Elspeth thought she could reach Bobby directly through his mini-feed. It turned out his mini-feed was run by a pool of PR managers at his publishers on Earth. Even when she managed to contact an actual person they refused to divulge any of Bobby’s personal details. They wouldn’t even pass on a message.
Next Elspeth tried Hjälp Teknik. Hjälp Teknik told her that they couldn’t discuss any details of their personnel without the express consent of the person involved. Elspeth suspected that Bobby had no official link to Hjälp Teknik anyway. They wouldn’t even confirm that.
Elspeth didn’t even try the military. She knew that would be a non-starter. All she knew for sure was that Bobby Karjalainen had recently returned to Mars and that his father was gravely ill in St Joseph’s Hospital.
She trawled the streams for everything she could find about Hjälp Teknik and the Karjalainens. She found out where the Karjalainens’ house was. That was useful. She guessed Bobby might be staying there, but she couldn’t know for sure. In his book he’d spoken about his relationship with his family, which had broken down almost completely before he went off to war. If Bobby had come back to make peace, as she suspected, he may or may not be at the house. Maybe relations remained cold and Bobby was somewhere in the city. The only thing Elspeth had to go on was her hunch that Bobby had come back to see Jack Karjalainen. She knew where Jack was, so maybe she could find Bobby there. Reluctantly, she realised that she might have to do some old-fashioned journalistic legwork. She might have to physically leave the house, pound the streets and tell half-truths to strangers in order to elicit the information she needed. Half of her felt like this was going to be a huge pain. The other half was vaguely excited.
Elspeth got up early and took a cab to St Joseph’s. She went to the refectory and had breakfast there while she thought about what her plan might be. It might be useful to know exactly where Jack Karjalainen’s room was. It would be very useful to know who had visited him. She didn’t know if the hospital kept such records. It probably did. Most large public buildings automatically scanned comdevs on the way in and out. If Bobby had been here recently it was almost certainly in a database somewhere. Accessing the database would be nearly impossible.
Elspeth thought.
She didn’t have the first clue about electronic espionage but maybe she could have a crack at social engineering. One of the many obscure facts she knew from hour up on hour of voracious reading was that the weakest point in any security system was the human beings who operated it. Maybe there was a way she could fool a nurse or an administrator into divulging information from the hospital’s database. It sounded like an exciting prospect. Elspeth smiled. It sounded, too, like it might be illegal. Elspeth frowned. As an eighteen-year-old girl who looked, if anything, younger than her age, Elspeth was often frustrated when people didn’t take her seriously. But she was smart enough to play the hand she had been dealt. If she got caught she would play the ingénue. She would act gauche, young, dumb and innocent. “Oh my gosh,” she would say, “I didn’t accidentally crack your database and steal privileged information, did I? I’m such a ditz! I’m so sorry!”
Elspeth thought it over as she was finishing her croissant. It wasn’t much of a plan, but she thought she’d give it a go. Steeling herself, she stood up and made her way to the reception desk.
Her heart was thudding in her chest when she said, as brightly as she could, “Hello! I’m here to see Jack Karjalainen.”
The receptionist’s response was automatic. “All of Mr Karjalainen’s visits are by appointment only. Do you have an appointment?” The receptionist scanned his terminal.
“I don’t have an appointment,” said Elspeth, “but I’m family, though, sort of.”
“Sort of family?” the receptionist said, with a hint of disdain in his voice.
“Well, I’m not,” Elspeth said in her ditziest voice, “but my boyfriend Bobby is.”
“Hold your comdev over there,” the receptionist said, nodding to a pad on the desk. He continued looking at his terminal. Elspeth held her comdev out. With her arm outstretched it was all she could do to stop her hand shaking. She looked nervously at the receptionist and hoped he hadn’t noticed. His concentration was focused on the terminal and as soon as the pad beeped Elspeth quickly withdrew the comdev.
“Elspeth J Ross,” the receptionist said. “You’re not on the list.”
Elspeth frowned. “But I came the other day,” she said, “with Bobby.”
The receptionist was staring at the screen still. “We don’t have any record of that,” he said.
“It must be there,” said Elspeth, leaning over the desk and trying to get a look at the terminal screen. The receptionist shot her the darkest of looks and tilted the screen away.
“Could you please remain behind the desk, Ms?” he said.
“I’m sorry,” said Elspeth, “I thought I might be able to help if I could just see.”
The receptionist stared at her with a concrete-hard look of officialdom. “I don’t need your help, Ms,” he said, “and this is confidential information. Please remain behind the desk.”
“Of course,” said Elspeth. “I’m so sorry.” She tried to look as sweet as she possibly could. “I’m really, really sorry,” she said again.
Elspeth thought as hard and as fast as she could. “It was just the other day,” she said, “I think it was that day when my comdev was playing up. I’m almost certain of it. My comdev was playing up, and Bobby got us both in on his comdev.”
The receptionist shook his head. Elspeth thought he might be becoming suspicious. She was feeling like everything she did or said was suspicious, but she knew that was just the pressure getting to her. She tried desperately to believe her own story.
“We wouldn’t let two people in on one comdev. Just wouldn’t happen,” said the receptionist.
Elspeth shrugged. “It happened the other day,” she said. “You know Bobby and his family practically own this place. I think it was that day when my comdev was playing up, and Bobby got us in. Which day was it?” She tried to say the last as casually and as off-hand as she could. She knew that was the steel-capped bullet she was here to deliver. She wanted it to come from nowhere while the receptionist was focused on the immediate issue of whether to let her in here and now. In her mind it sounded obvious and desperate. She hoped that to the receptionist it was an innocent enquiry from a dizzy young girl who didn’t even have the sense to maintain her comdev properly.
The receptionist remained silent, his eyes flicking across the screen. Elspeth’s heart was racing now.
“That was Tuesday,” he said. “And I don’t know who would have let you in without the proper clearance, Bobby Karjalainen or no Bobby Karjalainen, but I can’t do that today.”
Elspeth wanted to punch the air but she also wanted to keep selling the illusion, so she frowned and looked disappointed. “Really?” she said. “Not just for five minutes?”
“Not for five minutes, Ms. I have your details here on file now. I’ll ask Mr Karjalainen if he’s happy for you to go on the list, if you like, but I can’t let you in now.”
Elspeth slumped in theatrical disappointment, though inside she was doing a little dance. “Okay,” she said, “how long will that take?”
“I’m putting the request through at this very moment,” said the receptionist. “You could always just contact Bobby yourself and get him to give the okay? How about that?”
Elspeth felt cold ice run down her spine. She looked at her comdev, then back up at the receptionist.
“He’s busy at the moment,” she said, pleased with her quick thinking.
“Well,” said the receptionist, “I’ve put the request in but until I get the okay I can’t let you through. You could go and get a cup of coffee maybe and try back in half an hour?”
“Yes,” said Elspeth, “I’ll do that. Thank you.” She turned from the desk and headed back towards the refectory.
“Have a good day,” the recepti
onist called after her.
From the refectory she headed straight for the exit. This was the first time she had done any real on-the-ground, semi-illicit investigative journalism and it felt amazing. She felt like a rock star as she entered the cab and left the hospital. All she’d really found out was that Bobby had visited his father, which was not much really, but she’d found that information out herself, using her wit and ingenuity, and now she had a lead for tracking down the subject of the interview that was going to break her into the mainstream.
The minute Elspeth got home she fired up her terminal and looked for some retailers. She’d figured out the plan in the cab on the way home and had had a cursory look on her comdev. What she had so far was this: Bobby had returned to Mars and was reconciled or reconciling with his father. This meant that he spent some time, at least, at St Joseph’s Hospital and that’s where Elspeth was going to find him. She thought about setting up semi-permanent camp in the refectory, but that was just impractical as well as suspicious. How could she scope out the hospital without actually being there? She thought about hacking into the hospital’s security systems but realised that having been successful dipping her toe into the world of digital espionage she had let it get to her head. She wouldn’t have the first clue about hacking a security system and she didn’t have any exciting, mysterious, tattooed hacker friends who would be able to do it for her, either. What she might be able to do, though, would be to set up a camera of her own and monitor that.
It was a risky plan. If the hospital’s security did a sweep a commercially available wireless camera would easily get picked up. Elspeth thought she’d gamble on the hospital not sweeping the exterior regularly for covert surveillance devices. ‘Why would they do that?’ she reasoned to herself.
She had settled on a device that was reasonably good resolution and not too expensive. The camera was very small and could run for up to a week without needing to be recharged. It wirelessly connected to the nearest access point and fed its video back to anyone who knew how to connect securely to it. Elspeth’s plan was to connect the feed to a facial recognition AI that in turn was set to contact her should the face of Bobby Karjalainen appear on-screen. She was pleased with the plan.
Later that day the camera arrived by shuttle post. After an hour or two fiddling with it in her apartment Elspeth was satisfied that she knew exactly how it worked, and she thought she knew of a good place to put it. She stuffed it in her pocket and for a second time that day called a cab for the hospital. Just as she left her apartment she grabbed a pair of dark glasses. She felt ridiculous and excited at the same time.
She got the cab to stop a short distance from the hospital, walking the last few hundred metres along the walkway. She put the glasses on, but wasn’t sure if they made her more or less conspicuous. Arriving at the hospital she stopped and pretended to be absorbed in her comdev. Furtively, she looked over the top of her glasses and scanned the front of the hospital, looking for a place to mount the camera. She decided on a spot to the left of the main door. As a decorative feature on the wall there was a mosaic stripe. She thought the broken lines would help disguise the camera. It was less than two centimetres across and only a few millimetres deep. It would be very hard to see in the mosaic for anyone who was not actively looking for it. She put the comdev in her pocket and casually pulled out the camera. She peeled the paper from the self-adhesive backing and pushed the front of the camera into the palm of her right hand. She wanted to look about to see if anyone was watching her because she felt that everything she was doing was crashingly obvious. Anyone looking at her right now would know instantly she was about to covertly mount a surveillance camera on the hospital, she thought. She reminded herself of her brilliant performance earlier in the day, when she had assumed the role of a superspy with consummate ease. That’s the person she was, she told herself, a brilliant undercover operator, below the radar and above suspicion. She was an unassuming teenage girl who could move through the world like a ghost. She was Elspeth J Ross, undercover journalist, and she was on a mission.
With that thought she strode purposefully toward the hospital. To the left of the main entrance there were two people, a man in a short sleeved shirt and tie and an older woman in a floral patterned dress. They were talking casually and the man was smoking. They seemed absorbed in their conversation and, so as far as Elspeth the superspy was concerned, they were no threat. As she neared the entrance she could see two men in green hospital uniforms who were walking toward the door. As she arrived they would be coming out. An insistent paranoia told her that they would grab her and wrestle her to the ground, but the more rational side of her mind reassured her that it was okay. They probably wouldn’t even notice her.
She arrived at the door and the green-uniformed people came out and walked right by her. She stopped and decided to play the role of a person waiting to meet someone. She felt pretty sure that no one was watching her, but acting the part would make her feel better. Also, if anyone should review footage from the hospital’s security cameras she would look less suspicious. She stood with her back to the hospital and pulled out her comdev. She acted like she was contacting someone, theatrically (but not, she thought, too theatrically) looking about to see if the person she was about to meet was on their way. She stood for a minute, then it was time for her big moment. She stretched her arm out and lent on the mosaic, like it was the most comfortable, natural thing in the world to do. She stayed like that for about thirty seconds, partly to make sure the camera had good contact with the wall and partly so it looked like she was just a normal girl leaning against the wall of a hospital. Presently, she pulled her comdev out of her pocket again and looked at it as if she was receiving a message. She put it back in her pocket and shook her head, instantly realising that was way over the top. ‘What the hell,’ she thought, ‘I doubt anyone is looking anyway.’ She wandered casually back to the walkway and called another cab. She was back home within twenty minutes.
Once inside she raced to her terminal and brought up the image from the camera. It looked great. It covered the whole entrance, enabling her to see everyone coming in through the main door to the hospital. She had already connected the feed to the facial recognition AI. All she had to do now was wait.
She pushed her chair back from her desk and thought about what a resourceful and clever journalist she was. Her comdev buzzed in her pocket. She grabbed it out.
“Hello?” she said.
“Hello, is that my girlfriend?” said the voice on the other end of the line.
“I don’t think so,” said Elspeth. “I think you must have a wrong number.”
“No, this is the number,” said the voice, “and I’m told it belongs to my girlfriend, so that must be you, Elspeth J Ross.”
Elspeth felt her face reddening. “Mr Karjalainen?” she said.
“Hi, girlfriend,” Bobby replied.
“Mr Karjalainen . . .”
“Please, just call me Bobby.”
“Mr Karjalainen, Bobby, I’m so sorry, this must look so bad.”
“Pretty bad,” said Bobby, “but do go on.”
“Mr Karjalainen, I’m a journalist and I really want to speak to you. I couldn’t get hold of you but I thought I might find you at the hospital. I’m so sorry if you think I’ve invaded your privacy.”
“Well you have, a little, I guess,” said Bobby, “but I don’t mind. What do you need to speak to me about?”
Elspeth had gathered her thoughts by now and sensed that Bobby was not angry with her. She sensed he was a nice guy and if she played this right she might be able to get the interview. “I’m just starting out in journalism,” she said, “and I thought an interview with you could really help me establish myself. I’d really appreciate just a few minutes, if you can spare them.”
“I see,” said Bobby. “Anything in it for me?” Elspeth racked her brains quickly and, not finding an answer, thought she would have to go with disarming honesty.
�
��Not really,” she said.
Bobby laughed. “Well in that case, how can I refuse?”
“Really?” said Elspeth. “You’ll do it?”
“Sure, why not?” said Bobby.
Elspeth didn’t quite know what to say. “Thank you so much. Can we arrange a time, place?”
“I’ll let you know,” said Bobby. “I have your details, I’ll get back to you in a day or two.”
“Thank you so much, Mr Karjalainen.”
“It’s Bobby, please just call me Bobby.”
“Thanks, Bobby.”
“No problem, Elspeth. Talk later, bye.”
The comdev went silent.
Elspeth looked at the terminal screen in front of her. She saw a tubby little boy holding his mother’s hand walk toward the camera then disappear right of screen as they entered the hospital. She wondered if she’d be able to get a refund on the camera.
Probably not.
C H A P T E R 10
Countermove
Daniel Kostovich habitually monitored almost everything. He scanned all horizons - literal, digital and social. He liked to know what was going on lest he should need to counter it. There was a streak of paranoia in his personality that chimed well with his role at Vendkt. It was necessary that he knew what was going on in the world about him. The endless craving for information could be wearing at times, but at least he was good at his job.
The encryption used by the USAN was considered to be as good as undecipherable. That all information was held on secure networks which were constantly roamed by probing white-hat AIs was a second level of security. The third was that USAN Cyber Counterintelligence was continuously monitoring what was happening on networks outside of its own. The network was constantly trying to crack itself while monitoring what the outside world was up to. It wasn’t a perfect system but it was active, constantly evolving and adapting. One of the biggest threats to security was complacency so the system had been designed to be internally non-complacent.
Ephialtes (Ephialtes Trilogy Book 1) Page 14