[74: Hard Times]
"Alright, Eleanor, can we talk?"
Lady Nagant and Eleanor finally returned to their base. The first thing they did was take a long shower and clean themselves up, as well as throw away the dirty clothes they wore underneath their suits. No washing machine would be able to get the smell out of them.
Afterwards, they went to sleep. Now, it was the day after Shigarki's assassination. And also the day when Lady Nagant would talk with Eleanor about what she thought and felt about the situation in Deika City.
Eleanor had been bombarded with messages by Aoyama. Even Aoyama could tell something was wrong with the League of Villains, and he was telling Eleanor anything and everything he could. It had gotten annoying to Eleanor, so she temporarily muted the messages before she would look through them. With so many messages being sent, she was a bit concerned. She would need to tell Aoyama to stop what was essentially spamming her, lest too much metadata is revealed and is able to be traced back to her. It doesn't matter how good the encryption is; the metadata can reveal a lot if it's intercepted and stored somewhere. And Eleanor didn't want loose ends like that.
"Yeah, we can talk, Kaina. We really need to." Eleanor took a seat at a table. Lady Nagant sat across from her.
"I know you know that this goes much deeper, Eleanor. The League of Villains are of no concern at the moment, but there is still the MLA. Eleanor, I think the MLA is a much bigger danger. And I mean all of Japan. What I saw in that city; how they moved after I shot Shigaraki, and how they fought. That's not normal."
Eleanor was quiet for a moment. "Hold on a moment, Kaina. You're gonna want to see this." Eleanor got up and headed to the massive computer setup. The screens flickered, showing mass surveillance of different cities. She opened a drawer and took out a thick file. She returned and sat back down. She handed the thick file to Lady Nagant.
"What is this?" Lady Nagant asked as she opened the file.
"When we were on the rooftop waiting for nighttime, I had the drone I summoned conduct electronic and cyber warfare. It pulled a massive amount of data and information from the city and the MLA. Then I had my AI go through it all. Some of it was encrypted, but I was able to break most of it," Eleanor said calmly.
"What the?" Lady Nagant looked through the files. With every page she looked at, a sense of unease and dread filled her. "This…this can't be right. H-how has no one noticed anything yet? How were you able to get this information? Your drone was really able to…hack all of this?"
"Sort of, but not in the way you think. It's…hmm, how do I explain this in simple terms?" Eleanor thought about it. Explaining post-quantum and quantum cryptography, along with crypto-agility, in a way that makes sense would be a little difficult.
"Hmm…okay, so all that stuff you see there was garbled nonsense and garbage, or the encryption. My drone turned all that garbage into readable information. That garbage, or the encryption, is meant to hide the real stuff. And the encryption relies on a bunch of math that would make classical and quantum computers cry."
"Hold on…quantum?"
Eleanor held up a hand. "Look, I'm getting there. Anyway, everything today uses post-quantum cryptography, as well as quantum cryptography. Yes, there's a difference. It's amazing how far it's come since the early 21st century, really. The physical hardware for these things used to be crazy expensive and resource-intensive, but not so much today."
"Uh…okay?"
"Hmm, I'm getting off track. Okay, look, basically the math behind PQC and quantum cryptography is practically impossible to break. No computer in the world is breaking it anytime soon in a reasonable amount of time. And even if somehow a computer was able to, you'd then have to deal with crypto-agility. Basically, it's the ability of a computer system to easily switch its encryption algorithms or security keys without breaking the apps or systems using them. So, if someone does find a way to make progress on breaking an encryption, then whoops, too bad, so sad, because crypto-agility makes all of that useless now."
"So…how did you get all of this?"
"Simple: the drone used a side-channel attack, along with statistical analysis, to break most of it."
"Can you explain?"
"Alright, so, instead of breaking the math, a side-channel attack measures the physical side effects of a device. It measures power consumption, EM radiation, the sounds it makes, and other stuff. Think of it like a safe. A direct attack would be guessing the combination of the safe or trying to forcefully break it open, but a side-channel attack would be putting your ear to the safe and listening to the tiny clicks as the tumblers fall into place. So, while the safe is still locked and secure, it still gives clues to what the secret combination is."
"Oh, okay, I understand now. And your drone was able to do all of that? I think physical attacks would be the least of someone's worries with you."
"Don't get me started. Cyber attacks can let even a small country go against a superpower."
"Really?"
"Well, to an extent. You see, people think cyberwar is all about people on keyboards, but it's not. For example, if someone were hacking into systems of a country, people think there are hackers on the other side doing the same thing, but that's too slow and expensive, so instead just bomb them."
"What?"
"Yeah. Sending an airstrike or missile to where the hacker is is easier and faster. But, unfortunately, it doesn't happen too often. A bunch of legal stuff is in the way. Well, actually, if no one can identify who sent the attack, then it doesn't really matter."
"Uh huh, right, yeah. Of course."
"Alright, yeah, the MLA files. So, what do you think?"
Lady Nagant focused again. "This is a disaster waiting to happen. If we released these, it would cause a massive societal conflict, since the MLA would be forced to carry out their plan. But if we do nothing…then the MLA will carry out their plan they've had for a long time."
"Yeah, not the best spot to be in. I'd say we're the only two people who know almost the full extent of this thing. There are politicians, undercover heroes, people in the military, people in hero schools and regular schools, and almost every other part of society. All hidden and waiting to cause an upheaval all across Japan."
"And that's the people in positions of power. Who knows how many more people are following their ideology."
"At least hundreds of thousands. Maybe a few million."
"What do you think, Eleanor?"
"Well…I agree with some of what the MLA is saying. In some ways, they are right about certain things. They believe that quirk usage is a basic human right, and I agree with that. After all, we're literally born with it, so why shouldn't we be able to use our quirks? Now, this sounds good on paper, but this is where they lose me. They believe strength and personal ability should determine social standing. I think it's obvious where this leads. Death, inequality, and power imbalance. A society where the strong call oppression natural and the weak are cast aside if they can't change or adapt. They're simply lunatics at the end of the day, with a leader who has no foresight."
"You view them as an extremist group?"
"Yeah, exactly. Because they are."
"What do we even do?" Lady Nagant was overwhelmed. She had just stumbled upon perhaps the greatest conspiracy in Japan.
"We'll have to pick our poison if we do something. No matter how we leak it, the MLA will move. It doesn't matter if they know who leaked it, only that it's leaked. If we leak the files to certain politicians, military leaders, or anyone in another position, and they act on it, it'll alert the rest of the MLA that they've been exposed. It's hard to take them down quietly."
"Maybe we can do another assassination?"
"Not this time, Kaina. If we assassinate Re-Destro, the MLA will just make him a martyr, which will only serve to garner even more support from the people that follow their ideology."
"So this is basically a ticking time bomb. No matter what we do, or don't do, the MLA is going to cause a societal conflict." Lady Nagant put down the files and rubbed her forehead with her hand. The stress was building fast.
Eleanor put a hand over one of Lady Nagant's hands. "We'll figure this out together, Kaina. We're not alone; we're a team."
Lady Nagant looked into Eleanor's eyes. That little smile she had made her feel a bit better, along with something else she couldn't quite put a pin on.
Lady Nagant smiled back at Eleanor. "Yeah, we're together, Eleanor."
⁂
End of Chapter
(A/N: Just kiss already!)