Daybreak: Cyber Division, #3

By Vannetta Chapman

Nora Brooks and Randall Goodwin are hot on the trail of a new cyber-terrorist. This time the target is Seattle as well as the lucrative cruise ships docked there. All indications are that daybreak will bring unprecedented destruction.

Who was nursing a vendetta against the largest city in the Pacific Northwest as well as the tourist industry?

Nora Brooks has dealt with many different kinds of cyber criminals, but she's never come across one whose motive and method she couldn't grasp at all. They'll have to rely on her instinct as well as her partner's coding skills. Randall Goodwin might be the only one who can save the day. For the people of Seattle, their very lives could depend on it.

Daybreak is book three in Vannetta Chapman's Cyber Terror series. The journey begins with Fading Into the Night and continues with Midnight Strike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vannetta Chapman
• Release date: Apr 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393616382

Book preview

"To God belong wisdom and power;

counsel and understanding are his."

~Job 12:13

The young people today are the 21 st century.

~Martin Scorsese

1

Nora Brooks and Randall Goodwin stepped out of Starbucks into a day fresh with the promise of spring. Seattle was showing off—the cherry trees were covered with pink and white blossoms, streets around the fish market were filled with people enjoying the sun-filled day, and the waters of Puget Sound glimmered in the distance.

Tell me again why we’re here.

Nora studied her stylishly dressed partner. She didn’t know how he managed to look unrumpled after traveling across the country on the red-eye flight, but he did.

Is that a Bottega jacket?

Very good. You’ve been paying attention to my fashion lessons, though… He hesitated before adding, Apparently it hasn’t brought about any changes in your wardrobe.

Nora wore what she always wore—black pants, flat dress shoes that she could run in if the situation required, and a button-up cotton blouse. She tended to stick with white, gray, and sky blue.

There was no doubt in her mind that Randall’s jacket cost more than everything she had on, including the diamond earring studs that was her only bow to sentimentality. Her parents had given her the earrings when she was promoted to her current position within the agency.

She popped the top off her drink and blew on the hot beverage—a tall, dark blend coffee, shot of espresso, whipped cream.

Extra espresso?

Yup. She nodded toward the larger drink he was holding. Caramel macchiato? I thought you were going to ease up on the sugar.

I like caramel. That stuff you drink is like jet fuel.

Randall was six foot four with light brown skin and the physique of a professional football player. His father had enjoyed a long and prosperous NFL career, but Randall’s love was computers, more specifically the code that made everything run and often caused the most chaos. At twenty-seven, he seemed like a babe to her. Nora had turned thirty-nine the week before. She was beginning to view everything through a cynical lens. Probably she needed a vacation.

We’re here to follow a hunch, and you’re crabby because you spent last week in the Caribbean.

I love the Caribbean.

Coming back to work is never easy. She wiggled her eyebrows as she settled into a chair at one of the outdoor tables and took her first sip of the espresso. Sure you’re not ready to retire? Live off your dad’s millions? With your coding skills, you could freelance from a cabana.

And miss hanging out with you? Nah.

She was relieved to hear it. Randall was a good partner, and she didn’t have the time to waste breaking in a new one.

So we’re following a hunch. How did you get the director to sign off on that?

Nora shrugged. All the other active cyber threats have been assigned.

Unusual.

Isn’t that the truth. They’d had a solid schedule since the Dallas event. First a dam’s controls had been hacked in the northeast, then ransom ware infiltrated CDC servers in Atlanta, and after that the electrical grid in Oklahoma City was compromised.

Nora had spent the week Randall was on vacation filling out paperwork for their past assignments. She’d jumped at the chance to get back out in the field.

So what are we facing?

Unknown.

Timeline?

Unknown.

Perpetrator?

She simply shook her head and gulped more of the coffee, grateful for caffeine. She had to give Randall credit. He didn’t push. Instead he waited patiently as she decided how she wanted this op to unfold. Sometimes she held back information so Randall could assess a thing with fresh eyes. Sometimes he needed to know everything up front. Honestly, she only had one idea as to where to start, so she might as well level up with him now.

She pulled out her phone, opened a folder of pictures, and passed it to him.

Miguel Garcia. Forty-two years old. Body found down by the wharfs by a couple of dock workers.

Cause of death was apparently a shot to the head. Randall shook his head as he studied the photo. We don’t usually investigate homicides.

Local detectives pulled his phone records. The last activity on his cell binged our department.

Randall looked up in surprise.

He was tracing an IP address.

That’s not possible.

It’s not supposed to be. It’s hard enough for law enforcement to convince a provider to hand over that information.

Though a judge will order it in the case of a homicide.

And that’s exactly what happened. Only when Detective Lawson followed up on the information, it led to a Starbucks café.

This one?

Yup.

Doesn’t answer the question of how Garcia had a program that could trace IP addresses.

Or why he would want such a thing.

Or who he was chasing. Randall handed the phone back to her.

I’m a little surprised that single thing binged the director’s program. Doesn’t exactly sound like a cyber attack.

Let’s walk.

They strode down the street, passing vendors hawking flowers, jewelry, produce, and of course fish.

What do you suspect?

That something’s happening, and that it’s big. She didn’t say anything else until they reached a view of Puget Sound. She’d been to Seattle several times, but never in April and never on a day as sunny and pure as the one before her. Tell me what you see.

"Water. Islands in the distance. I think those are ferries farther out. And…cruise