Bug Out! Atlantic Book 7, page 19
Julio nodded. “Me neither.”
“The enemy knows we can follow the Islamists. They wait for us to do that, and attack us with the UN Peacekeepers, which we can’t see.”
“Shit,” Mayor Fine said. “That’s so simple.”
“Bravo, Chief Harvey,” Albena said. “This is why I’m in a panic.”
“See, you have other strategic thinkers,” Chief Harvey said.
“She’s too close to the data, and we need her to concentrate on that,” Mayor Fine said. “She wasn’t even able to converse with us during the first part of the meeting because she was fighting the hacker.”
“Who the hell is this guy?” Cary asked.
“Wish I knew,” Albena said, “but he’s wicked smart.”
“We could use this against them, you know,” Chief Harvey said.
“How?” Mayor Fine asked.
“Probe one of these locations with a small force which can get away quickly, and have a much larger, better equipped force watching from a short distance away.”
Jace nodded. “Yeah, we could turn the tables on them if we’re smart about it, and we could use the Falcon drones and a few of the hybrids to do it. We’ll need to coordinate with the citizens in a way that the enemy can’t see, or else this won’t work.”
“We know how many Islamists there are on Manhattan,” Cary said. “We were using facial recognition history from MVS to estimate the strength of the UN Peacekeepers. Are we still compiling that data?”
Albena nodded. “I’ve been pretty busy, haven’t paid as much attention since we got the RFID capability, but the facial recognition reports on the UN Peacekeepers have been running.”
“How often?” Mayor Fine asked.
“Every hour.”
Mayor Fine smiled. “Who knows how to analyze that data, other than Albena?”
Cary thought about it a moment. “Me, Vasil, and Penko, right? We could train Eve and Laleh, they’ve both got the right kind of mind.
“How about Hector?” Chief Harvey asked.
“He could do it in place of me, or vice versa,” Cary said, “but one of us needs to be on the job of monitoring systems and fixing technical issues.”
“There’s another issue to remember,” Albena said.
“What’s that?” Chief Harvey asked.
“The EU Navy. Remember the intel we got from that large facility. Do we still have people monitoring that location?”
Cary nodded. “We do, but they moved their strategic conversation elsewhere. Makes me think they know we’re listening.”
“How could they?” Jace asked. “Think they found some roaches and figured out what they are?”
“Over 95% of the roaches in that building are still active,” Cary said, “so I doubt it. We are getting some conversation, but there has been no more talk about the EU Navy.”
“What kinds of things are you picking up?”
Cary chuckled. “Well, we know the Islamists and the UN Peacekeepers dislike each other.”
Chief Harvey’s brow furrowed. “They might be on radio silence now, because the task forces are underway. They know they’ve got a leak. Put yourselves in their shoes. Somebody attacked that ammonium nitrate storage facility. We’d be careful in their situation.”
“That’s it,” Mayor Fine said. “We need to chat with Jared again. He’s trying to get satellite coverage over the North Atlantic.”
“He would’ve called us if he’s seen anything, right?” Julio asked.
“Probably,” Mayor Fine said. “I still want to chat with him, and we need to brainstorm other ways we could keep tabs on those ships. Chief, how about your contacts in the Navy?”
“I’ll ask them. It would be a bad time for an attack, we’ve got the navy spread all over. We’ve still got a few ships nearby… those Zumwalts we used before, for instance, but they can’t hold off a task force.”
Albena’s PC buzzed. She rolled her chair back over. “Dammit, he got the name server going again.” She attacked her keyboard.
“Let’s go in the conference room and finish this conversation,” Mayor Fine said. “We need to assign these actions.”
“Yeah, I agree,” Chief Harvey said. They got up, leaving the intel room to Penko and Albena, going into the conference room, taking seats.
“Mayor Fine, why don’t we just pull the plug on MVS, and put more falcon drones out?” Julio asked. “That will blind this guy.”
“Can he turn them back on if we do that?” Chief Harvey asked.
“Depends on how we shut them down,” Cary said. “If we just turn them off from the console, he can hack in and turn them back on. If we go to the main power control console and turn off the power switch manually, he’d be out of luck.”
“Remember that we use that system as well, for operations we’ve been running… like placing Roach drones,” Jace said.
“So it would be costly to do that,” Julio said, “but would it be worth it?”
Cary thought about it a moment. “Here’s the biggest problem. There are many key MVS locations that wouldn’t work with a Falcon drone substitute.”
“Yeah, those things would stick out like a sore thumb in heavily trafficked locations,” Chief Harvey said. “What if we replace MVS with cameras that look the same but aren’t on the open network?”
“That would be a big job, and our workers would be exposed,” Cary said. “It’s not the cameras that are the problem, it’s the wiring. We’d have to pull new wiring all the way around the city. It’s not a practical answer, and Wi-Fi isn’t secure enough to keep that hacker out.”
“What about the termination points?” Julio asked. “Where the wires feed in from the cameras. There have to be hubs around, right?”
Cary thought about it for a moment. “That would save us a lot of work and exposure, but it’s still a huge job. Sorry guys, that isn’t gonna work.”
“Where’s Dannon?” Chief Harvey asked.
“Dempsey’s base, probably,” Mayor Fine said. “Why?”
“Our problem is with the hacker. Maybe what we need is an assassin.”
“Or a team of assassins,” Mayor Fine said, pulling out his thin phone. He hit Dannon’s contact, and put it on speaker. Dannon picked up right away.
“Mayor Fine, what’s on your mind?”
“Can you come down to the main bunker? We have a proposition we’d like to discuss.”
“No problem, you want any of the team?”
“Dempsey,” Mayor Fine said.
“Okay, I’ll grab him. Can you send a mole for us?”
“Yep, I’ll get that set up now, and send you a text.”
“Okay, see you soon,” Dannon said.
“We still have to find this guy in order for Dannon to kill him, right?” Julio asked.
Chief Harvey chuckled. “That was always part of Dannon’s job. Find the target and terminate. He’ll know how to do it better than any of us. He found Sturm’s hideout without our help, and I’ll bet this hacker is a lot less capable of protecting himself.”
{ 16 }
Revenge
T yra and Justin got back to the Boston base, stopping at several bars on the way.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Justin said. “I expected somebody to challenge us… or follow us.”
“I’m a little drunk. Glad the roach launcher fits in my purse.”
“Anything would fit in that purse,” Justin quipped.
“Shut up.”
Ashley met them just inside the door, Jaak by her side.
“Where’d you leave the car?” she asked.
“Four blocks from here,” Tyra said. “Drank our way home.”
Jaak smiled. “All but one location is a real enemy base. We’re getting our drones placed throughout them.”
“It’s fun driving those things,” Ashley said. “Ava and Trinity are still at it. Dave and Gavin joined in too.”
“We should’ve sent more teams out tonight,” Justin said, going into the snack room off the hall, grabbing two granola bars, tossing one to Tyra. “There weren’t any patrols, but if they’ve got video surveillance outside they might notice in the history tomorrow. It may be harder next time.”
“This is enough intel to chew on,” Jaak said.
“Yeah, driving the drones into suitable locations and monitoring them is time-consuming,” Ashley said. “I think we should concentrate on these locations and attack them before placing more drones.”
“The next step will be to put missile launchers in good places,” Jaak said. “You two can survey spots tomorrow morning.”
“You want us to keep working together?” Tyra asked.
“Why, is that a problem?” Jaak asked, eyeing them, Justin smiling, on the verge of laughter.
“Okay, what’s going on?” Ashley asked.
“Nothing,” Tyra said. “I’m beat, time to go to bed.”
“Yeah, I’m beat too,” Justin said.
The couple left Jaak and Ashley in the snack room, walking down the hall, Justin punching the elevator button, Tyra watching him.
“What?” he asked.
“We blew it back there.”
Justin shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know.”
The elevator doors opened, and they got in, Tyra pushing the button for the residence level. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“I don’t think we blew anything.”
“Then why that reaction?” she asked.
“What reaction?”
Tyra looked at him. “Be serious. I’m drunk, but not that drunk.”
“You’re the one who started it,” Justin said. “Asking if we had to work together again.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it, but you put on that self-satisfied expression.”
The elevator doors opened, Tyra getting out, Justin following her.
“What self-satisfied expression? I just thought it was funny, that’s all.”
“Why?”
“Because of our conversation earlier,” he said.
“You aren’t supposed to talk about that.”
“Maybe I like working with you,” Justin said. Tyra froze, turning towards him.
“Don’t play with me.”
Justin stared at her a moment, then moved closer, taking her into his arms, going for a kiss, Tyra trying to move back a moment, then giving in.
“What are you doing?” Tyra whispered, looking both ways in the hall. “We’re gonna get caught.”
“I liked that.”
“We’re both a little drunk, you know.”
“You liked it too,” Justin said, getting closer to her.
“Stop that,” she said, moving back until she hit the wall, Justin kissing her again, Tyra’s hands balled into fists at first, then going around his back, her moans egging Justin on.
They broke it again, Tyra’s heart beating a mile a minute as she stared into his eyes. “We can’t do this out here.”
“So let’s go into a room,” Justin said. “Mine’s right there.”
“If we go in there, you know what’ll happen. No way.”
“We’ll just kiss.”
“Uh huh,” Tyra said. “Walk me to my door, and don’t come inside, even if I say okay.”
Justin laughed. “Huh?”
“I don’t trust myself, okay? I said I liked you, and I wasn’t kidding.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“We’re both drunk,” she said. “C’mon.” She took his hand and led him further down the hall, to her door.
“Just one more kiss?”
Tyra stared at him, shaking her head. “One, inside, then you go.” She fumbled with her key, Justin taking over, getting the door open, following her inside, and then they kissed again, their passion rising fast, Justin breaking it when they were getting too heated, backing away, looking at her.
“I’ll leave now.”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Tyra whispered, her chest still heaving.
Justin looked her in the eye. “I don’t want to wait till this war is over anymore.”
Tyra searched his eyes, hers misting. “Get out of here.” She went to the door and opened it, standing aside so he could go past, watching him walk down the hall. “Hey.”
“What?” he asked, turning back to her.
“I don’t want to wait either. Good night.”
She slipped into her room and closed the door, leaning her back against it, a smile washing over her face.
***
Dannon and Dempsey got out of their mole, walking to the elevator, Tad and Eve following them.
“Think you’ll need a ride out later?” Tad asked.
“This will probably take a while, maybe we’ll just bunk here,” Dannon said. “That all right with you, Dempsey?”
“I got nobody to go back to tonight,” he said.
“Okay, see you in the morning,” Eve said, walking down the hall towards the lab, Tad following her.
“Intel room?” Dempsey asked.
“Probably,” Dannon said, going to the elevator, hitting the button. “That floor, at least.”
They rode up to the main floor of the bunker, heading into the intel room. Albena and Penko were there, looking tired.
“They’re in the conference room,” Penko said.
“Okay, thanks,” Dannon said, leading Dempsey there.
Mayor Fine stood when they came in, shaking their hands. “Thanks for coming, I know it’s late. You can bunk here tonight if you want.”
“Yeah, that’ll work fine,” Dannon said. Cary, Hector, Jace, and Chief Harvey were in the room. “Good to see you guys.”
“Yeah,” Dempsey said.
“Sit,” Chief Harvey said.
Dannon and Dempsey took seats.
“We’ve got a problem that you might be able to solve,” Mayor Fine said.
Dannon nodded. “I’m listening.”
“There’s this hacker, been giving Albena fits,” Chief Harvey said.
“I remember, thought he was gone,” Dannon said.
“He’s back, and we think he knows about our RFID apps,” Cary said. “He’s obviously got access too.”
Chief Harvey filled them in on the situation.
“Sounds like a job for us all right,” Dempsey said, “but can you find him, man?”
“Probably,” Dannon said. “I’ll need some time with Albena.”
“No problem, but not tonight,” Mayor Fine said. “She’s beat.”
“Yeah, we noticed, poked our heads in the intel room on the way here,” Dempsey said.
“Just curious, how will you be able to find this person if Albena can’t figure it out?” Jace asked.
“I’m very good at combining clues,” Dannon said. “Most hackers are better at breaking into systems than they are at hiding themselves. Albena knows the masked IP address he’s using. I’ll be able to unmask it and figure out what the real IP address is, even with his VPN. That’ll get me close. He might not be in Manhattan. Might not even be in North America.”
“If we do find him, we might not be able to get him,” Dempsey said.
“That’s true too, but sometimes these guys can be scared into lying low,” Dannon said. “This isn’t somebody like Sturm.”
“Why do you say that?” Chief Harvey asked.
“If he was, he’d have tried to kill Albena already. He’s using Albena, which means he’s interested in data, but he probably doesn’t want to get his hands dirty.”
“Wonder why he went dark for a while?” Cary asked.
“Something scared him. Albena might have gotten too close, but I doubt that was the main thing. He was probably on Manhattan originally, and felt he had to relocate. Remember how many enemy operatives we’ve taken out. This guy is aware of that, and he doesn’t want to die.”
“You’re right, there is no other explanation,” Chief Harvey said, “short of him getting wounded or something, and I doubt that happened.”
Mayor Fine took a deep breath. “Okay, this sounds good, but I don’t want you two or your team risking your lives too much.”
Dempsey chuckled. “Our lives are at risk every time we do a job.”
“I mean don’t take any insane chances, that’s all,” Mayor Fine said.
“I understand what you meant,” Dannon said. “Don’t worry. This isn’t the hill I’ll die on.”
Dempsey chuckled. “We never know how these operations are going to turn out, man.”
Dannon flashed him a grin. “Yep, keeps life interesting. I was ready for a job like this. Don’t want to get rusty. The last time I got any real exercise was when I wounded Sturm.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,” Mayor Fine said. “Going into that embassy. That kind of stuff.”
“This guy will be alone,” Dannon said.
“How can you know that?” Jace asked.
“Nature of the beast,” Dannon said. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”
***
Carol woke from dreams of her ex-husband, strangling while Mateo and Kylie laughed. Her eyes opened, seeing Guido coming into her cell, his little sidekick Teddy there like a lapdog, looking scared but saying nothing.
“The boss is waiting for you,” Guido said. “If there’s anything left, I’ll take it after I bring you back.”
Carol stared at him, her eyes ablaze with hatred, Guido doubling over with laughter, getting closer, his face next to hers. “Oh, I’m definitely not done with you yet, mom. Like the black eye I gave your brat?”
Carol spat, hitting him right between the eyes, and he went into a rage.
“You damage her and Mateo will have both of us gutted,” Teddy said.
Guido stood, backing up, wiping the spittle off his face. “Get up.”
Carol stood, smiling at him, feeling light-headed, knowing this was it, and glad for it.
“Turn around,” Guido said, holding handcuffs, spinning her when she didn’t react, pulling her wrists behind her back and locking the cuffs on her, then shoving her forward towards the cell door, Teddy keeping her from slamming into the bars. They walked down the dim hall, past empty cells to the main door, which the little man opened, standing aside as Guido shoved Carol into an industrial-looking hallway, bright enough to make her squint.
