[RP] The Btaur Deception

[Gallambria]

PART ONE - It's a circus here, and you're the ring leader.
Bromwich 0120//130220

A phone rings

Henderson: "Henderson speaking."

Unknown: "Sir its Clarke, sorry for the late call, you need to get to Ballymore House now."

Henderson: "Why on earth, am I needed at Ballymore?"

Clarke: "Not on the line Sir, I'll explain everything when you get here."

Henderson: "Ok, I'm on my way, I'll be there in 20."

In a seemingly unremarkable building, sits the country's domestic intelligence and security apparatus, the Gallambrian Security Intelligence Organisation, or as some of the "old guard" would call it, "7" or "MO7", which goes back to when all Intelligence agencies were managed by the Ministry of Defence.

The "office" has just been through it's most hardest period yet. Investigating potential interference in domestic politics by foreign state actors, an increase activity by CRA splinter groups, and most recently the attacks on Tamworth and Bromwich. The Company, although still licking its wounds after the 2015 Royal Commission into the Intelligence Agencies, which almost shut the agency down, had started to come back together, keeping the country safe from terror.

Until recently.

Henderson walks into the foyer of Ballymore House, where Clarke, his Chief of Staff is waiting.

Henderson: "What is going Clarke?"

Clarke, a veteran of the Marenesian War, had, over time developed a "nervous tic", especially when he was getting impatient

Henderson: "By the way, have you seen Sally lately? Your tic is getting worse."

Clarke: "Oh, Sorry Sir, didn't realise I was tapping. I'm seeing her tomorrow. Anyways, we are needed in the SCIF"

Henderson: "The SCIF? Why? Seriously Clarke, what the f*ck is going on, what required you to call me at one in the blessed a.m.?

Clarke stops, steps closer to Henderson and he whispers.

Clarke: "Lumsdon is dead."

Henderson: "What? How? Where?"

Clarke: "Here in this building about 2 hours ago. I'll fill you in when we get to the basement."

A few minutes later the two gentlemen walking to the SCIF, the large unassuming container in the middle of a room. Floor to ceiling windows, sound proof, and already occupied. Henderson looks inside.

Henderson: "What are those idiots doing here?"

Inside the SCIF was the Director-General of GSIS, affectionately known as "C"; Sir David Lauer, Commissioner of the GFP; Sharon McDonald-Parker, Director-General of GSD. "C" gets up and opens the door, and shouts at the two men.

"C": Get in here Henderson, It's a circus here, and you're the ring leader. Come and do your f*cking job.

 

[Gallambria]

Peter Lumsdon had been with the "company" for about 12 years, people would say that he was one of the best IO's in the organisation. However ever since the Royal Commission wrapped up, which found that the company wasn't performing as well as it should, he grew more and more distant from his work, shutting out people from his work, and always wanted to work alone. Graham Henderson, the Director-General of MO7, didn't think much of it. In the past, when Peter had worked alone in the past, he had always gotten results. Only time will tell.

PART TWO - There is only so much...
Cromer Commons, 2245//240120, a few weeks earlier

Walking through Cromer Commons at night was never a good idea, regardless of who you asked, but it had always been his meeting place for various reasons. Walking past the statue of King George III near the Treaty Fountain, he sees a shadowy figure sitting on a park bench. "Could this be her?" he wonders. He walks up to the person and starts the challege-response challenge

Peter: "There is only so much one can do when it is raining outside."

Unk: "I do enjoy sitting inside with a cup of tea and a good book.

Knowing that the unknown figure is talking to Peter, she removes her hoodie jacket and moves into the light.

Hiwa: "Hello Peter. I'm Hiwa Btaur."

Peter: "Hello Hiwa, Peter Henderson"

They both shake hands and then both sit down on the park bench.

Hiwa: "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Peter: "Very. The organisation has been on a path of self destruction, since the royal commission, it's time that it gets handed a coup de grâce.

Hiwa: "Why? Why is it important for you to see the organisation fail?"

Peter: "Yesterday, I handed a report into my section chief, about an impending terror attack on Gallambrian soil next week. After reading through the report, the section chief dismissed any idea that the notion of a terror attack on Gallambrian soil is ludicrous and baseless and threw the report away. I then printed another copy and took it to the Director-General and also the Commissioner of the feds. They both met the report with great derision and dismissed the idea."

Hiwa: "Wow! Ok? But are you 100 percent sure that you want to do this? Because not only will this destroy the organisation, it will destroy you."

Peter: "None of that matters anymore."

Peter pulls an envelope out of his bag, but before handing it to Hiwa, he says something that catches her attention."

Peter: "Go back to base, and clean house."

He leaves the envelope on the bench and walks off, before Hiwa has a chance to respond.

Hiwa stays behind, and opens up the envelope and pulls out the contents. Among the contents is some reports, photos, and a schematic. But what is the schematic of tho? She looks at it intently. When she realises what Peter hand her is an active surveillance operations plan for the Batengdei Embassy she grabs her phone from her handbag.

Phone rings

Hiwa: Peter, I just read the package. Is this accurate?

Peter: Yes.

Hiwa hangs up and calls another number. Phone rings.

Hiwa: Hi, yes, it's Hiwa Btaur, can I speak to the Duty Officer.

While Hiwa is on hold, she receives a text from an unknown number ... "Expect more. P."

Duty Officer: Duty Officer's Pho ... The call is cut ...

Hiwa: "What the f*ck is going on?"

[Gallambria]

PART 3 - How do they know?
GSD Mt Jerusalem 0915//250120

The GSD's Mount Jerusalem facility is one of many signal intelligence facilities located around the country.

One of the analysts picks up the phone and dials out to his supervisor

Officer #1: "Jerry, it's Mike. You need to get over here quickly."

Jerry: "What's the matter?"

Mike: "Somethings going down at Bexley Road, not sure what it is. I'm about to get in contact with S Group to get some more information."

Jerry: "Ok, I'll be down in a few..."

Mike cycles the phone, and dials the extension for 'S' group.

Mike: "Hi Sally, Mike Kelly from 'Q' Group. Can I get patched through to Tony please?

While on hold, Mike receives an e-mail on the JAICS terminal.

FROM: McDonald-Parker, Sandra MPK DGGSD
SENT: Saturday, January 25, 2020, 08:22 UTC
TO: Kelly, Mike GSD MTJ Q1A; Lawson, Jerry GSD MTJ Q1A
SUBJECT: (TS) Activity on Bexley Road.

Hi Mike & Jerry,

I'm sure by now, you're both aware that there is some unknown activity going on at Bexley Road. I'm in contact with 'D' section at the company,
and they will keep me posted from their end.

I want to hear about any and all traffic going in or out of that building.

Regards,

Sandra.

Tony, the section chief of 'S' Group picks up the phone.

Tony: Hello, S Section, Tony speaking.

Mike: Enjoying it Tones?

Tony: What ever do you mean Mikey?

Both have a giggle.

Tony: What can I do you for?

Mike: I'm seeing a fair bit of activity coming out of Bexley Road. Can you beef up collection on that place?

Tony: Sure, I just got an email from Sandra about it.

Mike: Me too. That's wierd. How do they know what's going on?

Tony: Yeah it is wierd. Anyways what ever intel we get we'll throw up on to JAICS.

Mike: Cheers mate.

Mike hangs up the phone. Suddenly, Jerry appears.

Jerry: What's going on?

Mike: Did you see the email from Sandra?

Jerry: No. What did it say?

Mike: Well somehow, the higher ups know that there's traffic in and out of Bexley Rd.

Jerry: I'm not even going to ask how. Anyways, what are we doing about it?

Mike: I've had a chat to Tony from 'S' group and their gonna increase collection on Bexley Road. f*ck man. What is going on?

Jerry: I dunno mate. I dunno. Let's just hope this doesn't blow up. By the way, we've had a FOIA request come in from the Royal Commission. Can you look at it?

Mike: Sure. Shall I five-five it?

Jerry: HA! Sure. Catch you at lunch?

Mike: Sure.

[Gallambria]

PART 4 - Meet compromised.
BATENGDEI EMBASSY, BROMWICH 1630//28012020

Sitting at her desk in the 'Cultural Attaché' in the Embassy, Hiwa Btaur was working on a report to give to her handlers, about the recruitment of Peter Lumsdon as a double-agent.

The Embassy has been in a virtual lockdown, since the revelation that the Gallambrian's had been spying on the embassy, so communications in and out of the embassy had to be encrypted. Staff personal electronics had to be screened and vetted, there were hourly sweeps of the embassy for bugs, and the boffin's from IT were frantically racing against the clock to get their servers up and running.

With all of the commotion going on, Hiwa receives a coded message on her agency issued phone... "NDHC VVEH JZQU NGCO WARO JQQY OKD" she opens up her code book, starts working away at the code, which ends up being decrypted to say "MEET ME TONIGHT. 10PM. CORNWALL PARK." She starts to pen out her reply ...

"NLSN GQZH BTMO UJKS GQWU JGDX QDOY XCLP QMRL UIXY YDVY APQJ LEKR UNAZ CIEH CHCI XWWC JKVT CAPC OV", she hits the send button.

She waits for a reply, but little did she know, that the Gallambrian's had already tagged her mobile phone and were intercepting her text messages.

GSD Mt Jerusalem, 10 minutes later.

Mike picks up the phone... "Jerry, we got a hit."

Jerry runs out of his office to see what they'd received.

Mike: We got a hit from a Bexley Road listed mobile. It's coded.

Jerry: Can we get it mashed?

Mike: Sure. Gimmie a sec

Mike takes the coded message and puts it into the decryption suite. Hoping that the codes they have are still current.

Mike: We got a mash. "My control is closing operations. Has cleared me for tonight only if information is worth risk." Shit. Who's she talking to?

Jerry: I dunno man. What's the prefix on the number?

Mike: 0400. That's a government prefix. f*ck. I'm gonna look it up.

Mike opens up the Government Phone List on his terminal and types in the number ... "0400 923 519" and selects reverse search. It returns "Home Affairs - Restricted."

Mike: Shit. It's company.

Jerry: Did we capture any inbound messages?

Mike: I'll have a look.

Mike searches through the capture logs, finds an outbound message from the recipients number 10 minutes prior to Hiwa had sent her message.

Mike: Ok, we got a coded message inbound from the 0400 number ... let me mash it.

Mike again, opens up the decryption suite, types in the message that had been received "NDHC VVEH JZQU NGCO WARO JQQY OKD" ... "MEET ME TONIGHT. 10PM. CORNWALL PARK."

Jerry, looking over Mike's shoulder, picks up the telephone and dials out to D Section at the Company.

Jerry: Hi Danny, It's Jerry Lawson from Q1A. We've got a possible hit on a foreign agent meeting with a company spook tonight. Can you run surveillance on it?

Danny: Sure. Send me the specifics on SIPR. Mark it NOFORN in CHROME.

Jerry: Sick dicks. Thanks mate.

Later that night at Hiwa's residence. She gets a message on the phone, again it's coded. "NDHC FRVQ MVSV HSYJ DVAK HZZV AMML WQBB DAB". She decrypts it. "MEET COMPROMISED. WILL MAKE CONTACT AGAIN." she opens up the messaging app and sends a simple "1" to acknowledge the message.

The next morning at Mt Jerusalem, Mike is waiting at his terminal for the report from last nights surveillance operation. Nothing. it hits 11am and nothings been received. He picks up the phone and calls Danny.

Mike: Danny, it's Mike. Can you send me a report for last night?

Danny: What report mate? No one turned up. They must've known we knew about the meeting.

Mike: Dammit ok. Thanks.

With a possibilty that there's a mole inside the Company. Mike and Jerry start writting up reports to be handed to the upper echelons of the organisations. Can they keep a tabs on what's happening without the mole finding out?
 

[Gallambria]

PART 5 - End Game
GSIO HQ, BALLYMORE HOUSE, 1130//31012020

The atmosphere around the building is one of stress, sadness, anger. The New Cambrian Revolutionary Army had just struck again, this time at the heart of Gallambria, Bromwich. Gunmen had opened fire on employees and visitors to the Stock Exchange, and set bombs off on the metro and bus system. The attack on the GSX immediately saw the financial ramifications, where the Index dropped 8.5% before a trading halt was put in place.

The Senior Leadership Team of the Gallambrian Intelligence Community, which included the Director-Generals of GSIO, GSIS and GSD, the Commissioners of the GFP and the States police forces, Director-General of the Defence Intelligence Organisation and political members of the National Security Committee, were already recalled to Bromwich to start formulating a response to the attacks in Tamworth, when the NCRA attacked Bromwich. Having sat in conference for 3 days already, all that had amounted so far was a tit-for-tat blame war between the agencies.

All of a sudden, the Prime Minister and her entourage of advisors, politicians and superfluous civil servants walk into the conference room.

Everyone stands.

Nadia: Please be seated, everyone.

Everyone sits. Nadia takes her piles of papers, reports and her notebook from her Aide.

Nadia: Now I've been hearing about what has been going on in this room over the last couple of days, and I'm not pleased. I know I'm not supposed to be intervening in what happens inside these walls, but I'm going to ignore that and get you all to pull your proverbial heads out of your arses and get you back on task.

We've just had 6 or 7 hundred people killed, on top of the attacks from last week, where now we're sitting at approximately 3,800 people dead.

What does it take for you to forget about your private school rivalry and to do your f*cking jobs?

Before we get on with dealing with the attacks. There's something that's been brought to my attention and my, what a marvelous mess you have all gotten yourself into.

Graham and Sarah. What can you two tell me about Bexley Road. Now there's no to "explain to me" who and or what Bexley Road is, I know it is the Batnegdei Embassy. Just tell me what the hell your two agencies are doing there.

Sarah: Prime Minister, We had received a requested from GSIO to surveill the embassy, due to reports of one of their IA's at the least, leaking to the Batengdeians maybe even working as a double agent for them.

Nadia: Now this doesn't make sense. I've received information from Kompen Thampol, the Batengdei Ambassador, saying that what ever your agency has had in place in the embassy has been there well before GSIO knew they had an issue.

Sarah: Well that is news to me ma'am. It seems as tho that my agency is either working behind very secured closed doors, or this was completely off the books.

Nadia: Graham - What's your take on this? Did you know that this was happening?

Graham: No Ma'am I did not. I'm going to side with Sarah and say that who ever authorised the surveillance on the Batengdei Embassy, was doing so completely off the books.

Nadia: Are there any other Embassies that are receiving the same treatment as the Batengdeians?

Graham: Not that I'm aware of.

Nadia: Jesus Christ people. After the Royal Commission, and the new IG ripping you guys a new one, I thought you would've upped your game a little. So for now, I'm going to ignore your indiscretions, for the moment and am going to ask you, was there any usable intelligence from what you've gathered so far?

Sarah: Ma'am, all we know is that a member of the Batengdei Intelligence Agency, has been communicating with a member of the domestic's "D Section". We were able too intercept messages between the two parties, and as of the night of the 28th of January, they were planning a meeting in Cornwall Park at 10pm.

Nadia: What happened?

Sarah: Nothing Ma'am. Nothing happened. The GSIO analyst that's involved found out that we knew, and alerted that the meet was compromised and alerted his or her handler from the Batengdei Embassy.

Nadia: Do we know who the Batengdei agent is?

Sarah: No ma'am.

Nadia: Ok. Now all of you. I want this shit cleared up. The IG is going to babysit you lot. Find out who this leak is, find out who the Batengdei agent is, but most of all, do it above board. Get warrants. Get clearance from the IG. Do it cleanly. I want an end game to this bullshit.

Now, onto the attacks...

[Gallambria]

A few weeks later.

Things had been quiet, there was no noticeable communications between the two parties and people were starting to get worried. Maybe they had gone underground, maybe they had found a new way to take their communications "off the grid" to avoid interception.

However over the last couple of weeks, those responsible for investigating the leaks have been busy trawling through logs, and they found a treasure trove of files, things as small as Gallambrian troop movement projections, to operational plans for potential invasions of Batengdei. Even dossiers of Batengdei politicians and business people were among the files that were transmitted.

The Inspector-General had been overseeing the operation for the last couple of weeks, and noticed a few anomalies with what the team were finding. He was concerned that, regardless of the classification levels, the transmissions would've had to have been approved by a supervisor or someone within the upper echelons of the organisation.

Being one of a handful of people who can access the logs for such a transaction, he had logged into his computer to trawl through the thousands of transmission logs to find who had approved these transfers. After an hour or so of looking through the logs, he noticed that things weren't adding up. Then all of a sudden he started seeing a pattern. Although the user id's were hashed, he noticed that there were transfers from the same user, approved by the same user, but both the original transfer and approval were originating from the same MAC address'. What could this mean?

After a bit of digging around, the IG had found that some of the transfers that had been approved happened when the "approving authority" had not been in the office. Somehow, the person responsible for the leaks had managed to either get a hold of someones ID and password or cloned his Government Common Access Card (GCAC).

Having put together a list of transfer that were made, he sends an email to the boffins at GSD to see if they could un-hash the User ID's. Could he have found the leak, or just ran into another dead end? Time will tell.