Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller Read online

  Chasm Waxing –

  A Startup, Cyber-Thriller

  by B. Michaels

  Contents

  Chasm Waxing Part I – Becca, Josh, & the Accelerator 5

  Chapter 1 – Castle Gecko 6

  Chapter 2 – Becca Roberts 9

  Chapter 3 – General Shields 17

  Chapter 4 – The Gecko Explanation 21

  Chapter 5 – The Accelerator 26

  Chapter 6 – Josh Adler 31

  Chapter 7 – No Demo 36

  Chapter 8 – No Pain 39

  Chapter 9 – Samantha Powers 41

  Chapter 10 – The Board Meeting 44

  Chapter 11 – Becca Meets Josh 54

  Chapter 12 – Becca’s Story 62

  Chapter 13 – TextWorld 71

  Chapter 14 – Sunday Meetings 81

  Chapter 15 – Abu Omar 91

  Chapter 16 – Swarmbot Demo 1 102

  Chapter 17 – Swarmbot Demo 2 110

  Chapter 18 – Separation 116

  Chapter 19 – Replaced 125

  Chasm Waxing Part II – Muhammad Rahmati 132

  Chapter 20 – The Commander 133

  Chapter 21 – The Demise of Abu Omar 140

  Chapter 22 – Abu Mosulaydi 149

  Chapter 23 – The Marker 153

  Chapter 24 – Disinformation 162

  Chapter 25 – Tal Azan 170

  Chapter 26 – AVICENNA 180

  Chapter 27 – Crescent Revolution 186

  Chapter 28 – The Ayatollah 190

  Chapter 29 – The Prime Minister 199

  Chapter 30 – Persia 205

  Chasm Waxing Part III – The First Confrontation 210

  Chapter 31 – The A-Car 211

  Chapter 32 – International Travelers 217

  Chapter 33 – The Dig 222

  Chapter 34 – A Copper Scroll 231

  Chapter 35 – The Golden Cave 235

  Chapter 36 – Immunity 243

  Chapter 37 – eM 249

  Chapter 38 – Quantum Probabilities 255

  Chapter 39 – Discovered 261

  Chapter 40 – Blackout 266

  Chapter 41 – The Offer 272

  Chapter 42 – Awaking the Sleeping Bear 278

  Chapter 43 – Reconciliation 282

  Chapter 44 – The Last Visit 285

  Chapter 45 – Trumpet Blasts 287

  Chasm Waxing Part I – Becca, Josh, & the Accelerator

  Chapter 1 – Castle Gecko

  4:50 p.m. (EDT), Friday, July 24, 2020 - Columbia, MD

  666 fiery missiles rained down upon Castle Gecko. The thud of the assault was deafening, as medieval bombs slammed into the walls of the massive castle. The projectiles were stone boulders coated with pitch, tar, and sulfur. Trebuchets—catapults on steroids—launched the blitz. The trebuchets completely encircled Cattle Gecko’s vast moat.

  The stone castle was more like a gothic mall. Its gatehouses, buildings, towers, turrets, and spires spanned three million square feet—a little under 70 acres. Two fortified towers, known as keeps, stood as the highest points on the north and south ends of the castle. No earthly fortress was ever this enormous.

  Fire giants, standing 18 feet tall, prepared the boulders and placed them in the trebuchet’s sling. Zombies, with flesh draping from their limbs, then ignited the bombs and discharged the trigger. Upon release, a 10-ton counterweight fell and hurled the flaming payload at Castle Gecko. All of this occurred in a robotic manner, over and over. The scene was apocalyptic.

  For the last five hours, Team Bravo had explored the deep underground passageways and hidden chambers of Castle Gecko. They gathered treasure and weapons along the way. As long as the interior of the castle—the servants, attendants, and townspeople—could do their jobs, Team Bravo could hunt for riches.

  Today marked the culmination of a five-day campaign for Team Bravo. Until now, the Gamers had never experienced a coordinated, colossal attack of this nature. Sure, they slew the occasional dragon, but the feudal heroes never encountered danger of this size or scope.

  rAzorWire_007 was an eighth level, human Paladin. He possessed Team Bravo’s highest Social Ranking—93. Paladins were a very religious class of Fighters, with a strict moral code. “We’ve got to defend the castle by counter-attacking from the north and south keeps. SoCal, we need your Teleportation Spell!”

  SoCalSheMerlin was a diminutive, nineteenth-level, elf Sorcerer. She had a Social Ranking of 79—and a sharp tongue. “RazorWire, not even Spock could teleport to more than one place at a time.”

  “Alright, teleport all of us to the north keep. Then teleport yourself and the Cleric to the south keep.” The dwarf Cleric’s Gamer tag was, ‘OrderMeMyself&I.’

  “Nice problem-solving skills RazorWire,” said SoCalSheMerlin, “You’re going to go so far in life." Over the deafening crash of the stone rockets, she immediately began the incantation for the Teleportation Spell.

  “Hurry!”

  Whoosh.

  Team Bravo stood atop the north keep of Castle Gecko. A new volley of missiles struck. The drubbing of the castle caused the vibration motors in SoCalSheMerlin’s virtual reality—VR—headset to violently shake. Workers in the courtyard screamed as they scurried to and fro. For the first time in the campaign, the workers were unable to work.

  Instinctively, Krusk.0571 grabbed a silver-tipped arrow from the quill on his back. Krusk was a sixth level, half-orc Fighter. “It’s times like these; I wish I were a full-size orc.”

  SoCalSheMerlin laughed. “Yeah, but without that human mother of yours, you’d be even dumber.”

  “Funny,” said Krusk.0571, not really meaning it. He inserted the arrow on the bowstring of his diamond long bow. Utilizing two wireless touch controllers that communicated with his VR headset; he aimed the bow. The silver tipped arrow flew and struck a zombie. The zombie shrieked and melted away. But another one ran to take his place.

  OrderMeMyself&I surveyed the land. Clerics derived their power from the religious order they served. Like Sorcerers, they cast spells. But unlike Sorcerers, their spells were more defensive in nature than offensive.

  OrderMeMyself&I gasped at the sight. The marauders’ aim was improving. Now, they specifically targeted Gecko’s windows. “It’s no use. We can’t split up. We need some attack magic! SoCal what do you have?”

  “Do I look like the savior of the world?” said SoCalSheMerlin, with a sigh. She raised her wand to cast the attack spell and began the invocation. Just then, projectile shrapnel hit rAzorWire_007 doing six points of damage.

  “SoCal, cast the damn spell!” yelled rAzorWire_007. “If we lose Castle Gecko, all the Bitcoins we’ve earned disappear. I’ve got a family to feed.”

  “Shut-up RazorWire!” said SoCalSheMerlin. “All you’ve got to feed is a neurotic poodle and that AI girlfriend of yours.” AI was short for artificial intelligence.

  With that, she finished the incantation, thrust her wand, and discharged a Meteor Swarm Spell. Fireballs fell from the sky crushing every trebuchet. The impact of the meteors swallowed up the stone giants and zombies, covering them in earthen tombs. Smacking her gum, SoCalSheMerlin said, “That’s how it’s done, boys. It’s a good thing I’m a nineteenth-level Sorcerer!”

  Team Bravo breathed a collective sigh of relief.

  Then, streaking out of the woods, they appeared: 666 well-armored mercenaries galloped toward the moat on pale horses. As they came closer, they aimed their longbows into the sky. The attackers targeted Castle Gecko’s courtyard.

  The swarm of arrows flew over Team Bravo. The bolts hit nobody. Each arrow transformed into a gold coin, just before they struck the earth.

&nb
sp; SoCalSheMerlin shouted to the Cleric, “Those coins are dangerous. You’d better neutralize them. What do you have?”

  “The arrows must be anointed with black magic. That’s the only way they could have transmuted like that. I think an Anti-magic Field will stop the coins from luring the castle workers.” OrderMeMyself&I released the spell.

  Nothing happened. Two workers grabbed coins.

  Becca cursed under her breath.

  Chapter 2 – Becca Roberts

  5:30 p.m. (EDT), Friday, July 24, 2020 - Columbia, MD

  Rebecca, ‘Becca’ Roberts occupied one side of a mahogany conference table. She watched the entire assault on Castle Gecko from her high-backed, leather chair. A 125-inch flat screen monitor depicted the video game war.

  The high-tech conference room contained a number of smaller, flat panel monitors that surrounded the mammoth 125-incher. Each screen displayed the Gamer’s point of view they experienced through their VR headset. Becca watched SoCalSheMerlin’s screen most carefully, as most of the action flowed through the female Sorcerer.

  Becca Roberts liked SoCalSheMerlin. Although she had no idea of SoCalSheMerlin’s age, she thought they could be friends in the real world. They were so similar, sarcasm and all.

  The glare from the polished conference table made Becca readjust the black eyeglasses that hid her pretty face. The petite 25-year-old, dressed up for the demo. She wore a black cardigan sweater and black slacks.

  Becca couldn’t wait to get back into her standard dark blue overalls and flannel. Her closet was full of flannels. The software programmer and hacker had mousy brown hair that she always wore in a ponytail. Appearances were of little concern to Becca. Her passions were hacking, programming—and lately, VR video game development.

  Becca interacted with Team Bravo through a microphone in her wireless headset. She managed the Castle Gecko demo from two, 17-inch Dell laptops. Wireshark, a software tool for packet analysis, ran on one laptop. Metasploit operated on the other. Metasploit was a software program hackers used for penetration testing. Becca employed Metasploit to launch the simulated network attacks on Castle Gecko. She monitored the attacks with Wireshark.

  Both laptops ran the Kali Linux operating system, a Linux variant with hacking tools pre-installed. At least seven terminal windows were open on her laptops. Becca was a consummate multi-tasker. She preferred the certainty of typing commands in the terminal window. It was more precise than dragging a mouse all over the screen.

  “Ali, I thought you fixed the code that dealt with spear phishing?”

  Spear phishing occurred when hackers sent emails with nefarious attachments to selectively targeted individuals. Most hacking attacks started with spear phishing emails. Once the victim clicked the attachment, bad things happened. For example, a virus might be unleashed onto the target’s computer. Or the victim could be tricked into entering personal information into a bogus website. An infamous spear phishing attack targeted celebrities. A hacker sent illegitimate emails to female stars. The phishing emails looked like they were sent by Apple, duping the luminaries into revealing their iCloud passwords. This allowed the hacker to gain access to the starlets’ personal information, including nude photos.

  “I thought I did too,” replied Ali, anxiously.

  Becca tried hard to hide her frustration, but a poker face wasn’t one of her strengths. “Team Bravo, you guys are done.” Within the VR gaming world of Castle Gecko, Becca’s presence was indicated by a flashing ‘G-Master’ icon.

  “G-Master, do we get our money?” asked rAzorWire_007.

  “Yes, I’ll release your Bitcoins by close of business today. Out.”

  “Wait,” said SoCalSheMerlin, “will you raise our Social Rankings?”

  “Yes,” Becca replied, with exasperation.

  Team Bravo logged out of the game. Beep, Beep, Beep. The Gamers were gone.

  Becca Roberts and Ali Asir were the first two employees of Gamification Systems, Inc. Like Becca, Ali was young. His family originated from Turkey, but the software engineer was born in the US. Gamification Systems could only hire US citizens.

  The company’s 35-year-old CEO, Samantha Powers, was seated across the table from Becca. Samantha wore a fitted, crisp white blouse, and black pencil skirt. The CEO had a sleek, blonde bob. She wore small diamond earrings and a diamond tennis bracelet. No rings encumbered her fingers. At five foot seven, her black high-heels accentuated her shapely legs.

  Gamification Systems was conducting its monthly demo for General Shields, Director of the National Security Administration. Shields was one of the most powerful men in the world. He sat at the head of the shiny table.

  Within the Intelligence Community and among his employees, General Shields was known as ‘DIRNSA,’ pronounced ‘durnza.’ Shields had served as DIRNSA for three years. The President of the United States, Thomas Goodson, approved Shields as DIRNSA in 2017. POTUS’ re-election was coming in November.

  Gamification Systems marketed software that applied elements of the video game experience—points, badges, and contests—to corporate environments. Gamification’s product transformed mundane business tasks into something more interesting and engaging.

  The purpose of this demo was to gamify cybersecurity for Fortune 1000 companies. The software world used the word, ‘enterprise,’ to refer to these organizations. Large corporations and government agencies bought enterprise software.

  Samantha gazed intently into the General’s commanding eyes. “We’ll get this fixed.”

  Becca studied the General’s expression. Her peripheral vision always noticed the five stars on both of his shoulders. Today, the stars were attached to his zip-up, blue jacket. The jacket was emblazoned with his name and numerous Air Force patches.

  “I know you will. It’s important that you get this right,” said General Shields, sternly. “However, I will say that your team has made real progress in the last month.” The tension on his face faded.

  “Thank you, General.” Samantha flashed a coy smile at her lead investor.

  General Shields exited his chair and peered out the top floor window of Defense Innovations Accelerator. Defense Innovations Accelerator was the first NSA funded, VC and startup accelerator firm.

  Venture capital firms provided money to young companies in return for stock in the startup. Startup accelerators offered training, provided mentors, allowed access to cutting edge technology, and furnished office space to competitively selected startups.

  A tall chain link fence, topped with rolls of barbed wire, protected Defense Innovations’ six-story building. The sprawling structure didn’t have many windows. NSA police officers armed with MP5 submachine guns, M4 assault rifles, and bomb-sniffing dogs protected the one entry way. It was like a real world version of the Castle Gecko virtual world. Other NSA police were stationed strategically on the campus. The Accelerator was just one mile from NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland.

  The General continued, “You guys are delivering the exact type of innovation that I expected when I testified before Congress to obtain approval for the Accelerator. Becca, give me a Hotwash Report.” Shields chuckled. “Check that, I forgot. I’m across the highway, and this isn’t a military organization. What I meant to say was please tell me what we just saw on the big screen. Act like you’re explaining it to your grandma.”

  Excitement and anxiety pumped through Becca’s veins. Just two years out of college, she already possessed a TS/SCI clearance and was debriefing a 5-star general—a man who regularly met with the President. TS/SCI stood for TOP SECRET/ Sensitive Compartmented Information. It was among the hardest military clearance for contractors to obtain and involved two types of polygraphs.

  As General Shields returned to his chair, Becca cleared her throat. “This demo ran on the test network of Gecko Insurance Company.”

  Samantha interrupted. “General Shields, thank you so much for making that introduction.”