CHERUB: Guardian Angel

by Robert Muchamore

  ‘What I don’t understand is, why go out with her a second time when the first break-up was such a nightmare?’

  ‘Boobs,’ Ryan admitted. ‘I was sitting in the back of the taxi after the you-know-what incident. She was coming on to me, she was wearing a really tight top and I was snogging her before I even knew it.’

  ‘Classy story,’ Ning said, grinning.

  ‘So who do you fancy on campus?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘If I fancied someone on campus you’d be the last person to know,’ Ning said.

  As Ning said this, Ryan entered the special code into his phone that switched to his Ryan Brasker identity. He’d had so little contact with Ethan over the past six weeks that he was used to seeing an empty inbox.

  When he saw that Ethan had left two voice messages his first thought was that it was old stuff somehow dragged up by the dodgy phone. But both messages had today’s date.

  ‘Mr Kazakov,’ Ryan shouted excitedly, as he leaned forward and tapped the top of his head.

  Kazakov looked like he wanted to rip Ryan’s head off as he leaned out the side of his chair and looked back.

  ‘Don’t poke my head,’ he snapped furiously.

  ‘I’ve got two voice messages from Ethan,’ Ryan explained. ‘I need your laptop.’

  Kazakov looked surprised. ‘Can’t you just listen to them?’

  Ryan shook his head. ‘There’s no mobile signal up here. I’ve just got e-mails from the TFU communication centre in Dallas saying that I’ve received two voicemails. If you give me your laptop I might be able to log in and download the voice files. I could try it on this phone, but with the back bashed in it probably won’t sound too great.’

  Kazakov opened an overhead locker.

  ‘I’m sure Ted or Amy would have us know if anything important had happened,’ Kazakov said.

  ‘Ted told Dallas that I was offline,’ Ryan said. ‘But they were still having nightmares with their computers when we left for the airport and both of these messages were sent before then.’

  Ning chimed in. ‘So we’ve got no idea if TFU would have noticed these messages when the servers came back up, or passed them along to Ted or Amy?’

  ‘Precisely,’ Ryan said. ‘And I’d rather be safe than sorry.’

  ‘Technology,’ Kazakov said grumpily as he passed Ryan the laptop. ‘If I had my way we’d all live in the treetops.’

  It took ages to get Windows booted up on Kazakov’s elderly laptop. While Ryan tapped in the settings to connect to the aircraft’s Wi-Fi, Ning tapped out e-mails on her iPhone asking Amy and Ted if they knew about Ethan’s messages.

  ‘Looks like at least some of the servers are back up,’ Ryan said, as he logged into TFU and located the copies of the voice messages.

  The in-air Internet connection wasn’t the fastest and Ryan, Ning and Kazakov spent two minutes staring at the laptop screen, watching a spinning wheel and the word buffering. Eventually Ethan’s voice came out of the loudspeaker.

  ‘Turn it up,’ Ning said urgently.

  ‘Ryan, it’s me, Ethan. This is so messed up. You’re probably gonna think I’m bullshitting, but I’m not, I swear. I’m in a place called Kanye in Botswana. My uncle hijacked my plane to Dubai and I’ve been kept in an animal cage, but I’ve just escaped. I’m trying to call my grandma but she’s not replying. If you get this, call me back cos I’m pretty desperate.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Ryan gasped, as he clicked to start buffering the second message.

  ‘What’s the number?’ Ning asked. ‘Maybe if the plane dropped height, we could pick up a mobile signal and you could call him back.’

  ‘For all we know TFU are already working on this,’ Ryan said. ‘I can’t call Ethan until we’re sure they’ve not already sent him texts or e-mails under my identity.’

  The second message started to play. ‘Ryan, it’s me again. I’ve spoken to my grandma now and she’s gonna try getting me out of here. Looks like my crazy uncle tried to kill her and rip off all her money. My cousin Andre is uploading all the spyware data to our FTP site. If my grandma can get me out of Kanye I’ll take a look myself, but if you get a chance can you log in and try finding any info on Leonid’s banking or money? And if you can help, I swear it won’t go unrewarded. I don’t know where you are, but please call me if you can.’

  ‘At least he’s not dead,’ Ryan said as he ran hands through his hair.

  ‘So,’ Ning said, before pausing to get her thoughts together. ‘Leonid Aramov ripped off his own mother’s money and tried to poison her. And by now, his secrets are probably being uploaded to an FTP site.’

  ‘We can’t be sure that the spyware has captured anything useful,’ Ryan said. ‘But hopefully the team in Dallas are working on Ethan’s uploads right now.’

  ‘So we have access to this FTP site?’ Kazakov asked.

  Ryan nodded. ‘I signed up to the FTP site when I needed to transfer the spyware files to Ethan. I’ve got all the admin passwords, so Ethan can’t lock me out even if he wanted to.’

  As Ryan spoke, he flipped through menus on his busted BlackBerry looking for the web address and password for the FTP site. When he finally logged in using Kazakov’s laptop, the screen filled with yellow envelopes, each one representing a folder of information.

  ‘Looks like they had problems,’ Ryan said, as he pointed to the first few online folders. ‘Judging by the upload time it was taking six or seven minutes between each file, but if you scroll down you can see new files being uploaded much faster.’

  Ryan scrolled to the bottom of the FTP site page. Ning and Kazakov looked on as new envelopes popped up every few seconds.

  ‘So Leonid’s data is being uploaded as we speak?’ Kazakov asked.

  Ryan nodded. ‘Looks like cousin Andre found a nice speedy Internet connection.’

  Ryan opened up a new tab in his web browser and typed Kanye Botswana into Bing Maps, just to see where it was.

  Kazakov looked at the stewardess sitting up back. ‘Do you know when we’re due to land?’

  ‘Just under an hour,’ she said.

  As the stewardess answered the co-pilot came out of the cockpit. ‘Is there a Ryan Sharma on board?’ he asked.

  Ryan put his hand up. ‘Guilty.’

  ‘I’ve got Amy Collins on the sat phone. She says it’s urgent.’

  The phone was wired into the aircraft’s cockpit, so Ryan had to stand in a cramped space behind the pilot’s seat with the curly-corded handset at full stretch.

  ‘Amy,’ Ryan said.

  ‘Ryan, this is beyond huge,’ Amy said excitedly.

  Ryan gasped. ‘You didn’t know about Ethan’s messages?’

  ‘I didn’t,’ Amy said. ‘Neither did anyone at headquarters in Dallas. Ted asked them to forward any communications from Ethan to his laptop, but I guess it’s only forwarding newly arrived messages. These ones must have come through while the servers were down.’

  ‘Are they working on it now?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘You bet they are. I just hope we’re not too late, because if Leonid has stolen his mother’s money, that psycho now has effective control of the Aramov Clan.’

  ‘How do you figure that?’ Ryan asked.

  ‘Wages,’ Amy said. ‘Fuel bills, bribes, aircraft maintenance, rent. If Irena can’t pay her bills, the Aramov Clan is nothing but a few million bucks’ worth of tatty aircraft and a lot of pissed-off staff.’

  ‘So if you control the money, you control the clan,’ Ryan said.

  ‘And it’s dodgy money,’ Amy said. ‘It’s not like Irena can drop into Bishkek police station and file a complaint. Right now, Leonid probably has the money. Ethan wants to find Leonid’s passwords and bank account details so that control over it passes back to Irena. But if we get to the passwords before Ethan, we might be able to lock out Leonid and Irena.’

  ‘Nice,’ Ryan said, as he nodded. ‘We steal the money, the Aramov Clan can’t pay its bills.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Amy said. ‘And with Irena d
ying and Leonid a raving psychopath the instability might tear the entire organisation apart.’

  Ryan laughed. ‘Is there a navy CHERUB shirt in that?’

  ‘Could be,’ Amy said. ‘But don’t start counting chickens. We’re not even sure that the spyware has captured Leonid’s banking passwords.’

  ‘We should have a big speed advantage over Ethan,’ Ryan said. ‘He’ll be looking through the uploaded files on his own.’

  ‘The CIA’s top hacking team is about to start work,’ Amy said. ‘But I still want you to get in touch with Ethan as soon as you can. Irena might give him information about her financial dealings that we won’t have, and she’ll have had Leonid’s office and apartment searched. For all we know, there’s a full list of passwords sitting in his desk drawer.’

  Ryan’s vision blurred as he looked at all the cockpit dials and screens. ‘I’m not usually the nervous type,’ he said. ‘But this is immense. I hope I don’t put my foot in it with Ethan or something.’

  31. SHARJAH

  As Ryan, Ning and Kazakov closed on Dubai, the TU-22 bomber flew at three times the speed towards Sharjah Airport, ten kilometres north.

  Ethan asked the South African pilot about his plane and got a half-hour spiel on how he’d bought up TU-22s from Libya and Iraq and cannibalised them for parts to keep two high-speed planes flying.

  ‘I’m the only supersonic smuggler on earth,’ he boasted. ‘Take any two points on the globe and this bird can get between them in under fifteen hours. I’ve even flown film stars, so they can attend movie premieres on two different continents in the same night.’

  ‘Did you get autographs and stuff?’ Ethan asked.

  ‘You can’t really,’ the pilot said. ‘It’s not professional.’

  Everything in the TU-22 was noisy, but at least the landing was less brutal than take-off. They taxied a few hundred metres from Sharjah’s main runway to an unmarked hangar with three characteristically tatty Aramov cargo planes inside.

  Ethan had no documents and he was concerned by the sight of a customs official as the co-pilot helped him down a set of wheeled steps.

  Alongside the customs man was a slim woman dressed in a business suit. She handed Ethan a brand new Kyrgyz passport, which already had the entry stamp for his arrival. The document appeared completely genuine, with a photograph taken from his Facebook profile.

  While the customs official dealt with the two South African pilots, the slim woman led Ethan briskly towards an office at the back.

  ‘You’re struggling with that ankle,’ the woman said, speaking English with a slight French accent. ‘I’ll arrange a wheelchair, and I’ll take you to the hospital later to get it looked at.’

  ‘Who are you exactly?’ Ethan asked.

  ‘I’m Ruby,’ the woman said. ‘I’m an accountant, and I run the Clanair operation here in Sharjah. I’ve known your grandmother for many years and we’ve been in touch over the past few hours. Your cousin Andre is still uploading files and your grandmother has faxed across some banking details. I’m no computer buff, but hopefully my accounting background can help you locate the relevant information.’

  ‘I was wondering how fast money can be moved between banks,’ Ethan said. ‘Is it instant?’

  ‘It depends on the country, the bank, the amount of money involved. Your best bet is to target accounts to which Leonid moved the largest sums. If you can’t move the money back to your grandmother’s accounts, try changing his passwords to lock him out.’

  ‘You think he’d have used Internet banking?’ Ethan asked.

  ‘That’s a near certainty,’ Ruby said. ‘Almost all business banking is done over the Internet these days.’

  ‘That’s good for us,’ Ethan said. ‘Provided he didn’t do it on a computer we don’t know about.’

  By this time they’d exited the hangar, passed along a short corridor and were stepping into a small office with a single PC and a big window looking out over the runway. Ruby had already logged the computer into the FTP site and set it to download all the files.

  ‘I’ve installed the decryption program but I haven’t accessed any of the spyware files because I’d need your key,’ Ruby explained.

  ‘No problem,’ Ethan said, as he lowered himself into an office chair. ‘Can I get a drink? Coke or something?’

  ‘Sure,’ Ruby said.

  As Ruby headed out, Ethan looked at the keyboard and screen. After animal cages, planes and African towns there was something soothing about sitting in front of a Windows desktop with a mouse in hand.

  The spyware files were coming through in date order. So far there were 370 data files and 3,700 screen shots from the computer at the stable, plus a file that had logged every keystroke typed into the computer.

  Ethan decided to begin by targeting files and screenshots from the hours immediately after Irena had been poisoned, as Ruby came back into the room holding a laptop, a can of warm Pepsi and a sheath of faxes.

  ‘How can I help?’ she asked.

  ‘Is the laptop on the same network as my PC?’ Ethan asked, as he finished entering his key and clicked a button to start decrypting files.

  ‘It is,’ Ruby said. ‘This is my office and my laptop.’

  ‘I’ve never done this before,’ Ethan said. ‘But if I start going through the documents Leonid accessed, you can look through the screen captures.’

  ‘What about the weblog?’ Ruby asked.

  Ethan looked confused until he scrolled up the screen and found a file called weblog.

  ‘I didn’t know that was there,’ Ethan admitted.

  ‘Well I’m no spy,’ Ruby said. ‘But if the key log file logs keystrokes, the weblog file probably records all the websites Leonid visited.’

  Ethan was starting to like Ruby and finished her sentence. ‘So we hunt through looking for the URLs of online banking sites. Then we look at the key logs and screenshots from the same time period and with any luck we’ll be able to capture Leonid’s login details.’

  Ruby began flipping through the faxes, and read something off one of them. ‘Irena thinks Leonid has a friend at a Russian bank called Industrial Trust. So let’s search for that website first.’

  As Ethan decrypted the weblog file, Ruby found the website for Industrial Trust on Google and clicked through to the bank’s customer login screen.

  ‘Search the weblog for the Industrial Trust website,’ Ruby said.

  Ethan opened the weblog file up in Microsoft Word and did a search. The document was twenty pages long and it jumped to a bunch of references to RITB on page sixteen. Until this Ethan hadn’t even been sure that Leonid used this computer for banking.

  ‘Holy shit,’ he said, as he looked back at Ruby. ‘I’ll get the key log for the time he logged in, you check the screenshots.’

  The Industrial Trust banking site used drop-down menus to prevent logins being detected by a simple key logger program, but the spyware also recorded screenshots of whatever Leonid did.

  ‘Looks like his password is IlOvmyself,’ Ethan said, as he studied the key log.

  But Ruby had less success with the screenshots. ‘When you log into the online banking it asks for three digits from your security number,’ she explained. ‘I’ve got the third, seventh and ninth digits here, but if we try to log on it’ll ask for different ones.’

  ‘Crap,’ Ethan said. ‘Let’s hope he’s logged on more than once.’

  He checked through the log files and found two more Industrial Trust logins. When Ruby checked the drop-down screenshots she managed to get digits one, two, five and eight of Leonid’s security number.

  Ethan wrote what they had on a Post-it note:

  650?8?447

  ‘We could try logging in,’ Ethan said. ‘There’s a decent chance that it won’t ask for digits four or six.’

  Ruby nodded in agreement. ‘We’ve got nothing to lose. It won’t lock us out after one failed attempt.’

  Ethan opened a web browser and navigated to the Indu
strial Trust login page. He entered Leonid’s password. He was satisfied when a green tick appeared and a little box slid open.

  ‘Please enter digits two, three and nine of your security code.’

  ‘You’re in luck,’ Ruby said brightly.

  Ethan swigged his Pepsi as he entered the numbers using the drop-down boxes and pressed enter.

  A banking home screen appeared with Welcome Leonid Aramov written at the top. Below it was a listing of five different accounts. Three were in euros, one in Russian roubles and one in US dollars. The rouble accounts seemed to have the big numbers in them.

  ‘Any idea about the exchange rates?’ Ethan asked.

  ‘It’s around thirty roubles to one US dollar,’ Ruby said. ‘Nine hundred and eighty-four million roubles is around thirty-two million US dollars.’

  Ethan smiled. ‘So that’s almost half of Grandma’s missing money right here. Get me the details of one of my grandma’s accounts. I’ll try and transfer it back.’

  Ruby read details of one of Irena’s accounts from a fax message. Ethan tapped the details in the transfer screen and hit send, but a warning box popped up on the screen.

  Transfers in excess of 2,500,000 roubles require further verification. Please contact your personal banking representative for full details.

  ‘Shit!’ Ethan said, as he looked around the screen. ‘I guess we could do it two and a half million at a time but it would take a while.’

  ‘And the bank’s fraud protection systems would pick that up in a heartbeat,’ Ruby said.

  ‘OK,’ Ethan said, as he clicked on the change details button. ‘Let’s try something else.’

  A screen opened up where you could change any personal details after you’d re-entered the password and a mother’s maiden name. He tapped the screen.

  ‘I don’t know what Grandma’s name was before she got married, but we can find that out. This is the tricky part.’

  Ruby leaned forward and read the text aloud. ‘All changes to personal details must be confirmed via e-mail.’