Nagle to bring their raw data files. This hadn’t occurred previously, and it would be a unique opportunity for Max. Fortunately, by intercepting previous e-mails, he knew what kind of storage media they were using, and he could bring a high-capacity cartridge disk drive for his laptop that would handle them. And he could bring a large supply of blank high capacity disk cartridges. He only needed to find the time to copy the files without their being missed. This would be a tough one. Hundreds of gigabytes of data did not transfer instantaneously, so he would have to execute a large number of repetitious operations. It would be delicate, but he knew he could get it done.

  One final operation he had to carry out Tuesday evening was to persuade Carson and Nagle to give him some advance information regarding the block sizes, formats, and overall dimensions of their databases. It was pretty simple. He could use MaxWare to access one of the Lawrence Livermore Lab computers from the outside. With the exception of those computers which worked on the super secret codes describing nuclear weapons design or simulated testing of nuclear weapons or other classified work going on at Livermore, most of the lab’s computers were linked to the Internet. Max selected the computer workstation associated with the group administering the White supercomputer, where the StarSight project would ultimately set up its databases and neural network programs. From the administrator’s computer he composed the following e-mail message to Carson and Nagle:

  From: James Windemere,

  System Administrator

  Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative

  ASCI White computer

  LLNL

  Livermore, CA

  To: Dr. Carson, Dr. Nagle:

  Please transport personally, on standard 2 gigabyte disk cartridges, the following unclassified data files, with codenames:

  Birdcage; Sinners; WallStreet; FleetStreet; HKDollars; Russki; Generator; Crackers; EuroTraffic; AsiaTraffic; MidTraffic; MilTraffic; and WorldNews.

  Also, please forward the following information regarding each database to be installed on the ASCI White computer next week:

  Overall dimensions

  Format

  Block sizes

  Please indicate also any specific requirements for reading the data. Do you have encoding/decoding software that must be used?

  Thanks,

  James Windemere

  Max set it up to be sent out from Windemere’s computer, using Windemere’s e-mail address. Their replies would be sent to Windemere. But no record of his e-mail would appear on Windemere’s computer; and Max had deliberately left an instruction that would intercept their replies and save them on Windemere’s hard drive in an innocuous location that would not casually be observed. Tomorrow, Max would go in, using MaxWare, retrieve the reply e-mails, and then erase all evidence of his intrusion.

  Before sending the e-mail out, Max assessed the risk factors. One risk was someone accidentally discovering the instruction that would intercept the reply e-mails, or the temporarily saved replies, on the Livermore computer. Max thought that risk was so small as to be negligible. The other risk was the larger one. What if Carson or Nagle mentioned the request to Windemere back at Livermore? Max could erase the e-mails on Carson and Nagle’s computers, so there would be no residual evidence. But that would not dissuade them from concluding something very suspicious had happened.

  With his finger poised to make the keystroke that would send the e-mails out, Max hesitated. He hadn’t made any mistakes to this point, and he didn’t want to start now. He had considered the risks of discovery, and considered them small but not negligible. Next, he considered the impact of his being unprepared to copy the crucial data files in transport. There might never be another opportunity to obtain those files.

  Abruptly, Max made up his mind and dispatched the fake e-mail he had composed.

  While Max was extracting nuggets of information from the StarSight project that evening, Andie Carey had also been working late at CryptaGen on some projects of her own. Getting bored and a little bit tired, she had gotten up from her desk and wandered out of her office into the nearly deserted hallways connecting the mostly dark offices. Seeking someone to talk to, or at least a chance to get a little exercise, she began to walk around the vacant building, finally finding her way up to the third floor and Max’s office back in the far corner. That there was a sliver of light emanating from his cracked office door was all the encouragement Andie needed to stride down the hallway and poke her head in the door, as she often did during the work day. She hoped she wasn’t becoming a nuisance. She sensed a mutual attraction with Max, but he had never taken her up on any of her hints at a liaison. Because she had never before bumped into Max in the evening, Andie slowed down and hesitated before knocking on the door and opening it up like she usually did. Instead, she stopped and peeked in to be sure she wouldn’t be disrupting anything, or shocking Max with her sudden appearance. She decided, in fact, that she should slip back down to her office and give Max
a call on the phone first. Before walking away, though, she noticed that Max was totally absorbed with his computer screen. With his back to the door, he was unaware of her presence, so she decided to observe for a few seconds.

  Displayed on the computer screen was the huge eagle & shield logo of the DOE, and a banner displayingLawrence Livermore National Lab . Assuming Max was accessing the Lab’s website over the internet to acquire some technical information, Andie thought nothing of it. Then she saw the unmistakable imprint of the SpyraNet software that overlaid the Livermore window. Within that window had appeared the image of an e-mail utility. She watched with increasing curiosity as Max created an e-mail message, and appeared to be about to send it out. At that point, she abruptly turned around and quietly slipped down the hallway to the stairway, where she descended to the first floor and returned to her office. She went in, sat down, leaned back in her chair and stared blankly at the office door for a long time. She needed to digest what she had just seen.

  Max, having sent out the fake e-mail from Livermore, and having shut down MaxWare, had abruptly pushed back his chair, stretched and stood up. Needing a break, he headed out his office door to walk down the hall to get a Coke. As he opened the door, he noticed down at the end of the hallway the familiar image of Andie Carey, hurrying quietly to the stairway. She hadn’t looked his way, and had not observed him. He wondered absently what Andie was doing here this late.

  He was halfway to the Coke machine when it suddenly hit him. At least during the daytime, if Andie had wandered up in this corner of the building, she would have stopped in to see him. What had prevented her from doing that tonight? Had she stopped by and seen what he was doing? Could she have made any sense out of it? Suddenly, he felt a cold chill. He didn’t even remember getting his soft drink out of the machine, when he found himself back in his office, still worrying about what, if anything, Andie might have seen tonight.

  Without thinking about it further, Max abruptly shut down the computer, whirled around, grabbed his briefcase, and headed out of the office. With the door locking behind him, he headed straight for Andie’s office. He didn’t like what he was thinking, but he knew exactly what he had to do. No risk, no matter how small, was going to get in the way of his ten million dollars.

  Chapter 7

  Are We a Team?

  After arriving home late Tuesday night, Tony had sent an e-mail to Sarah. She would be able to pick it up at home or at the university. It said:

  Sarah

  Need to talk to you first thing Wednesday morning. The topic is urgent and it’s business. Yes, really, sincerely, this is business, and it’s important.

  I should be in about 8 am. Please stop by to see me as soon as possible.

  Thanks,

  T.

  Convinced he had done all he could for one night, he made himself a quick sandwich, poured a glass of cabernet from the open bottle on the kitchen counter, and collapsed in front of his TV to watch the late news. Within 15 minutes, the sandwich and wine both consumed, Tony Shane was fast asleep while the sports newscaster droned on about the upcoming Wisconsin-Daniels football game this weekend.

  Back at his office, Wednesday morning, Tony had first checked his e-mails. He had gotten responses from both Sharon and Barry. They were both in town, and had understood his message. They would call early Wednesday. Barry would call about eleven, Central Time, and Sharon would call about eight thirty. Bill had e-mailed, asking if they could meet at nine o’clock to “talk.” There was nothing from Sarah.

  Looking at his clock, Tony realized he had arrived earlier than expected this morning. It was not quite eight o’clock. Sandy would be arriving any minute. And, he had a pile of things for her to do. The security clearance forms would need to be obtained, and/or duplicated. And she would have to help Bill and Sarah (hopefully, if they agreed) deal with the very long and complicated forms (at least a dozen pages of detailed questions as he remembered).

  The door to his office was open, as usual, and without any warning, Sarah suddenly appeared. With her long hair pulled back in an unusual pony tail, but dressed in her usual attire of sweatshirt, faded jeans and loafers, she stood there, silent for a moment…and then said, rather stiffly, “Good morning, Tony. You wanted to see me?”

  Apprehension for what he was about to encounter spread quickly through his chest…a hollow, sinking feeling. But, he took a deep breath, and recalled quickly all of the lines he had been running over in his mind since arising this morning. He knew there was only one way to approach this. And he had committed himself to it.

  “Hi, Sarah,” he replied. “Thanks for coming by so early. Something has come up. And it really is important for us to talk about it as soon as possible.”

  “Come on in and sit down,” he continued. “I’ll ask Sandy to get us some coffee brewed up when she comes in.”

  Almost on cue, Sandy opened the door and walked in from the outside hallway. After exchanging greetings with both of them, Sandy turned to open her office and get into the day’s work. Tony asked her if she could brew up some coffee, as he and Sarah would be in a research conference for a while. To her credit, Sandy didn’t even blink when Tony mentioned the “research conference.”She’s a gem , Tony thought. She knew this conference was going to be about more than “research,” but she would never acknowledge that to anyone except Shane, and then only privately.

  Tony closed the door, and sat down facing Sarah. “Sarah. I don’t know where to begin.”

  He saw her getting edgy with that introduction. It wasn’t sounding like “business” to her right now. So, he backed up. “Wait a minute. Let me re-state that. I know exactly where to begin. There really is an urgent business matter we need to discuss. And it’s something that could seriously impact your career. But, before we get into it, there is something else we need to talk about,” he said quickly.

  Without letting her object, Shane moved on. “We need to talk aboutus ,” he said. “We need to talk about us, because the business matter involves something I must ask you to do, and you should not have to respond until I’ve come clean with you about my personal feelings.”

  To his surprise, Sarah said nothing. He didn’t know if that was good or bad, but he took it at least as a signal that he should proceed.

  “Sarah. First of all, I want to tell you that, no matter how it may have appeared during the past month, I am truly in love with you.” Pausing to catch any reaction from her, he found her looking directly at the tip of one loafer on the foot of one crossed leg. “I know I’ve been a jerk,” he continued. “I was wrong to assume that we couldn’t have a future together…especially without discussing it with you. And I apologize for that…I am really, really sorry.”

  Still, there was no visible reaction from Sarah. Cautiously, he continued, “I won’t waste your time or mine trying to explain why I did what I did, but I will say this: I know now that I was motivated by the depth of my feelings for you; and that I was scared by my sense of your feelings for me.”

  Briefly, Sarah had lifted her gaze from the tip of her loafer so that her green eyes met his. He couldn’t tell if it was a look of sadness, love, or perhaps just sympathy for a poor jerk, who was pouring his heart out on deaf ears. Whatever it was, it gave him the courage to finish his speech.

  “What I’m trying to tell you is that I hope you can forgive me. I don’t know if the damage I’ve done to us is permanent. I hope not, because, right now, I know that you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I don’t want to lose you. But, if you don’t feel the same, I will understand. And I will absolutely not let it stand in the way of our working together professionally for the rest of our lives.”

  Pausing once more, Shane then added, “I really mean everything I just said, Sarah…It’s your call.”

  Slowly, realizing Shane was finished, Sarah lifted her eyes until they locked on to his, and held there for several seconds. Shane held his breath. Her eyes reflected, he thought, a weary resignation.r />
  Finally, she said, “Tony, youhave been pretty arbitrary about our relationship…and I have been hurt. I won’t deny that.” Then, still looking directly into his eyes, she continued, “But, you’re an absolute idiot if you think that any personal issues between us would keep me from working with you. I came to Daniels because I admired your work and wanted to be a part of it. That hasn’t changed.”

  Shifting her gaze down again to the tip of her loafer, one leg still crossed over the other, Sarah pause briefly before continuing. “What has changed, Tony, is that you and I both have had time to take a step back and look at our relationship. I know that I did a lot of soul-searching before coming in to see you this morning.”

  Again, she lifted her eyes and peered directly into Shane’s. “I can tell you, Tony, that Iam in love with you. But, even if we had no future together, I was prepared to continue with my appointment…to continue working with you…and you would not ever have heard these words from me. Not ever!”

  Pausing, while continuing to look directly at Shane, Sarah could tell from his quizzical expression that he had no idea what she was about to say next. She didn’t either. She hadn’t prepared herself for this discussion. But, she knew in her heart what she had to say. She had no doubt about the sincerity of Shane’s profession of love. So, she spoke next from her heart. As she began to speak, she felt tears welling in her eyes, but she knew that her facial expression had brightened…there was the faintest trace of a smile.

  “Tony, you’re not going to get rid of me. If there’s an urgent project, and you need my help. I’m here. Just point the way.” Smiling now, Sarah leaned forward, lowered her voice, and said, “And, if you’re willing to enter the twenty-first century like everyone else, maybe we can work out something personally, too.”