“Make sure that the FBI knows this rubbish about Max being complicit in the crime is not true.”
“Yes. Please do that,” Max said, his brow arched.
Wilkes smirked. “Of course. I’ll make my call.”
An hour later, Special Agent Jake Flynn showed up at Charles Fend’s home in Ponte Vedra. Max had thought about inviting Renee but decided against it. He preferred to keep her behind the curtain for now.
Flynn stood in the doorway, greeted by Wilkes and Max Fend. He didn’t look happy.
Max was half-expecting a load of FBI agents to come storming in behind him. Instead, he got a disgruntled nod. “Mr. Fend.”
“Hello again.”
Max assumed that Wilkes had prepped Flynn and decided not to press it any further for now.
Wilkes summarized the earlier conversations for Flynn.
“So this Pavel Morozov is former KGB, and is responsible for the cyberattacks on Fend Aerospace.”
“We think so, yes.”
Flynn looked at Wilkes. “How do you want to play this?”
Wilkes filled him in on what they were thinking.
As promised, Wilkes made sure to get his superiors at the CIA involved. Wilkes and Flynn jumped on a secure conference call with the bigwigs at the CIA and FBI for the next fifteen minutes. Wilkes smoothed things over and let them know that Max Fend was working with the CIA and should not be considered a suspect in the Fend cybercrime. From the short duration of the call, Max got the impression that the FBI and CIA leadership had already discussed the matter.
When the two men emerged, Wilkes said, “Special Agent Flynn, would you be able to share with the Fends what you were telling me yesterday? Your suspicions about an insider at Fend Aerospace.”
Flynn looked uncomfortable. “We’re looking closely at a few employees there.”
Wilkes nodded. “Could you say who?”
“I would rather not. No offense.”
Charles said, “Agent Flynn, with respect, it appears to be in our collective best interests to proceed with the Fend 100 flight tomorrow. The CIA and FBI both want to collect more cyber evidence on Pavel Morozov during that time. We’ll need at least one of my experts at Fend Aerospace to help us reduce the risk of Morozov actually succeeding and stealing all of the Fend 100’s artificial intelligence technology. But if you won’t share your suspects with us, then I don’t know who to trust.”
Flynn looked thoughtful. “How about you give me a name, and I help you pick who I think would be best suited for the job?”
Wilkes said, “Charles, who was the person that you mentioned earlier?”
“Maria Blount.”
Flynn looked at Wilkes. “She should be fine. She was actually the one who first contacted the FBI about the cyber intrusion on the Fend network.”
“Alright, let’s get her over here.”
Maria came thirty minutes later, and they quickly brought her up to speed.
Maria said, “So let me see if I understand. Max, I think what I hear you saying is that this Russian is planning to remotely tap into the Fend 100, and use the datalink connection between the Fend 100 and the Fend 100 control center to steal our most precious AI technology. Is that right?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay… and someone who you all trust is going to give you some sort of software that will act as an antivirus — to neutralize any threat that the Russians could actually do this.” They hadn’t told her that MI-6 would be providing the thumb drive. She didn’t need to know who it was, just what it would do.
“Correct.”
Maria paused. She frowned and said, “Well, this means they’ve already infected the aircraft or our control room software. If that’s true, they must have done it the first time they hacked in. I find that highly doubtful. But it’s possible that we overlooked something. If… and that’s a big if… they really have a worm in our system, I don’t know if it will be enough to just trust that this magical thumb drive software will inoculate us from another attack. Especially with as much as we have riding on this Fend 100 flight. I mean, this is everything to the company, Charles.”
“I know, Maria. I understand the importance.”
“Sorry. It’s just… I know this means a lot to our bottom line.”
Max knew it too. While he tried not to let that influence his decision-making, he realized that if the Fend 100 test flight didn’t pass with flying colors, his father’s company would take a pummeling on Wall Street. His father still owned a controlling share of the stock, but a failed test flight could ruin his life’s work. It could mean massive layoffs, not to mention the effect it might have on the whole aviation sector. If the first autonomous commercial airline flight were hacked, no one would want to fly on them. There was already enough fear about riding in one of these things.
Max said, “Maria, do you see any other way that we could provide a fail-safe? Some way of preventing the flight from getting hacked?”
Her eyes glanced up, twitching back and forth as she thought. She started nodding to herself. “Yes. I think I know what we can do. I can go on the flight.”
Charles said, “You want to go on the flight?”
“Yes. I’ll rewrite some of the remote override code tonight. It will take a while, but I can do it. If anyone does hack into the flight, like last time, I’ll be able to override it from inside the aircraft.” She smiled, pleased with her solution. “It’s the safest way.”
“What about the thumb drive with the antivirus software?” Max said.
Wilkes eyes Max. “Let’s consider Maria going on the plane as a fail-safe. But we should also continue to plan to get the thumb drive from your contact, Max. And I’ll check on that solution with my contacts.”
Charles said, “Okay — do we feel like there are enough controls in place that this will be a safe event?”
They all nodded slowly.
“And we’ll be watching Morozov’s yacht,” Wilkes said. “If he tries anything, we’ll finally have the evidence we need to prosecute him. Mr. Flynn, would you be able to help with a takedown, if we need it?”
Flynn nodded. “The FBI can handle that. Let me talk to my superiors.”
They spoke for a few more minutes, and then Maria left to go get to work. Flynn did as well.
Wilkes said to Max, “You need a ride?”
“Sure. Thanks.”
Max asked to be dropped off at a gas station near his father’s home. He had texted Renee a few minutes before, asking her to pick him up there.
Wilkes smiled. “What’s the matter? You don’t want me to know where you’re staying?”
“Sorry.”
Max’s ride pulled up. Renee looked at both Caleb Wilkes and Max through her window.
“Is that your Canadian hacker?”
“It is.”
Wilkes nodded his approval. They then traded phone numbers. Before getting out of the car, Max said, “Let me ask you something. Why didn’t you tell me you were going to recruit me after I began working for my father’s company? I mean, why did the DIA — and you — let me think that I was done?”
“Isn’t that obvious? Your father is the owner of Fend Aerospace. We received intelligence that Morozov was planning something big, and it involved Fend. I couldn’t be certain that you weren’t part of it.”
“You really thought I might be compromised?”
“No. But I’m not paid to get it right most of the time. I’m supposed to get it right all of the time. So I quarantined you. I couldn’t let you in on my operation until you were cleared.”