19

Cai had been doing well since being released from the HIT campus hospital. She’d provided significant support from her apartment during the probing phase of the project. Kim visited her every day and really appreciated Mei’s help in looking after Cai. Mei was a new person now that her tormentor was gone, never to be seen again.

Kim planned to meet with Shen that evening after class to discuss their progress and the next meeting with Flaherty. His top priority was to contact the Americans and warn them about the North Korean plan. He confided in Cai about what his uncle had told him, and she offered to help.

“How do you plan to make contact with the Americans, Kim?”

“I need to find an American at a high enough level.”

“How about Sean Flaherty?”

“I don’t think he’s at that level, but he might know someone who is. If he does, I should be able to monitor their email communications. I’ll find out when he comes back to Harbin.”

“How will you monitor their email, Kim?”

“I’ll install some software on Flaherty’s laptop after we interrogate him and he falls asleep.”

“What’ll the software do?”

“It’ll modify his email software settings to send copies of his incoming and outgoing emails to an account I’ll set up. It also allows a script to be sent within any email from Flaherty, which can be used to take over the email accounts of anyone he communicates with.”

“So the script automatically installs the software on other computers?”

“Yes, Cai. All I need to do is wait for it to install on someone’s account at the contact level we need.”

“You’ll need to show me how to do that, Kim.”

“Why, do you plan on monitoring my email?”

“Only if I thought you were unfaithful.”

“That will never happen, Cai. I need to meet Shen to discuss the results of the probes and the upcoming meeting with Flaherty. I’ll see you later.”

Kim and Shen met at the pub at the Shangri La and found a quiet area to talk.

“The probes of the American targets are essentially complete, Kim. All I need to do is finalize the report on identified vulnerabilities for all of the targets and the grades for my team. The vulnerability report is on my laptop. I want you to review it with me before we leave.”

“Sure, no problem,” Kim said.

“What’s your plan for interrogating Flaherty?”

“The same as last time, but after he falls asleep I’ll install some software on his laptop to monitor his communications. Make sure he brings it to your suite and that it’s up and running before I arrive.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. He always brings it to review my reports from the jump drive I give him. Am I still asking the questions?”

“Yes, Shen. I have some new questions that’ll focus on Flaherty’s contacts in America. We need to know who’s running this project and what the real goals are.”

Shen nodded and said, “I’m going to stay at the Shangri La with Lian. Do you want me to arrange a suite for you?”

“Yes, but let me ask Cai first.”

Kim called Cai. “Shen has offered us a suite at the Shangri La tomorrow night. Do you want to go?”

“Of course I do.”

“Cai says yes, Shen.”

“Okay, I’ll set up two suites. Let’s go through my vulnerability report.”

Shen powered up his laptop and showed Kim his vulnerability analysis. Kim agreed with most of it, but identified some additional vulnerabilities that Shen had overlooked.

“This is great analysis, Kim. You should be leading this project.”

“No thanks. I have enough to worry about right now.”

“Yeah, me, too. I’m really worried about the grades I’m supposed to give everyone and what they’re for.”

“I’m also worried, Shen. We need to ask Flaherty about the grades and his contacts again, in case he learned something new.”

Kim met Cai the next day in the lobby of the Shangri La and they went to their suite. He felt awkward around Cai in their hotel bedroom. They hadn’t been intimate since her operation. He wasn’t certain if she could or even wanted to. The issue was settled quickly when Cai decided to take a shower before dinner and asked Kim to join her.

“Are you staring at my scar, Kim?”

“I can hardly see it. The surgeon did a great job. It’s a lot smaller than the scar I have from when I had my appendix removed.”

“Yes, I saw that scar. I thought it was from an injury. I guess the surgeons in North Korea aren’t as good as those in China.”

“That’s for sure. They’re butchers. It still hurts sometimes.”

“Let me kiss it and make it better, Kim.”

“Go ahead,” Kim said with a smile.

After the shower they got dressed and met Shen and Lian for dinner at the Shang Palace. Dinner was great, and Kim happily watched Cai eat her entire meal and all of their shared passion fruit tart dessert. After dinner, they talked about how the attack would go during the exploitation phase.

“What do you think will happen, Kim?” Shen asked. “You have more experience than the rest of us.”

“I think we’ll successfully hack into at least ten percent of the targets. The size and breadth of the exploitation will definitely get the attention of the Americans. I just hope it doesn’t also get the attention of the Chinese government.”

“The Chinese government won’t care,” Lian said confidently. “America is on the verge of passing a law aimed at implementing penalties on the Chinese government for using cyber warfare against their businesses. Our government will never accept bullying by the Americans. There’s no possibility they’ll go after us.”

As they were leaving the restaurant, Kim handed Shen a copy of the interrogation questions.

Shen quickly read them. “Thanks, Kim, I hope we get the information we’re looking for.”

The next morning, Kim called Shen.

“Have you heard from Flaherty?”

“No, but the front desk said he had checked into his room right before midnight. I don’t expect to hear from him until after noon. I’ll call you when he contacts me.”

Kim looked at Cai and saw that her eyes were open and she was smiling.

“Do you want breakfast?” Kim asked.

“Yes, I’m really hungry. Please order the American breakfast, but ask them if they could include one of those passion fruit tarts that I had last night.”

“So you need more passion? Did I disappoint last night?”

“Not at all, but that joke sure did.”

“Yeah, I guess it was pretty bad.”

A little after one, Shen called Kim.

“Flaherty called. He’s going to meet me in my suite in about an hour. I told him I’d order room service for lunch.”

“Fine, call him back at one thirty and ask him what he wants so I can place the order before he gets there.”

The order was delivered to Kim’s room, and he dosed Flaherty’s food and drink like before. He then took the food cart over to Shen’s room and waited outside the door until Shen let him in. Kim saw Flaherty’s laptop on the dining room table. It was powered on and displayed Shen’s vulnerability report. He watched as Shen began to ask the questions.

“I need to ask a few questions about the project, Sean, so that I understand it better.”

“Sure, whatever you need, Shen.”

“Who do you report to?”

“Nadya Murin. She works for Whitey.”

“Where’s Nadya’s office?”

“She works with Whitey in Rosslyn, Virginia.”

“Do you have her email address?”

“Yes, it’s in my address book on my laptop. We exchange emails frequently.”

“Does your address book include Whitey’s email address?”

“No. I was told I couldn’t have that information.”

“Do Whitey and Nadya communicate by email?”

“They do when he’s out of the office.”

“Do you have any contact information for US government officials or politicians?”

“No, my work doesn’t involve the US government.”

“Does Nadya have any contacts with the US government?”

“I don’t know.”

“Does Whitey know any US politicians?”

“Yes, Nadya says he owns many of them.”

“Why do I need to provide grades for the students, Sean?”

“Nadya said it was for the vacation Whitey is arranging.”

“Is the vacation for the students?”

“Yes. I’m really tired, Shen.”

Flaherty suddenly fell asleep and Kim walked back to Flaherty’s laptop and inserted his flash drive. He loaded the monitoring software onto Flaherty’s computer, which took less than five minutes. Kim also downloaded Flaherty’s address book. He asked Shen to call him after Flaherty was gone and then left with the food cart.

When Kim got back to his suite, he briefed Cai on the answers he got from Flaherty.

“We have the complete name of a woman as a point of contact this time. Her name is Nadya Murin, and she works in Rosslyn, Virginia, for Whitey. There was also something strange about what Flaherty said this time.”

“What’d he say, Kim?”

“He said that the grades were for a vacation that Nadya Murin was arranging. When Shen asked if the vacation was for the students, Flaherty said yes.”

“Why would the students need a vacation, Kim? Where would the vacation be?”

“He didn’t say, Cai. But I’ll be able to monitor Flaherty’s email so maybe I can find out.”

“Did Flaherty say who he exchanges emails with?”

“Yes, he’s been exchanging emails with Nadya Murin, but not with Whitey. Nadya communicates with Whitey via email when he’s out of his office. She also told Flaherty that Whitey ‘owns’ many American politicians.”

“What does that mean, Kim?”

“I think it means Whitey has a lot of political power. Maybe he knows the president.”

Just then Kim got a text from Shen. Flaherty about to leave. Lian and I will be there in fifteen minutes to discuss answers.

After they arrived, Shen began by describing the conversation he’d had with Flaherty before he was dosed.

“I provided the report on the results of the probing and the grades. Flaherty seemed more interested in the grades. He asked for that first. He didn’t seem very interested in the results of the probing at all. What do you make of that, Kim?”

“Maybe it’s because he doesn’t understand it. After all, he’s a lawyer, not a hacker.”

“What do you think of his responses to the question on grades? How would the student’s grades be related to a vacation, Kim?”

“Maybe the vacation is a bonus based on good performance, and the students with the best grades get a vacation somewhere.”

Kim changed the subject.

“I’m going to monitor Flaherty’s email to see if I can get any additional information.”

“What are you looking for?” Shen asked.

“Contacts that might be of value if something goes wrong.”

Lian rolled her eyes.

“Nothing is going to go wrong as long as we get paid,” she said. “Speaking of that, when are we supposed to get our final payment, Shen?”

“Flaherty already deposited it in the bank and told me to withdraw the funds after the exploitation phase ended. He said there’d be bonuses for good results that I could distribute as I want. I asked if it had to be based on the grades. He said it didn’t.”

“How are you going to distribute the bonuses?” Lian asked.

“I plan to divide it equally between the four of us.”

“No, Shen,” Kim demanded. “We need to divide it equally between the entire team so there are no bad feelings that might create problems.”

“I agree with Kim,” Cai said.

“Okay, I hadn’t thought about that, but I guess you’re right, Kim. Flaherty also mentioned that there was a cybersecurity conference in Munich that all the students could attend, all expenses paid.”

“Maybe that’s the vacation Flaherty was referring to,” Kim said.

The exploitation phase began the next day, and after they were done, Shen briefed Kim on the results.

“Our success rate was almost twenty percent, better than we anticipated. I was very surprised that it was almost ninety percent on all the network addresses that were designated as special targets and weren’t probed.”

“There’s something wrong, Shen. The success rate shouldn’t be that high on the systems that weren’t probed. The only way that could happen is if those systems had their security disabled somehow.”

“How could that be possible, Kim?” Shen asked.

“I don’t know. Corporate insiders with security training could disable a company’s security, but not at this many sites. Finding and organizing insiders at scores of different businesses throughout the US would be impossible. I have no idea how it was done.”

“I checked the proxy server you set up at HIT to store the captured data, and it had more than seven hundred gigabytes of data, much more than we’d anticipated. I just hope the proxy servers adequately masked our network addresses so we can’t be traced.”

“They should have,” Kim said. “I configured the high-density physical servers with a maze of virtual servers, switches, and firewalls that would make such a trace almost impossible during the attack. Did you download the data to the USB drive?”

“Yes, and then I erased any trace from the servers. I’ll provide it to Flaherty this evening at six. I have our final payments and bonuses. Tell Cai to join us at the Shangri La at seven.”

Shen arrived at the Shangri La shortly before six and asked the desk clerk to call Flaherty’s suite.

“Mr. Flaherty has already checked out, sir. He left last night, but he left a letter for you.”

Shen was confused, but calm, since he had already received their payment. When Kim, Cai, and Lian arrived at the pub, they found Shen sitting in the back drinking a beer.

“How’d your meeting go with Flaherty?” Kim asked. “Did he provide any further instructions?”

“We didn’t meet. He left an envelope that I want to open with everyone here.”

Shen opened the envelope and read the letter inside. It contained the number of a post office box in the state of Virginia where Shen was to send the drive. They were also officially invited to the Munich Cybersecurity Symposium, all expenses paid. Everyone was ecstatic about their bonuses and the symposium except Kim.

“Why are you not happy, Kim?” Cai asked.

“I’m concerned that Flaherty has suddenly left without notice. Don’t send the drive yet, Shen. I have a feeling we may need it. I’m going to see what’s going on with Flaherty.”

Kim pulled his laptop out of his bag and checked Flaherty’s email account. The last email from Flaherty was from the previous day saying that the mission was complete and that he was coming home. Kim went through some previous emails and saw several about the grading of the students. There were others about arrangements that would need to be made for them after the event, which Kim assumed was the exploitation of the American businesses. He found one email in which Nadya said her boss had met with James and the event needed to be implemented sooner than planned. There was also an email from Nadya to Flaherty saying they needed to set up arrangements for Munich before it hits the fan in China.

“I’m not very familiar with American slang, Shen. What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. Let’s ask our favorite bartender. He spent a lot of time in America.”

Shen waved him over to their table. After ordering more drinks, Shen asked him the meaning of the phrase. The bartender laughed. “The complete phrase is ‘before the shit hits the fan,’ and it means before a disaster.” The four of them looked at each other with fear in their eyes and wondered what disaster was going to hit China.