The OP Lich is a Returnee - Chapter 54 (Patreon)

Chapter 54 – Failure

Tatsumi had been quite amused by the ‘gift box’ that I had sent the Americans, containing the bodies of their two men, the tracking devices they were hoping to use, and a note. Of course, technically the Americans were still alive, since all I’d done to them was steal their souls. Autonomic functions like the heart’s beating didn’t care about such things, so they would probably last until succumbed to dehydration, without medical aid. Still, the bodies would never actually wake up, unless their souls were returned, and I still had those.

All that was covered in my note, where I told them that I had the souls. I also may have mentioned that they were quite talkative, now, and listed the names of every classified operation the two souls had ever been a part of, so that their masters in Langley would know what I knew. After that was the simple statement that further interference in my affairs would not end well for them. And, if need be, I would go to Langley myself to make sure that the entire Agency got the message.

Unfortunately, I did not think that alone would be enough to dissuade them from trying to find out my secrets, or to stop trying to acquire the magical knowledge I had. Intelligence agencies, by their nature, never stopped pushing and trying to find things out unless directives came down from on high. And I had learned from my captured souls that they still had my threat assessment down in the same category as wealthy crime lords, the ones who have well-trained, professional guards about them. They did not understand my full capabilities, and, thus, they were not able to comprehend what they were doing.

I would arrange an education for them, in time. But that would be later. For now, I’d let them take enough rope to hang themselves. And who knows? Maybe someone would be smart enough to pull back before they stampeded off the cliff.

However, I did think it would take them a few days, at least, to come up with a new angle of attack. The loss of field agents would force them to reconsider their approach. I suspected that the Americans would spend the time reaching out to their allies, while they tried to find a new way to get at me.

Something I was well aware of as I made my next call.

“Hello, Miss Roberts. This is Akagawa.”

“Ah, Miss Akagawa! I hope you’ve had time to look over the documents I sent over from His Majesty?”

“Yes, and I agree to the terms. I will have the documents signed and dropped off at the Embassy in Tokyo before the end of business today.”

“Excellent! I’m sure His Majesty will be glad to hear that.”

“Yes, well, for this initial cadre, I will be sending over thirteen of my people. One will be in command, and the other twelve will act as drill instructors. I’ll accept up to two hundred and forty individuals for this training. They will have to be comfortable taking orders from the undead, of course.”

“Yes, and while we are speaking about that, are there any special dietary arrangements we need to consider?”

“If that’s a polite way of asking whether you’re going to have to source brains for zombies to eat, then you needn’t worry,” I chuckled. “The soldiers I’m sending are a mix of Death Knights and Ghouls, with a Vampire in command. Death Knights do not need to eat, though they can. Wild Ghouls are flesh-eaters, but my ghouls are under an enchantment that sustains them. And my vampire may prefer ‘free range’ blood, but I’ve provided him an item which will sustain him without needing to feed on the nearby mortals.”

“Really? Because I don’t mind telling you that some of those ‘dietary requirements’ are the main reason why the ‘supernatural’ community here in Britain has been forced into hiding. If there was some way to control those feeding urges…”

“I cannot say much on an open line, but we might be able to work something out, through Athelian Arms. They would be custom pieces, obviously, mostly bracelets and jewelry of some kind, depending on the type of creature you’re dealing with. My craftsmen have progressed to the point where those enchantments would be possible for them.”

“That sounds perfect. I will pass that information along to the respective parties. When would you like to begin classes?”

“I’ll come over with my trainers on Monday. Give them a week to survey the training area, so that they can get the lay of the land, and decide on a training regimen. Physical training is a major part of the Warrior’s Way, so the cadre can expect to do a lot of that. By the end of the six months of training, I expect that every last one of them will be capable of running marathons, in full gear, and be ready to fight at the end of it.”

Naturally, such a statement was shocking to Roberts, but she took it more or less in stride. Six months was actually a bit longer than most people trained for a marathon, but most people didn’t run a marathon in full gear, and then still have enough energy at the end to fight a battle. Something like that was still a Novice stage achievement in the other world, something that any army made baseline before they let professional soldiers out of basic training. It was part of the reason why a Novice soldier could take on ten levy conscripts, and emerge unscathed, unless they grew cocky and conceited (something that the training was designed to beat out of them, quite literally).

With that settled, we said our goodbyes, and hung up the phone. Looking back, it was the kind of moment that marked a decisive change in the flows of history. However, in the moment, it was just another business deal. The sea change was too subtle to be seen while you were still in the current.

(Elsewhere)

“Well, it has been ten days. What are the results of the initial hacking attempts?”

“Unfortunately, Comrade Colonel, there have been a few setbacks.”

Colonel Safronov Rasim Grigorievich frowned at his subordinate. While the NSU was not as adept at cyberwarfare as the Chinese, they were not going up against one of the Great Powers. Ten days should have been plenty of time to at least begin getting a scope of the target.

“What is the problem?”

“Team 1 went after the target’s social media. However, the target has a very small social media footprint. While she does engage in certain message boards, her social media accounts are all private, and limited to less than one hundred followers on any one account. This limits her exposure to social engineering methods of gaining access.

“Because of this, Team 1 was unable to use their normal methods for attacking the target, either through direct hacks or phishing schemes. The three personal email addresses we found were all locked with a ninety-six digit password, comprising upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters. On the third failed attempt in twenty-four hours, the account locks for seventy-two hours, and a system administrator is notified. Team 1 has concluded that the password must be some kind of pass-phrase, but, without some clue or context as to the password’s content, further attempts on that line will only lead to discovery, and the possibility of being back-hacked.”

“Ninety-six? Are they sure?”

“Yes, Comrade Colonel. The programs were able to get that much, at least. The team stopped active intrusion attempts on each account before they were locked, and the proxy address they bounced off of was a web cafe in Tokyo, so there is little risk of exposure, so long as they don’t lock the account.”

“That is disappointing, but understandable. I will report that Team 1 made the correct call in not alerting the authorities to our attempts. Now, what of the other teams?”

“Team 2 focused on the Athelian Arms angle. When looking into her business, her company website is a simple gallery-style page, showing some of the work she’s made, and including an email and phone number to commission projects. There is no login or contact links that can be exploited, and the page itself is being hosted by a third party, with no connection to her business’s computers.

“They then tried getting into her company’s network directly, and were able to successfully isolate the IP address for her building. With that in mind, they began probing attacks. However, any attempts at tunneling or other infiltration methods were rebuffed, violently.”

“What do you mean?”

“The moment any attempt at breaching the firewall began, the proxy computer they were working through suffered physical malfunctions, knocking it offline. The severity of the malfunctions varied, with the first few simply forcing the computer to reboot, but then they became far more energetic. Three machines were physically destroyed, as their CPUs overheated and caught fire. Two more instituted a factory reset. In all five of those cases, back-hacks were attempted from the computers, and they were only stopped by physically disconnecting our proxies in Iwo Jima.”

“The back-hacks started AFTER the computers had been deactivated or destroyed?”

“Yes, Comrade Colonel.”

“Pull Team 2’s logs, and forward them to Cyber Command’s R&D. I want to know what kind of malware the target computers were using. Clearly, the target was expecting a digital intrusion.”

“Yes, Comrade Colonel.”

“What about Teams 3 and 4. Did they fare any better?”

“Team 3, targeting Phantomline, did achieve some success, managing to pierce through the outer defenses, and into the business servers themselves. However, all data was encrypted with military-grade encryption. Likely the X-237 program developed by the JSDF, which we still haven’t cracked.

“In addition, structural analysis of the encrypted directories suggests that the business servers were focused solely on business. All production material appears to be on a stand-alone network, only accessible on-site, through wired connections. No connectivity at all. Nonconfidential communications are done through third-party applications on company-provided cell phones, allowing the internal network to remain completely isolated.”

“Hmm. A simple solution to the problem, I guess, but effective. Does Team 3 have a plan to move forward?”

“Yes, sir. They would like permission to task operatives to enter Phantomline’s physical campus, and attempt to tap the hardlines connecting the building together. Otherwise, the only way to gain access would be to get someone on the staff at Phantomline, so they can get access to the secure terminals.”

“Hmm. I will speak to the Intelligence Committee, and see if they will approve the hard tap, as well as trying to insert one of our own into Phantomline. Though, that will not be an operation that can be initiated immediately. What of Team 4?”

The subordinate tensed. He was on Team 4, after all, so this affected him, personally. “Unfortunately, we on Team 4 have to report complete failure. Every time we attempt to crack into or intercept her communications, our computers lose the trail, and instead are redirected to the Pentagon, in the US. We dare not attempt further hacks until we can understand how she’s doing this. And her ‘disciples’ are either known or suspected government agents, working for the Chinese and Japanese governments, making trying to access their communications exceedingly dangerous.”

Colonel Safronov nodded once. “I understand, Comrade Lieutenant. This will come up at your team’s next review for promotion, but I will make sure to note that there were too many unknowns. We will have to tell the Central Committee that, until a hard tap can be established, further digital intelligence gathering will not produce results. I expect they will move to traditional methods after this.”

“As you say, Comrade Colonel.”