Invisible Armies

Chapter 32

"All right, Mulligan mi amigo," Keiran says, from the roof of the largest such garage. No other cars are on the roof; it is nearly nine PM, on a weeknight, and there are plenty of parking slots available on lower levels.

"Go forth to Starbucks and send our enemies my sweet whispered words of love. And try not to be obvious."

Mulligan glares. "Go teach your grandmother."

He rotates his wheelchair and speeds it towards the elevators, his closed laptop in a carry-case where his calves would rest if they existed. 

"All right," Keiran says. "Back in the car."

They wait a long half-hour before Keiran's hiptop beeps. He glances at it and shows it to Danielle and Jayalitha. "These men look familiar?"

The Danger hiptop's screen displays a picture of two men, both middle-aged, one lean with hawklike eyes and greying temples, one plump, balding, and moustached.

"Yes," Danielle says immediately. "It was them. On the beach. Right?"

"I think so," Jayalitha says hesitantly. "It is hard for me to distinguish white men."

"It's them. I'm sure of it," Danielle says.

"Good." Keiran taps a reply into his hiptop. A minute later it beeps again and he grins triumphantly. "Excellent. They have been Bluesnarfed."

"That's it?" Danielle asks after a moment.

"You were expecting fireworks? Remember LoTek's Law. That was about as spectacular as I hope to get."

"Perhaps you could explain?" Jayalitha asks after a moment. "I do not fully understand."

"Well." Keiran hesitates. "Crash course in hacking. You remember I went looking for our friend P2 online, didn't find him but did find the phone gateway he's using, and that he'd called two Los Angeles numbers. That's why I called you at the hotel."

Jayalitha nods.

"So. What do we want? Information about the opposition. What do we have? Phone numbers. What do we do? Look up their names and addresses, right? No dice. Their phones are anonymous. But I think to myself, what kind of phones? We can look that up, because every time you use a mobile phone, you tell the network your phone's serial number. Ironically this is to prevent stolen phones from being used. We hacked into the mobile phone company's database, looked up their call records, and discovered, to our joy, that theirs are flashy new Nokias with Bluetooth. Meaning they're equipped with special radios that let them talk to other phones and computers within twenty feet. So you can update your address book from your computer and so forth. Bluetooth is a communications protocol. You know what communication means? Communication means vulnerability."

"How very male of you," Danielle says, amused.

"Very funny. Our good friend Mulligan's laptop speaks Bluetooth too. And it has been sitting in its case for the last hour running a program we wrote that plunders any Bluetooth phone within range. The moment they walked within twenty feet of him, he pillaged their call records, address book, text messages. And these are the anonymous phones our on-the-take friends use to talk to their secret masters. Surely they have been given a phone number to use when they do catch us. If so, we have that number right now."

"Well, good," Danielle says. She has never seen Keiran so excited. "We've only just begun. They're walking down the promenade, looking for us. When they walk back up, we move on to phase two."

"What's phase two?"

"Social engineering, with a side order of Bluebugging, and a real-time VOIP trace for dessert. Much more exciting. Hold on to your hats. We're going to ring our friends down there and have a little chat."