23 - Morning is broken
London – 7 am Wednesday
Welcome to my online cyber thriller, The Phisherman. If you've been reading along, this chapter will definitely tingle your "spidey sense." If this is your first time here, maybe learn more about the story and meet the three main characters first by clicking HERE. If you'd prefer to start at Chapter 1, click HERE. To select another chapter, click HERE.
Alison awoke with a start at the sound of a sharp knock on her door.
“Excuse me, Miss Simpson,” a deep voice said. “I’m sorry to disturb you. But you need to see this – it’s the identikit of your hacker.”
She sat up abruptly, wincing as a sharp pain radiated through her shoulders and neck. Gazing into the beady blue eyes of the Cyber Centre’s newest junior officer, it was apparent he was nervous at finding her asleep on her desk.
I can’t believe I’ve been here all night. It’s been years since I allowed myself to be in such a state.
Swiftly regaining her composure, Alison beckoned the young, rakish man with close-cropped blond hair to step inside. Tentatively, he placed a detailed sketch of a man’s face on her desk.
“Thank you – it’s Evan, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Miss,” the man in his mid-twenties replied with a sense of pride before almost whispering, “I can’t believe you remembered.”
“I make a point to know everyone who works in this cyber division, Evan,” Alison gently responded as she gazed at the picture of the crafty cyber thief.
She forgot her dishevelled state in an instant. The image matched the description in her head from how the two young gamers had described him. Staring into the target’s dark eyes, Alison noted how the sketch artist had captured a cunning confidence that made her uneasy.
“If it’s good to go, Miss, what would you like done with it?”
Despite what I told Nick last night, I think it’s prudent to start searching for this “Alan Jones” as soon as possible.
She looked up, handing the sketch to the young aide.
“It’s perfect, Evan. Let’s get an APB out as soon as we can. And I want it on the morning news. I’m sure our target can’t have gone too far. We need to track him before he gets settled. He’s on the run and has to eat. Hopefully, someone’s seen him in a shop, buying groceries or getting coffee.”
As Evan was a recent recruit to GCHQ, Alison needed to discuss the various media options and contacts GCHQ used for such occasions. Thankfully, the intelligent young man took everything in with minimal questioning.
“Not a problem, Miss. I’ll get on it right away,” Evan responded when she’d finished explaining what she needed him to do.
He paused before adding, “Also, one of the hacker’s housemates rang up about an oddity they both remembered. Apparently, Mr Jones won’t wear socks, no matter what.”
Alison gazed at her eager assistant, wondering what to do with the information.
After a brief pause, she queried, “Could they tell you why?”
“I asked the young man that. When they asked Alan about it, he yelled at them to mind their own business before storming off and smashing a few things around the house. After that, they wouldn’t ask again.”
Alison pondered the curious news about the missing socks before telling Evan to include the hacker’s peculiar dress standard in their description.
“I’m sure not many people are running around with bare ankles at this time of year.”
Evan nodded, then rose to leave as he asserted, “I’m on it, Miss.”
“And, Evan, I’d prefer it if you didn’t discuss my sleeping in the office last night with anyone.”
“Not a problem, Miss – my lips are sealed. And, just so you know, Miss Simpson, I’m glad you did. I’ve heard you do that when pursuing a key target. It helps me understand how significant this one must be.”
As Evan disappeared to fulfil his time-critical mission, Alison remembered the last time she’d fallen asleep at work. It was a case that meant a lot to her. GamerGate.1
The GamerGate controversy erupted in 2014 when an independent game developer left her gamer boyfriend, and he didn’t like it.
Unsurprisingly, he responded in typical dipstick male fashion and posted lies about her online.
It was the sort of thing Alison loved getting her teeth into – chauvinists picking on women successful in the tech sector. Their apparent crime: they were women.
Yet again, all the supposed keyboard warriors exposed the shallowness of their masculinity, hiding behind their anonymous monikers as they abused females succeeding in tech.
The harassment campaign was coordinated primarily via anonymous message boards.
And because of Alison’s notoriety under various monikers within The Shadow and other hacker collectives, she was in the thick of it, making copious notes as she used her own undisclosed ZDEs to penetrate their nameless disguises.
And no one knew it was me.
All she had to do was work the various ways the Game Master taught her to make the evidence she collected usable by GCHQ cyber-agent Alison Simpson …
… and it was too easy to pick the little tossers up and send them off to prison, one by one.
Alison especially enjoyed being in court for the sentencing of two unemployed twenty-somethings she busted.
The nasty buggers anonymously threatened to rape one of their GamerGate targets. They even sent the poor girl a message with a street view image of her house front to terrorise her.
Instead, they got to live the terror. After the boys received their sentence, Alison walked up to where the little prats sat with ashen faces, struggling to accept they were going to jail for what they had told the court were “just a few harmless insults.”
“Hey, boys,” she’d called out in a sultry voice.
When they turned to face her, she whispered, “Now you’re going to find out what real men are. And the ones you’re about to meet in prison will love passing your young, firm asses around. Of course, for them, it will just be – what did you call it – oh, yes, just a little harmless fun.”
She struggled not to laugh at the terror that covered their faces as she continued.
“You’re both going wish you were dead. But you won’t be. Instead, you’re going to experience the very things you threatened that young woman with, just in a smaller hole.”
I wish I could’ve taken a photo of their faces – it was priceless.2
Grateful she still had a change of clothes in her office from the GamerGate days, Alison locked her office door and swiftly changed as she considered her next steps.
From how warm his computer’s power supply was, Mr Jones knew precisely when we were on our way to his den. That implies Nick’s mobile phone has been hacked, though I should also check his laptop - better safe than sorry.
She finished dressing and applied a quick cosmetic update.
Satisfied her appearance no longer betrayed that she’d slept at her desk, she sat at her PC and sent Nick a short text message.
Nick, I’m already at work to tidy up some loose ends. You’ll need to make your way to NCSC. And bring your laptop with you. After what happened yesterday, I need to check it over. AliAfter sending the SMS, Alison remembered her thoughts from the previous night, which led to her falling asleep at her desk. Her adoptive parent’s hiding the truth about her birth parents had influenced her ability to trust people in personal relationships. Alison was sure that was why she’d never built a meaningful, lasting bond with a potential life partner.
She was determined that the two liars who raised her wouldn’t infect her professional life too. Subsequently, she decided the best course of action was to keep an eye on Nick for herself rather than bring anyone else into it.
At least for the time being.
Unsurprisingly, she turned to the Game Master for advice. Alison had learned while busting The Shadow and SF in 2011 that her cyber confidante was more than he let on. Most arrests she’d made around that time came through leads he provided. It hadn’t taken her long to realise the Game Master was deeply entwined within the black hat universe.
He’d introduced Alison to several underground hacker groups during her early years in GCHQ. There, she formed connections with black hats like lul and Abaddon. And though she learned many valuable technical and social engineering skills through those communities, it was also where she discovered how dark and depraved online collectives could be.
Alison had learned to trust her black hat mentor, despite his obvious deep links into the darknet. It didn’t matter that she’d never met him in the flesh – Alison knew from age twelve that he was looking out for her. In all the time she’d known him, he’d never asked her to do anything that crossed her moral compass. In fact, he’d never requested her assistance with anything. He’d simply been there for her whenever she needed his help. In many ways, he had become a father figure. And unlike Abaddon and lul, who were overtly evil in their intent, the Game Master often used his cyber powers for good, though never in a way that would expose his identity.
Awakening from her reveries, Alison typed a short message to the Game Master explaining her predicament with Nick and the CIA’s mysterious project, though she avoided giving any specific details. All she divulged was the code name Nick told her: 831.
After reading it over three times and making some final alterations, she clicked “send” just as there was another knock on her office door.
She looked up, expecting to see Evan with another query about Mr Jones.
It wasn’t.
Thanks for reading my online serial. I hope you enjoyed this chapter enough to click the heart-shaped LIKE button below. And if you have any suggestions to help make it better or you simply want to encourage me as a storyteller (either would be appreciated), please leave a comment.I almost removed the Gamergate section from this online version of “The Phisherman.” However, I think it gives a great insight into Alison’s character that will make you both wince & chuckle. And, fyi, GamerGate really happened as I’ve described.
Though this incident comes across as humorous, there is a sad true story behind it, one that ended in an amazing young man taking his own life.