Stealing the network

Stealing the Network This page intentionally left blank Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition Ryan Russell Timothy Mullen Johnny Long AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Syngress is an imprint of Elsevier Syngress is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Stealing the Network: The Complete Series Collector’s Edition, Final Chapters, and DVD Copyright © 2009, Elsevier Inc All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher, with the exception that the program listings may be entered, stored, and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Russell, Ryan, 1969– Stealing the network: the complete series collector’s edition / Ryan Russell, Timothy Mullen, Johnny Long p cm ISBN 978-1-59749-299-7 Computer hackers—Fiction Computer security—Fiction Cyberterrorism—Fiction Short stories, American—21st century I Mullen, Timothy M II Long, Johnny III Title PS648.C65R87 2009 813'.6—dc22 2008055578 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-59749-299-7 For information on all syngress publications visit our web site at www.syngress.com Printed in the United States of America 09 10 11 12 13 10 Elsevier Inc., the author(s), and any person or firm involved in the writing, editing, or production (collectively “Makers”) of this book (“the Work”) not guarantee or warrant the results to be obtained from the Work For information on rights, translations, and bulk sales, contact Matt Pedersen, Commercial Sales Director and Rights; email m.pedersen@elsevier.com Publisher: Laura Colantoni Acquisitions Editor: Rachel Roumeliotis Development Editor: Mathew Cater Project Manager: Andre Cuello Contents v PART I ● How to Own the Box Foreword Jeff Moss CHAPTER Hide and Sneak Ido Dubrawsky If you want to hack into someone else’s network, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is the best time I love that time of year No one is around, and most places are running on a skeleton crew at best If you’re good, and you it right, you won’t be noticed even by the automated systems And that was a perfect time of year to hit these guys with their nice e-commerce site—plenty of credit card numbers, I figured The people who ran this site had ticked me off I bought some computer hardware from them, and they took forever to ship it to me On top of that, when the stuff finally arrived, it was damaged I called their support line and asked for a return or an exchange, but they said that they wouldn’t take the card back because it was a closeout Their site didn’t say that the card was a closeout! I told the support drones that, but they wouldn’t listen They said, “Policy is policy,” and “Didn’t you read the fine print?” Well, if they’re going to take that position… Look, they were okay guys on the whole They just needed a bit of a lesson That’s all CHAPTER The Worm Turns Ryan Russell and Timothy Mullen 23 After a few hours, I’ve made a tool that seems to work Geeze, it’s 4:30 A.M I mail the cleanup tool to the list for people to try It’s tempting to use the root.exe and make the infected boxes TFTP down my tool and fix themselves Maybe, by putting it out there, some idiot will volunteer himself Otherwise, the tool won’t much good, since the damage is already done I’m showing about 14,000 unique IPs in my logs so far Based on previous worms, that usually means there are at least 10 times as many infected My little home range is only five IP addresses I decide to hack up a little script that someone can use to remotely install my fix program, using the root.exe hole That way, if someone wants to fix some of their internal boxes, they won’t need to run around to the consoles Then I go ahead and change it to a whole range of IP addresses, so admins can use it on their whole internal network at once When everyone gets to work tomorrow, they’re going to need all the help they can get I it in C, so I can compile it to an exe, since most people won’t have the Windows Perl installed vi Contents CHAPTER Just Another Day at the Office Joe Grand 41 I can’t disclose much about my location Let’s just say it’s damp and cold But it’s much better to be here than in jail, or dead I thought I had it made—simple hacks into insecure systems for tax-free dollars And then the ultimate heist: breaking into a sensitive lab to steal one of the most important weapons the U.S had been developing And now it’s over I’m in a country I know nothing about, with a new identity, doing chump work for a guy who’s fresh out of school Each day goes by having to deal with meaningless corporate policies and watching employees who can’t think for themselves, just blindly following orders And now I’m one of them I guess it’s just another day at the office FX 63 h3X is a hacker, or to be more precise, she is a hackse (from hexe, the German word for witch) Currently, h3X is on the lookout for some printers Printers are the best places to hide files and share them with other folks anonymously And since not too many people know about that, h3X likes to store exploit codes and other kinky stuff on printer, and point her buddies to the web servers that actually run on these printers She has done this before… CHAPTER h3X’s Adventures in Networkland CHAPTER The Thief No One Saw Paul Craig 103 My eyes slowly open to the shrill sound of my phone and the blinking LED in my dimly lit room I answer the phone “Hmm … Hello?” “Yo, Dex, it’s Silver Surfer Look, I got a title I need you to get for me You cool for a bit of work?” Silver Surfer and I go way back He was the first person to get me into hacking for profit I’ve been working with him for almost two years Although I trust him, we don’t know each other’s real names My mind slowly engages I was up till 5:00 A.M., and it’s only 10:00 A.M now I still feel a little mushy “Sure, but what’s the target? And when is it due out?” “Digital Designer v3 by Denizeit It was announced being final today and shipping by the end of the week, Mr Chou asked for this title personally It’s good money if you can get it to us before it’s in the stores There’s been a fair bit of demand for it on the street already.” “Okay, I’ll see what I can once I get some damn coffee.” “Thanks dude I owe you.” There’s a click as he hangs up CHAPTER Flying the Friendly Skies Joe Grand 119 Not only am I connected to the private wireless network, I can also access the Internet Once I’m on the network, the underlying wireless protocol is transparent, and I can operate just as I would on a standard wired network From a hacker’s point of view, this is great Someone could just walk into a Starbucks, hop onto their wireless network, and attack other systems on the Internet, with Contents hardly any possibility of detection Public wireless networks are perfect for retaining your anonymity Thirty minutes later, I’ve finished checking my e-mail using a secure web mail client, read up on the news, and placed some bids on eBay for a couple of rare 1950’s baseball cards I’ve been looking for I’m bored again, and there is still half an hour before we’ll start boarding the plane CHAPTER dis-card Mark Burnett 129 One of my favorite pastimes is to let unsuspecting people the dirty work for me The key here is the knowledge that you can obtain through what I call social reverse-engineering, which is nothing more than the analysis of people What can you with social reverse-engineering? By watching how people deal with computer technology, you’ll quickly realize how consistent people really are You’ll see patterns that you can use as a roadmap for human behavior Humans are incredibly predictable As a teenager, I used to watch a late-night TV program featuring a well-known mentalist I watched as he consistently guessed social security numbers of audience members I wasn’t too impressed at first—how hard would it be for him to place his own people in the audience and play along? It was what he did next that intrigued me: He got the TV-viewing audience involved He asked everyone at home to think of a vegetable I thought to myself, carrot To my surprise, the word CARROT suddenly appeared on my TV screen Still, that could have been a lucky guess CHAPTER Social (In)Security Ken Pfeil 143 While I’m not normally a guy prone to revenge, I guess some things just rub me the wrong way When that happens, I rub back—only harder When they told me they were giving me walking papers, all I could see was red Just who did they think they were dealing with anyway? I gave these clowns seven years of sweat, weekends, and three-in-the-morning handholding And for what? A lousy week’s severance? I built that IT organization, and then they turn around and say I’m no longer needed They said they’ve decided to “outsource” all of their IT to ICBM Global Services… The unemployment checks are about to stop, and after spending damn near a year trying to find another gig in this economy, I think it’s payback time Maybe I’ve lost a step or two technically over the years, but I still know enough to hurt these bastards I’m sure I can get some information that’s worth selling to a competitor, or maybe get hired on with them And can you imagine the looks on their faces when they find out they were hacked? If only I could be a fly on the wall CHAPTER BabelNet Dan Kaminsky 157 Black Hat Defense: Know Your Network Better Than the Enemy Can Afford To… SMB, short for Server Message Block, was ultimately the protocol behind NBT (NetBIOS over TCP/IP), the prehistoric IBM LAN Manager, heir-apparent CIFS, and the most popular data-transfer system in the world short of e-mail and the vii viii Contents Web: Windows file sharing SMB was an oxymoron—powerful, flexible, fast, supported almost universally, and fucking hideous in every way shape and byte Elena laughed as chunkage like ECFDEECACACA-CACACACACACACACACACA spewed across the display Once upon a time, a particularly twisted IBM engineer decided that this First Level Encoding might be a rational way to write the name BSD Humanly readable? Not unless you were the good Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton, co-author of the Samba UNIX implementation, whose ability to fully grok raw SMB from hex dumps was famed across the land, a postmodern incarnation of sword-swallowing CHAPTER 10 The Art of Tracking Mark Burnett 175 It’s strange how hackers’ minds work You might think that white hat hackers would be on one end of the spectrum and black hat hackers on the other On the contrary, they are both at the same end of the spectrum, with the rest of the world on the other end There really is no difference between responsible hacking and evil hacking Either way, it’s hacking The only difference is the content Perhaps that’s why it’s so natural for a black hat to go white, and why it’s so easy for a white hat to go black The line between the two is fine, mostly defined by ethics and law To the hacker, ethics and laws have holes, just like anything else Many security companies like to hire reformed hackers The truth is that there is no such thing as a reformed hacker These hackers may have their focus redirected and their rewards changed, but they are never reformed Getting paid to hack doesn’t make them any less of a hacker Hackers are kind of like artists Artists will learn to paint by painting whatever they want They could paint mountains, animals, or nudes They can use any medium, any canvas, and any colors they wish If the artist someday gets a job producing art, she becomes a commercial artist The only difference is that now she paints what other people want Appendix: The Laws of Security Ryan Russell 199 This book contains a series of fictional short stories demonstrating criminal hacking techniques that are used every day While these stories are fictional, the dangers are obviously real As such, we’ve included this appendix, which discusses how to mitigate many of the attacks detailed in this book While not a complete reference, these security laws can provide you with a foundation of knowledge to prevent criminal hackers from stealing your network… Part II ● How to Own a Continent Foreword Jeff Moss CHAPTER 11 Control Yourself Ryan Russell as “Bob Knuth” 227 How much money would you need for the rest of your life? How much would you need in a lump sum so that you never had to work again, never had to Contents worry about bills or taxes or a house payment? How much to live like a king? Your mind immediately jumps to Bill Gates or Ingvar Kamprad with their billions You think that is what you would need… CHAPTER 12 The Lagos Creeper Box 131ah as “Charlos” 241 Nigeria was a dump Charlos now understood why nobody wanted to work there It’s Africa like you see it on CNN And yet this was the country that had the largest oil reserve on the continent Military rule for the past 30 years ensured that the money ended up mostly in some dictator’s pocket and not on the streets where it belonged… CHAPTER 13 Product of Fate: The Evolution of a Hacker Russ Rogers as “Saul” 255 Looking back on the entire event, no one could really say how everything ended up the way it did Saul has always done well in school And though his parents might not have been the greatest people on the planet, it’s not like they didn’t love him So, what could have enticed a bright, seemingly normal kid like Saul into committing such a heinous crime? No one knows But, then again, no one knows what really happened, they?… CHAPTER 14 A Real Gullible Genius Jay Beale as “Flir” 281 CIA agent Knuth had been very insistent when he recruited Flir He needed personal student information, including social security numbers, and, as an agent for a non-domestically focused intelligence agency, didn’t have the authority to get such from the U.S government He did, on the other hand, have the authority to get Flir complete immunity for any computer crimes that did not kill or physically injure anyone The letter the agent gave Flir was on genuine CIA letterhead and stated both the terms of the immunity and promised Flir significant jail time if he disclosed any details about this mission CHAPTER 15 For Whom Ma Bell Tolls Joe Grand as “The Don” .325 The sun had already sunk beyond the harbor as Don Crotcho woke up He neither noticed nor cared It had been a little more than a year since his flight from Boston after a successful theft of the United States’ next-generation stealth landmine prototype, and he had been enjoying his self-prescribed seclusion in this land of fire and ice… CHAPTER 16 Return on Investment Fyodor as “Sendai” 351 Like many professional penetration testers, Sendai was not always the wholesome “ethical hacker” described in his employer’s marketing material In his youth, he stepped well over the line between questionable (grey hat) and flat-out illegal (black hat) behavior Yet he never felt that he was doing anything wrong… FX as “h3X” 379 h3X paints a picture Actually, she doesn’t really paint but rather just creates a plain white canvas of 256 by 512 pixels in Microsoft Paint, because you can hardly more with that program than the equivalent of the childish drawings young CHAPTER 17 h3X and The Big Picture ix 1024 PART IV How to Own a Shadow low He looked over the terminal to find the kid, hoping to score a latte, but after glancing at the line of customers, he thought better of it The customers were already annoying him, bumping into him and getting in his way, and there was no telling how irritating they would become if he came between them and their joe He sighed and gazed down at the slow terminal, touching it with the tips of his fingers This let him “hear” the drive working, verifying the kid’s story Hearing the machine this way worked half by touch, half by allowing the sounds to travel up his arm to his ear The trick worked just as well in a loud coffee shop as it did in a loud datacenter He sighed He would almost rather be reduced to swapping hardware than dealing with Windows and cleaning off malware And 80% of the time it was malware He logged in with his domain password He was a domain admin, so he was also in the local administrators group on all the machines After what seemed an eternity, the desktop background appeared As the box tried to display the Start menu, he caught a quick glance of a DOS box as it flashed on the screen “Dammit,” he muttered He took the DOS box to be a sure sign that something was running on the box that shouldn’t be Normally, these kiosks were really stripped down and his login was quick and clean He pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL, and then Alt-T to get Task Manager Even that took several seconds A process named “hydrarecon.exe” caught his eye It was using a solid 50% CPU That meant that is was spinning one of the two CPU cores full-time He right-clicked it, and selected End Process He watched for several seconds, waiting for the process to wink out It didn’t, it just kept running, using 50% CPU He went into automatic cleaning mode In two minutes time, he had run regedit and looked through the Run keys, opened a DOS box and checked netstat for outgoing network connections, done a find for “hydrarecon.exe,” and kicked off several spyware scanning programs from a USB drive he kept in his shirt pocket The spyware scanners came up clean, which puzzled him Something should have triggered The Run keys in the registry were also blank, but that wasn’t terribly unusual He glanced at a couple of secondary startup settings, like under Services, but still couldn’t find anything He sighed He didn’t have time to fight this thing He would have to swap the box Before shutting the machine down, he copied hydrarecon.exe onto his USB drive to email to the HQ guys later While he waited for the slow machine to shut down, he turned his attention to the other terminal which sported the “Out of order” sign The machine was still running, but the kiosk app appeared to be frozen He pressed CTRL-ALT-DEL to log out the kiosk account, and logged in as himself The desktop came up almost immediately, and then he saw the DOS box pop up briefly He nodded slightly to himself, and pulled up Task Manager He spotted hydrarecon on the list It wasn’t using 50% CPU immediately, but it got there after several seconds of him watching the process He only had two machines in the car, he hoped that these two were the only ones infected With the first one shut down and this one flaked out, that shop was left with only two working terminals—not nearly enough to stem the ever-increasing tide of customers He logged the kiosk account back in, and used a test RFID tag to check out functionality It was slow, but it The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 worked He decided to leave this one running while he swapped out the first one, and yanked the hand-written sign off of the monitor Before walking back to the car, he decided to check the other two kiosks After an annoying several-second wait behind the technically inept customer using the kiosk, he logged in with his domain account, saw the DOS box pop up briefly, and found hydrarecon in the process list Now he was in trouble, they were all infected He decided to go ahead and swap the first machine, and leave the rest running infected until he could figure out what to He knew the new machines would also become infected, but his priority was to get the shop functioning as quickly as possible This account paid well, but they were infamous for their low tolerance for downtime He walked the first machine to his car, and came back with a replacement While he was setting it up and cabling back in the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and RFID reader, the kid with the apron approached him with a scowl on his face “What did you do,” the kid whined “Now they’re all slow!” He stared at the kid incredulously “What you mean ‘what did I do’? All your machines are infected I would have thought you might keep a better eye on them than that I don’t have enough hardware to swap out, you’ll just have to limp along until I can come back.” “Nguhhh,” the kid began “You can’t sell coffee without kiosks What am I supposed to do, like write down orders with a pencil? What is this crap?” Finally realizing he was being ignored, the kid spun around and hurried behind the counter The technician powered on the new machine and logged himself in to check everything out His face fell as he saw the DOS box pop up He frantically pulled up Task Manager, and saw hydrarecon again “Crap!” he said, much louder than he had intended He logged into the kiosk account, threw together his belongings, and started for the door “Hey, where are you going?” the kid behind the counter yelled, sounding desperate “You’ve got a worm,” the technician mumbled, looking at his watch Crap There went his day A nondescript apartment in Boston – hours remaining “One of the field technicians sent it in.” The man in his mid-20s appeared unshaven and unshowered His pre-noon wake-up call had him conscious much earlier than he liked He was looking at a disassembly of hydrarecon.exe on a pair of large flat screens He was talking into a cell phone that still had the charger cord hanging from it “When he logged in with a domain admin account, it copied itself to the domain controller, and spread from there Anytime someone with a local admin account logged into a box in the domain, it would install and run on that box, too Yeah, we’re sure that was the first box, it’s not particularly stealthy and we can tell from the timestamps.” He voice sounded strained “I’ve analyzed a decent chunk of it so far It’s pretty straightforward compiled Cϩϩ code, but there’s a lot of it The binary is pretty huge, like two megs No, it wasn’t packed, at all Yeah, 1025 1026 PART IV How to Own a Shadow it is a rootkit, but…that’s a little weird It does hook the kernel, but it doesn’t hide at all Just protects itself from termination Survival only Not even a backdoor.” He fired a few commands into one of the terminal windows “Well…payload…it fuzzes the one network range That’s pretty much it Just spreads in the domain, and hits that IP range It ends up recording all these fuzz results to XML files on the local disk, but doesn’t actually anything with them Yes, the one IP address range is all it does, it’s hard-coded in the binary.” After typing a few more commands, he stiffened “But check this out: I think I may have found what happens next One of the URLs buried in the fuzzer is actually a download link It didn’t stand out because it’s 404, like most of the fuzzed URLs But if it gets a 200, it downloads the file and checks it for a signature against an embedded public cert If it’s signed, it calls CreateProcess on it So there’s your second stage, it probably does something with the fuzz results.” He shook he head “Where’s it from? I don’t know, let me…see.” He fired off a few more commands “That’s funny The public cert belongs to the same people as the IP address range, Kline Networks, Costa Rica.” His expression darkened as he listened carefully to the phone “Yeah, I understand You take it from here, and I’m all done But…yeah, whatever I get paid either way.” He up the phone, noticing the charger dangling from it for the first time He alternated between pressing ALT-F4 to close windows, and ENTER to accept the defaults for saving files When he was done closing everything, he browsed to a directory, right-clicked it, and selected PGP Encrypt He punched in a very long passphrase, and then arose and headed to the shower Headquarters of Kline Networks, Costa Rica – hours remaining “You look like you’ve got bad news for me, Miguel.” Knuth sat in his chair, looking at him, his fingers forming a steeple in front of his chin His face was impassive, and to Miguel this was more frightening than a look of anger would have been “The scans have expanded We have recorded scans from 34 different IP addresses All of them coming from Java Script address ranges A couple of stores, and some corporate networks Each new machine starts out the same, a slow port scan followed by what looks like a fuzzing script, same pattern each time.” Knuth thought for a moment “I see So they must have noticed by now, and still it continues How long ago did they start?” “The first one started 21 hours ago.” “And have you been able to obtain any intelligence about the programs being used to scan us? “Yes.” Miguel looked down and to the side, at the floor The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 Knuth raised an eyebrow at the lack of a complete answer He let the silence grow, forcing Miguel to continue Eventually, he did “Each of the machines we checked had a program named hydrarecon.exe running We have done some reverse engineering on it Our IP range is hard-coded into it.” Knuth raised both eyebrows this time “Our IP addresses Ours, and no one else’s?” Miguel shook his head “No.” “A map pointing straight to us, then What else did you find?” “We found a copy of our SSL certificate ” “And what was the point of that? What is it used for?” “I’m not exactly sure.” Knuth seemed impatient “This doesn’t make much sense What can you tell me for sure?” “Someone at The Java Script is intensely interested in us.” Knuth seemed thoughtful, resigned “Who,” Miguel began Knuth looked at him expectantly Miguel spoke up “Who are these people to us, boss?” Knuth closed his eyes and didn’t answer for an uncomfortably long time Miguel watched him, watched his shoulders drop from a tense posture Knuth’s body visibly relaxed, and he exhaled very deliberately “They are people we don’t want to meet when they get here.” Knuth said it as calmly as if he were ordering lunch “It’s time to implement the contingency plans we discussed.” Miguel’s eyes went wide “For real?” When the answer didn’t come, Miguel continued “How much of the contingency plan?” “All of it Prepare the data dump.” Knuth checked his watch “It’s just after 3:00 now, call a mandatory offsite for 5:00, all hands Michelle will run the meeting She will tell everyone they have been fired, and can pick up their belongings tomorrow morning I will contact her Have Bobby at the Villa at 5:45 sharp with the data dump.” Miguel watched as Knuth sped up the orders he barked, a sharpness in his eyes that Miguel hadn’t seen in months Knuth continued “At 5:00, sweepers will clear the campus You are the only one allowed to remain on campus Set the charges to blow at 6:00 exactly You will receive your contingency payment as discussed I suggest you disappear as quickly as possible after that Are we clear?” Miguel sat stunned for a moment He never dreamed this day would ever come, but his response was automatic nonetheless “Yes, sir,” he answered Stunned, he started out of the office He closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled In his mind, he could see the banks of red tanks lining one entire wall of the computer room They were labeled FM200, but contained another substance entirely 1027 1028 PART IV How to Own a Shadow Knuth left his office and walked purposefully straight out the front door of the building He entered his car and simply said “Villa” to his driver Approaching San Jose International Airport, Costa Rica – hours remaining Gayle had made a few calls on the airphone on the flight to Costa Rica She briefed Pawn on the plan for escape when their plane was boarded at landing When going up the exit ramp, they would detour out of the door that lead down to the tarmac, where a contact would be waiting, driving a baggage cart They would climb into the covered area of the cart, and be driven to a car at the edge of the airport This meant that Gayle had ultimately tipped off her agency that she was off-mission But she would get what she needed before the repercussions hit She would have time to get supplies in Costa Rica with her contact there, and she could extract Bobby before they figured out what she was up to That just left giving the Costa Rican airport authorities a clear target upon landing, so that a search and ID check didn’t happen The captain came on the overhead speaker and announced that they were preparing their final descent, and that soon he would be turning on the fasten seatbelt signs Gayle waited for someone to go by heading for the restroom She spotted a man heading toward the rear of the plane He was wearing a sport coat with large side pockets Perfect She followed closely behind him, heading for the other open bathroom When they were nearly there, she tripped and bumped into him, slipping the ceramic knife into his coat pocket She apologized, and quickly entered the bathroom She listened at the door, and exited when she heard his door latch slide closed On the way back to her seat, she stopped the male flight attendant and said “I I think the man that just went into the bathroom back there had a knife He pointed it at me before he went into the bathroom I’m afraid Are we being hijacked?” Her voice cracked, and her eyes watered convincingly Headquarters of Kline Networks, Costa Rica – hours 45 minutes remaining Miguel barged into Robert Jr.’s office Michelle was behind Robert’s desk, her back to the door Hearing the door open, she stood up suddenly and smoothed down her skirt to cover her thighs It appeared to Miguel that he interrupted Michelle putting on a show for Robert Jr She turned her head to look over her shoulder and barked, “What!” Miguel straightened slightly “Uh, Michelle, Mr Kline wants you to run an all-hands mandatory offsite meeting at 5:00 You’ll need to rent facilities and send an announcement.” “What, 5:00 tonight?” she checked her watch and stood to face him “What’s going on, Miguel?” She was even more agitated Miguel glanced around Michelle at Robert Jr Apparently deciding he might as well know now, he replied to Michelle “Mr Kline is letting everyone go You are to make the announcement to the company He said to tell you to say that everyone will be able to pick up their personal items tomorrow morning There’s going to be a walkthrough and lockout here at 5:00.” The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 All annoyance dropped from Michelle’s face Robert Jr finally spoke up “What? Why? What happened?” His eyes were wide as the shock of the statement settled in Miguel shrugged and stared at the floor to his left “You’ll have to ask your father He wants you at the Villa at 5:45 I’ll arrange the car He wants you to bring him some information I have to go prepare it still.” Before Robert Jr could babble another question, Michelle spoke up again “So Robert isn’t going to the meeting at 5:00?” she pointed a thumb at Robert Jr as she said this Miguel shook his head no “He will be on his way to the Villa by then.” Michelle bent down so that her face was level with Robert Jr., who was still in his chair She looked him in the eyes “We’ll meet up later to figure everything out, okay?” She held the sides of his jaw gently with her hands and kissed his forehead He nodded dumbly He thought it was a little unusual that Michelle had kissed him like that She was usually much more aggressive in private, and avoided kissing him entirely on campus He thought she seemed sad, but he attributed that to the sudden layoffs Michelle turned to follow Miguel out of the office Before exiting, Miguel said, “Don’t go anywhere until I come back with the package for your father Back up anything of yours you want to keep And don’t say anything to anyone.” Michelle flashed him a sad look as she closed the door on her way out of his office Headquarters of Kline Networks, Costa Rica – hour 15 minutes remaining Robert Jr spent the next hour and a half copying all the files he cared about onto his iPod He grabbed a copy of his source trees, disassemblies, some custom scripts and tools, and ISO images of CDs he thought he might need to rebuild his development environment He even grabbed a bunch of music and a few movies that he would not have access to after the office was shut down He had taken the shared media setup on campus for granted, and rarely had time for music when he wasn’t in the office coding He didn’t care that the office would be shut down He cared about what was going to happen to him He was curious as to what the reason was but that wasn’t his primary concern While he watched pages fly between folders in Explorer, he had time to ponder where his life had ended up His life in Costa Rica had consisted entirely of work, partying, and Michelle Everything had been arranged for him, and he basically hadn’t had to worry about money His father had promised that he would take care of everything, and he had So far He assumed his dad had a plan for what happened next, too Still, he was a little worried about what this meant for Michelle He didn’t know what her arrangement was, whether she would be able to move on to the next venture with him, whether she had other work, or what her finances were like He considered whether he might ask his father to cash him out if he didn’t like what his dad had in mind His dad had gone to a lot of trouble to bring him down here, and they hardly ever saw each other or spoke He knew he was here under a pretty shady arrangement Fake passport, false name, he had just disappeared from his life back home 1029 1030 PART IV How to Own a Shadow He could ask his father to sneak him back into the States, the same way he had snuck him out He could talk to Michelle, and see if she would move in with him, see if she wanted to go back to the US Living with him wouldn’t be much different than now, he would just officially take care of all the bills, and she wouldn’t have to keep her own place That might take care of any concerns about her next job for a while He was torn Life here was easy He didn’t have to worry about bills He didn’t even have to clean his own apartment But it wasn’t quite real He thought he was coming down to be with his father, but they almost never talked Not too different from when he was a kid He felt almost like a zoo animal Fed, sheltered, cleaned, entertained But ultimately it was life in a cage He decided that he would follow Michelle She was wild, but she seemed devoted to him He could see himself with her for the rest of his life He decided that if his father didn’t have something lined up for her, then he was out of here He’d invite her back to the States and set up a real life He was still lost in thought when Miguel opened his office door and came in, closing the door behind him Miguel placed a silver USB thumb drive on Robert’s desk, and slid it toward him He said “Time to go Are you ready?” Robert Jr glanced at his Windows desktop “about minutes to finish copying.” He glanced at the thumb drive “What’s that?” “Some very important information your father needs Do not lose this, under any circumstances Understand?” Miguel said very seriously Robert Jr nodded, and slipped the thumb drive into his pants pocket “Can I finish copying my files?” “Yes, if it’s only going to be a couple of minutes If you’re here in 15 minutes, you will be forcibly removed from the building There’s a car waiting for you out front Be in it in less than 15 minutes with that.” Miguel said, pointing at Robert Jr.’s pocket “Don’t worry about me” he said He watched Miguel silently leave the room He checked the screen, minutes to go He pulled out the thumb drive, and turned it over between his fingers He inserted it into the free USB slot on his monitor When it mounted, he opened an Explorer window on the drive He hit Ctrl-A to select all, Ctrl-C to copy, and then Alt-Tabbed to the iPod drive window He hit Alt-F, N, and arrowed over to New Folder He typed “thumbdrive” to rename it, and pressed Enter to open it Finally, he pressed Ctrl-V to paste in a copy of all the files from the thumb drive to his iPod The whole process took seconds, his fingers on auto-pilot The files took only a minute to copy If it was that important, he wasn’t going to skip the backup Seven minutes after Miguel had left his office, Robert Jr unmounted the iPod and thumb drive, and dropped those into his pocket He added the cable for the iPod, and then the charger, and the charger for his cell phone He glanced around his office to see if there was anything else he should grab The books and hardware had to stay—he couldn’t take that stuff with him He headed out the front door, and climbed into the back of the waiting car The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 Knuth's Villa, Costa Rica – 20 minutes remaining Robert arrived at the Villa at 5:40, minutes before his “don’t be late” time He let himself in the front door The first thing that struck him was that the Villa was very quiet Usually there was a bustle of servants, or just general noise He was wondering where to go, since there was usually a butler equivalent to escort him Then he heard “Bobby” from the direction of the library that his father used for an office Robert walked through the double doors His dad was sitting behind his desk, pecking away on a keyboard “Did Miguel give you something for me?” Bobby’s lips tightened He pulled the thumb drive from his pocket and flung it noisily onto his dad’s desk “Nice to see you too, dad.” They were not off to a good start His father glared, but didn’t give him the verbal rebuke Bobby expected He picked up the drive, and inserted it into the USB port on the side of his keyboard He started to turn his attention to whatever was on the thumb drive when Bobby interrupted “Are you going to tell me what is going on or not?” Knuth pushed his keyboard back with the heels of both hands, and rolled his chair back slightly on the hardwood floor of the library He sighed and took a long look at his son “Sit down, Bobby.” Bobby took a visitor chair, and waited “We’re done, here The business is done, Costa Rica is done, we’re out of here As soon as I finish with this thumb drive we’re gone We get in the 4ϫ4 in the garage and drive.” It was worse than Bobby thought “You can just run away from the company and the house? What happened? Where are we going? What about Michelle?” Knuth glanced at his watch “Michelle’s gone.” He stared straight at his son “Gone where? How I get in touch with her? She said we would meet up after the meeting…” “The meeting is done, she’s gone For good You’ll never see her again.” Bobby took a deep breath “I’m not going to let you screw up my life again with this crap of yours…” Knuth laughed “Even if she were actually interested in you…” “What you mean ‘if ’? You must have heard that we’ve been seeing each other I think we might be in…” “She’s mine,” Knuth said bluntly “Always has been.” Bobby leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms He scowled “Maybe you didn’t get the memo, but you aren’t exactly Michelle’s type Besides…” Knuth raised a hand to silence him “No, I mean I own her Bought and paid for I bought her for you She’s a whore, Bobby A prostitute She doesn’t actually have any feelings for you My experience with her suggests she prefers women anyhow.” 1031 1032 PART IV How to Own a Shadow Bobby jumped out of the chair, sending it scuttling across the floor “Liar!” He was behind the desk in two quick steps, grabbing a fistful of his father’s shirt, but Knuth stood up calmly on his own power When Bobby pulled back to deliver the wide right-hand punch, Knuth casually threw up his left forearm to block, and kept turning to deliver his own inside right square in the middle of Bobby’s face Bobby’s head led his body in a clean arc to the floor, and the back of his skull made a very audible clunk as it connected with the hardwood floor As Bobby rolled briefly on the floor holding the back of his head with both hands, Knuth slid open a desk drawer He pulled out a black pistol, and checked the clip and safety He waited, watching for Bobby to get back up “Sloppy, Bobby Don’t telegraph You’ve still got a few years before you can take your old man.” Bobby rolled up into a sitting position, still holding his head with one hand As he got his focus back, the first thing he saw was the gun pointing at him Knuth gestured with the barrel at the guest chair “Sit your ass back down, and listen up.” Dazed, Bobby got up and dropped back into his chair His eyes were watering and his upper lip already showed signs of swelling He wiped at his nose with his free hand, and it came away bloody Knuth knocked a box of tissue on his desk in Bobby’s direction Bobby drew out a handful of tissue while alternately glaring at his father and the gun Knuth followed his eye, and lowered the gun to his lap below the desk He kept it in his hand “She’s gone She was a tool Expendable.” Bobby said nothing He had a sick feeling that his father was being completely truthful “If you cared about her at all, you’ll want her gone That’s the only way she will be safe If she tried to stick with us, she’d be dead Besides, she would just slow us down She’s a distraction, get over her.” “The casino is done It’s a write-off This villa is a write-off The villa and the campus won’t even exist anymore in,” he checked his watch, “nine minutes We’re out of here Let me ask you something You ever heard of the Troika? The Russian Business Network?” Bobby nodded, but still said nothing He had heard some rumors about them on campus They were spoken of in respectful, fearful, tones Knuth continued, “Those groups share… a management organization They’re not real happy with me, and they have a local presence in Costa Rica I’m fairly certain they will be looking around soon We need to be gone before that We need to leave as little of a trail as possible Am I making an impression here, Bobby?” Bobby finally spoke up “And what if I don’t want to go with you this time?” “I guess I’m not making myself clear Here.” Knuth opened the drawer again, and pulled out a plain envelope He slid this across the desk to Bobby He also grabbed two bricks of highdenomination Costa Rican Colons, and slapped those on top of the envelope He placed both hands atop his desk, gun still held in his left “Passport with your picture Cash You’ve got nine minutes to get a thousand feet from the house Professional hitmen are going to be looking for you And you’re in the middle of the damn jungle What’s it going to be, Bobby? You want to make a run for it on your own? You The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 think you’re smart enough? There’s the passport and cash I won’t stop you We’ll see how you without my help.” “Or you can be in the car with me in five minutes I’ve got $100 million stashed I’ll buy you all the women you want You think about it while I finish.” With that, Knuth turned his attention back to his computer One hand still on the gun in his lap, he removed the thumb drive and dropped it into his shirt pocket Knuth's Villa, Costa Rica – 11 minutes remaining Gayle had seen Bobby enter the mansion several minutes ago from her vantage point behind the bushes She had seen what she assumed was all the staff leave about thirty minutes prior to that in two taxicabs She figured the staff must have been dismissed for a reason, but that made things easier for her The question that remained in her mind was whether her husband would keep bodyguards or whether he would rely solely on himself She hoped it was the latter She had been whispering her thoughts and observations to Pawn the entire time they had been hidden, trying to keep him quiet and calm Covert surveillance was not his forte She had decided that with everyone else gone, now was the time to confront her husband and son “Paul, we’re going to go in now Remember what I said about the possibility of bodyguards? If there are any inside, I may need your help to incapacitate them They won’t recognize me, so we may be able to get close to them before they cause any trouble, okay? So let me any talking Don’t anything unless I’m attacked, or I say ‘now!’ loudly, understand?” Pawn nodded He understood the need to be very quiet, and was concentrating on being silent and still Gayle stood up and approached the front door of the mansion, and he followed silently behind She gently opened the door, and poked her head through As she slipped sideways through the door, opening it as little as possible, she made a hand-waving gesture Pawn understood this gesture to mean that he should follow her through the door He did so the same way she did, sideways, opening the door as little as possible Once they were both inside, Gayle closed the door behind them very gently Gayle leaned in very close, her face near the side of his head She whispered very quietly into his ear “I don’t see anyone yet, we might be lucky I hear a voice from those doors over there Follow me.” Pawn often did not like for people to be so close to him, but he didn’t really mind when Gayle did it They crept up to the door, Gayle in the lead Pawn noticed that she tried to stay on the rugs and off the tile flooring as much as possible Pawn knew all about “environmental awareness” thanks to his training, but he was surprised how quickly Gayle had picked up on these techniques as a junior student They made their way across the room, and were listening at a partially open double door Gayle was closest to the door From his vantage point behind her, he could only see a very narrow view of the inside He could see a set of bookcases filled with matching sets of books, and that was it 1033 1034 PART IV How to Own a Shadow She reached into her hip-pack, and pulled out a small square of shiny black plastic She very carefully, very slowly held this up to the edge of the door and rotated it She held it in place for a moment, looking at something in the reflection of the plastic Pawn couldn’t make out what she saw She put the plastic back into her pack, and leaned in to whisper again “Paul, listen to me Both my husband and my son are in there, and they are by themselves I don’t think anyone else is in the house with us I want you to stay here behind this door I’m going to go inside and talk to them I don’t want you to anything unless you’re sure Bobby or I are in danger, okay?” Paul nodded Then Gayle simply knocked on the library door and said “Bob? It’s me, Gayle I’m coming in, okay?” She stepped slowly into the room, taking care not to open the door much wider and reveal Pawn She locked eyes with her husband, who was standing behind a desk, pointing a Glock pistol at her stomach She estimated it was a 45, plenty of power to go through walls, doors, or her “Are you going to shoot me, Bob?” She purposely held her hands in a non-threatening posture, low and to the sides, palms up, hands empty Knuth stared at her, his mouth open “Mom?” Gayle allowed her eyes to flick off of Bob and onto Bobby “Yes Bobby, it’s mom.” Bobby sputtered a bit, and the most coherent thing he could manage was “Wha?” “I know sweetie, I’m so sorry I’ll explain everything to you, I promise.” Her shoulders drooped in an attitude of humility “Gayle’s dead Who the hell are you?” Her eyes flicked back to her husband, only to see him holding the gun even higher, pointing at her chest She saw a coldness in his eyes she did not recognize “It’s really me, Bob The whole thing…the whole situation…it was staged I needed to disappear I wanted to tell you.” She was walking a dangerous line She was feeding him simple facts, giving him time to process them If he weren’t in shock from suddenly seeing his supposedly dead wife again, her statements would seem insulting or ridiculous Knuth stared hard into Gayle’s eyes She seemed older, but looked exactly like his wife He let his right arm lower to his side, now pointing the barrel at the floor He said “I don’t believe you” but his posture indicated that he dared to hope “Mom?” Bobby started to walk toward Gayle, but Knuth’s left hand snapped up flat in a “stop” gesture at Bobby His right hand flicked up at his waist to point the barrel at Gayle again “Bobby hun, give mom a minute to explain to your father, okay? Everyone has had a huge shock, so let’s take it slow.” She held her hands up at stomach height now, open palms facing away from her body toward Knuth The gesture was half stop, half surrender “Who’s in the jar, Gayle?” Knuth demanded Gayle looked confused and a little scared She shook her head “I don’t know what you mean, Bob What jar?” “Who is in the damn urn? Who did they cremate if it wasn’t you?” The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 Gayle knew that his asking questions was a positive sign, but she had to get him to focus What he wanted was proof that she was who she said But she had to control the information If there was something she didn’t know or there was an answer he didn’t like, it could be problematic “I don’t know who they cremated Bob, I didn’t get the details of the story they gave you But listen to me Do you remember our honeymoon? Do you remember the little red outfit I wore on our wedding night, with the tie in the front?” Knuth look confused for a moment, and then nodded dumbly Bobby was looking back and forth between his parents’ faces “Do you remember the waterfall the next day?” Knuth nodded quicker this time, letting the gun barrel droop back toward the floor again “Gayle?” Knuth asked gently She smiled and nodded at him Knuth just stared at her smiling face A smile started to creep across his face, but then he suddenly looked confused again Knuth exploded “What the hell is wrong with you! How could you leave us like that? Why didn’t you tell me? Where have you been?” he was screaming questions at Gayle, his eyes wild Unseen in the hallway, Pawn shifted uneasily as he listened to the screaming Gayle knew she would not have any luck reasoning with him, not in the short time frame she had available to her She watched Knuth wave the gun wildly as he gestured and ranted She had to change tactics She latched onto a question he asked “Do you have any idea what I have done since you left me?” “Actually Bob, I The agency I work for has been keeping an eye on you That’s how I knew where to find you I know everything you have been up to.” “Agency?” Knuth was suddenly strangely calm, composed and quiet He paused for a moment, then asked just as calmly “Why are you here, Gayle? What did you come back for?” His gun was at attention once more, at his side “I came for Bobby.” Gayle watched Knuth’s eyes for his reaction “You can’t have him” came the quiet reply Bobby had had enough “Dammit Dad, you don’t own me I can…” Knuth cut him off “If you want to live, you’ll what I tell you.” Knuth suddenly checked his watch, and looked alarmed “Crap,” he said, moving toward Gayle, “Look, if you two don’t come with me right now, you’re both dead.” From his vantage point outside the door, Pawn had a limited view of the room beyond, but he could hear very clearly what was being said The words rang in his ears “Come with me right now, you’re both dead.” Gayle was in trouble, and he knew there was very little time to react He pushed quickly through the door, burying the backside knob in the plastered wall, 1035 1036 PART IV How to Own a Shadow and assessed the situation A man he assumed was Bobby was on the other side of the room facing him Gayle stood four steps inside the room with her back to him, and Knuth was between her and Bobby, approaching Gayle fast Weapons check Handgun Pawn saw the handgun in Knuth’s hand He held it in his right hand and although it was held low against his side, it was most definitely pointing at Gayle’s midsection Knuth was midstride, his left hand outstretched to grab Gayle’s wrist The priority was the gun I have to get between her and that weapon Pawn covered the distance between Gayle and Knuth in a fraction of a second He moved with long, low, shuffling strides, which afforded him amazing speed without sacrificing his balance mid-stride Momentarily distracted by Pawn’s entrance, Knuth hesitated slightly in his stride and shifted his gaze toward the kid, who now stood directly between him and Gayle “Wha,” Knuth began, his left hand coming up defensively against the kid, who would inevitably collide with him Facing Knuth Pawn placed his left foot between Knuth’s feet and pivoted his body back and to the right so that he was standing next to Knuth on Knuth’s right side, their bodies parallel Pawn stood in front of Knuth’s right arm, where he held his gun Knuth’s gun arm to the side was now out to the side behind Pawn, against his back As he did this he brought his left arm up and over Knuth’s gun arm Pawn pushed his arm forward against Knuth’s elbow, which locked Knuth’s gun arm straight between Pawn’s neck and Pawn’s arm This forced Knuth to bend forward slightly, his gun pointing to his and Pawn’s side, away from Gayle Knuth could not stand up because of the pressure against his elbow At that moment in time, their positioning was almost comical Pawn and Knuth were parallel, side-by-side facing Gayle They might almost be preparing to a kick line, Rockette’s style But Knuth was in a terrible position Pawn’s left leg was in front of Knuth’s right, and if the technique had ended here, Knuth’s momentum would carry him forward, and he would fall over Pawn’s leg, which was planted and locked in front of his But although the gun was effectively neutralized, Knuth was still an aggressive adversary that controlled a weapon Pawn knew he needed to finish the throw and disarm Knuth He did an automatic situation check His leg positioning was good Knuth was going down over it Knuth’s gun hand was behind Pawn’s neck and locked, thanks to the constant forward pressure Pawn exerted on this arm from behind the elbow Pawn smirked It was done The rest was cake He had options A quick forward thrust with his left arm would hyperextend and snap Knuth’s arm at the elbow This would neutralize the gun, but Knuth was going down over Pawn’s leg and Knuth’s arm—whether he mangled it or not—was hooked around Pawn’s neck and the momentum would pull them both down Knuth grunted His stride now complete, he realized too slowly that the kid had already bested him Pawn sensed Knuth’s awareness of the situation and accelerated his movements Knuth had to be taken out now The technique was called Ganseki Nage, or the “big rock throw,” and it looked just like that Rather than pushing Knuth to the ground, he would throw him up and over, leaving himself The Final Chapter CHAPTER 42 unentangled Lifting his left arm straight up in the air to keep Knuth’s arm behind his neck and maintain the leverage on the elbow, Pawn rotated his torso to his right for the throw Knuth’s body continued in its momentum, and assisted by the lever of his arm that still held the gun, Knuth fell over Pawn’s planted left leg as expected Pawn cranked his left arm forward for good measure and continued in his rotation, accelerating Knuth forward so quickly that Pawn was afraid he would throw him into Gayle Gayle The gun The two thoughts arrived simultaneously, and suddenly Pawn’s focus was no longer on the soon-to-be violently forward propelled Knuth but on Gayle and that gun With Knuth quickly nearing what felt like terminal velocity, Pawn went for the gun, but something misfired in that moment and he couldn’t remember which hand the gun was in With Knuth’s weight releasing forward too quickly, Pawn found both of Knuth’s forearms, and as Knuth launched forward, his forearms sliding through Pawn’s hands, Pawn gripped Knuth’s right and left wrists simultaneously, unable to adjust quickly enough to grab just the gun in Knuth’s right hand The result was horrific With the extreme forward momentum Knuth had accumulated, he would have been thrown a good six feet, most likely into the wall next to and behind Gayle This of course assumed Pawn released But with the last second adjustment to get to the gun, Pawn had not only taken away Knuth’s landing gear, but he had adjusted the trajectory of the throw such that Knuth hit the floor head-first directly in front of him Pawn had changed the maneuver from a throw that would have had Knuth on his back several feet away, to a headfirst piledriver directly into the hardwood floor The wet crack of Knuth’s neck was sickening Pawn released too late, and Knuth’s lifeless body fell to the floor Somehow Pawn had managed to get the gun, which he instinctively shuttled across the floor, finally settling into a picture-perfect defensive posture, prepared for Knuth to make his next move Knuth, of course, didn’t “Pawn! No!” Gayle ordered, too late Rushing to Knuth’s side, she said “What have you done? He wasn’t…” Bobby ran forward to Gayle’s side, and Pawn stood, stunned “Oh crap mister,” he started “Are you…OK? I didn’t mean to…” Gayle bent down over Knuth’s body His neck was wrong The angle was bad Gayle didn’t touch him He was obviously gone “Pawn, you killed him.” Pawn looked around for the gun, frantic “No, it was wrong I did not know where the gun was Ganseki is different than that He was supposed to…” Turning to Bobby, Gayle stood and asked, “Bobby, what was he talking about?” “We’ve got to get out of here,” Bobby said “I think the place is rigged to blow.” Gayle headed for the library doors, with Bobby close behind Pawn bent down over Knuth’s body “I’ll get you out of here,” he said, scooping Knuth’s body up with visible effort and attempting his best fireman’s carry Knuth’s head flopped at a horrific angle 1037 1038 PART IV How to Own a Shadow “You will be OK,” he managed, moving toward the door “We will get you help I’m really sorry about the bad throw We’ll get you help.” “Pawn, what are you doing? Leave the body There’s no time.” “I am not leaving him I can’t just leave him It wouldn’t be right We have to help him We have to get him to a hospital.” Pawn suddenly collapsed to the floor, sending Knuth’s body crashing to the hardwood Pawn projectile vomited violently in one quick burst Gayle ignored him for the moment “Bobby, I’m so sorry Why you think the place is rigged? What exactly did he say?” Bobby dragged his eyes off of his father’s body “He said that in nine minutes the house wouldn’t exist, and that I had to get a thousand feet away He said that just before you came in.” Gayle assessed the situation She had to get the three of them out of the house immediately Pawn was extremely distraught, Bobby was in shock She had to distract them and redirect them into action Give them both an urgent task to perform to get them moving Gayle said “We have to go, now Paul, grab that.” And she gestured in the direction of the gun Bobby started to argue “But what about Dad…” “We can’t help him now, and we have to run Bobby, I need you to lead us out, and you know the area best We don’t have time.” Pawn looked in the direction Gayle had indicated He saw the gun, and next to it on the floor, a USB thumb drive He did not know which one Gayle wanted him to pick up Rather than stop to clarify which one she meant, he grabbed both The thumb drive fit in his pocket, but the gun would not, so he held it in his hand Gayle went for the front door and opened it She only caught a glance of the black cars pulling up to the front of the house when she slammed the front door again and locked it from the inside “Back door!” They went running in the opposite direction from the front door, none of them knowing the layout of the house well enough to know where the back door was, or if there even was one They found a kitchen with another door in the side “There,” Gayle pointed at it They went through that door, and found a small entry room with another door with a glass pane Through that was the back yard As they exited, they could hear the front door being smashed in They ran through a couple of hundred feet of manicured yard directly away from the house Then they hit the beginnings of raw jungle They were another two hundred feet into that when they simultaneously heard a huge boom and felt a wave of heat They also felt like they had been shoved hard in the back by someone, and they were knocked forward Gayle and Bobby lost control, and they flew face-first into the grass Pawn managed to tuck into a front shoulder roll, and came up facing back in the direction they had come He saw a huge ball of flames where the house should have been Parts of the yard they had run through were flaming as well They could hear the sound of helicopter blades approaching They pulled themselves back to standing, and continued running minutes remaining – operation terminated ... be on one end of the spectrum and black hat hackers on the other On the contrary, they are both at the same end of the spectrum, with the rest of the world on the other end There really is no... they said that they wouldn’t take the card back because it was a closeout Their site didn’t say that the card was a closeout! I told the support drones that, but they wouldn’t listen They said, “Policy... hangs up CHAPTER Flying the Friendly Skies Joe Grand 119 Not only am I connected to the private wireless network, I can also access the Internet Once I’m on the network, the underlying wireless