Bad Good Bad: Special Edition Read online

  “Come December. I am trying to assemble a team of a different nature, refocusing on improving the key components like the patients vault, because anyway Portland is losing control over the New Forensics software and IP in favor of the New York campus. My goal is to create a second spin-off. Tom is aware, and he agrees to help me build the team. We identify Kevin as another key resource, with experience with several different architectures. I want to be ready when the move is complete to the New York campus for New Forensics to secure executive support from Neocuris for my new spin-off. The suits don’t like that. But Tom has to agree, and support me: the vault itself is not part of New Forensics on any piece of paper. The vault is not part of the package.”

  “Then the accident to Kevin. Just before Tom is ready to reach out. But you don’t call somebody who is in a coma to offer them a job. We kept looking, no offence Kevin. It was hard to find the right candidate. I interviewed a few, but I did not even bother to ask Tom to perform the closing interview. Then we figured out you had been transferred to a Neocuris clinic in Toronto, head trauma, chances are you will come out with a chip after if you get through this in one piece. We would not have to find a work around like we had to for Kim, assuming we wanted you to have one, not the original plan for you Kevin. Sorry guys, we thought this was a safe procedure back in November and early December, I myself had one in place for a couple of months, all pros, no cons really. But that was before the New York campus…”

  “I had a contact at the Toronto clinic, the first Neocuris clinic in Canada. So she called me one morning, saying you were going home in the afternoon. I did ask Tom to give you a call at one point. But that was before I started to tune in into that guy, got the numbers, the timeline, the dark cloud. A meeting with the suits 2 days before you got ready to go home Kevin, then the guy is inactive, they are jamming me, I and Sarah find this unique place in a hurry before my brain implodes, I am out. Sarah called Kim to let her know about your release Kevin, but she wanted to protect me from the outside world, so Kim was alone to make decisions. Sarah only conveyed that it was very important, at all cost, to get to you first. Makes sense so far?”

  Kevin: “Yes, we could put the exact dates on the board, but for now good enough, we all agree on the general timeline. Keep going for now please.”

  Eric: “Kim, take it from here, you will fill the blanks better than I can do for this part.”

  Kim: “Thanks Eric. So basically I call the clinic to talk to you Kevin, but you are already gone. I try to tune in, but remember I was only into my second month at it, still green. Then I think I am getting to you, somehow. I try to gather some information about where you are, but again numbers are easier. I get to visualize a few numbers, 3-digit long, 4 digit-long, a couple that are 6-digit long, a 16-digit long, nothing that looks like a telephone number, most look like credit card numbers, pins, security codes, but the 6-digit numbers don’t fit any bucket yet. I had basic information like your address in Montreal, your home phone, but not your mobile. I made the decision alone to get there asap, but Eric is out, I have a student credit card, need 3-month proof as an employee to get it upgraded to more than $500. So I take a shot at it, go to the web site, try to book online, it seems to work, I get a confirmation number from the airline, but then when I try to go back to the web site and check in later, it gives me an error message about the credit card transaction having been rejected. See, I had never tried before to use somebody else’s credit card, but I assumed Eric would pay you back no problem once he would be out of the tank.”

  “I went to the airport anyway, pulled all the stops so they would let me on to see grandma one last time before she passes away, it worked. On my way to Montreal…”

  Kevin: “Wait. Pause here for a second. I was in the taxi, trying to figure out my PIN, I believe I tried to derive something out of my 3-digit security code at one point, tried some wrong 4-digit PIN, before I recalled the right 4-digit PIN. But what about those 6-digit codes? And my credit card number, 16-digit. I just inserted the card into the machine, I did not type that 16-digit code, did not even bother to look at it!”

  Kim: “Hey, that’s what I got. Sorry, I told you I was green at the tune in stuff, maybe a noisy channel? There was a pause though between the first 6-digit, the 3-digit, the 4-digit, then another pause and finally the 16-digit, and another 6-digit after yet another pause. Something like that. I may be getting the order wrong now…”

  Eric: “Kevin, did you use your credit card for anything else that day?”

  Kevin: “No, I tried to use it in Montreal, but it was suspended by then.”

  Eric: “Suspended, what happened?”

  Kevin: “Well I think that just after or before Kim’s attempt to use my card in Portland, there was another attempt in New York maybe for airfare as well. That fired the behavior pattern rule and they automatically suspended the card before the bank tried to call me.”

  Eric: “Kevin, did you use your card for anything else before you left the clinic?”

  Kevin: “Wait yeah, in the morning, I felt cheap for not having been around for Christmas with my family. I tried to order a discounted Christmas basket online, but, it’s coming back now, I never completed the transaction. I hesitated, then I decided this was a cheesy substitute, that I would make up otherwise. I did enter the card number though, but then I killed the browser and user session on the clinic’s shared iMac. So I did not really use the card.”

  Eric: “I believe these guys can tune in without the app. They were jamming my brain even after I turned off my phone. They can bypass, don’t have to wait for the consent, ignore legal. Or connect through the clinic’s network. Kevin, I think somebody tuned in before you got the app and walked out of the clinic. And that same person tried to tune in again later, to get your security code. That would have been at the same time Kim was tuning in on you to gather the exact same information. Your card number leaked out to Kim from that person somehow, he had to read it and retype it if he was using online booking. Kim was trying to tune in, maybe she tuned into that person without realizing it, or that person proxy tuned into Kim unknowingly, and echoed information by accident. Anyway, we have a credit card number here that leaked back to Kim. We don’t need to rationalize this part anymore, we have a smoking gun.”

  Kim: “Then what’s up with those 6-digit codes? Kevin, does that ring a bell?”

  Kevin: “No idea, sorry. Not me.”

  Eric: “Kim, you got these 2 6-digit codes from the other tuner. More numbers that leaked out!”

  Kim: “What are they?”

  Eric: “They may be the key. The key to this whole mess. Did you write these numbers down anywhere?”

  Kim: “Yeah, I kind of scrambled them on a piece of paper. I was at my computer, trying to gather a phone number, then book a flight online. Probably still there on the desk, or worst case in the paper bin.”

  Kevin: “Eric, is it possible in any way to tune in directly into the vault? The New Forensics Network is cut off now, but could a tuner be able to interact with the vault at the platform level, maybe through a bot of some sort that was planted there?”

  Eric turns white: “Shit, Phase2, limited to launching pre-configured scripts at the desired time. That is probably what is happening now with these pop-ups, they are starting to turn out of fashion, even if they can still launch them from a distance when they think the timing is right. A lure, and an alibi. Phase 1 that would have been the seizures scare I guess. There is a Phase 3, but I can only assume here… That must be about going beyond pre-configured scripts. Full control. That would require more time to perfect for a tuner. It’s like learning a new instrument, or how to use a new arm or leg. We have to stop him now.”

  Kevin: “Kim, let’s go to your place now.”

  Eric: “We’re off to New York. I am taking care of booking travel while you go fetch that piece of paper at Kim’s. Come back asap. Let’s go get Tom and the others out of that shit hole if we can.”

  Chapter
17

  I get to see Kim’s place finally, a small studio a few blocks down from the campus. Barely 2 months into it, pretty dry, some student feel to it still. No time to call Carolyn for home staging, we gotta run back to Social. Eric is already in a taxi, front seat, Sarah gives us both a quick hug, we jump on the back seat, my piece of luggage is already in the trunk with Eric’s, Kim travels light again.

  A red-eye flight to New York. I hate red-eye flights. Maybe I can gather an hour or sleep. Kim does not seem to mind the economy seat and we let her sleep through. I resume the brainstorming on a napkin with Eric, his first time outside Social or its second floor in more than a month, and with his phone on. No jamming anymore to his brain. He does not register the guy he was tuning in as active though.

  What are the 2 6-digit codes. Now we see the order Kim used to note the numbers on the paper, together with scratched numbers. We don’t see the pauses in between though.

  Kevin: “Where do we go once in New York?”

  Eric: “I don’t know yet. The Manhattan campus is full of feds probably. We could go ask them to take us to Tom, cross our fingers. The feds have gathered some forensics and logs, maybe together with them we could fill the gaps.”

  Short night, we are in New York now. Not too cold for second half of January. Feels like spring actually. We drive by Time Square in a Taxi, sipping our expressos. We arrive at the campus. Yes, a couple of feds are outside the main door. Probably more inside and on the 14th floor. Taxi stops, Eric leaps out. I wait with Kim on the back seat, which actually feels better than the economy seats we got last minutes on the airplane. Eric introduces himself, probably as the co-founder or New Forensics, telling them we gathered some interesting information that we need to share with them. One of the 2 feds walks inside, while Eric walks back to the taxi.

  Eric: “They are reaching out to queen bee now.”

  Then the fed emerges out with a scrap of paper, with an address on it. We hand that over to the taxi driver, Eric slides back in the front passenger seat, we drive back past time square through New York.

  We finally stop in front of a building in a more industrial sector, probably about to turn trendy with artists and chefs. No idea where we are, not really happy we arrived, would have preferred for the ride to keep going a little longer so I could assemble enough 5-minute power naps to make up for the red-eye. We unload out. A couple of feds are outside to greet us. We walk in.

  This looks like a temporary camp, with now probably 30 or so New Forensics engineers and execs parked somewhere in the building. We walk into a temporary office with folding chairs and tables. Not sure why they did not bring this whole party to a proper police station. The 3 of us are sitting on one side of the table, while 3 feds are facing us on the other side. They look more like the investigator type, in suits instead of uniforms. Clearly, they won’t start the dance, they are waiting for us to show them what we got.

  Eric starts: “Look, we have some sort of very fragmentary log. A scrap of paper with a few codes on it. We know one of them is a credit card number, some of them are PINs, one is a credit card security code. But first and last are 6-digit codes, and we believe they are the key to the puzzle.”

  The feds sport poker faces. 2-3 minutes silence. Then the one on the left throws back at us: “What do you mean exactly by log?”

  Eric: “Well, picture somebody tapping on the wire, trying to intercept transactions, listening to morse code and translating that into numbers on a piece of paper.”

  Then the middle fed replies in no time: “Anything else you have for us” while the one on the right is already off his seat and walking to the back of the room, pulling is phone out of his jacket. “Anything usable?” he adds.

  Kim: “Well I used the 16-digit one plus 3-digit one to book a flight online.”

  The right man turns around, put the phone back into his jacket, leans over as to takes a closer look at Kim with both palms flat on the table, and asks her “How did you tap those numbers? Ain’t no morse code in use since at least last time I watched black and white tv?”

  Eric: “What she’s trying to tell you is that she has already validated the accuracy of the tapping process, whatever, however she was tapping. And Kevin here can confirm the accuracy of the 3-digit code, you still have the card Kevin, right? That was his card info she was tapping, and Kevin here got a call from his bank about this transaction that Kim here attempted out of Portland Oregon. And the other one that happened right here in New York, somebody else was tapping Kevin at the same time. These 2 opening and closing numbers, that is what Kim got out of tapping that other tapper. BTW we also got the 16-digit one from that other tapper, so we are very confident that these 6-digit codes are accurate, and meaningful. Cross-validated, sort of.”

  The 3 feds, still sporting their poker faces, started to exchange some looks. Then the right man asks Eric “Can I borrow that piece of paper for a minute or 2?” He picks up his phone again, mumbles something in it after dialing, waits, then reads the first 6-digit code out loud, slowly. He waits again. Then he does the same for the second 6-digit code. Waits. Mumbles something again, then comes back around to his seat while still looking down his cell phone. Everybody is kind of waiting.

  Eric goes: “Well Tom was right, you guys are not very talkative.”

  The left man goes: “So you are Eric Novosad, right, co-founder with Tom Nolan, New Forensics. Buddy-buddy?”

  We realize that these guys are in no mood for humor. “Well I think all this mess is so way above Tom’s head. I’m here to right things for him and the others that are clean.”

  Eric probably realizes that the more he tries to bond with these guys, the more they try to push him off balance, see what else is going to fall off his pockets while they shake him by the feet upside down.

  The right man, still looking at his phone says: “Results are back”.

  The left man finally opens up a bit: “You see, we have been sifting through the logs and all that, from street level keypad security for New Forensics’ private entrance to card readers on 14th floor, and cameras, trying to figure out who was in when, what system they accessed once in, when they left, when they returned. But we have not gone as far yet as asking employees to divulgate their access codes for the street level keypad, 6-digit. We would need a different type of warrant for that. But punching the access code does result in a log entry with the user’s unique identifier, the employee number.”

  Then he pauses, bends over to the phone that the right man is still handing before the eyes of the man in the middle. They exchange one more look.

  Then the left man gets up, picks up his own phone, makes a call and says: “Everybody goes home except for number 17. Bring him in room #502.” Then he parks the phone back in his jacket, turns back to us, and says: “Keypad unit generates a log with entry time, we couple with the camera, then the card reader upstairs. But we had a few gaps vs the camera, that happens when employees show up as a group, or when they are wrapped in parkas looking down, texting or the likes. We just plugged the one gap we needed to plug. You can go now.”

  That’s it! It takes us a moment to register we are done here, off the hook. We get up in silence, not sure what just happened. Not sure where to go.

  We start to walk out. We are not alone. Tom is moving over to Eric, both arms extended and a big smile: “You just saved my marriage my friend, whatever you did! I knew you would come for us.”

  We are still in the door. The left man says: “Hey, Thank you by the way.” He is relaxing his poker face for a second only, putting it back on before we dare to say anything, on his way to room #502 I guess.

  Kim shyly grabs my arm, I turn around and we make eye contact. We smile back at each other, then we just hug and god that feels good, some feedback loop again I guess. After a couple of long minutes, we pull back. Then I say: “Hey, I think Carolyn likes you, you are a smart, brave, good kid. My kids were asking about you back in Montreal. Let’s get them over here for the wee
kend and we can visit New York and relax a bit. What do you say?

  Kim: “Sure, that sounds great. Are you sure? This is my first time in New York, it would be sad to only remember this folded table and the 3 feds in a crummy room. But we want to turn off that beetle app, right?”

  I pick up my phone, I call Carolyn’s cell phone. She picks up: “Hey Carolyn, we are in New York. And we are good! They got the bad guy apparently. We gave the feds the missing link they were hoping for. Get out of that hotel with the kids, stop by the house to pick up your luggage then off to the airport, I will email you e-tickets, so we all spend the weekend together in New York.”

  Carolyn: “Is it really over, I mean you are not going away anytime soon right? I mean we will spend at least a couple of weeks together?”

  Kevin: “Yes, I am not sure about all the details now, but it looks like the feds have what they want. I guess we will know more later like everybody else. Head over to Time Square in a taxi. By the way I extended the offer to Kim, she really needs it, poor kid. She is looking forward to meet you and the kids again.”

  Carolyn: “Sounds great! You just made my day. Is the house safe?”

  I turn to Eric: “Is my house safe?”

  Eric: “I’ll call my team right away. They will take your family back and make sure that everything is okay.”

  Kevin: “Yes honey, wait for the security folks in the lobby, they will take care of everything. See you soon.”

  Carolyn: “I miss you so much, see you soon.”

  Eric: “I will make arrangements for 3 private rooms right now, early checking, through my travel agent. Kevin, I understand your family is coming over, make it 4, for the week-end, right? Right around the corner from Time Square. Just far enough so you don’t get the neon flashes in your room. I will fly Sarah here as well, we all deserve a break.”