21 FORT MEADE, MARYLAND

In a windowless cinder-block building off Taylor Avenue, Tim Johns leaned back in his chair at his computer workstation, waiting for the algorithm to begin sending data. Johns, a Cryptologic Technician Networks Petty Officer Second Class, was assigned to the U.S. Cyber Warfare Command, which was responsible for centralized control of all military cyberspace operations. Comprising 133 teams with varying assignments, Cyber Warfare Command employed over six thousand cyber warriors.

Johns was a member of a combat mission team, a cyber unit loosely modeled after special operation forces. During offensive operations, Johns’s unit would plant cyber bombs in target networks, but the current assignment was less ambitious, simply hacking into encrypted Russian diplomatic and military networks. After identifying another vulnerable node, he had planted a new spider, an algorithm capable of decrypting all messages transiting the router, searching for keywords.

The new spider started sending data, scrolling down his screen, which would be reviewed by the intelligence analysts. So far, the spiders had detected thousands of hits using the supplied keywords, but most were meaningless sentences and phrases. His eyes shifted to the top of the display as a new keyword appeared: Блок TM85.1051. As it moved down the screen, he read the sentence, translating it into English in his mind: Unit TM85.1051 reports the order was executed flawlessly. Not particularly interesting, Johns thought. But at least it was something new for the analysts to chew on.

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