FLAG Today: When the Law is Above the Law
Chapter Seven: More Than One Punch to the Gut
Anselmo also showered when he got back to his apartment in Georgetown, but once he was dried off and dressed again, he stayed in his apartment. He thought about ordering in dinner, but there was a phone call he had to make first.
"You really should learn about the Knight Industries work with mobile artificial intelligence. What they have is amazing and the uses they can be put to is unlimited….yes, I know that a development program like that would need extraordinary scientific knowledge and a budget the size of Great Britain's. I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. Our package is neatly wrapped up and the bow on top is about to be knotted up. You'll get your international leverage, and we will all be wiping our butts with $100 bills….No, no, you don't need to worry. She knows how things have to work out. After all, in Washington it's all give-and-take all the time. We all want, and we all need and that means we have to pay…OK, thanks. Yeah, you too."
Toby picked up his phone again and looked through his choices for dinner. He'd had enough Tex-Mex and Asian fusion in California. A nice steak; not to celebrate, mind you. It was too early for that, but in just a few days now, everything would be done.
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Aldean and Connaught were lying in bed, enjoying the afterglow. Of course, politics was never far from their minds, and the Vice President turned on his side to face the Senator, all business.
"You and I both know that the next set of Presidential primaries will be a bruising battle. I only have the nomination to lose. You have to do a lot of work to get your name out there and exciting people not from your own state. And that takes a lot of time and money, Aldean. Here's what I'm suggesting; form a couple of state organizations, put your toe in the water but leave the field before Super Tuesday. When I win the nomination, you'll be my Vice- Presidential running mate."
"Oh, James, you silly man!" said Aldean playfully pushing against his chest. "You know that when I go after something, I get what I want." She turned serious. "I will be giving you a run for your money, James. Count on it, honey. I do not want to be Number Two! And we both know too much about each other, so there's no point in leaking anything, darlin'. I think I'll get dressed now and go home. Have a good night." She dressed quickly and then turned to face Connaught, who was still a little surprised at her. "Oh,… and give your wifey my best."
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An alarm sounded throughout the FLAG campus and a light started blinking rapidly on my desk phone. It was an alarm and a light that I had only seen during drills. It indicated a cyber incursion directed at KITT and now KELI also.
As per protocol the entire computer system at FLAG and at Knight Industries' many locations severed their connections to the outside world and to each other. I jumped up and ran out of my office, joining a stream of people running to buildings housing the mainframe, the labs and to the garages. Bonnie was, of course, already there with KELI and KITT. KELI's scanner was dark and KITT was stretched out on a bio-bed. His eyes were closed and the rise and fall of his chest which allowed air cooling of his CPU and circuitry had stopped. I knew they weren't dead, only turned "off", that this was just a precaution to prevent re-establishing a connection to them until we could make sure that the threat was dealt with, but nevertheless, a shiver ran up my spine. I knew that for all intents and purposes, their consciousnesses were locked in their processing units and so they were still "there", but it still felt like they had both had died. I held one of KITT's hands in mine. I doubt that he could sense me holding it, but I knew how much he hated being put into this state and all I could do for the moment was be there. KELI probably felt the same way. Perhaps it was even worse for her because she had only been through one brief drill and KITT had not participated in that one, in order to reach her quickly if something bad happened within her CPU.
Bonnie was rapidly working on her laptop and shaking her head. "Michael, this is a mother of an attack. Someone out there really knows a lot about our protocols and about cyber-security in general."
Still holding KITT's hand, I turned to her. "Did they make it in?"
"No. Our response was perfect. We're safe. But I think we better review and then upgrade our restoration plan. I don't think that what we've got now is going to be sufficient."
"That will mean keeping KELI and KITT offline even longer. You know how he hates that, and we don't know how she's dealing with it."
Bonnie looked up from the keyboard for a moment. "I know," she said sadly. "But it's the only way to protect them."
It took Bonnie and her team a few hours to track down the issue, if not the culprit. I should have gone back to my desk to do some work, but I couldn't bring myself to leave. Finally my wife snorted (definitely not an elegant sound for her) triumphantly.
"The incursion was through the Wi-Fi system, and then into KITT and KELI's Bluetooth™ transmitter/receiver circuits. Our shut-down protocols were fast enough to prevent any access to anything else, although a simultaneous attempt was made on our mainframe. If we leave the wireless systems off for the time being until we can further upgrade their security, we can safely reactivate everything else."
"Let's do it, Bon!"
With a few keystrokes on Bonnie's laptop, KITT's eyes flew open and KELI's dash lit up. He jumped to a standing position, looking wildly between me, KELI, and Bonnie. For her part, KELI's chassis was shaking. KITT's grip was nearly crushing my hand, but he let go as he stumbled over to KELI and leaned on her hood. "What happened?" she asked shakily.
"We, we had an emergency shut-down. Someone was trying to access our programming." KITT stopped for a moment and his eyes took on a glazed look I recognized as an indication that he was doing an emergency system scan. After the longest 30 seconds of my life, his eyes refocused and he relaxed his pose, but still kept his hands on the Supra. "My files were not touched. KELI, initiate your emergency scanning protocol and then report your findings."
She stopped shaking while she also did her scan, which was a few seconds faster than KITT's since she had fewer files and a newer processor. "I am untouched as well. That was a very upsetting experience."
KITT gently stroked her A-pillar while he murmured something to her. Bonnie left her seat and put one arm around KITT's shoulders and the other arm over KELI's roof. Squeezing him firmly and petting KELI's "head" as it where, she apologized. "KITT has told me many times how upsetting it is to be shut down. I guess it can be the same as a human in a coma. But sometimes it has to be done. In this instance, it saved your lives. KELI, I promise you, as I've promised KITT, to only do it when absolutely necessary." She went on to explain about the wireless systems, which fortunately didn't seem to disturb either AI. KITT asked for them to have some privacy, Bonnie wanted to meet with all the cyber teams, and I had a very long report to start. As we left, I turned briefly to look at the two of them. KITT had gotten into KELI's driver's seat and had opened the USB connectors in his fingers. In a moment, his face relaxed, KELI's scanner slowed to a gentle pace and I had the distinct impression that they were comforting each other.
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The next morning, Denislovan time, Baldor was sitting in his father's ornate office.
"YOU IDIOT!" the old man shouted. "Why did you even attempt a stunt like that? Now you've got Michael Knight's attention. FLAG was damn near impenetrable yesterday. Now it will be locked down like "Bobachov's Castle"! We didn't want the artificial intelligences! Now it will be even harder to get what we do need." He got up and waddled his significant girth over to the floor-to-ceiling humidor and extracted a cigar. Once it was lit and the room began to fill with the odor of fine tobacco, he turned to his son. "You are lucky that you are my only child. Otherwise, you'd find yourself cleaning the bathroom of your sibling when they inherit my office. As it is, I may still appoint someone from the military. You have one chance now to bring this to fruition, and if you don't…."
"You don't have to tell me, Tata. I will take care of everything or take my own life. That was always understood."