Night Life

'How did you know?'

'I had placed a hair of mine underneath the pages. It wasn't in the same spot when I got back.'

'Clever.'

'Thanks. So, who is he and why is he related?'

'His nick is HardWired and he knows a lot about writing drivers for hardware. He seems to have a lot of contact with Frederik and when I asked him about it he denied and logged off.' She looked up at the front of a bland beige apartment building. 'Here.'

Milo held open the glass door for her while taking the wallpinger out of his pocket. Terri looked at the mailboxes.

'12w24.' she said as she found his number.

They took the elevator up and Terri wanted to knock on the door but Milo held her back, holding up the pinger.

'Just in case.' he said, held it to the door and watched the image on the little screen after the scan. 'He's alone.'

'You think there might have been more?'

'He might have been spooked by your call, or if he is indeed involved there may be others after him and already in there.'

She nodded.

He pocketed the pinger and knocked.

'Who's there?' came the voice from inside.

'Milo Pietuk, detective at IT security. I'd like to ask you a few questions.'

'Just a minute.'

Milo saw Terri prick up her ears and listen intently. 'I just heard a ping. And now a click and buzz.'

'Who is with you? I want to see some ID!'

'He also used a pinger.' she said with a smirk.

'This is Terri. She helps me with an investigation which you might have more information about.' Milo said and held up his ID card.

'You saw me before, the nick's UV.' she said.

She could hear a suppressed curse but he opened the door.

Milo walked in first to look around, then Terri followed.

'And here I thought great hackers always lived messy.' he said looking at the clean and sparsely decorated room.

'Are you talking about me?' she asked feeling out of place here.

'So, what do you want to ask?' Ahmin asked while watching the both of them rapidly.

'Do you know a Frederik Kruickdam?' Milo asked.

'Also known as pot, with a zero.' Terri said.

Milo frowned a little. 'We've talked online, why?'

'Could he have discussed something about a recent job he was doing?' Milo asked.

'Our talk was often work related.'

'Might he have mentioned who he worked for, beside his official job?'

'No. If he did something illegal I have no idea.'

Terri whistled as she looked at a row of videocards on a table. These were connected to two computer towers and she could see from the status screens these were running at one hundred percent capacity. 'Doing some serious number crunching here. Testing new video drivers?'

Ahmin stepped a bit closer to her. 'Yes, I develop drivers for hardware. They asked me if I could improve performance to run an array of large screens.'

'Except it doesn't seem there's any video output. All this does is calculations.'

Ahmin looked at Milo, then at her. 'That's just part of the optimisation process.'

'You know what else these GPUs are good for, Milo?' she asked.

'Hmm, calculating large numbers. Very large numbers.' he said.

'Like those used for encryption.' she said.

'So, want to start talking about what you and Frederik discussed lately?'

'I don't know-' Ahmin started but Terri held up her finger to her muzzle.

'Someone just pinged at the door.' she whispered.

'You expecting someone?' Milo asked of Ahmin.

He shook his head and Milo gestured at them to stand back, pulling out his gun.

'They're picking the lock.' Terri whispered.

Milo stood aside behind a cabinet aiming at the door. They heard a click, the door was kicked open and two men stepped forward shooting.

Milo fired back at once aiming for their legs and got lucky. The two fell on their knees but aimed at him now and he had to squeeze against the wall to avoid the bullets. He heard two weird screams and the shooting stopped.

He glanced around the corner of the cabinet and saw Terri smirking with her tazer.

'Thanks for the distraction.' she said.

'Thanks for being here with that. I hope you hadn't planned on using that on me.'

'Depends.' she said. 'But we might better go. I hear people with heavy boots getting into the elevator downstairs.'

Milo nodded and soon the three were going down the stairs, heading for Milo's office.

Chapter 03

On the subway Ahmin told Terri and Milo someone from CyTech contacted him to optimise the cracking software they used to test the encryption methods they sold. He said with a little pride he had managed to improve speed with eleven percent so far. And he improved parallelisation so more hardware would increase the speed without increasing the loss in overhead.

'And what about Frederik? What did you discuss with him?' Milo asked.

'Nothing special. Just about ways to make code more efficient and smaller in size. He writes software for network equipment, those used by the grid and large corporations.'

'What did you see on the pages in the file?' asked Milo of Terri.

'I saw variable names that I used in my last project.'

'Which was?'

'A search algorithm to find connections between a lot of pieces of data.' she said and her eyes grew big. 'Pieces the size of network data packages!'

'So, could your algorithm be fed to his cruncher?' Milo asked with a a nod at Ahmin.

'Yes.'

'We're talking about the possibility of siphoning data from the grid, then feeding it to her search running on a hardware cluster I improved, to get what?' asked Ahmin.

'The answer to secrets, but what secrets?' said Milo.

***

On the way to the office they brainstormed about possible targets.

'Corporate secrets?' suggested Ahmin.

'Seems easier to bribe employees.' said Terri.

'Correct.' said Milo. 'The only ones who try to get into the network for that are kiddies. And they find nothing of interest. We hardly get a case like that.'

'Banks, financial institutions?'

'Too protected by AI. Anything out of the ordinary gets blocked at once. Last one who tried that just disappeared before he got caught.' said Milo as they arrived at the office.

He unlocked the door with his badge, then typed in a password at the terminal inside the hall.

'No biometrics?' asked Terri.

'No.' he said letting them inside. 'That got cracked after a while, and we don't like to get separated from our body parts when someone seriously wants to get inside.'

'Government, defence?' Terri asked.

'Same as the others. Too well defended and any communication between departments isn't done by the standard protocols.'

'Wasn't that by breaking apart the data stream and routing it across separate networks?' Ahmin asked.

'Yeah, to prevent someone recording the whole stream at some point in between.'

'Unless someone can tap every stream.' Terri said.

Milo halted. 'Like someone who has access to the equipment that is used on the grid.' he said.

'Looks like we found one very good answer.' Ahmin said.

***

'He's still on the phone.' Ahmin said when he joined Terri in the so-called lounge, the circular open space in the middle of the office with vending machines, open kitchen and comfortable chairs and couches where the staff could hang around and discuss matters.

Terri pulled another espresso from the machine, then sank down into one of the soft couches. 'It's after hours for government workers, but I had expected something like this to get more priority.'

Ahmin shrugged and selected hot cocoa. While he waited for it a monitor coming to life caught his attention. It was one of several hanging above the couches. 'Funny.'

'What is?' asked Terri looking up from a magazine she found next to her.

'I think the monitors activate on movement in front of the cameras they're connected to. I just saw a bird landing on the roof.'

She looked at it. 'Well, it saves energy if there's nothing going on and nobody's there to look at it.'

Ahmin took his cocoa from the machine and carefully sipped it while watching the bird stroll around and occasionally pick at the ground. Terri tossed the magazine aside and yawned.

'I finally got through to the right person.' said Milo as he joined them. 'He'll be contacting the relevant departments and verify our suspicions. With any luck we've caught this thing before it creates a big mess. He'll be coming right over to discuss what we've found and gather any information we've got about it.'

'Do we have to?' asked Ahmin.

'Well, I'd appreciate it if you'd stay. As far as I know he'll be coming alone and will keep things anonymous.'

Ahmin nodded.

'So, what reward can we expect?' asked Terri.

'I have no idea.' said Milo as he decided on an espresso from the machine. 'But the least I can do is buy you dinner. Maybe arrange something with software or hardware.'

'I was thinking of upgrading my hardware at home.' Terri said. 'Software is no issue since I use open source.'

'What do you have?'

'Two cheap servers in a redundant setup. All my stuff runs virtual and I have three dumb terminals.'

'I set up everything in threes, in different data centres.' said Ahmin. 'Constant verification in case one gets corrupt. Full encryption.'

'Same here.' said Milo. 'Just a little more paranoid. Everything here has three copies to reduce the chance of tampering or corruption. Takes more hardware but improves integrity so much more.'

'What are you running here?' asked Terri when she stood up to have a look at the cubicles.

'Mix of various things. We're not stuck on a specific OS or piece of software. That would restrict us too much.'

She nodded. 'So, how did you end up here?'

Milo sat down next to her and sipped his espresso. 'I just had an affinity with computers while I was just a deskjockey at a local station, fixing local troubles and improving things in little ways. Then I got asked to transfer to this department and quickly ended up being the go-to guy for specialised problems. Seems I got a knack in figuring out logical problems.' He grinned a little. 'And I probably got more social skills than the rest of the autists here.'

Terri giggled. 'I get that.'

'You?'

She shrugged. 'I found out I was good at hacking things, had a better grasp of mathematics than my teacher, which made him mad, and ended up doing various jobs. Some clean, some a little dirty.'

'Seems I should keep my eye on you.'

'Pervert.' she said and stuck out her tongue.

Milo laughed but saw Ahmin waving his hand.

'You said whoever you spoke to would come alone?' Ahmin asked.

'Yeah?'

'Then why is a swat team coming up?' Ahmin said, pointing at one of the monitors.

Milo and Terri stood up at once to have a closer look at the image on screen.

'What the..?' Milo said as he saw several heavily armed people entering the building through the backdoor.

'That doesn't look very friendly.' Terri said. 'Did you set us up?'

'No way in hell!'

'Someone must have thought so much force was necessary.'

'We have to get out of here!' Ahmin said.

'Can we?' Terri asked.

Milo looked at the monitors. 'They have all exits covered.'

'Any way to hide?'

Milo racked his brain for a moment. 'Come with me.' he said and hurried off. He led them to one of the server rooms. 'Not comfortable, but the only space I can imagine they either won't think of or can't scan.' he said and lifted one of the floor tiles.

'Really?' Ahmin asked looking at the strands of cables.

'Sorry about the cold, but they'd never detect us here.'

Ahmin and Terri crawled into the narrow space, then Milo followed placing the tile back into position.

'Dusty.' whispered Terri.

'Sorry, the cleaning staff doesn't come here.' Milo whispered while he fiddled with his mobile to connect to the security system.

It didn't take long for them to hear the server room door open again. Someone explored the whole room, then left. Not long after Milo's mobile showed an incoming call.

'Milo.' he said as he connected.

'François here.' said the voice on the other end. 'Aren't you at the office?'

'Sorry, I had to get them elsewhere because they got paranoid. You know how those nerds are.'

'Yes. So where are you?'

'We're on our way to club Rosenthal. A gathering place of geeks.'

'Fine. I'll see you there. Don't move from there.'

'We'll do.' Milo said and disconnected.

He checked the video feeds. 'Looks like it worked. They're leaving.'

'Good, this place is ruining my fur.' Terri said.

A little later Milo scouted the office, then led them down the stairs and the rear of the building to a quiet and dark back alley.

'Now what?' asked Ahmin.

'We need a safe place.' said Milo.

'A place to figure out what's going on.' said Terri.

'One of the clubs.' said Milo. 'Unfortunately with me being federal I don't know the most anonymous.'

'I know.' said Terri and started walking.

Ahmin and Milo followed, no questions asked.

***

The three had walked for some time through unmonitored backstreets before ending up at a street with plenty of neon signs and music asking for attention.

'Here.' Terri said.

'I know this street, lots of clubs, mostly dance.' said Milo.

'Yes. We're going to Joan Ley Min's place.' she said and pointed at a simple staircase going down the side to a plain door.

They walked into a small room, one door ahead from which they heard music on the other side, next to it a friendly looking doorman.

'Good evening.' he said. 'Company of three?'

Terri nodded. 'And if possible we'd like to see Joan.'

He pressed a button to unlock the door. 'I'll inform her.'

'Thanks.' Terri said as she opened the door to a flood of music.

Inside they found themselves on the upper floor of the dance club. Terri took a quick look at the dance floor below and the row of cubicles.

'My favourite spot is free. Let's go.' She shouted above the music and gestured to follow her.

They walked past the upper floor cubicles where most were filled with people focused on their portables.

'I've heard of these places, but haven't been to one yet.' Milo said to Ahmin.

'There's one just like this close to my place. I go there once in a while for distraction.' Ahmin said.

Terri led them down to a cubicle facing the centre of the dance floor. 'This one's for VIPs.'

'I guess I won't have to ask. ' said Milo as he sat down.

'This place is specific to coders.' Terri said. 'Members pay a fixed fee and we can freak out as much as we want when we need to.'

Milo couldn't stop his feet from tapping at the rhythm of the bass. 'I can imagine the appeal.' he said, then gestured at a guy typing behind his portable with an attractive young woman sitting behind him.

'An extra service Joan provides.' Terri said. 'You can hire a girl to keep you company here. Just not for sex.'

He looked curious at her. 'The ones who come here don't really want that anyway. They usually want someone to make them comfortable. Even I did that during difficult coding sessions.' She grinned. 'Don't get any ideas, it was to have someone to talk to and most girls know a thing or two about coding and math.'

Milo nodded and looked around at the people dancing on the floor. 'Only coders come here?'

'Not all, but most are in this line of work. Some just come to dance.'

A message appeared on the slanted screen embedded in the table.

'Joan will see us now.' Terri said and got up. 'Follow me.'

***

She let them to a door at the back and into a small hallway. The door to Joan's office was simple marked management.

'Terri. Been a long time.' the elderly woman behind the desk said as she looked up.

'Yeah. Hi Joan, meet my friends, Ahmin and Milo.'

'You sure he can be trusted?' Joan asked looking at Milo.

'I haven't got a bad feeling from him yet.'

'I take it you checked up on me.' Milo said.

Joan nodded. 'Everything depends on information and trust here. We can't afford a breach here with some of our sensitive clients.'

'Speaking of sensitive,' said Terri. 'we need your help in figuring out our next step.'

They recapped the findings to Joan while she fired up her terminal.

'They probably hired an encryption specialist as well. Do you know of anyone who might qualify and has been busy lately?' Milo asked.

Joan sifted through the info she had collected on her clients and her own sniffer on the grid. 'There's a few people who could do this sort of thing.'

'Who've you got?' asked Terri.

'Takahashi is out, he's currently having his offline vacation.' Joan said with a smile. 'He even send me an old-fashioned postcard.'

'Emmanuelle isn't into taking shady jobs, or any side jobs for that matter.' Terri said.

'Don just lacks expertise.' Joan said. 'Heinrich or Cathy. Either of those could do it.'

'Which one?' said Milo, looking at their info.

'Cathy.' said Ahmin. 'She's the one. Cathy Branford.'

'How do you know?' Milo asked.

'I have read some of her work, she adapts her algorithms to be efficient and portable on most hardware. And I saw the initials CB once in the source code I had to improve upon.'

'Good enough lead for now. Let's check her out.'

***

Joan had lend them a car so they could drive without being tracked through subway security and they'd blend in more at the better neighbourhood Cathy lived in at the edge of the city. There were patches of green between the low rise apartment buildings and room for the sun to shine through.

Terri took a moment to enjoy the sun coming up as she'd never got to see that in the city.

Milo parked the car near the intersection to the street from the address Joan had given them.

'Worried?' Terri asked.

Milo nodded. 'I just don't want to take any chance.' he said opening his door. 'Get ready to get out of here. I'm going to have a look around.'

With the exception of a couple of early birds the street was clear. He walked past the building, watching for anything out of the ordinary like people or cars waiting at the side. When it seemed to be safe he returned to the car.

'Ahmin, can you be ready behind the wheel just in case? Terri, come with me to talk to her?'

Terri and Milo walked up to the building while Ahmin moved behind the wheel.

'How do we get in?' she asked.

'Card.' said Milo showing a light blue card. 'We made a couple of these to give us access to almost any civilian building.'

He swiped the lock and the sliding doors opened.

'Useful.'

'Yeah. But don't try to lift it off of me. It'll get blocked right away.'

'Bummer.'

When they reached Cathy's door Terri halted Milo, sniffing the air. 'I smell blood.'

Milo drew his gun and checked the door. It was unlocked. He pushed it open slowly and entered after seeing the room was clear.

'Milo.' said Terri, pointing at a dark stain behind the kitchen counter.

'Slit throat.' he said after a quick examination of the body. 'They probably got to her before going to Ahmin.'

'Shit!'

'I doubt we'll find any clues here.' he said looking through the pages next to a laptop on the living room table. 'It doesn't look they took anything, which means they didn't have to look for anything in the first place.'

'Maybe there is.' Terri said and sat down next to Milo. 'I recognise that icon.' she said tapping it on screen.

A video editor opened up with screenshots of Cathy and her desktop.

'Looks like she was recording a video session. The camera might have caught something.'

She started the video from the beginning showing Cathy preparing and testing the recording, then walking away after her doorbell rang. Cathy's and another woman's voice could be heard faintly, then Cathy's became clearer as she walked past the screen towards the kitchen, followed by a middle aged woman, brunette, wearing something dark grey. For a moment things were silent, then the sound of cups and glasses scattered across the kitchen sink and silence again. Seconds later the woman walked by again.