The Dark Web_The stunning new thriller from the author of The Angolan Clan

by Christopher Lowery

  He was in one of the basement labs at XPC, where he’d linked up several pieces of equipment containing Lee-Win processors from all versions prior to Mark VII, some with the previous version of ACRE, all with the connectivity module, but some without the encryption software at all. A wireless router was connected to create a mini mesh network. He had also included devices without Lee-Win processors, so he could observe how they reacted to the new software. He labelled the network, Leo 1.

  Next to this arrangement were two more networks, Leo 2 and 3, comprising different pieces of equipment linked by other types of router. He had uploaded the new versions of the software from his laptop to a wireless hub similar to the main XPS hub, as it would be done on a general deployment. The hub was instructed to pass the uploads to the three routers, which downloaded them to each mini-network. He then tested the networks with messages in many different forms: alphabetic, numeric, formulae, coded, etc.

  Leo spent the day mixing and replacing the routers and equipment with other devices, right up to network Leo 10, almost two hundred variations, always with a mix of Lee-Win supported devices and others. He ran hundreds of tests and messages, each time examining the data running through all these primitive mini mesh networks. Every Lee-Win managed device on the network was now running Mark VII and the updated ACRE encryption and transmission management, which tested perfectly on every type of message. When activated by the connectivity module, ACRE caused the data to pass from one piece of equipment to the next and so on, of its own volition, a perfect data stream, perfectly encrypted.

  He sat back, considering what this meant; that he, Leo Stewart, had just created the first truly secure encrypted mesh data network in the history of the Internet. ACRE was no longer a live test innovation. After being deployed around the world by the Lee-Win hubs, it would become the future of encrypted data transmission.

  Leo texted his colleagues with an invitation to attend a demonstration of his rudimentary ‘Heath Robinson’ mini-networks test environment at five o’clock. He knew that Tom and Shen were leaving for New York the next day, and he wanted their buy-in before they left so the production and marketing teams could get moving.

  ‘Brilliant!’ ‘Incredible!’ ‘Well done, Leo!’ The accolades from Tom, Sharif, Shen and Ed were embarrassingly loud and enthusiastic. Even Daniel looked a little less unhappy than usual and patted him on the back. The demonstration had gone just as well as the tests, and there was a palpable sense of excitement and relief in the lab.

  ‘Guys, I’ve just arrived here. Scotty started this development and you’ve been working on it for two years, I just walked in and dotted the I’s and crossed the T’s. And I was lucky that the last links in the chain were the connectivity module and the upload software, ‘cos that’s all I really know how to do.’

  Tom Connor shook his head. ‘You may be right, Leo, but someone had to get it sorted and you’ve certainly lived up to your reputation. This means we’ve got almost a month to tweak and test the whole end-to-end process before sending Shanghai the final design and spec. Can we make it, Ed, Sharif ?’

  ‘We’re bound to now. Leo’s got nothing more to do on this end, so he can help us sort out the rest of our problems.’

  ‘No rest for the wicked. OK, I’m at your disposal every afternoon after I’ve looked at your test results. And guys, I want you both to test and tweak my code to death tomorrow, before we put it into the remote upgrade envelope. I’ll prepare complete files with everything you need this evening, so you can start first thing.’

  Tom was beaming with delight, ‘How about we celebrate with a drink up on my terrace? There’s champagne in the fridge.’

  Leo nursed a glass of champagne, and at eight o’clock he came back down to the lab. He printed out three sets of his test logs, so that Ed and Sharif could run their own tests with the copies the next day, make sure he hadn’t screwed up somewhere. He took all the documents up to his office then went home to get changed. He had a date with Angela, and he had something to celebrate.

  Zurich, Switzerland

  ‘That’s great news. So we picked the right man for the job?’

  ‘It looks like it, thanks to your contacts.’ Daniel Oberhart was speaking to his father, Max, chairman of MicroCentral, one of Lee-Win’s largest competitors. ‘It didn’t take him long to pick up Scotty’s theories and convert them into practical solutions. It’s an impressive set of software. Our customers are going to be delighted.’

  ‘Not to mention the effect it will have on the company’s reputation, and value.’

  ‘Right. The demo I saw today still needs some cleaning up, but Leo told me we’ll deliver the final package on time.’

  ‘And he still doesn’t suspect anything?’

  ‘Nothing. I’m still unfriendly with him and he doesn’t like it much. It’s a shame actually, he’s a likeable guy, but I guess it’s necessary.’

  ‘Once the deployment is done successfully, you’ll be able to drop the act.’

  ‘The sooner the better, I need to come home. I’ve had enough of Dubai.’

  TWENTY

  London, England

  Wednesday, 7 July 2017

  ‘Your lateral thinking seems to be working overtime.’

  ‘Thank you, Ilona. To which particular example are you referring?’ Middleton was impervious to the faintly sarcastic tone of Ilona’s compliments.

  ‘I’ve got some interesting news about Shen Fu Liáng’s Chinese father and brother.’

  ‘I see, as I was expecting. May I be permitted to disclose to you my presentiment before you reveal all?’

  ‘I suppose I can’t prevent it. What were you expecting?’

  ‘Simply that they both died between 2008 and 2012, most likely 2012.’

  She was silent for a moment. ‘I must admit, that was quite impressive, Hugh. How did you guess, or did you know?’

  ‘I’m afraid it was nothing more than a logical conclusion, sadly based on my very cynical view of the world in its present iteration. Please continue with the inevitably gory details.’

  Ilona looked at her notes. ‘Liáng’s father, Qiang, owned a summer palace on the Tuojiang River, near Zigong, about 200 kilometres south-east of Chengdu. He kept a light aircraft, a Beachcraft four-seater, which he enjoyed piloting himself.’ She put down her notepad and looked at the ceiling. ‘I was surprised at this when I remembered that he was sixty-five at the time, it seems quite old to be still flying a plane. I’d love to learn to fly, myself.’

  She was silent for a moment until Middleton’s harrumph, then continued, ‘In September 2012, Qiang was flying to Zigong for the Mid-Autumn Festival, with his wife and son, a servant and bodyguard. The plane came down on a mountainside near the river and burst into flames. Everyone was lost, Shen’s father, mother and brother were killed along with the two retainers.’

  ‘September 2012, yes, that fits with my theory. That was during the mysterious six-month gap between Shen leaving the Russian Trade Delegation in Washington in May and starting at Lee-Win in Shanghai in the following November, if memory serves.’

  No longer surprised, she nodded in agreement, and he asked, ‘The verdict was accidental death by misadventure, I imagine?’

  ‘Which you don’t agree with? How did you work all this out?’

  ‘It was not as clever as you would like to imagine, Ilona. Let me ask you a question. Were you a happy child in a happy family?’

  She thought for a moment. ‘On the whole, I’d have to answer yes. We didn’t have much money, but we were a very close and loving group. In Ukraine, the family usually includes grandparents, lots of uncles, aunts, cousins and almost anyone who lives nearby. I have three brothers and we got on really well, even after they married. They’re still there, all with decent jobs and kids. My dad died two years ago, but my mum lives with her sister, who’s also a widow, and we’re always in touch and they’re planning to come to London to see me next summer. So, yes, I was and still am a member of a happy family.
Why did you ask?’

  ‘Because that’s the reason that you were unable to see the emotional scars that must have festered for years in the mind of our Chinese friend, Shen Fu Liáng. Can you imagine the pain and mortification of being separated from your natural family shortly after birth and growing up in a different country with another family, not even of the same nationality, speaking a different language? Being unable to see your mother or your brother, just two years older than yourself ? Learning, when you are old enough to understand, that your parents had the choice of keeping you with them and your brother, or sending you away, just to ingratiate themselves with the fashionable political insanity of the day, and they chose the latter?’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that. You’re right, he must have ended up hating his parents.’ A thought flitted across her mind, I wonder if Hugh is relating to his own childhood experience? She asked him, ‘And you think he eventually got his revenge?’

  ‘I’m beginning to think that was only the first of a sequence of revenges.’

  ‘And XPC is the next?’

  ‘I’m not yet sure. As you know, I find accidental death by poisoning to be something of an oxymoron, it happens seldom except in novels with badly constructed plots. But apparently we have a case in hand at XPC, and that concerns me. If it was not an accident, on the face of it there may be two persons on whom suspicion could fall.’

  ‘Shen Fu Liáng and Daniel Oberhart, I suppose?’

  ‘Exactly. One can easily imagine that Oberhart’s family and their hedge fund investors are worried about the launch of this ACRE encryption software. They have a lot to lose if XPC increases its share of the very substantial processor market at their expense. And don’t forget there’s a Chinese connection there. Perhaps that is the reason that the son came to work with XPC, to keep his eye on, and possibly try to prevent, the development programme.’

  ‘You mean by getting rid of their top encryption expert?’

  ‘That was not what I expressed, but you must agree it’s a possibility? However, the death, again by accident, of Shen’s natural father during the period in which he was missing is highly pertinent. It may well have resulted in him inheriting a second fortune, assuming his adoptive father was also as rich as Croesus. I don’t imagine we can discover any details, these wealthy people have many ways in which to obfuscate their true situation, trusts and similar arrangements, but I think it’s highly likely and may be of significant importance to our enquiries.’

  Middleton added, ‘I think we should keep this information to ourselves, for the moment at least. If I’m right, we don’t want to alarm anyone into an impetuous burst of action which could have unfortunate consequences. Thank you for your excellent research, Ilona. I may occasionally conceive a few interesting theories, but theories are only as good as the research work which proves or disproves them and that is your great skill.’

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Leo had spent the morning looking at the results of their Mark VII testing while Ed and Sharif were in the downstairs lab, trying vainly to knock out his primitive wireless networks. For the first time since he’d arrived at XPC, everything was working as it should. They met in the canteen at lunchtime to review their progress. Tom and Shen had flown off to New York that morning, safe in the knowledge that their teams were delivering the project.

  ‘You know what, guys?’ Leo took a swig of his Coke.

  ‘Tell us, oh Lord and Master.’ The Liverpudlian unwrapped another pack of chewing gum and popped a piece in his mouth.

  ‘Well, thanks to your terrific efforts, I think we’re going to make the launch date. We’ve got three weeks to tweak and refine and get the final package to Shanghai.’ He held out his bottle to clink with the others.

  ‘I think we’ll beat it by at least a week. Ed and I have prepared final testing on the end-to-end process for the teams tomorrow, and if it goes well, I’ll have the design and mask ready to print what should be the definitive card next week. After that, from where we’re at, a few days’ testing is more than enough.’ Sharif clinked his bottle with a beaming smile. He was enjoying his moment in the limelight. ‘But I’ve got a favour to ask.’

  ‘Ask away, you’ve earned a lot of favours.’

  ‘My brother’s flying in from Lahore this afternoon and I’d like to go and pick him up. But that’s not the favour. He’s only staying for three days and he’s never been before, so I want to show him around tomorrow and Friday, if that’s OK. I’ve already got the tests ready to give to my guys, and they don’t need me to look over their shoulder. I can come in to check everything on Saturday after he leaves.’ He looked at Leo hopefully.

  ‘What do you think, Ed. Can we cope without this genius?’

  ‘We’ll try our best.’

  ‘Go see your brother, Sharif. Then no more rest until we sign off the beta testing and get Shanghai started on Mark VII production.’

  London, England

  Ilona Tymoshenko was reading through her notes from the various meetings she’d been in that day. She had an excellent memory, but always wrote them immediately afterwards, while the events were still fresh in her mind. Before leaving the office in the evening, she would go back over them to look for any points she might have missed, or to add thoughts which had occurred to her later. The notes were well hidden in the private, encrypted personal files in her tablet, which was not connected to the general office system. Ilona was an expert in concealment, it was part and parcel of her upbringing and training in Ukraine, under the shadow of their Russian neighbours.

  The last item was her discussion with Hugh Middleton about Daniel Oberhart’s involvement with XPC, and his theory around the consequences of Shen Fu Liáng’s birth and the death of his parents. Hugh seems to have spent a lot of time thinking about this, she reflected. It’s not at all related to our business and yet he’s becoming obsessed by it. She remembered his phrase, ‘an impetuous burst of action which could have unfortunate consequences’. He must have meant Leo Stewart. There’s some connection there that he doesn’t want to reveal. But what?

  Ilona wrote, ‘Previous relationship/connection with Leo Stewart? Rwanda, mother – author, aunt Jenny Bishop – private equity’. She decided to do further research on the subject when she had time. Once again, she suspected there was something that her partner was concealing from her, and she didn’t like it.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Wednesday, 7 July 2017

  Leo finished the paperwork that had accumulated in his inbox over the last few days and went along to put the file on Nora’s desk. He had refused the offer of an assistant, since he didn’t feel the small amount of admin work he had to cope with at XPC justified the cost. Tom’s PA had the time available and was more than happy to help him out. He had no further plans for that evening, so he could catch up on the less stimulating side of his job.

  He’d taken Angela out for dinner to the Crystal Lagoon the previous night and it hadn’t been an unbridled success. She was a complicated woman, with very changeable mood swings. Halfway through the meal she told him she had a headache, was bored and wanted to go home. Spurning a ride on the Harley, she called a cab, gave him a perfunctory peck on the cheek and disappeared into the night. Leo hadn’t had the chance to share the good news about his successful day at XPC; she wasn’t in a talkative frame of mind, she was rude and disinterested and then she was gone. He rode home wondering what he’d done to deserve such a miserable end to a great day, and went to bed in an unhappy state of mind. He still found her mysterious and beautiful and was sexually attracted to her, but he couldn’t cope with what he decided was simply a selfish and spoiled attitude to others. He would leave her alone until she called and apologised, if she ever did.

  It was not yet nine o’clock and he decided to re-run Ed and Sharif’s latest Mark VII upgrade tests on his Leo 1, 2 & 3 networks, which were still in place. This might save time the next day when the teams ran the suite o
f test programmes that Sharif had left for them. He would use the printed logs of the morning’s work from their files. This was another innovation he’d introduced since his arrival. Previously, test logs were often not printed and cross-checking was almost unheard of. He wanted fresh eyes to check every test, both the written code and the physical results.

  Down in the lab, Leo ensured that the networks were running correctly, then he recreated their morning’s upgrade test codes in his laptop from the file logs. He ran the upgrades together with his upload programme on Leo 1. The result was the same, Sharif was right, they would beat their deadline by several weeks. He felt justly proud, not only for his own work, but for the great performance of the teams under his two new friends.

  Leo pressed Print to get his test log and results, and have them checked over by Ed and Sharif. The printer didn’t respond, and he saw it was out of paper. It took him a moment to renew the supply and it immediately spewed out six pages of results. He checked the sheets and saw there were two pages numbered five. The additional log sheet carried Sharif’s ID code and yesterday’s date with an eleven-thirty p.m. timeline. The machine had obviously run out of paper after printing page four of his tests and he hadn’t noticed. He must have been working after I left to see Angela, Leo realised. That’s dedication. He put it to one side while he put the printouts of his own work into his master file then took everything back up to his office.

  Replacing Ed and Sharif’s morning’s test logs into their files, Leo had a momentary doubt. I don’t remember seeing a log of Sharif’s testing last night. He checked the file again; there was no log for testing at eleven-thirty the previous night. He pulled out the Pakistani’s morning log again and compared it with page five from the printer. The two logs seemed to be identical, showing that Sharif had run the same tests last night as he had this morning. That’s odd, why would he do the same tests last night and again this morning, with exactly the same results? He continued comparing the sheets down to the last instruction, then stopped with a shock. There were three extra lines of code on last night’s sheet, three lines that were not on this morning’s log. Why? What was in those lines that Sharif didn’t want me, or presumably anyone else, to see?