X-Factor Case File: The Triskelion Files - Log 4

[x-dominion.livejournal.com]

Garrison seeks the help of X-Factor to find the SHIELD leak.



Kane dropped off the box of donuts on the desk, an obviously Canadian bribe to the people from whom he needed help. There were arrayed around X-Factor's office, waiting with various degrees of disinterest at whatever the boyfriend of their boss had to say.

But, he wasn't just Adrienne's boyfriend. He was an officer in two of the premiere law enforcement agencies in the world and this was as serious as any case they'd dealt with before. He took a breath and started in.

"I appreciate you all willing to look at this, eh. There's a lot of elements going on and the need to be able to do this under the radar is important. The long and short of it is that there's a member of SHIELD that is leaking information to the press. The problems are that what they're leaking involves the X-Men and that if they're willing to leak this, what else might they leak and to whom?"

Snagging a maple glazed donut and biting into it, Adrienne leaned back in her chair and flipped a pen between her fingers with one hand as she chewed. "He's right. We need to stop this before they start leaking nudie pictures of Scott Summers," she joked. "I know we have a couple other cases on the go, but I think I could probably handle those to give the rest of you more time to devote to this."

Sitting in his office, blocks away, Warren tapped his fingers on his desk as he processed what Kane was saying. He let a pause lapse before he was sure no one would say anything. Teleconferences were always tricky. "You don't need to take it all on, Adrienne. I'm sure we can figure this out. And Kane, I agree that this is troubling. I don't think any of you need me to explain my position on confidentiality and how certain things shouldn't become general knowledge." That was a given. "I guess my only questions are the timeframe on this, and if you have any extra information to give us, anything that could maybe jump start this process."

"There are a couple of things. One, we know for sure the leak is on SHIELD's side. If it's an agent or one of their classified staff, there's nothing we can do. But, that seems highly unlikely. After talking to Urich, the reporter who wrote the piece at the Bugle, the source isn't directly connected to him. I tend to believe him, which means it is someone who went to a more junior editor or reporter first. That also screams that this isn't a trained operative or double agent." He leaned back against the desk for a moment. "Based on the photos and the story, I think it has to be someone at a lower level who is involved somehow in the chain that moves the image data from the jet to all the points of process or supports someone who is. Someone who heard rumours of some kind of FBI dust-up involving Ryker's but without any more details."

"I rather not see pictures of Mr. Summers." Lorna pushed that thought out of her mind. It wasn't right. She picked up a donut at random as she thought about what was being said. "Is there a list of people that would have that kind of access who is at a lower level?" Lorna couldn't think there could be too many low-lings that would have that kind of access. "Or would it be hard to get that kind of list."

"Obviously SHIELD keeps all their workers in a database and, given the size of their work population they probably have it pretty thoroughly categorized. We could easily rule out probably 80% of the list based on the information we have alone and then I'm sure we could bring that down to a few choice suspects. It just depends on whether or not we can give them to give up the goods. If we had to, Sue could probably get it for us. As a last resort, of course. What do you think, Kane?"

"SHIELD is a giant bureaucracy. That means HR, cleaning staff, IT workstation support - all kinds of people who are a matter of public record. I doubt they bother with the same level of security for those files as they would operational databases or agent rosters." Kane nodded. "The question becomes how do we get our hands on it without creating a major incident."

"My question is more appreciation for the fact that Kane went all the way in city to secure Timbits," came a new voice from the corner of the room where Garrison had placed his bribe. The blond had been drawn from his work keeping up with Underground contacts just like everyone else with a problem and the promise of sugar.

After a beat, Arthur sighed. "Sue's a bit too pretty to be cleaning staff or support," and he smiled over winningly at her, "But we should be able to arrange a quick grab with some heavily applied luck."

"Flatterer," Sue smiled at Arthur before nodding at Garrison, "He's right going in as a janitor would be too hard. Precisely because they are everywhere i the building an agency like SHIELD is going to pay them special attention, I would if I were them. We can go in as mid level bureaucrats, dress smart and carry a tablet. No-one will give you a second look because there are a million people just like you going back and forth making the agency run. We can get you the data but the problem is parsing it down. SHIELD is gonna employ a lot of people in the bracket you're looking at. We'll have to narrow the field."

"Perhaps even as the administrative assistants to some mid-level bureaucrats." Bobbi posited aloud. "They all have one, or several, and while they're all over the place, being assistants they're exactly the kind of people no one is really paying attention to most of the time."

"I think we can winnow it down here, just so long as we have the list and schedules. After that, it's just straight detective work with the most likely suspects." Garrison nodded. "So, that sounds like our best play to start - Sue and Arthur get the files. If it goes sidewise, your powers are the best option to get out fast. Any other questions?"

They knew their jobs. There were none.