HA2 22.1 – Eat and Rest
In one corner of Mango Terrace, Takeo sat in front of his laptop. His back was facing the wall so no one could sneak-peek at what he did from behind. Other than black and curly wig, he also wore a thick neutral glasses and fake thin beard. While at his belly he attached a few layers of small towel to make it slightly bulging.
In his table Takeo also put some latest research journals on software engineering, along with a thick programing dictionary. Therefore, people who saw him would think he was a software engineering student who worked on his final year paper.
In Nichiko, it was not rare that university students wrote their final year paper in a 24-hour café with good Wi-Fi network. So, people fully ignored Takeo even though sometimes he softly mumbled by himself like someone with mental problem. In short, it was a circumstance that Takeo wanted. People leave him alone to carry his task.
The people in Mango Terrace also won’t recognize Takeo’s laptop. After separating it from its shock-proof carrier, Takeo replaced its screen with ordinary LED screen and put huge Gundam Zero sticker to cover its back panel. In a glance it looked just like ordinary 10-inch Sonia Vaiyo netbook. No one would think it was an encrypted mil-grade netbook, and one of the most prized loots from Villa Tigera.
As for the connection, Takeo connected his netbook to a virtual IP address and one-time use internet connection that the network terminal in the base had generated. Then, he established a looping connection to several servers overseas before making silent connection with security office at Chikara Tower and took it over unnoticed.
For hours Takeo sat in his table undisturbed, enjoying coffee and light snack while carrying his task as spotter. From outside he looked just like a grumpy university student, but inwardly he was actually nervous as hell. Fortunately, the work in Kamui’s office came to an end finally.
‘Thanks God,’ Takeo muttered as he confirmed that Hide and Shizuka have return to the workshop safely. ‘Time to tie up the loose ends.’
All this time, Takeo had tricked the personnel in the control room by putting looping footage for 7th floor corridor and elevator that Shizuka used. However, the CCTV kept recording in real time and stored the footage in the server. Therefore, he had to destroy this file and he had to do it by destroying the hard drives through fully, or IT forensic would be able to reconstruct the file.
Wasting no time he started the procedure to destroy the hard drives in server room. First, he turned off the cooling and maintenance system for the targeted server racks, and then sent the hard drives to go overheated by overwhelming it with massive high-speed data transfer. It took some time, but in the end he managed to completely burn every hard drive he had to destroy, along with all footages in Chikara Tower’s CCTV network for the last 72 hours.
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When the maintenance team on duty realized the mishap, it was already too late. They wouldn’t be able to reconstruct the data in the destroyed hard drives, no matter what magical method they used.
As for the CCTV footage inside Kamui’s office, Hide already took the hard drives that store the footage, so Takeo didn’t need to do anything to erase it.
‘Good night and thank you for your cooperation.’
Takeo muttered as he terminated the connection with security office at Chikara Tower. Then, he remotely put the network terminal in the base offline before calling a waiter.
“Do you need another cup of coffee?” The waitress happily asked as soon as she arrived in front of Takeo.
“No, but I need three take-out beef fried rice,” Takeo replied as he closed his netbook.
“Got it, three take-out beef fried rice,” The waitress said as she noted down Takeo’s order.
“Thank you.”
After a smile the waitress then left, while Takeo leaned his back on the chair and enjoyed the last few sips of his coffee.
If Chikara Tower filed a report for cyber-attack they received to Metro Police, this incident would definitely draw a huge attention. Generating virtual IP address and an unregistered internet connection was not simple. In Nikko, only a handful of criminal syndicates possessed this sophisticated means, and they would never use it to attack a public building at all cost.
Nikko Federal Police would likely also get involved in the investigation and put it as one of their top priorities. However, Takeo didn’t worry at all. As long as he put the network terminal offline for the next several weeks and then didn’t use it too often, everything would be fine.
The hunt by Cyber Crime Unit would go only as far as the looping connection he established using overseas server before meeting with a dead end. The chance they would realize that the network terminal they looking for was stood silently in Nichiko, the city where the cyber-attack took place was also slim.
At the same time Metro Police would also collect CCTV footage from nearby building and traffic CCTV, but they would find nothing. When entering Chikara Tower, Hide and Shizuka didn’t get recorded by any nearby CCTV. They also reached and leaved the 7th floor without meeting anyone.
Of course Metro Police would get the footage when Shizuka exited the elevator at Chikara Tower’s rooftop, but that’s all they could get, footage without useful clue.
In total it took 45 minutes for Takeo to complete the job. After that, he saw some building securities carrying out a perimeter patrol, some also stood-by in some corners in pair. Takeo casually ignored them. A moment later, he received the take-out beef fried rice he ordered. Wasting no time he went to cashier to clear the bill, and then left Mango Terrace in casual steps.
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By using the hidden elevator Takeo arrived at the shooting range, and then went straight to the armory. On the long table in the middle of the room he found the ballistic vests and firearms that were used in tonight job, but he saw no one. He then went to living room and only found the loots had been moved from temporary stashing point and being piled up in a corner.
‘Where are they?’ Takeo muttered as he walked to the workshop
A moment later, he took a deep breath full of relief as he found Hide and Shizuka stood in front of chemical fume hood, watching the acid gas dissolved the coveralls, rain boots, and other disposable equipment they used in tonight job.
Both Hide and Shizuka already took a bath, and now they wore t-shirt and shorts. Wasting no time, Takeo walked over to them.
“Good job you two,” Takeo casually said.
“Yeah,” Hide replied as he turned his gaze to take-out on Takeo’s hand. “That’s smell nice.”
“Beef fried rice,” Takeo replied. “You two only had coffee and milk bun for dinner, and then another coffee and energy bar. I guess you will crave for calorie after returning here.”
“Exactly,” Shizuka happily replied.
After a smile Hide asked, “Have you completely destroy the CCTV footage?”
“I have,” Takeo firmly replied.
“Let’s eat and then sleep,” Hide happily suggested.
Without delay the three went to kitchen and wolfed down the beef fried rice. After that they spread out their camping mat in a corner, lay down their tired body on it, and in no time they fell asleep.
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