Returning to Zero (Mick O'Malley Series Book 2)

by Alan B. Johnston

  He noted the way NØviz held the device.

  At least, hold it out to your side and not in front of your chest!

  A few moments went by with nothing happening—NØviz stared at the men who stared back, while Jasinski glanced from one to the other, as she almost imperceptibly backed away from the group.

  Then Mick saw something even more surprising on the screen. A man walked up to the group from the side, giving Mick a clear view of his face.

  It was the General!

  Chapter 2C.

  Ja2 Sometimes you just have to go all in to help someone. #damnthetorpedos #figureitoutasyougoalong

  It was just a few weeks ago that Mick and Jasinski had confronted him in Montana, and now here the General was, apparently out of retirement. It explained why Mick had detected activity on frequencies known to be used by the CIA.

  “Mick! Mick! Do you see him!” he heard Gunter’s voice breaking through his headset.

  “Yes, I do.” he replied grimly.

  “We’ve got to get Jaz out of there!”

  “I know, but we still need to take out this botnet,” Mick replied.

  “You can’t be serious—this is way too FUBAR to try to stick with the plan—you can’t!” Gunter replied, but Mick was busy ignoring him.

  “Who the hell are you?” NØviz asked as the General stood next to the table.

  “It’s over son. You need to just give us the botnet and no one will get hurt. And no one will get arrested. You thought you were negotiating with the People’s Army but you were actually talking to my agents. But the Chinese will be on to you very soon. If they catch you, you won’t see any money, just the inside of a jail cell for a long time.”

  “No, no way,” he heard NØviz reply, shaking his head. “I verified the contacts. There’s no way they were CIA.” He looked closely at the General, then tried again. “NSA?” this time a question. Seeing that he would not get an answer from the General he continued. “Look, you are far from home here, and I’m the one holding the gun. And if you were thinking about calling for backup, think again,” NØviz continued, touching something on his wrist. The video and audio link immediately disappeared, replaced by a ‘searching’ status message on Mick’s mask.

  Damn, damn, he’s jamming!

  It seemed he wasn’t the only one with a backup plan.

  Mick hoped that Gunter would be able to determine what kind of jamming NØviz was using and get around it. The seconds that passed were agonizing, and Mick was about to give up when the video and audio were re-established, although at a lower quality.

  “K-band is getting through so we’re using that—sorry about the quality,” came Gunter’s voice.

  “No complaints—good job!” Mick replied, then focused on the scene again. It seemed nothing had changed—it was still a standoff.

  “I’m not going to repeat myself,” NØviz was saying. “I’m going to walk out of here and you are not going to follow me.”

  Just then a soft beeping sound came over the audio. Mick thought for a minute that it was from his user interface, but he saw everyone on the screen looking around for the source.

  “Ah, hold on one minute,” NØviz replied, silencing alarm on his wrist. He then started typing on his computer.

  This is it! Wait for it… wait for it!

  Mick knew he had to get the timing right in order for this to succeed. He took his best guess for the steps that NØviz was executing to regain control of the botnet—his insurance policy in action.

  Now!

  Mick pressed the button, then silently swam to the surface. His video and audio link disappeared. As his head broke the surface of the water, he heard a loud sound—the sound of a gun going off!

  Chapter 2D.

  Ja2 You know those days when everything goes wrong… #skippingtoday #notmyday

  In Mick’s water-filled ears, the sound was muffled and distorted, but given the situation, it was unmistakable: someone had just fired a gun.

  Mick grabbed the edge of the canal, glad to find himself right next to the ladder that he had located earlier in the day. He pulled off his mask, undid his tank, and clipped it onto the ladder with a carabiner. He grabbed a rung and started climbing. He was out of the water in an instant. He paused to process the scene in front of him.

  He could see NØviz, standing facing him and shaking his hand, which appeared to be blackened. Smoking white hunks of what must be 3D printed gun pieces were strewn over the table and floor. The two Chinese men were dragging the General away from the table. He appeared to be limp, his heels sliding along the floor. The front of his shirt was turning red. The men had their guns drawn but already a crowd was forming around NØviz, and it appeared they did not want to risk firing. They also appeared to be saying something, probably shouting over their no-longer-functional radios.

  There was also a wisp of smoke coming from a trash can attached to a nearby street lamp.

  Bystanders appeared to be trying to dial 112 to reach emergency services on their mobile phones, but with no luck.

  It had definitely worked! Thank you Uncle!

  Mick ran inside the café then moved around the perimeter until he reached Jasinski, who had a dazed look on her face.

  “C’mon,” he whispered to her, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards the kitchen. They were through and out the back of the kitchen in no time. Mick also noticed that all the traffic lights along the block appeared to be out. They dashed one more block, then arrived at another canal.

  “Wait, wait—I need to go back!” Jasinski said, her voice creaky.

  “You can’t go back! The police—or worse—will be there by now.”

  “But what about him?”

  “He can look after himself. Last I saw him he was making a run for it as well. I’m sure he has an exit strategy.”

  “Yeah, he would, right?”

  “Sorry, but this is going to be very cold!” he said to her.

  “What is going to be cold?” she asked, then saw him start to climb down the ladder into the canal.

  “Wha—no! I’m not getting in there! Look at what I’m wearing?” she replied. Mick glanced at her skinny jeans and sweater with what appeared to be a mock turtleneck underneath.

  “You’re right—lose the sweater, it might weigh you down. Now we need to move, unless you want to be arrested.” Mick glanced around, noting that far-off sounding emergency vehicles seemed to be converging on their location. “Decide!”

  “OK, OK!” she replied, peeling off the sweater and dropping it to the ground and following him down the ladder. A couple strolling down the street gave them a very quizzical look.

  Jasinski visibly flinched when she went in the water. Mick reached around under the water for a moment next to the ladder and then pulled up the borrowed scuba tank. He slung a tank over his shoulder and passed the second respirator and his old mask to Jasinski.

  “This is just for a few blocks.” he explained. Jasinski put it on and slipped her mask over her head. A few moments later, they both slipped beneath the dark waters and with elbows locked, slowly began swimming side-by-side.

  Without the benefit of a lookout drone, which was also no longer functional, Mick tried to judge how far they had swum. In a few minutes, he felt the edge of the canal and they turned a corner and swam further. The murky water then got darker, and Mick pulled them up. They surfaced right where he had hoped to be—underneath a low bridge.

  He slid the tank from his shoulder and clipped it to a ring attached to the bridge. They removed the respirators from their mouths. He then pulled her over to the edge of the bridge, looked up, and was pleased by what he saw.

  They climbed up a chain ladder and over a small wall. Mick could see Jasinski was shivering. He waited for a break in the traffic, then they dashed across the street and into a narrow alleyway.

  A few meters along, the alley jogged left then right, and Mick stopped there, handing Jasinski a towel and a dry sweat suit he had planned to wear.
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  “You are kidding, again, right?”

  “Change your clothes—we still need to get out of here,” he replied, facing her glare. “I’m turning my back,” he said, doing an about face, mostly blocking the alley exit. He heard ragged breathing for a moment, then the sound of wet clothes stripping off. A wet shirt wacked him on the side of his head, and he turned around in time to see Jasinski pulling the track suit top down. “You can thank me later,” he muttered, handing her a helmet and shoes.

  A few minutes later, Mick was paddling the Guzzi motorcycle with his feet along the alleyway towards the exit. The wetsuit booties didn’t give much grip, but he managed. He had not changed out of his wetsuit but had put on a leather jacket. As soon as they left the alleyway, he twisted the throttle and they roared off.

  Jasinski’s helmet had a Bluetooth intercom, and his had a Bluetooth transceiver that linked to his implanted headset, so they were able to converse a little as they rode through the streets. While he concentrated on the traffic, Jasinski wanted answers.

  “Can you tell me what the hell just happened? Why was the General there? What was that giant flash like a lightening strike?”

  “Ah, that! That was me. I set off a small EMP device—you know, an Electro Magnetic Pulse. It fried all electronics within about a dozen meters of where it went off. Gunter hid it in a trash can outside the café this morning. The flash was the energy discharge. EMPs take a lot of energy, so I tapped the overhead trolley bus power lines, charging some ultracapacitors I took from a bus service yard, and used that to generate my pulse. I think I might have taken out the bus network by accident.”

  “And you did this, why?”

  “I did it to prevent NØviz from reconnecting with his botnet. I was underwater in the canal watching streaming video and audio from the café—Gunter and Lars did an awesome job of getting it all installed. If I timed it right, the botnet should be out of commission for good.”

  “You know that you are crazy, right?” Mick thought he could hear a smile in her question. Then she was serious. “Do you think that NØviz got away?

  “Don’t know—such an idiot, thinking he could do a deal with them. But you never know—that guy has all the luck.”

  They lapsed back into silence as they headed for the outskirts of Shanghai.

  Mick pulled up outside a small garage on the side road and steered the motorcycle inside. His hands and legs were numb—he couldn’t imagine how cold Jasinski felt.

  Jasinski practically fell off the motorcycle, and dropped to the ground in a squat. Mick put down the kick stand and climbed off. He offered her a hand to get up, which she took.

  “In here,” Mick motioned to Jasinski towards the small courtyard where a family was preparing a meal. The woman stirring the soup smiled at him and said something in Chinese. Mick smiled back.

  A moment later, they were both drinking the hot soup and slurping the long noodles.

  A noise at the door made them both jump up, just in time to see Gunter, Lars, Liz, and Kateryna come through the house and sit down next to them on the floor. They all looked at each other seriously for a long minute, then someone laughed, and a moment later they were all laughing hard and exchanging relieved looks—they had all made it out!

  “I have no idea why I helped these guys—I should get my head examined,” Liz began after they had finished eating.

  “Your head looks fine,” Mick replied, appraising her blond locks. “Seriously, I owe you. All of you! I can’t believe we all got out of there. What did you see?” Mick asked.

  “Not very much,” Gunter began. “After you fried everything—ahem!—we just had to peer across the street. I didn’t see NØviz pull the trigger, but I heard it”

  “I saw it—the General took it right in his chest….” Jasinski trailed off.

  “I saw plenty of blood, too.”

  They were all silent for a moment.

  “Have you checked the botnet?” Lars asked.

  “Not yet—let me have a look.” Mick replied, pulling out his mobile. He first switched SIM cards then started logging into systems. “Hmm… nothing so far. Its too early to say, but right now—”

  “Don’t jinx it,” Liz replied, cutting him off. “Now what are we going to do? Just go back to the conference?”

  “You and Lars, yes. The rest of us… I don’t think so,” Mick replied. He looked at Jasinski. She was obviously warming up and no longer looked blue, but she was obviously still upset.

  “I need to go,” Jasinski said, getting up on her feet. “I’ve got to find him.”

  “I’ll help,” Mick replied, surprising himself.

  “Why?” Gunter asked, staring at him incredulously.

  “Yeah, why do you want to find him? To destroy the botnet?” Jasinski asked.

  “No, I think it is already finished. I really think my timing was spot-on. I just don’t want him to get caught.” he replied, looking around at the group.

  It was so hard to believe everyone was together again. He tried to recall when this had last happened, and came up with London, but without Jasinski of course who he met during that conference. It seemed like a long, long time ago. Almost a lifetime ago.

  The relief he felt was incredible. The only thing he could recall was at all comparable was after he had successfully defended his PhD thesis. That feeling of accomplishment and closure and satisfaction. And to be able to share it with his closest friends around a table, was special, nearly overwhelming.

  When he tuned back into the conversation, Lars was telling a story about haggling with a souvenir vendor.

  “—so I tell him no way, and I turn and walk away. Then I hear him shouting at me ‘12Ø Finnish! 12Ø Finnish!’ Well, I turned around in disbelief and asked the guy: ‘How do you know I’m Finnish?’ He just looked at me dumbly, then said again: ‘12Ø Finish 12Ø’—”

  “—Then I jumped in,” Liz continued the story. “And told him he was being a dumb ass. The seller was saying ‘finish’ as in ‘I’m finished negotiating, this is my final price’ not ‘Finnish’ like he somehow knew you were from Finland!”

  Everyone laughed and Lars shrugged.

  “I bought the hat,” he added. “For one hundred and ten!”

  I missed these guys so much!

  “OK, well, I’m still leaving now,” Jasinski said as she got up from the table.

  “I’m coming with you—just give me a minute,” he said to Jasinski. She nodded and left the room. Mick looked at Kateryna and she followed him into the courtyard.

  “Are you sure you—”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” he interrupted. They talked for a few minutes.

  Outside on the alleyway, Jasinski was leaning against a wall.

  “Do you have any idea where he would go? Did he have any friends or contacts here in Shanghai?” Mick asked.

  “No, but I do have one idea.”

  “You are going to look for him?”

  “Yes,” she replied.

  “Good luck,” he said, and he meant it. “I have an idea of how to get the U.S. government off all of our backs.” Mick replied.

  Chapter 2E.

  Ja2 I’ve never taken a risk this big before, but I am determined. #followyourheart #wishmeluck

  The next day, Mick awoke and headed to the conference venue. He walked straight up to the registration desk and registered as Mick O’Malley. He received his printed badge from the cute dark haired woman who was manning the booth.

  “Here you go, Mister Ah-Ma-Lee.” she said to him, pausing after each syllable in his name. It felt strange to hear it out loud again after so long. He thanked her and strolled towards the session rooms. He opened his mobile phone, swapped SIM cards, and dialed a number, leaving a short voice message. He then sat down and waited.

  Only about fifteen minutes had passed before he spotted them striding up the hallway. At that same instant, he also spotted Lars, Gunter, and Liz coming in the other direction. Lars waved to him in surprise, then his smile fell
as he spotted the others. He pointed at them, but Mick just smiled and nodded—waving with his hand.

  The two suited men walking side-by-side split on either side of Mick, grabbed him by the elbows, and spun him around, frog-marching him down the hall. He did not resist.

  A few moments later, he was being driven through the gates of the U.S. embassy and taken to a back room, which had been setup as a hospital room. Lying on a bed, hooked up to a drip and a bunch of monitors was the General.

  “O’Malley—it’s been a while!” the General began. He looked a bit pale, and perhaps a bit sheepish in his pajamas, but OK otherwise.

  “Yes, it has. So good to see you!” he replied, also feigning a friendship that didn’t exist. “Glad to see you are doing OK.”

  “No thanks to that punk… and you!” the General replied.

  “You think I had something to do with that?”

  “Well, you were there, and you did interfere using that E.M.P. generator or whatever it was. You destroyed government property, you know.”

  “I destroyed more than that!” Mick replied. The General looked at him carefully, studying him.

  “So I am told. The botnet is destroyed?”

  “As far as I can tell, yes. I’m not detecting any organized activity, and no activity to try to re-establish command and control. So I think it is all over.”

  “Not quite. I don’t know why you think you can waltz back here and not have to face the music—”

  “Well, the thing is, I have something that you need. And I’m willing to trade it for what I want.”

  “OK, cards on the table, O’Malley.”

  “OK, a friend of mine can provide evidence against a Russian illegal in the U.S. In return for this information, I want you to drop all criminal investigations against all of us.”