Counting from Zero

by Alan B. Johnston

  “What about Kateryna? Petrescu?” he asked, not quite processing all the data.

  “The Romanian? We don’t know where she is. Her husband is on his way to Kiev, by the way.” Mick winced in pain, but this time not from his injuries.

  “Which reminds me, you have broken a few laws along the way, haven’t you?” the General began, but Mick made no reply. “Oh, don’t worry – I don’t expect you will be prosecuted. Despite your recklessness, you have done an incredible job in taking control of this botnet.” Mick looked at him wondering how he knew this fact. “We have our sources of information,” he explained, not very helpfully, then continued. “We are looking forward to your help with this botnet. Our best guys couldn’t even figure out how to monitor it, let alone hijack it the way you did! I’d trade an entire department for one person with your skills! So what exactly did you do to it?” he asked.

  “Oh, nothing special. I revoked their control certificates so their commands would not be accepted by the botnet and put it into an inactive mode. I also ordered it to stop sending spam. There might actually be a noticeable drop in spam traffic right now as a result.”

  “Well, I have no idea what that means, but my guys will want to hear all about it and examine your script. Do you know where your computer is?”

  “No, I don’t,” he replied, thinking of Kateryna. “Anyway, you don’t need the script – the real work will be tracking down and cleaning all those infected computers, millions of them around the world. I still don’t know how many of them were compromised in the first place. Without patching the machines and cleaning them, they could be herded into another botnet. I know Homeland Security has developed plans for how to deal with situations like this. This will be an excellent test of those plans.”

  “Of course, but –”

  “I need to find Kateryna,” Mick said.

  “We will. By the way, how well do you really know her? Did you know she speaks Russian? Did you know she was a member of the Communist Party in Romania?”

  “Are you trying to say she was somehow involved?” Mick began.

  “I don’t know. It is strange that she hasn’t contacted us these past few days... I suspect that someone must have told the Russians that Cloud 8 plus plus was holding you. There’s no way Cloud 8 plus plus would have told anyone until they had regained control of the botnet…”

  “If you have an accusation to make about her, you should just make it!” Mick replied, starting to get angry.

  “I only have questions… questions that must be answered. It was a shame about your friend Gunter Schafer, even if he was involved with the criminals.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry – I guess you don’t know. He was killed by the Russians, along with the rest of Cloud 8 plus plus in the building… The place was a bloody mess.” Mick was speechless.

  Gunter? Dead?

  “Anyway, there’s someone else who wants to see you, so I’ll go for the moment. Mick wasn’t listening as a smile spread across his face, hurting him in new ways.

  “Jocelyn?”

  “Alec!”

  Mick hugged his sister as tightly as his broken ribs would allow as the General left the room.

  “You look like heck, but you’re safe!” She kissed the top of his head.

  “Jocelyn – you did it! I can’t believe you called when you did! You never call me! Why did you call?”

  “Well,” she began, a little embarrassed. “When I got the call from your landlord, I wondered what was up and decided to call –”

  “My landlord?”

  “Yes, I guess with all your travels you got a bit slack with your finances. He said your rent auto payment failed, and when he checked with the bank, they said your account was overdrawn or something. Are your finances OK, Alec? I can help out if things are a bit tight for you...”

  “Thanks, sis – I’m sure it is just a mistake – my finances are fine, don’t worry,” Mick replied, knowing that his finances were far from fine. “Anyway, you called the State Department?”

  “Yes, right away. At first they were kind of short with me, and kept asking for the name of the person I wanted to talk to. But I just kept talking, and asking to speak to a supervisor. When I hung up, I didn’t think the message got through to the right people. So...” she paused for dramatic effect. “I said to myself, what would Alec do? How would he share information with the government, when the government didn’t seem to want to hear it...” she paused again, and Mick had an inkling where she was going with her story. “So I picked up the telephone – my landline – and started making phone calls. I called Joe and told him the whole story. I said all of the names and places you mentioned. Then I called a girlfriend and did the same.”

  “Jocelyn, you are brilliant!” Mick almost shouted.

  “Am I?” she replied modestly. “I admit I was ecstatic when someone from the State Department was at the door an hour later with a plane ticket!” She beamed at her brother. “They didn’t tell me about the rescue operation until we landed yesterday. By then it was all over and you were safe. I kept asking about Kat, but they said they didn’t know anything... Is that true?” Mick nodded somberly. “What’s happened to her?” she wondered.

  “I don’t know, Jocelyn, but I’ve got to find her!” Mick felt paralyzed with fear for a moment, but then shrugged it off. “I need you to help me get out of here as soon as possible. Something just isn’t quite right.” Jocelyn nodded and squeezed his hand.

  “I’m sure it’ll be OK. She is such a smart woman! Maybe she’s just hiding out.” Mick nodded. “And can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure – anything.”

  “What is with this ‘Mick O’Malley’ name?” Mick looked into her eyes and saw his worlds colliding. He took a deep breath.

  “It’s my professional name. Six years ago when I became a citizen, I changed my name and I’ve been using that name ever since. I didn’t tell you or anyone else in the family, because... because... well, I wanted to keep my family and professional lives separate. I didn’t do it to hide things from you, or anyone. I don’t know... looking back, it is hard for me to recall my exact decision process, but it seemed like the right thing. And it became a habit. You probably think I need a shrink or something...” he trailed off.

  “‘Or something’, is right!” Jocelyn echoed, then started laughing.

  “What?”

  “You are still just my silly little brother,” she hugged him again. “I don’t understand, but I’m sure you didn’t mean to hurt anyone by it, and you haven’t hurt me. I’m just... well... surprised, that’s all. I would say that you have an over active imagination, but hey, look where we are and what’s just happened!” Mick hugged her back, and wondered how anyone got along in life without an understanding sister.

  “Jocelyn, I need to get out of here. Now!”

  “Now? OK, now I’m worried about your sanity. Let’s talk again in the morning and plan what we will do next.”

  “OK, you are right,” Mick replied, then he leaned over and whispered in her ear, “Jocelyn, I must leave right now. I’m still in danger here! And so is Kat! I need a computer and some clothes.” Jocelyn looked at him in shock, then just nodded her head slightly, and left the room.

  She returned a few minutes later with her computer. “Here are the pictures of Sam at her concert last week,” she said, handing it to Mick. He gratefully took it, fired up a command line prompt and set to work.

  It took a few minutes to figure out the hospital’s network and server infrastructure, which was fairly well secured. He then moved on to the hospital’s remote monitoring site and was able to confirm several commonly unpatched vulnerabilities. A moment later, he was in and able to control cameras, alarms, and the fire systems at the hospital.

  Jocelyn returned fifteen minutes later with a canvas bag. Mick turned the computer to her, saying “Those were very nice pictures.” She read on the screen:

  Do you have my clothes? My scri
pt will execute in 2 minutes and we will need to leave quickly via the far bank of elevators.

  She nodded, and a moment later the monitoring system next to Mick’s bed turned off with a click, and the camera shut off. Mick got out of bed, disconnecting his wires and monitors. He dressed as quickly as he could. Jocelyn supported him as he stood up. The pain wasn’t too bad – he could walk. Mick paused for a moment until the fire alarm lights in the ceiling turned on, but no siren sounded.

  They walked briskly down the hall. The staff were confused, not sure if it was a drill, a fire, or a malfunction. They walked quickly to the far bank of elevators and made it inside without attracting any attention. In the elevator, Mick leaned against the wall, trying to make things stop spinning.

  They walked through the lobby to the outside, the cool air hitting his face. Mick knew he was being impulsive, but he also knew he had to get away. He didn’t trust the General or the government, and no longer believed everything he had been told. During the conversation, he realized that the General was much more interested in Mick’s script than in disabling the botnet. With the creators and developers of the botnet dead, Mick was the one person who was able to control the botnet. Mick could not in good conscience allow the government to take control of the botnet. Somewhere between Charleston and Kiev, he had realized that this botnet was effectively a weapon, and such a powerful weapon that no one, not even his own government, could be trusted with it.

  Jocelyn and Mick boarded a bus as it pulled up and rode towards the center of Kiev. They alighted near the train station and set off walking. A squeal of tires made Mick look up to see a motorcycle come to a rapid halt beside them. He looked on in amazement as the rider lifted the visor.

  “Get on the back, Mick!” Kateryna called to him, making him stare.

  “Kat?”

  “Don’t just stand there. I saw you leave the hospital. They noticed your absence a few minutes later – I’m sure they are on their way here.” Mick looked to his sister. She nodded.

  “Go with her, Alec – I’ll be fine.”

  “Jocelyn, I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

  “I know that.”

  “Thank you for everything,” he said, turning to her.

  “Go… go!” she pleaded.

  “Tell Sam... tell Sam...” he faltered. “Tell her: don’t believe any FUD! She’ll know what I mean,” he said as he climbed on the back of the motorcycle and pulled on his helmet. Kateryna twisted the throttle and the CBR roared off down the street. Mick looked back and saw Jocelyn join a group of Korean tourists walking along the street.

  Wonder what will happen to her… to all of us?

  Chapter 23.

  Kateryna rode for twenty minutes until they had left the city limits and driven for about 1Økm along a side road. She slowed down and pulled off to the side near a small grove of trees. Mick’s knees were shaking, and his head swimming. He climbed off, removed his helmet, and sat down on the grass. He looked up as she pulled off her helmet and shook her hair free. Mick smiled to himself, recollecting a thought he had long ago in Hiroshima.

  “Kat – what happened? I was so worried about you!” he began.

  “You worried about me? I was worried about you! When you didn’t return, I eventually took your computer and rode the motorbike back to our hotel, and checked us out – just as we agreed the night before. I so wanted to go and find you. Your face is a mess, by the way.”

  “I’m glad you followed the plan!” he said. “But where have you been? How did you find me?”

  “Well, I found another hotel and hung out for a day, reading all the news stories I could find. That evening, I read about the raid and started checking local hospitals. I found a police presence at the hospital, and staked it out. I even managed to see you while you were sleeping, and that is when I overheard the discussion about your sister arriving. I just waited it out. I knew there was no way I could get you out alone. I thought maybe I could talk to Jocelyn but she was escorted everywhere. When I saw you coming out the door on your sister’s arm, I couldn’t believe my luck. I saw you get on the bus and followed you. But now, I want to hear your story.”

  “Wait – you never told me you could ride!”

  “Oh, that. Well, I don’t really, but my brothers taught me how to ride their dirt bikes. You should have seen how wobbly I was at first, although I like this bike now.”

  Mick told her what he had learned from Gunter, the General, and Jocelyn. By the time he was finished, Kateryna was quiet. She turned away.

  “I can’t believe it about Gunter!” she said, choking up.

  “I know. He was like a different person…”

  “And now he’s dead?” Mick stood up, walked up behind her and slipped his arms around her. She leaned into him for a long moment, letting out a sigh. Mick relaxed for a moment, but Kateryna continued. “How are the Russians involved?”

  “Well, there are close ties between botnet companies like Cloud 8 plus plus and Russian authorities as you know, but I haven’t figured it all out yet. And how did they know I was being held? If they worked together, why did they kill the entire Cloud 8 plus plus team? It just doesn’t make sense…” he trailed off into his thoughts. Then he recalled the discrepancy in the botnet node count – the computers that weren’t sending any messages, seemingly just waiting for something.

  There are sleeper zombies inside UBK, inside the U.S. Government network!

  It made perfect sense now! There was no value in sleeper zombie computers to the Ukrainians: they couldn’t participate in denial of service attacks, or send spam, or do anything that generated cash flow. But they could be invaluable for other purposes, especially to a foreign government. Kateryna interrupted his thoughts.

  “Did you meet my husband?” she asked. He was speechless for a moment.

  “Ah, no. How do you know he is here?”

  “He left me a message. So are you going through with it?”

  “Yes. Did you pick up the package?”

  “Yep. I didn’t open it – it is in the pannier – I followed your directions exactly and picked it up at the post office.” She replied.

  Mick took out the package. It was mailed by Ian from Plymouth to Kiev, and contained his last-resort fallback plan.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” she asked, referring to his plan that he confided to her on the train the previous night.

  “What else can I do? I won’t give control of the botnet to anyone. Everyone else associated with Zed dot Kicker is dead. Except for Jasinski, of course. I got away from the government once, well twice now, but that’s not likely to happen again...”

  “I guess. But can’t someone recreate the botnet?”

  “Maybe, eventually. I never did discover how they actually compromised some of the computers in the botnet, or how they stole my private key. But perhaps if security researchers can study this botnet, as an example of a new breed of sophisticated bots, new defenses can be developed.”

  Mick was starting to put all the pieces together in his mind. He had realized that the sleeper zombies were probably compromised using a different zero day – a silent exploit that no one had yet discovered. He was starting to realize that he might be able to find evidence of it on his server, if this exploit had been used to steal his private key while he was in New Mexico. While these sleeper zombies were part of the botnet, they only ‘listened’ to botnet commands through the spam that came their way – they did not send messages or actively participate in the network. Mick did not know what command would make them activate and reveal themselves.

  “I see your angle.” Kateryna smiled at him. “Would you be the one to leak this information to the community?”

  “Perhaps. I can think of one or two ways to get people’s attention without doing any real damage or harm.”

  “This may not work, you know.”

  “True, but I have to try.”

  “I wish I could come with you,” Kateryna said, looking
away, “but I just can’t…”

  “I know.”

  “But what about you? Are you just going to walk away from your whole life?”

  “I already have – when I rode through the Lincoln Tunnel, I knew I most likely wasn’t coming back. All my assets in the U.S. have been seized. Fortunately, I have enough currency moved offshore, so I won’t be hurting for money.”

  “And, why did your sister call you ‘Alec’? Is this another identity you have?”

  “Yes, I was born Alec Robertson, but changed my name when I became a U.S. citizen. I know, it is strange...”

  “Considering what we’ve just been through… not so much. Do you have any other identities?” she asked, and Mick shook his head and put a finger to his lips. “Oh, I see – that explains why you didn’t want me to open the package unless I knew you weren’t coming back,” she concluded. “But, everyone will be on your trail! Even now I’m sure they are reviewing traffic cameras and will eventually track us here.”

  “I have an idea of how I can throw them off,” he replied, looking out towards the setting sun.

  “Will I see you again?” she asked. Mick had been asking himself the same question.

  “I don’t know. What are you going to say to your husband?” he asked.

  “The truth, mostly... Don’t worry about it, Mick.”

  “I’m really, really sorry I got you involved in all this...”

  “Don’t be – I have no regrets. You are one amazing guy, and I feel lucky to have had the chance to get to know you.”

  “Thanks, Kat. I feel the same. I wish I hadn't involved you in all this, but I don’t know what I would have done without your help. But I still feel there is so much more I want to know about you,” he began.

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know... do you have any tattoos?” he asked. Kateryna laughed in spite of herself.

  “Some things are best left as mysteries!” she replied. Mick laughed, too, and they hugged one last time.