Mark Pryor - Cyberian Affair

Gato’s still alive !

Niko knew something about comas. Years ago, his mother had gone into a coma after an overdose. Eventually, she woke up confused, and remained that way until her death. The same thing could happen to Gato.

Vyper sat at the other end of the couch. Niko had known her for less than twenty-four hours, but they’d been through a lot together. She was an amazing woman, cute but all business.

She reached out and touched Niko’s arm—something she hadn’t done before. “I am sorry about your friend.”

He gently touched her hand and gazed into her eyes.

She looked away but didn’t recoil from his touch.

Niko took this as a positive sign. “Gato’s the last friend I have… at least from my past life. I feel so alone.”

Vyper’s eyes connected briefly with his. “Marko was my only friend. You are my friend now.” She turned to her computer. “We must fight back. You should send out a message from Trotsky.”

All things considered, her warm response was a breakthrough. With any other woman, this occasion would merit a hug… or more. But she was different.

Niko searched online for press coverage of yesterday’s events. Most of the major news services carried the story distributed by National Press :

An explosion and fire destroyed the Kozel Group Action Center in Ashburn, Virginia, Monday evening. Authorities fear dozens of casualties. One survivor was taken to Sterling Hospital where he is reported to be in serious but stable condition. Recovery teams, including canine units, began searching for bodies Tuesday morning. The cause of the explosion is under investigation.

Niko checked the Loudon County Times website. Their coverage was more extensive. It mentioned that the CEO of Kozel Group suffered a heart attack and died the night of the explosion.

Damn right ! Russians killed him .

The Times , in a separate story, reported that emergency responders were delayed because the county’s emergency phone system failed.

Failure ? Russians rerouted the number .

Niko filled Vyper in on the limited news reports before updating his Trotsky message. If the reporters couldn’t connect the dots, he’d do it for them. He also included a short clip from the Alpha World security video, along with a description of the injury on Marko’s calf.

Vyper angled her screen toward Niko. “Those Russians chasing us on Ashburn Ridge Road died. Here’s the accident report.”

Dead ? Niko had done many things in his life he wasn’t proud of, but he’d never killed anyone. This was self-defense, though. “If I hadn’t pointed that laser in the driver’s face, no telling what would have happened.”

Niko skimmed through the report. Both victims had Russian names, but he didn’t recognize either one. He considered including this in the Trotsky communication, but decided it would be an unnecessary distraction.

Niko started making a list of people to receive his anonymous messages—the Loudon County Times, the National Press, maybe someone in the government. If Marko were alive, he’d know.

“Vyper, do we have access to Marko’s archived email?”

She gave him the link. “You should add the Cybercade security manager to your Trotsky contact list. I sent you his address.”

Niko found several emails addressed to a DHS agent, and a few others to an FBI agent. He added them both. “My Trotsky message is ready. Will you send it anonymously? It should go to two reporters, two government agents Marko trusted, and Cybercade’s security manager.”

“Sure thing. But add a signature word on the DHS and FBI communications. Like a secret identity that only they know. Do not give it to the reporters or to Cybercade—they would not keep it secret.”

“Okay. I’ll add the name Mercader . He’s the man who assassinated Trotsky.”

“Appropriate name.” Vyper smiled. “I also have some good news. Marko’s killer is dead.”

“How do you know?”

“One of the victims who ran into the guard rail had a mug shot, so I ran facial recognition on it. The video image of the killer in the brewpub was a match.”

“At least we got justice for Marko.” The vision of the BMW swerving and crashing flashed through Niko’s mind. “You know, those two saw me, but now they’re dead. All the other Russians involved in the attack probably believe the reports of my death. I don’t have to hide anymore.”

“I agree, you do not have to hide your face—only your friend, Gato, will recognize you. But everyone believes you died in the fire, so you cannot use your real name and you cannot go home.”

Niko tried to make sense of everything that happened, and he decided that two heads were better than one. “Tell me, do you have any idea what the Russians are up to? Are they simply probing our systems for intelligence, or are they planning a serious attack?”

“I am good with computers, not with human motives. The Russians are gathering data from emergency services computers in Fairfax County.”

“I figure Sokolov needed to eliminate the threat from Marko’s team—for fear we’d take his money—so he’d have to hold back on any planned cyber-attack until he could neutralize the threat. My friend Joey sometimes bragged a bit too much when he drank. He probably led them to Marko. If they learned he was in on it, they could have traced him to the Center.”

Vyper set her laptop aside. “If he attacked the Center immediately, he only would have killed the staff on second shift. That is why they sent out the false message from Marko, calling in the day shift. It would not work if Marko was in the building at the time, so they poisoned him.”

“You’re right—Sokolov had to kill all of us. The drone attack was a surprise, but the Center should have had time to engage security. That’s why the Russians had to intercept the call for help.”

“And they hijacked the 9-1-1 phone number so police would not respond quickly.”

Niko nodded. “When they went to Alpha World to kill Marko, they spotted me with him. I became a loose end, like Gato is now, so they tried to kill us both. This is the first time we’ve lined up all the facts. With Marko’s Action Center out of the picture, the Russians still face a threat from the team that replaced us—Cybercade. Sokolov would probably assume Marko shared information with them.”

Vyper typed rapidly on her laptop. “Cybercade servers are being probed right now. It appears to be the same methods we saw the Russians using against us. I think they are gathering information to attack Cybercade.”

“The drones!” Niko opened the security video from the attack and fast-forwarded to the first drone. He zoomed in for the highest resolution view before the explosion. “It has eight copter blades. I’m not familiar with the shaped charges it’s carrying. Hard to judge the weight.”

He zoomed in on the second drone. “This one is carrying C4—eight sticks. That would be ten pounds, plus the camera.”

“I found the drone.” Vyper entered a few commands on her laptop. “It is a DSI Heavy 8 octocopter. Their smaller models could not lift that weight. Maximum flight time is twenty minutes. Maximum range is five kilometers. The pilot had to be at least that close—probably closer, to minimize the drone’s travel time to the building.”

“Can the signal from the pilot be jammed?”

Vyper tapped away at the keyboard. “It uses spread spectrum on the 2.4 gigahertz band. A jammer broadcasting across the entire band will interrupt communication, creating an error condition for the drone. It will either return to the pilot, or hover in place until it runs out of power.”