Counting from Zero (28 page)

They did this about every four hours, or six times per day for the last three days of the voyage to the Canaries.
 
By the second day, Ian let Mick or Mariana take the helm except at night when he did it himself.
 
Mick could feel his muscles toning up, and his appetite increasing.

On the nineteenth day of the voyage, Mick sighted land; they made for the port of Tenerife.
 
As they approached the harbor, Ian fired up the inboard diesel engines, and they motored in.
 
They found a dock and came ashore, heading for the customs office.

Being on dry land felt very strange to Mick: the ground felt very hard and unforgiving.
 
When he stood still, it seemed the horizon moved and swayed slightly.
 
He knew this would wear off in a day or two if he stayed on dry land, but he hoped to only spend a minimum of time there and get back to Gypsy Moth.
 
The London conference was only two weeks away, so they didn’t have much time to waste.
 
They still had over 15ØØ nautical miles to go.

Mick was slightly nervous when he handed over his British passport to the customs official, but, as expected, they did not have a computer in the office, and it was stamped with only a cursory inspection.

They next walked down to the market and stocked up on fresh supplies, especially fruit, vegetables, and coffee.
 
They arranged for a pile of food to be delivered to their dock later in the day.
 
They changed some U.S. dollars into British pounds and Euros.
 
Mick also purchased a couple of prepaid mobile phones with data plans.

Mick was glad to be back on Gypsy Moth a few hours later.
 
As his body had adjusted to the constant motion of the boat on the water, Mick had felt a little ill back on dry land.
 
His worst moment of ‘land-sickness’ came when he used the bathroom in a shop.
 
Inside the stall, the walls seemed to move and sway and he was almost sick.
 
Being back on the ship made him feel comfortable and relaxed.
 
Ian and Mariana wanted to go out for the evening and Mick was perfectly happy to stay aboard and keep watch.

Mick took the opportunity to connect to a wireless network accessible from the harbor, enjoying the faster speed and lower latency Internet connection than the satellite link he had been using.

The next afternoon, they cast off and sailed right out of the harbor without running the diesels.

That evening, Mick watched as Mariana worked away in the galley with some kind of vegetable in a small circular bowl and what looked like a long stick.
 
She noticed his quizzical looks.

“Ever had chimarrao before?” she asked.
 
When he shook his head, she explained.
 
“It is a traditional Brazilian hot drink made with yerba – kind of like tea.”

“Interesting,” Mick replied, and continued watching.
 
Once it was prepared, Mariana put the long stick inside the bowl, which turned out to be a type of straw.
 
The three of them sat around the cockpit.
 
Mariana took a sip,
then
continued to drink until she apparently finished.
 
She smiled at Mick as she refilled the bowl with hot water and stirred for a few moments.

“Now your turn… Drink all of it,” she instructed.
 
Mick drank, and was amazed at the taste – kind of like a cross between coffee and tea.

“That was really different!” he said, and continued drinking until he had emptied the bowl.
 
“Does it have caffeine?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Mariana replied.
 
“Probably.”
 
She refilled a third time and Ian drank.

They each had a few more, as they watched the sun set over the water.

The weather turned colder and the seas heavier as they headed north towards England.
 
They were crossing very busy international shipping routes, so someone always had to be on the lookout for other vessels.
 
The new AIS or Automatic Identification System software Mick had purchased and installed on Ian’s computer was really showing its value now.
 
The screen now showed the position, name, course, and speed of all the other yachts and ships in the vicinity, so they could make early course corrections to avoid collisions or close encounters.
 
The small AIS radio receiver supplied this information via a USB port.

One day, Mick saw another sail on the horizon but he couldn’t identify the yacht or hail them on VHF radio, and they didn't have AIS.
 
On the next night watch, Mick saw a supertanker off to port, named 'Mariposa'.
 
He estimated its length as over 3ØØm from the onboard radar.
 
Since its cruising speed was only a little faster than Gypsy Moth’s, according to the AIS, and they were headed in the same direction, Mick watched it most of the night.

Even with the higher seas, the catamaran still cut nicely through the waves.
 
Everyone was back to wearing foul weather gear above decks such as waterproof jackets and pants with fleece underneath.
 
Mick was sure that Mariana wished they had stayed and explored the Canary Islands, or somewhere else warm, instead of heading north into winter, but she didn’t complain.
 
He needed to come up with a good way to thank them both.
 
He hoped, perhaps, that the two of them could take their time on the way home, presuming that he was able to find another way home.
 
Actually, he hadn’t been thinking very much beyond making it to London, meeting his mysterious contact Turing, and attempting to shut down the botnet.
 
This wasn’t the first time he had been so single minded, he knew, but it was perhaps the riskiest.

As they approached the coast of England a few days later, Mick got ready.
 
He packed up his luggage into a single roller bag, which he gave to Ian for delivery to London.
 
He packed a few things into a small
water-proof
backpack.
 
He put on a thick wet suit, mask, snorkel, and fins.
 
He hugged Mariana goodbye and shook hands with Ian, thanking him again for all his help.
 
Then, when they were less than two kilometers off the coast, Mick strapped on his bag and jumped overboard into the icy black water.
 
He treaded water for a few minutes as he watched Gypsy Moth sail away towards Plymouth where they would put in a few hours later.
 
He set off swimming towards the shore.

Chapter 1A.

From the Security Wiki

Zed.Kicker (worm)

Jump to:
navigatio
n,
search

Zed.Kicker is a newly discovered
worm
that is spread from an infected
web server
to another web server using
HTTPS
transport.
 
It is effective against version 2.0 and earlier of
Apache
.
 
It was first identified in October when it was used in the ‘Carbon is Poison’ exploit that affected a significant percentage of websites [1].
 
In addition, it is known to install a
spambot
which
sends out a significant volume of
spam
emails.

The worm reportedly uses a TLS connection over port 443, although this has not been confirmed.

An unknown number of web servers are still compromised.
 
The number is estimated to be in the tens of thousands [2].

The source and origin of the worm has not yet been determined, although there has been widespread speculation about linkages to eco-terror organizations due to the environmentalist message posted on the web page.

Chapter 1B.

To the members of the Joint Anti-Botnet Information Taskforce:

Perhaps my previous memos have not been clear.
 
I will be perfectly blunt in this one to ensure there is no confusion.

We believe that O’Malley knows more about the botnet than he has been willing to share.
 
As a result, finding and apprehending him is a top priority.
 
The grand jury subpoena issued for him to testify next week should give us the necessary grounds for this, as he is unlikely to show up.

In preparation for this, I want a list of all his known family members, associates, residences, hangouts, etc.
 
I want a complete list of all his bank accounts, debit and credit cards.
 
He will eventually run out of cash and this will be an opportunity to locate him.

He also may have additional identities besides the two of which we are aware.
 
He could be using another identity or Internet alias right now without us knowing.
 
We need Langley’s help on this.

Do we know if he has left the country?
 
We must reach out to Canada and Mexico, as that would be the easiest way for him to flee.
 
We should notify MI5 and G2 as well.

I want our best code breakers on his communication intercepts.
 
First priority will be his written communication, followed by his VoIP communication.
 
Get help from the NSA as needed.

We should be able to track his mobile communications.
 
We should also analyze traffic into and out of his servers.

Finally, I want us to review those contingency plans for keeping basic government functions up and running if Zed.Kicker is unleashed, based on what we know about the botnet.

Additionally we may need to break out non-traditional communication methods that do not rely on the Internet infrastructure.

General

Chapter 1C.

Mick O'Malley
– knows life isn’t always smooth sailing.
 
(2 comments)

Mick took a break from swimming after about a half hour, and to confirm his course, pulled out a waterproof GPS that Ian had loaned him.
 
The stars no longer seemed so bright, and he could see the glow of civilization in the distance.
 
He was on track.

Another half hour of swimming, and Mick picked a landing spot, a dark area that seemed to have fewer rocks and breakers.
 
He knew the most dangerous part of the swim would be next.
 
He reached down as he swam with his hands to feel for the bottom.
 
When he touched the bottom with his fingertips, Mick put his feet down and pushed off towards the shore.
 
A moment later he was on dry land.
 
He looked back and was convinced that this little sandy area was the best place to come ashore – on either side were rocks and a little further on was a sheer cliff.

Mick found a place behind some bushes out of the wind.
 
He stripped off the wetsuit, dried off quickly, and dressed in his clothes from the backpack.
 
He dug a hole in the dirt and buried all the swimming gear in a plastic bag, noting the coordinates in the GPS.
 
Mick got out his wallet and passport and put them in his coat.

He had chosen to swim ashore to avoid having his passport stamped and scanned, just in case his name was on some kind of international terrorist watch list.
 
Mick carried only his British passport.
 
As he was still a British subject, he felt like he hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
 
He was legally entitled to be here, even if he had sidestepped the official procedures Ian and Mariana would be going through.
 
He set off walking towards Penzance, wondering if he might meet some pirates, thinking of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera.
 
He walked rapidly and started to warm up, despite the chill of his damp hair.