Shadow Code (A John Kovac Thriller Book 2) (John Kovac Thriller Series)

by David Caris

  ‘Then we’re good,’ Megan said.

  ‘I don’t think you understand. This is the entire company we’re talking about, on one little drive. It hasn’t been plugged in since it was created.’

  ‘I’m assuming there’s nothing of use here? Nothing we can repair?’

  Juliette nodded miserably. ‘It was all lost along with everything else here. Normally this facility would be swarming with staff, but it’s pretty much closed down. We’re down to security and a skeleton crew. Nothing is operational since the Hack hit, so they’ve let most staff go home.’

  ‘Then maybe we go to the airport?’ Megan said.

  ‘We’ll probably just cross paths again. It’d almost be funny, if it wasn’t so serious.’

  Megan stretched her legs again, thinking. ‘So what, we just wait now?’

  ‘Yep,’ Juliette said without hesitation. ‘When he gets here, we can create backups. We do it tonight. Tomorrow we fly back to London. We’ll each take a few copies of the domain controller, and we’ll travel on different planes. That should see us through.’

  Megan nodded, but without any real optimism. Things hadn’t been going smoothly so far and there was no reason to believe her luck was turning. ‘I hope so, Juliette, I really do.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Megan. This… it shouldn’t ever have come to this. We had the domain controllers syncing, we figured that was a hundred continuous backups. We just didn’t factor in an attack that hit the entire company as fast as this one did. They…’ She threw up her hands and dropped her head back. ‘No. That’s bullshit. It’s on me. I should’ve seen it. In the work we were doing before all this, it was a vulnerability and I missed it. Just a complete failure of imagination, and now we’re paying for it.’

  ‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’re doing everything you can.’ Megan stood to leave. ‘Let’s work the problem and worry about everything else later. Stay focused on the job at hand. I need you focused, Juliette. Can you hang in there for a few more hours while we get this done? Do you need coffee? Food? Cocaine?’

  Juliette managed a smile, the first since they had encountered one another back in the corridor outside. ‘I’m assuming that’s a joke?’

  ‘Correct. But the caffeine wasn’t.’

  ‘More caffeine right now and I’ll probably have a stroke or something. I’ll be fine. I’m just… I’ll be fine. You’re right. We work the problem.’ She gave Megan another smile, less forced this time, and raised one thumb in a somewhat lackluster shot at positivity. ‘Thanks. Thanks for being so understanding. I won’t lie, when I heard you were here I was terrified to tell you where this is all at. It’s a complete –’

  ‘Focus,’ Megan said. ‘Right now, we’ve got a chance to fix this. Let’s make the most of it.’

  She stepped back outside to Kovac. ‘She’s utterly exhausted,’ she said. ‘She’s not making much sense.’

  ‘The domain controller?’ he asked, pressing up off the wall.

  ‘We’re down to one copy, but it’s in our possession and will soon be on its way back here.’

  ‘From where?’

  ‘The airport.’

  ‘The same airport we just came from?’

  ‘I know. Long story. We’ve got a guy bringing it back.’

  ‘And this guy,’ Kovac said, ‘we in contact with him?’

  ‘Kind of. We can call him, I think, yes. I’m waiting on his number, but I’ll tell him to forget the flight and organize a cab back. We’ll copy the –’

  ‘No,’ Kovac said. ‘Too risky. He’ll be alone. Tell him to post it.’

  Megan was puzzled. ‘What?’

  ‘From the airport. Right now. Tell him to post the drive to you in London, paying for all the optional extras to ensure it doesn’t get lost in transit. Registered, secure, express, all of it. If there’s anything he can pay to speed it up and ensure it arrives at Curzon tomorrow, tell him to pay it. He puts your name on it, but with the London Curzon head office address. Don’t use your apartment address, you’ll probably have a crowd of journalists by now going through your trash and mail.’

  ‘Okay. You’re sure about this?’

  Kovac shrugged. He didn’t look sure, but he said: ‘For now, yes. There should be a duty-free electronics shop of some kind at the airport, right?’

  Megan nodded, figuring there would be. ‘I guess.’

  ‘After he’s posted the drive, tell him to buy another one.’

  ‘Another solid-state drive?’ she clarified, confused. ‘How can he make a backup if –’

  Kovac shook his head. ‘Backups are too risky. Tell him to get a drive that’s as similar to the real one as possible and unpackage it.’

  ‘I really don’t understand where you’re going with this.’

  ‘If we can get the drive out of this courier’s hands, we can relax. And if he’s walking around with another drive, we can sit back and watch.’

  ‘“We”? I thought you were leaving.’

  ‘I will – from the airport. For now, get Juliette.’

  Megan nodded back towards the little equipment room. ‘She’s pretty out of it. I recommend –’

  ‘You’re recognizable to anyone familiar with Curzon, and I’m compromised, too. We won’t blend in at Schwechat. But Juliette will.’

  ‘You want to send her in alone?’

  Kovac ducked the question. ‘We’ll also need a tablet with a SIM card and a decent data plan. I’m guessing that won’t be too hard to source in this place?’

  ‘Shouldn’t be.’

  ‘Match it to Juliette’s phone.’

  ‘Match it?’

  ‘The platform. If she’s Apple, get me an iPad. If she’s Android, a Samsung – or whatever you have that will get the job done. Just make sure it has a SIM with decent data and bandwidth. Preferably the national carrier, or whatever company has the best network here. I’ll need a new phone, too.’

  ‘I’ll ask.’

  Megan went back into the little equipment room and gave Juliette the basic plan, as best she could understand it. Kovac followed her in. ‘You right to wander around Vienna International for a bit tonight?’ he asked, when Megan was done explaining.

  Juliette’s eyes widened slightly. She looked to Megan, then back to Kovac. ‘Will it be dangerous?’

  ‘No,’ Kovac said without hesitation. ‘In all likelihood, you’ll be bored.’

  ‘And if I’m not? If something happens?’

  He shook his head. ‘You’ll be bored, and you’ll have me talking you through every step.’ Refocusing on Megan, Kovac asked. ‘Do we have any vehicles here that don’t have “Curzon” written all over them? A van, ideally.’

  ‘Okay, that’s a bit of a list.’ Megan took out her phone, making notes. She sent the list to Nix, knowing one way or another he would make it all happen. Then she could follow his instructions running around this place collecting things one by one from whoever happened to have them. ‘I’ll get on it now.’

  Kovac nodded. ‘There a break room anywhere in this place?’

  ‘There’s a cafe apparently,’ Juliette said, ‘but I think it’ll be shut at this hour.’

  ‘Get them to open it up,’ Kovac said to Megan. ‘Juliette, let’s get a coffee and talk through surveillance 101.’

  Chapter 37

  There was no van available – at least, no unmarked van. So the same cab driver dropped them at a second Curzon facility, where they waited on, then collected and signed for an unmarked sedan. It was a sporty version of the Skoda Octavia – blue, with flashy 19-inch alloy hubcaps and red brake calipers. Of far more interest to Kovac were the blacked-out windows. These, unlike all the rest, would actually be useful.

  Kovac, Megan and Juliette drove this car to the airport: Kovac in the driver’s seat, Megan in the front passenger seat and Juliette in the back seat. They parked in one of the short-term lots. It was brightly lit, but Kovac was confident they wouldn’t draw much attention. Plus, there was hardly anyone around at this hour. A
few people had passed by them rolling suitcases – a guy in a business suit with some kind of ID hanging from his neck and a middle-aged Asian woman – but that was it. Currently, they were alone and free to do as they pleased.

  Megan studied her phone for a moment, tilting her head before turning the phone around to make better sense of the airport map. She pointed. ‘He said he would wait here. It’s shops mostly and he said it was busy.’

  ‘He’s posted the domain controller already though, right?’ Kovac asked.

  She swapped to a text conversation. ‘He’s finishing that job up now. I’m just waiting for final confirmation.’

  Kovac watched Megan put in the secure pattern he used with King and Bishop, and also noticed Megan’s phone had full bars. He wasn’t surprised. Bishop had designed Curzon’s secure phones to work in as many countries as possible without needing Wi-Fi, SIM purchases or finicky configuration. Juliette’s phone seemed to have a good signal too.

  Just his own phone and the tablet still to set up…

  Kovac grabbed a plastic bag filled with supplies they had bought at a small convenience store en route. He took out cigarettes and a lighter and pocketed them, then a SIM card starter pack, a small burner phone and a Play gift card. He set up the SIM and set to work creating a Play store account with dummy credentials, using dummy Gmail identities he’d created after parting ways with Curzon. He downloaded FlexiSPY and installed it on his new burner phone, before repeating the entire process on the tablet. To finish off, he installed FlexiSPY on Juliette’s phone.

  He tested all three, then gave Juliette the burner. ‘No delicate way to put this,’ he said, ‘but this needs to go into your pants. Preferably into your underpants if you think it’s possible.’ Her eyes widened with alarm. ‘At the back,’ he quickly added. ‘Should tuck in there at the top near the elastic, and it won’t be noticeable with the flannel shirt you’ve got tied round your waist. Basically, we’re using it as a backup – in case you lose your own phone, and we lose you.’

  ‘No cameras or anything though, right?’

  ‘Offended you feel the need to ask, but no. Definitely no cameras or anything like that, unless you need them later. It’s just GPS.’

  ‘It’s lucky I don’t get round in figure-hugging clothes,’ she muttered, signaling for Kovac to look away. He did, looking out over the parking lot. He counted to ten then said: ‘You done?’

  ‘Yeah. I can’t say it’s comfortable but… I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.’

  Kovac still had Juliette’s real phone. He tested it, granting additional permissions, and it seemed to work in okay with the tablet. He could hear everything Juliette’s phone picked up, and could see her camera feed in real-time. They had decent cell reception because the short-term parking lot was out in the open, under a broad night sky that continually rumbled with the coming and going of passenger jets.

  Good to go.

  ‘Where is he?’ Kovac asked, pulling up a map of the terminal on the tablet. The computer engineer turned courier – their target for this outing – was called Lincoln. In his company ID photo, Lincoln was a pudgy, pale man in his early thirties with the blond spikey hair of a surfer, though Kovac doubted the man had ever put on a wetsuit let alone tried to stand up on a board. He had a pleasant but innocuous face, one slightly lazy eye and three-day stubble. Even at a glance, Kovac could see Lincoln wasn’t going to transform the world; but he probably wasn’t going to make any enemies, either. Perfect for this job.

  ‘Okay. Let’s do this.’ Kovac got out and Juliette did the same, albeit nervously, one hand scratching at her lower back. ‘Try not to touch that burner, even if it’s uncomfortable. It draws attention to it.’ He ran his eyes across the roofs of countless cars, on up to the terminal building. There was still a strong wind blowing, but a plane’s flashing lights roared up into the sky suggesting at least some flights were getting off the ground and venturing out into the world. ‘Remember,’ Kovac said, ‘phone like this.’ He held it as if reading from the screen, but tilted up just enough for the camera to see more than the concrete immediately in front of him. The same trick he had used back in London to sidestep a drive-by. ‘Keep it upside down, camera at the bottom instead of at the top. If you think someone’s taking more than the usual interest in you, you say: ‘I can’t watch dad all night.’

  ‘Watch dad?’

  ‘Dad is the courier.’

  ‘Lincoln.’

  ‘Yeah. Calling him dad should give you some wriggle room to communicate what’s going on in code, all the while sounding like a daughter. Pretend you’re talking to a sibling about an ill father. “They’re watching dad closely”, “they’re taking dad away now, they’re planning to transport him…” you get the idea. Improvise. We’ll figure it out at our end.’

  ‘Okay. But I don’t approach him, I don’t communicate with him at all?’

  ‘No. Just watch and, if possible, let me and Megan watch some of the time, too. He’s bait. We want to see who goes for the fake domain controller and, if possible, capture them on film.’

  ‘Okay.’ She practiced holding the phone upside down while pretending to read, and she took a few steps as a test. In the Skoda, Megan gave a thumbs up. ‘You’re a natural at this,’ Kovac said, gesturing for her to continue on towards the airport alone. ‘You’ll do great.’

  ‘Providing my backup phone doesn’t slip any further down. If it goes wrong and they spot me what do I do besides pulled a phone out of my ass?’

  Kovac smiled. ‘Like we discussed. You head outside and get a cab. We’ll fall in behind you. Just drive, doesn’t matter where. We’ll tell you when and where to stop and we’ll collect you. If you’ve lost your main phone, leave the other where it is. We’ll intercept you when we’re ready. You’re in a public place, they won’t risk a scene.’

  ‘They?’

  ‘If they even exist.’ Kovac pointed towards the airport, then walked back to the Skoda.

  Megan passed him the tablet. He had a jerky view of the concrete in front of Juliette. “Higher with the phone”, he texted.

  She said: ‘Is my phone muted? That’s why you’re texting?’

  “Yes.”

  ‘But you can hear me?’

  “Yes.” Kovac thought a moment, then added: “You’ve got this” along with a thumbs up emoji.

  ‘Emojis too,’ Juliette said under her breath. ‘Gotta say, Kovac, didn’t pick you for a wannabe Millennial.’

  Kovac smiled but remained focused on the live feed, searching for a familiar face or threat of any kind.

  Juliette waited on a passing car then crossed a road. ‘Almost there now,’ she said. ‘One minute out.’

  ‘You really think she’s up to this?’ Megan asked.

  ‘She’ll be fine.’

  ‘We could’ve used staff from the data center. Some of them have great English.’

  ‘Fewer unknowns with Juliette. You’ve been working with her for a while right?’

  Megan nodded.

  ‘And you trust her? You said you did.’

  ‘I think so. I suppose the hack comes after her help, so that’s not great. But what reason would she have to work against us? Her entire career is probably ruined. What’s the next potential client going to say when she tells them she set up Curzon’s security.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Kovac said. ‘And we’ll know something’s up if she deviates from the plan.’

  ‘You’re testing her with this?’

  ‘Maybe a little. But she’s not raising any red flags at this point.’

  On the tablet screen, Juliette entered the airport. Kovac saw a walkway overlooking what might have been an arrivals area. He had only glimpsed it but it looked like there were people standing around, waiting for passengers to emerge from automatic one-way doors. Overhead was all glass, possibly the various airline lounges. Juliette navigated without Kovac needing to text instructions. She passed under a few hanging banner ads, casually flicking the phone up and around wh
ile pretending to get her bearings. Another move they had practiced before setting out for the Skoda.

  Straight ahead, Kovac saw self-service check-in kiosks with little guns for scanning ticket barcodes. There were two airline staff, one male, one female, in stiff white shirts with red, sleeveless vests and ID badges.

  ‘This is good,’ he mumbled. ‘She’s got a good connection, even indoors.’

  There were people on phones everywhere, many walking and reading just like Juliette was doing. It was ironic, but just a fact of life now that a person could walk around an airport with a camera and mic in hand and draw absolutely no attention to themselves.

  People whipped past, wheeling suitcases behind them, and one man came straight at Juliette at a jog before also slipping past and presumably continuing on. ‘Okay,’ Juliette said. ‘Almost there.’

  “Don’t talk to yourself,” Kovac texted.

  Juliette texted an angry face back.

  Kovac saw ticket gates with large capital letters and a yellow “i” for an information desk, which had a long queue. Juliette continued over to open seating and large windows with a view of the planes and runways. There were busses and little luggage trains outside following lines painted on the tarmac, and a few employees waving lights.

  The phone went to her ear and the screen went black. ‘Dad’s not here,’ she said.

  “Try the shops,” Kovac texted, wondering why she was expecting him at the windows. ‘That wasn’t the meet location, was it?’ he asked Megan.

  ‘It was the backup.’

  Juliette lowered the phone and once again pretended to read as she passed elevators and made her way to the escalators. She rode one down to a new level with shops. She was behind a man in shorts with a bulky backpack and Kovac couldn’t see much until she cleared him and pressed forward. She passed a woman sitting cross-legged on the floor, sunglasses on her head, a computer open in her lap.

  “Check her again,” Kovac texted.

  Juliette did.

  The girl was plugged into the wall beside her. Even with all this setup, she was talking loudly in Chinese into a phone. “Forget her.”