Chapter Eleven
The first break in the computer hacking room of the
Lubyanka came just before midnight. Everyone in the room was exhausted, and
their nerves were frayed. Michael Yvgenevich Petrovsky had been working all day
on a hunch he had about the Chinese involvement in the vast hacking operation.
First, he had put in several hours trying to connect to the Irans Quds
miliitary counter-intelligence actions over the last month. He found no
connection to the Chinese, the Russians, or Islamic terrorist organizations.
Michael decided that he had come to a dead-end and was about to give up. Then
the answer was handed to him in a moment of illuminating serendipity.
He decided to check incoming e-mail messages from the
United States to the russkiya mafiya. He was tired and looking into Russia’s
premier ongoing criminal enterprise was about as likely to turn up valuable
evidence as writing a letter to Father Christmas at the North Pole. But,
Michael was trained to look for small things, nuances. He found an encrypted
set of e-mails going to and from the US Navy, the Chinese Honker Union, and the
vory v zakone [syndicate boss and chief of the “thieves-in-law” of the
Solntsevskaya Bratva] and the russkiya mafiya. Never before had he or anyone
else run across any communication by the US military to the lords of crime in
the Russian Federation. That in and of itself was enough to cause a spike in
his epinephrine blood level. But there was something else: something small,
nuanced, and something that would likely have been overlooked by a lesser
hacker. It appeared in the middle of a long stretch of 0s and 1s, 1s and 0s.
Michael deciphered tiny fragments that clearly decrypted as “Beelzebub the
Magnificent”, “orders from BtheM”, and a sentence including a reference reading,
“payment in full for work done” which was signed BtheM, followed by a
bewildering translation of “Ha, ha, ha.”
Michael had had profitable and uncomfortable computer
business—hacking business—with the Russian “Godfather” but had never run across
anything like this. He had never heard of Beelzebub, the Magnificent, before
the first A-P service news came out with their online, pre-print, reference to
the American/European devil figure. He ran to Director Bortnikov and DCIA
Norcroft with his finding.
The directors immediately realized they were on to
something significant.
Bortnikov gave Michael Yvgenevich a direct order, “Dig
deeper. Find something else in those e-mails. I am going to put a tap of the
vory v zakone’s phone and all his communications. At this point I need to
discuss the matter with President Putin, and I expect Director Norcroft to
connect with President Willets. Good work. Now get some helper bees and find
something we can work with.”
Half a dozen of the best hackers and cybercounter
intelligence officers began to work feverishly. At 0200, Michael reported back.
“Directors, we have found only one other rather strange
thing. There are multiple encrypted messages to and from and about “geniuses”
working with linguistics. I looked up what an arcane study of foreign languages
had to do with our area of interest. I am not exactly sure what is going on;
but one thing is clear, the volume of communications among all our suspects is
not at all ordinary. They are deeply involved with each other. Even the
decrypted messages are spoken of in some sort of personal messaging code. The
most common communicator is the US Navy, and many of the messages come from a
computer in a naval facility referred to only as the U.S. Naval Observatory in
Washington, D.C.
“Are you absolutely sure, Michael?” asked an obviously
upset Sybil Norcroft.
“Absolutely, Director. We have found the street address
for the naval observatory, which is Number 1 Observatory Circle, U.S. Naval
Observatory, Washington, D.C. Its GPS coordinates are 38.9230°N 77.0654°W.”
Sybil turned pale, “Excuse me, Gentlemen, I have to
contact my president again. In the meantime, Michael, find everything you can
about linguistics and language study, especially the IP addresses used in the
conversations you found.”
Michael nodded. Bortnikov smiled. And Sybil gritted her
teeth.
Sybil left the room and stepped outside the building to
enhance her chances of having a secure conversation with POTUS.
President Willets’ Oval Office secretary took the call.
“This is a secure line. Give me your credentials and
clearance code.”
Sybil did so, and repeated her clearance: Top Secret
TS/SCI code clearance, with access to sensitive compartmentalized information
and “need-to-know” status
“And you need to talk to POTUS?”
“Immediately.”
“Is it an emergency?”
“Most definitely.”
The next voice Sybil heard was that of the president.
“I presume this is not a social call or one to convey
good news, Sybil. What do you have?”
“The Russians have found the source—the center—of
digital communication with and for Beelzebub.”
“That’s bad news all by itself.”
“It gets worse. The IP address has been traced to a
single computer located in the basement of the Naval Observatory in Washington,
D.C.”
“Merciful heaven…the residence of the vice president of
the United States…that naval observatory?”
“Yes, Mr. President--checked, rechecked, and confirmed.
There is not a scintilla of doubt about that. Of course, at this point, we do
not know who has been using the computer in the residence of VPOTUS.”
“As soon as we ring off, I will put into action a
complete surveillance on VPOTUS and all of his communications. I will restrict
his access. It will take a little doing not to spook him. The FBI will take
charge of the investigation. You can step back away from him for now. You
continue to monitor and to chase down the people he communicates with. Any
indication of a relationship with our favorite public enemy number one?”
“We have. It’s skimpy for now; not enough to indict;
but we have the best crooks in the world working on it. One oddity, besides
seeing Beelzebub’s encrypted name is the presence of oblique references to
‘linguistics’. Apparently, that is something different from language study.
News at eleven, Mr. President.”
“This goes no further than those of us with
‘need-to-know.’ It may be that the public will never learn about it. I can’t
think of any greater blow than to learn that the number two officer in the
United States is a monster.”
Michael Yvgenevich Petrovsky and his six co-horts
worked through the night, partnering with their counterparts in DARPA and the
FBI CRRU [Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit], and the Cyber
Division’s Investigative Department. The implications, even beyond this
specific case, were appreciated immediately: computer intrusion
cases—counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal—are cyber program
priorities because of their potential national security nexus. Everyone
recognized the dual needs for an all-out effort to unearth any pertinent
evidence and to let the chips fall where they may. They also committed to an
absolute pact of secrecy with only a small handful of vetted officers knowing
the whole story…ever.
General information about the scholastic and pragmatic
field of linguistics came in fairly quickly since it was public knowledge, and
a field of masters and doctoral study in several major universities. The white
hat hackers (as of the moment) assembled a comprehensive list of institutions
around the world with recognized applied linguistics while Sybil and Alexander
Bortnikov worked through the night to pare down the list to a workable few.
Although a large number of localities had been attacked
by Beelzebub, the main countries targeted had been the US, Russia, the PRC, and
England. They reasoned that Beelzebub—with all his delusions of
grandiosity—would seek to work with and through major centers of applied
linguistics education and companies that specialized in the use of that science
commercially. They further limited the choices to areas that more digital
traffic was being uncovered. Therefore, the first list included: the University
of West Virginia in Morgantown; Stanford University in Stanford, California;
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; Harvard University in Cambridge,
Massachusetts; University of Florida, in Gainesville, Florida; and NYU in New
York City.
Outside the US, they narrowed the list of universities
to Oxford and Cambridge in England; the Sorbonne, in Paris; the University of
Bonn, Germany’s Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) which provides
future oriented research on unresolved issues of European integration and the
global role of Europe, especially including a world recognized applied
linguistics department; the American University in Cairo and Cairo University;
Iran University of Science and Technology, King Abdulaziz University, in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates University, Al Ein, UAE; and,
following a Sybil hunch, Damascus University in Damascus, Syria.
The already overburdened hackers took a short nap then
began the Herculean task of hacking the linguistics departments of every
university on the short list; they accepted help from DARPA, INSCOM [the US Army Intelligence and Security Command], DCHC [DIA’s Defense Counterintelligence and
Human Intelligence Center], DS/ICI/CI [US Diplomatic Security Service U.S.
Department of State], ONCIX [Office of the National Counterintelligence
Executive], and the Chinese Honkers—whom nobody trusted; so, their tasks were
limited to nonsensitive questions.
A small army of intelligence agents from the pertinent
US agencies, including the FBI, US-CERT [the US Computer Emergency Readiness
Team] and the trusted British CERT-UK began an emergency collaboration on
computer network defense involving the designated universities and companies
and agreed to share everything learned to address the cyber threats and manage
cyber incidents encountered as necessary. This collaboration brought in GCHQ
[United Kingdom Government Communications Headquarters], and MI5 [Security
Service].
Sybil preferred to work with Humint intelligence
activities because it suited her penchant for following her hunches. She made a
series of brief secure calls:
To Cairo SAC—”this is a secure line. No names. You
recognize my voice. Drop everything else and get to the head of the department
of applied linguistics at the American University. The questions are: Do you
know or know of Beelzebub? Do you or your department do any business of any
kind with anyone in the present American administration? Do you have links to
the Muslim Brotherhood, and do they have links to Beelzebub: Money is no
object. Play nice unless they balk, then do what must be done. Out.”
To Damascus SAC—”This a secure top-secret
communication. Need anything ASAP about communications of government and
intelligence officials regarding a person or organization named Beelzebub.
Visit head of Damascus University Department of Applied Linguistics. Need
anything about communication, business, or advising same person. You have
covert links to AQI, AI, and an assortment of similar sorts of people. Call in
your markers and do it quickly. Out.”
To Gainesville SAC FBI—”Per DFBI this is top-secret
secure communication. Need all info on applied linguistics transmissions
between or involving a person or entity called Beelzebub. Anything about
business, confidential or personal communications, etc. Money is no object.
Out.”
To Morgantown Chief of Police—”Hello, Chief. I hope you
recognize my voice. Please, no names. We are tracking Beelzebub and need your
help. Please get to University of West Virginia Department of Applied
Linguistics and learn everything you can as fast as you can. Get back to me
ASAP, even if the news is negative. Thanks.”
After a two-hour power nap, Sybil herself met her pilot at
the Moscow Domodedovo Airport and boarded the turboprop Antonov AH-32 to begin
a whirlwind personal quest.
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