JK's Code (Brooks/Lotello Thriller Book 4)

by Ronald S. Barak

  Gradsky had already paid Cipher’s one-time fee. He considered it a form of life insurance, a cost of doing business. Besides, he would be passing on this cost to his client—Russia, or any other party that would elect to acquire a license to use Gradsky’s software program, if Russia did not.

  The verifiable point, therefore, was that nothing could be gained by torturing either Gradsky or Cipher for information. Turgenev would have access to the encrypted software and to the code, but only on a daily basis, and only so long as Gradsky remained in good health. One day of access would not be enough to alter the 2020 U.S. election results. If Gradsky failed to personally login on any day, the encrypted software and software code would irrevocably self-destruct.

  All that remained was for Gradsky to demonstrate to Turgenev that he had rationally engaged and already paid in full for Cipher’s services, that Turgenev would have done no less were the roles reversed, and that it was, therefore, up to Turgenev to assure Gradsky’s good health—at least through the election. Apart from any threats posed by Turgenev, Gradsky was in good health and was quite willing to submit to a complete medical exam if Turgenev wished to verify that.

  After the election was another matter, but Gradsky had by no means failed to take that into account. He had further plans in place to protect his long-term well-being.

  CHAPTER 6

  September 2019, One Day Later

  JAKE’S FIRST THOUGHT HAD been to offer his cybersecurity services to the international business community. Cybercrime was an equal opportunity growth industry that favored no borders. The problem was the number of enterprises offering such services was off the charts. Jake didn’t lack for confidence as to his skills, but he didn’t have the resources to compete with all those who had already staked their claim and carved out their space. He needed to find a way to narrow the field and distinguish himself.

  With the 2020 U.S. elections barely more than one year away, Jake’s mind drifted to the subject of election fraud. Opinions of whether Russia, China, Iran and/or North Korea had altered or influenced the 2016 presidential election were rampant. Who, how, and how seriously were being addressed 24/7 by the media—and were the worry of all fifty states and each of the two major U.S. political parties.

  As far as Jake could determine, the majority of the so-called election fraud experts were focused more on how vulnerable the elections were to foreign influence and meddling than on how to prevent it. Most of the rhetoric was from academia racing to outdo one another in demonstrating that they knew how to sway one voting mechanism or another, rather than on how to prevent others from doing so. Jake firmly believed that substantially all of the U.S. voting machines in use across the country could be manipulated.

  Jake thought the 2020 U.S. elections might provide him with an opportunity to make his mark. All he had to do was to figure out how to prevent such universal interference in the upcoming voting processes.

  Right, that’s all. But someone needs to do it. Why not me?

  CHAPTER 7

  September 2019, Two Days Later

  GRADSKY FOUND HIMSELF BACK in Turgenev’s office. He would soon find out if he had misjudged how his client would react to his personal security procedures.

  “I’m disappointed,” Turgenev said. “I didn’t expect you to be so disloyal to Russia, and so disrespectful to me personally.”

  Gradsky carefully measured his response. He’s angry, but I can’t gauge how much. At least he’s controlling himself. I hope that’s a good sign. “I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. President. I certainly mean you no disrespect.” To the contrary, I fully respect this man, which is why I’ve taken the steps I have. How many bodies has he climbed over to get to where he is?

  “Thank you for the clarification,” Turgenev said. “I’m not in the habit of doing business with those who do not show my office the proper respect. I will take you at your word. I’m pleased to know we will not have that issue to contend with. However, what about your loyalty to our country?”

  As long as I’m secure, I’ll blow all the smoke up his ass he’d like. “On the issue of loyalty, Mr. President, I’m afraid my loyalty must run first to my well-being. But I see no conflict in that. So long as my safety is not in doubt, Russia shall enjoy the fruits of my software whenever and wherever you wish. I hasten to add that, while your expressed focus has been on the U.S., my software can be used in any country you wish, and the license I issue is worldwide.”

  “Let us not equivocate, Mr. Gradsky. I believe we understand one another perfectly. My staff informs me that you have adequately demonstrated the capabilities of your software and your software code. I will wire your fees to the numbered account you have specified before the day is out. As long as your software performs as promised, you will have nothing to worry about. By the way, you should take comfort in the fact that if the tables were turned, I would have done much the same as you have. We are both where we are because we are both cautious. Nothing wrong with that. Good day.”

  TURGENEV WATCHED GRADSKY LEAVE his office. The look on his face was not friendly. His software had damn well best perform as promised.

  GRADSKY WAS RELIEVED TO exit Turgenev’s office under his own steam. That was step one. He would shortly assume a new identity and look. That was step two. He had learned well how to disappear. Gradsky would soon be nowhere to be found. That was of little moment to Gradsky because Gradsky had never existed to begin with.

  LATER THAT DAY, TURGENEV had one more round of drinks with Barovsky. “I think our two-prong influence on the U.S. elections is progressing very nicely. Nazdarovya.”

  CHAPTER 8

  October 2019, Two Weeks Later

  BAKER, JR. PLAYED NINE holes of golf at one of his father’s private golf courses. His companion was a Russian official stationed at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. During the outing, the official updated POTUS’s son about the culmination of Russia’s latest developments to alter the 2020 U.S. election results.

  As a result of U.S. satellite records leaked to the press before the day was out, the White House Communications Director was asked at a daily White House briefing the next day what the two golfers had discussed during their excursion. In addition to run-of-the-mill chit-chat, she responded that all she knew was that Baker, Jr. was interested in knowing where the Russian official acquired his high-end golf clubs, and the Russian official asked Baker, Jr. for the name of a reputable D.C. dental hygienist.

  Further inquiries as to the golf clubs used by the Russian official and the name of the dental hygienist elicited no additional information. “I’m afraid I don’t know,” said the White House Communication Director.

  Before the day was out, Congressional Democrats inquired of the White House staff whether Baker, Jr. would voluntarily appear before a congressional committee wanting to know more about the golf outing. When told the White House would have to seek the advice of White House counsel, the congressional representatives said they were prepared to subpoena Baker, Jr. to provide sworn testimony before the committee.

  White House counsel subsequently asserted executive privilege and said that Baker, Jr. would not be permitted to testify. “We’ll see what the U.S. Supreme Court has to say about that,” said a spokesperson for the DNC.

  Baker, Jr. was informed of the DNC’s threat. He was upset. He knew what was coming. It always did. When things go smoothly, he takes the credit. When they go badly, he blames me—even when all I did was exactly what he told me to do.

  CHAPTER 9

  October 2019, One Day Later

  THE NEXT AFTERNOON, BAKER, Jr. accompanied POTUS on a walk around the White House grounds. The son asked his father for the name of a good local dental hygienist.

  More seriously, having created some cover for this meeting, father and son then turned to the real purpose for this confab, a discussion about next year’s election. Baker, Jr. reported in detail what he had been told Turgenev had in mind to help Baker. He also filled his dad in on how the elabo
rate plans of EBCOM, the Executive Board of the Committee to Re-elect the President, were proceeding.

  BETTY BIANCHI LIKED THE power she wielded as Speaker of the House of Representatives, chosen periodically by Democratic members of the House whose party presently held a majority of the House seats. Not only did she exert great influence over the day to day dealings of the House, but under the Constitution, she was next in the line of succession to become President of the United States if both the president and the vice president died, resigned, or became unable to serve before their successors were duly elected. She would also become President on January 20, 2021, the next inauguration date, if the November 3, 2020 election did not result in an official determination of the next president by that date.

  Bianchi and several of her Democratic Congressional leaders were sharing one of their weekly working lunch sessions. Nothing fancy, no china and silver, just deli sandwiches and chips. These meetings were becoming more frequent and more intense, given that it was an election year.

  Bianchi grew weary of the all too common initial bickering back and forth between the various Democratic factions. “C’mon, folks,” Bianchi cut in. “We’re all in the same boat here. We have to row together if we’re going to defeat Rusty Dusty Baker next year. Enough of all of this intra-party squabbling. I’m a lot more interested in what Rusty Dusty, Jr. was talking about yesterday with that official from the Russian Embassy. A referral to clean his gums? Yeah, right. Gimme a break. More like plotting together to clean house in the 2020 elections. How the hell do we get some genuine intelligence on what Turgenev and his lapdog, Baker, are doing to control next year’s elections?”

  One of those in attendance spoke up. “What Baker, Jr. discussed with his golfing companion from the Russian Embassy is something we really should get behind. No doubt, its real purpose was how Russia would interfere with the election. It also wouldn’t hurt if we can continue to keep the heat on Baker to produce his tax returns, and anything else that will embarrass him and lead to some more stupid Baker tweets. Anything to give us some more cannon fodder for our coming impeachment vote.”

  Bianchi listened for a while longer. She had heard enough. The quality of the meeting was deteriorating. She wasn’t hearing any more useful ideas. Don’t know about you, boys and girls, but I’m late for a mani-pedi. Otherwise, I might actually have to find something productive to do to earn my salary and benefits for a change. “Keep up the good fight, everyone,” she said with her patented motherly smile as she walked out of the meeting. Election fraud. What can we dig up on that?

  CHAPTER 10

  October 2019, One Week Later

  WHEN IT CAME TO the subject of computer science, Jake’s aptitude was clearly off the charts. This didn’t necessarily mean he knew everything there was to know about computers and related technology, but what he didn’t know, he could quickly assimilate, better and faster than most. He knew virtually all the commonly known computer languages. He could write code with the best of them, and had been developing computer games and programs dating back to his early teenage years, but mostly, only for his own entertainment. He also had an excellent command of artificial intelligence software applications.

  But Jake had never abused his knowledge or his skill. He could get through most any routine computer firewalls, and he had hacked into the computers of a few of his friends here and there, but only as a matter of curiosity to prove that he could. He had never used, or even looked at, anyones personal information, although he certainly could have had he wanted to do so.

  Off and on, Jake had been interested in the subject of election fraud, dating back to its purported use by the Russians to help Baker’s ascendancy to the U.S. presidency in 2016. But until recently, his interest was only casual. As he became more and more restless in school, and started thinking about striking out in the field of cybersecurity, he had been doing a lot of reading on the subject.

  The most interesting resources he had found were on the dark web. Customary browsers like Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox and Safari couldn’t even access the dark web. Of course, Jake knew that the dark web existed, and he had visited it once or twice to see what it looked like, but he hadn’t found anything there of special interest to him. The prospect of cybersecurity, in general and election fraud in particular, changed all that.

  Because he vaguely knew that lots of undesirable characters frequented the dark web, Jake purchased a cheap dedicated computer and installed a Tor Browser on it that hopefully would allow him to anonymously cross over into the dark web. A Tor Browser not only provided easy access to the dark web and all of its features, it allowed such access without revealing your true digital or real world identity. As Jake examined the dark web more seriously—and cautiously—he found it like a different world, if not a different galaxy. It was full of many anti-social personalities engaged in, and offering the opportunity to participate in, any number of unsavory activities.

  Employing such digital anonymity was as important as making sure not to inadvertently reveal your social security number or your bank account information to the wrong people. Whether such anonymity could truly be achieved on the wild frontier dark web of the internet was anybody’s guess.

  When engaging in nefarious activities through the internet, Jake knew it was also strategic to use the dedicated computer as physically far away from one’s home as possible, the further the better. The reason for this was to disguise one’s “Internet Protocol Address”, generally known as an “IP address”, unique to one’s computer and one’s service provider. While an IP address does not identify the owner of the computer per se, with a great enough effort, one can use the IP address of a computer device to identify the computer device’s owner and physical address. When a computer was used for internet activities far enough away from the owner’s physical address, the connection to the internet would occur by means of a different service provider and would, therefore, reflect a different IP address.

  This kind of obfuscation could also be achieved without resorting to the dark web by using a “Virtual Private Network”, also known as a “VPN”, which would cause the computer to appear to be connecting to the internet from a remote location through a service provider in that location, even though the computer was actually functioning in the home location of the owner. On occasion, Jake had himself been guilty of using a VPN to watch televised sporting events that were blacked out in his home community. If he wanted to watch a Washington Wizards NBA game that was going to be blacked out in D.C., he could simply download a VPN to his laptop and appear to be watching the game from somewhere else in the country where the game was available for viewing.

  As Jake became more adept at surfing the dark web, he began to realize its potential, if not its actual role, in election fraud. Tons of chatter existed on the dark web about how election fraud was going to be even more prevalent in the 2020 election than it was in 2016.

  If Jake wanted to become an expert in the area of election fraud, it also meant becoming a comfortable frequenter of the dark web. It offered a number of computer hacker conventions and other programs that Jake thought would be fun—and informative—to attend. The more he learned about such illicit activities, the more he could learn about how to prevent them, and to hopefully establish his desired cybersecurity brand.

  Most of these events were held in off beaten corners of the world, such as Eastern Europe and Asia. Jake didn’t have the funds for that kind of travel, but one of his computer science professors, Matthew Carter, did. More precisely, Carter had some grant money, and course credit, that he had said he would allocate to Jake if Jake would agree to submit a paper on what he learned that Carter could then incorporate in a book he was currently writing. As long as I scratch his back, he’ll scratch mine. Maybe even more so in academia than in the corporate world.

  CHAPTER 11

  October 2019, One Week Later

  RUPERT AUSTIN ASKED EVERYONE present to return to their seats at the conf
erence table. It was 8:30 pm. He watched the social hour and dinner come and go. The table had been cleared, except for after dinner drinks ordered by him and a few others in attendance. He appreciated the well-stocked, but self-attended, bar available for those who might wish to replenish their drinks as the evening wore on. Just so long as no one was tipsy by the time the meeting adjourned.

  This was one in a series of weekly meetings of the Executive Board of the Committee to Re-elect the President, EBCOM for short. All EBCOM meetings were held in the same private dining room of the same hotel, one of many owned by the President of the United States.

  Austin glanced around the conference table at the eight other EBCOM members, six men and two women. Austin was the chairman of EBCOM, bringing the total membership to nine.

  All nine EBCOM members had one trait in common: they were highly vetted, fiercely loyal senior representatives of POTUS’s administration, all thought to be trusted beyond question. Their average age was 67.

  Austin had assured himself that all EBCOM meetings were held in complete secrecy. Participants came and went through a private entrance from the underground hotel parking facility. Smartphones and other electronic devices were not permitted in the meetings in order to prohibit the recording of any remarks or discussions. Absolute fealty to POTUS was assumed, but was verified by a full-body scanning machine, through which all participants had to pass in order to enter the dining room. Leaks from the Baker White House were rampant. Austin would tolerate no such disclosures of EBCOM business.