31 - Out of the frying pan
London – 11:30 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 Nick’s head cleared, he saw the time on the phone – 11:30 pm.
More importantly, he saw who was waking him up at such a late hour.
It was Alison.
I wonder why she’s calling now? Maybe she’s had a change of heart before I fly out?
It was impossible to miss the excitement in her voice.
‘Nick, there’s been a massive change of plans. Change your flight now. He’s in Beijing.’
What the hell?
As Nick’s mind cleared from his initial hope for Alison to pay him a late-night visit, he absorbed her news.
Excitedly he asked, ‘How did you find that out?’
She spouted another spiel of technical mumbo jumbo from which Nick gleaned that she’d hacked the phisherman’s email server. The server’s log showed someone had logged in less than an hour ago to retrieve the latest email with Nick’s location. And that someone was using an IP address in Beijing.
‘I can’t confirm it’s Alan’s computer. Yet, when I ran a passive scan, the defenses in place revealed the owner has high-level technical abilities typical of a skilled hacker.’
‘Have you checked for flights from Istanbul to Beijing?’ Nick interjected.
‘Did that before I called you. And guess what?’
She continued before Nick could offer an answer.
‘A flight departed Istanbul only three hours after Alan’s flight from Rotterdam landed. And that flight arrived in Beijing less than an hour before someone collected the email detailing your location from the secret mail server. I’m sure it’s our man, Nick.’
As Alison kept talking, Nick booked his flight to Beijing. His new flight would depart at seven in the morning. He needed to leave the hotel before four am.
After wishing Alison all the best and thanking her again, he ended the call.
Time to plan for Beijing.
His flight would arrive in the Chinese capital at six am Thursday, Beijing time, after a sixteen-hour flight with two stopovers.
Hopefully, Ali will have more news by then.
Nick’s next concern was flying into an Agency hot zone.
With the Coronavirus publicly emanating from Wuhan a couple of months before, China was receiving extra Agency attention.
I also know the Agency’s focus on Wuhan has been ongoing for twelve months before anyone else knew of the virus’s existence.1
He still had plenty of time to make it back to DC for his hearing on Monday. However, sirens would erupt in Langley when Nick landed in Beijing. He hoped he could arrive in China and take his next step in pursuit of Alan Watson before any Agency clowns turned up to monitor him.
And if they are monitoring my location via their laptop, it will confuse them seeing it secure in a hotel vault in Chelsea.
Nick lay down, hoping he could sneak in three hours of shut-eye before leaving. He wasn’t going to worry about the phone. Alison had found nothing on it.
Maybe she should check her phone rather than merely assuming the problem is with mine. I’m sure Watson knows the renowned cyber sleuth Alison Simpson would be on the case. Maybe Ali needs to tidy up her backyard before pinning all the blame on me.
Nick was sure he was right on that. The one thing he didn’t like about Alison - besides the feminist insecurities she’d recently revealed - was her cockiness about her skills. He knew from several things over the last two days that his target was on the same level as her, if not better.
The good thing is that, when it comes to a physical confrontation between Alan Watson and me, I know who will win that every day of the week. And that’s with me wearing a blindfold and one hand tied behind my back.
Nick fell into a fitful but enjoyable sleep as his mind drifted onto what he would do when he got his hands on the elusive phisherman. The smile on his face revealed he was enjoying catching Alan Watson in his dreams. It was also evident that the phisherman would not relish the moment they met in Nick’s world – the world of flesh and blood.
For Alan Watson, there’s going to be lots of blood.
London – 8 am Thursday
Alison was frustrated beyond words. Drumming her fingers on her desk, she wondered: how do I protect Nick from his own stupidity?
He flew out an hour ago on the first flight to Beijing, still with his phone. And he was adamant he would not take the inflight option for WiFi access so she could update him via their chat.
“I just want a little bit of peace and quiet, Ali.”
She could tell from his sharp responses during their brief, reactive phone call as he made his way to Heathrow that he thought she was the arrogant one.
Typical pig-headed alpha male - thinks he’s smarter and better with tech just because he’s a man.
No matter what happened, she would do her best to protect Nick from his obstinate foolishness …
… though it’s more for the sake of my reputation than his.
Accordingly, she had Evan continue the search, utilising every digital means at his disposal to track whoever the phisherman had become.
Surprisingly, there was not a single “Alan” on the flight manifest from Istanbul to Beijing. The hacker had changed his MO, though Alison suspected it was only until he reached his final destination.
In the meantime, she continued to follow through on the information the Game Master told her via their chat. Knowing her target’s moniker was lul motivated her to a whole other level; lul was one of the two that got away when she busted SF in 2011.
The other black hat who escaped was Abaddon. He was another typical chauvinistic pig who constantly spewed forth an endless tirade against women who dared to venture into the cyber universe supposedly designed by men, for men. Yet lul had always been the worst. She recalled lul was especially vitriolic when attacking targets they identified as female.
Alison was sure the Game Master’s information was correct. Alison had dug around after he disclosed one of his black hat monikers to her during the 2011 busts. Reading about the destruction her mentor had wreaked online for over two decades made her consider trying to trap him. Yet, she knew she didn’t have the skill.
Nor do I have the inclination. After all he’s done for me over the years, I could never turn on him, no matter what he’s done.
And thanks to his revelation about Nick’s hacker, she suspected she was after Alan Watson more than Nick. It had inspired her to spend the night digging through various darknet sites and group chats of which she was a covert member. Yet nothing had been revealed.
There were no signs of the lowlife re-emerging from whatever dark hole he’d laid low in for all these years.
Unfortunately, the rest of the morning proved fruitless. Evan worked his way through half of the names on the flight manifest. Alison suspected it was futile. Alan Watson’s new identity would have a deep cover built into it. Simple searches would never expose him.
Alison’s best bet was to wait until he checked his email server for updates on Nick’s location. She’d configured an alert to notify her when that happened. However, he hadn’t logged in since landing in Beijing.
After checking her private chat with the Game Master for the umpteenth time and seeing no response, she waded through the meaningless morass of tiresome routine that came with her regular job.
When lunchtime arrived, Alison was gloomier than she’d been after her row with Nick in the early hours of the morning.
She put her Bluetooth earphones in and started her current favourite song as she wandered down to the Thames to grab a bite to eat. She was halfway to the Riverside Café before she remembered the last time she’d been there.
It was with Nick.
Not such a great idea.
Stumbling inland, she wandered aimlessly until an alert sounded on her phone, snapping Alison out of her mindless reveries. Her prey had retrieved another email from his mail server.
Time to go hunting.
Alison raced back to the National Cyber Security Centre. It mattered not that she hadn’t eaten – she had a hunger physical food would not satisfy. Only her tiger box could fix the new rumblings emanating from deep within.
Evan looked up at the sound of her hurried footsteps. She knew he’d discovered something from the exhilaration in his eyes.
He’s proving to be a great asset. I might push for him to become my permanent aide.
He walked into her room as she sat down.
Before Alison could say anything, he proudly asserted, “I know where he’s going. And you won’t believe where.”
Alison logged into the security VM on her office PC and connected her VPN to Alan’s mail server as she asserted, “I’m about to discover that myself, Evan. But I’d love you to tell me where he is and how you found that out.”
“He’s on his way to Los Angeles, if he isn’t already there,” the young man said with pride. “I hacked the Beijing Capital Airport security cameras and caught a feed of him on his laptop in the departure lounge, though he’s changed his appearance. He has blond hair and isn’t wearing glasses; I suspect he’s wearing contact lenses. But it’s our man – he wasn’t wearing socks. And you don’t have to worry about the Chinese knowing. I used that webcam exploit our code-busters discovered last week.”
“Great work, Evan. That’s fantastic. However, I don’t trust that guy. I suspect you only saw him because he wanted that. I have another way of tracking him, but I can’t share that with you yet. Give me another minute, and I’ll confirm your theory or …”
Alison was too focused on checking the mail server log to notice the change in Evan’s countenance.
Alan hadn’t realised his mail server had been discovered and its defences penetrated. Alison suspected he would expect someone to stop the emails being sent once they learned of his scheduled mailouts. She’d deliberately allowed them to continue to create a false sense of security in her prey.
As long as he remains ignorant of my hacking his server, the emails will provide a means to turn the tracker into the tracked.
Alison was not surprised to discover Alan wasn’t in the US when she saw where the last email was collected from.
“Sorry, Evan. It’s as I suspected. Our target is too savvy to be caught by video cameras without using that for his own purposes. He’s just collected his latest email from Nick’s laptop. I’ll have to notify Nick. He won’t have much time to transfer to his next flight when he lands in Beijing.”
Alison had opened the website to book Nick’s tickets and found a flight departing Beijing only two hours after he landed before she realised Evan still stood in the doorway.
“Sorry, Evan. You want to know where he’s gone, don’t you?”
“Yes, miss,” the young man replied with a questioning tone.
“He’s gone to my homeland, Evan. Australia. And from what I can ascertain, he landed in Sydney an hour ago.”
“I’m booking Nick onto the same flight, though he’ll be one day behind. Our hacker will have a twenty-four-hour head start. But with the guys I know over there, it won’t be enough. Our hacker is about to meet his match. And it’s a match he’s going to lose.”
Alison suspected that Australia was Alan’s final destination.
He’ll have access to the latest technology, yet can disappear into a hotbed of millions or the vast emptiness of the outback. Thankfully, I know two competent techies to support Nick when he hits the ground.
As Evan stood there nodding his head, yet not knowing why, Alison was already writing an email to her two cyber friends in the Australian Signals Directorate: her childhood friend, Adam, and his freaky hacker mate, Joshua Livingstone.
However, it was the following message she sent that counted the most. It was to a friend from long ago, someone else who had disclosed that he lived in Australia – her beloved Game Master.
Alan Watson, you’ve just jumped out of the frying pan and landed in the fire.
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.The CIA being in Wuhan beforehand is an urban legend. But you have to wonder with the Agency’s murky past … is there some truth hidden in the shadows?