Kent had left a voice mail for Kathryn to call him. Some time later she returned his call. He informed her of the board\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019ll be a tough sell to Pytho,\u201d replied Kathryn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt also means you have to continue with the data center migrations for now,\u201d replied Kent. \u201cThe end date for the project is three months from now and we won\u2019t have France up and running by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t we migrate the U.S. And Canada now?\u201d queried Kathryn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board was very explicit, Kathryn. France is to be done first, followed by the list of countries I gave you. Because they are going by countries and not company divisions we will need many trainers who speak the native language of each country.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many do you think you will need?\u201d asked Kathryn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are planning on doing a flash cut, two for every location where people will use the system. If you are planning a rollout as resources allow, then two for each location you cut over. I don\u2019t know how well it will work having banking being done on two separate systems. We will probably need to bring people in from each location to a central training center and train them the week before the cutover, then have some traveling people at the major sites and leave the rest to call some toll-free support center.\u201d<\/p>\n
The profit margin was quickly fading from this contract. Both Pytho and Big Four had planned on reaping the revenues for support from the American and Canadian portions of the banking business up front. That was going to fund the rest of the operation. This latest demand from the board was going to ensure the bank had its payback long before the vendor received any revenue. The support contract pricing was based on the number of locations using the software. By focusing on the foreign countries first, the board was ensuring it wouldn\u2019t increase to a sizable level for at least a year. In the meantime, they were going to get rid of all their high-cost IT people in order of most expensive to least.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll talk it over with Pytho and contact you back. Can you email me the exact list of countries so I have the correct order when talking with them?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure. Sending now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stacie sent Jeremy an email to let him know she had begun training.<\/p>\n
Jeremy,<\/p>\n
We will have to postpone our trip to Salish Lodge for at least a month. I\u2019m headed off to get trained on some Pytho software product, then off with their team to France to train client site staff. There are about six of us going from here to Pytho.<\/p>\n
It should be a fun trip, but not nearly as much fun as our trip will be.<\/p>\n
Love,<\/p>\n
Stacie<\/p>\n
Normally Stacie wouldn\u2019t use the \u201cL\u201d word in an email, but she had elected to send this email from work and needed to cover her tracks. Nobody here needed to know it wasn\u2019t a relationship based on love, but rather one based on incredible sex between good friends and the favors they could do for each other. At least she sent it to his personal email account so it shouldn\u2019t set off any alarms.<\/p>\n
In truth, she had just found out this morning from Kathryn that the deal was closing. Pytho had agreed to some changes wanted by the Board of Directors at the bank and a new contract was being prepared for their signature along with a new timeline for rollout. The board had demanded France be the first country converted followed by a list of other countries they did business in. Everyone was assuming the U.S. And Canada would be the last on the list, but the timeline wasn\u2019t going to include those for now.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, Stacie had to report to Pytho Corporation\u2019s training facility along with the others from here. They were getting a phi-slamma-jamma training course on how to train bank tellers in the basic functions needed to do their jobs. She was selected because she had taken a semester of French in college. Pytho was supposedly giving about twenty of their own people in France this same crash course. The bank had agreed to send the senior tellers from each location to a one-day training seminar put on at a Pytho location. They were limiting the trip to two tellers per location and the offer was supposed to be made only to the senior tellers.<\/p>\n
Stacie hadn\u2019t used French in years. She and some of the other girls were hiding in a conference room with a tourist brush-up tape. Stacie planned on digging out her French book when she got home. It was one of the few books she had saved from college because she wanted to travel there someday. This wasn\u2019t exactly the kind of travel she had in mind, though. Here Pytho would be teaching them only in English. From here they would all go to the same training seminar the bank tellers were attending. They were to be paired off with a native French-speaking Pytho employee and sent to a bank location on the day of the rollout.<\/p>\n
What amazed Stacie was the grand assumption going on. By virtue of acquisition, Stacie found herself with an account at First Global Bank. She never changed banks. Her bank was one of those eaten by First Global. From what she had been reading in the days before, Pytho software \u201cass-u-me-d\u201d there was a PC running some form of that worthless Windows operating system at each teller window. Stacie had actually ventured into her branch more than once and knew for a fact there was some great big monster terminal there with a funky-looking keyboard that had all different colored keys on it. There was a big IBM logo on it, and while it had normal typewriter-like keys in the middle of it, there were at least three other keypad-type sections built into it. In truth, it looked as though you could hold that keyboard up in front of you to stop bullets.<\/p>\n
Finally Stacie had to bow out of the French language brush-up. She went in search of Kathryn and found her coming out of a conference room.<\/p>\n
\u201cHello, Stacie, I thought you were brushing up on your French for your upcoming trip,\u201d Kathryn said as she approached.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to talk to you,\u201d responded Stacie in a serious tone.<\/p>\n
Kathryn had never really pegged Stacie as being a girl with brains. While she had been smart enough to pass French in college, Kathryn attributed the taking of the class to a young girl\u2019s fantasy of world travel. \u201cI have about ten minutes between meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat should do,\u201d responded Stacie as they walked toward Kathryn\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
After arriving at Kathryn\u2019s office they entered and Stacie closed the door behind her. The closing of the door set Kathryn on edge after the dicey deal with Pytho software that might yet have her giving back her Mercedes convertible. She wondered what was up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent a good part of this weekend reading through the Pytho promotional and specification documentation you gave me. Every piece of this literature makes the assumption a teller already has a PC running some flavor of that unreliable Windows operating system. I stopped at my bank this Saturday. Like many other people, my bank was eaten by First Global when it went on an acquisition spree. There are no Pcs at the teller windows. They have some big hulking thing and a massive keyboard you could use to stop armed robberies. Granted, this isn\u2019t France, but has anybody actually walked into one of the French locations and seen what is currently at the teller window?\u201d<\/p>\n
Kathryn sat there mortified. This skirt and heels was more than a sex toy to be handed over to old men buying Viagra in bulk. Most of her mortification seemed to be centered around the thought that she should have put the top down on her way in this morning because after this bomb detonated she wouldn\u2019t have it to drive any longer. Finally she stammered, \u201cI\u2019m sure Kent took that into account during the presentation and determined all was well,\u201d trying to cover the obvious problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all due respect, Kathryn, Kent couldn\u2019t smell a stink and determine someone farted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Something sounded so completely out of place seeing such a sweet and innocent looking face utter the word \u201cfarted.\u201d It was like someone with a very posh British accent suddenly dropping the F-bomb in the middle of a conversation. First there was Shock & Awe, then there was hilarity. Kathryn burst out laughing. The absurdity of the sound coupled with the correctness of the analysis allowed for no other response. Finally, when she stopped laughing she said, \u201cI\u2019ll get it put into the contract right now,\u201d as she picked up the phone.<\/p>\n
Stacie turned to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cStacie.\u201d<\/p>\n
She turned back around. \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGood catch. Really good catch.\u201d<\/p>\n
A warm and honest smile lit up Stacie\u2019s face as she said, \u201cThanks!\u201d then left Kathryn\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
That girl just saved my ass,<\/i> thought Kathryn as she called the team writing up the new contract to make sure First Global Bank was responsible for ensuring Pcs running some flavor of Windows were at each teller station.<\/p>\n
Stacie didn\u2019t know much about technology. She had a girlfriend in college whose brother was an ubergeek. When he was cleaned up he wasn\u2019t bad looking, if you could get past the fact he was nearly six feet tall and only about 120 pounds. He had been the one who got Stacie through her one required computer class and had always fixed her notebook so she could do her other assignments.<\/p>\n
Her mind slipped back to that one evening at college when Ubergeek returned home from something called a \u201cBlack Hat\u201d conference. He was exhausted and he reeked from being locked in a room all weekend without showering. Under his eyes were those big black rings you get when you\u2019ve been up too long and taken too many NoDoz tablets. It was a look college kids understood well during midterms and finals.<\/p>\n
Ubergeek dropped his bags, set down his laptop, opened a beer and plopped on the couch. After some severe prodding from the girls, he went to take a shower, then came back.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you had a good time playing Cowboys and Indians?\u201d Stacie had asked only a little sarcastically. He smiled and continued with a second beer. Seeing him drink beer was an oddity in itself. Stacie had only ever seen him consuming Mountain Dew or iced tea their entire time in college together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Black Hat conference is a gathering of the best and brightest hackers in the world,\u201d he responded. \u201cEach year we gather pretty much every system known to man and attempt to exploit security vulnerabilities in them. Some attendees are professionals from software companies, some are professionals from organized crime, a few work for the government, and the rest are simply hobby hackers. People from the NSA tend to slip in just to see who is there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, yes, Mr. Bond!\u201d Stacie retorted, simply dripping with sarcasm.<\/p>\n
Ubergeek got up and went over to his backpack. Stacie began sputtering something which sounded like an apology and Uber\u2019s sister simply had a perplexed look on her face. Ubergeek returned handing Stacie a business card and said, \u201cHe wants me to apply for a job when I graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was absolutely no denying it now. There in Stacie\u2019s hand was a business card from an NSA special agent. She handed the card to Uber\u2019s sister and watched another set of eyes go wide.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what do you do at this conference, then?\u201d \u201cWe play a security game called capture the flag. Each team managing each system is given a flag file. In that file is a special identification number that only the game moderators know. The file name is pretty much known to all players and posted on an overhead display. Where it is and how you get to it is up to each team.\u201d \u201cSo,\u201d interrupted Stacie, \u201cyou sit around trying to hack into each other\u2019s machines and get the number from this file?\u201d \u201cWe actually try to get the entire file,\u201d responded Uber.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many flags did your team capture?\u201d asked Uber\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-six.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many did it take to win?\u201d both girls asked together.<\/p>\n
\u201cHigh score was seventy-two. We placed third.\u201d \u201cNo wonder you are being recruited,\u201d said Stacie.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey make the offer to a lot of people at the conference. It is the one place they can both keep surveillance on the criminals they are after and recruit potential criminals into the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPotential criminals?\u201d queried Stacie.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile a good many people get paid a lot of dollars by software vendors to do what we do, if you weren\u2019t hired to do it, what we do isn\u2019t legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything else interesting happen there? You guys all go out for lap dances or something?\u201d asked Uber\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n
Uber chuckled \u201cFew people left the room. The most sleep anyone on the team got was four hours. They did ban one system from ever coming back, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat bad, huh? Something from Microsoft? I know you are always talking about how much Microsoft products suck.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, that good, and no, it isn\u2019t a Microsoft product. Nearly 200 hackers sat there mainlining caffeine and poking at it relentlessly. It never gave up the flag, and not for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is that possible?\u201d asked the sister. \u201cYou guys know every nook and cranny there is to exploit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the most secure operating system on the planet. The NSA and DOD use it extensively as do a lot of companies.\u201d He looked both girls in the eye as best he could given his condition and said, \u201cIf you are serious about running a business and keeping it secured, you put it on OpenVMS because it never gives up the flag. It is designed so that if there are N machines operating in a cluster, one of the machines can be taken out via nuclear strike, and the cluster will continue without losing a single transaction. I was the most familiar with it and that is why the NSA guy asked for my r\u00e9<\/span>sum\u00e9<\/span> on the spot. He is calling on Thursday to discuss bringing me in before I graduate.\u201d<\/p>\n Once again the girls had that deer-in-headlights look on their faces. The dude was only a sophomore in college. Stacie doubted he\u2019d ever been laid by anyone his sister hadn\u2019t begged to do the deed, yet he basically had a career-type job already lined up. When Thursday came, Uber had accepted the job. He transferred to a college close to where they wanted him to work. Stacie and his sister became roommates.<\/p>\n It had been five years since that day and Stacie still remembered what he had said. Yes, every place she looked seemed to use Windows, but Stacie knew it was a joke. Windows still held the world record in surrendering the flag at the annual Black Hat conference. Uber was nice enough to send her an email with the results every year. Stacie still tried to keep in touch with Uber\u2019s sister, but now they lived so far apart it was difficult. She was glad she had never been asked to do Uber. He wasn\u2019t a bad guy, just not a guy on Stacie\u2019s radar. If the request had been presented, she would have been obligated. Thankfully that request shouldn\u2019t come now. She had attended Uber\u2019s wedding last year and heard they were expecting a child now. I Guess some guys really will marry the first girl who sleeps with them twice,<\/i> she thought.<\/p>\n ***********************
\nYou are reading a special promotional version of \u201cInfinite Exposure\u201d containing only the first 18 chapters. This is the first book of the “Earth That Was” trilogy. You can obtain the entire trilogy in EPUB form from here:<\/p>\n