Triple Threat by H. L. Wegley Read Free Book Online Page A

out the reports, and bring them to me. I’ll work from another list, and we’ll log the report information at 11:00 AM. Then you can take me out to lunch.”
    “Did anybody ever tell you you’re presumptuous? And bossy, too.”
    “No handsome young man ever has before.”
    Her remark brought a smile to his face. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re a flirt?”
    “Only if that’s what you’re calling me.”
    “Forget it. I’ll take you out to lunch.”
    “And tomorrow, I’ll take you. Let’s get to work.”
     
    ****
     
    Before Katie realized it, three hours had passed and Josh had printed out an inch-high stack of reports.
    He walked over to her desk and laid several reports side-by-side. “This is pretty interesting. If we can identify these organizations by their real IP addresses, we’ll know who’s communicating with whom.”
    “Normally, we would need some classified documents from NSA or the CIA to identify the organizations. But I’ve created my own database. It isn’t classified…yet. At some point, we’ll need to give it to the FBI, but I’m not sure they could use it in its present form. Maybe when our software is a little more user friendly.”
    “Are you saying the FBI doesn’t have the resources to—”
    “They cannot currently replicate my work. Not to my knowledge. This is original research, Josh. It has to be, or I have no dissertation. I keep my database encrypted, locked up, and hidden on a tiny flash drive and you have to keep my little secret.”
    “Like I said, you’re a scary woman, Kate.”
    “What happened to beautiful?”
    He scanned her face. “Nothing.”
    She smiled back at him. That wasn’t her normal response to a flirtatious man. She was Katie Brandt, the girl who used to throw rocks at boys who ogled her. With Josh, things were different, much different. “Before lunch we’ll run these correlated nodes against the database. That should give us one more cluster of conspirators. But identifying them still doesn’t tell us what they’re planning.”
    “Something tells me you’ve already come up with an idea for doing that.”
    “Maybe. But I’m going to need your help. First, let me show you what I found out about communications with our Boko Haram shooter.”
    “So he wasn’t a lone wolf?”
    “No. He was funded by a terrorist group and manipulated into attempting a mass murder of children. But in the grand scheme being plotted, he was only a peon. I was able to decrypt the final message they sent to him. It was clever, but not sophisticated. They coded their messages in the text sent via HTTP, so they can penetrate a lot of barriers, like firewalls and proxy servers.”
    Josh rubbed his chin. “But that means the encryption scheme is probably pretty simple. So we should be able to decode it.”
    “And it is.” Kate slipped a sheet of paper from a manila folder on her desk. “Here’s the message sent to the Boko Haram shooter. They simply used a five—five—five word spacing. I’m assuming it symbolizes the five pillars of Islam. These people are really into using symbolism for what, how, when, and where they do things.”
    “So what steered you to word-spacing patterns?”
    “I started by circling any words that seemed forced or unnatural in the text. Then I looked for patterns and for a rationale for the patterns. But let me finish identifying the organizations in these reports. I need a few more minutes.”
    Josh looked over her shoulder as she worked.
    In five minutes she had compiled a list of IP addresses in a text file. She queried her database using the addresses and waited.
    Josh sat down beside her. “How long until—”
    “Here they come, Josh. Four locations, four somewhat imprecise locations. Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and somewhere in Western Canada.”
    “But this is just raw traffic, Kate. Packets being routed to IP addresses. We’re only catching pieces of messages as they go by.”
    “I know. Just like I did with the