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This is the scene that would not end. Give it a bit of buildup and it could be a chapter, I think. ;;; Either way, let me know what you all think, yes?
~~*~~
Foxx barely looked up as her laptop pinged. Someone had gotten past level one security. No big deal - people did that all the time, mostly by accident. That was why it was level one.
She blinked at the next ping a few seconds later. Level two, already?
The third had her on her feet and at the Elite-O-Meter's console, and she had already opened the security code by the fourth. Nobody ever got to level four, let alone that quickly. Nobody.
A quick keystroke opened vocal communications. "Commander! We've got a breach. Live, offsite, location unknown, and whoever they are they're good." Her fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up any and every protocol she could to supplement EOM security. There weren't too many more levels to break before the hacker had access to their database, and that could not happen.
For an alert like that, the Commander sounded remarkably composed. "Can you triangulate the-"
"I have my hands full here."
He paused. Nobody interrupted him like that, she knew - not without very good reason, at the least.
"Keep working," he instructed her after a short silence. "I'll send an Agent to check it out."
A short "Thank you" was all she gave him in response, followed by the rapid clicking of tapped keys as she attempted to head off the hacker. A terse minute passed.
Then another.
A strand of hair fell past her shoulders and dangled over the keyboard. She didn't bother to push it back - couldn't spare the movement. Whoever was working on the other end was going at it far too fast to be human - either she was up against a program or something else entirely. She had no idea what.
Her eyes darted to a short code sequence, and the beginnings of a smirk played at her lips. A program wouldn't leave an opening like that.
A few quick keystrokes later, she let out a sharp "ha!" watching the characters on the screen scroll past as the hacker tried to get past her newest, albeit hastily constructed, firewall and failed. She'd come out one step ahead, if only just.
She moved to turn vocal communications back on, then paused as she saw that red light still blinking. She'd never turned them off in the first place. "Threat neutralized, for now," she said, grateful that she hadn't been talking to the computer for once in her life. "I'm going to see where he got in, rebuild the firewalls. This won't happen again." She'd make sure of that, even if it meant she had to strip code and rebuild from the ground up.
"Good work, Agent," was the Commander's short reply. "04 is on site. I'll let you know if he finds anything."
"Thank you, Commander." Foxx's hand hovered over the key, hesitating for just a second before she thought better of turning it off, shifting frequencies instead. "Missy? Do me a favor and put some water on for tea? It's going to be a long night."
~~*~~
"What?" he demanded loudly of the computer screen before him, staring at the scrolling lines of characters that told him in no uncertain terms that he'd been blocked. "Oh come on!"
Rose peered over his shoulder. The gibberish on the screen made no sense to her, but she could read the Doctor well enough. "What happened?"
"They locked me out!" He gestured disbelievingly at the monitor. "This is twenty-first century America! With twenty-first century technology! They still think Bill Gates is the height of technological advancement and they locked me out! No one's that good!"
Rose glanced back at the screen - nope, still unintelligible - before quirking an eyebrow at the Doctor. "Well, obviously someone is, if you can't get in."
"And that's the weird part." The Doctor had calmed down a bit, now eyeing the computer with a pensive stare and a hand to his chin. "See, I can get into anything. Anything. Not a system in the world that can keep me out...except this one." He hunched over the screen, staring at the lines of code again. "What's different about it, I wonder. Why this one? Why now, when we're looking up aliens and secret societies and things most people on this planet just dismiss? Who doesn't want us to see it, and what is it they don't want us to see?"
"Computer trouble?"
Rose jumped and whipped around, surprised to see the big man who had come from seemingly nowhere. The Doctor handled things a bit more smoothly. "Oh, hello!" he turned to greet the man with a bright grin, a quick glance taking in the bushy red hair barely pulled back, the t shirt and jeans, the dark lines under the eyes - he looked right at home in a gamer's cafe. Lucky that's where they were. "Nope, just had to reboot." He gestured easily at the screen he'd been cursing only moments before. "Got a glitch in the system. Lost all my progress. Have to go get the Mask of Mandragora all over again. You know how it is."
The red headed man considered the screen for the moment, then nodded. "You need help, let me know." He turned and walked away.
"Right! Will do," the Doctor responded, ever cheery, to the man's retreating back. "Bit of an abrupt fellow, wasn't he," he commented easily once the man was out of earshot. "Still, nice enough of him to offer. Probably just wanted to keep us quiet."
Rose had her mind on other things. "Doctor, that man wasn't in here before."
He paused, mouth open for another comment, and considered this. "Are you certain."
"Yeah. I had a look 'round while you were..." She gestured at the monitor. "He wasn't here then, which means-"
"Either his shift just started," the Doctor finished her thought, "or he was looking for us." He glanced back at the screen, now prompting him to input code or restart his session. "I think we might just be on the right track." He straightened up and headed for the door. "Time for plan B."
Rose had to jog to keep up with his long stride. "Alright, what's plan B?"
"We find the local conspiracy theorist." Out the door, consider the options, turn left - back to the tabloid stand. "They eat this sort of thing right up, and they usually know a lot more than anyone ever gives them credit for."
~~*~~
Derek slipped out the back of the gamer's cafe unnoticed, heading down one busy street and several back alleys before he deemed himself far enough away, both from the cafe and from people in general. He tapped the small earpiece hidden by his hair. "Derek here."
"Find anything?" Foxx's voice was clipped, slightly distracted - she must be working on security. Commander wouldn't have sent him out here otherwise.
"Yeah. Breach at Plugged In, cafe on fifth and twenty-first. Guy with brown hair and trenchcoat, blonde girl. British. Talking about aliens and secret societies. Cameras should've got them."
"Alright, hang on." He heard keys clicking over the wire - hacking the cameras and finding past video, no doubt. "Got it," she told him, then a low whistle and a shocked, "He was doing all that manually?"
"Something off about him. Wrong heartbeat."
He heard the pause as she processed that bit of information. "Wrong heartbeat?"
"Most people got a two-four." Time signatures, easy to learn and tap out. "He's got a four-six. Samba. Old tune, too."
"A four-six?" She was still distracted, he could tell - probably watching the security video. "How old?"
He thought for a moment. "Remember the turtle? Helped it get back to sea?"
"A few weeks ago?" she confirmed. "Yeah. What about it?"
"Older than that."
The pause was much longer this time. "Derek, the news report said that turtle was over a hundred years old."
"Yeah. Older than that."
This pause was too long, even for Derek. "Take it to the Commander?" he suggested.
She sighed. "Already pulling the file together. Can you tail him?"
"On it." He tapped the earpiece again, turning the link off, before heading back into the street in the direction of the cafe. Tailing sessions got lengthy, and he had no time to stop for a cup of coffee if he was going to catch up to the hacker. It was shaping up to be a long afternoon.
~~*~~
Foxx barely looked up as her laptop pinged. Someone had gotten past level one security. No big deal - people did that all the time, mostly by accident. That was why it was level one.
She blinked at the next ping a few seconds later. Level two, already?
The third had her on her feet and at the Elite-O-Meter's console, and she had already opened the security code by the fourth. Nobody ever got to level four, let alone that quickly. Nobody.
A quick keystroke opened vocal communications. "Commander! We've got a breach. Live, offsite, location unknown, and whoever they are they're good." Her fingers flew across the keyboard, pulling up any and every protocol she could to supplement EOM security. There weren't too many more levels to break before the hacker had access to their database, and that could not happen.
For an alert like that, the Commander sounded remarkably composed. "Can you triangulate the-"
"I have my hands full here."
He paused. Nobody interrupted him like that, she knew - not without very good reason, at the least.
"Keep working," he instructed her after a short silence. "I'll send an Agent to check it out."
A short "Thank you" was all she gave him in response, followed by the rapid clicking of tapped keys as she attempted to head off the hacker. A terse minute passed.
Then another.
A strand of hair fell past her shoulders and dangled over the keyboard. She didn't bother to push it back - couldn't spare the movement. Whoever was working on the other end was going at it far too fast to be human - either she was up against a program or something else entirely. She had no idea what.
Her eyes darted to a short code sequence, and the beginnings of a smirk played at her lips. A program wouldn't leave an opening like that.
A few quick keystrokes later, she let out a sharp "ha!" watching the characters on the screen scroll past as the hacker tried to get past her newest, albeit hastily constructed, firewall and failed. She'd come out one step ahead, if only just.
She moved to turn vocal communications back on, then paused as she saw that red light still blinking. She'd never turned them off in the first place. "Threat neutralized, for now," she said, grateful that she hadn't been talking to the computer for once in her life. "I'm going to see where he got in, rebuild the firewalls. This won't happen again." She'd make sure of that, even if it meant she had to strip code and rebuild from the ground up.
"Good work, Agent," was the Commander's short reply. "04 is on site. I'll let you know if he finds anything."
"Thank you, Commander." Foxx's hand hovered over the key, hesitating for just a second before she thought better of turning it off, shifting frequencies instead. "Missy? Do me a favor and put some water on for tea? It's going to be a long night."
~~*~~
"What?" he demanded loudly of the computer screen before him, staring at the scrolling lines of characters that told him in no uncertain terms that he'd been blocked. "Oh come on!"
Rose peered over his shoulder. The gibberish on the screen made no sense to her, but she could read the Doctor well enough. "What happened?"
"They locked me out!" He gestured disbelievingly at the monitor. "This is twenty-first century America! With twenty-first century technology! They still think Bill Gates is the height of technological advancement and they locked me out! No one's that good!"
Rose glanced back at the screen - nope, still unintelligible - before quirking an eyebrow at the Doctor. "Well, obviously someone is, if you can't get in."
"And that's the weird part." The Doctor had calmed down a bit, now eyeing the computer with a pensive stare and a hand to his chin. "See, I can get into anything. Anything. Not a system in the world that can keep me out...except this one." He hunched over the screen, staring at the lines of code again. "What's different about it, I wonder. Why this one? Why now, when we're looking up aliens and secret societies and things most people on this planet just dismiss? Who doesn't want us to see it, and what is it they don't want us to see?"
"Computer trouble?"
Rose jumped and whipped around, surprised to see the big man who had come from seemingly nowhere. The Doctor handled things a bit more smoothly. "Oh, hello!" he turned to greet the man with a bright grin, a quick glance taking in the bushy red hair barely pulled back, the t shirt and jeans, the dark lines under the eyes - he looked right at home in a gamer's cafe. Lucky that's where they were. "Nope, just had to reboot." He gestured easily at the screen he'd been cursing only moments before. "Got a glitch in the system. Lost all my progress. Have to go get the Mask of Mandragora all over again. You know how it is."
The red headed man considered the screen for the moment, then nodded. "You need help, let me know." He turned and walked away.
"Right! Will do," the Doctor responded, ever cheery, to the man's retreating back. "Bit of an abrupt fellow, wasn't he," he commented easily once the man was out of earshot. "Still, nice enough of him to offer. Probably just wanted to keep us quiet."
Rose had her mind on other things. "Doctor, that man wasn't in here before."
He paused, mouth open for another comment, and considered this. "Are you certain."
"Yeah. I had a look 'round while you were..." She gestured at the monitor. "He wasn't here then, which means-"
"Either his shift just started," the Doctor finished her thought, "or he was looking for us." He glanced back at the screen, now prompting him to input code or restart his session. "I think we might just be on the right track." He straightened up and headed for the door. "Time for plan B."
Rose had to jog to keep up with his long stride. "Alright, what's plan B?"
"We find the local conspiracy theorist." Out the door, consider the options, turn left - back to the tabloid stand. "They eat this sort of thing right up, and they usually know a lot more than anyone ever gives them credit for."
~~*~~
Derek slipped out the back of the gamer's cafe unnoticed, heading down one busy street and several back alleys before he deemed himself far enough away, both from the cafe and from people in general. He tapped the small earpiece hidden by his hair. "Derek here."
"Find anything?" Foxx's voice was clipped, slightly distracted - she must be working on security. Commander wouldn't have sent him out here otherwise.
"Yeah. Breach at Plugged In, cafe on fifth and twenty-first. Guy with brown hair and trenchcoat, blonde girl. British. Talking about aliens and secret societies. Cameras should've got them."
"Alright, hang on." He heard keys clicking over the wire - hacking the cameras and finding past video, no doubt. "Got it," she told him, then a low whistle and a shocked, "He was doing all that manually?"
"Something off about him. Wrong heartbeat."
He heard the pause as she processed that bit of information. "Wrong heartbeat?"
"Most people got a two-four." Time signatures, easy to learn and tap out. "He's got a four-six. Samba. Old tune, too."
"A four-six?" She was still distracted, he could tell - probably watching the security video. "How old?"
He thought for a moment. "Remember the turtle? Helped it get back to sea?"
"A few weeks ago?" she confirmed. "Yeah. What about it?"
"Older than that."
The pause was much longer this time. "Derek, the news report said that turtle was over a hundred years old."
"Yeah. Older than that."
This pause was too long, even for Derek. "Take it to the Commander?" he suggested.
She sighed. "Already pulling the file together. Can you tail him?"
"On it." He tapped the earpiece again, turning the link off, before heading back into the street in the direction of the cafe. Tailing sessions got lengthy, and he had no time to stop for a cup of coffee if he was going to catch up to the hacker. It was shaping up to be a long afternoon.
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