Blind sided, p.10
Blind Sided, page 10
If Charles thought she could not be surprised by anything Clark and Richards might do at this point, reading the names on the next page of the application almost wrenched her out of her chair. She audibly gasped “holy shit” to no one, since her office was otherwise empty:
Air Force General Augustus Lind, American, Department of Defense
Dr. Seymour Cooper, American, chief immunologist, National Institutes of Health
Theresa Janson, American, Presidential candidate
James aka Jimbo Janson, American
Janson-Selene For America, American political action committee
Bray Hall, American, chair of the Janson-Selene for America campaign
And so there it was – not just a “Blame China” strategy, but a plan to spy on an American presidential candidate and her campaign. To actually do what Richards had falsely claimed for several years that Bursan had done to him: spied on his campaign. Bursan wasn’t running for office, but his former Secretary of State was, and that was close enough for Richards.
This FISA application already read like a poorly constructed teenager’s revenge plot, perhaps because that’s exactly it was. Accuse the Chinese of terrorism for unleashing Covid because Richards had so poorly handled the outbreak. Blame Janson and China for some conspiracy to defeat him.. The application was long on conspiracy theories but wretchedly short on supporting facts. Would any self-respecting federal judge grant this way, way out there request?
Charles hovered her Montblanc pen over the signature block, her name typed prominently over the attestation and respectfully submitted lines:
HADLEY MORTIMUS CHARLES,
ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL
__________________________
Would she sign off on this? Could she? And who the hell inserted her never used, dreadful Welsh middle name Mortimus, meaning “dead sea”?
Chapter 18: Mortimus?
Clark stormed into Charles’ office, Charles’ Montblanc pen still suspended over the application. “Jesus Hadley. You still haven’t signed it? We have a presser in 30 minutes and you have a hearing with Judge Torres at 3 pm.”
Charles was annoyed and let it show. “Presser? For what? And who said I’d be ready…”
“Get ready. Presser is with the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. A major arrest is going down at 1 pm local. You and the FBI Director are going to announce it live.” Clark rapidly shoved a press release into her hands. “Here. Sign the damn FISA and then read this on your way. One of your deputies will take the application over to the judge’s chambers while you do the press conference. We got Torres lined up for a goddamned holiday weekend Sunday hearing and we can’t blow this chance!” Charles was angry, not flustered; she had for years trained herself, told herself, admonished herself to not get or appear flustered. She exhaled a deep breath, used her $300 pen to sign the warrant application, leaving out the middle name but using her initial.
She stood up and read the press release announcing criminal charges resulting from a two year long national security and foreign influence investigation. Clark resumed talking. “An FBI agent is in the hallway. She’ll fill you in on some details on the way down to meet the FBI Director and your deputy AG for national security. They’ll both be with you at the press conference and will do the bulk of the speaking. You just need to smile pretty and look tough. That is your specialty, right?” Clark’s facial expression quickly changed to an ear-to-ear smile, his exuberance evident. “Hadley, this is big, huge in fact. And the timing couldn’t have been better. You’re prosecuting a Chinese spy. It’s like a gift from above. A Goddamn gift from heaven!”
Clark unceremoniously handed Charles off to Special Agent Shanell Davies, a tall, muscular black woman, strikingly beautiful in spite of her FBI logo mask. Her finely manicured nails extended down from the tailored sleeves of her dark blue blazer. In fact, the entire jacket looked like it had been custom fit, a rarity among wear it off the rack FBI agents. Her hair had been finely styled. Charles noticed things like that. Those nails, that hair, that jacket Charles thought. Maybe she’d been trained to gouge out a suspect’s eyes without damaging her nail polish. Maybe she just wanted to make an impression.
Agent Davies began explaining the take down about to occur as Clark waddled off to make a few other calls. Clark would station himself at the rear entry door to the Department of Justice’s main briefing room before the presser would begin. Charles had not yet donned her light green specially made mask, but pulled it from her jacket pocket. Davies offered her a fresh DOJ mask. She accepted that and strung it around her ears, even though it didn’t match her outfit. Charles made sure not to snag her earrings. Ugh, such poor quality. Charles made a mental note to have her tailor make her a few masks with the logo of the department she now headed.
“Madam Attorney General. In about 25 minutes, a team of agents is going to arrest Qi Tong Li in Los Angeles on charges related to spying on the United States on behalf of China. She is a 43 year old female with deep ties to the Chinese Ministry of State Security. The investigation has been led by the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force under the direction of Curtis Mays, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. The charges result from a long term investigation into liaisons she has had with at least two members of the United States House of Representatives and at least one senior executive at a US defense contractor. She has been able to extract sensitive and highly classified information used by the United States for its cyber security defense.” Jesus, Charles thought, this agent talks like a press release. “SAC Mays is in route to the arrest scene, so he will not be in the press room with you. Due to DOJ Covid restrictions, only 11 reporters will be allowed in the room. Otherwise you’d have a full house.”
Agent Davies stopped at the elevator to press the down button, for the ride to the press briefing level. She held her right arm up and stated into her sleeve microphone, “Copy that. With AG. Be there in two.”
They stepped inside the glistening grey restricted use elevator, and Agent Davies turned back to face Charles after pressing button B. “Madam Attorney General, I did not mean to presume that you have not been fully briefed on our Covid policies and procedures.” Charles’ mind drifted back to the fine cut of Davies’ blazer, her glistening hair and fine nails. “When we exit this elevator you will be met by FBI Director Louis Gavin and Raphael Seaver, your Assistant Attorney General for National Security. They will escort you to a secure conference room to further unpack the details of the investigation and indictment. They will also be in the press room with you. Addison Jernigan, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, as well as Special Agent Mays’ first deputy from the FBI Los Angeles Field Office, will be participating in the press conference virtually. The grand jury indictment is not expected to be unsealed until later today. Director Gavin will fill you in on any other pertinent details.” The elevator stopped at floor B, and they exited. “That is all the information I have. Best of luck, Madam Attorney General, and welcome to Justice.”
As Agent Davies stepped back into the elevator, Charles found herself face to face with FBI Director Gavin and Assistant AG Seaver. Handshakes were not allowed per DOJ policy, so the Director simply nodded and said, “Welcome, Madam Attorney General. This way.” He extended his arm almost the way a greeter at an expensive restaurant would guide her to her reserved table.
Seaver also simply said, “Madam Attorney General. Welcome aboard.” The walk to conference room B613 was only about thirty seconds, but long enough for Charles to pick up a bit of a disapproving vibe from her deputy and the Director. Although they had both managed to keep their current jobs for just 23 and 28 months, respectively, they were veterans in a law enforcement structure that had been decimated at the top by a wild and out of control President. Gavin had 31 years of FBI service under his belt. Seaver had served under Bush 43’s AG Alberto Gonzales, and from there worked at Homeland Security for several years, so was now a 26-year public servant. In spite of the clown car that Richards often crashed into the top ranks of Justice and the FBI, these two were real deal, career, serious law enforcers.
Gavin opened the door for Charles and followed her and Seaver in. Two Special Agents were already seated. Five thick grey folders were spread around the table. Charles’ eyes were immediately drawn to the large red letters emblazoned on the top and the huge logo in the middle of the cover:
Her mouth was covered by her mask and her eyes did not speak. But, as she would never admit, she did feel her stomach churn from the incredible stress of the moment. Seaver broke the silence.
“If it’s alright, I would like to begin. Please open your folders.”
Chapter 19: Two hackers, two continents, one goal
As the briefing began in the Kennedy building basement, hackers with nothing in common but a goal increased their cyber intrusive efforts. Saltine Mint sat and marveled as Wheat Thin Willie clacked away at his keyboard, switching from encrypted hack-a-chat sessions with fellow JustUS members, to attempting to invade the network of the Janson-Selene for America campaign. For Willie, this was just a job. He had accepted a project on the Dark Web two days ago –$25,000 to embed five emails on the JSFA private server. He would use a chunk of the money to pay rent, buy beer and party, and reserve the rest for expanding JustUS recruitment efforts.
Willie’s three flat screens rippled with codes and lines and vectors – all way beyond what Mint could comprehend. Mint recognized that glazed look on Willie’s face, the occasional, “shit, shit” he would utter. Mint would come and go from the room, knowing Willie would completely lose track of time. After five hours at it, Mint tapped Willie on his left shoulder and said “beer run. Back in a while.” Willie only nodded, vigorously rotating his eyes from screen to screen to screen.
Thousands of physical miles but just a few websites away, Edvard Vasiliev sat before his two screens also working to embed the same five emails in the JSFA mail server. But he and two colleagues in Unit 29155 also had a broader mission - trying to penetrate the CNOVation and Department of Defense email servers to embed a handful of additional emails and text messages, which routinely were backed up to the email server. The firewalls at JSFA were less rigorous and multi-layered than at CNOVation and DoD, so Edvard decided to have three people working on the harder ones. There was no prize money for success for Edvard or his crew; this was just another cyber assignment.
Neither Edvard or Willie paid much attention to what the fake emails and texts said or why the time stamps were important; they just had a project to complete, and their clocks were ticking. Each had to finish by noon US Eastern Time on October 12, Columbus Day 2020. Neither would stop to wonder if there was any irony of a cyber task that could set off more violence and dissension in the US on the day set aside to celebrate Christopher Columbus's arrival and so-called discovery of America in 1492.
As Edvard and Willie continued their efforts, Derek received an update from Hernan Diego, his Chief Information Officer. They stood inside Derek’s secure office to avoid any possibility of their texts or emails being intercepted. Hernan spoke first. “Boss, there are some pretty serious intrusion efforts coming at us from multiple sources. The research databases seem secure. We haven’t found any worm holes or trojan horses or any sleeper programs on the research network or in our cloud. The employees have all been warned again about phishing attacks and not opening any email attachments they don’t recognize. We’ve been monitoring a series of Man-in-the-Middle (MitM), attacks but none that have gotten any data extracted as yet.”
Derek did not seem too fazed. Corporate cyber warfare was business as usual, and the nature and frequency of attacks had increased since the DeeLu virus was announced in July. “Okay, so just keep doing what you’re doing. If they steal anything, let me know. If it’s really sensitive and we get a Red Light event, trigger the shutdown plans.” As with other major companies, and especially one doing sensitive research and possessing government contracts, CNOVation had multiple layers of internet firewalls. They also had a plan to shut down all internet and cloud access in the event of a “Red Light” event, meaning a penetration of any part of their network that could result in the theft of classified or highly proprietary data. Hernan nodded his head.
“We’re all good to go there. But the thing is…” Hernan hesitated. Derek chimed in.
“The thing is what?” Hernan rubbed the side of his neck.
“The thing is, boss, best we can tell, whoever or whatever this is, they’re super focused on our email server. And it looks like they’re trying to embed emails into our network, not extract data.” Derek knew enough about what Hernan and his team did and little enough about how they did it to not ask how they might be able to figure that out. But it also struck him as odd – for about 20 seconds.
“Hernan, can you set up a SCIF meeting for 15 minutes from now? I’m going to try to get Senator Sindel and Ricky on a call.”
“Sure, no problem.”
As soon as Hernan left, Derek sent an encrypted What’s App text to the Senator, simply “talk 15?” He then sent a similar text to Ricky, although that one said “so very sorry to bother. Can u talk in 15?” Derek felt badly texting Ricky at 5:30 a.m., but also knew the odds were pretty high he was already up. As Derek recalled, Ricky was scheduled to leave Hawaii tonight. Even though Ricky had been in a very different time zone for a week, he likely kept his routine of awakening at 5 am local wherever he found himself, as he had for many years.
The Senator and Ricky texted back almost simultaneously with “yes.” Derek then texted via encryption the secure log in for the video call that Hernan had just sent him. Ricky cracked his bedroom door open to make sure Caihong was not in the living room or kitchen. He did not see or hear her, and thought of no reason to alert her to this call. He expected she would be asleep until after the call had ended. Ricky knew his smart phone could handle the video end to end encryption, and that whatever prompted this call had to be serious.
At 11:45 am in Boston, 5:45 am in North Kuai, Hernan opened the secure call.
Derek started by apologizing to Ricky and the Senator for this emergency meeting. “I don’t really even want to go into much detail on this call. I much prefer to do this in person. Ricky, I know it’s a big ask, but is there any way you can divert to Boston for maybe two days rather than head home? We have picked up some, well, unusual activity in our systems.”
Ricky responded. “Derek, do you remember the first time we spoke? You asked me to divert to Boston for two days from a planned trip to China.” That jogged Derek’s memory.
“Oh yeah. That’s right. I did.” Ricky smiled. Derek added. “That trip worked out quite well I think.”
Ricky responded. “In many ways, yes it did. I will discuss this with Caihong, but as I have no job to return for and she has a lot of work awaiting her, I see no harm in coming to see you and my friends in Boston.” The Senator chimed in.
“That’s great, Ricky. You’ve always been such a team player.”
Derek added. “Agreed.” Then the Senator continued.
“Ricky, I don’t know how much you’ve kept up with what’s been going on here on the political side, but it’s been absolutely nuts. I’d say grab a few papers and read up on your way here.”
Ricky nodded. “I have followed some.”
Derek jumped back in. “Great. Ricky again, thanks a million. We’ll email you a ticket in a few minutes. Please apologize to your lovely fiancée for me.” With that, Hernan disconnected the call.
Ricky looked at his suitcase on the floor, and the clothes he had started folding to pack. He had shorts, polos, tee shirts, three pairs of slacks for dinners, and two Hawaiian shirts Caihong insisted he buy when they arrived. He had nothing for the much cooler weather of Boston. He figured he could pick something up in the hotel gift shop, maybe a hoodie.
As he began packing, he heard Caihong in the kitchen preparing tea. He walked out to greet her. How beautiful she is, how lucky I am, is all he thought. She turned and kissed him gently on his left cheek. Even after this wonderful week together, he blushed. “Is everything alright, darling? I thought I heard you on the phone?”
He held her left hand, until the tea began to whistle. “I hope I did not wake you.” She shook her head no. “Everything is fine, except…” She turned the tea pot off, then turned back to him.
“Except?” She could tell from his voice, eyes and demeanor that he was concerned.
“Except, Caihong, my boss … Derek … my former employer has a problem. In Boston. You know who I mean?” She nodded her head affirmatively. “He has asked me to go there. Just for two days.” Ricky heard himself speaking apologetically, asking if he could go, not stating he would. She did not even blink.
“Then by all means, Ricky, you should go.” She smiled and turned to begin steeping their teas. With the water pouring through the filters in the tea service, she turned back, still smiling, no trace of disappointment or anger on her face. Was she upset? “Is there a problem with the vaccine?” Ricky thought only of how beautiful she is, how exceptional, and not for a split second of the non-disclosure agreements he had signed with DoD and CNOVation.
“Well … I do not know. I have no reason to think so. But I know Derek and Senator Sindel and it has to be something very important for them to make such a request. All they said was some unusual activity in our systems. I took that to mean in the computer networks.” Caihong smiled. Simultaneously, the two FBI agents and Hopena, all of whom were electronically eavesdropping, also smiled. They had some real information. Not much, but something to report to their superiors.
