Man of Honor (Enforcement Division Book 4)

by Chris Malburg

  Li Yong dropped his head. “You are no better than the Chairman. He also took my parents. He threatened to kill them if I do not engineer these attacks. We all are just hostages to you—”

  “Okay, look,” Helen said and held a hand over the telephone handset she was talking into, “too much testosterone here. Both of you just stand down for a minute. Li Yong, no one is going to shoot anyone. I have the FBI on the line. They’re patching in a video feed for you to see.” She pointed.

  On the wall, one of the video screens went blank for a second, then reappeared. This time, it showed the image of the General and Mother sitting at a table in a stark, windowless interview room. Across from them were two agents in dark slacks, white shirts, and blue ties; their suit jackets were carefully draped over the backs of their chairs.

  “Talk to them,” Helen ordered Li Yong.

  “Ah, what’s for lunch?”

  Mother looked up from her plate, then into the video monitor at the end of the table. “Chimichangas, my unobservant son. Mine is beef—”

  “They heated them up for you, Mrs. Y?” Diego interrupted. “They’re better warm. Not too spicy.”

  The General, Mother, and both agents raised a thumbs up for the video monitor, then continued eating.

  Li Yong said to Diego, “Chimichangas? They are elderly people. So you continue to kill them with more unhealthy food?”

  “Hello, Mother, it’s Helen. Are they treating you well, ma’am?”

  Mother nodded her head, still chewing and swatted a hand dismissing the question as obvious.

  “Not to worry, son,” the General said. “We tell them nothing. Except that we are on a secret mission for Xi BigBig himself—”

  “And, of course,” Mother interjected, “that we are saving lunch for him when he finally arrives to rescue us.”

  “Enjoy lunch,” Jack said. “We have to go now.” He shut down the video link. “Okay? Now you know your parents are fine so long as you cooperate. Understood?”

  Li Yong nodded his head. “But chimichangas? Such rich, spicy, fried food is so bad for them.”

  “They’re really good, man,” Diego said. “I am the master of Tex-Mex—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Jack said. “Your folks look okay to me, Li Yong. Let’s keep ‘em that way. You have one hour, fifty minutes now. Get to programming.”

  “Hey, Jack,” Diego held the telephone at arm’s length, “White House on the line. Want to talk to them?”

  Jack got up out of his chair where they all surrounded Li Yong as he entered codes, checked the references in his Pad, peered into the four screens surrounding his workstation for the results then started the process again. Jack walked over and took the phone Diego held for him. “Schilling.”

  “Is this how my godson treats our national security agencies?” the President shouted over the phone. “They tell me you’ve barricaded yourself, Helen, and some others including that cyber-terrorist in the computer center there. Anything I’ve missed?”

  “No sir, that pretty much covers it.”

  “Why, Jack? Why aren’t you turning over this terrorist to the authorities? I won’t even ask how you got him from Beijing to New York then into the city’s most secure facility. Our own CIA only managed to capture this guy’s harmless parents and invite them over to headquarters for lunch. For lunch, Jack. Are you reading me?”

  “Loud and clear, Mr. President,” Jack said. “Don’t get yourself all worked up—”

  “Worked up, Jack? I’ll show you goddamn worked up. NYPD says they can blast into that Cyber Center. But they extended the simple courtesy of calling me first. They say this particular device has never been used on ballistic polycarbonate. It might explode those doors into glass shrapnel and kill you and Helen. So I asked if I might speak with you first. Maybe talk some reason into that thick skull of yours. Jack?”

  Jack held the telephone receiver away from his ear. Geeze, this guy can yell. Over at Li Yong’s workstation, Helen held up one finger. Li Yong must be through the first firewall. Two more to go. Just 55 minutes. Better hurry.

  “Copy that, sir. If they stop Li Yong’s work, the next attacks will occur in exactly 54 minutes now. We are looking at a casualty list in the hundreds of thousands. Dams will overflow; the electrical power grid for the entire United States will go dark. The five major airports will have no air traffic control with thousands of aircraft in the air right now. It’s a long list, sir. But what the agencies don’t understand is that Li Yong’s parents are my lever to force him to stop these attacks.

  “Even now he might fail. But at least, there’s a chance. If I open this inner door, the agents will swoop in and take Li Yong into custody. Then there is no chance of stopping the next attacks.” Jack looked up at the red digital countdown clock on the wall. “Fifty-one minutes, sir. Still want me to open this door?”

  The silent standoff on the phone lasted one precious minute. Jack knew the President was getting ten different opinions from ten advisors there in the Oval. I can wait. Just so long as Li Yong keeps on working.

  “Put Helen on,” the President demanded.

  “Yes, sir?” Helen said.

  “How’re you doing, goddaughter-in-law?” the President asked.

  “Oh, you know. Working away. Kind of a busy day. And you, sir?”

  “Stressed. My advisors are all yelling at one another. On the other end, I’ve got my bull-headed godson talking logic as if he knows something.”

  Helen nodded, “I see your difficulty.” Over at Li Yong’s workstation, Crypto raised two fingers. “If it’s any help, sir, they just broke through the second firewall. One more to go.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then Li Yong launches his antivirus that stops the programs his group at Unit 61398 slipped into all those infected computers.”

  “Will it work?”

  “Li Yong has been spot on with every computer fix he’s entered so far. He knows the FBI has his parents in custody. He thinks the FBI is deliberately killing them with junk food.”

  “Chimichangas. I heard. Would it help if we stopped that?”

  “Sir, you want to see a real battle? Try stealing Mother’s chimi.”

  “You haven’t been over to the house for dinner lately.”

  “Busy, sir. Still trying to perfect that stupid spaghetti carbonara you and my husband seem to like so much.” The red digital countdown on the wall said 43 minutes before the attack launch sequence began.

  “Okay, Helen. Thanks for giving me a brief respite from all this.”

  “Glad to help, sir.”

  “You think the perfect carbonara is a stupid quest?” Jack asked. Then he saw the activity on the other side of the bullet resistant glass wall. The NYPD Commissioner raised his cell phone to his ear. Brief conversation. President’s a man of few words when it comes to giving orders. The NYPD Commissioner nodded his head emphatically. Jack’s shoulders went slack and the roiling in his gut that began when ordnance experts started wiring the inner door wound down.

  He reached over and hugged Helen. “Nice job defusing the moment, hon. You did what I couldn’t. That’s why the man asked to speak with you.”

  * * *

  Chapter 42

  “It’s going to take time for your counter virus to wind its way through all those infected computers,” Jack said.

  “Just 20 minutes or so,” Li Yong answered. “My counter virus is like a bullet. No need for stealth. Just blast down firewalls. We don’t care if system administrators see it. Could not stop it even if they did.”

  “Clock’s ticking,” Crypto said. “Just 34 minutes until the main assault launches. If you need 20 minutes to get the antivirus out, that leaves just 14 minutes to break down this firewall and set up the antivirus.”

  Li Yong nodded. “What did you think I was doing on the airplane? While the rest of you ate poisonous fast food? I programmed the antivirus. Set it up. Tested it. Testing, testing, testing. We get just one chance. Make it count. Right Jac
k?”

  Jack looked at Li Yong. “Hope it goes better than some of the things you did on that iPad trying to get us in here.”

  “Not funny, Jack. Especially with my parent’s lives in the balance.” Li Yong did his rapid fire, machine gun typing. It went from his head, through his fingers, over the keyboard, and into the computer. He checked his work. Paused to look over the four screens at his workstation. “Shitfuckpiss,” he cried, then began furiously typing again.

  “What?” Jack asked. Must have learned that from me.

  “Firewall blocked the introduction of the antivirus.”

  “Two minutes until you need to launch,” Crypto said.

  “Time,” muttered Li Yong. “More time.” His fingers hammered at the keyboard, then just as quickly stopped. He looked up at his four screens. Then he leaned back in his chair and checked the digital countdown clock. “Ready. With 40 seconds to spare. We launch now. Okay, Jack?”

  So, thought Jack, all we’ve gone through over the last two weeks now comes down to this. Jack looked through the layered polycarbonate glass at the NYPD, FBI, and Homeland agents outside the Cyber Terrorism Center. At least, they had put away their guns and dismantled whatever blast they were planning. “Launch,” Jack said simply. “Hell yes, launch.”

  Li Yong punched a single button on his keyboard. “Now we wait.”

  “Is there any way we can track your antivirus’ effectiveness?” asked Gallagher.

  “No need. I am sure now.”

  “You were sure that you locked the outer door to the roof,” Jack said. “Remember? And you were sure that you turned off the building power. Yet, somehow, the fire sprinkler system activated anyway.” Jack looked up at the red digital countdown clock. Twenty seconds. Too late to do anything about it now. President’s most certainly got the cruise missiles spooled up and the bombers already en route to Beijing. Jack’s stomach knotted. We could be watching the start of World War III. And this is ground zero.

  “I have an idea,” Helen said. “Go old school. Let’s just call the nation’s largest dam, the three major electrical utilities, and the four largest airports. Find out how they’re doing. Any problems, no matter how minor we want to know about.”

  * * *

  Chapter 43

  “Helen?” Gallagher asked. “How’s JFK?”

  She put a hand over the telephone mouthpiece. “All ATC radars are up and running. Landing systems are functional. Takeoffs and landings cycle every two minutes, just like always. I’m on the phone with O’Hare right now.”

  Gallagher checked off JFK from his list. “Crypto? What did Sempra Energy say?”

  “All national energy allocations are sending power where it’s needed. No interruptions; no brownouts.”

  Jack watched as Gallagher made another check off on his list. One after another, every airport, financial institution, telecom company, oil pipeline outfit, and electrical utility they queried seemed fine. Jack felt the adrenaline that had kept him peaked for so long just flow out. Finally, we can put this to rest after two weeks chasing down the people trying to destroy America’s way of life. Jack saw the end in sight. Fatigue settled onto his shoulders. Like a thick sludge, it ran down his arms, across his chest, stomach, and down his legs. “Anyone objects to letting in the police?” Jack asked.

  They all looked at the polycarbonate doors. Li Yong held his iPad in one hand; his finger poised over the screen, ready to press the button that would slide open the doors.

  “Let ‘em in,” Jack said. Within seconds he felt the shoving and jostling. There were lots of police and it wasn’t a large space.

  The lead agent shouted for Li Yong to step away from the computer workstation. “You have the right to remain silent.”

  “Quiet!” snapped Gallagher. “How about Hoover Dam?”

  The entire room went dead quiet.

  “Jack? Hoover Dam? You called them. Right?”

  Shitfuckpiss. First call went to voicemail. No return call. Jack grabbed up the phone and punched the buttons. Loud conversations in the Center resumed, making it hard to hear.

  Jack held up a hand and then slammed it down on the desk. Coffee cups, water bottles, mice, and keyboards jumped with a clatter. The noise stopped.

  “Putting the security director on speaker,” Jack spoke into the silence. “Go ahead, sir.”

  “John Booker, Director of Cyber Security, Hoover Dam. I was just telling Mr. Schilling here that we have a small problem with the spillway controller algorithm. Nothing we can’t handle here. We noticed it about five minutes ago—”

  Crypto jumped from his chair and leaned over Jack’s speakerphone, “What isn’t it doing, Mr. Booker?”

  “What isn’t it doing? It controls the downstream floodgates. Our control monitors show it just went offline.”

  “In English?” Jack demanded in the now silent computer center.

  “We can’t open or close the spillway. There’s no real danger though. We have a failsafe subroutine that prevents any accidental opening of the downstream spillways.” The man chuckled. “There’d be one helluva flood covering California, Arizona, and Nevada.”

  Jack whirled on Li Yong. “Your plan was to flood three states?” If steam could escape his pores, he’d be enveloped in a red cloud of rage.

  “No, no,” Li Yong shook his head emphatically and held up both hands to deflect Jack. “I worked on this attack. It stops the turbines. The hydroelectric feed to the power grid would have gone offline. That is all. Why would I flood downstream assets? It would impede the payment of China’s $1.3 trillion investment in US Treasury bonds.”

  Helen placed a calming hand on Li Yong’s shoulder, “If you didn’t hack Hoover, then who did?”

  “Irrelevant right now. Rescue time. Tell Mr. Booker to stand down. Now!” Li Yong shook off the agent’s restraining hands. “We bet I am better than the other hacker who placed this virus.” Li Yong’s fingers flew over the keyboard, pounding like rain on a tin roof. He slowed to look up various programs in his iPad, and then transmit them to the Bureau’s computers.

  “What exactly would an uncontrolled opening of the dam look like?” Jack asked Booker.

  “You mean the spillway gates somehow open then get locked in that position?” Booker chuckled again. “Never happen. We have the failsafe subroutine—”

  “Tell me,” Jack ordered.

  “Okay, Mr. Hyper. First, on the dam wall, you’d see the spillway gates open wide. Tons and tons of water would spray straight out into mid-air a couple hundred feet, then fall down the face of the dam.”

  Before he could continue, Li Yong cried out. “I need the system administrator’s password. Now! Please.”

  “Oh I don’t know about that,” Booker said. “I’m the system admin—”

  “You will give this man your password immediately,” Jack’s voice was a menacing whisper—more compelling than anyone else shouting at the top of their lungs. Jack looked at the live video feed of the dam wall Li Yong had already put on the screens. Dry.

  Booker didn’t hesitate this time. Li Yong immediately punched in the password to access Hoover Dam’s control system. He knew exactly where to find the rogue virus. He scrolled through the computer code. Then suddenly stopped and looked up at Jack. “A timed attack. Launch in four minutes 27 seconds and counting.” The programmer resumed pounding away at the keyboard.

  Jack wondered if Li Yong could stop the rogue virus before it started the worst flood in Western US history. Does he even want to? “What happens if we’re too late, and he can’t stop this virus?”

  Booker stammered, the unthinkable now before him. “Hoover Dam holds back 10 trillion gallons of water from Lake Meade. An uncontrolled release first inundates Havasu Dam. Then there are three more dams downstream that would fail.”

  “Population affected?” Jack demanded.

  “Worst case could put a state the size of Connecticut under 10 feet of water. More than 60,000 people downstream would likely drown. But reall
y there’s no—”

  “God damn,” Jack whispered again. Silence followed. When a man with Jack Schilling’s presence whispered, it grabbed people’s attention.

  “That’s not the half of it,” Booker’s voice trembled. He described how it would first flood Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego. Then later each city would shrivel into a powerless wasteland. “But like I said, we have the failsafe—”

  “Less than two minutes,” Jack said. “How’re you coming, Li Yong?”

  He ignored Jack and just kept pounding commands into the keyboard.

  “You going to make it?” Jack asked.

  “Three layered anti-tamper codes,” Li Yong said without looking up and while he continued rewriting code. “Must disarm. Failure launches the virus immediately. Spillway gates open wide and three states flood.” More machinegun-like typing. “Second tamper code disarmed.”

  “Come on, Li Yong,” Jack urged. “The boys out West don’t like their feet wet.”

  This time, Li Yong stopped work and looked up at Jack. He pointed to the countdown clock on one of the screens. It was stopped with twelve seconds remaining. All eyes in the Cyber Crime Center were glued to the screens showing Hoover Dam’s wall face and its spillway gates.

  “Mr. Booker,” Li Yong called into the speakerphone, “take the spillway control offline and run your test. Prove my fix works.”

  There was nothing to see on the screens showing the dam wall where the spillway gates were. This was just a computer test. After two minutes, Booker came back, “Okay, Mr. Schilling. Whatever your boy did seems to have scrubbed out the malware and replaced it with a more streamlined and truly elegant coding than we ever had before. Damn brilliant, actually. It works.”

  “You sure?” Jack asked.

  “Hell yes, I’m sure. That’s how we test critical controls every single day. What? You want me to actually open the spillways to see for sure?”