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

by Alan B. Johnston

  He glanced at his timer—it showed ten seconds to zero. He disconnected from the chained VPNs, took a final bite out of the unidentifiable salted nuts he had been snacking on, and joined the tail of a rowdy group who had got up to leave at the same time.

  Mick thought about returning to the university lab, but he felt too excited by what he had found. In addition to discovering which hotel ‘Cynthia Smedly’ (i.e. Jasinski and NØviz) and Ronald Kaufmann (i.e. Gunter) were staying, he also found the rooms for Lars, Liz, and Kat. He paused to think for a moment about the last name.

  How do I feel about her? I don’t know…

  He couldn’t decide, and that really worried him. He definitely felt excitement that he would be hopefully meeting with NØviz again—there would be one more chance to open-source the botnet or deactivate it. And if not, well, he had his backup plan. He was also looking forward to seeing Jasinski again—he had really missed her these weeks. He wondered if Kat’s presence was a coincidence, or if she had been given a role to play. This was quite a convergence—a reunion of the old gang.

  The next day, Mick planned his meetings—a busy social calendar. First, Jasinski and NØviz, then—he could scarcely believe it—he was going to meet with Kat.

  Jasinski had just mailed him the RFID signature of the key card to the hotel room, allowing Mick to make a duplicate key. He double checked that he had it in his pocket, and also a new mobile he had picked up at a street market. Since he was meeting with Kat without knowing exactly the situation, he didn’t want to carry his usual mobile, and only carried the minimum of information necessary—hence the new mobile. He had compiled the mobile operating system from the source and run a few benchmarks on it, and was amazed at the performance. The camera, microphone and speaker quality was also incredible—and all for the price of a very cheap phone.

  Is this really happening?

  He thought about the last eight months and everything that had happened to him since he last saw Kat in Ukraine. They had said goodbye then not knowing if they would ever meet again. She had helped him escape the hospital and get away from the General. At the time, he had hoped she would land on her feet. She had definitely done so, and more.

  This made him think again about the allegations first spoken aloud by Jasinski, but, he admitted to himself, he had been harboring similar ones for months. Now with the evidence from the General, there was a gaping hole where his trust in her had once been. Tonight he would get some answers, one way or another—he would find out the truth.

  Perhaps.

  And then there was Jasinski. When she had taken off with NØviz, he had felt something—was it concern? He tried to put this out of his mind—first priority was the botnet and NØviz. Could he be persuaded to do the right thing, or would he sell out the Chinese? Or get caught by the Russians? And what would they do with the botnet under their control? He didn’t want to think about that one.

  Chapter 26.

  Ja2 #Family reunions are always so #stressful #nervous

  Mick got up from his seat in the hotel lobby. He had spent the past ten minutes observing all the comings and goings. He was satisfied that there was nothing unusual going on. He pulled his cap down a little lower over his eyes, and walked over to the elevators.

  He alighted the elevator on the twelfth floor and soon found himself outside Jasinski’s room. He took a deep breath then flashed his fake RFID card in front of the lock, which clicked open.

  He was expected since he had messaged Jasinski earlier. Jasinski and NØviz sat in opposite chairs, and neither betrayed any surprise at him walking in. Jasinski’s eyes flicked over him for an instant, then they glanced away. He stopped in front of them, then sat down on the edge of the bed, not seeing anywhere else to sit.

  “Hey,” he began.

  “Hey,” Jasinski replied.

  Not exactly an auspicious start.

  “So, here we are.”

  “Yep.”

  “How was your trip through China? How was the train?”

  “Much better than any flight.”

  “See anyone else here?”

  “Not so far, but I’m sure we’ll bump into Lars, Liz, and even your Kat tomorrow,” Jasinski replied. The corner of his mouth curled in a frown at her saying Kateryna’s name out loud.

  “OK, let’s cut the bull, here,” NØviz began, tossing a pen across the room. “Why are you here and what do you want?”

  “You know what I want. I want to know your plans for the botnet. I want your assurance that I won’t wake up tomorrow to find it under the control of the Chinese military. Or someone else?”

  “None of your damn business, my friend,” NØviz replied in a tone of voice implying that Mick was no friend. “I’m humoring Jaz by talking to you again,” he continued. “But trouble follows you, so this will be our last meeting—I don’t ever want to see or hear from you again, do you understand?” NØviz did something on his mobile as he spoke.

  Mick slowly got up from his chair. He glanced at Jasinski who gave him a look that he interpreted as “Wait!” He slowly shook his head.

  “Sorry to hear that, mate,” Mick replied. “I guess I’m wasting my breath talking to you. But let me just say this. Remember how it felt when you lost control of the botnet to someone else? If you turn it over to anyone, Chinese or whoever, you’ll experience that again. You’ll just be a spectator like the rest of us. If you don’t want to give it over to researchers, at least just use it to ‘pwn’ people—you’ve really made that an art form lately.”

  NØviz glared at Jasinski, who shrugged.

  “I see Jaz figured it out as well, or you told her,” he continued, referring to NØviz’s high profile hacks the past few months. Mick had eventually put it together with the help of some RAPtOR friends. “You could really have some fun with it—”

  “I’m not into fun! Fun is for rich guys like you, not us. I want you to leave—now!” The temperature in the room seemed to rise.

  “OK, OK. I’m going.” Mick got up and turned and left.

  Outside the room, he paused to catch his breath, then headed towards the fire escape stairs for the long walk down. He went through the lobby quickly and out onto the street. He crossed the road and stopped with a group of men who were smoking and talking. He took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, pretending to smoke while he gathered his thoughts. A pair of heavily illuminated skyscrapers looked on from a distance.

  So Jasinski was right, and he was an idiot for doing that. But it was just so infuriating. That idiot was about to hand over a weapon for a pile of money—money he would soon blow through and be right back where he started, broke and bored.

  Why did I do that? Stupid! Stupid!

  Why was she sticking with him? What did she see in him?

  Walking around the city helped him settle down and prepare for his other meeting. He tried to distract himself, but realized that he didn’t have anything else going—no interesting open-source projects, papers to write, analysis to perform. Not even any motorcycle mechanics to work on. Instead, he just tried to be an observer, and see what he could learn about this country which had seemed to change so much in just the few years since he last visited.

  Each time he turned a corner in Shanghai, there seemed to be a fresh surprise waiting for him. Sometimes, it was an old house, built in western or traditional Chinese style, or an old building with red brick walls with washing hanging out to dry. Other times, it was a nest of new high-rise apartment buildings that seemed to have sprung up from scattered seeds. Or, it was the view of yet another unique looking skyscraper, glowing in the night sky.

  Soon, he was riding an elevator in yet another hotel, and found himself knocking on Kateryna’s hotel room door.

  “Who is it?” he heard her voice from behind the door. He said nothing, just smiled a wry smile in front of the peep hole. The door opened, and he was staring into Kateryna’s wide eyes. “Shit!” was all she said.

  “May I come in?” he asked, an
d stepped past her when she opened the door fully. He walked over and sat on the window ledge, which was at a perfect height. Shanghai sprawled in the distance.

  He heard the door close and latch, then Kateryna again appeared in front him. She was wearing jeans and a dark sweater. Her brown hair was pulled up in a pony tail—she wore no makeup or jewelry.

  She looked amazing.

  He tried hard not to show any emotion, but what emotion he was feeling, he was not at all sure. He couldn’t speak.

  Kat, is it true?

  “Mick,” she began, breaking the awkward silence. “What is going on? Why are you here?” He waited a moment.

  “Is it true?” he began, startling himself that he spoke his question out loud.

  “Is what true?” She was unsurprisingly bewildered at his out-of-context question.

  “Can we talk here?” he asked, glancing around. She nodded in comprehension, then turned on the TV and ramped up the volume. She then sat close beside him on the window sill. Too close.

  She nodded in encouragement, and he continued. “I’ve been learning some details about what happened last year in Ukraine. Some things that happened didn’t quite make sense, and some of what I found out seemed to explain things. But only if…” he paused, hesitating.

  “Only if what?” she replied softly.

  “Tell me about your husband’s passport—the one that I borrowed to travel to Kiev. How did you happen to have it with you in London?” Now it was her turn to hesitate.

  “Mick, what exactly are you asking?”

  “I guess I’m asking if you had help. If you were involved with someone.”

  “Someone such as…”

  “Such as the Russians!” There! He finally said it. Kateryna stared back at him and started shaking her head slowly. Then she stopped and changed to nodding. “What? What! Why?” he sputtered. Kateryna put her hand on his, and the touch seemed to burn.

  “Mick, you have to understand. I had no choice. I—” But Mick did not hear the rest of what she said as he bolted up and ran out the door. Slamming the door behind him, he made for the fire escape. Then he was outside and gasping for air. He could not believe it was true. Well, that wasn’t quite right. He could not believe that he had confirmation that it was true. A while ago—he didn’t know when exactly— he had started accepting it to be true, although he didn’t admit it to himself.

  He was soon back at his lab at the university. He started up his computer and wrote some code to relax and focus his mind. He needed some hard problems to occupy his mind to prevent it from dropping into the thought rut his mind couldn’t seem to escape.

  He managed to accomplish some good writing, and felt happy when he checked in his code. More out of boredom than anything else, he ran a number of automated scans on his computer that checked for anomalous activity in his vicinity. One caught his eye—a frequency scan, which checked for electromagnetic emissions. It was showing quite a strong signal nearby. He double checked, confirming that it wasn’t any of his devices. He was using Ethernet on this computer, and all his mobiles were off, including the new mobile he had purchased yesterday.

  He checked the signature of the emissions and concluded it looked like a mobile phone.

  LTE and GPS and… Near Field Communication RFID?

  That could only be a mobile. He looked at his mobile again—it was turned off. Or was it? It felt warm in his hand but it had been out of his pocket for over an hour.

  WTF?

  He flipped the phone over, removed the cover, and disconnected the battery. Glancing at his scanning software, he confirmed that the emissions had immediately stopped.

  Damn!

  He jumped up and paced back and forth, thinking hard about the mobile. It was the one that he had purchased from a street vendor a few days ago. He hadn’t fully trusted it yet, and had even been keeping it in a Faraday bag the first few nights, a bag with a conductive shield that blocked all radio waves. But for it to be transmitting and running GPS when he had turned it off was crazy!

  He recalled reading about RFID/NFC code injection attacks on new generation mobiles that had this capability. He searched the specifications on this phone but found no mention of RFID/NFC. Then he double checked the firmware version and discovered that it wasn’t running the current release, but instead some newer experimental code.

  Idiot!

  The phone had to be a prototype phone, stolen from some R&D center in Shanghai running new firmware with new undocumented RFID/NFC capabilities! But what was the phone doing?

  His thoughts were interrupted by a warning on his screen. A proximity alarm in the lobby of the building had gone off, which triggered the video feeds. They showed police moving slowly and spreading out across the lobby. Fortunately, he kept his bag packed at all times, so all he had to do was throw a few things in and close his computer. He was ready to go!

  As he headed out, he pulled the fire alarm, then dashed down the hall towards the stairwell.

  He was lucky that the police had not covered all the entrances and exits to the building before moving in. As it was, the loading dock was clear, and he dashed away down the street. A short taxi ride later, he checked into a hostel. Only then did he relax, sitting down on the bed, catching his breath.

  There were a number of things he needed to figure out. First of all, what had caused his phone to be transmitting and running GPS when he had turned it off? It seemed a very unlikely coincidence that the police showed up just a few minutes later.

  He powered up the phone again, but this time inside his Faraday bag, preventing any electromagnetic radiation from escaping.

  He had noted the checksum of the firmware from when he installed the OS on the phone a few days earlier, and he immediately noticed that it was different. That meant someone had updated the firmware on his phone! With malicious firmware, it was trivial to do things like make the phone appear to shutdown when the power button was pressed, but continue transmitting.

  How had his phone been infected?

  He suspected the RFID/NFC interface. And he suspected he knew who had attacked him. He had one adversary here in Shanghai who could benefit from having him out of the way: NØviz!

  There was only one way to find out what had happened, and that was to go through the code and analyze the malware.

  He added a network analyzer process to run in the background, then restarted the mobile inside the Faraday bag. After it finished booting, he checked the logs. The mobile had reached out to what seemed to be a Command and Control (C&C) server, then had turned on the GPS and started texting the coordinates at regular intervals. He noted the phone numbers and looked them up.

  Besides the local police station, there was also a number that was associated with the U.S. consulate in Shanghai and another number that he couldn’t identify. He looked through the messages that the malware had attempted to send. The one to the U.S. consulate had his GPS location and all of his aliases—Mick, Alec, and even Seamus! He ran the Chinese one through a translator and it seemed to be saying he was a drug smuggler. The one to the unknown number used a very distinctive character set—Cyrillic. Great! So now he was wanted by the Chinese for being a smuggler, and by now both the General and the FSB knew he was here. He cursed silently under his breath.

  For a moment he considered if Jasinski was in on the attack, but quickly discarded the idea. But how did NØviz know what kind of mobile he was using? He went through the messages he had sent to Jasinski and noticed that the very first one he sent did leak this information. If Jasinski had shown it to NØviz, then he would know.

  Then he wondered if NØviz had compromised Jasinski’s computer. This seemed plausible. He himself had been compromised after being around NØviz just briefly. Jasinski had been with him for days.

  First on his list was retiring the phone. He was furious at himself for switching devices at a critical moment such as this. He had another phone that he had also bought at the marketplace that he knew well, and re-flas
hed the firmware with a known good version. Then he activated a new SIM card and compiled and installed the operating system. Satisfied with it, he powered it down and put it in the Faraday bag.

  He rolled over and turned out the light. Next on his list of things to do the next day was to purchase hair dye to lighten his dark hair.

  Chapter 27.

  Ja2 How do you convince someone that they are wrong? What if they don’t listen? #frustrating #donttrythisathome

  Mick didn’t sleep well during the night, using his pack as his pillow and gripping the compromised mobile in his fist. He was up early shopping and having a hot breakfast that normally would have tasted delicious, but now it seemed to sit in a lump in his stomach.

  He continued the analysis of the attack. He missed the cozy surroundings of the lab. Unfortunately from now on he would need to change locations every day and keep looking over his shoulder.

  Mick realized he had not eaten in hours. Just a little further down the street was a collection of bicycle carts selling food. He wandered in their direction and soon was slurping down a large bowl of ramen. The cabbage tasted particularly good for some reason, perhaps because of his hunger. The more he ate, the more focused his thoughts became.

  It was true. Kateryna had been helped by the Russians. Kateryna was probably working with the Russians now. She had lied to him. These thoughts felt like punches, but at least now he was able to defend against them. And accepting this fact, he felt the need to know the rest.

  He sat in the hostel lobby for a while to get a change of scenery and to people-watch. Some of the backpackers seemed incredibly young. Or was he starting to feel old?

  A wall-mounted screen caught his attention, with a British newsreader talking in front of a graphic that was obviously supposed to represent hacking, along with the logos of several global companies.

  “Can you turn the sound on?” he called out the girl behind the counter. She clicked a remote and the sound came on.