going to find her in time.”
“How do you plan for us to go about that?” Jax asked.
“First, we’re are going to use a classic hacking strategy against them.”
“Oh, please tell me you’re thinking of doing an MITM,” Wally begged, using praying hands for extra effect. “Please?”
“What’s an MITM?” Kira asked.
“In hacking terms, a man-in-the-middle attack, or a MITM,” I explained. “It’s where a hacker gets inside the communication channels of their target and relays, and possibly alters, the communications between two parties who believe that they are directly communicating with each other. One example of a MITM attack is active eavesdropping, where the attacker makes independent connections with the victims and relays messages to make them believe they’re talking to each other over a private connection, when, in fact, the entire conversation is being controlled by the hacker.”
“That sounds so cool,” Mike said. “But can we do it?”
“We can, but only if we’re able to intercept all relevant messages passing between the targets, and inject new ones, using intelligence gained from listening to their communications,” I said. “Oh, and we must convincingly impersonate each person to the other.”
“Wow. No pressure,” Kira said.
I sighed. “Unfortunately, tons of pressure.”
“So the goal is for us to get them to tell us where your mom is being held while they think they’re talking to each other,” Hala said.
“Exactly.”
Jax leaned forward in the chair, his hands on his legs. “Okay, guys. How exactly do we do this MITM?”
I hadn’t had a lot of time to think it through, but time was a luxury at this point, so I had to think off the top of my head. I was getting my first taste of operational planning on the fly.
“First, we have to figure out who’s talking to Remington and how,” I said. “Then we need to know when they talk, or if they have a way of being alerted when they have to communicate. Then we have to intercept those communications.”
“That sounds simple, sort of, but how do we do that?” Bo asked.
“Bug them, and I mean electronically. Their houses, their cars, their phones. We need information on them, and we need it now.”
“Whoa.” Wally held up his hands in a time-out sign. “Let’s back up. I’m going to remind everyone that we’re talking about physically surveilling and bugging high-placed executives of the NSA, one of the most secret, and electronically sophisticated, organizations in the world, not to mention one of the sponsors of UTOP? If we get caught, we could be in serious trouble.”
“So, we don’t get caught,” Jax said easily.
“Wally, your concern is legit,” I said. “I know it’s dangerous. But this is my mother’s life we’re talking about.”
“Then let’s get planning,” Frankie said. “We know it’s dangerous, and we know who we’re up against. Now we need to know what the mission is and who to surveil. After that comes mission planning and preparation, and finally the fun stuff.”
“The fun stuff?” Hala asked her.
A smile crossed Frankie’s face. “Mission execution. Maybe there’ll be another chance for me to drive.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
ANGEL SINCLAIR
“It’s time to talk,” I announced.
We’d all caught a few hours of sleep after I insisted everyone go to bed. It wasn’t enough to do us much good, but better than nothing. I’d caught less than that because I’d stayed up creating the mission plans. I’d finally fallen asleep, only to be woken at eight a.m. by my dad’s burner cell. I quickly passed him the information we’d collected on Ghat and Sampson, then obtained one-time-use-only information on where to send him the NSA directory.
He’d promised to call me soon with an update and reminded me to stay out of things. I hadn’t responded.
I’d woken everyone shortly thereafter. Now everyone was present, I began outlining the mission plans.
“We’re going to work in pairs today,” I said. “Hala and Bo, you’ll be assigned to surveil Remington. Jax and Frankie, you’re assigned to Ghat. Mike and Kira, you take Sampson. Wally and I will set up the communication center here and try to get the necessary equipment needed for the operation. As you know, typically, surveillance takes days. Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury. We’re going to have one day. So try to note everything you can about your target that might help us. We’re going to have to hope we get lucky. Keep your eyes open for the littlest detail. No telling what might be important.”
Everyone took the files I provided on the subjects and drove off, while Wally and I set up