Welcome to my online cyber thriller, The Phisherman. To learn more about the story and meet the three main characters, click HERE. If you'd prefer to start at Chapter 1, click HERE. To select another chapter, click HERE.
It was apparent Alison had discovered something as soon as Nick entered her office. The excited look on her face was unmistakable.
He handed Alison the large takeaway cup bearing Whyld’s logo and sat down, keen to hear what she’d found.
Instead, she sat back, inhaled the delicious aroma emanating from her steaming beverage, and then took a long sip of coffee as her dark eyes twinkled.
‘Now tell me, is that not the best coffee you’ve ever had?’ she asked mischievously as she carefully placed the large cup in a rare space on her cluttered desktop.
‘Yes, Ali, it’s definitely the best I’ve had in a long time,’ Nick passionately agreed, though his enthusiasm was more about what she had uncovered.
Still, she said nothing. Instead, she merely smiled.
For Nick, it did not matter how beautiful she was. Unlike that night around the fire in Iraq, he wasn’t content to gaze into her dark eyes and will her to read his mind about the unmentionable things he wanted to do to her.
He needed to know what she had uncovered about his hacker.
And I need to know now!
‘Come on, Ali. What did you find?’ he asked impatiently.
She made him wait a few more seconds, savoring his impatience as much as the coffee, then leaned forward and spoke in a loud whisper as if they were co-conspirators.
‘I think I can track whoever your mysterious hacker is.’
Nick could not believe how rapidly Alison had weaved her magic and found the solution he wanted.
I was right picking her.
‘How?’ he asked, though he did not expect to understand much of what she’d say. Still, he wanted to hear her explain it, as much for hearing her voice as trying to understand the mechanics of how she could track his elusive hacker.
‘Well, first, I disassembled the header in that file you gave me,’ she started.
At least I know what that means.1
‘Once I found the embedded code, I could see what your hacker did.’
You’re losing me, Ali.2
‘This cyberpunk discovered an unknown exploit in that document’s viewer application. In the tech security sector, it’s called a Zero-Day Exploit, as nobody knows about it yet.’
Aha. So Dave3 was right. There was no way I could have stopped that hacker. No one could have. I was merely the sucker who took the bait.
‘Unfortunately, that means whoever was hacked couldn’t stop this from happening, though I wonder why someone would have a file about beating the gambling odds anywhere near such sensitive project files. It sounds like the Agency needs to have a serious chat with one of your spooks, Nick. We wouldn’t tolerate that sort of thing in GCHQ.’
When Alison paused, Nick diplomatically shifted the focus.
‘Thanks for that, Ali, though I’m a little confused. I thought you said you could track this hacker. I’m not sure how what you just said helps.’
Alison stared at him for a moment. Nick suspected she was weighing up whether to take her concerns further or leave it and tell him what he wanted to know – how to catch the phisherman.
‘Okay, Nick. I assume the digital indiscretion’s being taken care of back at Langley. I know that’s not your responsibility or why you’re here.’
‘Thanks, Ali, though it would be best if we move on and I could hear how we catch this SOB.’
‘Sure, Nick. But are you okay if I pass this new exploit on to the rest of my team? I reckon it will be handy for monitoring a few bad eggs.’
‘Definitely. You found it. Use it however you want. I’m sure our guys already know about it. But that’s not my concern. What I need to know is where the hacker is and how I get my hands on him.’
‘Or her, Nick. Your hacker could be female. You do understand that, don’t you?’ Alison retorted with a tinge of anger in her voice.
Not this again. I had enough of this crap with Dave.
It must have been impossible for Alison to misread the thoughts crossing Nick’s mind.
Seeing his face, Alison pushed her chair back almost violently and stood to her full height as she snapped, ‘After all, you’ve come to me, knowing I am one of the best in the world at catching hackers. And, as you can see, Nick, I am a woman.’
Nick, nervously yet delightedly, looked her up and down, allowing his eyes to linger on her curves.
Hell, yeah, you’re a woman!
When he looked up, she was glaring at him with a look that froze his soul.
His face fell, and he nodded as he passively apologized, ‘Yeah, I know that, Ali. And I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you in any way.’
‘Yeah, none of you ever do, do you?’ she almost screamed at him with open hostility.
Nick was caught off guard. He had never seen this side of Alison before.
I thought she knew I appreciate and like that she’s a woman. And up until now, I’ve loved the woman she is.
However, seeing her fiery retort, Nick was not so sure.
It’s like an angry tiger is locked up inside her, trying to claw its way out. And I’m a lump of meat lying just out of reach.
He didn’t know why she’d reacted as she had or why she was taking her frustration out on him.
After all, it’s a fair assumption that my hacker is a man. Aside from Ali and a couple of the female geeks on Garry’s team in C-SOG, I can’t think of another woman who’s any good at cyber stuff. What the hell – most of them hate it. All women want tech for is so they can post photos of themselves online and get off on the comments.4
There was a long, nervous pause as Nick considered the best path ahead and what words to say. Usually, he would respond in kind and bite her head off. However, he couldn’t do that.
I need her. At least for now.
And she’s even hotter when she’s angry. I wonder if she knows?
He watched her with growing apprehension as she silently took her seat and stared at him. Part of him wanted to grab her and hold her against him, more to feel the touch of her body than to provide any comfort.
Yet, that will only enrage her more. It’s like raw anger is consuming her.
He could see her seething as her body trembled and her eyes darkened.
The thought saddened Nick.
Ali’s just like every other woman I’ve known, letting her emotions control her. I don’t understand why women can’t put their minds before their mood.
Nick comprehended why rage motivated him.
Yet, I never let it control me – I use it to make me more effective at what I do.
He certainly couldn’t understand why Alison would be so fueled by fury.
After everything I experienced as a kid, what could she know about real pain?
I know (especially from female Beta readers) that this chapter can be rather uncomfortable as Nick’s shallow nature is exposed. Hopefully, you don’t know too many people like Nick, though they are out there - I’ve based that side of Nick on two different unashamed chauvinists I've known in the chapters of my life. Despite that, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, especially discovering more of Alison’s character, and are happy to click the heart-shaped LIKE button at the end of this chapter. And if you have any suggestions to improve this chapter / story or if you just want to encourage me as a storyteller, please leave a comment.So you also understand what Alison said, disassembling means she turned the binary machine code [1’s & 0’s] into human-readable programming code.
So I don’t lose you, embedded code can refer to various terms. In this scenario, it means programming code hidden inside the file’s header. When an application opens the infected file, the app examines the file’s header to see how to format & process the file’s content. For Z’s hack, the header includes a code segment that made the file reader’s update feature on Nick’s computer open a remote connection to Z’s computer. Hopefully, that sorta makes sense to you now.
Remember from Chapter 10 that Dave is the CIA’s network security guru who detected that Nick’s laptop had been hacked.
Please remember - this is Nick’s PoV. And as you can see (though it should’ve been plain a long time ago), Nick is definitely sexist.