Liza Showed me the vault shortly after explaining it to me. The door was about three feet thick, and a little rusty around the edges, but it felt incredibly solid. Inside were a huge number of older computers stacked together, a lot of them seemed like thrift store finds, some of them seemed off-the shelf, and relatively new. Most of them had their casings stripped off, and all of their drives had been replaced with harddrives. It was hard to tell how it all worked together, but Liza seemed very comfortable in there, as she walked me toward the back of the room, and pointed at a stack of computers, "Allen Bishop, this is your data!" She has a cute way about her.
"obviously, it's a lot to go through, and most of it is encrypted, But we've salvaged a lot of it already. There's a huge portion missing from the beginning of the files," she said
I butted in, "that's because of the harddrives that got shot while I was raiding the servers, I'd bet."
"that makes sense, the way it's broken off looks more like hardware failure than normal data corruption. Anyway, mostly it seems like a list. There is a portion at the end that is very heavily encrypted. We've got a couple of guys working on it, but it's very in-depth. Do either of you know anything about whose servers these were? It might help us understand the style of it a little better. Greg never mentioned any of it to me."
Now it was Silas' turn to interject, " Greg never told anybody shit. He was completely closed off, just threw a job on us, and went on his merry way. It's what got him killed, he never really trusted anyone." There was a lot of bitterness in his words, a lot of sadness, too. It caught Liza off guard, but she carried on, "I'm sorry to bring him up then. Anyway, we have a lot of data to sift through, and I'm sure you two could use a rest. We've got some beds upstairs in the dome, and we can get you computers to work on in the morning. We've been looking over these lists so long, it'd be good to get some fresh eyes on them. The names are starting to blur together."
"Names?" I butted in again, Liza could sure as hell talk, but it was graceful, you could see why people would listen.
"Oh, did I not mention? The list is names, thousands of them, not sorted in any way, just names. Some f the names have a date along side of them, some of them don't. We can't make any sense of it. It doesn't seem like a logical pattern at all. Don't worry about it now, there's plenty of time for that. For now, go rest up. We built a shower into the bathroom down here, so go ahead and get comfortable." So we did. We climbed up what must have been at one point, very nice stairs, and made our way to a room in the top of the building. It was round, and had a bunch of bunkbeds lining the sides of it, all the way around. There was a crack in the domed roof that scratched light across one wall, but other than that, it was pitch black, and uncomfortably warm. And it was our new home for a time.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Hackers and a Vault
We arrived at our location in Chicago on August 3rd. It was an older looking bank, possibly abandoned, and looked like something was wrong. It felt like all of the rituals we had bee taught for our entry wouldn't be needed. This place was dead. We checked the front door, and found it held shut with a chain and a lock. I suggested we cut the lock and go in anyway, but Silas had a smoother suggestion: check the back door. I was beginning to like Silas. We walked around back, and found a door painted black, even over the glass. The shadow from the building's dome hung over us both, as we pushed the door in. It was a very small room. You could tell it was longer, but a makeshift wall had been erected out of scavenged 2x4's and chain-link fence. There was a button on the wall with a sign that read "Push with the sequence". We had been told what to do, it was a math nerd thing. We had to tap it in a certain order, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and then we waited as some sounds buzzed in the distance. we waited another three minutes before hearing an uncomfortably high and childish voice ask, "Are you still there?" We answered yes, and the wall hinged forward allowing us into the building. It was incredibly uncomfortable. These people were hackers, a bunch of nerds who all collaborated on crazy computer jobs, and loved a good challenge.
We were greeted by a woman, let's call her Liza, who acted as sortof a nest mother for the lot of them. If the hackers were the lost boys, she was Peter Pan. She walked us through an old bank building, jumbled with Ethernet cables across the floor. They had kept the old cubicles and desks, but piled them high with computer towers and monitors. It seemed like most of them had their own workstation, or desk, or lounge chair and laptop. I feel like I'm describing these people poorly to you. They were all well-dressed, very comfortably, most of them seemed in pretty good shape, and well groomed to boot, but there was an air of... nerdiness, I guess. It's a bit hard to describe, subtle things, Super Mario paperweights, even though they didn't have papers, tetris blocks painted on the brick wall, the way cables hung from the ceiling, in an almost careless manner, you could just tell that this was a nerd's domain. Even Liza seemed a bit nerdy, although not as much as most of the others, just comfortable, you could see the rim of her contacts, and the Katamari charm on her bracelet ( I asked, she told me).
After several introductions to her members, she told us what we were here for: The Vault. See, they built their hacker den in an old bank for two reasons; firstly, the ban had been abandoned for years, so it was for sale at dirt cheap, and secondly, the vault was a perfect place to stash their servers. They had to re-build a bunch of the hardware in the place, but after some tinkering, the entire vault was climate controlled, and completely impenetrable. As long as their software security was solid (and oh my god, was it ever) there was almost no way to get at all of their data. What Liza told me was that the flash drive had transmitted terabytes of data over a secure wireless network, like the 3g in my phone, and they had been securely stored in the bank vault. It took a long time for her to explain it to me, her bobbing back and forth between normal speech and techno-lingo, then back to normal speech so that I could understand what all she meant. But two cups of coffee and one very bad drawing later, I finally got it. Silas made sense of it way before me, and tried to help, but he was a bit sarcastic about it.
We were greeted by a woman, let's call her Liza, who acted as sortof a nest mother for the lot of them. If the hackers were the lost boys, she was Peter Pan. She walked us through an old bank building, jumbled with Ethernet cables across the floor. They had kept the old cubicles and desks, but piled them high with computer towers and monitors. It seemed like most of them had their own workstation, or desk, or lounge chair and laptop. I feel like I'm describing these people poorly to you. They were all well-dressed, very comfortably, most of them seemed in pretty good shape, and well groomed to boot, but there was an air of... nerdiness, I guess. It's a bit hard to describe, subtle things, Super Mario paperweights, even though they didn't have papers, tetris blocks painted on the brick wall, the way cables hung from the ceiling, in an almost careless manner, you could just tell that this was a nerd's domain. Even Liza seemed a bit nerdy, although not as much as most of the others, just comfortable, you could see the rim of her contacts, and the Katamari charm on her bracelet ( I asked, she told me).
After several introductions to her members, she told us what we were here for: The Vault. See, they built their hacker den in an old bank for two reasons; firstly, the ban had been abandoned for years, so it was for sale at dirt cheap, and secondly, the vault was a perfect place to stash their servers. They had to re-build a bunch of the hardware in the place, but after some tinkering, the entire vault was climate controlled, and completely impenetrable. As long as their software security was solid (and oh my god, was it ever) there was almost no way to get at all of their data. What Liza told me was that the flash drive had transmitted terabytes of data over a secure wireless network, like the 3g in my phone, and they had been securely stored in the bank vault. It took a long time for her to explain it to me, her bobbing back and forth between normal speech and techno-lingo, then back to normal speech so that I could understand what all she meant. But two cups of coffee and one very bad drawing later, I finally got it. Silas made sense of it way before me, and tried to help, but he was a bit sarcastic about it.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Chicago
When I did wake up, it was the next day, and Silas was sitting on the other bed watching tv. He saw me stir, and mumbled about food, before leaving the room. He came back a half an hour later, after I had showered, carrying a greasy white paper bag with burgers and fries. To be honest, after about four days with only liquids pumped into me, those greasy shingles were the best burgers of my life. But that's beside the point. After our lunch, and a couple episodes of sitcom reruns, we finally got down to business. We grabbed out my laptop, and Silas handed me the flashdrive, mentioning that he had waited to plug it in as a sign of trust. It worked, just from the couple of hours we had spent talking over slimy burgers, I could tell that Silas wasn't an enemy. He was gruff, and a bit abrasive, but he was a very genuine sort of guy, never one to lie to make you feel good about something.
We plugged in the flash drive, and it opened up the autoplay menu. We opened the drive, and it showed a couple of things: a bit of hardware that didn't make sense to me, and a folder with a google earth file, and a small .txt. The hardware turned out to be a 3g wireless thing, which is how the data got transferred off the server. The google earth file was a location in Chicago. I'm not detailing where exactly, because as far as I know, the people there are still alive, and I'd hate to ruin that for them. The .txt file basically explained who was there, what they do, and how to make friends with them. a bunch more stuff I can't really tell you, for their sake.
We decided to take things slowly, on account of all my blood issues, so Silas offered to do the first bunch of driving. We packed up the next morning, grabbed some pancakes, and hit the road. That night, we crashed in Kansas, and I drove the next morning, partway into Missouri. Anyway, long story short, we would up in Chicago, on the third of August, and I was finally feeling alive again.
We plugged in the flash drive, and it opened up the autoplay menu. We opened the drive, and it showed a couple of things: a bit of hardware that didn't make sense to me, and a folder with a google earth file, and a small .txt. The hardware turned out to be a 3g wireless thing, which is how the data got transferred off the server. The google earth file was a location in Chicago. I'm not detailing where exactly, because as far as I know, the people there are still alive, and I'd hate to ruin that for them. The .txt file basically explained who was there, what they do, and how to make friends with them. a bunch more stuff I can't really tell you, for their sake.
We decided to take things slowly, on account of all my blood issues, so Silas offered to do the first bunch of driving. We packed up the next morning, grabbed some pancakes, and hit the road. That night, we crashed in Kansas, and I drove the next morning, partway into Missouri. Anyway, long story short, we would up in Chicago, on the third of August, and I was finally feeling alive again.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
S.C.
The blackness finally shook out of my eyes, and I woke up. The light was different from what I remembered, and it took me a moment to recall what had happened. I had been in the data center, I had blacked out, and now I was... I had no idea where I was. I panicked, I sat bolt upright, and realized I was in a hotel room, a two-bed, so I knew I hadn't gotten it myself. I tried t take in my surroundings, but things were still blurry. I noticed a bunch of my gear against one wall, and other equipment I wasn't familiar with, including a sturdy looking rifle, laying in the other corner. The toilet flushed, and a moment later, a man walked out of the bathroom.
I reached to the nightstand to try to find my gun, but it wasn't where I normally store it. He shouted, "hey, careful you're going to tear those stitches!" He was too late in warning me, and a huge pain shot through my arm and chest. Things got blurry for a second, and when I refocused, he was standing closer to me. "Hey, keep calm, I'm a friend. The name's Silas." He extended a hand, and I took it. I didn't have much of a choice but to trust him, I was pretty defenseless. "Sorry, it's Silas Callahan, I figure Greg would have put some sort of hint about me. Then again, I figure you would have been able to get ahold of me before you went into that server house, too. I'm sorry about that. The flash drive sent me a text when it got plugged in, but I was a fair damn distance away." I was very confused, but after a moment, I made the connection, S.C. was Silas Callahan. He was the ally that was mentioned in the voice message. I was actually in safe company now.
"I'm Allen Bishop," I said, and he nodded, and said he had read my I.D. "So, what happened? Where are we and how did I get here? The last thing I remember was passing out in the datacenter."
"Well, like I said, when the flash drive got plugged in, it sent me a text telling me that you had made it to the server nest, and that I needed to go there. I was staying in Walsenburg, So it was about a two hour drive to get there. When I finally arrived, I found you in your car, covered in blood. All of your tires had been slashed, probably by the security guys that you killed, so I grabbed you and your stuff, and threw you into my car."
"Wait," I interrupted," how did I get into my car? I don't remember getting out of the building?"
"Based off the trail of blood and drag marks out to your car, I'm pretty sure you managed it. You were in some pretty shitty shape. Anyway, we're back in Walsenburg, It's been about two days since I found you. It's Thursday. You've been pretty well and out, I've mostly been trying to keep liquids in you. Obviously, I couldn't take you to a hospital, so I couldn't just get you a transfusion. I was pretty sure you were going to die, but you look a lot better. Especially with all that breathing and talking you're doing." He laughed, but I had a little trouble finding it funny. "Oh well. You're doing fine now. Why don't you rest up, and we'll figure out what our next move is when you're in better shape, okay?"
I obliged, and passed right back out, for another two days.
I obliged, and passed right back out, for another two days.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Bloodloss
I could hear, right above me as the plane landed, it sounded far away, but I knew it was only a foot or two above me. I was buzzing in and out of awareness, but I knew I had to keep focused. I tried to stand, but I was getting woozy. I fell back against the server, and slumped for a moment. Then, on my second attempt, I lifted myself into a standing position, and leaned forward against the server in front of me. I heard footsteps on the metal rungs of the ladder, and grabbed three shells to put into my gun. It took too long to pull the old shells out, and I was still loading when they opened the door. There were two guards, who both raised their guns at me, and began yelling commands. Everything was getting blurry, my hands were shaking, and I knew I only had a moment or two more before the blood loss got to me. My left arm was full of burning pain, and I was having trouble breathing, but I had a strong will to survive. I tried my best to focus, just to get enough concentration to handle the situation. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw the flash drive, still blinking orange. It wasn't ready, so escape wasn't an option yet.
One of the guards fired a warning shot over my shoulder, and my concentration sharpened. Suddenly, I was in full focus, just for a moment. I raised my pistol and fired two shots, one per guard, faster than I thought possible. They both fell down, and I stumbled toward them, and emptied my pistol into them. I turned around, and scrambled to the flash drive. It was flashing orange very fast. Then it turned green, and I grabbed it. It was surprisingly hot, but I managed to hold onto it. I crammed it into my pocket, and reloaded my gun before heading for the door of the server room. I made it to the lobby, the bright, clean feeling room, and I fell. Then blood loss got the better of me and I blacked out.
One of the guards fired a warning shot over my shoulder, and my concentration sharpened. Suddenly, I was in full focus, just for a moment. I raised my pistol and fired two shots, one per guard, faster than I thought possible. They both fell down, and I stumbled toward them, and emptied my pistol into them. I turned around, and scrambled to the flash drive. It was flashing orange very fast. Then it turned green, and I grabbed it. It was surprisingly hot, but I managed to hold onto it. I crammed it into my pocket, and reloaded my gun before heading for the door of the server room. I made it to the lobby, the bright, clean feeling room, and I fell. Then blood loss got the better of me and I blacked out.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Dead Man at the Database.
There were two things on my mind.
One, I wasn't alone out there. It was an amazing feeling. I had spent almost exactly a month by myself, running from something that I didn't understand. I had been shot at, I had stabbed myself, and another man, I had even actually shot someone. For the past month, it had been the world against me, me against them. Suddenly, even though I had no idea who it was, suddenly, it was US against them. I wasn't alone, and it made me brave.
That bravery made me a little stupid, I guess, because I didn't take time to think. I had a mission now. So, rather than wait and think, I started driving toward Colorado that night. It wasn't a big mistake or anything, It just meant that I stayed up late driving. I slept in my car on the side of the road somewhere near Wichita falls. I ended up sleeping until noon the next day, and kept driving. I stopped for food, and found a hunting supplies store, where I purchased a gun cleaning kit, and a very good pair of binoculars. I crashed in a cheap hotel again, one of those hourly places, for four hours. and got on my way. I should have taken my time. I wasn't alert enough to try the kind of stuff i was about to do, but I didn't care.
I spent the first hour of my day scoping the place out. I hid on a hill a few miles away from the airstrip and studied it through my binoculars. There was a strip of tarmac, about 150 feet long. There was a small post at one end, with a camera and a solar panel on it. The camera rotated almost 360 degrees at a go, rotating back and forth over the whole airstrip, and most of the area around it. I knew that rushing in there would end poorly, since it took fifteen minutes for backup to arrive. I had to find a means of approach that would let me get at least close without the camera seeing me. I studied it long time, trying to determine where I should approach from. After a long while, I decided to take my chances. I had an opening on the east side of the airstrip, behind the post, where the camera couldn't see. It was a narrow blind spot, but it was there.
I got back into my car, and drove around the airstrip, trying to keep a consistent radius from the camera. I drove until I thought I was in the blind spot, checked with my binoculars, re-positioned myself, and then drove in as straight a line as I could manage, hopefully behind the pole. I drove as fast as I could, hoping that if I was seen, I could still be in and out before the guard arrived. I slammed on the breaks right next to the pole, and jumped out. The metal panel was right where he said it would be, I lifted it up, and jumped down. I should have been paying more attention. there was a ladder. I expected a four foot drop, and got a eight foot fall. I landed a lot harder than I had planned, and rolled my ankle a bit. Then I looked up, pulled out a flashlight, and studied the room. It was just an electrical panel room, breaker boxes on one wall, warning signs on the other, and cut off switches on the third. The last wall had the ladder I didn't notice. I started looking for a door, something, anything to let me into the database. I decided to just start pulling things. I tore away at the warning signs and then I started throwing breakers, and finally started pulling at the power switches. That did it. One of the power switches was actually a latch, that opened a door in the wall. I pushed the door open, and found myself in a small office room. Almost like a waiting room at a doctor's office. there were three doors, and i chose the one at the far side. I dashed through, and found the server room, right there, waiting for me.
It was a surprisingly large room, with four servers inside of it, arranged in rows, big things with stacks of clicking harddrives. The room was covered in tangled cables, and felt very dry, and just a little bit warmer than was comfortable. I dashed in, looking for a console. I found one at the other end of the room, a small, old looking computer sitting on a table, and looked for a USB port. There were none on the front, and just as I started pulling the computer to find one in the back, I heard the door open, and a voice shouted, "Don't move!" I looked up to find a man in a vaguely uniform-like set of coveralls standing at the door, pointing a police pistol. I raised my hands, and let the thumbdrive fall into my coat sleeve, before turning around slowly.
"no need to shoot me, pal, I haven't got anything to hide here." I replied. I'm sure my voice was shaking.
"I'm going to come over there and pat you down. If you make ANY sudden movements, I will shoot. Hold still."
He crossed the room slowly, and started to pat me down, He found my gun, pulled it from my pocket, made a rude comment, and tossed it away from me. The knife got the same treatment. When he moved to pat down my legs, I took my moment. I kneed him in the face, and kicked the gun from his hand, before leaping for my own. I grabbed it and turned just in time for him to grab his own gun. I dived behind one of the servers, and flicked off my safety. Then I saw something fantastic: the server had a USB port. I was fumbling through my coat trying to get at the drive, when I realized that i had dropped it when I ran for my gun. I could see it out on the floor, very exposed, and tried to reach for it. He saw me, and fired. He missed, which was both good and bad. The good news was that I had not been shot in the hand. The bad news was that bullets ricochet. The bullet hit the floor and bounced. I didn't know what had happened until I looked at the server rack in front of me. The bullet had smashed a harddrive, putting a hole through it and the drive above it. they began to spark a bit, and I seriously thought I was screwed. But I decided to try to harvest what I could. I grabbed my flashlight from my pocket, and threw it at the door I had entered through. It clattered against the door, and rolled away from it. The sound was enough for the guard to look away while I snatched the drive off of the floor. I slammed it into a USB port, and prayed that it would work. Meanwhile, I was occupied with the guard, who had not taken my trick very well.
He swung around the back end of the server I was hiding behind, and took a shot at me. It was a good one, went through my arm, and against one of my ribs, cracking it, and knocking all the air from me. Looking back, I know it wasn't that serious of an injury, mostly a graze, but at the time, I knew I was dead. I swung my pistol and fired off four shots, almost braindead with pain. I hit him with three, two in the chest and one in the head. Then I heard the plane overhead, and knew my trouble had only started.
One, I wasn't alone out there. It was an amazing feeling. I had spent almost exactly a month by myself, running from something that I didn't understand. I had been shot at, I had stabbed myself, and another man, I had even actually shot someone. For the past month, it had been the world against me, me against them. Suddenly, even though I had no idea who it was, suddenly, it was US against them. I wasn't alone, and it made me brave.
That bravery made me a little stupid, I guess, because I didn't take time to think. I had a mission now. So, rather than wait and think, I started driving toward Colorado that night. It wasn't a big mistake or anything, It just meant that I stayed up late driving. I slept in my car on the side of the road somewhere near Wichita falls. I ended up sleeping until noon the next day, and kept driving. I stopped for food, and found a hunting supplies store, where I purchased a gun cleaning kit, and a very good pair of binoculars. I crashed in a cheap hotel again, one of those hourly places, for four hours. and got on my way. I should have taken my time. I wasn't alert enough to try the kind of stuff i was about to do, but I didn't care.
I spent the first hour of my day scoping the place out. I hid on a hill a few miles away from the airstrip and studied it through my binoculars. There was a strip of tarmac, about 150 feet long. There was a small post at one end, with a camera and a solar panel on it. The camera rotated almost 360 degrees at a go, rotating back and forth over the whole airstrip, and most of the area around it. I knew that rushing in there would end poorly, since it took fifteen minutes for backup to arrive. I had to find a means of approach that would let me get at least close without the camera seeing me. I studied it long time, trying to determine where I should approach from. After a long while, I decided to take my chances. I had an opening on the east side of the airstrip, behind the post, where the camera couldn't see. It was a narrow blind spot, but it was there.
I got back into my car, and drove around the airstrip, trying to keep a consistent radius from the camera. I drove until I thought I was in the blind spot, checked with my binoculars, re-positioned myself, and then drove in as straight a line as I could manage, hopefully behind the pole. I drove as fast as I could, hoping that if I was seen, I could still be in and out before the guard arrived. I slammed on the breaks right next to the pole, and jumped out. The metal panel was right where he said it would be, I lifted it up, and jumped down. I should have been paying more attention. there was a ladder. I expected a four foot drop, and got a eight foot fall. I landed a lot harder than I had planned, and rolled my ankle a bit. Then I looked up, pulled out a flashlight, and studied the room. It was just an electrical panel room, breaker boxes on one wall, warning signs on the other, and cut off switches on the third. The last wall had the ladder I didn't notice. I started looking for a door, something, anything to let me into the database. I decided to just start pulling things. I tore away at the warning signs and then I started throwing breakers, and finally started pulling at the power switches. That did it. One of the power switches was actually a latch, that opened a door in the wall. I pushed the door open, and found myself in a small office room. Almost like a waiting room at a doctor's office. there were three doors, and i chose the one at the far side. I dashed through, and found the server room, right there, waiting for me.
It was a surprisingly large room, with four servers inside of it, arranged in rows, big things with stacks of clicking harddrives. The room was covered in tangled cables, and felt very dry, and just a little bit warmer than was comfortable. I dashed in, looking for a console. I found one at the other end of the room, a small, old looking computer sitting on a table, and looked for a USB port. There were none on the front, and just as I started pulling the computer to find one in the back, I heard the door open, and a voice shouted, "Don't move!" I looked up to find a man in a vaguely uniform-like set of coveralls standing at the door, pointing a police pistol. I raised my hands, and let the thumbdrive fall into my coat sleeve, before turning around slowly.
"no need to shoot me, pal, I haven't got anything to hide here." I replied. I'm sure my voice was shaking.
"I'm going to come over there and pat you down. If you make ANY sudden movements, I will shoot. Hold still."
He crossed the room slowly, and started to pat me down, He found my gun, pulled it from my pocket, made a rude comment, and tossed it away from me. The knife got the same treatment. When he moved to pat down my legs, I took my moment. I kneed him in the face, and kicked the gun from his hand, before leaping for my own. I grabbed it and turned just in time for him to grab his own gun. I dived behind one of the servers, and flicked off my safety. Then I saw something fantastic: the server had a USB port. I was fumbling through my coat trying to get at the drive, when I realized that i had dropped it when I ran for my gun. I could see it out on the floor, very exposed, and tried to reach for it. He saw me, and fired. He missed, which was both good and bad. The good news was that I had not been shot in the hand. The bad news was that bullets ricochet. The bullet hit the floor and bounced. I didn't know what had happened until I looked at the server rack in front of me. The bullet had smashed a harddrive, putting a hole through it and the drive above it. they began to spark a bit, and I seriously thought I was screwed. But I decided to try to harvest what I could. I grabbed my flashlight from my pocket, and threw it at the door I had entered through. It clattered against the door, and rolled away from it. The sound was enough for the guard to look away while I snatched the drive off of the floor. I slammed it into a USB port, and prayed that it would work. Meanwhile, I was occupied with the guard, who had not taken my trick very well.
He swung around the back end of the server I was hiding behind, and took a shot at me. It was a good one, went through my arm, and against one of my ribs, cracking it, and knocking all the air from me. Looking back, I know it wasn't that serious of an injury, mostly a graze, but at the time, I knew I was dead. I swung my pistol and fired off four shots, almost braindead with pain. I hit him with three, two in the chest and one in the head. Then I heard the plane overhead, and knew my trouble had only started.
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