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CHAPTER NINETEEN

"I've received the file," Danny said, speaking to Jake on the phone.

"Great. Send it to me via LINK. I'll call you with your next task. Stand by, for now."

"Okay."

...

Danny then opened the temporary email account he had created and downloaded the document to the smartphone. In a few seconds the file was on the smartphone and Danny sent it to Jake.

Jake opened the document as soon as he received it. He smiled as he skimmed its contents.

So this is what their system is like. It's pathetic. We made various test viruses that infiltrated this type of system years ago.

Jake quickly scrolled down the whole document to get an idea of its scope.

"Wait a minute," he said to himself as he saw a section in the documentation.

"Project Proxy? Yes, this is it. The damn encryption system they are said to be developing."

Jake studied the section carefully, his expression growing more and more serious.

"This is bad. These specifications, these encryption levels. They are even better than what we are offering BuyNow."

He hit his fist on the desk, hard.

"Damn it. I need to stop them. No, better yet, I need to get the source code and beta versions of this system and see if my guys can make something better than it."

He stood up and walked to the mini-bar.

"I need a way to delay this project," he said, pouring himself a glass of whiskey.

He took the glass, walked back to his desk and sat down facing the window. He went into deep thought, gazing into the sky.

I must create some sort of diversion. I bet they won't continue with the project if their whole system is shutdown. Yes, that's it. I'll tell that sucker to allow one of my viruses through the firewall and cause a total system failure. That should keep them busy, and give me enough time to think of a plan to get the blueprints of Project Proxy.

He spun his chair around, picked up his office telephone and dialed a number.

"Hello, Sylvester. I need copies of the viruses we used to test our second generation antivirus software."

He paused for a response.

"Yes, bring each copy on a separate flash disk to my office, now."

He put the phone down and pushed his chair back. Putting his hands at the back of his head, he folded his legs on top of the desk.

Now we're going somewhere.

A few minutes later his office phone rang and he picked it up.

"Yes?"

"Sylvester is here to see you, sir."

"Yeah, let him in."

Sylvester knocked on the half-open door and then came in.

"Good afternoon sir."

"Sylvester. How is the virus development going?"

Sylvester sat in a chair in front of Jake.

"It's going well, sir. We've just developed a program that can evade and disable the latest antivirus software that DataGuard released yesterday."

"Good. The only thing left to do is to propagate, and then offer an update on our antivirus software that eliminates the virus. No, better yet, can you make the virus detect what type of antivirus is installed on a computer so that it doesn't affect computers with our software installed on them?"

"Um—Yes, it is possible. That's a good idea, sir."

"So implement it. Now, do you have the viruses?"

"Yes, right here, sir," Sylvester said and fetched the flash disks from his pocket and handed them to Jake.

"Great," Jake said as he took the flash disks.

He examined them.

"I see you've labeled them too. Good work, Sylvester."

"Thank you, sir," he said.

"Sylvester," Jake began, his tone stern.

Jake leaned in the desk, and closer to Sylvester.

"This never happened. You never gave me these flash disks, you understand?"

"Yes, sir," he said.

"If anyone asks you what you were in here for, just tell them that you were updating me on your software development progress, okay?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. That will be all for now."

Sylvester nodded and stood up, and then walked out of Jake's office.

As soon as Sylvester left his office, Jake took his mobile phone out and called Danny.

...

Danny was having lunch at a restaurant near his apartment when the smartphone rang.

"Hello."

He listened to the instructions Jake was giving him.

"Yes. I understand. Consider it done."

Danny finished his lunch and left the restaurant. He did some window shopping around town for about an hour, before walking back to his apartment.

Upon arrival, the first thing he did was check the mailbox for the package that Jake had said he was going to send him. He opened the flap and saw a small white box inside the mailbox, similar to the one that contained the smartphone.

He took the package with him into the apartment.

"Two flash disks, just like he said," Danny said to himself as he held them in his hands.

Wow, I wonder what kind of damage these two small devices will do.

Danny then put on a pair of gloves and took a small piece of cloth, and then wiped the two devices. Afterwards he placed them back in the box and then wiped the box too.

After cleaning the devices and the box of any fingerprints, he quickly went to his car, with the box in his pocket, and then drove to Rupert's residence.

At the Blake's residence, Sylvia was browsing the Internet on her laptop while reclining on a couch. The day had gone by as usual. She had fetched Jane from school at midday, eaten lunch with her and done the dishes.

With only about two hours left before Rupert's usual arrival time, she began replying emails her customers had sent her.

A few houses away, Danny was in his car, watching the surveillance footage.

Since Jake left it up to me to decide how I give Rupert these devices, I'm going to be a little creative and do this my way.

He watched the video footage from the cameras, taking note of where Sylvia was and what she was doing.

She'll probably sit on that couch until she wants to make dinner or something, which is likely to be an hour from now, judging from her usual daily movements. There's no better time to do this than now.

He got out of his car, put on his sunglasses, closed his car's door and then walked towards Rupert's house. The street was idle, with not many people outside their houses; mainly children playing in their yards.

Danny arrived at the house and went straight to the mailbox. He glanced at Sylvia as she sat on the couch, facing the opposite way, making him well out of her sight.

He walked up to the mailbox, opened it and placed the small box inside. He then turned around and continued walking up the street, and away from his car.

He decided to go around the block instead of going back to his car right away, in case someone had noticed him. It took him fifteen minutes to go around and get back to his car. He was certain that no one had seen him.

"Stage one finished. Next up is stage two," he whispered as he entered his car.

He then started his car and drove off.

...

Rupert arrived home at his usual time, not wanting to make Sylvia, nor the hackers, suspicious.

"Calm down. Calm down," he repeatedly whispered to himself.

"There's nothing wrong and everything is going to be okay. I can't let Sylvia know about this."

He opened the front door and stepped inside the house. Before he closed the door, his mobile phone rang. He took it out and read the caller identity.

"It is them," he whispered, as he noticed that the identity was hidden.

"Hello."

"Welcome home, Rupert. We've received your file. You've done well. Now I've got another task you."

"Yes?"

Rupert was clearly breathing heavier.

"But first, what do you know about Project Proxy?"

Rupert was startled.

"It's an encryption system that we recently started working on," he nervously answered.

"We'll need the blueprints and any beta versions of it. But for now, we want you to do something else. In your mailbox are two flash disks, contained in a small white box."

Rupert stepped outside and walked to the mailbox, and then took the small box out, as Danny continued.

"They are both infected with variants of certain viruses. You might already know about them. Anyway, the point is that we want you to spread the virus on the Leadsway network by disabling their antivirus system. You are to complete this task by midday tomorrow."

The call ended, Danny not waiting for Rupert's response.

Rupert stood outside the house, the phone still on his ear and his mouth open as if he wanted to say something. Only after half a minute did he snap out of his temporary trance, after hearing someone call his name.