xp_logs | Fires From The Ashes

Doug leads a hacking mission to pull up more information

There were no other words for it — the conference room at the Brownstone had been overtaken by wires, computers, cell phones, take out boxes, and other gear which only a certain few would know the name of — most of it illegal and all of it past the bleeding edge of what the average person had access to.

As usual, the task was simple. Provide everything, and have it all yesterday. Par for the course, and it had been ever since the first day Pete Wisdom demanded the moon on a stick. Doug’s team, consisting of Namor, Sue, Gabriel and Sarah were tasked with the following: find information, and figure out what the hell was going on.

He’d been given Sarah Vale and Sue Storm. Having his quasi-minion there was helpful, because she had worked with him enough already to anticipate some of the things he would need. And his issues with technopaths aside, having Sarah Vale to sweet-talk any systems would be helpful.

Gabriel and Namor were seeming mismatches to the ‘hack squad’, but they had a part to play as well. “I need passwords, and I need lots of them,” Doug explained. “Contrary to what Mission: Impossible suggested, off-grid systems behind multiply redundant security isn’t very useful. Basically, the more layers of security you put on top, the harder it becomes to actually -use- the information you’re securing. So we don’t need to hijack a fire engine, sorry.”

Doug was squeezing a ball in one hand, trying to build back up strength in the arm that had been injured when he’d been shot. Again. But he wasn’t thinking about that either. “So we can do it from here, but to do that we need to get past some of the nastiest firewalls and tech out there. Brute force isn’t going to work, so we attack the weakest link - the human element.”

He pushed a large box full of anonymous-looking cell phones toward Namor and Gabriel. “You’re from IT, security, internal affairs, whatever. Sue’s job is to make it look like the calls are coming from an internal extension. After that, the job is to get them to give up access to systems.” He indicated a list on the whiteboard at one end of the room — passwords, hostnames, all the pieces of information that would be useful. “And then Sarah and I go to work.”

Namor nodded respectfully, and though his eyes were focused on the box on the table, his agitation manifested in playing with the cuffs of his shirt. The mismatched pair — each having previously raised their own objections to the powers that be why this group would not really benefit from their individual skillsets — has already gotten a briefing about the importance of leg work, teams, and social engineering.

The Attilani took the box from where it has been shoved and placed it evenly between himself and Gabriel. “Yessir. Simple enough.”

“Forgive me for not understanding the first half of any of that, but to be clear: You want me to lie on the phone?” Gabriel tried to catch Namor’s eye and failed, so instead he settled for a smirk. “Yeah, no, I think I’ve got a unique skill set for that.” He reached into the box and picked up an old phone, then glanced toward the techno-babblers. “And you guys are gonna... what, exactly?”

“We,” she pointed to herself and Doug, “get to do the heavy lifting. Well, not, like actual heavy lifting, because I’d suck at that.” Sarah then quickly backpedaled, pointing at Doug again. “I mean, Doug can probably do heavy lifting, I can’t though, because, y’know. No muscles.” She lifted her arms to show the lack of same. “But up here, aha, I’m good.” Tapping her forehead, Sarah gestured to her and Doug once again. “We’re good. Got it?” Probably not but she was going to shut up right about now.

“Then we go cracking every bit of encryption we can, and searching for every last bit of data on those weird writings.” Doug cocked his head at Sue. “You good?”

Sue grinned and nodded, “I’ve got the easy job, I just have to crack and fool the phone networks. Well not easy per se but you guys have the hard part. I’ve got this, don’t worry,” she assured her mentor, “They’ll have no idea where we’re coming from, “You guys ready?” she asked glancing over at Namor and Gabriel.

“Yeah, let’s do this.” Gabriel was trying not to tap his foot impatiently. Being able to fast forward through life had made him impatient for exposition. He glanced at the burner in his hand, grabbed the Diet Coke he’d been drinking and plopped down onto a new chair. “Not that it really matters,” he said, his eyes on the whiteboard as he started dialing numbers, “but nobody’s really told me what we’re looking for.”

By this point Namor had already organized the remaining burner phones in a neat grid on the table. He pointedly gestured toward a tablet on which he had taken notes in anticipation of any potential lapse in focus. “As Mr. Ramsey mentioned not two minutes ago, we are conning passwords and usernames for these levels of security out of unsuspecting, everyday employees. I am confident in my ability to strong-arm these items, but you may prefer a softer approach.”

He let the judgment hang there for a second before swiping and addressing the room more directly. “I have already made a spreadsheet.”

“Yes, thanks,” Gabriel said evenly, keeping from rolling his eyes. He turned his head to Namor and tried not to smirk. “You performed so admirably the last time we competed, that this posturing is totally warranted. You macho man, you.”

He looked back at Doug and Sarah, drumming his fingers on the table impatiently. “I’m asking about the long game.”

“Girls, girls, you’re both pretty,” Doug said with a pointed look. Competition wasn’t on the menu, cooperation was.

“Big picture, we’re after intel.” Obvious answer was obvious, but he elaborated. “We need to know anything and everything about those missing writings, what the inimitable Christians In Action know, who we can potentially go looking for, all of that.”

“Got it,” Gabriel nodded. He stifled his retort, because condescending or not, Doug had a point. Not the time. He put the phone to his ear. “It’s ringing.”

Sue swung her seat around to face the computer in front of her, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she transferred her focus onto the keyboard. She may not have been as good at hacking as Doug and Sarah, but she was more than good enough to handle this and was determined not to let her mentor down. “You’re good,” she whispered giving Gabriel and Namor a thumbs up, “they think you’re from security.”

Sarah flashed two thumbs up as well, a big grin on her face. She mouthed the words ‘you’ve got this!’ and tried her best to stay silent. While it was certainly a serious situation to say the least, it was still kind of exciting to be doing things like this, especially with a team of sorts. It made her feel more useful than normal, which reminded her to get back to work already and she turned to face her catching, waiting and listening for Gabe to work his magic.

His magic took two pizzas, eight cartons of Chinese, and frequent caffeine breaks, but the previously empty whiteboard was now a treasure trove of confidential information that would certainly get a few people fired.

The groups had worked in tandem throughout the evening as new problems and encryption levels arose. One solution from the hacksquad, some clever cover by Sue, and applied technomagic from Sarah and Doug ensured that unnamed peons in Virginia would not lose their jobs in vain. Well, for the Xavier’s crew at least.

“I am afraid you must not have heard me,” Namor commanded icily without an accent as he talked to one last security peon handed off from Gabriel and Sue’s manipulations, “This is not a choice. Emergency measures have been called. Good. Good. You are a service to your country.”

There was a few disgruntled mumbles, but the last bit of needed information pinged merrily on Sarah’s machine. The Attlani hung up the phone a little sourly. He sighed, his voice returning back to its normal European cadence.

“Well. I sincerely hope this history lesson is worth it.”

"We'll make it worth it, don't worry!" Sarah exclaimed, tapping away at her computer as soon as the last piece of information arrived. "Once we put all of these pieces together, we should, uh." She stopped typing and frowned at her screen, scratching her head. "I mean, it should all make sense then, only... huh." Turning to Doug, Sarah tapped her screen lightly and raised her eyebrows as she spoke. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing here too?"

Doug was impressed that Sarah had seen the pattern, even if she didn't necessarily understand what it meant. He put the display up on a screen on the far wall, so that the others could see what they were looking at. "Data markers, here, here, and here," he said, using a laser pointer to indicate the places he meant. "Means the intel was never put up for sale. Which means the thieves wanted it for themselves, not for how much money it could make them." He frowned. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

Sue leaned back in her chair as she stared at the board, a pen idly rotating in her fingers. "Me neither," she agreed, "If they're not even trying to hide it then they have to be sure that no-one else can stop them. That kind of confidence doesn't bode well for us," especially given the complexity of the operation they'd run. "All we know is it's something to do with this guy, ' En Sabah Nur'."

"Whatever that means." Gabriel grabbed a slice of pizza that had long gone cold. He kicked his feet onto the conference table. "En Sabah Nur," he repeated after a bite. "No way that's not a codename or something."

Doug tapped at his lips, his frown deepening. "Best translation I've got is Arabic - 'the morning star'. Either someone fancies themselves as Lucifer, or...I don't even know. The timing is all wrong on these writings - Arabic wasn't even extant as a language when these things were supposed to be written. It should be more like Coptic, or Aramaic. Something does -not- add up here."

This vague statement hung in the air without answer for a few ponderous seconds before Namor chose to cut the tension with a polite clearing of the throat. "I suggest we confer with our colleagues in other locations instead of wallowing in What May Bes and Unhelpful Theories. If this is that old," and he nodded toward Doug, "then there may be nothing digital to fill in the gaps. No one has sold this, and it is incomplete. We need a next step. Our advantage is numbers."

His gaze, glass-edge sharp, was now fully on Doug. "Unless you have any better ideas, of course."