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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 5016290" data-attributes="member: 143">We would occasionally have sessions like this, where we'd go two hours without a single combat encounter. * * * * * Session 10 (June 16, 2008)Chapter 31In the lounge at X-COM headquarters, in the relative quiet just after midnight, the members of Alpha Team were gathered around the circular table, playing poker.  There was a long silence following Buzz’s announcement about the saboteur who had almost killed Doctor Sandesh and a number of other researchers through the deliberate malfunction of the experimental HWP system.  Finally, Vasily spoke.  “That not sound easy.  Little data stick, well, little.”“Yeah,” Buzz said, “I know, and it could look like anything, really.”“I had a data stick that looked like a toothbrush once,” James said.  “Got it in a promotion for Crest.”“How you propose security look for thing?” the Russian asked. Catalina frowned, looking at her cards.  “A search, perhaps, on the quiet,” she said.   Vasily drummed his fingers on the tabletop.  “Maybe nearly one hundred people in X-COM.  I think you want find this by end of year, yes?”“I did not even mess with recording or altering the trail,” Buzz said, “So no one knows I am on to them.”“Can you lay any traps to help identify the login, Buzz?” James asked. “What if they already have what they want?” Catalina said. “Is closed network,” Vasily said.  “Remember?  They not able to get out information without it knowing.”“Hence the stick,” Catalina acknowledged.  “When did this all begin, Buzz?  Could you get a date?”“I got the dates that the data was downloaded onto the portable device,” Buzz said with a smile. “When were they?  We might be able to eliminate some,” Catalina suggested.  “if they arrived after the date of the first download, then it’s not them.”Buzz’s expression grew vacant for just a second as he accessed his memory.  “There were at least three separate times,” he said, “the first one about four weeks ago, and the latest five days ago, well, six now.”“Hmm, well, if no one else is in, I’ll just take this,” James said, reaching out to shift the pot of tokens toward him. “Hey!” Vasily said in protest.  “What?  You guys are folding, right?”“I just waiting for my turn.”Catalina rubbed her chin with one long finger.  “Not the Beta team then, and keep your mitts off, Doc!”James withdrew his hand.  “Well then, Cat, you are up.”“How would they get the data device off the base?” Jane asked. “Maybe it someone who think leaving base will not be problem,” Vasily suggested. Jane said, “So someone that can leave the base easily… that’s not good, it could even be Garret.”Catalina glanced down at her cards.  “I’ll see you, and raise you five.”  The chips clinked together as she tossed them into the pot.  “It was curious that no weapon data was taken,” Buzz said, as Jane raised, adding her chips to the table. Vasily opened his mouth to respond, but closed it as the side door opened, and Joan Beauvais walked into the room.  “Ah, poker!” she said, seeing them. “Well, hello,” Buzz said.  “Greetings, Doctor Beauvais,” Jane added. “Yes.  Poker,” Vasily said. “Good to see you all getting along,” Joan said.  “Getting along?” Buzz said, indicating the pile of chips.  “This is war!”Joan laughed.  “I just got back in.  Gah, I love my home country, but the French can turn a simple agreement into the Napoleonic Code.”  “Pff, French,” Catalina muttered.  “I’m sure the aesthetics of the base were the biggest issue, or the canteen menu.”The psychologist smiled slightly.  “It’s good to be back.  I hope I didn’t miss too much?”“Trouble with neighbors,” Vasily said, throwing chips into the pot.  “Well.  I saw that Musa just got back as well, I promised him I’d bring him a bottle of good Bordeaux.”Catalina looked up.  “Ah, good, I need to ask him about something.”“Good night, Alpha,” Joan said, taking her leave.  Catalina looked up, but waited until the door had shut fully behind Joan before speaking.  “Back to the issue we were discussing,” she said, matching the earlier raises.  As the cards were flipped over she smiled as her three queens beat James’s two pair, and the single pairs the others showed.  “Do we do a search?”“I not want to be party pooper but maybe telling security not bad idea,” Vasily said. “Maybe, but we know how subtle the FBI bint can be.”“Ech,” Vasily replied. “I think we need outside help with this,” Buzz said, “but the question is, who do we trust to tell?”“Garret,” Vasily said with a shrug.  “Anyone who arrive after first login.”“If what you think is correct,” Catalina said, “and the person needs to get off base, then it could be any of them.”“I not know,” Vasily said. “Was Musa away for the last download?” Catalina asked. “I think so,” Vasily replied.  “Also was Counselor Joan.”“For some reason, I can’t imagine Drake as the saboteur,” Jane said.  “Can’t risk excluding her, she was here,” Catalina said.  “Is there any way we can narrow down the list of personnel on base when the downloads occurred?”“There should be entry and exit records for everyone in the base data store,” James said.  Catalina looked at Buzz.  “Can you run a match?”“I can, but if I do that, it will could let whoever it is know the hunt is on.”“Whatever you decide, do fast, yes?” Vasily said.  They hushed as the door to the outer hall opened again, and two members of Beta Team entered the lounge.  Eleazar Perez was chatting amiably with Ama Ngunyi, but he broke into a grin as he saw the members of Alpha around the table. “That guy Musa, he’s okay,” he was saying to Ama as he entered the room.  “He had some pirated videos, they were… hey now!  If it isn’t Team A, playin’ some cards.““Hey there!” Jane said. “We all poker monsters,” Vasily said. “I believe they are occupied, Eleazar,” Ama said.  “Now, you promised to show me this ‘Steven Segal’ movie?”Eleazar waved his hands expressively.  “Oh yeah, he’s the main man.  There was this one movie, he took down a guy, lightning moves, almost as fast as me!”  He took Ama’s arm as they left the lounge, heading for the new barracks in the east wing.  Buzz smiled to himself.  “Ah, someone else can be a victim other than me,” he muttered under his breath. Vasily laughed and shook his head.  “They use Segal movie for Mexican special forces training, I hear.”“That explains a lot,” Catalina said.  There was a general laugh around the table, but they quickly sobered as Vasily rubbed his chin thoughtfully.  “You know, I have bad thought.  What if it not just one?  If they have two, hacker and courier…”“The thought had occurred to me,” Catalina said.  “There’s too many ‘ifs’, that’s why I brought it to you guys,” Buzz said.  “I think Drake is out too but we need to get someone involved.”  He looked up and started noticeably; the others turned to see Inise Drake standing in the open doorway, a dark-skinned agent in a black suit looming like a shadow behind her.  “Well now,” she said.  “Look who isn’t as thick as thieves.”“Greetings,” Jane said, as Catalina raised the pot.  “Gambling.  Why am I not surprised?”“Nothing would ever surprise you, Agent Drake,” Catalina said, without looking up from her cards.“Oh, I can be surprised.  I’ve learned to expect things I am not expecting.”“Like the Spanish Inquisition?” Catalina asked. “You want something, Agent?” Vasily asked. “No, nothing from you.  Although I have to say, Homeland Security really liked that big new alien gun you brought back.  I think we gave you… how much was it, Johnson?”The big agent merely grunted and shrugged infinitesimally.  “Take good care of us and we might bring back some more goodies,” James offered, tossing his cards down.“Indeed.  Maybe next time we’ll throw in a cookie,” she said.  “Enjoy your game.”  She turned and headed toward the communications room, Agent Johnson following along behind her.“An atmospheric dampening device, that one,” Catalina said. “Strange to tell, I kind of like Agent Drake,” Vasily said.  “Is like living in Cold War movie.”Jane was watching after Johnson, as the door to the communications room slid shut.  “Ever feel like he’s going to break out his forget ray, and put on black sunglasses?” “Your country exists purely on pop culture references, Jane,” Catalina said.  Once the door had fully shut, she leaned forward, and said, “So, decision time.  Do we or do we not search?”“Need to be careful,” Vasily said.  “If Drake get wind, as I say, it all fall down.”“Well, there’s three barracks here,” Catalina said.  “Ours, the new one for Beta, and the one for the techies in the south wing.”“Do we tell Garret, at least?” Vasily asked.  “If we screw up, they will ask, ‘why you not tell someone like the boss?’”“The real question is who do we trust,” Buzz added. “I think we tell Hallorand,” James suggested.  “If he’s in on it, we’re screwed anyway.”“Am hoping Garret tell Hallorand,” Vasily said.  “But yes, okay, Hallorand.”“”Why don’t we tell him directly?” James asked.  “Like right now?” “I suppose the only thing that can go truly wrong is the person gets away, but at least then we lose no more,” Catalina said. “No,” Vasily said.  “Thing that can go truly wrong is, person get away, security leak exposed, X-COM disbanded.”</blockquote>

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