Vyper pulled her hand away and waved it dismissively. “It is not the first time I have been pursued. Marko was the only person who ever discovered my identity. I will be careful.”
“We have to take this seriously. What if he finds you? The Russians play rough—Sokolov did.” Niko brushed her hair behind her ear. “You’re prepared for virtually any kind of computer attack, but not for a physical assault. Just look at how helpless we were when the FBI broke in.”
Her hand began to flap. “I was scared. They burst right in. We could not stop them. We could not hide.”
“Let me take care of it. I’ll beef up the security system and increase your home protection.”
Vyper placed a hand on his cheek and kissed him. “You are the best.” She placed her computer on her lap. “Right now, I want to check on my bots. They have been probing the pipeline and refinery systems ever since the FBI left us alone.”
“Are you using your Groper program? Wouldn’t it be detected?”
“Detected? Not my program. It does not look like a sustained attack. I spread the probes across thousands of bots located all over the world. And I have slowed it all down. It looks random.” A text box appeared in the upper right corner of the TV screen. She pointed. “There—it found a server with old web software that was missing important security patches—the third one I have seen so far. I will install my monitor and tracker software on all of them.”
Niko used his laptop to access the unpatched server. “I’ll break in and grab the list of sign-on IDs.” He tried a few hacker tricks. Soon he was browsing through restricted files. He copied the list of user names. “I’m going to monitor the sign-ins for a few days. See if there’s any suspicious activity.”
“This is odd.” Vyper displayed a list of locations on the TV. “I’ve been collecting data from the Russian computers infected with my tracker. Most of them are located in Vladivostok. But three are accessing the internet from Phoenix, Arizona—three different computers on the same subnet. Not only that—two more are coming in from a location in the Bahamas—an office building in Nassau.”
“Very suspicious. It looks like the Russians have collaborators in two more locations.”
Vyper tapped away at her keyboard. “Let me see if these computers are accessing the systems in Texas or Louisiana.”
While Vyper was occupied with the oil fields, Niko searched for home security systems—not just cameras and locks. He wanted something they could use to defend themselves as well. They could afford the best thanks to Sokolov’s money.
The sound of typing stopped. Vyper stared silently at her screen.
“What is it,” Niko leaned over to see her computer. “You look confused.”
She nodded. “Five computers in the Phoenix site are probing a pipeline control network at Rockefeller Petroleum in Houston, Texas.”
“Just as you suspected. We’ll give Homeland the details. But something else is bothering you.”
She turned the screen and pointed to a string of letters and numbers. “This is what they are looking for. They are trying to get a response from something. It reminds me of Stuxnet—only different.”
“You think it’s looking for a specialized computer? This site is a major oil pipeline hub. It could be looking for a system that controls pipeline operation.”
“I agree, but I am not sure what to do next.”
“That’s why Homeland gave us the ‘bat phone’.” Niko took a cell phone from the table. “They like to hear from us every day. Now we have some significant information to pass along.”
Niko called a special number connected to Homeland through two intermediate locations. He waited while the phones established a secure connection. After exchanging passphrases, Niko reported on the Phoenix and Nassau sites as well as the peculiar probes in Houston. He also promised to send the details in an encrypted, anonymous email. A terse acknowledgement from Homeland ended the call.
He shook his head. “Homeland is a pain in the ass. They should tell Rockefeller Petroleum they must tighten their pipeline network security. And someone from Homeland should check out Phoenix and Nassau. We have no idea whether they’ll follow up on anything we send them. Marko never worked this way.”
Vyper poked a finger in Niko’s ribs. “Check this out. One of those Phoenix computers is probing the power grid in southern California. I don’t like—”
A loud warbling sound interrupted Vyper. She pounded her fingers on the keyboard, paused, and pounded them again.
Niko watched without interrupting. This was the second time in two days she’d bumped into a hacker on a dark web router. Vyper had to act fast—wiping out evidence of her session before anyone could follow her through the network.
Her fingers stopped, and she looked up. “Someone is trying to track me. Maybe trying to track Prixster.”
For the past week, Niko had sent a lot of data to Homeland, but the information flowed only one way. The guidance they received was, “Stay out of Phoenix and Nassau. It’s not your job.” Same thing with California. The Russians were trying to break into the electrical grid, and Homeland told Niko to stay out of it.
Vyper sat on the couch next to him. “I just planted another bug in the Rockefeller Petroleum engineering network in Texas. I discovered an admin logged into the system—from the Russian site in Phoenix. I killed his session, but he will probably return.”
“Damn.” Niko shook his head. “I told Homeland about this. Rockefeller users, including admins, are logging in from unsecured remote sites. If someone steals a password, they can log in from anywhere”
“Nothing we can do about it.” She slid closer to him and glanced at his laptop. “What have you learned about the pipeline equipment? Have you found anything that would respond to the Russian probe?”
“Homeland hasn’t told us shit. I’ve been reading some of Rockefeller’s engineering docs. I found a flow computer that might be the target. It controls and monitors the flow of oil.”
They looked through the specifications together, studying how the system worked. Anyone who modified the program could disrupt the movement of fuel and trick the monitoring system into reporting normal operation.
Vyper selected the source code of Groper. “I will add a probe to my program. We will see where all these flow computers are.”
“I’ll tell Homeland.” Niko made a call on the bat phone, explained what they found and promised to send details in an email.
He was about to hang up when the man from Homeland said, “We followed up with Rockefeller on their lax security. They promised to enforce rules on admin signons. If they’re not on Rockefeller’s internal network, they’re required to use the company’s secure remote connection.”
Being cooperative? They must want something. “That’s great. Just a few minutes ago, someone from the Phoenix site—”
The voice on the phone interrupted. “We need your help. It’s urgent. Have you seen the news about the power outage in Los Angeles?”
Niko searched the news. “Not really, just looking at it now. Seems serious.”
“It’s a cyber-attack on Valley Electric. We isolated their network from the rest of the grid. Our folks are still working on bringing them back on line.”
Niko put the phone on speaker. “Vyper, Homeland needs you to restore power in LA. It was a cyber-attack—sounds like it might be related to the intrusion we reported last week. The one they told us to stay out of.”