‘The style is distinct,’ Stefan said. ‘Most attacks piggyback on multiple computers to get scale. This one just fools the host into thinking it’s receiving excess communication. It’s trying to put together the fragments of data being sent, but getting the wrong information, so thinks it’s overloaded when it isn’t. The beauty of this technique is that it leads to buffer overflow. The host starts to wipe the data it already has.’

‘Seen it before?’

‘I helped devise it.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It looks like what we called Slow Clap. The bosses at GCHQ were queasy about piggybacking civilians’ PCs to get their mass of attackers, so I helped develop techniques using software errors and security gaps that could be run off one PC only. Pretty ingenious, if I say so myself. You can take a target down solo.’

‘Are GCHQ the only ones with it? What about you guys?’

‘Not from me. But these things catch on fast. Like I say, what’s going on?’

‘Do you have any idea what Batur got?’

‘No.’

‘Is there any chance of us repeating the hack?’

‘There’s no way. It’s locked down now.’

‘Do you think there might be a copy of the stolen data anywhere?’

‘I’m not sure I’d go looking for it if there was.’

‘I need malware for Aliya Savinova’s phone: an exploit for Androids, one that would work on an LG G5.’

‘I can get them to send something through. But you’re not going to crack this alone.’

‘You think I can just drop it?’

‘No, I think you’re in trouble. That’s what this is about. I can’t stick around.’

‘I’m not asking you to.’

Stefan sighed. ‘What’s Aliya Savinova going to give you? She won’t know who she’s working for.’

‘Everyone knows something. And she interests me.’

‘She hates the West.’

‘She likes hating the West. She’ll enjoy my company.’

THIRTY-SEVEN

Evotec sent through the malware a few hours later, along with a ‘pattern of life’ file for Aliya, including professional and friendship networks, educational history and financial records for both her and her family. She had some extra money coming in, a personal account with Halyk Savings Bank of Kazakhstan that received monthly transfers of 300 dollars from a business account at the Asia Credit Bank in the name of ACT Strategic Communications. No ACT Strategic Communications came up online.

I dialled the number she’d given me. The way someone answers a call is usually informative in itself. Are they in the environment you’d expect? Any suggestion of a delay while devices are initiated? My call was killed after five rings. I sent a text.

It’s Toby. Can you call me?

Aliya texted back. In five minutes. She called in three and a half. She sounded happy.

‘Toby, hello.’

‘Can you speak?’

‘Yes, briefly.’

‘I read a story by the writer you recommended.’

‘Already?’