“Hadaly,” she said, “bring up any new information you’ve gathered about the students involving the cheating ring, the changes to GRE scores, and the manipulation of the graduate studies recruitment that we’ve seen. Include anything that we’re receiving from the ARG teams as part of Operation Honeypot.” “Thought you’d never ask,” Hadaly replied. Her eyes … Read more
“Well, that was cryptic,” Frog said after Tango logged out. Tango didn’t spend long on World of Warcraft, but he did spend long enough to deliver some confirmation to Hadaly about the academic cheating. He didn’t mention any upcoming meeting with the dean or why he was contacting her; instead he dropped the names of … Read more
“Whitaker certainly seems to have a lot to lose if something goes wrong,” Toller said. “Is that what you’re getting at? This whole story about them doing it on the University dime sounds nice when Shutter’s tells the story but it sounds like a game to him—but perhaps those two aren’t playing.” “So you’re going … Read more
“With all the relevant data points,” Elaine said, “we can see that someone is using some sort of extremely sophisticated statistical magick to affect the outcome of tests. Now, it’s similar to but not exactly like the Improbability Engine that took hold in the minds of Brad and Larry. The type of effect we’re seeing … Read more
The “highly orchestrated action in Student Records” would begin to play itself out in mere minutes; but Elaine found herself far away from the activity: across campus, standing right outside the Engineering Computing Commons in the air conditioned antechamber of Engineering Wing H. Frog sat on the stairs fiddling with a small laptop open on … Read more
“It’s not what it looks like,” Shutters finally said with a single long breath. “What we’re doing isn’t illegal—okay—we’ve all had scrapes with the law before, by testing mathematical theory on poker games in Las Vegas. No cops were called, understand. It’s just that what we’ve been testing isn’t totally covered by University policy and … Read more
Professor James Shutters stared nervously at the two FBI agents standing on his stoop, uncertain how to proceed from their introduction. He fidgeted with the ice water held in his clammy hands, condensation dripping down the sides. To cover his anxiety, he took a sip and drew out the moment. “May we come in?” Agent … Read more
Brad Wright and Casey Vargas stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the semicircle of people that made up their DarkNet ARG team while Frog stood away from them and explained the nature of the operation. At first, the team took to her with suspicion—they knew that she’d been spending time with Brad, but they … Read more
Zane and Elaine found themselves in the back room of her brother’s house, lording over a sleepy-eyed DarkNet team once again. Today she wouldn’t be lecturing on encryption, explaining operational protocol, or teaching them the ins-and-outs of traditional spy craft. Today would be an altogether different experience: they didn’t know it—but they were about to … Read more
“I’m more interested in if people use it for less-than-legitimate purposes.” Their trek took them into a workshop made of iron girders, wood floors, with a furnace and a circular dais. He carefully stayed back as Shodan charged in recklessly and flattened all opposition that rose to attack her. She seemed to carom off the … Read more