The Hive Construct

by Alexander Maskill

  Kahleed looked down at his companion. ‘Is she for real?’

  ‘Sir, you’ve seen me break into government and corporate cyber-security without a hitch,’ said Suchan. ‘Right now, I’m completely unable to find this woman’s location. I can’t find her EIP. In the meantime, I’m pretty sure that when we were in the dark chat room, she knew all our EIPs immediately, which is how she stumbled into our chat. I don’t know any program which does that this well, especially not on the dark net, which means she probably made it herself. If she’s sane, she’s a prodigious hacker. If she’s crazy, she’s crazy and also a prodigious hacker. I’m coming down on the side of checking this out.’

  Kahleed Banks was looking Zala straight in the eyes throughout. If he was good enough to understand the extent of her skill, she thought, he was good enough to know what to do with the information she had.

  ‘All right,’ said Kahleed. ‘Make the arrangements. I want to hear what this one has to say.’

  Surja was an area somewhere between the Soucouyant-ridden poverty of Naj-Pur and the modestly middle-class Falkur, but whereas Naj-Pur had experienced a substantial revitalization in recent years, Surja had been this poor for decades. The district was unique among the areas of the city in that it was built upon three massive tiers almost like a wedding cake. These colossal platforms protruded, one above the other, out from the side of the crater in which New Cairo lay.

  Each level had a separate street plan, converging on the massive columns which supported the tiers and spreading out around residential blocks, squares and road layouts all of its own, so that Surja appeared for all the world as three different city districts floating over one another. In reality these tiers were hundreds of feet apart, each with the profile of a city skyline; taking all three together, the district became a great wall of buildings at least a quarter of a mile high. The architects’ vision had been to cram as many people into the area as possible, and this aim covered more than just the tiered arrangement; almost every building was a tower block.

  This extraordinarily dense population meant that, while not nearly as large in area as Naj-Pur, Surja was home to almost the same number of inhabitants, and what local economy it had was not big enough to support them. Most residents took public transport downtown to work menial jobs that they hoped would evolve into full-blown careers. For many, however, Surja was a service district, specializing in the few salacious services that a poor area could provide as well as a rich one. Zala had never liked being in the red-light district. It was a good location for clandestine meetings due to the large number of people, the amount of noise and the lack of police, and had been so even before the area became widely supportive of the New Cairo Liberation Corps. During her teen years she’d often come to this area to meet up with other hackers. But she was never comfortable. The voluptuous women and slender, muscular men whose time was for sale gave her an overwhelming sense of alienation, as though she had failed to understand a joke everyone else was laughing at.

  She rounded a corner, went past a group of women in what looked depressingly like poodle costumes and into the bar where she had agreed to meet Suchan. It was a run-down establishment, where every surface was sticky with congealed smears of old drink, and the patronage seemed exclusively made up of the dishevelled, the lousy and those whose drink of choice and future cause of death would be the same thing. This was a bar for people who hated their lives. Zala had heard too many stories about Surja’s backstreet taverns making their liquor in old salvaged bathtubs that were never washed out, and while she couldn’t be sure this wasn’t simply societal demonization, she wasn’t willing to drink it and find out personally. Instead, she asked for a bottle of beer and, after insisting that she open it herself, sat at a table in the corner and surveyed the room.

  She lit on a table at the back with two large men and one very fat one, notable amongst the clientele by their lack of obvious lice. Kahleed apparently deemed the news important enough that he had come himself; Zala knew that Surja was almost as solidly on the side of the NCLC as Naj-Pur, but this was none the less a bold move. They spotted her, and after a while the three of them walked over to her table.

  ‘You must be Selina,’ Kahleed said.

  Zala motioned towards the empty chairs and they took their seats.

  ‘I’m Kahleed Banks. I’m involved in the NCLC. This is Tal Surdar, and you’ve met Suman. I understand you’ve got something to tell us.’

  As Zala explained the information she’d acquired and what it meant, the demeanour of the group changed visibly. Kahleed’s face grew stony, and his breathing became deep and laboured. Suman simply fidgeted and poorly fought to keep back his fascination, especially at the prospect of computer code bridging the gap between digital and biological virus. Tal looked more worried than anything, and kept glancing aside to the ever more enraged Kahleed. After she was finished explaining, she sent the compiled data to Suman, who went off to analyse it, leaving Zala with an agitated Kahleed and a cautiously assuaging Tal.

  ‘They’re killing us,’ Kahleed growled, shaking his head.

  Tal placed a hand on his arm, but Kahleed pushed him off and looked at Zala. ‘Why? Why did they do it?’

  Zala tensed her legs, prepared to kick herself backwards and run if the large, muscular man decided he didn’t like her answer. ‘I just got the data today. I don’t know any of the circumstances. Just that this program, which seems to be related to the Soucouyant virus, seems to go back to there.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘It’s a research lab owned by a GeniSec subsidiary, dealing in computer programming. They work under the same team who designed IntuitivAI back in the day.’

  Kahleed’s face softened. ‘So, why is it that you’re coming to us with this?’

  ‘I have a long-standing family issue with the GeniSec conglomerate, one that’s still causing me problems. So I came back here to try and set things right with them by solving the Soucouyant problem, hoping that they cared more about being the heroes who saved the world from the virus than they did about continuing to screw me over. Now that’s not possible, I just want to hurt them as much as possible however I can.’

  ‘Oh, there will be pain for them,’ Kahleed assured her.

  Tal intervened. ‘Kahleed, we need to expose them, to pressure them into releasing a cure. It’s not about anyone else getting hurt.’

  Kahleed’s hands tightened into fists. ‘But maybe that’s exactly what this should be about. Maybe I should have a few words with Maalik.’

  For a moment, a look of genuine fear seemed to cross Tal’s face. ‘Don’t use Maalik for this, not right away. This doesn’t need escalating.’

  ‘He’s a capable soldier and an intelligent man, and I want his input. Maybe we should go send a message with our guest.’

  Zala wondered if they were referring to Councillor Granier – there had been plenty of speculation on the news, and it seemed the most fitting solution. Tal looked exasperated. ‘We’ll discuss this back at base with the others,’ he said, then turned to Zala. ‘So what now for you? You want in with the NCLC?’

  Zala thought about this for a minute. If nothing else, she could use shelter, and there was maybe a half chance that the NCLC could provide that. Of course, they could lead the authorities right to her, so it went both ways …

  ‘Thanks, truly, but I’m going to pass. It’s really not my fight, and I have my own affairs to deal with. All I want is that you use the information in that folder to damage GeniSec as much as possible.’

  Kahleed nodded and thanked her for the data. Then he and Tal stood up from the table and left the bar.

  As soon as Zala was alone, she slumped down, head on arms, and relaxed for a minute. It hadn’t sunk in quite how tense she had been during that whole exchange until they’d gone.

  So those are the terrorists.

  By the time Zala got back to The Ozymandias, Polina was sprawled out on the sofa in her front room, watching an evening newscast on the larg
e monitor mounted on the wall. More scenes of the Five Prongs played across the screen, along with commentators discussing the condition of the guards in the hospital. Zala felt a twinge of guilt at the news that two of them would be deafened permanently. She slumped down onto the couch next to Polina and they made small talk over the claims that the break-in was ‘not worrying for its immediate results. It’s worrying because it was a demonstration that NCLC terrorists in this city can get past our security measures with relative ease.’

  Then the screen flashed to police sketches of the suspect: an athletic young woman in a revealing dress; another of a figure in black maintenance overalls with an oversized hood and a scarf wrapped around the lower part of the face, hiding its identity.

  ‘Hey, I have a dress just like that which I haven’t worn since university,’ Polina murmured.

  Then, she sat bolt upright and wheeled around to look at Zala, her face aghast. ‘Holy shit, that was the server farm you were breaking into?’

  ‘You didn’t make that connection?’ Zala asked.

  ‘No! I assumed you were breaking into some little computer lab in Falkur or at the university. I didn’t know you were the fucking terrorist hacker that broke into the Five Prongs!’ Her eyes widened. ‘Zala, tell me you’re not affiliated with the New Cairo Liberation Corps.’

  ‘I’ve got nothing to do with the NCLC,’ she lied, ‘and the police’ve got nothing on me. That sketch looks nothing like me. I’m a foot shorter than that and significantly skinnier; they’ve drawn me like a bodybuilder. My hair’s not that cropped and they’ve got basically nothing on my face. It looks nothing like me. We’re fine.’

  Polina began rocking backwards and forwards, trembling. ‘Oh my god, if you get caught, they’ll shoot you. They’ll execute you. And Christ knows what’ll happen to me. I could lose my job, I could get thrown in prison! All the old lot who were at the funeral, one of them has to figure it out, right?’

  ‘You only figured it out because you knew I was breaking into a server farm and because you recognized clothes you haven’t worn in half a decade,’ said Zala, not quite believing it herself. ‘There’s ten million people in this city and there’s no way there aren’t a few thousand who look more like that picture than I do, even to people who know I’m here.’

  ‘BREAKING NEWS’ suddenly swept across the screen and a shocked-looking newsreader appeared.

  ‘Breaking news tonight as Security Force troops rush to the scene of a hostage situation developing at a GeniSec office block as a result of action by the New Cairo Liberation Corps. Two people are confirmed to have been shot, their condition unknown. We are going straight over to Ryuji Calgren, live at the scene.’

  ‘Thanks, Marjani.’ A smartly dressed young man appeared on screen. ‘Details are still sketchy but witnesses from the street report three armed figures in the building, two of which appear to be heavily scarred women. This could be the two women who were reported to have killed seven Security Force troops last week. The power to the floor that the hostages are thought to be on has been cut, so we can’t see much in there. Police are already at the scene, and the Security Force are on their way. I’d wager they’re not going to be taking prisoners on this one.’

  Polina couldn’t stop shaking.

  Chapter 11

  ‘THEY’RE COMING!’ SAID Juri. ‘Intercept in thirty seconds.’

  ‘I see them,’ replied Alice. The twins, Anisa and Thana Yu, and their young colleague Serhiy Panossian had made plenty of noise and news crews had so many cameras pointed at the GeniSec Regional Administration building with hasty, loosely encrypted connections back to the newsrooms that the various operators around her had twice as much information to send as they usually did. Alice could see that outside the building, from behind a cordoned-off area, thousands were gathered to watch the stand-off unfolding. The CCTV intel Juri had sent through to her monitor showed six SecForce troops preparing to storm in through the rear fire exit of the office block and up the long flights of stairs. Alice’s fingers flew across the holographic keyboard. The three NCLC operatives were in a large office on the seventh floor of the eight-floor building, waiting for the signal to stop the diversion and meanwhile pacing between the desks, guns pointed at the forty-one bound and gagged hostages on the floor. The twins’ grotesque reputations preceded them to the point where the terrified hostages had practically rounded themselves up, but when one person fought back, it was Serhiy who’d shot her in the arm, bringing her protest to a halt. As useful a decision as this was, Alice couldn’t help but be disturbed at his readiness to do so and the frank brutality of it. The nineteen-year-old was Maalik’s protégé, and Alice felt justified in not trusting him completely. This wasn’t meant to be a bloodbath. If the countermeasures worked, it wouldn’t have to be.

  The video feeds now took up much of the map space, most of which had been accessed and fed through to her by Juri, whose web of manipulated security cameras had expanded in both scope and capability. It was a sight to behold; every poorly secured camera in the city was accessible to her, and her bio-aug eye allowed her to see a large number of feeds all at once. When something pertinent came up, she sent it through to the main screen for Alice to take care of. On top of this, each camera had ‘blank’ footage available, showing nothing in particular happening, which Juri could insert on command, meaning that the identities and entry points of the NCLC operatives could be hidden from the view of the security camera’s owner. Alice had found herself using Suman less and less as Juri came into her own.

  Alice quickly checked on the second team, who were working feverishly on the floor above. Led by Nataliya Kaur, the five operatives had managed to get into the building earlier in the day simply by putting on business wear and behaving as if they belonged there. They had kept a low enough profile that none of the employees now held hostage had even noticed them enter. With eyes off them, the operatives were hard at work accessing as much GeniSec data as they could.

  Most importantly, they were awaiting the signal.

  ‘Ten seconds,’ said Juri.

  ‘All right, guys, brace yourselves,’ Alice said into the microphone.

  Tal, Maalik and Kahleed stood behind her, watching intently. She had never seen Kahleed anywhere near this angry before. Tal was trying to calm him, but his soothing words were apparently doing nothing.

  ‘What’re the ratings like for news channels right now?’ said Alice.

  Somewhere behind her, Suman yelled, ‘NCN’s getting two million, Empire News is getting one and a half million, VBN is getting half a million, and there’s about half a million watching other news sources.’

  They’d picked their moment perfectly.

  Two.

  One.

  Right on cue, the SecForce troops came up the flight of stairs onto the seventh floor and rounded into the lobby, heading towards the room where the twins and Serhiy were with their hostages.

  The power was still down, and they didn’t see the tripwire strung tightly across the floor at ankle height.

  The explosion was loud and bright. From the grainy feed coming from the camera on Serhiy’s jacket, Alice saw all six soldiers on the floor, either writhing in pain or unconscious. Nataliya had vouched repeatedly for the efficacy of her ‘raspberry grenades’ – a brutal but non-lethal combination of disorienting stun grenades and ‘sting grenades’ full of rubber balls designed to beat anyone in the vicinity to a pulp. It appeared she hadn’t been exaggerating.

  Suman piped up. ‘Okay, talk of a bomb going off has hit the web and it’s spreading fast. I’m seeing fifty thousand – no, a hundred thousand extra tuning into the news and it’s rising fast. If the backup team’s all sorted, now’s the time to go.’

  Alice turned and looked for Kahleed’s signal. He nodded.

  ‘All right, Nat, hit it.’

  An old portable terminal that Alice had picked up in a salvaged junk store buzzed, along with thousands of other portable terminals across the city, throughout the
government, the media and various whistle-blowing network sites. Alice picked it up in a gloved hand and switched it on. Inside was a message.

  Subject: Our ill-gotten gains

  >Sorry for all the mess. We promise we’ve yet to kill anyone, and if all goes according to plan, we won’t need to. Enclosed is a dump of as many GeniSec documents as we could get our hands on, and a cache of compelling evidence which suggests that the Soucouyant virus originated at a GeniSec tech lab. Hopefully it should be good for a story or two.

  And remember: these people are responsible for hundreds of deaths, and their former CEO and main shareholder is the head of the executive and the head of the legislature in this city, responsible for the push for quarantine, locking us all in with the disease they helped create.

  Here’s to us doing your jobs for you,

  The New Cairo Liberation Corps.

  ‘It’s out, you guys,’ Alice said.

  All eyes turned to the bank of monitors already tuned to different newscasts. One by one, shocked news anchors announced to their millions-strong audiences that the NCLC had sent them documents alleging that GeniSec created the Soucouyant virus.

  Alice grinned and turned her attention back to the operation at hand. ‘All right, guys, get home as soon as you have the opportunity.’

  Thana Yu gave an acknowledging grunt as the three operatives on the seventh floor ran out of the office and into the corridor. They met with Nataliya and her four squad mates coming down from upstairs. They needed to be quick – any moment and the security drones and helicopters would be there. Nataliya brought up a menu on her portable terminal and pressed a big red button on her keyboard.

  Across the road, in another large office building, there was another loud, bright detonation, spraying glass just short of the crowd outside. Even to Alice and the others hearing it through the news teams’ microphones, the volley of noise was deafening. Most of the spectators in the courtyard turned round. Then, another blast. It was closer to the near side of the building, right next to the press, civilians, police, and Security Force troops. The crowd erupted, afraid for their lives and getting in everyone else’s way in their attempts to run from the source of the noise. They streamed every which way, shoving and trampling obstacles and completely ignoring the cordoned-off space the police and Security Force troops had set up. The police themselves were caught in the middle, as the mass of people closest to the explosions attempted to push past the thousands that had gathered behind them to gawp.