New York City, October 23rd 1:32 p.m.
Titus Flavia pulled up to the tallest windowless building in Lower Manhattan. He backed his BlueSphere Communications truck onto the ramp that led to the loading bay. He didn’t expect any resistance since the parking permits on the truck were in order, and he didn’t expect the van to be reported stolen for quite some time.
It’s time to get Norris and his team of engineers on the horn. I just hope that commando is worth the money, Titus thought.
“Dark Angels, I’m in position. Set your radios to the encrypted frequency,” Titus said.
“Affirmative. Are the engineering teams in position?” a gruff male voice asked.
The twenty-nine-story building, often called the local blight, got its name partially because of its bleak exterior. The brown building was devoid of all exterior distinguishing features. The building was shielded against physical attack with a triple-insulated layer of lead and concrete. The exterior of the building could withstand a direct atomic bomb blast; even the so-called bunker busters couldn’t penetrate its physical security layers.
“The engineers are in position, but the teams are blocked. Project Titan Rising has taken the main communications center. Our engineers need access to that area to disrupt the ring,” a younger man said.
“Norris, are you running point?” Titus said.
“Yes sir, the engineers are in position, but they tell me there’s a problem. A high-priority project has been moved up and the communications room is blocked. I’m also babysitting a tourist,” Norris replied.
“Then I suggest you unblock it. I’m sending Atticus in to disrupt the party. Your tourist is a hacker of some renown. I’m told he knows these systems inside and out. How much of a window does your team need to get the worm installed?”
“At least ten minutes to get in and out.”
“It will be tight, but I think we can pull this off. Once Chen starts the main event, we will have an opportunity for distraction. Once our worm is in the system, the defenders of this monstrosity will have their hands full,” Titus said.
“The entrance of the building is heavily guarded. We do this, and there’s no way out,” Norris said.
“No, there’s another way,” Titus said.
Titus rummaged through his backpack and pulled out a well-worn map. It was held together by tape and it looked ancient. Titus examined it as if his life depended on it.
One miscalculation, and then we are killed, or worse—caught.
“There’s one way out of the building that doesn’t require leaving through the front door,” Titus said.
“I’m listening,” Norris said.
“How many engineers are in the building?”
“Six engineers, and seven including the tourist. The rest are hiding in the network closet next to the operations center.”
“After the engineers implant the malware, can you make it to the roof for egress?”
The radio went silent.
Nigel gazed upon a building that looked out of place in a trendy part of lower Manhattan.
“Put this on,” a grizzled-looking man with a thick mustache said.
As he put a communications worker uniform on, he wondered how he got here. Just hours before, the commando picked him up from the Bromwick. He felt like one of those computer geeks in movies that aids an assault team. Nigel couldn’t believe it. To save Jet, he had to storm a fortress with an extraction team no less.
I shouldn’t have let Chen coerce me into this.
“Titus, are you there?” Norris said.
“It looks like we are on our own,” Nigel said.
Moments later, an alarm sounded. The Titan Rising staff that were previously impeding the Dark Angels progress evacuated the communications room.
“Engineers at the ready. You have less than ten minutes, and an expert mentor. Get to work!” Norris said.
Nigel sprang into action and made it to the operations center at the same time as the engineers. Each engineer took control of a terminal.
“Intrusion prevention systems offline,” an engineer said.
Nigel was impressed at the level of commitment and discipline of the Dark Angel engineers. Every member knew their job well.
I’m not needed, so why am I here?
“The malware isn’t deploying,” a female engineer said.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Sally, is the flash drive recognized?” another engineer asked her.
“Yes, it’s mounted, I checked twice! If we can’t load this, then it’s time to leave while we still can.”
“Sally, check the boot log file,” Nigel said.
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it may give you clues about disabled peripherals. Check while we still can.”
Sally checked the log file. “I’m getting a dependency failed message.”
“Give me the values of the last four characters.”
“x80x.”
“That message means all drives except for boot are disabled. We need to restart and reenable it.”
“How do I do that?”
The alarm was stopped.
“Four minutes remaining, people—probably less than that, since the alarm stopped,” Norris barked.
“Move,” Nigel said as he nudged Sally aside.
Sally watched as Nigel proceeded to reboot the system.
“Forget launching the malware, you won’t be able to log back into the system,” Nigel said.
Once the computer started, Nigel quickly began tapping the F8 and F12 keys repeatedly. Soon a blue screen appeared. Nigel navigated to the external menu selection. He enabled all USB ports, then saved the configuration. A system message asking for a password appeared.
“See, what did I tell you? It’s not happening today, it’s game over!”
Nigel quickly tried a few passwords, but nothing worked. Another system message appeared:
This is your last attempt before the system is reformatted.
Nigel ran his fingers through his hair: a habit he got into when nervous.
“No, it can’t be,” Nigel said as he typed in a series of characters.
Thank you, the system configuration has been saved. Have a nice day.
“You have little faith, Sally!” Nigel said, chuckling.
“Two minutes people, hurry up already,” Norris said.
Nigel didn’t have the password to log in to the system, but he remembered a backdoor that affected certain versions of HTOS, so he tried various keystroke combinations. He pressed the uppercase “G” key six times, followed by the “F” key, then repeated the “G” and finished with the “E.”
A terminal window appeared. He had full shell access, which meant he could do anything he wanted without logging in. Nigel typed the following:
Sudo fdisk -l
The following menu appeared:
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size ID Type
/Dev/dsk1 * 8291 1557 1554515 b FAT32
Nigel typed in the following commands to launch the malware:
/Dev/dsk1/fanciest_bear_launch
Moments later, a series of dots appeared.
“One minute, people,” Norris reminded.
The engineers began to scatter.
“You should go too,” Nigel said to Sally.
“No, I want to see what you do next,” she answered.
“Thirty seconds!”
A second or two later, a blinking cursor appeared. Then another message was displayed:
Your PC is now stoned!
“What’s that? Did it work?” Sally asked.
“Yup, Mr. Chen will start receiving his precious data momentarily. Our work is done, let’s roll,” Nigel said as he removed the flash drive.
Nigel and Sally ran toward the Norris’s hiding spot, but he was already gone.
“Meet us on the far side of the floor, we are climbing the tower,” Norris said.
Nigel and Sally positioned themselves between two racks of servers. Nigel headed toward the exit sign across the room. When they got to the end of the row, he noticed a door to his left, the exit sign was to the right. Nigel started for the exit when a banging sound emitted from the floor. He looked back to see men with all manner of weapons pouring out of the door. Soon Nigel and Sally were surrounded.
“Stop! Hands where I can see them,” an authoritative voice said.
Sally got on her knees and put her hands on her head. As Nigel raised his hands, he formed an exit strategy. About five feet away, a red button encased in glass beckoned him. The words “Emergency Stop” was just above the button.
I bet that button shuts off the power. I must get to it, somehow.
He leaped toward it. Some men opened fire. The shots were deafening. Nigel’s ears rang, but he was still alive. The searing, white-hot pain shot through his shoulder. It was the most excruciating pain he had ever experienced.
I can’t feel my arm!
Nigel attempted to smash the glass, but his right arm was useless.
“Hold your fire!” a man shouted.
Nigel was able to smash the glass with his left hand just fine. His fist not only penetrated the glass, it smashed the button, obliterating it. Moments later, the entire room went dark. Nigel ran away from the men and he fled toward the exit.
“Nigel, you copy?” Norris said.
The words amplified through Nigel’s earpiece.
“Yeah,” Nigel replied. “I’ve been shot, I think.”
“You need to get to the stairs.”
Nigel looked back. The guards had surrounded Sally, and men were running after him. Nigel made it to the farthest stairwell. He flung open the door with his good hand. Norris and a group of engineers were huddled behind the stairs leading up.
“Is Sally with you?” Norris asked.
“They caught her,” Nigel said.
“Bolt that door, now!” Norris shouted.
Two engineers opened a case about the size of a medium suitcase and removed some kind of machine; to Nigel, it resembled a drill. An engineer tried closing the door, but the men on the other side finally caught up. Several other engineers joined in, trying to keep the door closed. The engineer with the machine shot into the floor. A thick nail was sticking out, blocking the door.
“That will serve as our locking mechanism. Now hurry to the next level. According to the plans I have, we need to cross the floor every other level. We will bolt the doors as we ascend.”
Norris shoved a map into Nigel’s good hand. “Navigate us up the tower.”
Nigel guided Norris and his group of engineers through a series of stairwells and hallways he was certain were unoccupied. After they ascended a few floors, Nigel collapsed.
“Go, I’m just going to slow you guys down,” Nigel said.
“We leave no man behind,” Norris said as he rummaged through his pack.
He instructed Nigel to take his shirt off, and then inspected the wound. “I think the bullet went through, but you are losing blood.”
Norris took out some antibacterial ointment and bandages. After he patched Nigel, he took out a hypodermic needle and shoved it into Nigel’s arm.
“Come on, soldier,” Norris urged, “the battle is not over.”
“The pain,” Nigel said, “it’s gone.”
Norris smiled, then patted Nigel on the back. “Only the best for my team, kid.”
Nigel guided Norris and the remaining engineers through the various levels of the windowless building. There weren’t many people on these levels, and the machines would provide cover. When the group reached the twenty-sixth floor, Nigel noticed a lot more security cameras. They had been able to avoid the few security cameras before, but this floor had way too many.
“Wait, if we don’t disable those cameras, then security will pinpoint our location,” Nigel pointed out.
“What do you suggest?” Norris said.
“Does anyone have a laptop?”
An engineer took a laptop out of a backpack and gave it to Nigel. With his good hand, Nigel navigated and could use the hacking tools on the engineer’s laptop to access the local network. Nigel inserted a shiny red metal flash drive into the laptop. A terminal window displaying green text on a black window appeared. A system message also appeared:
Operation BedBug 2.0 successful. You now have eyes in the sky. Remember to use this power with care.
With the aid of the helper program operation BedBug provided, he could control the camera system. He recorded a two-minute snippet of footage, then would play it back as Norris’s team slipped in undetected all the way up the tower.