| "Out of Depth" | ||
|
6th June 2008 19.30hrs She pushed the mysterious telephone caller from her mind, or rather thought she had. The dinner had gone well, even Brian had said as much; he seemed to sense her uneasiness with him, and hadn't pushed the boundaries, staying instead to conversations with Paige that allowed her to join in when she wanted to. She had the uneasy sensation that he could see into her inner self, despite her defences, and she felt exposed, naked in his vision. She had cried out early, at 22.00hrs and announced that she was going home. Paige hadn't seemed too surprised, she and Brian seemed to share a joke, but it was a fleeting moment and was gone when she looked again. She drove home slowly, puzzling over how the two of them seemed so close; it was frightening in a way. Idly she wondered if she could be jealous of their closeness, but it was more than that, it was as though their own closeness had been reset, no longer just dependant on each other, as various outside sources were influencing their lives. She sighed, missing the closeness that Section had evolved in them, but not the way it had come about; she wouldn't go back to that no matter how much could be promised to make it happen. Saf's Apartment 7th June 2008, 01.00hrs She stood on the balcony enjoying the chill night air sweeping in from the bay, full of the smell of the ocean, raw with potential energy. She shrugged tighter into her jacket, puzzling over the telephone call of earlier in the day, it needed to be examined she knew that. It was yet one more thing to keep from Paige, she had too many secrets, one day they would destroy her, she would be pulled apart by the many factions involved in her life. She sipped at the bottle of beer, feeling colder, icier as the cold liquid ran down her throat, while she considered her options. Knowing what she had to do, but trying no, wanting not to have to do it, for fear it would show weakness. Reluctantly she returned inside and up to the study, the laptop was open and on-line so she switched it onto the secure network and posted a note to Michael, alerting him to the call and the potential for an unsafe line into her mobile. She watched as the message converted into garble and into a short note, which asked her non-existent Aunt Michelle for her shortcake recipe. She pressed the buttons and watched while the message transferred and then disappeared from view. Given the time delays, and the possibility of Michael not being available at his laptop to receive the message she didn't expect to hear from until later in the morning. She wasn't tired, and trying to sleep would be an impossible task, instead she pulled up some files and started work on the draft of the report she was putting together for Gray. The ringing cell phone, chirped at her side, she answered it with a quiet hi, and realised that less than 30 mins had elapsed since she had sent the message. Michael's voice was soft, but urgent, "I got your message, It would be helpful to discuss the contents further. Can you call me back from the office?; the staff are expecting you." So Gray and Rebecca knew already, Saf wondered whether she would be taken to task for contacting Section rather than go through the SIA and then shrugged, "Sure. I will call you as soon as I reach the office." She closed off the phone and putting in to her pocket, walked downstairs and picked up her jacket and helmet, the bike would be the fastest way of getting to SH1 and she was in the mood to ride fast. She pulled on her overtrousers, and then boots, before opening the garage doors and pushing the bike out onto the drive before starting the engine. It purred into life, reminding her how much she enjoyed the sound, she fastened the jacket and closed the garage door while fastening her helmet before throwing her leg over the throbbing engine and kicking it into first gear and pulling out of the quiet streets. The roads into the city weren't empty, but they weren't busy and she was all too soon pulling into the garage under the Baha bar. She parked the bike, reluctantly, wishing she was still en route; and slowly walked to the lifts, they didn't cause her any problems now and as she stepped in she pressed the buttons for the 9th Floor. 03.08hrs It was a smooth ride, and fast, the doors opening out onto the floor and Gray, who was looking concerned, met her; that fact told her volumes. "Michael is on the vidphone with Rebecca, you are to join them as soon as you arrived." He turned and walked away, and she followed him along the thickly carpeted corridor that muffled any footsteps, the floor was empty and dark. Rebecca was in the briefing room, with a table top vidscreen and Michael's voice echoing out of the speakers, "�. as far as we can tell at the present time it appears to be someone from within Section One�." He stopped speaking as Saf entered the camera's view, before continuing, "Saf, thank you for coming in, the data you downloaded to me indicates that whoever called you, did it from Section's network. Birkoff has tracked it down to three potential's, all ex-Section One personnel, they are being investigated as a matter of priority; Oversight has sanctioned it." Saf took a seat next to Rebecca, who smiled briefly before returned her gaze to the vidscreen. "Michael, how did they get the current cell phone number?" Saf had wondered that too, her old call sign and yet her new number, only someone with current intel would have had that, so did Section One or the SIA have an insider or mole. Michael coughed, and she looked at him, "Saf, did they say anything else? Anything that could help to identify them, perhaps an accent?" Saf shook her head, "They just said Genevieve. I was stunned for a few seconds, but then replied stating they had the wrong number and cut the connection. Apart from them being male, I don't recall anything special about their voice." Gray held out his hand for the phone, and Saf took it out of her jacket pocket and handed it over. Gray took out the SIM chip and installed it into the reader on the table. The lights changed from red to green and Saf knew it was being read by Birkoff, no-one else would have the skills; she hoped he would have the answers, after everything that had happened recently, she wanted, no needed, peace. Michael had disappeared from the vidscreen view, though she could hear his voice as he spoke to Birkoff, "Can you trace the call? Find out which service was being used to transmit the call�" She couldn't catch what Birkoff's replies to these questions were as Rebecca distracted her. "Saf, we can move you�" she shook her head, "No, I won't run away, we don't know how much of a threat he is." Rebecca nodded, "I thought you might say that, but I will place surveillance on your accommodation," Saf was about to object, and Rebecca continued, "�just temporarily, and not for watching you, but for when you are not there." Saf knew she couldn't argue this point, for once it was for her protection not for controlling her, she bit back the words of denial, and nodded. "Can you go back to Paige's or do you want to stay here?" Rebecca asked her gently. Saf thought about it, once she would not have hesitated, but with Brian at Paige's, it was no longer the refuge from danger it used to be. She turned to Rebecca, "I'll stay here, if you don't mind." Rebecca motioned to Gray, and Saf didn't hear their exchange of words, instead she watched the empty vidscreen, silently willing Birkoff or Michael to explain what was going on and tell her who was behind the phone calls. Oversight being involved worried her, but that was because it meant Joshua once more controlling the situation and he was so twisted that she wondered if it was he that was behind what had happened. It made sense; he had the knowledge, although she conceded he didn't have a motive, if he wanted to get rid of her he could have done that more easily when she had been sedated at Section. 05.20hrs Michael returned to the screen and coughed, Saf realised that she hadn't paid attention to what he had said and apologetically she had to ask him to repeat himself. "Birkoff is tracking the systems now, but it's going to take a while, I will get back to you." He wasn't looking at her, but beyond her, and she knew with a certainty that he knew more than he was letting on; she hid her thoughts well, thanks to his training. Two can play at that game and she had the benefit of two things, one her experience of Section and second her knowledge of systems. Slowly she replied, "In that case, perhaps you won't mind if I leave you to it, I am exhausted and if there is a bed going then my name is on it." He nodded, and she turned to Rebecca, "If you will excuse me�" Rebecca smiled, "There is plenty of space upstairs, I will advise the staff not to disturb you." "Thanks, I appreciate your assistance." She turned to leave, and then turned back at the door, "Was I wrong? Calling Section before you?" She watched Rebecca, but the other woman could hold a master class on the blank expression, she could gain nothing from seeing her face. "Under the circumstances, you did the right thing. Though perhaps in time you will learn to trust us as much as you seem to trust Michael." Her voice was quiet, but Saf sensed that she meant what she said. Though she had underestimated one thing, Saf didn't trust Michael, but she did have to ask him to help but it didn't mean she liked it; she nodded and left the room quietly. 06.05hrs She had tried to sleep, but there was too much on her mind and it was a pointless exercise. Instead she had walked down to the 7th Level and hidden herself away in a corner of comms; out of sight out of mind. Simon wouldn't know she was there and Rebecca had promised not to disturb her until she surfaced, so she estimated she would have about four hours before anyone would start looking and that was barely enough time for what she had in mind. She logged into the systems, as a standard system process, this would hide her presence for as long as she needed and she had root access to the network so could browse undisturbed. Her knowledge of the systems at Section was going to be important now, and this was her only and probably last opportunity to infiltrate Section's systems and success was dependant on her being unobserved for as long as possible. Birkoff was good, but he had coached her well and her intrusion into the main servers was smooth and unhindered. Once more the systems process she was hiding under was a standard process and expected to be seen running in the background. From her vantage point, she could see what was happening and what Birkoff was doing all she needed to do was to filter his outputs to a datastream, which she captured on SIA systems to review at a later stage. All the data from the call was being analysed and the signal being triangulated to provide a location. Birkoff was thorough, even checking that the signal hadn't been piggybacked. Whoever was behind the call was not that clever; bright enough to have downloaded the files, and make contact, but for what purpose wasn't clear to her, yet. She yawned, suddenly tired, but she couldn't afford to stop just yet; she was so close. It would take her time to analyse what Birkoff was doing, but she didn't have the luxury of time. She glanced down at her watch, it was now 09.15hrs, and she probably had less than an hour before she would have to withdraw as stealthily as she had entered. The three files that Birkoff had highlighted, as being probables meant nothing to her, Low, Rhines, and Hardy. She barely remembered them, Low and Hardy had been relatively new to Section 1, she had briefly met them during their systems training phase having taken the place of Birkoff when he was out on a mission in the van, but she couldn't recall any problems with either of them. Rhines was slightly more memorable, a thin man, with dark hair and a jerky motion when he walked, he had barely passed his systems training, and was doing the same during field work; Michael and Operations had marked his file as abeyance but she remembered that Birkoff had asked for an assistant after Gayle had been cancelled and Rhines had been assigned to him. Saf struggled to remember whether he had been there when she had left Section, was it only a couple of days ago? Her memories of that last visit to Section were blurry. She checked that the data stream had collected the data, and then reluctantly withdrew; her final act was to exchange the processes over before closing her access. With any luck, Birkoff would never know she had been in the servers, but it would be a while before she could risk trying it again. She plugged in her portable drive and uploaded the file to storage. Putting it her pocket she exited from the system and concealed her ever having been logged in. Simon wouldn't notice, and she wouldn't encourage him to look for intruders; it suited her to have a back way in, and she had written triggers into the systems that would send out an alert to her home system if anyone else tried accessing her servers they way she had Section's. Learn and continue to learn from doing; the motto served her well, what was right for her, was definitely wrong for everyone else. She walked up the stairs, to the rest rooms on level 10, and made her way unseen, unnoticed, and undetected to the ready room, choosing a couch at the back of the empty room. It was nearly 10am and she knew she couldn't sleep without suspicion; instead she mussed the pillow and blanket to make it look like she had used the bed and took a long cool shower before changing into clean clothes from the store. ~~~~ The lounge was empty, but the coffee machine was full. She poured herself a large mug and stood by the window, the day was bright and sunny, the streets thronging with people rushing to be somewhere. A cough behind her alerted her to Gray's presence, she turned and lifted the mug, "This is good coffee, I had forgotten just how good it is. Thanks." "That's ok, I can arrange breakfast, or would you rather go out?" She thought about it for a moment, and then shook her head, "Perhaps it's better to eat in, just in case." He nodded, "Anything special, or shall I surprise you?" She smiled, "No surprises, I'll just settle for a Bacon roll, no butter, no sauces." "Ok, be about 10 mins." He left, and she settled on a couch with a newspaper, reading news stories, which didn't interest her, it was just something to do to pass the time and keep her hands occupied. Casually she read the personal ads, one of which had caught her eye, due to its size and the bold font making it stand out from the surrounding text. `Genevieve, trying to trace you. Mother and Father are worried and Proteus is unresolved. Call home' Ice curled itself around her heart; it could be no coincidence. If she hadn't known better that Madeline was dead by her hands and Operations by Eric's, she would have suspected them of being alive. She quickly scanned the other papers, Gray had all the US and European editions and the personal ad appeared in every single paper. Whoever had made the telephone call to her, knew more about her than just her code name and current cell phone number, they knew about the Proteus directive, and she wasn't the only one involved in that which meant that Paige could also be in danger. Whoever was behind this may know some of what went on, but the fact that the advert appeared in every single paper indicated that they didn't actually know the location of the former Section ops nor that they weren't part of Section any more. She had to analyse that data stream, to find out what Section knew already and extrapolate the information into truth, and deal with the issues that truth would raise. She scribbled a note, explaining to Gray that she had gone to systems, and would contact him later; all thought of food had been replaced by a more urgent need to find the person responsible. 11.30hrs Before she started on the analysis, she used one of the secure lines and called Paige, it rang a couple of times before it was answered. "Paige, it's Saf, 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." There was a silence, heavy and hung with anticipation before Paige spoke, "What are you saying?" She took a deep breath, "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." "Both our files?" "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." Return |
||