by Len Marshall
Once again, Waverley Davis’ vital server was saved by this unknown hacker. Jacob was thoroughly impressed by Hacker X, the nickname they had given their rescuer. He was as eager to meet this hacker as Farrell and Victor were.
Neil’s arrest had not stopped the hackers from attacking and now they had found a second source of attack. By analyzing the pattern of commands, Farrell established that there were certainly two different groups of hackers involved on that day. A new friend had emerged on the scene.
“Remember this is without Neil,” he thought.
Victor had a long and hectic day at the office. He wanted to get home early and headed to the district of Hollis as quickly as the traffic allowed. Despite a detour he was caught in New York’s rush hour traffic on Grande Central Parkway. After being stuck there for almost twenty minutes, he turned off the main road. He was near York College which offered a relatively longer but less busy route home. Suddenly he saw a black Chrysler SUV next to his car. He didn’t notice it properly until it was too late. The SUV was in front of his car and he had to stop.
This was completely unexpected and although he stopped, his instincts told him that something dangerous was about to happen. His fears proved correct when he saw two masked men emerge from the SUV. Victor was thinking how to escape by reversing his car but one of the men had already reached the driver’s door. Both men were armed and now knocked on the car door. Victor’s mind worked desperately, trying to find a way to flee.
Reversing the car at high speed and then turning away, they opened fire and Victor was now dodging bullets. He was in the direct line of fire of the two men, one of whom was carrying a small assault rifle, a customized MP5 whilst the other man was holding a 9mm handgun. He assessed how much time it would take for him to change gear and accelerate to flee the bullets. He was not a weapons expert but he considered making this calculation correctly would be a matter of life and death.
Before he could make any move at all, Victor’s phone rang.
He was about to ignore it when the person with the 9mm gun signaled him to take the call. To Victor, this was good news in a way because whoever his nemeses were, they at least wanted to talk and maybe make some demands instead of killing him outright.
He took the call reluctantly and when he had finished, had a frightened look on his face. He opened the car door and got out with both hands in the air. One of the masked men grabbed his hands and tied them together behind his back using electrical plastic wire tags. A second later they put a black mask on his head to obscure his vision.
“Move,” he heard one of his two kidnappers say.
“Stay quiet and do as we say,” he growled. “Don’t try any nonsense or we’ll harm your family.” The second voice made direct contact with his ear as he spoke and sent a chill down Victor’s spine.
“Take it easy, don’t harm my family. I’ll do whatever you ask.” Victor was now practically pleading with them.
“We’ll see about that when we reach our destination.” said one of the kidnappers.
In the earlier phone call, it had been explained to Victor that his son and wife were already in captivity and if he wanted see them again alive he was to cooperate with his captors. Victor had decided not to annoy them for the safety of his family. He was pushed onto the back seat of the black SUV while one of his captors sat beside him. In just a few minutes the SUV started to move towards its destination. Victor felt a needle inserted in his arm, a sharp cold prick. Within minutes, he was completely unconscious. The last thing he could remember was an image of his wife and son.
***
Elsewhere, Natalie was once again summoned by Fu Wang to meet on an urgent basis. He wanted to expedite their strategy to penetrate the Waverley Davis server network after the latest development which could jeopardize not only their operation but their lives as well. She informed Jenifer about the call from Fu asking for an emergency meeting and asked her advice for her own security.
Natalie asked Jenifer on the phone. She was in a food market and it was pretty noisy so she could only just hear. “I wonder what the emergency could be,” she asked.
“We can’t talk about it on the phone. Go back to your apartment and let me know when you arrive. I’ll meet you there,” Jenifer answered.
“Ok. I’ll be at my place in about twenty minutes,” Natalie said, looking at her watch. Jenifer confirmed once again that she would be there around the same time.
Within half an hour, they were both looking at monitors in Natalie’s flat. “How can I tell?” Jenifer asked.
“Tell what?” Natalie asked.
“What he wants to meet about,” she said again.
“Come on! You monitor their network twenty-four hours a day. Is anything strange happening? How come you don’t know anything unusual?” Natalie was clearly puzzled.
“I’m certain it has nothing to do with the Waverley Davis server network, most probably they’re going to give you another kind of bug for me to plant on Neil’s mobile,” Jenifer said.
She thought, then said, “You know what. Sometimes, I really feel sorry for this Neil guy. He’ll be in lots of trouble if they find out about this device in his cell phone then he’ll be caught,” Natalie said.
“That’s not our headache. It’s nothing personal against him,” Jenifer said sternly.
“Do you know you sound like a sociopathic character?” Natalie had not liked Jenifer’s remarks about Neil.
Jenifer argued, “Anyway, how long have you started to care about Neil?”
“Care about Neil? What are you saying girl? I’ve just seen pictures of him on my computer which you put there. I don’t know him. It’s not about if I care about him or not. It’s about being human, having feelings. Indifference is the epitome of all evil,” Natalie struck back.
“Natalie! Listen to me. Fools do not survive in this world for too long particularly not in our line of work. A hacker is always a fugitive. We never know when some law officer or intelligence agency will start an investigation even on an old case and begin to find clues leading them to us. Hiding from the world, remaining anonymous is compulsive for this job. It’s not a choice. More relationships mean more vulnerability. Now if you insist, I’ll happily accept that I’m a sociopath and I can live with it without giving a damn about it. But remember to keep in mind, sometimes survival has its price.” This time Jenifer kept her tone calmer as she realized that her answers were getting more aggressive.
Natalie took some time to process what Jenifer had just said. She didn’t say anything, she didn’t want to continue the argument any more but within her mind she was finding it unable to suppress the thought that their actions could lead Neil to being arrested and sent to jail, all because of them.
Little did she know but she was already too late.
“I think it would be better if we both go,” Jenifer broke the silence in the room after some time. Natalie nodded her head quietly. “Then it’s time to have our insurance policy ready,” Jenifer said.
“What do you mean by that?” Natalie asked.
“You’ll be wired and your conversation will be recorded on your mobile. Run the voice recorder application as soon as you meet him,” she explained before they left to meet Fu Wang at the restaurant. “You’ll record all his conversation.”
“Won’t this implicate me as well?” Natalie showing a little reservation.
“Yes, it can but not if you converse carefully. Don’t give lengthy replies. Keep your answers as short as possible and as indirect as you can. Make him talk more. I’m not alone, there are many sociopaths out there and you never know what might unfold tomorrow,” Jenifer explained slowly so that Natalie could comprehend everything.
Natalie was staring at Jenifer trying to understand the true nature of her. Jenifer had a soft spot inside her but she would always play tough. Natalie now
saw a caring person in the same body where a moment earlier she had seen a complete sociopath.
Both got ready and left to meet Fu Wang completely unaware of the fact that their intense argument had been recorded and listened to some place not far from the apartment. Jenifer had to do extra work concealing herself behind glasses and a wig which transformed her straight blonde hair to curly black. These two small changes made her look very different and it was almost impossible to identify her.
Once they reached the restaurant, they parted ways. Jenifer entered the small restaurant before Natalie and spotted Fu Wang there. She took a table next to him pretending to be a stranger. She sat on a chair with her back towards Fu Wang’s back. Natalie came in ten minutes later. She walked up to Fu Wang who demanded to know why she was so late. Natalie just wanted to know what Fu Wang had to tell her and then she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.
“What’s the emergency?” she asked ignoring Fu Wang’s question.
“Your contact at Waverley Davis has been busted by the FBI.” Fu Wang’s reply shocked Natalie. She could not help but remember her earlier argument with Jenifer about the fate of Neil. She didn’t have a clue what to say. She had even mentioned the FBI. “Ask him about the details.” Suddenly, she heard Jenifer’s voice through a tiny earpiece. This was standard issue in such cases.
“So how did that happen?” Natalie asked Fu Wang.
“The details are not important. We must expedite our operation. An awful lot is on the line including our lives,” Fu Wang replied, making Natalie feel uncomfortable.
“So what you want me to do?” Natalie asked.
“You’ll have to meet and hack someone else just like you did with that idiot who’s now in jail.” He handed over an envelope to Natalie, continuing, “You’ll have to make your move in the next two days.”
Natalie opened the envelope and took out two pictures of two new young men, one of whom was certainly another employee at the Waverley Davis network.
“Payment will be double this time. Here’s your package,” Fu Wang said handing over a package to her. Natalie didn’t like what she found inside that package. There was a mobile phone which had the same malicious codes that Natalie and Jenifer were still analyzing and there was a listening wire which she was to put on while meeting with her next target. Fu Wang ended the meeting. Natalie and Jenifer left the restaurant one-by-one and returned to Natalie’s apartment.
“I don’t think it’s going to end anytime soon and now with this new demand of putting a wire on me, I’ve started to feel this game is more dangerous than I’d thought. Worse, we know Neil’s in jail because of us. Remember that Neil knows nothing about Natalie, so we can’t implicate her.”
“Relax, we can get out of this with no connection but we’ll have to remain focused and careful. Panicking won’t help at all,” Jenifer said.
“We can still get out of this? I think I did give you a solution for that but you wanted to stay involved.” Natalie was now furious at Jenifer for rejecting her proposal of vanishing and not coming back to New York.
“Yes, you did and I accept that I screwed it up for both of us by rejecting the idea at the time,” Jenifer said.
“We need to act fast and think of some kind of a solution. We must be prepared to disappear in case things go wrong.” Natalie was still considering fleeing from New York as a safety strategy. On the other hand, Jenifer had very different plans.
“No need to do that. Neil is the only one who’s seen my face. Now he’s in jail that’s good news. It makes it easier for you to impersonate me. You can now meet your new target freely. By the way who is he?”
“I don’t know. Here’s his photo.” Natalie handed over the envelope to Jenifer.
“He looks like a tech nerd,” she said.
“Who is he?”
“His name’s Farrell Miller, he’s on the security team.”
“I want you to be there with me when we meet just like you were today,” Natalie said.
Jenifer nodded her head, “Yes, no problem.”
***
Christopher’s voice crackled on the two way radio as he addressed all the squad members. “All units are in place, the targets have arrived and there is a positive identification. Only proceed on my command, over.”
“Remember rescuing hostages is our primary goal in this operation. No discharging weapons unless there is a life threatening situation and then only on my command. Is that clear? Over and out.” He put down his radio.
Under his command were four different FBI S.W.A.T teams. They had already been deployed to encircle the warehouse. This was where Fu Wang conducted his operations. Just then a large black SUV entered the warehouse lot carrying Victor. His son and wife were already there.
Lee had orchestrated these kidnappings.
It seemed that Victor was the last member of his family to be taken. Two teams of professional kidnappers had been used to track and pick Victor’s family up.
Victor’s wife and son had been taken inside the warehouse. FBI agents, hiding at various places nearby, were taking photos to ascertain that Victor had also been brought there. Once confirmed, the entire squad waited for the final order to storm the warehouse. Christopher wanted to ensure that all the victims were safe before giving a final green light to his team.
The order from Christopher came within a few minutes and the FBI’s hostage recovery squad began to move in. Sharpshooters took care of two men on the top floor of the warehouse. Two guards were stationed outside the main gate. They were taken out by silent weapons.
The warehouse was divided into many areas by six foot high vinyl partitioning walls. The light levels inside the warehouse were extremely dim as such it was not an ideal place for intense close quarter combat offering as it did many places to hide and out maneuver each other.
This portion of the warehouse in particular was not the perfect place to carry out the impending raid because, prior to the raid, it had had a slightly different floor plan layout with fewer partition divisions. Now, the new layout changed the situation and forced the FBI squad to reassess the situation once again. They had just a few minutes to make a decision. With the elimination of the four guards, retreating and planning the rescue mission again was not now an option.
They had to push on regardless so, tactically, the squad was advised to use low light. Inside the compound, the lower light levels gave them the advantage of conducting a sweep without engaging any of the captors and enabled them to find the exact location of the hostages inside.
Trying this tactic out in a practice raid would normally be compulsory in order to improve the chances of the rescue operation being more successful. The two teams each entered into the warehouse to search for the hostages and assess the best possible way for their safe extraction. The clock was ticking and time was running out. The plan was that they should extract the hostages and then they should exit the building.
Instead, after fifteen intense minutes, the first team broke the silence and informed operation command about the location and condition of the hostages. There were twelve men inside the warehouse as well as two others in an adjacent office. One of those in the office was Lee.
The four men inside the compound were ordered to take positions to protect the hostages whilst a further team of ten was to escort the hostages to safety and eliminate anyone who tried to resist. Two advanced teams had already helped tactical support to draw an accurate schematic sketch of the partitioning and a safe passage through the tactical maze.
Thankfully, the operation was completed in less than twenty minutes. Victor and his family were safe. Two FBI operatives were wounded in the ensuing gun battle. The Chinese tried to resist but, with the help of the tactical support team’s skilled input, the FBI squad was able to overcome and eliminate them without too much trouble.
&nbs
p; Lee was amongst the dead.
The squad finished a sweep of the warehouse to gather all the evidence and collect the dead bodies. They had no idea of the treasure trove inside the lower basement.
***
Natalie was walking back and forth restlessly in her apartment thinking about Neil’s arrest and the possible outcome of any FBI investigation. She was scared and wanted to leave New York but Jenifer still rejected her alternative plan. She was not able to find Fu Wang or his group on their dark net hackers’ forum either. This was almost unheard of. It looked like they had gone to ground.
She was thinking about the time when she and Jenifer had had their heated argument. She tried to make sense of Jenifer’s exit plan. How long would it take the Chinese to figure out that the real reason behind the continuing failure of their cyber-attacks on the Waverley Davis network security was down to Jenifer? How would they react to it?
“Too many questions, and not many answers,” she thought.
She called Jenifer and told her about the new situation. Jenifer set off in her car to continue the conversation at Natalie’s apartment.
“So what do you think about the future line of action now?” Natalie asked.
“Slow down Natalie, nothing is going to happen to us, there’s no way they can trace any of this back to us.”
“How long do think the FBI would take to find that second bug on his mobile?” Natalie asked.
“They should already have found it by now, I think,” answered Jenifer.
Natalie once again asked the important question, “Don’t you think they would also have found your name in his contact list?” She stopped talking when she saw Jenifer was grinning.
“See, I told you. Nothing is going to happen that soon. All the FBI can do is to try to trace the number of some girl named Clarke and they won’t be able to because I dumped the phone I used and destroyed the SIM.”
It took a while but the stress etched on Natalie’s face began to disappear. Natalie grabbed Jenifer in her arms and pulled her towards her as if Jenifer had saved Natalie from the grip of some unseen phantom.