Chapter 19- Back at the Hotel
Raul walked a few paces down the road to get into the taxi. The driver pulled away with him in the rear seat. Raul felt that he was clutching the bag unusually tight, as he felt the fatigue on the knuckles. He could now feel the full gravity of the situation. Raul understands the nature of technology a bit too much and technically it only takes a flip for a flop..a flop for the whole mission he undertook.
He looked outside through car window on the left and tried to take deep long breathes to calm himself down. The car was going through a beautiful country side, but his aesthetic sense was on off mode. The nervous kind of energy was devouring him doing tango with anticipation and his brain seemed to be focused on the tango.
He understood the full mental stress of this kind of chess he play. There was no pardon or trial moves in this game. The reality is as real as it gets.
"The game of information warfare is more like a chess game played in the real world at the mental level, making short potent moves against the adversaries, capturing information instead of the chess pieces. This is all done very subtly and as silently as possible. In this game of chess, the win is never decided by how many pieces you capture, but the quality of pieces you captured and how you captured it. Unlike in real chess, you don't take the pieces away from the board, but instead you keep the adversary engaged in this game and let him play with his pieces, which you have already captured. "
This is in essence a type of subliminal warfare where every tactic is played out to confirm the adversaries to ones own will and strategy.
Raul began thinking about a plan B. What if the tool has failed to work; if so, how will he complete his mission? Can he come back to LAW FOCUS with another excuse or will he have to force install another tool on the computers at Law Focus remotely? What will be the decision of Mr.Wilson?
A thousand questions ran inside his head ringing all sorts of alarm bells and beeps. The sort of excitement he had when he subscribed for this role is taking him down a steep curve and Raul was riding through it full speed and no brakes. He felt the same euphoria as taking a ride in one of those theme park rides. He is strapped in, with Mr.Time controlling the ride. He has no option but to sit tight till the end, screaming and howling on the inside.
The 45 minutes drive back to the hotel felt like eternity. The car had to negotiate through some traffic grid blocks and every time the car stopped for more than a few minutes Raul was looking at his watch, multiple times. One of the old time classic "Non, Je ne regrette rien" played inside the car. Raul was tapping gently on the floor of the car with his feet to the rhythm of the music. His brain was trying hard to distract itself.
Finally the car arrived in the Hotel at Ryazan. He left out an audible sigh. After paying for the taxi, he walked briskly inside the Hotel.
..
..
Raul plugged in his laptop to charge the batteries and switched it on. He sat on the bed keeping the laptop on his side. As the operation system took its fair time to load, he tapped on the side of the laptop in nervous anticipation. The seconds seemed like years; when he was prompted for his password to log him in, his fingers flew on the keys, keying in the password .
A few clicks and he was inside the servers he has setup to receive data from LAW FOCUS. The adrenaline was flooding him, It pumps and beats like it’s trying to escape.
No of Folders Created: 28
No of Files Copied :139
He clicked opened the folder. He saw various kinds of files in it. The tool HV5 he created is already doing it's job. He could see the counter on the number of files copied constantly increasing. As he looked on the number f files copied changed to 145. Raul laid back on the bed with an impish glee. He felt very elated. The smile that cracked his face hadn't been seen since boyhood.
He took his phone and dialed Mr.Wilson.
..
..
"Hello" The cold voice of Mr.Wilson rang in his ears.
"Sir, the server is receiving the files from HV5. " responded Raul.
"Yes, I have started receiving files on the computer you have set up in my office, Raul." said Mr.Wilson.."What is LAWFOCUS 2?..Is it another computer on their network?"
"Yes sir, It must be the computer of their secretary, Svetlana." answered Raul.
"Okay, your flight back home is tonight. Take care"
"Yes, Sure sir" and he disconnected the call.
Raul felt good. He has accomplished his mission. He logged off from the server.
He will never ask Mr.Wilson, on how HV5 worked or whether he had received all the files he wanted. He will wait for a debrief from Mr.Wilson if Mr.Wilson had encountered any trouble in getting the information he wanted.
He never initiated any feed back conversations with Mr.Wilson. Raul never opened the files to see the contents of a file, tho he was at freedom to do so to check the viability of his missions. He kept a very hard line approach, transparency with Mr.Wilson and discipline in the operations he undertook. Mr.Wilson appreciated such approach and confidence in an operative.
In essence, this behavior of Raul to keep himself disconnected at the same time responsible for his actions made him a valuable asset for Mr.Wilson. In this world of things, it is very easy to get a technically competent person to do a task, but it takes character and certain trait to make him a true operative.
..
..
Raul felt much relieved. He propped up the pillow against the wall and sat back on the bed, took a sip of water from the water bottle and slowly felt the cold water going down the throat, which was very relaxing. He closed his eyes..
Those scary version of thoughts he had while coming back to the hotel has simply vanished. That is one part in the philosophy of life. Its true that when fear and anticipation takes over like a monkey on the wheels of thoughts, the brain finds it hard to keep focus, misses the turn and goes directly into the tunnel of scares. Everything inside the tunnel amplifies into the most vicious form of visuals inside the head and then the question we ask ourselves are paradoxical riddles. Once inside the tunnel, we cringe and scream at every oncoming beam of light thinking that its a runaway train coming to run us down. In a way, that is the beauty of the innate survival mechanism inside of us that has evolved over millennia. It is this very own survival mechanism turning against us projecting the most scariest version of events giving us the adrenaline rush and fatigue. The subconscious and conscious cycles of fantasy and reality make us mad. We just gotta weather through these brain storms. It is a part of continuous evolution, like how the thought evolved from the scary thoughts of monster from under the bed to the monster in the bed.
"Chance favors the prepared mind"- repeated Raul with a smile. He was having another debate with his childhood friend-his conscience.
His phone chimed jolting him awake from his thoughts . He took his phone, punched in the password for his key lock. It was the message from his airlines, reminding him of his travel schedules.
He looked at his watch. The flight was another 6 hours away. For now he could grab an early and filling lunch, then get out of the hotel and walk around Rayzan. He was new to this part of Russia and he decided to make the most of it while he was there.
..
..
The Train to Moscow
Did he feel the train slowing down? He looked outside through the window. There was no sign of any platform. It was in the middle of a snow filled field. At a short distance he could see some buildings across the snow filled fields. Kirov station would still be another 10 Kilometers away, guessed Raul. The train shrugged to a slow but complete halt.
He looked outside through car window on the left and tried to take deep long breathes to calm himself down. The car was going through a beautiful country side, but his aesthetic sense was on off mode. The nervous kind of energy was devouring him doing tango with anticipation and his brain seemed to be focused on the tango.
He understood the full mental stress of this kind of chess he play. There was no pardon or trial moves in this game. The reality is as real as it gets.
"The game of information warfare is more like a chess game played in the real world at the mental level, making short potent moves against the adversaries, capturing information instead of the chess pieces. This is all done very subtly and as silently as possible. In this game of chess, the win is never decided by how many pieces you capture, but the quality of pieces you captured and how you captured it. Unlike in real chess, you don't take the pieces away from the board, but instead you keep the adversary engaged in this game and let him play with his pieces, which you have already captured. "
This is in essence a type of subliminal warfare where every tactic is played out to confirm the adversaries to ones own will and strategy.
Raul began thinking about a plan B. What if the tool has failed to work; if so, how will he complete his mission? Can he come back to LAW FOCUS with another excuse or will he have to force install another tool on the computers at Law Focus remotely? What will be the decision of Mr.Wilson?
A thousand questions ran inside his head ringing all sorts of alarm bells and beeps. The sort of excitement he had when he subscribed for this role is taking him down a steep curve and Raul was riding through it full speed and no brakes. He felt the same euphoria as taking a ride in one of those theme park rides. He is strapped in, with Mr.Time controlling the ride. He has no option but to sit tight till the end, screaming and howling on the inside.
The 45 minutes drive back to the hotel felt like eternity. The car had to negotiate through some traffic grid blocks and every time the car stopped for more than a few minutes Raul was looking at his watch, multiple times. One of the old time classic "Non, Je ne regrette rien" played inside the car. Raul was tapping gently on the floor of the car with his feet to the rhythm of the music. His brain was trying hard to distract itself.
Finally the car arrived in the Hotel at Ryazan. He left out an audible sigh. After paying for the taxi, he walked briskly inside the Hotel.
..
..
Raul plugged in his laptop to charge the batteries and switched it on. He sat on the bed keeping the laptop on his side. As the operation system took its fair time to load, he tapped on the side of the laptop in nervous anticipation. The seconds seemed like years; when he was prompted for his password to log him in, his fingers flew on the keys, keying in the password .
A few clicks and he was inside the servers he has setup to receive data from LAW FOCUS. The adrenaline was flooding him, It pumps and beats like it’s trying to escape.
No of Folders Created: 28
No of Files Copied :139
He clicked opened the folder. He saw various kinds of files in it. The tool HV5 he created is already doing it's job. He could see the counter on the number of files copied constantly increasing. As he looked on the number f files copied changed to 145. Raul laid back on the bed with an impish glee. He felt very elated. The smile that cracked his face hadn't been seen since boyhood.
He took his phone and dialed Mr.Wilson.
..
..
"Hello" The cold voice of Mr.Wilson rang in his ears.
"Sir, the server is receiving the files from HV5. " responded Raul.
"Yes, I have started receiving files on the computer you have set up in my office, Raul." said Mr.Wilson.."What is LAWFOCUS 2?..Is it another computer on their network?"
"Yes sir, It must be the computer of their secretary, Svetlana." answered Raul.
"Okay, your flight back home is tonight. Take care"
"Yes, Sure sir" and he disconnected the call.
Raul felt good. He has accomplished his mission. He logged off from the server.
He will never ask Mr.Wilson, on how HV5 worked or whether he had received all the files he wanted. He will wait for a debrief from Mr.Wilson if Mr.Wilson had encountered any trouble in getting the information he wanted.
He never initiated any feed back conversations with Mr.Wilson. Raul never opened the files to see the contents of a file, tho he was at freedom to do so to check the viability of his missions. He kept a very hard line approach, transparency with Mr.Wilson and discipline in the operations he undertook. Mr.Wilson appreciated such approach and confidence in an operative.
In essence, this behavior of Raul to keep himself disconnected at the same time responsible for his actions made him a valuable asset for Mr.Wilson. In this world of things, it is very easy to get a technically competent person to do a task, but it takes character and certain trait to make him a true operative.
..
..
Raul felt much relieved. He propped up the pillow against the wall and sat back on the bed, took a sip of water from the water bottle and slowly felt the cold water going down the throat, which was very relaxing. He closed his eyes..
Those scary version of thoughts he had while coming back to the hotel has simply vanished. That is one part in the philosophy of life. Its true that when fear and anticipation takes over like a monkey on the wheels of thoughts, the brain finds it hard to keep focus, misses the turn and goes directly into the tunnel of scares. Everything inside the tunnel amplifies into the most vicious form of visuals inside the head and then the question we ask ourselves are paradoxical riddles. Once inside the tunnel, we cringe and scream at every oncoming beam of light thinking that its a runaway train coming to run us down. In a way, that is the beauty of the innate survival mechanism inside of us that has evolved over millennia. It is this very own survival mechanism turning against us projecting the most scariest version of events giving us the adrenaline rush and fatigue. The subconscious and conscious cycles of fantasy and reality make us mad. We just gotta weather through these brain storms. It is a part of continuous evolution, like how the thought evolved from the scary thoughts of monster from under the bed to the monster in the bed.
"Chance favors the prepared mind"- repeated Raul with a smile. He was having another debate with his childhood friend-his conscience.
His phone chimed jolting him awake from his thoughts . He took his phone, punched in the password for his key lock. It was the message from his airlines, reminding him of his travel schedules.
He looked at his watch. The flight was another 6 hours away. For now he could grab an early and filling lunch, then get out of the hotel and walk around Rayzan. He was new to this part of Russia and he decided to make the most of it while he was there.
..
..
The Train to Moscow
Did he feel the train slowing down? He looked outside through the window. There was no sign of any platform. It was in the middle of a snow filled field. At a short distance he could see some buildings across the snow filled fields. Kirov station would still be another 10 Kilometers away, guessed Raul. The train shrugged to a slow but complete halt.
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