McCarthy turned and looked at Stilicho. “Since we have an ACE Corp consultant here, and from the reports we’ve all read, we know he was a major help in exposing this Chinese spy the first time around. So I’d like his input on the matter. Do you have anything to add, Jones?”
All eyes turned towards him. Stilicho leaned casually by the side of the wall. He had been reading up on the files the night before. “If the theory about this Russian hacker is true, and he is indeed helping this Herbert guy, then I think you ought to find out why. There must be a reason why a wanted man like Anonymyst would risk coming here and springing out the Chinaman.”
An agent with a crew cut and thick mustache raised his hand. “We already know why. It’s clear that the Chinese hired Anonymyst to hack into our AI servers so that they could rescue Herbert Eng Wu.”
Stilicho gave him a quizzical look. “The Chinese have their own hackers. Why would they hire a Russian fugitive to do it for them?”
“Plausible deniability obviously,” McCarthy said.
“Doesn’t make sense to me,” Stilicho said. “I read the reports on this Vlad guy, and it seems he barely escaped from the Russian dragnet that was out to get him. Why would he double the risk to get over here and have the US government go after him too? I believe there’s more to this.”
Darian stared at Stilicho. His analytical skills were impressive. If he wasn’t such an amoral scoundrel, he would have made a good Federal agent.
McCarthy seemed to take his suggestion seriously. He looked at a middle-aged woman with light curly hair sitting near the end of the table. “What’s the latest intel on the Chinese, Trish?”
Trish Underwood pursed her lips. She was handling the agency’s counter-intelligence team. “No major movement or activity of Chinese assets in the country. It’s almost like they think Herbert Eng Wu is still in our custody.”
“That’s why we haven’t put his name out on the news yet,” McCarthy said. “Okay, so it’s possible that they may not be running the operation after all. I’ll pass the word up to Langley and Quantico to keep bargaining for our assets that were caught in the Chinese mainland. If they still think there’s going to be a swap then we keep them on this road, but we need to know for sure if they are truly in the dark or this is all just a ruse.”
Trish nodded. “Okay, SAC. I’ll pass the word up to the proper channels.”
McCarthy turned to look at Stilicho once more. “Okay, if you don’t think the Chinese are behind this, then who is?”
Stilicho shrugged. “I’m going to need to do some research first. I’ve been out of the loop and I need access to your files on Herbert and this Anonymyst guy.”
McCarthy frowned. “We’ll see.” He turned to look at the others. “Anybody got anything else?”
Everybody kept quiet.
“Okay, let’s get back to it,” McCarthy said as he made his way towards the door.
Stilicho waited until Darian made it to the doorway as he pushed ahead and walked out beside her. “Hello Darian, it’s been a long time.”
Darian kept staring in front of her as they made it into the main room. “What do you want, Jones?”
Stilicho raised his eyebrows. “Is that the way to treat a friend who saved your life?”
Darian stopped and looked into his eyes. “I don’t owe you anything. We saved each other’s lives back on Mars.”
“We did indeed,” Stilicho said. “I would have thought that at least a bond of respect would have developed since we went through hell and high water together.”
“Let me put it to you straight,” Darian said. “I think you’re one hell of a smart guy and a total charmer. I also think you’re an untrustworthy criminal, and that goes against my core beliefs since I made an oath to protect this country against people like you. We went through a lot together, I admit that, but don’t expect me to respect what you’ve done. The only reason why you’re here right now is because the government has got you in a bind, and you’re desperately trying to worm your way out of it. So tell me, am I missing anything?”
Stilicho was somewhat taken aback by her brashness, but he realized that she was just being herself and couldn’t help it. “Sig heil, Darian,” he said, before turning around and walking away.
Figuring that he might as well get things started, Stilicho walked up to Haney, who was hovering beside a technician’s console. “So where’s my desk?”
Haney led Stilicho over to a makeshift workstation situated along a small walkway, right by the pantry area. “Over here. As I’ve said before, everything you do will be monitored.”
Stilicho sat down dejectedly on a squeaking swivel chair by the desk. “I thought this was an FBI field office, not Alcatraz.”
Haney just shook his head while walking away. Stilicho punched up the access code for the workstation and activated it. For the first time in nearly two months, he had com-link access, but if he went back to his old ways, they would immediately throw him in a dark cell for a few years, at the very least. Rejecting the sudden urge to go for the porn sites, Stilicho instead connected into the case files for both Vlad Utkin and Herbert Eng Wu then began to read. Pity I don’t have Maia now, he thought. With her, I could have analyzed the data and thought up a plan already.
After a few hours, Stilicho continued to read through the reports, occasionally getting up to grab a cup of coffee to keep himself from falling asleep. Sorting through the countless data streams was tedious work; the last time he did this was when he started out as Errol Flux’s young protégé, recruited while still an undergraduate in college. He remembered the time when his boss gave him one of the first working prototypes of the MAIA suite, and he felt like a kid in a candy store. Over the years he steadily modified Maia until it seemed like she was an integral part of him. Now it felt like a piece of his own flesh had been ripped out of his body when he was forced to delete her from all of his servers.
“How’s it going?” a voice beside him said.
Stilicho tilted his head and looked up. Another Federal agent was standing nearby. “I could give you a better answer if my security clearance was upgraded. Right now I keep getting a denial of access every time I try to check out a relevant file.”
The young man smiled and held out his hand. “I wish I could help, but I’m not cleared for it either. Special Agent Tyler Dvorak.”
Stilicho shook his hand while he remained seated. “Nice to meet you. At least there’s one friendly FBI agent in this entire place. Did someone take a piss in the office coffeepot instead of the toilet and everyone drank it but you?”
Tyler snickered. “Most of them aren’t too happy you’re here. I’m not FBI by the way, I’m with NASA- Darian’s partner, actually.”
“Well at least some people in NASA ain’t too bad then. Did Darian just go through a breakup or is she having menopause?”
“I heard a little bit of your conversation with her since I was right behind you,” Tyler said. “You’ll just have to forgive her attitude- one of the FBI agents that was killed happened to be a close friend of hers. She’s taking it personally.”
“That does explain her cruddy attitude,” Stilicho said. “She’s still a martinet though.”
“I read a bit of your files, and I got to say I can’t help but be impressed by your exploits,” Tyler said. “Some of the stuff you and Darian did on Mars has been adapted for our astronaut training program.”
“Well, I’m glad I impressed someone at least,” Stilicho said while pointing to the 3D monitor on his workstation. “Maybe you could help me out with this. I was looking into Herbert’s last known project, but I run into a wall. It says, ‘further information is classified’ and there’s this code which I have no idea what it stands for.”
Tyler leaned over and took a look. “Oh, that’s a military classification access link- US Air Force, I believe. Weren’t you the one who found out that Herbert Eng Wu was a Chinese spy?”
“Yeah.”
“So how did you do i
t?” Tyler asked.
“I figured out it was him when I monitored his emails and personal com-link access,” Stilicho said. “He was speaking to his Chinese case officer in code and had a dead drop and all that, but my AI suite was able to decrypt the secret language system they used.”
“How did you narrow it down to him though?”
“I didn’t at first, so I just placed a tap on all ACE Corp personnel that had anything to do with fusion design and engineering,” Stilicho said.
“And violated everyone’s right to privacy,” Tyler said.
Stilicho shook his head. “All ACE Corp employees sign a non-disclosure agreement that states corporate management is allowed to monitor their com-link activities in case of data and security breaches.”
“So I take it you never attempted to access the classified military documents pertaining to Herbert Eng Wu’s spying?”
“I didn’t see the need to do it back then,” Stilicho said. “But if I’m going to find out what his motivation is this time, I would need to get access to it right now.”
“Then you’d be out of luck,” a third voice behind them said.
Stilicho and Tyler turned. Standing about a meter away was Darian, holding an empty coffee cup.
“When you enter my office,” Stilicho said. “You’re supposed to knock first, lady.”
“Spare me your lame jokes, Jones,” Darian said. “I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier.”
Stilicho’s eyebrows shot up. “Well, that’s a start. What can I do for you?”
“I agree with you,” Darian said. “The task force right now is concentrating on either the Chinese or just waiting until he pops up on the grid. I think we need to be more proactive in looking for him and Anonymyst.”
“I’m all ears,” Stilicho said. “What have you got so far?”
“I’ve been after this Anonymyst for years and while he does stuff for money, there’s a few things he is passionate about,” Darian said. “Utkin posted a diatribe when the UN banned advanced AI suites and further research on them. He also uploaded multiple viruses and worm bots onto government servers, hoping to crash parts of the internet he deemed oppressive. As far as we know, he didn’t receive any money for this, so it was strictly for personal reasons.”
Tyler gave Stilicho a wink. “Seems he’s kind of like you. Anonymyst likes advanced AI suites too.”
Stilicho sneered. “I only used my AI for work, never for anything else.”
“But you did use Maia to hack into other people’s private accounts,” Darian said.
Stilicho made a dismissive gesture with his hands. “Look, this isn’t about me, okay?”
“The point is that Anonymyst is a member of a loose coalition of hacker enthusiasts called the Singularity, and their goal is to bring about the onset of a self-aware AI,” Darian said. “We’ve had several agents from both the NSA and the FBI attempting to infiltrate this network and we’ve more or less succeeded, but Anonymyst is too much of a lone wolf to get caught up in one of our sting operations.”
“So did you find anything useful?” Stilicho asked.
“The fact is Vlad Utkin has gone quiet,” Tyler said. “He normally chats with his hacker network at least a few hours a day, but ever since his near run in with the law over in Russia, his online presence has dwindled to nothing. He’s apparently lying low.”
Stilicho recalled the meeting they just had in regards to the Chinese not reacting when Herbert Eng Wu escaped from the clutches of the FBI. Having been in the same city at the time that Vlad Utkin had been spotted couldn’t have been a coincidence. “I just read the file about Anonymyst being seen in a nightclub here in the city, but my clearance is so low I can’t access the one who took the picture of the incident. Can you give me the permission for that?”
Darian frowned. “We went through that picture already, we think it’s just Utkin sitting in between two girls at a club.”
“When I saw the picture, it looked to be a still shot, like it was part of a video or something,” Stilicho said. “I think we should track down and contact whoever took it.”
Chapter 11
Tyler and Darian entered the clothing store through its automated glass doors. The late afternoon sun cast angled columns of light into the hall while a few shoppers perused through plastic racks to find the shirts and pants that they liked. The girl they had wanted to talk to was standing near the cash register, carefully folding some synthetic wool sweaters before placing it on a nearby shelf. The two NASA special agents quickly made their way over to where she was stationed at. The girl noticed them and gestured over to an alcove near the dressing rooms.
Darian pulled out her badge and showed it to the young woman. “Hi. I’m NASA Special Agent Arante. You’re Stacy, right? We spoke over the com-link just awhile ago.”
Stacy Smalley’s eyes darted back and forth while looking past their shoulders. “Could we make this quick? If my manager finds out I’m taking the time to talk to you guys during working hours, I might lose my job.”
“Don’t worry,” Tyler said. “We just need to ask a few questions, it’s about that picture you posted on your social network site.”
“I-I post a lot of pictures on my site,” Stacy said. “It’s not a-a crime i-is it? Will I be arrested?”
“No, we just wanted to ask a question about one picture you took around a few days ago at a club called Tech Noir,” Darian said. “You labeled one picture ‘Drunk Russian.’ Do you remember the details when you took it?”
Stacy was a little confused. “That one? Oh yeah, I remember now. Just some guy in one of the booths that was opposite to us. I was bored so I tried taking a video since there was some drama that happened.”
Tyler was intrigued. “You took a video? Can we get access to the rest of it?”
Stacy punched up the details on the smartglasses she wore while allowing the two agents access to her device. “I deleted it in the end since most of the video was messed up, all that I could salvage was that one still picture.”
Darian gritted her teeth. Stilicho was right. Too bad the video was gone. “We could still try to recover it. I’m downloading your full video history into my server. Do I have your permission?”
“Sure, okay,” Stacy said as she clicked on the frame of her smartglasses to approve the data transfer. “I tried a video recovery program myself but it still didn’t work. I think there must have been some sort of bot virus at the club or something.”
“Could you tell us what you remember that night at the club?” Tyler asked her.
“Yeah, just some drunk Russian making an ass out of himself,” Stacy said.
“How did you know he was Russian?” Darian asked.
“He was saying stuff out loud in Russian,” Stacy said. “My ex-boyfriend was a Russian immigrant, so I know a little about the language.”
Tyler nodded as his own smartglass was recording this interview. “Did he say anything that seemed peculiar?”
The girl shook her head. “Not really, I think I only caught one or two snippets of words since the music was pretty loud.”
Darian rubbed her chin. “Can you tell me what you found so amusing about him?”
“Oh well, he had these two girls with him but then another girl walked up to him,” Stacy said. “One of the two girls he was with tried to push this new girl away but I think the redhead knew martial arts or something, and one of the two girls got pushed to the ground. Then the red girl just grabs the Russian and pulls him out of the club. My friends and me were laughing when we saw it and that’s why I tried to take a video of it.”
Tyler’s eyebrows shot up. “There was a third woman and she took him away? Could you describe her?”
Stacy pointed at Darian. “She was about as tall as you, same build, but her hair was like a fiery red. She moved so fast, I hardly even remembered she was there. That was pretty much it.”
“Did you see what she looked like?” Darian said.
“Nope,”
the girl said. “Her back was turned to us the whole time. I might have seen a side glimpse of her but she looked ordinary to me. She was dressed in black though.”
Stilicho relaxed at the back seat of the car, sipping on a soda. It was early evening by now and the vehicle was parked at the back of the police station. When Darian and Tyler had decided to go out and follow up on the leads he suggested, Stilicho asked if he could tag along. SAC McCarthy wasn’t too happy about it but he grudgingly acquiesced. The rest of the afternoon was spent interviewing the girl who had taken the picture of Anonymyst in the club, and now they had decided to take a visit to the local police station to inquire about any drone footage near the club, only this time they were on the lookout for a red-headed woman in black.
When he saw the two NASA agents making their way back to the car, Stilicho sat up and finished the rest of his soda. This was a lot better than being cooped up in the FBI field office, and he was glad to be out and about for the first time in months. He waited patiently as Darian opened the front passenger’s side door and sat on the seat. Tyler came in through the driver’s side and got behind the wheel.
Stilicho leaned forward so they could both see him in the rear view mirror. “Well?”
Darian sighed. “They gave us some grainy street cam videos of a possible suspect getting into a car with Utkin. We requested they run a trace on the vehicle and they said they’ll get back to us.”
Stilicho shook his head. “That’s going to take days, maybe even weeks. They’ll be long gone by now. I bet they aren’t even in Vegas anymore.”
Darian turned to look at him. “Do you think this redhead is in on it?”
“Totally,” Stilicho said, nodding. “Based on what I read about this Russian, he isn’t the physical type. When you told me what the witness at the club said, it seems this redhead might be their muscle.”
Tyler gave him a quizzical look. “Muscle for what?”
Virago One: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (Ace of Space Book 2) Page 10