2000 Mile, Full Circle (Part 2)

Previously: 2000 Mile, Full Circle (Part 1)



6:15 AM, The Terminal



The sun's rays has broken through the morning cloud as I reached the bus terminal, buses here leaves for the provinces every hour. I have decided that staying away from the city as much as I could would be safer for me -- staying away from the system, to drop out the radar. This country is perfect for those who want to disappear, there are places just outside the city limits which would provide enough cover yet its close enough that one could just drive a few miles to tap the system and gather intelligence and then drop back for cover.



Tactical approach on attacking the enemy is my specialty. While most hackers prefer to attract attention; in my opinion, the more a hack is aimed to seek attention then it is not much different to terrorist acts that covers the front page news -- cyber-terrorism, thats what they properly called. On a second thought when was the last time cyber-terrorism has been reported in the news? Was there ever a news about a data-centers shutting down due to cyber-attacks? How about news of data theft in massive scales? Compromised communication systems? It must be because news companies thought that its not as spectacular compared to people blowing up themselves for a cause they believed.



Its ironic that we live in a digital age where information drives the very core of our existence yet we still limit our perception of security on the physical existence. Right now you must be comfortably seating on you office or home while reading this, assured that you are safe -- doors locked and guards on every corner. However the reality is, your among thousands of other strangers inside the cyber-world and someone behind you is about to put a bullet on your head at this very moment.



My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the announcement that my bus is about to leave, I made it a point to board last so i can survey first who are the other passengers who will be traveling with m; making sure no one has been tailing me.



An hour later and the bus is traveling in the middle of nowhere, scenes of towering buildings are replaced by lush farm lands and scenic mountains. Although this place seems remote, the systems has place enough facilities here for me to continue my work. There are adequate broadband access, unencrypted wifi access points and legacy telephone systems that dotted the area; I am now so eager to get back on my enemies but first i needed a place to stay. Upon disembarking I wasted no time and started familiarizing my self to the town layout, checking where are the nearest transportation facilities, entrance and exit routes, police stations, coca booths and ofcourse the Internet access points. Feeling satisfied that I have covered enough ground surveilance, Its time to pick a place rest.

I choosed a runned down apartment behind a bar, the foot traffic in the bar would easily mask my presence and activities; no one would question me if I started going out and wondering during the night in town looking for access points to hack into. After settling in I decided to grab some time to enjoy the town and most importantly think and try to answer the biggest question there is right now...

Who is after me?

2000 Mile, Full Circle (Part 1)

Previously: We are watching you

4:14 AM, Twin Tower Communication Building


I've been on the move and off the grid for sometimes, while at the moment my brain still couldn't fully comprehend how I was able to end up where I begun.

This will be a long story to tell...

Just after receiving the warning that day, all I can think of was start running. But against all urge to do so I retained my composure, that is precisely what they want. My friend may have been foolish enough to act in haste with fear so that it caused his demised. Clearly he panicked and tried to contact me in an unsecured line -- it is against all what we were trained for.

I took the day's work instead and act normally, painfully normal and dull. I even manage to do overtime work. Whoever is watching me during that moment would have been baffled by my reaction -- misinformation and misdirection is an effective defense.

When I got home, I had the urge to pack and scram. Then I realized that I'm being watched and I have just lead them straight to my lair. It's clearly a bad move -- but making it obvious I made a mistake would make it disastrous. The acting normal at the office may have worked and given the watchers enough to doubt if I was the correct target; or else I would have not made it home at all alive. I'll have to play along as not to hasten their actions against me.

Still I wouldn't give then time to figure out I'm bluffing and catch me, I started to pack discreetly. First thing on my list is to the pack the evidence, surely they will try to acquire my laptop which I often use but not much evidence will be found there; maybe they can match the laptop's MAC address with their trace logs but its still a deniable evidence. I kept everything on a separate external disk drive, easy to hide, carry and destroy if needed. Then I packed a few pieces of clothes and cash; all cramped into a slim pack back. Carrying too much will give away my acting performance and not to mention it will be cumbersome too carry more than the important -- it will just slow me down. Finally, after packing I readied to sleep; I will need all the energy I need for tomorrow.

A few hours later, the first rays of the sun lighted the sky I started my escape. Surely this move will alert who ever is staking-out my home at that moment; I'm not known to go for work that early. So I grabbed my orange jacket and headed out to play cat and mouse.

The first move in any chase is to take away the opponent's advantage -- their speed. I must force them to chase me on foot. After exiting the door of my house I briskly walk southward, as I took a quick glance back and I saw an gray SUV parked on the opposite side of the road where my house lies. So far they have not started the chase thinking that they have the full advantage with a vehicle. I picked up the pace to make it more obvious that I'm aware their presence and I heard the engine starts and the SUV moved with headlights off -- they are trying to be discreet. Still they seemed to be not in a hurry to chase me since clearly they can catch up to me anytime since I'm on foot -- which is good.

I sprinted and turned right on the corner of the road then jumped in the freshly dug pavement, I knew it was there -- an on going road reconstruction project on the area for the last 2 days has broken up the pavement into large sharp blocks ready to be hauled by trucks, but for for now it made the road totally inaccessible for any vehicle. A perfect blockade against the chasers -- you see; information in power.

I'm already about to turn left on the next block when I heard the SUV stopped abruptly at the first corner have I turn on to, they must have been surprised by the construction blocking their way. I didn't look back, I sprinted harder and turned left going towards the market area where the Jeepney's often pass.

It's time to get the advantage, as I saw the first Jeepney passing, I grabbed the handles near its rear entrance. The driver wasn't bothered, its all too common to catch a ride that way in this country. After regaining my balance I proceeded to take a seat and took off my orange jacket to blend in with the other passengers. It's precisely what the jacket is for, present them with a clear visible marker then take it away -- work like seeing a disappearing magic act.

Now the chaser's will need to double back around towards a exit 4 blocks away to catch up and they won't even be able to drive by the same street I'm on since that exit has the traffic flowing in one way and away from the road in on. Still even if they manage to catch up with the Jeepney after a few more blocks, I would be long long gone off it and have taken another Jeepney towards the opposite route.

This is the the start of my 2000 mile run, but little do i know that I'll be running in full circle.

To be continued in part 2.

We are watching you

Previously: The Insider

11:19 PM, Twin Tower Communication Building

I'm trying to get more rest as much as possible, I have received a notice 3 days ago that I must relocate. No details were given but its highly suspicious enough... Was my cover compromised? It can't be. Ive always been careful, erased logs and used relays then nuked them on a slight chance there is a trace being done. I have to know what went wrong and who is after us.

(flash back)

Jan 14th. I after uploading the codes i took a short sleep on the make shift bed then around 2PM my phone's alarm dutifully did its work to wake me up. I actually set 3 alarms at 30 minute intervals to sure i wake up.

I went back to my console and logged into a slaved VPN machine, hopped into one of the host in the network then bypassed the firewall to make another outgoing connection and then hopped into another slave, then another and another. Three relays should be enough to give me time to disconnect and nuke the VPN host since doing a trace within corporate networks is far slower than on public proxies... Just in case. I waited for another 30 minutes then a message appeared on the terminal console. The meeting is about to commence. We always did it this way, forget IMs as they are far too easy to compromise. Each of the attendees have their own slave network to hide their location. Even if were working for the same boss it doesn't mean we should trust each other. The host we are having the meeting is a compromised machine, it will be nuked after the event.

Depending on the date of the next meeting there is a simple formula where the date of the meeting is plug into then spits out sets og IP address. We then need to compromise that machine a day before the meeting. The first to compromise the machine will then need to set up the back door with predefined access which is calculated by the same formula.

Usual agenda was discussed; each of us must report how much of "The project" has been completed. Each has its own alloted industry and region to subvert: communication, navigation/transportation, finance, aviation, power and defense. It is imperative that we totally control each industry's infrastructure if we are to combat what lies ahead for humanity.

It only took 30 minutes to finish the meeting, it could have been done sooner if the 3 other members weren't unruly -- which makes me think if they are even old enough to on this project; well maybe not since most of the brightest in this Art are barely 15.

Then our moderator declares that the meeting has ended and all connection was terminated. The host machine was nuked.

Jan 15th. I did my usual day job. Went to some meetings, did some project planning, did some designs, proposed new products. The idea is to have a cover identity but nothing too flashy that would provoke inquiries.

Jan 19th. I received a spam email. This would be the first since ads on Viagra and any other drugs for erectile dysfunction should be filtered by the corporate mail server. I checked the raw data to see how this junk passed through the spam filter then make another spam rule to filter it out indefinitely. Sometimes; i thought i would gladly subscribe to spam mailers if their emails actually contains the product of my interest; but no, they just send it. I was about to delete the mail when something caught my eyes in the raw data. A company SOS code with link after it. Someone in the group is in trouble.

After the usual precaution has been set to mask my IP and digital signatures i opened the link. It starts to load a movie of an Apple IPhone parody. Then in the middle it stopped an a voice called out my company codename. I instantly knew who it was, a friend who i have inducted into "the company". Were the only two people on the group that actually knew each other. Its a risk i have taken because I know i can trust him with my life. I then asked what's the problem, he replied that someone is watching us within the company.

We found it troublesome since "the company" in under any circumstance will not contact us until "The Day" has arrived. Then he quickly said he has to bail. He thinks someone has tracked the communication. I quickly unplugged the router; no time to shutdown the computer, the connection must be severed as fast as possible.

I thought to myself, what the fuck was that all about? I'm thinking i should call him but if what he says is true, the standard procedure was isolation. I you want to help someone in the heat, don't jump in or else you'll find yourself in the fire as well.

Jan 23rd. I had another meeting with the others. My friend was there also and he seems fine. I couldn't ask him what happened that day since if what he says is true, one of us might be the culprit. Before the meeting ended, my friend sent a private message. "G1917". Then the host was nuked before I could reply.

G1917 ??? I thought hard what it meant and run the letters through a couple of anagram analyzers and after half an hour it deduced: Gen 1917... Genesis 19:17... "And as they brought them out, one said, Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."

Time to pack and run, but it has to be discreet so not to rouse too much question. Next week I'll be on another place far away from here.

Next: 2000 Mile, Full Circle (Part 1)

The Master Plan

Rule #1: Trust no one.

The Insider

2:48 AM, Twin Tower Communications Building

The twin tower stands still in the middle of darkness, from the window on my office at the 6th floor i stood watching passersby on the streets below. “Freaking call center agents on their way home… what a waste of talents”, i was murmuring in my mind as i blow a the smoke out off my lungs out into the open window. Its my 10th cigarette for the night, I smoke almost 2 packs a day and I always blame it to work — I have to smoke in order to be always on top of what I am doing. If only we have more bright minds working on this project it would have been done months ago but good talents are hard to find in this country nowadays; all of them were lured into the promise of easy money working as call agents.

I’m waiting for the computer to finish the uploading the last batch of code for the project I am working on, a part of a mobile communications platform. It’s a very high-tech stuff and it’s what I’m good at; working with bleeding edge technology so far ahead of its time to the point it would probably blew ordinary people’s mind to think such technology already exist in our time.

The client is a rich foreign company and the project would be part of its system’s back-bone, a very important one. Communications. banking and even the military will rely on it for the years to come. Its also precisely why i chose to be part of the project.

The computer beeped twice signaling that the upload is complete, i cant help but show a slight smirk on my face. Unknown to the clients, 5 more of their servers has been added to my list of drones; the code that was uploaded contains special hydra virus that is nearly impossible to detect. These types of armored viruses are fairly new, they are “living” computer virus in simplest terms, it learns then evolve. It hides itself into the hardware memory buffers — thanks to the undisclosed vulnerabilities present in 90% of the routers and switches that forms the backbone of the entire world wide web. It’s inevitable since those vulnerabilities were place there for that purpose, a effort made by people that came much earlier before me. They are the people that were placed strategically by “the company”, an insider they are often term. However for us who work with the company they are called the Arche — Greek word for origin.

“Four years more”, I whispered softly. There’s still plenty of time to prepare, but first i need some shut-eye for later today i will still need to contact the others.

I manage to build a make-shift bed by joining some of the office chairs side-by-side, this will do for now for I need all the rest i can have before the dawn breaks. This is the part the make my work sucks, just like a call agent that works during the night; I have not felt the warmth of the Sun for a long time. Finally as I lay down on my make-shift bed and feeling the hard edges poking my spines i thought… Hell, this work sucks more than being a call agent after all!

That didn’t really matter, the project I’m in now is crucial to “the plan”. A plan that was initiated 35 years ago. A plan that our generation of Arches must fulfill; A plan where the fate of humanity will depend on for survival… four years from now.

Next: We are watching you