Chapter 9 - The Restructuring of Titan
The corporate boardroom of Titan Tactical Systems was usually reserved for the annual budget review, but today it was filled with twelve men and women in dark gray suits who represented the senior procurement offices of the Department of Defense, the Defense Logistics Agency, and the National Security Agency.
Sarah sat at the head of the table, General Carney at her right hand. The shadow box containing her medals was gone, replaced by a massive, high-definition monitor that displayed the real-time movement of three commercial cargo vessels currently crossing the Atlantic under Titan's transponder codes.
“The primary issue,” a colonel from the DLA said, his finger tapping a red line on the spreadsheet before him, “is the validation of the encryption modules. If Kassar’s people have the source code for the Next-Gen arrays, we have to pull every unit out of the Mediterranean theater within sixty days. That’s an operational cost of four hundred million dollars.”
“They don't have the source code,” Sarah said, her voice cutting through the rising murmur of the table.
She keyed a command into the terminal before her. The monitor shifted, displaying a dense block of cryptographic text that looked like random numbers but moved in a specific, repeating spiral configuration.
“My father didn't use the standard NSA algorithms for the export models,” Sarah explained, her finger pointing to the screen. “He built a secondary verification loop into the hardware itself. If the module is separated from the aircraft’s main power supply for more than seventy-two hours without the maintenance key, the internal memory strips itself. All Kassar bought was twelve pounds of dead silicon and some high-grade aluminum.”
The room went completely silent. The colonel looked at the screen, his mouth open slightly. “Arthur built a dead-man switch into the commercial hardware?”
“He built it because he didn't trust the export controls,” Carney said, his voice dry and scratchy. “He spent thirty years watching the gear we sold to our allies show up in the hands of our enemies three years later. He told me back in ’18 that if anyone ever tried to steal Titan’s keys, they’d find out the lock had been filled with lead.”
The DLA colonel leaned back in his chair, a long sigh escaping his lips. “Why wasn't this loop included in the technical manuals provided to the procurement office?”
“Because if it was in the manuals, Curtis would have seen it,” Sarah said. “And if Curtis saw it, he would have told Kassar how to bypass it. My father kept the maintenance codes in the green lockbox. The only people who have them now are me, General Carney, and the communications chief for the Joint Special Operations Command.”
She stood up, leaning her hands on the table, looking at the assembled officials with the calm, unyielding authority of a commander who had just cleared her sector.
“Titan Tactical will continue to fulfill its obligations under the current contract cycle,” she said. “But the commercial export line is closed. We are no longer selling hardware to anyone who doesn't carry a US government credential and a Title 50 clearance. If the board doesn't like the drop in revenue, they can sell their shares back to me at the current market value. I have the capital, and I have the time.”
None of the suits moved. The colonel looked around the table, saw the silent nods of the NSA representatives, and then stood up, extending his hand across the mahogany.
May you like
“Welcome back to the line, Captain Wright,” he said. “Your father would have been proud of the architecture.”
Sarah took his hand, her grip brief and firm. “My father didn't care about the architecture, Colonel. He cared about the birds coming back. Let’s get the next shipment cleared for Bragg.”
