179 Reconnaissance Satellites (1/2)
They had to perpetually deal with a network of people as they were. They had received many challenges and had transactions with many people, but had never met anyone who sent demands in a foreign language. Even in an email six months ago from the Japanese Nakagawa Technology Group, it was still written in French.
”To the French government, there is a good thing here! When I was diving in the Atlantic was diving by chance...” Sonnenfeldt frowned and read softly.
Since both parties used translated versions, there were a lot of mistakes in the grammar, which made it difficult to read. The good news was that the content was straightforward and understandable.
”After you confirm the authenticity of the voicemail, please take out $500 million. And please use the top 20 languages in the world.” When he had finished, he kept pinching his chin.
His first reaction was that the man was completely bullsh*tting and taking his cell phone to record the sound of the submarine when he was diving. Then why didn't he smash it with his fist? If the submarine sound was so easy to obtain, then the world's sonar anti-submarine network would be a joke?
”This must be some boring hacker using bad psychological tactics!” Sonnenfeldt smiled. ”Isn't that just want you want? To arouse my curiosity, let me download this attachment, then let your virus play a role?”
As a 17-year-old, he successfully hacked into an online gaming server and changed his equipment to the highest level. At the age of 21, he was hired as a special technician expert for six Internet companies. Of course, he was good! He was outstanding! And he was certainly confident.
So he went to the computer to test the virus. He would download the attachment and see what the other person was trying to do.
More than 20 MB. It would take only a few seconds to download. Sonnenfeldt first cut off the network connection, then used a security tool to carefully examine it.
”Huh... the technique used to hide it is advanced!” He was like a woman seeing a flash of jewelry. The more advanced it was, the more excited he was.
Clicking on the audio file called ”123123”, Sonnenfeldt squinted his excited little eyes, ready to see what the person was up to.
Anyway, his testing computer would send all the unknown files which were tested to hardware technology to a empty hard disk, and by connecting to the Internet only at the moment the file downloaded, he simply didn't have to worry about any destruction.
Unexpected processor frequency increased. Memory was unaccounted for. Some files were just background noise.
It was difficult to describe the sound of the sound, and through the two stereo speakers, Sonnenfeldt felt as if he was suddenly plunged into the sea, surrounded by an endless ocean.
As time passed, the furrows on his forehead grew tighter. He had never been a submarine soldier. He didn't know if this was a submarine mechanical noise, but his intuition told him that this round was not coordinated buzz that was synthesized in a technical way.
”Hello, is this the secretary's office of the Élysée Palace? I received a copy of the audio file on the presidential official website, and it was found that there was no virus,” he said. ”The other party claims that this is the sound of our ruby attack submarine, and I'm sending this to you.”
Sonnenfeldt didn't dare say that the other person was extorting $500 million. He was afraid of being asked by the higher ups, ”Stupid! You do believe this?”
”Okay!” The voice on the phone was as cold as ever!
At the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées, the Élysée Palace was as famous as the White House in the United States, Buckingham Palace in Britain, and the Kremlin in Russia. It was the presidential palace in France and the symbol of the highest power in the country.
After the email arrived, a few of the palace staff heard it and felt that it was worth paying attention to. So, after some communications, the news eventually got transferred to the naval command.
”Ridiculous!” Anniston, who was assigned to the voiceprint, had serious doubts and was angry. A bunch of staff that just sits in an office, and if a guy says there's an Ultraman, do you have to go and verify it?
Absurdly absurd! But Anniston was only able to sit sullenly on the black sound analysis machine and work with the black headphones. What could he do since it was a command from the Élysée Palace?
They tested the sound of the submarine, not just the crew, but with two stereo systems. It was going to be determined in terms of Hertz, band, frequency, and so on.
In the dim and secluded environment, Anniston, with a bitter face, pressed the transmission button.
Buzz, buzz, buzz. The sound of the condenser was heard, and Anniston's cheeks turned pale. Then he looked at the waveband on the detector, Hertz...
”Ah!” His eyes widened bigger than a dog's head, popped out, and almost broke through his titanium glasses.
”This... This is... This is... This...” Anniston was shocked. Stumbling out of the room, he banged open the door of the chief's office.
”Sir, we're done for... ”
.........
Half an hour later, at the east end of the Champs-Élysées, the presidential office of the Élysée Palace…
”Mr. President, what do you say we do?” Admiral Bailiffe, the commander of the navy, sat down on the red nan-wood chair, and his white brows were almost forced into a line.
The sound of a nuclear-powered submarine was stolen and was the one stationed at the naval base in Djibouti. The investigators had boarded the plane 10 minutes before to fly there, but he knew that there was probably little possibility of it being their own people. Because, from the sound pattern analysis, this was basically from an external device that had snuck up on the submarine and recorded it.
”Did you find out which country did it?” President Kosaki looked at the information in his hands. Who was trying to extort France?
”Not yet!” The one who spoke was the French Network Information Security Chief Earls. He was sitting on the left side of the president and whispered, ”The email was sent by an ordinary Google mailbox registered to a server in Japan. We have invaded the server and stolen his registration information, but didn't get any useful information.”
”The United States, Japan, Russia, China, these countries are the most suspect! Our ruby submarines are not the most technologically advanced, but at least they have to be at the same level to get access to them,” said Admiral Bailiffe.
”But if you want to get this close and record the sound...”
Here he shook his head. ”Even the American Ohio and the Russian North Wind have absolutely no way to do that.”