SILENT AS THE DEAD: A Deadly Cyber Chase Begins

by Sanjib Sinha

  “Then?”

  “I don’t like a person any more. He stole my most precious possession.”

  “Dois-je le tuer? (Should I terminate?)” John asked in French – his mother tongue.

  “Oui. (Yes.)”

  “Send me the detail.”

  “I’ll send it in your account. I have just converted your currency. You can now exchange it to your Swiss bank account.”

  “Okay VOD, don’t worry; send me the detail ASAP. I got my men in Jodhpur, Rajasthan at present. They’ll take one-two days to arrange things.”

  VOD said, “I have to be doubly sure. I can’t kill any innocent guy. In the past he may have social engineered somebody else. Let me check it first.”

  The line fell silent as the dead.

  38. Monday, 7.41PM, Calcutta

  “His name is Sammy Ayengar.” PG announced.

  After a very brief stop he added, "Though the time has not come to say this is final. It's true that he works in the dark web using this name. Everyone knows them as Sammy."

  They were looking at the monitor. At last there was a hope; it surfaced after such suspense and trouble.

  It was a map but not Google map. It looked different. On the top right hand corner, there were strange numbers displaying, changing colours. PG pointed out to a particular position and said, “This is his base. Exactly on this location he has his warehouse. My dirty bomb reached here and after that he has been disconnected. We have another hope to trace him from now on. My friend Lavrov and others are trying to reverse engineer the VSS. He had used that software to locate my voice. It’d locate his voice now.”

  PG added, “We now know his address. Now we have every detail about him. I think, my hacker friend VOD has also dug his past and by this time he gets more information. He was furious knowing about the steal. I don’t know what he’ll do but we can now do only one thing – report the whole thing to the police.”

  He looked at Vicky and smiled. Rahela sat silently. Last few hours she kept sitting behind PG and watched him typing, chatting over the computer. She didn’t understand a single action. One thing made her happy. Her sister-killer would be arrested soon.

  Vicky asked, “Police?” He didn’t like the idea. It was evident in his voice.

  “We have destroyed his base but he’d shift in two three days. We get some time in our hands. He might leave the country under false credentials. I think, we can approach Udit Kashyap and request him to make the move immediately. Mumbai police has ample evidence against him. Moreover, the girl – Sarika, she saw him so that she could identify him.”

  “That is legal solution PG. But I request you to think about his history. His GURU Shree is an influential person. He is not only a religious GURU but also has a good political connection. If Sammy hides in his place police won’t make a move. Even Rakesh can’t help us in this situation.”

  PG said, “Let me talk to Mr. Kashyap.”

  Vicky shrugged, “You may have a try, but will it work?”

  “What can we do Vicky? Let me try this from a different angle.” He dialed the number.

  Udit Kashyap was in home sipping his evening coffee.

  He didn’t recognize PG by his voice. In the morning Vicky had gone to meet him in disguise. Udit had met a different person.

  Udit said agitatedly, “Oh, you! You disappeared since morning.”

  PG said, “Actually I have been busy tracing your call.”

  “What?”

  PG said, “I have traced your last call details Mr. Kashyap. You talked to the killer last night and got money from him. I have all the evidence. The money was deposited in your wife’s account. Can you deny it?”

  Udit was silent for some time and then shouted, “Are you blackmailing me?”

  PG said quietly, “You need not shout. Anger is not good for your health. I am sending all the call records to the commissioner with your bank details. The money was transferred from a Swiss bank.” He disconnected the line.

  Vicky smiled, “He’ll call you back in a minute.”

  Within few seconds PG’s mobile rang. It was Udit.

  He demanded in loud voice, “What do you want me to do?”

  “Note down the name of the killer – he is Sammy Ayengar. I am sending his details. Block every airport. Move your fat ass idiot. Go to Chennai in the night flight with your team. I don’t want to see you coming back empty handed. You kill ordinary men and later claim they are terrorists.”

  PG stopped for a moment and said lowering his voice, “You, ***fucker, take money from the criminal and complain about the blackmailing. Listen carefully, I am sending you every detail within few minutes. I’m watching you. If you don’t move your ass in ten minutes, I’ll pass the entire call log to the commissioner and to the home ministry and you’ll face the music.” He stopped for a moment, and then added, “Oh, I forgot about the media. They will also get a copy of your conversations with the killer.”

  For the first time since yesterday, Rahela saw Vicky smiling. It was a wide and expressive smirk.

  PG seemed as usual cool and he was smiling too. He said, “Now I’ll make another call.”

  He phoned up Jacky’s number. Jacky didn’t waste his time. He picked up at once.

  PG said, “Hi, Mr. Sen, how are how?”

  Jacky said, “Mr. PG, I need your help very badly. Please do it, I’ll give you any amount of money.”

  “Tell me Mr. Sen, how I can help you.”

  “Please track that girl. I know only you can do that.”

  PG smiled, “Yes, I can. In fact I’ve tracked her. She is sitting beside me at present. Do you want to talk to her?”

  “What?” Jacky’s voice undulated incredulously.

  “Yes, she is here sitting beside me and the video is also in my possession. Now come to the point. How much will you pay us so that I’d not give that to the media?”

  “Are you blackmailing me?”

  “Exactly. That is the perfect term you have chosen for this occasion but I am sorry to add that this is not blackmailing. Why, I’m going to explain you later.”

  Jacky stopped for a moment. He took time to digest the offer.

  PG added, “As a bonus, I’ll give you every detail of the original black-mailer. Now tell me are you ready to pay?”

  Jacky said, “How much?”

  PG said, “Look, this deal is rather complicated. I’m explaining it. Please listen carefully. I want to save the girl first. And for doing that I am keeping the video. You pay us one time: one million dollar only. I am not asking much, I know you have several million dollars. You’re fucking the government money. And I’m not asking any big amount. I’m also thinking about a monthly allowance. But I’ve not decided about it. I’ll let you know it later.”

  “How will I pay you?” Jacky sounded sombre.

  “You need to buy the crypto currency first and send it to a foreign bank I’ll let you know the detail later. But before that, please listen carefully, if I come to know that your men are searching for the girl or you plan to harm her; the gentleman’s pact will end immediately. I have many good friends in media. The video will be all over the world and believe me; in the video you look pathetic in your birthday suit.”

  PG stopped for a few seconds and then added, “This is not blackmail Mr. Sen. You give me protection-money and I’ll protect your secret. I know you have many lockers in Swiss banks and you pay them for the similar reasons.”

  Finally he tracked the killer-cracker; PG was relieved; although, he didn’t know that his guess was wrong.

  39. Monday, 7.55 PM, Calcutta

  He was running beside the car.

  Rakesh’ bodyguard had noticed the man first. He tried to tell something while he was running beside the car. In the Park Street junction the car stopped and the man appeared from no where.

  Rakesh told his driver to stop the car. It was Krishna Chad. Rakesh knew this special police constable for many years. Krishna was a trigger happy cop. Very resourceful
and ruthless with the criminals but he had many complains against him. He could have been an ideal cop but his track record – so far – had not been good. He was suspended twice before for taking bribes.

  “Sir, I want to tell you something.” Krishna urged in undulated voice. He came puffing and seemed breathless. His emotional appeal touched Rakesh.

  Rakesh told him to get into the car. He stared him hard, “What’s happened Krishna?”

  Krishna looked at the body guard who was in the front seat beside the driver.

  Rakesh instructed the driver to stop the car near the Park Street and Camack Street intersection. He chose a small restaurant. He was hungry too. He decided to take the early dinner.

  He ordered two packets for his body guard and the driver and told the bearer to pass it to them outside in the car.

  He asked Krishna what he’d like to have. In reply Krishna folded his hands and said, “SAB MUJHE KUCH NEHI CHAIYE! (Sir, I don’t want anything.)”

  Rakesh ordered a preparation of chicken and mixed vegetables for both of them.

  “Tell me Krishna, what happened?” Rakesh asked. He suspected it was regarding the recent trapping related case. Krishna must have got some wind.

  Krishna said, “Sir, I’m sorry to say this but I must admit it before you. After listening to me, you decide my faith. In the evening I was asked by my boss to follow you. I couldn’t do it, sir. My conscience didn’t let me do that. I kept thinking about this and decided to tell you everything.”

  Rakesh got the smell of country liqueur. It was difficult to prove Krishna was drunk; he tried his best to hide it.

  Krishna didn’t tell the truth. It was not his conscience; he was actually disgusted with his boss Ami Sen. He didn’t receive the money in the evening and got angry with him.

  Rakesh anticipated it in advance so he didn’t express any surprise. He took him easily; he chatted with Krishna in a friendly manner. He wanted to know everything. He came to know that it had started six months ago. It was Ami Sen – the new special in-charge of cyber cell – who started snooping on every top official; but he was not the master-mind. According to Krishna there had been one master-mind; Ami was under his direction. Krishna knew it but he had no proof. Krishna told him about the whole plot: how Ami had used Krishna’s underworld resources hiring goons to extort money, kill people.

  After nearly one hour Rakesh decided to call Vicky. This information might come to their help.

  At the same time almost; it coincided; PG made one part of his trace route complete.

  Rakesh’ computer had been compromised for last five months. He detected a malware. Through the network scanning he reached to the resource. It was Ami Sen’s machine. It originally generated form there.

  Vicky’s mobile rang. It was Rakesh.

  Vicky raised his hand in gesture and said to PG, “Rakesh is calling.”

  PG said, “Tell him what we’ve got his trace route complete. We’ve got the proof.”

  Vicky listened to Rakesh for some time and told him about the forensic report of his machine. It was monitored and snooped upon by Ami’s machine. Rakesh told him about the Krishna’s story.

  Vicky asked, “Are you going to arrest Ami tonight?”

  Rakesh said, “That will be too early. I decided to keep low. Hopefully PG will have found the cracker by next day? May be after that we could arrest him.”

  Vicky said, “PG has got a name but he’s waiting for the final confirmation. Your friend Udit has gone to Chennai with his team. By tonight hopefully he’ll be able to catch him.”

  Rakesh said, “That’s really good news.”

  Rakesh wished PG good luck.

  40. Monday, 11.57 PM, Calcutta

  Sammy Ayengar was not the killer.

  It was someone else who stole that identity.

  The 'real Sammy Ayengar' didn't do that social-engineering-and-blackmail and asked for ransomware.

  PG had guessed something like this before. He knew it was not an easy task. The killer-social-engineer should have used a false-front-layer and hid behind it. And that was actually the identity of Sammy Ayengar. People working with him knew him as Sammy. They were hoodwinked by him. The killer-cracker also misled them.

  PG looked anxious now. He had a different report from Chennai police few minutes back.

  His intuition kept telling him: something like this would be going to happen.

  It was true that one ‘Sammy Ayengar’ had bought the Yelagiri property two years ago. Udit contacted the Chennai police and with the help of them he somehow managed to find out the mutation report of the land and property. It was true that one ‘Sammy Ayengar’ was behind the the property transaction. His address had been used to buy the property in Yelagiri.

  Udit reached to that address. He found one real-Sammy-Ayengar there. A suave looking man in his sixties. He was a retired army colonel. He didn’t know anything about the Yelagiri property. He had never heard about the property. And of-course, he had never bought it.

  When Udit and four other tough looking cops knocked his two-storey beautiful bungalow in Anna Nagar Second Avenue the retired colonel was surprised; although he invited them cordially inside. He listened to the story of property-transaction using his name; it made him bewildered. The curled ends of his handlebar moustache kept dancing in disorientation.

  Udit gave a call to PG.

  Udit said, “I’m sitting before Mr. Sammy Ayengar who had ‘allegedly’ bought the property in Yelagiri. He said that he knew nothing about it.”

  PG replied back in grumpy voice, “I suspected something like this before Mr. Kashyap. The cracker-killer would not have made the mistake to buy a property in his name. As usual he social engineered Mr. Sammy Ayengar and forged every paper.”

  Udit sounded helpless, “Now what?”

  PG said, “Don’t worry. We’ll catch him. We’re waiting for the moment when he’d enter into the internet. His system is defunct now. He cannot stay without getting around the internet. Without any internet protocol he’ll not be able to get to his dark world contacts. Now we must wait for that moment.”

  Udit said, “We’re going back to hotel now.”

  “Sure. I’ll let you know when the time comes. Get rest now.”

  PG disconnected the line while he was keying on. He looked thoughtful.

  He had only one option left to catch the killer.

  41. Tuesday, 2.15 PM, Chennai

  It was still raining in Chennai.

  A fat guy started his journey from the hermitage of GURU Shree. It was located near Sri Parthasarathy Temple. Marine drive was not very far.

  In a black raincoat and under a white umbrella, it was difficult to identify him. He was no longer Sammy Ayengar. After his Yelagiri system was bombarded by the ‘dirty bomb’ he wiped out his all old traces. Till he got another same system in place he decided to stay anonymous.

  He had a name – once upon a time his mother called him ‘Ramalu’. His guru BABA Shree also called him – Ramalu. His mother died. Now only his guru knew his original name.

  The high collars of the rain coat covered his infamous cut mark on the chin. Twenty four hours after the dirty-bomb-attack on his system he kept low. It was his GURU’s advice that had made his boiling mind cool now.

  He advised his disciple to leave the country for a time being. He decided to leave for the Arab world in the night flight. In a different name of course.

  Before that he’d make the final exploit.

  He took a bus. The rain-drenched rose-coloured state transport bus was near empty. Only a foreigner-couple in the last bench. They were busy with themselves. They didn’t look at him.

  Ramalu got down near DRA. The couple also got down. They might want to visit the place. Tourists often came to see this centre.

  Ramalu was walking fast; he had so many things to do in a very short time. Before leaving country it was his ‘final exploit’. He’d definitely come back again and take the revenge by himself. His ugly looking
cruel face grimaced when he thought about the Calcutta-born-old-hacker. He decided to kill that bastard by his own hand. Until he did that he was not at peace.

  He said to himself, “I must wait for the right time…” while he was walking slowly in the rain towards the Atomic Research Center’s command centre, located in the Chennai suburb. This centre had a supercomputer doing the parallel processing of scientific data for twenty four hours. It was his final-target-and-last-exploit before leaving the country.

  He was self assured as usual. He didn’t notice a police Jeep stopped in a distance and watched his each movement. He was thinking about the old-hacker-of-Calcutta. He couldn’t forget the dirty bomb. How it devastated his entire commanding-system which had been controlling the dark web for last ten years.

  He cursed him, “Wait, until I come back.”

  The super computer inside the centre handled million tasks everyday for DRA – defence research academy. For protection the main processor had to be kept secluded from the outer world. No internet connection inside. No scientist was allowed to do any type of personal task using modem or any wireless network.

  Now, at this rainy morning, a fat guy in black raincoat entered the system. He had all the credentials required for entering the main arena. He had social engineered it much earlier.

  It was a very large campus and about thousand people worked everyday. Having secured the whole area army also maintained a strict round the clock vigilance around the compound. It was too big to cover the whole area so that watch towers were installed at the strategic points. They took tighter security measures that included CCTV in every entry point. And a special team kept watching it for twenty-four-hours-round-the-clock.

  A section of the fence was fixed at one side and opened only when the workers and scientists produced their punch card. This system was old and that was the only big blunder. He exploited that slip-up.

  Inside the campus arena there were hundreds of rooms – a new comer would be lost in the maze of the rooms – most of them lay vacant. In the centre scientists worked and there was the supercomputer in a large hall with hundred parallel processors. Only scientists and technologists had permission to enter this secluded place. Almost fifty technicians were kept reserved everyday to maintain the mainframe system working properly. The cable line went underground and only the technicians could detect which cable associated with what processor.