Chapter 18- First Assignment (Continued)
As moments ticked by Raul understood the gravity of his first solo mission. It seemed like so much fun at the start. It's still fun if he could pull it through. He was lost in thoughts while doing all his morning chores.
In the shower, he stood leaning on his hands against the wall, the water pouring down on his back, calculating and recalculating all his moves for the day at the Law firm. He thought he heard the phone ring. Closing down the shower, he listened and it was indeed the phone ringing back in the room.
He wrapped a towel around him and got out of the bath.
It was Mr.Wilson.
"I suppose, everything is in order Raul!" asked Mr.Wilson.
"Yes sir. It is. I have already asked the hotel to get me a cab by 9:00 AM"
"Good luck. " and he disconnected the call.
Raul rushed back into the bath to dry himself and got ready to go.
He wore a blue shirt, black jeans and a gray cardigan on top of it. He looked in the mirror and chuckled.
He arranged the files, the laptop, his mobile adapter everything neatly in his sling bag. With a heavy sigh he moved out of the room, closing the door behind him. Stepping out of the room, Raul has stepped into the world of operatives. It was the beginning of a new path in his life. Today's world, suit is the modern gentleman's armor. and the operatives are the new knights.
Right after he has finished his breakfast, he got a call from the reception at the hotel telling him that the cab has arrived.
..
..
The legal firm at Kazan,named "LAW FOCUS" was a few Kilometers out of the city limits. Kazan was a new sight for him. The roads in the city had been built in the days of wealth and grandeur. They are wide enough for several lanes of cars in each direction. The newly urbanized city was flooded by a sea of people heading in different directions. The higher class people strutted down the high street carrying their Gucci handbags and wearing their Armani coats.
After traveling a full half hour, the driver parked the car in front of the legal firm Law Focus.
..
..
The office was painted light blue, and it had only one floor-to-ceiling window, which faced the main road. He walked in.
On the grey desk, sat a desktop computer, a notebook lying open, and a stack of papers sitting under a turtle-shaped paperweight. In a corner, the air conditioner was blasting at medium, and there was a swivel chair in the next to the front desk. A bookshelf, bursting with books was in a corner. Raul was looking around the office when a woman walked in from a side door. That startled Raul.
"Hi, Good morning" said the woman.
"Good morning, I am Raul from Atlanta Inc.. I have an appointment with Mr.Ethen Adwell. "
"Okay" Saying that, she took the phone and dialed a number.
Raul could hear a phone ring somewhere inside the office, from behind the pine doors.
"Sir, Svetlana will be with you in a while." said the woman at the desk.
A few minutes later, the pine wood door creaked opened and a tall slim figure walked in from behind it.
"Hello Raul, I am Svetlana" she said holding out her hands.
Shaking her hands , "Hi, nice meeting you. I suppose we are still on schedule.
"Oh yes..oh yes!. We are. Mr.Ethen is on the phone with a few of his clients and as soon as he is done with that, you are next."
"Thank you so much"
"How was the journey? First time in Kazan?" asked Svetlana.
"Journey was good..it was good. Kazan looks beautiful. After I am done with the days work, I will take a walk around to see more of it."
Raul has to figure out a way to use their office computer at some pretext.
"I am sorry to be asking this, but my office has send me some updated drafts. It arrived today morning in my mail and I couldn't find any place to take a print out. I was rushing to meet you people...Is there a way I can take a print out from here?"
Svetlana thought for a while before she answered. "Yes, I...I don't see any problem with that.You can take the print outs."
"Thank you. That was so very helpful" said Raul with a relief.
"You can use this computer here" she said gently tapping on the computer monitor she is working."But...The printer is in his cabin." She said pointing to the closed doors of Mr. Ethen Adwell's cabin."Anyway, I will have to ask his permission before you can use our computers."
"I will wait till he finishes his phone calls".said Raul...
..
..
Raul, took a chair close to the wall and waited. He felt drowsy, sitting in the almost dark corner of the room. The fatigue was all the same but at least it held an edge of anticipation for the mission ahead for the day. He felt the sensory overload. This was the nth time, he did all calculations of possibilities inside his head. He didn't want to fail the mission. This was no Hollywood movies with funky gadgets and nerds with Government sanctioned electronic assets for COMMINT. This is the real world, where operations are done as we move with the ebb and flow of daily life and whatever it offers for an operative.
Svetlana smiled at Raul and hurried into the cabin of Ethen. He could see her talking to Ethen through the big glass windows.
"Raul, you can go and meet Ethen now." said Svetlana coming towards him.
"Thank you so much". He grabbed his bag, stood up and walked into the cabin.
..
..
"Hello sir, Good Morning"
"Hello, you have all the documents with you?" replied Ethen with stern voice.
"Yes sir, I have, except for a few drafts that arrived in the mail today morning". saying that, he took the file folder which was to be given to Ethen and nudged it across the table.
Ethen was barely looking at him, instead he was focused on typing something on his computer, his neck pushed forward.
Raul tried to stay as neutral as he can with his behavior, expression, tone, characteristics. In front of Ethen, he is just a person handling all the documentations.
"And the presentation..?" asked Ethen.
"Sir, any time you are ready sir. I need to hook my laptop to the projector...That's all I need." replied Raul.
Ethen turned away from his computer and grabbed the file which Raul had kept on the table. He flipped through the pages, reading it keenly. Raul took that time to look around the office from where he was sitting. Nothing of interest struck Raul in that cabin. Ethen was a very boring guy .
"Ok.So What are the new drafts about?" asked Ethen.
"It is related to work arrangements and resource sharing sir." replied Raul.
"But it is already in this file!" said Ethen.
"There are a few additions in clauses 5, 8, and 12..at least that is what I understood sir." said Raul
"Is Mr.Wilson back from India?" asked Ethen.
"I have no idea sir."
"What operations does your company have in India" asked Ethen.
"Some data analytics and back office operations, sir" replied Raul." I don't have much understanding about it. I work with the training and documentation departments."
"So...you want to take the print outs?"
"Yes sir"
"You can use this computer?" saying that, Ethen swiveled the LCD monitor of his computer sideways and gave him the wireless keyboard along with the mouse.
Ethen swiveled the monitor only half way, to keep a watch on what Raul is doing on his computer.
Raul pulled the chair closer to the table, logged into his official email account and downloaded the files.
"Sir, hope the printer is on and ready?" asked Raul.
"Yes it is." said Ethen.
Raul clicked on the downloaded, PDF file to open it and a message box popped up "Adobe Reader Update Failed. Error 1635 ".
"What is that error.?" asked Ethen.
"Something about Adobe Reader update fail. Must be an old version of Reader on this computer." said Raul with a shrug.
"I will try to open it again sir." . He clicked "OK" to discard the error message and clicked on the file again. This time the computer opened the PDF file after showing the error.
Raul took the print outs of the drafts and checked it.
"Sir, can I have that file folder back, so that I can put all pages in order?" asked Raul.
"It's okay. Just give me the drafts, I will mark it as updated draft" saying that Ethen took his pen and wrote the date on top of the pages.
Raul felt elated as he had successfully dropped the tool HV5 on Ethen's computer. He has completed his mission.
The tool Raul made, morphed the payload with a PDF File. Payload is the code that does all the data transferring, silently to the servers Raul has set up. The error which popped up in reality was the payload installing itself.
HV5 worked very silently. When it is installed on a computer, it tracked all recent documents and files from the "recent" index , makes a copy of it and sends it over the internet. It also keeps track of the files and documents which is downloaded and sends a copy of all downloaded files to the server set up for it.
Ethen was reading the updated drafts. Raul sat back and was anxious about the presentation he had to give in another couple of minutes.
"So are you ready for the presentation?" asked Ethen
"Yes sir." Raul took out the laptop from his bag.
"okay. Let's begin." said Ethen.
Raul felt the urge to ask "Where are the others?"; Raul was briefed that he has to present it for a group of people. The multimedia team, back at Atlanta Inc. has spent weeks to prepare this presentation with color, graphics and animations.
It looks like a bad box office opening for the presentation.
Raul sighed.
The presentation went well. Ethen asked a lot of questions during the presentation and Raul was able to answer them all. After the presentation, Raul felt the atmosphere in the cabin lighten up a bit. Ethen was talking to him with a slight smile and a mellowed down tone.
"Raul!, can you copy the presentation to the office computer?" Ethen asked pointing at the computer on which Svetlana was working."In case if James wanted to have the notes or see the presentation himself, I can show it to him"
"Sure sir. I have no problems with that" said Raul.
..
..
Raul had spent almost 2 hours at LAW FOCUS. It was almost noon when he walked out of that office. He felt elated and nervous at the same time. Elated because, everything went like a clock work and he was able to drop the tool HV5, at the target computer . He was nervous thinking how the tool is performing after the drop. He wanted to go online and check, if the tool is doing its job, but he has to get to his hotel first.
It is technology and a slight glitch could severely throw everything into chaos.
He quickened his steps towards the cab.
In the shower, he stood leaning on his hands against the wall, the water pouring down on his back, calculating and recalculating all his moves for the day at the Law firm. He thought he heard the phone ring. Closing down the shower, he listened and it was indeed the phone ringing back in the room.
He wrapped a towel around him and got out of the bath.
It was Mr.Wilson.
"I suppose, everything is in order Raul!" asked Mr.Wilson.
"Yes sir. It is. I have already asked the hotel to get me a cab by 9:00 AM"
"Good luck. " and he disconnected the call.
Raul rushed back into the bath to dry himself and got ready to go.
He wore a blue shirt, black jeans and a gray cardigan on top of it. He looked in the mirror and chuckled.
He arranged the files, the laptop, his mobile adapter everything neatly in his sling bag. With a heavy sigh he moved out of the room, closing the door behind him. Stepping out of the room, Raul has stepped into the world of operatives. It was the beginning of a new path in his life. Today's world, suit is the modern gentleman's armor. and the operatives are the new knights.
Right after he has finished his breakfast, he got a call from the reception at the hotel telling him that the cab has arrived.
..
..
The legal firm at Kazan,named "LAW FOCUS" was a few Kilometers out of the city limits. Kazan was a new sight for him. The roads in the city had been built in the days of wealth and grandeur. They are wide enough for several lanes of cars in each direction. The newly urbanized city was flooded by a sea of people heading in different directions. The higher class people strutted down the high street carrying their Gucci handbags and wearing their Armani coats.
After traveling a full half hour, the driver parked the car in front of the legal firm Law Focus.
..
..
The office was painted light blue, and it had only one floor-to-ceiling window, which faced the main road. He walked in.
On the grey desk, sat a desktop computer, a notebook lying open, and a stack of papers sitting under a turtle-shaped paperweight. In a corner, the air conditioner was blasting at medium, and there was a swivel chair in the next to the front desk. A bookshelf, bursting with books was in a corner. Raul was looking around the office when a woman walked in from a side door. That startled Raul.
"Hi, Good morning" said the woman.
"Good morning, I am Raul from Atlanta Inc.. I have an appointment with Mr.Ethen Adwell. "
"Okay" Saying that, she took the phone and dialed a number.
Raul could hear a phone ring somewhere inside the office, from behind the pine doors.
"Sir, Svetlana will be with you in a while." said the woman at the desk.
A few minutes later, the pine wood door creaked opened and a tall slim figure walked in from behind it.
"Hello Raul, I am Svetlana" she said holding out her hands.
Shaking her hands , "Hi, nice meeting you. I suppose we are still on schedule.
"Oh yes..oh yes!. We are. Mr.Ethen is on the phone with a few of his clients and as soon as he is done with that, you are next."
"Thank you so much"
"How was the journey? First time in Kazan?" asked Svetlana.
"Journey was good..it was good. Kazan looks beautiful. After I am done with the days work, I will take a walk around to see more of it."
Raul has to figure out a way to use their office computer at some pretext.
"I am sorry to be asking this, but my office has send me some updated drafts. It arrived today morning in my mail and I couldn't find any place to take a print out. I was rushing to meet you people...Is there a way I can take a print out from here?"
Svetlana thought for a while before she answered. "Yes, I...I don't see any problem with that.You can take the print outs."
"Thank you. That was so very helpful" said Raul with a relief.
"You can use this computer here" she said gently tapping on the computer monitor she is working."But...The printer is in his cabin." She said pointing to the closed doors of Mr. Ethen Adwell's cabin."Anyway, I will have to ask his permission before you can use our computers."
"I will wait till he finishes his phone calls".said Raul...
..
..
Raul, took a chair close to the wall and waited. He felt drowsy, sitting in the almost dark corner of the room. The fatigue was all the same but at least it held an edge of anticipation for the mission ahead for the day. He felt the sensory overload. This was the nth time, he did all calculations of possibilities inside his head. He didn't want to fail the mission. This was no Hollywood movies with funky gadgets and nerds with Government sanctioned electronic assets for COMMINT. This is the real world, where operations are done as we move with the ebb and flow of daily life and whatever it offers for an operative.
Svetlana smiled at Raul and hurried into the cabin of Ethen. He could see her talking to Ethen through the big glass windows.
"Raul, you can go and meet Ethen now." said Svetlana coming towards him.
"Thank you so much". He grabbed his bag, stood up and walked into the cabin.
..
..
"Hello sir, Good Morning"
"Hello, you have all the documents with you?" replied Ethen with stern voice.
"Yes sir, I have, except for a few drafts that arrived in the mail today morning". saying that, he took the file folder which was to be given to Ethen and nudged it across the table.
Ethen was barely looking at him, instead he was focused on typing something on his computer, his neck pushed forward.
Raul tried to stay as neutral as he can with his behavior, expression, tone, characteristics. In front of Ethen, he is just a person handling all the documentations.
"And the presentation..?" asked Ethen.
"Sir, any time you are ready sir. I need to hook my laptop to the projector...That's all I need." replied Raul.
Ethen turned away from his computer and grabbed the file which Raul had kept on the table. He flipped through the pages, reading it keenly. Raul took that time to look around the office from where he was sitting. Nothing of interest struck Raul in that cabin. Ethen was a very boring guy .
"Ok.So What are the new drafts about?" asked Ethen.
"It is related to work arrangements and resource sharing sir." replied Raul.
"But it is already in this file!" said Ethen.
"There are a few additions in clauses 5, 8, and 12..at least that is what I understood sir." said Raul
"Is Mr.Wilson back from India?" asked Ethen.
"I have no idea sir."
"What operations does your company have in India" asked Ethen.
"Some data analytics and back office operations, sir" replied Raul." I don't have much understanding about it. I work with the training and documentation departments."
"So...you want to take the print outs?"
"Yes sir"
"You can use this computer?" saying that, Ethen swiveled the LCD monitor of his computer sideways and gave him the wireless keyboard along with the mouse.
Ethen swiveled the monitor only half way, to keep a watch on what Raul is doing on his computer.
Raul pulled the chair closer to the table, logged into his official email account and downloaded the files.
"Sir, hope the printer is on and ready?" asked Raul.
"Yes it is." said Ethen.
Raul clicked on the downloaded, PDF file to open it and a message box popped up "Adobe Reader Update Failed. Error 1635 ".
"What is that error.?" asked Ethen.
"Something about Adobe Reader update fail. Must be an old version of Reader on this computer." said Raul with a shrug.
"I will try to open it again sir." . He clicked "OK" to discard the error message and clicked on the file again. This time the computer opened the PDF file after showing the error.
Raul took the print outs of the drafts and checked it.
"Sir, can I have that file folder back, so that I can put all pages in order?" asked Raul.
"It's okay. Just give me the drafts, I will mark it as updated draft" saying that Ethen took his pen and wrote the date on top of the pages.
Raul felt elated as he had successfully dropped the tool HV5 on Ethen's computer. He has completed his mission.
The tool Raul made, morphed the payload with a PDF File. Payload is the code that does all the data transferring, silently to the servers Raul has set up. The error which popped up in reality was the payload installing itself.
HV5 worked very silently. When it is installed on a computer, it tracked all recent documents and files from the "recent" index , makes a copy of it and sends it over the internet. It also keeps track of the files and documents which is downloaded and sends a copy of all downloaded files to the server set up for it.
Ethen was reading the updated drafts. Raul sat back and was anxious about the presentation he had to give in another couple of minutes.
"So are you ready for the presentation?" asked Ethen
"Yes sir." Raul took out the laptop from his bag.
"okay. Let's begin." said Ethen.
Raul felt the urge to ask "Where are the others?"; Raul was briefed that he has to present it for a group of people. The multimedia team, back at Atlanta Inc. has spent weeks to prepare this presentation with color, graphics and animations.
It looks like a bad box office opening for the presentation.
Raul sighed.
The presentation went well. Ethen asked a lot of questions during the presentation and Raul was able to answer them all. After the presentation, Raul felt the atmosphere in the cabin lighten up a bit. Ethen was talking to him with a slight smile and a mellowed down tone.
"Raul!, can you copy the presentation to the office computer?" Ethen asked pointing at the computer on which Svetlana was working."In case if James wanted to have the notes or see the presentation himself, I can show it to him"
"Sure sir. I have no problems with that" said Raul.
..
..
Raul had spent almost 2 hours at LAW FOCUS. It was almost noon when he walked out of that office. He felt elated and nervous at the same time. Elated because, everything went like a clock work and he was able to drop the tool HV5, at the target computer . He was nervous thinking how the tool is performing after the drop. He wanted to go online and check, if the tool is doing its job, but he has to get to his hotel first.
It is technology and a slight glitch could severely throw everything into chaos.
He quickened his steps towards the cab.
Comments
Post a Comment