Amid the Shadows

by Michael C. Grumley

  Still in the conference room, Will Douglas looked up at the President, the phone still pressed against his ear. “Mr. President, Zahn’s aircraft is not responding.”

  Lee shook his head. “Try it again.”

  Douglas nodded and relayed the command. After two long minutes of silence, he turned back to the President. “Still no response, sir.”

  Dammit. Thought the President. What the hell is he doing? Did Zahn think this was some kind of game? Or does he think I won’t do it? The President paced back to the window and stared out.

  “Mr. President, we have eight minutes before they reach international waters,” Landeen said. “If we wait, we’ll have some questions to answer.”

  The President glanced over his shoulder and then back through the window. He was fully aware of the questions he would receive from other countries when they saw an explosion in international waters. “How many people are on that plane?”

  Benecke spoke up. “The ground crew estimated twenty to thirty people when it departed Stewart, sir.”

  “Are they all Zahn’s team?” the President asked. When no one replied, he turned and looked back at them. “I said, are they all combatants?”

  “Yes, sir, we believe so,” replied Benecke.

  Lee shook his head again. Zahn didn’t know he was being recorded in that room, which meant he wasn’t expecting to be identified, at least not this early. He probably directed his pilots not to respond to any other aircraft to avoid accidental detection. Was he even aware there were two Fighting Falcons behind him? Or did Zahn think he could play him just like he played everyone else?

  Ainsworth watched the large aircraft in front of him carefully. When the reply came back over his headset, he nodded and loosened his grip slightly.

  “Copy that, MacDill.”

  He tried to relax as he locked the computer onto the target and waited for the missile under his wings to activate. He then re-gripped the stick and flipped the small cover off the top with his right thumb. He waited two seconds before firmly pressing the red button.

  Below Ainsworth, the AIM-9E heat-seeking Sidewinder launched from his F-16. The ten-foot, 188-pound missile reached nearly Mach 1.5 before it slammed into the tail of the 757 and exploded in a giant ball of fire. The entire tail and part of the rear fuselage separated from the plane as the explosion ripped into the left wing, lighting half of the aircraft’s fuel on fire and causing it to instantly engulf most of the cabin. The giant plane began to twist as both parts separated in midair and spun away from each other. The intense fire spread through the cabin and traveled through the fuel lines to the other side, causing part of the right wing to explode seconds later.

  Both Ainsworth and his wingman watched the 757 disintegrate in the wind and fall away into thousands of pieces of burning metal.

  49

  It was widely controversial, and even considered a political and economic failure by some. The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement was signed by the United States, Mexico, and Canada in an effort to improve economic free trade between the countries. Hotly debated, both at the time of signing and even years later, neither the economic benefits nor drawbacks of such an agreement were ever proven. In addition, many diplomatic and political holes remained, which simply underscored the agreement’s deep faults.

  One such hole was a secret relationship between Mexico and the United States providing a channel for “special” and “regulated” trade across the border of the two countries, and all with little or no oversight. Special cargo planes were flown almost on a daily basis and delivered goods to either country based on the sole discretion of government officials. The cargo planes were originally supposed to be packed with products such as medicine, clothing, and food, but, not surprisingly, all too often they were instead filled with drugs or guns. It was another loophole in the corrupted world of modern government.

  What was different about this loophole, however, was that the program, called the Cross Border Assistance Program or CBAP, was pioneered by a man named William Zahn who at the time worked at the Department of Defense. While the CBAP was eventually considered by everyone to be a failure and a waste of 840,000 gallons of fuel every year, it would prove to be Zahn’s best laid plan.

  The ATR-42 twin prop regional airliner was old but extremely reliable, requiring much less maintenance than jet engine aircraft. It was noticeably slower than more modern cargo planes, but on that day, reliability and safety were paramount. Furthermore, with the program considered a failure, very few people noticed when the ATR-42 flew past its usual destination and quietly continued on toward Argentina.

  The blackness disappeared as the hood was pulled off, and Christine was blinded by the room’s small light. Her head was still foggy, and she tried to focus through blurry vision on the person in front of her. Her head felt heavy, and she rolled it from side to side, trying to discern where she was.

  “Where am I?” she mumbled. Her ears felt hypersensitive, as if she could hear her own breathing. The blurry figure in front of her didn’t answer, and she tried harder to focus her vision. “What happened?”

  Zahn watched her look around in a daze. She had been kept under the whole trip, which meant the readjustment would take a little longer than usual.

  The picture began to clear, and Christine blinked hard to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. The person in front of her appeared to be sitting in a large upholstered chair, and the room behind him looked like…a living room. Christine looked down apprehensively when she realized her hands wouldn’t move. It felt like she was on a hard chair, and her arms were nowhere to be found. She wondered if she were tied.

  “Where am I?” she asked again.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Zahn said. His voice sounded loud in her head, like someone left a radio on too high.

  She shook her head sluggishly, feeling as though she was rolling it back and forth. “What happened?”

  “I kept you asleep. It’ll take several minutes to wear off.”

  For some reason, she accepted that and wondered if her head was nodding without her permission. Her mind was becoming clearer, but she had trouble thinking beyond any single thought.

  “Where’s…Sarah?” she asked.

  “She’s fine,” was all Zahn offered.

  Christine blinked several times which seemed to help. The man in front of her started to become clearer. He looked like he was in his fifties or sixties with salt and pepper colored hair.

  “What’s your name?” Zahn asked, testing her coherence.

  “Christine. Christine Rose.”

  “Where are you from?”

  “Mmm…New York,” she answered, struggling to remember what had happened. She remembered Rand and Avery in a crowd, pushing people away, and a store with large windows. She seemed to remember Rand smashing them. And the hallway, a white hallway with a door at the end. And gun shots.

  She could now see the man in front of her. She didn’t recognize him. “Who are you?” She looked around the room again, this time noticing a large couch along a wall covered in paneling. On the other side of the room was a large door. “Where’s Sarah?” she asked again.

  “I told you, she’s fine.”

  “Fine how?” Christine pressed. Her vision was now clear enough to see his grin.

  “You should be worried about yourself,” he said with his arms folded across his chest.

  What happened? She wondered again to herself. She could remember the doorway and the gunfire, then hiding. She remembered Rand and Avery moving some large tanks around her. She felt a sudden surge of panic as she remembered being caught!

  Zahn watched her expression. “Ah, now you’re awake,” he grinned. “Good.”

  Christine squinted through the last of the fog and stared at Zahn. He looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t remember from where. He was clean shaven and dressed comfortably. She looked down and found that she was indeed sitting on a small wooden chair with her hands bound behind her.

/>   “Why am I tied up?”

  Zahn shrugged. “We won’t need that forever.”

  Christine took a deep breath. Even through the rope, she could feel the blood slowly returning to her muscles. She leveled her gaze back at Zahn. “Who are you and where is Sarah?”

  “You’re persistent.” He leaned forward slightly. “I told you Sarah is fine. As for who I am, right now, I’m the one in charge of how long you live.”

  “You’re the one, aren’t you?”

  Zahn could see her lip turn up into a snarl.

  “You’re the one that’s been chasing her. Chasing us. Aren’t you?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “I lost several good men trying to get her.”

  “What do you want Sarah for?”

  “You tell me.” He leaned toward her a bit more and stood up.

  Christine looked confused. “What?”

  “Tell me. Tell me what it is about your little friend. How did she do it?”

  Christine looked incredulous. “You don’t know?”

  “What I know,” said Zahn, stepping toward her, “is that she saw me.”

  Christine watched him from the chair.

  “She saw me!” he said again. “How did she do that?”

  Christine shook her head, still confused. What on earth was he talking about? She saw him? What did that even mean? She started to mumble something when it finally hit her. Sarah had seen him somewhere. Somewhere before. My god, was that why he’d been after her? Is that why he was trying to kill her?

  “She saw you?” Christine asked.

  “You know she did. She must have told you.” His eyes flared. “Now tell me how!”

  She’d seen him. Christine thought to herself. She’d seen him and yet he didn’t know how. How much did he really know then?

  “So, you’ve been chasing us this whole time without even knowing why?” Christine found herself almost wanting to laugh. All of this time, he didn’t know what Sarah could do. He didn’t know she could not only see him, but she could see everybody.

  Zahn stared at her with a look of amusement. The woman sitting in front of him was tied up and had no idea where she was. She was helpless and yet she was angry. She did not match the profile he had on her.

  Zahn looked at his watch. He still had time. “You cannot possibly know what you are in the middle of. Christ, you weren’t even alive yet,” he said with disdain. “You’re all so blissfully unaware of what happens in your world, what happens in the shadows. A world so free of real fear that all you can manage to do is fight with each other.”

  He stared at Christine with his crystal blue eyes. “You could never imagine where I came from, or why. You’re just like them, so simple and ignorant, and yet, I’m the one who had to pay. I was the one who had to suffer, abandoned and forgotten.”

  She watched as Zahn walked over to a nearby wall. He looked at an old black and white photograph hanging in front of him, but she couldn’t quite make out the image.

  “Have you ever killed anyone?” he said, still looking at the picture. “Of course you haven’t. You’re just another sheep. I made my first kill in 1914. And you know what? I did it for people like you. I even spent forty years trying to redeem myself, forty long years, for something I had failed to be worthy of.” He raised his voice and scowled. “I spent all those years helping people, carrying the word forward, trying to rightfully earn it. But the others hadn’t. The others hadn’t, but I was somehow unworthy. So I continued, I did everything I could possibly think of. I gave, and I gave, and you know what I got? NOTHING!”

  Christine jumped in her chair.

  “And what was most pathetic…was I still thought it just wasn’t enough!” Zahn turned back to Christine angrily. “But I was wrong. I was worthy and the truth, no matter how much I wanted to deny it, was that I was simply abandoned!”

  Zahn snapped out of his trance, and a dark smile began to spread across his face. “I look pretty good for a hundred and seventy years old, wouldn’t you say? Of course, I was supposed to be made whole, but when that didn’t happen, I noticed something else. I continued getting stronger.” His sick smile deepened. “I don’t know why, but over time I healed faster and faster. In fact, it’s odd,” he said running his hand through his hair, “I’ve begun to grow wrinkles and this grey hair, yet I’m stronger than I’ve ever been.”

  He realized he was losing focus and turned back to Christine, raising an eyebrow. There was something strange about her expression. “Only three people have I ever revealed myself to,” Zahn said. “Unfortunately for you, each time was just before they died. And frankly,” he shrugged, “none of them ever understood what I was telling them anyway.” He studied her closer. She was watching him, but there was something unusual in her eyes. Her face didn’t show the slightest hint of confusion. Fear, yes, even a little desperation, but not confusion. She couldn’t possibly have understood what he had just confessed.

  He reached for a small remote control near the chair and turned on a monitor behind him. Christine gasped when she saw Sarah appear on the screen. The monitor showed her in a large, empty room, tied to an oversized chair, but there was nothing else in the room, nothing at all. She was completely alone.

  Christine’s eyes began to well up when she Sarah crying, tears running down her tiny cheeks. The fear she must have been feeling sent a jolt of pain through Christine’s heart.

  “No!” Christine whimpered. “She’s just a child. For the love of god, leave her alone.”

  “TELL ME!” Zahn suddenly shouted. “Tell me how!”

  When she didn’t answer, he sighed. “Maybe it’s me, but I get the impression you’re not going to tell me.”

  Christine glared back at him resolute, her tears beginning to fall.

  Zahn shook his head. This was certainly not the woman he was expecting.

  Christine inhaled deeply and tried to push back the tears. “You know what I think?” she said in an icy tone. “I think you’re afraid of her. I think you’re actually frightened by that little girl!”

  50

  The “Dead Hand” system was a Cold War era nuclear control system used by the Soviet Union. Its design was to automatically launch the Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles if a nuclear strike were detected by seismic, radioactivity, light, or overpressure sensors. Called a “Second Strike” capability, it ensured the Soviets could retaliate against a nuclear attack even if the Soviet Union had already been destroyed.

  In other words, it allowed an automated nuclear attack without any human intervention whatsoever. It was also considered highly dangerous by every other country, and even by some inside Russia.

  In the 1990’s, several Russian military officers confirmed the existence of the Dead Hand system but would not confirm as to whether it was still in use. Many suspected it was.

  Ron Tran sat on the famed Yalong Bay Beach, just outside of China’s southernmost province Hainan. He dug his feet into the warm, white sand and looked past his laptop screen, out across the emerald blue water. He turned and peered down to the southern end of the crescent shaped beach with its dozens of giant hotels, frowning at the construction cranes in the background.

  He wanted to spend his last days in China at one of its most beautiful locations. He had always remembered Yalong fondly from his childhood, when his parents would bring him during their summer holiday. It seemed so long ago, before they both died, and it looked a lot different now. Tran shook himself out of his daydream and reminded himself that Argentina had beaches too.

  He turned back to his computer screen and watched one of the American news channels over the internet. The coverage on the Pope’s death was everywhere, covered in every country around the world. The Pope was dead, and that was his signal.

  The Pope’s death was the trigger for initiating Phase Two of their attack. Nicknamed Stux2 after its more simplified predecessor, Tran’s new version was truly impressive on a technical level. On an emotional level, it was terrifying.r />
  Tran opened several windows on his laptop and prepared to send the final command. There was no one on the planet who knew what was coming, except Zahn.

  Stux2 improved not just on the speed and ability to traverse and infect networks, but it benefited from a second, simultaneous attack that Tran liked to think of as the “mother of all head fakes”.

  With well over ten million drones or “bots” standing by, Tran would use them to launch a massive viral attack against the country least expecting it, China itself. The virus would attack all of China’s public facing systems and servers from the outside. All public and government systems would be targets, and knowing how poorly government computer networks were maintained, many, if not all, would be brought to a veritable standstill within hours. After spending too much time attempting to stop the attack, they would eventually have to concede that cutting off access was their only option. But they would soon realize that was not easy, especially using computer systems that simply would not respond. In a short time, panic would spread as they became more desperate to stop an attack that would appear to be originating from everywhere in the world at once.

  It was that panic that Stux2 would take advantage of. Most worms used one or two vulnerabilities to gain access to servers and networks which had not been properly patched. However, as Stux2 traveled, it would periodically create copies of lists and databases with all current known vulnerabilities. And since few computer systems were ever fully patched, it would allow Stux2 to move quickly through virtually any network, identifying its computer environment and looking for China’s Command and Control System for the country’s nuclear arsenal. It was here that Stux2 would go to work.

  China was arguably more careful than Russia and never considered implementing a Dead Hand system, but China’s computer systems were far more shoddy. At its very core, what Stux2 was designed to do was to “reprogram” China’s control system into a Dead Hand system.