by D S Kane
* * *
Ann focused into her mindset as hard as she could. Nine Bug-Loks remained active inside her. She forced them to look outward, through the local network, into cyberspace. Now, while the Bug-Loks held the outward passway open, she tried to push her thoughts to accompany them. Last time she tried, she had no success, but this time, she was able to sense a single additional signal. She tried to Google “brain chemistry” with the signal, searching by using her own brain. The result was foggy, but it was real. She was able to hold the search pathway open for…two seconds, before it crashed and she felt totally exhausted.
She blinked her eyes and, roused, walked into the kitchen. I’ve finally succeeded. I’ll need to practice. She ate leftovers stored in the refrigerator from last night’s dinner, and then opened and ate the contents of several cans in the pantry.
Cassie sat at the table, her cell to her ear. Ann listened to her mom talk with Avram and Jon. “Jon, that’s an ambitious plan you have. How can you succeed when you already expect that when one of DeSpain’s buddies disappears, all the others will immediately go on high alert?”
Ann heard the voices from the speakerphone but couldn’t make out the words. Where were Avram and the mercs? She hoped they were on their way home.
Ann went back to the bedroom and closed the door. She set about practising her new-found trick until she could do it for over an hour without becoming exhausted. But another Bug-Lok had perished in the process.
* * *
Avram used his cellphone from the aircraft and called Judy Hernandez, the office manager of the Swiftshadow Group. “Judy, we have a list of over two hundred sniper mercs and another two hundred spotters contracted on reserve. I’ll need you to vet these, and offer one hundred each of snipers and spotters short-term assignments. Recruiting the snipers and spotters may take several days, since some may decline the work. Let me know when you have at least ninety-three snipers and another ninety-three spotters. I’ll send you a list of targets and their locations. Make air arrangements for them to fly to the target’s locations with one target per sniper-spotter team. Make sure they all arrive on the same day.”
* * *
Ann sat at the kitchen table in the safe house. She could do the next step most easily by asking for a volunteer. She turned to Cassie, who had just finished drinking a cup of coffee. “Mom, I need to ask you for a huge favor.”
“Sure, Sweetie. Ask away.”
“I think I can turn off a Bug-Lok that another person has ingested. But before I try this for real, I need to see if I can really do it.”
“No. Absolutely not. I just had two of those nasties surgically removed. I won’t take another just so you can see if you can do what I already know is impossible.”
Ann sighed. “Can you contact William? Maybe he’ll let me try to turn his off.”
Cassie thought for a second. “He’s eleven thousand miles away. Do you think you can really do this?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Cassie pulled her cellphone from her pocket. “It’s nearly midnight there.” She punched in a long number. “Alice? This is Cassie. Is Warren there?”
The voice sounded as if it has just been roused from sleep. “Calling us is dangerous. But, okay, he’s right here with me.”
William’s voice was more alert than Betsy’s had been. “Hi. Can we come back to America now?”
Cassie handed the phone to Ann. “He’s all yours. Good luck.”
Ann, took a deep breath, organizing her thoughts. “It’s Ann. I need to ask you to volunteer for something.”
“Ann? How are you?”
“Uh, I’m okay. But I have a serious problem and I think you can help me out.”
“Ah, sure. As long as it’s not dangerous.”
Ann considered the risk. “I think this is safe, but, of course I could be wrong.”
“Tell me.”
“Is your Bug-Lok unit still active?”
Seconds passed. “Just tested it. Yeah. Still works, for another week or two at least.”
“May I try to turn it off?”
“Huh? Are you going to try to hack me with a computer?”
“No. Not with a computer. I want to try to hack your Bug-Lok with my brain.”
William laughed for nearly thirty seconds. “Very funny.”
Ann sighed. Yes, it’s difficult to believe this. “Not funny. For real. Can I try to turn off your Bug-Lok using my brain from ten thousand miles away?”
William stopped laughing. “You mean for real? Sure, okay. Give it a go.”
Ann took a deep breath. Since she wasn’t using her Bug-Loks, she didn’t need to close her eyes or vanish into the alternate mind world. She focused on William, on his approximate locale in Hong Kong, and visualized him, seeing him suddenly emerge within her mind’s field of vision. She tried to enter into his mind. She failed. She tried again. Three more times. It didn’t work.
“Warren, it’s not working. Can I have your permission to try after we get off the phone?”
“Sure, Ann. Keep trying. But I’m sure what you’re trying isn’t even possible.”
“Thanks. If I think I’ve been successful, can I call you back?”
“Yeah. Good luck.” William terminated the call.
Ann was sure she was missing something. But what was it? What was both necessary and sufficient to communicate with the mind of another? She headed back to her notebook computer. Hadn’t the CIA been active in mind-control experiments a few decades in the past? I wonder if there are any studies from that time still in their archives?
* * *
In the dingy, darkened motel room, the CypherGhost sat on a folding chair. She had located the aircraft that Avram and his mercenaries were on, flying back to Washington. She figured she could attend to them in about an hour, after she was sure their Cessna had reached its peak altitude.
Now, she tried to locate and determine the contact details of another of her late father’s associates. So far, she had been able to discern the exact locations of over thirty of them. Not nearly enough. Number thirty-one was an oil magnate in Russia. She now commanded nearly one hundred Bug-Loks, the last twenty ingested yesterday. When she finally was spent, she woke and ate the food she’d bought. All of the food. Nearly six thousand calories in a single day. I need to shop before I do any more of this. At this rate, it will take me several days to complete my work.
She dressed and put on a snorkel parka. There was a minor blizzard tailing through St. Louis in the slum where she’d located, and she’d planned to remain there for the next two days.
As she reached for the doorknob, she was shocked by a small bolt of static electricity. As she drew her hand back, she saw her cellphone erupt into flames. Did I do that?
* * *
Ann’s ability to employ her brain to access the internet was now even stronger. She was still trying the next phase of her plan, to turn off a Bug-Lok inside another person. So far, over two hundred failures. But if the Bug-Loks were accessible using near-field communication, she might be able to use the internet and a local network to…to do what? Was this even possible?
She sighed. She reread the technical specifications and functional specs for the Bug-Lok device. Not clear. She knew she’d have to find a way.
She had completed her research, reading about experiments that the CIA and KGB had separately done, trying to harness the higher powers of the human brain. Telekinesis. It had never worked, or so they reported. In effect, she realized, that’s nearly what I’m trying to do by entering the consciousness of another person wearing a Bug-Lok device.
She kept trying. Nearly an hour had passed, and, every time, she failed.
* * *
The CypherGhost had now been able to identify sixty-seven of her father’s associates in the coup d’état plan. Soon, she thought.
She had also been able to set fire to the telephone directory book, the hotel room’s New Testament, and a roll of toilet paper by aiming her hand
s at these objects, closing her eyes, and thinking “Fire!”
She began the identification of number sixty-eight, an old-money-family thug living somewhere in Romania. There were at least four such families located there, and determining which one it was wouldn’t take long. She intended to give each of the over ninety associates an ultimatum: Join with me or I’ll set you aflame.
She looked at her hands and focused intently on her fingers. Sparks, small ones. Then she threw her hands at the motel room’s unplugged lamp and it burst into flames. She extinguished it with the pitcher of water she’d prepared beforehand. Cool! Just like the Emperor in Star Wars!
* * *
The aircraft carrying Avram and his mercs was nearing Dulles International Airport. Avram was angry. He and Jon had nearly finished their conversation on cellphones but still had no actionable plan. No next step. They both knew they needed to find proof of guilt for the ninety-three associates of Cy DeSpain before they could terminate them, but neither could formulate a plan that had a chance of working.
The pilot’s voice advised them through the sound system to secure their seat belts. Still cruising at twenty thousand feet, the Cessna awaited tower clearance for landing.
In seconds, they had emerged through the clouds into the black of night. A few minutes passed.
Avram spoke to Jon. “Let’s give this a rest. Maybe after a few hours sleep, I can continue trying to configure a plan. But right now, I’m exhausted.”
Jon replied. “Right. I need a break.” He terminated the call.
Another minute passed. The hum of the aircraft’s engines suddenly went silent. Then the big plane tilted downward. Avram woke instantly.
Avram thought, I think our plane has been hacked.
Avram pulled his cell from his pocket. He punched in Ann’s number. “Ann, it’s Avram. We have a problem. Out aircraft is in a forty-five-degree angle descent. I think the plane’s been hacked.”
* * *
Ann remembered her only other hack of an aircraft’s flight control system. “Avram, I’ll have to reboot the aircraft’s systems. It should take just over a minute for them to come up clean. When the lights go out on the aircraft, tell the pilot to fly using instruments until the system is rebooted.”
Avram replied, “Okay. I’ll do that now. Good luck.”
Ann pulled out her notebook and geolocated the aircraft using Avram’s cellphone, then ran a program that was supposed to reboot the aircraft. But nothing happened. She tried again with the same result. This had to be the work of the CypherGhost, and the other hacker had figured a way to close off the entry-point Ann was using.
She’d need another way to hack the aircraft. If she was correct, anything she did now would be countered by the CypherGhost. Except, perhaps, hacking the CypherGhost herself.
Ann was sure that she wasn’t prepared to battle the CypherGhost. This is suicide. But as Spock from Star Trek once said, the lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few—or something like that. Here goes. She focused on the aircraft and backtraced the location of the CypherGhost. Somewhere in St. Louis. She tried entering the other hacker’s mindspace. And failed. Ann focused harder, concentrating so hard that she was straining every muscle in her body. This time, something happened. She saw the CypherGhost from the other hacker’s eyes. She saw the other hacker’s fingers on her notebook computer!
Ann concentrated on the CypherGhost’s mindspace and saw over one hundred active Bug-Loks. She felt her heart lurch in fear. She tried to turn one off. It worked! She turned off several more before the CypherGhost screamed.
She could hear the CypherGhost talking. “Ann! I’ve been expecting you. You’ve become more powerful. You must have taken a thousand of the little buggers for you to be able to do this. I have an offer: Be with me. I am power itself. Together, we can rule the entire planet. I have the codex of my daddy’s contacts. Every one of them. I intend to run them all.”
Ann kept working. She had turned off fourteen of the CypherGhost’s Bug-Loks. “Your father? Cy DeSpain was your father?” She turned off three in under four seconds. It was working faster now. Ann relaxed for just a second and almost lost the connection. She clenched her fists and pushed her own mind back into her enemy’s mindspace. Ann continued turning off the devices as fast as she could. She knew the plane would crash in under two minutes unless she could reboot the aircraft’s systems.
The CypherGhost said, “Uh-huh. Daddy treated me and my mother like shit. I finally found a way to kill him.”
“You know all your father’s co-conspirators are going to die within a few days.”
“No, they won’t. I can hack the orders Avram just sent, and call off their terminations.”
“Fuck, no. And now you’re trying to kill my friends.”
“They’ll kill me if they can. I’m just doing what I must to survive.”
“Well, fuck you!” A few seconds passed while Ann continued destroying the Bug-Lok devices. Suddenly, she felt her hands burning. She opened her eyes. They were on fire! She ran to the bathroom, jumped fully clothed into the shower, and turned on the cold water. As she stood in the tub with water flowing over her burning fingers, she forced her mind back into the CypherGhost’s mindspace. There were only seventeen Bug-Loks left within her enemy’s skull. It would take just another few seconds more. She bore down and worked as fast as she could. And finally, DONE!
Ann ran back to her notebook. Her hands were terribly burned. She tried to touch the keyboard but the pain from the burns was too much. She used her nose to key the command. She watched the screen: “REBOOTING. American Flight Technology, Inc. REBOOTING ACCOMPLISHED.”
Ann took a deep breath. She was sure the aircraft would recover. Now, she had to reenter the CypherGhost’s mindspace one final time. A space with no Bug-Loks. Was that even possible? She clenched her lips. Time to find out. She found the space inside the other hacker’s brain where multiple scars along the CypherGhost’s medulla oblongata were pulsating and seeping blood into the hacker’s skull. Ann took a deep breath.
“CypherGhost, you are dying. I can see the damage.”
“Well. Fuck you too. I know you have a copy of Daddy’s files from his cellphone. Too bad all of Daddy’s files were encrypted by a PGP key. With me gone, you won’t be able to decipher them.”
Ann searched through the CypherGhost’s brainspace looking for anything useful. She could feel her enemy convulsing as more blood leaked into her brain. Time was running out.
And there it was. DeSpain’s codex and his PGP cypher key to the files she’d already copied. She applied DeSpain’s key and located everything in one of the CypherGhost’s recent memories, a full of a list of names, titles, corporations, contact information, and a checklist of projects DeSpain had directed his team to work on.
The ones relating to the plot of the coup d’état were all there. Ann copied the decrypted information into one of her four functioning Bug-Loks, and then sent the copy to the Drafts folder of the Swiftshadow Group’s website.
Then she felt herself fall into unconsciousness.
* * *
Cassie returned from the office and found Ann lying on the floor in the kitchen, her hands blistered and severely burned. “Baby, can you hear me?”
Ann was unresponsive. Cassie carried her to the elevator, then out onto the street. She hailed a cab and took Ann to the nearest hospital. “Her hands!”
The ER nurse examined Ann’s hands and yelled to a doctor.
Soon, Cassie was seated alone, with her cell in her hand. “Lee, I’m at the hospital with our daughter. Get here as soon as you can. Something truly horrible has happened to her. Doctors are treating her hands for third-degree burns. She hasn’t regained consciousness.”
* * *
The CypherGhost knew that Ann was correct. She was dying. She could feel a growing pressure in her head where her brain was swelling, slowly filling with her blood. Over a hundred tiny holes in her medulla oblongata, each one oozing her life. T
he pain was beyond anything she could have imagined. She knew with certainty she wouldn’t survive her brain swelling, even if she sought medical attention. She tried to move but she couldn’t feel her legs.
She sought out the Bug-Lok devices. No, they were all gone from her, every last one. She was unable to move her hands. She tried to emerge from the alternate mindspace but she was trapped there, between the real world and the wrecked world of the alternate consciousness that the Bug-Loks had created before they were all ripped out from her. She tried to scream, but she couldn’t even do that. No way even to try calling out for emergency medical care.
* * *
Cassie paced the hospital corridor, waiting for Lee. Avram and Jon had called and were on their way to the hospital. She called William and Betsy. “Is this Warren Cho? This is Sashakovich.”
William sounded happy. “Hi. Can we return?”
“Yes. Please come back. We may need you here soon.”
“What’s up? Let me put you on speaker so Alice can hear you, too.”
Cassie heard the phone belch a tiny amount of static. “We still have another task to complete. And we’re not sure how to do it. I’d like your help in thinking this out. Please return as fast as you can.”
Betsy laughed. “Cool. Love to help in thinking. No danger there.”
Cassie took a breath. “Good. Your flights have been arranged. You have two hours to get to the airport, so start packing now. But I’ll need you here for emotional support. Ann is comatose.”
“Fuck! Will do.” See you soon.” William terminated the call.
Out of force of habit, and to keep her anxiety level down, Cassie checked the Drafts folder of the Swiftshadow Group’s website and was surprised to find a message containing over a thousand attachments from Ann, waiting for her:
Mom—
I fought with the CypherGhost. She’s dying now. But before she burned my hands, I found a ton of encrypted files buried in Cy DeSpain’s cellphone. They’re all attached. And I then found the PGP crypto key and decoded the files. I had to dictate this message because my hands don’t work at all. Can’t operate the cell’s keyboard. I opened the message app using my nose. Can you believe it?
