Under Vanishing Skies (9 page)

I wasn’t surprised. During the war, both sides hacked into each other’s communications systems. “So? There’s nothing left up there to hack. What’s this all about?”

He looked up and said, “You are wrong, Aron.”

I stared at him, not sure what he meant.

He continued, “Three years ago, I built a device to transmit signals to satellites over a secret command-and-control frequency.”

“
You did what? Wait a minute. There is no way that any satellites survived a solar storm as big as the one that hit twelve years ago. And even if one did, you’d need a laser uplink station to communicate with it. Are you telling me that you built a laser uplink?”

“
No. I did not build an LUS. I did not need to. You see, most satellites have back doors, communication paths that use radio frequencies.”

“
Jin, I worked in the satellite communications software business for twenty-three years and I never heard of any back door RF channels.” From what I remembered, the last RF satellites were decommissioned around 2030.

He looked down at his feet. “These were not...official communication capabilities. My government had some of our manufacturers surreptitiously install this capability in the satellite components. It enabled our military to keep track of certain information.”

“
So wait...you’re serious. You actually communicated with a satellite.”

He nodded.

I walked a few feet away and stepped onto one of the massive concrete rocks that served as a breakwater for the harbor. Closing my eyes, I let the ocean breeze fill my lungs. I needed to let this sink in.

Jin stepped onto a rock next to me. I opened my eyes and looked at him. “What was the point of building the transmitter?”

He shook his head. “After we completed the IICN, I needed something to keep my mind occupied, so I built the transmitter. Each night I would point it at a different part of the sky and try to connect to a satellite. I never really expected to find one, but it helped me pass the time. Then, a few weeks ago, I received a signal from a satellite.”

“
So what kind of satellite? A communications satellite? A weather satellite?”

“
No. It is a military reconnaissance satellite, an Indian reconnaissance satellite. It is in orbit over Pakistan. It sustained some damage from the storm, but I was able to hack in and assume control.”

 “
So you’re in control of a reconnaissance satellite? This is big, Jin. Really big. The MDF could use it to—”

“
No! Nobody must know about this.”

I flinched and took a step back.

“
I am sorry,” he said in his usual quiet tone. “Please…let me explain. The guidance system was broken, but I managed to fix it. Before trying to reposition the satellite, I needed to calibrate it. So I took a photograph of something that was within range of its current orbit. It had to be something that I was familiar with so I could calculate the distance between a series of geographical points.”

“
So what did you take a picture of? China? The Great Wall?”

He shook his head. “No, I pointed the camera at the Maldives. I knew that I could measure the distance between some of the communications towers we built.”

Jesus Christ, he was smart. I never would have thought of that.

 “
It was when I studied the image that I saw it.”

“
Saw what?”

“
I saw an MDF boat docked alongside a supertanker positioned about a hundred nautical miles south of the Maldives. When I zoomed in, I saw the symbol of Jamal painted on the hull of the tanker. It must be their mother ship. The MDF boat was docked alongside a pirate fast attack boat and they appeared to be transferring crates between the ships.”

“
Are you sure it was an MDF boat? Maybe they painted one of their boats to look like an MDF patrol boat.”

Shaking his head, he said, “I am absolutely sure. The clarity of the image was very good; good enough for me read the numbers on the hull and identify some unique characteristics of the boat. Before I came to see you, I went to the harbor.” He pointed over to where the MDF boats were usually docked. “I confirmed the identity of the boat in the photograph.”

I turned, stepped off the rock, and walked back to the base of the tsunami tower. Jin followed.

“
Why are you telling me all of this?”

 “
Because it is evidence that Ahmed is involved.”

I shot him a look and said, “No it’s not. It’s circumstantial evidence at best. Look, I hate the bastard as much as the next guy, but you can’t accuse him of cozying up to the pirates unless you have ironclad proof. He’s a dangerous son of a bitch.”

Jin walked next to me and said, “You are the only person I have told this to. You are my friend and a man of honor. I know that you will help me do the right thing.”

“
Whoa! What do you mean, ‘do the right thing’?”

“
If he is involved with the pirates, then we are all in danger.”

“
Yeah, well... unless you have a high-res glossy of him hugging a pirate you don’t have anything that proves he is guilty. Do you have a picture of him on the boat?”

He shook his head.

“
Then you have nothing.”

“
I have the messages that they sent to each other.”

“
How?’

“
SIGINT,” he said.

“
SIGINT?”

“
Signal Intelligence. I was able to use some of the signal collection sensors on the satellite to intercept messages that were transmitted across the VHF channel. I triangulated the signals and isolated the location of where the messages were sent from. They were sent to and from the location of the mother ship.”

“
Wait,” I said. My brain felt like it was about to explode again. “How’d you crack the IICN encryption?”

There were only two ways he could have cracked the encryption that we put into place on the message server. Either he convinced Ahmed to give him his personal encryption key, and I don’t think that Ahmed would hand over something like that to Jin or anyone else. Or else he built a quantum computer to crack the code for him…and not even Jin could do that.

Jin shook his head again. “I did not break the encryption. I simply stripped the user information from the header, which is not encrypted. I then mapped the ID to Ahmed’s account by searching the server logs.”

I grabbed his shoulders. “Then that’s it! That’s proof that he was communicating with the pirates.”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, there was an anomaly."

My hands dropped to my side.

Jin continued, “I discovered Ahmed’s User ID was on messages that originated both from Male and from the location of the mother ship. Some of these messages were sent within minutes of each other, so—”

“
So you don’t have anything.” I shook my head. “I’m sorry, but there’s no way in hell that I’m going to expose Ahmed with this information. I’m no lawyer, but even I know that this wouldn’t hold up in court. For all we know, Ahmed has been sending threats to the pirates. I doubt it, but it’s possible. Hell, maybe he gave them his User ID so they could communicate a ceasefire or something.”

Jin looked like I’d just kicked him in the gut.

“
I’m sorry, but I can’t do it... not without more proof,” I said.

This wasn’t like Jin. He never acted rashly. And he knew better than to accuse Ahmed without hard evidence. Eight years ago, someone else had tried that. He accused Ahmed of stealing supplies and trading them for his own profit. The guy that accused him ended up dead. They said it was an accident, but I had a hard time believing that someone could accidently fall out of a helojumper.

My data mat chirped in my back pocket. I pulled it out and read the message.

“
Look, Jin...I’ve got to get back. They’re starting the meeting. Let me know if you find anything more conclusive.” I turned and started to walk away.

“
Aron, wait!”

I stopped and turned around.

“
There may be a way to decrypt the messages. Can we meet later, so that I can explain?”

Throwing my arms up in the air, I said, “Yeah, okay, sure. The Council should finish around five o’clock tonight. Meet me at the café, the one where you found me. But Jin, keep quiet about this. Okay?”

He bowed, and I took off for the hotel.

Chapter 6

I ran up the stairs, two at a time, and darted down the hallway. Out of breath, I pulled the oversized teak doors open and found Shannon standing in the middle of the room. Around the table, people rolled their eyes and ignored her. At the head of the table, Ahmed absently tapped his gavel in the palm of his hand while Shannon continued to talk.

“
...and so that brings us to how you behave after you drop in on, snake, hog the wave from, or simply run over another surfer. It is not a good idea to pretend that nothing happened. That will likely lead to a brawl on the beach. So if you find yourself in this situation, paddle over to the person and apologize. Accidents happen out on the waves, but that doesn’t excuse not having good manners.” Shannon looked over at me and winked. Then she looked back at Ahmed and said, “And so Mr. Chairman, I think that’s all I have to say about surfing etiquette. I hope that it is useful information that we can use to assess prospective candidates. I now relinquish the floor.”

 
I almost laughed out loud. She had filibustered to buy me time to get here.

Ahmed turned to me and said, “I am so glad you were able to make it back in time. We were about to have another vote on the amended list.”

Glad my ass.

Ahmed started the procedure to call for a vote. Shannon motioned for me to follow her to the back of the room where the refreshment table was setup.

“
What took so long?” she asked when I got there. “I had about run out of things to talk about. Another few minutes and I would’ve had to stall for time by doing a lap dance for Ahmed."  She cringed.

“
I’m sorry. Jin had something important to tell me.”

“
What was so important that you’re willing to risk a vote on the list without you?”

“
You got to promise to keep this under your hat,” I said.

“
I never wear hats, but I promise not to tell,” she said. “So come on, what is it?”

“
Jin hacked into a satellite…a reconnaissance satellite.”

“
You’re kidding, right?” She studied my face and then said, “You’re not kidding! How?”

“
It’s complicated.”

Putting her hands on her hips, she said, “Are you saying I’m stupid?”

“
No, it’s just that Jin isn’t ready for this to be made public yet. To be honest, neither am I. There are some things he needs to figure out first.”

She stared at me another few seconds and then said, “But can he control it? Take pictures and whatever else a reconnaissance satellite does?”

I nodded.

“
That is pretty big news. I can see why he wants to keep it quiet,” she said. “Don’t worry. I won’t say a word. Just promise me that once he figures things out, you’ll tell me what’s going on.”

“
I promise.”

Ahmed’s voice carried across the room. “So we have a second on the motion to vote, so let us begin.”

Shannon and I returned to our seats. We spent the rest of the afternoon embroiled in the same old debate, whether we should allow exceptions for unqualified candidates...and there were still a lot of them. When it became clear that the debate would stretch beyond four o’clock, I sent Jin a message that I was running late. It wasn’t until after five that Ahmed eventually called for the three-day recess in honor of the Remembrance Weekend.

 ***

 
Before heading down to the café, Michio, Shannon, and I made plans to meet up in the hotel dining room for dinner around seven thirty. I figured I’d have plenty of time to talk with Jin about his idea before dinner. I checked my watch for the third time and realized that I was wrong. Jin was late...over an hour late. I took a sip of tea and grimaced as I swallowed the lukewarm brew.

Where the hell was he? This morning he couldn’t wait to tell me about this conspiracy theory and now he was a no-show. I checked my data mat to see if he’d replied to any of the messages I had sent him. My inbox was empty. The only thing new was a reminder from my calendar that I was late for dinner with Michio and Shannon.