IoT Noir: Digital Remediation
Ninan has frozen and clearly is concealed by the flock. He begins to slowly stalk toward Dawn.
Kiko-Lyn responds. “I am sorry Dawn, but I must decline your hospitality and your offer of support. Perhaps another time and place we can revisit it.” Ninan is still half a room away. She keys a combination on the staff handle controller, pointing at Dawn.
“Your Aunt is expecting to pick you up here as soon as the new corporate agreements are registered at Den Haag. You need to be here to meet her.” Dawn swings her hands at the dragonflies swarming around her head. “And get these bugs away from my face.” Then she looks startled, coughs and slides to the floor.
Ninan turns to look at Kiko-Lyn with a raised eyebrow and a shrug.
Kiko-Lyn explains, “Well, I can go on offense too. I added some anesthetics to micro spritzers in this generation of dragonfly. Easy enough to come by here. Any single dragonfly cannot do a takedown, but a dozen in the immediate vicinity and its general anesthesia.”
She points to the door. “Your turn on the lock.”
He hands her the chitin glove of his prosthetic arm. He starts a rhythmic pounding on the lock. After fourteen blows it disengages and he reaches down to lift the door on its runners. “After you.”
Kiko-Lyn is searching Dawn. She pulls Dawn’s cell phone from around her upper arm and flattens it out. “Downside to sleepy time is she cannot blink authorize this phone. But we can ditch it somewhere as a false trail. I have both of ours in my pack but I’ve powered down all identifiable electronics.”
As they walk out the loading dock to the street the flock switches to displaying the background of wherever they alight. When flying from one place to another, they look and behave remarkably like pigeons. But some are always clinging to her backpack. Ninan points to them as an unspoken question. She replies, “Recharging. Learned from my capture when the flock ran out of power. Never again. The surface of the backpack, inside and out consists of interwoven charging stations and the straps and base are power packs. The whole flock can fit inside.” Ninan nods. Her planning and ingenuity no longer surprise him.
Kiko-Lyn continues. “Rachael and Doug Bear set up a drop for us a few blocks away and another at the harbor where you entered. The first has fresh phones with new credit payment accounts. Also a pair of bikes. That’s been the main delay to getting out. I had to know you were up for a day long pedal out to the harbor.”
Sheepishly, “I never learned to ride a bike.”
“What? Buck up! You’re being called to join the Buckaroo Banzai Hong Kong Cavaliers. These bikes are auto stabilized and electric. By the time you need to pump up the first hill you will be riding like a champ. Let’s put some circuitous miles behind us.”
As they pedal away, an observer in a blind on a roof across from the loading docks activates his phone. “Chin here, target has left the clinic.”
The control center responds, “Follow but stay hidden until we can reliably track them in the traffic monitors. Maintain passive observation until we get to a neutral area where we can crash surveillance.”
Sharks and Dolphins
Several hours later Chin calls in, “Subjects appear to be heading for the harbor.”
“Control here. Break off and speed there. Take your team and arrange a welcoming party. We will update you on where to set the ambush.”
By the time Ninan and Kiko-Lyn are approaching the harbor docks, Jonathon is engaged in the remote oversite of his local operatives. He sees through the viewpoint of his local foreman who has a hovering drone over his shoulder. “Chin, Sabre may have taken out the Black Hat organization but they left plenty of stragglers. I’ve had them contributing to Pandora. Now we can do our first field test. Prepare for area blackout. Switch to low-light and infrared.”
The foreman responds, “Ground team is a go.”
Jonathon thinks a command to Pandora. A massive denial attack erupts on the local communications and sensor networks. Autonomic incursion cyberagents take out the local power grid. Light adjusted video loops of the last hour are played back in the traffic center displays. As backup batteries and generators come on line, they are targeted for attack. Lights wink on and off in a staccato across the harbor. Soon the only light is from boats out on the waters.
Ninan pedals up and grabs Kiko-Lyn’s elbow. “It's about to hit the fan.”
“Rachael wrote that Doug left an escape cache just to the northwest of where you came ashore. About 400 meters from the gangplank. I’ve got a GPS landmark and an SMS code to activate it. Can you get us there?”
“We need to ditch the bikes and go to ground. The cache will do us no good if they see us activating it. How much obscurity can your flock provide?”
“I’ve walked a cosplay team through a shrine at night. It’s up for this. I’m setting your chromophores for background camo. The flock settles on Kiko-Lyn like a rustling set of robes. She suddenly blends into the background with only hands and face visible. She reaches down to the bike tire and rubs her hands with rubber and soot. Then she blackens her face. She has disappeared. “Luckily it’s a hot night. I can generate heat in the flock to obscure IR but not cold. It will work here but not out on the water.”
Leaving the bikes in a deeply shadowed corner they proceed via stealth. They are only a kilometer from the drop when they find themselves hemmed in by pursuers.
