Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 45: Under Fire
CHASTITY GOT THEM OUT of Provincetown on a private seaplane at four in the afternoon. They landed at Boston Harbor and caught a taxi to the airport. The flight from Boston had a connection in Newark and then to Pittsburgh, but they managed to get to the apartment about midnight. Henry had periodic updates with Darrel and Scott. Scott had his security team in full operation. Conrad and Rebecca were both in the office with Darrel.
Henry planned to go directly to the office, but they all encouraged him to get some sleep first. The counterattack software was having difficulty tracing the attack.
“They seem to have learned from the last major attack,” Conrad said when he talked to Henry. “They’re using a rotating series of proxies so by the time the protection AI traces through about five proxies, the attack has changed to a different set. It’s clever for protecting themselves, but it’s also easier to shut them off as soon as they make contact. We are rotating open ports on the server. They have to try again to get another port, so they don’t have time to search for another before we’ve worked down the chain of proxies.”
“Shut down everything that’s non-critical for the search. All company computers offline,” Henry instructed. “Then do a hot upgrade of the server to the newest version of the counterattack AI. Make sure San Jose has it ready to launch as well.”
“Got it. See you in the morning.”
Henry did not go to bed immediately. Lisa and Chastity expected him to go straight to the office, but instead he went to the fourth floor lounge with his laptop. He looked at the clock and then decided to make the call he’d been anticipating with dread.
“Schwartz,” came the abrupt answer to the call.
“General, I need to know if Open Cloak Design is still considered a military asset,” Henry said without further preamble.
“You’ve not shipped the code for the new network defense system,” Nathan said carefully. “I would have to say that with secret military development being undertaken in your facility, you are still a military asset.”
“This military asset is under cyberattack. We are preparing a counterattack, but the attackers are cycling proxies. We’ve not yet definitively identified the source, but have deployed the new counterattack software on our servers so we can strike when there is a confirmed target.”
“Do you have an idea of where the attack is coming from?”
“It appears to be coming from Russia, but we have not yet identified a single IP address.”
“Henry, do not destroy Russia’s computer grid!”
“No, sir. You know the commercial software is restricted to one degree of separation. With the nature of this attack, I’m afraid that will not be enough. These guys are pretty savvy.”
“I’m on my way to Pittsburgh. I’ll see you at the office at 0530.”
“I’ll be there, sir.”
The call ended abruptly. Henry relaxed. He’d called in the cavalry. It seemed silly to think that the cavalry was armed with the weapons he’d sold it, but he’d consider the irony of that later. In the meantime, he launched his private search engine from his laptop.
Both Page Services and Open Cloak were under attack. Page Services was owned by Open Cloak now, but the only thing being served on behalf of the company was Pythia Speaks. Henry began his searches with ‘Known opposition to Open Cloak Design.’ He launched a second search while the first was still running. ‘Known opposition to Pythia Speaks.’
It only took a few minutes before he had refined the searches so that he could compare them. The summary spoke volumes.
“Rev. Daniel Reeves of the Sword of the Spirit Evangelical Church (formerly Texas Fundamental Congregation, renamed in April 2029) has frequently spoken about both Pythia Speaks and Open Cloak Design, decrying artificial intelligence and the ‘antichrist oracle’ it spoke through. He has rallied thousands of members of his congregation to boycott and obstruct the two in any way they can.”
Henry entered his next search. ‘Connections between Rev. Daniel Reeves of the Sword of the Spirit Evangelical Church and Russian computer hackers.’ The search engine brought up a news announcement that the church had broadened its streaming online with audiences in thirty-two countries, including Russia. Henry let the search continue running as he went to bed and cuddled next to Lisa for three hours.
Henry arrived at the office at five-twenty with Chastity and a couple of three-quart coffee thermoses. It would get the day started off with a jolt. General Schwartz showed up at the elevator before they’d gone up.
“General, welcome,” Henry said.
“I hope that’s strong coffee you are carrying.”
“Lots of it, sir,” Chastity said. Schwartz was in uniform and was an imposing sight.
“I figured I’d better give this an official look as an attack on a military asset,” he said. “We’ll do a couple of photos when this is over and a press release that will keep you clear of repercussions. Let’s just make sure we don’t go too hard.”
“I appreciate your guidance, sir.”
They arrived in the office and Rebecca came out of Conrad’s office. She was startled by the general’s presence and almost snapped to attention. She was in blue jeans and a T-shirt, though, and didn’t salute.
“General!” she exclaimed. “Please excuse my attire. We were called in yesterday afternoon to deter an attack.”
“And is the attack deterred?”
“Not yet, sir. We believe we have an IP address, however. The network defense is working, though the enemy is using additional subterfuge,” she said.
“What can we do with a single IP address, Henry?” Nathan asked.
“We can put that computer out of business,” Henry said. “We are pretty sure there are at least a hundred computers involved in the attack.”
“Rebecca, what is the status of the deployment of our military counterattack software?”
“The military version, sir?” Rebecca said. It was obvious she was not expecting the general’s presence and that she and Conrad were cooking something up. “Sir, we were preparing the final test of our version before locking it down for transfer to the Pentagon.”
“Where was this test to take place?”
“Sir, version 0.91a has been deployed on this company’s servers.” She hesitated.
“And?”
“And also at the server farm in San Jose,” she said quietly.
“Good work. Let’s see what we can verify.”
They all poured cups of coffee and went into the conference room where Darrel had the large screen projector showing a split between messages being received from the software in Pittsburgh and that displayed in San Jose.
“Henry, Nathan, it’s good to see you both. Henry, I’m sorry we cut your honeymoon short,” he said.
“We were supposed to get back today,” Henry said. “It’s just something I want our attackers to pay for. I don’t even want to know how much Chastity had to pay to get us back early.”
“I’m more concerned about what Isobel will say,” Chastity said as she poured a cup of coffee for Darrel. “I plan to expense it.”
“Conrad, I understand we have an IP address?”
“Yes, Henry. It’s IPv6—128-bit protocol. So, its security is higher than an average hacker. Fortunately, the AI is tracing directly through it now to determine what other devices are connected,” Conrad said.
“Here’s another address for you to check and cross reference,” Henry said, sliding a slip of paper across the desk. “Is there any sign that the hackers know we’ve traced them?”
“Nothing obvious,” Darrel said. “They seem to think we have to backtrack through their proxies each time in order to counterattack. We are watching this one computer directly without showing our presence.”
“Do we have visual?” Nathan asked.
“Yes, sir,” Rebecca answered. “We have a direct feed from the hacker’s camera and a link to his display.”
“How’d we do that?” Henry asked.
“That’s military grade hacking,” Nathan chuckled.
Both audio and video appeared on an inset. They could see a hacker focused on the computer with the results being shown on the corporate server display. They could hear him speaking in Russian.
“I have contact with the second IP address,” Conrad said. “It is definitely engaged in the attack on Page Services and has a second degree link to the other IP.”
An inset appeared in the Page Services window with another hacker answering the first.
“They’re in the same location!” Schwartz said.
“See if we can get an estimate of how many computers are engaged in the attack,” Henry said.
“With as sophisticated as this attack appears to be, I’d say we need to respond with a complete wipe of the involved systems,” Nathan said. “Do you have something that will accomplish that, Henry?”
“Yes, sir. We did a significant upgrade of the optimization software before we released the network version. We upgraded the code that was used in the last counterattack. Of course, the few attacks we’ve had since then were countered with a slap on the wrist version.”
“Of course. I think you can load the full wipe version as soon as we know the depth of our target.”