by Eden Sharp
That little five letter word again.
‘So now what?’
I’ve put together a clean, private set up at Hudson that the Feds can’t infiltrate. I’m working on a kill code so whoever takes it over can be shut down. To cover my ass. It’s just going to take me a little time to smuggle in some code without him noticing. When he tries to play me for a patsy I’ll have an out. Call it in now and he could spin it to his own advantage.’
I hated how small picture we were. The unknowns were mounting and it was difficult to play chess when you weren’t aware of how many pieces were on the board let alone what might be lying in wait. Solve one problem and another three reared up to bite you. Did I trust him? Time to find out.
‘Anything else you should be telling me?’ I asked.
‘I think I might know who those new guys were at our last meet,’ he said.
‘Go on.’
‘You know how it feels when everyone wants a piece?’
I did.
‘The NSA want to contain the problem of me finalizing and distributing the encryption freeware to the public. It’s an irrelevant tool for their own use because they’ve got quantum computing but that won’t be in the public domain anytime soon so they hate the idea of citizens being able to communicate privately. They see an advantage to utilizing my skills. The Feds are cooperating and it’s logical to assume the CIA know I’ve surfaced. I told you I’d seen things, things the government is capable of, the whole reason behind my plan to monitor this new generation of tech. I accessed and downloaded a lot of files from Langley, some of which have black budgets written all over them.’
‘Like what?’
‘You know about directed energy weapons known as Active Denial Systems right? They’re used by the military to disrupt protests by bombarding crowds with microwave cannons.’
‘I’ve heard about them.’
‘One CIA covert project involves targeting an individual’s cell phone. Microwaves are bounced off satellites and then home in on GPS signals. Maybe you just get ill today but develop cancer down the line or maybe death is more imminent.’
‘Did that have anything to do with you disrupting satellites?’
He smiled and his face lit up and for a moment everything brightened.
‘No that was when I was providing temporary uplinks to people fighting an oppressive regime so they could communicate freely. Hard to detect when signals are sending and receiving straight up. Anyway, I think that explains the mystery men.’
It sure did. I knew I did trust him. All the way.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Write the kill code. Our plan remains the same. Slip away then we’ll gift the NSA the code and the information on Guzek before the ship date. No harm, no foul there. Play the home advantage. In the meantime I’ll leverage whatever I can to keep the rest at bay. I’d also really like to see the files and know how you got them.’
‘Okay. The only reason I didn’t tell you before was I figured the less you knew the safer you’d be.’
He’d been right on that count.
‘But if they think you’re the only one that has access, what’s to stop them taking you out now?’ I said.
‘If they’re not accessed periodically they’re triggered to release via a botnet. Killing me wouldn’t stop them getting out.’
I nodded. Made sense.
‘I haven’t been through all of them, there’s too many, so I’m not sure about everything I’ve got but there’s some pretty damning stuff. I’ll give you access to the server where they’re at,’ he said.
‘How the hell did you infiltrate Langley?’ I asked.
‘It’s a long story.’
‘I’m all ears.’
I gave Charlie my best reassuring smile and he began to talk. I listened, all the while hoping I could count on Paul. That he would play it straight. I needed all the friends I could get right now.
35
After purchasing another new laptop, I headed back to the hotel to put our plans in place for our handover of Charlie to the Feds. The central Ellis protest provided a natural obstacle in a known location. This gave me something to work with.
The hack I’d planned was simple. There were major weaknesses in traffic infrastructure deployment. Radios, operating at 900 MHz or 5.8 GHz were used for wireless communication in point-to-point or point-to-multipoint configurations. With my new machine, my second in under two weeks, and a wireless card operating on the same 5.8 gigahertz frequency as the wirelessly networked traffic lights, I could access the entire unencrypted network to which I knew there was no known patch available.
Inside were a variety of components. There were sensors which detected cars and inspected infrastructure. These were connected to traffic controllers that read the inputs and control light states. These controllers, usually in a metal cabinet by the roadside, communicated with each other and a central server hence there was only one point of access to hack into the whole system. Once I accessed the sensors I would be able to see the configuration of controllers along the routes out of the city I was interested in. By taking over malfunction management units in addition, I could override the controller if there were conflicts and force them into a known-safe configuration like blanket red.
The controller ran a VXW 5.5 real-time operating system. The default build settings for this version left a debug port open for testing purposes. The port was meant to be disabled for build environments but was so commonly left enabled that it was widely exploited by those in the hacking community. The default credentials were available on the internet, if you knew where to look, so provided no security whatsoever.
I got in and poked around with no problems whatsoever. It was an easy ask to stop normal functionality. On the 29th, we would have a smaller area to navigate and be able to set all the lights to red to cripple the flow and cause further chaos as necessary in real time while making sure we hit all green lights along our own route. I began to feel a little more positive.
Next, I logged into the hidden site where Charlie had deposited the files. I entered the access code he’d given me so as not to trigger the botnet he controlled. Thousands of slave computers around the world were ready to send out the truth about illegal black ops perpetrated against the American public and other global citizens if the files on the site weren’t regularly accessed. On a plain 1990s style screen, search strings began to appear.
I was drawn to one immediately so clicked through and started to read about psychological and drug experiments conducted at Esalen, a military listening tower, in Haight Ashbury, in the 60s. Transients looking for free love and acid were considered perfect subjects for experimentation who, if their minds weren’t permanently addled, would be seen to be mentally impaired by self-inflicted drug use or worse. Famous subjects included those involved in the Manson murders.
The method of using microwaves to control crowds was called Mamba. I began to read.
MAMBA allows for a targeted and localized Active Denial System utilizing subjects’ cellular devices. The extreme volatility of late is the indicator that the tipping point event is on the horizon for a near future time frame. The long term analysis points to the recent extreme variations as indicators to a major collapse hence MAMBA provisions to interject in situations of mass protest or civil war as we enter into a period of prolonged financial depression.
Black swan events which could accelerate this financial crisis are: further war in the Middle East, a major natural disaster, or a terror attack involving weapons of mass destruction. We are moving into a period of global instability both at home and abroad with the likelihood of tremendous chaos and rapidly shifting conditions. It is therefore imperative that MAMBA be ramped up and fully prepped to go as a priority.
Worse followed in the form of Project KINDERSTACK. This one in particular got right to me. The project’s remit was the recruitment and training of expendable children as targeted procurers of peers to push CIA drugs, arms and fellow sex slaves as a cost-ef
fective measure designed to cut down liability of an inordinate number of CIA KIAs in foreign territories. The files further outlined the project’s scope.
KINDERSTACK will involve four key spheres of action in both domestic and foreign operations:
- the development of child assets to be used to entrap politicians, diplomats, corporate and law enforcement officials.
- the sale of children/victims to wealthy perverts to raise money for covert operations by way of sexual services, organ transplants, other body parts, ritualistic abuse or to auction off.
- the training of some of the children/victims as professional operatives and assassins of a totally cold, multiple personality, mind control nature.
- the use of children/victims as test subjects in our research into experimental high tech weaponry.
It has top clearance and protection by those within our group framework for our assigned task of identifying, rendering and programming expendable (expendables) young children throughout the US and in other feeder territories.
I couldn’t read anymore. I’d seen enough for now at least. Amped up with anger I needed to calm down and think the whole big picture situation through, like a general might.
36
Monday May 15th
John Knox
Knox heard a knock at the door and checked the spyhole half expecting to see McGlynn. Her mechanic friend, Ollie, came into view and a sense of disappointment kicked in. He opened the door.
‘I’m sorry I missed your birthday,’ Ollie said. ‘So I’ve come to take you out for some Chinese food.’
Knox took a moment to process the cognitive dissonance then said the first thing that came into his head.
‘I thought you were Japanese? Your last name-’
‘I am. But my Chinese girlfriend only cooks her food at home. I’ve kind of gotten used to it.’
Ollie’s hair was flattened down around her face, not in the usual spikes, so it was a softer look, more feminine than usual. She had make-up on. But the girly look was tempered by a red, white and blue, leather motorcycle jacket and ripped jeans. This visit was interesting. Ollie had never been part of his birthday plans.
Knox grabbed his jacket. ‘Okay, let’s go.’
A non-descript blue Honda was parked a short walk down the block. This was a favorite type of surveillance car for McGlynn as they were so ubiquitous in the city. Probably one of the fleet of midrange vehicles that Ollie maintained at the garage, buying them up cheap and loaning them out to McGlynn or selling them on as necessary. It was probably unregistered.
They arrived in Chinatown to a place off a back street that looked like only locals ate there. Inside was narrow, long and dark. Ollie led the way through to a booth at the back, only stopping to nod at a waiter. They slid into green vinyl-covered seating either side of a well-worn Formica table where the guy hovered at the end awaiting instruction.
‘I’ll have a beer,’ Knox said.
Ollie smiled at the waiter. ‘Jack and Coke for me.’
Knox sat patiently, waiting to get a handle on what was going on. Ollie didn’t say another word until the drinks arrived.
The waiter returned and placed both down on the table.
‘Excuse me,’ Ollie said, pushed herself across to the edge of the seating, stood up and headed towards what were probably storerooms behind where they sat.
Knox had already noted that the bathrooms were situated in the middle of the place.
A figure appeared out of the gloom and sat down opposite him. It took a couple of seconds to process the blond wig and non-typical attire McGlynn was wearing. He was pleased to see her and confused and pissed, all at the same time.
‘I’m sorry I missed your birthday,’ she said and sank the drink Ollie had ordered.
‘Where were you?’ he asked trying to keep his voice even. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.
‘In custody,’ she said. ‘For two long days.’
He felt an adrenaline surge deep in his center. ‘The FBI? What’s going on?’
She shook her head. ‘The Company. Things are getting ugly. They want to cut their own deal and have come at me to try and make it work. If I don’t play ball they’ve threatened to render Charlie to a black site. I don’t know what they intend to do to me.’
Knox was stumped momentarily then thought it through. ‘Why you? Why not just snatch Lau?’
‘He belongs to the NSA. They’re calling the shots. Plus he’s under constant guard by the Feds. The other Feds. But that’s for now. Things change. I told you I needed to do this alone Knox. That we wouldn’t be able to work together.’
He felt a little guilt creep in. ‘I’ve been trying to work with you and I’m here for you now,’ he said.
McGlynn shook her head. ‘You’re not working with me though. You’ve already had your own remit from Paul Harding. You’ve got your own agenda.’
‘And you haven’t?’
Her face gave nothing away. No response to that one.
‘You made me tailing you so I’m guessing you’re aware of the others? They’re all over you. Up to now I’d assumed they were FBI. Just make sure you’re fighting for the right side, McGlynn.’
She fixed him with a stare. ‘Yeah I’d noticed and for the record I’m on my own side,’ she said. ‘And maybe you should be too.’
‘I’m trying to keep you from doing anything stupid. Keep you safe,’ Knox said.
‘Don’t you get it? That’s what I’ve been trying to do for you. The spooks have come at me. There’s nothing to say they won’t come for you too. So I need to lay low for a while and you need to back off and trust me.’ She slid a piece of paper in his direction. ‘In the meantime, he’s my new number.’
He put it in his pocket. ‘Do you trust Lau?’
‘Absolutely. Because I know him. Do you trust the government in league with corporations of the unelected working for profit and self-interest? You fought for them. To me they’re a bunch of mad men playing chess and we’re the pawns.’
He had once but not since Afghanistan.
‘Oh I was a true believer. I wanted in to that life. Steady job. A purpose. A sense of belonging. Playing the hero. I loved the Corps, I loved my company and I loved my platoon. I wanted in for ever. But don’t think the indoctrination squared away with the reality of the war we were fighting. And I don’t have any love for spooks. They were just as likely to get you killed in Afghan as the Taliban.’
McGlynn semi-smiled.
‘So protect yourself and fight for what you believe in Knox. Keep asking yourself who’s telling the lies and who’s telling the truth.’
‘The next question is do you trust me?’ he said.
There was a longer pause than he would have liked and then he wasn’t sure she would answer. Did she?
McGlynn was suddenly on her feet in one fluid movement.
‘Let me help,’ he said.
‘I’d like to trust you but I can’t have you involved,’ she said. ‘I’ll see you at the meet tomorrow.’
Before he could decide how he felt about that she melted back into the gloom. He pushed himself out of the booth and followed. The light from an open back door illuminated steel shelves racked on either side filled with sacks of rice and drums of cooking oil.
Out on the street, he looked right then left but McGlynn was gone.
37
Tuesday May 16th
Angela McGlynn
After going through the familiar and boring process of recording our names for the tape and checking our phones a new round of questioning began.
Marks stared at Charlie. He wasn’t the only one. Knox seemed all in with the concentration on Charlie too.
‘Time’s running out for you Mr. Lau,’ Marks said. ‘You’ve given us squat and no court of law is going to take that favorably.’
‘Now really is the time for you to give up some names,’ Douglas chimed in, tag teaming the interrogation.
‘I’ve told you, I only knew userna
mes not the people behind them,’ Charlie said.
‘We’ve only got a few more days to make some real progress Mr. Lau. I suggest you up your game or kiss your ass goodbye,’ Marks said.
‘You’ve got almost two weeks, I said.
‘You’re behind the times Agent McGlynn, Douglas said. The software’s ship date has been brought forward to the 22nd. That’s next Monday morning but as I like my weekends, let’s call it four days.’
My whole inner core turned to ice. I glanced at Charlie. I could see from his face this was news to him also. He knew as well as I did how much trouble we were in now. I insisted we adjourn so we broke for coffee.
Marks and Douglas looked eminently pleased with themselves. Charlie sat to one side lost in thought. I hoped to God he came up with something fast. Knox fixed on him with a perpetual glare.
I’d retrieved my drug dealer phone and stepped outside to make my call. Due to the unrecognized number I had to go through a series of intermediaries to reach Paul.
‘How come I didn’t know the software’s shipping early yet the FBI did? Did you know?’ I asked. The tightness in my throat fought to contain any semblance of anger in my voice.
‘I was held up. There wasn’t time to relay this new information before your meeting started and why are you calling me on an unsecured line?’ Paul said.
‘Long story. Why the change?’
‘The initial release for testing had contingency built in and the firm is trying to up its profile by looking efficient. Stock price forecasts have probably played a part.’
Terrific. So now what?
I headed back in and Douglas took my phone and locked it in the Faraday case. I knew as soon as I saw Charlie that something else was wrong. His eyes weren’t as bright, his body language a little more defeated. It maybe wouldn’t have been immediately obvious to anyone else in the room but they didn’t know him as well as I did. Couldn’t see the tells like I could. He was looking down and not stretching his legs out to relax like he had before. Instead he held a tension in his body, an awkwardness like the material of his clothes itched.