by D S Kane
While they listened through the closed door to the bathroom to the music of the shower’s cascading water along with Jon’s off-key blues singing, Ann and Charlette reviewed the plan. Ann said, “I see what he means. See, if this step over here doesn’t work as we intended, the entire plan folds up and blows away.”
The CypherGhost’s brows scrunched. “Fuck. What if we double the numbers on this phase?”
“The only way to do that is to take the personnel from other phases that are running concurrently. Then one or more of them have a higher probability of failure. Plus, where you add a lot of people, there’s a bigger chance of more failures. And higher numbers mean a larger probability that the other side will notice us,” Ann said. “We need Jon.”
They didn’t wait long. Jon emerged from the bathroom in his robe, said, “Just a few moments more,” entered his bedroom, and in less than two minutes he was with them, dressed in jeans and an open-necked white shirt, pulling a whiteboard behind him.
Jon tapped the board. “Ben-Levy bequeathed this to me. His last will advised me to keep learning better mission-planning techniques, but not to the extent that I fail to see the strategies of all the opposing players. A good piece of advice from a spymaster whose plans were always blown to shit.” He stood at the board with a chalkless marker in his hand and sketched their entire plan from memory as a flowchart. “Right then. Let’s begin redrafting your plan.”
* * *
That evening, the group of rogues all sat around the table once more. Jon smiled at the rest of the group. “Charlette crafted a draft of a plan, with Ann’s assistance, and I vetted it. Very simple, with a number of choke points that we can’t resolve any further. An improvement on both Avram’s and my plans, focused more on covert hacking than overt espionage or kinetic maneuvers.” He rose from his seat and pulled the board from his bedroom. “They’ve agreed to let me do the presentation.”
Charlette and Ann nodded.
“Right, then. First, the things we know. Someone arranged for three hundred and fifty-two mercenaries, whose identities we now know, to attack parts of the United States government, using bombs to blow up the Capitol Building and the White House, leaving the country decapitated, without a government. At least one senator was co-opted, but probably more. Given that the roundup of the hackers was premature, someone in the House of Representatives failed to deliver the votes necessary to keep the hackers from interfering. That implies that the members of the coup co-opted at least one of the members of the House. Correct so far?”
Cassie nodded. The others then followed suit.
Jon pointed to the board. “Now, there are several objectives we have, and limited resources to achieve them. We’ll need the entire hacker community involved. Including those who left the country. Ann suggested we ask William and Betsy to coordinate the global hacker effort from Hong Kong. We need to ‘neuter’ the mercs by depriving them of the income they were promised if they achieved their kinetic objectives. Charlette suggests we offer what she calls a ‘hacker challenge,’ a public call for all hackers to drain the bank accounts of every merc on this list and then sell their identities to drug lords and terrorists, making them targets and encouraging them to run for their lives. Of course, the drug lords might offer them employment, causing a crisis for law enforcement, but even this bad outcome draws them away from working toward a coup. Finally, she suggests we do what she calls an ‘Ashley Madison,’ posting their entire lives on the internet and exposing their families. They’ll have their hands full protecting their families. These actions require no staffing at our end. No resources. Have I captured your intent, Charlette?”
She nodded. “We already know most of our own country’s hackers have fled to other countries, and most of their destinations are in countries other than the Five Eyes countries—Bolivia, for example. Even William and Betsy have gone to Hong Kong. No chance of their being arrested and returned to the United States. They can work for us safely while they are abroad.”
Jon asked, “Questions?” No one offered to ask, so he continued. “Now, we’re assuming that without the mercs, the people running the coup will need another mass of force to accomplish what the mercs were assigned, and they will have to work swiftly to keep their plan on track. Odds will increase that they might leave traces of their work visible when moving so fast to replace them. But as yet, we can’t know what to look for to track their actions. So, this implies another mission that follows on from the first one. We’ll need to track Sadowski’s cell conversations following his call when his handlers ask what happened to the mercs. This one is more dicey. Charlette is pretty sure they’ll bounce their cellphone conversations around the world a few times to make a backtrace difficult.”
Charlette interrupted. “Even if we could get most of the hackers in the first challenge to backtrace Sadowski’s handler, there’s no guarantee we’ll be successful.” She shrugged. “It’s just too difficult a task.”
Jon scanned the faces around the table. “Right. Moving on to the next mission, we need to determine who in the armed forces might want this coup to happen. This one is dangerous. We could hack the identities of all senior officers in the military, but it would be the proverbial needle in a haystack problem. And if we were discovered while trying to determine who the enemy is, or who the enemies are, the unintended consequences of a massive hack could easily be severe. We could simply track the activities and communications of just all the senior officers, but that might not be effective. So, we’re caught between a rock and a hard place on this one.”
Cassie interrupted. “What makes this part of the plan more problematic is that we’d be assuming it is the military for a fact that wants the government gone. What if this isn’t their idea? What if someone else wants it to happen and they intend to use the military as a fall guy.”
Jon nodded. “I was just getting to that. It’s one of a host of assumptions we’re making. Bottom line, we need a place to start. I propose we use Charlette’s primary mission: hack the mercs. Then, we’ll see where it all goes. Let’s see if we can get unanimity on this. Vote by raising your hands. Shall we do this one first?”
Jon saw all the hands rise in unison. “So be it. And may our luck hold up.”
CHAPTER 35
December 9, 11:22 a.m.
Swiftshadow safe house, Washington DC
Ann, Cassie, and the CypherGhost split the list of mercs evenly and began raiding their bank accounts, offering their IDs for sale on the Dark Web, and creating multiple arrest warrants for each of them. They posted the names of each of the family members of the mercs on the web as criminals, guilty of felonies. Their note stated: “If anyone knows of this person’s whereabouts, please contact the local police.”
It took until nearly midnight. When they broke for the night, Cassie asked Charlette to stay with her for a few minutes.
After Ann rubbed her eyes and said goodnight, Cassie touched Charlette’s hand. “What are your intentions toward my daughter?”
Charlette’s jaw fell just a tiny bit. “Huh?”
“Are you two serious? Is this the beginning of a relationship?”
“Dunno. So far, it’s just fun. We’ve both been hetero until now. So, it’s too soon to expect any particular future for us.”
Cassie nodded. “Okay. Thanks for the weather report.” She smiled. “G’night.”
* * *
“What was that about?” Ann rolled under the covers toward Charlette.
“Your mom is very protective. She wanted to know if we’re in a relationship.”
Ann laughed. “You have got to be kidding!” She pulled up the covers for Charlette to dive under. Ann was naked.
Charlette wasn’t laughing. “Well, maybe she has a valid point. Where is this going? Is there going to be an ‘us’? Have you thought about it?”
Ann shook her head. “Nope. It’s way too soon.”
“That’s what I told her.” Charlette undressed and dropped under the covers. She
turned toward Ann, her hands already reaching for her. “Let’s just see what happens. Okay?”
Ann nodded, then hugged Charlette’s naked body to her own. “Okay.” Ann was sure the CypherGhost now trusted her. But she continued to wonder if she could trust the CypherGhost.
* * *
By noon the next day, Ann had tracked many of the the mercs’ responses to their new-found poverty. She nodded as she read encounters of their family members with the police. Several had been arrested, and most realized their identities had been compromised. Soon, Ann thought. Some of them will believe they’ve been dropped from the mission. Some will complain to the mission organizers. Someone at the top will notice. They’ll react. And we’ll get a lead.
She didn’t have long to wait. While she was munching on her lunch, a toasted cheese sandwich, her notebook bleeped. She called out. “CypherGhost! We’ve got a lead.”
Charlette came running into the kitchen, holding two cups of coffee. “Show me.” She handed one of the cups to Ann.
Ann backed away from her notebook and used her forefinger to point. “Merc number 138, ‘Harold Thames,’ reacted to losing his life savings by calling someone on his cell. I captured the number he called but the call was rerouted over twenty-seven times, and I lost it on that last one, so it might have been rerouted even more after number twenty-seven.” She pointed to the next line of code on the screen. Merc number 062, ‘Karl Von Schleber,’ did the same, but this time I was able to follow him through thirty-eight reroutes before I lost him, too. Each time, the reroutes are identical, so each time, I get farther along the path. With the eighth merc, I got to the end of the line.” She paged down on her screen. “The phone receiving the calls is a burner, one use only, and then scrapped. But all the reroutes remain the same until the final objective. So far, whoever their handler is has gone through eighty-three burners. Now we have all those burner cellphone numbers we can track. Someone bought them, and maybe we can figure out where, and from the seller, who the purchaser was.”
Cassie walked over to the table. She scanned the screen. “Let me know when you have the buyer’s name and location. Then it’s my game.” She walked into the kitchen for her own cup of coffee. By the time her cup was empty and she’d wandered back to the kitchen table, Ann was beaming.
Ann pointed to her computer screen. “Well, Mom, I think we now know exactly where Sadowski’s handler makes and receives his phone calls. The phone is registered under the name ‘Dyzzkly Yljdstu,’ but his location is somewhere two blocks away from our current location.”
Cassie’s eyes bulged just a bit. “Here?”
Ann nodded. “Yup. Here’s the address. 1261 Massachusetts Avenue. If it’s a multistory building, so we might have to vet a few hundred residents, but if we can get into the building, that should be a snap. We’ll just take the notebook up the elevator and keep testing the signal strength until we locate the correct floor, and then the correct apartment.”
Cassie nodded. “Now it’s my turn.”
* * *
An hour later, Ann waited near the front door of 1261 Massachusetts Avenue. It was an older building, but well-maintained. They stood across the street until a resident left the building, and Ann was able to dash across the street and enter. Cassie, Charlette, and Ann led Jon and Avram through the door and over to the row of elevators. They passed a nicely decorated set of interior walls, with reproductions of paintings whose originals were hung in art museums. When they entered one of the elevators, Charlette opened her notebook and they all rode it up the twelve floors, stopping at each one to measure the signal strength. It peaked on the seventh floor and then fell off gradually. They returned to the seventh floor. The carpeting on the hallway floor was dark, as were the walls, with dim yellow lighting from sconces. They all exited onto the floor and gathered near the elevator.
Jon and Cassie huddled. Jon nodded as Cassie spoke in whispers. “William loaned me one of his jammer-scanners. It’s an old beta test model, developed by the tech arm of the Chinese CSIS.” Cassie drew the small device from her pocket that looked like an extra cellphone battery with LEDs covering its front face. She held it up as they walked from doorway to doorway, while Charlette used her notebook to measure the signal and match it to the one they’d identified as belonging to the handler of the mercs.
Charlette pointed to a door. “This one, 7-D.”
Cassie pointed the device toward the door and watched its signal. “This version of the jammer-scanner also measures human heat. No signal here, so no one’s home.” She turned to Jon and Avram. “You guys ready?”
Jon nodded and pulled a 9mm Beretta Nano handgun from his pocket. Avram checked the clip of his own 9mm handgun and loaded a single cartridge into the gun’s barrel, for extra insurance. They both clicked their guns’ safeties off.
Cassie tapped one of her her bump keys against the door’s lock to pop the door ajar. She moved to one edge of the wall adjacent the door and nodded to the others, pointing to the other wall adjacent the door. She pointed the jammer-scanner toward the closet door to see if it was safe. No LEDs blinked, indicating no explosive booby trap. She opened the door.
Jon and Avram entered first, calling out “clear!” as they entered the rooms and opened closet doors. Jon shook his head. “No one home.”
Ann scanned the screen of her notebook as she passed through each room. “Looks like this closet is the spot.”
Cassie pointed the jammer-scanner at the closet’s door and nodded. “It’s safe.” She opened the door and peeked inside.
She searched through the nearly empty closet, emerging from it holding a cellphone. “Sorry, guys, this is just a remote repeater. Whoever is running this enterprise is using this location, and this cell to relay the calls from all of the other cellphones to a phone located elsewhere.”
Charlette said, “Gimme.” She scanned the list of recent calls. “Four numbers outgoing, three hundred and fifty-two incoming from relays. The latter group will be the mercs, but just to be sure, I’m recording the recent calls page from the phone onto my notebook.” She transferred the hacked file to Ann’s and her own notebooks via emails. Then she slid the battery cover off the cellphone she held, and embedded a tiny microchip device within it. She replaced the cover and placed the phone back in the closet. “I designed the chip. Very simple hardware. Took a soldering iron and plastic to make it at a university’s computer science lab. It records the calls of the numbers calling in and being forwarded, then once a day sends the file to my notebook. We’re done. Let’s vamoose now.”
* * *
Ann noticed Charlette’s blank expression as they reentered the Swiftshadow safe house. “You okay?”
Charlette shrugged. “Yeah. But I never tested that chip. Hope it works.”
“We’ll know soon.” But Ann was now sure she couldn’t believe Charlette. Something just seemed off. “I guess now we just wait.” She stared at her new friend, wondering what was really going on behind the CypherGhost’s empty eyes.
Hours passed with no further message to or from the mercs. Ann stretched and said, “I need a break. Sleepy-bye for me.” She rose and headed for the bedroom they shared.
Charlette watched Ann walk into the bedroom and close the door. Charlette took a deep breath. Now she had her notebook computer all to herself. No one to look over her shoulder. She keyed a few commands and the hardware bug she’d placed in the relay cellphone responded, awakening. In just a few seconds, its program booted up. The notebook’s screen reflected “CommandRelay: Status: Listening. Boot complete. Contacting Exhibitor. Connection complete. Orders received. Orders transmitted to CypherGhost. Closing down CommandRelay.”
The CypherGhost scanned the screen of her cellphone. She read the glowing letters: “QBLY1296. LZXI2871. KPYV3256. SWJC4824. WTDS7011. MJFS3400.” She sent the message through a program she’d written, called XTRAN, and waited for its decryption.
Phase three now complete. Charlette recently had become a part of a hack
er group called Free Hacker Society, which claimed it was was dedicated to destroying all the evil aspects of how the government treated other hackers. The hacker central consisting of Ann and her friends and family had now become an impediment to FHS and its mission. Phase three had been to embed the CypherGhost within Ann’s hacker central—a mission now accomplished. Next, her orders for phase four were very specific. She’d need to act soon. Very soon.
But, Ann had been so welcoming, so friendly. And so sexually effervescent. It had made her mission so much more entertaining. And to her dismay, much more difficult.
Now it was time for the CypherGhost to tear apart those who had never realized who she really was and why she was with them. But there was a problem. She was beginning to feel affection for those who were now the substitutes for her parents. And most disturbing of all of those memories was who her father was.
First, she drew a small cellophane packet from her pocket and pulled Ann’s coffee cup closer. She emptied the packet into Ann’s coffee. Then she emptied a second packet into her own cup and swallowed all the coffee in her cup.
She pushed Ann’s cup back into its original place on the table.
She would have to very carefully think through what she did next.
CHAPTER 36
December 9, 10:09 p.m.
Swiftshadow safe house, Washington DC
When Ann closed the bedroom door, she plucked her cellphone from her pocket and ran a program William Wing had written for her before he left for Hong Kong: MONITR. Every keystroke and every screen of the notebook that Jon had given the CypherGhost was now being stored within a file on Ann’s cell. She read the message emerging from XTRAN, now visible for her.
