<b>Roo'd</b>

# Roo'd

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# Chapter #49

Xing had understood the logistics alarmingly quickly, even for someone familiar with the network from the inside. They hadn’t told him why they were crunching the data, but the choices for what would require that kind of processing power were relatively small. It was either biotech or a big chunk of cryptography, and there was already a whole canon for applying quantum computing to crypto.

“We appreciate your not prying too deeply about this” Cessus said for the third time. “We can’t tell you what we’re doing until we’re done.”

“I understand” said Xing. “However, we are still suffering from very hurry network. Government is using your code, now. This is not good for you, no?”

“No. They’ve got data we need. Or they will, once this virus finishes its work” said Fede.

“So you have something you need. We also have need” said Xing. “We have no free access to rest of world. This closed-market capitalism prevents free exchange. Chinese hackers live in vacuum, no access to new ideas. We are very good talent here” he spread his arms to encompass the office, “but cannot progress. Means no opportunity for work outside of China. Not good for individuals or for groups.”

“I sympathize, but I don’t know what we can do about it” said Cessus. “We think we know where our data is being kept, but I don’t know how that will help you.”

“I have told you. We need connection outside of government proxies. You are very good hacker, know networks very well. Maybe you can set up spoof machines on outside...” Xing let his words trail off, hands folding gently in front of him.

Fede frowned. Xing seemed like a nice guy, but having a few international machines cracked so they could connect to them would hardly circumvent the government proxies for long.

“How does that help you long-term?” he asked.

“They want a set of machines, probably government boxes” interrupted Cessus. “If they get a nice range of them cracked from the outside they can backdoor more as they need them. It’d be impossible to do from inside China, and just incredibly difficult from outside.”

Xing smiled.

“It’s also very dangerous; the U.S. government frowns on having its boxen ownzored by international competition.”

“Can you do that?” asked Fede.

“Sure. It’d be really hard, and really risky — what with being a violation of international law — but possible” said Cessus. He scratched the back of his head, tossed a handful of dreads over his shoulder.

“Besides, it sounds like fun. Okay, Xing. You got a deal. You help us get our data back, and we’ll crack you a route out of China.”

“Excellent” said Xing. He straightened, adjusted his shirt. “I think we can help each other very well. Now, your missing data is stored on publicly-accessible box, yes?”

“It’s on somebody’s private box in an apartment on the other side of town. The only folks who have accessed it are government officials” said Cessus.

Fede’s comm rang. “Excuse me” he said, stepping to the back of the room.

“What is the address of the box?” Xing asked Cessus.

“I don’t know, it’s NAT’d all to hell and back. It’s in a huge set of apartment buildings, 100 stories each” said Cessus.

Xing smiled. “Very good. Is the box using port re-routing for its access? Port 1019 for SSH?”

Cessus looked down at the smaller man for a long moment, his face blank. Then his fingers fluttered, calling up data, and he nodded.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Very good, very good” Xing said. “You are looking to get data from Harry Chow. He is China’s lead IT Security Officer. He is big problem for us. It would be very happy for us to assrape him.”

Cessus blinked. “Assrape?”

“You say this in English, yes? Means make unpleasant?” asked Xing.

“Um, yes” said Cessus.

Fede ran back to them, falling on a small plastic chair as he came. He jumped from the floor; “They found Marcus” he said, breathless.

“Where is he?” asked Cessus.

Fede filled him in, much to Cessus’s amusement. Xing looked on, confused.

“Tonx says we should use Marcus as a distraction somehow, make some kind of media event. Apparently Marcus has gotten a lot of popularity over here since his commercial.”

Cessus sucked on his lower lip for a moment before turning to Xing.

“You know which apartment this Harry Chow lives in?” he asked.

“Yes, of course” Xing said. “We even have sympathizer live on same floor. But security very tight. No way to get in without being noticed, and building have very many guards.”

Cessus smiled. “You ever hear of ’The Shok-a-ru’?” he asked.

“Shock-a-roo?” asked Fede.

“The Shark” said Xing, pronouncing the word crisply. “Yes. We know of him. He is Pokari Sweat salesperson, yes? Very popular with Gothic Lolitas now. They are girls wear all black dress. He is very big mod fighter, yes?”

“Right” smiled Cessus sweetly. “He’s my brother, and he’s just been discovered by your local fan club.”

The smile came on very slowly to Xing’s face, and took a long time to leave.

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