Hope and Doug: crucial preperations
May. 8th, 2020 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsHope talks to Doug about the needs for her assignment with Mace.
Hope kept her face straight when she headed into Doug's office, though her eyes twinkled. "You know, I still do not understand why you insist on keeping her on staff. She has the manners of a rock."
"That's part of why I keep her on staff," Doug shot back with an answering twinkle. "Having a fire-breathing dragon guard my door means less people are likely to interrupt me." And thus he could save his energy for targeting things that needed to be done. That and the occasional nap on the cot he kept in the corner.
"There are ways to do that with grace before going in full out dragon mode." Hope sniffed disdainfully. "But you know where I stand on that." She took one of the seats and closely looked Doug over. "How have you been?"
Doug waved a hand. "You are strictly more of a honey than vinegar sort, but vinegar has its place as well. Proper tool for the job and all that." He sighed. "Mostly I'm tired, all the time." He was doing his best to manage to live with what was happening ever since the trip to London, but accepting didn't make it any easier on a day to day basis.
"I wish someone could find a solution for you. Does nothing seem to help so far?" Hope tilted her head. "Topaz mentioned you met on of the most powerful magic users in the world. Did he not know of something to aid you?"
"Nothing seems to work, I get a whole lot of shrugs and 'that's rough, buddy' from all corners." He was still kind of frustrated that whatever had been done for Wanda didn't work for him. "Stupid 'one size fits none' magic crap."
"And now it is back to waiting until another possible solution comes up?" Hope frowned at the thought. "There must be something out there that will alleviate this."
Doug sighed. "If there is, nobody's found it, and anyone who knows how isn't talking."
"Wait and see, I guess? Though that is one of the most frustrating sentences out there." She finally pulled over a chair and took her seat. "Are fit enough for a question or two?"
"Certainly. Questions don't require that much exertion." Doug waved his hand. "What can I do for you?"
"I mentioned my internship for State Senator Mace campaign to you. But did Ms. Frost happen to mention my concurrent assignment as well?" Hope pulled her tote in her lap and dug out a thick folder.
"Enlighten me." Keeping track of Hope's endeavors and ambitions would have been a full time job for even the most hale of people, but Doug had faith in her ability to organize and bring him up to date.
Pulling some papers from the folders, she spread them out. "Simply said, Mace has shown signs of being sympathetic to mutant rights and actually supporting those rights, as well as possibly being a mutant himself. My role is to assess the truth of these claims and see if Mace would be open to working alongside us. But to be able to do so I am going to need a few things."
Doug steepled his fingers. "Signs. Possibly. A few things. Those words are doing a lot of heavy lifting there, Hope. You've got to give me more. What are we looking at? Best case, worst case, probability of each. Specifics on what you need." His voice roughened, a hint of British accent creeping in. "I need the moon on a stick, and I need it yesterday, luv."
Damn, he missed Pete.
"Okay, the not-so-simple version then." Hope picked a couple of documents from those she had spread out. "To start the slightly easier part... first... voting stats split out by pro-mutant, neutral and anti-mutant bills. Second, an analysis of bills and amendments he has put forward and how they show him to be sympathetic to mutant rights. Third, an overview of soundbites, demonstrations attended and other things which suggest the same thing. During my internship I need to confirm that this is definitely the case and ascertain if there might not be other motives at play here. For that I am going to need your assistance with accessing emails and electronic files."
Doug broke from the hard-bitten Pete persona at the sheaf of papers, and made an excited 'gimme' motion with his hand. "Oooh, charts!" he gushed. Not that he had expected any less from Hope. He flipped through them, nodding softly to himself. He took out a pencil and made a few notes of his own in the margins, highlighting possible patterns of behavior that could bear looking into. "What do you need? Just a onetime remote data dump? Walking you through an on-site hack?"
"I think one time access is not going to cut it here. To start out I am thinking of a more permanent backdoor as well as some automatic monitoring for keywords that create automatic reports if something like that is possible. Later on, I might want to do a stress test or two and monitor both the public response as well as the internal communication surrounding that response, but for now that is a bit too early."
"All right, we can make that happen. Any idea what his data security is like? We might need to get physical access to set this up at the beginning, but once we're in, we should be okay to remotely pull information as long as our tap isn't discovered. Keyword alerts are doable as well." Doug grimaced slightly. Time was, he could have done the B&E to establish the tap himself, but he wasn't what he once was. "How's your lockpicking?" He supposed if needed he could always buzz Jubilee and owe her a favor.
"I have not had reason to use it in practice for a while, but I have kept up my skills. As long as the lock is not too complicated, I should be fine." Hope taped her chin as she considered the first question. "I am no expert, but I think they have the standard measures in place, maybe with a few upgrades."
Doug nodded. "Well, then, I'll be on the other end of a comm if you run into anything unexpected, and I can talk you through it once you're at a terminal. Anything else you need?" he asked.
"I remember when we were dealing with that bill a few years back, you had some kind of device that could clone a cell phone? That might increase my access as well..."
Doug popped open a slim drawer in his desk and fished out a smartphone. "The range is very close," he told her. "A matter of meters, and it takes about thirty seconds for the process to complete." He pushed it across the desk to Hope.
"That should be good enough." Hope tucked the phone and her folders back in her tote. "I will see what I can find out about more precise security measures and then we can look into putting the tap in place?"
"You know where to find me."
Hope kept her face straight when she headed into Doug's office, though her eyes twinkled. "You know, I still do not understand why you insist on keeping her on staff. She has the manners of a rock."
"That's part of why I keep her on staff," Doug shot back with an answering twinkle. "Having a fire-breathing dragon guard my door means less people are likely to interrupt me." And thus he could save his energy for targeting things that needed to be done. That and the occasional nap on the cot he kept in the corner.
"There are ways to do that with grace before going in full out dragon mode." Hope sniffed disdainfully. "But you know where I stand on that." She took one of the seats and closely looked Doug over. "How have you been?"
Doug waved a hand. "You are strictly more of a honey than vinegar sort, but vinegar has its place as well. Proper tool for the job and all that." He sighed. "Mostly I'm tired, all the time." He was doing his best to manage to live with what was happening ever since the trip to London, but accepting didn't make it any easier on a day to day basis.
"I wish someone could find a solution for you. Does nothing seem to help so far?" Hope tilted her head. "Topaz mentioned you met on of the most powerful magic users in the world. Did he not know of something to aid you?"
"Nothing seems to work, I get a whole lot of shrugs and 'that's rough, buddy' from all corners." He was still kind of frustrated that whatever had been done for Wanda didn't work for him. "Stupid 'one size fits none' magic crap."
"And now it is back to waiting until another possible solution comes up?" Hope frowned at the thought. "There must be something out there that will alleviate this."
Doug sighed. "If there is, nobody's found it, and anyone who knows how isn't talking."
"Wait and see, I guess? Though that is one of the most frustrating sentences out there." She finally pulled over a chair and took her seat. "Are fit enough for a question or two?"
"Certainly. Questions don't require that much exertion." Doug waved his hand. "What can I do for you?"
"I mentioned my internship for State Senator Mace campaign to you. But did Ms. Frost happen to mention my concurrent assignment as well?" Hope pulled her tote in her lap and dug out a thick folder.
"Enlighten me." Keeping track of Hope's endeavors and ambitions would have been a full time job for even the most hale of people, but Doug had faith in her ability to organize and bring him up to date.
Pulling some papers from the folders, she spread them out. "Simply said, Mace has shown signs of being sympathetic to mutant rights and actually supporting those rights, as well as possibly being a mutant himself. My role is to assess the truth of these claims and see if Mace would be open to working alongside us. But to be able to do so I am going to need a few things."
Doug steepled his fingers. "Signs. Possibly. A few things. Those words are doing a lot of heavy lifting there, Hope. You've got to give me more. What are we looking at? Best case, worst case, probability of each. Specifics on what you need." His voice roughened, a hint of British accent creeping in. "I need the moon on a stick, and I need it yesterday, luv."
Damn, he missed Pete.
"Okay, the not-so-simple version then." Hope picked a couple of documents from those she had spread out. "To start the slightly easier part... first... voting stats split out by pro-mutant, neutral and anti-mutant bills. Second, an analysis of bills and amendments he has put forward and how they show him to be sympathetic to mutant rights. Third, an overview of soundbites, demonstrations attended and other things which suggest the same thing. During my internship I need to confirm that this is definitely the case and ascertain if there might not be other motives at play here. For that I am going to need your assistance with accessing emails and electronic files."
Doug broke from the hard-bitten Pete persona at the sheaf of papers, and made an excited 'gimme' motion with his hand. "Oooh, charts!" he gushed. Not that he had expected any less from Hope. He flipped through them, nodding softly to himself. He took out a pencil and made a few notes of his own in the margins, highlighting possible patterns of behavior that could bear looking into. "What do you need? Just a onetime remote data dump? Walking you through an on-site hack?"
"I think one time access is not going to cut it here. To start out I am thinking of a more permanent backdoor as well as some automatic monitoring for keywords that create automatic reports if something like that is possible. Later on, I might want to do a stress test or two and monitor both the public response as well as the internal communication surrounding that response, but for now that is a bit too early."
"All right, we can make that happen. Any idea what his data security is like? We might need to get physical access to set this up at the beginning, but once we're in, we should be okay to remotely pull information as long as our tap isn't discovered. Keyword alerts are doable as well." Doug grimaced slightly. Time was, he could have done the B&E to establish the tap himself, but he wasn't what he once was. "How's your lockpicking?" He supposed if needed he could always buzz Jubilee and owe her a favor.
"I have not had reason to use it in practice for a while, but I have kept up my skills. As long as the lock is not too complicated, I should be fine." Hope taped her chin as she considered the first question. "I am no expert, but I think they have the standard measures in place, maybe with a few upgrades."
Doug nodded. "Well, then, I'll be on the other end of a comm if you run into anything unexpected, and I can talk you through it once you're at a terminal. Anything else you need?" he asked.
"I remember when we were dealing with that bill a few years back, you had some kind of device that could clone a cell phone? That might increase my access as well..."
Doug popped open a slim drawer in his desk and fished out a smartphone. "The range is very close," he told her. "A matter of meters, and it takes about thirty seconds for the process to complete." He pushed it across the desk to Hope.
"That should be good enough." Hope tucked the phone and her folders back in her tote. "I will see what I can find out about more precise security measures and then we can look into putting the tap in place?"
"You know where to find me."
