by Eden Sharp
‘So, what’s your plan to fight this?’
‘He’s already sent in these big guys to intimidate us. Some of my neighbors are scared. But not me. I’ll fight for my family. We need to stay visible. Get noticed by people passing.’
‘Have you had a lot of support?’
‘Some but not so many. Blocking the road got everyone riled.’
He looked at me more intensely. ‘What can you do to help us?’
‘Make more people take notice,’ I said.
‘You live round here?’
I shook my head. There was never a good time to tell someone you lived in a penthouse overlooking the Bay Bridge. The Randall building was prime real estate which I’d invested in after becoming an adult and receiving my parents’ money from a trust, sixteen years after their deaths. During most of that time I’d been through my share of inadequate housing by working my way through the care system, though the inadequacy had not been down to property values. I defaulted, as usual, to the closest I’d ever come to a family home. Jeff’s place.
‘Lower Haight,’ I said.
‘Nice,’ Saul nodded.
It was but the year-on-year price hikes reflected the continual influx of newcomers which had spread from the thriving tourist trap of Haight-Ashbury. One summer of free love had created fifty all-American years of profit.
It was good to see parts of the city retaining some of the revolutionary spirit which saw anti-Vietnam protests at Berkeley and Oakland’s Black Panthers march on the Capitol. But it was during the sixties, when Stanford scientists had developed personal computing, that the foundations for Silicon Valley and the problems of the present had been laid. So, it was fitting that the positives, the speed and freedom of information, could be used to rectify some of the negatives the boom had helped to create.
‘I hope my little brother gets to live here when he’s grown. Not moved out of the city like they want.’
‘How old?’
‘Ten. Doing well in school too.’
Another member of the family’s education to be affected by the eviction. I swapped numbers with Saul and told him I’d be in touch.
I stopped off at a favorite Asian place of mine to get a red dragon roll to go and went home to do some research about eviction law and their landlord’s business. Once that was done and the ball was rolling, then I’d nuke my machines.
There was plenty of material available and I learned a lot, fast. The Ellis Act was a state law which allowed property owners to evict rent-controlled tenants if they intended to demolish the buildings, convert them to condos, change their usage away from residential rental property or leave them vacant for at least five years. For an Ellis eviction, the landlord had to remove all the units in a building from the rental market. In other words, evict all tenants. However, most Ellis evictions were used to buy up rental units cheaply and replace them with high-priced luxury housing, so they could be re-let at a higher rate to tech employees.
Speculators were getting rich of the backs of making people homeless, pricing them out of the market and cleansing neighborhoods of the poor. Some people were losing their homes after twenty-plus years of residence and there was no place else for them to go except out of the Bay Area. This was going on all over the city.
By filing an Ellis Act with the Rent Board, the re-rental restrictions would be recorded on the deed of the property regardless of whether the landlord completed the Ellis withdrawal. In effect, landlords were being motivated to issue Ellis warnings and advisories to the tenants which were perceived by them as legal eviction notices even though they weren’t. Many tenants were being forced out illegally. Landlords usually warned that an Ellis would be happening in a month or two. Especially when they wanted to sell to speculators. Vacant buildings were worth twenty percent more.
There were plenty of cases where tenants who fought back had won. Landlords however, often cleared out enough units so that only a few were tenant-occupied, or they moved in close relatives to decrease the remaining tenants’ fighting power. There had also been cases of hired muscle used to frighten people away from taking any action. It could be useful to put public pressure on a landlord doing an Ellis Act eviction and since they weren’t claiming to be doing anything socially redeeming after the evictions were completed, in some cases the media had taken the tenants’ side.
It didn’t take me long for me to breach the systems of the City and County of San Francisco and access the paperwork on Saul’s building and only a little while longer to obtain his landlord’s details. After a few hours of staring at screens I’d had enough of scrutinizing California Government Code Sections. I was ready to pay the man a visit.
Donald Malsizor lived in upscale Pacific Heights, a whole world away from the people he was causing problems for. It was time to see if there was any evidence of wrongdoing on his part. If so, he was going to get a little trouble of his own.
Most domestic users believed security software would protect their computers. A tiny percentage even had it installed on their cell phones. But virtually no one gave any thought to the little black box in the corner of their house that provided them with internet access.
Routers might not store any personal information, but they were more important than any other device. They were exposed directly to the outside world, frequently targeted and the sensitive data which passed through them could easily be stolen or manipulated. Users had little control over their router’s software or its configuration and more sophisticated models that might prevent or slow down attacks were expensive and not handed out by regular service providers. People either didn’t know about these or disregarded them because of annual subscription charges.
First, I determined the number of wifi networks in the nearby area. I went for the one with the strongest signal as I was sitting right outside his Vallejo Street townhouse. Even though it had the most robust security protection available it wouldn’t be enough to prevent an intrusion.
By entering a few simple commands, I began to capture packets of data. These would reveal anything flowing between the router, cell phone, computer, TV box or any other connected device, such as passwords for example if anyone in the house held social media accounts or similar, perhaps even accounts with a greater need for privacy. These could then be air-cracked by brute force. To stand a chance most passwords needed to be around fifteen characters long, but few were.
I compared the hash of the router’s security password I had captured with a master list of those most commonly used. It got to work matching keys at 927 k/s to find the right phrases. In less than two minutes I’d hit pay dirt. Now the router was compromised it would serve as a platform for me to attack the other devices using it. It wouldn’t take much longer to get the rest of what I needed to dig around inside the rest of his life.
It was all for a good cause and just the kind of distraction I needed. Tomorrow I was set to meet Karim to collect the passports and my paranoia was at an all-time high.
21
Special Agent Douglas
Douglas found his partner at his desk and patted him on the shoulder.
‘Can’t wait to nail this guy. Should be fishing on a Sunday,’ Marks said.
‘Maybe this’ll make it worth your while. News, just in. Briefing in the conference room,’ Douglas said.
He hoped the techies were going to keep it simple. That he wouldn’t have to explain everything to Marks. Allow his older partner to save some face.
Novak, a PhD who looked like a throwback from a fifties B-movie, took the floor keen for his moment in the sun.
‘Contrary to what Lau says, we’ve always believed he is the group’s leader but there are other key members who are also actively running the show.’
He opened up a mirror image of what was on his laptop onto a projection screen.
‘We’re logged into an i9 invite-only IRC chat channel called #refractory. It has a clear boss despite Lau’s absence, a hacker who goes by the name of Ghosthex. Cou
ld be a deputy? An alternate leader? Ghosthex has already made contact with the news about us having Lau.’
‘How the hell do they know that already?’ Marks said. He looked at Novak. ‘Lau made contact?’
‘We’re monitoring the hardware he has access to at work. Maybe he found another way. Maybe we got a leak,’ Novak said. He opened up another window to show a conversation.
Douglas tracked down the typed chat, familiar with chatroom protocol, hoping to hit some pay dirt as he scanned down the lines.
[Friday 5th May 01:14] Gh057H3x: FEDS got AV - keep this strictly DL.
[Friday 5th May 01:14] wildwild: seriously?
[Friday 5th May 01:14] Gh057H3x: yeah
[Friday 5th May 01:15] Cr1m373ch: ID?
He saw Marks looked lost. Novak provided some narration, no doubt noticing his discomfort, so Douglas didn’t have to run through the explanations.
‘They’re really paranoid about security. Crimetech asks Ghosthex for an identifier before they go off, we think to continue chatting elsewhere. Ghosthex presumably provides information only someone high up on the inside or close to AV1 would know,’ Novak said.
[Friday 5th May 01:19] C0d3130n3: shit
[Friday 5th May 01:19] Gh057H3x: please CYA
[Friday 5th May 01:19] C0d3130n3: Gh057H3x <3
[Friday 5th May 01:19] wildwild: can I help?
[Friday 5th May 01:20] Gh057H3x: wildwild? Golden
[Friday 5th May 01:20] wildwild: OK
[Friday 5th May 01:20] token: you guys seen this?
[Friday 5th May 01:21] slipknot: that’s fubar man
[Friday 5th May 01:21] pippylong: just seen this no!
[Friday 5th May 01:22] slipknot: fuck the Feds! what should we do?
[Friday 5th May 01:23] wildwild: not much we can do
[Friday 5th May 01:24] slipknot: don’t believe that. how can we help? anything cooking?
‘Our guy is trying to find out what he can and is going by the username Slipnot. There’s just general chit-chat for the next twenty minutes and then this.’
[Friday 5th May 01:44] Gh057H3x: am going offline be back tomorrow
[Friday 5th May 01:45] Gh057H3x: and wildwild?
[Friday 5th May 01:45] Gh057H3x: please work on target
[Friday 5th May 01:45] wildwild: Of course!
[Friday 5th May 01:45] C0d3130n3: Gh057H3x ;)
[Friday 5th May 01:45] slipknot: anything I can do to help?
‘Here we see Ghosthex is instructing someone known as Wildwild to work on a target which could presumably mean they’re about to carry out an attack. Until now we thought Wildwild was just a supporter, but he may be a member. What does he mean by golden? That’s what we need to find out.’
Douglas looked over at Marks still reading down the conversation and taking it all in.
‘They’ve known we had Lau since Friday.’
Marks shook his head. ‘I don’t know what to say about that. It’s a real worrying timeline with clear implications that’ll need to be considered. In the meantime, Lau insists he isn’t i9’s leader, right? Well maybe he’s not and the group is in fact leaderless and the core members slot in to pole position as per some hierarchy as and when required. The other possibility is this Ghosthex is the leader, or he plays the role of a leader, handing out orders to the other members, in Lau’s absence.’
Douglas nodded. It was feasible, but something told him Lau was at the head of things. Ghosthex clearly was a key player and therefore of high value interest in light of these new revelations. Lau must know who the real person was behind the moniker. It was just going to be a case of being able to apply enough of the right kind of pressure to make him realize he had everything to lose and nothing to gain by protecting them. Maybe go for a plea deal and deflect some of the heat off himself.
‘We’re making real progress here. Alongside paying some mind to the fact we may have a leak, identifying Ghosthex is a priority then. Next is getting to the bottom of this possible attack they allude to. Our guy’s been on the inside for a long while. So far, nothing more’s been mentioned about what this target might be or what they’re planning. As we log everything, we have built up a picture of when these people are on or offline. This is something we can use as additional evidence when we discover their locations and identities in real life.’
Douglas turned to Novak. ‘Great job,’ he said.
Novak looked extraordinarily pleased with himself yet was shaking his head.
‘No, no. The best news is that although the identity of Ghosthex is unknown, we now know a lot more about the hacker called Crimetech. The Tunisian hack led back to a subject with this identifier named Karim Soulierre. He’s a US citizen of Algerian descent. We’re on him like rain.’
22
Monday May 8th
Angela McGlynn
After a night of more dozing than sleep, morning came around just as I was starting to really feel tired. Reluctantly, I got out of bed but breakfast beyond coffee held no appeal so rather than linger I got straight on with my prep.
I chose a large shopping tote from my closet and packed a long blond wig, a floor-length floral maxi dress, a denim jacket and after rummaging around in my smalls’ drawer picked out a couple of changes of underwear. I lifted up the drawer’s false bottom and added a ceramic knife, a new burner, and a wad of ready cash.
From the bathroom I added a toothbrush and hairbrush. Then I got dressed in my go to outfit of black tank, black jeans, heavy duty flat-soled boots and a thin leather jacket. It was practical should trouble arise.
I gave myself plenty of time because I didn’t want to go straight to the meet point Karim and I had decided upon, so I could ensure that nothing was amiss and that I felt comfortable to do so.
My nerves were on high alert but I jacked myself up on further coffee refills to keep me sharp.
I tried to focus on staying calm and shaking off the anxiety. Real fear is a survival mechanism. The only two things that human beings are naturally afraid of are loud noises and falling. Everything else is largely psychological and the product of an overblown imagination fixated on boogiemen perpetrated by the media.
Fear is not an emotion. True fear is an intuitive physiological response to a real threat that affords you the chance to respond. To be consistently consumed by low-level anxiety and worry is to concede to propaganda and to dim a necessary instinctive response which cannot function as it was designed to if always switched to the on position.
I headed out to Westfield and spent plenty of time looking in store windows, entering random shops, trailing around for a while, picking up clothing and holding it up against myself in mirrors which allowed me to see what was going on around me without looking suspicious.
I did this for around forty minutes and was getting successfully psyched up for the meet and feeling pretty comfortable with the way things were going until I just caught the briefest glimpse reflected back to me from a store window. A guy, dressed fairly casually but still looking smart, shifted out of my line of view a little too urgently.
I repeated the procedure, going back to one of the shops I’d already visited as though to try on something I couldn’t make my mind up about and glimpsed the same outline again. It was definitely the same guy.
The fact it was a guy got me thinking. If they’d posted a tail on me my next move was to see if they’d only sent men. I decided to go to exclusively women’s places and see whether they had included any female agents.
There’s a sex shop down on Sutter that just caters to women. I headed back up Market, made for Kearny and by the time I’d reached the intersection with Sutter I knew there were definitely two agents and they were both male.
I went inside and headed straight to the dildo section. These were arranged on an inner sanctum of pillars in a circular shape, so shoppers were shielded from anyone paying too much attention and making them feel too self-conscious to buy, but with gaps between the pillars presumably for the staff to see
that the merchandise wasn’t being stolen.
One of the guys casually glanced in at the shop but kept walking past the window. I knew they’d seen me go in and now they were waiting for me to come out. I could have checked to see if there was a way out the back but if they had any sense they would have covered that possibility and they would know I was on to them.
What seemed like a better idea was, armed with the knowledge they had no female presence, drawing them through a route of places I knew excluded men and which I also knew I could slip away from.
I wanted to check them out some more and see what they would do if I kept them waiting for any length of time so decided to go for a coffee. They might even show themselves by coming in to order something, especially if they could see I was going to be staying put for a while. I chose a place called Biblio on Post Street. I hadn’t been there before, but it was nearby and big enough for them to enter without crowding me.
There were a few people inside just enough to keep the single server busy and provide a little cover and I grabbed a table nearest the counter so I could scan the whole of the place. I placed my bag down staking it as my territory and lined up to order. The server was slow and stressed and didn’t appear to know what she was doing. Eventually I got served, sat back in my seat and things calmed down. Neither of the two guys I’d identified or anyone else that made me suspicious came in.
The server took the opportunity afforded by the lull to call someone on her phone and leaned across the counter chatting loudly to a friend. Not particularly good policy as I could hear every word. It made her look unprofessional as she didn’t know who I was. I could have been a friend of the owner or her boss. Plus, I now knew half her life story and accompanying personal details. She was giving away far too much when information was currency.