TO: Knight's Lineup <April Rice; Jager; Sandcaster; ... ; Alchemist>
FROM: Access@secure.personal.TheWCK.Op
CC: Access@secure.redundant.TheWCK.Op
DATE: March 19, 2006

Subj: Changes to protocol

Greetings everyone, it is great to be back with the Knights once again. As such their are some changes to the building that I would like to integrate. The primary cause being our security system, another being our method of date and protocol integration with the city of Chicago.

I would like to hold a meeting in order to discuss the expectations of the group, and what features they would like to see, to help streamline everything we do. This is not mandatory, but the more people that show up, the more streamlined everything will be for everyone. I will be in the meeting room for the next 10 hours while I run system checks, please come and go as you please and we may discuss everything.

Once everything is completed, there will be a mandatory meeting where private information is handed out to everybody.

I thank you for your time.

Access
JC


*******************

Access is sitting in a revolving chair in the meeting room. To anybody not knowing him, they would think he's just standing their like he is in a trance, anybody that knows him, and the way he works, will realize he is interfaced with the computer and checking security records and software pathways from the time he was gone. That was only part of what he was doing, he was actually just killing time until somebody decided to talk to him about what they would like for him to upgrade.

Cade made his way through the Knigts building and down to the section coded as Access's Lab. He knocked politely to announce his presence. "Access, it's Cade, I'd like to speak with you. I have a favor or two to ask of you."

Access throws up a holographic screen so he can keep track of what he's doing visually now that somebody has arrived. "That's no problem Cade, I'm just purging alot of useless stuff to help streamline, It looks like I'm going to do a complete overhaul of my old security and data networks as well, but that's still a ways off." Access realizes he's rambling. "Anyway, what exactly is it that I can do for you?"

Normally he'd be paranoid about meeting new people, but something about this location, and this organization have made him feel more secure, that doesn't keep him from running another OpNet scan about Cade through his Cyberkinesis though.

Cade walks in and closes the door behind him. "As you are no doubt aware, Endeavor was hired to help beef up security here. She's since left the team in a bit of an uproar. What i'd ask of you is to go over each and every system she had a hand in and make sure there are no backdoors, or flaws in the systems. Brilliant she may say she is, but if her acutally actions are any indication she likely didn't think of everything."

He nods. "The second part, I'd like to welcome you back to the Knights. It feels better to have someone who helped found this team here handling the systems he designed."

His voice suggests true honesty and trust. He's trying to make a good impression here, and realizes Access may have already started on these ideas.

"I'm already making those changes. I'm even removing my backdoors into the system, they don't need to be here as long as I am. If I have anything to say about this building and these servers, they will both be impervious, even if I start contributing my own money into it. We have enough to worry about, being infultrated shouldn't be one of them."

A couple more screens pop up behind Access and information flies across them at breakneck speeds. "As far as custimization goes, is there anything that you would like to help streamline your personal preferences while accessing our systems?"

"A better communication system. I've been getting static at times. I move around alot in my duties between here and the Chicago Foundation, and sometimes the the com units have gone out on me. If you could look into that I'd be much obliged."

He smiles. "If financial worries are a concern on things, I'd be happy to offer my own assistance there. My past life left me well off in that regard."

"That shouldn't be too big of an issue, I've already been working on it." Access takes the ear piece out of his ear. It's not the large one he's use wearing, but much smaller and clearly invisible." He hands it to Cade. "You can feel free to use that one, it's self cleaning, adjust shape to your ear at a microscopic level, can form complete sound neutralization, you could be at a Spinal Tap concert and hear just fine with it. The most important is that it uses an encrypted signal that will take either a genius, or somebody with way too much free time to listen in on, and it's also EM shielded, so any transport powers shouldn't disrupt."
Next, Access fishes through his coat and pulls out what looks like a credit card. "This is a microcomputer, between it and the ear piece, we can get a visual if you carry the correct button, but you will have a real time linkup with out exterior server, which will be manually loaded with only relevant data, that way it can't be used to infiltrate us. It also has tracking capabilities, and many other ones." He opens his desk drawer and pulls out a bound stack of paper an inch thick. "Here's your user manual, I've got your password on the system shut down for 12 hours, after that I'll need some extensive information so we can fill out a series of possible passwords for you. So enjoy as much as you can for now."

Cade almost collided with Sandcaster as the latter made her way into what had quickly become Access' lair once more; indeed, she was surprised with how much the space had been reorientated in such a short time. No wasted space; everything here was functional and practical...and nestled right in the heart of it all was Access.

"Cade, if you could help correlate the data Jager pulled in from that tracking mission, it would be a big help," she said to the charming fellow that was leaving the room. Once he had nodded and passed out into the labyrinth of corridors, she stepped into the nerve center that Access had constructed, looking around with an appreciative cast to her eyes.

"I just came down to see how your settling back in, Access. Looks like you haven't wasted any time getting started. I'm glad to have you back."

"No, I find it easy to forget other things while I'm busy working. Therefore you'll pretty much always find me busy working, and since the Knights are the only business I have now, that' the only thing you'll find me working on. Though I did have to take a little time to rearrange my lab again, I guess the studio had taken to using parts of it as storage." Access takes a moment when a chime goes off in the back of his head and he turns to look at one of his holographic screens. "It seems we have some script kiddies trying to access our database. You're the boss, should I just repel them, or make them sorry they ever tried to access us?"

He pauses for a moment once again, "While I'm thinking about it, any changes you want made to our security?"

Sandcaster craned her neck to look over her shoulder. The holo-screen was geared at a focal length set for Access, and was more than a little blurry, but she could still see the packets running up against the firewall.

After a moment's thought, she said, "Are they any good at it, or is this more or less just amateurish flailing about?"

Access moves the screen to where Sandcaster can see it just fine. "No, not really, I'm guessing they just downloaded some app off the OpNet and decided to point it our way, even a decent baseline would be able to defend against it." He throws up another holoscreen, this one apparently looking through their webcam, and broadcasting sound from their microphone. Apparently it is two young kids, probably around their teens. "I think I'll record it, I've pulled the address, and we can notify their parents of their behavior. I'll even make it a personal visit."

"That sounds like a good plan. If they were good at it, we could have looked that directing their talents in more useful directions, but in this case, parental notification is the best bet."

Sandcaster straightened back up, and took one more look around. She was no slouch, but much of what was going on in here was beyond her; in many ways, Access lived in a rather different world, and it showed. "Well, I just wanted to touch base. There's some things I need to take care of, but let me know if you need anything."

"Not a problem boss, the same goes for you."