Treasonable Intent

by C Shaw Hilton

  Alicia looked at the Head of CERT who simply raised his eyebrows and shrugged. She turned to Haller; “So tell us about this back door and we shall see what arrangement we can come to.”

  Benning tried to speak but was silenced by a gesture from Sir Alistair.

  Haller spoke very deliberately. “I have the key. That is why Benning kidnapped me. However, I need my laptop to access it.”

  “Jesus Christ!” exclaimed the Brigadier. “What kind of game are we playing here?”

  Benning succeeded in his next attempt to interrupt; “Yes and I have the laptop, so I have the key to the back door.”

  Sir Alistair looked irritated. Yet again, Benning appeared to be one step ahead of them. It did, however illustrate that the PM’s instinct about this Swiss doctor was correct. He did have a pivotal part to play. “Before we go any further with this I want to know exactly what this back door is. There is a danger of us all getting lost in meaningless metaphors and I have to report back to the National Security Council in plain English.”

  Benning cleared his throat and launched into a brief explanation. “In plain English then. You will know that the Major was pivotal to our plan. We used an SSD card to corrupt her tablet. Every site she visited had its access to the National Secure Communications Network compromised. It allowed us to remotely take it over. We then fed Rose Garden false information and stopped the real data from yourselves reaching it. In the event that our plan didn’t work out, or had to be changed, we did have another way of getting into Rose Garden. A back door so to speak, created independently at the same time we were compromising each site. That is why a team went to Exmoor. They were going to create another diversion in Plymouth that would help us break into the Cube.”

  The Brigadier narrowed his eyes. “How?”

  Benning looked at Haller. “You explain.”

  The Doctor looked as though he was a magician about to pull a rabbit out of a hat. He puffed himself up and with a glint in his eyes announced: “We have a copy of the master encryption system including the Artificial Intelligence self-recognition codes.”

  “Rubbish!” blurted the Brigadier. “Apart from the fact it would have taken days to transfer that amount of information, even if you could access it, the quantum would require so much storage that it wouldn’t fit into a large truck, let alone a tablet and SSD card. You’re lying!”

  Haller looked triumphant rather than react to the accusation: “Indeed. Indeed. However you need to consider what might be possible if you could implant a Trojan theft programme and leave it in place for eight months. All that time to quietly analyse and steal the encryption. All those months harvesting the data. What if you had perfected a form of digital transfer that was capable of shifting that quantum without detection over a thousand times faster than you thought possible? What if it required the smallest of intermediary devices? What if it was coded and stored on a purpose built organic structure at cellular level. In other words, as DNA?

  The Brigadier blinked. It was science fiction. His mind raced through what Haller had described. From his initial disbelief and shock at these outlandish ideas, he slowly began to see an emerging plausibility. After a few moments, in which all other eyes were upon him, he asked “This was your Hong Kong Project?”

  Benning replied: “In essence yes. We shared technologies and from that work we developed a means of delivering our plan. It just needed us to find a suitable host and opportunity. I’m afraid, Major, that role fell to you.”

  Fawzia felt as though she had been electrocuted. She was already putting two and two together as he spoke but his last words laid bare the stark reality of her position. Her focus had been on how he had compromised her military encrypted tablet. She was hoping for proof that the very people entrusted with securing her systems had worked together to undermine them. Instead she was being confronted with the reality that they had also used her medical needs to violate her bodily and implant something in her scar tissue. Something that was a weapon to be used against the very country she pledged to defend. The thought made her sick and angry. She felt like reaching across the table and snapping the necks of both Haller and Benning. “You Bastards!” she shouted in their faces and sprung to her feet. The two guards on the door tensed.

  Haller appeared sheepish and Benning looked angry. “Don’t be so precious” he snapped back, “you’ve had the best treatment available. The thin layer of material embedded in your skin is less than a thumbnail in size. What it does do, is make you the most valuable officer in the army, in the present circumstances.”

  Fawzia snarled at him. “You had no right. No right at all, you have tried to turn me into a tool for treachery and you have assaulted me in the process.” She turned to Haller “As for you, you are ethically repugnant. God knows how you can call yourself a doctor!”

  Sir Alistair stepped in. “Your right to be angry Major and we will explore the impact on you personally…” He paused for a few seconds, trying to judge her emotional state… “However, at the moment, and I can hardly believe I am saying this, it would appear that you are part of the key to regaining control of Rose Garden.”

  Fawzia was still clenching her fists on the desk top and leaning towards Benning. She did not unlock her gaze from his throat but spoke in a rasping whisper. “I’m sorry but there is no upside. This is abuse! Whatever you implanted, I want it removed immediately.”

  Alicia decided to try be supportive: “Fawzia is right. This is gross. As soon as we are able we will arrange its removal but first we need to understand exactly what you have done to her.”

  It was Haller who spoke: “I suspect you have very little time before Rose Garden decides that something else in the world is either a threat to destroy or an asset to steal. We can either spend it discussing the Major’s minor surgery or what must be done to stop it.”

  The rest of the room looked surprised. Haller was far more assertive, confident and fluid that they had seen before. Suddenly he looked very much a man at the heart of events rather than a scientific pawn in a bigger game or a kidnap victim. Sir Alistair looked at him with deepening concern. “I take it that, if you have this laptop, you can shut down Rose Garden without the need for any invasive procedure involving the Major?”

  Haller didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely. All I need is the Major in physical contact with the laptop and access to the three sites through the secure network. We can work from here. After that it will be a matter of minutes.”

  Fawzia sat down. Her anger was still there but she saw that her own personal position was still secondary to removing the threat from Rose Garden. She sighed as if in resignation but it was more an outlet for her frustration. She looked at Haller with contempt. “And when this is over I want this skin thing removed by someone who is a real doctor.”

  “Where is the laptop?” asked Alicia. Haller shrugged. Benning put his hands on the table. “I passed it to my team. They are in hiding but I can contact them and arrange a handover. All I ask is that the courier is not arrested.”

  Alicia looked at Sir Alistair. This could be tricky. He straightened up and took charge of the situation. “Who is the courier? “

  Benning paused before replying. “A freelancer. His name is George. Before you ask I can confirm he hasn’t killed or injured anyone in this operation.”

  “Christ” said the Brigadier, “we surely can’t allow our only link to this so called “team” to walk away? They could be about to launch some new attack on us.”

  Sir Alistair found himself being more forceful that he normally wanted to be. The Brigadier was a good man but there was a bigger picture here. “I think we have little choice. Alicia, please arrange the handover. Your courier won’t be arrested at the handover but once he is off site I expect him and the rest of your “team” to leave the UK within the next few hours. After that it will be open season on them.”

  The Brigadier shook his head but recognised a decision had been made and it was pointless continuing to object. />
  “Phone, please” asked Benning. Alicia pulled it from her pocket. He punched in some numbers and spoke quickly to keep the call short. George agreed to do it but insisted on using public transport and making the exchange in a busy public place. The exchange would take place in three hours at Euston station in London. George would handle it alone. The rest of the team would exit the country.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Lauren and Trent were sitting in a small and stuffy office in the NSA building in New York. They looked exhausted and their faces conveyed emotions of anxiety and dismay. Opposite them sat Sidowski. Unusually he had a pile of papers in front of him. The damage to the Esterhazy facility had been so great that any surviving files had to be printed out. He leafed through them with the air of a man reading a fire damage report on his own home. The disaster was unmitigated.

  Lauren summoned up the energy to interrupt him. “I wouldn’t bother. The whole thing is a write off. We have the building and a small part of the physical infrastructure but that is all. The hardware is as badly damaged as the rest. In short we are out of that end of the business and looking at losses not far short of $100 million. Our potential earnings, which ran into many billions, have vaporised along with the interface technology.”

  Trent felt obliged to say something but the events of the preceding twelve hours had drained him in a way he had not ever felt possible. He spoke with little conviction and less energy. “I guess we will be looking for compensation from the Brits.”

  Sidowski raised his eyebrows. The enormity of what had happened seemed lost on the two bosses of Esterhazy Corporation. “This calamity, as it is being referred to in the Pentagon, was the most devastating attack on the USA since nine eleven. It was conducted simultaneously with the complete destruction of the TwoBitz remote access technology in Shanghai and the FSB malware facility near St. Petersburg. In all three attacks the physical infrastructure is damaged and the hardware and software in each case were apparently cloned and stolen before being destroyed.”

  Trent looked morose. “It’s not something our insurers would be remotely interested in. We voluntarily opened up our system at your request. At the very least, we could do with some form of underwriting by the Federal Government. This appears to have been an act of war.”

  Sidowski was blunt. “That won’t happen.” He looked at their beleaguered faces. After a few moments he became more reflective. “Look…the fact is…these events have faced the President with the reality of what cyber warfare can do. I foresee more money being put behind our defensive and offensive capability. In the end, out of this disaster, you may find a lot of lucrative work coming your way.”

  Lauren looked at him steadily and Trent fidgeted uncomfortably as she spoke. “I want this Benning character extradited and imprisoned or terminated for what he has done.” Sidowski knew it was a message she would be repeating on Capitol Hill and anywhere else where she felt it might carry weight. He raised his hands “I’ll see what State thinks is possible but that may well depend on other factors. One thing is for sure. He has a lot of enemies and I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”

  Lauren looked steadily at him and simply mouthed the words “I want him dead.”

  In London, Benning felt more buoyant. He believed that he had regained some of the initiative. Whilst still deeply worried by the threats to his sister and the rest of his family, he felt that sufficient leverage remained in his grasp. He still hoped to find some way of avoiding lengthy incarceration. The nagging doubt about Haller remained. The Doctor had appeared reinvigorated by the opportunity presented. He also displayed an unnerving knowledge of the various technologies being employed and his grasp of detail in respect of Rose Garden was surprising. Indeed Benning was beginning to suspect that in his own way Haller had manipulated this situation, as he did with everything else, to maximise his personal advantage. He was beginning to feel he had been the pawn but then his own arrogance and hubris let him dismiss the idea.

  Special Events were tasked with co-ordinating the exchange at Euston. The Manchester train was scheduled to arrive at quarter past one in the afternoon. Officers had boarded at Crewe to take up positions around where George was sitting in first class Coach K near the front of the train. He carried a lap top case that was placed on the table in front of him but had made no move to open it. Instead he appeared lost in thought, gazing out of the window at the countryside flashing past him. At Euston some dozen MI5 officers were supplemented by fifty S.C.O.19 firearms officers. The handover receivers consisted of just Alicia and Bob Christie. Forward command was set up adjacent to the main station entrance. The whole area was covered with cameras and everything recorded.

  At five minutes to the hour the train sped through Apsley station outside London. It was on the central track that carried it away from the platforms. The Rail Track signal control indicated a clear track ahead but on the main track board it was apparent a goods train had just been switched onto the same lines. Warning signals flashed on the screens and there were frantic attempts to grab phones and contact the respective drivers. Then the communications system failed. At the same time the goods train met a red signal and drew slowly to a stop. Its last three cars in a thirty car mixed goods line up, were filled with aviation fuel. They came to a halt on the bridge over the M25. At three minutes before the hour the driver of the Manchester express train saw the hazard ahead as he rounded the curve in the track. Every automatic safety system failed. Even the on board computer controlling the multi-carriage braking system failed. He was powerless to prevent the crash.

  The impact threw the first three carriages, including that occupied by George, into the air and onto the motorway some forty feet below. Above them the air was filled with aviation fuel from the shattered tankers. It ignited and dropped as a rain of fire on everything within five hundred metres of the bridge. Cars and trucks were engulfed and added their own fuel to the fireball. In a matter of seconds the motorway surface itself melted and fused into the twisted and burning metal. George and most of the occupants of coach K were incinerated instantly. The laptop was crushed, melted and unrecognisable a few seconds later. Rose Garden had removed the latest threat. More significantly it had moved from responding to attacks to anticipating them.

  As news filtered through at Euston there was disbelief and then pandemonium. Alicia sat with Bob in the forward command centre watching the horrific images flash up on screen. “An accident?” asked Bob. Alicia could hardly speak but blurted out the inevitable reply; “No this was very deliberate. We should have known Rose Garden would monitor what we were doing. We have been completely negligent. The damn thing has turned on us as a threat to be eradicated. All those people…” her voice trailed off as it became choked with emotion.

  “Jesus…” said Bob…and then as the revelation sank in, “…if it knows that much, then we are all at risk. It will move on the Major, Haller and Benning next.”

  Alicia nodded: “We have to get out of here and find a secure means of communicating that is hidden from it.”

  “It will be using our own systems, CCTV and the secure phone servers. We have to go completely dark,” said Bob. “That was why they wanted the Bristol safe house as a base. It was to hide from Rose Garden not from us. They couldn’t risk it spotting them and assessing they were a threat.”

  Alicia grimaced. “Damn, damn, damn.” She paused for a few seconds, “Christ, maybe it spotted Olsson’s plan and built its own antidote to the malware. That would explain how it recovered itself. We have been so stupid.” She grabbed her coat and bag and headed out of the door. Bob followed seconds behind. They headed straight for a waiting car at the kerb which whisked them back to the National Cyber Security Centre.

  The carnage on the M25 and rail line dominated the radio and news channels. The two of them listened to the reports in silence. It seemed an agonisingly long journey but in fact it took only twenty five minutes through the traffic of central London. When they arrived back in the brief
ing room only the Brigadier and Fawzia were present. Both were watching the news on a monitor on the far wall.

  “Where are Benning and Haller?” asked Alicia. Her voice was flat.

  The Brigadier looked at her pale face. “They are down on floor three with CERT. I take it the laptop and the courier were both on that train?” Bob nodded in confirmation. The Brigadier sat down. He seemed deflated. “I fear we are now facing a far graver threat than any of us imagined. Sir Alistair has gone to brief the Prime Minister. We appear to be out of options.”

  Alicia spoke to Fawzia: “You had better stand down the preparations on floor three. You can break the news to them that their back door key is no more. Arrange for the Dark Squadron to move Benning and Haller to our assessment centre within Broadmoor High Security Hospital. Given what has just happened I think they are both going to be there a very long time. The Brigadier and I will join you in a few minutes.”

  “I’ll come with you,” said Bob and the two of them took the lift down to the hive of activity within the CERT office on floor three. As they entered, the Head of the team called them into his side office and closed the door behind him. “We have managed to ensure all the fail safe human and mechanical interventions are in place around our nuclear and strategic military systems. They are now secured from its intervention. However, Rose Garden remains a threat to heavily automated systems. Where we can, we are taking them off line, but I can’t offer any guarantees. It might disrupt anything which uses a computer and in some cases, as we have just seen, it can over-ride and control whole systems.”

  Fawzia nodded: “Keep at it. Do Benning and Haller know what has happened?” The CERT head looked out of his office window at where they were working on the far side of his operations room. “No. They are both working on code systems in preparation for the arrival of their laptop. They don’t even know Rose Garden has moved to this anticipatory form of offensive action.” She followed his gaze. Both men represented something dark and dangerous and her contempt for them was mixed with an element of nervousness. Benning would see this turn of events as a vindication of his whole twisted plot. Haller would revel in the idea of the awesome power that he had been party to creating. Fawzia asked one of the Dark Squadron guards to come into the office and briefed him. He left to organise transportation. She drew a deep breath and went out to tell the traitor and his medical accomplice, the bad news.