The first thing that Berg did after returning to his room was boot up his diagnostic tools. In the short time he had worked at the Dampier base, he had obtained access to nearly every single monitoring system in the complex. Berg smiled. It helped to know what you were doing.
The screen on his wall quickly informed him of a minor increase in database activity. As usual, he ignored the alert. That would be Ken, running some search on who-knows-what. Another alert immediately appeared, this one informing him of a change to the database. This grabbed Berg’s attention. The FFF shouldn’t get too bold with their access or someone else would get suspicious. He checked the change log and found that an employee entry had been removed, one Kirra Taylor. Berg frowned and began searching for additional information.
A few minutes of clicking revealed that the change had been made, not by someone in the FFF, but by a user that had never been seen before in the databases, but who had full access. Berg used an override code to copy the user’s credentials to his datapad. He was confused and perplexed about the origin of the database change. Did Miss Taylor still work at Dampier? Was there a mistake or a software glitch, or something else at work here? He resolved to watch the databases carefully for the next few days.
The diagnostic system had no other alerts for him. The next order of business was to continue modifying his FFF-ISR game. He added new features to simulate nuclear missiles, air strikes, undersea colonies, and covert underground bases. And yet still he found no way to win for the FFF. The programming and testing took him most of the afternoon, working busily while his monitoring program ran in the background.
Berg had just engrossed himself in another round of futile virtual war when there was a knock at his door. He started in his chair, regained his composure, and opened the door to his room with the touch of a button on his desk.
The door slid open to reveal a man with straight, light blonde hair, a sharp nose, and a grey-and-white uniform. The man walked into the room uninvited and gave Berg a short curt nod of the head.
“Mr. Wild?” His voice was calm and friendly, but with a strong accent common to the region.
“That’s me,” replied Berg. He had seen the man on occasion in the halls of Dampier. The light colored outfit signified his visitor’s position as a security officer. “What can I do for you, officer?”
“I am Captain Unthe, and you will address me as such.” The voice was still kind, but firm, as the captain displayed his status badge to Berg.
“Very well, Captain Unthe. Is there something I can help you with?”
“I was wondering if you have diagnostic tools linked to the employee database.”
“Why yes, I do. I installed them a few weeks ago after I replaced one of the processor cores in that section of the complex. Is there something wrong?” Berg was determined to follow ISR policy and not give away that there had been a security breach. Normally he would have disclosed the information as gossip, but there were many things that one did not do in the presence of a Guard officer.
Berg’s caution was unnecessary, because Captain Unthe got straight to the point. “We’ve been notified of an unauthorized change to the database. We would like a copy of all information you are able to discover regarding the change, who performed it, when it was done, and what we can do to prevent further changes. I would like to have this report on my desk by tomorrow morning. Room 371.”
“Yes, Captain, I will have the time to do that this evening.”
Unthe smiled. “Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Wild. I and the rest of the Dampier Guard appreciate your help. Once you send us your information, we will get to the bottom of this event. We have to prevent the database from being compromised again.” The tall captain glanced at Berg’s datapad, smiled amusedly at his game, turned around, and walked out without another word.
Berg frowned as he switched his screen back to diagnostic tools. It had been quite a while since he had been asked to work during the night and he disliked the idea of drinking energy serum all night. Also, discovering the source of a covert action always felt similar to betraying the FFF. But in this case, someone who was not FFF was able to perplex the ISR Guard and circumvent the Dampier mainframe. Berg was intrigued and began typing.
