The Unknowns - Ebook Edition

By Gintare Cross

What if something could predict your next move or even your next choice of direction?

An ethical hacker, Lee, picks up her new assignment. Everything appears to be normal until she makes a discovery which will turn her life and others upside down.

In an international race against time, she and a group of others she meets along the way, must battle against one of the largest and clandestine cyber-crime organisations ever formed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781329489073

Book preview

This book is dedicated to the love of my life, Chris.

Chapter 1 Strange woman

It was another ordinary day for Peter Bennet. He was slowly making his way to the nearest coffee shop to get his caramel latte, which was probably going to be the only joy he would have for the entire working day. He always tried to prolong these few moments of his routine for as long as possible, knowing well that it would buy him only a few extra minutes; nonetheless, it was worth it.

The usual? asked the girl behind the counter.

Sure, answered Peter. Five minutes later, the coffee shop door opened, and Peter was on his way to the office.

Peter worked in the IT sector. It wasn’t a rewarding job—mostly quite stressful—but it earned him a decent amount of money, and he didn’t have to learn a lot as there was a shortage of IT consultants in the market anyway. He wasn’t an expert in his field but knew just enough to pass as one. In general, he made people pity him as he was a nerdy-looking, lonely man in his mid-forties.

Good morning, Peter, said the office assistant, Charlotte Bean. Charlotte was a short, plump, young, blonde woman, no older than twenty-five and with a rather innocent countenance. She wore a knee-length, orange jean skirt and an oversized pink fluffy sweater, which made her look bigger than she was.

Hi… murmured Peter as he wasn’t used to people from other departments talking to him, let alone remembering his name.

After a short, anxious encounter with Charlotte, he made his way to his desk in the far end of a big room. The room was full of cramped-up desks, with some desks strewn around the middle of the room, where they were rarely used as it always strengthened people’s insecurities. Everyone passing by could see exactly what the user was viewing, which gave a feeling that they were constantly watched. People in this room were predominantly insecure already. Peter liked whatever little natural light comes through the massive windows and, therefore, had opted for a desk near a window.

Peter worked in a big corporation, and the IT department had over two hundred people working in it. All of them were cramped up in two open-plan rooms on the eleventh and twelfth floors. As most of the IT personnel had autistic traits, it was the worst possible positioning they could get. Unsurprisingly, a lot of employees would take occasional illness breaks due to stress at work, one of the reasons for which was the discomfort caused by the lack of personal space.

Peter had just started his computer when he saw Victor Chan, his favorite colleague, who used to sit next to him.

Good morning, Vic! Should we go and grab a coffee?

Although the office coffee was disgusting, it helped kill time while the computers were booting up. The office machines were not the best configured ones; in fact, they were quite outdated for the software being run on them. So, it would take ages for them to start.

Hi, Peter! Yeah, sure, as usual, Victor grimaced.

Victor used to be the expert in his field, but after twins were born to him, he mostly concentrated on his family life rather than his career.

Do you think Rick will throw a tantrum today over network issues? asked Vic.

Most likely. I’ve told him thousands of times that the entire network infrastructure needs upgrading and that we won’t be able to support the company for much longer with what we have at the moment, but he just isn’t listening.

Truth be told, Peter didn’t have a clue what was wrong with the network as he didn’t have enough knowledge or talent to find out, but he, nevertheless, had mastered the art of pretending that he knows his stuff and had convinced everybody, even Victor, that outdated infrastructure is the problem. Only last month, they had lost a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of data to a simple denial-of-service security attack due to the lack of expertise in the IT department. Since the Chief Information Officer, Rick Oldaker, was originally from the sales field, he didn’t have a clue either as to how IT works and couldn’t tell who the expert of the field is and who’s dragging the entire company down. The only thing Rick cared about was numbers and how he looked in front of the board.

I heard that Rick has hired somebody from outside to assess our infrastructure and security breaches. Did you hear that? asked Peter.

Nah, I don’t think that Rick would spend even a penny on those kinds of measures.

I heard it was a demand from the board. Peter wondered how much of this is true.

Suddenly the doors opened, and a woman walked in. She looked like a model from a soft-core porn magazine cover. She had naturally ginger, shoulder-length, wavy hair and was dressed in a red, figure-hugging dress and flat red shoes with tear drop holes on each side of the heel. She wore bright red lipstick, which made her lips look plump. The only imperfect thing about her entire look was her glasses which were too big for her face, but even those looked like she was born to wear them. She walked a couple of steps to the middle of the room and just stood there. It looked like she was looking at everything and everyone, analyzing every single detail.

Is that a new office assistant? asked Peter; he knew that Charlotte was leaving the company in a few weeks’ time.

I’m not sure…

Something about this young woman seemed odd, but Victor couldn’t place what that was. She just looked too glamorous to be an office assistant, but she didn’t look like an IT person either.

Neither of the guys had managed to finish their trail of thoughts when Rick burst into the room. He was walking towards his private enclosed desk when he noticed this strange woman. Hello there! You must be the new office assistant, said Rick. He was confident and patronizing enough to not let the strange woman say anything before his next sentence. Come with me. I will walk you through the procedures, and then, one of the guys will give you a tour of the building.

Rick didn’t have to do any of that as there was a dedicated human resource worker for that kind of stuff, but he wanted to show off in front of this woman, and what would be the best way other than displaying your power yet appearing as an accessible person?

Peter and Victor went back to their desks to start the day while Rick joked his way through the company’s policies with the woman.

When he had finished, the woman smiled and simply asked, Was your father joking his way through to your mother, Miss…? she extended the pause expecting Rick to answer.

Wilson.

Miss Wilson’s heart? She smiled even more.

Rick eased, thinking that he was winning his game and that maybe he would get to spend some private time with this gorgeous woman later.

Well, he probably did. But why are we talking about my parents when we can talk about you?

Well, I’m a very boring person really. The most exciting thing about my life is my dog. Do you have any pets?

I had a dog when I was little, old Chuckie, but he died a long time ago. This conversation was going in a strange direction, and he now wanted to end it as he still had to prepare a presentation for the board. Can we catch up later, maybe?

Not a problem. I am sure we will have a lot to discuss.

Suddenly, Rick felt really uncomfortable; something in her tone made him feel like he had been tricked, but he couldn’t quite comprehend what it exactly was.

I’ll ask Pete to show you around, Rick said, and their meeting was over.

Chapter 2 True purpose

Lee Olivier hated speaking to people, but her job necessitated the occasional interaction. She had already discovered enough information about this corporation to warn the board members that there were serious issues in the IT department, and now, she only had to document her findings. In this line of work, she always presented the initial findings first; then, she let the company decide if they want to proceed with a full inspection and eventually, if they want to use her services to apply protective measures. Lee was an ethical hacker and worked for an independent security company, which employed only the best ethical hackers worldwide. There were only five of them in the USA, but many more in other countries. She mostly worked alone and would just have a monthly meetup with the rest of the team. She earned a handsome salary and had independent working hours, which suited her personality the best.

The CIO of the company made a wrong assumption about my persona, freely giving me answers to the most usual security questions, the report started. Lee already knew the answers to most of those questions but couldn’t find the name of Rick’s first pet, which he foolishly gave away during their conversation.

She could gather some more clues from his office, such as information on his favorite sport team, as there were a lot of memorabilia of them in his office. Wi-Fi password was posted on the door. Some from the IT staff are using sticky notes on their monitors to remind them of the passwords for computer terminals and other systems, continued the report.

Lee knew that it would be easy to find security holes in this corporation, as is normally the case with large non-IT–related corporations. This was a cakewalk of an assignment. She finished the report and put her laptop aside. She was sitting in her New York studio penthouse apartment, which she didn’t buy from her salary, but rather, from the profits of her previous lifestyle, some of which were results of not-so-legal activities.

She looked at Bastard, her pet pug. If you weren’t here, I would probably never leave this place for months. Do you understand it is your fault I need to go out?

Bastard moved his head from side to side, puzzled at what was being said to him and then wagged his tail.

Come on, boy! Let’s have that walk and get some shopping done for you; you’re probably running low on food.

Lee grabbed Bastard’s lead and opened the door. By this point, Bastard was already near Lee’s feet, ready to leave the apartment.

Lee normally would come out of her apartment twice a day to walk the dog and would do occasional shopping. Mostly, she lived off of the takeaway restaurants and spent her time online streaming video content and gaming. To keep herself in shape, she would exercise at the bottom floor of her building; this was only for her own protection. Living in New York and doing a risky job made her feel that she must be ready to fight or defend herself at any moment. She’d heard many stories of people in her line of work getting attacked by workers whom they’d found to be failing from their assessments. Now, she needed to buy some dog food and some paper for her printer. She was also fancying some Chinese food for herself.

Come on, Bastard. It’s time to do some shopping so that you won’t starve to death and I can print that bloody report.

The nearest pet shop was just around the corner of the apartment. It was a nice, tiny shop, and they always had rodents in there for sale, which Lee loved. The shop was owned by Kim Wu, a lovely, middle-aged, short, skinny woman whose parents originally came from China and had later settled in the USA. It felt like Kim had spent her entire life in that pet shop.

Hi, Kim! The usual please.

Kim had Bastard’s food already prepared as Lee was one of her regulars, showing up every Tuesday. She had even added a chewable octopus to the order as Lee was one of her favorite customers.

Hey, Bastard! How is it going? Does Lee give you enough cuddles? Kim was scratching behind Bastard’s ear.

As usual, he gets all the love and attention I can give, Lee smiled.

Lee, you should really try to go on a date or something. You cannot live with only Bastard for the rest of your life.

I don’t know; so far, it has worked out quite well. We’ve achieved the perfect balance.

Lee didn’t want to get into a long-term relationship. She knew very well that her line of work required full dedication to stay on track with the latest technology and keeping a relationship would be very difficult. And she didn’t like difficulties, not after four years of being a true hacker.

Come on, Bastard. You’ve got your food and Kim even treated you to a toy; we need to get some paper now. See you next week, Kim!

Lee picked up some A4 printing paper from the stationery shop and then headed to her usual Chinese food takeaway spot. She ordered sweet and sour chicken and dim sum before heading back home. Before opening the door, she double-checked the piece of paper she had left between the door frame and the door to ensure it hadn’t moved; this meant that nobody had entered the apartment and she could walk in. She wasn’t that paranoid earlier, but after a couple of work-related encounters with fired employees, she had started to look over her shoulder occasionally. She placed the food on the kitchen counter and went to feed Bastard. (Bastard would usually get a couple of treats from Lee’s table, but the entire feeding ritual was just another routine.) Then, she took her food, put it on the coffee table, picked her favorite blue chopsticks from the kitchen and sat on the sofa.

"What should we watch today, Bastard? OK, you can choose between Space Odyssey and Vampire Chronicles. What will it be? Bastard lifted his head and snarled quietly at the mention of the later. All right, Space Odyssey it is then."

Lee switched on the TV and opened the food containers. The rest of the night went by quickly and by the third episode of the box set, Lee had fallen asleep on the sofa.

Chapter 3 Report day

Lee woke up early the next morning and made herself an espresso with two teaspoons of sugar and a splash of milk. Her morning routine was to have her coffee, feed Bastard and move on with her day. Today was the day she had to go back to the corporation’s board meeting and present her findings. She knew that it would not go well, as nobody likes to hear that their security measures are almost non-existent. In this case, it was their CIO who, unknowingly, had given her most of the information to gain access to their internal systems. Besides that, their IT department was keeping the sensitive corporation information on show for everyone willing to have a look at it.

Her wardrobe consisted largely of sexualized and aggressive clothes, mostly in the shades of black, grey, red and white, but today, she had to draw from her business clothing collection. She found her best blue shirt, grey suit pants and black heels. She decided to go with plain, white-gold jewelry to appear well-off, but not rich, so that the board members would take her seriously and feel like they were not paying for her wardrobe collection, but more for her skillset. She didn’t use much of the makeup either, only the honey-nude–colored lipstick. The last touch she needed was perfume. She liked sweet notes, but such aromas in her opinion were quite provocative and sexual; therefore, she went for a green tea perfume. She looked into the mirror, not really understanding what she looked like as she didn’t quite understand shapes and sizes in the same way as other people do; however, she did know well that her choice would do the job today.

Let’s seal the deal, Leo, said Lee to herself.

This was the first time in a few months that she had used her past hacker nickname, a name she only used for herself when she knew that her dark side was becoming stronger than her neutral side and only when she was alone. Leaving the apartment, she made her way downstairs to hail a cab and make her way to the corporation offices.

Lee arrived at the meeting fifteen minutes early and sat in the far corner of the meeting room. She opened her laptop and prepared the visual presentation of her one-day findings. She then placed the print-outs of her report in front of the chairs placed around the table. Slowly, the board members started to gather. There were four middle-to-senior-aged men and one middle-aged woman taking their seats while Charlotte was bringing tea, coffee and cookies. The room was full of people, and Lee realized that she was the youngest person in the room, as usual. She looked at Charlotte and smiled, remembering the happenings of the day before with Rick when he had thought that she was a new office assistant.

Once everybody had settled in, Jack Clarke, one of the board members, asked, Are we waiting for somebody?

Tracy Cook, another board member, looked around to check who all had joined the meeting. I believe Rick will join us too, she said.

Lee tensed a little bit, as Rick was mentioned on her report as a security threat, with the recommendation to terminate his employment.

Rick finally arrived and looked puzzled on seeing Lee. Dear, you can go now. We will start our meeting.

Tim Smith, the tallest, thinnest and the most pragmatic of the board members, looked at Rick and replied, I believe, Rick, there is a misunderstanding. Lee is our external security officer, who came here to assess our current situation. She conducted her research yesterday and is here to present us with the findings.

As realization crept in, Rick’s face drained of all color like a melting ice cube on a hot summer’s day. Why wasn’t I told about this?

Well, we have been asked by Miss Olivier’s employer to keep it quiet until the research is completed, as only then will it have true value, explained Tim.

Rick coughed uncomfortably and sat on the nearest chair, silenced by the shock.

Right. Lee, could you please present us with your findings? asked Jack.

Lee shared her screen on the projector and started the presentation.

Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, I was tasked to research the security breaches within and outside of this corporation. My first step was to try to infiltrate the corporation by simply getting into the building. I had no problem with that as I was let in by your employee, who simply didn’t know who I was and apparently, didn’t care enough to ask. Once I entered the building, I decided to go straight to the IT department, this being the main target in our assessment. I managed to enter the room without needing any security clearance. Before I entered the room, I was kindly provided with a Wi-Fi password, which hangs on the IT department entry door.

Rick shifted uneasily in his seat.

Lee tried her best not to look in his direction and continued with her findings. So, I already knew how to gain internet access within the building. Then, I simply stood in the center of the room to see if anybody would pay any attention to a stranger standing there. That is when I met Rick. Rick invited me to his office, wrongly assuming that I was a new office assistant. He didn’t clarify with me whether I actually was an office assistant, neither prior nor after our prolonged discussion.

At this point, Rick couldn’t hold it any longer. Hey, lady, the so-called security officer, it isn’t my job to check who walks into the building every day. I—

"I believe it wasn’t your job to introduce a new office assistant to the company policies either, but thank you for the additional information that you provided. It was most useful for me to find out your mother’s maiden name, your first pet’s name and other details. If I were a real hacker, I would be clapping my hands and dancing on the table now with your bank account completely wiped