EXFIL by Anthony Patton (best book reader txt) 📕

I breathed a sigh of relief as I felt Lewis’s hand on my shoulder, the closest thing to a bear hug between a colonel and a lieutenant general. Despite my best attempts at not losing perspective, I could see my name on the promotion list and a prestigious position at West Point, living happily ever after with my family. Holy shit—Jade Envy was the real deal!

News spread fast—the President was briefed immediately—as we walked to the heart of the Pentagon. Lewis said we had to attend a demonstration of JB Defense Solutions’ project for revamping the Department of Defense’s computer systems, moving all the NIPRNet and SIPRNet information to the cloud. I grabbed an open seat in the audience while Lewis sat next to James Bartfield in the VIP section. He whispered in Bartfield’s ear with a gesture to me.

Bartfield turned to give me an encouraging thumbs-up and returned his attention to the presenter. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, getting that thumbs-up felt good.

The presenter received a question from the audience and gestured to a diagram on the screen behind him. “Time for the way we handle classified information to catch up with technology,” he said. “In the past, the encryption methods and communications channels had significant implications for cost and hardware, which is no longer the case. We currently have three systems: NIPRNet for unclassified, SIPRNet for secret, and JWICS for top secret SCI. Encryption is more powerful and cheaper, and the potential for moving our information to a cloud would slash costs and improve security.”

A hand went up.

“If all of our classified information resides on a cloud, wouldn’t this make the possibility of a breach even more devastating? One successful penetration by the Chinese or Russians would compromise everything.”

The presenter shook his head. “True, but with a single point of defense, we can focus our efforts to protect our servers. The data will be encrypted and compartmented in the cloud. Unlike our currents systems, NIPRNet and SIPRNet, a penetration would be nearly impossible. If they did penetrate the system, they could never decrypt the files, even if they were running super computers in parallel. Now, a quantum computer, that’s a different story.”

Another hand went up. “Could you explain how the cloud would work if I wanted to send a classified document to someone?”

The presenter nodded. “If you wanted to send a classified document that was saved on your computer, you would attach it to an email, same as now. However, if you wanted to send a classified document that was saved on the cloud, such as an intelligence report, you would send a link to the document. We can restrict access to view only to prevent people from downloading or saving it to their computer.

Another hand went up. “Studies show that this program is cost prohibitive, between installing the new program, eliminating the old programs, and making the new system compatible with other classified systems in the Intelligence Community. Do you have any indications that Congress is willing to fund this?”

The presenter nodded knowingly. “Cost will be an issue, but we’re hearing there’s bipartisan support in Congress.” He gestured to Bartfield, who gave a hearty thumbs-up. “We only have to consider the recent cyberattacks by China against the Pentagon to know that doing nothing will cost us a lot more in terms of national security.”

He scanned the crowd again—no more questions. “Thank you,” he voiced.

The members of the audience applauded and dispersed. Lewis stood with Bartfield. A military officer with a concerned look interrupted their conversation and pulled Lewis aside.

I walked over, shook Bartfield’s hand, and waited patiently.

“Congratulations,” Bartfield whispered. “Of course, after my cloud system is up and running, we won’t have to worry about cyberattacks.”

“You seem confident about your system,” I said. “The enemy will always find ways to defeat technology, like the insider threat.”

He waved and smiled to someone on the other side of the room. “Excuse me,” he said. “Time to schmooze a senator for money.”

I believed he had good intentions, but it bothered me to imagine the profit incentives driving these decisions. Lewis ended his conversation and turned to me. “So, is this how we fight wars now—sales pitches?” I asked.

He nodded seriously. “I appreciate your concerns about the federal budgeting process, but we no longer have the luxury of avoiding the politics of the defense budget. We lack the skill sets to solve these problems.”

“If Bartfield’s program is the best and the cyberattacks continue,” I said, “why is it still stuck in Congress?”

“Because different senators are lobbying for defense contractors from their own states to get the deal. All the experts I trust say Bartfield’s product is the best, and I know he’s someone we can trust.”

I had no idea how to solve the problem and didn’t want to make a scene, so I shut up and followed him to a corner. He paused pensively and looked at me.

“Were you and Captain Howard going to a place called Club Ecstasy?” he inquired.

Goddammit, I thought, my neck prickling.

“We went a few times, just like every military attaché in Bangkok for the past twenty years.”

“But now we have a captain who committed suicide,” he said. “We have to set high standards for our junior officers.”

“With all due respect, General,” I said, “many of our sources ask us to go there and give us good information between drinks and lap dances, because they knew we would pay the bill. I understand if you have to pander to the PC cult here in D.C., but that shit won’t fly in the field, assuming you want successes like the one we had today.”

He nodded and exhaled. “I know, I know. As long as it was work and there was no funny business, we’re good.” He paused. “No funny business, right?”

“No,” I said with a shrug, pondering the implications of my lie.

Tom had admitted to being unfaithful in his note, but never mentioned anyone else knowing.

Lewis shook my hand.

“Congratulations