Leo quickly brought him up-to-date on their tests. ‘The package will be in Shanghai tonight,’ he finished, ‘and I don’t know how to prevent it from being deployed.’
‘That’s a new one on me. A physical cell added to a processor. How do they do that without it being noticed?’
‘Maybe you’ve never seen one of these silicone chips, Billy. They’ve got a billion components on a fingernail. Impossible to see what’s there or not. But that cell is definitely there and it’s not on the XPC design, so it must have been added at Lee-Win in Shanghai.’
‘You know, guys, the more we find out about that Chinese outfit, the more it looks like a barrel of worms. The problem is, we don’t have one single solid fact. We don’t know who owns it, what’s really going to happen on this upload, and we don’t know why.’ He asked the same question as Coetzee had. ‘What does it do?’
‘They send a trigger command to the cell and something in the processor switches it off. The whole network goes down, as simple as that. You’ll have billions of devices all over the world that stop working.’
‘Jesus Christ! Lee-Win’s main market is government departments, industrials, banking and essential service industries, correct?’
‘Right, the infrastructure of the world’s business.’
Leo’s words seem to hang in the air as Chillicott was silent for a moment. ‘But if they deploy your original upgrades without that additional code you found, the new software works fine?’
‘Perfectly. We think that’s what they’ll do, then they’ll follow up the clean version with that code as a minor update and “wham bang thank you mam”! I’ve got Ed trying to find out what’s going on up there, but we’ve heard nothing yet.’
‘Is there any way you can find out how to access the hub network they’ll use for the deployment?’
‘Ed’s on that as well. And we’ve got a team of people here in Joburg trying to identify the exact command that does the shutdown. Then we could try to hack into the hub to override it, or maybe your Homeland people could, you’ve got a lot more resources in that area than we have.’
‘I didn’t hear you say that, but it sounds like a plan. See if Ed can get us some kind of link. And while you’re at it, ask him if he can manage to get a photo of that woman, Elodie. We know all about Shen Fu Liáng, but nothing about her. If she’s on any kind of file, we might have some luck with our image matching kit. And Leo, tell him to be real careful. Those people don’t play by the rules, as you know better than me.’
Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa
‘Hello Jenny, how’s everything with you?’ Coetzee had gotten to enjoy speaking to Jenny Bishop. She seemed to be like him, didn’t waste time talking about things, just got on with it. He regretted what had happened in 2010, but it didn’t appear to have left any lasting scars, apart from his.
‘I just wanted to keep you informed. One of my family, Patrice de Moncrieff, is a director of BIP in Spain, and he works closely with their Hong Kong subsidiary. He’s gone there on our behalf to try to get details of the payments made to Mme Lee-Win.’
‘That’s great news, Jenny. What are his chances?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know, but he knows what we need and he’s a clever man. He wouldn’t have gone if he didn’t think he could do it. I’ll know in a day or two if he can find out what we want. Is there any progress on the technical side?’
‘I’ll get Leo to give you an update. He was just explaining it to General Chillicott, so you’re in exalted company.’
Leo explained what the team had discovered about cell S470C887,999. ‘We just don’t know what they’re going to do with it, or when they’ll do it,’ he finished lamely.
‘Remember what I told you about those billions of anonymous processors all over the world? “The most terrifying thing I’ve heard in my life”, I said. And I was right.’
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
‘I’m ready to send the package off. Anything special you want me to say in the message?’
Shen had just come up to Tom Connor’s office, where the CEO was finishing his report to the Lee-Win board.
‘I’ll email this report shortly, so you don’t need to add anything. This is a great result, Shen, and I’m giving you all the credit, you and Sharif. It could easily have gone wrong when Leo went AWOL, but you guys managed to save the day. Thanks for being a trusted partner and getting it done within the timeframe, I won’t forget it.’
Shen smiled modestly. ‘You’re welcome Tom, we owed it to you. After what happened to poor Scotty, and then this episode with Leo Stewart, we just had to deliver to prove the value of XPC. I’ll get it off now with the appropriate signature protocols. See you later.’
He went down to the lab with his laptop, and collated the bundle of firmware and connectivity programmes and the ACRE upgrade into a machine-readable executable file with the agreed Lee-Win handshake signature. After further testing in Shanghai, the upgrades would be distributed with that same trusted signature; the customer devices would open them and override their firmware with the new versions. The design spec and mask was a CAD document that could be read by Lee-Wins CAM machinery to manufacture the Mark VII processors, although that wasn’t one of his priorities. If everything went according to plan, it might never even be produced.
He called Elodie. ‘Everything’s finished and ready to go. I’m pressing Send now.’
‘Well done, darling, it’s finally over. When are we leaving? I’m sick and tired of this place, and the people. Can I start booking flights and hotels?’
‘We’ll wait until the uploads are deployed, then we’ll make our move. We don’t want to be here when the trigger upload goes out, it’s likely to get a little nasty.’
‘So, a few more days? Are we going back to Ireland as you promised? It’s months since I was there, and you know how much I love it. And it’ll be a long way from the problem areas. We’ll wait it out until everything’s settled down, then the world’s our oyster. I can’t wait.’
‘Just a few more days, then Dublin. I promise.’
Shen rang off, then called a number on his encrypted phone. ‘I’ve just sent off the package,’ he said in Russian. ‘Yes, it should be just a few days, not more. I’ll keep you informed.’
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
‘Hello, darling. The software package was sent off to Shanghai a few minutes ago.’ Elodie Delacroix was on her other mobile phone again.
She listened for a moment. ‘Yes, Shen sent it. He says it will go out in a couple of days. I know, not long now. I’ll keep you informed as soon as I hear anything more. Take care, I’m missing you.’
FORTY-FIVE
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Wednesday, 14 July 2017
‘I hear Shen sent everything off last night? Pressure’s off for a while.’ Ed took a swig of coffee. He’d just come from Hatim’s office, where the lawyer had promised to visit Oskar Novak in prison to hand over the $1,000 ‘get out of jail’ money from Leo.
Sharif nodded his head. ‘Just housekeeping until we get the next project from Shanghai. But it might be sooner than we think.’
The remark made Ed’s ears prick up. ‘Sounds like you’re expecting something specific. Anything I should know?’
The Pakistani looked away. ‘Just something Shen mentioned.’
Ed tried to sound nonchalant. ‘To do with that cell, S470C887,999?’
‘How do you know about that?’
‘I don’t. Only that Leo was trying to work out what it’s for.’
‘It’s something Shanghai’s working on, I don’t know the details. Shen thinks we’ll get a chance to build something even better than ACRE.’
‘That would be difficult.’ Now Ed was sure Sharif had been hoodwinked by his boss. ‘Isn’t that one of your cells?’
‘Morning, guys.’ Shen came into the office. ‘What’s new?’
Sharif shifted on his seat. ‘We were just wondering when we might get the n
ew project from Shanghai.’
‘I’m going up there as soon as they send out the upgrades. It’s top of my list of priorities, I don’t want you guys sitting around with nothing to do.’ He gave a mirthless laugh, avoiding looking at them.
In for a penny, in for a pound, Ed thought. ‘Is it as exciting as Sharif said? Bigger than ACRE?’
‘I’m not allowed to discuss it, but it’s quite earth-shattering, I promise you.’
‘Strange Tom hasn’t said anything about it.’
‘You know he’s not in touch a lot with head office, he leaves all that to me. Now, I’ve got a few things to do, so I’ll catch you later.’ He walked out, leaving the two men looking at each other.
Ed tried to provoke a reaction from Sharif. ‘What the hell’s going on? He’s working with Shanghai on something the CEO doesn’t know about?’
‘I don’t know. I try not to get involved in office politics, it’s not my business.’
Shen went straight to his office and called Elodie. ‘Ed’s poking his nose into things.’ He explained what had transpired. ‘What do we do? Take him out of the picture?’
She forced herself to be patient. ‘That’s not a great idea, we don’t want another incident, especially right now. Don’t forget there’s some connection with that general at Homeland Security. We can’t afford to arouse his suspicions.’
‘So what do you want me to do?’
‘Can you get Shanghai to speed up the test procedure and move the deployment date forward?’
‘I can try, but it’s the regular Lee-Win systems people handling the upload, our guy will only step in after it’s gone out. I can’t pressure them too much or they’ll think there’s something wrong. I’ll call them and see what the timetable is.’
‘Maybe you should go up there and get them moving?’
‘I don’t know. Let me see what’s happening and I’ll decide. I’ll call you later.’
Elodie put the phone down in exasperation. She couldn’t wait until she no longer needed this idiot. Once she got to Dublin with her reward for five years of putting up with him, she wouldn’t hang around. A quick change of identity, an airline ticket and she’d be leaving on a jet plane, John Denver style.
Marbella, Spain
Jenny’s mobile rang at seven-thirty. It was a clear, sunny morning and she’d already enjoyed a refreshing ten-minute swim in the pool. Encarni and Juan didn’t arrive until eight, and she’d thrown aside her inhibitions and swum in the nude. She’d woken up feeling a little bleary and the cold water had helped to clear her head. The coffee machine was spewing out her morning dose of caffeine when she saw it was Patrice’s number calling.
‘Hola, Patrice. Que tal?’
‘Hi, Jenny, your Spanish is improving, keep it up. I just want to give you a quick update, is this a good time?’
‘Fire away, I’m taking my coffee out to the terrace.’
‘It turns out that Mme Lee-Win lives in Hong Kong now and she’s one of our PE clients, has been for a couple of years. Ho Au Yeung has a good relationship with her. The sad part of the story is that she’s ill. She has an untreatable condition, prognosis only a few years to live. That’s why she moved there from Macau.’
‘My God, how awful. How old is she?’
‘Sixty-two, much too young, but there’s apparently no hope. Her sons are taking over the casino business and they’ve sold off the manufacturing plants the family had in China.’
‘She’s been sorting out her affairs.’
‘Exactly. I spoke to her this morning and she’s invited me over to her house tomorrow. I explained what we’re looking for and she said she’d try to help. Seems like she wants to talk about what happened, her husband’s death and her decision to sell the microprocessor business and move to Macau.’
‘Like a last catharsis to cleanse herself of those bad things?’
‘I suppose so. I’ll try to get as much information as I can, documents, whatever she has that might help us. I’ll call you again tomorrow when I know what’s available.’
Jenny thought for a moment. ‘I don’t think you should tell her about the cyber-attack, Patrice. It won’t help, and the shock might endanger her health. We don’t want her blaming herself because her company is being used for such an awful purpose. Just stick to the ownership angle, I’m sure it will be sufficient.’
They said goodbye and she checked the time. It was just coming up to eight, and she heard Encarni’s cheerful ‘Buenos dias, Jenny.’ She called Coetzee, it was the same time in Joburg and he would be waiting for her news.
Zurich, Switzerland
‘Sehr gut. Das sind gute Neuigkeiten. That’s good news. When will Shanghai send it out? A few days, excellent.’ Max Oberhart was listening to his son’s latest report from Dubai. ‘I’ll pass the message on to Julius at Hai-Sat. He’s getting impatient.’
He listened for a moment. ‘Just sit tight and let’s see how the launch goes. It’s too early to make a move yet. We’ve waited a couple of years, a few days more won’t make a difference now that we’re so close. If it goes well, I’ll set up a board meeting to agree on our strategy.’
Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa
‘I’ll only be here for a few days. Whatever they’re going to do, they won’t wait long. I’ll call as soon as I know my plans.’
Leo was walking in the courtyard behind the farm in Delmas, trying to calm his mother down on the phone. Since Emma had learned the reason for his arrest, she’d worried constantly that something else would happen to him, remembering the story of his predecessor, Scotty. And she still remembered the trauma of the 2010 events in South Africa.
Coetzee came over to him. ‘Ed’s on the phone, you’d better listen.’
‘I have to go, love you Mum.’ He switched off and listened to the other call.
Ed was saying, ‘First, they sent off the package last night with our original clean coding, so it looks like a two-stage process, and that gives us more time. Second, Sharif let something slip. You were right, he didn’t put that cell in, it was done in Shanghai. Shen spun him some crap about being prepared for the next big breakthrough, bigger than ACRE, and Sharif believed him. And he got that A2 code from Shen. Problem is, he came in and heard us talking and knows I’m up to speed, so I’m not sure what to do next.’
‘Did you ask Sharif about the hub network coordinates?’
‘I didn’t get the chance, but I’m pretty sure he won’t know. Shen’s the only person to have direct contact with Shanghai, he’s their board guy and even Tom Connor gives him a free rein. Tom knows nothing about that cell, and neither does Daniel, they mentioned it the other day, but no one seems to know anything about it. That Chinese prick runs the show.’
‘Ed, this is a really big deal, we’re pretty sure that cell’s in all the Lee-Win processors built over the last four years. So it’s hundreds of millions of machines.’
‘Shit, I don’t fucking believe it; these bastards are planning a worldwide cyber-attack? What can I do to help? There must be something.’
‘I spoke to Chillicott yesterday, and if we can identify the hub network access he’d have a go at hacking into it before the upload takes place. What do you think?’
‘Maybe Sharif knows something. I’ll try again to worm it out of him. I would check with Daniel as well, but he’d start to wonder what the hell’s going on.’
‘I’m sending you a copy of the cell S470 code, so you can run it on my network downstairs and see what happens. The processors stop working and the whole system shuts down after thirty seconds.’
‘I’ll take a look at it in the lab.’ Ed stopped, an idea forming in his mind. ‘Sharif must have received that code from Shen in some kind of digital form. Maybe there’s some ID on the file, something that might lead us to the hub network. I’ll see if I can get him to show it to me. What else?’
‘Chillicott asked if you could get a photo of Elodie. They’d try to match it with their database. See if she’s know
n.’
Ed’s tone changed. ‘OK, Lynne, I’ll see if I can find some and we’re on for nine tonight, right? Cool. Ciao, baby.’ The phone went dead.
‘Quick thinking. Shen probably came into the room.’ Coetzee laughed, ‘I like Ed. He’s a complicated mix of back street cunning and naïve high-mindedness.’
‘I just hope we’re not getting him involved in something he can’t handle. I don’t want anything to happen to him or Lynne.’
‘Abby’s got an idea. Let’s go back inside and hear what she has to say.’
They went into Coetzee’s office, where his daughter was writing on the blackboard. Rod and Julia were there with Karen.
Abby said to the two employees, ‘Listen up, guys. Dad wants us all to swear we’ll keep this information amongst ourselves. It’s a potentially devastating way of hacking into a system, and the fewer people who know about it the better. When we get through this, we all have to wipe everything from our systems, so nobody can try it again in the future. Agreed?’
They nodded in agreement and she pointed at the flow chart she’d drawn. ‘What’s going to happen here is that, first of all, they’ll upload the upgraded firmware and the new ACRE to all the Lee-Win customers out there. When the users download the package, it will activate the connectivity modules and ACRE will take over the transmission management, and interconnect all their equipment in a mesh environment with the new firmware and encryption.’
‘I wish I’d had you on my team at XPC, Abby,’ Leo said. ‘You’ve described the process just as it will happen, clear and concise.’
She blushed. ‘I’ve had more time to think quietly about it while you’ve been rushing around. Anyway, I’m sure they’ll want to know everything’s functioning correctly before they send the A2 trigger.’
‘Ed thinks the same, and I guess it’s the only logical conclusion. It should give us a few days’ extra time.’
The African Diamond Trilogy Box Set Page 140