Chasm Waxing: A Startup, Cyber-Thriller Read online

  The General dipped his head. “Yep, that’s one purpose of the Accelerator, to bring people together.”

  Despite her pushiness, Becca loved her boss. CEO’s had to be pushy. When Becca’s passion for Gamification waned, she would remember Samantha’s work ethic. Samantha aggressively recruited Becca to join Gamification from their previous company. Becca had never felt so needed.

  She continued, “There are no real customers on the test network. Gecko uses their test network to evaluate software, hardware, and networking gear. Even though it’s just a test network, it’s the first time we’ve run Gamification’s software outside our firewall—on a network we don’t own or control.

  “We put a Gamification software agent on every network element on the test network. We call this software, ‘G-Agent.’ When I say network element, I mean every firewall, web server, database server, computer, router, switch, Wi-Fi access point—everything. We even put a G-Agent on an A-Stat thermostat. You know the thermostat you can program over the Internet?”

  The General shook his head yes.

  The wildly successful, Nucleus Corporation, marketed the A-Stat. Nucleus owned the top search engine in the world, the Atom search engine.

  “We also linked the G-Agents to log files on the devices. For example, the G-Agent on the Gecko firewall incorporated information from the firewall’s log. This file records everything that occurs on the firewall, second-by-second.” Firewalls attempted to monitor and control the type of digital traffic on a computer network. “The software operates like any other security software in that respect. It’s always listening, trying to detect malicious activities and prevent bad stuff from happening.”

  Becca walked to the whiteboard. She reached for a black whiteboard marker. “I want to draw a simple architectural diagram of the Gamification Software.”

  First, she drew a large, black rectangle standing on its short end. It looked like one bar of a bar chart. Within the black rectangle, Becca wrote, 'REALSPACE.’ Moving from left to right, Becca etched a fatter, green rectangle. It was longer at both ends than the REALSPACE rectangle.

  Becca stamped this green rectangle as, ‘G-Bridge,’ short for the Gamification Bridge. Finally, to the right of G-Bridge, Becca sketched a blue rectangle. It was the exact same proportion as the black, REALSPACE rectangle. Inside of the blue rectangle, Becca wrote, ‘GAMESPACE.’

  To Becca, the entire architectural diagram looked like a standing stick with two stubby arms. Samantha chided Becca to quit calling it a ‘stick,’ and always refer to it as an ‘angel,’ during company presentations.

  Becca continued, “We call this whole architecture, the Gamification Angel.” Samantha’s eyes gleamed with approval.

  Becca moved back to the original rectangle. “The black wing of the angel is REALSPACE. In the demo, REALSPACE is the world of cybersecurity I just described.” She grabbed a purple marker and penned a bunch of small squares within REALSPACE. “The purple squares within REALSPACE are all the network elements; the firewalls, the routers, and the like.”

  Reaching for a red marker, she drew a small circle in each purple square. “These red circles in the purple boxes are the G-Agents. The G-Agents sit on the network devices within REALSPACE and talk to G-Bridge. So the red circles—the G-Agents—talk to the green G-Bridge. G-Bridge is Gamification System’s secret sauce. It’s the crown jewels of the company. That’s why we always draw it using money green.”

  “The blue GAMESPACE wing of the angel is the virtual gaming world. In this demo, it’s the virtual world of Castle Gecko.” Within GAMESPACE, Becca traced an orange square she named, ‘Game Engine.’

  “I programmed the Castle Gecko game. I used the Unreal Engine. A game engine is a software framework that enables the more rapid creation of video games. With a game engine, you don't have to start from scratch every time you write a game. The Unreal Engine works well with VR. It’s the game engine’s job to interact with G-Bridge and adequately render what’s occurring in REALSPACE. In other words, G-Bridge translates REALSPACE to GAMESPACE. That’s why G-Bridge is the key intellectual property of our company.”

  “Do you support any other gaming engines?” asked Shields.

  “Not yet. We focused on the Unreal Engine. But your question highlights what’s cool about our architecture. Our entire architecture is pluggable and extensible. The key to our flexibility is that we created G-Bridge to expose a very robust API.”

  API stood for Application Programming Interface. API’s were used to help one piece of software communicate with another piece of software code. APIs were critical in the software world. They allowed programmers to talk to a software component, like G-Bridge, without knowing how G-Bridge worked internally. People used APIs every day. Typing ‘http://www.cnn.com’ was an API call. The web browser sent the API call over the Internet to CNN’s webserver.

  “Through this API, G-Bridge can talk to any gaming engine that makes up GAMESPACE. My colleague—Saul Abrams—did amazing work with the API. And on the other end, in REALSPACE, G-Bridge talks to our G-Agents. We have G-Agents for Linux, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and even embedded systems. Ali leads the team that codes the REALSPACE software.”

  Ali Asir still wore a disappointed expression. His software code had broken the demo. While Becca wrote on the whiteboard, he was frantically searching through his source code to find the bug.

  The General paused in thought for a moment. “What I hear you saying is that REALSPACE can be anything upon which I can deploy a G-Agent. And REALSPACE could be more than just cybersecurity?”

  “Yes!” replied Becca. She was excited that Shields was clearly following her presentation.

  “For example,” said the General, “a G-Agent could be put on a drone and talk to G-Bridge. And GAMESPACE can be any game, although right now, all you support is the Unreal Engine. Do I have that right?”

  Becca grinned broadly, “Rig—”

  “That’s exactly right, sir,” said Samantha. “We’re a gamification company. We want to support all types of games in GAMESPACE, and varied scenarios in REALSPACE.”

  “Outstanding,” replied the General. “So Becca, tell me more about GAMESPACE. Walk me through the demo I saw of Castle Gecko.”

  “Ok,” said Becca, as she left the whiteboard and returned to the conference table. “Castle Gecko in GAMESPACE represents the Gecko test network in REALSPACE.” Becca’s pace of speech increased and her face brightened. Becca loved the world of Castle Gecko.

  The beautiful castle, the trebuchets, the swords, the armor, the orc faces; Becca enjoyed creating everything. The detail—the sheer number of pixels she had to render in VR—boggled her mind. Her job was to use the game depicted in the VR headset to completely block out reality. A VR game was successful when the Gamer felt like they were more present in the VR world, than they were in the physical world.

  Becca started hacking when she was 10. Hacking offered her a way to escape the pain of her mom’s death from ovarian cancer. Over time, she moved from a hacker that ran someone else’s software for attacks, to writing her own programs.

  Becca liked the concreteness of writing software. Unlike the real world, she could always find the answer. While other girls were playing house and dressing up dolls, Becca was infiltrating computer networks. But, after 15 years, hacking and programming were becoming rote.

  Something happened to Becca when she created Castle Gecko. The process of imagining a world and filling it with characters was cathartic. Or, maybe it was the romance of the castle and envisioning a prince charming? Something that was dead in Becca was coming back to life.

  Becca continued, “As Team Bravo moved about Castle Gecko, their top priority was to make sure everyone on the test network could do their work. When a network threat—like a virus—is identified, a couple of big things happen. The G-Agent talks to G-Bridge. And G-Bridge communicates to the game engine to spawn the appropriate monster or situation for the attack vector.

  “That’s
the epitome of gamification software; it makes a game out of standard tasks. Like when you check in at a restaurant to earn a badge on A-Friend or Foursquare. We’ve just taken gamification to a whole new level. Typically, all the cybersecurity tasks would be performed by a human security administrator. Those administrators have to watch the network around the clock. That costs a lot of money.

  “Once the threat is neutralized on the network in REALSPACE, and the monster is killed in GAMESPACE, Team Bravo can go back to collecting treasure in GAMESPACE. The treasure they find during the campaign is part of the Bitcoins they earn.

  “They also get Bitcoins as a daily wage, for achieving objectives, and for completing the campaign. There are lots of rewards to motivate them to stay engaged. We switch teams every eight hours. To ensure they keep coming back, we pay the teams at the end of the week.”

  “First, tell your grandma what Bitcoins are?” said the General, with a wry smile.

  Becca rolled her eyes and smirked. “Bitcoins are digital money. You can email the money to anyone in the world.”

  “How do I get Bitcoins?”

  “There are two ways. You can convert currency into Bitcoins, or someone gives you their Bitcoins. You don’t need any personal information to send the Bitcoins. All you need is their Bitcoin address. And they don’t have any of your personal information. The transactions are completely anonymous; well, pseudo-anonymous. Something called, the ‘Blockchain,’ allows every transaction to be viewed by anyone in the world. There’s just no personally identifiable information associated with the transaction.”

  The General frowned. He stared at Samantha menacingly. “So who is Team Bravo? How much are they making? Are they Gamification employees…and what about taxes? Geez, I can see the headline now, ‘NSA Director serves on board of company that thwarts US tax laws.’”

  Samantha gulped. “Like with a lot of new technology, there are some gray areas here. Remember when ride-hailing companies—Uber, Lyft, and Didi—first launched? Or driver-less cars? Or house and apartment sharing through Airbnb? Laws always have to catch up with the technology.

  “I’ve spoken at length with our lawyers and they believe that it’s the responsibility of the Bitcoin recipient to declare the income and pay the income taxes. Our lawyers also believe that Gamers are not our employees. I’ll call them again and see if they can suggest any alternatives.

  “Just to use this demo as an example, the most anyone made was the level 19 Sorcerer. And she made under $800. You can see that paying a Gamer is much cheaper than paying a security administrator.”

  Becca admired how quickly Samantha thought on her feet. She wanted to emulate that trait in her mentor. They were close, and like Becca, Samantha lost her mom at a young age.

  “Do you know the Gamers?” asked the General.

  “No,” replied Samantha. “They need to remain completely anonymous to us—and us to them. Gecko Insurance Company will never buy our software, if the Gamers are aware they’re traipsing around the Gecko network fighting monsters and rogue routers.

  “Going forward, this is a huge issue for our business model. We have human Gamers playing games in GAMESPACE. At the same time, these Gamers are also performing work in REALSPACE. But they don’t know they’re working in REALSPACE. And, we’re not paying them for work in REALSPACE. We’re just rewarding them for playing the game in GAMESPACE.”

  “Maybe we just need robots to perform the job,” said the General, in half-jest. “I want to talk to your attorneys. You’re using Loreal & Hammer, right?”

  Samantha nodded. Loreal & Hammer was a shadowy law firm. General Shields recommended the firm to all the Accelerator’s portfolio companies.

  “Please schedule a secure teleconference with them during next week’s board meeting.”

  “Yes, sir,” replied Samantha.

  General Shields’ cell phone buzzed. “Excuse me. I’ve got to respond to this text.”

  Chapter 3 – General Shields

  6:05 p.m. (EDT), Friday, July 24, 2020 - Columbia, MD

  Suite 601, General Shields’ Office, Defense Innovations Accelerator

  General Bernard F. Shields stood an even six foot, with broad shoulders and a square jaw. He was in his early fifties, very young for such a high-ranking General. Shields sat at the same English Oak desk his father had used as an Air Force General during Viet Nam.

  Most Generals who commanded cyber-forces were “nerdy.” General Shields was not. He saw himself as a digital Patton. He didn’t walk; he sauntered. Shields leaned back in his chair and rested his feet on the desk. Numerous photos of the General with famous people adorned the paneled walls. A special section was dedicated to his family, including his wife of 31 years, Lisa Shields.

  Pictures of his son, Charlie Shields, filled his office. The largest photo was General Shields’ favorite. The blown-up snapshot depicted Charlie’s Navy SEAL graduation in 2014. Navy SEALs were widely regarded as the most elite special operations unit in the world. SEALs conducted extremely dangerous missions, like killing Osama Bin Laden.

  In the photo, General Shields was in full Air Force blue uniform, covered with medals and numerous brightly colored insignias. Lisa snapped the picture. Of course, Lisa wasn’t in the image, but the General could still feel her joy. At the time of the photo, Shields was merely a three-star.

  Charlie wore a gleaming white Navy uniform. He was hugging his dad and pointing to his golden SEAL Trident. His badge signified that Charlie was now a member of that elite community of special operations warriors. Both men’s faces beamed with love and patriotic pride.

  General Shields returned his wife’s text with a call.

  “Bernie, I’ve been sleeping all day. I just wanted to apologize for last night. I think it was the combination of Prozac and alcohol. You’ve told me I shouldn’t mix them, and I keep doing it. I’m going to try to get back into church. I’m sorry I yelled at you, I—”

  “Lisa, I know. I keep telling myself the pain will end. Yet, every day it’s back. It’s like a rain soaked coat hanging in a steam room. It won’t dry. And we can’t take it off. We just got to keep pressing forward.”

  “I know you’re busy,” said Lisa. “I know you’re working your tail off to kill those bastards. Get them Bernie.”

  “I’m trying.”

  “Thank you for understanding.”

  As the General ended the call, he could hear the relief in Lisa’s voice. He didn’t share Lisa’s passion for church. He felt God was for the weak of mind. But, he was in favor of anything that helped her constructively deal with the pain.

  Shields gaze was drawn back towards Charlie’s picture.

  Tears streamed down his face. The General slogged to the wet bar in his office. DIRNSA did two quick shots of Tovaritch! Premium Russian Vodka. It was the only Russian he liked. He dried his eyes with a cocktail napkin.

  In February 2016, a year before General Shields accepted the position as DIRNSA, Charlie Shields was beheaded by the Caliphate, while it was still known as ISIS. The Caliphate was a group of radical Sunni-Islamists. They initially emerged from Al Qaeda in Iraq—AQI.

  Under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, AQI led the Sunni-Iraqi insurgency, baiting Shia-Iraqis into civil war. In 2006, Zarqawi was killed by a 500-pound bomb. Ultimately, AQI was decimated by General David Petraeus’ Iraq War Surge. AQI went underground until the Americans left in 2011.

  Then they reconstituted themselves, filling the vacuum created by the absence of US forces in the region and the Syrian civil war. The ISIS backstory surprised many. ISIS had seemed to appear out of nowhere in 2014, capturing vast tracts of Syria and Iraq. This included Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul. In early 2017—the organization known at various times as AQI, ISIL, ISIS, and the Islamic State—rebranded itself as the Caliphate.

  Special Warfare Operator, 1st Class, Charlie Shields was abducted while advising ‘moderate’ Sunni rebels attempting to overthrow the Shia-led, Syrian government.

&nb
sp; The moderates weren’t really moderate.

  The very same anti-Syrian-government Sunnis the SEALs had trained, betrayed them. The rebels seized five SEALs and handed them over to ISIS. One-by-one, ISIS chopped off the warriors’ heads and posted the heinous videos to A-Tube.

  The public outcry for retribution after the February 2016 executions of US servicemen was reminiscent of 9/11. Already stoked by ISIS sympathizer’s terror attacks in the US, Europe, and Turkey; the public demanded retribution. There were an increasing number of protests against radical Islam and Sharia law.

  However, the US response in the wake of the decapitations was tepid. It was a difficult situation. Completely destroying ISIS would work to the benefit of America’s enemies—Syria and their benefactor, Iran. It would also help Russia. Russia went so far as to call ISIS an American creation.