by Thomas Shaw
“But to use Jim Peterson, it just doesn’t make sense,” as she shook her head.
“Well I guess it’s time to go tell Mrs. Johnson that we are getting married and are heading out on our honeymoon in San Diego. What’s the name of that hotel we are supposed to stay in?”
“I think it’s the Hotel del Coronado… if I remember correctly,” she replied.
“If we are going to be secret agents, we better get our stories down a little better than this,” Tom said half-jokingly.
Two days later they drove to San Diego but only had time to board a Delta flight to Sydney Australia. Their passports listed them as Jim and Julie Peterson a married couple.
As they settled back in their business class recliner seats Tom turns to Julie, “I’m glad Dr. Merrill doesn’t mind spending some bucks on these plane tickets. I think this flight is going to be over 18 hours long,” as he clinked his glass of Mimosa against Julies.
As they settled into the long flight to Sydney, both Tom and Julie downed their sleep masks and leaned back to listen to SAM go over the finer points of their impending mission. SAM is telling Tom that he has been awarded a scholarship to pursue a PhD degree in computer science at a prestigious university in Sydney while simultaneously, Julie is being told she has received a scholarship to this same university to study languages. They are told that they will have an apartment close to the university but will also have access to a car. SAM then goes over the cover story that they are to memorize whenever they talk to anyone about why they are in Australia. From time to time SAM asks them to respond in a low voice just to make sure they are retaining this information. After about ten hours into their trip Tom wakes up from a sound sleep because nature has called. He gets up and makes his way to the forward galley and a vacant toilet. While he’s in the bathroom he suddenly gets an idea. Without checking to see if SAM is listening he whispers in a soft voice, with his hands covering his mouth so no one could hear even if they were standing beside him. “Tell Julie to meet me in the galley.”
Within minutes Julie pushed past the curtain that separates the galley from the business class passengers. “Is something wrong?” she said in a low voice.
“No, everything is OK. I was just testing the sensitivity of this listening device they put in our ear. I whispered so low that I could barely hear myself but clearly SAM could hear me and passed the message on to you.”
“Let me get this straight,” Julie said in a slight condescending manner. “You wake me up from a sound sleep to see if SAM can hear you whisper something to me.”
Tom sensing that things could quickly spiral out of control spotted a tray of orange juice sitting on the galley counter. “I thought you might be thirsty as he offered her one of the plastic cups.” It worked, she gave him one of her “why don’t you grow up looks” but there was a hint of a smile that she couldn’t hold back. They headed back to their seats while the big 747 jet headed over the south pacific into another time zone where the seasons were just reversed from what they are in the United States.
They passed through customs without a hitch, picked up their luggage and headed for the taxi area. It was early June and there was a chill in the air. Julie stopped to pull a sweater from her backpack as they loaded the rest of their luggage into the taxi. Tom gave the driver the address he had memorized hours earlier, even so SAM was waiting in the wings just in case. Sydney was a beautiful city and reminded both of them of San Francisco with all the waterfront activity. The taxi ride took them into the center of Sydney just a few block from the University. Their apartment building was a modern styled 16 unit complex with 4 units per floor. They were on the top floor with a corner unit. Tom pulled out the key ring he had been given back in California. There were three keys, one was for this apartment, another for the safe in their apartment, and the other one was for the car in carport #4. It didn’t take them long to unpack and get settled in and were soon anxious to go for a walk to acquaint themselves with their new neighborhood. As Tom and Julie rode the elevator to the ground floor they didn’t say a word but exchanged glances that told each other that “this place is cool”. They soon found themselves walking down a street that was lined with small shops. There was a small storefront loaded with bakery goods, next to it was a cheese shop packed with every kind of cheese imaginable. As they walked past these little shops it suddenly dawned on them that this was Australia’s version of a supermarket like they were familiar with back in the states. They were soon turning in to several shops buying fresh baked bread in one, choice lamb chops in another, fresh vegetables in another while topping off their shopping spree with a couple of bottles of expensive Shiraz wine.
“I forgot to ask them what the credit limit was on this Jim Peterson character,” Tom whispered to Julie as he handed the card to the next merchant.
Back in their apartment they took their time to make a delicious dinner of the lamb and vegetables while consuming a whole bottle of wine when jet lag suddenly kicked in. Australia was nineteen hours ahead of San Francisco; both were soon sound asleep.
In another part of the city just north of the university, Ishmael Franco Jazar was putting on his rugby cleats, where he was going to meet a group of college kids for their local afternoon game. Franco was the coach.
In SAM’s relentless search of persons connected to the phone numbers provided by Tom, she had found an obscure connection with an Iranian family that had moved to Australia in the early 1970’s. She had found compelling evidence that this Jazar family was a “sleeper cell” and had been placed in Australia years earlier. The father, Arash Jazar, had been educated in Iran in the oil industry and had been working in Australia in that capacity ever since. The 10 day war in 2014 had killed all the family members remaining in Iran, he wasn’t even sure he still had a contact left in his home country. His hatred for America burned in his sole like a white hot iron rod but he never allowed these feelings to show no matter how insignificant. Two years after he and his wife arrived in Sydney they had a baby boy, which they named Ishmael Franco Jazar with the intention of calling him Frank which suited his Australian home much better. Frank had been raised in a perfectly normal Australian home, active in sports to the point he received a scholarship to the prestigious University of Sydney. He had graduated five years earlier with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science and was currently teaching advanced computer techniques at this same university. He had no idea his family had been placed here years ago as a “sleeper cell”.
SAM had enrolled Jim Peterson into Frank’s advanced computer techniques class.
10
Sydney Australia…
Two days passed since Tom and Julie had arrived in Australia and SAM was telling them both that it was time to go to work. They had spent the last two days exploring the country side in their late model Volvo but today they headed for the university campus to complete the necessary paperwork and settle into their respective studies. Tom was in a class of twenty students in a very modern computer lab. They had some of the most current Hewlett-Packard computers available on the commercial market. Julie had been enrolled in an Arabic language course with an introduction to Islam and Sharia law. The expansion of the Muslim religion in Australia had been doubling every five years and within a few years would be the dominate religion in this country.
Tom’s first day was pretty routine where the instructor asked each student to introduce themselves and give a little background on their education along with their interests.
When it was Tom’s turn Jim Peterson stood up and introduced himself and explained that he had a Master’s degree in computer science and was a graduate of Oklahoma State University. When Frank ask him what his interest was he simply said “I would like to specialize in hacking,” which brought a round of laughter from the rest of the class.
That evening when Tom was back in the privacy of their apartment he asked SAM why he was instructed to make such a foolish statement. This is when SAM lays out the second phase of his
program. She explains to Tom that Frank is alleged to be associated with a terrorists “sleeper cell” and he needs to convince Frank that he is some wild and crazy guy that has computer skills beyond anything that Frank has ever seen. Tom was quick to interject, “But I don’t have any super computer skills.” “Yes you do,” SAM said. “With my help you are going to be that wild and crazy guy.”
As the days went by Tom was slowly showing Frank some of the techniques he had learned while attending OSU. This peaked Franks interest so much that he invited Jim and Julie Peterson to join him for dinner.
The discussion quickly turned to a high tech level of conversation that seemed like another language to Julie. Frank finally asked point blank, “Where did you come up with these techniques to hack into corporate computers? Is this something they teach in American universities?” He asked with total sincerity.
“No no…” Tom laughed, “There were six of us that sort of started our own fraternity. We created encryption algorithms and routing routines that were so complex, no one could track anything back to us.”
Frank is becoming more intrigued by the minute, “Did you hack in to steal data or what was your purpose?” he pressed.
“No no…” Tom laughed again, “We weren’t trying to steal stuff we were just trying to see if we could control things. Like we would turn off the light in the school’s library just for the hell of it.”
“You say you can go in and control things… could you like shut down the electrical grid to a city?” Frank said, taking the bait SAM was feeding him.
“You’ve got to be kidding dude, they would put you in jail for 20 years for something like that.” Tom said with his good ole boy accent.
Frank thought for a minute, “Can you show me how you would do something like that?”
“You mean turn some lights off?” Tom responded innocently.
“I’m thinking of something more substantial, something where we could get conformation that you actually did it,” Frank said.
“Are you serious?” Tom asked, following SAM’s instructions. “Isn’t it against the law to do something like that in Australia”?
“Remember, you are the one that said your interest in taking my class was to learn more about hacking, maybe this is an opportunity for us to take our first lesson.”
“Humm…” Tom said, pondering Frank’s last comment. Several seconds went by when he finally said, “Could we use one of the computers in your lab?”
“I think that’s a good idea, in fact I’ll show you how we can use one of those computers and it will be completely untraceable back to the lab,” Frank said feeling a little uncomfortable about showing this new student some of his special training.
“I have an idea,” Tom said, like he was suddenly interested in this project.
“What if I hack in to the Hilton Hotel here in Sydney and shut the elevator service down for 30 minutes and if we time it right it will probably make the 10 o’clock news and there’s your conformation.”
“I like it,” Frank said, “Let’s set it up for tomorrow afternoon after everyone has left the lab.”
They finished dinner and parted ways going back to their respective lives.
Once safely inside the Volvo Julie burst out, “What was that all about?”
“Didn’t you hear SAM telling me all those things to say?” Tom said defensively.
“When we get home we need to have a little conversation with SAM,” Tom said as he started the car.
Once back at their apartment Tom and Julie sat down at the kitchen table with a pencil and notepad in front of each of them.
“OK SAM, what the hell is going on and I want Julie to hear this as well,” he said with as much authority as he could muster.
“You did a perfect job with your conversation to Frank,” SAM said with her Australian accent.
“What are you talking about, I don’t have any idea how to hack into the Hilton Hotel much less shut down their elevators,” Tom said totally confused.
“Don’t worry,” SAM responded, “I do.”
“I have some unsubstantiated information that the Jazar family is involved to a lesser degree in an Iranian cyber warfare program. I’m just trying to elevate their level of interest to their handlers so we might find out who the main player are in Tehran,” SAM said to both of them. “That’s about all I can tell you at this time but more importantly you must do exactly as I say when you have your meeting with Frank and it’s important that Julie stays out of this one so we can build the trust we need in him.”
“What’s any of this have to do with finding my dad?” Tom finally said.
“It’s complicated, but I can assure you that Dr. Merrill is doing everything he can to find your father,” SAM said as she signed off for the evening.
The next day everything went as normal as could be expected. After classes Julie walked back to the apartment and waited to hear from Tom or SAM. Tom had an early dinner at a KFC and returned to the computer lab at 6 o’clock on the dot.
Frank was waiting; where he quickly closed and locked the door as Tom entered the room.
“Are you ready to go to work?” Frank said as he motioned to one of the workstations.”
“Are you sure they can’t track this back to us?” Tom said tentatively.
“That’s my part of the deal… let me show you what I’m doing,” Frank said as he sat down at the workstation next to Tom’s.
Frank was anxious to show Tom his handy work, as he had been scouring the internet to find the perfect host computer that they could use for their special hacking job. It turns out that he had found some ladies laptop computer in Perth Australia who had been ordering some products off the QVC website. Anyone trying to trace their activities would end up back at this ladies computer.
“I’ve used this method before but it looks like you’ve found the perfect host,” Tom said, “so let’s get started.”
Tom pulled a small thumb drive out of his pocket and plugged it into the USB port. He tells Frank that this would allow him to write in a unique coded language that Frank had never seen. As Tom was busily writing in a code that no-one could understand, SAM was easily hacking into the Hilton’s computers and precisely one hour later all the elevators in that hotel stopped.
“It’s time to turn on the television and let’s keep our fingers crossed that there’s no pregnant lady about to give birth,” Tom said looking pleased with himself.
“I’ve never seen anything close to the code you are using; where did you come up with the software on that thumb drive?” Frank ask his new student.
“It’s something our little band of brothers came up with back in Oklahoma,” Tom said proudly.
“Do you mean there are other guys that can do what you just did?” Frank said in complete amazement.
“Oh sure, some of the guys are better at it than me,” Tom said following SAM’s script to the Tee.
Just then the TV announced “Breaking News” that there had been a power failure at the Hilton Hotel and all the elevators were stuck between the floors causing the fire department to respond to the stranded guests.
“I guess we won’t have to wait for the 10 o’clock news. Have you seen enough?” Tom said glancing over at Frank.
Frank couldn’t believe his eyes at what he had just seen and simply nodded… Yes.
Tom typed in a few key strokes that would undo his faux program and removed his memory stick, while SAM turned the power back on in the Hilton.
Tom headed back to his apartment and Ishmael Jazar headed directly to his father’s home. When Frank arrived he quickly told his dad about the incident he had just witnessed. Arash was more excited about the story, than his son because this is what he had been waiting for since he had moved to Australia over 35 years earlier. Arash had been given a packet of information when he left Iran and was told not to open it unless he was contacted with a secret pass code that would awaken him from his sleeper cell status and activate a call to arm
s. His other option was to open the information packet and follow the instructions on how to contact his handlers if he ran across something so important that he was willing to risk exposing his mission. The story his son had just told him about this new student from the United States; was that important. Without hesitation, Arash Jazar opened the wall safe and removed the package that had been lying there, untouched for years. As they opened the package they were both surprised to see a single phone number and the words – The eagle has landed - and that was it. Without trying to figure out what time it was in Iran, Arash picked up the phone and dialed the 35 year old number.
11
Tom rushed into the apartment with the growing excitement to tell Julie about his meeting with Frank when Julie held up her hands and said, “SAM has already filled me in and I saw the news alert about the power outage at the Hilton.”
“Can you believe she did all that while she was casually telling me what to type into my computer,” he said in a rush.
“I don’t know what Frank thinks about what we did but it impressed the hell out of me.”
Four hours and thirty minutes later than Australia time, a phone rings in Tehran. In fact it rings and rings until Arash thinks that no one is going to answer when suddenly someone answers in Arabic with the single word… “Yes”.
Arash almost started to say who was calling when he remembered the instructions, “The eagle has landed,” he said in English.
There was a long pause, like the person who had answered was looking through some sort of records when they responded in perfect English, “Do you have some way we can contact you by computer, preferable someone that understands encryption?”