CypherGhost

by D S Kane

  Then, he saw the voicemail that Ann had left on his cellphone. “Please pick me up at Reagan. Plane lands in six hours. Ann”

  So, they hadn’t found her yet. He could keep her safe and out of prison.

  He thought for a second. And Ann would be helpful in his self-assigned new mission.

  CHAPTER 18

  December 1, 11:51 p.m.

  Reagan National Airport, Washington DC

  Jon rubbed his hands to restore circulation as he entered the airport terminal from the cold parking garage. He walked to the baggage claim area, waiting for Ann’s luggage to drop onto the moving metal treadmill. When Ann’s flight touched down, she’d texted him, and he replied, instructing her to meet him there. She’d texted back, red plastic spinner with Muddy Waters pic on front Howlin’ Wolf pic on back.

  So he waited. The suitcase dropped before Ann arrived. He picked it up and smiled. Seconds to go before…Ann touched his sleeve.

  “Hello, Hero.”

  “If anyone is a hero, it’s you, Ann. What you did in Moscow last year saved the United States from certain doom. But I have some bad news for you.” He told Ann what had happened. “We need to get you out of sight. Fast.”

  “Crap. Where did they take Mom?”

  “I haven’t a clue. Let’s get out of the terminal.”

  “But what about getting them free? Do you have a plan?”

  Jon scanned the terminal for security guards. He grabbed her elbow. “In the car. Let’s hurry. We can talk on the way back.”

  “Back to where? What do we do now?”

  Jon sighed as they exited the terminal. He led them into the parking garage. “Dunno. We’ll have to make a plan, and I can use your talents in assembling the pieces. Look, it’s dangerous for you to be seen, and there are vidcams everywhere in this airport.” He faced her and drew close. “Pull your cap down over the top of your forehead. Pull up your coat collar.”

  But she just stood there, frozen by the overwhelming news of her mother.

  Jon tugged her hat further down. He pulled her collar up higher. “Avram has also been detained as a person of interest, but I’ve contacted the United Nations and told them. They’re trying to obtain his release. The military police who arrested your mum and the others will come looking for you. They already hold an arrest warrant with your name on it. My apartment is your safest bet.”

  She shrugged. “How cold is it out there?”

  Jon shrugged. “Bitter cold.”

  “My West Coast clothing won’t be warm enough. We’ll need to hurry when we’re outside.”

  Jon nodded, and they exited the terminal.

  * * *

  Lily Lee had helped William Wing and Betsy Brown escape from Beijing, after Wing and Brown had brought down China’s electric grid. That had happened over a year ago, and it, along with Ann and Misha’s hack in Moscow, had derailed the invasion of the United States. She had decided that China was no longer a safe place to live.

  Now, dressed in a dark blue blouse and set of matching pants—her “interview” clothes—Lily Lee sat at the kitchen table of Jon Sommers’ apartment. She decided that living in the United States was tougher than she’d thought it would be. She stared at her notebook computer screen as if it was her sworn enemy. She had been working on her résumé for three hours straight, since just after Jon left for the airport.

  Her fingers ground to a sudden stop, her face scrunching into a frown. It had been hard to find some way to describe her life in China that might make sense to any employer in Washington, DC.

  Maybe moving here to be with Jon Sommers was a colossal mistake. She had been a restaurateur, working for her father in Hong Kong when she met and fell in love with William Wing. But Lily was also a call girl; her huge fees funded her elaborate lifestyle. Worse, her father didn’t like William, since the old man thought William’s computer hacking was criminal. When she met Jon, she fell out of love with William, and soon William had found Betsy. Lily now saw Jon as her future.

  She’d been an asset for the Chinese Secret Intelligence Service, spying on the rich customers at her father’s restaurant and the political leaders she’d sold her body to. Her CSIS experience was yet another piece of her background that wouldn’t fit on a résumé for someone looking for a job.

  She stared at her notebook’s screen when she heard the door’s lock pop open. She rose expectantly, wanting Jon’s comfort to soothe her sense of failure. But Jon had a pretty young woman, a stranger, by his side.

  * * *

  It had taken their taxi over an hour to arrive at Jon’s apartment. When he unlocked the door, Lily Lee was standing there. Her smile dropped into a frown as she stared at Ann. Jon smiled at Lily as he pulled Ann through the doorway and then closed the door. “Ann, this is Lily, my temporary guest.”

  The two women eyed each other with suspicion.

  Lily tilted her head. “Aren’t you a bit young for Jon?”

  Ann laughed so hard she doubled over. “What? Jon? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Lily stared at Jon. “Who is this person?”

  Jon took a deep breath. “Ah, Lily, this is Ann, Cassandra Sashakovich’s daughter. We have a problem and we need to hide her. Can I count on you?”

  Lily stared at Ann again, this time nodding her head. “Okay. Yes.”

  “Good, then. Let me tell you what’s been happening. I will need to make a plan.”

  CHAPTER 19

  December 2, 8:22 a.m.

  Jon Sommers’ apartment,

  450 K Street NW, Washington DC

  Ann rubbed her eyes and sipped from a cup of black coffee to finish the process of waking. From the time they arrived late last night until now, Ann had worked for three hours, then slept for five hours.

  She was once again at the kitchen table in Jon’s apartment, her notebook computer screen inches from her face. She touch-typed her way across page after page of research.

  She needed to find out where the soldiers had taken her mom, William, and Betsy. So far, she’d heard on the television news that nearly a million people had been incarcerated. There had been no leaks from anyone involved in the process to indicate a destination location. Her next move, then, had to be to find places where that many people could be housed without anyone noticing. In the three hours since she had started her research, she had found no leads. Ann posted several messages under the pseudohandle SWIFTY666 on social media, requesting anyone with a clue to post back.

  Someone did. A person self-called 5CHANRIPPER posted on Twitter:

  Trevor Paglen Blank Spots. Look at Wyoming, Utah, Nevada.

  Ann downloaded the book from Amazon. Now, a copy of Trevor Paglen’s book Blank Spots on the Map was open on her cellphone. The chapter she had just read described the NSA’s concentration camps built in the Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming deserts. According to Paglen, they were ready but empty. Paglen wrote that they might have enough capacity for over two million prisoners. Some of the buildings were used by drone operators when he wrote the book, but the information might no longer be current. She wondered if this old intel might still be helpful.

  Ann thought this is might be where she could find her adopted mother, as well as William and Betsy. From other sources on the internet, she found blueprints for the prisons. There was no way to tell if they were being held there, and if so, exactly where. She downloaded all the material she could find, then read through it several times.

  At noon, Jon closed the door and hugged Lily. Ann went back to her research, hoping to find a clue, a thread to follow. She ignored the buzz of Jon’s cell. Ann saw Lily move away from Jon as he drew his cell from his pocket.

  “Sommers,” Jon said.

  She couldn’t ignore the voice that came over Jon’s speakerphone.

  “It’s Avram. They let me go.”

  Ann could hear Avram’s voice. “What is our current situation?”

  Lily caught Ann’s eye and silently mouthed the words, “Where is Avram?”

&nbs
p; Jon nodded at Lily. He updated Avram with their sitrep. Then Jon asked, “Where are you?”

  “I’m at the offices. After you left, they must have torn through here looking for something. The place has been tossed. There was yellow tape across the doors. I spent two hours failing to put the office back together.”

  “Listen, Avram, come to my apartment. We can talk privately here.”

  Jon terminated the call and pulled a chair from the kitchen table. He sat across from Ann. “The cavalry will arrive soon.”

  She smiled back. “Okay.” She told Jon what she’d found. She closed her eyes and sank back into the chair, a sense of exhaustion and frustration clouding her mind.

  The offices of the Swiftshadow Group were just three blocks from Jon’s apartment. In less than five minutes Jon’s doorbell rang.

  Avram looked disheveled—like he hadn’t slept or showered in three days. He turned to Ann. “Good to see you’re still free.” Then, he shifted toward Jon. “Listen, I’ve no clean clothing. I’ll need to return to my apartment to shower and change, I also need a few hours sleep. Then, we can review your plan.” His own apartment was only a block away. “I can be back in a few hours.”

  Jon and Avram walked to the apartment’s door, still talking until Avram left.

  Lily walked to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup. Then she sat down at the kitchen table across from Ann. “What happened that brought you here?”

  Ann’s eyes darted from her notebook screen to Lily’s face. “Well, seems there’s a war just started between our government and our hackers. Just watch the television news. They arrested my mom, William, and Betsy.”

  “William? My father always told me he was a criminal. I didn’t believe Daddy, but maybe I should have.” Lily sipped her coffee, and said nothing more.

  Ann’s eyes drifted back to her notebook screen.

  * * *

  Avram returned as the afternoon began. He looked refreshed, like the man they all knew. Jon completed his sitrep, and then the four sat around the kitchen table, Avram, Jon, Ann, and Lily.

  Avram listened to Ann relate what she’d found about the concentration camps. Avram muttered, “Sounds like Nazi Germany.”

  Ann looked miserable. “I don’t know where to begin. How can we get Mom, William, and Betsy free?”

  Jon placed his hand atop Ann’s. “Right. Avram, I haven’t been able to craft a plan. There are too many unanswered questions. First, where are they holding the prisoners?”

  Avram just shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t have any idea. But there is something we can do. Remember Bug-Lok?”

  Jon scowled. “Ben-Levy’s downfall? He was responsible for its creation. We spent nearly a year trying to recover the stolen plans.”

  Avram shrugged. “I have some news. Ness Ziona has been manufacturing them, but modified, without the kill-the-infected module, and outfitted with a better telecommunications feature set.”

  Ann was confused. “How does that help us?”

  Avram smiled. “The new version lets the person who hosts the Bug-Lok use it to post and receive messages. Once the device is seated within their brainstem, it acts as a brain-to-internet-and-back telecommunications device. We tested it extensively. Your mother, William, and Betsy were among the final set of beta testers.”

  Ann frowned. “It would be viable inside them for about six weeks. How long since they were voluntarily infected?”

  Avram said, “That’s the one big unknown. I gave them the devices two weeks ago. But I haven’t any idea if they’d administered them before they were taken.”

  Jon shook his head. “But even if they administered them, that only helps us find them. We’ll still need help to carry off a retrieval mission.”

  Lily tilted her head toward the ceiling. “Anyone else you know who might help us?”

  Ann shrugged. “There might be a few hackers in the community who might be interested in helping, but we don’t know if they are capable enough to produce any result. We could try a hacker challenge, but that hasn’t been helpful in the past. There’s a new group called the Free Hacker Society, but no one seems to know who they really are. They might be a government entrapment group. Then, there’s the hacker who started this. That hacker would be better than anyone else. Ever. But we haven’t been able to draw them out.”

  Avram said, “Didn’t you tell Cassie and Lee that you received an email from them?”

  Ann nodded. “The hacker said if I tried to find him or her, they’d end me.”

  * * *

  The guard tower at Detention Facility #1141 stood at the corner of two walls that rose exactly 35 feet above ground level, giving the guard an unobstructed view of the desert for nearly two miles. The facility was located about ninety miles northeast of Provo, Utah.

  The guard watched a truck moving toward the facility, raising dust trails behind it as it approached the prison’s gates.

  When the truck was adjacent to the tower, the driver rolled down his window. He waved a badge and a yellow paper form at the vidcam on the security entrance.

  The guard examined the image of the document on his own screen and pointed a scanner that was embedded in his vidcam toward the driver’s badge. It scanned the ID and the driver’s transit papers. He heard a distinct buzz, indicating approval of the delivery.

  “What’s in the truck?” the guard asked. “It says ‘special drinking water.’ What’s that?”

  The driver shrugged. “We aren’t told anything. I saw boxes. The labels say they’re from a foreign manufacturer. Chinese, I think, but not sure since I don’t read anything but English.”

  The guard opened the gates. “Okay. You’re cleared to enter.” He keyed a text message to the inventory control staff and watched the truck roll into the facility.

  * * *

  From the television in her motel room, the CypherGhost watched the television news. Over a million hackers were in prison, and the roundup hadn’t slowed as yet. She had no idea where they’d been taken or even if they were still alive. All my fault. With all her power as a hacker, she found it impossible to discover any record of where they’d been impounded. I need to fill that gap in my skills. And I have no idea what to do next. Her anger had turned to a deep state of despair. All my fault. All my damn fault. All of it.

  She had no alternatives left but to seek the help of others. Others she had never met before. Hackers she could never trust. Who can I contact that might be bright enough to help me? She’d already tried using the hackers at the Free Hacker Society, but no one seemed interested in responding.

  She remembered that little bitch who’d screwed up her airline hack. Sashakovich.

  Maybe it’s time I contacted her. That is, if they hadn’t already arrested her.

  CHAPTER 20

  December 3, 4:35 p.m.

  Jon Sommers’ apartment,

  450 K Street NW, Washington DC

  Sitting at the kitchen table in front of her notebook’s screen as the sun set orange through a gray sky, Ann felt terribly depressed. She hadn’t the energy to move. In two days, they’d accomplished nothing. No plan! What the fuck did I get myself into?

  Jon and Avram paced the living room near the whiteboard Jon had inherited from Yigdal Ben-Levy. She faced away from them, trying to concentrate on the notes on her computer, She could hear their voices, loud and angry. The sound of their pacing back and forth was maddening.

  She turned for just a second and could see the board. It depicted their current attempt at a plan, and even Ann, with no prior experience at mission planning, could see its many faults.

  Ann tried every way she could think of to contact the mongo-hacker who’d started it all. As Jon would say, she met no love. But she wasn’t giving up just yet.

  At least Jon had made a valid point. He’d told Avram, “We want to free our friends. And all white hats. But no black hats. They’re all thieves and spies. Let them rot.”

  Ann was a white hat. But Betsy and William were
gray hats, sometimes working for corporations wanting to steal the plans and secrets of their competitors. What about them?

  Lily opened the front door to Jon’s apartment and entered. She hung her parka in the coat closet and walked past the living room, then stopped outside, listening. The argument Jon and Avram were having was loud. Lily shook her head and sat at the kitchen table across from Ann. “They sound angry with each other.”

  Ann looked up from her computer. “They can’t agree on any plan, and neither is able to make a workable plan.”

  “What’s the sticking point?”

  “Which hackers to free. Jon wants to free the white hats only, Avram wants them all freed since there’s no way to tell who’s a white hat.”

  Lily sat still for a few seconds. “Black hats are criminals, yes?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Wouldn’t there be some kind of record you can find to tell which ones are criminals?”

  Ann shook her head. “Not likely. They were all taken under the same warrant. No distinction.”

  “Are you a black hat?”

  Ann stared back, slightly unsettled. “No. I mean, I think I’m not.” She thought about herself. “No, I’m not really. I mean, I’ve done some things I’m not proud of, but no one is a saint.”

  Lily nodded. “But William has been a criminal. He is wanted by the Chinese government.”

  Ann shrugged. “But the charges against William were trumped up. Lies. Made by those who had opposed his father. It was political.”

  Lily remained silent. “I thought that. But I hadn’t a source to confirm it.” She looked down at her hands, folded on the tabletop. “I finally got a job. I was hired to be the madam d’ at a restaurant a few blocks away. Jon will be relieved.”

  Ann smiled and her attention went back to her notebook screen.

  * * *

  The CypherGhost had hacked Ann’s email address long ago. She’d executed a backtrace and knew where Ann’s computer was located, and that Ann was using the notebook right now. The CypherGhost had left the motel in Palo Alto several days ago and taken a Greyhound bus to Washington DC. The bus was just outside the DC central bus station. The CypherGhost exited the bus and entered the warmth of the bus terminal.