Returning to Zero (Mick O'Malley Series Book 2)

by Alan B. Johnston

  The streets were deserted—although they sometimes saw people sitting in courtyards. The sounds of the city faded. Jasinski began to feel as if they had somehow stepped back in time on this walk. Her musings were interrupted when she walked hard into something that turned out to be NØviz’s outstretched arm.

  “Ow!” she cried out, but stopped immediately as she looked ahead to see three men standing blocking the alley in front of them, perhaps fifty meters ahead.

  “Hey, you! What do you want?” NØviz called out to them, but got no reply. He glanced at Jasinski, and shouted something to them in Russki. When they immediately reacted, NØviz grabbed her hand and took off running in the opposite direction.

  Jasinski sprinted along with him, as they turned and ducked down a side alley. Jasinski heard shouts behind them, but the sound was diminishing. They twisted and turned, then NØviz finally came to a halt with his back to a wall.

  “Who?” Jasinski managed to say between gasping breaths.

  “FSB, I think,” he replied. Jasinski didn’t need light to see the dark look on his face.

  “What… did you say… to them in Russki?” she managed.

  “Oh, that… I said: ‘Where is our CIA contact?’ just to mess with them—it at least told me that they were Russians.” He paused to catch his breath.

  “Were they waiting for us?”

  “Definitely!”

  “How did they find us?”

  “Don’t know. Someone must have talked. Perhaps the Czech police?”

  “Right, but also, how did they find us here—in an alleyway in Beijing, as if they were waiting for us?”

  “Don’t know, either, maybe…” his voice trailed off as he raised a hand in the air. A moment later Jasinski heard the voices as well—they sounded very similar to the Russians they had left behind. NØviz pointed in the opposite direction, and Jasinski nodded, and they were off and running again hand-in-hand.

  Following his pull blindly, Jasinski focused on the last question: How did they find us—again?

  She knew all kinds of ways, thinking of drones, tracker RFIDs, etc, but then she thought of the simplest solution. She groaned to herself, again realizing the power of Occam’s Razor.

  They stopped again after a few hundred meters in another alcove to catch their breath and listen. As soon as she could talk, she began.

  “Do you… have your mobile?” she asked, and NØviz patted his breast pocket. “Did you… make any calls… since yesterday?” She waited for his reply after he nodded.

  “Sure… I telephoned my mother… I didn’t tell her… where we were or anything.”

  “You didn’t have to! You just made… a regular call right—you didn’t use that VoIP app… I installed for you last week?” Realization dawned on NØviz’s face.

  “Blin! That call was traced!”

  “Blin, indeed! Worse than that, it was tracked back to your SIM card. This means they are tracking us now using your phone. They probably have a ‘stingray’… or the local mobile provider has been compromised—” Her explanation was interrupted by NØviz taking out his phone and smashing it into pieces on the cobblestone pavement. She looked at him, then continued. “Oh! We could have used it as a decoy. But no matter. Let’s get out of here.”

  He nodded at her, then suddenly pulled her into an embrace and kissed her hard on the lips. Just as quickly, he pulled away, grabbed her hand, and set off at a jog. Stunned, Jasinski followed behind, trying to keep one foot in front of the other.

  Once out on a main road, color returned to the world, and they hailed and jumped in a cab back to the hotel. Halfway there, Jasinski turned to NØviz.

  “We shouldn’t go back to the hotel, at least not today,” she said. He looked at her, wide-eyed.

  “You are right,” he replied and began a conversation with the cab driver to override the hotel destination they had given him with a card from the hotel. Seeing he was getting nowhere, Jasinski pulled out her mobile and searched for a shopping mall that was open late. She found one nearby—she immediately requested a translation into Chinese and when it displayed on the screen, she passed it to NØviz who showed it to the driver. The driver nodded and made a sharp right turn.

  They arrived at the mall a few minutes later and quickly went inside. Jasinski went straight for a seating area near the entrance and sat down. NØviz paced back and forth for a moment until Jasinski grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the seat next to her.

  “I can’t believe that just happened. What was it that just happened?” he asked, mainly to himself. At first Jasinski thought he meant the kiss, but she quickly realized he didn’t.

  “I don’t know,” Jasinski replied, “but we need to be much more careful going forward if you are going to make your meeting in Shanghai. Do you understand?” NØviz nodded. “Right, now let’s think what we left in the hotel room and if we need to go back for anything.”

  This line of thought focused their energy. They eventually determined that there wasn’t anything they needed. NØviz’s computer was there, but it was connected to the Internet, and Jasinski knew how to remotely wipe it. She knew he wouldn’t be able to trust the hardware anyway, as any number of key loggers and trackers might have been installed. And thinking of trackers…

  “We need to get rid of these clothes right away,” she announced. NØviz seemed about to argue but she cut him off with a stern look. “And I guess it is time for a new hairstyle for me.”

  She searched for a new hotel, and found one which was not nearly as nice as the one they had been staying in and booked it. They went into a few stores, and Jasinski purchased a new wardrobe. She cringed as she purchased the outfits that were about as far away from her usual style as she could stomach, and also outrageously expensive. She did the same for NØviz, except she drew some enjoyment from his displeasure.

  They checked into the hotel using more of NØviz’s cash cache and a different passport from his collection. She however, only had one passport. She knew that they couldn’t hope to hide from the Chinese for long, but she hoped that it would take time for the Russians to find them.

  NØviz did not mention the kiss, and Jasinski didn’t either. With anyone else, this would have seemed strange, but Jasinski was starting to understand NØviz, so it didn’t.

  Jasinski barely slept, but was awoken early by NØviz who had planned a full day on the Great Wall. She had argued against it, but NØviz was firm. They needed the distraction, and it was crazy to waste a day in Beijing before their train ride to Shanghai tomorrow.

  They hired a taxi for the day and rode to Jinshanling where they had their first view of the Great Wall, snaking over the mountaintops off into the distance.

  It really was an amazing sight. This section of the wall was not fully restored so it looked its age. The edges didn’t look safe to Jasinski, so she kept back, but NØviz had no problems going right to the edge.

  They enjoyed a slow cable car ride to a high point on the wall, then set out for the hike to Simatai, where their taxi was going to meet them. It was tiring, but the views made it worthwhile. The haze seemed a little less up in the mountains, as well.

  Near the end of the hike, NØviz convinced her to do a zip line ride from the wall and across a reservoir. She felt as if she had never trusted so much to mere Velcro before, but she survived. She had held NØviz tightly throughout the whole ride, which she suspected he enjoyed.

  They slept late the next day after their exertions, then checked out and caught a taxi to the train station. Just before leaving, she had sent one more encrypted message to Mick, warning him that they were being tracked, and about the FSB.

  On board the train, she couldn’t shake a feeling of nervousness. As a result, she didn’t enjoy the ride, despite it being perhaps the fastest she had ever traveled on the earth’s surface.

  Chapter 25.

  Mick could see a dim glow of lights on the horizon—the mainland was almost in sight. He had not been swimming as regularly as he used t
o, so his muscles were aching, but he persevered.

  He was keeping a careful eye out for ships. He could hear plenty—their high pitched propeller whine filled the black water—but he couldn’t see them. He concluded that they must be running without lights and without wake. Smugglers most likely, or others out for nefarious nighttime activities.

  Then he saw one ship approaching and heard the sound grow louder and louder. He floated, using his snorkel to keep just below the surface, remaining still so as not to attract any attention. The sound faded and he resumed his slow rhythmic swimming towards land.

  A few minutes later he was dashing up a small rocky beach, over a wall, and into a clump of bushes. He stripped his wetsuit off and did some pushups and jumping jacks to warm up and dry out. Mick then opened the bag he had pulled through the water and put on his dry clothes. He powered up his mobile, opened up the map, and noted his position.

  He was fairly happy with where he ended up, only about 5 km from where he was to meet his RAPtOR contact. He thought for a moment about Gunter, Guido, and Han who had stayed aboard the junk, hoping that Gunter would make it to Shanghai, while Han and Guido would make it safely back to Taiwan without any entanglements. If all went well, he would see Gunter again at the security conference in a few days.

  Mick set off walking along the path which led to a track which lead to a heavily pot-holed road, which led to an even larger road. The city grew as the sky brightened. Entering Shanghai, he stopped at a roadside stall for an espresso, which wasn’t bad—much better than any coffee in Taiwan.

  He logged into the Chinese social media account his contact had set up for him, and posted a single emoticon which seemed to be a smiling face sticking out a tongue and winking one eye. This was the message that he had arrived on the mainland and would be heading for their meeting place later in the day.

  He started looking at the Hanzi or Chinese characters on signs all around him. He found Chinese much more difficult to recognize and pattern match than Japanese or Korean. The prospect of having to learn thousands of characters in order to be literate in the language seemed daunting to him. Of course, he had never become fluent in any other language besides English, something that he was not proud of.

  He did recognize 中国, pronounced Zhōngguó, meaning the country of China. He especially liked the first Hanzi, Zhōng, meaning ‘middle’ or ‘central’. In graphic terms, the rectangle shape with a vertical slash through it reminded him of the way he and many programmers wrote the number zero with a slash through it: Ø.

  Mick spent the morning wandering the streets and coming to grips with this mega-city. His past visits to Beijing did not prepare him for the size and vitality of Shanghai. The scope and magnitude were hard to comprehend. Shanghai reminded him much more of Tokyo than Beijing, although it was just as chaotic as Beijing.

  Shanghai felt to Mick like a western city. The scale and proportions were more human-friendly than Beijing. Exploring the city made him think about his old Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan, something he tried to avoid as it only seemed to depress him.

  There were some bicycles and mopeds, but mostly cars. And more cars. And traffic jams. A popular riding style on the mopeds seemed to be with both feet off the pegs, sliding along the ground.

  That evening, he met up with his contact. Krishna had put him in touch with Chen, a fellow member of RAPtOR in Shanghai. Mick was on his second espresso when Chen appeared in front of him, smiling, and introduced himself shaking hands. He was slight but spoke loudly with good English. Mick wondered if Chen was his first name or last name.

  They set off walking and a few blocks later arrived at Chen’s moped. Mick had seen these unique electric mopeds on his previous visits to Beijing, but had never ridden on one. Chen climbed on and motioned Mick to sit on the rack over the rear wheel. Chen flicked the switch and they took off, very slowly.

  Mick grinned to himself at the slow speed. He wished they had a buzzy scooter like the ones in Taiwan, but he soon got used to it. After nearly an hour of traffic lights and starting and stopping, they arrived at Chen’s lab near Fudan University. Chen explained that it wasn’t actually a university building, but the university had leased one floor and was in the process of moving out. All the other offices except his had already moved. He showed Mick his small lab on the fourth floor, a tiny room with a work bench, a bunch of electrical components strewn around, and a small cot. An electric kettle sat on the floor next to a stack of cup noodles and bottles of water.

  “This is perfect!” Mick said surveying the space.

  “Are you sure? I have room in my apartment, but I don’t know how I could explain you to my roommates.”

  “This is safer for you. Are you sure no one will be around for the next week?”

  “Definitely. The moving won’t happen until the end of the month, and I’ll use my other office for a few days. No one should come looking for me here. I’ll leave you my RFID badge—just mail it to me at this address when you are done.” Chen handed Mick an addressed envelope.

  “OK. You mentioned that you had some 3D printers and Arduinos in your lab?” Mick asked. Chen grinned.

  “Oh, you are going to like this!” Chen spun on his heels and set off down the hall with Mick trailing behind. He stopped and motioned for Mick to hand him the badge. When he badged the door open, Mick’s jaw dropped. The large room was filled with 3D printers of every shape and size. He recognized a few brands, but there were many that he did not. Even the ones he recognized had all kinds of customized parts and modifications.

  “Wow! Just wow!” he muttered. “Chen this is awesome! Thank you so much!”

  “No worries! Just try not to empty all the spools!”

  The next day was a blur of programming and designing. Mick had more fun in those hours than he had had in a long, long time, as he madly coded and compiled in the lab.

  At the end of the day, with his design finalized, he started rendering. He figured it would take a few tries, as the choice of slicing was still a bit of an art. He mused about the misleading term ‘3D printing’ that was associated with this activity. Although it had almost nothing to do with printing, the fact was that up until now, printing on paper was the only way to make something physical come out of a computer—turning a ‘soft copy’ into ‘hard copy’. In fact, 3D printing had been used in various forms for years as ‘additive manufacturing’—the process of building up an object by laying down thin layers, one on top of the previous. Before that, computer controlled milling machines (CNC or Computerized Numerical Control millers) had been used to automatically generate 3D objects from a solid block. Whatever it was called, 3D printing was definitely coming into its own, and seemingly every day new applications were being announced and demoed.

  One of the first things everyone seemed to do with a new 3D printer was to print a part to modify their 3D printer. There was some kind of satisfying circularity of printing things which were then used to print other things. The first 3D printer installed in space at the international space station led to many stories of the realization of the ‘replicator’ from science fiction.

  That evening, via the classified web page, he had another message from Jasinski. After decryption, it read:

  On the train from B to S for conference with N. Our friends seem to be following us. Hope you made it to S safely. See you soon? Jaz aka Cynthia Smedly

  Mick suspected that the ‘friends’ mentioned were probably the FSB, or some other country’s intelligence agency. He suspected there was a story there.

  Mick also read a message from Gunter. He had also arrived in Shanghai, legally, and was all ready for the security conference.

  A little after 2am, Mick set off walking, scanning for a suitable WiFi hotspot to use. After a few kilometers, he found one near a noisy late night café. Bars and clubs in Shanghai seemed to only start to fill up around this time, which also reminded him of New York. He waited across the street until he spotted a group that were clearly h
eaded into the café. He caught up with them, attached himself to the end of their group, and followed them through the door as if he were a racing car drafting in a slip stream. Once past the entrance, he separated from them, sat down at a corner table, ordered some night snacks, and set to work.

  First he cracked the WiFi network and fired up a VPN, and tunneled through the Chinese ‘Great Firewall.’

  He knew not every VPN will successfully cross the ‘GFW’ as he had heard locals refer to it. Some VPNs didn’t encrypt the DNS queries, so the GFW would intercept those and cause sites to fail to load. Other VPNs could be trivially blocked or slowed down. On his previous visits to China, he was appalled at how poorly the network functioned. Sometimes things loaded, sometimes things didn’t. It was seemingly random.

  He then started his automatic browsing application which began fetching various pages and following links with random pauses, and detours. In parallel, he started another VPN, a much more secure one through his own server network, then through the RAPtOR peer-to-peer network. Then, he started his Tor browser and typed in the address of the security conference and followed the registration link.

  He captured a bunch of packets then analyzed them. He smiled to himself when he saw the version of software used on the conference administrative website.

  Too easy.

  A few minutes later, he had broken into the server. He started a counter on his mobile, which counted down from five minutes—the maximum time he was willing to stay connected to the server. He queried the database of registered conference attendees. He encrypted the results and uploaded it to his server. In the unlikely event that someone noticed, he also launched a number of other queries, and even installed a very weak spambot and some other low grade malware on the server before clearing the logs and logging off.