Chapter 10 - Newton's Laws

"One hundred thousand, not a penny less" James looked at Mike and Charmaine after he hung up his telephone. He sat on the carpet on the floor leaning on his chair.
"How much you have got?" Charmaine asked.
"Inclusive of my little tire business, I have..."
"No, in bank" Charmaine interrupted.
"Thirty thousand" James said.

Mike and Charmaine thought for a while.
"Mike, how much you've got? I can cash in 35K. 35 from you?"
"Yeah, I can" Mike was ready.
"Problem solved" Charmaine patted on James shoulder "Cheer up"

"I really appreciate your help, guys" James said.
"Don't even mention" Charmaine sat on a chair and opened her laptop.
"What did he say about we speaking to the boy before we transferred money" Charmaine asked.
"He said, he would arrange for that in an hour" James looked at the clock which read 3 p.m.
"Very good" Charmaine said "Since the kidnappers have given us an AIB account number, we will also create an AIB account and transfer money from that to their account. What do you guys suggest?"
"Whatever you say, Charmaine" James said.

The next 20 minutes, Charmaine took care of setting up an AIB account for themselves and she transferred money from the bank accounts of Mike, James and herself to the newly created account.

"All set, good to go. We can transfer the money after we speak to our boy" Charmaine declared.
They were eagerly expecting a call from the kidnappers, so that they can speak to they boy. Two hours passed by, still they didn't get the call.

Mike and Charmaine took a walk on the streets as James waited for the call.
"Why do you think they are not calling yet?" Mike asked a bit concerned.
"Can't think of a reason, kinda bothers me too" Charmaine said.
"Don't you think we should go for the cops?"
"We will not risk the life of a kid. We will try to settle this with money. If they still wouldn't let the boy, we will go for the cops"
Mike kept walking as he thought.
"What are you thinking?" Charmaine stopped walking and pulled his hands for him to stop.
"Sorry," Mike gave a heavy sigh "I am just thinking, How can we trust, we'll get our boy back once we transfer the money? We are transferring a huge sum. We need some assurance that we'll get the boy. Thought cops might help" Mike asked.

"Firstly, they were very clear not to go for the cops.
Secondly, we can only afford to lose money, not the boy"
Mike seemed convinced. He thought she was sensible.

They both continued walking. Charmaine continued "I know, it is quite a bit of our savings. Once we get the boy, we will think about tracking the kidnappers down and probably get back our money. But not until we get the boy. Alright?"
"Who is going to track them down?" Mike asked a bit confused.
"We" Charmaine replied.
"What are you talking? Tracking down the kidnappers? We aren’t detectives" Mike realized she is no more sensible. "We can probably call the cops after we get the boy"
"We can do that ourselves. We don't have to be detectives by profession for that. It is just a problem presented to us. Problem solving skill is all you need"
"Then why don't you solve the problem right now, if you have that skills?" Mike was getting irritated.
"This is strong fort, Mike" Charmaine remained cool "Do you remember what I told you on our way from Folly Island to here"
Mike tried to recollect. She said something about forts.
"A problem is made of many forts that protect an underlying knowledge. The strength of each fort differs. The difficulty of a problem is only as great as its weakest fort! Now we are looking at a strong fort, hon. So we can't do anything now"

"Doesn't make much sense. Nice try though. Another theory like your Newton's laws" Mike said.
Charmaine shrugged her shoulders and continued walking. After a while she stopped suddenly "What did you say?"
"I'm sorry. I don't know why I keep reminding you about that. I promise, I will never talk about your thesis again" Mike apologized.
Charmaine stood still but smiled "You don't have to be sorry. You have to be proud this time. You know we can really try that thesis now. You have given me more hope to track them"
"Charmaine, lets be a bit more realistic of this situation. James is waiting for a call from his son. We are done with our walking, we will go back now and say some encouraging words to James. We have no time for your experiments" Mike turned back and started walking back to James house.

"Are you never going to encourage in anything I do?" Charmaine's face went stern and her tone changed.
Mike stood still for a moment looked at her "Fine. I am with you. What's your plan?" Mike said disinterested.
"My plan is, once we get our boy, we are going to hack into the kidnapper's AIB account and transfer the money back"
"Honestly, I don't understand. Explain me. How are you planning to hack the most secure AIB system"
"Didn't you ask about the highlights of my thesis, the one classified as Newton's laws?"
"Yeah, I did. You still remember?"
"I do. How can I ever forget? Listen
one , However secure the digital sysems are, the security is only as strong as the passwords made by PEOPLE.
Since, it is people who make these passwords, principle 2 and 3 tells human tendencies when a password is created.
Second principle, Most people try to use the same passwords for their accounts in various networks
Third, Most people keep passwords that are names close to their heart"


'Junk' Mike murmured 'No wonder the lecturer tore this'. Luckily Charmaine didn't hear that. She was so excited as she spoke about her high school thesis.
"So, what are you trying to say?" Mike asked.
"Wait and watch" Charmaine pulled her cell phone from her hand bag.
"Lucia Mabel here" the voice from the other end answered.
"Hey, this is Charmaine White. You still in office?"
"Umm..Just packing my stuff. Anything I can do for you?"
"Can you please check if this AIB account is in our Transaction History database of U-Shop applicaton"
"Yeah, sure." Lucia Mabel noted down the account number as Charmaine read out. "I will get back to you" Lucia Mabel hung up.
Charmaine was all excited.

"Didn't you know that AIB users keep changing their account number after every transaction. What makes you think, after a transaction with U-Shop he will still maintain the same account number for making this demand."
"A hope that he has forgotten to change the account number after a U-Shop transaction"
"Unlikely" Mike said "So, if you find a transaction in U-Shop you are going to get the billing address?"
"That's one way to trace" Charmaine said.

Her cell phone beeped. It was a message from Lucia Mabel 'No transactions found for account no'.

"I told you" Mike said.
"And I told you that it was one way to trace, not the only way" Charmaine redialed Lucia.

"Hey, I got your message that you don't find any transaction with that account number. Can you check if that account is a registered user?"
"I got an appointment with my friend in 15 minutes. Can this wait" Lucia Mabel was almost out of her cubicle.
"Just this one, please"

Lucia hung up again saying she will get back after checking.

"What makes you think this account will be a registered user?" Mike was clearly annoyed. "Again, if the kidnapper has registered in U-shop, why should he still use the same account for kidnapping purpose when he can very well change it"

"For your first question, read magazines, U-shop currently serves 85% of people in this country. It is highly likely that the kidnapper is registered with U-Shop.
For your 2nd question, he might still use the same account, because he has not made any transaction with U-Shop yet. Which means he has not shared his billing address or any identity with U-Shop. So probably he felt safe to use the same account number."

This made some sense to Mike, but he refused to accept that to Charmaine.
Lucia messaged again 'Account is a registered user'. Charmaine's face brightened and she looked at Mike.
"Now what do we do" Mike showed some interest now.
"Now we will make use of 2nd law to hack into the kidnapper's AIB account" Charmaine dialed Lucia for the third time. Lucia didn’t pick.

“Son of a bitch” Charmaine yelled looking at her phone “she is not picking”
“Honey, language” Mike said.
“Alright, gender correction, Daughter of a bitch”