Page 76 of The Devil's Ransom

“A group called Dark Star. They’ve been hacking companies for a couple of years, but it’s always been small-time attacks. They’ve never attacked a government system.”

Hannister looked at him and said, “Dark Star? Is that what you said?”

“Yes, sir. We have a dossier if you want to see it.”

“I don’t need it. Tell Alexander Palmer to come in.”

Palmer entered, rubbing his face from sleep and saying, “What’s the crisis of the day?”

Palmer saw the president’s expression and said, “What is it?”

“Get George Wolffe on the phone. I want Pike Logan operational right now.”

Chapter44

I was all set to head up to the outdoor swimming pool for dinner and a beer, one more successful mission under my belt, when my phone dinged with the tone reserved for the Taskforce. I checked the message and saw a command to connect via our encrypted VPN.

Jennifer came out of the bathroom wearing a robe over a swimsuit, saying, “Do they have pool towels, or do we take our own?”

I showed her the phone and said, “I don’t think I’m going to the pool.”

We’d spent most of the night executing the mission as commanded, completing the search of the apartment and putting the fear of God in Rodavan. We’d let him go and then had exfilled the crisis site, returning to the Radisson Blu hotel on the outskirts of town just as dawn was arriving. I’d told everyone to get some rack time, then sent a detailed SITREP of the mission back to the Taskforce. It had hit their servers at midnight their time, but that was over twelve hours ago. It was just after one o’clock in DC now, and Wolffe would have read that thing as soon as he showed up to work, so while I hoped mightily, I didn’t think this had anything to do with the report.

This was something else.

I said, “Why don’t you head on up with the rest of the guys. I’lltake this and meet you when it’s over, but you’d better lay off the rum and Cokes just in case.”

She laughed and said, “No way. I’m not leaving until I see what the call is about. But the pool bar closes in two hours. Just sayin’.”

I turned on my laptop and started the intricate authentication dance for our Taskforce encryption, saying, “Well, if you’re staying, don’t get on camera. The last thing I need is Wolffe questioning me on why you’re running around in a bikini and a bathrobe.”

She grinned and I saw the link beginning to do its handshake, showing me our systems were up and running again. I said, “Do me a favor and let the team know what I said about the alcohol, in case this is some emergency.”

She nodded, and the screen cleared, showing me Blaine Alexander. I said, “Hey, sir. What’s up? Did you not get the SITREP?”

He said, “We did. Stand by for George Wolffe.”

Which was a little ominous. I was hoping I’d just forgotten to cross ator dot aniin the situation report. Maybe get a question or two, then relax by the pool with the team.

Wolffe sat down behind the computer and said, “Read the SITREP. You guys are clean?”

“Yes, sir. No drama on exfil, and I think we sent the message POTUS wanted.”

“Well, that message clearly didn’t get through. Dark Star has hit again, only this time they’re attacking the Auriga space company.”

“So what’s that mean for us? I let Rodavan go, and Pushka, the guy who does the actual penetrations, is dead. Let them sort it out on their own. Is President Hannister really going to start using us in a game of Whac-A-Mole every time someone is hit with ransomware?”

“It’s a little bit worse than that. They didn’t penetrate corporate headquarters. They hit the launch systems for a spacecraft—after the thing had left earth.”

“You mean that civilian launch this afternoon? Well, I guess morning for you guys? It was on the television a couple of hours ago.”

“That’s the one. It’s going to be catastrophic if we can’t fix those computers, and the problem we have is that we just hit the very people who would be collecting the ransom. The ones whocouldfix it. In other words, there’s nobody to pay now, and we need to stop it the hard way.”

“Can’t you tell the Maverick inside the capsule to start doing some pilot shit? Abort the flight and come back home?”

“No. The geniuses at Auriga tied everything into their launch facility. Without those computers, the thing is just free-flying without any commands.”

“I find that hard to believe. Surely someone can do something.”

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