Rise of the Locusts (Cyber Armageddon book 1)

178 Pages·2016·0.95 MB·English

by  Mark Goodwin

CLICK HERE to be notified when new books by Mark Goodwin are
released!

For information on preparing for natural or man-made disasters, visit the
author’s website, PrepperRecon.com and click here to request your free copy
of The Seven Step Survival Plan.

Technical information in the book is included to convey realism. The author
shall not have liability or responsibility to any person or entity with respect to
any loss or damage caused, or allegedly caused, directly or indirectly by the
information contained in this book.

All of the characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or
events is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2018 Goodwin America Corp.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote short
passages in a review.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my Editor in Chief Catherine Goodwin, as well as the
rest of my fantastic editing team, Jeff Markland, Frank Shackleford, Stacey
Glemboski, Sherrill Hesler, Paul Davison, Carole Pickard, and Claudine Allison.
PROLOGUE

The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests
thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for
money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not
the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

Micah 3:11

In 2010 the NSA’s Operation Olympic Games changed the face of
cyberwarfare and cyberespionage forever. In coordination with the Israelis, The
National Security Agency’s program developed the most advanced and complex
piece of malware code ever created. The weaponized code has come to be
known as the Stuxnet virus. Stuxnet attacked Iran’s nuclear-enrichment
centrifuges and severely delayed the rogue nation’s ability to produce a nuclear
weapon. The Stuxnet virus not only disabled the centrifuges, but by attacking the
SCADA systems which controlled the machinery, made them spin out of control
causing physical damage to the hardware. The attack permanently disabled the
equipment, to the point that the centrifuges were no longer usable.
This event was considered a major win for both the US and Israel. Just as
Hiroshima and Nagasaki proved nuclear superiority for America, Stuxnet had
established the US as the leader in cyberwarfare and cyberespionage. Yet, just as
it didn’t take long for other nations to develop the technology and enter the
atomic arms race, mimicking the Stuxnet attack will take even less time.
Unlike the science required to develop a nuclear warhead, Stuxnet left behind
the code used to initiate the attack, providing a blueprint for enemy nation states
to reverse engineer the virus. By now, it is likely that all of America’s
adversaries possess malicious cyber programs similar in complexity to the
Stuxnet exploit.
Few news items challenged the preeminence of the Stuxnet virus in the cyber
world until 2017. In April of that year, a group known as the Shadow Brokers
announced that they had obtained leaked hacking tools developed by the NSA
and would be making them available to hackers worldwide. Two of the hijacked
exploits were called EternalBlue and DoublePulsar. These two programs were
used by hackers to develop the WannaCry ransomware attack, which targeted
computers running Windows operating systems in May of 2017.
WannaCry infected some 200 thousand machines in 150 countries. The
exploit wreaked havoc across the world, bringing down the National Health
Services in England and Scotland. Nissan and Renault both had to cease
manufacturing automobiles as a result of the attack. FedEx shipping was
disrupted worldwide as was Spain’s telecommunication capabilities and
Germany’s transportation system.
The virus disrupted the Russian postal service as well as several Russian
banks, which helped to quell the rumors suggesting Russia’s FSB had created
the malicious code; but then again, what better way could a nation-state put on a
guise of innocence? Such is the nature of cyber-attacks. A smoking gun rarely
exists. At the end of the day, conjecture and finger-pointing make poor
substitutes for hard evidence.
Before stepping down from her role as Homeland Security Secretary, Janet
Napolitano warned that a cyber 9/11 was imminent. Former CIA Director James
Woolsey has also been very vocal in issuing caveats about the likelihood of a
massive cyber-attack; the likes of which could bring down critical infrastructure
such as the electrical grid, communications, water systems, as well as major
banking institutions. Additionally, former Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper warned that America faces a coming Cyber Armageddon.
The story in this book is fiction, but the threat is very real. Plan accordingly.
CHAPTER 1

The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth
greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty
man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a
day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm
against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk
like blind men, because they have sinned against the
Lord: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and
their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold
shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's
wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of
his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of
all them that dwell in the land.

Zephaniah 1:14-18

The smell of burning rubber filled the midnight air in the Atlanta suburb of
Buckhead. The orange blaze of distant fires reflected from the clouds in the dark
sky above the city. Sirens pierced through the crisp atmosphere. Their high-
pitched screams seemed to roar out of nowhere then fade to near silence. But the
silence never came. By the time the sound of one emergency vehicle had
dwindled to a hush, another quickly took its place.
Standing next to her car, Kate McCarthy pulled a box of shotgun shells out of
her pack. She put five shells in her left front pocket and placed the rest in the
center console of her Mini Countryman. She pulled back her long blonde hair
into a ponytail and fished it through the opening of her ball cap. She lowered the
bill of the cap, then positioned the pump-action shotgun between the console and
the passenger’s seat.
Kate opened the trunk of her vehicle. “Vicky, you and your brother are riding
with me. You can put your bags in here.”
Fourteen-year-old Victoria looked stressed as she hoisted her belongings into
the back of her Aunt Kate’s car.
Sixteen-year-old Samuel dropped his pack next to his sister’s suitcase. “What
about mom? Is she coming?”
Sam’s father, Terry, pressed his lips and closed the back of his Escalade. “I
don’t know, son. I begged her, but she’ll have to make that decision for herself.
Either way, you guys are coming with us.”
“I don’t want to leave mom here alone.” Sam walked back into the house.
“I’m going to talk to her.”
Kate put her hand on her niece’s shoulder. “Let’s go ahead and get in the car.”
Vicky watched her brother go back into the house but did as her aunt asked.
“Yeah, okay.”
Terry glanced at his watch then looked back up at his sister.
Kate smiled nervously, hating the situation and disliking the fact that her
sister-in-law was putting Terry in such a terrible position.
Minutes later, Sam came out the front door. “Mom’s coming! She’s coming
with us.”
Terry gave a sigh of relief. “Good job, son.”
“She just needs to pack a few things.”
Terry shook his head. “No. We’ve gotta go now.”
“Dad, she has to bring clothes. You have to give her some time.”
“Five minutes. No more.”
Vicky sunk low in the back seat of Kate’s car. “I hate this. I don’t care if we
stay or go, but I just wish they could get along.”
Kate powered on the walkie-talkies and carried one of the hand-held units up
to her brother’s Escalade. “Push to talk. The channels are set. If you accidentally
change it, go back to channel three.”
“Got it.” Terry pressed the talk button. “Check, check, check.” His voice
came through loud and clear on Kate’s radio.
Five minutes passed yet there was no sign of Terry’s wife, Penny.
“What’s taking her so long?” Terry clenched his jaw.
“She’s a woman. It takes us a little longer.” Kate tried to ease the situation.
“I wish she’d thought of that when I asked her to pack a bag eight hours ago.”
“But you’re glad she decided to come.” Kate rubbed Terry’s shoulder.
He sighed. “I’m glad she decided to come.”
Nearly twenty minutes had passed when Sam reemerged from the house with
two of his mother’s suitcases in tow. “She’ll be right out.”
Terry quickly assisted Sam with loading the bags into the Escalade.
“I really don’t understand why we couldn’t wait until morning. This is very
absurd, running off in the cover of night.” Penny lugged yet another large bag
for Terry to load into the vehicle.
“Get in!” Terry shut the rear of the vehicle and rushed to the driver’s seat.
Kate hurried to her car. She looked in the rearview at her niece and nephew.
“Buckle up.”
“Let me know when you’re ready,” Terry’s voice came over the walkie-talkie.
“All set.” Kate placed the radio next to the shotgun shells and put the car in
drive.
Terry led the way, driving quickly. He called over the radio. “We’ll take Lake
Forest north. It runs parallel to US-19 but will have much less traffic. Once we
pass I-285, we’ll be through the worst of it and can get on 19.”
Kate pressed the talk key. “Sounds good.” With each passing block, she felt
an increasing sense of relief. Every mile put her small caravan further and
further from the chaos erupting in Atlanta. Kate watched the rearview and the
ominous scarlet glimmers from the individual fires melt into a solitary halo of
ruby over the metropolis.
Vicky leaned forward. “What was that old saying about the weather grandpa
used to say? Something about red sky at night, sailors delight?”
Sam corrected her. “Yeah, but it’s 1:30 AM. So, technically, it would be red
sky in the morning, sailor take warning.”
“Thanks for reminding me.” Vicky slouched back in her seat.
Half an hour later, the convoy passed through Alpharetta and the landscape
became more rural. Kate breathed easier. Few other motorists were on the road.
Sam commented, “Maybe the middle of the night is the best time to get out of
Dodge after all.”
Kate shook her head. “I’m not so sure about that. I think we’ve just been
lucky.”
“So far,” Vicky added.
“True, but we are out of Atlanta. It should be smooth sailing from here on
out.” Kate let herself relax a little more. She followed the red lights of Terry’s
Escalade. She glanced at the side-view mirror to see a vehicle coming up from
behind. Kate pressed the talk key on the radio. “I’m sure it’s nothing, but this
guy is coming up really fast from behind.”
“I see him,” Terry replied.
Kate watched as a heavy-duty Georgia Power work truck zoomed past her.
The monster vehicle swerved in front of Terry causing him to veer off the side of
the road. Kate slammed her brakes.
Time froze while she witnessed the careening Escalade leave the pavement in
slow motion. She watched Terry’s vehicle flip side over side twice. The SUV
landed on its tires then rolled into the brush until it came to a complete stop,
lodged between two trees.
Vicky shrieked with horror!
Sam yelled out at the top of his lungs. “Mom! Dad!”
Kate stopped on the shoulder of the road and rushed toward the SUV. She
arrived at the crash site with her niece and nephew close behind. “Terry? Can
you hear me?”
Her brother’s face was bleeding, resting against the airbag. The driver’s side
door was wedged against the tree. She could not open it.
Terry looked up with a dazed expression.
“Take it easy, we’ll get you out,” declared Kate.
“They’re coming back,” Vicky screeched.
Terry seemed to come around to the danger at hand. He yelled through the
window. “Get the kids and hide in the woods!”
“Maybe they’re coming to help,” suggested Sam.
“Go! Hide now!” Terry screamed through the glass.
Unwillingly, Kate grabbed Vicky’s hand. “Come on. Do as your father
asked.” She sprinted to her vehicle and grabbed the shotgun, then pushed her
niece and nephew into the cover of the trees.
From the concealment of the woods, Kate watched the work truck come to a
complete stop. It was a two-door bucket truck. Two armed men jumped out from
each door. Two more had been riding on the back of the truck by the bucket
boom. They also had weapons. None of them looked like Georgia Power
employees. She figured they’d stolen the vehicle.
The man who came out of the driver’s seat approached the Escalade. “Let’s
see what we’ve got.”
One who had been riding in the rear examined Kate’s Mini. “Looks like
whoever was driving this one ran off. Think we should hunt them down?”
“If you want to tromp through the forest all night chasing someone in the