Cipher

by Robert Stohn

  “Not so professional is he?” she smiled. She was making light of a subject she knew she shouldn’t be making light of.

  “Well, no… but, that’s not the point,” he said.

  “Who’s the man the doctor’s working with?”

  “Jonathan Grace,” Steiner said, “He seems to know her, and we think he’s been aiding her escape the hit.”

  “We have to have some information on him. Do we have a photo?”

  “Yes. Here,” he said, touching the screen a few times until Jonathan’s photo appeared on the tablet. “This is him.”

  “We need to find him,” Jenkins said. “We need to bring him in. Is he with her? Can we get a cell phone trace?” she asked.

  “Working on that now, but there’s a problem. Both the doctor’s cell phone and Jonathan’s cell phone went dark 24 hours ago. I’m certain they’re working off of new SIM cards,” he said.

  “We need to find those numbers so that we can trace them. Access all the Turkish telecoms and comb through to see if we can find any phone numbers that would link either of them to any current contacts that they may have been in touch with. I want you to cross-reference every single phone number you can find. Comb through all the records. They’re going to be calling contacts from a Turkish cell and when they do, I want those numbers traced,” Jenkins replied.

  “Okay, let’s get them in right away. You know that this is top priority. You heard what the Director said right?”

  “Yeah, of course,” he said. “Top priority. I’m on it.”

  “Good,” Jenkins said.

  “Okay see you later.”

  *****

  Boris Medviek sat with his brother in the hot tub at the bow of his superyacht. The Eastern European supermodels graced their presence yet again. The music was pumping in the background, and they were all nodding their heads. Boris was about to pull off the job of the century. His brother knew it; he knew it. But nobody else would know a damn thing. Not a single person would catch wind of what was going on until it was too late. Not a single person had the power or the resources to stop him.

  They both looked out over the bow of the ship, onto the city of Istanbul. The mosques could be seen dotting the skyline as the boat cruised through the Bosporus. The rumbling of the engines was effortlessly masked with the sound of electronic music playing in the background. The ship’s impeccable sound system had it wired for precision sound, easily dispersing of any ambient noise. Speakers lined the decks, the cabins, and were located throughout the entire yacht. They bobbed their heads to the music as they cruised through the harbor, sipping on champagne. There was always reason to celebrate for Boris. He was so close to his goal. The mere thrill of the chase really got him going; the money was only secondary.

  “What do you think, brother? Istanbul is beautiful, isn’t it?” asked Dmitry.

  “Yes, beautiful. Very much like these beauties,” Boris said, nodding to the four beautiful women enjoying the hot tub with them.

  “But we still have one loose end.”

  “What?”

  “Viktor hasn’t finished his job.”

  “I see,” said Boris. “And why is that?”

  “There have been some complications.”

  “Again?”

  “Yes. I’m sorry. This time, we’ll make sure it gets done properly.”

  “Look,” Boris said, “I’m tired of these incompetent fools. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”

  Dmitry looked at his brother, and didn’t want to sour the mood. The girls were looking on, curious as to their conversation. “Drink up girls, drink up. There’s plenty more where that came from,” Dmitry said, trying to lighten the air. He raised his glass again and said cheers to the girls. They giggled and splashed their feet but Boris wasn’t smiling.

  “So, what’s the solution?” asked Boris. “This was your idea in the first place, and you can’t even manage to pull something this simple off. It’s a woman damn it. How is this so complicated?” The supermodels looked on with curiosity, but they tried to remain aloof. They knew better than to meddle in their affairs.

  “She has help.”

  “From who?”

  “An American.”

  “What’s his name?”

  “Jonathan Grace or something.”

  “Who’s he working for?” Boris was infuriated at this point. No amount of booze or distraction would appease him. He was about to pull off one of the most complicated jobs of his life, and he knew that all eyes would be on him. His stupid brother couldn’t even manage to wipe a doctor clean off the map; he was useless.

  “I don’t know,” Dmitry said. “I don’t know who he’s working for.”

  “Then what’s he doing here?”

  “We’re trying to find that out now.”

  “Shit! This is unacceptable!” Boris yelled, spooking the girls.

  “Girls, run along inside. I’ll call you out in a few minutes,” Dmitry said to them, shooing them away. The girls quickly got out of the hot tub and walked to the stern of the superyacht and into the interior.

  “Do we have to do this ourselves?” Boris asked.

  “No, no. Of course not. Let’s give him one more chance.”

  “Where is he right now?”

  “He’s on his way to the port to meet with us.”

  “I don’t want to meet with him. What’s wrong with you?” Boris yelled at his brother, this time at the top of his lungs. “You’re incompetent. You’re no better than the Americans.”

  “We’ll fix it. I promise brother,” Dmitry barked back.

  “You better fix it. Delivery date for the files is coming up, and we need to have all of the obstacles out of our way. Do you understand what this means? Is it getting inside that thick head of yours?”

  “Yes, of course brother. Of course I do.”

  “Okay, then stop talking and start fixing,” Boris yelled.

  Chapter 13

  Jennifer was sobbing when Jonathan returned to the room. The uncontrollable tears were streaming from her face as she sat at the edge of the bed. He could hear her crying from just outside the door. He could hear her gasping for breath as she tried to fight back the tears. He knocked the secret knock, inserted his key, walked in, and sat down next to her, putting his arm around her. He allowed her to just sit there and cry. He didn’t know what to say. It was a woman that he barely knew, but there he was trying to console her. Something about it just seemed right; something about it just seemed so normal to him.

  “Hey. Please don’t cry. You know it’s all going to be okay,” he said.

  “You don’t know that,” she said, sniffling between words.

  “Come on. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

  “How can you be so sure? How can you be so certain that someone isn’t going to storm into this room any moment and try to off us again? I can’t even call my mother or anyone that I know. This is crazy. I don’t know what to do. I barely slept while you were gone. All I could do was toss and turn around in this bed while my imagination got away from me.”

  Jonathan looked at her sitting next to him. Even in her worst hour, she was beautiful. Even with tears streaming down her face, she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. He was such a sucker for a beautiful face. “Look, I know this is stressful. Believe me, I feel the same way. But, we need to formulate a plan. We need to be on the offense, not on the defense. All we’ve been doing is running. We need to plan.”

  “What plan? I can’t deal with this pressure. I can’t deal with the stress of someone trying to kill me; to kill us,” she said, still sniffling between every few words. “I just want my life back. I just want things to go back to normal again. That’s why I came back here. I just wanted to relax and not have all the stress and pressures of life back in the states.”

  “This has hardly anything to do with normal stresses and pressures, Jen. There is someone after you and me now because you have something they
want,” Jonathan said, pointing to her head. “They want what’s in there. That’s pretty clear at this point in time. Why else would they be after you? Do you think it’s a coincidence that all of this happened at once? I showed up and someone tried to kill you at the same time? The series of events that led us to where we are right now all started with that cipher drive. Whoever has that cipher drive wants to ensure that no one else can get their hands on that information.”

  She had finally stopped crying. “But, that doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “Why would they let me leave the lab? What would this have to do with that?”

  “Don’t you get it? Whoever broke into the lab is the person who has the cipher drive, not the people who hired you and let you leave. The person that has it now is the same person that wants you dead. You need to call your friend at that lab. You need to call…”

  “Paul?”

  “Yes, you need to call him,” Jonathan still had his arm around her as they spoke, and he pulled her near. He was expecting her to resist him, but she came closer to him, resting her head in the crevice of his neck and he felt electricity running up and down his body. He wanted so badly to kiss her, but he knew it wasn’t the right time. He knew he couldn’t take advantage of the moment, but before he could think about it again, she raised her head to meet his lips and gave him a gentle kiss that didn’t last nearly as long as Jonathan would have liked.

  “You’re right,” she said. “I have to stop being afraid, and pull myself together.”

  “That’s the spirit,” he said. He was still reeling from the gentle kiss but he tried to play it off. He tried to play it cool but was having a hard time. He didn’t know if he should lean back in and give her another one. Before he could do anything, the moment had passed. She got up, grabbed her cell phone, and started searching for the number.

  “What time is it on the east coast right now?”

  “Early in the morning.”

  “Perfect,” she said. She touched the screen on her phone and dialed the number, placing the headset to her ear.

  *****

  Kate Jenkins and Geoff Steiner exited the plane at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and made their way through customs and immigration. They collected their bags and climbed into the rental car. They were on assignment from the NSA to find the doctor and secure the cipher drive. They needed to act fast before something else went wrong. Kate Jenkins navigated the rental car through the busy mid-week traffic of Istanbul. The late morning congestion gave them a stark reminder of just how delimiting travel by car was in the city.

  “This traffic is crazy,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “So what’s first on the agenda?”

  “We need to find the doctor,” Steiner said.

  “And Jonathan Grace?” she asked, rhetorically.

  “Yeah. They’re most likely together. We have a last known location at Istanbul’s Le Hotel in Beşiktaş.”

  “Let’s hit the hotel then,” Jenkins cooed.

  “That was two days ago,” Steiner said. They could be long gone by now for all we know.”

  “Still, it’s where we should start,” she said. “At least we’ve got something. And, Medviek’s superyacht is still in the harbor, so we need to get a pinpoint on his location.”

  “Okay, so we hit the hotel, then the harbor?” he asked.

  “The hotel first and foremost. Not the harbor right now. We don’t want to spook them. We have no authority to do anything here right now. We still need to go through the proper channels,” Jenkins said.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Okay, it’s a plan. We should get setup at the hotel, then take it from there,” Steiner said.

  “Sounds good.”

  They fought their way through the traffic, and finally arrived at the hotel. They checked in and met with Erol, the manager of the hotel who allowed them access to the hotel’s records.

  “Can you tell me if Jonathan Grace is still checked in?” asked Jenkins, as they both stood over the hotel manager’s shoulders watching him surf through the records. They knew the answer was no, but they decided to ask the question anyhow.

  “No. Mr. Grace checked out two days ago,” said Erol.

  “Was there anyone else staying with him? Was he alone?” barked Steiner from behind him.

  “He was with a woman. She was a tall blonde woman. Here, I can pull up the security footage,” said the manager. He clicked around a few times and navigated to a black and white video feed of the doctor and Jonathan Grace checking out of the hotel. It had been over 48 hours and they could have been long gone by then.

  “Do you have any information on where they may have been going?” Jenkins asked.

  “I’m sorry, but we don’t collect that kind of information. As you can imagine, there’s not much else that I can do for you.” As expected from a luxury hotel in an international destination such as Istanbul, the hotel manager’s English was nearly perfect.

  “That’s understandable. But, can you search the hotel records and see if you can locate a phone number for us? Possibly a local number?” asked Steiner.

  “The only phone number we have is a New York based cellphone number. You can have the number. It’s 212-555-7520,” said the hotel manager.

  “Okay,” Jenkins said,” We already have that number and it just goes to voicemail, but thank you anyways.”

  “No problem. Anything else I can do for you two?”

  “No, that’s about it.”

  Jenkins and Steiner left the hotel manager’s office and headed for the rooftop terrace where they sat down to strategize on their next moves. The rooftop terrace had a sweeping view of the Bosporus, and they got lost in the beauty of it for a moment.

  “Look at that view,” Jenkins said.

  “Yeah, pretty beautiful,” Steiner replied.

  “So, we need to track down every single lead we can in the city. This is Istanbul right? Doctor Cobalt has all sorts of family and friends in town. We should start there.”

  “Okay, I guess we’re going to have our work cut out for us then. It couldn’t have been easier could it? They couldn’t have just still been in the hotel,” he said.

  “When is it ever that easy Geoff?”

  “I guess just once I wish it could be. Just once I wish things could just go according to plan and not have to work our butts off so hard.”

  “It’s really not that much hard work,” Jenkins said. “Just think about it and look where we are. We’re in Istanbul. It’s such a beautiful city,” she added.

  “Yeah, but we’re not going to get to enjoy any of this beautiful city,” Steiner said. He was being really sour.

  “That’s not true. Stop being so childish.”

  “We should probably contact Jennifer’s family and friends.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “Let’s start on that just as soon as we enjoy a quick, but quiet lunch. I’m starving? Aren’t you?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Let’s eat.”

  Chapter 14

  Boris Medviek took his place at another café in the heart of the city, just minutes away from his docked superyacht in Istanbul’s harbor. His new disguise featured long blonde hair, green contacts, and hippie sunglasses. He was clad in board shorts, a tee shirt and a pair of low-cut sneakers with no socks. He was about as casual looking as he could be, and a stark contrast from his previous businesslike disguise. He had to be prepared for anything. He was certain that this much time in the city was going to garner attention, but he had no choice.

  The moment had arrived where he would snake his wake into the NSA, FBI, MI6, and CIA databases. He was after those names. He wanted those names so badly he could just feel them in his grip. He was so close to finally getting that list; a list he would undoubtedly keep a copy of after it was passed on to the Saudi Sheik. He slipped open his laptop and the machine whirred to life. The metallic screaming machine was a top-of-the-line desktop replacement that had the computing power to handle any enterprise application.
That computing power was necessary to help hurl the advanced ciphers located on the cipher drive he had now come to cherish so dearly. That one small piece of equipment meant absolute power, without it, he couldn’t accomplish his goals.

  He looked around from beneath his sunglasses, as he parted his faux blonde hair to the side. He was clean-shaven this time with an entirely different prosthetic nose, which was joined by a prosthetic chin. His appearance was completely different than it was before. He truly was a master of disguise. His ability to slip in and out undetected in the physical world was rivaled only by what he could accomplish in the digital world. His fingers found their way flying across the keyboard as he launched his first UNIX browser and sent the commands hurling forward. His proxy servers provided him the anonymity he needed to complete the job. He was a ghost for all anyone knew; he was a completely undetectable ghost.

  He launched separate UNIX browsers for the NSA, FBI, MI6, and CIA lists he was after. He was going for thousands of names; it would compromise the security of two of the world’s superpowers. With those names, he would put all agents in the field at risk. With those names, he no longer had to fear the unknown. They would all be exposed. He would sell the names for a huge windfall, but he would also have the comfort of knowing where his enemies were. They couldn’t hide anymore. They wouldn’t be able to reek as much havoc on his life and make him question his each and every move. He would be free to move about for a limited time by lifting their veil of anonymity. His mind raced at a million-miles-a-minute as his fingers continued flying across the keys.

  He slipped the black USB cipher drive into his laptop and watched the orange and green LED lights begin to whir to life. He pictured it in his mind as the ciphers were sent like missiles with the most powerful nuclear warheads at their targets. That’s what it felt like to him. He felt like he was at war, and he possessed the most powerful weapon in existence. That’s what he had. That’s what he was holding onto. He looked around the streets outside the café to ensure no one was trailing him. He had to make sure that no one was the wiser. He was a ghost, but he had to ensure he was a ghost. He couldn’t rely on anyone else. He was on his own. He was on the streets alone, vulnerable, and exposed to people.