“What do you think our next move should be?” Parkowski asked, in better spirits than she’d been in days. “I’ve been doing this by myself for weeks; it’d be nice to have a fresh set of eyes on it.”
“Agreed,” DePresti said. “Let’s lay it all out.”
They went back to the very beginning, to Parkowski’s first mission in the VR environment, and slowly put the pieces together on a piece of computer paper DePresti took from the apartment’s shared printer.
The two engineers ended up with so many notes and pieces of information that they ended up needing three more pieces after a few hours of brainstorming.
“So what do we have?” DePresti said, rubbing his eyes.
“There exists a special access program called Bronze Knot,” Parkowski responded as she sat up straight on the couch. “It appears to be controlled by the CIA or the Space Force, but we have no hard evidence that is the case.”
“Parts of the network packet on both the narrowband and wideband command pathways are protected by Bronze Knot, but the rest of the telemetry data is unclassified,” DePresti added. “The script trigger that made the dragon appear and attack you is likely connected to that data.”
“Then, there appears to be some kind of data leak,” he said, “or spillage, into the Venus environment that is protected at the same TS//SAP level. That appeared in your second and fourth missions. What caused that, I’m not sure, but likely it’s part of the network guard that filters data between the Top Secret enclave and the unclassified ILIAD one.”
“That network guard, or whatever it is, is located in the secure room that is protected by the cipher lock in the hallway,” she continued. “Along with a whole bunch of other SAP ones and one that is SCI.”
“Yet, the environment itself is hosted in an Air Force facility in Orlando,” DePresti said. “Despite the fact that there is no indication that it is geographically distant from the Aering facility. In fact, having it that far out—”
“Would introduce unnecessary lag,” Parkowski said, finishing his sentence.
She stood up. “So, what do we do now?”
“Two options,” DePresti said. “One, we go back to our normal lives and pretend that none of this ever happened.”
“And the other?”
He took a breath. “We confront your boss. He has to know what’s going on. And we do it together.”
She walked over and gave him a hug and brief kiss. “I’m so glad you’re on my side now.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
After a night of fun and drinking at her apartment, and an early Saturday morning drive down to DePresti’s townhouse, they planned their next move.
Parkowski had to confront Dr. Pham — her boss and mentor. There was no other option. He was the key to this whole puzzle. Rosen or Khoudry might know more, but there was no way either of them would be willing to reveal their secrets. With Pham, they had a chance, albeit a slim one.
DePresti helped Parkowski organize her evidence, thoughts, and ideas into a single-page document that detailed everything that she had uncovered. She included all of the information from the secure room as well — things that Pham hadn’t known she had learned. It was time to put all of her cards on the table. She printed out a few copies on DePresti’s printer, leaving one hidden underneath his desk’s keyboard tray for safekeeping. The others she would take to show Pham.
DePresti ran out to get them Starbucks while Parkowski sat and brooded. She was not looking forward to confronting her boss.
But, this meeting was necessary. More than anything else in the world, Parkowski wanted to know the secret behind Bronze Knot.
There was a knock on the door. DePresti was there, holding a pair of iced coffees. He had forgotten the key to his own house. “Thanks,” he said as she opened the door and held it wide.
They sat down and nursed their hangovers together with overpriced, oversweetened coffee.
“Have you decided how to approach him? DePresti asked. He was a little jittery, whether from the caffeine or from an overall sense of nervousness, Parkowski couldn’t tell. She felt renewed vigor, both from the coffee as well as the recent events that had brought herself and DePresti back together.
“Nope,” Parkowski said. “I want to meet him outside of work and show him all I know, and see if I can convince him to let me in on the secret, but I’m not sure how to get there.”
“That might be harder than you think, special access program NDAs are pretty ironclad.”
“I know, but I think he’s starting to get disillusioned with the whole thing,” Parkowski argued. “I think he’s starting to realize that it has impacted our whole mission. He made some comments when Rosen shut everything down that made me realize that the two of them aren’t necessarily on the same page.”
“I hope you’re right,” her boyfriend responded. He paused to finish his coffee. “How about a direct approach?”
“Such as?”
“You have his cell phone number, right?”
“Yeah.”
