Counting from Zero (37 page)

This is not good…

The next thing Mick felt was a slight tingling behind his ear.
 
He realized he had probably blacked out for a while, and tried to come to his senses.
 
The tingling continued, but he was still confused.
 
Then, with a flash of cognizance that he could almost see, he whispered “Answer!”
 
Mick was amazed when his mobile phone recognized his voice command through his implant and answered the incoming call.
 
“Hello?” he croaked, his voice breaking.

“Alec?” said a familiar voice from the other side of the world.
 
“You sound strange...”

“Jocelyn?” he whispered.

“Why are you whispering?
 
I’m sorry if this is a –” she began, but he interrupted her.

“Jocelyn, I’m in trouble in Kiev, Ukraine.
 
Call the State Department.
 
Tell them I’m being held by Russian
special forces
.
 
Mention the Zed dot Kicker botnet, Cloud 8 plus plus.
 
Oh, and tell them my name is Mick O’Malley...”

“Alec, have you been drinking?” she asked.

“I am deadly serious, Jocelyn,” he whispered to his sister.
 
“Please do exactly as I say.
 
Lives are at stake.
 
And tell them Kateryna Petrescu is in danger, too.
 
Got it?
 
Repeat it back to me...”

“OK, OK.
 
Kiev, State Department, Zed dot Kicker, botnet, Cloud 8 plus plus, Kateryna, and you are Mick O’Malley – why that name?”

“I’ll explain later Jocelyn.
 
Please don’t delay!” he hissed.
 
He adopted a different tone of voice and said “Share Location!”

“What did you say, Alec?
 
I will do it right away…
 
Love you!”

“You too...” Mick whispered.
 
“Disconnect!”

He marveled that his Russian captors hadn’t turned off his mobile.
 
Perhaps they had been trying to break into it – good luck to them with that!
 
He also realized it must be in the other room, as his implant had a limited working distance.
 
With his mobile on silent, it would have given no indication of the phone call, besides activating his implant ringer.
 
He hoped his location sharing with Jocelyn’s phone had gone through.
 
He felt some optimism, but would there be time?
 
He drifted off again.

Images floated through Mick’s concussed brain.
 
He watched a raptor prowl around the room, looking for other, smaller dinosaurs to devour.
 
He heard more voices, banging.
 
He saw a man speaking to him, but he could not hear the words.
 
Something that looked like an IV was connected to his arm.
 
He hoped the raptor would leave him alone…

Chapter 22.

Mick awoke in a hospital.
 
He had all kinds of wires and tubes in his body.
 
He also noted hand and foot restraints, which alarmed him.
 
He had no idea how much time had passed or where he was.
 
A nurse walked by, noticed he was conscious, and hurried away.
 
A moment later, another person, presumably a doctor, came to his bedside.

“Doctor O’Malley, I am Doctor Pushkar.
 
I am very glad to see you are recovering well.
 
First, I remove these,” he said as he reached down and undid the restraints.
 
“I give you apology, but you were confused when they brought you in here, something about a dinosaur – I don't know, but not surprising, considering what happened to you.
 
I leave them on until you were fully conscious.”

“Am I in Moscow?” he asked feebly.

“Moskva?
 
Why would you think that?
 
Ah, of course!
 
You don’t know….
 
Take it easy!
 
I give you the good news that you are safe here in Ukraine and that you will be fine.
 
Your nose and ribs will heal.
 
We keep you overnight for observation, but you should be discharged tomorrow.”

“My nose?” he asked, reaching up and touching it – another mistake as pain shot through his head.
 
“What day is it?”

“Wednesday,” the doctor replied.
 
Mick’s first thought was that nearly two complete days had passed since his capture.
 
His second thought was for Kateryna.

“Kateryna?” he asked and when he got a blank look from the doctor, he started to get up again.

“Hold on, Doctor O’Malley.
 
Someone will be here momentarily to answer your questions – I don’t know anything besides your condition,” he apologized.
 
“We did treat a few other injuries from the operation –” his explanation was interrupted by the entry into the room of a familiar looking man in uniform.

“You?” Mick sat up again, startled, and undeterred by the pain.
 
He recalled the uniformed figure in the room from his government interview.

“Hello Mick.
 
Glad to see you are recovering.
 
Thank you, Doctor,” he said to Pushkar and waited patiently for him to leave the room.
 
“Good to finally meet you properly.
 
You have led us on a quite a chase!
 
You may not believe me, but our following you and restricting your travel was for your own protection.
 
Our intelligence indicated that the Russians were looking for you,” he paused.
 
“We know about their close relationship with companies such as Cloud 8 plus plus, but their interest in this company is different.
 
Do you have any ideas?” asked the General.

“No,” Mick replied, not entirely truthfully.

“I guess you would like to know what happened?” the General continued.
 
Mick nodded.
 
“Well, the
phone call
from your sister eventually reached the right analysts who put the pieces together.
 
We were able to locate your mobile and alert the Ukrainian government.
 
Their military successfully executed the rescue operation.
 
This will not be part of the official narrative, but you probably realize that you were being held by a Russian
special forces
group, a very senior group.
 
You almost ended up in Russia!
 
I hope you realize how lucky you are!”

“What about Kateryna? Petrescu?” he asked, not quite processing all the data.

“The Romanian?
 
We don’t know where she is.
 
Her husband is on his way to Kiev, by the way.”
 
Mick winced in pain, but this time not from his injuries.

“Which reminds me, you have broken a few laws along the way, haven’t you?” the General began, but Mick made no reply.
 
“Oh, don’t worry – I don’t expect you will be prosecuted.
 
Despite your recklessness, you have done an incredible job in taking control of this botnet.”
 
Mick looked at him wondering how he knew this fact.
 
“We have our sources of information,” he explained, not very helpfully, then continued.
 
“We are looking forward to your help with this botnet.
 
Our best guys couldn’t even figure out how to monitor it, let alone hijack it the way you did!
 
I’d trade an entire department for one person with your skills!
 
So what exactly did you do to it?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing special.
 
I revoked their control certificates so their commands would not be accepted by the botnet and put it into an inactive mode.
 
I also ordered it to stop sending spam.
 
There might actually be a noticeable drop in spam traffic right now as a result.”

“Well, I have no idea what that means, but my guys will want to hear all about it and examine your script.
 
Do you know where your computer is?”

“No, I don’t,” he replied, thinking of Kateryna.
 
“Anyway, you don’t need the script – the real work will be tracking down and cleaning all those infected computers, millions of them around the world.
 
I still don’t know how many of them were compromised in the first place.
 
Without patching the machines and cleaning them, they could be herded into another botnet.
 
I know Homeland Security has developed plans for how to deal with situations like this.
 
This will be an excellent test of those plans.”

“Of course, but –”

“I need to find Kateryna,” Mick said.

“We will.
 
By the way, how well do you really know her?
 
Did you know she speaks Russian?
 
Did you know she was a member of the Communist Party in Romania?”

“Are you trying to say she was somehow involved?” Mick began.

“I don’t know.
 
It is strange that she hasn’t contacted us these past few days...
 
I suspect that someone must have told the Russians that Cloud 8 plus plus was holding you.
 
There’s no way Cloud 8 plus plus would have told anyone until they had regained control of the botnet…”

“If you have an accusation to make about her, you should just make it!” Mick replied, starting to get angry.

“I only have questions… questions that must be answered.
 
It was a shame about your friend Gunter Schafer, even if he was involved with the criminals.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry – I guess you don’t know.
 
He was killed by the Russians, along with the rest of Cloud 8 plus plus in the building…
 
The place was a bloody mess.”
 
Mick was speechless.

Gunter?
 
Dead?

“Anyway, there’s someone else who wants to see you, so I’ll go for the moment.
 
Mick wasn’t listening as a smile spread across his face, hurting him in new ways.

“Jocelyn?”

“Alec!”

Mick hugged his sister as tightly as his broken ribs would allow as the General left the room.

“You look like heck, but you’re safe!”
 
She kissed the top of his head.

“Jocelyn – you did it!
 
I can’t believe you called when you did!
 
You never call me!
 
Why did you call?”

“Well,” she began, a little embarrassed.
 
“When I got the call from your landlord, I wondered what was up and decided to call –”

“My landlord?”

“Yes, I guess with all your travels you got a bit slack with your finances.
 
He said your rent auto payment failed, and when he checked with the bank, they said your account was overdrawn or something.
 
Are your finances OK, Alec?
 
I can help out if things are a bit tight for you...”

“Thanks, sis – I’m sure it is just a mistake – my finances are fine, don’t worry,” Mick replied, knowing that his finances were far from fine.
 
“Anyway, you called the State Department?”

“Yes, right away.
 
At first they were kind of short with me, and kept asking for the name of the person I wanted to talk to.
 
But I just kept talking, and asking to speak to a supervisor.
 
When I hung up, I didn’t think the message got through to the right people.
 
So...” she paused for dramatic effect.
 
“I said to myself, what would Alec do?
 
How would he share information with the government, when the government didn’t seem to want to hear it...” she paused again, and Mick had an inkling where she was going with her story.
 
“So I picked up the telephone – my landline – and started making phone calls.
 
I called Joe and told him the whole story.
 
I said all of the names and places you mentioned.
 
Then I called a girlfriend and did the same.”

“Jocelyn, you are brilliant!” Mick almost shouted.

“Am I?” she replied modestly.
 
“I admit I was ecstatic when someone from the State Department was at the door an hour later with a plane ticket!”
 
She beamed at her brother.
 
“They didn’t tell me about the rescue operation until we landed yesterday.
 
By then it was all over and you were safe.
 
I kept asking about Kat, but they said they didn’t know anything...
 
Is that true?”
 
Mick nodded somberly.
 
“What’s happened to her?” she wondered.

“I don’t know, Jocelyn, but I’ve got to find her!” Mick felt paralyzed with fear for a moment, but then shrugged it off.
 
“I need you to help me get out of here as soon as possible.
 
Something just isn’t quite right.”
 
Jocelyn nodded and squeezed his hand.