Last Man Standing

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

Karin Blake tapped away at her keyboard like a turbo-charged woodpecker; at first struggling to give the job her full attention, but gradually slipping into that geek power mode she loved. The brainwaves were surging, the ideas flicking and flashing like a firework show. Very quickly the screen and the cyber world became her only focus.

Komodo interrupted only occasionally. “How does this expert of theirs carry around a computer powerful enough to take this one on?”

Karin glanced up. The workstation she’d been presented with consisted of several hard-drives, wraparound screens and split-screening. It practically hummed a hacker’s melody. She shrugged. “You can build a performance PC these days with a relatively small footprint, thanks to new ranges like the Mini-ITX motherboard. The liquid cooling solutions are nothing short of dramatic. An ultimate hacker’s rig can be easily disguised as a suitcase. It’s ugly but perfect.”

“Gotcha. But how do they get so good, these cyber geeks?”

“Could be a hundred ways. Most likely is that he’s ex-government. Did you know that DARPA built a mini-internet of their own a few years ago? A virtual internet as a test bed for cyberwarfare. They simulated different attack scenarios and came up with new defenses.”

“Didn’t DARPA create the Internet in the ‘60s?”

“Yes. So just imagine what they’re up to now.”

“So this guy is one of those?”

Karin shrugged. “I don’t know. They were called ‘cyberwarriors’. I guess I could ask him.”

“You two are just gonna — schmooze.”

“Not really. This is war. This is my fight.” Karin clicked her fingers. “Circuit Girl is back in action. I may not wear a flak jacket or fire a Glock, but I have a hard drive and I’m damn willing to use it.”

“How ya gonna get in there without him noticing?”

“Unlikely that I will. First, we learn the battlefield. Then, we employ methods on infiltration. Then it’s attack or a covert op, exfiltration, and killing the bastard’s foothold.”

Karin pointed at the screen. “The objective is to disable him. Shut his grid down. Then, our soldiers in the field can act. We’ll do a ‘Pearl Harbor’ on him since I don’t have a virus at hand.”

“A Pearl Harbor?”

“Hacker phrase named after… well, you know what it’s named after, T-vor. It’s a massive cyberattack on one or many computers, leading to infiltration then sabotage. We’ll take him right out of the game.”

Komodo squeezed her shoulder. Karin watched his face in the reflection of her screen, enjoying the slight smile that rested there. This was just what she needed.

“Did you know?” she said as she tapped and rolled her chair from screen to screen, stopping occasionally to sip coffee, keeping all the progressing information ticking over in her mind. “Cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism are now considered as much an act of war as the real thing. Every major defense agency is hiring teams of cyberwarriors. MI6 recently infiltrated an Al Qaeda website and replaced the recipe for a pipe bomb with a recipe for making cupcakes.” She laughed. “Strange but true.”

“A growing enterprise,” Komodo noted.

“Everyone is conducting cyberwar games these days,” Karin said. “Banks. Energy companies. Countries. Retailers and gaming firms. Social media organizations.”

“What’s that?” Komodo pointed at one of the screens, toward a newly emerging pulsing yellow ball of energy.

“That’s him,” Karin breathed. “I figured he had to be wireless. No hard-wiring in the field. Just a matter of casting the net and locating the signal with the cleverest arrangement of protocols. There’s only one. And it’s got more firewalls than Vesuvius in its heyday. Here goes.”

She tapped and weaved steadily, finessing the connection as much with her body as her mind. Slinking over to a master hacker’s subnet wasn’t exactly easy, but if he responded like any other good hacker then, at first, he should monitor and watch the penetration, probably hoping he could infiltrate the infiltrator and hide inside her own systems. Karin had already employed a deceive program, which deployed multiple fake systems that the hacker might waste time seeking out. It was all just a ploy to gain enough time to shut the bastard right down.

Karin couldn’t be too careful. Whilst she’d been out of the hacking game for some time now, her old signature — her method of operating — might still be recognized by a select few, and subsequently lead right back to her. If a master hacker knew your identity he’d have a better chance of defeating you in the cyber-theater of warfare. The militarization of cyberspace was not exclusive to governments and powerful organizations; it was still in the steady hands of the geek.

If the hacker detected her, his options were many and varied. Confusion. Surprise. Deception. Stimulation. Blockading. All viable options to effectively handle a penetration. Karin launched her probe, sitting back slightly, pausing to see what would happen.

Nothing at first. Her fists clenched. Her heart raced. This was the heart of the battle. Was he holding back, toying with her? Was he on the attack, about to launch? Was he investigating?

Now that she was in, it was time to attack. No covert soft option here. She played a concerto across her keyboard, effectively bringing up her prey’s system, and began a search that would show her his security protocols. To take down his CCTV operation plus his cell and hardline monitoring capabilities, she’d need the heart of the system.

As she worked, the screen to her right blinked. It flashed, it went dark, and then suddenly resumed, only now it displayed the head and shoulders of a rather angry looking man.

Karin gawped. “Christ, how did he do that? And shit, I know him!”

Komodo blinked. “Huh?”

“I know this guy. Salami Bob, called SaBo for short. He was the guy helping Kovalenko in DC. The one that hacked the traffic light network. He also used to be a cyberwar strategist working for DARPA. Shit, I think I just met my match.”

SaBo was indicating that Karin establish a communications link. With a few taps she did just that, then sat back chewing her lips as Sabo spoke.

“Good try, little miss. But I got you. I’m inside you now. You like?”

Komodo growled softly. “Say the word and this guy—”

“First strike.” Karin waved the ex-Delta soldier away. “I drew first blood. Geek like you; all you can ever do is talk.”

“Oh, I can do more than that.”

SaBo’s eyes flicked down as he entered a series of commands. Instantly, Karin’s screen wavered, the image warping, but then righted itself as a red flashing band warned of an intruder alert.

“All right. You got firewalls.” SaBo nodded. “Military grade at least.” He made a face. “Gotta admit I am a little undersupplied out here but you gotta make do. Especially with the big bucks they’re paying. Wanna join me, sweetheart? There’s plenty of Sabo to go around.”

Karin didn’t react, casually playing for time. What SaBo didn’t know was that she’d allowed for this. Her backup plan was actually superior to her original one.

“How much?” She played for time as she suspected he was doing.

“Watcha worth?”

Karin saw an intruder alert flash across the screen. SaBo was in their system. With a keystroke she wiped him out, denying access. He was gone in an instant. If he’d hung around a few moments longer she might even have been able to launch a denial-of-service attack; an attempt to make his machine and network unavailable to him.

“Straight out of the playbook,” she scoffed. But she knew the playbook was a living document, constantly updated and improved upon.

Sabo grimaced, shoulders shuffling as his fingers moved furiously. He was planning something, of that Karin had no doubt; his lesser attacks were mere red herrings.

“Playbook?” The mere insinuation seemed to infuriate him.

But she was almost ready. Karin felt a moment of pride, a gathering of excitement, and pressed the button that would launch her epic, destructive counter attack. Many years ago, whilst immersed in this grand game of cyberstrategy, she’d developed her own virus; a program that carried one hell of a destructive payload. She’d never intended to use it — seeing the creation of such malware as a challenge more than anything. To keep it safe and secure, and away from thieving fingers, she’d hidden it inside a mostly redundant network. The virus had lain there, dormant, all these years, just awaiting activation.

Karin could think of no better time for it than now — an unstoppable attack that would wipe SaBo out for good.

It took a second for the old network to respond, a while for those old circuits to start whirring, but when they did Karin’s virus shot across the web at lightning speed.