Enemy Within Read Online Free

route, so after an informal ring around the directors we decided not to take it further.
    Despite intense in-house security there were already rumours in the market that the Company was about to introduce a major new product and this was stimulating interest in the Company. The brokers were able to project a high float price to encourage us to take the IPO route. They and the lawyers and accountants would make a killing in fees if the float were successful.
    ForceNet was a powerful piece of software and it had become clear over the past year that its military applications were even more potent than the large-scale commercial applications for which it had originally been developed. Eighteen months ago, Tom Gale, one of the senior developers had asked for a meeting with Alec and I. Tom was a games freak, particularly computer war games, and had a passionate interest in military hardware. He ’d claimed that with some adaptation, ForceNet had the potential capacity to control and manage multiple squadrons or large numbers of unmanned aircraft or drones. If ForceNet could, as Tom believed it could, facilitate a major step forward in the effective a nd instant control of units and /or fleets of unmanned aircraft to allow rapid decision making and action in attack or defence situations the military implications were amazing. The secret was in the user interface of ForceNet that provided a constant detailed overview that allowed rapid decision-making at varying levels. It had the potential, to put whoever had access to it, years ahead in this technology. Drone technology is advancing rapidly not only for military applications but also for commercial use so if our product was applicable then it was a huge potential market for the company. 
    At first Alec and I had been a bit shaken by this and somewhat sceptical, but asked Tom to let us have a short confidential report on his ideas, while we considered what to do next. Tom had said he would do so and also told us that he had an old student friend at the Ministry of Defence whom he thought it might be worth talking to.
    It turned out that the “old student friend”, Dean Jones, was more than just any one at the MoD, he was a recognised expert on military drones or unmanned aircraft! He ’s co me to see us and I immediately smelled a rat. Although he did not refer to it directly he seemed to have a “feeling”, for ForceNet.
    Afterwards Alec and I had grilled Tom but he denied that he had leaked any ForceNet information, although under pressure it became clear that he and Dean Jones had on several occasions had free wheeling speculative discussions on the issues involved in controlling and developing squadrons of unmanned aircraft.
     
    Two days later Alec had received a call from a Nick Ridley, a 'mandarin' at the Ministry of Defence. He wa nted some of his team to come a long for an informal chat, and a few days later a deputation of five people from the MoD had arrived. They understood that we had a new product called ForceNet, could they have some detailed information? Did we design the product for military application? Who were we planning to sell it too? Were there any prospective customers; if so who were they and had they seen the product in detail? They were also interested in our security set up. What were our procedures? How was the software protected? 
    The Company has what all of the staff believe are draconian security procedures controlling premises, staff vetting, and software control and compilation. We were targeting our new software at very large corporations, and they were limited in number, and there were some key competitors in the market, particularly in the US, so we did not want our concepts and designs leaking. Alec in particular, was anal at ensuring security procedures were followed.
    Present at the meeting with the MoD had been a somewhat dour looking Scotsman called Gordon Stewart, who seemed to have a 'watching' brief and contributed little to the