by Sijal Aziz
Derek checked the watch on his wrist, it was already 2:00AM.
Everyone was sitting around Kate and waiting for the players to come online. Pat dozed off and was snoring loudly when Jeff shouted, “Coldfeet is online” startling everyone around him and waking up Pat.
“You almost gave me a heart attack kid”, Pat said breathing hard.
“Sorry but he just joined. Care to do the honors?”, Jeff asked Kate.
“Would love to”, Kate said and started Dota 2. Once the game was running. She invited Coldfeet to a game with her. Once they were in the game, Kate made a private chat lobby and sent an invite to Coldfeet to join her. Coldfeet came into the lobby immediately. Kate was about to write the message when Jeff announced that Soreluck was on line as well.
“We have to move quick before he is offline”, Jeff said with a hint of urgency in his voice.
Kate quickly typed the message that Derek had asked her to write in the chat lobby and checked her program in the background, it was capturing IP address of the recipient and capturing ping timing as well.
Without waiting for Coldfeet to answer she closed the chat, closed the game and started Counter Strike Global Offensive.
Once the game was running, she invited Soreluck to join her, once he joined her, she made a private chat lobby and sent him the same message.
Her program running in the background, captured his IP address and ping duration. Without waiting for an answer, Kate closed the chat and the game. She printed the IP addresses and ping durations and gave the sheet to Derek, “We now know their public IP addresses. They have the same IP providers”
“Good, now we only have to visit one company to get their physical addresses”, Derek said relieved.
Derek turned to captain Todd with an inquiring look.
Captain Todd began, “Pat, Carson, type a request for subpoena based on suspicious internet activity. I will call judge Muller and ask him to sign it. This is his home address”, captain Todd wrote the address on a post it and handed it to Carson, “once the subpoena is signed, I want you to go to the ISP’s office and wake up whoever is there and get me the physical addresses of these bastards. Now!”
Pat and Carson got to their computer, Pat started typing the subpoena and once he was done, they both headed straight to Judge Muller’s house.
Captain Todd placed a call to Judge Mueller. The judge picked up the call after the 7th ring.
“This better be good Todd! No one and I mean, no one wakes me up at 2:30 AM in the morning”
“It is sir. We know for sure that two of our suspects are involved in an illegal activity possibly something that can hurt or kill American people.
I need a subpoena to get access to their physical address from the ISP so that we can investigate them further and arrest them.
Can you please sign this subpoena for the ISP to share their records?”
Judge Muller sat up in his bed, “Are you sure about them?”
“Yes, judge we have very strong evidence against them but giving you a full report will take very long and by then they will disappear”
“I hope you are not getting me into some kind of trouble, Todd”
“No, sir, not at all”
“Ok, when are you bringing the subpoena”
“My detectives, Pat and Carson are on their way to your home as we speak”
“So, you knew I would sign it?”
“No, sir. I just wanted to save time”
“Ok, Todd. If you are wrong, I don’t want to be dragged into this or I will have your badge”
“Understood, thank you sir”
Judge Muller hung up. He knew it must have been really important otherwise Todd would not have woken him up at this hour. Todd and Muller played poker once a week at another judge’s apartment. Although they were friends, but Muller had never given Todd any leverage as far as law was concerned.
Pat and Carson arrived back at the station, after one and half hour with the physical addresses and names of both suspects in their hands. They put them in front of the captain who was showing signs of fatigue now.
Pat began, “Sir one of the suspects is Saad Al Hassan. He is living in a studio apartment in a two storey building near the Georgetown University”
Derek consulted the files on the students, “According to his scholarship application, Saad Al Hassan, is a Bangladeshi national, father works in a pharmacy, mother is a housewife, he has three brothers and one sister. They live in Dhaka. He was an ace IT student in Bangladesh and was selected for scholarship by Cooper three months ago. He is studying computer sciences in Georgetown University”
“Next one is Abdul Shakeel, he lives in a studio apartment not far from Saad Al Hassan”, Carson said.
“According to his scholarship file, Abdul Shakeel is an Afghan national and he is an orphan. His parents were killed during the war of terror. He has been living in United States since he was 16 and he was selected by Cooper for scholarship 3 months ago. He is also a computer sciences student in Georgetown University”
“Ok. So, we have two students one from a normal background and one from a traumatic background. I am putting my money on Abdul Shakeel. I think he is the one who was working with Cooper”, Captain Todd said.
Before anyone could speak, Kate spoke up, “Captain, Shakeel is a good candidate for carrying out terrorism activities during the event. But we should not forget that Cooper went to great lengths to keep their files in the hidden drive and spent quite a lot of time with both of them through voice chat. So, I think we should look into both of them”
Captain Todd said, without acknowledging that Kate had made a good point, “It is 10:15 AM now. The function is about to start in 45 minutes. Derek, I want you to take detective Finn with you and raid Saad Al Hassan’s home and catch the son of the bitch in the act. Pat and Carson, I want you to go to Abdul Shakeel’s home and catch him in the act”
Kate and Jeff were feeling left out.
“Ms. Hawkins, I want you to accompany detective Derek and detective Finn. Once they have arrested Saad Al Hassan, I want you to check his computer and see what he was doing on this laptop. I need detailed information”
“Jeff, you are going with Pat and Carson. You do what I have just asked Ms. Hawkins to do. Out now”
“Captain just one thing”, Derek said.
“What”, Captain Todd asked impatiently.
“Knowing Cooper, he would have planned the attack so that there are no loose ends. He would have made sure that nothing traces back to him.
That is why he murdered Ian and that is why he had planned to murder Kate. I do not think he would have asked his accomplices to take a day off from the university because that would have helped police identify them, in case they got close to them. I think both these students would be in the university and not at their homes”
“Where in the university? It’s a big university. By the time we reach them, they would have already carried out the attack”, Jeff intervened.
Captain Todd was now sweating and was cursing himself for not involving the FBI and the secret service.
“When I was in Georgetown University, the IT students’ favorite library was the Blommer library. It is located on the third floor of Reiss Science Centre. If anyone wanted privacy they’d go there. Since they are both computer science students therefore this library is ideal for them to launch their attack from.
It's right in the computer science building, so they won’t be away from their campus for long, the library will offer them free wifi to carry out their attacks. There are a number of students in the library at all the times working on their laptops, so they can hack them and use their IP addresses to jump from one computer to another so that no one can trace them. So, if I were to do this, I would do it from the library”
“So, library it is, start with the library and both teams and keep me updated. I will contact the FAA and get travel details and passport pictures for both of them and WhatsApp them to all of you
, so that you know who you are looking for”, captain Todd said with beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
There was a chorus of “yes sir” and then everyone headed out of the door. Captain Todd slumped into the chair.
He was sure about one thing and that was that he would become very famous in the next couple of hours. But he didn’t know whether he would become famous in a good way or a bad way. He had played a huge gamble and he wished to God that it paid out and people at the event would be safe.
CHAPTER 32
The Keeping it Safe event had drawn hundreds of thousands of people. The people had started gathering hours before the launch of the event to make sure they had the front seat to witness one of the most important events in world history.
Most were there to witness history in the making and some were there to protest. The government had decided to put on a drone show with 400 drones armed with live ammunition. Each drone was equipped with 50 rounds of live ammunition. The drones were being controlled by 50 police operators each controlling eight drones.
They were housed inside the makeshift headquarters that the government had set up near the launch pad. The headquarter was abuzz with excitement and the sound of control stations. All the controllers had been trained by Kent and Cooper for a whole month.
The drones were to fly in unison, display several 3D shapes in the air and then go into the shooting compound to show people some actions. The shooting area was set up in enclosed compound where several props, automated dummy cars and trolleys were put up, so that the drones could show the people their capabilities as shooters.
Cameras were installed in the compound to capture the action and display it on 100 by 100 feet screen set up behind the president’s podium. The event had caused the government hundreds of thousands of dollars. But since the government believed it was making history therefore it did not matter. Also, the president himself had approved all the costs since it meant free worldwide publicity for him and votes in the upcoming elections.
The dignitaries started arriving for the event 45 minutes before the event. The dignitaries included, two past presidents, the heads of states for three countries and various ambassadors.
The president was due to arrive five minutes before the event.
Eric Norman was to deliver the introductory speech on the Keeping it Safe program and introduce the president. He was an advisor to the president on science and technology and had more than 20 years of public and private experience in the field of science and technology under his belt.
He was sweating profusely because he was unable to contact Alexander Cooper. All his calls were going to voice mail and Alexander Cooper was not at his office or his home.
With less than 45 minutes left to the start of the event, Eric Norman placed a call to the president, “Mr. President”
“Yes”
“Mr. President we have been unable to locate Mr. Cooper and we cannot contact him on the phone as well”
“How can you let this happen. I am not going to let hundreds of thousands of dollars go to waste because of your stupidities. We are going ahead with the launch event with or without him. And next time I will make sure that someone else is put in charge of such an important event. You are obviously not equipped to do this”
“Yes Mr. President”
“Now go ahead and make sure the rest of the event goes as planned”
The president hung up before Eric could say, “Yes sir”
Eric put the phone in his pocket cursing Alexander Cooper and started pacing behind the podium.
Finn and Kate got into Derek’s car and Jeff and Carson got into Pat’s car. It was just a 14 minutes’ drive from the second district police station to Georgetown University. Both detectives put sirens on the roof of the car and turned it on and started making their way to Georgetown University at full speed.
They got held up in traffic in front of the Holy Trinity Church, where a protest was taking place against Keeping it Safe initiative.
“This is just great! Where do they find the time to take part in these protests? Here we are trying to save these assholes and they are protesting”, Derek said putting his hand on the horn.
“I have never been against protesters, but I wish to God they disappear right now!”, Kate said looking at Derek’s watch which showed that the event was about to start in 35 minutes.
“Derek, I don’t understand something”
“What?”, Derek said still glaring at the protestors.
“Cooper had planned his attack during the launch event. He was to be there. How did he plan on escaping during the indiscriminatory shooting by the drones?”
Derek looked at Kate, trying to think of an escape route Cooper would have taken when Finn said, “The man was a psycho. Maybe he planned to die with the rest of the people. Look at the lengths he went to, to avenge his dead wife and kid. He must be ‘dying’ to meet them”
Both Kate and Derek turned around to look at Finn because he had made a very valid point, when the car behind them started honking at them. Derek looked in front and the traffic had cleared.
They drove quickly to the open road and did not face any other traffic jams the rest of the way. They reached the university with 25 minutes to spare.
Once they had parked their cars, Kate shouted, “Follow me”
Derek, Finn, Pat, Carson and Jeff started running behind Kate. Once they reached the Reiss Science building, they started running up the stairs to the Blommer library on the third floor with the detectives shouting, “Police, out of the way”
To, the many students and professors in the building, it looked as if the police was running after Kate.
With just 20 minutes left, they reached the library. Derek looked around and everyone was using laptops. He checked his phone and no messages from captain Todd had arrived with the pictures of the suspects.
To Derek everyone looked like a suspect. He thought hard and turned to his group, “Ok, it seems like everyone in this freaking place has a laptop and they are all working on it.
We need to check those who are alone or in groups of two. Captain Todd still hasn’t sent any pictures. So, use your brains and identify the culprits. Finn and Pat, you take the door and do not let any students go out. The rest of us can split into two groups and we can start checking each laptop. We have 20 minutes left”
“Remember we are looking for two students of Asian descent, so we can exclude the Caucasians”, Kate added.
They split up into two groups with Kate and Derek going in one direction and Carson and Jeff going in another.
Most of the students were working in groups and they could only see a few who were sitting alone or in groups of two.
There were many Asian students in groups. As they reached the farthest corner of the library from the entrance Derek saw an Asian student sitting alone on a desk.
He looked immersed in something that he was doing on his computer. Derek motioned to Kate and they started moving towards him. He looked up from his laptop for a second and saw Kate and Derek moving towards him, he started typing quickly on his keyboard. Derek shouted, “Hands in the air or I will shoot”
As he said it another student from the next table got up and started running for the door with the laptop in his hand.
Jeff and Carson started running behind him and Derek and Kate started running towards the student sitting on the desk.
He kept sitting there and typing until Derek was able to grab him off the chair and throw him against the table he was sitting at. Derek put handcuffs on him and then turned him around and asked, “What did you just do?”
The student who was wearing glasses smiled at detective Derek and replied, “What I had wanted to do for such a long time!”
Kate sat down on the chair and started going through the student’s laptop. Derek checked the ID he was wearing, and it said ‘Saad Al Hassan’.
Derek looked at his watch and it showed that the launch of the event was only 15
minutes away. He was sure the president and the rest of dignitaries must have been taking their seats by now. He wondered whether the attack had already been launched.
Jeff and Carson brought the other student around who was trying to escape. His name as per his college ID was Majeed Kaiser. Derek shouted at the top of his lungs. This is not Abdul Shakeel. Where is he, we need to find him now.
Carson turned the student around and asked him, “Why did you run? You asshole?”
“I don’t know I was just scared”, replied Majeed Kaiser.
“Go look for him and put him under arrest too and take his laptop”, Derek screamed. The other students in the library had now started heading towards the door and were stopped by Finn and Pat.
“What has he done?”, Derek asked pointing to Saad Al Hassan’s laptop.
“I am trying to figure it out. Please give me a minute!”
“We may not have a minute. I will go and look around for Abdul Shakeel”
Kate didn’t look up. She was trying to figure out what Saad Al Hassan had done. Kate could see that the drone policing software was running and there were a series of commands at the bottom of the screen.
She started going through the commands and was able to discern that Saad Al Hassan was controlling 200 drones and had taken over their control.
He had given the drones command to take their positions covering the front and left side of the drone launch event grounds and shoot indiscriminately at all moving objects. Kate needed to figure out how to kill the commands that Saad Al Hassan had given or at least cut power to the drones to disable them.
From the other side of the library she heard commotion. Derek must have caught the other terrorist, Kate thought and then she heard a gunshot followed by another one.
Kate froze for a few seconds and then got up in a haze, praying that Derek hadn’t gotten shot. She walked over to where the sound had resonated from. She saw Derek standing over a student, who Kate gathered to be Abdul Shakeel. Derek was gripping his left arm just above the elbow and blood was pouring out of it.
