< Violence continues to spread across the densely populated areas of Asuka III. Government reinforcements have been able to secure the capital of Niihama which now appears to be the last city on the planet not yet gripped by the sectarian violence. However city officials have told us that it is only a matter of time until they’ll be unable to deal with the steadily increasing number of refugees streaming into Niihama every day. There are also growing concerns that rebel groups will gain access to the city by hiding among the refugees.
Meanwhile diplomatic talks between the representatives of the Nyuchiban government and the three families vying for control of the planet held on the Starfleet vessel Tripoli have broken down after the delegation from the Yoritomo daimyo left the Tripoli with a promise to ban all ‘enemies of Asuka’ from the surface. A spokesperson for the office of the President remained optimistic that a second round of talks will be more effective.
In other news, the UEDA has reported that one of its orbital installations malfunctions yesterday and that parts of it were slung towards Earth. According to Starfleet small fragments landed in isolated areas of South Asia yesterday at 1234 local time. No damage or injuries were reported. Starfleet and the UEDA have ruled out any foul play stating that the accident was caused by a malfunctioning subroutine which -- >
“Gavin?”
“Uh, yes?”
Slade threw the rookie and upset glance. “Are you paying attention?”
He nodded. “Of course.”
Masamune indicated to Bobbie Case who stood in front of the large window which had transformed into a computer screen in CCiD’s control room to brief the team members. “Please, continue.”
“Right,” she said enthusiastically, the stick of her jumja sucker twisting between her lips as she pointed at the screen again which showed a number of columns filled with dates and numbers. “As I said before, I found it quiet suspicious that we constantly lose track of this Mister Black and decided to have a look at the programming of the satellites we’ve been using the follow his movements. What I’ve discovered ““
“Miss Case?”
She stopped herself and looked at Masamune.
“Would you mind refraining from sucking on that … thing while you give a briefing?” he asked. His voice was stern but not accusatory.
The young woman blushed. “Oh, sorry, sure,” she replied quickly and took out the sucker.
The old man gave her an approving nod.
Gavin and Tank grinned.
“As I suspected I noticed that somebody’s been hacking the satellite to disrupt the signal being fed back to us,” she explained and pointed at a column of data which had the exact date and time of the train explosion. “If you look at this protocol here you can see what the satellite’s programming should be like. Look over here and you see what it actually has been at the time of the attack. There is a clear discrepancy between ““
“But these satellites have powerful firewalls. You can’t honestly think that Black is skilled enough to hack into one of those. Especially while having his hands full getting away from us,” Tank interrupted.
“Yeah,” Gavin agreed. “And he didn’t even have a data port. No way could he boost a signal that far without some kind of backup system.”
Case shrugged. “Well if this guy can hack into enhancers and have civilians attack you then surely this ““
“That’s just a theory for now,” Jackson Slade interrupted this time.
“And a weak one at that,” added Tank.
“Yeah, well, you got a better one?” Bobbie shot back.
To that there was no answer. Gavin couldn’t help but smile. This little girl had guts, no denying that. Most people were intimidated by Tank’s massive stature to say the least. Not this one.
“Is this getting us any closer to finding Mister Black?” Masamune wanted to know.
Bobbie nodded proudly. “Yes it does.”
This quickly got everybody’s attention again.
She looked back at the screen which’s content quickly changed to isolate the irregular data pattern. “Each hacker leaves a unique signature when they make significant changes to a system’s programming. It’s not always easy to find but most of the time it’s there.”
“And you found it?” Gavin asked.
“Sure did,” she said, beaming. “See these codes here.”
A string of numbers had been highlighted on the screen.
“I believe that this is the hacker’s signature. Now this is not a guaranteed way of finding our man but I bet that if we monitor the city’s main networks and we get a match we can pinpoint Black’s location.”
Masamune seemed pleased. “Very well done.”
“Thanks. There is one catch though. The signature will not show up until Black has logged out of whatever system he is accessing.”
“Okay so that means we won’t know where he is exactly but we’ll have a general idea in which area he is operating,” Gavin pointed out, looking at Slade. “That should be good enough if we can get there quickly.”
Slade nodded. “Let’s deploy a number of teams to cover as much of the city as possible. Once we get a hit from Bobbie the team closest can zero in.”
“Make it so,” Masamune said.
Tank whistled, giving the young woman a smile. “You truly are a whiz-kid, aren’t you? Amazing.”
But Bobbie’s smile vanished. Instead she simply stared at the huge man with empty eyes. Then she shot an angry look at Slade. “Whatever,” she stated dryly and walked out of the room
The room went quiet.
Tank looked outright confused. “What I say?”
The old man headed for the exit. “Get her back here and get this operation started.”
Slade’s icy stare made Tank know that he was not happy with him. It was something he was particularly good at. “Nice going. Next time keep your big mouth shut, will you?” he said and followed Masamune out of the room to find Case.
Gavin simply padded the big man on the shoulder before heading out himself.
Tank looked around the now empty room. “What I say?”