The Master Hacker

Chapter Three

The drive to the Cave took a few hours, but Darque preferred driving to flying. He flew when he had to, but only then, and still frequently got air sick … much to the amusement of the air crews he flew with. Until they had to clean up what he left behind. They learned money could be made on time-before-accident flight bets, but wisdom told them level flights were probably a better choice.

The distance from the cabin to the Cave, and Penny’s house in that area, was through some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in the eastern half of the country, and for reasons known only to Darque, he liked having his ‘Sanford and Son’ looking pick-up truck close at hand. It may have had something to do with the sniper rifle concealed in the framework of the vehicle that only he knew about.

Penny’s house was in a small community surrounded by neighbors, many of whom worked at the Cave, and the area was closely monitored by security cameras and patrol cars manned by military personnel. Those assigned to patrol the area were members of a quick reaction force trained to respond to any threat to the Cave or personnel who worked there.

Darque spent most of the trip in deep thought while Penny did the driving, and Bill curled up in the truck-bed asleep so he could take advantage of the fresh air and good weather.

Although Darque didn’t like to speculate about things where information was limited and facts were few or nonexistent, a negative situation within the borders of arguably the most antagonistic, defiant, belligerent and isolated country in the world just might turn out to be a good thing. An open, joint effort to determine what had happened, and why, was probably not going to take place. If South Korea could be ruled out as a party to what had occurred, the incident appeared to impact only North Korea and China, and that would probably preclude a war. With that as his last conscious thought, Darque slipped into a deep sleep.

Their arrival at the Cave didn’t seem to stir much interest, but some of the people who knew about the plane crash were busy intercepting and analyzing data trying to figure out not only what actually happened, but why.

The first person Darque called to his office was Bartow to get an update on the situation.

“A couple of things have changed since I talked to you on the phone,” Bartow said. “We intercepted a Russian transmission which claimed to be the panicked voice of the downed aircraft’s pilot detecting a missile lock on his plane, and then screaming that he spotted the firing of a missile from the ground. The last sound on the transmission was the plane’s explosion on impact.”

“Was there anything in the message that specified how the Russians came into possession of the communication?”

“The intercepted transmission claimed it had been received from China.”

“Why did China feel it was necessary to bring Russia into this thing?” Darque thought out loud.

Bartow knew he wasn’t being asked for an answer, so he remained silent.

“Have the North Koreans made any statement to calm the situation?”

“No. They seem to be satisfied to continue blaming the South for now, even if the truth may make them look foolish later on. That’s never stopped them in the past. They may never disclose the truth. Their intelligence service would look bad if something like this happened and they were caught off guard; the axiom about the best defense being a good offense seems to apply here.”

“That makes sense,” Darque said, “but we need to stay on top of this. The act itself doesn’t bother me as much as why it was done. I have a feeling something is going on inside North Korea we know nothing about, and somebody, for some unknown reason, decided whatever it was, it shouldn’t be happening. The downing may have been carried out to alert the West, but there are a lot of ways that could have been accomplished without shooting down a plane.”

Darque suddenly became quiet, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes … a position sometimes referred to as his ‘thinking mode’.

Bartow patiently waited, and thought he could almost hear the wheels turning in Darque’s head as his superior tried to figure out what was going on.

“Why would someone, or even a group, bring down a Chinese plane flying into North Korea, knowing the incident probably wouldn’t create any real rift in the two countries symbiotic relationship? North Korea certainly didn’t need this kind of situation to focus its wrath on the South when a change in wind direction seems to be enough to do the job.”

“Maybe the plane itself wasn’t the real target, but a way to get at what was,” Dave said.

“Passengers?” Darque posed.

“Maybe,” Dave said, “but it could just as easily have been the cargo.”

Darque found that to be an extremely interesting point.

“You may be right,” Darque said. “It certainly makes sense. On the surface, it seems like the simple downing of a plane by a disgruntled citizen, but if what you’re saying is correct, whoever brought down the aircraft had to not only know what the cargo was, but also its destination. Not many people would know both things. I don’t think it’s wise to base decisions on assumptions, but in this case, I believe the cargo was the target, and the plane and those on board were collateral damage. The flight took place in the dark, probably in an attempt to hide the delivery from satellite coverage. Based on the affiliation of the countries involved, I think we can safely say the cargo was a weapon of some kind. North Korea may be blaming the South for the incident, but China wouldn’t bring Russia into the picture without a reason. I suspect the Russians knew about the cargo and its purpose, and the Chinese message was to advise them of the setback.”

Darque sat silently with his eyes closed, but Bartow knew he was trying to figure out what to do next.

“Is there some reason we didn’t find out about the incident until Russia got the news?”

“We still haven’t been able to adequately access the computer systems in China and North Korea, and NSA’s capabilities are limited. Unfortunately, we’re pretty much in the dark concerning activities in those locations.”

“Thanks for the update, Dave, but let me know as soon as we find out anything new. Tell the analysts to focus on anything they can find out about the cargo; I think that’s where we need to be looking.”

After Bartow departed the office, Darque turned to Bill lying quietly in a corner.

“Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make sure the plane crash wouldn’t be considered an accident. Why would a person in his right mind smart enough to plan the loss of a Chinese plane in North Korea turn around and pin a bulls eye on their back? Revenge? Disgruntlement? Martyrdom? If one of those options is the answer, why not just die in the crash; that would have been easy enough to add into the scenario. I think you’re right, Bill. Whatever reason the individual had for causing the crash, dying in it wasn’t part of the plan. But if that’s the case, where is he now?”

Darque bent down and patted the dog on the head, and was rewarded with a big yawn.