Hijackers Read online

  "More like a Phoenix," Pannell said just above a whisper. We were cleared through security quickly and escorted to the second floor, where Adrian was waiting. To my astonishment, he grabbed me in a bear hug.

  "I thought we had lost you," he said, stepping back. "I always envied Kris being able to hug you." He smiled. "Red didn't bite me."

  "He's getting old and lazy," I said, smiling. Commander Shrader, I'd like you to meet Commander Hadley, NIA WavCom Chief. Hadley this is my adopted brother. He was the other member of the Smugglers’ and Raiders’ Task forces.

  "Come, we can talk in my conference room. I'll have refreshments brought up."

  "How did you get free?" Adrian asked after the door closed. I didn't want to repeat the story but Adrian deserved to know, especially after risking a poisonous bite to give me a brotherly hug.

  "My first clear recollection…" To his credit he didn't probe for details.

  "I always said you and Kris had nine lives." He gave me a lopsided grin. "What can I do to help you catch them?"

  After pulling up the data collected over the past two months, I discovered the Hecate and the Laelaps had visited Westar. I selected their IP queries, and four hours later we had the corresponding websites. Then I selected the packets with the corresponding key strokes and searched for HoBo. I found it twice for the Hecate, once for each time it stopped, and once for the Laelaps.

  Adrian did a quick search on his tablet and slapped the table, rattling the cups. "The Laelaps was in port the day you got kidnapped. But we don't know who they are."

  "Not important right now," I said and watched Adrian frown. "The priority is finding who owns the Westar Nightclubs website and who is maintaining it. We need to stop the Hijackers before we can close down the HoBos."

  Over the next two days we found the Night Action owned the site and Quest Solutions maintained the search engine. Adrian took responsibility for determining who controlled Quest Solutions.

  * * *

  "I assume you had a good trip as Hadley looks particularly chirpy," Lulltrel said after surveying the group.

  "Traveling with Paulus is an experience. Senior level quarters, dining with the captain, and the run of the ship. And the NIA station chiefs treated us like family." Hadley gave a wide smile.

  "In addition to having fun, did you manage to learn anything of interest to Project Owlet?" Lulltrel sounded serious but a twitch of her lip spoiled it.

  "Yes, ma'am, we did manage to squeeze in a few hours of work. Nightclubs is definitely the website the gang is using and HoBo the password. Quest Solutions manages the search engine and probably the one sending the Hijackers messages, and the Hecate, Laelaps, Graeae, and Ceto have HoBos on those ships."

  "What's next, Paulus?" Lulltrel asked, looking amused. "Look for more HoBos?"

  "No, ma'am. I think Commander Odom can shut down his patch. By now we have the results from every UAS Cruiser and can easily determine any other ships who have HoBos. I think the Hijackers are the priority, and alerting the HoBo of our interest may break that link. Commanders Sinclair and Shrader are trying to determine the most likely individuals in Quest Solutions to be sending messages to the Hijackers. But I think we might find them by reviewing the WebCom traffic from Eastar, Westar, and Stone Ring."

  "But you don't know who is sending them," Brynes said, frowning in thought.

  "No, but thanks to Commander Odom, I think we know they are going to the Traveller."

  * * *

  "You were right. I ran a search of the WavCom for messages to the Traveller. I found ten over the past several months, but none lately," Hadley said as she placed a flash drive on my desk. I inserted it into my tablet as she fetched a cup of coffee and sat. "It's definitely in code."

  I nodded as I scanned the messages. The most recent messages read:

  TO TRAVELLER/WESTAR

  UPDATE: CUSTOMER INVOICE: #11123237351 CANCELED. NEW INVOICE #11228869493.

  FROM: GPS/OXAX

  And another:

  TO TRAVELLER/WESTAR

  PACKAGE READY FOR PICKUP AT: 2A60123401A2.

  FROM: GPS/WESTAR

  It was sent to Westar. I slapped my head. "I'm an idiot. If there are four FPU cruisers—three now—they probably are all using a different merchant identifications and will each have a specific WavCom they are watching. The one I…brought to Eastar looked to have been stationed in Westar space and was probably responsible for merchants going to Westar and from another close system like," I looked to the star map on my table, "Oxax." The question is whether or not it will be replaced and if Global Postal Service continues in business. We need to do a search on GPS to see if they also sent information to the other three FPU ships concerning Oasis, Shadows Rest, and Safe Harber."

  * * *

  "Good morning, I said as I sat for my morning staff meeting." I tapped on my tablet and sent the message I had prepared. A few seconds later, their tablets began notifying each person of a message from me. "Those are messages from a company called GPS to the Traveller. I believe they give the information about cruisers and merchants movements. Your homework is to decipher the message. There is a date stamp on each message which should help, and the merchants are hopefully on the list you prepared," I said while watching everyone looking at their tablets with wide-eyed stares.

  "What about the Package ready message? That looks different," Newman asked.

  "Don't worry about that one. I've already translated that one," I said. Everyone's head snapped up and they looked in my direction.

  "It translates to, ‘that pesky Commander Paulus is in a body bag waiting pickup at 2.6 degrees, 1 hours, 23 minutes, 40 seconds, 1.2 astronomical units. Don't be late,’" I said, and felt the oscillating emotions—amusement, confusion, and finally understanding and sympathy.

  * * *

  "Are you making any progress?" Alexa asked as we settled down for the night in our living room.

  "Slow but steady," I said, thinking about what we had discovered to date. "We know the websites the HoBos are using in each system to reach their contact. It's a popular website used to find the local nightspots. It's run by a firm call Night Action. They are legitimate, but Quest Solution, which maintains the search engine, is in league with the Hijackers. They use a firm called GPS to send messages to the FPU cruisers using a registered merchant's identification. My staff is working on breaking the code they use. We need that information to deduce how they select their target. The question is going to be whether the firm GPS sends messages to all of the FPU cruisers or just to the Traveller, whether each Hijacker used a different merchant's identification, and in which system or systems they reside. The Shark, alias the Traveller, alias the Pontus, appears to have used Westar."

  "If I were the captain of one of those FPU cruisers, I think I'd leave UAS space." Alexa smiled. "Because there is a blood hound pit-bull mixed breed and a red-headed krait chasing them." She laughed and I joined her. I think she had the right of it, including Red. I've long thought he has helped me to learn and deduce solutions faster. And the events on the Shark were certainly strange—the four horsemen and finding him. It was too easy to put it down to hallucinating and luck. I was hallucinating, I'd never discount luck, and Red wasn't sharing but…the number of lucky escapes was exceeding probability.

  I shrugged, picked up my tablet, and began looking the coded string to the Traveller.

  UPDATE: CUSTOMER INVOICE: #11123237351 CANCELED. NEW INVOICE #11228869493.

  It looked simple, which meant it was going to be extremely difficult to decipher. More complex codes had keys which were frequently embedded in the text. This had no embedded key. You had to understand the template they were using, i.e., every two numbers equaled a letter or pointed to something, or the first three numbers were a letter, then the next two… And after that how the numbers were generated—was a one really a one, or some other number? And finally, what did the numbers refer to? I had a headache after only a half hour staring at the string. The only thing that
gave me hope was Red lying on my forehead, which meant he was interested.

  "Red seems interested in what you are puzzling over," Alexa said, looking up from her reading.

  "The good news is he hasn't solved the puzzle. The bad news is I don't have a clue where to start," I said, shaking my head in disgust. "How's your work going, Mother?" I asked, wanting a break and realizing I had been so consumed with my work I hadn't asked about hers. After all, she had new responsibilities and people to interface with.

  "I think I'm giving the chief judge headaches. He can't seem to find the right slot to put me into. I tend to be the swing vote most of the time. I think it's because I was a captain in the military before becoming a judge and have a far different life experience than the others, who were lawyers before they were judges, and have therefore always been associated with arguing the letter of the law. They want to argue what the words mean, whereas I tend to look at the intent of the words."

  "You mean they have gotten stodgy and myopic?" I asked, while trying not to smile. Alexa laughed.

  "Exactly. They will tell you they are following the letter of the law, but you have to wonder, when so many votes come down to four to three. If the wording was so clear, then the votes should have been more like six to one or five to two. So I suspect each person is adding their own prejudices into their interpretation. I try to look at what the writers of the law were trying to accomplish.

  A good example was your argument with Captain Sharat. They couldn't punish her without destroying the chain of command. You can't have subordinates arguing with their commanders in a time of war or even an emergency. Right and wrong isn't at issue."

  "I'd do it again." I grinned. Alexa laughed and hugged me.

  "That's what makes you special. You are more concerned about others and not your career."

  "Yes! Intent," I blurted and picked up my tablet again. What was the intent of the message to the Traveller/Shark? To give scheduling information, dates of departure and arrival. So the string: #11123237351 must contain data on the departing system and arrival system and time. Two hours later I gave up and went to bed, sure I was on the right track, but frustrated.

  * * *

  "Well, who managed to decipher the message?" I asked, and took a sip of my coffee while waiting. Silence greeted me. "Before we can catch the Hijackers, we have to know the criteria they use to select a merchant and before we can determine that we have to be able to decipher the information the GPS group is sending them," I said, trying not to show my amusement.

  "It's impossible," Atkins said, and threw up his hand to show his frustration.

  "What did you try?" I asked.

  "I tried breaking them into sets of two, then three, then four… Of course that was useless as the total digits are eleven, which isn't divisible by anything except one and eleven. And I tried staring it into submission. That didn't work either."

  "What did you try, Newman?" I asked.

  "I tried substituting letters for the numbers, but of course zero through nine only allows A thru J, which didn't produce anything. And using two numbers doesn't work as the alphabet only goes to twenty-six and some of the numbers are far larger. And I tried staring it into submission." He laughed. "Didn't work."

  "I did pretty much the same," Cooper said. "With similar results."

  "Well, I didn't do any better. It's a very good code and will be difficult to decipher. What we have to keep in mind is the intent of the message—to give the Hijackers scheduling information of UAS cruisers and selective merchants. Those merchants are probably on your list of merchants who went missing." I waited questions. When none came I continued. "The reason I asked what each of you tried was to help generate ideas and let the rest of us know what didn't work.

  "What did you try, ma'am?" Cooper asked.

  "I'm still in the staring-it-into-submission phase," I quipped, although it was the truth. That generated laughs and snorts.

  * * *

  "Paulus, anything new on the Hijackers?" Lulltrel asked when my turn came.

  "No, ma'am. My group and I are trying to decipher the string #11123237351. It's the key to determining the Hijackers method of selecting their next victim."

  "What is it?"

  "I believe it's scheduling information. If we can decipher it, then we should be able to determine which merchant will be targeted and where we can hopefully intercept the FPU cruiser."

  "Is there anything else we could be doing in the meantime?"

  "It would be nice to know the name of the merchants the other FPU cruisers are using and whether GPS is used to provide them information as well. And I guess we should check the data Odom's patch collected at each NIA office."

  "I'll run a search on GPS and let you know," Hadley said, making a note on her tablet.

  "Do you intend to visit all the NIA offices?" Lulltrel asked, looking at me.

  "Let me think about it, ma'am. I know I'm being very careful, but these are dangerous people and if they think someone is on to them… If we asked each NIA office to look, that's a lot of people and word of the patch will be difficult to keep secret."

  "I agree. All right. Let me know when you decide."

  * * *

  For the next week I spent equal time in the office and at home, staring at the string. It had to be date, spacecraft name, depart from, depart time, arrive at, arrive time. That would be two or three, two, two, two, two and two, but that is twelve or thirteen numbers. And I suspected the date needed three digits, so thirteen. Even Red seemed frustrated. Finally I concluded they didn't need the arrival time since that could be computed if you knew the time they would leave and where they were going—that left eleven numbers. So, date (three digits), ship name (two), depart time (two), depart system name (two), and arrive system name (two).

  Translation: date = 111, ship name = 23, depart time = 23, depart system = 73, and arrive system = 51.

  I felt sure that was the answer or very close, but it didn't produce a solution unless someone had a book where the names were equated to a number. Which, of course, would make a translation impossible. A possible conclusion, but I thought that would be a very complex solution and required giving fifty or more people a list, and how could they update it… No, the solution was much simpler. By the end of two weeks, everyone was brain dead. I shared my logic but it didn't produce a solution.

  "Paulus, the GPS search hasn’t produced any hits. It appears each contact is using a separate company to send updates, and they only update one FPU cruiser," Hadley said, sipping a high-energy drink she’d brought with her to my office. And that string of numbers you gave us might as well be in hieroglyphics." She looked tired. "Why don't we take another trip on the Scylla? Choi must be bored."

  I picked up my CDC and hit Stamm's number.

  "Yes, ma'am," he answered immediately.

  "Master Chief, have Odom come see me," I said and cut the connection.

  "You thinking of going?" Teresa face lit up and she smiled. Thirty minutes later Stamm knocked, and a minute later Odom entered and saluted. I waved him to sit.

  "Odom, can I enter the NIA systems database from a UAS cruiser?" I asked.

  "No, the patch stores the data in a very secure area, so you need the system access code and the system wouldn't allow remote access to that area."

  "So I need the NIA station chief to log me on before I could access it?" I said, and Odom nodded.

  "I think the critical systems are Safe Harber, Shadows Rest, and Oasis," I said, based on the fact Westar appeared to be the system where the Shark retrieved its update. "Therefore, given each of those system are where they retrieve their messages and each gets their information from a unique source, I would think Black Water, Truth Star, and Fire Rock are the sources. If I check Odom's patch at each of the NIA offices, we will know the approximate date a message was sent and you could strip the WavCom looking for a message with a string like the one to the Traveller/Shark."

  "That would actually give me a reaso
n to go along, although I know you know how to strip the WavCom." Hadley laughed.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The Good Deal

  "Captain Caajetna, I just received an update from our contact. It explains why we haven't heard from the Shark," Lieutenant Klein said, holding up his tablet.

  "Let's hear it. What has our action-oriented captain done this time, hijacked a UAS cruiser?"

  "No, sir. Do you remember a Naval intelligence officer named Paulus? She was one of the Raiders Project team members."

  "The young one with the venomous snake?" Caajetna asked. "Something of a prodigy."

  "That’s the one. Our contact sent us several news articles. The first one concerns the kidnapping of Commander Paulus on Westar—"

  "That sounds like something Santo would do to relief the boredom," Caajetna interrupted and nodded. "Patience is not one of his strengths."

  "The next article has her found on an abandoned FPU cruiser." Klein stepped back when Caajetna bolted upright and smashed his fist onto his desk.

  "The fool. The girl has a deadly virus," Caajetna said in a more normal voice.

  "Yes, the Coaca Virus. There was speculation that the virus killed the crew."

  "The question is how much can they learn from the Shark and how much does Paulus know? If he had her kidnapped on Westar, he must have thought she knew or suspected something about the missing merchants. So his brilliant solution was to kidnap her and torture her into telling him. Now she no longer suspects, she knows…knows the Shark was the Traveller and the Pontus. And what else did she learn? Damn the fool."

  "Knowing Santo, she may not be fit for duty, or even sane, after a week on the Shark," Klein said, with a knowing smirk.

  "You're right. He would have had her fucked by his entire crew, which spread the virus like a forest fire in a fifty-knot wind storm. Let's hope you're right and she's damaged beyond repair. Are they getting the old Raiders Project team back together again?"

  "The articles don't say, but Commander Shrader is on Westar, which might be what prompted Santo to have her kidnapped."