Firewall (The Firewall Spies Book 1)

by Andrew Watts

  Irina sat down while one of her guards rolled out a large monitor connected to a laptop. The screen lit up, and a single man stared at them.

  Jeff Kim.

  38

  On screen, Kim said, “When I began Pax AI, I did it with the best of intentions. I was young and perhaps naive. I thought that the best and brightest minds of our generation would want to work on this project, bringing superintelligence to life. I was right. They did.”

  His face darkened.

  “But just because you have a great mind doesn’t mean you aren’t susceptible to temptation.” He sighed. “I was contacted by the Trinity organization for the first time one month ago. Right after one of our scientists, a man by the name of Kozlov, died. The FBI had just informed me that Kozlov died while attending a tech conference in Seattle. Trinity told me he was stealing secrets for national intelligence services. For more than one country, if you can believe it. Allowing one nation dominance over another is the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen. After an investigation, we at Pax AI realized we were infected with agents trying to commit economic espionage. I was lost.”

  Kim raised his chin. “But Trinity gave me a way out. A way we can all share the technology and its benefits.”

  “What is he saying?” said the Russian.

  “The big dilemma was how to ensure all of us will behave appropriately. Trinity suggested a solution.”

  Some of the others were getting visibly upset now too.

  Ava turned to Colt. She whispered, “I think he’s saying we must use a blockchain contract.”

  “I’m offering a licensing deal to each party here. We have a payment request from each of you. The price is individualized based on what I thought you could afford. But there are two additional requirements. One is that each of you will recall any person you have actively employed in an industrial espionage operation against Pax AI. The other requirement is that you vow never to use this AGI in a way that violates our ethical standards. That includes using it to develop or implement weapons. Neither can you use this technology to engage in any criminal activities such as the creation of deepfakes, propaganda, or psychological manipulation. Any party that signs this contract will have access to our AGI, when it becomes ready. But you’ll have access only remotely, not in our lab. You’ll have access to its capabilities. You’ll be able to use its powers for good. To research medicines and energy innovations. To solve problems that will benefit society. If anyone is in violation of these rules, the blockchain contract you sign will lock you out from further use of our AGI system. You will be forever relegated to a non-AGI status. This is my offer. Take a share of the technology. Pay the price and play by our rules. Or get left out of the game.”

  The screen went black. Irina stood and motioned her men to begin handing out standard laptops.

  Colt received his and opened it. Inside he saw biometric scanners. He allowed his fingerprints and eyes to be scanned. Then he viewed a screen with a timer and a price, and a text box where he was to enter information.

  Ten billion US dollars, in crypto, with a ten percent down payment due today. And a promise to halt all undercover federal investigations into the company. That was the price for the US delegation.

  There was some contract boilerplate detail around how disputes would be handled and how the contract obligations were to be interwoven among the participants. But the payment terms were rather simple, if steep.

  Colt figured the powers that be in Washington, DC were going to piss themselves. Not to mention their reaction when they learned that a US citizen was essentially betraying his country to sell classified technology to foreign governments.

  Petrov, cursing in his native tongue, turned to Irina. “This is extortion! This is not what was indicated to us. Sharing the technology was never discussed.”

  “Does that mean you won’t participate?” Irina asked, one eyebrow raised. Her tone was a challenge to the Russian man’s machismo. The second Russian man eyed her, and then looked for the guards standing nearby.

  Petrov stood. “We must have more time.”

  “Three hours is all you have. We’ve arranged private rooms for you in this hotel. Communications equipment has been tested and is ready for your use. And you may have your phones back if you need them.”

  “Why would I trust your communications equipment? Give me my phone. I will be back in a few hours.”

  “Don’t be late,” Irina said, the hint of a smile on her face.

  The Russian cursed under his breath and left.

  Irina said, “Okay, everyone. Thank you for sitting down with us. You can sign your blockchain contract via the computers we gave you. Once we confirm that the money has moved, your part of the contract will execute. You’ll have until the timer runs out. Let me know if you need any help. I’ll be here.”

  People moved quickly, with a few using the rooms on site to call superiors.

  Colt saw Ava standing at the hotel exit. She nodded for him to come over.

  “I need to speak with you,” she said.

  “Okay. But I need to call my superiors.”

  “You should talk to me first.”

  Colt shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

  “Okay. Let’s talk after. But not here.”

  Colt bit his lip. “Ava.”

  She whispered into his ear, “Trust me. This is important. I don’t think everything we just heard was accurate.”

  “Which part?”

  She nodded. “Trinity.”

  39

  Colt got his phone back from Irina’s guard and left the hotel, walking along Capri’s winding stone paths until he found a private bench overlooking one of the island’s many scenic cliffs. He called Wilcox, who picked up on the second ring. Colt did his best to summarize everything he had just learned, knowing that others were very likely listening in on their conversation.

  Wilcox said, “Ten billion? The guarantees on how the technology will be used will be laughed at over here. And the idea of guaranteeing an American-based company that we won’t investigate them when they’re crawling with foreign spies is ludicrous. There are factions in our leadership that have echoed your ‘America doesn’t pay ransoms’ argument.”

  Colt said, “Wasn’t that the whole reason I was sent here?”

  “One of the reasons.”

  Colt wondered what that meant. He said, “What do they want me to do, Ed? If we’re going to pull the trigger on this, the clock is ticking. Two hours and forty-five minutes.”

  “Be ready to close the deal. I’ll work on my end to present all options to the decision makers.”

  “Will do. What about afterward? Where do you want me to meet you when this is over?”

  “You stay put.”

  One of the reasons. Colt realized Wilcox intended on coming to him. He should have expected something like that. Colt decided to hold back on relaying what Ava had said about Trinity.

  The US government wouldn’t sit back and wait for a cyber-criminal organization to dictate terms. There were probably half a dozen American operatives on the Amalfi Coast now waiting for the go-order. Wilcox had been using Colt to gather intelligence.

  But this realization also made Colt nervous. “Ed, you heard the description of the blockchain contract, right? Taking any action contradictory to their terms might lock us out from ever getting access . . .”

  “Yeah, we got it. That’s all for now.” The phone call ended. Colt let out a long, slow breath. He hoped Wilcox wasn’t making a mistake.

  A text notification on his phone.

  Ava: Talk now?

  A few minutes later Colt met Ava a half-kilometer north. She led him inside a small, unremarkable building hidden on a street of countless others. The old stairway creaked as they traversed the steps to the rooftop. The roof had a table and chairs, and walls on three sides gave them some privacy. Two people stood in wait, their backs turned as Colt and Ava approached. A man and an older woman, speaking to each
other in a language Colt couldn’t understand. Hebrew, he was pretty sure.

  “Who are they?” Colt asked, still out of earshot.

  “My colleagues,” replied Ava, looking at him. “People we can trust.”

  Colt wondered if Wilcox’s team was watching him right now. Would they think he was conspiring with the Israelis?

  Colt stepped further onto the roof terrace and the two people turned. He recognized both of them. The first was the curly-haired man who had been watching him in Banff. The second was Ava’s Aunt Samantha.

  “Hello, Colt.” Samantha held out her hand. “It’s good to see you again.”

  He shook her hand and then turned to Ava, who was watching him closely.

  Samantha smiled and turned to her male colleague. “Moshe, could you excuse us, please?” The man nodded and left the rooftop, walking down the stairway. She turned back to Colt. “We don’t have much time, so I’ll be very brief. Ava told you that Jeff Kim was not providing accurate information.”

  “That’s right,” Colt said. “How did she know that?”

  “We have been monitoring Jeff Kim and Pax AI for some time. We have also been monitoring members of other intelligence services, and the group known as Trinity. We would know if Jeff Kim was in contact with Trinity. He is not.”

  Ava said, “We are looking at one of three scenarios. One, Jeff Kim is being forced to do this. Two, he’s trying to deceive everyone for his own gain.”

  “And three?”

  “That wasn’t Jeff Kim on the video.”

  Colt frowned at Ava. She looked back at him, serious and concerned. Then it dawned on him what Samantha meant. “A deepfake?”

  Samantha looked at Ava, and then back at Colt. “We can’t be sure without sending the video to our tech team.”

  “What are you asking from me?”

  “Nothing yet. We don’t know who is behind this, or what their end game is. But we wanted to warn you. One friend to another.”

  Colt said, “Your agency’s activity with respect to Pax AI hasn’t exactly been friendly.”

  Samantha tilted her head. “I would argue to the contrary. That is certainly a discussion we may have. But this isn’t the time for it.”

  Colt felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He looked at the screen and said, “I need to take this.” The two women nodded.

  Colt walked over to the corner of the terrace, answering the phone in a low voice.

  Wilcox’s voice was in his ear. “Where are you?”

  “Five minutes from the meeting site, why?”

  “Get back there and sign. The money’s being transferred.”

  “It was approved?” Colt was shocked. He hadn’t expected the US government to go along with the criminal sale of the technology.

  “Yes. Go sign. Text me when it’s done.”

  “Ed, wait. I’ve met with Ava and her handler. The Israelis—”

  “You what?”

  “Listen . . . they don’t think we should believe Jeff Kim’s video. They don’t think Trinity really reached out to him.”

  A pause on the line.

  “So what does Mossad think?” A trace of cynicism in his voice.

  “The video could be a fake,” Colt said.

  He heard Wilcox let out a sigh of frustration.

  Colt said, “Do you still want me to sign?”

  “Wait one.” The phone went mute. When Wilcox came back on, he said, “Yes. You have the same instructions.”

  “Understood.”

  Colt saw Ava and Samantha watching him from across the rooftop, whispering to each other. What were they discussing, Colt wondered?

  Wilcox said, “Colt, I’m en route to your location. I won’t show up on the island until tonight. I don’t want to spook the deal. When you are done, plan to stay on Capri and meet me. I’ll send you the exact site after the transaction goes through.”

  “Will do.” Colt hung up and walked back over to Ava and her aunt.

  “Who was on the phone?” Samantha asked.

  “The man I report to. I need to head back.”

  “Is the US going through with this?” Samantha asked.

  Colt hesitated, then nodded. “They want me to sign. We’re going to do it.”

  Samantha turned to her niece. A wordless communication transpired between them.

  “I’ll go with you,” said Ava.

  Moments later the two of them were walking through the backstreets of Capri. They passed carts of tourists’ luggage and restaurant food supplies being dragged up stone walkways by the island’s laborers.

  Ava was unusually silent on their walk, which fed into Colt’s growing wariness. Something about Samantha’s meeting just now bothered him. As an intelligence officer, Colt had an objective every time he met with one of his agents. If there wasn’t an objective, he wouldn’t hold a meeting. It wasn’t worth the risk. The objective could be large, like convincing someone to betray their country for the first time. Or it could be small. Give them a gift and develop trust.

  Mossad was an excellent intelligence agency. They would operate under the same principles of agent handling. So what was Ava and Samantha’s purpose just now? To warn him that Jeff Kim’s video wasn’t legitimate?

  No.

  It would be something else. Some more important call to action. Had they aborted that part of the meeting?

  Colt slowed, moving to the side of the stone path. Ava frowned. “What’s wrong?” Colt brought her further off to seclusion, under the shade of an overhanging tree. The cliffs just beyond the path plummeted down to the ocean a few hundred feet below.

  “Why do I get the feeling you two decided not to tell me something?” Colt asked.

  Ava averted her gaze.

  “Ava, what is it?”

  “I am not supposed to—”

  “Ava. You’ve got something to say. Say it.” He couldn’t believe she was talking like this. “After everything you said, are you still keeping secrets from me?”

  Ava faced him, determination in her eyes. “We think one of your superiors is working with the Russians.”

  Colt felt the air rush from his lungs.

  He looked at her, wondering if this was all part of a Mossad operation. Were Samantha and the curly-haired brute listening to this conversation? Had they decided it would pack more punch coming from Ava when they were alone?

  Colt threw away that hypothesis. This was twice in the past twenty-four hours he had heard a similar rumor. From two agencies that weren’t known for their close ties. What had Liu said?

  I think it could only be one person. Your CIA handler. The head of Vancouver station. Ed Wilcox . . . he was the only one who had access to all this information . . .

  Colt’s palms grew sweaty as he stood there looking at Ava. Her deep brown eyes stared back at him.

  “What do you know, Ava?”

  Ava said, “Sheryl Hawkinson. You remember me pointing her out to you at the party . . .”

  “I know who she is.”

  “Did you know that her brother’s company recently got the security contract for Pax AI’s Mountain Research Facility?”

  “No.” Colt found that hard to believe.

  “It’s through a subsidiary, but it’s his. Guy Hawkinson. And the likely reason you haven’t heard about that is because it’s been kept from you. Has anyone in your organization steered you away from investigating the Hawkinsons?”

  Colt didn’t reply. He thought of what Ed had told him when he first arrived in San Francisco. Steer clear of her for now. It’s not worth the political flames.

  Ava said, “The Hawkinsons have connections all over. Including Petrov, the SVR officer who is here in Capri. Petrov and his SVR team were running Kozlov before he died.”

  Colt nodded. “I was aware.”

  Ava said, “The Russians wanted Kozlov to pull data from the Pax AI fourth floor and The Facility. Just like everyone else, the Russians want to win the AI race. But instead of building their own facility, whic
h would have been cost-prohibitive, they decided to place agents on the inside of Pax AI and do all of their research there.”

  “Using other people’s money,” Colt said. “Smart, if you can make it work.”

  Ava said, “They recruited Kozlov a few months ago. He began stealing data and providing the information in drips to his handler. But then something happened. Do you know how The Facility shifts work? Kozlov was there for a few weeks at a time. At some point, just before his most recent shift, Kozlov discovered something. Someone else was stealing data too.”

  So far everything she was telling Colt matched what he already knew. He nodded patiently. “Okay.”

  Ava said, “Two nights before Kozlov’s supposed death in Seattle, our intelligence personnel intercepted a series of messages. Sheryl Hawkinson met with an American working counterintelligence on the West Coast of the United States. Her brother was present at that meeting.”

  Colt said, “That’s unusual but not incriminating. My understanding is that Guy Hawkinson’s security company has done work for US intelligence before.”

  Ava frowned. “Petrov was also present.”

  Colt raised his eyebrow, pausing for a moment to take that in. “Do you know what they discussed?”

  Ava shook her head. “We only know that they met. We have the locations of their phones when they went black. And our satellites were able to track their vehicles to Sheryl Hawkinson’s mansion after their phones went offline. Our surveillance systems are set to raise a flag whenever suspected intelligence operatives turn their phones off.” Colt knew American agencies like the NSA did the same thing. No one turned their phone off unless they didn’t want to be tracked.

  Colt’s eyes narrowed. “Wait, if you could track the phones, wouldn’t you have the identity of the American?”

  Ava smiled. “Your scrambler security program obscures the exact identity.”

  “So how did you know it was an American intelligence official?”

  “Our cyber team has a way to track batches of phones. We could only tell what batch the phone came from. It was the same group that all of your intelligence officers use.”