by Peche, Alec
After forty-five minutes of conversation and lots of keyboard typing, it appeared that the telephone call was coming to an end. The four observers abandoned the other work they were doing and prepared to listen to the FBI's expert on cyber-ghosts.
"Thank you, Dr. Quint, for making this connection for me. I have essentially been working in isolation for the past three years mostly because my work is not understood by many people. However, the two people in Germany not only understood my work but could tell me how to accelerate it," said Madeline, the cyber-ghost hunter. "I had glimpses of this ghost over the past three years – a digital fingerprint here or there. It was occasionally enough information for me to figure out where the ghost was and shut them down and out of the system but that was all I could do and the ghost would pop up again once they found a new system to attack. I now have a piece of code that I can use to trap the ghost and I'll have him or her within twenty-four hours according to my new friends in Germany and I believe them as this is what I've been searching for the past couple years but had been unable to figure out what to do on my own. Give me ten minutes to insert this code then I'll walk you through what I'm doing while the computer is working in the background."
What could any of them say but 'okay' to a twenty-year-old wonderkid whose actions might save the lives of the Department of Revenue employees as well as future targets of the sovereign citizen movement? And so they patiently waited for her to finish inserting her piece of code. At least they had a vague idea of what that meant. As promised, a short time later she finished and turned around to speak to the group.
"I was recruited to work for the FBI while in high school or maybe I should say I was offered the opportunity to work for the FBI in lieu of going to prison for hacking into the Social Security Administration system and increasing my grandmother's pension payments. At the time, it was just my grandmother and I living together and we were having a hard time paying the rent, buying food, and keeping the electricity on. I always had a knack with computers and so I decided that I would simply increase my grandmother's monthly check to fix the problem. So I worked on the solution for about two months and figured out how to do it. I wasn't greedy, I didn't increase Granny's check by five thousand a month, no, I just added two hundred dollars a month as that would close the gap for us. So I did and we had the power on continuously for six months and neither of us never went to bed hungry.
"Unfortunately I was caught. Apparently the Social Security Administration routinely runs a report looking at changes to pension checks. While two hundred dollars didn't seem much at the time it set off the warning bells on this report because there were no life events that could explain the increase. So Granny got a letter saying there had been an error and that her check was being reduced back to the original amount and she would have to pay back the overage. As you can imagine, I was outraged over this. So I increased her check even more but added code that made it look like she was paying back the overage. When her account came up a second time, it was referred to the cybercrime division of the FBI for investigation. We worked out a deal; for the past five years I've worked for the cybercrimes division of the FBI and my paycheck has made Granny very comfortable. All of this is just background and an explanation of my credentials.
"For the first few years with the FBI my job was to look for and report hackers just like myself that were getting benefits from various federal programs by manipulating the IT systems of the federal government. At first I thought everyone would be like me just trying to get an extra two hundred to help keep the power on, but I've exposed a whole bunch of greedy lazy fools who were out and out stealing from the federal government. I hacked into the system and made a change to the program that directed the printing of my grandmother's monthly check. It's a very unsophisticated way to get what you need. On the side, I started chasing this ghost as I could see it making changes in different systems, but money, on the surface, was not the outcome of these changes. Rather this individual changed identities, erased records in the military, issued fake licenses, issued birth and death certificates and things like that. On one hand, it's not a priority if no money is being stolen, however what should be frightening is this person's ability to move around various government systems making changes at will. Once a day, I set aside some time to chase this person through cyberspace and bounce through twenty-five to fifty computers throughout the world before I end up in a dead-end location being gobbled up by this Pac-Man figure from the 1970s. The ghost was always one step ahead of me, and taunted and teased me into keeping up the battle. Your friends from Germany rock; they showed me how to write the code to cover the dead-end and continue the chase down another street."
Jill had been nodding at the explanation, understanding about one in ten words. Then they heard a beep from Madeline's laptop.
She reached over and hit a few keys and then a furious conversation with herself erupted as she typed away with a speed that Jill envied. Madeline looked over her shoulder and said, "The ghost has taken my bait and I'm doing the usual chase through cyberspace after her or him. In about two minutes time the ghost is going to freak when it sees that I've jumped the curb on the dead-end street. Let the games begin!"
The four spectators were staring at the screen expecting to see a computer game based on Madeline's description instead all they could see was computer code scrolling down the screen. As a group they all leaned back at nearly the same time realizing they didn't understand what was going on but hoped new clues would follow at the end of Madeline's furious activity.
"Ha, now it knows I'm in the chase. Where are you going to go next? Okay I got it!"
"Got what?" asked Moss looking at Madeline's hands as though they contained something he could arrest.
"I've got the IP address and therefore the geographical coordinates of where the ghost was during this flurry of activity. I'm just going to enter them into Google Earth and I'll know where the ghost was sitting at the time of the most recent hack."
"Can you tell what it was changing somewhere in the internet? Was this ghost visiting the FBI server, the California DMV?" asked Ortiz.
"Give me a minute on that," Madeline declared. "I think we better let the Dallas field office know that our ghost is hanging out at the public library on State Street or I should say was hanging out – it's not likely to be there now.”
Special Agent Ortiz stepped away, presumably to contact the Dallas office. Moss just shook his head at the complexity of following a ghost through cyberspace. Marie and Jill looked expectantly at Madeline for an explanation on what the ghost had been tampering with just before shutting down.
"The ghost was in a large retailer in the personnel section creating the name of a new employee and deleting the name of another. Prior to that the ghost was in the Palisades Valley Sheriff network and prior to that they tried to punch through the FBI but didn't get anywhere. By the way, Lieutenant, the ghost made a run at your server and read some materials."
The lieutenant looked so taken aback by her pronouncement that he actually looked at his fly to make sure he zipped up before moving back to his seat and looking at his own laptop. The three women hid a smirk.
Madeline volunteered, "Lieutenant, if you would like I can track where the ghost went inside your server. This way you'll know which documents are suspect."
He nodded his agreement at her and she was soon examining documents. "So you already know the ghost changed your minutes. It also pulled up your report on the adventure at Jill's house last night."
"How could it do that? I deleted it last night a few hours after I wrote it."
"Haven't you heard the phrase 'nothing is ever deleted from the internet'? The ghost likely pulled it up from your trash file. It's usually much more difficult to destroy electronic data versus paper data."
Marie asked, "Do you think that either the Lieutenant's notes or the Palisades Valley Sheriff wrote down in their reports that we were moving to Nathan's house tonight? I'm feeling really unea
sy about this. Maybe we should stay in town at a hotel."
"That's a good point, Marie," Jill agreed. "I think we should stay where we planned at Nathan's house, but have a sting operation in place to pick these guys up. Lieutenant, do you have any officers that you could post at my friend's house in case we have any activity tonight?"
"I'll find some officers to post at Nathan's house. If we could find those two killers tonight it would be better for the whole city. If you'll give me the address, I'll have them there by five or six tonight."
Ortiz approached the group obviously having ended her phone call with the Dallas office.
"I should hear back on the location in the next few minutes. The ghost picked a location within two miles of the FBI. I'm just hoping that there is video surveillance on that library. Madeline, can you prevent the information from disappearing if there is video footage of the library?"
"I think so. Give me a minute."
"Madeline, you're a pretty scary person with your incredible internet skills," Ortiz said."I'm glad you're on the good side rather than being partnered with the ghost. The world would be a terrible place with you two free to roam the internet and cause havoc."
Ortiz's cell phone rang and she again stepped away from the group. Jill and Marie finalized their plans for protection provided by the Highway Patrol. The agent stepped back to the group and handed her cell phone to Madeline. She shrugged and said, "Apparently every special agent in charge of a regional office knows about Madeline. They want to talk to her about saving the video feed from the library. They wouldn't accept my saying that Madeline had already fixed that; they wanted talk to her in person over the phone. Sheesh!"
Madeline stepped up to the group and said she would set up a video phone call so that Dallas could share the video footage with Sacramento. She paused for a moment as if thinking about something and then spoke to herself about what she would do. She looked up to see the four people staring at her with puzzled looks on their faces.
"As I was setting up this videoconference call, it occurred to me that the ghost would be able to tap into the video call as anything on a computer seems to be vulnerable. But I figured out a way around that so we won't have to worry that our ghost is listening to every word we say."
Within minutes, the two cities were connected with both locations viewing the library footage. As with most libraries, the free internet use was a popular part of the library. They looked at the users of the library that arrived at a certain time period, presented ID, and then sat down and surfed the internet. During the designated time, there were two people that could be their ghost-one male, one female. Jill debated running both pictures through the facial recognition program, but the ghost was good and would make sure that there weren't any pictures of her or him anywhere on the internet. However it might eliminate one of the two depending on what they found when they did the facial match and so she suggested it to the group. Madeline transferred the two pictures to Jill's laptop and, in no time, a match came up for the male library client. He had a criminal past but nothing amongst those crimes would indicate that he had the skills of the ghost. That led them to believe that the female was the ghost.
"It's going to be me against her and may the diva with the most superior computer skills, win!" Madeline proclaimed.
"No, Madeline we need you to win." Ortiz urged. "You know it's about good overcoming evil."
"I think I've done all that I can here. I'm going to head over to our Sacramento office and set up to watch the ghost for a while, if that's okay with you, Agent Ortiz?"
"Yes that's fine with me and thank you for your help today. I appreciate your flying across country to help us. Let's exchange cell phone numbers so we can get in touch with each other immediately if something is breaking."
In the blink of an eye, she was out the door with her trusty laptop under her arm and a look of excitement over the battle ahead with the mysterious ghost. Jill supposed that for a computer geek like Madeline, it was like she was going to come face-to-face with some avatar that had tormented her in a videogame for the past three years.
Ortiz looked at the remaining group and said, "I think I heard a conversation about the Highway Patrol arranging for security at Nathan Conroy's house tonight. What's the plan?"
"Given that the Palisades Valley Sheriff's office was accessed by our ghost, our killers may know that we have moved Jill to a new location, so we're stationing four Highway Patrol officers there."
"Nathan has a loud audible alarm system. As soon as someone steps on the premises, he has bright lights and obnoxious alarms that come on. I know this because I've been woken up by the noise and lights when some poor rabbit wandered on to his property. He could turn off those features if it will make it easier to capture the two suspects. What do you think?"
Moss looked thoughtful and then said, "I don't know the right answer, let me talk to some colleagues and I'll get back to you in a few hours, but I'm inclined to think it is a good idea to turn the special effects off. If they get away too quickly, we will have lost the opportunity to capture them."
"Okay, I'll wait for your call. I think Marie and I are done assisting you now so we're going to take off unless there is something you would like us to research."
Moss nodded and said, "We're executing our search warrant on our second suspect's employer. If we gain any identifying information that needs searching, I may contact you but otherwise your work is done here and you have a long night ahead of you. It sounds like Special Agent Ortiz is locked in geek mortal combat with her technician chasing the ghost."
With a smile and a "see you later", Jill and Marie exited Highway Patrol Headquarters to the promise of a very warm afternoon developing later that day. They stopped at a sandwich shop to grab sandwiches and water. They used the shop's restroom to change into kayaking clothes and were soon back on the road heading to a place that Jill knew rented kayaks.
Slathering on sunblock, changing into flip flops, they soon had the kayak laden with their food and drink cooler and set off paddling down the lazy river. The kayak company had given them directions of what to look for in order to exit the river and get a van ride back to their car. In the meanwhile, they would float downstream for several hours. Marie left her cellphone behind in the car while Jill's cellphone was wrapped in a water proof bag and stored in the cooler. Normally she didn't carry her phone with her on a river trip like this, but with the case poised to break open in the next twenty-four hours, she wanted to stay connected.
"With our interrupted sleep last night, the heat, and the gentle sway of this river, I could just fall asleep," Marie said on a sigh. "If you see me dozing, take my paddle from me and tie my boat to yours and we'll be fine."
"It is a relaxing place, sort of the antithesis of last night. Watching the monitor to see if someone was about to try and kill us in our sleep-it is hard to unwind from that kind of terror."
"Yeah, I might have nightmares on that experience. Where do you want to pull off and eat? Perhaps that will refuel me and drive the lethargy from my brain."
"We can pull off anywhere, so why don't we move towards shore now?"
With a little effort, they pulled to the side of the river, tugging their kayaks up the bank, and pulling out the food cooler. Spreading the beach towels on the sandy soil, they were soon leaning back against a log in the shade, munching on sandwiches washed down with water.
"Hard to imagine as we sit on this peaceful shoreline, that there are two people planning on trying to kill you tonight," Marie observed.
"I suppose it is kind of weird that we're just enjoying ourselves out on the water without a care in the world. I wonder how Nathan is going to feel when he hears that we're a target tonight?” Jill asked somewhat anxiously. She was insecure in her relationship with Nathan when it came to purposely putting herself in danger.
“He’ll probably start stretching his muscles once he gets the news. He’ll want to be in shape for the coming battle.”
Jill had to laugh at the picture that Marie painted and relaxed a little as she had nailed Nathan exactly, then stopped mid-laugh to look at her friend. “I'm sorry that I'm putting you at risk. I’ve gotten so used to dragging my friends into combat with me that I don’t give you a second thought. I could arrange a hotel for you if you would rather have a good night’s sleep and be safe.”
“Don't worry about it; between Nathan and the four Highway Patrol Officers, I feel well protected. It should be an exciting night and it will give me some material to tell my assistant about when I return. Remember, she always expects big and exotic stories, so I’m staying at Nathan’s for her.”
“Thanks for maintaining your sense of humor about the situation.”
“What are friends for? Are you ready to get back in the water and paddle some more? The food and water perked me up.”
They spent the next two hours on the river. The current could carry the kayak slowly downstream or they could make better speed by paddling. When they approached the designated pick-up location, they paddled over and pulled the kayaks up to a small parking lot. The shuttle van generally stopped every thirty minutes, so they reverted to talking about the case while waiting with no one around to overhear their conversation.
“This has been an interesting case as far as the sovereign citizen movement,” Marie noted. "I wonder how many potential employees I have researched that belonged to this organization. I would think they don’t do well during background searches as all of their information is missing or inconsistent. I would also think that they would be somewhat anti-social because of their views of the world. It’s such an extreme view I would think that you would have a hard time having common conversation with your fellow man."
“It’s really an extraordinary view and I wouldn't think there would be common ground with anyone,” Jill agreed. “You're either inside the movement and think the rest of the nation follows illegal laws or you’re on the outside looking in and you think the movement people are just plain crazy. I hope we get the two suspects tonight, but this ghost skulking in the background, roaming at will and changing major government systems without leaving a trace is a force to be very wary of. This person can wreak havoc with anyone's identity. I also think that once they have these two suspects in custody that there will be two new movement members that step up and cause problems. They could take away a lot of the power of the movement by locating this ghost of computer systems.”