Mind Trace Read online

  Mind Trace

  Holly McCaghren

  Copyright © 2012 Holly McCaghren

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN:1475083920

  ISBN-13:978-1475083927

  Acknowledgments

  I would like to thank my family and friends, for their invaluable support and feedback, and for being my most loyal readers before I had ever written a word.

  Mostly, I am thankful for being blessed by God with the ability to put into words what I previously only saw in my dreams.

  Chapter 1

  "Final stamp on your coffee card—you get your free cup of coffee today!" The barista handed Alice her daily dose of caffeine.

  Mmm. Perfect way to start the day.

  She settled into her favorite booth in the back corner of the coffee shop and took out her laptop.

  She sipped her warm coffee, distracted by the swirls of steam fogging up her glasses, as the laptop whirred to life. The screen blinked on, waiting for her to initialize the facial recognition so that she could log in. Entering the appropriate information, she watched the laptop camera display her reflection as it scanned her facial features.

  Staring back at her was a nineteen-year-old brunette with petite, dark-rimmed glasses that veiled her rich brown eyes. Alice had always considered herself to be "nondescript and average" but she discredited herself. To the outsider, she was a shy, attractive, young woman with a great deal of intelligence behind dark and mysterious eyes. Her shoulder-length hair fell in waves around her face, but was usually pulled back into a ponytail.

  Once her computer logged in, she completed her usual startup routine. She frowned when she saw that her inbox was full of unread messages.

  How do so many people know my address?

  The first message was from a potential client who wanted custom software designed for their accounting department. She glanced over it with mild interest and filed it away for later review.

  There were a few more emails with similar context, but one of them stood out, drawing her attention. The subject was titled "Potential Client Opportunity."

  EngineerCorp is looking for talented software engineers who can expose security vulnerabilities in our latest security software, SteelSafe 2.0. For a limited time, EngineerCorp will be test driving SteelSafe 2.0 on a dummy internet server so that all of you "hackers" can take your best shot! SteelSafe is revolutionary software that will change security as we know it. We need your help to make sure it succeeds.

  The website for the server is https://92.24.135.224:2093/.

  If you are successful, respond to this email with your findings. There is a cash reward for legitimate results!

  Alice questioned the authenticity of the email. The "reply-to" address was "[email protected]" but it was easy enough to mask the address. EngineerCorp was the largest company of its kind in the world and was responsible for most of the technical breakthroughs in the past decade. It did not seem likely that they needed strangers to help them, given their success. Still, the thought intrigued her. Even if it was a fraud, it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. Her computer had top-of-the-line protection and she was not worried about exposing it to threats.

  Alice sipped her coffee and pointed her web browser to the address in the email. She found herself staring at a login portal for some kind of server. She assumed that it was the "dummy" server that the email referenced. Alice ran an analysis on its basic security information, including querying the SSL and certificate. The summary revealed a sophisticated system, meaning that her task was not going to be easy.

  Perfect. It's so boring when it's not a challenge.

  She readjusted her glasses and began doing what she loved best.

  After some time, she grew frustrated, having no luck at cracking the server. Alice sighed and gazed absently around the coffee shop, nearly choking when her eyes fell on the clock next to her.

  I've been sitting here for four hours! I have to go.

  She packed up her things, tossed her coffee cup, and headed out the door. Unhitching her bike from the rusty bike stand outside the shop, she rode the seven blocks to her office.

  It was a beautiful, sunny day in Asheville. A light breeze rustled the white ash trees lining the street. This part of town was the one of the older areas. Most of the buildings were an Art Deco style dating back to the 1930s. The result left most people with a quaint, cozy feeling.

  The area that Alice frequented was one of the lesser developed sections. The structures there were mostly empty, waiting to be leased by new businesses. Many of them needed almost full restorations to be brought up to city code, which is why they remained empty.

  Breathing the cool air deeply, Alice sighed. She had made hardly any progress hacking the web portal and she had exhausted quite a few of her normal methods.

  What I need to do is just forget all about it, including the email that started it. If only it were that easy…

  At any rate, she had to forget it for the moment so she could do "real" work. She approached the small, antiquated building that housed Computer Techs & More. On either side were empty structures, their vacant windows looking cold and unwelcome. She heard the sharp clink as she snapped the lock on her bike, then entered the building.

  The front door chimed as she stepped inside. Alice waved to the part-time receptionist who was absently filing her nails at the desk. On the way to her office, she spotted the owner of the company, who was also her boss. She stopped by to chat with the cheery man she had grown quite fond of working with.

  "Hey, Alice! Late morning, huh?" Bill teased. "Thanks to all the hours you put in last week, we finished the last of our major projects a week early! The client will be pleased. We shouldn't be getting any new projects until the first of next month. That gives you a few days of rest."

  "Lucky me!" Alice smiled. "Does that mean I get a raise?"

  Bill laughed. "God knows you deserve it, Alice. I'm sure we can arrange something favorable in your next review. Thanks to you, we have a steady customer base, and will be looking to hire several more engineers by next quarter." Bill leaned back in his chair, looking pleased.

  "Take it easy for the next few days, Alice. I'd say you earned it."

  Alice nodded and continued down the hall to her office. Pausing in the doorway, she affectionately looked around. Computer parts and paraphernalia were strewn about the office, covering most surfaces. Her desk was in the center of the office and was one of the few neat areas. It contained her office supplies, tools, and organized stacks of paperwork. Several workbenches and bookcases covered the remaining space. The walls were interspersed with movie posters, her college degree, and a picture of her a few years back at her parents’ lake house.

  She took a deep breath and settled in to her desk to begin working. As promised, Bill had left her with little urgent work. Two hours later, all of it was done.

  She tilted her chair back, tapping a pencil against the desk.

  Should I take another chance at that web portal?

  Alice hesitated, and checking one last time to make sure she had no excuse not to, she began to analyze the server again.

  Soon, the light coming in through the window in her office grew dim and Bill popped his head in her doorway. "Hey, I was just about to lock up. Are you staying or leaving?"

  Alice stretched and pushed back her chair. Where had the time gone? Her stomach was now rumbling unpleasantly.

  "Yeah, I'm heading out too. Let me shut this down, and I'll be right out."

  She put her laptop and other things in her satchel and went out the door after Bill. Unhitching her bike, she rode down to the corner market to pick up dinner before going home.

  Home was a quaint, cozy cottage she rented from an elderly couple just outside of tow
n. They lived further back on the same property in the main house.

  Alice lived on her own; she had no family left to speak of. Her parents passed away just one year earlier in a tragic car accident, leaving her without any closure. Moments of grief still hit her without warning and left her feeling empty and alone.

  Alice turned the key in the faded bronze lock, opened the front door and dropped her things on the side table. The cottage was sparsely decorated, with brightly colored knick-knacks and comfy-looking furniture.

  Home, sweet home.

  Taking her salad to the small dining nook, she looked over her mail as she ate. She found herself distracted, mind wandering again to the strange email.

  I don't know why I bother. I won't be able to rest until I crack this.

  Alice sighed and headed to her office where she turned on the waiting computer. Her eyes wandered around the room while it booted up. The room was laid out like her work office. Functional, but it still reflected her eclectic personality.

  Alice had a wide variety of equipment, including several rack servers, a soldering station, scopes and other analysis hardware, in addition to the normal office paraphernalia.

  On her desk, there was an impressive desktop computer with several LCD monitors attached. As she impatiently waited for the computer to start, she noticed a POE (Power over Ethernet) cord on the edge of the desk had become frayed, and now had several wires exposed.

  There was enough voltage in the cables she was using to provide a nasty shock. Alice gave it a considerable berth and vowed to fix it when she was done working for the night.

  The thought left her mind as the computer finally started. She expertly navigated to the website and continued her onslaught of its security.

  Time passed by unnoticed as she struggled to find a way through the server's defenses. Alice briefly noticed her eyelids becoming heavy and was surprised to see that it was close to midnight. Rubbing her eyes, she took a moment to rest.

  Is any of this worth it? It's probably impossible to crack anyway, and I'm just wasting my time.

  Just when she was about to give up on the whole endeavor, Alice remembered something she learned while working on a client's computer a few days before. She leaned forward with renewed interest and began to type furiously.

  Having been regularly exposed to the aggressive strategies of computer viruses, Alice had a unique perspective on the matter. The most recent virus she tackled gave her just the inspiration she needed. Expertly modifying the algorithm that it used, she set it loose on the server.

  Alice waited for several minutes as nothing happened. She sighed and leaned back in her chair.

  Well, it was worth a shot.

  Then, to her amazement, a small dialog boxed popped up on her central monitor with the words "ACCESS GRANTED." She had no time to rejoice in her success, however, because it was instantly replaced by another box that said, "FULL SERVER DOWNLOAD COMMENCING…"

  She panicked. It seemed like all of it was happening in slow motion. Alice had only wanted to gain access to the server to prove that she could; she had no idea that it would somehow automatically initialize a full database dump to her hard drive! Her screens started to flicker and the lights in the room grew dim.

  Without thinking, she sprung forward to sever the connection and her hand fell on the exposed wiring. She felt lightning hot pain in her hand and up her arm. Just as her right side began to grow numb, her vision darkened.

  Chapter 2

  She woke up to the rhythmic hum of computers. Looking around, Alice took inventory of her situation; she was lying on the ground in her office with a terrible headache and could not remember how she got there. There was a nasty burn on the palm of her right hand. Lying next to her were the melted remains of an Ethernet cable that had burnt in two. The combination of those things was enough to jerk her back into reality.

  Alice sat up abruptly, causing her head to sear with pain. Glancing over at the nearest clock, she was shocked to see that it was three o'clock in the morning.

  Have I been lying here the whole time?

  My head is killing me, and I can't think. I'll deal with this in the morning.

  Stumbling upstairs to her bedroom trying to not pass out again, she stopped in the bathroom to get a bandage for her hand. She fumbled with it for a few moments until it finally cooperated.

  When Alice collapsed on her bed moments later, she was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

  It seemed like only a moment had passed when bright light was rudely shining through her eyelids. Opening her eyes, she saw the sun streaming through her bedroom window. She rolled over and looked at the clock.

  12:27pm? I slept over twelve hours. I haven't done that since I was in college.

  The pounding in her head was less severe than before, but her hand still burned fiercely.

  Maybe a shower will clear my head.

  Alice eased out of her bed and gingerly made her way down the hall. She moved robotically into the shower, her muscles stiff and uncooperative. Turning the heat up until steam filled the room, she let the water cascade down her back. Finally, she felt like a person again. She took her time, taking care to keep her hand out of the heat.

  After she toweled off and dressed, Alice surveyed her reflection in the mirror.

  I look exhausted. I suppose that is a side effect of electrocution.

  Oh! The download. What happened?

  The thought made her tense up, causing her head to pound again. Alice forced herself to calm down so she could function.

  On the way into the office, she grabbed a glass of orange juice and sat down at her computer.

  Hmm. Ethernet cable melted in two, no internet connection… I'll deal with that later. I have extras. Let's see what kind of damage the computer suffered first.

  It appeared that all her drives were in working order and had not lost any data. However, strangely enough, they had not gained any additional data. The information that was "downloaded" was nowhere on her computer or any of her servers.

  Did any of that really happen last night? Maybe the website will show some indication of what happened.

  Alice found her box of spare cables and dug through it for a suitable replacement. As she went to attach the new cable, strange thoughts began to filter through her mind.

  Revisiting the website will create an unnecessary risk. If the server administrators are aware of the breach, they will use the connection to trace its origin.

  …Huh? Where did that come from?

  Alice could not ignore the overwhelming urge to secure her connection, although she was not sure from what at the moment.

  The nature of her employment required her to have more security in place than most people. She masked her MAC address and bounced her ISP connection from several remote servers before terminating at her computer. All of these measures made her untraceable for most purposes, but she found herself aware of the many vulnerabilities in her system. In the mere span of several seconds, she thought of at least fifteen different methods of remedying those faults.

  How do I know all that?

  Something tells me that whatever part of my brain that came from won't be satisfied until I listen.

  Trying not to overanalyze her strange new paranoia, she began to write the code as her mind dictated. Soon, she had multiple complex scripts running to ensure that no one could trace her connection. Alice sat back and stared at her screen in astonishment. Pages of unfamiliar code glared suspiciously back at her.

  Okay, now I'm starting to freak out… Maybe all that sleep just gave my mind some clarity…

  Oh, who am I kidding? Don't think about it right now; focus on finding out what happened.

  Somehow, despite whatever occurred the night before, her router and modem were still intact. Alice connected the spare wire and waited for her internet to initialize. Feelings of unease gnawed at her in the silence of her cottage.

  When her connection finally came online, Alice returned
to the email that had begun the whole affair.

  Who knew one email could cause all this? Who would have sent such a request?

  Only one way to find out…

  It seemed her hands had a mind of their own as they typed various lines of code into the prompt and compiled complex scripts from what seemed like nothing. At first, the only information that was available was an IP address and an empty WHOIS chart. However, a few moments later, she had all the information she needed. Her eyes widened in shock as she made the connection.

  The email originated from a server at Cyberconn…

  Before EngineerCorp had worldwide domination, Cyberconn had been their competition. Cyberconn had several critical breakthroughs and appeared to be the company that would come out on top.

  Then, there was some kind of scandal and it was leaked to the press that Cyberconn had been stealing ideas from EngineerCorp, and publishing them as their own. Although it never went to trial, their reputation never recovered from the incident. All the positive press EngineerCorp received as the "victims" gave them the edge they needed to dominate the very fickle market. Cyberconn still existed, if it could be called that, but were barely staying afloat.

  Did Cyberconn want revenge? What would they have done if I handed them the key to EngineerCorp?

  This is what they wanted all along. They probably sent that email out to hundreds of people like me, hoping one of us would unwittingly do just that.

  She knew it should have been obvious the email was some sort of fraud. However, the thought of exposing security vulnerabilities in one of the nation's largest technology companies had overpowered her desire to be logical. The challenge was simply too tempting.

  Not only was I just tricked into hacking into EngineerCorp, but I somehow tried to download all of their data in one fell swoop. Great.

  She sat back, amazed. Since the data had not been found on any of her hardware, she could only assume Cyberconn's plot had been unsuccessful. She took a deep breath, relieved.