21st century Goguryeo

Chapter 5

December 17th, 2015 02:00, The Secretary Office in Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, United States.

About 20 frightened men were gathered in a huge office listening to a big guy yell at them. They were sitting down, forced into not being able to say a single word. The big guy, who seemed like he would weigh about 120kg, was the chief of the basement laboratory in Area 51, Secretary Howard Harley. He just received a report that confidential documents from his lab had been hacked, so he had gathered every department’s agents to learn who was responsible for this.

“How are you doing your work?! Steven, did you figure out the hacking point? What documents were hacked?!” Secretary Howard Harley yelled while pointing at Steven, who was the Head of Security. Secretary Harley was so mad, Steven felt like he might have shot him if he had a gun.

¬¬”I apologize,” Steven responded in a tiny voice. “We haven’t figured out an exact date; however, it seemed like it was about two months ago, and the hacked data includes 15 documents in SS class and 1 document from the SSS class.”

Knowing how serious the situation was better than anyone, Steven tried to read Secretary Harley. As Secretary Harley listened to Steven’s report, he tilted his head back with his eyes closed. He did not say anything and kept thinking for a while.

Steven said, “The most important thing right now is to track down the hacker and destroy the stolen confidential data... it won’t be too late to take care of those people if we do that.”

After taking a moment to organize his thoughts and calm down, Secretary Harley asked, “How did they manage to hack us? We created our own security system that we manage ourselves.”

“Based on what we know so far, the hacker moved through more than 20 countries to get into the network of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – and we’re not sure if it was pure luck or the work of a genius – but he got into our internal network at the exact moment when we were connecting with NASA’s satellite, H-sc01.”

“Do we have the hacker’s group information?”

“We are figuring out the location of the hacker’s group, and we have teamed up with NASA’s security team to backtrack the route of the hacking. If you could give us one more day, we will come up with which group it is, along with an approximated location too, Secretary Harley.”

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Secretary Howard Harley thought for a bit, then raised his right index finger as he said, “Sounds good, I will give you just one more day. Turn everything that you do into first class security, and I expect you to have that report by tomorrow – if not, all the agents here, including you, won’t ever see the light of day again.”

After Steven and the other agents left the office, Secretary Howard Harley texted someone from his smartphone as he looked at the virtual window, which was an LED monitor.

– code CH321 situation in class K, calling Scorpion.

– code AX001 request received.

After some simple texting going back and forth, Secretary Harley leaned on his chair and closed his eyes, thinking about the hacked documents.

“I’m not worrying too much about the SS class documents, but the problem is that one SSS class document. It contains information about new technology that hasn’t even been applied in our country... why is this happening when I’m the Secretary...? I’ve got to take care of this in a week. Just a week.”

* * *

December 18th, 2015 09:00, Kim In-jik’s Place in Seoul, Gangbook-gu, Sooyou-dong.

The two men, staring at each other with a sloppy expression, stayed up all night checking the contents of Pandora’s box. They were in a state of mental confusion and could not escape. The most mysterious place on earth, surrounded by all kinds of rumors, built in 1940 in Nevada, United States, Area 51 – it had copious amounts of data concerning aliens and UFOs and research based on these; it explained how the United States was leading the 20th century’s technology because it was all based off of this technology, and – most surprisingly – the new technology had not been introduced to the world yet. All of this was on a USB drive in a small room in Seoul.

“Bro, I don’t know about anything, but, um, what is it called, the stealthy aircraft technology, we can be the richest people in Korea just by selling this to the government or to some companies!! Hahaha!!” Kang Kyoung-ho laughed out loud as if he owned the world.

Kim In-jik’s face slowly turned darker. He regretted hacking for the first time since he started it as a hobby in high school. As Kang Kyoung-ho’s laugh got louder, Kim In-jik’s anxiety grew more and more.

“Shut up and stop laughing!!”

Kang Kyoung-ho stopped laughing, then looked at Kim In-jik and seemed confused. “What, why?”

“Do you not realize what this is? This isn’t just a lead from a company. Just like you said, this is stuff that can turn the world upside-down! Having this top-secret information means that we could get assassinated without anyone knowing or spending our lifetime in jail. And you’re laughing at this?” Annoyed by his friend’s laugh, Kim In-jik laid down on his bed.

Realizing how serious the situation was, Kang Kyoung-ho also laid down next to In-jik. “Assassination? Jail? You’re scaring me! Would they know that you did all this?” His dream about being rich turned into fear. He asked In-jik again. “No way. Do you think they could find us? You’ve always been good at this! There’s no way they can find you. How are they going to find you? Don’t worry too much about it!”

“I don’t know about that. But we do know how important and confidential those documents are... wouldn’t they chase me until I die?”

“What, what do you do then? Turn yourself in?”

“I have no clue. I need to think about it. Oh, and you know you can’t tell anyone, right?” Kim In-jik got up to get his laptop on top of the bed and turned it on. Not hearing anything back, he reiterated to Kyoung-ho again. “Don’t say anything.”

Fearful, Kyoung-ho replied back, “You think I’m an elementary schooler? I understand what’s going on. What are you doing with your laptop though? Deleting the data?”

“No, I’m just checking if there are any trails I left that can possibly be tracked back to me in the future. I’m just getting anxious.”

“Alright, but don’t delete it, even if you’re getting anxious.”

* * *

December 17th, 2015 11:00 (16th 21:00 in Nevada), The Secretary Office in Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, United States.

Steven, the Head of the Security Department, seemed a little better than yesterday when he was showing his report to Secretary Harley.

“The final hacking point was found in South Korea. We’re preparing the list of people in Korea who could have potentially done this, and we’re also checking for any hacker groups that may be visiting Korea.”

“Korea? Not China, Russia, or ISIS?” Secretary Harley could not believe what Steven was telling him. He started to read the report in more detail. “Why would Korea do that?” Considering the United States’ alliance with Asian countries – and how Korea is the most reliable out of those countries – Secretary Harley was not able to find any reason why. After he finished reading the report, Secretary Harley said to Steven, “Look for the evidence anywhere – from government to private security companies, hackers, anyone related that’s been staying in Korea for more than three months. Anything is fine, but we have to finish this case in one week.”

Secretary Harley took a Cuban cigar from the box and lit it. After smoking a few puffs, Secretary Harley continued talking, but quietly. “Once we get all the information about the hacker, Scorpion will take care of the rest.”

Since Secretary Harley mentioned Scorpion, Steven realized the situation was more serious than he thought.

“I apologize for this, Secretary Harley. As Head of the Security Department, I’m aware that this is my fault. I will try my best to recover from this.”

“You better. We don’t know what will happen to Korea once Scorpion starts moving.”

Scorpion is an unofficial assassination organization with about 200 agents from various special forces and governments working internally. They are an S class assassination organization that not only performs assassinations, but possibly can initiate terrorist attacks, if it’s in the interest of the United States. There were only about 20 government officials in control of them, and Secretary Harley was one of them.

With Scorpion becoming part of recovering the Area 51 documents after the hack, it meant that Secretary Harley wanted to take care of this situation in any way possible – quietly – as opposed to getting the government involved or exploring a political resolution.

“I can get the report by tonight, correct?” Secretary Harley asked.

“Yes, and I will have the report be as detailed as possible.”

“Okay, you’re dismissed.”

As Steven left the office, Secretary Harley put out the cigar and pressed one on his office phone. “Put me in contact with NASA, please.”

“Okay, just one moment.”

Shortly after, Secretary Nathan Mibolt from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration picked up the phone.

“Hi Nathan, this is Harley.”

“Hi, it’s been a while, Harley.”

“Has anything been leaked to the press?”

“Not a peep. We would face the worst of it if this came out. We’re making sure that even our internal agents are keeping it quiet. Anyway, I heard that some information about the hacker was found?”

“We’ve learned more about the hacker; I’m trying to end this situation in one week.”

“I see. I hope this ends as soon as possible. It’s awkward... and embarrassing to say that the hacker went through our system.”

“It should end soon. But just so you know, soon there will be no connection to the NASA network for a bit. Please remind people about the confidentiality again, and I will call you soon.”

“Will do. I’ll talk to you later, Harley.”