Hagen4B
Previously: Jeannie receives a warning and explains the online photo situation to Chris.
5:45 PM - Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Nob Hill, San Francisco, CA
Chris tailed the bumper of Mark’s SUV, moving silently at speed but with lights flashing. Jeannie sat silently in the passenger seat, staring out the window at the passing buildings along Broadway. They sped through the tunnel and Mark whipped a right onto Powell, heading up the hill until Washington Street where a cable car made a wobbly roll around the corner, stopping both cars short.
“Shit.” Chris whispered. Jeannie looked ahead finally, slightly glazed.
“It’s fine. We’ll get there.” Her voice was flat in a way he hadn’t heard in a very long time. Resigned, flat, dazed Jeannie wasn’t really Jeannie. He didn’t know where she went in these moments, but it was getting harder and harder to bring her back from them. Her stillness, her quiet — it was so different from the sharp, brilliant, funny girl he was in love with. This Jeannie couldn’t be navigated or coaxed or brought around; he knew she was like a sleepwalker and it might be more dangerous to try to wake her up.
Months after Maevy died, Chris had found Jeannie in the room in the vacant upstairs flat that she’d used as an office. She was staring at the window blinds, with crisp bands of sunlight coming through. Her law books were open on the desk, ignored. When he’d asked what she was doing, she’d explained that she was watching a wasp on the window, trying to escape. He heard a slight buzzing noise and saw the shadow of a small insect inside the blinds She explained that she’d opened the bottom pane to try to get it to escape, but it just got sandwiched between the two panes of glass, and that it kept moving up instead of moving down to the open gap to the outside. She explained it all slowly and lightly, like it was fascinating and charming. “I just — I just keep thinking that I’m the wasp, you know? Like I’m so dumb I can’t figure out how to fly out the open window. I just keep getting myself more trapped. And it’s like I think it’s outside because it’s glass, right? Like you think you’re in the air, but you’re just in a glass box, you know?” She had a small smile on her face as she told him.
He knew it was the sadness, the grief of Maevy, this and overwhelm of law school and now taking the bar exam. He knew he should help her somehow but when she looked at him it was like she didn’t see him at all. Like she didn’t recognize him.
“How long have you been watching the wasp, Jeannie?” He probed gently, guiding her to him to kiss her temple.
“I — I don’t know? What time is it?” That was the first time he’d heard the flat voice.
After a few incidents like this, Chris gave up trying to talk to her about any of it. At least she listened when he told her he’d made her an appointment with a therapist, and that he’d drive her there in a few days. She nodded, agreeing it was something she needed, which was reassuring, but also gave Chris permission to stop attempting to understand how she was behaving. The depths and changes of her moods terrified him, so he stopped trying to chart them. He hoped she’d finally approach him and tell him and explain it when she was ready, but the silence just built between them instead. It was like she sensed that he couldn’t or wouldn’t understand, and she couldn’t be bothered trying to explain it. His regret about this came out as resentment, and Jeannie’s isolation fed her own.
Sunday had been the first day they’d talked substantively about any of it, and Chris found himself more full of hope than he had been all year. Maybe she’d been right: maybe the space she took was exactly what they both needed, even though he hated the idea and fought it when she suggested it. Since Sunday he’d realized fighting to keep her close when she wanted distance had been the worst thing for him to do. Jeannie was always a bit of a loner; quiet, introspective, happy in her solitude as much as she was happy to be with him. She always said that being alone refreshed her somehow, made her more ready and available for their times together. She insisted on it when they’d first been together — they’d been long distance for months with him in New York and her in D.C., but when they finally took the trip to Europe that first summer, she made it clear to him that she needed her quiet alone time. It was hard for him, someone who craves attention, especially Jeannie’s attention, to bear up to it. But, her boundaries were firm, and he even conceded that they grew stronger because of them. Why on earth did he ever question what she knew to be true about herself? Chris knew it was because this time he thought her need for space would be permanent, and that scared him more than her moods.
Powell and Market Hyde and Beach Fisherman’s Wharf Chris read the gold script on the back of the cable car in front of them, watching the brakeman work his heavy levers. He thought of that trip to Europe: Italy, mostly, and then some weeks in Greece when Brandon grudgingly agreed to join them with Orla. It was when he and Brandon were barely speaking because he and Jeannie were dating. Brandon, who was torn between being a big brother and a best friend, finally being convinced that if he couldn’t be both to each of them, he’d lose both of them. It was Orla who’d gotten him to come, gotten him to talk to Chris — a long walk, well, argument, along the stone waterfront in Naoussa, Paros, ending in the local tavern downing ouzo until Jeannie and Orla found them. The next day’s hangover settled everything to mutual benefit. It was Orla who’d taken the photo of them at the beach a few days later — the photo now on some anonymous high school shit-posting site.
Chris knew he couldn’t protect Jeannie from the things she’d face in the police, but being hacked and cyber-bullied by teenagers wasn’t at all what was expected.
Shaking his head slightly at the thought, he accelerated to the right on Sacramento to avoid the clattering cable car, close on Mark’s bumper. Another left and they were soon in front of the Park Lane, Jeannie ejecting herself from the car before he’d even fully stopped. The movement so sudden and confronting it was like she’d become an entirely alternate creature.
Chris jogged slightly behind Mark and Raj, both toting bags of equipment, Jeannie diving into the elevator ahead of them. Chris went to the back, eyeing her from the corner. Even as she stood still at the elevator doors she was blurry in his vision — her whole body shaking slightly. His fingers twitched with wanting to reach for her, so he made fists.
Jeannie went ahead, swinging open the big front door and immediately heading left to the den.
“Dad? Langi?” Her voice sounded shrill — the opposite of the flat note from the car. Chris followed her as she found them both in front of the TV; Jeannie going to her knees in front of her father in his leather chair. “Daddy.” She began softly. Chris felt his heart rip at her tenderness with him. The old man looked at her questioningly. “Dad - there’s — “ She broke off and swallowed, looking up at Chris.
“Peter, there’s something the matter.” Chris moved to squat next to Jeannie. “Jeannie’s team found that your iPad may have been hacked, so they’re going to check it for you — all of them. Is - is that okay?” Chris was well-versed in the communication protocols with the judge since his stroke: explain, ask permission, reassure. Peter Hagen’s eyes went cold, giving the merest nod. He wasn’t nearly as confused as he was when the stroke first happened, and was even speaking a few small words, but unfamiliar situations could still be hard for him to follow. Chris guessed the judge knew exactly what was happening at all times and was tortured by not being able to participate the way he did before.
“Langi — there’s this iPad, where’s the other one?” Jannie asked her, reaching for the one tucked into the cushion next to her father.
“I’ll get it.” Langi stood slowly, tucking her oversized cardigan around her. “How can someone hack an iPad?” The nurse asked moving past them and down the hallway. The second iPad was kept in the bedroom as a backup, while the main iPad was with the judge all the time.
“We don’t know yet, but that’s why my colleagues are here to help.” Jeannie handed the iPad to Chris, pleading from the floor. “Will — will you take this to Mark, please?” Chris nodded and followed Langi out the door and back to the entry where Mark and Raj were waiting.
“Let’s — let’s ah, let’s go for the dining room I guess?” Chris led them into the wood-paneled room with the large dining table, last seen just a few nights before. The orange roses were still making a nondescript showing in the center. Chris placed the first iPad on the table, while Mark and Raj unloaded laptops and various computer boxes and cables.
“You don’t happen to know the WiFi network and password, do you?” Raj asked somewhat wryly.
“Yeah, it should be Hagen4B…”
“Of course.” Raj scoffed. Chris glared at him which the kid didn’t seem to notice.
“Sorry. When he’s being a jerk it means he’s focused.” Mark said under his breath.
“Delightful.” Chris moved to the side, watching the two of them type away on their respective laptops. Langi brought in the second iPad and put it on the table next to the first. Her eyes behind her large glasses were even larger than usual as she looked over the mini computer lab that had sprouted up in the dining room.
“Should I make coffee? Tea?” Langi offered.
“Maybe some tea?” Chris offered. “Thank you Langi.” She nodded and moved through the swinging kitchen door. Chris really wanted her to reappear with a large shaker of very strong cocktails, but knew that would have to wait. “The password is some gobeldeygook: x16R78…”
“Yeah I found it. I’ve got the IP address and ran a search online — the original manufacturer’s password is still on the WiFi, which is probably how they were able to get in.” Raj quipped.
“You can find that online?”
“Yeah. You just search the make of the WiFi and the IP address and sometimes you get lucky if someone doesn’t change the factory password. Which is why you should always change the factory password.” Mark looked up at Chris and shook his head slightly. Chris blinked and shook his head in reply. “I’m already in.”
“Good.” Mark told him with emphasis. “Thought you were slipping.”
“Dad wanted to see the action.” Jeannie said, pushing the judge’s wheelchair to the far side of the table, where he could still see a bit of what Raj and Mark were doing. “Dad - you met Mark yesterday, but this is Raj — he’s very good with computers.” Raj nearly rolled his eyes and Chris wanted to deck him across the room. “Be nice to my father, Raj. Chris too.” Raj glanced at Jeannie and let out a long breath, his fingers never stopping.
“See anything?” Mark asked, typing away.
“Not much as of yet, but my guess it was a packet sniffer, or with the WiFi being wide open, they may not have needed one.”
“Router logs?”
“Yeah a few IPs listed, but we’ll have to look at other devices. What are you doing?”
“I’m building a black box around this original IP so we can power it down when we find what we need.” Mark looked at Jeannie, “I’m going to have a friend of mine come and build you a firewall and get your network locked up.” Jeannie nodded. Mark’s phone rang suddenly and he reached to take the volume down. “It’s Paco — hey Pac, you’re on speaker. We just got to Jeannie’s.” They’d left Paco at the office to monitor the Pr3pSF IP lists and traffic, to see if there was a correlation with the Admin.
“The Admin just came online,” Paco said blankly. Raj immediately stopped typing. “They came online. It seems like it was because there was a video posted. It — it looks like a video of what happened at Lake Tahoe – there’s Alexa there — “
“Pac - no names, we’re not alone.”
“Ah - yeah, sorry…our victim is there and the boys are around her and…and her boyfriend is…is with the other girl, and his friend is blocking her…”
“Oh my god there’s a video.” Jeannie whispered looking at Mark. Both of them had gone pale.
“Okay - okay, Paco, we’re going to have to address the video separately, but for right now I need you to go to the IP list on the other laptop. Find the time the Admin posted and see what IP address sent traffic at the same time. You said the Admin posted the video?”
“No - it wasn’t the Admin it was a user. The Admin replied though.”
“Okay,” Mark’s face was confusion. “Okay, who posted the video?”
“That’s the weird thing — the handle attached to it is…is the account we’re using.”
“What - what does that mean, Mark?” Jeannie asked.
“It means someone else has the victim’s login information. It’s weird but not unheard of.”
“But it’s BAD.” Raj said.
“Why bad?”
“Because if the Admin is smart — and we know they are — they’ll see that the victim’s login is being used on two separate IPs at the same time and they’ll know it’s not some dead girl on the internet posting videos.”
“So someone has her login and is posting videos of — of the Tahoe incident —” Jeannie broke off, “to what end? That doesn’t even makes sense.”
“OKAY OKAY, everyone stop for a second.” Mark said loudly. Chris was liking him more and more. “What we need right now is the IP address of the Admin.” His voice was clipped and efficient. “The site is recording onto our servers, so we have a copy of everything happening on the chatroom, okay? Let’s worry about who’s logging in and what they’re posting when we have this situation in hand. One thing thing at time. Paco, please, slowly, line up the time stamps of the Admin’s activity - their most recent comments, whatever, and find the IP address on the list that has the same timestamp.”
“Okay,” Paco sighed audibly. “I got it.”
“Okay, I’m ready.” Raj said, opening some new black screen like the stack of black screens he already had on his desktop.
“669.15.4.339”
“Got it.” Raj repeated the numbers back and he began scanning his screen, eyes full of fire. “Oh wow. Holy shit.” Raj giggled a little.
“What?” Mark asked, jumping to crouch behind Raj and his screen.
“That IP looks familiar — it’s the one that hacked your WiFi, Jeannie.”
Jeannie looked at Mark who came to standing slowly. Raj had a smirk on his face as he continued to type. Chris watched her slowly circle away from her father to look at the screen closely.
“I — I don’t understand, you’re saying that…that whoever created this disgusting website also went out of their way to hack into my family?” Jeannie’s skin was so pale, with hot splotches of red beginning to form on her cheeks.
“Yup. Clever little fucker.” Raj said.
“How - how would they do that? And why?”
“To get whatever they could find.” Raj quipped. “It doesn’t look like they spent a lot of time on your WiFi, they probably found the photos and downloaded what they wanted and left. You’re lucky they didn’t lock you out or really muck with stuff. They probably didn’t have time.” Raj paused thoughtfully. “Or —”
“Or?” Mark asked.
“Or they’re an amateur. They got freaked out by being able to hack the network so easily, so they ran away. Like, like a kid that someone dares to touch the front door of the creepy house on the street? You run up, slap the door and take off running? You know?”
“They’d never hacked before.” Mark said, leaning back a little in his chair. “So this isn’t our usual.”
“I don’t think it is.” Raj offered, face suddenly serious. “I think it’s a kid.”
“A kid who built a whole website for takedowns and gossip and just got lucky hacking into the Hagen’s network?” Chris asked, folding his arms across his chest. “How would they even do that?” Mark and Raj exchanged a few looks.
“Thoughts?” Mark asked his younger counterpart.
“You first.” Mark chortled in response.
“Okay, I think they probably found Jeannie’s address online, came by doing a bit of wardriving and found the front door wide open. That is, the WiFi door —” Mark looked from Jeannie to the judge who stared at him.
“Wardriving?” Chris asked.
“Yeah, remember that 80s movie War Games when they drive around dialing every modem in town trying to find which ones work?”
“Yeah, I remember that — that’s a thing?”
“Well, IPs generally have an address. If they find the address listed publicly and then they come by the address and if the WiFi is labeled “Hagen4B” with the manufacturer’s original password still on it — you’re basically inviting them inside to fuck your shit up.” Raj quipped.
“Show some respect, man.” Chris’ own voice was forged steel. Jeannie looked at him but said nothing, rolling her pink lips.
“Yeah, Raj cool it.” Mark added. “You’re not in some hacker pen, this is Jeannie’s home.”
“Sorry.” Raj shrugged, clearly not sorry at all. No one spoke.
Langi came in with a large teapot and an assortment of cups on a large tray which she placed on the table, rejoining the judge on the other side of the room.
“So — so you’re saying that whomever created this website purposefully came here with the intent to hack into our personal network and see what they could find…on me?” Jeannie asked carefully.
“It looks that way, yeah. But if they did it to you, the could have done it to me, to Paco, to the office. We’ll have to check everything.” Mark said, heaving a deep breath. “But the intent is the important thing. If they came here looking, they intended to harm you — unauthorized access, intent to harass, maybe more, but those are two big felonies.”
“Where - you said they’d be in their car? And what, just park outside?”
“Not necessarily.” Raj added. “They could’ve sat in that park right across the street and done it all from there. Do you think there’s cameras? Maybe someone approached the building?”
“That’s an idea. We could correlate the time they first gained access and see what’s on the timestamp of any surveillance video.” Mark offered.
“Okay, okay okay.” Jeannie said, voice breaking. “Stop…I’m sorry, I’m just not grasping this entirely.” Her arm came up as she rubbed her forehead with one hand. “You’re saying they targeted me, is that what you’re saying? Some stranger was trying to dig out dirt on me? But they came here and hacked in, and we don’t even know what else they found besides that vacation photo?” Even the judge was staring at his daughter.
“It looks that way, Jeannie.” Mark said quietly.
Jeannie’s face grimaced and she shook her head. “Okay.” She whispered, waving a flat hand, resignedly. “Okay, that’s enough.” Her murmur hung in the air as she disappeared through the kitchen door which swung back and forth.
“There goes Jeannie.” Raj said with cheerful sarcasm. Mark glared at him furiously.
“You’re getting written up.”