NationStates Jolt Archive

Benjia House, Cheka Headquarters...

"Sir...." an alarmed looking Cheka agent in front of a Computer yelled towards the office of Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Dzerzhinsky was reading the morning paper, but on hearing the alarm in the agent's voice, dropped the paper back onto his desk, standing up and walking out of his office into the large open-plan bunker in the base of the building that housed Cheka HQ. The Bunker was crammed wall to wall with computers, the particular one he went to was one that was busilly trawling the world wide web for information that shouldn't be posted on it.

"This Sir." the Operative pointed at the screen, but Felix had already seen it...

"Shit."

What confronted the head of the Cheka was a list of well-documented things that he knew all about, but that only a select few in the Cheka were supposed to know, "How the hell did that get on the web...is this site public acess?"

The agent nodded, "Yessir, it is."

Felix swore, "Get it down immediately and pray nobody has read it who shouldn't...afterwards try and track down the bastard who put this up, I'll have his liver for breakfast when I find him"

"Yessir." the agent repeated, as Felix turned on his heels and stormed off. The morning had started so well, nothing exciting had happened overnight, the news stories were all documenting the successful occupation of Eastern Benjia, with a few still harping on about the dead diplomat in Dyelli Beybi, mostly doing mushy human interest stories on what a remarkable woman she was. As far as Felix could work out the only thing remarkable about her was her ability to pose well for photos while she had been alive.

But this was much worse than anything he had imagined, what he had seen was a detailed list of the terrorist organisations Dyelli Beybi had funded. It even mentioned the stockpiles of arms given to Inner Heaven. Thankfully it had missed off the fact that a nuclear warhead had been in that pile (OOC: The warhead is OOC knowledge for anyone watching this :wink: ). He could only hope that they'd manage to delete the page before some other Government found it...

...And as if that wasn't enough it was more than likely the leak had come from within the Cheka.

Room 658, Informatiks Division, Secretariat of Imperial Security, Arn-Maciska

Another room, another bank of wall-to-wall computers.
Apart from differences in ethnicity, this might have been the same room where a Cheka agent was desparately trying to bring down a website.
It even had the same purpose, with one minor difference; SecImpSec was an external agency, and Informatiks Division trawled the internet looking for websites other governments would rather no-one found.
The numerous computers constantly searched the 'net, looking for anything; bringing the important items to the attention of human operators, and downloading them.
Mostly it just dredged up junk; conspiricy theorists' rants, lurid claims and sleaze.
But for every thousand bits of trash the Informatiks Division found, was a priceless gem.
In the light of the screens, an agent smiled.
Fingers danced along the keyboard, and a website was downloaded in its entirety.
Across the room, another one sighed in exasperation, and dismissed yet another porn sight.
But another agent was urgently stabbing at the keys.
This was worth its megs in gold.
<Agent 388 to Central; I have a possible pearl>
<Agent 388, wire it down here>
Fingers danced, and the cached site was sent along optic fibres to the central analysts' room.
<Agent 388, that's affirm; you have a pearl. Good work.>
The man identified as 388 smiled. A "pearl" was a website that had what the head of SecImpSec called "promise..."
<Correction 388, we think it might be a diamond...>
388's jaw dropped.
A diamond was SecImpSec slang for a major find, something that other governments would be very upset if it got into the open.
<388, we'll take it from here. Central out>

An hour later the head of Informatiks was presenting hardcopies to Dame Miranda Kavor, head of SecImpSec, who received them with the tired sigh of someone who's seen it all before.

By the time she reached the third page, she was grinning like the cheshire cat.

Felix Dzerzhinsky was not having a happy day, "So it's down now is it?"

The Agent nodded, "Yes Sir."

"Good, any leads as to where it came from?"

The agent standing in front of Dzerzhinsky's desk nodded again, "We know it came from within the department, and from the somewhat novice way the perpetrator or perpetrators went about it, I would assume it's a new member of staff."

Felix nodded, he had suspected as much, for all that information to be leaked it had to have come from inside the Cheka, however he wasn't certain it was a junior member of staff, to know that much tended to imply they had at least some authority, "We'll need to authorise a sweep team to catch the bastard before they can put anything else up. We're certain the leak came from this office?"

The agent paused over this then shook his head, "It could also have come from Saint Guineford's."

Felix ground his teeth, "Well tell Alexigrad we need 20 of their best for an internal mission, we can't afford any more blunders. This is a matter of National Security."

The agent nodded quickly, "Right away Sir." then ducked out of Felix's office.

Felix Dzerzhinsky was not having a happy day, "So it's down now is it?"

The Agent nodded, "Yes Sir."

"Good, any leads as to where it came from?"

The agent standing in front of Dzerzhinsky's desk nodded again, "We know it came from within the department, and from the somewhat novice way the perpetrator or perpetrators went about it, I would assume it's a new member of staff."

Felix nodded, he had suspected as much, for all that information to be leaked it had to have come from inside the Cheka, however he wasn't certain it was a junior member of staff, to know that much tended to imply they had at least some authority, "We'll need to authorise a sweep team to catch the bastard before they can put anything else up. We're certain the leak came from this office?"

The agent paused over this then shook his head, "It could also have come from Saint Guineford's."

Felix ground his teeth, "Well tell Alexigrad we need 20 of their best for an internal mission, we can't afford any more blunders. This is a matter of National Security."

The agent nodded quickly, "Right away Sir." then ducked out of Felix's office.

External Affairs Office, Houses of Parliament, Arn-Maciska.

Bishop Serpens Aldir, Minister for External Affairs, flicked through the report with interest.
"And you say this is a valid source?"
Opposite the Bishop sat Dame Miranda, still grinning.
"Yes sir. And I think the Dyelli would be quite upset if they knew we had it."
The Bishop sat back, tapping the report thoughtfully.
"I'm sure they would... thank you Dame Miranda, this is most helpful."
"I'm glad I could be of service, my lord."

Cabinet Room, Houses of Parliament, Arn-Maciska
An hour later the other five senior ministers and the First Minister, and the leaders of the parliamentary houses, i.e. the cabinet, had all read the dossier, a transcript of the website, and SecImpSec's recommendations.
"Any suggestions?" First Minister Dettaine asked lazily.
Premier Elgiva Vattyen, leader of the House of Deputies tapped the report with a finger.
"Oh, I think we should hold on to this little gem..." she said in a languid tone.
The Minister of Defence yawned and replied "Sounds good to me... no sense telling Dyelli Beybi that we have this sort of thing..."
Dettaine leaned back in his chair.
"No sense leaking it either... we have nothing to gain, and are neither friends nor foes of Dyelli Beybi..."
Archcardinal Perez stretched like a cat and offered his own input; "Neutrality has its benefits..."

The apparent slackness, tiredness, was all a sham. The eyes of the nine cabinet members betrayed dangerously intelligent minds, all alert, all running at speed.

The First Minister leaned forward, but only to get within reach of his coffee.
"Then we have consensus; we don't release this to anyone... it disappears into the National Archives... for now."
He gazed at a sheet of paper in front of him.
"Next order of business..."

The dossier dissappeared into Macisikan's mammoth national archives. Dyelli Beybi's national security was safe... for now

Jeruselem Inquisition HQ

Female officer: Grand Master, have a look at this.
GM: Well, well. Look at that.
Female officer: Dyelli Beybi supporting terrorists?
GM: As we suspected, but here's the clitcher. Put it into our Dyelli Beybi dossier
Female officer: Yes, sir. Inform the Catholic Church too?
GM: Yes, we need increase monitoring of Dyelli Beybi citizens here too.

Felix was sitting behind his desk again, "So you say their were hits on the site?"

The agent nodded, the sleeves on his pale blue business shirt were rolled up above his elbows. He was a thin man with spectacles and the look of someone who very rarely saw sunlight, which was entirely possible in this office, "Yes Sir, not many, less than a dozen we're guessing at this stage."

"Good." Felix nodded, with this few hits, the site could always be dismissed as an urban myth, and if by some chance someone had a copy of the info, the Cheka would deny everything. The only problem now was the fact that they still had someone in the agency willing to 'spill the beans' openly.

tag

.....smile, your being watched

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