Primal Deception

by Robin Mahle

  “Ahsan Sajwani,” Lacy replied. “But this doesn’t appear to be from Liwa Properties, like we thought.”

  “No. The money came from Dubai, but not from Liwa. Which means I don’t know who Ballard was working with other than this man’s name. Our initial theory was wrong. And unfortunately, none of these documents identify the source of the two million dollars from China.”

  “But we have a name. I can do a lot with a name.” Aaron looked at Lacy. “I can look into this guy, Sajwani, and I’ll sure as hell do the best I can to hide my tracks.”

  “Between the two of us, if we can find out where he’s from, it might lead us to Beijing,” Will added.

  ♦♦♦

  In a rare moment of normalcy, Lacy found herself laughing. She and Aaron sat in the living room after finishing off the last of the leftover casserole someone had brought over as an offer of condolence. The kids were in bed and Celeste had gone to her room.

  Agent Caison had dropped a hefty task onto Aaron and perhaps she’d asked him to stay for dinner out of guilt. Or perhaps it was that she didn’t want to be alone, even if Celeste and the kids were in the house. It was a friend she needed, and Aaron was about the only one left.

  “You remember that instructor in our third year?” Aaron began to snap his fingers, trying to recall the name. “Oh, what the hell was his name?”

  “Grossman. Professor Grossman,” Lacy added. “Oh yeah, I remember that guy.” She sat up straight and thrust her shoulders back. “Mr. Hunter, if you can’t be on time, then kindly resign your place in this class for a student who can.”

  This time, they both laughed.

  “What a piece of work that guy was,” Aaron said. “I wonder if he’s still teaching.”

  Lacy sipped on her wine and set it on the side table. “God, I hope not. I think making students miserable was his top priority.”

  “Yeah, that and squashing any hopes of creativity or individuality.”

  Lacy’s laugh faded as she cast her gaze down. “We sure had some fun in those days, didn’t we?”

  “Damn straight.” Aaron’s enjoyment tempered as well.

  After a few moments of quiet, Lacy’s eyes glistened. “I miss him so much. Things weren’t perfect in our marriage. I think we’d begun to take each other for granted.” She inhaled a deep breath to curtail the tears. “But he was my best friend. And he was an amazing father. Aaron, you should’ve seen him in action. He loved those kids with every fiber of his being.”

  “I’m sure he loved all of you with his whole heart.”

  She nodded and wiped away a stray tear. “It’s not fair. This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out.”

  Aaron moved next to Lacy on the couch. He grabbed her hand. “No, it wasn’t. And I’m sorry I didn’t try harder to keep in touch with you guys. I should have. Life gets in the way and well, there’s really no excuse.” With the crook of his finger, he raised her chin and gently turned her head toward him. “You and me? We’ll find the truth. And I believe Agent Caison wants that too. Jay would never have done anything to put you or the kids in danger and I know he wasn’t involved in any wrongdoing—corporate espionage or whatever the hell you want to call it.”

  “Do you think I’m way off base about the attack?”

  “You mean about the backdoor deals and payments and then the Nova mall getting blown to bits?” Aaron paused. “Improbable—maybe it is; impossible—definitely not. But if there is a link, then we’ll make it and we’ll find the truth.”

  ♦♦♦

  David Hogan, Nova’s COO, appeared in Tom Neville’s doorway and caught his eye. “Mr. Hogan? I wasn’t expecting you.” He rose from his desk chair. “How are you, sir?”

  “I’m sure you weren’t.” Hogan returned the greeting that Tom offered. “I had a meeting with the FBI this morning and I know one of their men, an Agent Caison, spoke with you the other day.”

  “Yes, that’s right. I offered all the help I could.” A stammer sounded in Tom’s voice until he cleared his throat.

  “’I’ll tell you, Tom, we’re in a real situation here and I’m not sure what to do about it.” He moved to the small sofa, hiked up his pants, and sat down.

  “I don’t catch your meaning, Mr. Hogan.” Tom soon joined him.

  “The FBI has reason to believe there was an inappropriate relationship between you and a man who was found murdered the other day, an Owen Ballard. He was your contact at Argus Solutions?”

  Tom nodded.

  “And now he’s dead.”

  “Yes, sir. I was very sorry to hear that, especially after they just lost another one of their staff in the attack. But from what I understand, this was a random home invasion. Could’ve happened to anyone, unfortunately.”

  “Maybe so, but in an effort to ensure transparency, we have provided the FBI with any and all information in our system regarding Argus and us here.”

  “Okay.”

  Hogan studied him further. “Is there anything I should know? Anything at all that might make it look as though Nova Investments was involved in underhanded activities?”

  “Of course not. Sir, I realize the attack has put everyone on high alert, but there was nothing improper going on with any of our business partnerships. I can assure you.”

  Hogan rose to his feet again. “Then you won’t have a problem with turning over anything you have here in your office that isn’t on our servers as it pertains to Argus?”

  “No. I have no problems with that at all.”

  “Good.” Hogan made his way toward the hall. “Come on in; we’re ready for you.” He turned back to Neville. “Then you won’t mind if these guys take a look.”

  Agent Caison appeared from beyond the corridor along with Mendez.

  “Do what you need to do, agents.” Hogan turned to leave. “Be sure and help these gentlemen out with whatever they need, Tom.”

  Caison smiled. “Where should we start, Mr. Neville?”

  Tom’s chest tightened as he tried to maintain a steady breath. He couldn’t be sure exactly what was in his office, but he didn’t think they would find anything damaging. Still, if he’d just had a few minutes to check himself. His lips pressed together as he considered what Hogan had done. “Wherever you like, Agent Caison.”

  ♦♦♦

  “So what was the point of that show of force?” Agent Mendez pressed the remote to unlock his car. “You didn’t really think we’d find anything in there, did you?”

  “No, but I wanted to make him aware that we’re watching him.” Caison opened the passenger side door and slid onto the seat. Once Mendez started the car, he continued, “I just need to keep him on his toes.”

  Mendez pulled out of the Nova building parking lot. “Yeah, well, if he does have anything tucked away somewhere, he won’t after today.” He turned to Caison. “I hope that’s what you want too.”

  “I want him to get nervous, to start reaching out to his contacts so we can find out who he’s talking to, and subpoena his phone records. That’s what I want.”

  “I sure as hell hope you know what you’re going after here. We need answers for the attack and Tom Neville may be a devious son of a bitch, but you haven’t convinced me any of this has anything to do with the attack.”

  “It’ll come together. I promise you. There’s a reason State wants us to close the door on this investigation and I’m confident it has everything to do with skirting the truth.”

  Mendez pulled into the parking garage at Headquarters and cut the engine. “Remember, this pursuit of ours is to remain with us. Unless we find something meaningful, no one needs to know about our visit today.”

  They carried on inside and returned to their office, except someone was there waiting for them.

  “I was wondering when you two would return from your little expedition.” Trevor Axell stood from the chair. “I thought we had an understanding, gentlemen? Our directive was clear and yet you two
are continuing down a path that is a waste of taxpayer dollars.”

  “Wasn’t it you who said we could pursue any reasonable lead?” Caison hadn’t yet figured out how the CIA got wind of their Nova visit. No one on their team was aware and unless David Hogan’s phone calls were being traced, they wouldn’t have known that Mendez made the call first thing this morning.

  “We’re just trying to cover all our bases, Agent Axell.” Mendez approached his desk. “We’ve got a job to do just like you.”

  “Look, we all want answers, but I’m telling you, gentlemen, the word’s come down and it’s from high enough that I don’t have much choice except to listen,” Axell continued. “You’ve got no evidence to suggest involvement from anyone other than the terrorist group in the plotting or execution of this attack. Now, if you believe Nova was involved in the deaths of hundreds and the destruction of its own asset, that’s on you. But if you truly believe that’s the case, then I suggest you find something and soon. State will pull the rug out from under us at any minute.” Axell made his way to the door. “I do ask that you keep me informed in this process. It’s just common courtesy.” He closed the door behind him.

  “Great.” Mendez eyed his partner. “Looks like we just pissed off the CIA.”

  “I know I’m right about this. I just need time to prove it.”

  “Hey, I didn’t say I was angry about it. Those guys can go fuck themselves if they think they’re the ones in charge of this investigation. I don’t give a shit who Axell’s State contact is. This is our deal.”

  “I couldn’t agree more.”

  ♦♦♦

  Aaron opened the door to his apartment. “Hey. Thanks for coming over.” He let Lacy inside, peeked around the corners of the hall just to be sure no one was watching, and then closed his door again. “I just thought it’d be better to do this here rather than at your place. We have no idea who might be watching you.”

  “You think I’m being watched?”

  “No—I just, it’s just better this way.” Aaron backpedaled, noting the panic in her eyes and walked toward the desk in his living room. “Pull up a chair. You need anything?”

  “No, I’m good.” Lacy dragged over a chair from Aaron’s dinette set and sat down next to him as his fingers once again began to dance along the keyboard.

  “I was playing around a little last night after I left your place and hit a few road blocks.” He noted Lacy’s concern. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t detected. But then this morning, I figured out that I needed to write a kernel rootkit and so I’ve been working on that until you got here.”

  “Is it finished?” Lacy recalled the purpose of a rootkit and a kernel rootkit could do a lot of damage besides just getting into the backdoor of a system. “Are you ready to install it?”

  “I think so.” He hesitated. “Yeah, I’m ready. It’ll work.”

  “Where are you going first?” Lacy asked.

  “We need to find out who Ahsan Sajwani is, right?”

  “Right.”

  “Then we need to start with tracing the wire back to his bank account and try to get into his account settings. Get an email address, street address; something that will help us to locate him. Ballard was dumb enough to keep physical copies of the transactions and not just a digital trail that blocked the payor. Now we have a name.”

  “Or smart enough,” Lacy added. “It was probably a safeguard so he would have the names at the ready, if the occasion arose. Except for our Beijing depositor, the one I think will reveal everything.”

  “Right. He’s still an unknown.” Aaron began typing again and, this time, when he stopped, he drew a great breath and waited. “Just give it a minute.”

  They watched the cursor flash.

  “Need to make sure it’s going to let me in. Hang on.”

  Lacy’s heart began to race. Years had passed since she felt this kind of excitement. And while this was for an entirely different reason, the thrill was the same. The FBI was lucky she was on the right side of the law.

  “I’m in!”

  15

  There it was, right in front of her. The bank account that had belonged to a man by the name of Ahsan Sajwani and currently had a balance of $2,550,000. Lacy pointed her index finger at the screen. “These payments coincide with the ones that were deposited into Owen’s account.”

  “Let me get a screenshot of this.” Aaron pressed the buttons to capture the image and continued. “We know Sajwani was funneling the money to Ballard, so where is Sajwani getting it from?”

  “And who the hell is he? What’s his connection to Nova, Liwa, or to Ballard himself?” Lacy added.

  Again, Aaron whittled away at the information, covertly probing the data while both hoped his rootkit remained stealthy. It would only take a system reboot to kick them out or to be discovered.

  “Why did Owen deposit money into an account in Jay’s name? He was getting paid by this Sajwani guy and from an unknown in China. How did this involve Jay?” Lacy asked.

  “Jay didn’t know this account existed. I’m sure of it. You weren’t here that day. He didn’t know what he was looking at. That isn’t how someone would behave if they were involved. So to me, that’s the real problem. Who set up that account and why?”

  “Let’s look a little more into Sajwani. Let’s see what ties he has to Nova or Liwa Properties. Can you get into his account settings?”

  Aaron opened a new screen. “I think so.”

  She watched him work and it begged the question: “What have you been doing all this time? How have you managed to still be so good at this?”

  “I tend to operate in the grey and we’ll leave it at that.” Aaron briefly smiled at her but returned his attention to the keyboard.

  She wanted to believe him, but his skills far surpassed any in their old group of friends, most of whom had already moved on, started families and careers, much the way she and Jay had. But then, Aaron always marched to his own beat. “You never sold out like the rest of us.”

  “I wouldn’t say you guys sold out. You just grew up.” He chuckled. “I guess I never did.”

  “Let’s just hope both of us don’t end up in jail over this.”

  “Or dead.” Aaron averted his eyes. “I—I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. You might be right.”

  After several more minutes of nothing but the sound of a keyboard clicking, Aaron began, “Hang on; I think I’ve got something here.” He paused a moment and studied the screen. “Holy shit. Sajwani is a consultant for Liwa.”

  “A consultant?”

  “Looks like it. I pulled up checks that had been scanned in for deposit. Take a look here.” He pointed to the name on the check. “Liwa Properties. And at the bottom it lists a contract number. I assume that he’s a contract employee; a consultant.”

  “So, this went above Tom Neville’s head. It went straight up the ladder to Liwa Properties.”

  “Well, a consultant to Liwa, at the very least.”

  “I get the association, but it doesn’t lead us any closer to the idea that Ballard had anything to do with the mall attack. And if anything, it makes it seem less likely. It’s looking more and more like these guys were just trading corporate secrets and that’s it.”

  “Where does Jay fit in with this, then?” Aaron asked.

  “I don’t know. The deeper we get, the more it looks like he was involved, doesn’t it?”

  Aaron’s screen went black. “Shit.”

  “What the hell just happened?”

  “I’m out.”

  “They restarted their systems?”

  “I don’t know.” He turned to Lacy. “They could’ve or they found me.”

  ♦♦♦

  Inside the bank of Panama, a young man whose talents were being wasted in the IT department now stood in front of his supervisor. “I utilize a program that lists the Interrupt Descriptor Table and saves it in its current form for review lat
er on. I conduct a review twice daily to search for discrepancies between the original table and an IDT from that time of day.”

  “In laymen’s terms, please,” the supervisor demanded.

  “Of course, sir. As I was saying, basically, the interrupt handler retrieves the system call address that has been modified. I was able to locate the address and recognized that it had been modified. From there, I discovered the rootkit, the um, hack, if you will.” The kid had managed to describe a process that had taken several hours and boil it down to a three-sentence description.

  “Do you know who gained access and what they were looking for?”

  “Not yet, sir. I am working on that.”

  “Then please, do your best and do it quickly.” He paused a moment. “Would this intruder have gained access to personal information? Identifying information?”

  “Yes, sir. Quite easily, I’m afraid.”

  The man waved off his young protégé. “Then you must work quickly.”

  With a nod, the kid returned to his department, where several other staff members were working on the system to locate the hacker.

  “Mansur?” Another young man sat in his cubicle and noted his colleague’s return. “What did he say?”

  “That we must work quickly to determine what information they were seeking.”

  “Then I think you might want to know what I’ve found.” He turned his monitor toward Mansur. “I show fifteen system drives that were accessed during the timeframe in question.”

  “That’s quite a lot,” Mansur replied.

  “Agreed, but between the four of us, we should be able to analyze the drives relatively quickly.”

  “Then let’s divide and conquer.”

  ♦♦♦