199
“Wait, you’re saying the application has access to the hardware’s system-level commands?” Yasmin asked with a frown.
“Only for the actual transmission and receipt of data packets through the network interfaces. The app is responsible for managing the flow of data through these cards. If there are unaccounted data bits in the stream, that’s something the application will identify and act upon,” Henry indicated.
“That’s not feasible! It would add way too much lag to the interfaces!” Laurence Franklin insisted.
Henry grinned at the group. “Does this mean we’ve reached the demonstration portion of the presentation?”
The three techs were all frowning but eager to see Henry’s outrageous claims go up in smoke.
Henry walked the group over to the test rig. “This is a blade server I purchased and configured for running the firewall application. The specs for this are in the data packages I’ve prepared for you. This configuration is optimized for the demands of the application. You can’t scrimp on the hardware requirements as you’re going to run this machine hard. It needs lungs to breathe and legs to run.”
The three techs stared at Henry for his odd choice of words, then flipped to the specs page to see just how loaded the machine was. Eyebrows went up, but it wasn’t outrageous. They quickly scanned the page to see how Henry had configured the rest of the specs.
Robert looked up with a frown. “There are more powerful computers available to manage the load you’re going to be throwing at these processors–”
“But none have the sweet spot for the kind of computation my app will demand of these processors. The app is coded to take advantage of the capabilities of these processors. Let’s install the app and see what this baby can do.”
“It’s not a Ferrari. It’s a computer!” Maurice scoffed.
Henry looked to the man. “Today’s fastest sports cars wouldn’t be possible without machines like these to design them on. That said, I like to think the same meticulous handcrafted care that went into creating the first Ferraris goes into my code. So, thanks for pointing that out.”
“If you’re going to spend an hour installing an application, perhaps we can leave you techs here while we speak with Camila about the contract,” Wallace suggested.
“The install takes seven minutes. There are four steps. You can see it on page ten. A biometric ID is required. Someone on your team will need to be it, the person in charge of all configuration changes. It’s suggested you have at least three people authorized for this access for redundancy. You can add their biometric ID by repeating step three but be aware, the more IDs you add, the more chance for human failure you may encounter. Pick your most trusted individuals; again, we suggest a maximum of three, and restrict access to them.”
He looked to the Director of the NSA. “Mr. Granger, would you care to do the honors of installing the firewall?”
The man’s eyebrows went up as Henry held out a USB stick to him. “You think I can do it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Come on, Wallace, show us how much of a nerd you can be!” Maurice said with a snide grin, ignoring the weary looks from the three tech leads present.
The Director glared at the other man and accepted the stick while the techs stood back to see history in the making.
Henry held the instructions open for the man, and to the Director’s surprise, the application was up and running within eight minutes. Henry displayed the firewall server’s performance specs by projecting the status screen on the boardroom’s wall.
“Our test setup has a basic web server on the other side of your firewall. There’s just one page, and here is the address. Now the techs get to try to break through your firewall to get to the webserver,” Henry said in challenge.
The three tech specialists grinned as they brought out their laptops and connected them to the network. Henry gave them the addresses of the firewall and the webserver.
Over the next thirty-five minutes, all three tried every tool they had at their disposal to get past the firewall, but they all got trapped in the labyrinth. They were keeping their bosses updated with each tactic they used.
“Are we allowed to bring in external support to crack this?” Yasmin asked.
“Sure,” Henry said. Yasmin immediately used her cell to contact her team and started rattling off instructions for them to begin testing as well.
He looked to the NSA Director. “It’s my understanding you have a powerful code-cracker system at your headquarters. You want to have your people try to hit the firewall directly? We can watch the performance numbers to see how our server copes with your big iron smashing away at it while the FBI team tries their attack. I’m really curious to see how it will deal with the multi-prong assault!”
He caught Camila’s raised eyebrow but just smiled.
Wallace looked reluctant but nodded to Robert, who called up his team to get them to point the big server array at VRL’s single blade firewall test server. Henry watched the graphs projected on the wall and saw the FBI team’s attempts nudge the numbers higher. He smiled as he saw the result of the Cracker come online as the numbers were climbing and climbing until almost all of the processor power was maxed out.
“Why don’t we add in your email address so the server can let you know how it’s doing,” Henry suggested to the Director. The man nodded, and Henry showed him how to find the configuration page to enter the reporting address. They saved their result, and moments later, Wallace saw an email appear on his cell from the firewall server. It indicated it was under attack and listed the Source IP’s of its attackers.
“How is it able to send out a message while we’re saturating your connection with attacks?” Robert asked incredulously.
Henry nodded. “Email is tiny, and the firewall server won’t completely over saturate. I’ve configured it to reserve some resources for local activity. Don’t you hate it when you can’t type in even a simple command as there are no resources left? Additionally, we have a three ISP connection, so you’re only saturating one of them. How to do that is also outlined in the documentation.”
“We’re tying up one of the live connections to our website?” Camila asked in concern.
“Well, these guys are, but our customers won’t have noticed yet,” Henry assured her.
The boardroom doors opened, and Roy walked in with a scowl on his face. “Oh-oh. Looks like Roy got a message saying we’re under attack too,” Henry said with a small smile.
“Mr. Gable. What’s this about an attack?” Roy asked.
“Sorry, Mr. Duncan. I told these fellows to hammer on the test server. That’s tying up one of our connections. I should have let you know in advance. My apologies,” Henry said contritely.
Roy made an annoyed noise, glared at the gathered interlopers, then turned on his heel and left.
Henry faced the wide eyes of the visitors. “That was our head of security. He gets alerts of all forms of attacks.”
“He’s very good at his job,” Camila added with a slight smile. She got nods for that.
Henry grinned and rubbed his hands together as he looked to the techs. “Where were we?”
-=-NôvelDrama.Org © 2024.
Camila leaned back in her chair with a broad satisfied smile on her lips. She was happy to see a similar smile on Henry’s face. He was leaning back in the guest chair before her desk, glowing from the success of his demonstration.
“Did you hear that jerk Maurice try to recruit me at the end of the demo? What a putz!” Henry chuckled.
“Don’t kid yourself, Henry. They all wanted you on their team. Even with the documentation in their hands, none of their tech leads were comprehending how you made it work,” Camila insisted.
Henry waved a hand dismissively. “They’re smart people. They’ll get it, eventually.” He yawned as his eyes closed.
“You said you were going home after the demo,” she said softly.
“Change of plans. I have a date. Going to Siobhan’s place at seven. I have to stick around and leave from here,” he said calmly.
Camila smiled and stood. She walked around her desk and patted Henry’s shoulder to get him to open his eyes. “You should still get some rest. Stretch out on my sofa and sleep there. I’ll wake you with time for a shower, and I’ll have the car service take you there and home.”
“Oh! That would be great! Thanks!” Henry heaved himself to his feet with Camila’s help, then walked over to drop himself down on her couch. She tugged off his shoes and sat on the sofa down by his feet.
“If you like, I could help you relax,” she said, looking at him hopefully as she bit her lush lower lip. Part of his anatomy woke up, and she caught the motion against his pants. Her smile grew as he did.
“That would be nice too,” he smiled.
He almost chuckled at the joy on her face as she expertly undid his pants and had them and his underwear down to his thighs in seconds.
“Ooo Henry, this is my new favorite reward for a successful business deal!” she cooed.
His brows went up as he watched her wet her lips with the tip of her pink tongue.
Then he sucked in a sharp breath as she pressed her plush lips to the head of his cock. When she brought her tongue into play, he might have whimpered a little. He wasn’t too proud to admit she could drive him mad with pleasure and have him begging for release in seconds.
Camila knew he needed rest more than play, so she refrained from extending her pleasure and brought him to a glorious and explosive release deep in her throat in only five minutes.
She felt her cells gobbling up the energy, but there wasn’t much room for more. When she realized she’d reached her limit and was at risk of overloading, she reluctantly pulled her mouth clear and collected the remaining surges of cum in her palm, milking him with her other hand. She stared at the pearly white liquid, so full of life and Wild Magic. It took every ounce of willpower to not suck it into her mouth and swallow it. As it was, the energy was soaking into her skin.
She stood and rushed into her washroom to wash it down the sink. Her instincts screamed at her for wasting it, but she was already feeling a little light-headed. She needed to burn off some of this before she went to her dinner appointment tonight. Arriving to this particular meeting fully charged was a smart move but overcharged and spaced out would be disastrous.