by Martha Carr
“I never knew you had a dog,” said Ned, glancing over at Joe, who was running in his sleep, whining softly.
“Well, that’s the thing about taking on a new identity at the risk of death or something worse,” said Harriet, casually. “You let all of these details go and start over with something entirely new until these seem like they happened to someone else. I’ll tell you,” she said, slapping the pictures down in her lap, her voice rising in an excited pitch, “I was surprised at what a relief it was to be able to go through all of these again, even if it was only me.”
“No one else has seen them yet?” asked Ned, resting his chin in his hands on top of his knees.
“No, not yet. Something keeps happening before I can do it.”
“Like a kidnapping, or a shooting, or a plot for world domination,” said Ned, ticking things off on his fingers.
“Ha, that’s a good one,” said Harriet, “or your grandson steals a billion dollars from a madman. Yes, something like that but time is slipping away, so I climbed the stairs tonight.”
She picked back up the picture of herself and Buster Brown. “None of the local farmers liked him much,” she said, running her finger lightly over the surface of the picture. “Of course, I can’t blame them,” she said, “considering he was always getting off of his leash and making off with a chicken every now and then. But Grandfather always made good on the chicken,” she said patting Ned’s shoulder and letting out a laugh.
He had never seen her so relaxed. In a way, it worried him. “Do you think we’re in real trouble?” he asked his grandmother.
“Oh dear, we’ve been in real trouble for at least the past fifty years or such, since I signed on to this insanity. Yes, I was always part of the Circle but the early years for me, at least, were easy. We didn’t need to escape Germany because my mother had come earlier and then met my father here. He was not a part of either side and I don’t think he ever knew anything about it. It was my mother who recruited me. Here you go, here’s a picture of my mother, your great-grandmother Bertyl. It was a boy’s name but her father wanted sons and all he got were daughters so there you have it.”
The woman in the picture had dark brown hair swept up in a wave on the top of her head and was wearing a long dress with a tall collar. “This was a different age,” said Harriet.
“How did your mother recruit you?”
“Well, that’s probably too strong of a word. But when your grandfather, Walter started to show an interest in me and apparently Bertyl knew exactly who he was from the get go. She waited to see if I had any interest in him and when I did, she started to tell me a story.”
“About the Circle,” said Ned, finishing her sentence.
“That’s right, about the Circle, our heritage, you and me, and your father, and even your mother. All of us. She told me about how every system needs checks and balances in order to make sure things are kept fair. Do you know what fair means?”
“Everyone gets what they want,” said Ned.
“No, not at all,” said Harriet. “Everyone gets what they need. Very different concept. And the Circle, at least back then, a long time ago,” she said, the smile creeping up part of her face as she patted Ned’s hand, “thought what everyone needed was a chance to choose for themselves. That was their definition of fair.”
“But Management is rigged,” said Ned.
“Very much so.” Harriet leaned back for a moment and shut her eyes.
“You getting tired? Want me to walk you down the stairs?” asked Ned. Harriet slowly opened her eyes, lifting her head.
“Joe and I are good,” said Harriet, reaching out to pat Joe’s head. He stirred in his sleep and looked up before settling back down, quickly resuming his snoring. “Just remembering a few things. In here,” she said, tapping the side of her head, “the world is just like it was seventy years ago. I can hear the sounds of the carousel or smell the sweat on the young men as they raced around the ice. Wet wool and sweaty men,” she said, making a face. Ned let out a laugh.
“I never knew you were so funny.”
“These are the things you lose when you agree to take on a lie that covers you up entirely. Like a whale swallowed me whole,” said Harriet, touching her carefully painted fingernails to her thumb. “Only Esther knew the truth but it was too risky for us to ever meet. We had no organic reason and I had to maintain my cover. Your mother’s life depended on it. You know, I’ll tell you a secret. Some part of me hated a little bit of that assignment every single day,” she said through gritted teeth. “I was damned sure not going to let it happen to your mother,” she said, poking Ned.
He had never heard his grandmother swear, even when aiming a gun at someone.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” whispered Ned, his eyes filling with tears. “That’s definitely not fair.”
“Oh lieber, enkel,” she said, slipping into German as she cradled his face gently in her hands. “It didn’t happen to me so much as it just happened, and it had to happen. Someone had to stand in the gap and I was the one who was there. That’s my long-winded way of saying I’m so proud of you. You want to be honest and open and trust beyond a measure of safety. Now, that’s real courage.”
“Something has to change,” said Ned, glancing over his shoulder at the monitors. The one screen still had new bits of information scrolling across the screen. Ned liked seeing the information roll into the different categories. He could feel the connection to thousands of others who were just like him, and willing to come together and fight.
There were now thousands of Butterflies out there, connected to the Apollo network and so many of them knew how to work code, or solve a piece of the problem.
“I believe we can do something to finally change all of this,” he said.
“So, tell me, then,” said his grandmother, squeezing his hand. “Why do you need to know how to take down a firewall?”
Ned looked down, hesitated. “I have a plan,” he said, “to start things over again, for everyone. You see, taking that billion dollars, in the end, changes nothing.”
“Good for you,” said Harriet, sitting back into the comfort of the chair. “I was hoping you’d realize that.”
“Yeah, I caught on pretty fast that it’s not really money that rules the world. It’s who owns the debt.”
“Very true. And your plan?”
“To eradicate the debt, or at least make the details of who owes what vanish.”
“Radical thinking, I like it. Believe it or not, that reminds me of the earliest founders of Management, more than the Circle. You’re going to try to create a true middle class. Very smart, my grandson.”
“You’re not even questioning the idea,” said Ned, surprised.
“I’ve seen amazing things happen in my lifetime. Some I’d say is good, some not so good. One thing stood out. Anything is possible at any time. The one who gets squashed by events is the one who insists the status quo has to stand. That is never true. Always think in terms of, if this is happening, what can grow from it, and then act.”
Ned got up to pace the room.
“But, to be successful I will have to get through hundreds, more like thousands, and tens of thousands of different firewalls undetected and back out again without any of it looking like a pattern, at least for a few days.”
“Is that possible?”
“I think so. I hope so.” Ned’s face showed the strain of what he was trying to do. “There are others, friends of mine, out there,” he said, pointing at the screens, “coming up with ways to breach the protection and send the virus throughout without being detected. It’s going to take all of us,” he said, sounding like he was pleading with someone. He sat back down on the edge of his chair.
“We’re setting up a dummy firewall that will be as good as anything the NSA or the Pentagon has,” he said, “and then I’ll see if I can get through it without my friends being able to see when or how or where it went next. It’s the best way to know if the
plan could be successful.”
“Tell me how you do it, breach a firewall,” said Harriet, shutting her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m not sleeping, just thinking. I do my best thinking with my eyes shut.”
“Mom says you do your best eavesdropping that way.”
“Not completely untrue.” The uneven smile came over her face as her head leaned back against the chair. “We should really get you some nice pillows for your room or a print of something.”
“You still interested in hearing all of this jargon?” he asked, wondering if it was wearing her out.
“Go on, I told you, I’m listening.”
“Okay, so, in order to breach a firewall, first you have to understand how it’s set up.” His hands were moving through the air as he talked, even though his grandmother’s eyes were shut. He could see the beginning of what he was doing as if it was real instead of a virtual world.
“Makes sense.”
“And to make a firewall manageable for the system owners, it helps if you limit the numbers of ports and the types of messages. That way you can secure a fair amount of all of your computers’ communications. There are all sorts of extra details that are needed like, do I set up the firewall to block all traffic from an undesired part of the world,” said Ned, holding out his hands. “One good example, any communications coming to my computer from China may be something that I would want to block.”
“Helmut would agree with that idea,” said Harriet.
“I also may want the computer and firewall to look at each of the programs I am using to send or receive data, such as a browser or email, and allow those programs to communicate and bar all others. Am I going to fast?”
“Not at all. You limit the number of doors and the number of letters coming through those doors, so to speak.”
“Exactly. Mom never gets this far. Usually by now she just asks me not to break any really big laws and goes back downstairs.”
“Your mother is smarter than you think and that is actually a sign of her trust for you. Take note, dear.”
Ned startled at the thought.
“Go on,” said his grandmother, briefly opening her eyes.
“Okay, slipping through one of those doors is when you breach the firewall. There are different ways to approach the problem of getting access through a door. One of the more effective ways is to trick the owner of the system into visiting a website that then downloads a malicious file onto the user's computer. The file starts to run and opens up a communications channel from the computer back to a designated point on the internet. The program is called a reverse shell. It’s like it props the door open.”
Harriet opened her eyes. “You really are more of a one-off, enkel. A regular genius.”
“You know, lately you sound more like Mom,” said Ned. “I never noticed it before. Some genius.”
“I’m a good spy,” said Harriet, tapping the side of her nose. “Okay, what do you do with this shell?”
“A shell program is something that normally you would use to reach out to a computer somewhere else to open up a connection that lets you interactively control that computer. Then, a reverse shell is a program on a remote computer that calls back to you so you can control it. Most firewalls are set up to protect against someone trying to come into your computer with a shell program from outside. Very few are set up to look at communications starting inside their own computer and going out to the internet.’
“So, the trick is to get someone to invite you in just once,” said Harriet, “and then using it against them. Like a computer mole. Very old spy trick, you know.” Ned smiled at his grandmother.
“Mom says we’re our own kind of normal,” said Ned. “You think that’s true?”
“Definitely, and it’s pretty good stuff.”
Ned felt some of the tension he’d been carrying around slip away.
“Finish your fairytale, Ned.”
“Well, another way is to get the person to access a malicious website through a phishing attack.”
“Fishing, like a line and a hook?” asked Harriet.
“Same principle but virtual and with a ph instead of an f. You see, you send them an email they think is trusted and have a link inside that directs them to the website.”
“But if you’re going to pull off your grand plan then large countries and international banks would have to trust you up front.”
“Very true. There are other methods but phishing works relatively well since it is easy to hide the ultimate destination of the link and make it look legitimate. The firewall usually looks at blocking traffic coming in that isn’t requested by a program running on the computer, once the link is selected the firewall lets the traffic go through since it was a program on the computer locally requesting the connection,” said Ned, brushing his hands together. “That’s when the virus can go to work. The same is true for the reverse shell. Once it is established on the inside the firewall assumes that it’s allowable traffic. You really following all of this?”
“Don’t insult your elders,” said Harriet, arching an eyebrow.
“Too funny,” said Ned, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. It felt like it had been a long time since he had done that so easily. “This is where we are most likely to get detected. Any bank or government or even large corporation will have set up a firewall so that their computers can specifically look at what programs inside each computer are communicating over the network. The phishing attack might succeed though by downloading the reverse shell since it was already being run by the email and browser. However, as soon as it tries to execute and establish its own connection the firewall could note it as a new type of program wanting to communicate and then block it until specific permission is given by the user to allow it to operate. Even that, though might be possible to overcome.”
“But you’re not trying to figure this out alone, right?”
“No, that’s where I have the advantage. I trust my network and use every resource openly and to its full extent. We’re not broken into cells that only know bits and pieces of the overall idea.” Ned glanced at the screen, and realized he needed to let others in on the last part of the plan. A chill ran through him. “That’s the only possible way we’ll make it. We’ll either succeed or go down trying.”
“That’s on our family crest, or at least it should be,” said Harriet. “Don’t tell your mother I said that, it will only make her worry. Go on, go on. You’re finally getting to the good part.”
“Here’s what I put out to the group. To what are thousands of people,” said Ned, emphasizing each word. He could feel the strings of each one that tied him to the Butterfly Project as if they were all family, connected by flesh and bone.
“The only assumption that you want to make when looking at security is that no matter what you do to try to stop something or someone bad coming in you must assume that they will get in. This is why you set up your security to also pay attention to any program on your computer talking to the outside world for any length of time. You investigate that program to see if it is something you want to run or something that got in and you want to stop.”
“That’s what they’ll be looking for when you try your run at them,” said Harriet. “See? Not so hard to understand. And you’ll be trying to have a conversation that no one notices, no one hears.”
“Right, and if they do find something then they’ll go back and start to develop a timeline of events of when the program appears to have been loaded onto their system and what may have caused that program to be loaded. You can also instrument out the computer to see who it is talking to and what is being transferred back and forth. Just look at the news stories about the various hacks that have taken place recently. Behind them is a group that investigated the hacks and also tried to find out who was behind it by monitoring what the outside group is doing.”
Ned stood up and walked closer to the monitors to point at the spread sheet. “This is our greatest hope…”
&n
bsp; The lights on the monitors blinked on and off and then stayed off. The darkness in the room was so complete he lost track for a moment of the distance between him and his grandmother.
“What’s happened?” he asked, trying to find his way slowly over to his desk, fumbling across a cup full of pens as they fell over. He could hear them rolling and hitting the floor one at a time.
“Stop moving,” said his grandmother. He could tell from her voice that she was already on her feet and had moved closer to the window.
“Is something wrong?” asked Ned, trying not to let the fear show in his voice.
“The other houses on the block still have lights. It isn’t good. Get down lower and make less of a target of yourself. We need to find your parents.”
Ned hesitated for only a moment before he started crawling toward the hard drives sitting on the floor. He had built these computers himself and knew every inch of them, even in the darkness.
He pulled off the front of them and pulled out the hard drive, smashing it against the floor until everything was in tiny pieces.
“Now, it’s just a plastic box,” he said.
Ned scooped up the pieces and threw them in his metal trashcan, lighting a match and throwing it in to the mixture of paper and computer parts.
“I suppose that was necessary,” said Harriet. “What about all of your charts?”
“We have an open system. Others will have the same information. There is no head to our snake. I just have to make sure the wrong people don’t get even an idea of the network.”
He heard the sound of something heavy bang against the windowsill with a metallic ping, near where Harriet was kneeling. It was too dark to see exactly what was in her hand.
“Grandma, you have your gun with you?”
“Always dear, silly question. Not to worry. Being able to go on the offense is also part of our normal. Look out there,” said Harriet, tapping on the window. “The neighbors have already noticed and have come outside. I’ll bet there’s an alarm of some sort that goes off if the power is cut here, in this house. Those are all operatives, you know.”
