Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller

by B. Michaels

  *

  The next day, Shields caught a CNN report on Muhammad Rahmati. The news anchor said that Rahmati had secretly entered Gaza. He proceeded to deliver a speech that would reverberate across the Middle East for a long time. Rahmati chastened Israeli and Palestinian leadership. Surprisingly, he was harder on the Palestinian rulers, than the Israelis.

  Rahmati admonished the Palestinian government to work harder to improve the lives of their people. Leaders must forget about lining their own pockets with the aid money that pours in from around the world. If not, then Palestinians should initiate their own Crescent Revolution, just like Iraq and Persia. He called for a unilateral end to Palestinian rocket attacks and assaults on Israelis with guns and knives. Rahmati ended the speech by challenging Israel and Palestine to renew talks on a two-state solution.

  The talking heads were effusive in their praise of the Iraqi PM. “Is there anything this guy can’t do? Peace between Israel and Palestine? He’s got to be the leading candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. There hasn’t been an honest broker like this since Oslo or Camp David. He was way too easy on Israel, what about the settlements?”

  *

  72 hours later, Josh and Becca landed at White Plains Airport. Josh’s right arm hung in a sling. The Westchester County, New York airport was 20 minutes from Jared’s home. Jared arrived in his limousine.

  The three collectively embraced for an extended time. Becca sobbed. Josh and Jared teared up. After working through small talk, and more of the Rahmati story, Jared got down to business. He detailed the specifics of General Shields’ immunity proposition. Becca replied first. “That guy can take his immunity deal and shove it up—”

  “Becca! You, Josh, your dad, and I are in a lot of trouble. This is our get-out-of-jail-free card, and we all need to take it.”

  “Mr. Adler, I told him this would happen. Swarmbots, with pieces of code I wrote, murdered Professor McMillan and all the excavation team. I don’t know how Rahmati hacked them, but he did. Who knows, maybe Shields and Rahmati are working together?”

  Josh interjected, “Becca, you don’t really believe that. We’ve been talking about this since we got to the safe house. Rahmati’s team somehow figured out how to take control of the Swarmbots. There’s no way Shields was involved. I don’t want to see anyone go to jail….and we do need to get debriefed by the NSA. We have to help Shields figure out how Rahmati hijacked the Swarmbots. Do you think I’m thrilled to see the guy that fired me? But it’s best for everyone, including your dad.”

  Becca stewed for a while. She looked out the limousine window. “The snow is so pretty. It’s pure. It’s white. And look at me. I just got my dad’s best friend killed.”

  “The Professor knew full well that the job was dangerous,” said Josh. “I told him that in Memphis. Think what he saw in the final minutes of his life—the greatest archeological discovery in the history of the world. Besides, that’s New York snow. It’ll be dirty in 15 minutes.”

  Becca didn’t laugh. “That’s another thing. We don’t even have the Ark. We have nothing to show for his death…or the death of El Minero…or the four Juan’s.”

  Jared stared at Becca, puzzled. “That sounds like a restaurant.”

  Becca and Josh looked at each other. Then they giggled. The cathartic laughter allowed the release of some steam.

  “I know the situation is bad,” said Jared. “You guys experienced some grisly stuff. El Jefe is beside himself about losing his best mining engineer. To make it up to him, I told him I’d rescind the management fee for three years. At least, Rahmati didn’t kill any of the construction crew. He must have somehow drugged them. They don’t remember a thing.”

  *

  The setting was surreal for Josh.

  He sat back at the same shiny mahogany conference table where he signed the deal to become a part of the Accelerator. At that time, he went directly against the wishes of his father. He started CyberAI and became business partners with General Shields. And nine months later, he was fired in this very room.

  Today was different. While he occupied the same seat, Josh was accompanied by his father and his girlfriend. Today, they assembled on his side of the table. Becca hadn’t uttered a word. In the seven months they’d been dating, Josh came to realize that a quiet Becca meant she was either mad or nervous—or both.

  Josh was glad to have his dad present. Jared Adler knew how to hammer out a good deal. He didn’t need to bring his lawyers because they’d already hashed out an immunity agreement for everyone. They were free from the threat of prosecution in return for ‘cooperation’ and non-disclosure of the events after leaving the Accelerator in October. Cooperation was loosely defined.

  Lin Liu and General Shields arrived in the conference room. Josh watched his father’s reaction to Lin. He wasn’t sure if Jared even noticed Shields’ presence. However, Becca noticed the General. The edginess in their handshake was palpable.

  Shields said, “I want to thank everyone for meeting with us. I’m glad we were able to work out an immunity agreement for you all. I know that you’ve experienced some rather traumatic circumstances.”

  “Rather traumatic,” blurted out Becca. “A very special man to my family was murdered by a collection of robots you built. And, an entire team of men was blown up by highly advanced explosives you installed in Swarmbots. This all occurred after you assured me that Swarmbots were merely surveillance platforms. Husbands are not going to see their wives. Children will never again play with their fathers.”

  “Becca, I understand your anger. I don’t want to dwell on the past, but I told both of you not to get involved with the Ark. At the time, I’m sure you thought me to be an ogre from Castle Gecko. You probably called me Krusk. I was genuinely trying to protect you both from the peril associated with that artifact. I suggest you channel your anger towards the one responsible, Muhammad Rahmati. The NSA did not kill your friends. Rahmati did.

  “Somehow, the Prime Minister of Iraq—a worldwide, political rockstar—accomplished feats that should’ve been impossible. According to the written report of your debrief; he knew who you were. Obviously, he knew where you were. And, he was aware of what you were doing. We guess that he secreted the Ark out of Israel, through the Gaza terrorist tunnels.”

  Jared added, “Becca, we’ve set up a fund for the Professor and the Mexicans. It won’t bring them back, but it’s something for their families. Members of the remodeling crew remain on-site, guarding the property until they are given further instructions.

  Becca scrutinized the recesses of General Shields’ soul. For a split-second, she felt compassion. The hacker bowed her head and murmured, “Krusk was a half-orc, not an ogre. There’s a big difference.” Then, Becca turned her head towards her boyfriend.

  Now it was Josh’s turn. “You also fired me and took my company.”

  General Shields cleared his throat and patiently parried the anger. “I understand why you feel that way. At the same time, consider things from my perspective. Since your AI first came across the Ark, you’ve probably spent every waking hour pursuing it.

  “CyberAI needs a full-time CEO. As you know, there was a new round of funding with a higher valuation. You choose not to take part in that process, but you’re still the highest percentage owner in the company. So, I didn’t take your business at all. And, I can’t overemphasize this point: I told both of you that looking for the Ark was incredibly dangerous. You choose to do it despite my warnings.”

  Lin added, “What you guys didn’t see is how much the General agonized over that decision. General Shields answers to Congress regarding the Accelerator.”

  “What if Congress asks him about hacking my car? Or anything related to the Swarmbots?”

  “First, he’d remind you that part of your immunity deal is non-disclosure of those events. Then he’d probably say, from time to time, the NSA engages in
activities to protect the security of the United States,” replied Lin, with a sly countenance.

  Josh straightened his back in his chair and exhaled deeply. “General Shields, you have our statements. Now, how can we help you going forward?”

  “We need you to review your encounter with Rahmati, in light of our logs and data from the remaining Jerusalem Swarmbots. We must identify how he commandeered the drones. And, given that your AI found the Ark, I’d like to see what other insights it can yield. What can your AI tell us about Rahmati? What are his intentions with the Ark? What’s his game plan for the Middle East? What are his next steps in US relations?”

  Josh responded, “We can absolutely help with the Swarmbots. But, let’s talk about the second part. Becca and I want to start a new AI company. We want our company to focus on a stronger, more general AI. I want to move way beyond cybersecurity. I believe that may help find the answers to some of your questions.”

  “The Accelerator can invest in the startup,” offered Shields. “We never flagged your clearances, so you’re both still in good standing. You can use the SCIFs and access NSA technology.”

  “General, with all due respect,” said Josh, “I don’t want to be business partners with you. I don’t want to do demos for you, or sit in board meetings with you. My dad and I will fund the company.”

  Now Jared negotiated. “I propose that in return for free rent at the Accelerator, we’ll license the technology to you. We’ll use your facilities’ clearance and the SCIFs.”

  “And,” interjected Josh, “I want access NSA’s new GPU-accelerated, NVIDIA supercomputers and an office on the 5th floor. I don’t want any interaction with Vish. Additionally, I want CyberAI to remove any claim to my independently developed AI code.”

  “And I don’t want to see Samantha,” said Becca.

  General Shields smiled at the negotiating forces of nature across the table from him. Josh and Becca had grown up. “Done,” he said, emphatically. “Welcome back Josh. Welcome back Becca.”

  Chapter 37 – eM

  10:00 a.m. (EDT), Thursday, April 1, 2021 – Columbia, MD

  Suite 502, ElectricMind’s Offices, Defense Innovations Accelerator

  “It feels good to be back,” said Josh.

  “I’m a little surprised myself,” replied Becca. “I thought I’d hate it. But, I hate Rahmati more.”

  “Yeah. And I want that Ark back. It belongs to Israel, not Rahmati. By the way, Samantha came by here again this morning. You were down meeting with Swarmbot.”

  Becca shrugged her shoulders and pursed her lips. “I don’t have anything to say. I’ve been cordial to her in the hallways and cafeteria. I just don’t want to go there.”

  “I understand. I do think her hands were tied.”

  “Maybe they were. But, I gave Gamification every waking hour. Samantha could’ve done more. At the very least, she could’ve told me why I was quarantined from Gamification’s best people and its most important projects. Instead, she tried to convince me that I was imagining things. Anyway—new subject. I love working with Chris Fischer. He’s super-smart. We should try to get him for ElectricMind, if we ever need a robot brainiac. He knows drones and autonomous robots inside and out.”

  “How are you coming with identifying Rahmati’s Swarmbot hack?” asked Josh. General Shields had read Becca and Josh into SWARM.

  “We’re stumped. I’ve tried every attack vector I know. I’ve not been able to take over a single process; let alone commandeer a dozen Swarmbots. My thesis is that the hackers found a flaw in how the Swarmbots store their AES encryption keys.

  “Chris disagrees. He thinks it’s not a likely scenario because they used open source, trusted libraries for the AES keys. Those libraries have proven to be rock-solid over the years. He’s pushing for a simpler explanation; you know Occam’s razor and all. The Swarmbot logs show nothing out of the ordinary.

  “The op center handed off all the Swarmbot communications to Rahmati’s hackers in Jerusalem. It worked no differently than the handoff that occurs when the op center takes control of the Swarmbots from Gamers. This Swarmbot hack is beginning to scare me.”

  “Is it possible that Rahmati’s crew just brute force attacked the encryption?” asked Josh.

  “No. Swarmbots use military-grade encryption for the satellite comms, AES-256. The NSA certifies AES-256 for TOP SECRET. AES is the safest encryption algorithm in the world. Everyone uses it, even Apple. AES-256 encrypts iPhones.”

  Josh’s question reverberated through Becca’s thoughts. “Wait, now that you say that, let me go back and look at the Swarmbot’s peer-to-peer networking capability. Maybe I missed something in Swarmlink.”

  “I’m totally confident in you, Becca. You’ll track it down. Chris is right. It’s probably something simple that we’re just overlooking. I’m close to being able to help. Hey, while I have a second…I just wanted to say that I really enjoy working with you. I think we’re a great team. When I got fired from CyberAI, I felt like I was surrendering from an important battle. Now, we're in this together—and we’re battling as one. You make me better.”

  “Aww, that’s sweet. I love working with you too. You’ve helped me, be more of me. You rescued me from my dark place and freed me to walk in the sunshine. I think our adventure is just getting started. I’m fired up to work together to grow ElectricMind into a billion dollar company. Watch out Nucleus!”

  Josh finally decided on a name for the AI. They couldn’t keep calling it, ‘Josh’s AI.’ He labeled the artificial intelligence, ‘eM.’ He pronounced it just like the letter, ‘M.’

  Josh set up eM to ingest data about Rahmati. Some information came from the web, but there were other sources as well. This included SIPRNet and JWICS. Lin ordered the NSA to install the classified drops in a newly constructed SCIF in ElectricMind’s offices

  *

  Muhammad Rahmati was now operating out of his headquarters building in Babylon. His high-speed communications backbone finally linked to Tehran. The fiber optic installation went faster than normal because Chinese engineers laid the cable beside railways.

  With high-speed, encrypted comms, Rahmati rushed to assemble his own team of cryptographers, analysts, and hackers in Babylon. They were to work in conjunction with Group 24 on Suleiman and Rodina.

  Both Iraq and Persia purged their countries of all Western spies. Rahmati could tell from decrypted intercepts that the US and the UK were now operating entirely blind. They had no more reliable HUMINT in either Iraq or Persia.

  “I’m glad you’re finally here, Javan. We’ve gone through a lot together to reach this day. As you can see, there’s no traffic in downtown Babylon,” chuckled Rahmati. Babylon was still under heavy construction. It housed few residents.

  “Well, I’ll remember that,” laughed Javan, heartily. “I’ll need to find another way to rid Tehran of excess citizens. Evan Prison is not big enough.”

  “Good point. Governing the country would be much easier without all the people.” Rahmati and Javan cackled in unison.

  “The Americans are up to some intriguing things,” said Rahmati. “We need to execute the third phase of Operation THUNDERCLAP soon. We both know that our possession of quantum computers will leak at some point. Or, the Americans will guess of their existence, especially with the hack of the Swarmbots. Although, I imagine they’re still scratching their heads about that one. While we have the keys to America’s Kingdom; we need to act.

  Javan nodded. “Ultimately, I agree with your call on commandeering the Swarmbots. It was the only way to get in, secure the Ark, and make sure the Jews wouldn’t rally around the idea of building their Temple. We don’t have time to deal with that issue right now. Until the Americans figure out the hack, they’ll shut down the SWARM program.”

  “I thought long and hard about taking the unexploded drones. It was just too risky. There could have b
een a back door somewhere. But we do have all the engineering diagrams and schematics.”

  “I don’t want to have to deal with those things in Persia,” exclaimed Javan.

  Rahmati said, “I have other concerns. If the Americans can find the Ark; given enough time, they can ascertain the location of Suleiman and Rodina. Granted, they’re deeply hidden, but so was the Ark. I want to interrogate those kids that escaped in Jerusalem. How on earth did they find that cave after 3000 years?

  “In any case, we’ve got to move quickly and force the Americans to the bargaining table. We must be more successful than the Japanese or Al Qaeda, when they surprise attacked America. We need to hit fast—and then offer them a face-saving way out. Just like Pearl Harbor, the American’s aren’t ready.

  “Right,” said Javan. “I know one thing; we don’t want an Iraqi Hiroshima or Persian Nagasaki. We need to ensure that the Russians and Chinese will cooperate, and not renege when the situation gets tense. We’re laying out the chess board. Once the plan is implemented, there are only so many moves everyone one can make. Hopefully, we force the American’s to respond accordingly.

  “We’re set to launch our Persian social media and e-commerce sites. Our engineers have versions in both Farsi and Arabic. Once you get your entire infrastructure set up here, we’ll ship you the Arabic servers.

  “Muhammad, with your popularity, you can begin pushing everyone to the .ISLAM domain. We’ve made sure the search engine is very robust, and we’ve hired some former Persian and Arab engineering executives from Silicon Valley. I love that we’re taking this page right out of China’s playbook. There’s no Atom Search Engine in China, only Baidu. I’m excited we’re going to follow that same model and create businesses headquartered in our countries, to employ our citizens.”

  “Indeed,” replied Rahmati. “This Islam-First economic policy is genius. No wonder China has grown so fast.”

  “How’s everything going here?” asked Javan.

  “It’s moving forward better than I anticipated. The amnesty, coupled with the fact that I’ve eliminated spies, has allowed us to decimate Daesh. You probably saw that we just retook Tikrit. Whenever we eliminate Daesh, we usually have to completely rebuild. We’re spending a truckload of money on laying fiber. We aren’t going to have a world class economy without guaranteeing access to high-speed Internet to all Iraqis.