{"id":1177,"date":"2007-05-05T16:03:48","date_gmt":"2007-05-05T22:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mercuryranch.org\/blog\/2007\/05\/05\/friday-snippet-test-run\/"},"modified":"2017-02-04T23:17:56","modified_gmt":"2017-02-05T05:17:56","slug":"friday-snippet-test-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/friday-snippet-test-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Snippet (Test Run)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sure, it’s Saturday. This is a test run for Holly Lisle’s Friday Snippets for Everyone<\/a> posting. This is one I don’t think I’ve posted here before — the opening of Twilight <\/em>(at least, not this version). This novel needs major work, but this, for the moment, is how it starts:<\/p>\n

Friday, February 26<\/o><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Harold exhaled and reached for the secure Voice Over Internet Protocol phone.<\/span> <\/span>Punching speed dial for Charlie, he waited for her to answer. <\/span>“We have a problem.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“What?”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m looking over the after action reports for the last five exercises we’ve run.”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“And?”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“And we’re working together too well.<\/span> <\/span>Something’s wrong.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“How do you reach that conclusion?”<\/span> <\/span>He heard Charlie shift in her chair and type on her keyboard.<\/o><\/p>\n

“Because we haven’t had breakdowns in communication or working mode for the last two exercises, and the two before that went more smoothly than expected.”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“So?”<\/span> <\/span>He could hear puzzlement in her voice, “Since when did that become a problem? <\/span>Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Maybe.<\/span> <\/span>I think it means we’ve become too predictable. <\/span>We’re not stressing ourselves realistically.”<\/o><\/p>\n

There was a long pause, and he thought he heard Charlie tapping a pencil on her desk, “What do you intend to do about it?<\/span> <\/span>We have to do the RED TEAM stuff. <\/span>It’s the only way we get any experience, and it justifies our existence until they find an operational mission they need our expertise for. <\/span>Besides, we find our own network vulnerabilities before someone else does and get them patched.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Yes, we do good things with the RED TEAM work, but it isn’t a realistic environment to prepare for our primary mission in.<\/span> <\/span>We’re not training like we need to fight, and I just don’t think we’re challenging the Geeks enough. <\/span>It’s as if we could do this in our sleep.”<\/o><\/p>\n

Charlie laughed, “Sometimes, I think we do.<\/span> <\/span>With the hours at Relative Research and the RED TEAMing here at night, I know I’ve caught myself dozing a time or two.”<\/o><\/p>\n

Harold remained silent.<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

Charlie sighed, “OK.<\/span> <\/span>You’re right. <\/span>The scenarios are flat, and we’re getting complacent. <\/span>Do you have something in mind?”<\/o><\/p>\n

“As a minimum, we need to track and monitor for effectiveness without anyone knowing we’re doing it.<\/span> <\/span>I’d like something by March, and I’m thinking of calling it IDES.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“We should be able to do that.”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“Let’s see if we can find something different that will challenge the whole team–tracking, coding, imagery, and analysis.<\/span> <\/span>We need a realistic scenario. <\/span>Any ideas?”<\/o><\/p>\n

He heard Charlie tapping her keyboard.<\/span> <\/span>“Well, there are all kinds of tracking mechanisms on the Web already. <\/span>Do you think FedEx, UPS, or the various internet advertisers have anything to offer us?”<\/o><\/p>\n

Harold thought for a minute.<\/span> <\/span>“I’d have to know more. <\/span>My first thought is they don’t, but I don’t know enough to say.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“I don’t know either, but I figured I’d throw it out there.<\/span> <\/span>Why don’t we brainstorm the scenario, and I’ll take it to the gaming guys to build it for The Playground.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“What are some situations we could find ourselves in that we haven’t exercised yet?”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“We HAVE exercised nation-states attacking us.<\/span> <\/span>In fact, that’s what we’ve practiced the most. <\/span>Now that I think about it, I don’t think that’s our biggest risk. <\/span>It is the easiest for us to legally work.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Yeah, but it doesn’t use our special charter for non-nation states.<\/span> <\/span>Frankly, I figure we’ll have more need of this capability. <\/span>If we don’t practice it, it’ll slow us down when we need to do it.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“True.<\/span> <\/span>Non-nation states do present a different set of problems. <\/span>That goes on the list. <\/span>What else?”<\/o><\/p>\n

“I wonder if we’re using our imagery expertise as fully possible.”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“Hard to say.<\/span> <\/span>Let’s see if we can stretch those capabilities. <\/span>Hilda does great programming, but, Harold, have you noticed Hilda’s uncanny ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated facts?”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Yeah, I have.<\/span> <\/span>Is there a way we can capitalize on that?”<\/o><\/p>\n

“I want to talk to Hilda about it.<\/span> <\/span>Maybe it’s something we can build formally into our process.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Sure.<\/span> <\/span>Maybe there’s a way we can do that.” <\/span>Harold stared at the television, watching the crawler on the bottom of the screen. <\/span><\/o><\/p>\n

“Harold, you there?”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“Yeah, I got sidetracked by the crawler news about the snowstorm in <\/st1>Iowa<\/st1>.”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s right.<\/span> <\/span>You’re originally from there, aren’t you?”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Yeah, my folks still live there.<\/span> <\/span>I was just thinking how glad I was that I got them a new snow blower for Christmas.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“I guess that would be a good thing in <\/st1>Iowa<\/st1>.<\/span> <\/span>Thankfully, we never had to worry about that in <\/st1>Austin<\/st1>.”<\/o><\/p>\n

He heard Charlie’s chair creak, “Probably not until the next Ice Age, anyway.<\/span> <\/span>The other thing we haven’t exercised much is domestic attacks.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“I’ll write it down.<\/span> <\/span>We’re still brainstorming, right? <\/span>There’s no way we’ll get all this into one exercise. <\/span>Well, I suppose we could, but…”<\/o><\/p>\n

“No, this is brainstorming.<\/span> <\/span>I’m not planning to put all these items into a single scenario. <\/span>Although…that might be a good capstone exercise after we work out how to handle singles. <\/span>An integration exercise would be ideal.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“I have to agree with you there.<\/span> <\/span>Capstone is on the list.” <\/o><\/p>\n

“Can you think of anything else?”<\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

“I just want to make sure we’re able to effectively use all the skills on the team.<\/span> <\/span>I’ll get with the exercise designers to see what we can and can’t do. <\/span>I’ll also check the legal parameters for each of these.”<\/o><\/p>\n

“Good.<\/span> <\/span>I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” <\/span>Harold replaced the VOIP phone in its cradle, breaking the digital connection. <\/span>Harold turned back to his computer screen and began shutting the system down. <\/span>Charlie was right. <\/span>This business could wear on you after awhile. <\/span>He’d leapt at the opportunity to head this team, and he’d never regretted it. <\/span>The computer system had shut down successfully, so he called the security company and secured the vault. <\/span>He spun the lock dial behind him and covered the vault door with the clothes hanging in the closet. <\/span>He stepped onto his upstairs landing and closed the closet door behind him. <\/span>He glanced at his watch. <\/span>He’d check the house alarm and settle in to a quick tour of Headline News before trying to go to sleep. <\/span><\/p>\n

[blenza_autolink 42]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sure, it’s Saturday. This is a test run for Holly Lisle’s Friday Snippets for Everyone posting. This is one I don’t think I’ve posted here before — the opening of Twilight (at least, not this version). This novel needs major work, but this, for the moment, is how it starts: …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[49,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-twilight","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jeanschara.com\/pmtoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}