FIc: Ghost Woman Part I -Chapters 1-3 of 8
Pairing/Characters: Don, Megan, Colby, David, Charlie and OCs (Don/OFC eventually)
Rating: T (to be safe)~Don Angst + H/C+Future Romance:
Spoilers: None really but I do try to incorporate canon as much as possible
Notes/Warnings: Thanks to sororcula for betaing. Any other boo boos are mine!!! This is something that I’ve been working on for a long time. I have posted it elsewhere but now it is finally beta’d! YAY!!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs. I just like to play with them.
“There's nothing on them in the fingerprint database,” Colby said as he sat down in his seat in the LA branch of the FBI.
“What are they, ghosts?” Megan mused.
Don rubbed his jaw, where a small purple bruise was forming, and replied, “There has to be something on them, if they work for the government. Their prints have to be on file somewhere.”
Colby shrugged. “Nah, Don. It’s like they don’t exist.”
Don looked at Megan. “Have any of them said anything?”
“No, they keep just repeating their names and that phone number.”
Don sighed and stood up. “This is getting us nowhere. I’m gonna take a crack at the one named Elle. See if I can pry anything loose.”
Megan snorted. “Yeah, well good luck with that. I think you are the last person she’ll talk to.”
Don grimaced. “Yeah, well, it’s worth a shot.”
Colby leaned over to Megan and said, as Don walked to the interrogation rooms, "Better him than me any day."
Don stepped into the small viewing room to observe the woman named Elle. Her eyes were closed as if she was relaxing in a spa. His eyes roamed over her appreciatively. Her curly hair reminded him of Charlie’s, but put together with a well-toned body it equaled a very attractive, although dangerous, woman.
He rubbed his jaw again where she had hit him and considered that, if anything, her delicate features were deceiving; she was more than she seemed.
He walked into the interrogation room. Her eyes snapped open. They were as dark as the night sky and shot Don an icy, unfriendly look, making Don tread carefully. Don mused that her eyes were a stark contrast to her fair, creamy skin.
Don spoke up as he undid the handcuffs. “Let me get those.” He noticed that her biceps were sleek and muscular, explaining why her punch had such an impact. Her clothing consisted of a short sleeved black shirt that was cut short and dark jeans that hugged her hips and legs.
He watched her bring her arms forward and begin to rub the circulation back into her wrists. She continued to glare at Don but stayed silent.
“I’m Special Agent Don Eppes. It’s Elle, right? Can I get you water or something?”
The woman still refused to speak as he sat down at the metal table across from her. She stared at Don, like her eyes could bore holes through him.
Don found both her attitude and presence unsettling. Under a calm exterior, a tiny thread of alarm ran through him from being in close proximity to this woman. As a pro, he buried that down so no shadow of it carried into his voice. When he spoke, the words peppered out like a rapid fire weapon. “We ran both your prints and government ID, but we came up empty. I think you knew that would happen. What are you and the others, ghosts? How about you tell me why you were in that warehouse, armed to the teeth? Maybe if you do, we won’t have to press charges against you for assaulting a federal agent.”
She settled back into the chair and crossed her legs before repeating the same thing the other four suspects had said. “My name is Elle. Please call 818-555-6699.” When she was done speaking she stared at her fingernails for a moment before cracking her knuckles. Elle looked at the table and began to tap her fingers on the table in a steady rhythm.
Don ground his teeth as he retorted, “Yes, we called that number. It goes straight to voicemail. Whoever that phone number belongs to hasn’t returned our call yet. So again I ask, who are you? What were you doing at that warehouse?”
A tight, arrogant smile graced her lips as she leaned forward. “My name is Elle. Let me spell that for you, since I know how slow you FBI types are. E, L, L, E. My name is Elle. Please call 818-555-6699.” As she completed the repetition, she relaxed back in the chair and crossed her arms in front of her as she closed her eyes once again.
Never in Don’s life had he hit or wanted to hit a woman, but at this moment, he was beginning to reconsider that policy. His eyes narrowed as he reached up and touched the bruise where Elle had punched him. That arrogant smile she wore was getting on his last nerve. Hell, this whole thing was getting on his nerves. He could tell that he had poked through her facade since she had said more than the others in her group. “You leave me no choice; we're going to book you and the rest of your crew.”
Don was about to put the handcuffs back on her when AD Merrick’s voice came over the speaker. “Eppes.”
Don lips formed a straight line as he stalked out of the room and entered the observation room. His body hummed with annoyance at being interrupted.
Merrick looked at Don and said, “Cut them loose.”
Don snapped his head up. “What?”
“I said, cut them loose. I got a call back from that number. They’ve been cleared.”
Don’s jaw tightened. “Fine.” He gritted his teeth and walked back into the interrogation room. “The people from your phone number FINALLY got back to us. They cleared you.”
She stood up and stretched languidly like a cat. When she did that her low cut jeans gave Don a glimpse of her fit abdomen and the small black tattoo on her hip. She smirked. “Good.”
She moved to walk out of the office, but stopped inches from where Don stood. He watched her eyes flick up and down before she leaned in closer. “Tough luck, Eppes." She chuckled lightly at him. “This ghost is out of here.”
From their desks, Megan and Colby watched the “ghost” group leave the office.
Don joined his team as Megan gave him a look. “What’s going on?”
“Merrick told me to let them go. He said the phone number cleared them.”
David hung up his phone. “Hey Don, I dug a bit deeper into that number the group kept giving. It is some government prefix, but the trail ends there."
Don looked up while David was listening and caught Elle looking back at him. She caught him watching them and smirked. She mouthed the word “ghost” at him before turning her back to him to get on the elevator.
Colby groaned. “All that work down the drain now. So now what Don?”
Turning, Don growled, “Government, huh? Colby, see if we can get a tail on them.”
Megan inquired with a raised eyebrow, “Do you think that is a good idea?”
Don grunted before he sat down at his desk. "No, but we’ve worked on that case for some time and now we’re at a dead end. I want to know who they are, and how they’re involved."
Chapter 2
At the ‘ghost’ group’s headquarters the man know only as the Director growled, “You have the FBI's collective panties in a wad. How in the hell did this screw up happen?” His eyes were like two hot angry orbs as he glared at the group.
Mae fearfully answered, “Our intel told us the suspects were hiding at that location and that if we moved fast, we could intercept them with the virus. The Feds showed up right when we were apprehending the suspects.”
“Thanks to all the unfortunate confusion, your suspects got away and you idiots were the ones who were arrested!” the Director seethed.
Toro looked the Director squarely in the eye. “Unfortunately the hackers are still out there.” He paused briefly. “We could always try to salvage this case by working with the FBI,” he continued, earning himself groans of distaste from the rest of his team.
The Director glared at the team, silencing their discontent. He rubbed his chin in thought.
BJ sneered, "You’re not seriously thinking about it, sir? How are we going to maintain our level of secrecy working with them?”
Elle ventured, thoughtfully, "I think it may be a plausible idea.”
“What’s your game, Elle? You don’t readily agree to things that easy." Toro gave her a wary look.
She turned her piercing eyes on him. “No game, Toro. We need to get these guys. If that means I have to deal with the Feds again, so be it. Can’t be any worse than having to deal with you.”
He snorted at her last comment. “So what do you think?” he asked the Director. “Even Elle thinks it’s a good idea.”
Mario said dryly, “She just thinks it’s a good idea ‘cause she wants to get even with that FBI agent.”
“Oh shut up, Mario,” Elle snarled.
The Director swung his gaze at Elle. ”What’s he talking about?”
All five members of team went deathly silent.
“Speak up, someone, now!” the Director bellowed.
“Aw, hell.” Mario looked at Elle nervously, but answered the Director, "When the Feds came in they caught us all off guard, and her and some Fed named Eppes got into it. Well, actually, she did all of it. She clocked him good. I think he was pissed at her for hitting him and with his investigation going down the tubes, ‘cause he was a bit rough cuffing her.”
The Director looked at her and saw the smirk on her face. His eyes narrowed at her.
Elle immediately was put on the defensive. “Well, if I knew he was a Fed, I wouldn’t have hit him so hard, but it happened so fast! I had my gun on the suspect, when I felt this hand on my shoulder, with his voice in my ear telling me to drop my weapon.”
“What I want to know is how someone got the drop on my best team member and got close enough to touch her.” The Director’s face turned beet red as he bellowed.
Elle snarled back, “You’re not the only one who wants to know how.” She got up and stalked out of the room.
The Director glared at his team in veiled rage. “I think Toro is right. We have to salvage this case and stop them from releasing that computer virus. I’ll put a call in to the Feds and get it set up.” He looked at the team. “I will advise them that we have certain protocols that must be followed. If they want to collaborate, they will have to agree to do it our way. We may have to make a concession, by letting them take lead, but your identities will be protected at all costs. Dismissed.”
Chapter 3
Don sat at his desk, reviewing folders, when his phone rang. “Eppes?” he barked into it. “Meet with the director in five? Yeah, I’m on my way.” He got up from his desk and went to the assistant director’s office. As he stepped in the look on Merrick’s face gave Don a sense of unease.
Merrick motioned for Don to sit before speaking. “I just got a call from the NSA. They want us to work with their team to try to salvage what remains of the cyber virus case.”
Don raised an eyebrow. “The NSA? What do they have to do with this case?”
Merrick leaned forward and made a resigned gesture with his hands. “Look, Don, all I can tell you is this. The team you guys nabbed yesterday - they’re NSA. The cyber thieves we were after... well, it turns out they work for someone who is developing a super virus, which is a huge threat to national security, and that is why the NSA is involved. It has been decided that the FBI and NSA will collaborate on this. Listen up: YOU will be in charge of this. That team is taking their lead from you, so utilize them as you see fit. They should be here within the next half hour.”
Don looked at his boss, more than a little stunned at the unforeseen turn of events.
“And Don, they’re a covert op team, identities are on a need to know only.”
Don went back to his desk and informed his team of the situation.
Colby’s jaw dropped in disbelief as he exclaimed, “You mean we're going to be working with those people? And they work for the NSA?”
Don nodded. “That’s what Merrick said. So, no more digging into their identities. They're covert ops and their backgrounds are off limits.”
Don looked over and spied the “ghost” group entering the bullpen area. They carried a few boxes of information but stopped when Assistant Director Merrick saw them. He pointed at where Don and his team were sitting; they nodded and walked over to them.
The two teams stood there and sized each other up with cold stares. Finally Toro broke the silence. “We brought what information we had with us. Where do you want it?”
Don mentally began to assess the NSA agents as he replied, "Follow me. You can put it in this conference room." He motioned for them to follow them to the room that he and his team called the ‘war room’. Once there he opened the door, allowing the two teams to file in.
Megan turned with a pleasant smile. “I’m Special Agent Megan Reeves. This is Special Agent In Charge Don Eppes, and Special Agents David Sinclair and Colby Granger. The restrooms are down the hall, and we have coffee in the break room if you’d like some.”
Toro nodded at Megan. “You can call me Toro. I’m team leader of this group. This is Mae, she’s our data miner.” Mae looked up from the laptop she had started to set up and smiled nervously. “This is BJ, our profiler.”
BJ gave an unfriendly look to the four agents and went back to pulling out case files.
Toro continued, “The big guy is Mario."
Mario walked over and shook each agent’s hand. He said, in a strong, Southern drawl, “You want to know about explosives or weapons, I’m your man.” Mario pointed to Elle. "And this is Elle, who, among other things, is our decryption analyst." He turned a sly smile at Don. “We like to call her ‘the weapon' and I believe Agent Eppes here saw her in action first hand.”
Don glared at Mario and noticed that Elle also shot the big man an annoyed look.
Her gaze met Don’s briefly before she quickly looked away. Don muttered, “Yeah, don’t remind me.”
Toro turned to everyone and said, “Well, now that all the niceties are done, where do you want to start, Eppes?”
“Why don’t you tell us a bit about your side of the case, and we’ll do the same on our end. Hopefully we can plug in the holes that led to yesterday’s fiasco," Don said, with emphasis on the word 'fiasco.' The two teams sat down and went through their cases and intel step by step.
A few hours passed and Don decided that he would call Charlie to see if he could come up with some type of expression to narrow down their search grid. He had Colby and David work with Mario and Mae to sort through the data to see what was redundant on both sides. Megan and BJ went through the profiles of the suspects they had fingered to see if they could shake loose any new information. Don and the remainder of the “ghost” group checked up on the newest leads.
Elle stood up and cracked her neck. “Gonna get some coffee. Anybody want some?” Don caught a glimpse of the small tattoo again on her hip when she stretched.
Everyone shook his or her head no in reply. She got up and walked out of the conference room.
A few moments later, Don’s eyes were bleary from reading through the reports and he thought that coffee sounded like a good idea. He got up and headed towards the break room. He saw Elle pour a cup of coffee and blow over the rim; she then took a sip of the coffee and grimaced after tasting it. He heard her mumble as he stepped into the room, "Feds, can't even get a good cup of coffee."
He quirked her a smile and said, “You work for the government, you should know that our coffee is terrible.” He poured himself a cup of the hot liquid and added cream and sugar to it.
She replied dryly as she handed him a swizzle stick, “You would think.”
Unnerved by her almost friendly demeanor, he took the stick from her and stirred his coffee. He sucked the stick for a moment while pondering the woman who stood before him. He scanned her appearance. She was very attractive, if maybe a little too thin. She was pretty much the type of woman Don found him self attracted too, beautiful, seemingly self-assured and intelligent. She wore minimal makeup, if any, and her curly hair was tied back in a clasp at the back of her neck. She was dressed in khaki cargo pants and a brown t-shirt that fit her like a glove. While biting on the swizzle stick, he said in an amused tone, "So ghosts drink it black?”
Elle looked up from her coffee. Don saw a smile threaten to form at the corners of her mouth in response. He found his lips beginning to mirror a grin of his own.
After a moment she finally responded, “No extra additives. That’s how we ghosts stay transparent.”
He snorted in amusement at her glib comment.
They stood in silence for a moment drinking their coffee.
"So how’s your face?" she asked as she stepped towards him, leaning in closely, her body mere inches away from his. Don watched her hand instinctively rise up to touch his face, her eyes darkening, but a second later she stopped herself from the intimate act.
"Hurts, but I’m sure I will heal," he said, hiding how uncomfortable he felt with her body in such proximity to his.
"I’m sure you will."
He then added, "You pack one hell of a punch."
Her lips once again curled up with a small smile. "I’ve heard that rumor.”
Finally tearing his gaze from hers, he said, “Well I should get back.”
“Yeah, sure.” He watched the friendliness that she had momentarily worn slide off her face to be replaced by the woman whom he dubbed in his head the ‘ghost woman.' She turned her back to him and poured herself a second cup of coffee. Don looked at Elle and again wondered who this woman truly was when no one was looking. There was something more to her but he couldn’t quite place it. He observed her for a moment before leaving the break room. On his way back to the conference room he ran into Charlie, who had just gotten there.
“Hey, buddy. Thanks for coming to help.”
“Yeah, sure, Don. Glad to try to help. Hey, how’s your jaw feeling? I ran into Megan and she said someone by the name of Elle punched you yesterday.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Don said, waving off Charlie’s inquiry. “Yeah, let me fill you in.” Don took Charlie aside and gave him a quick rundown of the events from yesterday and that morning. They walked into the conference room. Charlie greeted the other members of the FBI team.
Don introduced his brother to the “ghost group.” “That is Toro, Mario, BJ, and Mae on the computer. This is my brother, Dr. Charles Eppes. He is an applied mathematician and has helped us before on cases.”
Mae jumped up and ran over to Charlie. “Wow, you're Dr. Eppes. I loved your paper on H Infinity Control of Non-Linear Systems. I have read all of your work. I can’t wait to read your next article in American Journal of Mathematics. This is absolutely so fantastic that I’ll be working with you.”
Charlie looked a little embarrassed at the attention the younger woman gave him, but was able to mumble a sincere thank you.
Elle walked back in the office. “So what did I miss?” she said to Mario.
Mario answered, “Apparently our little Mae has met her math hero.”
“Math hero?” She waved her hand. “Forget I asked.”
Don decided that he'd better rescue his brother from the adulations of the data miner. Seeing a puzzled expression on the black op’s face, he introduced Elle to his brother. “This is Dr. Charles Eppes; he is a professor of applied mathematics.”
She extended her hand to Charlie. “I’m Elle.”
Charlie smiled warmly. “Hello.”
Don continued talking. “He’s worked with us on past cases. Sometimes he gives a unique look into the data we are investigating. I asked him to see if he can analyze our data using some type of math theory.”
“Math, yeah, it has all kinds of practical uses besides balancing one's checkbook. I use Asymmetric-key algorithms when I decrypt all the time,“ she replied with a nod of her to Charlie.
Charlie said, with some surprise in his voice, “You know what Asymmetric-key algorithms are?”
“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?” she answered with a shrug.
Charlie gave her a bemused look and then turned towards his brother. “Wow, someone in the FBI understands what I am talking about for once.”
Elle replied, sounding insulted, "I'm not a fed. I'm NSA.”
“Ah, that explains it,” Charlie chuckled.
Don squinted his eyes at Charlie’s comment and grunted a reply.
Elle scanned the two men before carefully asking. “Brothers?”
Charlie shot a wicked grin to Don and said, “Yeah, could be worse.”
Don shot him a scowl back. “ Yeah, yeah, real funny. How about dropping the routine and getting to work.”
“Pleasure to meet you, then.” She gave a smile towards Charlie before heading over to talk to Toro.
Charlie said privately to Don as he watched Elle walk away, “Hey, wait, isn’t she the one that hit you?”
Don shot him an annoyed look, making Charlie grin. “It was. I think I’m gonna like her.”
Rating: T (to be safe)~Don Angst + H/C+Future Romance:
Spoilers: None really but I do try to incorporate canon as much as possible
Notes/Warnings: Thanks to sororcula for betaing. Any other boo boos are mine!!! This is something that I’ve been working on for a long time. I have posted it elsewhere but now it is finally beta’d! YAY!!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs. I just like to play with them.
“There's nothing on them in the fingerprint database,” Colby said as he sat down in his seat in the LA branch of the FBI.
“What are they, ghosts?” Megan mused.
Don rubbed his jaw, where a small purple bruise was forming, and replied, “There has to be something on them, if they work for the government. Their prints have to be on file somewhere.”
Colby shrugged. “Nah, Don. It’s like they don’t exist.”
Don looked at Megan. “Have any of them said anything?”
“No, they keep just repeating their names and that phone number.”
Don sighed and stood up. “This is getting us nowhere. I’m gonna take a crack at the one named Elle. See if I can pry anything loose.”
Megan snorted. “Yeah, well good luck with that. I think you are the last person she’ll talk to.”
Don grimaced. “Yeah, well, it’s worth a shot.”
Colby leaned over to Megan and said, as Don walked to the interrogation rooms, "Better him than me any day."
Don stepped into the small viewing room to observe the woman named Elle. Her eyes were closed as if she was relaxing in a spa. His eyes roamed over her appreciatively. Her curly hair reminded him of Charlie’s, but put together with a well-toned body it equaled a very attractive, although dangerous, woman.
He rubbed his jaw again where she had hit him and considered that, if anything, her delicate features were deceiving; she was more than she seemed.
He walked into the interrogation room. Her eyes snapped open. They were as dark as the night sky and shot Don an icy, unfriendly look, making Don tread carefully. Don mused that her eyes were a stark contrast to her fair, creamy skin.
Don spoke up as he undid the handcuffs. “Let me get those.” He noticed that her biceps were sleek and muscular, explaining why her punch had such an impact. Her clothing consisted of a short sleeved black shirt that was cut short and dark jeans that hugged her hips and legs.
He watched her bring her arms forward and begin to rub the circulation back into her wrists. She continued to glare at Don but stayed silent.
“I’m Special Agent Don Eppes. It’s Elle, right? Can I get you water or something?”
The woman still refused to speak as he sat down at the metal table across from her. She stared at Don, like her eyes could bore holes through him.
Don found both her attitude and presence unsettling. Under a calm exterior, a tiny thread of alarm ran through him from being in close proximity to this woman. As a pro, he buried that down so no shadow of it carried into his voice. When he spoke, the words peppered out like a rapid fire weapon. “We ran both your prints and government ID, but we came up empty. I think you knew that would happen. What are you and the others, ghosts? How about you tell me why you were in that warehouse, armed to the teeth? Maybe if you do, we won’t have to press charges against you for assaulting a federal agent.”
She settled back into the chair and crossed her legs before repeating the same thing the other four suspects had said. “My name is Elle. Please call 818-555-6699.” When she was done speaking she stared at her fingernails for a moment before cracking her knuckles. Elle looked at the table and began to tap her fingers on the table in a steady rhythm.
Don ground his teeth as he retorted, “Yes, we called that number. It goes straight to voicemail. Whoever that phone number belongs to hasn’t returned our call yet. So again I ask, who are you? What were you doing at that warehouse?”
A tight, arrogant smile graced her lips as she leaned forward. “My name is Elle. Let me spell that for you, since I know how slow you FBI types are. E, L, L, E. My name is Elle. Please call 818-555-6699.” As she completed the repetition, she relaxed back in the chair and crossed her arms in front of her as she closed her eyes once again.
Never in Don’s life had he hit or wanted to hit a woman, but at this moment, he was beginning to reconsider that policy. His eyes narrowed as he reached up and touched the bruise where Elle had punched him. That arrogant smile she wore was getting on his last nerve. Hell, this whole thing was getting on his nerves. He could tell that he had poked through her facade since she had said more than the others in her group. “You leave me no choice; we're going to book you and the rest of your crew.”
Don was about to put the handcuffs back on her when AD Merrick’s voice came over the speaker. “Eppes.”
Don lips formed a straight line as he stalked out of the room and entered the observation room. His body hummed with annoyance at being interrupted.
Merrick looked at Don and said, “Cut them loose.”
Don snapped his head up. “What?”
“I said, cut them loose. I got a call back from that number. They’ve been cleared.”
Don’s jaw tightened. “Fine.” He gritted his teeth and walked back into the interrogation room. “The people from your phone number FINALLY got back to us. They cleared you.”
She stood up and stretched languidly like a cat. When she did that her low cut jeans gave Don a glimpse of her fit abdomen and the small black tattoo on her hip. She smirked. “Good.”
She moved to walk out of the office, but stopped inches from where Don stood. He watched her eyes flick up and down before she leaned in closer. “Tough luck, Eppes." She chuckled lightly at him. “This ghost is out of here.”
From their desks, Megan and Colby watched the “ghost” group leave the office.
Don joined his team as Megan gave him a look. “What’s going on?”
“Merrick told me to let them go. He said the phone number cleared them.”
David hung up his phone. “Hey Don, I dug a bit deeper into that number the group kept giving. It is some government prefix, but the trail ends there."
Don looked up while David was listening and caught Elle looking back at him. She caught him watching them and smirked. She mouthed the word “ghost” at him before turning her back to him to get on the elevator.
Colby groaned. “All that work down the drain now. So now what Don?”
Turning, Don growled, “Government, huh? Colby, see if we can get a tail on them.”
Megan inquired with a raised eyebrow, “Do you think that is a good idea?”
Don grunted before he sat down at his desk. "No, but we’ve worked on that case for some time and now we’re at a dead end. I want to know who they are, and how they’re involved."
Chapter 2
At the ‘ghost’ group’s headquarters the man know only as the Director growled, “You have the FBI's collective panties in a wad. How in the hell did this screw up happen?” His eyes were like two hot angry orbs as he glared at the group.
Mae fearfully answered, “Our intel told us the suspects were hiding at that location and that if we moved fast, we could intercept them with the virus. The Feds showed up right when we were apprehending the suspects.”
“Thanks to all the unfortunate confusion, your suspects got away and you idiots were the ones who were arrested!” the Director seethed.
Toro looked the Director squarely in the eye. “Unfortunately the hackers are still out there.” He paused briefly. “We could always try to salvage this case by working with the FBI,” he continued, earning himself groans of distaste from the rest of his team.
The Director glared at the team, silencing their discontent. He rubbed his chin in thought.
BJ sneered, "You’re not seriously thinking about it, sir? How are we going to maintain our level of secrecy working with them?”
Elle ventured, thoughtfully, "I think it may be a plausible idea.”
“What’s your game, Elle? You don’t readily agree to things that easy." Toro gave her a wary look.
She turned her piercing eyes on him. “No game, Toro. We need to get these guys. If that means I have to deal with the Feds again, so be it. Can’t be any worse than having to deal with you.”
He snorted at her last comment. “So what do you think?” he asked the Director. “Even Elle thinks it’s a good idea.”
Mario said dryly, “She just thinks it’s a good idea ‘cause she wants to get even with that FBI agent.”
“Oh shut up, Mario,” Elle snarled.
The Director swung his gaze at Elle. ”What’s he talking about?”
All five members of team went deathly silent.
“Speak up, someone, now!” the Director bellowed.
“Aw, hell.” Mario looked at Elle nervously, but answered the Director, "When the Feds came in they caught us all off guard, and her and some Fed named Eppes got into it. Well, actually, she did all of it. She clocked him good. I think he was pissed at her for hitting him and with his investigation going down the tubes, ‘cause he was a bit rough cuffing her.”
The Director looked at her and saw the smirk on her face. His eyes narrowed at her.
Elle immediately was put on the defensive. “Well, if I knew he was a Fed, I wouldn’t have hit him so hard, but it happened so fast! I had my gun on the suspect, when I felt this hand on my shoulder, with his voice in my ear telling me to drop my weapon.”
“What I want to know is how someone got the drop on my best team member and got close enough to touch her.” The Director’s face turned beet red as he bellowed.
Elle snarled back, “You’re not the only one who wants to know how.” She got up and stalked out of the room.
The Director glared at his team in veiled rage. “I think Toro is right. We have to salvage this case and stop them from releasing that computer virus. I’ll put a call in to the Feds and get it set up.” He looked at the team. “I will advise them that we have certain protocols that must be followed. If they want to collaborate, they will have to agree to do it our way. We may have to make a concession, by letting them take lead, but your identities will be protected at all costs. Dismissed.”
Chapter 3
Don sat at his desk, reviewing folders, when his phone rang. “Eppes?” he barked into it. “Meet with the director in five? Yeah, I’m on my way.” He got up from his desk and went to the assistant director’s office. As he stepped in the look on Merrick’s face gave Don a sense of unease.
Merrick motioned for Don to sit before speaking. “I just got a call from the NSA. They want us to work with their team to try to salvage what remains of the cyber virus case.”
Don raised an eyebrow. “The NSA? What do they have to do with this case?”
Merrick leaned forward and made a resigned gesture with his hands. “Look, Don, all I can tell you is this. The team you guys nabbed yesterday - they’re NSA. The cyber thieves we were after... well, it turns out they work for someone who is developing a super virus, which is a huge threat to national security, and that is why the NSA is involved. It has been decided that the FBI and NSA will collaborate on this. Listen up: YOU will be in charge of this. That team is taking their lead from you, so utilize them as you see fit. They should be here within the next half hour.”
Don looked at his boss, more than a little stunned at the unforeseen turn of events.
“And Don, they’re a covert op team, identities are on a need to know only.”
Don went back to his desk and informed his team of the situation.
Colby’s jaw dropped in disbelief as he exclaimed, “You mean we're going to be working with those people? And they work for the NSA?”
Don nodded. “That’s what Merrick said. So, no more digging into their identities. They're covert ops and their backgrounds are off limits.”
Don looked over and spied the “ghost” group entering the bullpen area. They carried a few boxes of information but stopped when Assistant Director Merrick saw them. He pointed at where Don and his team were sitting; they nodded and walked over to them.
The two teams stood there and sized each other up with cold stares. Finally Toro broke the silence. “We brought what information we had with us. Where do you want it?”
Don mentally began to assess the NSA agents as he replied, "Follow me. You can put it in this conference room." He motioned for them to follow them to the room that he and his team called the ‘war room’. Once there he opened the door, allowing the two teams to file in.
Megan turned with a pleasant smile. “I’m Special Agent Megan Reeves. This is Special Agent In Charge Don Eppes, and Special Agents David Sinclair and Colby Granger. The restrooms are down the hall, and we have coffee in the break room if you’d like some.”
Toro nodded at Megan. “You can call me Toro. I’m team leader of this group. This is Mae, she’s our data miner.” Mae looked up from the laptop she had started to set up and smiled nervously. “This is BJ, our profiler.”
BJ gave an unfriendly look to the four agents and went back to pulling out case files.
Toro continued, “The big guy is Mario."
Mario walked over and shook each agent’s hand. He said, in a strong, Southern drawl, “You want to know about explosives or weapons, I’m your man.” Mario pointed to Elle. "And this is Elle, who, among other things, is our decryption analyst." He turned a sly smile at Don. “We like to call her ‘the weapon' and I believe Agent Eppes here saw her in action first hand.”
Don glared at Mario and noticed that Elle also shot the big man an annoyed look.
Her gaze met Don’s briefly before she quickly looked away. Don muttered, “Yeah, don’t remind me.”
Toro turned to everyone and said, “Well, now that all the niceties are done, where do you want to start, Eppes?”
“Why don’t you tell us a bit about your side of the case, and we’ll do the same on our end. Hopefully we can plug in the holes that led to yesterday’s fiasco," Don said, with emphasis on the word 'fiasco.' The two teams sat down and went through their cases and intel step by step.
A few hours passed and Don decided that he would call Charlie to see if he could come up with some type of expression to narrow down their search grid. He had Colby and David work with Mario and Mae to sort through the data to see what was redundant on both sides. Megan and BJ went through the profiles of the suspects they had fingered to see if they could shake loose any new information. Don and the remainder of the “ghost” group checked up on the newest leads.
Elle stood up and cracked her neck. “Gonna get some coffee. Anybody want some?” Don caught a glimpse of the small tattoo again on her hip when she stretched.
Everyone shook his or her head no in reply. She got up and walked out of the conference room.
A few moments later, Don’s eyes were bleary from reading through the reports and he thought that coffee sounded like a good idea. He got up and headed towards the break room. He saw Elle pour a cup of coffee and blow over the rim; she then took a sip of the coffee and grimaced after tasting it. He heard her mumble as he stepped into the room, "Feds, can't even get a good cup of coffee."
He quirked her a smile and said, “You work for the government, you should know that our coffee is terrible.” He poured himself a cup of the hot liquid and added cream and sugar to it.
She replied dryly as she handed him a swizzle stick, “You would think.”
Unnerved by her almost friendly demeanor, he took the stick from her and stirred his coffee. He sucked the stick for a moment while pondering the woman who stood before him. He scanned her appearance. She was very attractive, if maybe a little too thin. She was pretty much the type of woman Don found him self attracted too, beautiful, seemingly self-assured and intelligent. She wore minimal makeup, if any, and her curly hair was tied back in a clasp at the back of her neck. She was dressed in khaki cargo pants and a brown t-shirt that fit her like a glove. While biting on the swizzle stick, he said in an amused tone, "So ghosts drink it black?”
Elle looked up from her coffee. Don saw a smile threaten to form at the corners of her mouth in response. He found his lips beginning to mirror a grin of his own.
After a moment she finally responded, “No extra additives. That’s how we ghosts stay transparent.”
He snorted in amusement at her glib comment.
They stood in silence for a moment drinking their coffee.
"So how’s your face?" she asked as she stepped towards him, leaning in closely, her body mere inches away from his. Don watched her hand instinctively rise up to touch his face, her eyes darkening, but a second later she stopped herself from the intimate act.
"Hurts, but I’m sure I will heal," he said, hiding how uncomfortable he felt with her body in such proximity to his.
"I’m sure you will."
He then added, "You pack one hell of a punch."
Her lips once again curled up with a small smile. "I’ve heard that rumor.”
Finally tearing his gaze from hers, he said, “Well I should get back.”
“Yeah, sure.” He watched the friendliness that she had momentarily worn slide off her face to be replaced by the woman whom he dubbed in his head the ‘ghost woman.' She turned her back to him and poured herself a second cup of coffee. Don looked at Elle and again wondered who this woman truly was when no one was looking. There was something more to her but he couldn’t quite place it. He observed her for a moment before leaving the break room. On his way back to the conference room he ran into Charlie, who had just gotten there.
“Hey, buddy. Thanks for coming to help.”
“Yeah, sure, Don. Glad to try to help. Hey, how’s your jaw feeling? I ran into Megan and she said someone by the name of Elle punched you yesterday.”
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Don said, waving off Charlie’s inquiry. “Yeah, let me fill you in.” Don took Charlie aside and gave him a quick rundown of the events from yesterday and that morning. They walked into the conference room. Charlie greeted the other members of the FBI team.
Don introduced his brother to the “ghost group.” “That is Toro, Mario, BJ, and Mae on the computer. This is my brother, Dr. Charles Eppes. He is an applied mathematician and has helped us before on cases.”
Mae jumped up and ran over to Charlie. “Wow, you're Dr. Eppes. I loved your paper on H Infinity Control of Non-Linear Systems. I have read all of your work. I can’t wait to read your next article in American Journal of Mathematics. This is absolutely so fantastic that I’ll be working with you.”
Charlie looked a little embarrassed at the attention the younger woman gave him, but was able to mumble a sincere thank you.
Elle walked back in the office. “So what did I miss?” she said to Mario.
Mario answered, “Apparently our little Mae has met her math hero.”
“Math hero?” She waved her hand. “Forget I asked.”
Don decided that he'd better rescue his brother from the adulations of the data miner. Seeing a puzzled expression on the black op’s face, he introduced Elle to his brother. “This is Dr. Charles Eppes; he is a professor of applied mathematics.”
She extended her hand to Charlie. “I’m Elle.”
Charlie smiled warmly. “Hello.”
Don continued talking. “He’s worked with us on past cases. Sometimes he gives a unique look into the data we are investigating. I asked him to see if he can analyze our data using some type of math theory.”
“Math, yeah, it has all kinds of practical uses besides balancing one's checkbook. I use Asymmetric-key algorithms when I decrypt all the time,“ she replied with a nod of her to Charlie.
Charlie said, with some surprise in his voice, “You know what Asymmetric-key algorithms are?”
“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?” she answered with a shrug.
Charlie gave her a bemused look and then turned towards his brother. “Wow, someone in the FBI understands what I am talking about for once.”
Elle replied, sounding insulted, "I'm not a fed. I'm NSA.”
“Ah, that explains it,” Charlie chuckled.
Don squinted his eyes at Charlie’s comment and grunted a reply.
Elle scanned the two men before carefully asking. “Brothers?”
Charlie shot a wicked grin to Don and said, “Yeah, could be worse.”
Don shot him a scowl back. “ Yeah, yeah, real funny. How about dropping the routine and getting to work.”
“Pleasure to meet you, then.” She gave a smile towards Charlie before heading over to talk to Toro.
Charlie said privately to Don as he watched Elle walk away, “Hey, wait, isn’t she the one that hit you?”
Don shot him an annoyed look, making Charlie grin. “It was. I think I’m gonna like her.”