Bug Out! Part 7: Mile High Motorhomes (15 page)

Frank listened as he worked, putting the second chip back and grabbing the third.

“Wonder why he doesn’t have good Wi-Fi there, then?” Jane asked.

“Probably too expensive,” Jerry said, chuckling. “That guy’s Mr. do-it-yourself. I’ll bet it’s hard to squeeze a penny out of that old codger.”

Frank cracked up. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Maybe we ought to take up a collection. I wouldn’t want him to dump the satellite internet, though. Cables are easy to cut, and all we need in order to see the cretins on his PC is that satellite internet connection he has. Speed won’t make any difference…and as long as we have LTE at the park, the mobile devices will work.”

Frank put the third one back and picked up the fourth, then the fifth. Soon he was finished with all of the chips in the plastic bags.

“They all holding to the same file parameters?” Jasmine asked.

“Yes. Step one will be a lot easier than I thought,” he said.

“Does Simon Orr’s chip look any different than the others?” Jane asked.

“Impossible to tell until I break the encryption,” Frank said. “Hey, Jerry, got any pens with a finer tip? I’m down to the loose chips.”

“I’m not sure, let’s have a look,” he said, picking up the plastic bin again.

“Doesn’t have to be permanent.”

“Here’s one…might be a little dry, though,” Jerry said. He handed it to Frank.

“This’ll do,” he said, marking on the first of the loose chips. He worked his way through the rest of the chips.

“How are you going to break the encryption?” Jane asked.

“I’ve got a program that I can use,” Frank said. “It’s going to take quite a few days to run, though, and I’ll need to fine tune it. I might need to contact Rami again, to get the FBI’s latest dataset.”

“Wouldn’t that be a tip off to bad guys in the government?” Jerry asked.

“Maybe,” Frank said. “Hopefully we won’t have to go that far. I have one other idea in mind if breaking the encryption won’t work.”

It was starting to get dark outside. Jerry turned the lights on inside the coach.

“How does your genny do on fuel?” Frank asked.

“She’ll run all night and then some,” Jerry said. “It’ll stop at a quarter of a tank, though.”

“Just like ours,” Jane said. “That way you won’t strand yourself.”

“I’m going to finish the programming for step one, and then I’ll side load applications on all of our phones. I’ll kick off the encryption solver program after that.”

“Okay, no problem.”

“I’ll need some quiet for a while,” Frank said.

“Then I suggest we go outside and chat,” Jerry said. Jasmine and Jane both nodded. Jane kissed Frank’s forehead, and they all left the coach.

“How’s it going in there?” Terry asked as they came out.

“Good,” Jerry said.

“He’s programming now, and needed quiet, so we decided to come out here,” Jane said.

“Yeah, that helps with programming,” Terry said.

“You know how to program, Terry?” asked Jasmine.

“Only a little. I was taking classes before all hell broke loose.”

“Being a Deputy Sheriff wasn’t for you, eh?” Jane asked.

“Not really,” he replied. “I’m a little too easy going for that kind of job. I think I’d do better with the confrontational parts of it after our experiences, though.”

“You’ve proven yourself in a fight, that’s for sure,” Jeb said. “My hat’s off to you.”

Terry smiled sheepishly. “What’s he programming?” he asked.

“He’s going to create Android and iPhone apps that we can use to see enemy chips,” Jerry said. “He’ll get all of our devices loaded up, and then work on step two.”

“Is he going to do a wide release of the apps?” Jasmine asked. “I mean, to other people outside of our group?”

“Eventually,” Jane said. “First we need to get step two done. We don’t want to tip off the enemy leadership that they’re in trouble before we take them out.”

“Good thinking,” Terry said. “After that, he should flood the internet with the apps. That’ll be the end of the enemy.”

“That’s the idea,” Jane said. “Keep this to yourselves, though. We don’t know everybody at the park that well.”

“Damn straight,” Jeb said. “It’s really hard to tell who we can trust. We’re getting hit too often. We’ve either got a plant or a bug or something.”

“We never checked all of our vehicles for bugs, did we?” Jerry said. “We should do that. Anybody could have stuck something on us. Remember all the bad guys who were living with us at Hilda’s park?”

“Crap, you’re right,” Jeb said. “Why didn’t we think of that before?”

“You’ve got your bug detectors in the rig,” Jasmine said. “Maybe we should check these vehicles right now.”

“Frank would’ve seen anything attached to our rig when he was working this afternoon,” Jerry said. “In fact, that big unit he’s been running in there would have picked up anything on Jeb’s jeep, too. I think we’re safe, but we need to check everybody else when we get back to camp.”

“I hope they’re okay back there,” Terry said. “I’m worried about my uncle.”

“They’re okay,” Jeb said. “If they weren’t, we’d hear the executions. More gunfire.”

“Think the enemy would know enough to notice that we’re gone?” Terry asked.

“That’s a really good question,” Jerry said. “Frank says he knew that Belgian guy from work…and they’ve obviously been able to capture photos of us. That guy might recognize Frank.”

“Simon Orr admitted that they’ve been on Frank’s tail since almost the beginning, remember?” Jane asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Jerry said.

“You know, we need to get smarter,” Jeb said. “Every time we win a skirmish, we think that the enemy leadership has lost track of us. They’ve been following us all along, and eventually they’ll get us, if we don’t take care of them first.”

“Yeah,” Jerry said. “If it wasn’t for those U.S. Army drones, our heads would be on spikes back at Hilda’s place.

Jane shuddered.

Jasmine sighed. “This thing that Frank is working on is our only chance,” she said.

“Yes, it is,” Jerry agreed.

“Even if we find out where Saladin and the other leaders are with the chips, they’re going to be very well protected,” Jane said. “What makes you guys think we can take them out?”

“They’ve got a handful of smart guys surrounded by a bunch of idiots,” Jeb said. “We’ll get them, but it won’t be easy.”

“I wish I had your confidence,” Jane said.

“Me too,” Jasmine said. “We’ve had so many lucky breaks. Maybe we aren’t that much smarter than the enemy.”

“They would have nailed us by now, if they were as smart as we are,” Jeb said. “Sure, we’ve been lucky a few times. We’ve also been smarter than them a few times, and we’ve just outright beat them a few times too.”

“We do have a good team,” Terry said. “It’s classic, really. We have the genius. We have several hunter/sniper/survivalists types, like Jeb here. We have the handy man who can cook up almost anything with his un-educated, un-predictable ingenuity. We have the technologists. The animal trainer. The organizer. The military strategist. The tech supply person. We even have a medical team.”

“Good assessment,” Jerry said. “The enemy is focused on the genius, because they’ve got somebody on their team smart enough to know he can sink them. What they don’t understand is the strength of the people he’s surrounded by.”

“That’s why they put close to a thousand men into the assault on Hilda’s park,” Jeb said. “That piece of real estate wasn’t worth a hundred men, let alone a thousand. I was thinking they went in there to take out General Walker, and I’m sure that was part of it, but I think the real prize was us.”

The coach door opened. It was Frank.

“Hey, all, I need all of your cellphones and tablets,” he said. “With the USB cables, if you’ve got them.”

“You’re done already?” Jerry asked.

“Well, to be honest, I had most of the programming work done ahead of time. I just had to fine tune it for the parameters of the output. It was easy.”

Everybody handed their phones up to Frank. Jerry went into the coach and fetched his tablet, putting it on the table next to the pile of phones. Frank got to work, as Jerry went back outside.

Terry was leaning against the coach, looking up at the hills, silent as the others chattered. Jane noticed. She walked over to him.

“Worried about your uncle?” she asked.

“Uncle can take care of himself. I’m more worried about Trish. She’s really having a hard time with this stuff.”

“You’ll be back to her soon enough,” Jane said, “but I wouldn’t expect things to be much easier for a while. There’s some scary stuff coming.”

“I know,” Terry said.

“You like her a lot, don’t you?”

“I’m in love with her already,” he said sheepishly. “I have to be careful not to scare her off, though.”

“You men crack me up. You never can tell, can you?”

“What?”

“She’s head over heels for you. Can’t you tell by the way she looks at you?”

“I know she likes me,” he said.

“Call it what you want,” Jane said. “She’s your woman, if you want her. Trust me.”

“I’ve only known her for a day.”

“I know. It’s the situation. The times. The human survival instinct.”

“How do you mean?” he asked.

“Charlie marries Hilda. Look at Jeb and Rosie now. Jerry and Jasmine are trying to get pregnant.”

“Really?” he whispered. “Wouldn’t this be a bad time to have a baby?”

“Our drives are geared towards survival of the species, not convenience. I’ve even had the urge to have more children. Thank God I’m too old now.” She laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Jasmine asked, walking towards them.

“Oh, nothing,” she said. “Just talking to Terry about life and love during wartime.”

“Trish is going to be on you like crazy when you get back,” Jasmine said, grinning. “Just wait and see. That was a nice kiss she gave you when we were leaving. Seen that kind of intensity before.”

“When?” Terry asked.

“At the army base, when wives are saying goodbye to their men.”

“You too?” Terry said. “Jane was trying to tell me the same thing.”

“He has no idea, does he?” Jasmine asked, looking at Jane with a sly smile. Then she looked back at Terry. “Oh, honey, I hope you want her as much as she wants you.”

“Done,” Frank said, sticking his head out the door of the coach. “Everybody get your phones. Then I’ll expose the chips. You’re phones should vibrate…one long pulse followed by two short ones, and show you a readout for each one.”

The group filed into the coach one at a time, picking up their phones. Jane came into the coach and grabbed the iPad. Jerry grabbed his Android tablet too. They all went outside, except for Jerry.

“OK, hold onto your phones,” Frank said. Then he opened the box. Immediately everybody jolted as they’re phones started buzzing. All of the displays opened a new app that listed out a serial number, distance in feet, and the time for each of the chips in the box.

“Where are you getting the serial numbers?” Jerry asked.

“Each of the payloads has a wrapper which includes an unencrypted serial number,” Frank said. “Only the content inside the package is encrypted.”

“Hey, the LTE signal generator is off,” Jerry said. “How is this working?”

“For close range, it’s peer to peer,” Frank said, smiling. “The range is probably about half a mile, judging by the signal strength.”

“Holy crap,” Jerry said, watching Frank put the top back on the lead box.

“Now hit refresh, everybody. You shouldn’t get any new hits.”

The group did that, and as Frank said, no more hits were shown, but if they scrolled backwards on their screens, they could still see the previous hits.

“Alright, everybody, see the other new application? It’s called
Long Range
.”

The people outside scrolled through their apps until they found it, and then nodded.

“OK, go ahead and tap that one. It should try to bring up a GPS map.”

“It can’t find the GPS map,” Jeb said.

“That’s because there’s no cell coverage out here. Keep watching your screen.”

Frank opened the lead box again. Jerry was next to him, watching his tablet. A group of small icons showed up in the middle of the screen.

“You guys all have icons on your screen?” Frank asked.

The group answered yes.

“Good. When we’re in cell range, GPS will kick in, and we’ll get a map. Icons will show up where the chips are. The initial screen will show the location of the closest chips on the map, but you can also punch in a location, and it will go to that location and show you all of the chips that are there, by serial number.”

“Wow,” Jerry said.

“When you crack the encryption, it’ll show us where the leadership is, won’t it?” Jeb asked.

“Yes, assuming that the information is in the payload of the file, in a way we can understand,” Frank said. “Even if it isn’t, though, we still have another possibility. I might be able to hack into the enemy computer system and match serial numbers with people.”

“This is really impressive,” Terry said. “Think we can go home tonight?”

“Good question,” Jeb said. “Hey Frank, should we saddle up and go back home?”

“I don’t see why not,” Frank said.

“We’ll have to follow this road all the way down to the highway in order to turn the coach around, so this’ll be a little bit longer drive than you’re all thinking,” Jerry said.

“I’ll be in front of you in the jeep,” Jeb said. “I’ll turn on my big hunting lights. We’ll make it.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Jerry said. “Pile in, folks.”

Jerry fired up his big diesel pusher
as Frank, Jane, and Jasmine stowed all of the equipment. Jeb fired up his jeep. He turned on the hunting lights…they were connected to the roll bar. They made the road in front of them almost as bright as daylight.

“Wow, look at that,” Frank said. “We’ll be able to see just fine.”

“He’s pulling away,” Jerry said. “You guys all ready?”

“Yeah, let’s go,” Jasmine said. She got into the passenger seat. “I’ll watch for low branches and what not.”

“Good, you’ve got the best eyes here,” Jerry said.