by Rahul Badami
“No,” Hitesh said, “give me a few seconds.”
Baldev turned to him. “What are you doing?”
“I’ve hacked into the network. I am looping the video on the security cameras so that they can’t spot us.”
Roshan nodded. The security cameras had been their undoing. Now with Hitesh’s help, the cameras would recycle a timed video loop and they wouldn’t show up on the screens to anyone who was watching.
When Hitesh had informed them that the target computer was offline, Baldev had ordered Hitesh to locate the floor where the computer would be located. It wasn’t an easy task searching for one computer among eight thousand, but he had stuck upon an idea to search the IT Asset Inventory database. The computer name had immediately matched up with an Asset ID. And they had learned that the computer was located in Foodzone, a cafeteria for employees on the tenth floor.
Baldev had then pulled out the grill to the ventilation shaft in the ceiling. He had figured that they didn’t have much time before the guards stormed the datacenter. A diversion had to be created. With the opening prominently displayed on the ceiling, the guards would assume they had escaped through the shaft to the terrace. Then they had decided to hide behind the cooling unit.
When the guards had stormed in, as expected everyone’s attention had been riveted on the ventilation shaft. With the guards racing to the terrace leaving only one of their colleagues in charge, the opportunity had come into their lap.
Now only one man stood between them and escape.
“Do it fast.” Baldev hissed.
A few seconds later, Hitesh whispered. “Done.”
Roshan saw Baldev crane his neck and look into the opening. “The guard is standing between the aisles. I will take him out. Stay here.”
Baldev moved out from their hiding place. Roshan slid towards the edge of the cooling unit and peered beyond. The solitary guard was peering up at the opening of the ventilation shaft unaware of their presence. Roshan saw Baldev approach the guard from behind. He was as silent as a cat. Baldev raised his arm; his index finger outstretched. Roshan watched the hand move swiftly, the finger poking behind the guard’s ear. The guard immediately slumped to the floor, unconscious. Baldev scanned his eyes all over the room. The place was silent. He gave the all-clear signal to Roshan and they came out of their hiding place.
Roshan stepped aside as Baldev dragged the unconscious man towards the cooling unit. He puffed, “I’ll hide him in here. It should give us a few minutes of a head start in case they return and are unable to find their colleague.”
Roshan nodded. “We don’t have much time. Once they are on the terrace, they will realize we are not there. And then they will return here.”
Baldev looked at the man lying in the narrow confines behind the cooling unit. He was now completely hidden except if someone were to search behind the unit. “Wear your IDs. We will need them.”
Hitesh strung the ID around his neck. “So, we escape from the building now?”
Baldev rolled his eyes. “Our mission isn’t over yet. We are going to the tenth floor and will search for the computer.”
Hitesh blanched. “What?”
“Yes, it’s better than staying here and getting caught by the authorities.”
Baldev and Roshan moved to the datacenter door with Hitesh scurrying behind them. Roshan peeked around the door.
“No one here.”
“We will take the elevator.” Baldev said.
“Wouldn’t the fire escape be a better option?”
Baldev patted his ID. “Good employees don’t use fire escapes.”
“Makes sense.”
They strode into the elevator and pressed the button for the tenth floor. “What if they stumble upon us in the lift?”
Baldev shrugged. “We will have to risk it. The mission is paramount.”
Roshan’s eyes watched the floor counter of the elevator. Sweat formed on his forehead as the elevator stopped on the twenty-second floor. He watched with bated breath as the elevator swung open. To his relief it wasn’t the uniformed guards but a bespectacled female employee who entered. The elevator doors closed and they were moving once again. He looked at his colleagues. Baldev was a statue of poise, while Hitesh was still fiddling on his tablet. He peered at the screen and Hitesh answered his questioning stare.
“Billing computer.” He whispered.
Roshan arched his eyebrows in puzzlement. Hitesh was about to answer when the elevator dinged loudly. Roshan looked up. They had reached the tenth floor.
“Let’s go.” Baldev said in a quiet voice.
Roshan’s heartbeat eased as he saw that there were no guards on this level. Instead a queue of employees lined up waiting for them to exit from the elevator. He stepped out of the elevator and was immediately captivated by his surroundings.
The floor was a wide open space with high curved ceilings. Multiple counters on both sides catered to all kinds of food. In the centre were rows of tables filled with employees chatting with each other. Flat screen TVs adorned the walls playing MTV China channel on mute. Sunlight streamed through via floor to ceiling glass walls illuminating the entire area with natural light. A conversational buzz filled the air and a delicious smell hit Roshan’s nose. His stomach growled. He ignored it, trying to figure out what they were supposed to do next.
Baldev’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t see any computers around here.”
Hitesh pointed to the counter nearest them. “It’s behind the counter. Not quite visible from the outside.”
“So which counter are we looking for?”
“Follow me.”
They walked the length of the large cafeteria with Hitesh leading the way. As they passed the tables, Roshan overheard the elegant quad-tonal inflection of Mandarin of the employees. He was fluent in Mandarin and listened to their conversation. It was mostly office work. He wasn’t surprised. The Chinese worked six days a week, and were almost as workaholic as the Japanese. For most of them, the lure of money drove their lives. Everyone wanted to be rich and successful. It was becoming a global trend.
“That one. But it doesn’t look good.” Hitesh suddenly spoke.
Roshan looked at where he was pointing. It was the largest counter on the floor. Two ribbon rows were installed in front of it. A dozen employees stood in a queue in one of the rows. The second row was deserted with a sign saying ‘Closed’. A delectable smell wafted through the air. Roshan took a whiff and his stomach growled even more loudly. He saw an employee pass by with a plate filled with a familiar-looking dish.
“What’s that? It looks like pulao?”
Hitesh chuckled. “It is pulao indeed. Although the locals call it Uyghur Pilaf. I would like to taste it.”
“Me too. I am hungry.”
Baldev interrupted. “We can have all the food we want once our mission is done. So are you saying the target computer is the one behind the counter?”
Hitesh said, “Yes, the computer is connected to the billing machine. There are two billing machines on this counter, but only one queue. So I am assuming the machine without a queue is connected to the target computer that was turned off. But we have a problem. This place is full of people. How can we even access it without anyone seeing us?”
“We will have to do it.” Baldev said. “Those guards would have covered the exits by now. They will now start a floor-by-floor combing operation and will soon reach here.”
Hitesh shook his head. “So, you are saying we just walk behind the counter, say ‘ni hao’ to the staff member who is familiar with the colleague that uses the billing machine daily, turn on the computer and start to poke around, while a dozen Chinese employees standing in the queue stare at us?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Hmm, and after we say hello, wouldn’t the staff member enquire who we are and what we are doing behind the counter?”
“I have an idea.” Roshan leaned in and quickly explained his plan.
“That’s c
razy!” Hitesh blurted after hearing.
“I agree it’s crazy.” A smile flickered on Baldev’s face. “But it will work. Roshan, you take the lead.”
CHAPTER 18
Roshan strode forward towards the counter, pleased that Baldev agreed to his plan. They couldn’t stay here for long, and every minute counted. A direct confrontation was needed. They couldn’t waste their time sneaking around. He wiped the sweat that had started to form on his forehead, and focused on the man he was going to speak to. The man sitting behind the counter taking in the order was young, clean-shaven and looked like a kid just out of college on his first job. A cap with the logo of Foodzone upon it completed the picture. Roshan took a deep breath. He had to be convincing.
Roshan bypassed the long queue of waiting employees and approached the counter. He spoke in fluent Mandarin.
“I’m from the IT Department. We have detected a torrent software installed on that computer.” Roshan pointed to the target computer. “We have come to check it out.”
The man shrugged. “Sure. I know Jin uses the computer to post on Weibo and check for shopping deals on Taobao. But I’m not sure if he’s smart enough to do anything else. You can come in and check.”
“Thanks. Hopefully it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”
The man shrugged again and continued taking orders. Roshan moved in behind the counter with Baldev and Hitesh following him. He powered on the desktop computer and nodded at Hitesh. Hitesh sat in front of the computer and started typing in commands.
“The username is showing as jin.wang.” Hitesh whispered.
“Of course,” Baldev nodded. “That’s the name of the suspected hacker we were told about in the briefing. We are on the right path.”
“I don’t believe it.” Roshan said. “One of the most infamous hacker works as a billing clerk. That’s insane.”
“It makes sense actually.” Hitesh kept typing in commands. “Aside from the lunch hour rush, he’ll get plenty of time to do his own stuff during the rest of the day.”
Baldev nodded, “A perfect cover for him. And since he’s working inside a big corporate building, it becomes harder to pinpoint the hacker from among thousands of employees using thousands of computers.”
“What the…” Hitesh blurted, looking at his screen.
“What is it?” Baldev whispered. “What did you find?”
“Everything. Virtual Machine, Wireshark, Metasploit, and what not. It’s a hacker’s den in here.”
“Is it possible to extract the decryption codes from this computer?”
“I’m doing just that. There is an encryption software in here, but it doesn’t show any options for decryption.”
Roshan looked around. He was starting to feel warm under his neck even though the arena was air-conditioned. The Foodzone employee was busy attending to the queue. No one was interested in what they were doing. He peered over Hitesh’s shoulder. Hitesh was busy typing commands on the keyboard.
“I am now using a backdoor exploit to check when and how these software were used.”
After a couple of minutes, he spoke.
“I’ve found the logs.”
“What does it say?” Baldev asked.
“I checked the logs corresponding to the day of the cyber-attack. It shows some unusual activity on that day. Checking further.”
Roshan stared at the entrance to the cafeteria. At any moment, he expected the security guards to come charging in and apprehend them. A dull pain of anxiety shot up in his gut. He felt like bolting out of the building before they were caught. He hoped Hitesh would hurry up.
“I found a trail of OnionIRC messages.” Hitesh looked at Baldev’s confused face. “It’s a chat room on the dark web. Jin Wang seems to have contacted someone right after the hacking was done. I am running a trace on the other person. Hopefully it will give us some information about the other person.”
“Uh-oh.” Hitesh stopped typing and stared at the screen.
“What?”
“Take a look.”
Everyone moved their faces closer to the screen. Roshan scrolled his eyes through the IP numbers, commands, and log entries till his gaze rested on where Hitesh’s index finger was pointing.
Roshan’s eyes widened as he looked at the entry. It was the name of a person. The blood drained from his face. He kept staring unable to believe his eyes.
“Okay, let’s get out of here.” Baldev whispered.
Hitesh copied the log entries onto his tablet and shut down the computer. Roshan went over to the Foodzone guy to tell him they were done. The man just grunted as he took the food orders. The three of them exited from the counter and walked across the spacious cafeteria towards the elevator.
“How do we get out?” Hitesh said. “The security guys must be everywhere by now.”
Baldev shook his head. “They can’t be everywhere. There are forty floors in this building. They will need an army to search for the three of us among thousands of employees.”
“But still, how do we get out?”
“I’m trying to figure that out. The biggest challenge is that the exits will be guarded.” Baldev said.
Roshan looked around. It was lunchtime and the cafeteria was full of people. “What if we play the waiting game? We stay hidden in here till they believe that we have already left and the alert is called off?”
Baldev said, “I thought of that, but no. It’s too uncertain a strategy. We won’t know when it would be a good time to exit. We need to be proactive.”
Roshan stopped in his tracks as he saw one of the elevator doors open and two uniformed guards come out. “They are already here.”
Hitesh started backpedalling. Baldev held him tight. “We aren’t sure if they have come to find us.”
The guards looked around and Baldev found one of them looking directly at him. His heart caught in his mouth. But the guard continued sweeping his gaze around and Baldev breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t want to risk it. They had to get out of here.
“We’ll have to evade their notice and escape from here.”
A few moments later another elevator door stopped at the floor. Four more guards strode out. The six men started to spread out among the employees, their eyes alert.
“Curse it. Now we are screwed.” Baldev blurted.
“Do you think they can identify us in this crowd?” Roshan asked.
Baldev shook his head. “I don’t want to put that theory to test.”
The three of them headed away from the elevator doors deeper into the cafeteria. They took care to shield themselves from the incoming guards by shuffling behind the crowds of employees. The guards had already reached the first set of counters and were scrutinizing every single person. Roshan looked around searching for a hiding place. There were tables in the centre of the floor and counters at both ends. There was no place to hide. There was a crowd of employees but they weren’t a reliable option. The guards started to move to the middle of the cafeteria. Roshan, Baldev and Hitesh slithered back till they found themselves at the rear end of the cafeteria.
They had run out of floor space.
CHAPTER 19
Hitesh whipped his head around in panic. “They are going to find us now.”
Suddenly Roshan found a hand on his shoulder. He turned around. It was a familiar face. The woman had dark red hair that was in stark contrast to the raven black heads of the other employees. It was the lady from Hongshan Park who had given them her ID card. The woman placed a finger on her lips and motioned to them with a nod to come to the farthest corner of the cafeteria. They followed her to the corner.
Baldev glanced at the woman and spoke. “What do you want?”
“I’m here to help you.”
“How did you know we are here?”
She pointed to Baldev’s ID and smiled. “Remember, I have administrative access to everything? I located you the moment you entered the building. The security team will take some more time to determine how
you entered the datacenter, but then they will immediately figure out you are here.”
“Can you help us get out of here?”
She nodded. “Follow me.”
She led the way to a small door marked ‘Cafeteria Staff Only’, swiped her card and the four of them entered. Roshan saw they were in a narrow passage that ended in a large kitchen. The staffers were milling about busy preparing the food. They continued walking along one end of the kitchen to another door on the far end marked Exit.
“This way leads to the service elevators used by the staff.” She said.
Baldev frowned. “Bad idea. They will be guarding the service exits too.”
“I know. We will have to improvise.”
She pushed the door and they stepped in a vestibule that led to the elevators. Lined along one side of the wall was a row of ten large green trash buckets. She pointed to them.
“Get into them. That’s your ticket out of here.”
Roshan open the lid of a trash bucket and peered inside. His nose was immediately assaulted by a suffocating pungent stink. The trash bucket was half-filled with both raw and cooked food waste. It smelled like a dog had died in there. Bile choked up his throat and he swallowed the repulsive feeling. It reminded him of one of his Army training tasks.
He watched Baldev and Hitesh jump in one bucket each and squatted in them. The trash buckets were large enough to hide them. Underneath the cans, he saw rollers fitted for movement. He resignedly picked up a bucket and plopped himself inside. He sank to his knees in the refuse. The stench was overpowering. He just hoped he could hang in there.
“I will now cover the top and take you guys out one by one. Stay quiet and don’t move.” She took a cloth mask from a rack nearby and covered her mouth and nose to look the part of a facility cleaner. “Now, I’ll be unrecognizable from the other cafeteria staff.”
Roshan watched her put a lid on his bucket. His vision turned dark. His heartbeat thumped loudly in the pitch black confines. His clothes had become dirty and he felt an itch on his nose he couldn’t scratch. I will be out of here in a few minutes, he reassured himself. He kept quiet as he heard the other buckets being wheeled away to the elevator. Soon it was his turn. He heard the ding of the elevator as it reached their floor, and then heard the two buckets being thrust into the elevator followed by his own. He kept deathly still as the elevator descended unsure how many people were in the elevator. Finally, another ding sounded, and his bucket was on the move again.