“Hackers and con artists? Like the two of us?”
Vyper smiled. “Which one are you?”
“Definitely the con artist.” Niko projected the image of his laptop screen to the TV. “Zatan believes I’m a naïve newbie. The only reason he talks to me is because I know Prixster. You’ll find our conversation interesting. We always meet up in the public chat room. They speak English there.”
A message appeared on the screen:
Zatan666: U there anarch?
“He saw me come online. My handle is Anarch. I’ll see what he wants.”
Anarch13: U bet
Zatan666: Private
“This must be important. I have to join him in our private chat room. We speak Russian, so I’ll translate for you as we go.”
Although Niko spoke fluent Russian, sometimes his grammar and word choices reflected his Ukrainian roots—even in text. Zatan didn’t disguise his disdain for Ukrainians.
Vyper set her laptop aside. “What does he want?”
“Last time we chatted, I gave him your list of Onion router nodes near Sevastopol. He told me I was full of shit—these couldn’t be real. Well, he checked it out, and now he’s asking where I got the information.”
Niko typed a response. “I told him I used Prixster’s program to search for Onion routers.”
When Zatan’s response came back, Niko burst out laughing. “He said, ‘Give me the fucking thing.’ I’m going to tease him a bit. When I finally give it to him, I want his hungry anticipation to overcome his instinctive suspicions.”
“Do not overplay it,” said Vyper. “We need him to accept it. Once he does, my spyware will give me control of his computer, and he will never know.”
“Let me show you how a con artist sets the hook. I’m going to tell him Prixster does not share with strangers.” He typed it in.
The response came back immediately. “He says, ‘Prixster doesn’t have to know.’ I’m going to play hard-to-get.”
Ten minutes later, Niko decided he had played with him enough. “That’s it. I made him promise not to share it, show it, or say anything to anyone. Zatan agreed and I’m sending it to him now.”
Vyper’s face lit up. “You did it! We are a team. We will get Sokolov. I am so glad you decided to stay.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. Then she stood and walked to the kitchen.
Although the kiss lasted only a few seconds, the warmth of her body and scent of her hair lingered. As she walked away, he whispered under his breath, “I love you.”
Chapter 14
Weaponize
Fresh from his shower, Niko slipped a pair of cargo pants over his BVDs and pulled a T-shirt over his head. He couldn’t remember much from his dream last night, but Vyper was in it and they made love.
One day… maybe.
Niko heard her footsteps in the other room. No surprise, she always got up early. Maybe she received a message from Zatan’s computer. It should have responded by now. After all, Niko gave him the spyware program two weeks ago.
He entered the kitchen, and his heart warmed at the sight of Vyper. Her silky black hair draped over her green track suit, the zipper resting low enough to tease him with her curves. “You look beautiful this morning. That top brings out the color of your eyes.”
“You are sweet.” She smiled and grabbed two cups. “I made coffee. You want some?”
“Sounds great.” Niko sat at the table and opened his laptop. “Anything from Zatan’s computer yet?”
Vyper handed him a cup of coffee and sat in front of her computer. “Yes, I received the first communication early this morning. Extracting data from his system is a slow process, but this transmission included information about more Onion routers on the dark net.”
“I thought you had full control of his computer. What takes so long?”
“He knows security, which makes it more difficult. The program you gave Zatan was simply a beachhead. Its main job was to discover unprotected methods to communicate—and to do it without being detected. It sent a few documents. I have to study them before I modify the spyware.”
“Did the documents tell you anything of interest?”
“Give me a minute.” She typed a few commands. “Zatan’s computer was on a network in Vladivostok—at a major internet connection point near Eagle’s Nest Hill. It seems he is less technical than you thought. His job is supervisory and financial.”
“That’s perfect.” Niko opened his notes on Zatan. “Who did he supervise? What kind of financial stuff?”
“I am sending you what I received. There is a staff list, payroll, and some financial spreadsheets. If we are lucky, he may have included some bank account numbers. Perhaps some of the staff members will match the visitors to FANTAZIJA.COM.”
Niko took a quick look at the documents. “I can’t help you with this data. It isn’t my strong suit.” He glanced at his news feed. “And my Trotsky communications aren’t working very well, either.”
“What do you mean? The attacks were in the news for quite a while, and the police followed your leads.”
“Yeah, but the investigation has stalled, and the attacks are seldom mentioned any more. The police and the media aren’t treating this as a Russian attack. Their focus is on finding the missing conspirators, and they don’t have any new clues.”
Vyper took his hand. “How much more can you do? You are only one man.”
“One man—that’s it!” said Niko. “That’s the problem. It’s the old way of doing things. It may have worked for Deep Throat during Watergate, but modern communication doesn’t work like that. Today everyone uses the internet—especially social media. It’s time to weaponize Facebook.”
“Like Russia has been doing with our elections?” She clicked away on the keyboard. “I’ve read about it. I understand the technology, but I do not understand what kind of messages to post.”
“Leave it to me. First, we have to come up with a goal and a targeted marketing plan.” Niko glanced through his Trotsky messages. “Our goal is to convince the public that the Russians are bad, and they attacked the United States.”
“Everyone already knows the Russians are bad.”
“I wish you were right, but a lot of Americans don’t seem to care about Russia—either way. We need people running around with their hair on fire, demonstrating against the Russians.”
Vyper giggled. “Hair on fire? Why would anyone do that?”
“It doesn’t matter, it’s just an expression. I plan to engage the emotions of the public. Every time the word Russians is mentioned, I want everyone to think ‘dangerous enemy’. I need to get them excited.”
“How?”
“You gave me those psychographic models and all the Facebook and Google data. Now I have detailed information on the largest groups of like-minded people who are active on the internet. For example, there are those who believe the Russians threw our election, and there are others who believe a deep state is undermining the government. Some groups hate immigrants, others hate guns. There are tin-foil-hat conspiracy theorists.”
“Those people never agree on anything. Which groups do you plan to influence?”
“All of them.” Niko smiled. “Those psychographic models reveal what their hot buttons are, what they already believe, what they don’t believe, how they reach each other online… everything. I need to set up a few hundred identities—liberal, conservative, Christian, atheist—and become a member of each group. I can play on their hot buttons to gain trust, then build suspicions against Russia.”