Treasonable Intent

by C Shaw Hilton

  “Let me find out who was involved in this and which service personnel were treated,” said Alicia, ”I will use Special Events to get the information out of the MOD. In the meantime I suggest you get out of that building and find something else to focus on. You can keep in contact with CERT by phone.”

  Fawzia didn’t hesitate; “I am going to join the hunt for Olsson in Brixton. Let me know when you get to the centre in London.” With that she closed the call and raced out of the building towards where three black Land Rovers were parked up on the embankment. These contained the back-up assault team organised by the Brigadier.

  The Major had worked with them a couple of months before in Syria. An insertion to hack into the Syrian High Command. It had been a successful operation that remained unrecorded and unacknowledged. As with Bob Christie she had earned their respect but unlike that relationship the banter and informality off duty was never there. They came, did their job and then disappeared into the night. She climbed into the passenger seat of the dark grey Land Rover. Behind the wheel was a familiar figure but it was as if they had just met. The officer was clad in a black combat suit and sat bolt upright. He must have been waiting for hours without any hint that the he or his team would be deployed. Yet he acted as if the Major’s arrival was an expected rendezvous. Only a slight smile and flicker in his eyes hinted that he recognised her from their time in Syria. “Evening Major” he said politely in a distinctive Lancashire accent.

  Fawzia buckled herself into the seat and took charge. “Our other team, MI5 and S.C.O.19 of the Metropolitan Police are closing in on a Russian Double agent. They have thrown a cordon around Brixton. We are going in as support to capture this traitor. Let’s go.”

  The figure in the driver’s seat replied “Yes Major” and then began issuing orders through a throat mike. Within seconds the land rovers took off from the kerb and sped south across the river to where Olsson and his colleagues were being encircled.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  The BMW moved forward as Olsson emerged from the taxi cab. John Carter and Jenny Hsu had dutifully followed their orders since driving away from the National Cyber Security Centre. They saw Olsson hesitate but didn’t recognise the significance, otherwise they would have intervened and paid off the fare in cash. By the time they drew alongside him, the cab had sped away.

  “Fancy meeting you here” said Carter, attempting to lighten the tension that was already apparent from Olsson’s demeanour. Instead of replying he flicked open the rear door of the saloon and collapsed onto the back seat with a sigh of exhaustion. Carter could see in the rear view mirror that the events of the last few hours had drawn deeply on Olsson’s reserves but his eyes still had that steely look of determination and he was clearly very frustrated. “Stupid, stupid, stupid” he repeated to himself. Jenny couldn’t understand what had happened. “What is stupid?” she asked.

  Olsson almost snarled: “I am. I have just had to use my damn debit card. They will trace it and be onto our location in minutes. For god’s sake drive and get us away from here.”

  Carter put his foot down and drove towards the centre of Brixton to connect into the main trunk road heading south. “Where to?” he asked as the car weaved through the back streets and then emerged by the underground station.

  Olsson still appeared breathless; “Head for Gatwick Airport” he instructed. “The moment you spot a tail or intercept then get into the residential side streets so we can lose them.” Even as he spoke a complex surveillance operation was moving against him. In the air three police helicopters had begun sweeping the sky above Brixton whilst every CCTV camera, foot and car patrol was scanning the streets. The photographic images from the cab dash camera were uploaded within five minutes of Olsson leaving it. Every car on the street where he was dropped off, was checked. It didn’t take long to focus on the BMW and get a positive identification of the false registration plate. By the time Carter had reached Croydon, the car was being followed in real time and plans were being put in place to intercept it.

  Fawzia had made good time. She was just twelve minutes behind the BMW as they reached Purley and became stuck in traffic heading for the Brighton Road. Ahead of them Bob Christie was putting the final touches to the intercept. The plan was to trap them near Nethern Drive where the dual carriageway of the A 23 became a single road. It was a pinch point they could flood with resources. The area afforded the BMW no opportunity to go anywhere once trapped. The only disadvantage was that the section of road, identified for optimal effect, was only 50 metres long. Everyone needed to hit their mark and command co-ordination from the air would need to be accurate to the second. Fawzia fully understood the risk as Bob briefed her on the radio. They really needed to capture Olsson to understand his relationship to Benning and Nia Williams. If they could get an insight into what he had used to corrupt the National Cyber Defence Centre then that would be a big bonus. She replied through her headset to Bob Christie “they are heading into the mess created by the disruption of the M25. There will be tail backs and chaos as people try to find alternative routes. We are already stuck in Purley. It’s not ideal.”

  Bob paused his reply until his helicopter dropped the four Dark Squadron troops on the grass verge at the ambush site. Two police cars were already on the highway stopping traffic heading north and two more taking position on the central reservation area as the dual carriageway came to an end. “I’m at the location. We will probably have enough in place to stop and detain but traffic is virtually at a standstill because of the disruption on the motorway. There is a big risk of collateral damage if it becomes a shooting match. Normally we estimate they would reach here in fifteen minutes but given current traffic flow it could be an hour. If Olsson and his accomplices spot what is happening and take another route, we will need to intercept with the helicopters. If that happens and they start shooting I cannot guarantee we will get any of them alive.”

  In the BMW Carter was becoming agitated. “Are you sure you still want to stick with this? Everything from the SatNav to the radio traffic reports is saying don’t go near the M25.”

  Olsson was looking out of the widow watching the sky. The low cloud was worrying him as it provided cover for air surveillance. “The point is that they would expect us to avoid it and it is easier to deal with them in a crowd. They will seek to isolate us for any ambush.”

  Jenny was watching the traffic flow coming up from the motorway. It was beginning to move at a speed nearer to the forty mile an hour limit and thin out. After a couple of minutes she spoke in a whisper “Something is wrong. That traffic flow. It may be they have blocked the road ahead.”

  Carter pursed his lips: “Maybe they have just redirected people away from London given the chaos. If the rail system goes down then they might get only essential workers trying to make it into work in the city. If the national grid is disrupted, no one will be working.”

  There was logic to it. Olsson nodded. “Let’s keep listening to the local traffic reports.”

  Jenny wasn’t reassured. “I don’t like it. We should go back to Croydon, dump the car and go to ground until the disruption stops. Then we can get a train to Gatwick.”

  Olsson spoke: “The rail system has to be a last resort. God knows if this cyber-attack will actually be noticed given the normal service is so bad but the last thing we need is to be trapped and isolated in some carriage in a rail siding.” He seemed to smile at his own humour. The BMW slowly crawled forward and with almost every passing junction an unmarked police car filtered into the traffic around it.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The Diplomat listened intently to the briefing from the Chinese Ambassador. The secure video link from the London embassy afforded him the chance to give details of both the meeting with the Prime Minister and an update on the disruption as viewed by the UK media. It was already mid -afternoon in Shanghai and the heat and smog outside was in sharp contrast to the fresh chill of the air conditioned office suite in the TwoBitz bu
ilding. General Fu sat on the leather sofa to one side making notes on a small lap top but otherwise they were alone. When the ambassador finished there was a long pause before the Diplomat spoke.

  “Excellent work. This seems to have exceeded our expectations,” he smiled, “but now the Minister thinks we have reached the point where we must stop. The risk of damaging our economic relationship with the UK outweighs the strategic defence advantage.” The Ambassador could be seen in his office behind a desk. He nodded deferentially. The Diplomat continued: “Benning has played a good game but has run out of time. He is trying to complete his plan but already fatal flaws have appeared. The entire cell led by Fatima Ali is dead or captured. The remains of the tablet and SSD card are in the hands of their JCW unit. Major Wilkins continues to walk around unharmed. Benning himself is in secure custody. The Russian double agent has betrayed them. They have lost the initiative.”

  “Agreed.” General Fu chipped in. He was anxious about the British reaction to the EMP weapon in Cheltenham. Their denial was only going to be good enough to hold until the Ministry of Defence analysed the forensic evidence and tied it back to their naval munitions factory. “What are they saying about the GCHQ attack?”

  The ambassador looked anxious as he replied. “It is the usual reticence in the public media whilst they do their investigation. Privately they are briefing the press that it was a Chinese built weapon smuggled in by terrorists.”

  The Diplomat sighed. “We are just going to have to ride this out and keep to plausible deniability. The one unexpected plus is that the Americans have agreed to try and break into the Rose Garden using their interface technology.” He paused for effect. General Fu had stopped typing on his keyboard. The Ambassador could hardly breathe waiting for the punch line of this particular news. “Doctor Haller will, by all accounts, be put in charge of this.” His smile widened.

  The report of the ambassador had only confirmed to the General that the UK government were still unaware of the true nature of the attack upon them. It also demonstrated that they were as duplicitous as ever. He closed the lid of his laptop “So if we free up their secure communications they say they will give us Haller. Equally we suspect they have made exactly the same promise to the US government. Are you still proposing that we cease interfering in their network?” He had listened intently and recorded most of the conversation in his private files. In his mind was the possibility that this could all go badly wrong and he needed to ensure he could defend himself using contemporaneous notes.

  “Yes, we need to pull the plug,” replied the Diplomat.

  The General frowned: “Without wishing to sound pessimistic I fear just turning this off will not stop the attacks. Moving it back to a reasonable working restore point requires them accessing their system without it appearing as a threat. That opportunity is slipping away by the second.” His briefings from the scientific team at TwoBitz had been detailed, timely and with first class analysis of the options available. He knew that Olsson’s actions might prove fatal to Rose Garden unless their CERT teams could pull off something brilliant. In all likelihood it would be Haller who ended up trying to unpick this cyber problem with his colleagues in Esterhazy.

  The Diplomat looked at him with mild amusement. “Let’s be real about this” he said, “we were never in the business of trying to make life impossible for the British. It was just an opportunity for testing some of our new capabilities and degrading their offensive cyber weapons technology.”

  General Fu gave him a surprised look. “Surely we wanted Benning to pull off his plan to embarrass his own government? I understood this was as much a political offensive as a military one. After all we committed some of our best assets to support this plan.”

  The Diplomat was relaxed and his tone measured: “Icing on the cake as the British say. Anyhow, his operation has run out of steam. Time to cut our link to their secure communications system and give them, a chance to fix it using Haller and the Americans. That will give the doctor even greater insight and therefore his value to us only increases. Securing him would more that justify our operation.”

  The General looked unhappy but he knew that the Diplomat was not to be argued with on this occasion. “I shall advise the technical team we are pulling out of the operation,” he said in a resigned tone.

  The Diplomat nodded: “Ambassador, let the British government know that we have instructed our private sector company to withdraw from the joint project and as of 0.800 BST there will be no further engagement by them in the UK secure communications system. “

  Thousands of miles away in London the Ambassador replied: “I will. I shall also tell them we expect Doctor Haller on a private plane to Shanghai within twelve hours.” He bowed and closed the video link.

  General Fu scratched his head and looked again at the Diplomat, as if for reassurance. “Now all we have to do is get Haller back.”

  The two men recognised that simple truth. Both of their careers might depend upon it.

  Chapter Forty

  Trent was nervous. Lauren had flown into Burlington Airport in Vermont and driven through the mountains to join him. This was only the second live exercise of the interface technology and technically more complicated. The acquiescence of the sponsoring government was juxtaposed by the corruption of their systems by foreign powers, double agents and renegade intelligence officers. What made Trent nervous, however was not that complexity nor the presence of his boss but the profile given to this by the President and the British Prime Minister. The White House was playing this for all it was worth. Much talk of the “special relationship”, of a joint goal to defeat cyber terrorism and a sense of the seventh cavalry riding to the rescue led by the Commander in Chief. National reputation was at stake, but he was painfully aware that Esterhazy had a product that was far from finished and had significant imperfections. At least the Brits had agreed to have Haller present to direct that end of the operation in London.

  At 2.30am Eastern Standard Time, Trent and Lauren stood with their scientific team surrounded by the maple, pine and steel interior of their advanced technology facility. In the darkened observatory they watched final preparations to hack into one of the most advanced cyber weapons systems in the world. Beyond a single glass wall and a secure steel door lay the interface. If the ballistic missile exercise had been a covert test of its capability, then this was the real thing and very much in view. In thirty minutes they would see how it matched up to the challenge. Lauren still had mixed feelings about the whole idea but the opportunity to do something that would be politically valued in both the US and UK gave her a commercial incentive that was too difficult to pass up.

  At the National Cyber Security Centre, Benning was kept in a separate room. Intransigent as ever, he nevertheless appeared frustrated by what Olsson had done. Alicia noted he was more forthcoming on technical information when she suggested it might help defeat the Russian malware. After conveying some further details he began ranting again against the irresponsibility of the government. She curtailed the interview and joined the CERT team. They had just been introduced to Dr Haller. She watched their interactions carefully. It wasn’t reassuring and reinforced her own doubts about letting him loose on their systems.

  For over an hour CERT had discussed options with Haller in a language few could understand. She picked up on a heated debate on molecular biology followed by a lot of frenetic writing on the whiteboards. She watched as they paraded quantum physics formulae and unpacked an equally complex argument about the nature of entangled matter. Her only conclusion was that they were not in agreement and seemed to be entrenched in their positions. She also wondered if Haller actually wanted to solve this crisis. Just after 7.30 British Summer Time they began to talk directly to the Esterhazy team over a dedicated video link.

  Much of the dialogue was business like. The exchange of information and access codes was matched by a sense of co-operation and endeavour. Haller became strangely quiet as the joint strategy was f
ormulated. The CERT team remained very cautious about falling into the trap Olsson had set. They also had reservations about the doctor and the ideas he put forward. The Americans were less risk adverse and fundamentally had less investment in the Rose Garden system and its survival. They had the deadline of 8.00am to put a recommendation to the Prime Minister and a reconvened National Security Council. With ten minutes to go the CERT team asked to see Alicia alone.

  “This is putting the integrity of our whole system at risk” the senior CERT officer was passionate and almost shouting at the Head of MI5. “I have been through all of the coding issues and that Russian malware is top rate. Not only is it difficult to unpick but it will remove every restore point since the system was first constructed. In other words, if we activate it, then it sets us back two years. We cannot back up or copy anything without setting it off, even if we had full access and co-operation from the three Rose Garden sites.”

  Alicia was not confident about the technology. She had asked for the Brigadier to be brought to the centre by helicopter but he was still a few minutes away. She desperately wished he was by her side as she took on this advice. She didn’t even have the Major to give an opinion. She ventured something that appeared simple logic: “Surely we can make the Americans understand they can only operate on the basis the Russian malware is neutralised.”

  The CERT officer was almost ranting. “The bloody Americans are using something that is like a sledgehammer rather than a scalpel. Their interface rips through the firewall and other defences and relies on speed to achieve effect. Collateral consequences can happen. It’s a gamble and it is still in development.”

  Alicia sighed in exasperation: “What are you recommending?”