Stephen Coonts - Combat

The presence of the outlanders and the officer from a sister service was not at all unusual. Oftentimes the 401st handled a high-priority mission that originated within another service or government agency. What was disconcerting to the young hacker was the presence of the Master of the Keep himself, Colonel Shrewsbery. Seated away from the table against the wall, Shrewsbery was situated in such a manner that only Hines could see him without having to turn his head. Eric had noted that Shrewsbery often did this when one of his subordinates was running a meeting or briefing that he wanted to attend but not, officially, participate in. During the course of the proceedings the chair of the meeting would glance over to wherever Shrewsbery had placed himself, checking for subtle signals from the colonel. There was, Eric concluded long ago, a sort of mental telepathy used by the careerists within the unit that neither he nor any of the other Cyberknights were privy to. Not that he wanted to be part of that strange clique.

Without preamble, Major Hines launched into his presentation. “Our records show, Specialist Bergeron, that you have engaged a DK using the screen name longbow.”

Without having to look, Eric knew that the major’s use of the term “DK” had caused Shrewsbery to grimace. Despite the fact that the colonel had been with the 401st for the better part of a year, the terms his staff resorted to when dealing with Cyberknights still irked him. To him it was unprofessional to indulge in the video game terminology the Cyberknights favored. Still, like every professional officer who entered the Keep, he adapted.

“Twice,” Eric corrected Hines. “Once just last week during our quest against the X Legion down in South America, and a few months ago when he was working with Der Leibstandart in Germany.”

“Yes,” the major stated, annoyed that he had been interrupted. “I know.” Leaning forward, Hines folded his hands on the table in front of him. “Well, he’s back.”

Now it was Eric’s turn to be surprised. “So soon?” Not that this was unexpected. The Cyberknights themselves had reached a consensus after their second run-in with him that longbow was a DK working for a national-level interest. That he was back already, after only a week, confirmed speculation that had been bantered about between the Cyberknights that this particularly bothersome Dark Knight had access to funds and equipment that only a well-financed organization could provide.

Using a pause to break into the conversation, Gayle Rhay provided some additional information. “He’s currently using the screen name ‘macnife’ and, for the first time, making the hacks himself. Yesterday he hit the Air Force.”

Looking over at the rep from that service, Eric noted that the Air Force colonel was avoiding eye-to-eye contact with anyone.

Eric was quick to appreciate that the new screen name was a feeble attempt to cyberize the character’s name from the song “Mack the Knife.” Nor did he entertain any doubt that macnife and longbow were one and the same person. The one thing that he had learned during his tenure with the 401st was that when the military, the CIA, and the NSA were able to put aside their petty turf battles and pool their combined intelligence assets, no one and nothing could get by them. Even the most sophisticated hacker, exercising the greatest of care, left tracks that were both distinct and traceable.

To start with, a hacker tends to use the same system and computer language. Though he may be familiar with many different types, like an auto mechanic he can’t be an expert on every system out there. So he specializes. Nor could he change his ways. As with the mechanic, every hacker has a repertoire of tools that he uses when breaking into a system and while rooting about in it. The sequence in which he employs these tools and the manner in which he operates when confronted by security systems may vary some, but not so much that they cannot be used to assist in pegging who’s engaged in making the break-in. It was this particular trait that alerted the 401st that longbow was behind the hacks made by the X Legion, for the novice hackers of that Viking band slavishly mimicked everything longbow taught them. “It’s like watching half a dozen junior longbows,” an intel Wizard told Eric when they were preparing for that counterhack.

Even more insidious, in the eyes of a hacker, was the ability of intelligence agencies such as the NSA to ID an individual by simply studying the speed and manner in which someone typed. It was far more involved than just counting the number of keystrokes someone makes within a given period of time. Certain irregularities, such as the habit of misspelling the same word, or the use of a certain phrase, tagged an individual as surely as his or her own fingerprints. With the enormous number-crunching ability of the NSA, the American intelligence community had the capability to run the record of a hack through their library of past attacks and look for a match. No doubt, Eric thought as he listened to the briefing, longbow and all his past activities had been puked out as soon as they had done this, just as his own would if he were the target of such close scrutiny.

“He managed,” Rhay continued, “to change the mission tasking orders for a deploying flight of aircraft.”

“The F-16s,” Eric chirped with glee as if he had just guessed the right answer to a pop quiz. Then, when he belatedly remembered that all six pilots were still missing and assumed dead, the Cyberknight’s expression changed. “He did that?”

From across the table, one of the outlanders joined in. “The administration considers this attack to be nothing less than an act of war.” He made this statement using the sanctimonious tone that many from inside the Beltway seemed to favor when dealing with a flyover person. “As such, the President has directed that the National Security Council come up with an immediate and proportional response.”

In an effort to regain control of the meeting, Hines cleared his throat as he looked over at Rhay and the two outlanders, using a spiteful glance as he did so to warn them to back off. When he was ready, the ops major took up the briefing. “That’s going to be your mission, Specialist.”

Given the events that had brought this about, Eric did his best to hide his excitement. Still, he could see something big was in the offing. “Will this be a duel?”

In Cyberknight speak, a duel was a one-on-one confrontation between one of their own and a dark knight.

Shaking his head, Hines continued. “No, not in the traditional sense.”

Leaning back in his seat, Eric eyed Hines and the array of faces across the table from him. “You tagged me because I am familiar with longbow, yet you don’t want me to go head-to-head with him. Explain, please.”

“It is obvious,” the older of the two outlanders stated, “that not only is this character very, very good, but he has the backing of a very robust and well-financed support system. This makes him a very dangerous threat, since each run-in serves to enhance both his reputation and his experience level.”

The second outlander picked up the thought. “Since we can’t seem to terminate this particular hacker by direct means, we have been given the mission of finding another way of putting an end to his career.”

Like a wrestling tag team, the older outlander took over. “We hit upon the idea of discrediting this hacker, now operating under the name ‘macnife.’”

Looking back and forth between the pair of unnamed outlanders, Eric shrugged. “How do we plan to do that?”

Used to working with the Cyberknights and the way they could become quite unruly if allowed to, Major Gayle Rhay cut in. “We are fairly confident that another nation is using macnife, formerly known as longbow, and his nation as a surrogate, a platform from which to strike at the United States.”