Double Helix Ch. 10

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Norm and Tilly make a run to Portland.
16.5k words
4.8
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Part 10 of the 23 part series

Updated 06/07/2023
Created 08/09/2013
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FelHarper
FelHarper
690 Followers

~Norm~

The front door opened and closed, and Nock walked into the living room. "Guys? I think he's back."

I got up from the couch and went to the front window to look out, Nissi and Wendy close on my heels. The black BMW from two days before was rolling up the long driveway. We had all agreed that if the FBI were going to show up, it would happen within a few hours of Dan leaving. Two days had gone by since then, and seeing him back here was unexpected and worrisome. "I'll go talk to him," I said.

Nissi grabbed my arm. "Be careful, Norm."

I nodded, patting the lump of the gun and holster behind my hip out of habit as I went for the door. I stood just outside, waiting, until the car came to a stop. Dan got out and waved. He was wearing a business suit this time, and a pair of sunglasses, but that black fedora was perched on his head as before. I had to admit that it looked far more appropriate than the last time I had seen him. He went around to the trunk, which was already swinging open. "Can I get some help?" he called.

I moved toward him, wary but hopeful. "What brings you back so soon?" I asked.

"Well," he said, "I made a stop after work yesterday at dad's cabin, where he keeps our stash of food. I thought that this could help." He stepped back and gestured at the contents of the trunk. Inside were four large, open-topped boxes filled with mason jars. He picked one up to show me. "Canned peaches," he said. He replaced it and picked up another. "Apricot jam. There's pears, apples, and blackberries in here, some whole, some jammed or pureed."

"Blackberries?" I asked.

"Yeah, they grow out behind the orchard, down near the creek."

I laughed. "I thought that was just wild brush."

"Oh, well you get a lot of that around here too. People don't bother trying to cut it back when the land is next to useless. We used to get a good crop of strawberries on a big plot next to the house, but the Rot kills those. Nobody really knew at first what crops it hit and which ones it would leave alone, but blackberries are apparently on the no-kill list."

"You didn't have to do this, Dan," I said.

He shrugged. "You guys need help, so I'm giving it."

I helped him carry one of the big boxes to the kitchen. By the time we got back, Stan, Nissi and Nock had just picked up one box each, leaving the trunk empty. Dan started to reach to close the trunk, but stopped and snapped his fingers. "Oh! I almost forgot." He fished in his jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone. "I used some of the cash you gave me. It's got a few hundred minutes on it. They don't expire, though, so I suggest you save it for when you really need it. The house phone is set to be connected early next week. Let me know if you run out, though, and I can put more minutes on it at the store."

I took the phone. It was cheap, disposable really, but it was priceless, given our current predicament. I shook my head. "Everything you've done, I don't know what to say."

Dan shrugged. "'Thanks' is the usual response, at least where I come from."

I held out my hand to him. He took it and I pumped it once. "Thanks, buddy."

"Any time. If you guys are still here in a couple of months, we're going to need to figure out what we're going to tell my mom and dad. Or maybe we can lock you all in the cellar until harvest is over."

"Very funny," I answered, smiling.

"Hey, I'm only partly kidding. I don't know what Dad will do if he finds out he's got genemods squatting on his farm. I would seriously consider how we're going to deal with that."

"You want to come inside?" I offered. "We didn't get much chance to talk the last time. We could discuss it."

Dan shook his head. "I've got to get back. I had to visit a client at the university, so I thought I'd use the excuse to drop by. It's good to see you're doing well here. I'll come visit again when I have more time. Tell Claudia, Tilly and Wendy I said 'hi'."

"Hi, yourself," Wendy said from the door. "Looking good, Dan. Love the suit. Tres chic, monsieur."

"Merci beaucoup, mademoiselle," he said, making a show of straightening his tie and puffing out his chest. "My suit jacket brings all the girls to the yard."

Wendy laughed. "Hey Norm! I think you finally found someone who's a bigger dork than you!"

Dan tipped his hat to her. "Thank you, my dear. 'Always aspire to be the best at what you do', that's my motto. Good day to you, mademoiselle." He nodded to me. "Monsieur."

I watched him hop in his beamer and drive off, shaking my head in amusement. Dan's gift wasn't enough to feed us by itself, but it would extend our supply by many days, maybe weeks. It was worth hundreds of dollars, easily. When he turned onto the road, heading for the highway, I started for the house. "Does he know you're forty-six?" I asked Wendy when I drew close.

"No," she said, grinning. "And if you tell him, I'll rip out your trachea and bludgeon you to death with it." She thought for a moment. "Or, I might just pin your testicles to the floor and crush them with a hammer, if I'm in a more forgiving mood."

I winced and put a protective hand over my crotch. "Damn, I hate it when you threaten in specifics."

Nissi pushed the door all the way open behind Wendy. "She likes him," she said. "So I suggest you do what she says. I'm rather fond of your testicles."

"Ew, gross!" Wendy said, and pretended to vomit.

"You got nothing to worry about, sugar," Nock called from the kitchen. "Even if Norm told him the truth about your age, he'd never believe it."

"Are you saying I'm immature, you cosplay reject?" Wendy said, marching over to confront Nock from the kitchen doorway.

"Pipsqueak."

"Insomniac werecat."

"Pollyanna." He spoke in falsetto, "Oh, we should all play the 'glad' game."

"That's it. You die." Wendy disappeared into the kitchen, followed a few seconds later by cursing and yelps of pain from Nock.

Nissi sidled up to me in the doorway and pulled me against her. She breathed in my ear. "Mm, you know, the sound of human suffering always gets me horny."

"And everything else," I said, and gave her a kiss. "I wonder if Tolkien knew you guys were so wanton."

Nissi gave my lip a playful bite before drawing back with a chuckle. "You know, the beard is starting to grow on me," she said, running her hand over my stubbled cheek. I had decided to start growing it out a week ago in the hopes that it would make me harder to recognize from the police sketches.

The scuffle in the kitchen suddenly rose in pitch and volume. "Ow! Hey, that's my. . . Ow, ow!"

"I better go save Nock," I said.

I found him lying on his side in the kitchen, kicking futilely. Wendy had her feet across his neck and one of his arms in a lock at her chest. I had to admit that Wendy did somewhat resemble the Pollyanna from that Disney movie, but I wasn't about to say that our loud. "Wendy," I said in a warning tone.

"Hi, Norm," she said, grunting with the effort of holding the bigger man down.

"Let Nock go, Wendy."

"Not until he apologizes."

"Jesus H. Christ!" Nock cursed. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Wendy let his arm go, tucked and rolled backwards. Her legs split apart and her toes touched the ground to stop her rotation and steady her. Balanced on her hands, she drew her feet in and stood in a smooth motion.

"You'll have to show me that move," I said admiringly, and stooped to help Nock to his feet.

"Hey guys," Stan said, peeking his head into the kitchen. "It's about time."

"Yeah," I said. "Be right there."

Nissi and Wendy were already headed to the den, and Nock fell in behind me. We had met with our friends in Santiago for the last two days running, following up each one with a private meeting with Catalina. Today's chat was special, though. Our network was about to expand.

Stan and Tilly were seated together at the terminal, checking over the logs from the last few hours. So far, there had been no evidence that anyone had noticed the encrypted network, but that could change at a moment's notice.

"Alright, I'm logging in," Tilly said, typing out a string of text into a command window.

A chat session opened, and several people logged in over the next few minutes. All of the original six from Santiago were there, plus several more new names. "Greetings from Tokyo University," a user named Shawn D. said. "Haru and Myra are with me."

"A pleasure to meet you," Haru said.

"Hi, there," the user Myra typed.

Lee, from the university in Santiago typed next. "I invited the security expert I was telling you about. He's not on the network, but I asked him to join the chat with us. Say hello, Sam."

Sam typed, "Hi."

Tilly responded. "Hello, Sam. I've got some design docs I can send if you'd like to look those over first."

"Sure."

"Tell us what you think and then I have some source code you can look at."

"Okay."

Stan and Tilly exchanged a look and Stan shrugged. It was hard to tell someone's attitude from a chat session.

"Looks like I'm the only Aussie here," a user with the name Thomas said. "Nice to meet you all."

"Hello, Thomas," Tilly typed.

"Lauren here, from the University of Copenhagen."

"Kristen, from the same. I've got Professor Pedersen here with me in the computer lab. He says 'hello'."

Our little group had grown to over a dozen outsiders. Tilly typed, "Thanks everyone, for coming. The groups in Tokyo, Copenhagen, and Melbourne should have received self-extracting executable files a few hours ago. Does everyone have server space ready for the install?"

A string of yes's appeared, at least one in each of the new locations. Tilly typed, "Okay, the password to unlock the files is dEg+D*wt#5S. Go ahead and start the install now."

"Done," Haru typed, less than a minute later.

"All set," Kristen said.

"Hang on," Thomas said. "Having some trouble with my local network permissions." We waited, and in another minute he said, "Okay, good to go."

"Okay," Tilly typed. "Let's have Todai go first. Haru, the address for Santiago should already be set. Go ahead and make your connection."

"Done."

"Now you, Copenhagen."

"Connected."

"And Melbourne."

"Connected. We're in business, mates."

Tilly minimized the chat window and brought up a command window. She rapidly typed a series of commands and got back columnar strings of symbols and numbers. She flipped back to the chat room. "Okay, I see you all on the network. Great job. We're routing all traffic through Santiago for now. I want to vet all new connections first before we allow point-to-point traffic throughout the network." She looked over at Stan. "How's our firewall holding up?"

Stan was staring at another console window. "Weird. Looks like someone is trying to gain access to the node in Santiago, but the server is rejecting them. They're running through their login attempts, won't be long. How'd they even get the address? Yep, their IP just got blocked. Wait, we have another attack, different IP."

"Should we shut it down?" I asked nervously.

"Not yet," Tilly said. "Can we trace where this attack is originating?"

"Yeah," Stan said. A moment later, "Maybe." Tilly typed in the chat window, "Stand by, everyone."

Tilly moved aside to let Stan get access to the keyboard. He frowned at the data. "Looks like it's coming from inside the university network. Let's see." He pulled up a new console window and straightened, staring at the screen with a befuddled expression. "That's weird."

"Yeah," Tilly said, somehow deciphering the fast-scrolling string of log data on the screen. "What system is that?"

Stan brought up yet another window and typed in a database query. "Student records," he said. "Someone must have hacked the student portal." He exchanged a glance with Tilly. She nodded and he typed into the chat. "I'm sorry, everyone. We need to shut down. Someone breached the student records site and their attacking us from inside Santiago's network."

"No need." That came from Sam. "That's me. Looks like I found a few vulnerabilities. I'll stop my attack now."

Stan flipped between a few windows. "Okay, the attack stopped. And I think my heart started beating again." He typed into chat, "Okay, everyone, looks like Sam just decided to test our security. We thought we were having a real cyberattack."

"It's actually not bad," Sam typed, each sentence appearing as a new line in the chat every few seconds. He had to be an extraordinary typist. "My man-in-the-middle on Melbourne failed, but I was able to grab your IP for the Santiago node. And your spoofing makes the packets pretty slippery. The biggest flaw is that you're more or less wide open to attack if someone breaches the host network. And I didn't get a good look, but I think your initialization vector is too small. I could probably crack your encryption with brute force in a couple of weeks."

"Does he sound smug to you?" Nissi said with a chuckle.

"On the other hand, you noticed my attack right off. I'm assuming that's why you told us all to stand by. If you hadn't noticed me, I was going to have a little fun with your host there."

"Yeah," Stan said. "Guess you only hurt our pride. Are you a CEH?"

"Oh, yeah, strictly white hat. And no one can prove otherwise."

"What's a CEH?" I asked.

"Certified Ethical Hacker," Stan said out loud. "I always hated those guys when I worked at IBM. They try to break in, test the security. And 'white hat' means that he only hacks legitimately, but he's slyly letting us know that's not necessarily true."

"Are you a genemod, Sam?" Tilly typed in chat.

"I am Sam. Sam I am. Veritas vos liberabit." Then, "Sam has left the server," appeared below his message.

"Sorry about that," Lee typed. "Sam's a little odd. What he said about your security was actually high praise, coming from him. He's probably one of the best hackers on Earth, and I don't say that lightly."

"I'll say," Catalina typed. "It took him less than a minute to break into the student portal. I'm going to go have a word with the web dev guys. Some tonto probably forgot to secure against SQL injection attacks. Be right back."

"Off she goes to bust some balls," Alicia typed.

Kristen and Shawn both responded with "LOL."

"We'll continue to work on the security," Stan typed, "but it sounds like we're fairly safe for now."

"What's the scene like in Oz?" Myra asked.

"Not good," Thomas answered. "The legislature hasn't passed any anti-genemod laws since the Krueger Act, but there's been some elements of the Labor party, of all things, who are clamoring for stricter control of genemods. Registration, that kind of thing. People are worried that if we start down that road, things will spiral from there."

"What's the Krueger Act?" I asked.

"The Krueger Act outlawed human genemodding in the Australian Commonwealth," Stansy said. "They passed it shortly after the Ban, under pressure from the US and some of the European nations in the League."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Myra said. "Japan walks a fine line. There's a small genetic research program here at the university, but it was almost shut down last year. This country has narrowly avoided economic sanctions several times."

"Copenhagen has a genetics program too," Lauren said. "I'm even on the team. We get annual inspections from the League of Nations to ensure that it's just pure research and our results have to be kept secret from the public. It would be great if we could collaborate with you guys in Tokyo. Are you trying to find a cure for the Rot?"

"Sorry," Haru cut in. "We really shouldn't talk about that."

No one said anything for a few moments, and then Myra typed. "So we've got people from Tokyo, Melbourne, Copenhagen and Santiago. Stan and Tilly, you built this network? Where are you?"

"We're in the US," Tilly typed.

"Oh, snap," Shawn typed. "Are things as bad there as they say?"

"Very bad," Tilly answered. "We have reason to believe that genemods and anyone who protects them are being executed in secret."

"No shit?" Alicia said. "Why would they do that?"

"It makes no sense," Kristen said, "unless the government no longer sees a use in demonizing us.

That's pretty scary. Does the McCain administration believe that it has that powerful a hold on the country that it can stop holding us up as the enemy?"

"Well," Thomas typed, "if their goal is to consolidate power, to eliminate opposition, killing off genemods and their friends are a good place to start. I think your only chance for a change might be if your opposition party gains a majority in Congress this year."

"I'm back," Catalina said.

"Did you give them hell?" Thomas asked.

"Worse. I assigned the whole dev team a basic security training module. We'll close that hole soon."

The banter continued for a while and then people began logging off. Stan went to a private room where Catalina was waiting. "I have good news and bad news," she typed.

"The bad first," Stan responded.

"No one, and I mean no one, is smuggling genemods out of your country. I got word out to a dozen different shippers, big and small, that make the run from Seattle or Portland down to San Antonio. None of them would consider transporting you, not for $100,000, not even when I offered double. Which is doable, by the way. There are enough genemod expats here with money that we could raise that without too much difficulty."

"And the good news?"

"I can get you access to your money. I found a bank in the Caribbean that will handle the transaction anonymously if you want to transfer and cash out. Their fee is 5%, but I think that's reasonable considering they must suspect the money was not come by legally. I would recommend converting to crypto-currency and splitting it up to store it in the cloud."

"What good does the money do us?" Stansy asked. "Other than maybe to keep us fed?"

"We'll come up with another plan," I said. I had been looking into what it might take to go overland. From what I had gathered, hundreds of genemods escaped across the border into Mexico each year. Canada was not an option. Any genemod caught in their borders was promptly extradited. "Thank you, Catalina," Stan typed. "We'll talk it over and get back to you soon."

He logged out of the chat room and swiveled in his chair to face us. "You know, when we pull this money out, we need to think about whether we want to pull the plug or keep the scheme going. It will get noticed eventually, depending on how often the bank conducts audits."

"Keep it going," Nock said. "Let's get as much as we can from this." He looked meaningfully at Stansy. "Keeping us fed is kind of a big deal, actually."

"Any chance of someone tracing this thing to us?" Nissi asked.

Stan shrugged. "They'll trace it to Sasha, if anything. It will be found eventually, sooner if we put a stop to it and the statements stop getting paid every month."

"Wait, you're saying this system pays its own bills?" Wendy said.

"Yeah," Stan said. "Just minimum payments, but it keeps things current. It's all designed to fly under the radar for as long as possible." "Okay," I said, "I think we should go ahead and pull the money, but keep the software active. Does anyone object?" No one spoke up. "Then we're agreed. Let's go ahead and make arrangements with Catalina the next time we talk to her. " I wasn't completely sure that Catalina could be trusted, but if she couldn't, we were essentially at a dead end. We had to put our faith somewhere if we were going to get anything done.

"You still planning on meeting Danno's guy once we have a phone?" Nock asked.

I pulled out the cell phone. "Dan just gave me this, so I guess now's as good a time as any." I flipped it open and pulled from my pocket a folded piece of paper with a phone number scrawled on it. I dialed and it was answered on the second ring.

FelHarper
FelHarper
690 Followers