Threat Vector

Jack interrupted, “Yeah, I try to stay pretty low-key. I’m just one of the grunts working a keyboard and a mouse.”

Yao gave a look like he found Jack’s comment to be just modesty.

After Yao was introduced to Gavin Biery, he led all three back toward his office.

Chavez said, “I’m sorry about springing this meeting on you like this out of the blue, but we were in town with a problem and needed somebody who knew the lay of the land.”

Yao said, “My secretary said representatives from your company were in town and asked for a brief consult. I honestly wish I could offer you more than twenty minutes, but I am slammed. As I bet you can imagine, intellectual property investigations in HK and China keep a guy in my profession busy. I’m not complaining, even if I am reduced to catching catnaps on the love seat in my office instead of going home and having a life.” He waved a hand over his slightly wrinkled shirt, making an excuse for his worn look.

As they entered his small and spartan office, Jack said, “We appreciate any time you have to talk to us at all, we really do.”

Yao’s secretary brought coffee service for the four men and placed it in a small sitting area in front of Adam’s messy desk.

Jack wondered what was going on in Yao’s head. Having the son of the President of the United States in his office must have been somewhat cool, as laid-back as Jack was about his family name, he recognized at least that much. But meeting and chatting with Domingo Chavez would be, Ryan had no doubt, one of the seminal events in this CIA officer’s life.

“So,” Yao asked, “how did you guys find out about me?”

Jack said, “There was an article that named your firm along with a couple others a few months ago in Investor’s Business Daily. When our own problems brought us over here to Hong Kong, we dug it out and gave your office a call.”

“Ah, yes. A case we worked on last year involving some high-tech patents being counterfeited in Shenzhen. Happens all the time, but it was nice to get the free advertising.”

“What sorts of projects are you taking on these days?” Jack asked.

“Could be anything, really. I have clients in the computer industry, in the pharmaceutical industry, in retail, publishing, even in the restaurant business.”

“Restaurants?”

Adam nodded. “Yep. There’s a prominent chain in southern California, over sixty locations. Turns out they have eleven more locations over here that they didn’t know about.”

“You’re kidding,” said Biery.

“Nope. Same name, same signs, same menu, same little hats on their heads. Except the owners of the chain don’t see a dime of the profits.”

“Incredible.”

“It’s happening more and more. They just busted a ring of fake Apple stores over here selling Mac knockoffs. Even the employees thought they worked for Apple.”

“Must be tough shutting them down,” Ryan said.

Yao smiled pleasantly. “It is tough. I enjoy the investigation part, but dealing with Chinese bureaucracy is… What’s the word I’m looking for?”

“Bullshit?” Jack said.

Yao smiled. “I was going to say ‘tedious,’ although ‘bullshit’ is a better description.” He regarded Ryan with a smile. “So, Jack. Why don’t I see a couple of square-jawed security guys in black suits and earpieces standing behind you?”

“I rejected my Secret Service detail. I like my privacy.”

Chavez added with a smile, “I watch his back, when necessary.”

Yao chuckled, took a sip of his coffee, and shuffled in his chair. Jack caught him looking at Chavez for a moment. “Well, gentlemen, what sort of mischief has China made for your financial management firm?”

Gavin Biery said, “It’s cybercrime, essentially. My network has been getting hit with a series of very well thought-out and organized hacking attempts. They managed to get in and to steal our client lists. Obviously this is extremely sensitive data. I was able to trace the source of the intrusion back to a command server in the U.S., and I hacked into that server.”

Adam said, “Good for you. I like a company that’s willing to fight back. If everybody did that, we’d sure as hell be in a better place as far as commercial theft. What did you find on the server?”

“I found the culprit. There was data on there that told me who was behind the attack on it. Not a real name but his online handle. We also were able to establish that the attack originated here in Hong Kong.”

“That’s interesting, and I’m sure that was tough to trace them all the way back here, but there’s something I don’t get. Once these folks get the data they are looking for off your network… there is no point getting it back. It’s out there, they’ve used it, copied it, compromised you. What’s your objective coming over here?”

Chavez stepped in. “We want to catch the guy who did this so he can’t do it again. Prosecute him.”

Yao gave the three men a look like they were hopelessly naive. “My professional opinion, gentlemen, is that that is highly unlikely. Even if you could prove this crime, the criminals won’t be prosecuted here, and if you’re thinking about extradition, you can forget about it. Whoever this guy is, he is working here in HK because this is a damned convenient place to commit such crimes. It’s getting better, HK is not the Wild West it once was, but you guys are in over your heads. I hate to be blunt, but better I tell you honestly before you burn a hell of a lot of money over here finding out the same thing.”

Jack said, “Maybe you could take us on as a client, just to investigate a bit. If nothing comes from it, well, it’s our money to burn, right?”

Adam said, “The problem is, these cases are built very slowly and methodically. Right now I’m working on a case that’s four years old. I wish I could tell you things over here moved faster, but it won’t serve anyone’s purposes to mislead you about what you are faced with.

“On top of all that, I’m much more versed with the intellectual-property side of fraud over here. Cybersecurity is a growing problem, but it’s not my specialty. I honestly think I’d be somewhat out of my lane.”

Chavez asked, “Do you have any contacts or resources at all? As Mr. Biery said, we’ve got a user name for the perpetrator. We were hoping there might be someone over here with a database that could get us a little more information on this character’s operation.”

Yao smiled, a little patronizing to the older man, though not intentionally. “Mr. Chavez, there are probably ten million hackers across China involved with computer fraud to one degree or another. Any one of these guys probably has multiple user names. There is not a database that I am aware of that keeps up with that rolling landscape.”

Jack said, “This guy is pretty good. Surely somebody knows about him.”

Yao sighed a little but kept a polite smile, then stood and went behind his desk. He pulled his keyboard to him. “I can send an instant message to a friend up in Guangzhou who’s a bit more up-to-date on cyber — financial crime. It’s going to be a needle in a haystack, I promise you, but it won’t hurt to ask him if he’s ever heard of the guy.”

As Adam Yao typed he asked, “What’s the handle?”

Gavin and Jack looked at each other. With a conspiratorial smile from Ryan that said, Let’s blow this guy’s mind, he gave Gavin the go-ahead.

Biery said, “His handle is FastByte Twenty-two.”

Yao stopped typing. His shoulders stiffened. Slowly he turned back toward his three guests. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Chavez had joined the game with his two colleagues. He asked, “You know him?”

Yao looked across his desk. Ryan could feel a mild suspicion on the part of the CIA covert operator, but above this, the thrill in the young man’s eyes was obvious. He seemed to recover a bit before replying, “Yeah. I know him. He’s… he’s a subject of interest in another case in which… in which I am tangentially involved.”

Jack tried not to smile. He liked this guy, he was smart as hell, and it was clear by everything Jack had seen that Yao worked his ass off out here, essentially by himself. He enjoyed watching Adam Yao squirm trying to find the right words to hide his excitement that he might finally get some more intel about a target that had, until now,