29 - Turkish Delight
London – 3 pm Wednesday
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.
As soon as Nick held up the perfectly-conditioned photo of the teenage hacker, both gamers yelled, “Yeah, yeah, that’s him.”
From there, it was a short trip back to Virginia, where Alison got Evan to run searches that would be more effective now they had a positive ID and photograph.
“I think we should extend the search across Europe straight away,” Alison asserted. “After what we learned in Kidderminster, I’m sure our quarry is too savvy to be detected within the UK.”
Alison felt like things were looking up.
Hopefully, we’ll get a break within the hour and be a step closer to catching the elusive black hat.
She should have known what was coming.
The conversation with Margaret Watson and seeing Alan’s room as a teen convinced Alison that their quarry was the most dangerous kind: intelligent, highly skilled, and motivated by a hate-inspired vendetta against the world of flesh and blood. She suspected from the few glimpses Margaret had given them into Alan’s adolescent life that he would especially direct his anger at any females unfortunate enough to cross his life.
And that will include me once he discovers my involvement, if he hasn’t already guessed it.
She’d often encountered Alan’s sort online, though they seldom realised they were venting to the gender they hated most. She needed to tread carefully. Her quarry would not leave any breadcrumbs behind.
Except for the ones he wants me to find.
Confusingly, Alison’s phone analyser had completed its suite of tests on Nick’s phone and found nothing. She was sure his phone was being tracked.
Yet there’s no evidence to confirm my suspicion.
Unsurprisingly, Nick had resumed his default arrogance, demanding his phone as he brusquely responded, “I knew you wouldn’t find anything on there. I never gamble on my phone.”
There were still no positive results by six o’clock. Nothing had turned up after three hours of searching public camera feeds using the latest facial recognition software. There were no positive leads on Alan Watson using public transport services. And the only worthwhile response to the hacker’s sketch and then photograph spread across every news service had been the call from his mother in Kidderminster.
It was like their prey had disappeared.
Alison could see Nick was frustrated by the violent manner in which he paced the room. She wondered what was going through his head until he turned to face her.
“What do you reckon about grabbing something to eat as we review the day?”
His face fell when she replied in a detached voice, “Sorry, Nick, but I think you should go back to your hotel and eat something there. After spending so much time chasing your hacker, I’ve got a lot of work to catch up on.”
Alison buried her head back in her computer, watching Nick turn and walk away from the corner of her eye.
He’d only taken a few steps when she said, “And, Nick, you should store your laptop in the hotel safe when you get back. Then leave it there until we’ve caught your thief. That way, we may trick Mr Watson into thinking you’re still in Chelsea, no matter where you are.”
Alison was glad when Nick disappeared without another word. It gave her room to breathe without his constant pressure to do something. He was like a cat on a hot tin roof.
And I am not a cat person.
At least she knew many more things now – the day had been productive in that respect. She knew what caused the whole sorry incident. And she’d learned much more about her partner and their cyber quarry.
What she didn’t know anything about were the project documents Alan Watson stole from Nick’s laptop.
And I’m sure Nick won’t be forthcoming in the slightest degree concerning that.
Another disappointment came when she checked her private chat with the Game Master. There was nothing since his initial message ten hours before, despite the promise of success.
Everything changed when Evan appeared at her door, his face aglow with excitement.
Beckoning him in, she impatiently asked, “What is it, Evan?”
Excitedly, he told her, “An Alan Smith matching the description of our suspect caught a flight from Rotterdam to Istanbul early this morning. Airport cameras have confirmed it’s our man. His plane arrived in Istanbul at 9:30 am London time, and we haven’t found any details of a subsequent departure flight yet. It looks like Alan may have gone to ground in Türkiye.”
Alison pondered the news before asking, “So why do you think our Mr Smith has travelled to Istanbul via Rotterdam, Evan?”
She was impressed by his logic when he promptly replied, “I suspect he knew Rotterdam would be a low-priority search location, Miss. I’m sure our hacker knows that a minor international airport database would appear lower in our searches. That’s why we didn’t detect his flight until now.”
“Excellent, Evan. I’m sure you’re correct. I suspect our phisherman has a detailed technical understanding of our digital search patterns. However, Istanbul makes no sense. We haven’t discovered anything in his past with links to a place or person in the Middle East. What are your thoughts on that?”
“I don’t know, Miss. I’ve been too busy trying to discover where he’s gone next to reflect on why Istanbul.”
“That’s understandable, Evan. However, knowing why he’s gone to Istanbul is critical to understanding his next move.”
They both remained silent for a few minutes. Evan’s face was a picture of frustrated concentration as Alison pondered: Why Istanbul? That makes no sense. Have we missed something?
Yet, the more Alison thought about it, the more she was convinced Istanbul was merely a stopover to provide a decoy. And that was because there was a significant downside to the information they’d uncovered. Alan Watson had gone to Türkiye.
Although Türkiye bordered several European nations and signed the Ankara Agreement with the EU in 1963, the EU never formally accepted Türkiye as a member state. There were still too many points of difference between the EU and Türkiye. And many political strategists regarded Türkiye as moving away from the West. Subsequently, Türkiye’s accession negotiations with the EU had ground to a halt.
It meant that, although there was a basic agreement between Türkiye and Europol, Europe’s law enforcement agency, there was no formal commitment between the two regarding implicit cooperation on policing activities. And though the UK had been Türkiye’s most significant supporter of being admitted to the EU prior to Brexit, the same issues concerning police activities affected the British Secret and Security Services working with Türkiye.1
Consequently, finding their elusive hacker required Nick to track him down in person. Accordingly, Alison called Nick.
He’ll want to be on the next flight out of London.
London – 6 pm Wednesday
Nick caught a taxi back to his hotel, frustrated with how the day had ended. Despite how well he’d managed his confession, Alison was still treading carefully with him.
Somehow, the taxi ended up at the Grosvenor Casino.
Taking a seat in the small dining lounge, he ordered a large pizza with the works and an extra-large glass of an expensive ten-year-old red Bordeaux from southern France.
The generous pouring arrived almost immediately in a perfectly balanced glass goblet bearing the casino’s logo. Nick took a long sip and then sat back, reflecting over the mixed results of the day as the gentle background music soothed his mood.
On the positive side, I know who my hacker is and where he comes from. I’m sure the lonely loser won’t be a threat in person, despite Alison’s concerns.
Nick was not surprised when three hours of searching with a positive ID revealed nothing.
The little prick vanished last night when he had the chance. I knew Alison was wrong to leave it. She’s not as good at reading people as she thinks.
What caught Nick by surprise was Alison’s reaction to the scan of his phone detecting nothing. He would have thought Alison was rattled if he didn’t know any better. It confirmed to Nick that his prey was a highly skilled hacker.
At least I wasn’t caught by a script kiddy2 – it took a veteran hacker to trick me. And on that thought, I need to relax to the max with a long night of Blackjack and Punto Banco.
His mind refocused when a young server wearing the hotel’s uniform arrived with a wooden board bearing Nick’s pizza.
It smelled divine.
From the first mouthful, as melted cheese dripped onto his plate, Nick knew it would be a good night, despite the day’s disappointment.
He was halfway through his second slice when his phone rang.
It was Alison.
Nick swallowed a mouthful of pizza and picked up the phone.
‘Hey, Ali. What’s up?’
‘I thought you’d want to know your hacker arrived in Istanbul at 9:30 am London time this morning.’
Amusingly, Alison sounded apologetic when telling him about Türkiye’s lack of transparency between police forces.
‘I’m sorry, Nick, but you’ll have to fly to Istanbul yourself. There’s little we can do from our end other than keep searching online for his next step.’
Of course, Nick already knew about the law enforcement issues with Türkiye. His work for the Agency had included multiple missions in the Middle East.
More importantly, he wanted to get active.
I don’t do sitting in an office, playing cyber sleuth, hoping something turns up - that is not my idea of getting things done.
He knew foot soldier roles like that were necessary.
However, when push comes to shove, the desk jockeys will always need someone like me to step up and do the real work.
By the time Alison told him that the earliest flight out was in the morning, Nick had already logged into out his laptop, located the flight, and started booking his seat. However, before he could complete the transaction, Alison ended the conversation and hung up.
He ingested his pizza and wine as rapidly as possible without choking, then raced back to his hotel to pack his few belongings as he booked a taxi to collect him before sunrise.
After setting a suitable alarm, he had enough time to enjoy a relaxing spa in his room before climbing into his comfortable bed.
He tossed and turned for a while, excited at the prospect of resuming the hunt.
It was just as his mind drifted that his mobile rang.
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.What I’ve described in this chapter is the state of relations between the EU and Türkiye in 2023. Subsequent to Russia’s current invasion of Ukraine, that may change.
Script kiddies is a derogatory term (similar to packet monkeys covered in Chapter 1) that refers to unskilled hackers who rely upon others (skilled hackers/coders) to develop the hacking tools they use.