Connection (34 page)

Steven Weathers seemed thoughtful and then spoke. “I think she is right but I can see workarounds. We may be able to project different frequencies at the same time or manipulate the fields. I would have to try some simulations but we finally have real data to work with. We would need multiple emitters around the ship…I have no idea about harmonics or anything in these frequencies. We may be able to use resonant repeaters to limit wiring everywhere – maybe every other one powered – we’ll just have to see.”

Mayer was very upset. He had paid for operatives to go to Mars and they had disappeared. It wasn’t the money – money was trivial yet pivotable. It was not being in control that was execrable. He hated it because large amounts of money typically brought control and control was all-important. He felt sure it was Kobe – Robert Kobe. No one was that smart though. He must have had help from a government…or governments colluding. The family had said that their only real threat was if there was a conspiracy against all the families at once. The elders had instructed him to defund all assets of Kobe and his friends. It shouldn’t be too hard. He would have his hired guns – the Russian hackers – transfer all Kobe’s assets to his rivals. He sent a seemingly innocent message… ‘rob’. He laughed without mirth – rob was short for the Rob Robert plan. He wouldn’t have to even pay the hackers. He told them they could have twenty-five percent of any monies transferred. The hackers, in turn, got protection from associates of the wealthiest families on the planet. It would mean billions going to support floundering Russian and Asian politicians. It would strengthen the family position in those governments.

                                                                        ****

Cassandra Node, Paris to Mars

The computer monitoring the targeted traffic from the families noticed that an apparent initiation event had occurred. Cassandra’s network had calculated a 78% probability of a homicide attempt against Robert Kobe on Mars. Those operatives had been tracked and eliminated enroute. They would not trouble anyone since space travel was dangerous – very. There had been a 33% probability that the families would attempt to sabotage Kobe’s capital assets. There was an 85% probability that they had surmised Kobe had been involved with their troubles in some manner. The node alerted the network that prepared the responses.

                                                                        ****

Mayer smiled in anticipation. The assault on Kobe’s finances would be commencing any moment and he looked at the control room suite in the addition built under of the gardens. It had certainly been worth the trouble to fire the building. It had been repurchased after the arson at a fraction of the 80 million Euros it had been sold for in 2013 from the arrogant Saudi. The difference in sale price had allowed a lavish restoration of the classic mansion from the inside out. The security walls had been raised around the building and a parking garage built underneath. The interior was gutted and replaced with comfort amenities of modern design. It was tiresome living with the baroque furniture of yesteryear. Art had been brought in from other areas and it was exquisite but the interior was now 21th century except the public foyers. The viewscreens around the room would shortly tell-the-tale of the demise of Robert Kobe’s little empire.

Ah ha, Mayer thought. The transfers were beginning. Kobe’s funds were going to shore up corrupt politicians in Russia and Eastern Europe. Property was being escheated back to the Caribbean governments. He would have liked to see the stock prices on Kobe Industries. He told his computers to list assets belonging to the ‘new’ Sol Force. He wanted to see them devastated.

Wait, wait! He thought. Kobe’s assets were being transferred but it was to the opposition parties in Eastern Europe and Asia. They’re sending it to the wrong place. He shouldn’t worry as the hackers would soon deplete his accounts. No. Mayer leaned forward and tapped the screen – like that would do anything. No – his accounts are going up. Where was the money coming from? Oh no! Maybe the hackers were taking it from HIS OWN accounts. A quick query and the display of his assets calmed him down. His assets were steadily going up. He didn’t worry too much about that unless it became more than 5% in a day. His families’ legacy was the incremental accumulation of wealth and power over generations…wealth stealthily accumulated so as not to alarm the madding crowds. He certainly didn’t want the unwashed hordes looking into his finances. He wondered where all the funds were coming from. Kobe must have had more hidden assets than he discovered. Good…now let’s review those stock prices and Sol Force balance sheets.

Mayer concentrated on the Kobe asset balances. There was a bit of latency in getting these figures because they were only revealed though hacks into the banking systems and it was not constant monitoring as continuous data streams were more easily traced he was told. “What! No…no…NO! This can’t be happening. Kobe’s balances were ticking upward. Where was the money coming from? Mayer had a bad feeling about this as his Dex indicated a personal call from Franklin.

“Hello Franklin. What can we do for you today?” Mayer asked.

“You can stop trying to pull this over on us. Were you thinking it was time to put the other families out of business?”

Mayer was puzzled. “What are you saying?”

“We have been watching our monies, our bearer bonds, our properties disappear and show up in
your
accounts and in hackers accounts. We have watched our money dwindle and your money set up shell accounts we can trace. Did you think we wouldn’t have our own experts?”

“I’ve told you. It is Robert Kobe. He was the one getting the money. His accounts are growing. I’ve made it so he will be losing all his money, not you. I hired Russian hackers to delete his funds,” Mayer said. He was very confused and angry. He had done this at the behest of the families.

“We see his funds are increasing but we are seeing it is miniscule compared to what you have taken from us. We are letting you formally know that you will restore us soon or…”

“I will get to the bottom of this,” Mayer said.

“…or you’re going to be under the bottom…” Franklin threatened and cut the connection.

                                                                      ****

Kobe Labs, Mars

Cassandra? What did you do? We have almost a trillion dollars in our accounts?  Tell me what you did?

[The banking cartel was going to delete all our funds. I helped them along.]

Okay. What did you do?

[I simply spoofed a lot of the hackers account numbers. I gave the hackers access to the families – the ruling oligarchy’s – financial resources. I made it look like the Rothschilds were bleeding the Bruce, Cavendish, Krupp, Hanover, Warburg – yada yada family accounts and padding their own. I made the trails easy to follow. Most of the hackers thought they were taking
your
money when they were accessing somewhere else entirely with the families’ passwords and account numbers.]

Robert chuckled at the subcutaneous conversation while rubbing Twlise’s feet in their apartment on Mars. So, every time they tried to transfer our money – the hackers took some oligarchy assets and transferred some to me and the Rothschilds. How did you learn to do that? You didn’t come up with all this on your own did you?

[I took EdX and Coursea courses online at first. I got the equivalent of several PhDs in computer architecture and programming. I liked the SANS courses on hacking and as I delved into the deeper parts it became easier. Online classes are fun when you have virtually unlimited computing time to ‘learn’ the material…it helps if you’re not bored easily as some of the material would cause a human to commit seppuku. I had a whole network of clones and unlimited cloud storage. It is going well. I paid tutors to teach me from afar. They thought they were teaching spoiled rich kids.]

I’m really proud to call you a friend Cassandra. You are way cool. How do you think they’ll respond?

[There is a 12% probability that there will be total disruption of the oligarchy. There is a 91% chance of a disruption of several years of their activities. I have also released some of their failsafe blackmail material against many of their political and military pawns. That alone ought to stir the pot and remove some troublemakers. I will keep you informed. The Sol Force is now fully funded for expansion.]

Thanks Cassandra – you too Nemesis. I feel you are drifting a bit in personality and I’m able to tell you apart a little – like identical twins you know intimately. Thanks.

Robert turned to Twlise and curled up behind her on the bed. He felt like another shoe was about to fall – uneasily he lay, thinking. It had been pretty tiresome walking in heavy gravity but he was strong again. He would make sure his personnel grew stronger over time. All ships crews would build to 1.5 gravities for periods every day while training. They could ease up when suit sensors indicated stress was about to damage them. He finally decided things were okay and drifted off to a fitful sleep.

                                                                   ****

Releasing the Kracken (Six months of simmering)

The Sol Force ship landed at the Air Force Research Lab strip at Wright-Patterson in Ohio. Work crews rushed up to the ship with their bundles of computer hacking gear and started unattaching the access plates inside the cockpit. Mass spectrographs and grinders started trying to ascertain the material of the hull which had already cooled. A large enclosure of mesh was thrown around the ship and electrified.The pilot in her Sol Force suit strutted away from the ship into the waiting vehicle.

The body of her co-pilot was unceremoniously removed and put into another truck which had disgorged explosive ordinance team and their equipment. The dead man’s flight suit was treated with more respect than the body. There were plenty of humans on Earth but very few Sol Force suits. Any tech more advanced than Earth was targeted. Every device was catalogued and recorded. The disassembly of the ship would take place after the computer was totally disabled. It had been isolated by the pilot stating she needed training if the hull was breached and she had to remove dangerous material after a hull breach.

                                                                    ****

“Well Lieutenant Wokowski. You knew what the score was when you decided to save the Earth from this meglamaniac – Kobe. You knew you’d have to risk your life and others to get us their technology,” Major Simmons stated matter-of-factly.

“You don’t need to call me by my Sol Force rank, major. I am still not over having to kill Oscar Jones. We went through training together and it was tougher than anything required on this planet,” said the pilot.

“Okay…Joyce. No rank. Have you told us everything you know about the technical details of making ‘metacrete’ and the grav plates? Did they add self-destructs to all the bias drives they installed or did they suspect you? How did they get the computer to self-destruct? We blocked all electromagnetic signals when you landed with a Faraday cage. Did you give that computer orders to destroy itself… and then destroy the bias drive? Are you sure you didn’t have last minute qualms that you acted on?”

“Look. I did my part. You said I could be with my parents if I returned with one of the Sol Force ships. I did that. Your techs had to have done something to get the computer to kill itself. All the ships have self-destructs on the bias drives. You said you always keep your word. I want to see my parents. I want to now. I’ve been here a week. You have the grav plate tech, the quantum communications, the suits – I’m sorry your tech is so lame that you can’t figure out the rest. I want to see my parents!”

“I do keep my promises Joyce…always,” said Major Simmons. “I said you’d be with your parents…not see them…but maybe you will,” he said and nodded to the soldier behind her.

She started to speak.

The soldier behind her pulled his handgun and shot her in the lower back of her skull.

“Good shot Cooper. That angle didn’t even mess up her face.”

“Story on this one Major?” asked Cooper who had holstered already.

“Another berserk Kobe fanatic…crashed her ship while trying to escape with our secrets.”

“Very good sir. I’ll take care of the cleanup. Too bad she didn’t know more about that metacrete stuff or that interstellar drive.”

                                                     ****

Kobe Labs, Mars

Robert and Tod were talking about the latest developments and Casandra and Nemesis were talking through both their subcutaneous communicators.