Proportionate Response

by Dave Buschi

  China Telecom was overwhelming in its size, but once you broke it down into its component parts, it was a little more manageable in terms of understanding the layout. The complex was essentially three massive facilities all joined together into one. There was the utility operation, where they were now, which supplied the power and cooling for the entire complex. The second part were the offices and cubicle areas, which were contained within a sprawling network of buildings that formed a horseshoe shape around the third piece of the puzzle. The data center.

  The data center was the largest of the three divisional areas of the complex. Its footprint could be measured in the tens of hectares, which was acres and acres. Those acres accommodated the miles and miles of servers, all of which were lined up like library shelves.

  Data centers may flex in size, but they were predictable in their basic configurations and needs. The lining up of the servers reminded Marks of farms with their rows and rows of crops. And those crops, or “servers”, needed two things so they could grow and be healthy. Power and cooling. You give them that and everything was fine.

  The distribution of power and cooling had to be carefully monitored and regulated. Servers were power hogs and put off massive amounts of heat. That heat had to be addressed with sophisticated cooling systems, or otherwise those sensitive circuit boards within the servers got fried like Ore-Ida taters left in the oven too long.

  From what they could tell looking at the plans they did have, levels 2 thru 5 of one section of the complex appeared to be nothing but servers. But there was an area on the ground level that looked promising. The power needs of the Black Widow would be considerable. The Black Widow, for all its badass capabilities, was not an enormous piece of equipment. It was big, but not crazy big. And the room that housed it wouldn’t need to be that large.

  On the ground level was an unusual configuration of rooms. It wasn’t wide-open like the levels containing the servers, and the rooms were setup differently than you’d expect for your typical offices and cubicle spaces. The area had the look of a control center. In the mix of those rooms was a medium-sized room that was being fed by a trunk line of power. Easy bet that was it. The Black Widow.

  The power distribution was the giveaway. They just had to follow the juice to the target. And once there, Lip would need to find a diagnostic hub and insert the stick. Once he’d downloaded the Stuxnet software program that would be all she wrote. That malicious software would take root and go to work.

  Their job would be done. And then it was just a matter of them getting out of here. Hopefully, if it all stitched together, they’d accomplish that by mingling with all the other personnel that would be jettisoning this building en masse.

  Plan sounded simple enough. Course they always did till the first complication reared its ugly head. In fact, Marks was already looking at one right now.

  “Man, you’re even uglier as an Asian, as you are as an American,” Marks said.

  “Shut up, Yao,” Lip said. “And take us to the Black Widow. We’ve got seventeen minutes before the alarm goes off.”

  133

  SEVENTEEN minutes. Sounded like a heck of a lot of time. It’s amazing how quickly that span of time could get eaten up. It was like Pac-Man was on their trail gobbling up all their seconds.

  It didn’t help that they had a lot of ground to cover. The distance to the target, zigzag it was going to be, was easily more than two football fields in length, and it wasn’t like they could move at a trot. Lip’s palm-sized device, which was now in his pocket, was allowing Johnny Two-cakes to track their movements.

  The differential GPS receiver that Lip had inserted beneath one of the panels in the utility area was one of three fixed ground-based reference systems that was relaying their global position. The other two DGPS receivers had been placed earlier outside the perimeter walls of China Telecom. With those three receivers in place, Johnny Two-cakes could lock onto them and pinpoint their location inside the complex. It wasn’t fancy on his end; it was a lot like a Pac-Man blip on his screen, but it could nail Lip’s and Marks’s location within a few feet.

  It would have been nice to have ear mikes, as well, so they could also be in direct communication with Johnny Two-cakes, but the signal would never work with the electromagnetic shielding they had in this joint. It blocked certain radio frequencies. Subsequently, they had to improvise. And the differential global positioning system was it. Johnny Two-cakes could see their location and pave the way for them. That included taking care of certain obstacles along the way.

  Marks and Lip could walk, but no running. It was bad for two reasons. Johnny Two-cakes needed time to do what he needed to do. And secondly, running, when everyone else was walking, had the bad habit of drawing attention to oneself. And that was not in the plan.

  The majority of the security features inside this complex were on the perimeter. Getting in was the big challenge. And they had already accomplished that. Now that they were inside, they could head to the target, just so long as Johnny Two-cakes took care of the few obstacles in their way.

  The first obstacle was already served up. Marks and Lip stopped at a door. This particular door, by way of a vestibule, connected to the sprawling network of offices and work areas. The vestibule was actually a mantrap. There was one door on either side of the vestibule. A secure card ID was needed to open each door. The secure card ID generated an authentication code at fixed intervals. It was all about algorithms, which generated one-time passwords. If you had a legitimate card, it was as simple as swiping the card in the slot beside the door and the door would open and let you pass into the vestibule.

  Inside the vestibule was a security camera. Before the second door opened, the first door needed to shut. If for any reason a person needed to be detained after viewing them, it was a simple matter to keep both doors locked by overriding that individual’s secure card ID and trapping them inside. Hence the term, “mantrap”.

  Outside the door was another security camera. It was on them right now, recording their presence. Hopefully Johnny Two-cakes already had that buttoned up. Just in case, Lip took a dummy card out and pretended to swipe it in the slot by the door. It was a card that hadn’t been configured. Same spec as the house used, but it wasn’t in the system. Totally worthless, but if there was anyone watching on the cameras, it would appear that Lip had just swiped a card.

  They waited.

  The red LED by the door handle switched to green. Nice.

  Lip opened the door and the two of them stepped into the vestibule. The door closed behind them. Above their heads was another camera. Lip did the same deal, and pretended to swipe the card again.

  The green LED blinked. Johnny Two-cakes was two for two. So far so good.

  They opened the door and left the mantrap. They stepped into a corridor. They were officially leaving the utility section of the complex and entering the office area.

  Marks took the lead with Lip glued to his hip. They took a left and walked down the corridor. This was where things could get dicey in a hurry. This was a secondary circulation corridor, but it was likely they’d encounter someone. Trick was going to be looking like they belonged. They had the uniforms and they had the masks. Still wasn’t exactly comforting. Doors were all along the corridor and many of them led into personnel rich areas.

  They weren’t fifty yards down the corridor when the first door opened. A man stepped out. He was wearing a suit. He had all the look of senior level management.

  The man started walking their way.

  “If he says something, let me do the talking,” Lip whispered.

  “Like I could say something,” Marks whispered back.

  They kept their stride. Man seemed distracted. He was reading some sort of report as he walked. Just keep on reading, buddy.

  The man got closer and glanced up at Lip. Nothing registered on his face. The man walked right on past.

  That was too friggin’ easy.

  “You know, this just might
work,” Lip said, a little further on.

  Marks kept them on the Yellow Brick Road. They went through a cased opening, and the corridor they were in veered towards the left. The place reminded Marks of a hospital. There was an antiseptic look to everything. Light-colored linoleum floors, the poured kind, where there weren’t any tiles. The walls were plain, and the lights overhead were fluorescent troffers that were inset in the ceiling.

  Speaking of lights, Marks was still amazed that nothing had changed in this joint with power being off around the city. No emergency lights were kicking in. Place wasn’t missing a beat. It appeared to be business as usual inside here.

  They passed a bank of windows and saw a large room where employees were sitting in front of monitors. It looked like a telemarketing setup: long tables arranged in parallel rows with workers sitting right next to each other. All the employees had headsets, and were talking and typing away. Not one of them looked up from their screens as Marks and Lip walked past. It was either one-way glass, or those guys were seriously focused.

  The corridor kept veering to the left. There should be another mantrap ahead, which would take them into the next section. Just like in Marks’s head, the corridor finished its bend and opened up. There was a long run of corridor ahead of them, well over a hundred feet in length, which ended with a pair of double doors. Halfway down the corridor, before you came to the double doors, was the mantrap. It was on the right.

  “There it is,” Lip said.

  They kept an easy stride. No hurrying in their step. They were twenty feet away from the mantrap when they saw the double doors at the end of the corridor swing open. Three men walked through. They were wearing uniforms and had utility belts, which each held a flashlight and covered sidearm.

  Security guards.

  This was where things could unravel fast. They kept cool. Nothing else to do. Pretend they were just walking in the park. Guards ahead of them seemed relaxed. That was a good sign. But as the men drew closer, sizes were going to become a little more apparent. Marks was going to tower over these guys, and Lip wouldn’t exactly blend in either. On top of it, the guards looked small. That certainly wasn’t going to help Marks’s and Lip’s cause.

  “Knew this plan sucked,” Marks whispered.

  “Should of spoken up when you had the chance.”

  “I did,” Marks said.

  “Yeah, me too. Fuckers didn’t listen to us, did they?”

  “Nope. Should we take them out?” Marks said.

  “Let’s give Mei’s one-hundred percent perfect plan a try first.”

  They reached the mantrap and came to a stop. Lip kept it casual and pretended to swipe his card. The guards drew closer. One of them seemed to be looking at Marks. There was a curious expression on the man’s face.

  That wasn’t good.

  Marks looked at the door. The red LED light was on by the handle. Come on Johnny Two-cakes, open the door.

  The guard was staring at Marks intently now. Marks paid him no attention. The men were fifteen feet away now. The LED light by the handle changed green.

  About time.

  Lip opened the door and held it for Marks. Marks stepped through casually and as he did so the guard said something to him in Shanghainese. Marks ignored him and stepped into the vestibule. The guard raised his voice and said the same thing again.

  Shit.

  134

  THE guard’s voice hung there. The man was looking directly at him. He had stopped walking and was obviously waiting for Marks to respond. The man’s other two compatriots had stopped walking, as well, and were standing there, just looking at him. Three expectant faces. Not a smile in the bunch.

  Lip didn’t miss a beat. He rattled something off in Shanghainese. The guard glanced at Lip and said a few words. Lip said a few words back.

  The guard chuckled. He looked at Marks and said something to him directly. Damn. Man expected him to respond. Lip couldn’t bail him out this time. Marks shrugged and said, “Dui.”

  The guard’s eyes went wide. His taciturn face changed to one of surprise. Lip said something else. The guard laughed again, and waved Marks off with a hand. He began walking down the corridor, and the other two guards joined him.

  Lip stepped in the vestibule and closed the door behind them. Marks didn’t say a word. The camera was on them now. Lip pretended to swipe the card again.

  They waited.

  The door stayed closed.

  Marks could see through the door’s view window into the room beyond. There was a large room. The place was full of employees, all dressed like them. Lots of activity with people walking around, while others were at workstations typing away. There were banks of blinking equipment in the middle of the space and flat screens were along one wall. The place looked like some sort of operations hub.

  The LED light by the door handle was staying red. Not the time to be slipping here, JTC. Any second now, if the door didn’t open, people were going to notice them and wonder what the heck was up.

  135

  THE man in the white mask was awakened by the soft peel of an alarm. It intruded in his subconsciousness, its tendrils tugging and pulling, vying for his attention. At first he thought it was part of his dream, but as his eyes opened he realized there was an alarm going off.

  He stared at the plush canopy over his bed, his eyes adjusting to the foreign intrusion of light. It wasn’t the dim grayish light that morning typically brought, but another type of illumination. Brighter. Coming from outside.

  He sat upright in his enormous bed and looked over at the ornate clock on his bedside table. Even with the light, he couldn’t quite make out the hands on the clock. He squinted his eyes and focused. It appeared the hour hand was nearing the roman numeral four, and the minute hand was ten or so before the hour. 3:50 AM? His head felt fuzzy. Vaguely he recalled those three nightcaps he’d had before retiring.

  The alarm continued. Annoying. Grating.

  What was that bloody noise?

  He put his feet on the floor and found his slippers. Out his windows, night was being kept at bay. He stood up and found his silk robe where he’d left it on the ottoman at the foot of his bed. Putting it on, he walked over to his large bay window. Floodlights were illuminating the grounds.

  His bedroom was on the third floor and he could see a good breadth of his estate from this vantage point. Manicured grounds stretched beneath him. Floodlights were illuminating the trees and plantings.

  There didn’t appear to be anyone out there. Just the lights making it daytime again. The alarm stopped. The lights that were on outside went off. Darkness took over again, except for a few dim landscape lights that were always left on at night. Curious and a tad bit alarmed, he fastened his robe and went to his master bathroom.

  As he entered the room, dimmed lights came on automatically. His bathroom was enormous and opulently appointed. The low light shimmered off the gilded mirrors, gold faucets, and alabaster-colored marble.

  The man in the white mask looked in the mirror. Sleep had softened his features, giving his cheeks a puffiness they normally did not have. His skin in the soft light was preternaturally unblemished and was as smooth as a woman’s. Pigment wise, it was luminous, barely a shade darker than ivory. Only his cheeks and lips had a rosy tint. Overall the face was masculine, but those lips had a femininity in their plump curvature. There was something vaguely aristocratic in his bearing. He had a strong jaw line and piercing blue eyes.

  The man in the white mask attended to himself, forgoing his normal ablutions. Coffee-colored contacts were put in place. The white mask, which was resting on a mannequin’s head that was on the marble countertop, was picked up. The man put the mask on and adjusted it in the mirror. That done, he left the bathroom and went to see what was causing the commotion.

  ONE of his servants was waiting for him at the foot of the marble staircase.

  “What has happened?” the man in the white mask said, annoyance in his tone.

  The
man bowed low. “I’m sorry master. It was the power. It just came on. The outside lights were triggered, as was the alarm. Everything is fine now.”

  “The power?”

  “Yes,” the servant said. “We lost power for about an hour, but it has come back on.”

  How perfectly annoying.

  “Well, what are you standing there for?” the man in the white mask said. “I’m awake.”

  The servant needed no further instructions. “I will see that your breakfast is prepared,” the man said with another bow. He quickly left the room.

  The man in the white mask stood there in thought. It was rare that power was lost. He yelled the servant’s name and the man hastened back into the room.

  “Was it just my estate that lost power?”

  “Oh no, master,” the servant said. “The entire city of Shanghai lost power for almost an hour.”

  136

  IT wasn’t looking good. The LED light on the door handle was stuck on red. The fact no one had noticed them, yet, stuck in the vestibule for the last two and a half minutes, was nothing short of amazing. Marks glanced at his timepiece. They had seven minutes till the alarm wailed. Once it did, everyone was going to notice them stuck in here.

  “Any suggestions?” Marks whispered without moving his lips.

  “Mary,” Lip whispered.

  “What?” Marks whispered back.

  “Sturgeon,” Lip whispered.

  Marks looked at Lip like he was daft.

  “Haddock,” Lip whispered.

  Ah. Marks pegged what the heck track Lip was stuck on. Partner was spouting lines from his favorite Marx Brothers movie, Horse Feathers. Figured Lip would find humor at a time like this.

  “At’s a-funny, I got a haddock too,” Marks whispered.

  “What do you take for a haddock?” Lip whispered.