Free Fall

Twenty-Five

Manhattan, New York

Deep inside the FBI’s New York Field Office at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan, Special Agent Nick Varner headed for the Cyber Crimes floor with guilt flickering in the back of his mind.

He hated that he had to ignore the latest plea for help from Kate Page, especially since he’d invited her to keep him posted on matters concerning the Zarathustra threat.

Sorry, Kate, I just can’t get back to you right now.

Varner closed her most recent message on his phone and studied other information. The cyber team had not yet identified the source of the Zarathustra email. He was concerned because by this time, in the majority of cases, the FBI’s cyber experts would have yielded the information needed to provide a suspect, a physical address, a warrant and an arrest.

They had nothing like that so far.

But are they close? That’s what I need to know.

Varner’s concern had mounted since he’d been advised of the email the Kuwaitis had received shortly after the Shikra crash in London.

He read it again on his phone.

Sorrow and pain for one of your planes -Z

It lacked details. It was written in Kuwaiti Arabic but signed with a plain Z and it had been sent to a general public email comment box at the Kuwaiti Embassy in London some twenty-four hours after the crash. The Z-it could represent “Zarathustra.” In the wake of the Shikra crash, Kuwaiti intelligence had shared it with Scotland Yard and the UK’s National Crime Agency, and the FBI through its legal attachés at the US Embassies in London and Kuwait City. Investigators were working on determining the source, its credibility and any connection to the previous threat.

Varner stepped off the elevator into rows of white-topped desks that took up half the floor. Each was occupied with agents and cyber experts working nonstop on analyzing every type of suspected cyber activity imaginable.

Ron Sanchez’s face was bathed in the blue glow of the monitors at his desk, a portrait of sober concentration as he worked. The top button of his crisp white shirt was undone; his tie was loosened.

“Got anything for me?” Varner said.

Sanchez reached for his ceramic coffee mug and sipped from it without pulling his eyes from the three monitors at his station. He shook his head slowly.

“What do you make of the Kuwaiti email, Ron?”

“We’ve got Paplinksi and Wong on it and they’re in touch with the Brits and Kuwaitis.”

“Great. So where are we with Zarathustra?”

Sanchez’s shoulders rose as he inhaled, let his breath out slowly and turned to Varner.

“The sender of the email is using onion router technology. That is, they’re attempting to ensure secrecy by randomly routing the message through a multitude of places online, wrapped in layer upon layer of encryption.”

“We know that pattern’s been used before.”

“It’s standard on the Darknet, but in this case it looks like they may have custom-built their own software and written their own codes to create even more layers, possibly hundreds, that result in even more encrypted connections through relays on any given network.”

“So a little different than a run-of-the-mill hacker?”

“Yes, more sophisticated. And they’re using hidden servers.”

“Isn’t that how the child porn industry does it? And we’ve defeated them and tracked people down.”

“Correct, but what may be at work here is people who’re using off-the-grid servers, or servers that may be rented through third and fourth parties. Those servers could be anywhere-Latvia, Thailand, Romania, anywhere. Remember your basics, Nick. Our suspect pool is anybody with a computer and access to the internet.”

“So where are we, Ron?”

“We’re pulling in help from the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force. We’re hoping the Department of Defense, the CIA and the NSA might be able to give us a hand.”

“So we don’t yet have any names, any addresses, or anything for the foundation of a warrant?”

Sanchez shook his head.

“Ron, if they’re that good with email, do you think they have the skill to hack into a flight system and take control of a jetliner?”

“It’s our job to find out,” Sanchez said. “Look, Nick, I’m not going to sugarcoat this-whoever is behind the Zarathustra email is very smart and very good.”