Amid the Shadows

by Michael C. Grumley

  Christine jumped when she heard three shots hit the other side of the wall with a loud thunk thunk thunk.

  She looked worriedly at Rand. “They’re going to shoot their way in!”

  Rand looked at Avery. “Checkmate.”

  Avery nodded. “They’re on all sides now.”

  Rand slowly stood up and looked down at Christine and Sarah. “Both of you lay down on your stomachs.”

  Oh my god! They going to try to shoot their way out! Christine thought to herself as she let Sarah pull away and slide down onto the floor. Nervously, Christine lowered herself down next to her, while Sarah watched both men curiously.

  Rand nodded silently to Avery who nodded back. With that, Rand turned and pushed on a small area of the wall causing a door to pop open. He pulled the small door all the way back revealing a single, large button. He looked down at the girls and, without pausing, he smashed his palm against it.

  Murad lined up several of his men and instructed them to fire at the door where he believed the lock to be located on the other side. He wanted them to fire into the same spot, from the same angle, and to use a hail of bullets to drive a hole through the door.

  What he did not hear, however, was the strange sound coming from out in front of the house, as the old bird bath tipped over and fell to the ground. Nor did he realize, a second bird bath was located behind the house which fell over at the same time.

  Below the ground and from where the broken statues had stood, something large and black rose up from below. The two objects were both M134 Miniguns, each electrically driven with six Gatling-style barrels that were capable of firing 4,000 rounds per minute. Both were connected to a large belt of ammo and sat atop an auto rotating platform.

  Inside the small room, Rand and Avery fell to the floor and covered both Sarah and Christine with their bodies. Rand above Sarah, and Avery covering Christine.

  In less than a second, a small, red light on each gun changed to green, and the miniguns opened fire directly at the cabin from both ends. Instantly, the powerful 7.62mm bullets ripped through and began shredding everything in the house like tissue paper. As the screaming barrels spun, both guns rotated back and forth within a thirty degree angle, covering the entire structure.

  Rand brought his arms and legs in tight, protecting every inch of Sarah’s small body. All around them, the bullets tore through Murad’s men and slammed into the thick steel walls, causing large dents to appear on the inside. Some dents grew larger as bullets hit the same spot, but Rand and Avery kept their heads down and remained motionless.

  In the front of the cabin, the support beams gave way and the roof collapsed onto the porch. The weight and impact pulled down even more of the roof, exposing what was left of the front living room and kitchen areas.

  The noise inside their tiny room was deafening as the giant dents continued appearing on the walls inside, but no one moved. The men held them both tight until, after an agonizingly long two minutes, the guns ran through their ammo belts and spun to a stop with smoke rising from the black gun barrels.

  The terrible noise ended as quickly as it began. Rand and Avery did not move immediately. Instead, they waited and then slowly looked up around them. The walls held.

  “Stay down,” Rand whispered as he got to his feet. He grabbed the AR-15 and checked the chamber. Behind him, Avery picked up a second rifle and knelt down on one knee in front of the girls. He held his gun ready and pointed at the door.

  Rand slowly slid the bolt lock open, surprised that it still moved smoothly. He gently pushed the door open and peered through the open crack. After a moment, he turned to Avery. “I’ll be right back.”

  Several minutes went by before three shots were heard in the distance, followed by silence. It was another ten minutes before Rand stepped over Murad’s men and poked his head back in.

  Avery stood as Rand stepped into the room and put his hand on Christine’s back. “You can both get up. It’s safe.”

  Christine and Sarah looked up and around the room, and then gradually got to their feet. “Okay,” Christine quietly. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “We have to go.” Rand looked down. “Will you come with me, Sarah?”

  Without any hesitation, Sarah walked into his arms and he picked her up. She wrapped her arms around his thick neck. “I’m not scared with you,” she said.

  Rand smiled at her. “Good.” He gave her a gentle pat on her head. “Now, I need you to close your eyes, okay?”

  Rand looked at Christine. “You might want to do the same.”

  37

  Their eyes were closed tight, and Christine tried not to think about what they might be stepping over as Rand and Avery led them out. After they stepped over the last obstacle, she could feel the chill of the evening on her face followed by the tall, soft grass brushing against her shins and knees.

  After a long pause, Rand gave the okay and she and Sarah both opened their eyes and looked around. With a little moonlight through the clouds, they could just make out the shape of the dark and eerily shaped cabin they had left behind.

  Rand lowered Sarah to the ground and unslung the Bushmaster rifle. He held it in both hands and scanned behind them, while Avery walked to a nearby tree and rolled a large boulder to the side. He reached down and silently pulled up a handle to a door hidden underneath the thick layer of pine needles, then reached further down and retrieved a large dark object. When he returned, Christine could see it was a giant duffle bag and, judging from Avery’s posture, a heavy one.

  They walked over a half mile to reach the car, kept in a small building painted a combination of earth tones, which Christine assumed was a mountain version of ‘camouflage’.

  The 1969 Dodge Charger R/T was considered by many one of the toughest cars ever made. Cranking out an astounding 425 horses, the 426 Hemi engine weighed nearly half a ton. Furthermore, unlike modern cars, the R/T was made of strong steel and could take a real beating if it had to, especially with some modifications.

  Christine rested her head against the copper colored vinyl in the back seat with Sarah asleep in her lap. An hour after they left, Rand killed the headlights and pulled off the empty road onto a smaller dirt one. He slowly rolled beneath the outskirts of a small forest, coming to rest under a thick canopy.

  When he turned off the car, the sudden silence from the engine’s absence was almost deafening.

  Avery opened the passenger door and stepped out. “I’m going to scout.” He grabbed the 12 gauge tactical shotgun from off the floor and carefully shut the door as quietly as possible. As he walked away, Christine heard him work the slide action of the shotgun to chamber a shell.

  Rand remained in the front seat, keys still in the ignition, watching the darkness around them.

  After several long minutes, Christine broke the silence with a whisper.

  “Rand?”

  He turned his head sideways, viewing her from the corner of his eye.

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where did you grow up?”

  He furrowed his brow. “Why do you ask?”

  “I was just wondering what your life was like,” she said softly. “Are your parents still alive?”

  Rand took a deep breath and exhaled, turning his head forward again. “No. I was an orphan.”

  Christine’s eyes saddened in the back seat.

  “We’re always orphans,” he added.

  “Always?”

  He nodded. “It makes it easier to focus. Emotionally.”

  “Did you have parents?”

  “Foster parents, yes.” Rand could still see the image of his foster mother’s gentle, round face in his mind. She was older, in her late fifties by the time he left. She was kind and gentle, as was the father, and their relationship was caring and…polite.

  “Did they know?” asked Christine. “You know, about you?”

  Rand almost chuckled. “Yes, they knew. Not many kids have scratches
that begin to heal before they even get the band-aid out.”

  Christine watched him as his thoughts turned inward.

  “And school was a distraction,” he continued. “I did it primarily to blend in.”

  “Did you ever tell them, your parents?”

  “I did. When I was a teenager.” He still remembered it vividly. “They were devout Christians which helped. In the end, I think they were secretly relieved. It explained why all I ever asked for was more exercise equipment.”

  Christine nodded but couldn’t quite bring herself to smile. “Did you ever have fun?”

  “There were times of happiness, but probably not what you would consider fun. I’m not here to have fun.”

  Christine rolled her head to the side and looked out her small triangular window. She felt a pang in her heart when he said that. What a lonely life he must have had. After a while she looked back. “Can I ask you something else?”

  As Rand turned his head sideways again, she could see some of his eyelashes highlighted by the moonlight reflecting off the hood.

  “If we’ve really lost our way, like you said, why would you want to become one of us?”

  He thought about the question. “I can see why he loves you so much. You are capable of so much, more than you even know. Your connection to the world around you is almost limitless. Just look at your artists and your musicians. So many of you can connect with the world in ways that we never will. You are so much more like him than you know.” He paused. “There is nothing you cannot do, if you can just get beyond your weaknesses.”

  She stared at him quietly. “What kind of weaknesses?”

  “You’re drawn too much to pleasure. It’s what they use against you.”

  “They?”

  “Those from the darkness. The Evil.”

  She was quiet again, thinking about everything that had happened. “Do you think Danny and the other officers are okay?”

  His gaze dropped. He couldn’t lie to her. “No, Christine, I don’t. I’m sorry.”

  In the back seat, she nodded and looked back out the window. Through the rearview mirror, Rand could see the tears glistening in her eyes.

  “Rand?” she asked with a shaking voice.

  “Yes?”

  Christine spoke before the lump in her throat stopped her. “Is there a heaven?”

  This time he turned and looked back at her. “Yes. There is a heaven.”

  She wiped the tears away and tried to grin.

  “It’s not what most people think, but it’s a good place.”

  “What do you mean?”

  This time he smiled at her. “Well, you don’t fly around and eat whatever you want.”

  She saw his smile and couldn’t help but chuckle. “I guess that’s a bit much to ask, isn’t it?”

  As he turned to watch out the front window again, the smile slowly faded from his face.

  Behind him, Christine nestled against the door trying not to wake up Sarah. They were both quiet for a long time before she broke the silence yet again.

  “One more question?”

  She asked a lot of questions. Rand turned back again. “You should really try to get some sleep.”

  “I will,” she promised. “After this.”

  “Okay, what?”

  “Avery.” She turned her head back to the window, looking out and in the direction he had left. “He’s one of you isn’t he?”

  Rand didn’t answer immediately. “Yes.”

  “He was a soldier too?”

  “Yes.” Rand turned his head toward her again. “Each soldier helps the next. If he can.”

  “What was he here to do?” Christine asked.

  Rand let the side of his head fall gently against the headrest. “It was during World War II. The Germans were trying to build a nuclear weapon, but they needed an important element, something called “heavy water”. It’s required to produce Plutonium. There was a fertilizer plant in Norway that produced heavy water, and the Germans eventually captured it. They extracted enough to ship back to Germany. On the way back, a single commando was able to fight through the German occupation, reach the boat, and sink it.” He paused. “Avery was that man.”

  Christine was stunned. “What would have happened?”

  “If he hadn’t destroyed it?” Rand finished her question. “The Germans would have developed the first atomic bomb, in time to avoid Berlin being taken. They would have vaporized much of the British and American alliance and scared the Russians enough to withdraw temporarily. Germany’s second and third atomic bombs would have achieved a surrender by enough countries to break the back of the Allies, and Hitler would have won.”

  “Oh my god.”

  “They thought they were going to win.” Rand said and looked outside. “But God sent Avery.”

  38

  Stuxnet was the scariest computer virus most of the world had never heard of. When it was first detected in 2010, it was mistaken for a common, run of the mill virus; it was not until experts started to dissect its computer code that it became deeply frightening.

  The very first computer virus was little more than a friendly prank when, in 1982, a young 15-year-old kid played a trick on his friends by writing a tiny computer program that could pass between Apple II computers via floppy disk. It then displayed a funny message every fifty times the computer booted up.

  Later that year, a graduate student at the University of Southern California by the name of Fred Cohen demonstrated his computer code, running on a giant UNIX mainframe, which allowed him to take over the entire system within 30 minutes.

  However, it was not until 1986 that the first self-replicating virus was spotted in “the wild”. It was a small piece of computer code written by two Pakistani brothers, whose purpose was to guilt users of a non-copyrighted program into contacting them to obtain the “vaccination” and to undoubtedly pay up.

  Since then, viruses had quickly grown in both frequency and sophistication, giving birth to a multi-billion dollar industry dedicated solely to fighting computer viruses and “worms”. Yet, the damage inflicted with most of these modern viruses was mild, usually ranging from deleting data to collecting personal information. But in 2010, Stuxnet changed everything.

  Originally flagged as a common worm, engineers at a large anti-virus corporation spotted and categorized Stuxnet’s software characteristics as something called “malware”. Their job was to study it and find a way to clean the worm so the corporation’s anti-malware programs could defend against it.

  Yet the study of this particular worm was unusual from the very beginning. One unique characteristic was how it propagated or traveled from machine to machine, which was primarily by detachable memory sticks called flash drives. Another oddity was the size of the program, which was much larger than usual.

  The mystery deepened as the layers of the code were seemingly peeled back, and the worm appeared to grow more and more complex, using multiple programming languages including C and C++. The mystery deepened further still when the worm was found to take advantage of four different computer vulnerabilities, called zero-day attacks, while other viruses and worms used only one.

  But when the encryption certificates were stolen from two separate and well known corporations, the investigating engineers knew Stuxnet was much more than a simple worm. It was too complicated and far too sophisticated to have been created by kids in high school or college students hyped up on Mountain Dew. The level of expertise and funding needed to create something like Stuxnet meant it had to have happened at the corporate or state level.

  Yet, the largest mystery of all was how it behaved. Most viruses and worms were designed to infect and act upon as many computers and systems as possible. But Stuxnet was different. Stuxnet wanted to spread, but once it did, the program would essentially “look around” and determine what kind of computer it was on, then disable itself. This was extremely odd and told the engineers that Stuxnet was not looking for just any computer sys
tem; it was looking for a very specific computer system.

  Rumors began to spread across the internet since the majority of Stuxnet infections were in the middle-eastern countries, such as Iraq and Iran. It did not take long for some experts to suggest the program was created to target one of those two countries.

  Finally, when the worm gave up the last of its secrets, it became clear what it was after. Stuxnet was looking for a very unique computer environment, one that was used for refining nuclear material.

  When Stuxnet found the system it was looking for, what it did was revolutionary. The process for refining uranium is extremely delicate and time consuming. What Stuxnet did was change the spin of the centrifuges just enough to render the material unusable, but it would do so while it told the computer’s monitoring system the process was running smoothly. This meant that Stuxnet was able to sabotage the process without anyone noticing.

  When this behavior became known, many intelligence specialists believed the creator of the worm was Israel. Not surprisingly, just a few months after the computer industry learned of Stuxnet, the country of Iran confirmed that it’s enrichment facility had indeed been infected. Intelligence experts surmised the cyber-attack likely set Iran back one to two years in their enrichment efforts. And soon after, the creator of Stuxnet was actually found to be the United States.

  In the end, Stuxnet changed history in one very remarkable way; up until then, cyber-attacks remained anchored in cyberspace, a virtual world made only of computer bytes and silicon chips. What made Stuxnet truly frightening, was that for the first time, a virus or worm within cyberspace, had been able to jump the virtual barrier and create real physical damage. In other words, it was the first virtual world weapon to cause real damage in the physical world.

  Ron Tran sat in front of a large monitor in yet another computer gaming cafe. He was again surrounded by teenagers and young adults glued to their own screens, weaving in and out of dark rooms, shooting at someone who often sat in another part of the world, in front of their own screen.