Chapter 8 – The stolen information

Our boss was very frustrated with our failure to catch a thief.
- “So you three elites could not catch an ordinary thief?!” he was shouting for the second day in a row.
- “He is not an ordinary thief, sir.” I said.
- “I know!” he exploded.
- “What shall we do, sir?” Jack asked.
- “At the moment Rob is trying to work out what was stolen. Once we find out what it was we will be able to plan our strategy.” David said.
- “I sense someone high up is behind this.” I said.
- “You might be right, but it is too risky to take any action right now. We have no evidence of anything.” David said.
- “I am going to catch him, sir.” I said, “I promise that.”
- “Well I’m sure you will, but we might be too late when that happens.” David said, “You guys are dismissed for today. Come back tomorrow so we can plan our strategy.”
- “I want to stay and find out what was stolen.” I said.
- “As you wish.” David said.
Rick and Jack went home, but I stayed. I went to Rob’s office. Rob was very good with computers and any technical things. He used to be a hacker back on Earth even though he was only 17 back then.
- “So any luck yet?” I asked him as me and David entered his office.
- “Not yet. They surely have a lot of data there. It might take another half an hour or so. I need to compare the data before the breach and after. Our machines can scan approximately 1.1 million files per minute.
- “Wow! That database does have a lot of files then.” I commented.
- “Good job, Rob. I will be back. Give me a call once you find what was stolen.” David said.
- “Yes sir.” Rob said.
David left the office. After few seconds of silence Rob asked me:
- “So, what was the guy like?”
- “He is very slick and extremely intelligent.” I answered, “It seems like he knows our every step.”
- “Well maybe he studied all our moves before he went into action.” Rob said.
- “What’re you trying to say?” I asked.
- “Well someone told him. Someone has access to all our files. It might be him, or might be someone he is working for.” Rob said.
- “That’s a good point.” I said, “We must find who it is.”
Here I sat down and began carefully thinking. I was retracing my thoughts back in time, trying to remember the first failed mission and today’s one. I didn’t even know what the guy’s face looked like.
At this moment Rob screamed:
- “Aha!”
- “What is it?” I quickly responded.
- “I think I got something.” Rob said.
He then quickly pressed on a button on his desk to contact David.
- “Yes?” David’s voice came.
- “I think I got it, sir.” Rob said.
- “Excellent, I’ll be there ASAP.” David said.
I came closer to the screen. Rob tracked the missing file and began trying to open it.
- “Can you open it?” I asked.
- “Yeah, just need a minute.” Rob said.
Rob began trying to hack his way into the file without damaging it. Even though the actual file was stolen, there was still a backup for everything in the database.
In a few seconds David entered the office.
- “So, what did you find?” David asked.
- “Just trying to open it.” Rob said, “And here we are.”
Rob opened the file. Three of us looked inside. It was a program of some sort that kept a huge record of some kind of lab work.
- “There is a lot of info here.” Rob said, “We will need to research through it in order to find out what this all is about.”
- “All right, I’ll tell a few more people to join you in the research.” David said, then turned to me and said, “Jim, you better go home and have some rest. If we find out what’s happening by tomorrow then you are my best hope and I want you to be ready.”
- “Yes sir.” I said.
- “Very well. See you tomorrow.”
I said goodbye to David and Rob and left the VENUS station. I was more than ready already for anything that will come up. Something huge is going to happen, I could feel it with every inch of my body. It’s time I get a sensible rest before my big mission.