Two hours later, the helicopter landed on an older hotel that possessed some historical significance in the Newport area. Rick rushed Nigel to Mr. Chen’s parlor doubled as a conference room. The room fell silent as the duo entered. Nigel remembered Dahlia and Mr. Tage, but he didn’t know who the others were.
“Can I get these removed?” Nigel said, raising his bound hands.
Mr. Chen approached Nigel and gave him an appraising look. “Of course, my apologies for any mistreatment you may have experienced. Are you hungry? Can we get you anything?”
“You need some hacking done. I provide that, and I’m free to go—right?”
“Of course, you’re not a prisoner. You’re just helping out your dear old dad’s employer. We will even take you back to New York. I just need a day’s worth of your time.”
“Let’s get on with it, then.”
“I will provide you a computer and a place to work. If you’re hungry—”
“If it’s all the same to you, I just want to get started,” Nigel said.
“Very well, your father will show you to your workstation.”
Nigel followed his father to the elevator. As the doors opened, a woman taller than him was exiting the elevator. He watched her exit the elevator and head toward the lobby.
“Nigel, are you coming?” Rick said.
Nigel snapped out of it and joined his father in the elevator.
“She’s beautiful, I know. Just remember what’s at stake, son.”
What’s wrong with me? Nigel wondered.
As soon as the elevator opened, two men who resembled sumo wrestlers in black leather approached the elevator to greet Nigel.
“Chen instructed me to get a place for the kid to work. Got anything a teenaged boy would like?”
One of the sumo wrestlers removed a picture of some awful-looking flowers opposite the elevator, revealing an electronic safe. He put his index finger on a sensor and then opened the safe. He tossed Rick a key with an oversized keyring.
“Put him in there,” the sumo wrestler said.
Rick led Nigel to Room 1313. Other than the old furnishings, the room had many modern features. A gigantic flat-screen adorned the largest wall. A desk, bed, and chair were the only furnishings.
“I will bring you a computer soon. Wait here until then,” Rick said as he left.
Nigel turned on the flat-screen. A menu appeared with a picture of the hotel. A message appeared below:
Welcome to the VIP floor. As a distinguished guest, you have access to many of the hotel’s facilities. We invite you to take advantage of the VIP lounge.
A moment later the door opened. Rick was juggling several boxes, trying not to drop anything. He placed them on the bed.
“Mr. Chen has the latest in computer hardware. Let us know if you need anything,” Rick said as he left Nigel.
Nigel tore into the boxes and inventoried the equipment.
Let’s see if any of this is usable.
Nigel turned on the laptop and inspected the contents. The laptop contained High Tower OS (HTOS). Usually when setting up a new computer, a welcome screen with instructions appeared; he was greeted with the graphical user interface of the OS instead. He checked the system for any additional profiles that might give him a clue as to who had used the computer previously. The system was bare.
Someone has used this before. I should find out what was on it.
Nigel rebooted the computer, then held down the “Control” and “R” keys to bring up the computer’s recovery mode. Nigel found the recovery option and was presented with a new menu:
Please select the partition you would like to recover.
Drive 0 Partition 1: Recovery
Drive 0 Partition 2: SYSTEM
Drive 0 Partition 3: OEM Reserved
Drive 0 Partition 4: DRV Reserved
Drive 0 Partition 5: PrimaryHT-OS
Drive 0 Partition 6: SYS_RECOVERY
Nigel selected Drive 0 Partition 5 and selected the recovery option. The following menu appeared:
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
High Tower OS Setup:
This partition may contain important files or other data you may need. Restoring will destroy its contents. Would you like to proceed?
Nigel clicked the “Yes” button.
The system seemed to take a very long time to complete the restoration process, but he was happy a recovery partition was still intact. The existence of the recovery partition told him data was automatically saved during a routine system snapshot; Nigel knew from experience the OS had this enabled by default. Except for the gusts of wind outside, the room was quiet. He noticed a door leading to another room.
An adjoining room?
Nigel decided to check if it was unlocked. It wasn’t, but he could hear some mumbling, like someone was speaking into a microphone. He pressed his ears against the door—nothing! He tried using the built-in microphone on the laptop to try and pick up the mumbling from the other side of the wall, but it didn’t work. After some further examination of the laptop, it appeared someone had cracked open the laptop case.
The microphone on this laptop is damaged. I need a smartphone.
He picked up the phone mounted on the wall next to the bed.
“How can I help you, Mr. Watson?” a man’s voice said.
“Send Rick up, I have a request.”
Rick will provide a smartphone without a SIM card to prevent me from calling someone. That’s fine because I just need the smartphone.
Moments later, a loud rapping noise brought Nigel out of his thoughts. He answered the door.
A woman a few years older than him greeted him. She was dressed completely in black and was several inches taller than Nigel. Her skintight black leather outfit displayed ample cleavage, which he found himself staring at like a young kid in a candy store.
“Can I help you with something?” the woman said in a thick Eastern European accent.
Nigel flushed. “Sorry—I was expecting someone else.”
This is the woman I saw exiting the elevator earlier.
“I was told you needed something. If that is false, I will leave.”
She’s direct and to the point, and . . . she looks annoyed. I better watch what I say.
“I need a smartphone,” he said.
The woman gave him a disapproving look but didn’t answer.
“I need it to enable the multifactor authentication I’ll need to download the hacker tools to the laptop,” he explained.
The woman left without another word.
I must have offended her.
Nigel finished restoring the laptop. He noticed two system profiles: “Guest” and “FreeBird.” He selected the FreeBird profile. To his surprise, it logged into the graphical user interface without even prompting for a password.
Whoever this FreeBird is, he doesn’t have good security.
Nigel examined the contents of the user’s document folder, and it was blank.
Let’s see how good FreeBird is at hiding data.
Nigel checked the contents of the “Recent” and “PreFetch” folders. They contained information. Nigel examined the PreFetch folder contents first. It contained cryptic-looking file names that Nigel recognized as hashed files; a hash was a way to obscure the actual file name with a random series of alphanumeric values. There were too many of these values to check them manually, so Nigel sent all the file names to a text file. Once he separated all other metadata, he examined the computer for a suitable browser and, to his delight, found the multipoint online remote privacy (MORP) browser.
A hacker or someone who wants to keep their actions hidden must have used this computer.
Nigel launched the MORP browser and went to a security analysis website called MaliciousTotal and uploaded the hashes. A listing of several known hacking tools appeared, including the Belch Suite, an invasive and advanced toolkit so expensive only corporate clients and criminals could afford.
Now to dox this wannabe hacker!
Nigel downloaded another tool to analyze the master file table on the former hacker’s computer. From that he constructed a timeline of when the hacker tools were downloaded, installed, and executed.
Time to check the logs.
Nigel checked the system, security, application, and network logs. About an hour later he found the trail he was looking for. All the traffic generated by the MORP browser was not logged by design, so he relied on other system activity to determine the hacker’s identity. He examined the browser cache on the built-in High Tower OS internet page rendering tool and found what he was looking for: a StickyBin login.
Nigel rechecked the logs on the laptop and found something interesting. The hacker had modified the laptop’s network settings to monitor every network packet that flowed through the system. This meant the hacker would be able to scan each bit or byte as it entered or exited the system. With this information, Nigel would be able to trace every move the hacker made.
A banging noise broke him out of his technical trance. He opened the door and the attractive woman he’d met before was holding out a cell phone.
I’ll look at her eyes, not her chest, Nigel reminded himself.
“Is this what you need?” the woman asked.
“Yes, it is—thank you,” Nigel said as he closed the door.
“Wait,” the woman said as she stopped the door from closing. “When we first met, you showed interest in my body, and now you don’t even look. Am I not attractive?”
Why is she asking me that?
“I’m in the middle of doing some important work for Mr. Chen. That’s all that matters right now,” Nigel said.
The woman forced her way into the room and pushed Nigel to the bed.
“The other boy wanted my body,” she said. “I’m curious why you don’t.”
What other boy? Nigel thought.
“I’m in love with another—”
The woman’s embrace interrupted Nigel. Her passion took hold of his mind and body, and he was under her spell. He wanted her—but he couldn’t stop thinking about Jet. He went stiff and stopped responding to her advances.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“What are we doing? I don’t even know your name. I just . . . want Jet to be safe,” Nigel said in a wavering voice.
He didn’t like what he heard.
I’m weak!
Nigel buried his hands into his face, and he lost control of his tears; he couldn’t help it. In an instant, the pain of losing her wounded him. The enormity of it all threatened to crush him. After an endless moment, he opened his hands. He expected the woman to have vanished, but he found her sitting on the bed. Nigel looked into her eyes, and he expected to see resolve; instead, he found compassion. He wasn’t sure, but it looked like his outburst had affected her. Nigel wiped away the tears.
“My name is Blanka. Please forgive me if I had offended you.”
Why is she apologizing to me? This is crazy!
“You have not offended me. I find you attractive, but my heart belongs to another. I’m the one who is sorry,” Nigel said.
Blanka looked at him for a very long time. Nigel wasn’t sure what to make of the situation. She got up and offered a hand. He took it. Her grip was firm, but something shot through his system as he touched her. He couldn’t explain it, but it was just as strong as when he’d first kissed Jet. He stared into her eyes one last time.
Blanka kissed him gently on the lips, then departed.