by Peche, Alec
“We have software developed by the National Security Agency to monitor emails. The initial use of that software was to catch terrorist cells planning attacks on the U.S. The FBI has found the software to be of particular use in white-collar crimes.
“If you look at our investigation into Bogachev, we found his spam scheme by our email analysis software. From there, our cybercrimes expert set up a computer and represented himself as a mystically wonderful hacker that Bogachev would be unable to pass up. This hacker promised to evolve the phishing scheme, attempting to stay ahead of any law enforcement by keeping the scheme’s computer coding ever-changing.”
“That is a little too technical for me; I’ll just trust that you know what you are doing,” said Jo.
They heard a knock on the door about three minutes after being warned by the front desk that the room had another visitor. Jill opened the door to David, giving his arm an empathetic squeeze.
David viewed all the people in the suite with puzzlement. Jill made quick work of introducing David to her team and to Jake and Morgan.
“Is this all for Joseph’s murder?” asked David while he placed Joseph’s technology on the table.
“Yes and no” replied Jill. “Why don’t you have a seat here and I’ll go over the murder board with you. I think that is the best way to explain all of the pieces of this puzzle.”
A quarter of an hour later and after several questions, David understood all of the circumstances surrounding his partner’s death. Mostly, he was stunned at what Joseph had likely stumbled unto with RMCT. It was such a stupid reason to have to die. If only Joseph had turned the matter over to law enforcement.
“I can see the holes in your case, the points you have yet to prove. I am grateful the FBI is involved - not necessarily in solving Joseph’s murder, but in the bigger conspiracy that is occurring within RMCT and these cybercriminals. To be able to take down someone that has stolen millions is very important. I wonder if they were planning on targeting the resort next?”
“David, please explain what you mean by targeting the resort,” commanded Jake.
“Think of how great it would be to get into their multi-day pass system. The corporation owns about twelve ski resorts in five states and in France. Imagine the credit lines on the credit cards attached to these ski passes. There are a lot of wealthy individuals that ski and to steal their credit card information would be just a different version of Gameover and Zeus.”
“I hadn’t thought of that angle, but I think you have got something with that theory,” affirmed Jake. “It would also explain why the software is still in the resort’s computers. Nick, do you know if the resort is aware of that? Have they hired Henrik’s firm to rid themselves of the bug?”
“I don’t know. He mentioned at dinner, that the resort was grateful that he found the bug and that he offered to fix it, but I can’t recall if they actually asked Henrik’s firm to fix it. If they haven’t, the FBI may want to meet with Tom and encourage them to close the gap. I think the suggestion would be more believable if it came from the FBI.”
“The danger is we don’t want word to get out much beyond the people in this room,” Jake commented. “If these two cybercriminals abandon an attack on the resort and decide to disappear, we’ll have a harder time apprehending them.”
“Why don’t I ask Henrik if the breach is being rectified by his company or perhaps if he knows if they hired another company,” suggested Nick. “If the resort is fixing it on their own, we can stay quiet.”
“Great idea; let me know when you have an answer.”
“I would really like to assist in this case,” said David. “Although my day job is teaching math in the school district, on the side, I’m quite the computer whiz. Why don’t I start by helping you with Joe’s technology? Since I set most of it up, I may be able to find some key documents faster than your folks.”
“We’re going to use a software program that can sort through massive amounts of electronic communication. However we might be faster and more targeted if you direct us to the folder Joseph set up for RMCT and anything on clinical trials related to that company. If you don’t mind, I am going to have my agents escort you to my cabin. I have a command post operating there and my computer guys are there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said David. “Jill, were you able to get appointments to meet with the two company CEOs for today? Do you need my help with those appointments?”
“Fortunately, both men were cooperative and Angela and I will be meeting them this afternoon. You go ahead to Jake’s cabin and socialize with the nerds.”
“Hey, we nerds make the world go around,” said David with a rare smile.
“Nathan is cooking something wonderful for dinner tonight,” Jill offered. “Feel free to drop back to this suite and dine with us, or if any of the nerds cook, enjoy your time with them.”
“I’ll see what the day brings. Thanks for letting me help with the investigation. I really appreciate it.”
Both Jake and Jill smiled and nodded. David left the suite with the technology and his agent escort.
Chapter Twelve
Marie had done a lot of skiing in Wisconsin and Michigan. Those hills were nothing compared to what she was seeing in Colorado simply traveling up the gondola. She had a great escort although she suspected the only reason they were up on the mountain was for her to be bait. On one hand it was very scary, on the other she felt well protected in the Kevlar clothing and with the armed escort. She had a handsome, talented bodyguard whose keen eyes were watching all around them for trouble. He had even managed to teach her about the mountain while his eye roved everywhere. The mountain was only lightly covered with skiers and snow boarders as it was still early in the season.
There were some great cruising intermediate ski runs that they had spent several hours on. Michael had offered some sound advice for improving her skiing. Despite knowing that there could be a killer anywhere around, it was her best ski adventure ever. They were going into a ski hut for their first bathroom break. Michael wanted to catch up with the other agents and the hut was much easier to secure than a large on-hill restaurant. Both he and Marie were aware that the virus was still in the ski lift system. They had both tensed over a few lift stops but each time they were one to two minutes long which was the typical stoppage when a lift operator had passenger loading problems. He had explained to her that in his pack, he had a series of ropes that they could use to get off of a stopped chairlift. He knew how to use the equipment as it was the emergency back-up method to get people off a stopped lift. To his knowledge it hadn’t been deployed in at least a decade by the resort, but the ski patrol still trained on it. He hadn’t had time to show his fellow agents how to use the gear, so if a mid-air departure from the chairlift was necessary, only Marie and he would be using that route of escape. The agents had been supplied with images of the three criminals including the clothing they wore the last time they were captured on the resort’s cameras.
Having made use of the bathroom and re-hydrating herself with water, Marie was ready to continue skiing. Michael checked the area around the hut and saw nothing that worried him. If she did well on the run, they were going to head to the chairlift that had been Joseph’s last lift ride. The route down would be very challenging and she wanted to do the run while her ski legs were warmed up, but not tired. They got to the bottom of the run and Michael checked in with her as to whether they would be proceeding.
“Do you want to try peak six? I think you’re capable of skiing it, but as always just because I say ‘go’ doesn’t mean you can’t say ‘no’.”
“I’m game. I have had the best hours of skiing ever this morning. I couldn’t imagine runs that were this long, or snow this soft and forgiving. I have been skiing on hard packed snow for so long. Let’s head up to the next adventure.”
Michael notified the agents who were accompanying them on their direction and pointed Marie toward the series of lifts they would have to t
ake to reach peak six. Soon enough they arrived at the base of the final chairlift. Marie had been looking at the steep trails as she had glanced toward the mountain from other vantage points, but there was no easy way down so she would just have to find her courage if she had second thoughts at the top. Watching the chair swing around the terminal wheel, they soon sat on the chair and headed for the top.
Perhaps a third of the way up Michael pointed to a small forest of trees and said, “That is where they found Joseph.”
Marie nodded and made a mental note to stay out of those trees. The lift continued its upward journey and they were soon hitting the wall of wind towards the top.
“At the top of the lift, we can go one of three ways. We could take off our skis and hike up to that peak,” said Michael pointing to a still taller peak. “We could ski that bowl to the left of the lift which is a lot of fun, but is steep. Or we could take the run to the right at the top. I recommend we go right as the ski runs are less steep.”
Marie had followed his description of the three routes and affirmed “let’s take the right side.”
She followed Michael down to the first ridge and stared at the steep run. Taking a deep breath, she proceeded to ski the slope taking lots of breaks and lots of turns. With just one fall she made it to the bottom. As they got ready to board the chairlift a second time, Marie looked at Michael and exclaimed, “Okay that was a lot of fun! I love that I was challenged, but I didn’t kill myself. That one fall was because I had my weight on the back of my skis. This time I want to do the run and not fall at all with perhaps a few less stops. If I can keep improving, I want to try the left side.”
“Sounds like a plan; let’s go!”
They rode the chair and skied down the same trail a few more times and then Marie declared herself ready to tackle the left side of the lift.
“Okay, we’re going to go off to the left this time at the top. Head for the center of the bowl as that is the easiest way down a steep slope.”
“Okay, you haven’t steered me wrong so far.”
They both heard a ping at the same time. Then the chair came to a stop. Then a second ping bounced loudly off Marie’s helmet.
“Crap, someone is shooting at us,” said Marie trying to duck on the chairlift.
Michael was talking to the agents ahead and behind them on the chair. They had spotted the shooter in the woods to the right. They were about halfway up the seven minute lift ride.
“Marie, stay down and try to use me for cover. My agents know where the shots are coming from and they are going to fire back.”
Then they heard another ping hit the back of the chair. The two agents followed with shooting a couple of smoke grenades to the woods where the shooter was. The shots stopped as a wall of smoke appeared where the shooter had been sighted.
“We’ll need to exit this chair right now! The smoke will give us cover for about five minutes, but let’s get down and off the mountain.”
Michael pulled out his ropes. As he quickly knotted them to the chair, he asked Marie to pop off her skis to drop them to the ground.
Marie’s heart was palpitating, she had never been shot at before or tried to get off a chair in this manner. Just like skiing the steep mountain, she grasped her courage just long enough to go over the chair to the ground which was about thirty to forty feet below. She was relieved to touch the ground and move out of the way of Michael. She looked over at the smoke and it looked like it was starting to get a bit thinner. Seconds later Michael dropped beside her, and retracted the rope. They put on their skis and took off down the mountain. Marie in the lead, Michael on her heels; he had turned on a radio receiver in her helmet directing her down the mountain at a speed she could maintain without falling, while insuring that no wrong turns were made that might not lead to the exit from the resort.
His fellow agents were still keeping watch from the chairlift. The smoke had cleared and no further shots were fired. The lift was still stopped, and they could see a pair of skiers exit the bottom of the trees where the shots had come from. They had taken pictures of the skiers and they seemed to be on the path of Marie and Michael even though they were far enough ahead so as not to be seen by the shooters.
Michael had Marie continue skiing all the way to the gondola. Her legs were burning and she was breathing as though she had just run a sprint 5K road race. She practically collapsed into the gondola car. She leaned against the glass walls panting, while Michael spoke with various agents. Finally, between calls he paused to have a word with Marie.
“Has this still been the best ski day ever?”
Marie just grinned and as she caught her breath said “Yes it was. My son would have loved to have been on this last run between the beauty of the mountain, the smoke bomb, the chairlift shots and then the descent to the ground followed by the race to get off the mountain. In fact, I am ready to go up and be your decoy again.”
Michael just shook his head and proceeded with his next call. He was thankful that she had a calm head on her shoulders. He would have hated to spend the past fifteen minutes with a shrinking violet. He had informed his superior, Agent Porter, of what had happened on the mountain and the fact that they were on their way back to the hotel suite. A few minutes later and they were riding the elevator to the hotel suite.
Marie used her card key to enter where she was immediately surrounded by her hugging friends asking if she was okay.
“I just had the best day skiing ever. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to ski in the Midwest again.”
“Are you nuts, my friend?” asked Jo. “We just heard that you had bullets fired at the chairlift you were on.”
“Yes, but before the bullets were fired, Michael had taken me on one wonderful ski run after another. It was like nothing I have ever skied at home. Then once the bullets started flying, I felt pretty good, sliding down a rope from the chair to the ground and then racing off the mountain. Of course the fact that I had Kevlar on just about everywhere went a long way to that feeling of invincibility.”
“I am woman, hear me roar,” suggested Jill. She was glad to see her friend was taking the event in stride.
“Yes, something similar to that. I even volunteered to be a decoy again.”
“So while we were all worried to death about your safety, you were tightening up your gloves for round two in the boxing ring,” noted Angela with obvious admiration for Marie’s sense of fun that was shining through.
“Sorry you guys were worried; I was in excellent hands for protection. The agents got pictures of the shooters. Have they made it off the lift yet? Was anything left behind at the scene?”
“Our agents emailed us the photos,” replied Jake. “They are still stuck on the lift, and the ski patrol is going to manually move the cable flywheel until all the passengers are returned to the bottom. The lift will remain closed for the day. They should be back here in thirty minutes. We should go examine where the shots were fired from. Michael, is there any way you could take a snowmobile up there and look? I would like to keep this whole thing low-key if we can. Can you quietly examine the shooter’s spot in your ski patrol apparel?”
"Let me go look now while everybody's distracted getting skiers off the lift.”
“I just got an e-mail from Henrik,” noted Nick. “He says the resort has contracted with his company to get the virus out of their lift computers and protect them in the future. It seems this second stoppage on the chair was enough for them to recognize the threat.”
"Ask him if there is any way to preserve the evidence of this virus so that we can use it for prosecution of these criminals," requested Jake.
"Will do; I'll let you know if he thinks it can be done."
"My sister is due to arrive here at any moment,” observed Jo. “I don't think I want her staying with us as we seem to be attracting violence at the moment. I would like to dine with her in private so that we can catch up. Then I would like to have an agent escort her home, making sure she arrives safe
ly without anyone following her. Jake, can you arrange that?"
"Yes the two of you can have room service in my room which is located on this floor. When you're ready we will have an escort for her to Leadville.”
"Thank you. My sister is such a gentle soul I think she would likely freeze in any dangerous situation rather than using her own wits to get out of it. I'll make another trip back to see her later in the spring."
As Jo's voice died down, the suite was called by the front desk notifying them of her sister’s arrival. Jo left the suite, an agent in tow to go greet her sister and implement the plan she had outlined to Jake. About two hours later, they expected Jo to be back at work following the money, while her sister would be doing some grocery shopping and then heading back up into even higher mountains.
Nathan had arranged a make your own sandwich set up for lunch for the remaining occupants of the suite. Nick had identified the two shooters from the photos taken by the agents as Sundin and Bogachev. Michael was on his way via snowmobile to the shooter’s site. Jill and Angela were about to depart for Denver to interview the two CEOs.
Then Jake got a call from Michael. He had taken the snowmobile to the site where the shooters were located. In addition to the three smoke bomb canisters, there was a dead body. He took a picture of the crime scene and the victim's face from the side and transmitted it to Jake. Everyone in the suite jerked their head toward Jake when they heard him say, “Can you tell what killed him?”
Jill nudged his arm and asked him to put the call on speakerphone and he complied.
"Can you see any visible wounds?" asked Jill.
"No. There is no blood on his body or in the snow."
"Does he seem to be clutching his chest?"
"He's facedown and I don't want to turn him over. We need a crime scene team up here.”