sooner?’
‘The reseller is based in Watford,’ Freja said. ‘If you leave your mobile number, I’d be more than happy to call as soon as they arrive.’
Trey tutted, before jotting his mobile number on a We Buy Gold flyer. Once the big men had left, Freja took the piece of paper into a back room, separated from the rest of the shop by a bead curtain.
Besides a kettle and sandwich toaster, the space was crammed to the ceiling with junk, from old paperwork to cardboard boxes filled with broken electrical gear and shelves of musical instruments.
There was a tiny desk in the corner, at which James Adams sat with four open MacBooks. Each one was locked and encrypted, so he had the backs off and was using his own laptop to make bit-for-bit copies of the hard drives.
‘You handled that really well,’ James said warmly.
Freja smiled. ‘Twenty-five years in this business. You get used to cops asking questions and guys demanding their stuff back. So how long will it take to copy the hard drives?’
‘Couple of hours,’ James said.
‘Why not just take the laptops?’ Freja asked.
James smiled. ‘Information tends to be more valuable if the bad guys don’t know you’ve got it.’
‘So who are they, Detective?’ Freja asked. ‘Should I be worried?’
‘I’m on to something,’ James explained. ‘But at this stage, I have no clue what that something is.’
Trey got his laptops back just after 4 p.m. CHERUB’s head mission controller, John Jones, arrived in Birmingham ninety minutes later, and met with James, Leon and Daniel around the dining-table in the flat over Morrisons.
‘Two sugars,’ James said, as he put a chipped World’s Best Auntie mug on the table in front of his boss.
‘So what was on the laptops?’ Leon asked.
‘The encrypted data has been transferred to the GCHQ Decryption Bureau in Cheltenham,’ James began, as he took a seat next to Daniel and pulled a chocolate digestive from a pack. ‘Judging by the unencrypted data, two MacBooks were used around the print shop for designing leaflets, e-mailing and general office duties. The other two are more interesting. One had quite a lot of poster and brochure designs for Islamic groups, leading us to believe that the printworks were used to produce leaflets and banners used by extremist groups. There was also web design software and evidence that the computer had been used to design and update websites for extremist organisations.
‘The fourth laptop is a higher specification than the others. The login and e-mail details lead us to believe that it was used for similar purposes around the office. The hard drive has been partitioned and one partition set up with 512bit encryption key. There are several hundred megabytes of data in that partition and I suspect that this is the data Trey was so keen to get back.’
‘How long will it take to decrypt?’ Daniel asked.
Leon liked knowing more than his brother. ‘You can’t decrypt 512bit, Dumbo.’
James nodded. ‘A brute force decryption of the data on the hard drive would take decades, even using the fastest computers. But the key vulnerability of very complex encryption systems is that someone somewhere has to know what the encryption key is.’
Now John began speaking. ‘While James has been concentrating on the laptops, I’ve been doing more research into Trey Al-Zeid. Local community police have been interviewed. They backed Oli’s suggestion that Trey is involved in some sort of racket that makes threats and extorts money from local taxi companies, shops and landlords. What they’re less clear on is where this money goes.
‘There’s talk in the community that the money goes to support militant Islamic groups in North Africa and the Middle East. Others say this is all smoke and mirrors and that Trey is part of a regular organised-crime-style extortion racket.’
‘You’re much less likely to mess with your local extortion racket if you think they might have links
‘The reseller is based in Watford,’ Freja said. ‘If you leave your mobile number, I’d be more than happy to call as soon as they arrive.’
Trey tutted, before jotting his mobile number on a We Buy Gold flyer. Once the big men had left, Freja took the piece of paper into a back room, separated from the rest of the shop by a bead curtain.
Besides a kettle and sandwich toaster, the space was crammed to the ceiling with junk, from old paperwork to cardboard boxes filled with broken electrical gear and shelves of musical instruments.
There was a tiny desk in the corner, at which James Adams sat with four open MacBooks. Each one was locked and encrypted, so he had the backs off and was using his own laptop to make bit-for-bit copies of the hard drives.
‘You handled that really well,’ James said warmly.
Freja smiled. ‘Twenty-five years in this business. You get used to cops asking questions and guys demanding their stuff back. So how long will it take to copy the hard drives?’
‘Couple of hours,’ James said.
‘Why not just take the laptops?’ Freja asked.
James smiled. ‘Information tends to be more valuable if the bad guys don’t know you’ve got it.’
‘So who are they, Detective?’ Freja asked. ‘Should I be worried?’
‘I’m on to something,’ James explained. ‘But at this stage, I have no clue what that something is.’
Trey got his laptops back just after 4 p.m. CHERUB’s head mission controller, John Jones, arrived in Birmingham ninety minutes later, and met with James, Leon and Daniel around the dining-table in the flat over Morrisons.
‘Two sugars,’ James said, as he put a chipped World’s Best Auntie mug on the table in front of his boss.
‘So what was on the laptops?’ Leon asked.
‘The encrypted data has been transferred to the GCHQ Decryption Bureau in Cheltenham,’ James began, as he took a seat next to Daniel and pulled a chocolate digestive from a pack. ‘Judging by the unencrypted data, two MacBooks were used around the print shop for designing leaflets, e-mailing and general office duties. The other two are more interesting. One had quite a lot of poster and brochure designs for Islamic groups, leading us to believe that the printworks were used to produce leaflets and banners used by extremist groups. There was also web design software and evidence that the computer had been used to design and update websites for extremist organisations.
‘The fourth laptop is a higher specification than the others. The login and e-mail details lead us to believe that it was used for similar purposes around the office. The hard drive has been partitioned and one partition set up with 512bit encryption key. There are several hundred megabytes of data in that partition and I suspect that this is the data Trey was so keen to get back.’
‘How long will it take to decrypt?’ Daniel asked.
Leon liked knowing more than his brother. ‘You can’t decrypt 512bit, Dumbo.’
James nodded. ‘A brute force decryption of the data on the hard drive would take decades, even using the fastest computers. But the key vulnerability of very complex encryption systems is that someone somewhere has to know what the encryption key is.’
Now John began speaking. ‘While James has been concentrating on the laptops, I’ve been doing more research into Trey Al-Zeid. Local community police have been interviewed. They backed Oli’s suggestion that Trey is involved in some sort of racket that makes threats and extorts money from local taxi companies, shops and landlords. What they’re less clear on is where this money goes.
‘There’s talk in the community that the money goes to support militant Islamic groups in North Africa and the Middle East. Others say this is all smoke and mirrors and that Trey is part of a regular organised-crime-style extortion racket.’
‘You’re much less likely to mess with your local extortion racket if you think they might have links
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