The Second Plane
Mohamed Atta, born in 1968, was the son of a wealthy lawyer in Kafr El-Sheikh Governorate in northern Egypt. He spent his childhood in Egypt and naturally grew up believing in Islam. In 1985, he entered Cairo University, Egypt’s most prestigious institution, and earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture. Graduation would have guaranteed success, but at his father’s insistence, he decided to study abroad in Germany and enrolled at Hamburg University of Technology in 1990.
It was there that Mohamed Atta encountered global events such as the Gulf War and the Oslo Accords. He grew furious at what he perceived as the great powers’ hostile attitude toward Islam and naturally drifted toward Islamic extremism. The decisive factor was his meeting with Osama bin Laden, who had connections with his father. His father had simply wanted to build connections for his son’s future with the heir of an influential Saudi family. But Mohamed Atta became deeply fascinated by the radical Islamist ideology bin Laden espoused and began to sympathize with it passionately.
September 11, 2001. 5:00 a.m.
Mohamed Atta checked in at Boston Logan International Airport with four companions: Abdulaziz al-Omari, Wail al-Shehri, Waleed al-Shehri, and Satam al-Suqami. The moment they entered the airport, a heavy atmosphere pressed down on them. Atta could sense that security had been tightened far beyond normal levels.
His heart felt ready to burst as they passed through the security checkpoint. By some miracle, both he and his companions cleared it without incident and boarded American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767-223ER. The plane took off normally with ninety-two people on board.
A short while later, once the aircraft reached cruising altitude, the seatbelt sign chimed off. God’s will be done.
Mohamed Atta rose from his seat, silently reciting a mantra to steady his mind and steel his resolve. His companions did the same. One of the flight attendants, who had begun in-flight service, approached the group that had suddenly stood up.
“Do you need any assistance?”
The attendant’s gentle smile and kind voice made Atta freeze for a split second. But his hesitation lasted only a moment. His face twisted into a savage expression as he violently shoved the attendant aside and sprinted forward. His only target was the cockpit.
The other passengers aboard had no idea what was happening. But when Atta’s group forced their way into the cockpit and two horrific screams rang out, everyone realized something had gone terribly wrong. A few brave souls rushed forward to open the cockpit door, but it remained firmly locked. Even worse, the plane suddenly banked hard and changed course.
A short time later, Mohamed Atta’s voice echoed throughout the cabin and to American Airlines ground control.
“We have hijacked the planes. Stay quiet and everything will be okay.”
At that point, both the airline and the passengers still believed they were dealing with a horrific hijacking incident.
“This is so frustrating!”
As each day brought them closer to D-Day, Yoo Jae-won’s sense of frustration only grew. Knowing that a massive terrorist attack would change American history on September 11, he had taken every measure he possibly could. He had funneled intelligence about al-Qaeda through Russia and made subtle adjustments to the raw data being fed into the Prism system jointly operated by the CIA and NSA, allowing them to obtain additional information on Osama bin Laden.
Yet the American authorities’ response had been minimal. All they had done was raise the airport threat level by one or two notches. Since they had at least recognized the possibility of a hijacking from the information he provided, they could have placed armed air marshals on the flights or implemented cockpit door locks that prevented access after takeoff. But the Gore administration had chosen none of those options. Armed marshals were rejected due to cost concerns and airline resistance, while cockpit door modifications were blocked by pilot unions.
“In my heart, I want to tell them everything.”
Even though he knew it was impossible, Yoo Jae-won felt deep regret. Of course he possessed complete information about 9/11. It was, after all, the worst terrorist attack of the twenty-first century. The event had altered politics, economics, and even common sense itself. He had every detail memorized—from the flight numbers of the planes that would be hijacked to the names of every operative who would carry out the hijackings.
But if he delivered that information directly to American intelligence, he might stop the terror attacks, yet his own future would become uncertain. He would have to spin an endless web of lies, and the slightest inconsistency could invite enormous suspicion. The final conclusion of the master plan he had spent decades building before his regression was simple: take every reasonable personal action possible while staying within the bounds of common sense.
Fabricating the intelligence as coming from Russia was one such measure. He had also prevented ID Group employees from visiting the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the White House, or the Capitol today. Given how frequently important meetings occurred at those locations, a global giant like ID Group was bound to have scheduled visits. Jae-won had deliberately created even more urgent schedules to block all external trips.
This was far simpler than manipulating intelligence. In particular, he had personally contacted Vincent, president of ID Investment located in Manhattan, New York, as well as Remington, chairman of Time Warner Nextcom, and given them strict instructions.
The last step had been protecting his family. His relatives in Korea were not an issue. The problem was Tiffany’s family and her relatives. The Pink family on her father’s side had wide connections, and while the Taylor family on her mother’s side was based in the West, many of them had roots in the East Coast.
ID Group employees followed Jae-won’s orders without question, making it easy to handle them. His in-laws, however, were another matter. So he had used the most natural pretext possible—a dream. He told Tiffany he had experienced an extremely disturbing nightmare and asked that everyone avoid going out on September 11. Tiffany had then relayed the message to her parents.
The name Yoo Jae-won carried the title of pioneer leading cutting-edge technology, so it might have seemed strange for him to be swayed by a bad dream. Depending on the person, some might have dismissed it as nonsense. But Tiffany’s consideration for him was absolute, so she made certain to convey his concerns clearly to her family.
Despite taking every personal precaution possible, his anxiety refused to disappear completely. After all, even Tiffany had gone to work normally today. She had left an hour earlier than usual—at eight o’clock—claiming she had urgent business.
“Sigh… I suppose I should start my day too.”
With a heavy heart that felt as if a boulder rested on his chest, Yoo Jae-won rose from his seat and headed toward his study. He had taken only a single step when he realized his hand felt empty. As he reached for the Android Phone on the table, a bright chime sounded.
The screen lit up, displaying a message. It was not from Executive Secretary Kim Dae-seok, nor from Choi Kang-wook or Remington.
“Yeong-sik?”
It had been a long time since his childhood friend had contacted him this early in the morning.
It was a short but urgent message. Yoo Jae-won could not afford to stay still. He rushed even faster to his study and sat down in front of the computer.
Normally the two conducted business through crystal-clear video conferences via ID Talk. But right now, text was the only option. A sudden DDoS attack had begun targeting the ID Cloud Service center. The traffic flooding the cloud center had already exceeded 12 Gbps per second—roughly eighty percent of the center’s total capacity.
Even by mid-21st century standards, it was a powerful assault. Yet this was only 2001. The main page of Nextcom was already stuttering, and the countless internet service companies hosted on the ID Cloud center were experiencing severe slowdowns in page refresh rates. The only reason the services had not completely collapsed was the presence of cache servers and the relatively low number of internet users at this early hour.
Once morning passed and office work began in earnest, internet usage would spike. At that point, the probability of Nextcom itself going completely offline was ninety-nine percent.
“My God. Where is this coming from?”
Jae-won had no idea why Yeong-sik was already at the data center in Coyote City at eight in the morning, but it was a blessing. Having become a true network expert, Yeong-sik had accurately identified the nature of the DDoS assault targeting the ID Cloud center.
“A DDoS attack at this exact moment…”
Yoo Jae-won’s mind became as tangled as a ball of knotted thread. In the original timeline of 9/11, there had been no cyber attack. If terror struck amid this situation, an enormous surge of internet traffic would follow. Moreover, smartphones had already been released ahead of schedule, and 2.5G mobile networks along with Wi-Fi had become widespread. The internet would be paralyzed without question. It would be the worst possible scenario, multiplying the chaos several times over.
Even in this crisis, Yeong-sik was analyzing the situation with remarkable speed.
“Damn it. Game cracks.”
Ever since the Android OS had firmly established itself as the dominant PC operating system, countless hacker groups had focused their attacks on it. This was where the true capability of ID Group shone. Despite hundreds of thousands of attack attempts each year, not a single one had ever succeeded. So the hackers had changed tactics. They began embedding malicious code inside game cracks.
The Android operating system was both highly sophisticated and equipped with excellent self-protection features. But if users willingly executed programs containing malware, all those defenses became useless. Systems could be destroyed, data could be altered. And now those compromised machines had become zombie PCs attacking the ID Cloud center, wasting precious resources.
Yoo Jae-won had no concrete evidence yet, but he had a strong feeling this DDoS attack was connected to Osama bin Laden. The timing was simply too coincidental.
“For now, cut off the entire East Asia line!”
Yoo Jae-won made the decisive call. It was unfortunate for the innocent ID Cloud Service users in China, but bold disconnection was necessary right now. Yeong-sik immediately went up to the global control center of the ID Cloud center and blocked all Chinese IP addresses per Jae-won’s order.
It took several minutes for the commands to reach the network equipment and take effect. During that time, communication with Yeong-sik was severed.
At Yeong-sik’s frantic message, Yoo Jae-won’s heart plummeted. He instinctively realized the event had begun. He immediately switched on the TV beside his desk.
The regular CNN broadcast had been interrupted. A red breaking news banner ran across the bottom of the screen.
It was exactly the scene from Jae-won’s memory. The only difference was the image quality. In the past it had been grainy and unclear. Now it was painfully sharp. This was the smart era led by Android phones and iPhones. In the old days, filming required lugging around a bulky camcorder. Now a single small smartphone was enough.
The picture had changed, but the shock it delivered remained exactly the same.
Jae-won had decided on his response policy to 9/11 long ago and had acted accordingly. Yet seeing the same sequence of events unfold once again made his heart waver.
The announcer’s tone grew increasingly frantic as new information arrived. Remarkably, the network was relaying highly accurate details with surprising speed. This had never happened in the original timeline.
“We have live footage from the scene! Switching now.”
A live feed marked with large CNN and LIVE logos appeared in the upper left corner. It seemed to have been shot from the rooftop of a nearby building, clearly capturing the black smoke and red flames rising from the impact site.
Suddenly the camera swung upward toward the sky. Jae-won had wondered if a second attack was coming, but his guess was wrong. What appeared was a flight of fighter jets that looked as if they had been scrambled in an emergency. Seeing missiles mounted under their wings, Yoo Jae-won clenched his fist tightly.
This sight had not existed in the original timeline. The appearance of the fighters filled him with renewed energy. It was proof that his efforts had not been in vain.
“Here comes the second one!”
At that moment, a blue-tailed Boeing 767 appeared on screen. It was definitely United Airlines Flight 175. Moreover, the aircraft was flying at a dangerously low altitude, far below normal cruising height, and heading straight for the South Tower of the World Trade Center. At the same time, the fighter jets rapidly closed in and opened fire with their cannons, spitting out bright yellow flashes.