Oh, come on. Why would you hide this feature? Government designers are so uninspired.
She clicked the checkbox as a new window filled with terms that people had searched in addition to the ones on her list.
“Train Station” + “Terrorism”
searches: 35:
origin nodes: 32
“Train Station” + “Casualties”
searches: 32:
origin nodes: 28
She kept scrolling, stopping dead in her tracks when the next set of terms appeared.
“Train Station” + “Caesar Black”
searches:25
nodes:1
Mary pulled her hands back from the keyboard, sitting back and focusing on the set of terms. Her heart began to pound as her mind worked to connect the dots. Caesar Black … Haylie’s brother? Why would anyone think he was at the station? Checking over her shoulder for Wilcox, still immersed in her phone, Mary held her breath and clicked on the node.
There’s only two people in the world that would be searching for that term in Frankfurt right now. I bet I know which one this is.
She cut and pasted the IP address of the node into another application and pulled the laptop closer to her body, shielding the screen from view, as the results filled the screen.
>>>>>
Grandhotel Frankfurt
“It couldn’t have been Caesar down there,” Vector said in a reassuring tone, lying back across the edge of the bed. “Hancock or whoever is behind this would have announced it by now. No chance they would miss a press cycle this close to their big day.”
“So that means Caesar is still out there,” Haylie said.
“But we have nothing to go on,” Vector said. “We have to assume we missed him here. He’s probably long gone, could be in a different country by now. We just have to assume he’s okay and wait for him to make another mistake.”
“If he goes through with the election hack, it will be the biggest mistake of his life,” Haylie said. “We can’t let that happen.”
“Well, sure,” Vector said. “But it’s not like we have to find him to stop him.’
“What?” Haylie said, turning to face Vector.
“We don’t have to find Caesar,” Vector continued, piecing together his logic as he spoke. “We just have to stop him. Finding and stopping are two different things.”
Haylie turned back to the window, thinking.
He’s right. He’s absolutely right. I’m focused on the wrong problem. I don’t need to—
Her train of thought was interrupted by a loud ping from her machine. She turned to check the screen, seeing that all windows had been minimized. A new command line window had appeared, front and center. It had two lines written at the top, with a blinking cursor below.
Guest1: Hello, dear.
Guest1: It seems you’ve been a busy girl.
>>>>>
NSA Texas Cryptologic Center
Luckily for Mary, every agent in the room had assembled in the far corner into some kind of last-minute, scraped together town hall meeting to refocus the room’s efforts. She made a quick check of Agent Wilcox, who was busy at the whiteboard sketching out the next few phases of the government’s search efforts, and then turned back to her screen.
C’mon, Crash. Do the smart thing … Talk to me.
She double-checked the advanced settings of the AngelView program she had discovered earlier that afternoon—an NSA application that gave the owner complete control of any machine, provided you knew its network location—to make sure the “Disable application log” setting was checked. She shook her head, not believing that option was even available on a government system.
Clicking on the webcam view, a green rectangle sparked to life with a live feed of Haylie and a young man standing in the background over her right shoulder. They were both gazing into the screen, looking a bit shocked. Mary chuckled under her breath, reaching out to the keyboard and typing a new message.
Guest1: I can see you two, you know.
Guest1: Looking good, dear. And who’s that handsome one behind you?
Mary grinned, watching Haylie throw a nasty look back at her friend before leaning in closer to the camera, looking a bit pissed off.
Admin: How did you find us? Are you with Wilcox?
Guest1: No one else is here. I have logging turned off. It’s just me and you. I know what you’re doing there - you’re looking for your brother. Isn’t that right?
Admin: Is he alive? Do you know where he is?
Checking around the room one more time, Mary shot a message back.
Guest1: I believe he is, dear.
Admin: I need to stop him. I’m trying to do the right thing. I can’t tell you any more than that.
Mary shook her head as she thought of the best way to get her next message across. At least, the best way to convince Haylie to do something against her own grain.
Guest1: Haylie, you’re a smart girl. But even smart people need to realize when they’re in too deep. You’re outgunned on all sides. You know that. It’s too much right now. You’re going to get yourself hurt. You’re good, but not that good - not yet.
Admin: What else can I do? I’m not going to sit by and watch.
Guest1: Watch what, dear?
Admin: Doesn’t matter. I can stop him.
Guest1: You want to stop him, but you don’t have the answer. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you, even if you don’t want to see it. Wouldn’t it be nice to take some of the weight off your shoulders?
Admin: What are you talking about?
Guest1: Don’t limit yourself. On your own, you’re out of your league. This problem is bigger - you need to think bigger. Focus on the end goal, and how much you want it. Everything else will fall into place.
Mary watched the blinking cursor and looked back to the webcam view. Haylie stared at the screen, her eyes tired and heavy, her hair falling around her face.
Guest1: I have to go. Do what’s right. Be safe.
Mary leaned back in her chair, reading the words on the screen one last time before doing a quick control-Q keystroke combination to kill the window. She found her mind slipping back to a better time. Back to her days in Chicago.
I started off just like her—so sure of myself. I didn’t want to be that way, I just don’t think I trusted anyone else.
She has to learn that lesson for herself. That’s the kind of thing that can’t be—
“What’s this?” Mary jumped as she heard the voice from over her shoulder. She swiveled around to see Agent Wilcox staring down at her laptop. Wilcox took a step in, tracing each data point and search result with her index finger.
Oh no.
“Is this…” Wilcox’s eyes continued jumping around the TorBuster interface, finally resting on the IP address next to the search terms for Caesar. “Is this what I think it is? People in Frankfurt searching for both ‘Train Station’ and ‘Caesar Black’? From just in the past hour? This is amazing, Mary.”
Mary gulped as she watched Agent Wilcox piece it all together.
“All these searches coming from one node, one machine?” Wilcox continued. “This has to be him, right? Checking for anyone who’s on to him?”
Mary sat, looking back at Agent Wilcox in silence. She finally coughed up some words. “I … I don’t know. It’s just something I’ve been playing around with. It doesn’t mean—”
“We just got the name in from headquarters ourselves—I can’t believe it’s actually him. This node is in a hotel directly across the street from the train station,” Wilcox said, pulling out her phone and putting it to her ear. “This is brilliant, Mary. I never would have thought to use TorBuster like this. Amazing work.”
Mary looked back to the screen, watching the red dot blink and pulse, hoping Haylie and her friend were already on the move. Hope, at this point, was all she could do.
Wilcox snapped her fingers at the analyst team a few desks away as she pointed to the main screen i
n the control room, now displaying Mary’s desktop. “Everyone—we need a team at this location in the next four minutes. We need to move on this, now!”
Agent Wilcox took a few steps and dialed a number into her phone.
“Yes, sir,” she said while pacing the floor, head down. “I believe we have a location on the suspect. I think we’ve found Caesar Black.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Grandhotel Frankfurt
Frankfurt, Germany
November 2nd, 3:57PM
“Well, she was no help,” Vector said, pacing the room. “We don’t know anything we didn’t know a few minutes ago. If this woman is so great, why does she talk like a fortune cookie all the time?”
“This problem is bigger, you’re going to need to think bigger,” Haylie repeated Mary’s words a few more times under her breath. “What does that even mean?”
“All we’ve got to go on is a fake name and an empty hotel room,” Vector said. “The election is in, what, four days? Three with the time zones? We’re at square one—nothing to go on. At this point, maybe we just let him roll with it. Who knows, maybe Ortega was going to win the election anyway? You ever think of that? Maybe we’re fighting to stop … nothing … from happening?”
Haylie snapped her head, looking back over to Vector. “When did you become such a coward?”
“When people started shooting guns at each other,” Vector yelled back. “You Texas people might love having guns everywhere, but I’d rather not see another one any time soon. I’m the only one in this room who’s had a bullet removed from his—”
“Yeah, so I’ve heard,” Haylie said. “This matters because … It just does. If we start playing God with systems, we’re no better than the lies Hancock is spreading about us.”
“But maybe it is the right thing,” Vector said. “Hancock is dangerous—not just for people like us, but for the whole country. It would be a disaster if he gets elected—everybody with half a brain seems to know that. It’s going to set back foreign relations twenty years—”
“Doesn’t matter,” Haylie said, shaking her head emphatically. “We don’t get to choose. We start controlling the world, and we’re no better than the people in power who are pulling the strings. At that point, we’re not fighting them anymore, we’ve become them. I can’t live with that. And I can’t let Caesar become that, either.”
“Says the woman who just cut her ankle bracelet and skipped town from her house arrest?” Vector asked. “Flew to Europe on a fake passport and broke in to about six different systems today? I’ve got back news for you, Crash: you’re already there.”
Haylie turned her head, staring out the window. She whispered a few select curse words under her breath, knowing he was right.
>>>>>
NSA Texas Cryptologic Center
The control room streamed a collection of scenes: five different camera angles on the same three groups of heavily armed agents, walking briskly in groups of four or five and filing in to the hotel lobby. Mary had reluctantly transferred the IP information over to the analyst pool, and an NSA staffer was doing his best to extract every ounce of information he could. Luckily, it seemed that Haylie had shut her laptop after her conversation with Mary had ended, cutting off access to the webcam and microphone.
They still don’t know who they’re dealing with—at least for now.
Mary brought up her AngelView interface and selected a second node—one that she had made note of before while searching through the TorBuster results. The device was three or four feet away from Haylie’s machine; at least, Mary thought it was. The problem with coordinates was that the data didn’t include an altitude measurement—just latitude and longitude. In a hotel, the device very easily could be someone on a different floor.
Still, it’s worth a shot.
Mary selected the “Full Write Access” command and waited for the interface to ping her back with a “Success” message. Data from the device began flowing into her application window. The fields read: mobile equipment ID, MDN, MIN, Storage, Battery, CPU, rearCamera, OS, manufacturer. It’s a phone. She typed a few keystrokes, quit the program, and closed her laptop.
She looked back up to the monitors, watching the SWAT team enter the elevator bay.
>>>>>
Grandhotel Frankfurt
“We’re all fugitives,” Vector continued, despite Haylie tuning out of the conversation. “We’re not so holy, you and I. Maybe we just let this one slide and get out of this city without handcuffs, so we don’t end up like that guy down there in the train station?”
Haylie looked out at the horizon, searching for an answer. She thought about Mary.
Mary would know what to do.
Vector’s pocket buzzed as a chime rang out, startling them both. “What the bloody hell—that’s odd, innit? This is a burner phone. No one should be texting it.” He plucked the device out of his pocket, looking down at the screen.
Haylie watched his eyes grow wide as he turned the phone to face her. The text message showed only one word:
Run
>>>>>
NSA Texas Cryptologic Center
“Our team is in the elevators,” Agent Wilcox said with both palms flat on the tabletop, leaning towards the large wall now filled with scenes of police throughout the hotel. She had the look of a cat who had just cornered a mouse. “Let’s get all the primary views up. What’s the floor?”
“I’m hearing it’s seventeen,” an analyst yelled over her shoulder, monitoring the audio feed.
“Okay, seventeen’s hallway up on screen two,” Wilcox commanded. The monitor flicked over to show a black and white view of a hallway at an awkward angle, the screen half-filled with a shot of the wall.
“Who installed these cameras?” Wilcox asked, glaring at the screen. “I thought Germans were supposed to be precise and all that.”
“I’m seeing the same angle on each floor,” an analyst said, switching between feeds. He turned to face Wilcox. “So I guess that makes them precise, just not good?”
Shaking her head, Wilcox dismissed him with a quick wave of her fingers. “Let’s get Caesar’s picture up on screen three,” she said. “I want to make sure we know him when we see him.”
>>>>>
Grandhotel Frankfurt
“It’s Mary,” Haylie yelled, grabbing the phone out of Vector’s hand and staring down at the message. “It has to be. We need to get out of here. Toss me my bag!”
Vector tossed her backpack across the room. Haylie caught it by one of the shoulder straps, zipping the top closed and slinging it onto her back in one move. It felt light—the adrenaline appeared to have taken charge already. She ran for the door, clicking it slowly open to peer through the crack. Peeking around the corner, left and right, she nodded back to Vector who flashed her a thumbs up.
We didn’t think about an exit plan … What the hell are we going to do?
“They’ll have both the stairs and elevator covered,” Vector whispered, inching forward. “But the elevators will get here first.”
Haylie heard a noise from down the hall through her right ear. Listening carefully, she could make out a second noise—the chime of an elevator arriving at its destination.
Haylie and Vector pushed their way out the door, round a corner and scrambling for the other end of the hallway. A distant shuffling rose in Haylie’s ears—a rumbling that grew louder with each of her steps. Her eyes searched the corners of the ceiling for any cameras, seeing none. She peered down to the other end of the hall; there were only a few more guest room doors left before they reached the windowless entrance to the staircase.
“They’ll have people on the stairs, right?” Haylie asked.
“If they’re smart,” Vector answered.
Can’t go down the stairs.
Can’t go to the elevator.
And these other doors are…
She swung her backpack off her shoulders and pulled at the side zipper pocket. “The door hack,”
she whispered, grabbing the Arduino computer out of her bag and quickly untangling the power cord. “Of course.”
“Of course, what?” Vector whispered, frantically looking back and forth down each side of the hallway.
“The door exploit,” she said, pushing the connection between the circuit board and the wire tighter to make sure the two pieces had strong contact. “It works on any hotel door right? We can get into any room we want.”
Vector jerked his head around at the surrounding rooms, gasping for breath. “All right then, which one?”
Haylie shrugged and pointed across the hall. “This one looks perfect.” She fell to her knees at the base of the threshold, trying her best to control her breathing as she peered under the lock for her mark.
>>>>>
NSA Texas Cryptologic Center
“Our team just reached the room,” an analyst shouted, holding his earpiece to his ear. “They’re going to ram it down. Second team is on the way up.”
“I can’t see anything,” Wilcox yelled, craning her neck to see if any of the secondary video feeds from the hotel were showing a better angle. “Do our guys have body cameras we can access?” No answer came from the analyst pool—Mary wasn’t sure if no one was listening, or no one knew the answer.
The cameras showed a second wave of police crammed into the next elevator, rapidly approaching the seventeenth floor. The doors opened and they filed out one by one, aiming their weapons out into the hall.
Crash Into Pieces (The Haylie Black Series Book 2) Page 23