| "Desperately Seeking Proteus" | ||
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June 7, 2008 Paige's Place 1030 hours Paige's eyes flicked up to the landline as it rang. That had to be what? The third time she'd heard it ring since she moved in? She glanced at Brian who hadn't moved from his spot on the couch reading Moby Dick. Paige got up eyeing the phone suspiciously wondering who was calling her. "Hello?" she said evenly. She really needed caller id on this phone. "Paige, it's Saf." Before Paige could even breathe out a sigh of relief and suck in a new one, Safara continued. The calm urgency sent Paige's heart rate up a little faster. "I need you to listen carefully. I received a telephone call yesterday, using my old Section codename. I've spent most of the night trying to identify who or why they called," she paused, "and today, there is a personal add in the paper mentioning Proteus." Uh, what? Paige's mind reeled and she closed her eyes and grabbed the back of the chair in the eating area. 'Don't pass out', she thought, 'just breathe, nice and easy. Concentrate. Don't you fucking pass out.' She forced her eyes open but did not release the death grip she had on the chair. Coincidence? "What are you saying?" "Someone has or had access to our files, knows we were involved with the Proteus Directive, what I don't know is what they want." God, there's that word again...Proteus. It wasn't that big of a deal, right? Proteus was just a test, just a way for Section to tests its own resources, to see if they were as good at reclaiming rogue ops as they claimed themselves to be. Uh oh, the spoken words caught up with her..."both our files?" 'Please say no, please so no.' "We have to assume that, I have been with Gray and Rebecca, while Michael and Birkoff are sifting the signals and data through Sections' servers," she lowered her voice, "I created an access into their network, without their permission. The names they mentioned are Low, Rhines and Hardy, I assume they are being checked out, but I needed to warn you; whoever it is, they are not being clever." "Fuck, Saf, who are they?" "I dunno, Low and Hardy sound familiar, Rhines worked with Birkoff. Do you recognize them?" Paige thought hard but the pounding in her chest was making it difficult to think. "No," she answered shakily. "I don't think so. You have access, though, right?" "More or less," she replied. Paige understood, Saf was using a back door, probably one of a couple she probably created in her time in Section. Paige didn't understand all of the computer shit that Saf did but it was a connection, a way to watch how Section was making out. That being, of course, that they weren't behind this in the first place. "Good, just so we know, you know?" "Yes," Saf replied. Paige took a deep breath, no need to completely lose it just yet. "Ad in the paper...means they at least don't know our addresses." "That's what I'm thinking. The ad was placed all over the US and Europe." Paige snorted, "that was pretty stupid." "Like I said, they weren't being very clever." Paige grabbed her cell phone and shut it off. She would check later for messages, see if there was one for Julie Anne. She shivered with the thought of that name, and the one voice that consistently called her in with it. God, she hated Michael. "What can I do?" Saf was silent for a moment. "You could tell Joshua?" Paige arched an eyebrow. Was that a suggestion or a question? And why did she suddenly, on top of everything, feel a little defensive at the comment? "He probably already knows if Michael knows." It was a valid comeback. "Has he contacted you?" Paige stood still for a moment staring at her silenced phone. "No." "Then I doubt he knows or he would have called to at least give you a heads up." That was a valid comeback, too. "I'll call him." "Okay," she said simply. "We should meet for lunch, say 12:30, the diner on route 9?" Paige nodded her head, "yeah, okay." Brian stood staring at her. "I'll drop Bri at Jordy's store...shit, what about Jordy? She was Section, why wouldn't they get her file, too?" "She wasn't involved in the Proteus Directive, but we'll tell her anyway, just so she's more aware." "Okay, I'll see you in an hour." "Be careful, Paige," Saf said the serious tone explicit in her voice. "You, too," she replied before hanging up the phone. She turned to Brian who stood staring at her. "You're shaking," he said quietly. She eyed him before moving into the hallways and into her bedroom removing the gun from it's place behind the picture frame that still had the picture it came with in it. She checked it, fully loaded, and slipped it into her the back band of her shorts. She walked back into the living room where Brian stood where she had left him. "Don't look at me like that," she said quietly. "You're scaring me, what's going on?" Paige shrugged, "don't know yet. Somebody tried contacting Saf, and they may try contacting me." "Is this a bad somebody?" "Don't know," she said barely above a whisper. "Can you do me a favor?" He nodded. "You know the paper machines at the far end of the building?" He once again nodded his head. "Can you go get me one?" she finally moved grabbing her change wallet and fished out some coins. She had never bought a paper, hell, she didn't read the paper anymore, she couldn't be expected to know how much they were. She put a handful of change in his tiny hands. "I think this will be enough," he said with a disapproving look on his face. "Yeah, uh, not now, Brian," she shook her head, standing up with a worried look on her face. "You should call him," he said nodding to the phone. She looked at him for sometime just trying to settle her nerves, trying to compose herself. She'd only called Joshua once before and he hadn't answered. What if he didn't answer this time? She shook herself a little bit and walked over to the phone once again recalling the picture of him sitting on her couch and holding out the hand written message of his phone number. She dialed the number. He answered the phone with a whisper. "Yeah?" He sounded pissed off already. "It's me," she said in a small voice. "What's wrong?" He knew. Just from a couple words, he knew something was wrong. "There's been a security breach. I might have been compromised." "Hang on one second. Can you do that?" "Yeah," she answered. She listened hearing him shuffle the phone around. His voice was muffled and he couldn't make out what he was saying, there was more noise then finally it quieted. "Paige, you there?" "Yeah." "I'm sorry I had to put you on hold I was in the middle of a conference...are you okay?" She could here the concern in his voice. It was kind of weird yet exhilarating to hear that tone of voice from him. "I'm fine, I'm sorry to bother you with this. I just..." What? What did she just? Just want him to know? Want him to do something about it? That was it. She wanted him to do something about it. "No, it's alright, I'm glad you called. That's what I'm here for. Now, tell me what happened." "I got a phone call from Safara a couple minutes ago. She got a phone call last night, a guy used her codename from Section, her old codename." "What did she do?" "She told Michael and he's supposedly investigating it." He was, actually, investigating it, but since Saf found out covertly, Paige wouldn't let on that she knew. "I'm sure he is. Why do you think you're compromised?" "Because there was an ad in the paper this morning, I haven't seen it yet, but I just sent Brian to get it. It apparently mentioned Proteus." There was silence on the other end. "Joshua?" she finally asked. "I'm here." Uh oh. He sounded really pissed off now. "Joshua, I was the only one under the Proteus Directive, Saf was added in later when I dragged her along..." "I know the details," he said annoyed. "Don't do that. It's your guys that let the fucking security breach happen," she hissed at him. "You're right, sorry. Okay, what exactly did the ad say?" "I dunno, I haven't seen it," as if on cue Brian came in holding the paper up. "Wait, Brian just came in with it." Paige opened the paper on the table and began searching through it. She had no idea where it was supposed to be. "I dunno, it's supposed to be a personal ad or something." "Here," Brian said pulling the paper towards himself. He flipped a couple sections and finally pulled one out. "The personal ads." Paige took it from him and opened it up. It didn't take her long before she spotted it. It was the largest add on the page. She took a little shaky breath in seeing it in writing. "Paige, what does it say?" Joshua asked. "It says: Genevieve, trying to trace you. Mother and Father are worried and Proteus is unresolved. Call home." Joshua took a deep breath, "okay, stay where you are. I'll see if I can send..." "No, Joshua, no operatives." "Until we figure out what this is about it's safer if you..." "No," she said looking towards the sliding glass doors. "If I don't feel safe I'll go to SH2, or SH1. I can't...I just can't do that..." "Alright, calm down. No operatives. Where's Saf?" "She's at SH1, but we're hooking up in an hour." "That's a good idea. You said she contacted Michael, about how long ago was that?" "I dunno, a few hours maybe, she didn't really say." "Okay. I want you to call in every couple hours, let me know you and Saf are okay, got it?" "Yep, I got it." Michael was going to be in trouble. She could tell by the tone in Joshua's voice, he was pissed he didn't know about what was going on and had been ultimately informed by Paige. Had she not been so shaken up with the situation, she may have gotten a little pleasure knowing the wrath Michael was going to feel at Joshua's anger. "And call me if anything happens, anything, got it?" "Yes, I understand," she replied. "Okay," he paused for a moment. "Be careful," he said quietly. "I will, I'll talk to you in a little bit," she replied. He said goodbye and she hung up the phone. She looked at the paper again, spread open on her table as Michael the Fish hovered at one spot seeming to read the paper himself. Her eye was drawn to the large personal ad. Who would do something like that? Why would they? Why would they want to contact her and Saf? More importantly, what would they do if they found either of them? Paige shivered and looked to Brian who was watching her intently. "This is the reason why you can't live with me," she said softly. "I know," he said with a little smile. "It's okay. What is Proteus?" Paige hesitated for a moment but he had after all, already had experiences with Section and overheard her and Joshua's conversation. And, she reminded herself, he was not a normal little nine year old boy. "Proteus was the name of a program for Section, a way to test their own people if an operative got into trouble." "You mean tried to escape," he astutely concluded. "Yes," she said simply. He shrugged with a little grin, "I guess I'm doing dinner with Jordy again tonight?" She gave Brian a hug and then called Jordy to tell her what happened. She also asked for Jordy to be aware of her surroundings and if anyone contacted her or something didn't seem right, she could call Paige or Saf immediately. Jordan agreed, and also agreed to watch Brian for a few hours until hopefully this thing was sorted out. Brian couldn't stay with Paige if that meant he would possibly be in danger. She made him pack some of his clothes anyway, just in case things got worse before they got better, and then they were off to Jordy's. Then Paige went to meet Saf and once again figure out where they stood. Return |
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