"Irkutsk-Pekin" was stenciled on the side of our train in Cyrillic letters, but otherwise it was unromantic-looking.

WSJ: Riding the Trans-Mongolian Railway through Russia, China and Mongolia

In the "Cyber Shockwave" simulation, the U.S. players first concluded that the attack originated from a server in Irkutsk, Russia.

NPR: Cyberattack: U.S. Unready For Future Face Of War

We had decided to embark in Irkutsk, where the also-famous Trans-Siberian Railroad stops en route from Moscow to Vladivostok, connecting to the Trans-Mongolian that runs south toward Ulaanbaatar.

WSJ: Riding the Trans-Mongolian Railway through Russia, China and Mongolia

"In fact, the prevailing theory is that these servers in Irkutsk may be only a hopping point for an attack that could be coming from somewhere else, " McLaughlin said during the simulation.

NPR: Cyberattack: U.S. Unready For Future Face Of War

But John McLaughlin, a top CIA official playing the role of CIA director in the simulation, interrupted the White House meeting to announce that his "analysts" had told him they could not confirm that the cyberattack actually came from Irkutsk.

NPR: Cyberattack: U.S. Unready For Future Face Of War

The local priest, surfacing from a week-long binge, lit beeswax tapers to Innocent of Irkutsk, the saint who in the 1720s had repaired the road to China and was now about to bring civilization to Prigorodnaia in the form of a ribbon of macadam with a freshly painted white stripe down the middle.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Legends'