by Sweth Water
She was in a white T-shirt, her black hair tied with a clamp. “How are you doing, Officer Coal? It’s good to see you after weeks.”
“I am fine. I suppose Fog called you a few moments ago.”
“Yes, he asked me to give you this package.”
She gave him a backpack, which was heavy, he thanked her and moved to his cabin. He’d a big cabin. Tens of files were there, and a picture of his wife and him was on the table. He sat in the chair, took the frame and caressed her face.
I miss you. Struggling with his thoughts, he looked out of the window. There was no-one out there. Fog’s cabin was on the second floor. Jo and Baldwin usually worked on the ground floor. He would meet them to discuss more about what they had known about his wife. Apart from the allegations.
He sighed, opened the bag and pulled the laptop and hard disks out of it. He kept everything on the table. The first thing that he did was open the lid of the laptop and wished it wouldn’t erase anything after pressing the power button. In the store room it was, there was a very good chance they didn’t start it. He shook his head and left it because he didn’t want to compromise anything. He might ask Baldwin to look into this.
Second was the hard disk. He plugged it to his desktop and waited for the pop-up window. The operating system that he was using was created for the Department (also known as Department of Defence), and none but few government organizations would use it. No possibility was there that someone could hack into it. To do that, he must have the code, or understand its functionality, and it was not public.
He put his username and password and opened it in the Blue Drive – sometimes the plugged devices would erase everything on the hard disk of the computer. His computer was not connected to the central system, but he wanted to protect the files he’d in his system.
Without any password, the hard disk showed some files. He double-clicked on a file and it started encrypting the file. What? He tried few more. Same result.
Baldwin knocked at the door.
“Come in.”
“Good to see you, pal. I know it is not a very good time to welcome you here after what you found,” he was dressed in a civil uniform, must have been outside the office looking for some proof or something. His head was shaved, and face covered with a brown beard. “Fog said you have the evidence. You mind if I see it?”
Coal showed him the laptop and the hard disk. “This is it. The laptop might have some deletion program, and this hard disk is encrypting files when you open any of them. You know how to fix it?”
“Must be using some inbuilt code in the file to encrypt it before opening. These files usually get opened on a highly-coded system. I can check that. You didn’t start the laptop?”
“No, I wanted to give it to you to do the digital analysis. Forget to start it, try to get the hard disk without damaging the data. Have your men look into it without compromising anything that can help us. Understood?” Coal was getting tensed every second. Information shared by Fog was very disturbing.
“Yes.”
“What are you working on?”
“I questioned the so-called members of Anonymous group. They are cooperating, but they are hiding something too.”
“You need any help?”
“No. I want to get the answers without breaking their noses.” He laughed. “Total three of them we have; two boys and one girl. Not more than twenty and five. Involved in revealing the information kept by different departments of the countries.”
“Did they tell you what they were doing in the Department?”
“Yes. I asked them twice, and they said their only assignment was to open the door and take some magnetic device in the room. Amazing thing is that there was no such device there.”
“Are they really the people we are looking for? I mean the people who want to take the plans that the army has. Anonymous group is no fool to fall in booby traps. How did you check the authenticity of their connection to the group? These days people just want to get famous by connecting themselves to the famous groups or bands.”
“We didn’t. Even if they are not with the group, we should not forget they were in the Department. And the devices and hard disks that we collected from them showed the sophistication of the security. You checked yourself. We have only their words that they are from Anonymous.”
“Okay. Try to decrypt everything that we got so far. Keep me posted. I want to know anything and everything related to the—” he stopped. Fog had said he should not get emotional, and it must not be a personal vendetta. It should be. I am the one who lost my wife, not him. “Baldwin.”
“Yes?”
“What do you think?”
“You mean ... your wife’s involvement?”
“Yes.”
“We don’t have anything to refute that. Another hard disk we have which is not encrypted and has your wife’s name on it. I am sorry, Coal.”
“Can I have the data?”
“Sure. I will make a copy for you. Telling you the truth, it’s very early to say anything on that. Your wife’s name can be a coincidence. These people don’t want to track their asses, so put any name. But the accident and the name on the hard disk can be related. We are trying to find a connection if there is any. They said they didn’t know everyone whose names we got so far. They may be lying.”
“I hope this is just a fabrication.”
Coal gave him the hard disk and the laptop.
Baldwin left after that.
He closed his eyes. It was going to be the biggest mystery of his life. Never in his life had he come across any case that involved these many things. Anonymous group. His wife. Department of Defence. His wife’s death. What connection was there? What his wife had to do with the group, and the reason behind her death?
In the afternoon he left his cabin. He saw three people in the interrogation room; Jo was talking with them. He wanted to go there and talk to these losers. Few punches in the face and truth would come out. He had the desire to break their noses until they didn’t admit that they put his wife’s name on the list and she had nothing to do with the group. He clenched his fists, breathing loudly.
No, it was not the right time; he would talk with them after a day or two. Let them handle it, after that I will do it in my way.
Baldwin waved his hand to him, one hand over the phone.
Two more officers were there in his department. It was a big one. All the chipsets and hardware he heard of were there. Some of the names he never heard. It was very difficult to remember everything. That’s why he didn’t choose this department. Baldwin was the only one at the Headquarters who was as good in computers as in guns.
“We have a lead.” Baldwin said after the call.
“Tell me.”
“From the local PD, a woman named Chase arrested some woman from the government agency. They thought she had a connection to Anonymous. She was released and working on the case. I just had a call with her; she said it was not just about leaking some information from the Department. It was more than that. The local PD and her people are working on it.”
“Which agency?”
“Top One.”
“What!?”
“She wanted to meet us. I briefed her on what we’ve found so far. The hard disk that you gave me, it is in progress. Work on the laptop we have not started. Our priorities were changed by Fog when I told him about the hard disk.”
“I will drive. Where are we going?”
“Out of the city. Venhoa.”
The name brought some memories. Memories of his wife.
Chapter
4
Gin opened the drawer and took the gun out. She checked the magazine, everything was okay. She had a map of the city on the table. The main roads going to the centre of the city were blocked by the police officers. She had ordered the local police department to work under her authority. Top One was rarely involved in domestic operations. Their main tasks were to get the details of other countries and provi
de to the Department. The much confidential information they had gathered over the years.
Chase opened the door without any knock. She had some documents in her hand.
“I have signed everything.”
“And others?”
“They did too.”
“Any resistance?”
“No.”
“Thank you, Chase. You don’t know what you are doing is very important for us. Your help is very much appreciated. And I am very sorry for what you had to go through in your department. Whatever was done was to keep the operation as we wanted. The dose was not very strong; they should be fine in one or two hours. You should rest too.” Base had added some kind of drug in the tea maker before he got hold of Gin. She had sent him out to do some work for her.
“When will we be briefed? I have to inform my department too. They would come to know about it.”
“I am going to call them in few minutes. No need to worry.”
“I thought we were here because of the operation, and you are going to tell them that?”
“No. Your or your officers’ involvement in the operation will not be told. I will have the arrangement from the Office. Madam President will make the call.”
“Okay then. I will look for the officers with me. Call me when the help is needed.” Her tone hard, maybe she was angry.
And she was gone.
Gin didn’t care much. In her job, her priority was to make the operation successful, not to make people admire her. Neither had she expected from the people. Protecting the country was a top priority. And as the country was advancing in technology, it was getting hard to stop the intruders from stealing the plans and data.
Three people were arrested in the Department. No information was shared by them, and so they said. Information that I need. Other agencies were called as soon as she got out of the local PD. Madam President was briefed in few minutes. She had given all the rights in the Section 23-A to Top One. Now Top One had the control of everything in the country, after the President.
She sighed and circled three places in Venhoa. These three places were the most vulnerable after the Department. She was certain that Anonymous group didn’t know Top One was working on the case now. And she wanted to catch them if they’d go to those places before they had their hands on the data. Loose ends she didn’t want.
The bait they had readied.
Would they take it?
The traffic from her network that Chase talked about was related to her work. She would be connecting to the databases remotely, and sometimes the local PD would check the traffic to make sure nothing illegal was going on. She had called Bin regarding the money. That was a codeword that they had been using for years. If Base had not come there, she would have told everything to Chase.
There were eight people with Chase. All of them were drugged. She had called the agents before she reached her office. They brought everyone from the local PD to this office to work on the assignment. Leaking the information was common in police, for money maybe. So she had ordered her team to keep an eye on everyone brought here. It was a tough case.
She had a sandwich in the afternoon, and hoped Baldwin and Coal would come soon. She needed to talk with them first before coming to any conclusion. She swallowed hard and had some Coke.
Twenty men were in the building including her. It was not a top-notch place. It was a rented building under the name of a false company; they had the right to do these things. The cafeteria on the third floor was not in a very good condition. Its walls were covered with disgusting paintings of brown colour and chairs were old enough to make squeaking sounds while sitting.
She passed three agents and told them to bring Coal and Baldwin to her as soon as they arrived.
In her cabin, she gazed over all the documents that she had on the breach in the Department and the people working on it. The email that she got from Baldwin mentioned that the people who were arrested in the building were trying to steal a magnetic device. Device? A riddle to solve? Things were getting out of her hands now.
She sent the objectives to the officers and agents.
She called Chase’s supervisor and told her the secret operation they were helping her on. She used the word ‘secret’, didn’t give her any more details of that. It should be among few people. The supervisor didn’t have the patience to play games.
“But I need to know more. I can’t have my people working under you unless I know the full details.”
“I didn’t get your name, missy?” Gin couldn’t hold her anger.
“That is not the correct word that you should be using, woman. I am in charge here. Commissioner of Police. This city is my responsibly. I—”
“Give me your Secure ID, and the President will tell you if you are insisting.”
“What it has to do with the President?”
“She will explain to you in DETAIL!”
“What name you said of your agency? I forgot I guess.”
“I didn’t. For you, it was more than enough that Chase and her staff will be working for me. I don’t want you to call her or ask her where she is. A brief note will be sent to your email by the Vice President in the next one hour.”
And she hung up.
Frustrated. These people would never want to have peace in this world. Fools.
Chase knocked on the door. This time her blonde hair was in a bun, and light makeup she wore. Where she got didn’t matter. Her face had a strict expression as if she had a fight with someone. Husband? No, Gin hadn’t asked and it was not her business, but she could have said that Chase didn’t have any boyfriend or husband. People like Chase and Gin were more into doing the things than connecting themselves to others for sympathy.
“Yes, Chase?” She frowned.
“I have told them to take some rest. Fin gave me a copy of the common objectives that you have for us. I have gone through it and noted few points that I want to discuss. If you have time we can talk.”
Baldwin didn’t come yet. So, she had time to listen to her. Until they didn’t have proof, they were just running around the bush.
“Sure.”
“Three people were arrested in the Department. They didn’t steal anything, the document said. They are ingenious people. Don’t you think they did it on purpose?”
“What are you implying?”
“They got inside the edifice and unlocked everything to get to the server room, did a silly mistake and got caught. What? What type of idiots would they be to do that? This is not how they work.”
“People do mistakes, Chase. Criminals are apprehended because of their mistakes. No crime is perfect. We arrested them because of their inability to understand our system. Department of Defence’s code is the most sophisticated code. People who created everything there were the creators of the famous programming languages. New languages they created only for the Department. I think you know that.”
Finally, Chase sat on the chair, her hands on the table. “Created new languages only for the Department. And they were still able to hack into it. We are missing something here, Gin. These people are like a labyrinth. They will make us believe something and then do their work.”
“How can you be so sure about this?”
“Because—” She stopped.
Gin let few seconds pass. “Because?”
“Because I have been tracking these people. I got to you in the morning because of the suspicion. They might have been using your network. They will not get caught. And you would be behind the bars. We had many reports of them in the last year. We have been tracking them for a long time. I know how they think.”
“No, they were not using my network. You didn’t know I worked for Top One. Anyways, how many departments know about it?”
“Only the local PD. Few people reported that they had some unusual traffic through their networks. Our tech teams checked that and found the source. We stormed the place and found only empty rooms. They must have left before we reached there.”
Gin sighed. “Were they from Anonymous?”
“We don’t have any proof of that. They might be some college students trying to get famous by stealing the personal data.”
“I hope that is the case.”
“Where are they kept?”
“At the Headquarters. RAAD is told about the breach. I called them; they might come here. You can come and sit with us, and give your opinion.”
“RAAD? Is it related to national security? These people that we caught?”
“They were in the Department. What information we have there we both know. RAAD had to be told about the incident. Top One is also on it, as you know. And few more names you’ll come across that you never heard of.”
“Okay.” She narrowed her brows. “I need your approval for something.”
“Approval?”
“Yes.”
“Of what?”
“The so-called Anonymous hackers are at the Headquarters. I want the live feed from the room. If we can’t get that, you can send me out there. I am good at getting the information from the people.”
Gin thought about it. Sending her there would be a mistake now. She needed her here. Coal would be arriving shortly. She should talk with him too, and make the plan how to tackle the security breaches that they would have in the upcoming few days. She didn’t want to ignore the possibility.
“You will get the live feed. Anything else?”
“No. Thank you.”
She left after that.
After five minutes Gin’s phone rang.
“Gin speaking.”
“I am Summer. You called me a few minutes ago regarding the operation.”
“Yes?”
“I just got an email from the office of Vice President. It is ...”
“I didn’t hear that. It is what?”
“I opened it and found a face looking at me with an unusual mask.”
