The Dark Web: The stunning new thriller from the author of The Angolan Clan (African Diamonds Book 3)

by Christopher Lowery

  ‘If you mean Marius Coetzee, he told me he expected news by tomorrow. Do you think that’s the key?’

  ‘Based on my interpretation of Mr Shen Fu Liáng’s actions over the last several years, I’m quite certain the explanation lies in that single fact. I hope Mr Coetzee’s expectations are fulfilled, or we may be facing a rather nasty global crisis which none of us will enjoy.

  ‘By the way,’ he went on, ‘in that same vein, there’s an interesting piece in the business news about cyber-warfare. Apparently, Lloyds of London, the insurance group, has calculated that a global cyber-attack, like the Lee-Win event we are anticipating, would cost the world governments over £50 billion. I’m not sure on what data they can possibly base such a calculation, but it will certainly be a world-shattering event if it is not nipped in the bud.’

  ‘And that’s just the financial cost, apart from the political and human disasters that would ensue.’

  ‘Quite right, my dear. It also happens to be approximately the amount that our UK government threatens to spend to leave our European partners in first-class comfort.’ He snorted in anger and turned the page of the newspaper, ‘And I’m sure you’re aware that two Republican Congressmen, Brad Sherman and Al Green (they sound like two jazz musicians), are trying to impeach President Trump for obstructing the investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election. The Democrats want to begin the hearings immediately, but the Republicans favour investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails. Billy Chillicott must be thrilled by these diversions. As the Chinese say, “May you live in interesting times”.’

  Ilona shook her head as she walked out of his office. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that mind of his.

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  ‘He’s going to Shanghai tonight to kick them up the backsides and get the upload deployed asap.’ Elodie Delacroix was speaking on her second mobile phone.

  She listened to the other person. ‘Maybe tomorrow, definitely by Friday. I’ll call you as soon as I get confirmation. Take care, talk soon.’

  Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa

  ‘Sharif just told me Shen’s going to Shanghai tonight to follow up the deployment. He wants it done tomorrow.’

  ‘Crap! Time’s starting to get tight.’ It was seven in the evening in Dubai, five in Delmas, and Leo and Coetzee were on the phone with Ed Muir.

  ‘Did you test the network in the lab with that code I sent you?’

  ‘Too bloody right. I’ve never seen anything like it. It would knock over every installation with Lee-Win kit inside. Cause bloody worldwide havoc. Have you made any progress on finding the default command?’

  ‘A couple of the team are setting up a diagnostic programme to find it, but no luck so far. Abby thinks you’re probably right, they’ll send out the trigger after the clean uploads, so we might have more time than we thought. Did you get anything out of Sharif on the hub ID?’

  ‘He’s not very talkative. Shen must have promised him money and glory and he’s fallen for it. He won’t listen when I tell him why you were kicked into touch, says he lost confidence in you when you didn’t come back to XPC. I asked him about the code, where he got it from, but he clammed up. I’ll try again in the morning, but it’s a long shot unless I can find a way to convince him of what’s really going on. I’m still not sure about Daniel, he’s a complicated guy to read. I’ll get to him after Shen’s gone, just to be sure.’

  Coetzee interrupted the conversation. ‘Ed, I’ve got the video of Angela confessing the full story about Shen and Elodie. The long one I showed you that night. If Shen’s gone, you can show it to Tom Connor and Sharif tomorrow. That’ll put the cat amongst the pigeons.’

  ‘OK, great. But you’re sure I should talk to Tom as well?’

  ‘Certain. I didn’t suggest it earlier because no one would have believed it, Shen had everyone under his thumb. Now he’s gone, we can tell them both the truth. Don’t forget, Tom knows you’ve been contacted by Chillicott, he must have suspected something but he didn’t want to admit there’s anything wrong. When he finds out his company’s involved in a major global threat, he’ll be shitting bullets, so will Sharif. If either of them knows the hub address they’re bound to help us.’

  ‘OK. Send the video to my personal email account. I’ll tackle them with it first thing in the morning. See what we can get out of them. And I won’t involve Daniel until we can work out whose side he’s on, OK? Good luck with the diagnostics.’

  Marbella, Spain

  The temperature was now unbearably hot, and Jenny didn’t feel up to going anywhere, or even leaving the cool, air-conditioned house to sit outside. Encarni had gone for the day and though she didn’t have much of an appetite, she prepared a salad then sat in the kitchen to watch the two o’clock news on SKY.

  The theme music came on with the headline, ‘NATO Convenes Over Russian Troop and Fleet Movements’.

  The reporter announced that an emergency meeting of NATO members had been convened for Saturday and Sunday in Brussels to discuss unusually high military activity around the Soviet borders. Live footage was shown of soldiers, ships and aircraft on the move, then a map with animated images showed how Russia’s Eastern European neighbours were being surrounded by the relocated military presence.

  A new headline came up, ‘US Puts on a Show of Strength’.

  Similar footage appeared of US aircraft, battleships and troops carrying out exercises in several NATO countries, the North Atlantic and North Sea. A photograph came up of Donald Trump with Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, taken during his visit to that country earlier in the month, followed by a clip of a Polish military parade with tanks, missiles and soldiers marching in front of a US general. The voiceover announced, ‘SKY News has received unconfirmed reports that up to 50,000 troops, equipment, aircraft and other military support are on their way from the US to NATO countries with vulnerable borders adjacent to Russia.’

  The camera panned back to the reporter, who said, ‘After previous forays into Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine, is Russia revealing new territorial ambitions? Or is this just the president flexing his muscles to remind us of his power. Can the US rely on its NATO partners to stand up against any further incursions into their regions? Whatever the reasons for Russia’s power display, it’s an impressive demonstration, and a terrifying one,’ he finished dramatically.

  Jenny poured herself a glass of water, remembering what Leo and Coetzee had told her about a possible XPC connection with GRU. Thank God Patrice is in Hong Kong and Leo’s in Joburg. They’re both a long way from Russia, she reassured herself.

  Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa

  ‘It’s impossible to see at the level of a single cell, so we’ve set up a test to measure the electric charge that’s storing up in the processor when the cell gets hit by the trigger code. At a certain level it will trip the command to change the status. When that happens, I’ll try to see what address that command is at. That’s the hard part, it moves so fast I don’t know if I can catch it before it closes down.’ They were all back in the lab, where Rod and Julia had been working on various alternative methods to try to identify the shutdown command.

  ‘Right, I’ll send Sharif’s instructions again. Here goes.’ Leo hit Enter.

  ‘OK, I can see the charge accumulating. Got it, the processor just moved into a different mode.’ The network closed down again. ‘Boy, that was really awesome, sabotage in action, real-time.’ Rod chewed his finger nails nervously.

  ‘Did you find it, the shutdown function?’

  ‘No chance. I got the exact level of the accumulated charge at the change of mode, but I couldn’t follow the path to the command. I’m never going to find it at that speed.’

  ‘Leo, it doesn’t say it has to be continuous, it could be sporadic. Every message creates a tiny charge and it accumulates over time.’ Julia was rereading the UOM article on A2.

  ‘OK, let’s build it up gradually, slow the accumulation do
wn. I’ll send smaller bursts continuously.’ Leo stopped sending the code and changed it to partially trigger the cell every few seconds. He hit Enter again.

  ‘That’s better, the charge is accumulating more slowly. It’s almost there, coming, coming…’ Rod stared intently at his monitor.

  ‘Trigger! Where the hell did it go?’ The system crashed again, and he turned away from his equipment. ‘Sorry guys, I can’t get a handle on it. Even though the charge is coming slower, when it hits the critical level it changes mode so fast I can’t see where the command is sitting.’

  ‘Let’s give it another try,’ Abby said. ‘We have to find a way to prevent this attack. Lives might depend on us finding a way. Come on guys, keep trying.’

  It was eleven that night when Coetzee’s team finally admitted defeat and Leo broke up the session. ‘That’s enough for tonight. Maybe tomorrow will bring a breakthrough. We really need to find that son-of-a-bitch command.’

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  ‘Goodbye, darling, have a safe trip and hurry back. I’ll miss you.’ Elodie Delacroix kissed Shen and waved as the taxi drove away. It was midnight and cold outside. With a shiver, she closed the door, went into the bedroom and took out her mobile from the wardrobe. ‘He’s just left for Shanghai. Everything’s going according to plan. No changes.’ She listened for a moment. ‘I can’t wait. Talk soon, love you too.’

  Elodie went into the kitchen. There was a bottle of Laurent Perrier in the fridge. She opened it and poured a glass. Switching on the television, she found Marseille, a French political drama series with Gerard Depardieu that she’d recorded from TFI. She put on the first episode and lay back comfortably on the settee. Lifting her drink in a toast, she said to herself, Thank God for small mercies. Santé.

  FORTY-SEVEN

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Thursday, 15 July 2017

  ‘Take a look at this, Lynne.’ Ed had found Coetzee’s video in his Dropbox when he opened his laptop first thing that morning. He’d taken her to the cinema the previous evening and they’d spent the night at his apartment. It was her day off, and since the workload at XPC had suddenly been alleviated, they would have a leisurely breakfast together.

  She sat by him on the couch and he started the clip. It was less than a minute long, but she was in tears when it finished. ‘My God. I can’t believe it. Those bastards blackmailed Angela into putting Leo in jail. What a pair of total shits.’ Then, ‘Where did you get the video? You must have known about this all along. Why didn’t you tell me, don’t you trust me?’

  ‘Sure I do, but I didn’t want you to worry about me after what happened to Leo and probably Scotty. I talked to Leo last night, and now Shen’s gone, we don’t think there’s any danger.’ He told her about Coetzee’s visit, the potential cyber-attack and the mysterious call from Homeland Security.

  ‘You mean this whole XPC business is a fake, and they’ve fooled you into helping to build some kind of secret weapon that the Chinese are going to use to attack the world’s computers? I thought Scousers were smarter than that.’

  ‘That’s what I thought, so don’t rub it in. I’m still wondering how we all got fooled like this.’

  ‘Who’s this other man, Coetzee?’

  ‘He’s a close friend of Leo and his family in South Africa. He took the video and arranged Angela’s escape to Brazil. He runs a cyber security business in Joburg, and that’s where Leo is now.’

  ‘Do you think Tom and Sharif are involved, or maybe that Daniel Oberhart, the Swiss guy? I don’t trust that man, he’s really weird.’

  ‘We don’t think so, but I’ve got to get them onside, that’s why Marius sent me the video. We’re hoping Sharif can help us to find a way of stopping whatever it is.’

  ‘Well, I think you’ve all been pretty stupid to let that Chinese creep run rings around you like that.’

  Ed unwrapped a pack of spearmint gum. ‘Thanks Lynne, I need all the sympathy I can get.’

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  ‘She’s lying, or there’s got to be some mistake. I’ve known Shen for three years and you’ve known him just a few weeks. No way would he do anything like that.’ Tom Connor had just watched the clip with Sharif and Ed. ‘Where did you get that video?’

  Ed gave them the same explanation he’d given Lynne earlier, adding, ‘It was Shen who put him in prison, and we think he probably killed Scotty as well.’

  ‘What are you talking about? That’s a scandalous accusation. Scotty’s death was an accident and there’s no way Shen has done anything to harm XPC. This isn’t the first time you’ve tried to slander his name, why the hell have you got it in for him?’

  ‘OK, Tom, we’ll do it the hard way. Tell him about cell S470C887,999, Sharif.’

  The Pakistani squirmed on his seat. ‘I don’t know anything about it, I already told you that.’

  ‘Wait, that’s the cell Leo asked me about, right?’

  ‘That’s right, Tom. I want you to come down to the lab and Sharif will show you what happens when that cell is awakened. Then I’ll tell you what it is and why it’s there. I saw it for the first time yesterday, and it’s fucking scary.’

  Reluctantly, Tom accompanied him and Sharif down to the basement. Leo’s network was still in place and Sharif ran his version of the upload. Thirty seconds later the system crashed.

  Connor’s face was a study in panic and fear. ‘What happened? I thought the upload was one hundred per cent debugged.’

  ‘That’s not Leo’s upload. It’s a different version that contains extra code addressed to that cell, S470. It’s a capacitor cell that accumulates electricity, then switches the processor to a different mode and shuts it down.’

  ‘Where did they come from? I mean, the cell and the code?’ Bewildered, he looked from one to the other.

  Ed said nothing, and Sharif finally blurted out, ‘They’re both from Shanghai. The cell’s not on my design, they add it to the card in China. Shen gave me the code to test it and told me it would be used for another major innovation. He said it would be as big as ACRE.’

  ‘What the fuck? Lee-Win are modifying our processor in Shanghai with a cell that shuts the system down and we don’t know why? And you’ve been testing it and didn’t think it was important enough to tell me about it?’ He looked at Sharif and raised his fist as if to strike him. Then he looked back at the silent network. ‘When did you find this out, Ed?’

  ‘Yesterday, when Leo got out of prison. That’s the reason he left, he knew he was in danger here. He went down to Joburg to try to work out what’s going on, and now we’re all sure it’s for a cyber-attack. We knew you wouldn’t believe it, so he sent the video to me last night to convince you. He reckons that all the processors built in the last four years have got that cell incorporated.’

  Tom’s mind suddenly cleared. ‘You think they’re going to upload this version of the code instead of Leo’s? But that means…’

  ‘Armageddon, right. Remember Chillicott, the US general who called you? He’s from Homeland Security and they’re investigating Shen and his girlfriend, Elodie. This is a major threat Tom, and we’re right in the middle of it.’

  ‘Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me what was going on? Sharif, I can’t believe you’ve been plotting with Shen to undo everything we’ve been working for over the last three years.’

  Ed grabbed Tom’s arm. ‘I tried to warn you about Shen last week and you weren’t having any of it. I didn’t know the full story then, otherwise I’d have made a lot more noise. And as far as Sharif’s concerned, he’s been duped just like the rest of us. Shen’s the villain, not us. Now we have to help Leo and Coetzee sort it out.’

  The CEO looked frantically around the room, as if he didn’t know where he was. He went to the door. ‘No, Ed. I have to call Han Wang Tāng, the MD in Shanghai. Find out what the hell’s going on up there. We’ve got to make sure they don’t send out this version of the upload. If anyone can help us to fix it, he c
an.’

  Ed grabbed his arm. ‘Whoa. Hang on, Tom. Shen might be with him now, we can’t let him know we’re onto him. And both the processor card and the code have been changed by Lee-Win, so someone there must have authorised it, and it must come from high up. We reckon they’ll send out our clean upload first and we’ve probably got a few days before the trigger code goes out. If you call Tāng and he’s working with Shen, they’ll make sure they send it out right away and we’re screwed.’

  ‘Jesus Christ! I don’t know what the hell to do. Sharif, why in hell were you testing a code from Shen on a cell that you didn’t design? It must have been obvious something was going on.’ Now Tom was convinced, and he was scared. This threat had been developed on his watch, by his team and under his responsibility.

  ‘Ed’s right. I didn’t know any of this, I swear. Shen fooled me like he fooled everyone. I’m sorry, I’ve been an idiot. I just wanted to achieve something for myself. Scotty and Leo were brilliant and I just wanted to get some credit, to show I was as good as them.’ Tears came to Sharif’s eyes and he turned away.

  ‘Guys, there’s no point in going over it again and again, it’s all history now. What we’ve got to do is help Leo to sort it out. Do you know the hub address they’ll use for the upload?’

  ‘You mean they can hack into it and change the code?’

  ‘That’s the only chance we’ve got, but it’s a long shot.’

  ‘I’ve never seen any of the coordinates from Shanghai.’ The CEO shook his head. ‘I was just as stupid, I left all the Lee-Win relations to Shen. He’s their board member, it never occurred to me.’