Prologue #2
But this test would go on for another twenty-five minutes, and he had to stay focused. There were so many things that could go wrong. Not only was Hyperion's contract with the government at stake, but so were numerous grants and funding.
He rolled his shoulders, tucked his hair behind his ears, and pushed the first data sets into the program he’d built that would track the "patients’" progress with each transmission. His fingers flew over the keyboard as he checked the telemetry system and watched as the next live feed rolled across the screen. This continued for another fifteen minutes. The backend system flagged the intended anomalies in vitals. If it had been a real medical situation, a doctor could have tapped into the unit’s secure comms line and communicated appropriate treatment or prepared the transport unit and receiving doctors in the field on what was coming their way.
The system wasn’t perfect, but it would save lives.
He checked the logs and noted a shadow in the background. It wasn't AI, but a person following his every move. Quickly, he checked the IP, which was being routed through five different points and two different continents.
Didn't necessarily mean anything.
Gideon didn't recognize the code, but he didn't have time to analyze it. He had to assume it was someone from the government watching. It made the most sense, especially since when he'd been in the military, he'd often been the one doing the watching.
Beep. Beep.
Gideon’s heart dropped. A data set was being routed through SYNAPSIS or SYN 6-B. However, it couldn't be a "patient" because there were no live feeds.
He pulled up the information. This regional hub received signals from multiple nodes, performed the first layer of data validation, and flagged transmission errors, dropped signals, or anomalous readings before sending them upstream.
But the first thing Gideon noticed was the coding involved PNEUMA or PNM 6C, which essentially used military-grade encryption with randomized routing paths and layered authentication at every handoff point.
It was designed to be untraceable and impossible to intercept without an internal access key.
What the hell was it doing zipping through a telemetry system that relatively few knew about and that secured its transmissions much like most governments secure their military communications?
Gideon didn’t ponder those thoughts for more than a few seconds. He ran a quick script so that his decryption program would receive the rest of his data and stay logged in while he worked on cracking whatever had just landed on his screen.
It wasn’t difficult for him to duplicate, letting it continue through the system while tracking its final destination at the same time he opened the encryption, but only because he’d seen it before. And that was because he’d written most of it.
That meant it had come from Hyperion. That was a what the fuck moment he had to push out of his mind as he leaned back and stared at biometric data for the call sign "Rocky Road."
"Fuck me," Gideon mumbled. The biometrics flashing across his screen made little sense for an injured person. Or a healthy person.
The decryption system would have flagged those spikes instantly—high adrenaline, heightened aggression, markers consistent with heavy VKR-1 dosing. At those levels, "Rocky Road's" cellular breakdown didn't knock politely. It kicked the door in.
Gideon checked and rechecked the live feed, which was now going into its sixth minute of running. He dug into the layers and looked at the routing data. The signal had originated Nemaiah Valley region and cut through his system at two different points before Gideon found it and pulled the data.
He had to follow the trail. He needed to know where this information was landing.
Pulling up the original data flow, and it dumped into something called Bralorne Backcountry Protocol.
He had no idea what that was, but he knew that someone had piggybacked off his system.
And even worse, they might have been using a drug that wasn't authorized for anything other than emergency battlefield use only.
And whoever did this had to have done so from inside Hyperion. No one on the outside could have accessed this telemetry system in its entirety, let alone bypassed the last stop and dumped the data somewhere else.
He cracked his knuckles and went for the Bralorne Backcountry server.
Gideon had majored in Computer Engineering. He wasn’t a hacker, so this wasn’t his main skill. Not that he couldn’t do it, it was just that there were people better than him. However, it only took him eight minutes to make it through the first firewall.
The idiots had used half of his programming and engineering to make their server. Which meant he was right. Whoever had done this came from inside Hyperion. A whatever they were doing couldn’t be good, but Gideon wasn’t about to let them get away with it.
The next level wasn’t as simple. Despite its simplicity, he had to maneuver through several dynamic aspects.
Whoever had set up this part of the wall had taken a piecemeal approach using other programmers' work.
Not the smartest thing to do. It made the system unstable, but it also made it hard for Gideon to understand the layers and how this person thought.
About fifteen minutes later, he made it through the second firewall. But as soon as he did he hit a trigger point. His screens went wild, and the server ejected him.
He sat up taller and went looking for the asshole who booted him. Everyone left a mark, even Gideon. No one could hide. Digital traces were everywhere. It was just a matter of finding the right breadcrumb.
Whoever this was, he or she wasn’t as stupid as Gideon first thought. Another ten minutes ticked by, but no luck. Without warning, his screen went dark, dimming the room further. His computer system—hardware and software—groaned like it was about to take its last mechanical breath.
It was as if someone had shut him down, and that made little sense. Unless someone was watching him from inside Hyperion. But why? And why turn off the test run?
Before he could even blink, two security guards were at his door.
"Come with us," one of them said.
"Sorry, I can’t. I’ve got a problem that I need to deal with."
"We know all about it," the other one said. "Finch wants to see you."
"About?" He stared at the two security men who inched forward.
One of them took Gideon by the arm and tugged. "Not for us to say. Now, let's move."
Whatever had just happened, whatever Gideon had stumbled onto, he had a feeling he was about to find out what and why. And he was positive he wasn’t going to like it.
Gideon never liked spending much time on the executive floor. He didn’t like button-down shirts, sports coats, or pleated pants, and it seemed that those were the only things that the men who worked on that level wore.
Except Finch.
It also drove Gideon nuts that no one, including him, called Finch by his first name, which was Oliver. Hell, Gideon hadn’t even known what it was the entire first year he’d worked at Hyperion.
One of the guards tapped on the door before pushing it open.
As Gideon stepped inside, he realized he hadn’t been in this office since the day he’d been hired. The only interaction he’d had with the big boss man had been during team meetings, which occurred on Gideon’s floor, or with Darwin, which usually happened in Darwin’s office.
Gideon’s heart rate increased as he glanced around the room. It was one thing to be called in to see the boss. It was another thing entirely to walk into Finch’s office with the head of HR sitting in one of the chairs with a folder in her lap.
Finch didn’t say a word. Not one damn word. Just gestured toward the chair across from his desk, next to Lidia. Lips drawn in a tight line, he leaned forward and clasped his hands together.
Gideon dropped into the seat, glancing at his watch, something he rarely did.
His time blindness was one of the reasons his last girlfriend had dumped him.
According to her, not only did he not have a sense of time, but he didn’t respect anyone else’s.
Not entirely true. He’d admit to getting lost in his work and losing track of time, but he was rarely late for a meeting.
He just never showed up on time for a date.
"We’ve got a problem," Finch said.
Gideon wasn’t sure if he was supposed to respond to that or not, especially since Finch hadn’t even said hello, so Gideon said nothing. The next few minutes of silence were louder than a bomb.
Lidia shifted, opened her file, and pulled out a stack of papers.
"Do you want to tell me why you were trying to access a server outside the scope of your employment contract?" Finch asked.
"Excuse me?" Gideon stared at Finch.
"Our security system, which you helped create, logged your computer as trying to access a server that you don’t have clearance for."
"You need to look at what came through the telemetry system, because it can’t be anything you’ve approved," Gideon said, the words rushing out of his mouth like a swarm of bees.
"Someone is using what I created and running it through our hubs before doing a data dump. It’s all made worse by what I believe is a dosing—"
"That data you pulled was part of the test," Finch said.
"What do you mean?" Gideon asked, but he wasn’t sure there was any way to make sense of the statement.
"It was brought to my attention that ETHER and the HELIOS device had some potential glitches." Finch cocked his head. "Before I could allow the Canadian Military to use it real time, I had to make sure it wasn’t putting our soldiers in danger."
"Who said there were problems, because—"
Finch held up his hand. "Doesn’t matter. The point is, your system isn’t ready."