[Karen Grube]

Subject Line: Karen Grube’s Life-Threatening Sequence (Day 7)

What I learned from this assignment is

1. List out your structure using whatever structure you are comfortable with.?

OPENING: Panic inside a large international bank headquartered in the U.S. as clerks, executives, customers, and cybersecurity experts realize their computer systems are completely inaccessible to anyone, even from their offices in other countries.

Mystery 1: How long will this last? Is this a ransomware attack? Who did this? Why? What are we going to do? Will the bank survive? How do we keep our customers? Who do we go to for help?

Mystery 2: Why is there no message from the attacker, either directly to the bank or a public statement? Why no ransom request?

INCITING INCIDENT: David Hamilton “Ham”, an Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), are called in to investigate the hack. Ham believes the hackers got in through the bank’s Penetration Test system which they were using at that time, exactly the kind of testing that should have prevented this. They don’t know how the hackers knew they were running the test at that time, but the PEN Test system is separate from the main computer system and has a complete packet capture of all of the traffic at that time. It will take detailed forensics to search through it all.

MYSTERY 3: How did the hackers know when the PEN test would be run and how did they get the key that let them into it?

Villain’s Plan 1: His plan succeeded. His men got into the bank’s system. It took the bank three weeks to recover, but hey lost a large number of customers, their reputation, and over three billion dollars in value.

TURNING POINT 1: Three weeks later, Ham and his team raid the house where the hackers are working on their next attack. As they arrest them and take possession of their equipment, they are being watched on hidden camera by Phoenix, who orchestrated the attack. Phoenix now knows that Ham the biggest threat is to his final plan.

LIFE THREATENING INCIDENT 1: A week later, Ham, his team and his boss, Director Collins, watch the news as the two hackers leave the courthouse after being indicted. They get into a black SUV, where a man is seen on the news broadcast making a call on a cell phone. A moment later, Ham gets a call that his wife and daughter have been severely injured in a horrific accident.

MYSTERY 4: What or who caused the “accident.” There’s evidence that the car’s computer system was hacked.

TURNING POINT 2: Ham’s boss places him on personal leave. His sister and nephew move in with him to help him out. Paul, an old friend from their Marine/CIA cyberops team, calls asking for his help. He now works for the Bank for International Settlements. They’re about to launch a test of a central bank digital currency with eight of the world’s largest central banks. He’s discovered a flaw that will enable someone to take over the test, hack into the central banks, and possibly hold them for ransom, putting the entire world’s economic structure in danger. And he thinks someone else knows he’s found the flaw, but he can’t tell the BIS because he doesn’t want them to call off the test until he finds out who it is and stop them.

MYSTERY 5: What flaw did Paul discover? Who else knows? What do they want?

TURNING POINT 3: Ham knows there’s danger, so he asks his neighbor to drive his sister and nephew to a fishing lodge they visited as children and not tell anyone where they are. He tells his sister to buy a burner phone on the way and give the neighbor the number.

LIFE THREATENING INCIDENT 2: Paul is kidnapped from his office in Toronto.

TURNING POINT 3: When Ham can’t reach Paul, he goes to their former cyberops CO, Lt. Col. Janak, who now runs a world-renowned anti-terrorism training facility. Janak has a secret team of white hat hackers who agree to help him using the information Paul gave him. They hack into the BIS test system and leave a tracker for any outside connections. Before long, there is one, which they track back to a dark web chat area run by someone whose avatar is “Phoenix.” The team dives into that chat area just long enough to copy as many documents and messages as they can without being caught. A few of the documents mention Ham (his military background, his current work, his family) and reveal that it was Phoenix who orchestrated the earlier “rehearsal” hack on the bank that Ham busted. There’s also an encrypted screed about how Phoenix will rise against the creation of a one world currency to stop the anti-Christ from controlling the world’s economy signaling Armageddon. Mainly, the chats have to do with Phoenix telling his assassins and cyberassassins that this is going to be the most massive ransomware attack ever and they’re all going to be billionaires.

LIFE THREATENING INCIDENT 3: Against the team’s advice, Ham decides to create his own avatar and leaves a message for Phoenix telling him he needs his help to finish is plan. Phoenix tells Ham he knows who he is and that if he wants to save his friend, Paul, he should use the ticket he’s arranging for him to fly to Zurich.

LIFE THREATENING INCIDENT 4: Ham calls his neighbor to get his sister’s burner phone number so he can warn her to move again. The neighbor gives him the number but calls his nephew “Robert” instead of “Robbie” signaling something’s wrong. As soon as she hangs up, she’s murdered by one of Phoenix’s assassins. He takes her phone and her car keys, then checks the car’s navigation history to find out where she took Ham’s sister and nephew.

LIFE THREATENING INCIDENT 5: When Ham arrives in Zurich, Paul is there being held by one of Phoenix’s thugs. They’re taken to a private airport lounge where Phoenix is in shadow on a video monitor. He asks Ham and Paul why he needs them both. Paul lies telling Phoenix he’s already put in place a fix for the flaw he found and has to back it out. And Ham lies telling Phoenix that he’s modified the transmission receiver boxes at all eight central banks to reject the digital keys being sent if they detect the flaw in the encryption algorithm. On the screen, Phoenix displays a photo taken of Paul and Ham when they met, and a streaming video feed of Ham’s sister and nephew, bound and gagged. He warns them they’d better get to the BIS IT offices in Basel and undo what they did or they’re all dead. Phoenix doesn’t know Ham’s wife and daughter survived the crash and that they’re being kept in a safe location.

MYSTERY 6: Who is Phoenix? How does he know so much about the BIS test? Where is he? How do we make him think we’re doing what he wants?

TURNING POINT 4: Using Paul’s BIS ID, he and Ham check in to the BIS IT building in Basel, Switzerland along with “Oscar,” the man who escorted them from Zurich and who they now know is a BIS Security guard planted there by Phoenix. They go to the Computer Operations Center where the test is being programmed and observed by representatives of each country’s central bank. Stefan Muller, the head of BIS’s Innovation Hub shows Ham and Paul to an empty office where they can work. On one wall is an enlarged print of the January 9, 1984 issue of the Economist which displays a Phoenix rising out of a fiery conflagration of world currencies with the title “Get Ready for a World Currency.” Ham asks whose office this was. He’s told that Gerhard Hoffman recently asked to be transferred to the Toronto Innovation Hub to work on their portion of the test. Paul probably knows him. Ham asks Stephan to call the BIS Security office and ask them to detain Oscar in a holding cell.

At the BIS Security office, Ham convinces Oscar to tell him what he knows about whoever hired him and gets him to post what’s called a “hack tip” to Phoenix’s crypto currency account, a small percentage of the amount Phoenix paid him for bringing them to the BIS. With that information, they’re able to track Phoenix’s exact location in Toronto. They’ve got him!

Phoenix messages Paul and tells him that if they don’t back out what they’ve done and let his plan work when the test runs the next day, he’ll take down the entire corrupt BIS, which will leave the entire global financial structure floundering. Either way, they have to be stopped.

TURNING POINT 5: Ham returns to the FinCEN offices in Washington and is met by Collins who tells him about Janak’s call and that Julia and Robbie are safe. The assassin that Phoenix sent to kill them is in an interrogation room. He then shows Ham the BIS employee ID photo of Gerhard Hoffman, “Phoenix.” Ham asks him to call up the video from the news coverage of two cyber-punks he captured leaving the courthouse. Ham zooms in on the image of the man on the on the phone waiting in the van for them. It’s Hoffman. He must have been behind their ransomware attack they busted. The captured assassin says he never met Phoenix but knows he was behind that ransomware attack and that he decided to get rid of the agent who arrested his men. He had one of his assassins orchestrate the pile-up that almost killed Ham’s wife and daughter in order to get him out of the way. Phoenix is a crazy religious nut-job who thinks he can delay Armageddon by stopping the BIS from developing a one-world currency, which he believes would signal the beginning of the Biblical end times.

Outside Phoenix’s compound in a remote wooded area not far from Toronto, Janak’s team sets up simulated video streams seemingly from all eight central banks. including fake news broadcasts, internal central bank cameras, and social media posts. As the test begins, Phoenix watches from inside his safe-room. If he thinks it isn’t real, he’ll destroy the BIS IT Center computer systems.

LIFE THREATENING INCIDENT 6: Ham’s team from FinCEN is armed and make their way into Phoenix’s compound, killing all the guards except one. They force him to show them the entry to Phoenix’s high-tech safe-room, where they believe he’s watching what he thinks is the world panic at the destruction of all eight central banks. When they go inside, Phoenix is gone.

MYSTERY 7: Where could Phoenix have gone? Does he know what he’s seeing is a hoax?

TURNING POINT 6: Janak sends a drone over the local terrain spotting a sea plane anchored on a river a mile or so from the compound and an entrance to a cave about a hundred yards from one edge of the compound. The drone has ground penetrating radar which reveals a wave runner just inside the entrance to the cave and an interior wall where the drone stops being able to send its signal.

Searching the safe room, Ham opens the door to a bathroom and finds another a hidden door behind a mirror. The door leads to a tunnel that ends in a fully embedded steel door with biometric locks. Phoenix must be in there but they’ll never get inside in time.

Although Phoenix has his exit planned, Ham’s certain he won’t leave until he sees that the computer systems in all eight of the central banks are inaccessible and that the entire world is beginning to panic. But he has something else planned for the BIS itself. He wants to see them destroyed as well. He wants to be known as the man who stopped Armageddon.

THE CONFRONTATION: A small group of agents enters the cave, disables the WaveRunner, and makes their way to the door. Through their earphones, they can hear the discussion going on inside the safe room between Phoenix and the (fake) president of the BI. Phoenix keeps saying this wasn’t a heist, that what he’s doing is for the good of humanity and for God’s glory. The crypto keys have already been destroyed. No one will ever get back into those computer systems. Every penny of their 8.6 trillion dollars has disappeared and it will never be found.

By hacking into the steel door’s biometrics, Janak’s team is able to open the door into the second saferoom. “You’re too late, David.” Phoenix says calmly, watching events unfold on several monitors. “The central banks have already shut down and the world is beginning to panic. The BIS itself won’t be around much longer.”

Ham is the first to reach Phoenix. He shoves him back into his chair while another agent binds his wrists behind his back.

“Colonel, would you please turn off our video feed and show Phoenix what’s really going on.” Each screen now shows the real live feeds of groups at the central banks smiling and congratulating each other for the successful completion of their digital currency test.

“It’s not over. I already sent the signal for the BIS servers to begin self-destructing. The building will be up in smoke before anyone can get out.”

“Colonel, could you please add the BIS Computer Operations Center feed?” David reaches over and uses Phoenix’s remote to put the BIS feed on the center, large monitor.” Stefan Muller is talking on his cell phone to someone, then looks up into the camera and gives those watching a thumbs up!

“Phoenix, or should I call you Gerhard, It’s over. The only thing I want to hear from you this minute is why you sent someone to kill my wife and daughter! They’re both fine, by the way. We traced the call you made from the van setting up the ‘accident.’

Phoenix shrugs, realizing he’s defeated. “I needed you out of the way after you arrested my men in my little ransomware rehearsal.”

“They never demanded a ransom.”

“I asked them not to. I just wanted to see if this could be done using a single crypto key, what chaos it would cause, and how long it would take the bank to fully recover their computer systems. I didn’t want you around to stop me from taking down the BIS. I knew they’d put you on leave.

“Smart. But not smart enough. You forgot the first rule of cyber-warfare. You should have hacked yourself. You didn’t see the hack-tip Oscar left you after you paid him. That’s how we found you. Then we caught the man you sent to kidnap my sister and nephew, and he gave up what he knew about you once we told him you never intended going to share the wealth with him and that he’d probably wind up dead. He told us about the virus that would turn off the chilling towers below the computer center.

“This will never go to trial. I know too much about the BIS and how they use their influence to help their friends. The world needs to see this kind of global financial disaster, a so-called Black Swan Event, to free it from the slavery they face because of these arrogant tyrants.”

“You’re right. You won’t be tried here in the U.S. There’s already a cell waiting for you at Gitmo. You’re an international terrorist, Gerhard. You’re never getting out. I have a few buddies there who’ll see to it. God has other plans for you that don’t include trying to interfere with His plans.”

RESOLUTION: Five days later, Ham and Janak walk through his anti-terrorism training compound. Ham agrees to lead Janak’s cyberdefense team. Janak smiles and tells Ham that he and his family can choose one of the homes they just walked by and move in whenever they’re ready.

[Karen Grube]

Subject Line: Karen Grube’s Life-Threatening Sequence (Day 7)

What I learned from this assignment is that my hero isn’t in nearly enough real danger. His family and friends are, but not him. Of course, the entire world is in danger from the villain. I’m not sure what to do about that.

1. What is Phoenix’s plan and how does it put Ham in danger?

Phoenix’s plan is to destroy the world’s economic system by taking down the Bank for International Settlements. He intends to disrupt their test of a global digital currency between eight of the world’s largest central banks. But by doing this he thinks he can delay the beginning of the end times as described in the book of Revelation by preventing a one-world currency accessible only to those wearing the mark of the beast. Ham tries to stop him, which puts him, his family, and his friends in danger.

2. What other potential dangers could Ham experience as he tries to figure out what Phoenix is trying to do, how he’s going to do it, why he’s doing it, and how to stop him.

At first Ham thinks Phoenix plans on holding the central banks’ computer systems for ransom.

When Ham busts two of Phoenix’s men for committing a ransomware attack on a large international bank, Phoenix sees Ham as the biggest threat to pulling off his plan. Phoenix was actually watching on hidden cameras as the bust took place.

Phoenix orchestrates a horrific accident in order to kill Ham’s wife and daughter so the agency that Ham works for, FinCEN, will put him on leave. Ham and his boss decide it’s safest if Ham’s wife and daughter are presumed dead in the accident and are moved to a safer location temporarily. Ham’s sister and nephew move in with him to help him through what they believe is their death. Ham tells his sister he isn’t sure they’re dead. The bodies couldn’t be identified.

Paul, Ham’s former partner in a Marine/CIA cyberwarfare group in Afghanistan, asks Ham for help. He’s discovered a security flaw in an upcoming test of a single world-wide central bank digital currency that the organization he now works for, the Bank for International Settlements, is about to schedule. Paul believes someone else knows about the flaw and is planning on exploiting it to take over all of the central bank computer systems. Luckily, Paul has a fix for the flaw, but he doesn’t want to tell anyone else or implement the fix because he doesn’t know who he can trust. He doesn’t want the BIS to stop the test because he wants to stop whoever’s doing this. He gives Ham access to his own personal deep web area he just set up that only the two of them can access. He’s placed information there for Ham.

One of Phoenix’s men sees Ham and Paul meeting.

Paul is abducted from his BIS office in Toronto, Canada.

Ham sends his sister and his nephew to a fishing lodge they stayed at with their parents as children, asking his neighbor to drive them there so his sister’s car can remain at their house.

Ham is concerned that he can’t reach Paul. Since Paul warned him about going to his boss at FinCEN, he reaches out to his and Paul’s former cyberwarfare CO, Lt. Col. Janak, who now runs a high-end and internationally renowned anti-terrorism training facility in Kentucky. Jank introduces Ham to his secret anti-cyberterrorism team and they and Ham begin working together.

Janak’s team discovers that Phoenix runs a dark web chat area where he recruits assassins and cyberassassins to execute his plan, He only tells them their specific task and pays them in untraceable crypto currency. None of them knows who the others are.

Janak’s team hacks into the chat area and copies as many documents and chat transcripts as they can without leaving a trace. In one of those there’s what appears to be the beginning of a manifesto that makes it clear that Phoenix is a religious nutjob who thinks he can stop Armageddon by sabotaging the development of the one world currency predicted in the Book of Revelation forcing everyone to wear the Mark of the Beast. There’s also mention of Ham’s name, his military record, his work record, his personal life – everything.

Against Janak and his team’s advice, Ham creates an avatar and leaves a message for Phoenix telling him he needs his help if he wants his plan to succeed. Phoenix already seems to know who it is that left the message, replying that he doesn’t need him. Ham tells Phoenix that only he can undo the fix he just sent to the banks servers that will cause them to reject any incoming transmissions unless they’re encrypted in a particular way.

Phoenix arranges a ticket for Ham to fly from D.C. to Zurich. When Ham arrives he’s met at the airport by Paul being held by one of Phoenix’s assassins. They’re led to a private airport lounge where Phoenix appears on a video monitor in shadow with an obscured voice. He asks why he needs them both alive, and both Paul and Ham con him into thinking his plan won’t succeed without the two of them undoing what they say they’ve done to insure the real success of the BIS test.

Phoenix shows Paul and Ham the photo taken of the two of them when they met. He also shows them a live feed of Ham’s sister and nephew being held, drugged and unconscious and asks Ham who else in his family he’s willing to risk. Phoenix tells them they’re going to be taken to the BIS IT building where they’re going to reverse what they’ve done or watch them die.

In Basel, Switzerland, at the IT offices of the BIS, Phoenix’s goon signs in as a BIS Security officer named Oscar, planted there by Phoenix. Paul uses his BIS credentials to get them into the Computer Operations Center where the test is being programmed and observed by representatives of each country’s central bank. Stefan Muller, the head of BIS’s Innovation Hub shows Ham and Paul to an empty office where they can work. On one wall is an enlarged print of the January 9th 1984 issue of the Economist which displays a Phoenix rising out of a fiery conflagration of world currencies with the title “Get Ready for a World Currency.” Ham asks whose office this was. He’s told that Gerhard Hoffman recently asked to be transferred to the Toronto Innovation Hub to work on their portion of the test. Paul probably knows him. Ham has Stephan call the BIS Security office and tells them to detain Oscar in a holding cell.

At the BIS Security office, Ham convinces Oscar to tell him what he knows about whoever hired him and gets him to post what’s called a “hack tip” to Phoenix’s crypto currency account, a small percentage of the amount Phoenix paid him for bringing them to the BIS. With that information, they’re able to track Phoenix’s exact location in Toronto.

Phoenix messages Paul on the computer he’s using at the BIS and once again shows him the live stream of Ham’s sister and nephew, still bound and drugged and tells him he and Ham better back out the fix they engineered to the test before it runs the next day or they will be responsible for two more deaths.

Ham talks Stephan into not canceling the test and then leaves to fly back to Washington, DC. Paul stays to continue the pretense that he’s reversing the fix he put in for the test encryption algorithm.

Ham calls Janak in Kentucky and asks if he can send someone to find his sister and nephew. Janak decides it’s time to call in the feds, so he calls Jim Collins, Ham’s FinCEN Director, who sends two men from Ham’s team to find them and them back safely.

Ham coerces Oscar into leaving a message for Phoenix they can trace, a small “hack tip,” a percentage of what he was paid for bringing Ham and Paul to Basel, since Phoenix has no intention of leaving any of his men alive. With Janak’s team’s help, they now have Phoenix’s exact location outside Toronto.

Ham returns to the FinCEN offices in Washington and is met by Collins who tells him about Janak’s call and that Julia and Robbie are safe. The assassin that Phoenix sent to kill them is in an interrogation room. He then shows Ham the BIS employee ID photo of Gerhard Hoffman, “Phoenix.” Ham asks him to call up the video from the news coverage of two cyber-punks he captured leaving the courthouse. Ham zooms in on the image of the man on the on the phone waiting in the van for them. It’s Hoffman. He must have been behind their ransomware attack they busted. The captured assassin says he never met Phoenix but knows he was behind that ransomware attack and that he decided to get rid of the agent who arrested his men. He had one of his assassins orchestrate the pile-up that almost killed Ham’s wife and daughter in order to get him out of the way. Phoenix is a crazy religious nut-job who thinks he can delay Armageddon by stopping the BIS from developing a one-world currency, which he believes would signal the beginning of the Biblical end times.

Outside Phoenix’s compound in a remote wooded area not far from Toronto, Janak’s team sets up simulated video streams seemingly from all eight central banks. including fake news broadcasts, internal central bank cameras, and social media posts. Phoenix watches from inside his safe-room. If he thinks it isn’t real, he’ll destroy the BIS IT Center computer systems.

After watching what he thinks is the panic taking place in each of the eight central banks on monitors, Phoenix thinks he’s won. He sends out a message claiming that he has the crypto keys to the central bank computer systems and will return them if the BIS releases a statement within the hour saying they’ll shut down their entire operation. A fake BIS President on video asks Phoenix if he’ll settle for fifty billion in exchange for the keys. Phoenix sneers, No! The world’s better off suffering for a time rather than wearing the mark of the beast in order to buy food or pay for shelter. He won’t let the BIS create a one-world currency to prepare the way for the AntiChrist.

Ham, Collins, and the armed FinCEN team enter the compound, quietly killing all of the exterior guards except the one they identify as Phoenix’s second in command. They make their way to Phoenix’s safe room then use this man’s fingerprint and retinal scan to go inside. Phoenix isn’t there. The computers and monitors are off. One of the agents blocks the door with a filing cabinet so it can’t close on them. Ham looks around the saferoom for a second emergency exit. He can’t use his cell phone to call Janak or Collins from inside. Another agent hands him a two-way radio communicator. Janak tells him the room must be one big Faraday chamber and no signal from the outside can penetrate it, like a giant MRI machine. This can’t be where he’s communicating from. And even if he had video cameras in the saferoom to watch from somewhere else, he wouldn’t be able to send the feed anywhere.

Janak reviews the recorded feed from the drone they sent over the area earlier. He spots a sea plane docked on a lake about half a mile away. The drone also has ground penetrating radar. The recording shows a small opening to a cave leading in a few hundred yards. Just inside the mouth of the cave, there’s what Janak believes is a WaveRunner. The radar recording stops when it reaches an interior metal door. The drone can’t detect anything further, nor can they fly it directly over the compound without being detected.

Ham looks around the high-end, luxury saferoom once more. There’s a door across the room that opens to a bathroom complete with a shower, sink, toilet with a bidet attachment that has push button controls, and a full length mirror. The shower is dry. So is the sink. Ham tries pulling the mirror away from the wall with no luck. He turns the shower head from side to side. Nothing happens. On a hunch, he pushes the toilet seat warmer control twice. No luck. He presses it a third time. The control lights green and the mirror backed by a thick steel door slowly swings open revealing well-lighted tunnel.

“He’s still here somewhere.” Ham steps down the tunnel about 50 feet to the end where he finds another steel door with both biometric and voice controls. “We’ll never get past that and we don’t have time to figure out how to disable it. But we can disable and block that mirror door so he can’t get out any way but through the cave.”

Ham lets Janak and Collins know what he found. Collins suggests they go through the cave and try to get past whatever security Phoenix has there, but Janak suggests they should let him think he’s won so he doesn’t blow up the BIS building like he threatened. He’s got his exit planned. Let him try to use it. But they can disable the WaveRunner and the Seaplane.

What if shutting down the BIS isn’t enough and he sends the order to blow up the BIS IT building anyway? We have to get into that cave and see what he’s got inside there. No, he’ll stay long enough to watch the BIS building burn. He wants to be known as the man who stopped Armageddon. He has to see to it that what he’s done can’t be reversed. The central banks have to start shutting down. The President of the BIS has to beg him to release the cyber keys so the banks can reopen and prevent worldwide panic.

A small group of agents enters the cave, disables the WaveRunner, and makes their way to the door. Through their earphones, they can hear the discussion going on inside the saferoom between the president of the BIS and Phoenix. Phoenix is trying to explain to him why he’s doing this and keeps reaffirming that it’s for the good of humanity and for God’s glory. He’s trying to make him understand that this wasn’t a heist and that the crypto keys have already been destroyed so no one will ever get back into those computer systems. Every penny of their 8.6 trillion dollars has disappeared and it will never be found.

The steel door opens into this second saferoom. “You’re too late, David.” Phoenix says calmly, still watching events unfold on several monitors. “The central banks have already shut down and the BIS will be ceasing operations shortly. But I’m seeing to it that they’ll never open up again.”

Ham is the first to reach Phoenix. He shoves him back into his chair while another agent binds his wrists behind his back.

“Colonel, would you please turn off our video feed and show Phoenix what’s really going on.” Each screen now shows the real live feeds of groups at the central banks smiling and congratulating each other for the successful completion of their digital currency test.

“It’s not over. I already sent the signal for the BIS servers to begin self-destructing. The building will be go up in flames before anyone can get out.”

“Colonel, could you please add the BIS Computer Operations Center feed?” David reaches over and uses Phoenix’s remote to put the BIS feed on the center, large monitor.” Stefan Muller is talking on his cell phone to someone, then looks up into the camera and gives those watching a thumbs up!

“Phoenix, or should I call you Gerhard, It’s over. The only thing I want to hear from you this minute is why you sent someone to kill my wife and daughter! They’re both fine, by the way. We traced the call you made from the van setting up the ‘accident.’

Phoenix shrugs, realizing he’s defeated. “I needed you out of the way after you arrested my men in my little ransomware rehearsal.”

“They never demanded a ransom.”

“I asked them not to. I just wanted to see if this could be done using a single crypto key, what chaos it would cause, and how long it would take the bank to fully recover their computer systems. I didn’t want you around to stop me from taking down the BIS. I knew they’d put you on leave if anything happened to your family.

“Smart. But not smart enough. You forgot the first rule of cyber-warfare. You should have hacked yourself. You didn’t see the hack-tip Oscar left you after you paid him. That’s how we found you. Then we caught the man you sent to kidnap my sister and nephew, and he gave up what he knew about you once we told him you never intended going to share the wealth with him and that he’d probably wind up dead.

“This will never go to trial. I know too much about the BIS and how they use their influence to manipulate international financial institutions to benefit their wealthy friends. The world needs to see this kind of global financial disaster, what the BIS calls a Black Swan Event, to free it from the slavery they face because of these arrogant, corrupt tyrants.”

“You’re right. You won’t be tried for cyber terrorism here in the U.S. But there’s already a cell waiting for you at Gitmo. You’re an international terrorist, Gerhard. You’re never getting out. I have a few buddies there who’ll see to it. God has other plans for you that don’t include trying to interfere with Biblical prophecy.”

Five days later, Ham and Janak walk through his anti-terrorism training compound. Ham agrees to lead Janak’s cyberwarfare team. Janak smiles and tells Ham that he and his family can choose one of the homes they just walked by and move in whenever they’re ready.

[Karen Grube]

Karen Grube’s Mystery Sequence

What I learned from this assignment is that I have a long way to go to master developing mystery and intrigue in each scene. I’ll get there.

I also learned that I’m really not as knowledgeable about cybersecurity and ransomware attacks as I need to be to do this well. I may have to call the WGA and see if I can set up a discussion with an expert, if they still provide those resources.

I’m sorry if this reads more like a five-page treatment than the answers to the assignment, but I really wanted to get this written out. It really helped.

What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?

1. Phoenix is really Gerhard Hoffman. He is a high level cybersecurity employee of the Bank for International Settlements. His secret is that he’s planning on taking down the BIS and the world’s economic structure along with it.

2. Phoenix is Gerhard’s dark web avatar/name. He uses this anonymity to hire cyberpunks and assassins to commit cyberwarfare, hacking banks and holding them for ransom or stealing identities and selling them on the dark web.

3. Phoenix is a religious zealot who believes that he will stave off the beginning of the Biblical end times if he can stop the BIS’s efforts to develop a one-world currency, which he sees as leading people being forced to wear the mark of the beast.

How many ways can he cover his secrets?

1. Phoenix stays anonymous on the dark web by never letting his henchmen know who he is, always paying them in untraceable cryptocurrency, and having anyone killed he thinks can be traced to him.

2. Phoenix uses his position with the BIS’s Innovation Hub to make himself part of the development of their planned central bank digital currency test. He intends to use that test to destroy the BIS and the world’s economic system.

3. Phoenix has also helped the BIS hire people in security and other key locations that he knew he could turn into moles to implement his plan. He reaches out to them on the dark web so they can’t identify him.

4. Phoenix has built for himself a super-high-security compound in Canada from which he intends to implement his cyberattack. His few security guards never see him. He has several avenues of escape if needed.

How does the first mystery engage the Hero into solving it.

FinCEN agent Ham (David Hamilton) and his team arrest the two cyberpunks Phoenix hired to commit a ransomware attack on a large international bank as a “rehearsal” for the takeover of the BIS and eight of the world’s largest central banks. They don’t know who hired them. Phoenix watches Ham from several hidden cameras he as he busts his men in their basement computer center working on Phoenix’s next job. He decides Ham is too good an adversary to ignore.

Ham finds the cameras and knows that whoever was behind the ransomware attack was watching him. They can’t trace the video feed though.

The day the two hackers are indicted, Ham and his FinCEN team watch them step into a black SUV outside the courthouse. On one news feed, there is a brief reflection of another man inside the SUV making a call on a cell phone.

While they’re watching, Ham gets a call that his wife Cathy and daughter Jessie have been in a horrible car accident. He arranges with his boss to take some personal leave. Ham’s boss believes the man on the phone inside the SUV was whoever was responsible for the ransomware attack. They agree that if that’s the case, it would be best if everyone believes Ham’s wife and daughter died in the accident for their own safety.

Three weeks later, Ham’s sister Julia, and nephew Robbie have moved in to help him. They think Cathy and Jessie have died but Ham tells they he has something to tell them that he can’t share with them just yet.

Ham’s best friend, Paul Rittenauer, calls to see how Ham’s doing and as they talk, he uses a coded phrase they developed when they worked together in a Marine/CIA cyberoperations unit indicating they’re both in danger and need to meet. Ham asks his neighbor to drive his sister and nephew to a safe location they went to as kids so they can’t track his sister’s car.

Paul and Ham meet at a restaurant in Washington D.C. Paul, who now works for the BIS Innovation Hub in Canada, tells Ham that he found a flaw in the BIS encryption algorithm being used for the a test the BIS is about to run between eight of the world’s largest central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve. This flaw could be exploited to allow a hacker to get into the central banks computer systems and sabotage the test or take over the central bank’s computer systems. He’s already written a fix for it, but believes that someone knows and wants to stop him. Outside the bar where they’re meeting, a man, one of Phoenix’s thugs, photographs them talking.

That evening, when Paul returns to his office in Toronto, two men kidnap him. Unable to reach Paul and leery of involving FinCEN, Ham contacts the CO of their former Marine cybersecurity team, Lt. Colonel Martin Janak, for help. Janak now runs a high-end internationally renowned cyberdefense training facility in Kentucky. Ham meets with Janak’s crew and together they hack their way into the BIS test system to set a trap for any external incoming traffic to the server. They track the one outside connection back to a dark web cyberterrorism chat group where they find messages between the creator of the group, who uses the avatar “Phoenix,” and a few others. They quickly capture what information they can from the chat area leaving no evidence behind of their intrusion. In the messages, they see one mentioning Ham and an order for someone to locate his sister and nephew.

Ham calls his neighbor to make sure that his sister and nephew are safe. She gives Ham the number of the burner phone his sister purchased on the way, but calls his nephew “Robert” instead of “Bobby,” telling Ham that something’s wrong. The moment she hangs up, she’s killed by one of Phoenix’s assassins. They take her car keys and check her navigation history to track where she took Ham’s sister and nephew, following Phoenix’s instructions to find them and take them hostage.

Ham calls his sister and tells her to find another place to stay safe across the river from where they are at the moment.

Against Janak’s wishes, Ham creates his own avatar in the dark web chat area and leaves “Phoenix” a message telling him he’s been discovered and that he needs Ham’s help to implement his plan. Phoenix sends back a message saying he has all the help he needs.

Ham convinces Phoenix that he does need him to stop the fix to the BIS test encryption from being sent out.

Phoenix tells Ham he has to go to the BIS offices in Basel, Switzerland immediately and arranges a ticket for him on the next flight. When he arrives at the airport in Zurich, he sees Paul standing next to a man who orders Ham to follow them or he’ll kill Paul.

In an exclusive, private airport lounge, Phoenix appears in silhouette on a video screen. With his voice disguised, he asks Ham and Paul why he needs them both, showing them a photo of the two of them meeting earlier in Washington. Ham lies to Phoenix telling him Paul can reinstate the flawed encryption (though Paul never actually implemented his fix) and that Ham has to undo a firmware update he sent to the test devices that were installed at each central bank that will disable the test if they don’t receive the specific code for that bank when the digital keys are sent during the test.

Phoenix instructs Oscar, the man holding Paul and Ham, to take them to the BIS IT building in Basel.

Oscar is one of Phoenix’s moles, planted as a security guard for the BIS. He signs them into the IT building and takes Ham and Paul to the operations center were the digital currency test is being set up. Paul knows the Operations Center Manager, Stefan Muller, who offers to show them how the test preparations are coming along. Stephan tells Oscar that he should report back to the Security office in the main BIS building. Outside the door, Oscar makes a quick one-word phone call, “Yes.”

Stephan offers to provide Paul and Ham with and empty office to work in. On one wall is a print of the January 9, 1988 issue of “The Economist” displaying the image of a phoenix rising out of a fiery conflagration of currency with the title “Get ready for a world currency.” He asks Stephan whose office this was. Stephan tells him that the last person who had the office, Gerhard Hoffman, was transferred to the Canada BIS Innovation hub two weeks ago to work with their portion of the test, so Paul must know him. Ham asks Stephan to call the BIS Security office and hold Oscar until he gets there. THEY’VE GOT HIM!

Ham calls Janak in Kentucky and asks if he can send someone to find his sister and nephew. Janak decides it’s time to call in the feds, so he calls Jim Collins, Ham’s FinCEN Director, who sends two men from Ham’s team to find them and them back safely.

Ham coerces Oscar into leaving a message for Phoenix they can trace, a small “hack tip,” a percentage of what he was paid for bringing Ham and Paul to Basel, since Phoenix has no intention of leaving any of his men alive. With Janak’s team’s help, they now have Phoenix’s exact location outside Toronto.

Ham returns to the FinCEN offices in Washington and is met by Collins who tells him about Janak’s call and that Julia and Robbie are safe. The assassin that Phoenix sent to kill them is in an interrogation room. He then shows Ham the BIS employee ID photo of Gerhard Hoffman, “Phoenix.” Ham asks him to call up the video from the news coverage of two cyber-punks he captured leaving the courthouse. Ham zooms in on the image of the man on the on the phone waiting in the van for them. It’s Hoffman. He must have been behind their ransomware attack they busted. The captured assassin says he never met Phoenix but knows he was behind that ransomware attack and that he decided to get rid of the agent who arrested his men. He had one of his assassins orchestrate the pile-up that almost killed Ham’s wife and daughter in order to get him out of the way. Phoenix is a crazy religious nut-job who thinks he can delay Armageddon by stopping the BIS from developing a one-world currency, which he believes would signal the beginning of the Biblical end times.

Outside Phoenix’s compound in a remote wooded area not far from Toronto, Janak’s team sets up simulated video streams seemingly from all eight central banks. including fake news broadcasts, internal central bank cameras, and social media posts. Phoenix watches from inside his safe-room. If he thinks it isn’t real, he’ll destroy the BIS IT Center computer systems.

After watching what he thinks is the panic taking place in each of the eight central banks on monitors, Phoenix thinks he’s won. He sends out a message claiming that he has the crypto keys to the central bank computer systems and will return them if the BIS releases a statement within the hour saying they’ll shut down their entire operation. A fake BIS President on video asks Phoenix if he’ll settle for fifty billion in exchange for the keys. Phoenix sneers, No! The world’s better off suffering for a time rather than wearing the mark of the beast in order to buy food or pay for shelter. He won’t let the BIS create a one-world currency so they can make way for the AntiChrist.

Ham, Collins, and the armed FinCEN team enter the compound, quietly killing all of the exterior guards except the one they identify as Phoenix’s second in command. They make their way to Phoenix’s safe room then use this man’s fingerprint and retinal scan to go inside. Phoenix isn’t there. The computers and monitors are off. One of the agents blocks the door with a filing cabinet so it can’t close on them. Ham looks around the saferoom for a second emergency exit. He can’t use his cell phone to call Janak or Collins from inside. Another agent hands him a two-way radio communicator. Janak tells him the room must be one big Faraday chamber and no signal from the outside can penetrate it, like a giant MRI machine. This can’t be where he’s communicating from. And even if he had video cameras in the saferoom to watch from somewhere else, he wouldn’t be able to send the feed anywhere.

Janak reviews the recorded feed from the drone they sent over the area earlier. He spots a sea plane docked on a lake about half a mile away. The drone also has ground penetrating radar. The recording shows a small opening to a cave leading in a few hundred yards. Just inside the mouth of the cave, there’s what Janak believes is a WaveRunner. The radar recording stops when it reaches an interior metal door. The drone can’t detect anything further, nor can they fly it directly over the compound without being detected.

Ham looks around the high-end, luxury saferoom once more. There’s a door across the room that opens to a bathroom complete with a shower, sink, toilet with a bidet attachment that has push button controls, and a full length mirror. The shower is dry. So is the sink. Ham tries pulling the mirror away from the wall with no luck. He turns the shower head from side to side. Nothing happens. On a hunch, he pushes the toilet seat warmer control twice. No luck. He presses it a third time. The control lights green and the mirror backed by a thick steel door slowly swings open revealing well-lighted tunnel.

“He’s still here somewhere.” Ham steps down the tunnel about 50 feet to the end where he finds another steel door with both biometric and voice controls. “We’ll never get past that and we don’t have time to figure out how to disable it. But we can disable and block that mirror door so he can’t get out any way but through the cave.”

Ham lets Janak and Collins know what he found. Collins suggests they go through the cave and try to get past whatever security Phoenix has there, but Janak suggests they should let him think he’s won so he doesn’t blow up the BIS building like he threatened. He’s got his exit planned. Let him try to use it. But they can disable the WaveRunner and the Seaplane.

What if shutting down the BIS isn’t enough and he sends the order to blow up the BIS IT building anyway? We have to get into that cave and see what he’s got inside there. No, he’ll stay long enough to watch the BIS building burn. He wants to be known as the man who stopped Armageddon. He has to see to it that what he’s done can’t be reversed. The central banks have to start shutting down. The President of the BIS has to beg him to release the cyber keys so the banks can reopen and prevent worldwide panic.

A small group of agents enters the cave, disables the WaveRunner, and makes their way to the door. Through their earphones, they can hear the discussion going on inside the saferoom between the president of the BIS and Phoenix. Phoenix is trying to explain to him why he’s doing this and keeps reaffirming that it’s for the good of humanity and for God’s glory. He’s trying to make him understand that this wasn’t a heist and that the crypto keys have already been destroyed so no one will ever get back into those computer systems. Every penny of their 8.6 trillion dollars has disappeared and it will never be found.

The steel door opens into this second saferoom. “You’re too late, David.” Phoenix says calmly, still watching events unfold on several monitors. “The central banks have already shut down and the BIS will be ceasing operations shortly. But I’m seeing to it that they’ll never open up again.”

Ham is the first to reach Phoenix. He shoves him back into his chair while another agent binds his wrists behind his back.

“Colonel, would you please turn off our video feed and show Phoenix what’s really going on.” Each screen now shows the real live feeds of groups at at the central banks smiling and congratulating each other for the successful completion of their digital currency test.

“It’s not over. I already sent the signal for the BIS servers to begin self-destructing. The building will be go up in flames before anyone can get out.”

“Colonel, could you please add the BIS Computer Operations Center feed?” David reaches over and uses Phoenix’s remote to put the BIS feed on the center, large monitor.” Stefan Muller is talking on his cell phone to someone, then looks up into the camera and gives those watching a thumbs up!

“Phoenix, or should I call you Gerhard, It’s over. The only thing I want to hear from you this minute is why you sent someone to kill my wife and daughter! They’re both fine, by the way. We traced the call you made from the van setting up the ‘accident.’

Phoenix shrugs, realizing he’s defeated. “I needed you out of the way after you arrested my men in my little ransomware rehearsal.”

“They never demanded a ransom.”

“I asked them not to. I just wanted to see if this could be done using a single crypto key, what chaos it would cause, and how long it would take the bank to fully recover their computer systems. I didn’t want you around to stop me from taking down the BIS. I knew they’d put you on leave if anything happened to your family.

“Smart. But not smart enough. You forgot the first rule of cyber-warfare. You should have hacked yourself. You didn’t see the hack-tip Oscar left you after you paid him. That’s how we found you. Then we caught the man you sent to kidnap my sister and nephew, and he gave up what he knew about you once we told him you never intended going to share the wealth with him and that he’d probably wind up dead.

“This will never go to trial. I know too much about the BIS and how they use their influence to manipulate international financial institutions to benefit their wealthy friends. The world needs to see this kind of global financial disaster, what the BIS calls a Black Swan Event, to free it from the slavery they face because of these arrogant, corrupt tyrants.”

“You’re right. You won’t be tried for cyber terrorism here in the U.S. But there’s already a cell waiting for you at Gitmo. You’re an international terrorist, Gerhard. You’re never getting out. I have a few buddies there who’ll see to it. God has other plans for you that don’t include trying to interfere with Biblical prophecy.”

Five days later, Ham and Janak walk through his anti-terrorism training compound. Ham agrees to lead Janak’s cyberwarfare team. Janak smiles and tells Ham that he and his family can choose one of the homes they just walked by and move in whenever they’re ready.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by  Karen Grube.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by  Karen Grube.

[Karen Grube]

Karen Grube’s Villain Has a Great Plan!

What I learned from this assignment is that the Villain can have an overt goal and plan and a hidden goal even more sinister.

1. What is the end goal?

Phoenix’s goal is to destroy the entire world’s economic structure to plunge us into a global depression deeper than any the world has ever seen. This is economic warfare and will result in food riots, violence, countries taking military action against other countries, putting us on the brink of World War III.

2. How can the Villain accomplish that in a devious way?

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is the world’s most secret and secretive financial institution. They influence global economic policy by guiding the rules and regulations used by over 60 of the world’s largest Central Banks. Phoenix’s plan is to steal the digital keys the BIS is planning on sending out to eight of the banks who offered to be part of their test of a single global digital currency that they believe will make international financial transactions between central banks more efficient and secure. He’s going to use the test to infiltrate the real computer systems of the central banks, completely shutting them down so they can’t conduct business – EVER AGAIN! One of these banks is the U.S. Federal Reserve. Imagine the FED being hijacked, not for ransom, but to destroy all their electronic records . . . permanently.

If his plan doesn’t work, he has a backup plan; to blow up the BIS’s Computer Operations building and all of its data and servers. This would leave little if any oversight into worldwide central bank operations.

3. How can he cover it up?

Phoenix appears only on the dark web as an avatar to remain anonymous.

Phoenix has infiltrated the BIS staff with a few strategically placed moles in building security and high level cybersecurity positions within the BIS who will follow his instructions in return for huge cybercurrency payouts. They don’t know his end game. He’s told them he intends to ransom the computer systems for hundreds of billions in cryptocurrency.

Phoenix set up a “rehearsal” by taking over a single large international bank based in the U.S.. He never asking for ransom to see how long it would take them to recover. It took 21 days and the bank nearly collapsed as it was unable to conduct business. Some businesses were forced to close with no access to funds. Several investors and individuals lost millions.

Phoenix watches as David Hamilton “Ham,” from the Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), leads the raid on the home where the men who committed his “rehearsal” are preparing for their next cyberattack. They have no clue who Phoenix is.

Phoenix targets Ham’s wife and daughter to see to it that he is put on leave while the BIS test is being conducted.

Phoenix learns that there’s one man who can stop his plan, Paul Rittenauer, a cybersecurity expert overseeing the Canadian BIS test site. Paul discovered the flaw in the test’s network communications protocols that Phoenix is planning on using to capture the test encryption keys. Paul can fix the flaw but thinks someone is trying to stop him. He is also Ham’s best friend.

Paul meets with Ham, tells him about what he suspects, and asks for his help since there’s no one else he can trust.

Phoenix has Paul kidnapped to prevent him from fixing the flaw and to lure Ham into trying to search for Paul rather than investigating the situation that Paul told him about.

Phoenix lures Ham to Switzerland where he threatens both him and Paul, and Ham’s sister and her son if they don’t undo what they did to stop his plan.

Phoenix lives in a secure bunker within a huge estate in Canada with armed guards and military-level security from which he directs his assassins and moles within the BIS.

Sequence it to make it as intriguing as possible.

Phoenix has two hired cyberpunks infiltrate a large international bank and shut down its computer systems in a ransomware attack, only they never ask for ransom. He just wants to know the effect on the bank and its customers, and how long it will take for them to recover.

Phoenix watches on hidden camera as Ham and his men raid the house where the cyberpunks are planning their next attack. The two men escape through an underground tunnel, but Ham and his team catch and arrest them. They don’t know who hired them and the video connection has been cut so it can’t be traced. In the laptop one of the men escaped with is a tracking device letting Phoenix know where the laptop is.

Phoenix watches as the two men leave the courthouse after being indicted for computer crimes. They get into a van waiting at the curb. A reflection of Phoenix is seen in the van’s window.

Phoenix suspects Paul Rittenauer, who works for the BIS, knows about the flaw in the communications protocols for the test. He also knows that Paul is Ham’s best friend and has asked him for help. He kidnaps Paul before he can remedy the flaw, at least he thinks so.

Ham seeks the help of a cybersecurity team in Kentucky run by his and Paul’s former Marine CO. They set a trap for Phoenix on the dark web, but Phoenix uses it to lure Ham into trying to rescue Paul. Ham and Paul convince Phoenix that he needs them both for his plan to succeed.

Phoenix sends both Paul and Ham to the offices of the BIS in Basel, Switzerland to make sure his plan can’t be stopped. He shows them a streaming video of Ham’s sister and her son being held by two of his thugs.

Phoenix thinks he has the upper hand. He doesn’t know he left a clue behind at the BIS – a print hanging on the wall of what was his office of the January 1984 edition of The Economist featuring a phoenix rising out of the flames of different burning currencies with the title “Get ready for a world currency.” The office was HIS office. Phoenix works for the BIS and was just transferred to the Canada office where Paul was working. Ham coerces one of Phoenix’s phony security guards into confirming the identification and Phoenix’s location.

Ham’s former CO calls his boss at FinCEN letting him know that Ham’s in danger but that he can’t reach out to anyone else for help.

Ham arrives back in the U.S. and goes to his boss with Phoenix’s real name and location, which is further confirmed by the men they arrested when they rescued Ham’s sister and nephew. Ham’s boss tells him that his wife and daughter were relocated to a safe house after recovering from the accident and thanks Ham for going along with the pretense they had died.

Ham and the cybersecurity team from Kentucky develop a plan to make Phoenix think his attack is succeeding. They set up fake video feeds from each of the eight central banks. Phoenix watches the panic as they discover their computer systems are disappearing, only it isn’t real. The test is actually being conducted as planned.

Ham’s cybersecurity team begins feeding Phoenix the phony feed from the eight central banks. Phoenix watches the stream inside his security bunker beneath his estate. Ham and a handful of armed agents take out the estate’s guards, go inside the home, and with the biometric scan of one the guards, enter Phoenix’s secure safe room. But he’s not there.

Phoenix has escaped through a hidden door to an underground tunnel that leads to another safe room keyed only to Phoenix’s biometrics.

Ham’s CO spotted a sea plan anchored on a nearby lake using a drone he sent over the landscape earlier. The drone is also equipped with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and a second fly-over revealed the tunnel and an underground river with a Waverunner PWC stashed on one bank, and a metal door at the other end.

Phoenix sits in his second safe room watching what he thinks is the continuing drama at the eight central banks. He’s riveted to the screens. “You’re too late,” he says as Ham and three armed agents walk in from the tunnel. Ham signals the cybersecurity team outside to switch off the fake feed. Phoenix smiles as he watches those managing the test at each central bank congratulating themselves on their success. “You’re still too late,” Phoenix switches his feed to the BIS IT Building where those who set up the test are watching the central bank live streams on their monitors as the digital transactions move between the banks display on their screens in real time.

“It’s already started. The entire BIS computer system will be destroyed within minutes. Our world isn’t ready for the end times. I’ve stopped them from creating the one-world currency that signals the beginning the Apocalypse. People won’t need the mark of the beast to live. We’ll be free.”

“So that’s what this was all about? It was never a heist. You thought you could stop what the Bible predicts? What makes you think you can stop God’s plans or His timing? To hell with you Phoenix, or should I call you “Gerhard Hoffman?”

“The BIS systems are now totally wiped out. They’ll never be able to control the world’s economy again.”

“Look at your screen Gerhard. Do they look as though they’re having a problem accessing their data? When Oscar figured out you weren’t going to pay him any more, he gave us the code for the virus you uploaded. Actually, the key was in the files we grabbed from your darknet site. You were smart, but you forgot the first rule of cyberwarfare. You should have hacked yourself. You didn’t see the 15% cyber-tip we had Oscar send back to you after you paid him the last time.”

“They’ll never let this go to trial. I know too much about the BIS and how they influence the world’s financial institutions to control the economic and social development of nearly every country. The world needed to see this kind of – what does the BIS call a global financial disaster – a Black Swan Event? – to be awakened to the danger. They’ll never let that get out.”

“You’re right. You won’t be tried for cyber terrorism here in the U.S. There’s is a cell waiting for you at Gitmo. You’re never getting out unless it’s in a box. I have a few buddies there who’ll see to it. God’s plans for you don’t your include interfering with His timetable.”

[Karen Grube]

Day Four: Assignment 2 – Silence of the Lambs

Karen Grube’s BI Stacking Suspense

Here’s a link to my Silence of the Lambs Thriller Chart. Please let me know if you have difficulty accessing it. It took me several hours over three days to complete. I hope someone finds it helpful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/web4wyy62x60ixo/Thriller%20Chart%20%20SILENCE%20OF%20THE%20LAMBS%20Blank.docx?dl=0

————————————————————————————-

For me, the big mystery about the entire story is what turned Hannibal into such a monster in the first place. Did he become a psychiatrist to find out why he had these unthinkable cravings? We know a fair amount about what drives Clarice and how she was drawn to become an FBI agent: her father’s career as a sheriff and her desire to save the innocent. What we know about Hannibal is that he has has an inhuman disdain – almost contempt – for others, but we don’t know how that happened within him. We also know he respects Clarice’s intellect and what she’s overcome.

The second big mystery is why Hannibal decided to help Clarice. In a way, he not only helps her in her career – her ambition – but he also helps her understand herself better. His observations and his Quid Pro Quo questioning of her is clearly disturbing to her. I don’t see it as a catharsis, but perhaps saving Catherine was that. He likes her honestly about herself, even though she lied to him about his transfer to another prison. We see how manipulative and deadly he can be by being able to get Miggs to kill himself. We also see how he appreciates being treated with courtesy and a certain respect for his skill and intellect the way Clarice does.

We see Clarice both at times of great strength and of great vulnerability. The flashbacks and her reactions to her memories help us see more clearly who she is. She knows when to turn on her southern charm, when to be direct, and when to take charge. She knows how to make people feel comfortable and when to challenge them. She’s not afraid to challenge Hannibal, for example, as when she tells him to point his high powered perception at himself. She is clearly ambitious. But is also keenly aware that she is smaller than most of the other FBI trainees and officers she encounters. She’s also incredibly smart and insightful herself. She respects Crawford’s authority but also feels she can speak truthfully to him and ask difficult questions. We learn at the end that Crawford knows about her father’s death and how that affected her life. She confronts physical danger courageously. She goes after Buffalo Bill knowing he has a gun but not knowing whether he intends to kill Catherine or kill her, or both. Either way, he has to be stopped. When she finds the body of another victim and when the lights go out, she doesn’t stop. She does her best to quiet Catherine by letting her know more help is on the way.

One interesting aspect of the story is that Clarice seems to have two mentors. Crawford sees her as an extremely perceptive prospective agent, in a way the kind of legacy he’d love to give the agency to which he has devoted his career. Hannibal appreciates her skill as a profiler but can tell she can learn more from him, which he offers through the Quid Pro Quo game he plays with her. It’s not entirely clear why he wants to help her save Catherine. Is this just another game to him. Is he helping her to see if she’ll defy Crawford and go after Buffalo Bill herself and effect Catherine’s rescue on her own? Does he care that he’s putting her in danger or does he somehow know she’s smart and skilled enough to survive?

Another terrific aspect of the story is how the urgency of saving Catherine crescendos toward the end. Hannibal plays it up making Clarice desperate to figure out the clues he’s providing, despondent when she thinks she’ll be too late, and then excited and determined when she thinks whatever she finds at the Lippman house will lead her to him and to Catherine in time.

It’s intriguing to see how one of Hannibal’s clues about how Buffalo Bill may have been rejected for a sex-change at one of the few clinics that did those, leads Crawford to the wrong location but does prove that his profile was accurate. But what’s equally intriguing is watching Clarice unwrap the other clue he gives her about people coveting the things they see every day and going back to the first victim.

There’s so much to learn from this film about developing fascinating characters, planting the seeds of a mystery and watching them grow scene after scene, creating tension, using the growing urgency of the situation to drive the story. I’m glad I took the three days to watch and fill out the chart. I can only hope that I can apply what I learned.

I downloaded the script and followed along. The shooting script is a little different, but Ted Tally did an amazing job on the script. It’s beautifully written. I suggest downloading a copy and keeping it for inspiration and reference.

[Karen Grube]

Day Four: Assignment 1 – Basic Instinct

Karen Grube’s BI Stacking Suspense

I had a hard time even making it through this film. I’m not a Joe Eszterhas fan generally. I don’t like his dialog or how his stories develop. There were too many coincidences-that-turn-out-not-to-be-coincidences in particular and overall this story is too complex. There’s no one to cheer for, no one to hope for. The ‘stacking’ of mystery, intrigue, and suspense were too obvious and “on the nose,” like the dialog and the killings. Besides that, the police procedure portion of the story was way off. What I learned from this assignment was not to be so obvious.

There’s a Joe Eszterhas quote on IMDB where he says, “Screenwriters are supposed to be neither seen nor heard. I certainly violated that rule. Among others.” He was, I would assume, referring to himself publicly, but I think the same applies to writing the script. Let your characters do the talking, not you. Let the mystery, intrigue, and suspense unfold and don’t force feed them to the audience like spoon feeding spinach to a child.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by  Karen Grube.

[Karen Grube]

Karen Grube’s World and Characters!

What I learned from this exercise is that you can keep mysteries hidden until revealing them moves the story forward, and that you can keep the Big Mystery hidden until toward the end when knowing the answer becomes necessary to the end game.

1. Remind us of your CONCEPT and the Big M.I.S. of your story.

BIG MYSTERY:

How is Ham going to stop Phoenix from plunging the entire world into a devastating economic depression?

BIG INTRIGUE:

How could Phoenix use the Bank for International Settlement’s test of Central Bank digital currency transactions to take over the world’s eight largest central banks? What’s his real motive?

BIG SUSPENSE:

Phoenix already seems to know who Ham is and tries to manipulate Ham into helping him by threatening him and his family. How will Ham save his family and stop Phoenix’s plan?

2. Tell us the Intriguing World you have selected for this story.

The Bank for International Settlements is the world’s most secret and secretive financial institution. For months, members from several countries have been planning to take advantage developments in cryptocurrencies to create a way for their Central Banks to use a single digital currency to efficiently conduct transactions between nations. But a psychopathic cyberterrorist known as Phoenix is planning on using a much-anticipated scheduled test of these transactions to take over eight of the world’s largest Central Banks. Phoenix exists only on the dark web where he has hired cyberterrorists and assassins to infiltrate the BIS, steal the test crypto keys, and use them to take over each Central Bank making them all inaccessible and unable to function, throwing the entire world into a devastating economic depression. Ham himself is an experienced cyber-warrior, having taken down scores of attempted ransomware attacks on banks, identity thefts of millions of social media accounts, and attempted incursions into classified national security data warehouses. Ham decides to enlist the help of an elite team of cyberintelligence experts who work for his former Marine commanding officer who now runs a cyberdefense training facility. Each person on the team has a specific area of expertise that proves useful in tracking down Phoenix and stopping him.

3. Two or Three characters and the role they play:

HERO, HAM (David Hamilton):

The mystery with Ham is why he left CIA Cybersecurity. As a Marine, he was recruited by the CIA into a special combined CIA/military cyberoperations team after successfully stopping several illegal money transfers to terrorist organizations. But he left the team suddenly. He then took his current position leading an investigative and enforcement team at FinCEN (the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network). But what is it that’s preventing Ham from using his own team at FinCEN to track down this cyberterrorist?

The Intrigue with HAM is the passion with which he goes after cybercriminals. What is it about cybercrime that makes him so adamant about stopping the criminals and seeing them prosecuted. It’s more than just solving puzzles, more than just the thrill of the hunt. It’s more than the satisfaction of taking down someone with an ego big enough to think they can get away with it. It’s even more than bringing closure to the lives devastated by these criminals. Also, why does Ham not seek revenge when he believes his wife and daughter were murdered.

The Suspense with Ham is how far he’ll go to save his family and the world from economic collapse. Will he cross the line and become a killer himself when he thinks his wife and daughter have been killed and when he knows the world is about to be plunged into a deep economic depression? What might push him to cross the line?

VILLAIN, PHOENIX (Alec Laskin):

The Mystery with Phoenix is why he’s trying to destroy the world’s economic structure. What is his motive? Who is this guy? Why is he targeting Ham? Is this just a cyberheist or is this guy crazy?

The Intrigue with Phoenix is how he’s staying so well hidden on the dark web. How did he get inside the Bank for International Settlements and get access to their digital currency test systems. How is he recruiting his crew of assassins and cyberpunks?

The Suspense with Phoenix is how he always seems to be one step ahead of Ham and his team of cyber experts. At what point will he think he no longer needs Ham and will kill him?

HAM’S FRIEND, PAUL RITTENAUER:

The Mystery with Paul is why he takes his discovery of this plot to Ham instead of his bosses at the BIS. He hasn’t told them that he’s already written a fix for the flaw because he thinks someone may be on to him. He tells Ham he’s the only person he can trust.

The Intrigue with Paul is what he isn’t telling Ham. He thinks there may be a mole inside the BIS but isn’t sure who it is and doesn’t want to say anything until he knows.

The Suspense with Paul is whether or not Phoenix believes the fix Paul says he’s written for the flaw in the test system can be reversed so Phoenix can still take advantage of the flaw. Does Phoenix need Paul to reverse this fix or not?

HAM’S FORMER C.O., LIEUTENANT COLONEL MARTIN JANAK:

The Mystery with Colonel Janak is how he’s keeping the core of his cyberoperations group hidden. He left the military to form his own cyberterrorism defense training facility that trains governments, corporations, and military units worldwide to defend themselves against cyberattacks. But this hidden group gets involved in stopping international cybercrimes and they need to stay under the radar.

The Intrigue with Colonel Janak is what he knows about Ham and why he’s willing to help him.

The Suspense with Colonel Janak is how he’ll manage to get Ham the help he needs without compromising his hidden cyberdefense operation. Will he turn this over to the CIA or Interpol? How will he save Ham’s life and the world’s economic structure without involving some outside agency, even with the connections he has?

[Karen Grube]

BLACK SWAN EVENT Big M.I.S.

LOGLINE: A psychopathic cyberterrorist is planning to take control of eight of the world’s largest Central Banks during a scheduled test of international digital currency transactions, plunging the entire world into a devastating economic depression. David Hamilton, his best friend Paul, and a team of eccentric, elite cybersecurity experts must track down the terrorist and stop him. But “Phoenix” has his own team of assassins and cyberterrorists who know they’re on to him, threatening Paul, Ham, Ham’s family, and the world’s most influential but least known financial institution, the Bank for International Settlements, that coordinated and is overseeing the test.

THE CONVENTIONS:

UNWITTING BUT RESOURCEFUL HERO: David Hamilton (“Ham”) is an agent for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Paul is Ham’s former colleague from their days in a CIA cyber intelligence unit. Paul’s life is in danger because he recently discovered a plot to destroy the world’s entire economic structure and needs Ham’s help to stop the threat because neither he nor Ham can trust anyone else.

DANGEROUS VILLAIN: “Phoenix” is a ruthless cyberterrorist who uses the dark web to hire other cyberterrorists and assassins to carry out his plans. He is also a religious nutjob using the pretense of stealing trillions in cybercurrency in order to stop what he believes is the beginning of the end times with the creation of a one-world cybercurrency.

HIGH STAKES: The stakes are the equivalent of a nuclear attack that ends in global devastation. Money is worthless, no one can buy food or fuel, they can’t be paid for work. The entire world will be thrown into dire poverty resulting in violent protests.

LIFE AND DEATH SITUATIONS: “Phoenix” threatens to kill Ham and Paul if they don’t fix the problem they say they discovered that would prevent the digital currency test from proceeding according to plan. When Ham confronts Phoenix in his bunker, Phoenix threatens to blow up the Bank for International Settlements killing everyone inside if he isn’t successful.

THIS STORY IS THRILLING BECAUSE: “Phoenix” is ruthless and has access to a small army of assassins and cyberterrorists. He keeps Ham and Paul alive because they con him into thinking he needs them to make his cyberattack successful. His henchmen also threaten Ham’s family. There are escalating cyber and physical attacks that take place throughout the story.

BIG MYSTERY: Who is “Phoenix” and why is he trying to plunge the world into a global economic depression by taking over the computer systems of eight of the world’s largest central banks?

BIG INTRIGUE: How is “Phoenix” going to access these eight secure central bank computer systems all at once in what appears to be a global ransomware attack, and how can David Hamilton (“Ham”), his best friend Paul, and the small team of elite cybersecurity hackers Ham calls on for help going to stop this from happening.

BIG SUSPENSE: Can Ham, his best friend Paul, and the cybersecurity team stop “Phoenix” from plunging the world into disastrous poverty?

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS ASSIGNMENT: I’ve been working on this story as an Action film leading to a series of films like Mission Impossible and Die Hard. What I’m learning is to incorporate the elements of a thriller into this script.

[Karen Grube]

WAIT UNTIL DARK Thriller Conventions

When Suzy lost her sight in a horrific, fiery car accident two years ago, she was saved by Sam Hendrix, a commercial photographer who later becomes her husband. The film opens in Canada with a woman, Lisa, watching a man sew packets of what looks like heroin inside a doll. She takes the doll and heads to the airport boarding the same flight as Sam who is returning from business trip. When they leave the plane, the woman sees a man watching her. Sensing danger, she asks Sam to hold on to the doll for her so she can later surprise her daughter.

Two criminals, Talman and Carlino, enter their empty apartment to be greeted by a sinister psychopath, Roat, who cons them into looking for the doll in the apartment and leaving fingerprints all over. Carlino finds Lisa’s body hanging in a closet. Roat convinces them to dispose of the body then return the next day, telling Suzy that Talman is Sam’s old Marine buddy, and Carlino is a police officer investigating the murder of the woman whose body they found that morning and find the doll.

Sam returns to their apartment but has to leave right away for another work assignment. Although Suzy is smart and resourceful, she still needs the help of the troubled teenage girl, Gloria, who lives upstairs, and who comes to help her with chores and shopping.

Over the next several hours, the two men along with Roat disguised as the dead woman’s father and then her husband, convince Suzy that she has to find the doll. But it’s simply nowhere in the apartment.

The men leave and then return over and over again to intimidate Suzy. After receiving several “convenient” phone calls from the fake police (really from a nearby phone booth), and because of her acutely tuned hearing, Suzy begins to see this all as an elaborate ruse. She asks Gloria, who sets the doll she swiped earlier under the couch, to run to Sam’s studio to get help. Suzy breaks the light bulbs in the apartment to make it difficult for the men to see her and hides the doll in the trash.

Roat murders Carlino while Talman is inside trying to convince Suzy that all they want is the doll. Roat lets himself into the apartment and murders Talman. He then begins a terrifying assault on Suzy threatening her with gasoline and matches, with the only light coming from the refrigerator which Roat props opens. Suzy finally manages to stab him as he attacks her. As she steps back into the kitchen, in one of cinema’s most terrifying moments, bloodied and injured, he leaps out at her and grabs her knocking her to the floor. She manages to hide behind the refrigerator door as he comes after her. Finally the police arrive accompanied by Sam and Gloria.

2. THRILLER CONVENTIONS IN THIS MOVIE

a. Suzy, played by Audrey Hepburn, is learning to become “the world’s champion blind lady.” Though intelligent and resourceful, she is still vulnerable and a bit too trusting.

b. Roat, played by Alan Arkin, is a master of disguise and enjoys making his victims squirm by striking terror into them with the thing they fear most. In Suzy’s case, it’s fire.

Talman, played by Richard Crenna, and Carlino, played by Jack Weston, pull off their pretend roles as Sam’s friend and police officer perfectly.

c. The stakes in the film are not only life and death. They include Suzy’s fragile sense of self-reliance and trust in her ability to live as a blind woman.

d. In the beginning, it seems as though all Roat wants is the doll and his drugs, but as he gets frustrated with their inability- and his – to convince or scare Suzy into revealing where they are, it’s clear that Roat is a psychopathic killer.

e. What‘s thrilling about this movie is watching Suzy see through the deceptions, not literally, but figuratively. Using her trained hearing and innate intelligence, she realizes she’s in danger and finally finds the strength to overcome her fear and use everything she has to strike out at Roat. The entire movie is a rollercoaster ride of doubt and fear, deception and finally brutal attacks, both psychological and physical.

3. THE BIG MYSTERY, INTRIGUE, AND SUSPENSE IN THIS MOVIE

a. The Big Mystery is how Suzy is going to see through the deceptions being perpetrated against her and, once she does, how she’s going to survive. She doesn’t know the “WHY” behind the deception and the attacks. All she knows is that Roat wants the doll and that he’s willing to kill for it.

b. The Big Intrigue is watching Suzy figure out that this is all an elaborate ruse and then realizing that her life is in danger.

c. The Big Suspense is the increasing depth of deception, the escalating psychological pressure on Suzy, and whether she will survive the violence.

4. In large part what made this movie such a great thriller were the performances and that one very shocking moment when we think Roat is dead but he leaps out at Suzy. What also makes this a great thriller is how different the bad guys are. Carlino is a corrupt former cop. Talman actually tries to help Suzy hoping she’ll give him the doll and that Roat will leave her alone once he gets it. And Roat is a psychopathic killer who enjoys torturing and murdering people when they won’t give him what he wants or when he doesn’t need them any longer.

The other aspect of the film that makes it so scary are the sets. The apartment is tiny and almost claustrophobic. There’s no way for Suzy to escape that Roat doesn’t block. She’s always tripping over things that Roat puts in her way (Talman’s body, chairs, etc.), and he chains the one door closed so she can’t leave.

5. What I learned from this film was how to create a character who learns to deal with her own insecurities and vulnerabilities and yet finds the strength to overcome her fears and survive. She’s a little too trusting but smart enough to see through the deceptions. I also saw how to build a crescendo of terror as the movie progresses.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  Karen Grube.

[Karen Grube]

1. Karen Grube
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• This reply was modified 4 years ago by  Karen Grube.

[Karen Grube]

Thanks Kim! This is a terrific analysis. You really helped me!

[Karen Grube]

My sincere thanks for taking the time to go through Basic Instinct and how Joe Eszterhas developed the script. I could barely get through the film. But your response post brought out so many great points to learn from that I genuinely appreciated it. Frankly, I thought too much of the story was “forced” in a way, that it was too convoluted. My biggest problem though was that I never really liked Nick. And the way we’re supposed to think Catherine manipulates him into backsliding on drinking and smoking seemed completely implausible. Actually, the only character I had any real sympathy for is Gus.

I’ll continue reflecting on your notes as I move through the course.

[Karen Grube]

You nailed what makes this a great thriller! And you’re right; the touches of humor make it a fun watch! One of my favorite “go to” movies.