by Len Marshall
The following morning, Jenifer surrendered herself to the FBI for her role in Neil’s case. The entire national media picked up the story and it became the hottest breaking news. The news of Jenifer’s arrest and confession in front of FBI investigators also broke on the internet. When the hacking incident became known to its investors and stakeholders Waverley Davis managed to negate any public relations damage. Like every corporate entity, Waverley Davis had an urgent contingency plan in place ready to address any uneasiness among its valuable investors. As the share price moved downward, Waverley Davis quickly issued a midterm equity share bonus, placing extra profit in the pockets of investors and stakeholders. This calmed the downslide on the NYSE Stock exchange and the shares quickly rallied. This included the Waverley Davis subsidiaries overseas whose value climbed upward equally quickly.
***
Still in London, Ken Fellows had put his plan into motion. The crafty maneuvering of Francis Juke had proved to be the most instrumental element in the execution of that plan. Abu Salem was the second most critical component after that. Though Anton Sergei’s role was also important, it was those other two money hungry crooks who were playing the key roles.
Within the next few days, all three met in the middle of a desert in Syria. Syria, a country engulfed in civil war, had become the hotbed of a covert battle between various intelligence agencies operating within that theatre of war. Each of them came selfishly trying to protect the strategic interests of their respective nation states.
“So, you think we should choose this place for our launch pad?” Francis Juke enquired of the others.
“Yes, thanks to your government’s foreign policy, this is the only safe place anywhere on Earth where people can operate freely, without drawing any attention,” Abu Salem replied.
“But how will this work in the desert?” Francis Juke asked whilst staring at the sea of sand around him.
“In the next three days, all the arrangements will be made. All the equipment Sergei’s got at the Russian airbase in Ataxia will be shifted here including those generators,” Abu Salem told him.
“What about the local security?” enquired Juke? “We’ll be away from the prying eyes of intelligence operatives here but you know this country is at the epicenter of religious fanatics each fighting their separate sectarian wars. How, then, can we protect our operation from them?”
Sergei spoke for the first time. “Well then, this is exactly why I’ve chosen this place. I was aware of your concerns because Ken told me about all the requirements for this operation.”
They each acknowledged his response and after a few more minutes, they all left heading for their three different hideouts and arranged to meet again in three days’ time.
***
In the West Wing of the White House, the Secretary of Defense, Robert Miller, put the file on the table after having gone through it twice. In the room with him was Major General Edward Vice, one of the highest ranking officers in US Navy Cyber Command.
“So what do you want from me, General?” the Secretary of the Defense asked.
“Your intervention and the power to drop federal charges, sir,” he replied.
The General thought for a few seconds then added, “Then her inclusion in our team.”
“Now that’s a demanding list. Don’t you think this matter needs more investigation?” asked Robert Miller.
“Mister Secretary, we’re under attack. The agents from the NSA listening station reporting back to the CIA and the FBI have now just unearthed the real scope of this operation. It was, and is, a strategic operation. You know how important ‘Project Xerox’ is for our forces in winning in the South China Seas, Sir, and other hotspots around the globe. Projects like these are the pillars of our defense strategy and our leadership role in the world.”
The Pentagon officer had come fully prepared. “I’m ready to intervene if she’s as skilled as you’re telling me but, and it’s a big but, how much do we know about her background and any possible link to any foreign state or non-state alliance?” Robert Miller asked.
“Sir, teams from almost all of our intelligence agencies can verify her story independently and from preliminary findings vindicate her story. We’ll let you have a detailed report on your table in couple of days max,” the naval commander replied.
“Hmmm... well, in that case, I can get someone working on your first request then. Charges of espionage against this country will only be dropped when I learn that she’s done nothing to harm the US and has in fact helped us save Project Xerox as you mentioned in this file,” Robert Miller said picking up the phone on his desk.
“Thank you very much, sir. You’ll get a positive report about her, I promise, and God bless America,” said the Major General before leaving the Secretary’s office.
***
At New York’s State Penitentiary Block C, Neil was lying on a small bed in his cell when he heard noises outside his door. He was asked to stand away from the door. He stood up and stepped back and, within a few seconds, two guards came in and beckoned him to the door.
“Congratulations, Neil,” the Sergeant said to him as Neil stepped outside his cell. “Well done, you’re going home.” Neil was still trying to process what was happening as he listened to the Sergeant’s words. He was taken to another room in the building. The clothes he was wearing when he was taken into custody were returned to him and within a few minutes he was outside the prison on the road astonished by his sudden release.
He had been facing allegations from both Waverley Davis and the US State department. He had been informed earlier that day that Waverley Davis had dropped all charges against him. He had thought that this was a futile act of empathy by Ajay. He also believed he would never be free anytime soon because he was still classed as an enemy of the State.
He needed answers and there was no better place to start than at Waverley Davis. When he reached the offices he was baffled. Jacob and Ajay and many of the employees had come out to greet him. He had never dreamed he would receive such a wonderful welcome.
“Thank you everyone,” Jacob shouted to the crowd who slowly filtered away.
“God, please tell me what’s been going on here?” Neil pleaded.
“I’ll tell you everything, old friend, but first of all, please allow me to say how sorry we are for your detention. We knew you’d come here before going anywhere else as soon as you got released,” Ajay said.
“Yeah, but please tell me something. How did I get out? Did you capture the real culprit? If so, who was he?” Neil was full of questions.
“OK big boy, get up.” Jacob was pulling at Neil’s arm. “We’re going home now and I’ll tell you everything there in full detail.” They both walked out of the office.
Neil had no idea how seriously Jacob’s revelations were about to shock him.
***
Jenifer was put into a cell in the prison holding area of the FBI Federal Headquarters at The Plaza Building, 23rd Floor, Downtown, New York. She was held in the cells used for holding suspects who are awaiting investigation. She felt totally disconnected there, with no access to the outside world, whatsoever. How did the universe let all this happen? She felt sorry for herself mostly, especially as she felt weakened in reaction to her feelings. “Is love such a formidable power on Earth,” she mused.
Her mind wrangling continued. If love makes people weaker, she thought, as it had indeed made her, then why in the world was she so crazy with these dark thoughts. She needed a reply. But there was no one in that cell to respond. She was, though, in the perfect environment to connect with her inner self and that was what happened.
Alone there in that cell.
Scenes from her dates with Jacob began playing vividly in her imagination. She began to remember her feelings, why she enjoyed his company and why she had initially gone out with
Jacob. Then she remembered how she had felt when she had discovered the seed of love in her heart for the first time. She recalled her hours longing for Jacob’s company and though how formidable love was. It is so powerful, this love thing, that it can transform anybody’s personality. It is possible to simply rewire our brain to change our personality completely.
At least now she had the answers she wanted but she had become deeply disturbed after realizing that she had never had a chance to express her feelings to Jacob. The agony of wishing in her heart became palpable. Why had she not felt the power of love with this intensity before confessing her crimes? Jenifer closed her eyes and imagined herself with Jacob once again, telling him that she loved him. She could no longer visualize this without becoming sad, tears running down her face.
With every passing hour, such questions and soul searching were becoming routine for her. Then one day, she wished she could be with Jacob more permanently, so she envisioned being in his life once again. Strangely that night, she felt a mysterious kind of rush in her mind when she imagined herself with him.
Little did she know that at that moment she was not only thinking about Jacob but was also attracting him? The Law of Attraction had begun its magical manifestation.
***
Elsewhere, Jacob sat, still heartbroken, and wondered why he had deserved to be treated like this in life. He had very few friends and, after Jenifer’s confession, his confidence regarding friendships had been shaken pretty badly. He had also got many questions which were the same as or similar to those that Jenifer had faced. He wanted so much to hate her but somehow he was not able to find that red mist of rage for her. This made him even more puzzled about his ability to think straight.
Unlike Jenifer, Jacob had no spiritual side and failed to establish a connection with his inner self in order to seek the answers. He needed help in that respect. He wanted some fatherly help to answer his questions so that his mind could be set free from these memories. He could not put her out of his mind even after he searched inside for a way to forgive and forget her.
He was ready to accept of spiritual help for the first time. The perfect cosmic conditions to overcome his stubborn resistance had been fulfilled.
Chapter Twelve
Thinking is the hardest work there is,
Which is probably the reason so few engage in it.
Henry Ford
It was another chaotic day in the busy Waverley Davis input server room. Victor and Farrell were both working flat out in fighting a war to keep the network secure. However, on this occasion, the attack was causing multiple waved network wide chaos. It seemed that someone or something had just crippled all the security measures and gained access to different utility servers freely.
“How the hell are they crippling our firewalls?” Victor asked with anguish. “I’ve never seen anything remotely like this. More importantly this looks like a military grade cyber weapon.”
Victor was right in his assessment. Waverley was being hit by a Breach X9 virus, a similar strain to the virus that Jenifer had planted on Neil’s mobile telephone the second time they had met. The input low level code inputs on the read out were indicating a virus payload that was calling machine level routines.
This was tricking the firewall into believing it was being interrupted in its routine and therefore the virus tricked the firewalls and other access control mechanisms in a particular way. Hence, it allowed unprotected server access.
Because of Neil’s arrest on the same day it had not affected the system at that time.
Suddenly, Farrell shouted, “Oh my God, you must see this!”
“What?” asked Victor?
Victor couldn’t understand what the panic was as he rushed towards Farrell’s console. “What’s up?” he asked and what he saw shocked him.
All the security mechanisms of Waverley Davis had somehow failed to keep the hackers out and now, for the first time, they were inside the internal firewalls.
To Victor, it was obvious that they would eventually reach the vault known as the main storage area where data about all the strategic projects was kept in encrypted form.
“This is really bad,” he said.
“We must do something now,” Farrell said in a panic.
“Yes, otherwise we’ll be completely compromised,” Victor answered quickly.
This answer caused Victor to focus on the screen, assessing the breach. This is the most sophisticated attack we’ve ever seen, he thought. He began to analyze the possible multiple outcomes of his failure to flush out these hackers.
“There’s absolutely nothing we can do. We’ll just have to let it pass and then assess the damage,” he said with an element of annoyance in his voice. “It looks like the internal firewall isn’t there anymore. This is a complete system crash.”
Victor diagnosed the problem quickly. “The firewall is working but it’s allowing the traffic. Its functionality has gone and we’ve no access to its interfaces. This is not how logic works. Whatever it is, it’s operating on a physical layer.” Victor was analyzing the attack while remembering the networking standards.
“Wait a minute. What the hell is this?!” Jacob shouted suddenly, looking at another console. Farrell and Victor were shocked to see that now the system was indicating some unauthenticated access to completely isolated network nodes. These were restricted areas of the network where servers and computers were connected with each other but had no physical connection to the main network. They were just connected to the server control room via isolated network cables.
“It’s sudden death. We have no other option left,” Victor said to Jacob.
“Just shut it down; everything; all of it. Cut the goddamn main supply. I don’t care if the entire building plunges into darkness. Make in happen now!” Jacob shouted.
Victor rushed out of control room. He went to elevator and pressed the red button on the floor selection panel of the elevator. A prompt appeared where he entered a code and the elevator took him to the basement where the entire electrical supply infrastructure of the building was installed. Generators, with backup generators and the supply from the electricity company on a safety grid, in fact every source of energy supply to the building was there.
Victor put his hand on a palm scanner as soon as he entered the room. Everything was enclosed in a massive wired cage. There was only one small door to get through after the palm scanning. He released a sigh of relief as he realized that it least the hackers had not crippled that system.
He got inside the cage and reached the other side of the massive basement. He ran through small spaces in between various transformers, generators and supply panels. Finally he reached a steel closet and placed his head in front of it. A small retina scanner emerged from the closet and scanned Victor’s retina for authentication. Once successfully completed, a keyboard tray emerged from the closet and Victor keyed in a password. The closet now opened. He could see a large LED inside indicating the power supply control software interface. He began to enter commands to instruct the system to shut down the entire power supply. He had cut the supply from the main and backup generators but the main supply from the electricity company was still on. Suddenly he lost control of the keyboard. It had become unresponsive. He instantly comprehended the situation. This system had also been hacked.
He was left with only one option. He had to do it manually. He put electrical safety gloves on and cut the main cables using a heavy axe. The entire building was plunged into darkness. No one had any idea what had happened. The only thing Victor had managed to save was the Vault. This was what Jacob and Victor thought.
The entire episode was being monitored by some very capable eyes at the US Navy Cyber Command cyber division.
***
“Sir we’ve lost the network access completely.” one of the computer operatives shouted out l
oudly.
“Are you sure?” Anton Sergei asked.
“Yes, sir, I’m positive.”
“Just how far did they get? Can we get into their main storage area?” Anton Sergei asked.
“We’ve compromised every single security mechanism there but not their main storage,” the operative reported on the sabotage.
“I just hope we created enough chaos to give Ken Fellows the chance to do his part in this dark mission. If his part is now done, he’ll be very happy.”
“Yes, it’s done. He called me himself.”
“Great, now we’ll see those American bastards squirm,” scoffed Anton Sergei who was so happy that the final objective had been achieved.
“Allah Akbar. This is a great victory against the infidel Americans.” Abu Salem was ecstatic, unaware that his actions had harmed more people of his own faith than US citizens.
***
Back in the United States, the outcome of this devastating attack was a complete public relations disaster for Waverley Davis. Thank God the US Government had intervened. The Pentagon had announced that the attack was successful only because it was unprecedented in computer history. The news had also filtered out on the internet. This international cyber debate had become the hottest topic amongst all the developed nations.
Immediately following the attack, global macro world economic think tanks and the agendas of all major world leader conferences changed. The G-7, G-20 and NATO were all told to include and discuss the issue of Cyber security in their up and coming meetings. Ajay was surprised that, contrary to his fears, everyone who mattered held sympathetic views about Waverley Davis and vowed to help overcome this world menace.
“These attacks were initiated through a European network but the origin was not in Europe. They’d used multiple hoaxes to conceal their origin.” Major General Vice was giving a briefing during a high level meeting at the White House. Ajay Mohan was representing Waverley Davis. The US Secretary of Defense, Robert Miller, was also among the small audience.