by Brad Thor
“With power grids and power stations so dependent on the Internet, I would argue that losing the Internet to an army of hackers would have the same effect as an enemy turning off our electricity, either through widespread sabotage or with an electromagnetic pulse weapon.
“The Chinese military leaders who developed the unrestricted warfare plan explained that in the realm of low-intensity conflict, the vulnerabilities of the United States actually become exponentially more pronounced. In essence, there are multitudes of things that U.S. citizens believe are harmless that a clever enemy could turn against them and use to cripple them in a heartbeat.
“The blackout of 2003 hit eight U.S. states and parts of Canada. Not only was power generation and delivery affected, but so were the water supply, transportation, communication, industry, and the overall economy. There was also looting. The overall cost was estimated at between seven and ten billion dollars.
“The outage affected more than fifty-five million people and was the second most-widespread electrical blackout in history. And I’ll give you one guess who was behind it.”
“The Chinese,” said Harvath.
Nicholas nodded. “Forensic investigations showed that PLA-sponsored Chinese hackers, or crackers as they’re referred to, had hacked into a U.S. electrical power system network that controlled distribution to the Northeast and were mapping it. It has been privately alleged that they were leaving behind hidden, malicious software, known as Trojan horses, that could be activated at a later date, specifically in a time of unrestricted warfare, in order to knock American power systems offline. Where it went wrong, supposedly, was that while leaving the Trojans, some cracker or group of crackers accidentally activated theirs, causing the blackout.”
“You don’t believe that?”
“It’s possible that the crackers made a mistake. Subsequent investigations of networks across the United States showed widespread compromise of the nationwide electrical system by the Chinese. Trojans had been planted everywhere.”
“If that’s true, why didn’t the U.S. confront China over it?”
“These kinds of things are very difficult to prove. Senior government and intelligence officials didn’t want to rock the boat with China unless they could prove it beyond a doubt.”
Harvath shook his head. “People have no idea how dangerous that country is-our politicians included.”
“I agree,” replied Nicholas. “At least eleven people died because of the blackout, and it contributed to the fall of the Ontario government in a provincial election. And it only lasted a couple of days.
“The impact on national security was just as serious. Without power, critical systems used by the United States to detect illegal border crossings, port landings, and breaches of sensitive sites were all compromised. Even more disturbing was that the blackout was a neon sign for terrorists, if you will, pointing right at one of America’s greatest Achilles’ heels.”
“Makes me wonder if it really was a mistake by the Chinese, or a dry run.”
“Indeed. The only way to be sure of your hypothesis is to test it. If the 2003 blackout was a test, it was successful, but it exposed all the Trojans they had planted throughout the U.S. electrical system.”
“Unless that was intentional,” said Harvath. “If they triggered the 2003 blackout on purpose to see what would happen and how we would respond, they had to have known we’d do a comprehensive analysis of all of our networks to see how badly we’d been penetrated. Maybe they intended for us to find all of those other Trojans. We find them, clean them out, and thank God we got them before they could be activated as well.”
Nicholas smiled. “Only what the U.S. discovered and cleaned out was exactly what the Chinese wanted them to discover and clean out. The United States pats itself on the back, stopping its search right there.”
“You think there are more?”
“Deeper Trojans in the U.S. electrical network? I think it’s a virtual guarantee,” said the little man. “In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese had actually written programs intended to piggyback off American efforts to rid their power networks of the surface Trojans. The U.S. may very well have unwittingly helped the Chinese burrow deeper, providing China greater access than they could have ever achieved on their own.
“That’s the driving philosophy behind unrestricted warfare. It is all about positioning yourself for victory. Why meet your enemy sword to sword, where he is strongest, when you can force him to expose his side, where he is weakest, and strike at him there?”
“Besides weaponizing civilian technologies, what else does the plan call for?” asked Harvath.
Nicholas ran his hand through his short, dark hair. “Slowly influencing the culture with their values via cultural warfare. Influencing American media. Cornering and rigging the markets for things America needs, such as oil and rare earth minerals, through resource warfare. Joining international bodies like the U.N. Security Council and voting against American resolutions and interests as part of international law warfare. Manipulating the value of the dollar and subverting the banking and stock markets via financial warfare. The list is multifaceted and it goes on and on.”
“And it includes terrorism.”
“Most definitely. You see, while they watched America’s mighty military deal with Saddam in the first Gulf War, they also noted the severe difficulties that the same mighty military had in dealing with a low-intensity conflict like Somalia. They noted how effective the U.S. embassy bombings were in Beirut, Kenya, and Tanzania. They noted as well the havoc caused by terrorists in the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. They noted how Chechen terrorists were able to plague the Russians as Northern Ireland guerillas had done to the British.
“For the Chinese, terrorism became seen as an exceptional weapon to wield against the United States. It can not only cause great physical and economic damage, but it delivers a severe psychological shock to the citizens of the country it is visited upon. If you could somehow harness and focus Islamic terrorism, it would give you a great battlefield advantage. It would also provide camouflage, as you would be using foreign nationals to do your bidding.
“There’s an interesting tidbit many people aren’t aware of. When the 9/11 attacks happened, we all saw dancing in the streets of the Muslim world. What we didn’t see, though, was the sheer exuberance displayed by state-controlled Chinese media. They produced video games, books, and documentaries glorifying the violence and calling it a ‘humbling’ blow against an arrogant nation.
“Many people also don’t know that the Chinese predicted that bin Laden would hit the World Trade Center and that they predicted it three years before it happened. U.S. intelligence also learned that before 9/11, the Chinese military had been providing training to the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda. The American intelligence apparatus was stunned by this revelation and couldn’t figure out why the Chinese were mixing with Islamic terrorists. It all had to do with unrestricted warfare.
“The Chinese wanted to build their own worldwide Islamic terror network that they could unleash against their enemies, particularly the United States, at will. They developed deep ties with the Taliban in order to develop even deeper ties with al Qaeda. Much as they had mapped U.S. electrical networks, they wanted to map existing Islamic terror networks, particularly AQ.
“The Chinese are brilliant students. They have an almost superhuman ability to sublimate their arrogance and approach subjects with a completely open mind. They assume nothing and feel no embarrassment at their lack of knowledge. Not that it would make too much difference if they did. It wouldn’t last long. The Chinese are incredibly fast learners.
“Taking their new knowledge, they compare it against what they know of the world and what they have learned from thousands of years of history. Then they slowly begin to put it into play. This is how the Chinese were able to build a terrorism network rivaling al Qaeda.”
“Which was headed by Aazim Aleem,” said Harvath. “Co
rrect?”
“Exactly. Aazim headed the entire network, but he had no idea that he was working for the Chinese. He believed he was running a branch of al Qaeda, with al Qaeda’s full knowledge and support. He had no idea that he was a tool in the unrestricted warfare toolbox.”
“But the Chinese lost control of the network.”
Nicholas held up his tiny index finger to make a point. “Technically, they didn’t lose it. It was stolen from them. This is the big mystery we’ve been dealing with. Who stole the network, and why?”
Harvath was about to pose a new question, when a chime rang and the green light at the SCIF door illuminated. A fraction of a second later there was the hiss of air as the locks released, the door was opened, and in stepped the Old Man.
CHAPTER 36
Reed Carlton walked into the SCIF. He was a tall, fit man in his midsixties with a prominent chin and silver hair.
Harvath stood up and greeted him.
“We got our asses handed to us in Sweden,” the Old Man said as he grabbed a chair and wheeled it over. It was late, and he was tired and not in a good mood. “I don’t care what it takes. We’re going to nuke these bastards. That’s the word from on high at DoD as well.”
Harvath knew the Old Man was speaking figuratively about nuking the terrorists. It was his term for complete and total victory. Nuke ’em, he would often say before Harvath left on assignment.
There were times, though, in anger over the loss of lives, he would suggest nuking the entire Middle East region. The Arabs, he’d rant, were ungovernable and immune to civilization. As international terrorism sprang almost exclusively from the Middle East, and the Middle East refused to curtail it, why not put an end to it once and for all? Why allow a single additional American to be killed by the fanatics? “The last time I checked,” he would say, as people who didn’t know he was exaggerating listened aghast, “we can still drill through glass.”
He didn’t mince words, and Harvath admired that about him. He had the type of take-no-prisoners, get-the-job-done, and to-hell-with-political-correctness attitude that the United States needed a lot more of.
Nicholas had a mug in front of him. Picking it up, he looked at Carlton and offered, “Coffee?”
“It’s a little late for coffee,” the Old Man replied. “Why don’t you pour me a glass of wine?”
“Wine?”
“Son, I know every single thing that goes on here,” Carlton said.
Nicholas liked being called “son.” He turned his eyes to Harvath, who was the closest to the fridge.
Harvath rolled over to it in his chair and withdrew the bottle. Grabbing three cups, he rolled back.
“I thought you didn’t want any,” said Nicholas, as Harvath poured what was left in the bottle into the three cups.
“Changed my mind,” he replied, as he passed out the cups. “It wouldn’t be right to let you two drink alone.”
Carlton accepted his cup and held it up. “To those who have fallen.”
Harvath and Nicholas repeated the toast together and drank from their cups. They then waited for the Old Man to take charge.
“This isn’t a book club,” he finally said. “You don’t need me to kick things off. Just pick up from wherever you were when I walked in.”
“Yes, sir,” replied Nicholas as he set down his cup and pulled up another image on the closest screen. “As I was explaining, the Chinese had created a sophisticated Islamic terror network as part of their unrestricted warfare plan for the United States, but this network was stolen from them.
“In fact, as best we can tell, it wasn’t just the network that was stolen, it was everything.”
“Everything? What do you mean, everything?” asked Harvath.
Nicholas brought up a satellite photo. “The Chinese military’s unrestricted warfare planning took place exclusively at this outpost in Mongolia. The project was so classified, the base didn’t even have a name. They referred to it with a three-digit number, Site 243.
“As we’ve learned, the sole purpose of this base was to allow the Chinese to study America and plan their unrestricted warfare package. The operatives there spoke only English, ate only American foods, read American books, watched American TV, played American video games, studied American politics and financial markets, and surfed nothing but American and Western websites. It was as close to America as you could be without leaving China’s umbrella.
“The operatives there were steeped in American culture and the American way of thinking. Most of them had previously worked or studied abroad in the U.S. Their job at Site 243 was to study America and to find its weaknesses. Under the supervision of their military handlers, they were then charged with developing the most unusual and devastating attacks they could come up with.”
“Attacks from the side,” said Harvath.
“Yes,” replied Nicholas as he put up another image. “Someone discovered what the Chinese were up to and hired an extremely adept hacker to steal the unrestricted warfare plans. Then they launched an attack on Site 243, making sure no one was left alive and no copy of the plans was left behind. But they didn’t stop there.
“Any Chinese military or intelligence officer who had any knowledge of the program, regardless of where he was, was hunted down and killed. Whoever stole the plans wanted to make sure that they had the only copy and that they were the only ones who could activate it.”
“But we don’t have any idea who stole it or why, do we?” asked Harvath.
Nicholas shook his head. “At this point, no. We have the hacker who helped steal the unrestricted warfare plans. She has been interrogated and is still being held at an offshore site. She claims she never knew the identity of the person or persons who hired her. The interrogators believe she is telling the truth.
“What we were able to get from her, though, is that despite her clients’ warning against it, she opened the package she stole. What’s more, she copied some of the data onto a separate drive.”
“Which you were able to recover,” said Harvath.
“And which you tried to sell back to the United States government rather than doing the right thing and turning it over,” added Carlton.
Nicholas put up his hands. “I eventually saw the error of my ways and delivered the drive to this organization.”
“What was on it?” asked Harvath.
“As you’ll recall, you and I spoke while you were in Yemen. Just before-”
Harvath held up his hand. He didn’t need to be reminded. The call had come in just before his car and Aazim Aleem had been hit by the RPG.
“What I had shared with you,” continued Nicholas, “was that there was some pretty interesting information on that drive. That was how we learned that Aazim had a nephew in London who was a digital courier for him. I also discovered that the drive held some highly encrypted data. From it, we began to get a better handle on what unrestricted warfare was. The problem, though, was there weren’t any specifics. I was able to figure out that the recent attacks we had seen in Europe and in Chicago were only a small wave preceding a giant tsunami, and that the tsunami was meant to crush the United States, but that was all. At least I thought it was all, until I came at the encryption from a different angle and found this.”
Harvath watched as Nicholas pushed a key and all the screens showed the same image, a map of the United States. A black dot popped up in Chicago, followed by one in New York and one in Los Angeles.
“What are we looking at?”
“Based on what Chase learned inside Aazim’s network, we believe we are looking at-”
“Target cities?” interrupted Harvath.
“Exactly. We know Aazim had been in Chicago and that he wanted Chase to handle an attack in New York while he went to oversee one in L.A. We think these represented the first wave.”
“First out of how many?”
Nicholas looked at Carlton, who nodded. “See for yourself,” said the little man as he pressed another button on his keyb
oard.
Instantly a dot appeared in Dallas, followed by Houston and Miami. Then Philadelphia had a dot and then Newark and San Francisco. Next came Atlanta, Phoenix, Seattle, and Denver. The dots were multiplying so fast, Harvath couldn’t keep track. Some cities had more than one dot.
In addition to major American cities, there were smaller ones, ones not immediately thought of when considering potential terrorist targets. There were dots next to Madison, Wisconsin; Casper, Wyoming; and Wichita, Kansas. Bloomington, Indiana; Hartford, Connecticut; Johnson City, Tennessee; Springfield, Missouri; and Billings, Montana, had also been marked.
“My God,” Harvath said. “How many are there?”
“Over two hundred,” replied Nicholas.
“Cells?”
“That’s what we think. The scope is amazing. But now watch this.”
Nicholas pressed another button and Harvath watched as all of the dots changed color.
“Why are they doing that?”
“We think the colors represent the style of attack,” said the little man. “You can see Chicago is lit up red, blue, orange, silver, and brown.”
“You mean there may have been five different kinds of attacks planned for Chicago?”
“Yes.”
“And we only disrupted two?”
“Unfortunately.”
Harvath studied the map, looking at the different colors. “Chase was inside the Chicago cell and he only uncovered the suicide bomb and active shooter plots. You think they kept things that compartmentalized? Aazim Aleem had three other types of attack planned for Chicago that Chase never learned about?”
