The Dark Web_The stunning new thriller from the author of The Angolan Clan

by Christopher Lowery

  FORTY-FIVE

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Wednesday, 14 July 2017

  ‘I hear Shen sent everything off last night? Pressure’s off for a while.’ Ed took a swig of coffee. He’d just come from Hatim’s office, where the lawyer had promised to visit Oskar Novak in prison to hand over the $1,000 ‘get out of jail’ money from Leo.

  Sharif nodded his head. ‘Just housekeeping until we get the next project from Shanghai. But it might be sooner than we think.’

  The remark made Ed’s ears prick up. ‘Sounds like you’re expecting something specific. Anything I should know?’

  The Pakistani looked away. ‘Just something Shen mentioned.’

  Ed tried to sound nonchalant. ‘To do with that cell, S470C887,999?’

  ‘How do you know about that?’

  ‘I don’t. Only that Leo was trying to work out what it’s for.’

  ‘It’s something Shanghai’s working on, I don’t know the details. Shen thinks we’ll get a chance to build something even better than ACRE.’

  ‘That would be difficult.’ Now Ed was sure Sharif had been hoodwinked by his boss. ‘Isn’t that one of your cells?’

  ‘Morning, guys.’ Shen came into the office. ‘What’s new?’

  Sharif shifted on his seat. ‘We were just wondering when we might get the new project from Shanghai.’

  ‘I’m going up there as soon as they send out the upgrades. It’s top of my list of priorities, I don’t want you guys sitting around with nothing to do.’ He gave a mirthless laugh, avoiding looking at them.

  In for a penny, in for a pound, Ed thought. ‘Is it as exciting as Sharif said? Bigger than ACRE?’

  ‘I’m not allowed to discuss it, but it’s quite earth-shattering, I promise you.’

  ‘Strange Tom hasn’t said anything about it.’

  ‘You know he’s not in touch a lot with head office, he leaves all that to me. Now, I’ve got a few things to do, so I’ll catch you later.’ He walked out, leaving the two men looking at each other.

  Ed tried to provoke a reaction from Sharif. ‘What the hell’s going on? He’s working with Shanghai on something the CEO doesn’t know about?’

  ‘I don’t know. I try not to get involved in office politics, it’s not my business.’

  Shen went straight to his office and called Elodie. ‘Ed’s poking his nose into things.’ He explained what had transpired. ‘What do we do? Take him out of the picture?’

  She forced herself to be patient. ‘That’s not a great idea, we don’t want another incident, especially right now. Don’t forget there’s some connection with that general at Homeland Security. We can’t afford to arouse his suspicions.’

  ‘So what do you want me to do?’

  ‘Can you get Shanghai to speed up the test procedure and move the deployment date forward?’

  ‘I can try, but it’s the regular Lee-Win systems people handling the upload, our guy will only step in after it’s gone out. I can’t pressure them too much or they’ll think there’s something wrong. I’ll call them and see what the timetable is.’

  ‘Maybe you should go up there and get them moving?’

  ‘I don’t know. Let me see what’s happening and I’ll decide. I’ll call you later.’

  Elodie put the phone down in exasperation. She couldn’t wait until she no longer needed this idiot. Once she got to Dublin with her reward for five years of putting up with him, she wouldn’t hang around. A quick change of identity, an airline ticket and she’d be leaving on a jet plane, John Denver style.

  Marbella, Spain

  Jenny’s mobile rang at seven-thirty. It was a clear, sunny morning and she’d already enjoyed a refreshing ten-minute swim in the pool. Encarni and Juan didn’t arrive until eight, and she’d thrown aside her inhibitions and swum in the nude. She’d woken up feeling a little bleary and the cold water had helped to clear her head. The coffee machine was spewing out her morning dose of caffeine when she saw it was Patrice’s number calling.

  ‘Hola, Patrice. Que tal?’

  ‘Hi, Jenny, your Spanish is improving, keep it up. I just want to give you a quick update, is this a good time?’

  ‘Fire away, I’m taking my coffee out to the terrace.’

  ‘It turns out that Mme Lee-Win lives in Hong Kong now and she’s one of our PE clients, has been for a couple of years. Ho Au Yeung has a good relationship with her. The sad part of the story is that she’s ill. She has an untreatable condition, prognosis only a few years to live. That’s why she’s moved here from Macau.’

  ‘My God, how awful. How old is she?’

  ‘Sixty-two, much too young, but there’s apparently no hope. Her sons are taking over the casino business and they’ve sold off the manufacturing plants the family had in China.’

  ‘She’s been sorting out her affairs.’

  ‘Exactly. I spoke to her this morning and she’s invited me over to her house tomorrow. I explained what we’re looking for and she said she’d try to help. Seems like she wants to talk about what happened, her husband’s death and her decision to sell the microprocessor business and move to Macau.’

  ‘Like a last catharsis to cleanse herself of those bad things?’

  ‘I suppose so. I’ll try to get as much information as I can, documents, whatever she has that might help us. I’ll call you again tomorrow when I know what’s available.’

  Jenny thought for a moment. ‘I don’t think you should tell her about the cyber-attack, Patrice. It won’t help, and the shock might endanger her health. We don’t want her blaming herself because her company is being used for such an awful purpose. Just stick to the ownership angle, I’m sure it will be sufficient.’

  They said goodbye and she checked the time. It was just coming up to eight, and she heard Encarni’s cheerful ‘Buenos dias, Jenny.’ She called Coetzee, it was the same time in Joburg and he would be waiting for her news.

  Zurich, Switzerland

  ‘Sehr gut. Das sind gute Neuigkeiten. That’s good news. When will Shanghai send it out? A few days, excellent.’ Max Oberhart was listening to his son’s latest report from Dubai. ‘I’ll pass the message on to Julius at Hai-Sat. He’s getting impatient.’

  He listened for a moment. ‘Just sit tight and let’s see how the launch goes. It’s too early to make a move yet. We’ve waited a couple of years, a few days more won’t make a difference now that we’re so close. If it goes well, I’ll set up a board meeting to agree on our strategy.’

  Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa

  ‘I’ll only be here for a few days. Whatever they’re going to do, they won’t wait long. I’ll call as soon as I know my plans.’

  Leo was walking in the courtyard behind the farm in Delmas, trying to calm his mother down on the phone. Since Emma had learned the reason for his arrest, she’d worried constantly that something else would happen to him, remembering the story of his predecessor, Scotty. And she still remembered the trauma of the 2010 events in South Africa.

  Coetzee came over to him. ‘Ed’s on the phone, you’d better listen.’

  ‘I have to go, love you Mum.’ He switched off and listened to the other call.

  Ed was saying, ‘First, they sent off the package last night with our original clean coding, so it looks like a two-stage process, and that gives us more time. Second, Sharif let something slip. You were right, he didn’t put that cell in, it was done in Shanghai. Shen spun him some crap about being prepared for the next big breakthrough, bigger than ACRE, and Sharif believed him. And he got that A2 code from Shen. Problem is, he came in and heard us talking and knows I’m up to speed, so I’m not sure what to do next.’

  ‘Did you ask Sharif about the hub network coordinates?’

  ‘I didn’t get the chance, but I’m pretty sure he won’t know. Shen’s the only person to have direct contact with Shanghai, he’s their board guy and even Tom Connor gives him a free rein. Tom knows nothing about that cell, and neither does Daniel, they mentioned it the
other day, but no one seems to know anything about it. That Chinese prick runs the show.’

  ‘Ed, this is a really big deal, we’re pretty sure that cell’s in all the Lee-Win processors built over the last four years. So it’s hundreds of millions of machines.’

  ‘Shit, I don’t fucking believe it; these bastards are planning a worldwide cyber-attack? What can I do to help? There must be something.’

  ‘I spoke to Chillicott yesterday, and if we can identify the hub network access he’d have a go at hacking into it before the upload takes place. What do you think?’

  ‘Maybe Sharif knows something. I’ll try again to worm it out of him. I would check with Daniel as well, but he’d start to wonder what the hell’s going on.’

  ‘I’m sending you a copy of the cell S470 code, so you can run it on my network downstairs and see what happens. The processors stop working and the whole system shuts down after thirty seconds.’

  ‘I’ll take a look at it in the lab.’ Ed stopped, an idea forming in his mind. ‘Sharif must have received that code from Shen in some kind of digital form. Maybe there’s some ID on the file, something that might lead us to the hub network. I’ll see if I can get him to show it to me. What else?’

  ‘Chillicott asked if you could get a photo of Elodie. They’d try to match it with their database. See if she’s known.’

  Ed’s tone changed. ‘OK, Lynne, I’ll see if I can find some and we’re on for nine tonight, right? Cool. Ciao, baby.’ The phone went dead.

  ‘Quick thinking. Shen probably came into the room.’ Coetzee laughed, ‘I like Ed. He’s a complicated mix of back street cunning and naïve high-mindedness.’

  ‘I just hope we’re not getting him involved in something he can’t handle. I don’t want anything to happen to him or Lynne.’

  ‘Abby’s got an idea. Let’s go back inside and hear what she has to say.’

  They went into Coetzee’s office, where his daughter was writing on the blackboard. Rod and Julia were there with Karen.

  Abby said to the two employees, ‘Listen up, guys. Dad wants us all to swear we’ll keep this information amongst ourselves. It’s a potentially devastating way of hacking into a system, and the fewer people who know about it the better. When we get through this, we all have to wipe everything from our systems, so nobody can try it again in the future. Agreed?’

  They nodded in agreement and she pointed at the flow chart she’d drawn. ‘What’s going to happen here is that, first of all, they’ll upload the upgraded firmware and the new ACRE to all the Lee-Win customers out there. When the users download the package, it will activate the connectivity modules and ACRE will take over the transmission management, and interconnect all their equipment in a mesh environment with the new firmware and encryption.’

  ‘I wish I’d had you on my team at XPC, Abby,’ Leo said. ‘You’ve described the process just as it will happen, clear and concise.’

  She blushed. ‘I’ve had more time to think quietly about it while you’ve been rushing around. Anyway, I’m sure they’ll want to know everything’s functioning correctly before they send the A2 trigger.’

  ‘Ed thinks the same, and I guess it’s the only logical conclusion. It should give us a few days’ extra time.’

  ‘Then you think they’ll send the trigger to override ACRE to decrypt all those networks?’

  ‘I don’t think that’s the plan, Julia. ACRE’s not just an encryption algorithm, it also creates a single line of communication from Lee-Win to every device that has their processors. It has to, to maintain encryption in the data flow across all the pieces of equipment.’

  She showed the flow of communication on her diagram. ‘What Leo designed here is brilliant, it’s a totally ubiquitous way to remotely reach all kinds of systems and turn them into mesh networks, intercommunicating with ACRE via their connectivity modules.’

  ‘You can replace “brilliant” with “terrifying”. I’ve designed the most dangerous Internet threat in the world, now we’ve got to un-design it.’

  Abby showed the continuation of the path. ‘I’m sure they’ll use ACRE to reach the cell we’ve been looking at and trigger it. But they’re not going to override the encryption, that would be self-defeating, it would destroy their line of communication.’

  Coetzee looked admiringly at his daughter. ‘What do you think they’ll do?’

  ‘Just what we did. Close the network down, and keep it closed down with the constant trigger commands.’

  ‘I don’t follow.’ Rod looked perplexed. ‘What would be the point of that?’

  ‘Because, the only purpose of hacking at this level, which is probably on the greatest scale we’ve ever witnessed, must be to use it for blackmail.’

  ‘You mean, “Pay and we switch off the trigger, don’t pay and we leave it on”. Simple, but effective.’

  ‘Maybe it’s not paying, Rod. With those stakes, it could be political, or some kind of power grab, who knows.’

  Coetzee said, ‘I assume there’s nothing we can do to change that cell? To somehow prevent it from receiving those instructions?’

  ‘It’s a physical cell, Dad. It acts the way it was built to act. Unless you can actually remove it from the card, it will always do what it’s doing.’

  Leo nodded his agreement. ‘Our only chance is to work out how to override that command it triggers.’

  Abby said, ‘Rod, if we run it again and again for you, can you find where that shutdown function is? Where the handover from the cell goes to?’

  ‘I can sure try, but I don’t know how long it’ll take. If Julia can give me a hand, we’ll need to get back in the lab and set things up. Let’s go, Jules.’

  FORTY-SIX

  Dubai, United Arab Emirates

  Wednesday, 14 July 2017

  Shen Fu Liáng was in his locked office, speaking in Russian on his encrypted mobile. ‘If I get the upgrades deployed by Friday, how long do you need to upload the trigger?’

  He listened for a moment. ‘Sunday, that’s his decision? OK, I’ll be there on Friday evening. I’ll text the flight details once I book the ticket. Send my driver to pick me up, I’ll be shot, two long flights.’

  He finished the call and pressed Elodie’s number. ‘I’ve spoken to Shanghai, but they don’t seem to be in a hurry. I’m going to fly up there to kick their asses, I’m sure I can get them to launch by Friday. I’ll tell Tom I have a Lee-Win board meeting and I can follow up on the deployment of the upgrades while I’m there. He’ll be fine with it.’

  She supressed an ‘I told you so’ remark. ‘That’s a marvellous idea. When will you go?’

  ‘There’s a flight at two-fifty tomorrow morning. It’s a nine-hour flight, so I’ll go first class and get some sleep. With the time difference, I’ll be there by the afternoon to get things moving. I should be back in a couple of days, then we’re off to Dublin. OK with you?’

  ‘I’ll miss you, that’s all,’ she lied. A couple of days without him would feel like a break from prison. The thought reminded her of Leo Stewart, and she wondered what had happened to him, where he was.

  ‘I’ll be home about seven. See you then.’

  Shen went up to Tom’s office and explained his plan. The CEO was all in favour of the trip, ‘Good idea, remind them who’s responsible for the on-time delivery. Nora can make your reservation, give you time to sort things out. I’ve got a few papers you can take up with you, save me the trouble of scanning them.’

  After giving Nora instructions for the Emirates flight to Shanghai, Shen returned to his office and closed the door. He wrote a two-line message, encrypted it and sent it to an email address in China. Then he went online and booked first class on a China East flight from Shanghai to Moscow, leaving on Friday at one p.m., paying from his personal account. It was a ten-hour flight; with the time difference, he would be there by early evening. He texted the details in Russian to the number he’d called earlier.

  Shen checked his watch. It was five-thirty. He
went along to chat with Sharif before leaving, just to make sure he could still be relied on.

  London, England

  ‘Well, Ilona my dear, the whole world now knows that the mighty Russian Federation is rattling its sabres. Our leaders are becoming quite concerned at the president’s intentions. Of course, that doesn’t mean they’ll actually do anything about it.’ Dr Hugh Middleton was reading the Daily Telegraph reports of Russian troop and naval movements in Eastern Europe.

  ‘You mean until it’s too late, just like in my country.’

  ‘Precisely. America is carrying out what they always refer to as “military exercises” in several NATO countries, but we are aware of their president’s ambivalent attitude to that organisation, largely funded, as he points out, by the US. He may send out inflammatory tweets and make threatening speeches, but it remains to be seen what action he would actually take, or, more pertinently, be allowed to take. They’ve also announced a meeting of NATO members in Brussels this weekend, but I anticipate an abundance of rhetoric and an absence of decisions.’

  ‘With twenty-eight member states, all with their own vested interests, it’s not surprising. They’re usually too late, too selfish or too disinterested to take a stand on any matter which might cause dissent.’

  ‘Indeed. And even though Billy’s suggestion of convening the UNSC seems to be gaining traction, I’m afraid indecision and vacillation have become the order of the day when faced with resolution and boldness. It has been ever thus since Reagan and Thatcher were no longer the leaders of our western world, alas.’

  ‘And the Lee-Win global deployment is imminent. Do you really think there could be a connection between them?’

  ‘I’m inclined to believe so, except for one peculiar fact. Lee-Win is a Chinese company, and this military threat is a typically Russian strategy. The 2011 Sino-Russian trade agreements were trumpeted as being the start of a long-lasting love story, but it’s a very one-sided affair and I find it difficult to imagine our Chinese friends sticking out their necks to support Moscow in such a potentially damaging scenario. I don’t suppose you’ve received any clarification of the ownership from your South African friend?’