OPERATION: MAD MEN - Prologue 3
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xp_logsGabe sneaks a tap into the laptop and Domino discovers hints of a deadly plan with a name familiar to Kevin.
"Your host should have mentioned we've got a crew coming in to work on the ducts early tomorrow." Kevin said in a spot on Bronx accent, wearing a fleshy older man's face. "We might need in the place, like, ten, maybe ten-thirty?"
All three men had turned to view Kevin at the door, one speaking directly to him. The open window Kevin had spotted was behind all three.
New York building codes and their mandatory fire escapes made this window plan seem easy. But it was was clear Gabriel, when formulating this plan, hadn't thought enough about the upper body strength required to pull himself up the ladder that dangled a few feet above the ground. The downside to having super-speed-that-wasn't-super-speed is that he couldn't pull any neat tricks like running up walls or whatever. So instead, with his powers firing, he attempted a kind of running jump that left him hanging on to the third rung of the ladder. And it was only as he pulled himself up (shoutout to the gym) that he noticed the empty wooden boxes he was so obviously supposed to use to prop himself up.
Nobody said spy work was glamorous.
Gabriel made his way up the ladder, then used his mutation to sprint up the fire escape. Nervous his powers might short out, he slowed his pace and tried to move as quietly as possible while crossing through the open window, lest he suddenly appear in real time and land with a noticeable thud. He stole a glance at Kevin's newest guise, admired it for a second, then moved diligently to set a tap on the building's wi-fi. He did his best to follow instructions — despite lacking the technical know-how to understand how this worked, he at least knew how to follow directions — and when he felt confident he'd done what he was supposed to do, Gabriel reversed his journey.
When he arrived back in the van, he returned to realtime and slid the doors open. "Time?" He called to Domino as he shut the door. "New landspeed record, or...?"
"Oh, was I supposed to be keeping track?" Dom asked, glancing up from her screen with an innocent look. "Sorry, I was checking Tinder. Though I think maybe I set a landspeed record swiping left on that skeevy guy with the lazy eye. Anyway, looks like you set everything up right, the signal is pretty good."
"Oh, come on." Gabriel sighed as he reached for a Gatorade he'd left in the back. "What's the point of doing things like this if I can't brag about how quickly I can do them?" He took a seat next to her. "So now what? You go all 'Mr. Robot'?"
"Yeah, exactly like that. C'mon man, you should know by now that nothing we do is as interesting as TV makes it seem." She was typing as she talked, her screen a rather mundane collection of tabs and windows with hardly any scrolling text or interesting pictures.
"I mean, it wasn't a literal comparison. I was just asking about your process." He stared at her screen as he worked. "Hacking never seemed like the most glamorous form of espionage, anyway. Though I'm sure it's beautiful in its way or whatever."
"Satisfying, maybe. I dunno about beautiful. But hey, if it lets us figure out when these fuckheads are planning their thing then it'll be drop-dead gorgeous."
Gabriel made a noise of assent. He was quiet for about 10 seconds, which felt like forever, before chiming in again. "Learn anything yet?"
"Wow, that's not annoying at all." Despite her words her tone was mild; spywork had taught her nothing if not a hard-won patience. "I'm still working on cracking the key. It'd be easier if they weren't actively using the network - Syd should've stayed there to distract them some more."
"Syd had no way to distract them that didn't involve highly suspicious excuses." Kevin said as he climbed into the back of the truck. "I know it's not ideal but this is what we got. Good job with that tap, Gabe."
"Thanks." Gabriel tried not to look too proud. "It went incredibly smoothly with surprisingly few hitches. Try not to look too shocked."
"Nice job with the hacking, Dom, I know it's actually really difficult and boring but you make it look easy," the woman said, rolling her eyes as she jabbed a few keys. "Since when did we start handing out gold stars?"
"Uh, I'm a millennial, remember? We need constant praise and validation to survive."
"Feud for my approval on your own time, people." Kevin said as he hunkered down behind Dom's furious typing.
"Yeah, yeah. How are w--hey, score, I'm in. Fucking terrorists, man, they're not even trying. Okay, let's do what we in the business call 'poking around someone else's shit'," Dom said, cracking her knuckles before beginning to scroll through the various folders and accounts she had gained access to. "Anything you want me to focus on in particular? Emails? Attachments? Facebook invites?"
"Email, I guess? I don't think they're incompetent enough to have a public Facebook page of their plans, but they have to have some communication channel that they think is secure enough to coordinate information."
"Yeah, I wouldn't underestimate the stupidity of the average person when it comes to computer use," Dom said. "You should see what some people think they can get away with just because they've marked something 'friends only'. That reminds me, I really should do my monthly social media check, make sure nobody at SV's let anything stupid slip."
Gabriel took a big swig of Gatorade and made a vague noise of assent. "Can you check these guys' iMessage?" He added after a second. "I don't think people realize that shit's not secure, and they use it on their laptops. Assuming monsters have Macs."
"Only monsters have Macs," came the quick reply. Then, after a pause, "...shit."
"I'm guessing you didn't find their schedule to volunteer at Sick Kids."
"Yeah, no." Dom grimaced. "They're evacuating all their members out of the city in the next few days. Three guesses why, and the first two don't count."
"Corporate retreat?" Gabriel knew it wasn't his best joke, but tension was a struggle for him.
"Try 'lots of people are gonna die' and oh, here's the best part. They've got a whole strategy lined up for how to push the blame onto mutants." It seemed impossible, but Dom's frown deepened. "Fuckers."
"Fits with rumours I've heard about them getting more... ambitious, I suppose. Any intel on what they've got planned for the weekend surprise? Locations, targets... even speculation between members?"
"I dunno, there's some gossip, nothing substantive... It's gonna take longer to look through this and figure out what the hell's actually going on. I'm just taking everything I can get right now, now that we know something is going down. You two can help me sift through it all, see if anybody's let anything slip."
"Keep an eye open for anything mentioning HELIOS. Whatever they've got planned, that name is involved." Kevin said as he pulled up his screen.
"Got it." Gabriel cracked his knuckles. "Gonna need you to spell that first."
"Your host should have mentioned we've got a crew coming in to work on the ducts early tomorrow." Kevin said in a spot on Bronx accent, wearing a fleshy older man's face. "We might need in the place, like, ten, maybe ten-thirty?"
All three men had turned to view Kevin at the door, one speaking directly to him. The open window Kevin had spotted was behind all three.
New York building codes and their mandatory fire escapes made this window plan seem easy. But it was was clear Gabriel, when formulating this plan, hadn't thought enough about the upper body strength required to pull himself up the ladder that dangled a few feet above the ground. The downside to having super-speed-that-wasn't-super-speed is that he couldn't pull any neat tricks like running up walls or whatever. So instead, with his powers firing, he attempted a kind of running jump that left him hanging on to the third rung of the ladder. And it was only as he pulled himself up (shoutout to the gym) that he noticed the empty wooden boxes he was so obviously supposed to use to prop himself up.
Nobody said spy work was glamorous.
Gabriel made his way up the ladder, then used his mutation to sprint up the fire escape. Nervous his powers might short out, he slowed his pace and tried to move as quietly as possible while crossing through the open window, lest he suddenly appear in real time and land with a noticeable thud. He stole a glance at Kevin's newest guise, admired it for a second, then moved diligently to set a tap on the building's wi-fi. He did his best to follow instructions — despite lacking the technical know-how to understand how this worked, he at least knew how to follow directions — and when he felt confident he'd done what he was supposed to do, Gabriel reversed his journey.
When he arrived back in the van, he returned to realtime and slid the doors open. "Time?" He called to Domino as he shut the door. "New landspeed record, or...?"
"Oh, was I supposed to be keeping track?" Dom asked, glancing up from her screen with an innocent look. "Sorry, I was checking Tinder. Though I think maybe I set a landspeed record swiping left on that skeevy guy with the lazy eye. Anyway, looks like you set everything up right, the signal is pretty good."
"Oh, come on." Gabriel sighed as he reached for a Gatorade he'd left in the back. "What's the point of doing things like this if I can't brag about how quickly I can do them?" He took a seat next to her. "So now what? You go all 'Mr. Robot'?"
"Yeah, exactly like that. C'mon man, you should know by now that nothing we do is as interesting as TV makes it seem." She was typing as she talked, her screen a rather mundane collection of tabs and windows with hardly any scrolling text or interesting pictures.
"I mean, it wasn't a literal comparison. I was just asking about your process." He stared at her screen as he worked. "Hacking never seemed like the most glamorous form of espionage, anyway. Though I'm sure it's beautiful in its way or whatever."
"Satisfying, maybe. I dunno about beautiful. But hey, if it lets us figure out when these fuckheads are planning their thing then it'll be drop-dead gorgeous."
Gabriel made a noise of assent. He was quiet for about 10 seconds, which felt like forever, before chiming in again. "Learn anything yet?"
"Wow, that's not annoying at all." Despite her words her tone was mild; spywork had taught her nothing if not a hard-won patience. "I'm still working on cracking the key. It'd be easier if they weren't actively using the network - Syd should've stayed there to distract them some more."
"Syd had no way to distract them that didn't involve highly suspicious excuses." Kevin said as he climbed into the back of the truck. "I know it's not ideal but this is what we got. Good job with that tap, Gabe."
"Thanks." Gabriel tried not to look too proud. "It went incredibly smoothly with surprisingly few hitches. Try not to look too shocked."
"Nice job with the hacking, Dom, I know it's actually really difficult and boring but you make it look easy," the woman said, rolling her eyes as she jabbed a few keys. "Since when did we start handing out gold stars?"
"Uh, I'm a millennial, remember? We need constant praise and validation to survive."
"Feud for my approval on your own time, people." Kevin said as he hunkered down behind Dom's furious typing.
"Yeah, yeah. How are w--hey, score, I'm in. Fucking terrorists, man, they're not even trying. Okay, let's do what we in the business call 'poking around someone else's shit'," Dom said, cracking her knuckles before beginning to scroll through the various folders and accounts she had gained access to. "Anything you want me to focus on in particular? Emails? Attachments? Facebook invites?"
"Email, I guess? I don't think they're incompetent enough to have a public Facebook page of their plans, but they have to have some communication channel that they think is secure enough to coordinate information."
"Yeah, I wouldn't underestimate the stupidity of the average person when it comes to computer use," Dom said. "You should see what some people think they can get away with just because they've marked something 'friends only'. That reminds me, I really should do my monthly social media check, make sure nobody at SV's let anything stupid slip."
Gabriel took a big swig of Gatorade and made a vague noise of assent. "Can you check these guys' iMessage?" He added after a second. "I don't think people realize that shit's not secure, and they use it on their laptops. Assuming monsters have Macs."
"Only monsters have Macs," came the quick reply. Then, after a pause, "...shit."
"I'm guessing you didn't find their schedule to volunteer at Sick Kids."
"Yeah, no." Dom grimaced. "They're evacuating all their members out of the city in the next few days. Three guesses why, and the first two don't count."
"Corporate retreat?" Gabriel knew it wasn't his best joke, but tension was a struggle for him.
"Try 'lots of people are gonna die' and oh, here's the best part. They've got a whole strategy lined up for how to push the blame onto mutants." It seemed impossible, but Dom's frown deepened. "Fuckers."
"Fits with rumours I've heard about them getting more... ambitious, I suppose. Any intel on what they've got planned for the weekend surprise? Locations, targets... even speculation between members?"
"I dunno, there's some gossip, nothing substantive... It's gonna take longer to look through this and figure out what the hell's actually going on. I'm just taking everything I can get right now, now that we know something is going down. You two can help me sift through it all, see if anybody's let anything slip."
"Keep an eye open for anything mentioning HELIOS. Whatever they've got planned, that name is involved." Kevin said as he pulled up his screen.
"Got it." Gabriel cracked his knuckles. "Gonna need you to spell that first."
