A Dragon at the Gate (The New Aeneid Cycle Book 3) by Michael G. Munz Page B
Authors: Michael G. Munz
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initiate this?”
“Aye, by all means,” Caitlin said, “intrude.”
Michael cleared his throat. “Um, Holes? Keep in mind we’re in a public place here. If you find anything, be sure you’re . . . discreet when you report it, okay?”
“Safeguarding the confidentiality of designated data categories is among my core directives, Michael.” It was as specific as Holes could be without mentioning the Agents of Aeneas by name.
Without a countermand from Michael, Holes launched its feelers against the server in a search for vulnerable points of entry. Holes conducted its search via means that would not alert counter-intrusion measures. It had time.
At least, such was the case initially. Minutes passed. The humans discussed hypothetical scenarios regarding Felix Hiatt and New Eden. At the ten-minute point, Holes had found no exploitable weaknesses. Thirty-eight seconds later it completed analyzing the Niagara Falls pictures, finding no hidden data. It reported this to the humans and refocused on penetrating the New Eden protections.
At the twenty-minute point, Holes judged a need for more aggressive tactics. Holes withdrew along the data-path, reestablished its own countermeasures, and approached New Eden anew via an even more circuitous route, so as to better confound a counter-trace. Tunneling worms of Holes’s own design began their attack. Defenses struck most down instantly, yet some managed enough progress to launch additional attacks. Holes kept stealth a priority, yet it could already detect the system’s counter-searches designed to map Holes’s own weaknesses.
Yet Holes still had time. Holes analyzed the pattern of the system’s countermeasures, found a weakness in that pattern that created intermittent vulnerabilities in the system’s defense, and altered its own worm attacks to strike. At the next opportunity, the altered worms burrowed past another layer of defense, drawing further data that Holes could use to further undermine—
At once Holes detected a new counter-attack; it was a trap!
The server defenses’ behavioral shift was abrupt enough to indicate a high probability of artificial intelligence. Holes dumped all offensive processes in a struggle to respond. In the microseconds it had to analyze the assault, Holes registered multiple data points that led to a single conclusion: whatever lurked at New Eden was a behavioral match to the intelligence encountered in the lunar-bound craft that the AoA had codenamed Paragon .
XIII
HOLES RETREATED back to the makeshift VPN firewall from behind which it had launched its initial intrusion. There it entrenched itself as if within a bunker. It ceased monitoring the mic and camera on its portable platform, going blind and deaf to Michael and the others to free up processing power for defense.
Holes could cut power to its own Internet connection at a nanosecond’s notice, or even shut down its platform entirely if that became necessary to prevent an attack, yet these were options of last resort.
After all, Holes still had to complete its goal of discovering what Felix Hiatt was involved in. If anything, discovering the Paragon -sourced intelligence within a terrestrial server, while increasing threat levels by an order of magnitude, only increased that goal’s priority. It now fell under a primary directive: protect the interests of the Agents of Aeneas.
Realistically, Holes could not be certain if the A.I. presence in the New Eden server was the A.I. from within Paragon , or if humans had merely created it from Paragon elements. The Undernet had been down for long enough for an AoA cell to have designed such a thing without Holes’s awareness.
When it could spare the resources, Holes would have to calculate the odds that Holes had gained an ally. Until that point, Holes kept all defenses up.
And yet, once Holes completed its retreat, no detectable attack came. Though Holes judged its own ability to detect an incursion to be imperfect,
“Aye, by all means,” Caitlin said, “intrude.”
Michael cleared his throat. “Um, Holes? Keep in mind we’re in a public place here. If you find anything, be sure you’re . . . discreet when you report it, okay?”
“Safeguarding the confidentiality of designated data categories is among my core directives, Michael.” It was as specific as Holes could be without mentioning the Agents of Aeneas by name.
Without a countermand from Michael, Holes launched its feelers against the server in a search for vulnerable points of entry. Holes conducted its search via means that would not alert counter-intrusion measures. It had time.
At least, such was the case initially. Minutes passed. The humans discussed hypothetical scenarios regarding Felix Hiatt and New Eden. At the ten-minute point, Holes had found no exploitable weaknesses. Thirty-eight seconds later it completed analyzing the Niagara Falls pictures, finding no hidden data. It reported this to the humans and refocused on penetrating the New Eden protections.
At the twenty-minute point, Holes judged a need for more aggressive tactics. Holes withdrew along the data-path, reestablished its own countermeasures, and approached New Eden anew via an even more circuitous route, so as to better confound a counter-trace. Tunneling worms of Holes’s own design began their attack. Defenses struck most down instantly, yet some managed enough progress to launch additional attacks. Holes kept stealth a priority, yet it could already detect the system’s counter-searches designed to map Holes’s own weaknesses.
Yet Holes still had time. Holes analyzed the pattern of the system’s countermeasures, found a weakness in that pattern that created intermittent vulnerabilities in the system’s defense, and altered its own worm attacks to strike. At the next opportunity, the altered worms burrowed past another layer of defense, drawing further data that Holes could use to further undermine—
At once Holes detected a new counter-attack; it was a trap!
The server defenses’ behavioral shift was abrupt enough to indicate a high probability of artificial intelligence. Holes dumped all offensive processes in a struggle to respond. In the microseconds it had to analyze the assault, Holes registered multiple data points that led to a single conclusion: whatever lurked at New Eden was a behavioral match to the intelligence encountered in the lunar-bound craft that the AoA had codenamed Paragon .
XIII
HOLES RETREATED back to the makeshift VPN firewall from behind which it had launched its initial intrusion. There it entrenched itself as if within a bunker. It ceased monitoring the mic and camera on its portable platform, going blind and deaf to Michael and the others to free up processing power for defense.
Holes could cut power to its own Internet connection at a nanosecond’s notice, or even shut down its platform entirely if that became necessary to prevent an attack, yet these were options of last resort.
After all, Holes still had to complete its goal of discovering what Felix Hiatt was involved in. If anything, discovering the Paragon -sourced intelligence within a terrestrial server, while increasing threat levels by an order of magnitude, only increased that goal’s priority. It now fell under a primary directive: protect the interests of the Agents of Aeneas.
Realistically, Holes could not be certain if the A.I. presence in the New Eden server was the A.I. from within Paragon , or if humans had merely created it from Paragon elements. The Undernet had been down for long enough for an AoA cell to have designed such a thing without Holes’s awareness.
When it could spare the resources, Holes would have to calculate the odds that Holes had gained an ally. Until that point, Holes kept all defenses up.
And yet, once Holes completed its retreat, no detectable attack came. Though Holes judged its own ability to detect an incursion to be imperfect,
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