6. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence
Seven minutes. That’s how long those three were inside the APOLLO facility.
They went in with firearms and left the same way.
No bags or suitcases. No large packages or laptops in their hands.
They came out quickly, hopped into their van, and pulled out of the parking lot quietly.
No one gave chase, though the silent alarm had been set off.
The special agent in charge refused to give me the security feed from inside the building.
And when I asked him about nearby cameras, they told me those had been collected and were being looked at.
They’ve tied my hands and expect me to help them somehow.
There must be more to this theft than I’ve been told.
And the captain, well, his sights are set elsewhere.
I’d been at my desk all morning, and I must’ve gone through that security footage tape two dozen times.
If I were to guess, I’d say the group knew what they were after and already had a buyer set up beforehand.
They even went so far as to run surveillance on the guards.
That’s why they won’t share the tapes from the inside.
The question is: what could they have possibly taken in such a short time that fits in a device small enough to hide in a pocket?
“Yo!” Randy said on the line.
“Randy, I need some help on a case I’m working on,” I replied. Captain Smith had just returned from a meeting with the county mayor and was heading my way.
“What is it? You need a laptop cracked? Or maybe phone location data?”
“No, that’s not it. I have nothing to give you.
I’m working on a new case. There’s been a string of robberies, and it appears the group I’m investigating just upgraded to stealing tech.
There was a robbery at an APOLLO facility nearby, but the company is not willing to share more information with me,” I said.
“APOLLO? No shit! They won’t share anything with you. It’s incredible they even acknowledged the robbery and brought you in. Do you have any idea what the company does?” Randy said, his voice echoing through the static.
“Not really, they informed me of some military and government contracts. I was told I didn’t have proper clearance.”
“Ha! Clearance. Listen, Alex, something major just happened, and the government is keeping it on the down-low. APOLLO Technologies has had a hand in every single military campaign or toppled government the world over. They manage and supply all the shadowy stuff our government does overseas. You can’t even say they’re in bed with the government; they’re married, live together, and have six kids. Listen, stay the hell away from them.”
“I can’t! I was given the case and the captain —.”
“Screw the captain! He only cares about becoming mayor,” Randy said, interrupting me mid-speech. Little did he know that Captain Smith was standing right next to me. Luckily, the old phone’s low volume, erratic static noise, and the captain’s bad hearing saved him.
“Randy! I just need you to answer my question.”
“Fine!”
“The company was conducting some form of advanced research at the facility. I was told it was cutting-edge in the fields of artificial intelligence, cyber technology, and quantum stuff. I didn’t really understand it all, but my question is, would it be possible for someone from the outside to go in and download sensitive data to a flash drive and take off with it? ”
“No. Is that all?” Randy said dryly.
“No? Are you sure?”
“Well, yeah. All companies have redundancies to prevent the exfiltration of data. Did they have help inside? Did they use someone’s credentials to steal it?
Normally, alarms go off when large amounts of data are copied or moved, or when an external flash drive is installed.
I would find it very odd if they even had access to the data without help from someone in IT,” Randy said.
“It happened at night, so I don’t think any other staff were present. Only a security guard they dragged inside, but I’m not sure what happened when they went in. They refused to give me those tapes,” I replied.
“Figures. They are hiding something. Well, if it happened at night and there were no other employees inside other than the guards, then the chances of them downloading data off the servers or the main computers is close to zero. Facility security has no access to those computers as it’s based on their role within the company.
And even if they did, installing an external flash drive would’ve sent alarm bells throughout their IT security department, which has a direct line to the NSA. ”
“NSA?” I asked.
“The National Security Agency. Who do you think helped design some of their software tools used in spying or cyber warfare? APOLLO. Like I said before, this company is extremely secretive and involved in weapons development. If someone robbed them, they knew what they were looking for,” Randy said.
“But if it’s impossible to steal from the servers, do you think they left empty-handed?” I replied.
“Maybe. Or they may have taken something in a sandbox,” Randy said.
“Sandbox?”
“Yeah, it’s like a testing ground. Normally, the tools are loaded onto flash drives and then connected to a computer that’s not connected to any network. There they test it to see if it’s functional. Of course, this is just a rudimentary explanation, but —” Randy said.
“What? They may have taken some experimental weapon that hasn’t even finished undergoing testing?”
“Possibly,” Randy said. “Who knows what it was programmed to do, and without testing, if it’ll even work as intended.”
“I understand. Thank you, Randy.”
And I hung up the phone. The captain, irate at having to wait so long, shook his head and handed me a campaign button before heading into his office. It had his face on it with the words “for Mayor” written across the top.
“I don’t have a lot to work with, but at least I know what I’m looking for. An untested and untraceable program; finding it won’t be easy,” I murmured, rubbing the captain’s campaign button.