‘Well no. In this case, I suspect that she has not gotten the entire code engraved. Only twenty-four characters were engraved on the ring, whereas the bitcoin private keys have anywhere between twenty-seven and thirty-four characters.’
‘So we don’t know exactly how many characters are missing?’ Adrian queried.
‘Only Nikki would know that. So even if someone stole the ring, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. With our decryption equipment and knowledge of check digits built into the code, we will be able to decipher the entire code in a week or so. The program will take that long to run. A layman wouldn’t be able to figure out the missing characters in a lifetime.’
‘Thanks, Dan. I will wait for a final communiqué from you.’ He hung up and turned towards Tony, who was quietly listening ‘It’s the ring, Tony. Nikki was attacked for the ring. Her finger was chopped off for the ring.’
Tony agreed. ‘Obviously she has enough funds parked in her bitcoin wallet for someone to kill her for it.’
‘And the one who attempted to kill her is the admin on Cotton Trail. Do you think we have enough for Cotton Trail to be probed and . . .’ he added after a thoughtful pause, ‘. . . and possibly shut down for ever?’
‘Of course we do,’ responded Tony, ‘but getting to Cotton Trail is almost impossible. We don’t know who runs it or where it runs from, If you think there is a way to get past that, it’s definitely worth a try.’
51
Mumbai
Tanya was furious after the Times Now report. She went public with her allegations. She gave media interviews accusing the finance minster of having a hand in her mother’s death. She had always felt that he was using her mother. And that’s exactly what she said in her interviews.
A few days later, an extremely agitated finance minister arrived in Mumbai. From the airport, he went straight to his hotel. This was a personal visit and he managed to evade the press.
A little after midnight, he left the hotel in a private car and drove to Malabar Hill with two accompanying cars. The cars stopped in front of a multi-storeyed apartment complex. The minister got off and walked in.
Tanya opened the door. She betrayed no expression, no emotion, even though she wasn’t expecting him there.
‘Yes? What can I do for you, sir?’ she asked, keeping her anger in check.
‘May I come in?’
Tanya stepped aside and allowed him to enter.
Varun was in the living room. The minister was surprised to see him there but didn’t comment. He remembered him as the guy who was by Tanya’s side on the day Malvika had died.
‘What brings you here . . . sir?’ Tanya asked again.
Varun got up to leave, but Tanya pushed him down by the shoulder. ‘I want you to be here,’ she said firmly.
‘Tanya, I wanted to tell you something,’ said the minister.
‘I’m waiting with bated breath.’ Tanya was extremely sarcastic. Nobody had ever spoken to the minister in that fashion.
‘You have been reading a lot about your mother and me in the press. Not just reading, but you have also been speaking quite a bit about it. Even implying that I’m responsible for her death.’
‘I’m sure the law will take its course. And if my mom was murdered, someone will pay for it.’
‘That someone is not me, Tanya. I don’t care what the world thinks about me but I wanted to tell you that I did not kill your mother.’ He nearly choked as he said this. A confident orator, who could stand in front of the entire Parliament and hold his ground, was tearing up in front of Tanya. ‘Your mother and I were extremely close. We were more than friends. We went back a long way, Tanya. I knew almost everything about her, and she was my secret vault. I would never confess it outside the room but I loved her. And believe me, she felt the same way. If things had gone well for a few more months, we might have gotten married.’
Tanya knew that the minister was a widower. His wife had succumbed to cancer a few years ago. She was taken aback by his emotional reaction.
‘I didn’t want you to be influenced by the media and start believing that I killed her. I am as sad as you are. That’s why I came in person.’
‘Thank you for being so considerate,’ Tanya said arrogantly. ‘But I’m going to need a stronger reason to believe you.’
‘Look,’ the minister started off, ‘I didn’t have to come and explain myself to you. The fact that I’m doing it should be reason enough for you to believe me. In any case, my conscience is clear.’
He walked towards the door. As he left, he asked, ‘Is there anything Malvika left behind, which is marked to me? If you find any such thing, do let me know.’
Tanya didn’t even respond. He walked out.
‘Lying bastard,’ Tanya exclaimed the moment the door shut behind him. ‘He thinks I’ll believe every word he says. Rubbish!’
‘Give him the benefit of doubt, Tanya. He didn’t have to come here to explain.’
‘Bullshit, Varun, BULLSHIT!’ Tanya yelled at the top of her voice. ‘There is clearly something of his that mom had. He came here to see if we’ve found it. He came here for selfish reasons. Not out of concern for me.’
‘What could it be?’
‘So many days, when I’d be away, he’d come and spend time with mom. Both of them would drink together. It is possible that, on one of those drunken nights, he left something here . . . something he thinks can implicate him. Or perhaps he gave something to mom for safekeeping.’
‘Oh okay!’ Varun exclaimed. ‘You’ve never spoken about this before.’
‘I have. In fact, I also told you that I once came back and saw two unfinished whisky glasses and food on the table. One look at mom and you could tell what she’d been up to.’
‘Hmm . . .’ Varun thought for a second and added, ‘but you know, I don’t think the minister drinks. Remember the night of your mother’s death, we asked him if we could get him a drink and your mom asked for a soft drink for him. He categorically told us that he doesn’t drink.’
Tanya shook her head. ‘He could have been fasting, or probably lying about being a teetotaller! These guys are totally different in public and in private, when they let their hair down.’
Varun nodded vigorously.
‘But if, for a minute, I assume that you are right, then who was mom’s companion while I was away?’
52
Mumbai
‘Thank you!’ A beaming Sundeep disconnected the phone and rushed to Aditya’s room.
‘The report of the Cyber Intrusions Wing of the Department of Cyber Laws has come in, Aditya. They have given us a clean chit.’
Aditya’s eyes gleamed with excitement. ‘Really?’
‘They have said that this intrusion could have taken place in any organization. According to the report eTIOS has met all the requirements for system security and this hack was not because of any negligence on our part.’
It was a huge relief for Aditya. He had been fighting the agencies, which had accused his team of lapses, like a mad man. ‘With this acquittal, it’s time to grow our business again. Once Swami serves out his notice period with NYIB and joins us, we will have a strong team. You, Swami, Varun—what more can I wish for? Perhaps it’s time for me to retire!’
‘Come on, Aditya. You are not genetically wired to sit at home.’
For the first time in a long time, they were smiling and joking.
‘What’s the status of Townsville?’ Aditya asked.
‘No clue.’ Sundeep replied, suddenly curt. ‘You should be asking Varun.’ He turned and left the room.
Aditya was surprised at Sundeep’s abrupt response but didn’t say anything. Sundeep had been upset not only at Varun’s induction into the team but also by Varun’s success. Under Varun, Indiscape was going from strength to strength. Townsville had touched 2 million users, all on Facebook. Newsfeeds were stuffed with people playing Townsville, inviting friends to join in. People inviting friends got free coins, which could b
e exchanged for game cheats and short cuts. It was fast becoming a way of life.
53
Washington DC/Mumbai
Ed Walsch, chief of the FBI’s Cyber Command Unit, was in his office when Adrian came calling.
‘Something dramatic must have happened, Agent Scott, for you to seek me out,’ Ed started the conversation. He didn’t quite like Adrian but that was more because Adrian was a popular field agent who got to wield rifles, shoot at the bad guys, do all the sexy stuff, whereas all the brain work that Ed did never got the attention it deserved.
‘Cotton Trail.’
Adrian said the word and looked at Ed, completely ignoring his caustic comment.
‘What about it?’ Ed asked.
‘I want to know everything that the FBI knows about it.’
‘Why do you want to know? I’m not authorized to share information with anyone. Even a fellow officer.’
‘We believe the Gillian Tan assassination has a Cotton Trail link.’
‘Most of it is classified. Way above your pay grade, Agent Scott.’
‘Whose authority would you require to open it up to me? Would POTUS do?’
‘Well, that’s a big name to drop!’
‘Gillian was his confidant. He was working for the President on a classified committee on alternate currency. Specifically bitcoins.’
‘No one mentioned that to us. And we are supposed to be the Cyber Command!’
‘Probably because it’s way above your pay grade, Ed.’ He took his revenge. ‘Now don’t be a prick. The President is following up with the chief on this assassination almost every week. The last thing he would want to be told is that the murderers got away because one Ed Walsch in Cyber Command didn’t share information.’
‘I must admit that’s pretty convincing,’ said Ed, smiling. He got up and walked out of the room.
Adrian knew he was going to make a call, to check the veracity of his claim. He was back in a couple of minutes. ‘Meet me in the evening. At 6 p.m. And now, if you will excuse me, I have work to attend to.’
54
Washington DC
Adrian met Ed at a roadside cafe in the Capitol Hill precinct. Ed was carrying a large briefcase full of papers.
‘Thanks for coming, Ed. Appreciate it.’
‘Look, Adrian, this could get you killed so watch your back!’
‘We could have met at the headquarters. Why here?’
‘I didn’t want this to be seen as an official meeting. I know I’m being watched. There are moles inside the FBI who don’t want anything to be done to Cotton Trail. Commercial interests, I guess. They will go to any lengths to protect the drug mafia.’
‘Thanks, Ed.’
‘Here are the papers. They have all the details of our pursuit of Cotton Trail, and what we have found so far.’ He strained his neck, looked around, and raised his hand. A waiter came to take their orders and came back with two cups of coffee.
‘Who runs Cotton Trail?’
‘We will soon get to that. As of now, we do not know for sure.’
‘What do we know that could give us a lead into Gillian Tan’s murder?’
‘Last month, the FBI along with the CIA, got into a server in France called . . . ’
‘Hacked into,’ Adrian clarified.
‘. . . yes, hacked into a server in France called Freedom Hosting. It was the provider of turnkey services for hidden sites—special websites with addresses ending in .onion. You know what TOR is, right? TOR hidden sites are used to evade . . . ’
‘I know what TOR is!’
‘Cool. We hacked into it because we had information that 90 per cent of the child pornography sites are hosted by Freedom Hosting.’
‘Hmm?’ Come to the point. Come to the point! Adrian was screaming inside.
‘Freedom Hosting was the server that rented out space to Cotton Trail.’
‘What? You know who hosts Cotton Trail?’
‘Yes.’ Ed nodded.
‘Why don’t you take them down?’
‘For two reasons. Of late we have the traffic to the site come down dramatically,’ Ed explained.
Adrian realized that this may have been because the admin had been taken out, leading to payment-related issues and consequently customers and vendors were staying away for the time being.
‘And,’ Ed continued, ‘there are hundreds of Freedom Hosting equivalent servers in the world, spread all over from Iceland to Romania to Latvia. If we take Cotton Trail down on Freedom Hosting, they will simply host their site on any of the other servers and be up and running almost immediately. If we have to close it down for good, we have to get the brains behind Cotton Trail. But we made one big breakthrough—we now have the source code of Cotton Trail.’
55
Mumbai
It was a big day for Indiscape.
The press had congregated in huge numbers at a five-star hotel in suburban Mumbai where the senior management of Indiscape was expected to make an announcement. The moment they caught sight of Aditya and Varun, the photographers went mad. Varun was the newest celebrity in town. He was on his way to becoming a youth icon. Aditya was happy to let him have his moment in the sun.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a landmark day for Indiscape today,’ announced Varun, once they were inside the hall and everyone had settled down. ‘Today we are venturing into something new. Something that has never been done before.’
Everyone waited, eager with anticipation.
‘Today, for the first time in the world, a gaming app that has become extremely successful in the world of social media is being launched as a mobile app. Indiscape is proud to present the world’s first gaming app that can be played on a computer, a tablet, and a phone seamlessly. All you have to do to ensure this seamless integration is log in using your Facebook ID. We are launching the Android version today.’
Thunderous applause.
‘And guess what?’ Varun roared over the applause. ‘For the next week, this app is entirely free!’
The applause, which had abated, rose to another crescendo. ‘So go out and get your Indiscape Townsville mobile app. This is one addiction you won’t regret!’
The announcement was followed by a Q&A session. Aditya and Varun addressed all the queries related to the game and its development. Sundeep was seated with them on the dais. When someone from the media asked Aditya about eTIOS’s track record and how the hacking incident would affect security of the mobile app, Varun stood up and confidently countered, ‘We have tried to make this game as foolproof as possible. No one can hack into it. We take full accountability for anything that takes place in our organization. While investigations have cleared eTIOS, we still take our learnings from the events and move on, rather than brood over what happened.’ The press seemed satisfied.
Varun spotted Tanya in the crowd, standing in the corner, a laptop bag hanging from her right shoulder, and waved. He knew she’d come in late. Hair open, no make up, she looked beautiful.
After the event, on the way home, Varun and Tanya stopped by the beach. The waves rushing up against the sand formed the perfect backdrop for Tanya to let her hair down and vent her pent-up frustrations. When the talk steered towards her mom, she broke down and started to cry. Varun hugged her. They stood there like that for a long time.
56
Washington DC
Adrian finally got lucky. The facial scan of the man in the tweed coat showed up in a database. Umar Farouk, a second-generation American Muslim, ran a small trading outfit in New York. One of the increasing breed of white American Muslims, he had taken over the family business after his father passed away three years ago.
The video grab was not proof enough to convict him but reason enough to subpoena him for interrogation.
Unfortunately, the interrogation did not lead to anything conclusive. Umar admitted to being at the coffee shop in Coney Island. He had recognized Nikki Tan as the wife of the late senator and had walked up to her to offer his con
dolences. Dropping her to the car was a normal courteous gesture. That was it. When confronted with the video that showed the ATM robbers acknowledging him and him stiffening up, he claimed that he was intimidated by the three guys and the stiffening up was due to fear. Adrian couldn’t argue with that logic.
Adrian was frustrated. Everything was leading to a dead end. He decided to seek help from his mentor and knocked at his door again.
‘Adrian?’ Dan smiled when he opened the door for Adrian to come in. ‘I expected you . . . but not at this hour. Come on in!’
Adrian followed him into the house. Dan was his mentor, an eccentric genius. He had been slated to take over as second in command of the FBI, till a crazy turn of events had put him out of political favour. That had devastated Dan, turning him into a bit of a recluse. The story in the FBI was that if Dan couldn’t figure out something, nobody could. Dan’s eccentricity had cost him the second most influential job at the Bureau but his intellect was intact. That’s why he was still the head at the CRRU.
‘Dan, how do I unravel Cotton Trail? It could give us the key to many a mystery.’
‘That day, the moment I saw the ring, I knew. I knew exactly what you were looking at. I also know what the FBI is doing to fix Cotton Trail. Unfortunately they have no clue how to go about it.’
‘Why?’
Adrian knew that Dan was right more often than not. He wished he had knocked on his door sooner.
‘Because they are chasing the wrong leads!’ He sank into the plush leather sofa in his living room and continued speaking. ‘When you stop chasing the wrong things, you give the right things a chance.’
Dan continued, ‘The FBI is only looking at what Cotton Trail does currently, how to break into it, how to get to its vendors and customers, how to prevent payments and transactions . . . They are waiting for Cotton Trail to make a mistake. If I were responsible for the operation, I’d handle things differently.’
God is a Gamer Page 14