About 7 months ago I wrote a short post about traffic trends here on TCL. At the time there was a deluge of visitors from China that seemed legit, by which I mean that most views were of content pages. With enough IPs at their disposal I suppose that the Chinese government could’ve been scraping the blog for content but generally speaking the only unusual thing was the volume of requests.

That’s not to say that there haven’t been hacking attempts on the website but these usually come in bursts of seemingly uncoordinated activity from a variety of sources. Recently, however, I’ve been noticing what looks like a more sinister trend.

The first of these is a coordinated campaign being launched from Ashburn, Virginia and Columbus, Ohio. I’ve kept this fact on the back burner since Ashburn is considered to be a technology hub, not unlike Columbus, and no doubt home to many VPNs. This means that despite the traffic patterns being strongly suggestive of a single upstream source, that source could be almost anyone.

Notably, Ashburn is only about a 30 minute drive from Langley (home to you know who), but that’s hardly conclusive. Ohio is the fourth largest state for data centers and pumps out potential recruits for some of the United State’s three-letter agencies, but maybe that’s just a coincidence.

Maybe, or maybe not, as newer information suggests.

A few seconds of research quickly revealed that the CIA ran (and probably continues to run), a massive undercover hacking operation from Frankfurt am Main in Hesse, Germany. This top-secret CIA unit is reported to have made use of malware, viruses, trojans, and “zero days” — freshly discovered and therefore undefended vulnerabilities.

Very similar vulnerability scanning patterns also appear on TCL out of Singapore which boasts strong security ties with the US. The Frankfurt-Singapore traffic often appears alongside Ashburn-Columbus requests and all of them almost entirely ignore content.

If I had to hazard a motive I would say that whoever is behind this effort is trying to gain backdoor access to the site. TCL isn’t exactly a treasure trove of national secrets but it could provide a nice little boost to a DDOS attack or act as an unwitting intermediary for subsequent hacking operations. I can think of at least a few other uses for a compromised website and it sure doesn’t look like the “visitors” in question are here to read any stories so I don’t think that a little concern is unwarranted.

On the upside, I have the opportunity to take a first-hand peek at the secret arsenal being employed. I may not have heard of these vulnerabilities and I may not know how they’re exploited but this information could give me a wonderful starting point, were I so inclined.

Maybe the whole Frankfurt-Singapore-Ashburn-Columbus connection is a bit tenuous. The Frankfurt-Singapore traffic does seem different than the Ashburn-Columbus traffic — yet they collectively show other patterns like clustering and repetition of requests which suggest similar behind-the-scenes automation.

Maybe it’s just a bunch of unusually sophisticated and persistent script kiddies with seemingly endless access to international VPNs. Maybe other interests are at play. Whatever the case, I’ll be keeping my eyes open — and if TCL suddenly goes dark or launches a DOS attack against another site, it wasn’t me!

To answer the titular question: yes and no.

Chapter 7 will be the end of the first book and I think that once it’s read to completion, the reason will become clear. Although I’m taking great pains to explain things, people, and events, one big question mark will be left purposefully hanging over the narrative because it was always intended to be a two-parter. More on this later.

In the meantime, it’s my sincere hope that at the end of the first half everything will be as clear as it should be, but there are a few things I don’t go into outright so I’ll outline them here.

For starters, the name “/sectionb” is notably different from how the group refers to itself — namely, “Section B”. Other than the obvious terminal command described at the end of chapter 6, the slashed-and-condensed version of the name also refers to the end part of the URL where the novel currently resides. It may also be noted that with the slash prepended, the name provides a visual cue regarding the divided or “sectional” nature of the small cadre of agents (hint: there are more).

Moreover, there are sub-divisions of the book’s chapters into parts, presently numbered at 35. This was a decision I made at the outset to (hopefully) make the story a bit more readable. /sectionb is what I refer to as a shitter book, the kind of reading you can take with you as you head for the crapper, there to enjoy in small installments (hopefully) long enough for single sessions. For this reason I’ve tried to limit each part to somewhere between 2000 to 3000 words which, in my estimation, is about long enough for a comfortable deposit to the Bank of Porcelain.

Beyond the book’s structure, it may be of interest to note that most of the characters’ names aren’t just random choices. While the origin of the name Brock Medic is admittedly obscure, and Elvis is a guy I knew personally, other names have a more open and distinct lineage. For example, at one point Mirabelle directly explains her own suspicions about her family’s patronymic whereas Rebekah‘s dad’s name bears a resemblance to another historical Heinrich. The moniker Dominic Di Venona is similarly inspired by preexisting nomenclature, as is Dmitri’s. Within a wider scope, I like to think that this thematic mixing of names is apropos given the mixed themes of the story.

I’ve tried to follow a similar convention in the naming of the story’s parts. As an example, in the latest installment the German word “kryptowährung” translates directly to cryptocurrency which may refer to the cryptic “coin” hint for the terminal’s terminal password attempt, the (mostly) indecipherable meaning behind the firm of “Schatz, Liebling, & Tochter”, or to Rebekah’s concealed stashes of cash.

Above all, I sincerely hope that at every level /sectionb is an interesting, entertaining, possibly informative, and somewhat unique if not quirky story. With plenty of background notes (not including the extensive dossier), I feel like there’s ample opportunity to develop the book into a lengthy series. Other than the follow-up, I’ve been percolating over some ideas and I think that they’d be neat stories to tell. In any event and whichever direction this project ends up going, rest assured that the story is far from over.

Poster-ffiti at the corner of Bathurst and Dundas.

I must admit, I was skeptical. The invitation to explore The Bentway neighbourhood through “the building of the route across the city as well as the big set off or ‘fall’ of the dominoes!” seemed contrived. However, the limited-time nature of the conceptually simple event proved to be rewarding. Maybe even genius.

Pretty sure everyone’s familiar with the cascading row of dominoes setup so you get the idea of what this event was about. Simple on the surface.

Within, though, there was depth to the stunt.

The path of Dominoes led through the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre. Never been here before but I aim to return.

It’s a little oasis on the edge of an international airport and a bustling tourist sector.

It’s neat to see what actually exists right now — not just what can theoretically exist — at the heart of a modern urban metropolis.

I don’t know to what extent this event was advertised but it seemed to bring out a good number of people. I daresay, there was anticipation in the air.

When that last block went over the edge there was a hearty cheer.

Props, Toronto. Props.

_{P.S. In case you were wondering the bricks were made of aircrete (or something similar), a lightweight type of concrete that’s less dense than regular concrete. I picked up one of the blocks and although it was lighter than I expected, I suspect that if I’d dropped it on my foot from a carrying height I’d still probably break a toe or two.}

On Dunn near Springhurst

Last and in many ways least among the agents of Section B, Medic was forced to face his lackluster existence and the attitude that accompanied it. When even his few meager accomplishments started circling the drain and his life started to fall apart, along came Rebekah and sealed his fate. He goes by Brock now.

Additional information on Brock is available on his page.

Sometimes Elvis can be a bit of a worrywart but sometimes that’s exactly what you need. He might be a bit inexperienced, maybe even a bit naive, but he can also move physical objects with just his mind. Besides, if he’s already a capable Section B agent at this age, one can only imagine where this lad is headed.

Elvis’ deets are on his page.

According to Mira, her family’s history may be intertwined with torture and mass murder. She also claims to have been involved with drug runners. To casual onlookers these might seem like fanciful tales but to those who have seen her “special dance” such suggestions might come across as unnervingly brutal facts. Either way, she doesn’t really care.

You can find out a little more about Mirabelle on her page.

Dominic joined Section B just as he was recovering from a career-ending boxing injury. This had been his final attempt at trying to find a calling in life and it ended with him throwing in the proverbial towel. Then he met Rebekah, they talked, and suddenly his search for purpose didn’t seem important anymore.

Read more about Dominic on his page.

Maybe it was a crisis of conscience or maybe it was the classic middle-aged variety but whatever the cause, Dmitri parted ways with his old life right about the time he met Rebekah. Maybe it was because of her. Either way, they quickly developed a complex relationship that she occasionally regrets having made inebriated contributions to.

There’s some more info on Dmitri on his page.