I launched the clip, and JD and Madelyn hovered around my screen. I said to her, “Are you sure you want to watch?”
She nodded.
I pressed play.
The video clip started close to Sebastian's bruised and beaten face. He had a black eye that was multiple shades of purple, blue, and green. The lid was swollen and puffy, leaving a narrow slit. Abrasions scuffed his cheek, and dried blood crusted his split lip.
The camera pulled back to reveal Sebastian in a white room with concrete floors. He was bound to a chair. The camera panned to today's paper and focused on the date. Proof that Sebastian was still alive, at least until the time of this morning's paper.
Madelyn cringed at the sight of her brother. "I don't even like the guy, and I feel bad for him." She exhaled a worried breath. "What do they want?”
I just gave her a look. "You know what they want."
Her face tightened. "I'm not handing over control of the platform. There are countless people who will die if I give up the data. There's no question in my mind these people will go after all their political enemies. The data will be sold to brokers, and it will end up in the hands of terrorist organizations and hostile governments. As I said before, any operative with a nonofficial cover that has used the app will get exposed. You know as well as anyone that puts those operatives in jeopardy.”
"So, you’re just going to let them kill your brother?”
"No. You’re going to find out how to get him back.”
"I knew you were gonna say that." Then I added, “In the spirit of full transparency, they offered $1 million to hand you over.”
She lifted a sassy eyebrow.
"Don't worry. I don't need the money, and I'm not handing you over.”
A somber smile tugged Madelyn’s full lips. "Well, I must be doing something right."
44
Icalled Isabella and asked her to track Sebastian's phone. It came as no surprise it was off the grid. "His phone went dark a little after midnight last night, just outside the hospital."
I knew there was no way to hack Memo. With end-to-end encryption, not even the owner of the platform could see the messages. Still, everything had a vulnerability.
Isabella said she'd give it a shot and see if she could determine where the call originated.
When I asked Madelyn, she said, "There's absolutely no way. I don't even know the contents of messages, and the platform keeps no logs. Everything is anonymized. There's no way to tell where the call came from. Even with the full source code and access to the platform, I can’t identify the origin of callers.” She thought for a moment. “Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“That's the beauty of Memo. It truly is private and secure. Server nodes are distributed and self-healing. It’s community audited." She paused. “You understand why everyone wants to shut it down."
“Unless what?”
“It would compromise the entire platform.”
“How so?”
“I have an HSM—a hardware security module. It’s what they want. It contains a root private key used to sign app updates with certificate authority.”
“In English.”
“With the HSM and a CA, a malicious code could be inserted which would give access, rebuild data, logs, etc. Sure, I could push through code that might allow me to source their call. But it’s opening a door I don’t want to open. With access to this HSM and my passphrase, Viktor and the Consortium could alter the platform and push through updates that would go unnoticed. Users would continue to think their data is secure. Meanwhile, they’d scrape all the data and rebuild past messages, etc.”
I sent Isabella the proof-of-life video and asked her to analyze the metadata. Perhaps she could find location information embedded in the file, but I wasn't hopeful. These guys were too smart for something like that.
I called the hospital and asked to talk to the security office. I ended up getting in touch with Dean. I told him I needed surveillance footage from the parking lot after midnight and gave him a description of Sebastian. He said he’d look into it and send me adownload link.
I figured Sebastian had been abducted in the parking lot on the way home. He likely had two security guards with him. That meant they were either in captivity with him or dead.
