White Hat Black Heart (Cyber Teen Project Book 1)

by D. B. Goodin

  Jet didn't like hearing desperation in Nigel's voice. To her, Nigel had always appeared confident during their encounters at school.

  “I think I have a solution that doesn't involve hacking and poses less of a risk than what you're proposing.”

  Nigel thought for a moment, then asked, “What do you have in mind?”

  “A lot of people answering phones at companies give out information to people claiming to be someone else all the time,” Jet explained. “After assembling a voice modulator circuit, you or I could sound like anyone.”

  Nigel was stunned. He never knew it was that easy to fool people.

  “Have you done this before?” Nigel asked.

  “Well, it's complicated!”

  Nigel didn't want to press the subject.

  “How do I get my hands on a modulator device?”

  “I know someone who knows someone.”

  “Well then, let’s get started,” Nigel said with excitement in his voice.

  Jet smiled in response. “It all starts with a pretext, a scenario that the person on the other end of the conversation must believe in order to obtain information or convince them to do something.”

  “A believable story,” suggested Nigel.

  “Exactly! You catch on quickly,” Jet said. She winked at Nigel.

  “Since we can’t just make up a believable story on the fly, we need to set some goals. We need to ask ourselves some questions,” Jet continued.

  “What kind of questions?”

  “We need to get Jake off your back. That is our main goal,” Jet said. “Then we need to figure out the other details, such as the person we will be contacting and what information they will require. When you created Jake's avatar, what was his age?” Jet asked.

  Nigel had painted a picture of a twenty-three-year-old college student attending nearby Milford State University. Unfortunately, that persona required some documentation they didn't have. Nigel would need to submit two forms of documentation, such as a driver's license, a utility bill, or a tuition bill. None of this was available, and forging one would take an enormous amount of effort.

  “That is true for most people,” Jet said as she smiled at Nigel. She didn't want Nigel catching on that she liked him, but she couldn't help it—they had chemistry. “We can find just about anything on the Dark Web servers. We just need to work out the details on price,” said Jet.

  “Should we go inside?” Jet asked. “There is little Wi-Fi signal here.”

  “I have an amplifier,” Nigel said. “My friend, Milo, makes the best antennas.”

  “Cool.”

  “So you know how to access the Dark Web?”

  “Sure,” Jet answered.

  “Really! Can you show me how?” Nigel asked.

  Jet explained that a special piece of software called a Virtual Private Network (VPN) was necessary to maintain anonymity. A special web browser was also required. Once Jet tested the connection, she demonstrated the use of a browser called MORP. “The Multipoint Online Remote Privacy was developed by the U.S. military to protect covert communications,” Jet explained. “The software is also used by criminals, freedom fighters, and privacy-concerned citizens.”

  “Okay. I need to either create fake documents to show to Pretzelverse or hack into the electrical company for a recent bill,” Nigel said.

  “Both options are risky, but we should be able to create some convincing forgeries of an electrical bill,” Jet said as she launched the MORP software. “There have been thousands of company breaches over the years, and Jake's mother's information is probably already on the Dark Web. Let's run a search.”

  Jet frowned. She only had three signal bars on her laptop. She needed at least four bars to create a secure, reliable, and untraceable connection.

  “Is there a way you can boost the signal, Nigel?” Jet asked.

  “Yeah, let me switch bands,” Nigel said.

  He adjusted the input gain on the radio in order to get more power to help boost his signal. He had to be careful because Milo said that the police often scan the area near public places for unusually strong signals. Nigel didn't think it was a problem tonight since it was a cold fall night, and he hadn't seen a soul on the street since he met Jet.

  After some time, Jet handed the laptop to Nigel. He looked closer at the directory listing on the screen. The structure looked similar to that of a directory listing on a personal computer, with one exception. The file names seemed to be random strings of alphanumeric characters, all with the same extension: “un.”

  “What is this? It looks like random strings,” Nigel said.

  “The file names are purposely vague,” Jet said. “Some of these files contain links to other sites; others contain information. It is hard to tell without opening the files.”

  “Is it safe to open?”

  “It depends. These files can contain almost anything.”

  “Then how do we safely find the information without getting into trouble?”

  “On the Dark Web, it's very easy to get your computer infected if you click on any links or open the wrong file,” Jet explained. “But there are methods to anonymously open these files, and to request information.” Jet opened another window that contained a text document with several notes. “This is my cheat sheet. I had to write several algorithms to get it to work. I created a program that implemented each algorithm that scans and learns from each website. It's sort of like a search engine but on a smaller scale. I call it SpiderJet.”

  Jet chuckled as she said the name of her pet project aloud.

  “SpiderJet is based on recursion theory, which is like peeling the layers of an onion. You see how each piece is put together as you unravel it,” Jet said excitedly.

  Jet searched her SpiderJet log for information about counterfeiters. She saw hundreds of hits in her saved index.

  “Let's try one of these!” Jet said as she copied a cryptic link to her Scratchpad program, which allowed her to verify the link before going to it in the browser.

  “I started using Scratchpad because I accidentally made a typo and got a very disgusting picture back once,” Jet said.

  Jet trembled slightly. It could have been the cooling weather, but Nigel didn't think so.

  After verification, Jet was on the intended Dark Web site. It looked like the most basic web page ever. It contained only a few icons with some text below each one. The site's name caught Nigel's eye.

  “Who names their website Ye Olde Info Shoppe?” Nigel asked.

  “You see all sorts of site names here. Some have really rude names, so try not to get offended if you see any.”

  The first image displayed a picture of a driver's license with a caption which read, “Best Quality Licenses, any state for 0.516 DB.” The second picture was a passport. What caught his eye was a picture of an envelope. The caption read, “Address Verification, any address in the US, 0.751DB.”

  “There.” Nigel pointed to the envelope picture. Jet hovered over the picture with her cursor for a moment. A small window appeared with the word “safe.” She clicked on the link, and a single page of links appeared. Nigel scanned the list for a moment before instructing her to click on a link that read, “Purchase Address Verification Service.”

  What appeared next was a generic-looking form that asked for several pieces of information, including a photo.

  “Be careful here, Nigel,” Jet cautioned. “You don't want to provide any personal information here, or anywhere else on the Dark Web, for that matter. You don't know who is requesting it, or if this site will provide you with what you want. We have to verify the merchant first.”

  “How do we do that?”

  Jet pulled up another MORP browser window that looked like a discussion forum. “This site is called Dark Web Cred, and it allows users to post reviews on merchants and transactions.”

  After scanning these sites for the next twenty minutes or so, she finally came across some reviews for the site. Overall, the site h
ad a score of 4.6. Not bad, but Jet had seen several other sites with higher ratings. She decided it was safe to use the site, but instead of using the form, she clicked on a nearly invisible link that read, “Contact site administrator.” The link was pale yellow on the white background—very easy to miss!

  Nigel was beginning to realize that attention to detail was vital when dealing with the Dark Web.

  A new window appeared in the foreground with a textbox, reply address, and a send button. Jet typed, “Interested in product, need escrow service, provide escrow wallet address,” and provided a return address of, “fountain_spade.leaf.un,” then clicked send.

  “It’s done. When I get a reply back with a suitable DB wallet address, we can purchase the service,” Jet said.

  “What is DB?”

  “Oh, I forgot to mention it. It stands for Digibit, a digital currency. Almost everything on the Dark Web accepts Digibit.”

  Jet glanced at her watch; it was nearly ten. “I’ve got to go, Nigel. Can we pick this up tomorrow?”

  “Sure thing. Thanks again for all the help tonight.” He smiled at her as she left, and his smile lasted for much longer than she was in his sight.

  Chapter 6

  Every morning, when Alexander Vandervoss drove into the parking structure of Prezelverse's northern Munich headquarters, he marveled at how much money it took to build. The main building was in the center of several other circular symmetrical buildings. The parking structures were located below each building so employees didn't need to brave the harsh winters. Like most technology companies, the buildings were not very tall, the largest being a mere six stories.

  Underground paths connected each building so employees didn't need to go outside to get to the next building. Alexander grimaced as his cell phone rang. He hadn't even parked his car and the onslaught of calls had begun. He glanced at his watch; it was 7:23 a.m. Most employees showed up for work around eight. Alexander liked to get to the office early so he could get a coffee and check his email, calendar, and plan accordingly. He looked at the phone as he answered.

  “Good morning, Brenna.”

  “Are you in your office yet?”

  “No, but I'm nearly there.”

  “Please call me from your secure line once you are settled in the office. I have some news.”

  “Acknowledged,” said Alexander as he terminated the connection.

  Brenna was lead legal counsel for Pretzelverse Games, and she worked out of their Washington D.C. office. It must be urgent if she was calling in the middle of the night.

  A few minutes later, Alexander pressed the button labeled Brenna on his desk phone. She answered on the second ring. Alexander looked at the LCD screen on the phone where the secure icon was displayed. Calls made from any executive line were always encrypted. As a result, certain audible artifacts could be heard; sometimes it sounded like modulation tones, or garbled gibberish.

  “Hello, Brenna.”

  “I think we have a problem.”

  “What sort of problem?”

  “An intellectual property breach as well as some trouble on the Hill.”

  “How bad is the breach? Did we get hacked?”

  “Didn't get hacked, but Gregor noticed some anomalies on the code repository servers.”

  “‘Anomalies on the code repository servers’ sounds like a hack,” Alexander said. “Assemble the team to meet at the cottage within forty-eight hours. Contact dispatch for help.”

  “Immediately—but we also have legal trouble with the U.S. Senate,” Brenna said urgently. “A Senate committee has opened an investigation into the expansion. They are expected to vote on it next week.”

  “That was fast!”

  “It usually takes months for a bill to get through the House and reach the Senate. For some reason, the U.S. Congress fast-tracked it, and voting was completed less than an hour ago,” Brenna said with a very tired voice that Alexander hadn't noticed earlier.

  “Deploy your team of lobbyists to Capitol Hill. I need you at the cottage in person,” Alexander demanded, then immediately severed the connection.

  Gregor’s eyes were blurry as he pulled up to the cottage, south of Minsk on the edge of a forest. Usually the meeting was held just before the end of the quarter, but this one was held weeks early. Something must be going on.

  The cottage had ten rooms and a downstairs basement area (complete with a World War II era escape tunnel). Alexander and Viktor occupied the downstairs basement section during emergency situations. The cottage was actually three houses interconnected by tunnels. Each home had several bedrooms and a basement.

  Gregor practically sleepwalked into the cottage. He had driven nonstop from his flat in downtown Grozny. The drive would have taken a normal person well over twenty-nine hours; he did it in less than twenty-five.

  Why didn't I fly? Gregor asked himself as he rubbed at his eyes. He estimated it had been more than thirty hours since he last slept.

  He had to find Brenna. She was in charge of everything related to Pretzelverse official business. Gregor hoped the meetings would be brief; he wanted time to visit his girlfriend Dunya, a fledgling fashion model, in Kyiv.

  Gregor was greeted in the cottage by Natasha, a principal member of The Collective. Natasha held positions on both the Pretzelverse and Collective boards—the difference was that Prezelverse was a legitimate business and The Collective wasn't. The Collective was in the business of fixing problems (not necessarily game-related) and had a stable flow of repeat business. Some of the more controversial clients of The Collective included politicians and business people with problems to bury.

  “Hey there,” Natasha said in Gregor's direction.

  “Greetings, Comrade.”

  “You get me excited when you talk like that,” Natasha said in a playful voice.

  Gregor smiled in return. Gregor was a good-looking, tall man in his late twenties and was used to women being attracted to him. When it came to Natasha, however, Gregor always kept their relationship professional.

  “Are the other members here?” Gregor asked.

  “Da, everybody except you.”

  “Then let's not let them wait any longer!”

  “Yeah, maybe we can have some fun later?”

  Gregor just smiled as Natasha got up from her comfortable seating and opened the double doors.

  “It was good of you to make it, Gregor,” Alexander said with a hint of venom in his voice.

  Alexander sounded really annoyed. Or was it Alexei? Gregor couldn't remember. He was so bad with names.

  “My apologies, Comrades. Circumstances dictated that I drove for this meeting,” Gregor said, taking a seat.

  After a brief awkward silence, the meeting resumed.

  “Brenna, what legal action can we take against the authors of this Glider tool?” Alexander asked.

  “The authors of the tool appear to be unknown. Payment can only be made in Digibit through an anonymous store on the Dark Web,” Brenna answered.

  “Is there any way to dox the store owners or administrators?”

  “I think that is a question for our late arrival,” Brenna said as she smiled at Gregor.

  “It is very difficult, but not impossible. I will see what I can do,” Gregor said.

  “Gregor, give us a status on the code repository situation.”

  Gregor explained that he noticed some unauthorized traffic egressing from one of Prezelverse's code repository servers. He traced the connection to a machine in California, near San Francisco, which was not surprising since Prezelverse did have a development office there. Although it was possible to access the server without a VPN, most developers didn't. However, the company did hire a number of outside contractors that didn't have access to a VPN. Gregor said he would file a report and have the IT manager fix the issues ASAP. The most troubling piece of news was from a connection in China; a large amount of data was transferred to that IP.

  “The investigation results are still pending. I sh
ould have an update from my team by the end of today.”

  “You have until tomorrow morning to finish your investigation and provide a report. I’m surprised and disappointed that you haven't already,” Alexander said.

  Jet’s house was a modest two-story. Its yellow and white paint was faded, but otherwise it looked in good shape. As Nigel stepped up on the porch, Jet opened the door.

  “Right on time. Come inside,” Jet said with a smile.

  Nigel followed Jet to a back room filled with several games, a rather old dart board, and a pool table. Jet sat down at a card table in the back of the room where her brother, George, was already seated; Nigel gave him a nod as he took a seat.

  “Good to see you again,” George said. “Let's get started with this no-tech hacking lesson.”

  “I’m ready,” Nigel said. “But before we get started, I need to know: How did you two learn these techniques?”

  After a long moment, Jet answered Nigel's question.

  “Our dad moves around a lot for work.” Jet paused for a moment before continuing. “We would be placed in a new school every year or two. It would often take a long time before we got to know new kids. We would try and learn what we had in common with the kids we wanted to hang out with, build rapport.”

  “Did that work?” Nigel asked.

  “To a point, but I felt that we were trying to get people to like us rather than making friends organically,” Jet answered. “We did our homework on a target, a potential friend, found out as much as we could about that person, then struck up a conversation. Before we knew it, we had friends!”

  “Well, we had people who liked us enough to do things for us,” George said. “The key is to get your target to like you.”

  Nigel was listening with interest as George continued.

  “This wasn't as hard as it sounds. If you like someone, they may like you in return. However, you can’t fake it. If you don't truly like someone, it will be obvious to the other person.”