Contest (The Stork Tower Book 6)

by Tony Corden

  Gèng said, “I’ll take you out through the Brisbane Area Network to the Australian Area Network. This time we will need to step through the Virtual Multiverse Network because Virtual Security and various shadow Network Security protocols have increased surveillance in the older transcontinental ‘Internet’ connections. When we reach the entrance to the Navajo Nation Area Network that serves as the entrance to the various Diné Worlds, we’ll drop into the old Secure Area Network that serviced the Navajo Casinos. Reed discovered a viable unsecured connection to the old Flagstaff Area Network. Reed’s identified four possible entry points from there to the Southside Archives Secure Local Network.”

  12

  Chapter 12

  December 17, 2073 - Early Morning - Part 3

  CYBER-VERSE

  Leah nodded and stepped close to Gèng, together they stepped into Gèng's space. With the filter applied Leah was back in the multi-doored warehouse. Leah changed into the dark overalls, soft boots, utility belt and backpack she would use to move through the networks and stepped with Gèng to the door labelled ‘Guàn Enterprises–LAN’. Gèng entered the correct sequence, and the door opened. Stepping through, they appeared in the same circular room but its circumference had increased, and the data travelling through the room had more than trebled in the four days since Leah had last been here. She could still sense the different types of data and recognised a tenfold increase in data from security cameras and various sensors and external monitoring devices. Each of the doors into the different individual Pods had also been strengthened. Faceless security guards now patrolled the central area instead of being primarily centred in the area marked ‘Security LAN’.

  Two of the doors had multiple guards standing beside them. Although faceless they looked to be watching both entry and exits from the doors. Leah looked at the labels and saw they belonged to her and her mother. Gèng noticed Leah’s gaze and said, “John increased the security measures for you both. Inside your door is a couple of security protocols I’ve designed myself. You probably didn’t notice them, and hopefully, nothing else will either. Once we leave this secure network and enter the Brisbane Area Network, I suggest you watch for any indication of the entity who’s been watching you.”

  Leah nodded and Gèng pointed to a door marked ‘Brisbane Area Network’. Beside the door were several figures in Guàn Enterprises Security uniforms. One of them had distinguishable, though androgynous, features. It said, “Please show your pass.”

  Gèng flashed a badge, and the face turned toward Leah. It said, “AI Gèng Pass accepted. Security, please advise on the anomaly.”

  An even more detailed figure appeared and looked at Gèng. Leah didn’t have a preset construct to sense the communication between Gèng and the security program but as she stared her mind noted the data transfer and adapted its filters to show it as flowing colours. The security’s query flowed as an amber pulse toward Gèng who reflected it back having changed the pulse to an extended collection of pulses which flashed blue, white and green. Both guards stepped back, and Gèng and Leah stepped into the Brisbane Area Network.

  The room was similar to before, and Leah could see thousands of AI moving through the room. She also observed a constant barrage of coloured pulses and streams of light. She perceived a low-level hum and her brain attempted to give meaning to the increasing mixture of signals. As Gèng stepped into the larger Australian Area Network, Leah sensed a chill to her right and a hint of yellow mist in the distance. She took hold of Gèng’s arm and motioned with her eyes.

  Leah wasn’t sure if Gèng understood, but Gèng took several quick steps and passed into the Virtual Multiverse Network. Nothing had prepared Leah for the immense size of the artificial construct. To her eyes, it was a multi-storied cavern stretching for a kilometre in every direction. Large tunnels were dug into the wall every hundred metres or so, and they were stacked one upon the other. Each of the tunnels was labelled, and they connected the globe’s larger Area Networks and the numerous Gaming Server Farms which serviced the ever-expanding worlds of the multiverse. The more Leah stared, the more she could see faint wisps of mist clinging to the walls and streaming down the tunnels. Not all the mist was yellow, there were also sections of green, blue and white. None of the colours mixed, instead, they appeared to flow on currents of their own making. Leah didn’t have time to take everything in as Gèng stepped toward the American Union District 8 Area Network (AMU8AN). Once in the smaller chamber, they stepped across it and stopped outside an arch labelled ‘Navajo Nation Area Network’. Entry into the arch was blocked by a screen of light. Leah recognised this as a security filter. Permission was needed to enter the Navajo Nations network. Gèng pointed to a small alcove off to one side, and together they stepped into it. Inside, and on the floor, was the door of a safe. It had four combination locks and a keypad.

  Gèng was reaching down to open it when Leah said, “Wait. Something doesn’t feel right.”

  Gèng straightened and said, “What feels strange? We need to keep moving. Reed passed through here yesterday and gave me the codes.”

  Leah looked around and said, “I’m not sure what it is, but something isn’t sitting right. Martin drummed it into me every time we did a job together. ‘If it doesn’t seem right, it isn’t. Even if everything is good, it wasn’t really, because you had doubts.’ Let me look first, please?”

  Gèng stepped back, and Leah leant down to look at the door. She looked at each of the different locks and then checked around the paper-thin seam. Finally she Leah said, “I can see the outline of a fibre linking the door with the frame. It looks like a translucent piece of string or hair.”

  Gèng didn’t move but focussed her attention on the entranceway for a moment then said, “Leah, I cannot perceive any security measures except the passwords for access.”

  “I think it’s what my brain has chosen to represent something it senses. If it were a real door, I’d see it as a cheap, non-technical way of seeing if someone has opened a door or window. Can you identify a hidden signal or a passive switch that might tell someone if the door is open? Is there anything that would then trace that person?”

  Gèng paused momentarily then said, “You are correct, there is a passive Intrusion Detection System here, it’s coded to report every intrusion. I suspect you are correct and some form of response would be initiated to try and identify the intruder.”

  “Can you isolate the system to prevent it from sending a message?”

  “Now that I have identified it, I can. OK, it’s isolated.”

  Leah stepped back, and Gèng reached down and opened the door. They dropped down into a small darkened cavern which was labelled as the ‘Navajo Casino Secure Area Network’. All the larger tunnels were blank, but a few of the smaller doorways were faintly illuminated. Gèng led Leah to a small square vent with a fine mesh cover. Gèng said, “This leads to the old Flagstaff Area Network. I’ll let you filter the signals and instigate all action from here on. With the lower security level, I’d expected to take you further, but the unexpected IDS at the last door changes the threat level sufficiently. Reed’s confidence in the information provided concerning the route from here on approaches unity—it’s been pieced together from fifty years of IT provider records and a variety of purchased hacker information.”

  Leah looked at the vent and said, “Why is there no label on the conduit?”

  “It’s most likely the remnants of an illegal government tap into either the casino network or the Navajo Council. It exits into the old Flagstaff Area Network adjacent to the old entrance to the Flagstaff FBI Office Secure Network.”

  Leah nodded, and after checking the vent, she used her tools and opened it. She wriggled inside and secured it behind her. She hoped to exit the same way but decided not to leave any clues, just in case. With one worm-like undulation, she moved to the end of the conduit. She peered through the vent and into a dimly lit cavern almost as large as the Brisbane Area Network cavern—it was what remained
of the older internet system’s Flagstaff Area Network. Many of the tunnels and vents opened into emptiness. They’d become vacant as people changed to the newer and more efficient multiverse connections. Still, from the passage of AI and other programs crossing the cavern, coupled with the transfer of data which showed as lines of light that flashed across the tiled floor, the network wasn’t abandoned completely.

  Leah could see something adjacent to the vent she was in so she took a small mirror on a handle from her pack—it looked identical to a dentist’s mirror. The only difference was that hers had a convex lens. Poking this through she could see the old entrance to the FBI connection. On either side of it were standing faceless figures. They were looking outwards and were obviously security protocols. She watched for some time before concluding they were passive in nature. She waited until something approached the Secure Network and saw the security figures only responded when it was clear the AI was headed into the network. Once they became stationary again, she carefully opened the vent and stepped into the open space.

  A sweeping look around the cavern was enough to let her identify the connection labels and step directly to the first option provided by Reed—the Lake Mary Water Treatment Plant LAN. Arizona had been considered a leader in water management for many years, and the newer updated plant was an industry leader not only in treating ground and waste water but it also prepared, supplied, managed, and maintained high-quality water and hydro-products to a wide variety of industries in the Flagstaff area. Not only did they provide water to the new cooling towers at Southside Archives but also to a biomedical manufacturing facility called Genrex. Genrex was one of their more established customers. Its older software was more stable when connected through the older network. Genrex had recently upgraded over half of their 25,000-litre bioreactors to newer and larger 75,000-litre model and was therefore linked to both the older internet network and the more modern multiverse network.

  Leah needed to enter the old low-security Lake Mary Water Treatment Plant LAN, make her way along the data sensor reporting system for the older 25,000-litre reactors to the Genrex Local Area Network. After crossing the Genrex LAN, she needed to transverse the data sensor reporting system for the newer 75,000-litre reactors to the newer Lake Mary Hydro-Tech LAN. From there she would cross to the sensor system for the cooling towers at Southside Archives. Once in the Southside Sensors Secure Area Network, Leah needed to break into the Vault then find her way through the backdoor access way she believed Alan Hopper had left there.

  Reed had chosen this path because she could bypass most security by moving along conduits used exclusively for sensor data. Reed expected the only difficult transitions would be crossing the two LANs and the Secure Area Network. Even then she would be moving in the crawlspaces under the floors. Leah went over the plan one more time in her head then chuckled thankfully when her sense of humour compared the tunnel to the water treatment plant to her recent trip through Pneumatica’s sewer.

  Suddenly everything in front of her blurred, her mind took the thought and redefined the filters. The tunnel opening had sunk into the ground and had become a clear pool of water with a clean metallic rim like the end of a long pipe. Leah looked around and although most of the rest of the room remained the same things changed as her eyes and mind identified where they went. The opening to the Flagstaff Forestry Service LAN turned to timber, and she could see a trail through the trees stretching behind it. The opening to an electrical utility company, SA Power, looked like the end of a piece of copper wire and electricity sparked across it continually. The portal to the FBI changed to a rotating glass door with the FBI logo on it.

  Leah was aware that although the scenario had changed, the signals themselves hadn’t changed, only how she perceived them. She wasn’t prepared for a water scenario and turning back to the pool in front of her she tried to imagine it was the same as before, a straight empty subway-style tunnel. It flickered briefly, but she was unsuccessful. Her mind had redefined the filters to show more information, and her subconscious resisted the regression. Leah’s experience in Dunyanin with forming spells became useful, and she sat for a moment visualising again the changes she wanted to make. Her determination and the clarity of her desire made all the difference, and she grinned as the pool disappeared and morphed back into a tunnel.

  Leah stepped into the tunnel and taking a step, arrived at the opening into the low-security Lake Mary Water Treatment Plant LAN. She carefully worked her way into the system of data tunnels under the floor until she arrived at the Genrex LAN. Security was light in the LAN, and she was able to cross to the newer data tunnels then move back to the newer Lake Mary Hydro-Tech LAN. From here she used a crawlway which represented the data line to the sensor system for the Southside Archive cooling tower. Another crawlway brought her to the Southside Sensors Secure Area Network.

  13

  Chapter 13

  December 17, 2073 - Early Morning - Part 4

  CYBER-VERSE

  Leah used her dentist style tool again to review the Vault security. There were two faceless guards outside the Vault door which had both a magnetic card reader and several key holes. Leah had no biometric data to help facilitate access to the secure vault, so she was going to do the primary hack herself. Gèng and Reed had insisted she learn the techniques and programming she needed. In addition, Reed had given her a data pack with all the company and client information it could find.

  Reed had predicted there would be no roving security inside the secure network itself. A quick check by Leah, however, showed one scanning program whose route she was able to deduce after observing it for several iterations. She waited for it to pass her by, then exited the data conduit from the cooling system and moving slowly, placed a series of small sensors around the room. These were passive and focussed on the two security programs at the vault door and at the entrance itself. Reed had prepared the sensors to look similar to the expected decor of the room. When the sensor packets were in place, she returned to the data conduit to wait.

  Reed had uncovered company records which showed that Southside Archive had just over two hundred thousand clients who used the Vault and that on any given day fifty per cent of them accessed the site to update their data in the Vault itself. This meant that once every real-time second Leah was able to observe the entry procedure and record and measure the security arrangements using the sensors. With her current increased rate of perception, it seemed like a new entry every minute and a half of cyber time. Leah carefully watched each entry and accessed the sensors when the roving security couldn’t observe the brief transmission of data. Leah was searching for several things. She needed to ascertain what the security programs at the entrance were checking for. She also wanted the password and electronic signature of a client who accessed the vault both frequently and randomly.

  Altogether Leah had been concentrating and recording clients entering the vault for just over five cyber-hours before she’d identified each element she would need to enter the Vault. The security not only checked the username and password but they also scanned for a randomised unique code which the security software embedded and updated on both entry and exit.

  Leah had identified a client who had accessed the Vault three times since she had been observing. They were a private family-run organisation who operated several real-world bars and restaurants in Phoenix and numerous virtual drinking and gambling establishments. Leah waited for twenty cyber-minutes after the previous entry and then emerged from the data conduit and stepped toward the Vault entrance. She had assumed the cyber-signature of Francesco Castelli. Her filters arranged the data into what looked like a keycard with her photo, clearance, and unique code. Her password was in the form of a large brass key. Leah handed the card to one of the security programs and showed her key to the other. Her card was swiped, and a light on the card reader turned green. The card was swiped a second time to change the unique security code. As this was handed to her, she stepped forward and placed
her key in the left keyhole as the second security figure inserted a similar key in the right-hand opening. They turned their keys at the same time, and the vault opened. Leah stepped through and found herself in an office-sized space with various filing cabinets, bookshelves, safety security boxes and a computer terminal. The door closed behind her.

  Leah was in the Vault, but only inside the area accessible to the client, Francesco Castelli. Previously, Francesco had spent less than ten minutes each time in the Vault and in this time Leah needed to exit his area and access the administration area of the Vault. Reed had assured her that there would be a hidden access panel somewhere in each room which could be used by administrators in case they needed to breach a client’s area for security or legal reasons.

  Leah began in one corner, at the floor level, and worked her way around the room, carefully taking time to examine each part of the space. It took her eight minutes to finish the room, but she had no success. Her next step was to move the furniture and see if the access was hidden behind them. Unfortunately, the filing cabinets were heavy, and she had to pick the locks and remove the files and drawers to shift them. There was nothing behind or under the first two cabinets but as she moved the third she could see a recessed trapdoor underneath it. Dragging the cabinet into the middle of the room gave her access to the administrator’s emergency login. The panel she had uncovered had no discernible lock, handle or hinge and was unquestionably locked from the outside.

  Leah used the hand-drill she had used in the high-security Vault to pierce the doorway, and then with a small flexible fibre optic camera she examined the external surface. There was a combination lock in the centre of the trapdoor. Leah used the drill to access the inner mechanism and unlock the door. Leah carefully lowered herself onto the small access walkway under the Castelli storage area. Looking around, she saw she was on a metal frame which ran underneath the locked storage areas. Although Leah was running five cyber-minutes past the optimal time, she still took her time to examine the area for security sensors and programs. Seeing nothing nearby, she scanned the area looking for the access way into Alan Hopper’s private backdoor. Leah was looking for a ladder or conduit which was unconnected to the locked storage rooms. She noticed two. One ended at a large bank-style vault, and the other was a ladder which ascended into nothingness. Leah assumed the first was the administrator’s entrance and moved quickly toward the ladder.