by Raven Scott
“What time will you guys get there?” Marco asked into the phone, looking at his watch. “Okay, we won’t be far behind.”
Marco listened intently for another few seconds before he hung up.
“Do you want to go for a ride?” he asked Lucas with a boyish grin.
“To where?” Lucas responded, unfazed by the change in direction.
“Alex and the team have just left to take the Cicada prototype out for the first road test. There’s a track a few miles north of here,” explained Marco. “You could see the new engine in action, and we can talk about your proposal on the way.”
“Sure,” Lucas agreed with an easy shrug. “How long do you think we’ll be out?”
“I have a meeting a four o’clock, so I need to be back by then anyway,” Marco explained as he led them out into the hallway. “But, we can certainly come back sooner if you need to.”
“No, that works.”
It would give Lucas plenty of time after to get Evan and Samuel up to speed.
“Good,” replied Marco with a big smile. “My car is parked out back.
The men walked through the hallway, into the auto shop, and out the back entrance. As they walked to Marco’s car, a top-of-the-line BMW, something slick and gray caught Lucas’s eye. It was a Porsche 911 with matte black rims and shiny red calipers, identical to the one that had pulled up to the valet parking last night at the hotel. The one owned by a very sexy and intriguing woman named Lex.
“Your first time in Toronto, Lucas?” asked Marco, interrupting Lucas’s musing as they entered his car.
“No, I’ve been here a few times for work,” he replied, leaving out that it had been on Secret Service business. “It’s a beautiful city.”
“Well, we’ll make sure you see more of it while you’re here.”
Marco pulled out onto the street behind the building. The traffic was busy, but moving smoothly. They took a couple of turns, then entered the freeway going north about ten minutes later.
“Like I told you on Friday, Marco, you will need more than just the updated network security plan I’ve outlined,” Lucas stated once they were cruising.
“But you said you’ve shut down the hack into our network, right? Once you upgrade our systems, won’t that stop the attacks?” asked Marco, giving him a quick glance.
“I’ve done a full review of your local servers this morning. Everything looks secure, for now. But, based on what we discovered on Friday, someone has invested a lot of time, effort, and money to try infiltrating your network. Experience tells me that they aren’t going to stop because we shut down their first attempt,” Lucas explained. “When you hired Fortis, you made it very clear from the beginning that your highest priority was the confidentially of your new prototype. So we designed your computer system and network to be completely self-contained, with encrypted storage and backup on your local servers. All cloud-based or hosted solutions have inherent security vulnerabilities. The hosting company and its employees would have access to your information, even if it’s hidden behind layers of security algorithms.”
Marco nodded with agreement.
“But, that means the only access to your network is through your servers, or if we grant it through the collaboration portal,” Lucas concluded. “If someone wanted to steal your information, they would need to get into your location to do it.”
Marco was silent as he tapped his thumb against the steering wheel as the reality of the situation became clear.
“They’ll try to break into the shop,” the older man stated.
Lucas shrugged. He didn’t want to scare his client, but his job was to prepare for all scenarios.
“It’s a real possibility. Or someone in the company could do it, with the right incentive. It’s why I’ve suggested expanding our assignment to include an on-site security team,” Lucas explained. “Have you reviewed the new plan?”
Marco nodded.
“Yes. It’s fine, of course,” Marco replied. “I was actually thinking of hiring my own security team. Right now, Oli is just there after hours. But with the engine built and going into testing, I’ve been worried about keeping it secure twenty-four seven.”
“Good,” Lucas stated.
“How did they plant the worm in our network?” asked Marco.
They had just exited the highway and Marco continued north on a two-lane regional road.
“It wasn’t a worm, it was a Trojan horse. Most worms are meant to destroy computers or shut down a network,” explained Lucas as he glimpsed the confused glance on Marco’s face. “A Trojan hides on a file, acting like a back door into a system to get undetected access to all the files.”
“Okay. So how did they do it?”
Lucas checked the map on his cellular phone, noting their location on the more rural roads.
“It was through that professor you guys hired, North,” he explained. “The Trojan was attached to an encrypted document he shared last week. Once the doc was accessed inside your network, the trap door was opened.”
“Adam North was involved? That can’t be true,” insisted Marco with a look of shock on his face. “He’s a highly acclaimed physicist, and an associate professor at the University of Illinois.”
“We don’t think he knew anything about it. Someone just used him as a point of access, and we suspect they had been tracking his movements for some time.” explained Lucas.
“Alex started working with him months ago,” Marco recalled.
“Back in December,” confirmed Lucas. “They could have been tracking him from the start, looking for an opportunity to gain the access they need. But we only gave North the ability to upload locked files onto your collaboration portal. He couldn’t save anything from Magnus on his own computers or to a drive. So, they had to find another way to access your information.”
“Shit!” Marco muttered. “They’ve been targeting us for that long?”
“We can’t be sure, but it’s very possible,” Lucas conceded.
The two men sat quietly for a few seconds before Lucas got to the second purpose for this meeting in person.
“Marco, I need to know what exactly your Cicada engine is, and why people with a lot of time and money want it.” His client sat up higher and looked a little intimidated by the directive tone of Lucas’s voice. “And don’t tell me it’s just a hybrid. I’m pretty sure Tesla and others have already been there and done that.”
Marco cleared his throat and checked his mirrors. There were no other cars near them.
“I’m not asking out of curiosity, Marco. I need to clearly understand the scope of the threat in order to effectively neutralize it.”
Marco let out a deep sigh.
“It is technically a hybrid, but completely different from anything commercially available now for passenger cars. Most of them use the electric motor to run at lower speeds, for a few hundred miles, then the gas engine charges the battery and takes over when the motor is out of charge. They’re designed mostly for economy, not power.”
“How is yours different?” Lucas probed.
“In almost every way. Only Alex can really explain the technical details, to be honest. But in the end, it will be lighter, run faster and longer on electrical power. The battery will charge in minutes with gas fuel, not hours,” Marco explained, his voice vibrating with energy and excitement. “For racing, that means higher velocity. Possibly record-breaking speed.”
“And for the consumer market?” asked Lucas, already sensing the possibilities.
“In an average sedan, we think a twenty-gallon gas tank could last two months. The rechargeable battery would be efficient and durable enough to last the lifetime of the car.”
Lucas stared at the profile of the other man, his brain running various analytical calculations at genius-level speeds. If what Marco was describing was just half-accurate, it was serious business, with implications way beyond the car racing industry.
“Who else knows about the specs, besides
your employees?” he asked in a calm tone.
“Up until this morning, Alex and I were the only ones who knew everything. But the racing team would have been brought up to speed before they left for the road test,” explained Marco. “Other than that, we have three investors that we’ve been providing monthly updates. But even they think we’ve only focused on building a lighter and faster hybrid for the race at the Sea-to-Sky Highway in June.”
“What is the Sea-to-Sky Highway? Is this an event Magnus participates in?” Lucas asked.
“It’s an open race up the steepest part of the Sea-to-Sky Highway to Whistler in B.C. We’ve sent a racing team for the last three years, but haven’t cracked the top ten spot yet,” he detailed. “But it wasn’t until Adam North shared his battery technology that Alex saw the broader possibilities. Her engine and his battery show potential on their own, but together, they are a game-changer.”
The puzzle pieces all fit together, and Lucas was buzzing with alert energy. Magnus Motorsports was a small, independently owned custom fabricator for car parts with impressive results in racing components. It didn’t make sense that they would be a target for the type of funded cyber attack that Timothy Pratt had been fronting. Sure, small businesses had their fair share of intellectual property thefts, everything from client lists and marketing strategies to trade secrets and design schematics. But, it was almost always at the hands of disgruntled employees or business partners. They were typically crimes of opportunity, with only a little planning or forethought.
Pratt’s setup suggested something much more far-reaching and big-budget. Based on what Marco had now revealed, there was no telling who or what companies were willing to steal the Cicada.
“The only way to fully protect you is to figure out who’s trying to steal your design,” Lucas explained. “Before that, we need to make sure everything related to the Cicada is now stored beyond the VPN and firewall on your network and backed up.”
Marco nodded as he turned into the entrance of a large parking lot.
“I met with Alex on Friday after you had sent me your recommendations. We should be all set by tomorrow morning.”
As they drove into the pit entrance of the field, Lucas looked around at the large open area. There were several grandstand seating structures along the three-mile asphalt track, with the largest at the starting mark, on the other side of the pit stop. Only one car moved around the track at racing speed.
Marco parked in the gravel near the track, and they both stepped out of the car. Lucas followed him toward the edge of the track where two men were standing, wearing matching gray coveralls, looking through a folder. He recognized them from the shop floor that morning.
“How’s it going?” asked Marco as both of the engineers looked toward them.
“It’s crazy,” one of the two men replied, looking confounded.
“Lucas, meet Randy and Niles, two of the engineers on Alex’s team,” explained Marco, gesturing to the stocky, middle-aged man he first spoke to, and the second younger, more slender guy who was holding the folder. “Guys, this is Lucas Johnson, with our security firm, Fortis.”
Lucas shook hands with the engineers.
“Where’s Cotts?” Lucas asked. “I was hoping to get some more details on the work with Adam North.”
Marco laughed as they all looked back out onto the track. “You’ll have to wait until she’s done testing her baby.”
She? Lucas looked at him with a frown, but was distracted seconds later when a dark blue race-engineered Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution zipped by them, clocking at least one hundred and forty miles per hour. The sound of the wind wake and tire traction hit him in a flash, but the motor and exhaust were whisper-quiet.
“That’s your Cicada motor inside the Mitsubishi?” he asked, still feeling the power vibrating through his bones.
Marco’s eyes sparkled like a schoolboy at Christmas.
“That is it.”
The four men stood and watched the car complete another couple of laps, each seemingly faster than the previous. Before the last pass, the older engineer, Randy, whipped his hands in the air.
“They’re going to do a final lap at max velocity,” Marco explained.
Lucas nodded, then stepped forward with the others to witness the results. He could feel the energy and excitement as the race car increased its speed coming out of the last curve of the lap.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang and dark smoke surrounded the car. Sounds of tires squealing were mixed in with muttered and panicked curses from Marco and the two engineers. Within moments, they were all running toward the Mitsubishi, now spinning out in crazy circles up the straightaway.
CHAPTER 4
The area was immediately filled with the scream of an emergency siren as a geared-up red 4x4 truck pulled out of a garage at the far side of the field. There was too much commotion for Lucas to see the cause of the explosion, or the damage to the vehicle and the people inside of it. But his instincts were heightened, and he scanned the open area for any sign of threats, attacks, or hiding culprits, prepared for all possibilities.
Within a few seconds, the car pulled out of its dizzying spin to skid across the pavement until the rear end slammed into the short wall with a loud crunch. It was a chilling sound, prompting Lucas to refocus on the probable injury and damage to the people and assets inside. With his long, fast strides, he was well ahead of the others, reaching the collision site first, just before the safety team vehicle arrived, with a full firefighting system set up in the bed.
The smoke had thinned out, revealing a shredded rear tire. But, knowing how highly flammable racing fuel was, and how unpredictable collisions could be, everyone was clearly prepared for the worst-case scenario—a gas leak that would come in contact with the extremely hot exhaust system, triggering an instant fire, maybe even an explosion. The safety crew got busy, quickly setting up the required equipment.
“Alex! Bobby!” Marco was yelling from behind Lucas, and the firefighters and paramedics were shouting instructions to each other.
The driver’s-side door opened just as Lucas was about to reach for the handle. A young man, no more than twenty-one years old, climbed out from between the heavy white bars of the full roll cage. His angular face was ashen and clammy.
“We’re okay,” he whispered, though only Lucas was close enough to hear.
“Alex?” shouted Marco, still several yards away. “Bobby, is Alex okay?”
The young driver nodded, then bent over as though to prevent himself from fainting.
“You all right?” Lucas asked the driver.
He nodded again, coughing. A uniformed female paramedic jogged up to help.
“Any injuries or pain?” she asked, quickly guiding him away from the car, and got him to sit down at a safe distance.
Lucas turned back to the still-open passenger door, very aware of the danger to the other person in the car with every second that went by. There were no signs of smoke or sparks now, but that did not reduce his concern. He hunched down low enough to look into the interior. Whatever he expected to find, it wasn’t the large, golden brown eyes that stared back at him, round with panic.
“What . . . ?” she stammered, clearly as surprised as he was.
But Lucas’s analytical brain was working parallel to his instinctive actions.
“Are you okay?” he asked calmly.
The woman he knew as Lex blinked rapidly.
“Yes,” she finally stammered. “But I can’t get out. My door’s too close to the wall, and my seat won’t slide back any farther.”
Lucas could see the safety crew rushing around the vehicle, hear them yelling questions to the Magnus team about the specifics of the car and fuel. But he stayed focused on Alex as the seconds ticked by. He’d already mentally calculated her size, the dimensions of the space inside between the roll cage and various other large custom, fixed equipment installed between the two bucket seats.
“Okay, I’m going to pull you
out through this side,” he explained, and she nodded quickly. “Ready?”
“Remove the steering wheel,” she told him, her voice now stronger, steadier.
Lucas followed her instructions without hesitation, and the large wheel slipped easily off the steering column. Someone beside him took it off his hands immediately. Then, he grasped both of Alex’s outstretched hands. Within three heartbeats he easily pulled her out of the vehicle headfirst until they both landed on the ground. Several people helped them to their feet and a member of the safety crew guided them over to where the driver was still sitting, drinking from a bottle of water.
“Are you okay, Bobby?” Alex asked him.
“Yeah, just a little dizzy,” he told her. “You? Were you stuck?”
Marco and the other three men surrounded them at that point, all asking questions at the same time, and sounding winded and panicked. Lucas did another discreet reconnaissance of the area, while Alex provided a multitude of answers and explanations. He even examined the road within causative range of the blowout, but there was nothing there to suggest sabotage.
“Lucas,” Marco called a few minutes later, waving him over with big arm gestures.
As Lucas jogged back to the site of the collision, the Magnus team was still assessing the damage, but the car was now running again. Alex was standing in front of the open hood.
“What’s the damage?” he asked.
She looked up at him, but barely long enough to make eye contact before she was back inspecting her engine.
“Surprisingly little,” Marco told him from where he was now crouched at the back end of the car. “It needs some panel work and the bulbs are busted. But other than that, we’re in good shape.”
He heard the car hood slam shut and turned to face the woman who had been an annoying disturbance to his sleep the night before.
“Alex Cotts, I presume,” he stated with a cocky smile. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Really?” she shot back, expressionless as she walked toward him. “And yet I know nothing about you other than a first name, Lucas.”
“Glad you remembered,” Lucas continued, then winced imperceptibly. It sounded like a completely inappropriate flirt, even to his ears.