[Bus: Common Area]
Ward and Skye are playing Battleship, Ward said it was for training but I think he's starting to warm up to her. I can't say I'm not jealous though because of my fondness for the hacker.
I'm brought out of my thoughts when Coulson calls us into the command center, "Chan Ho Yin. Just a struggling street performer until a few years ago when Mr. Chan began to exhibit moderate pyrokinetic abilities" Coulson says
"So what gave him powers?" Fitz asks
"It's still under investigation but Chan did live near the decommissioned Wan Tai nuclear plant when it caught fire. To our knowledge, no other nearby residents hav exhibited similar traits" Coulson explains
"So how did we find out about him?" Simmons asks
"Informant saw him lighting torches in a street show. With his pinky" May says
"Brought it to SHIELD's attention. We told him to keep his abilities under wraps. He's been on the Index ever since" Coulson says
"The Index?" Skye asks
"It's a list SHIELD keeps of people and objects with powers" Simmons says
"Wait, what? How many are there? Are you saying there are more people—" Skye says before being interrupted
"Not many" May says
"Well, enough to keep a list" Skye says
"A short list. Meant to protect them" Coulson says
"Though in rare cases, SHIELD has had to take action" Ward says
"Action against objects or people?" We don't answer, "Well, that's drastic with a side of creepy. How are they monitored? Tapped phones? Satellite surveillance? Body probes n dark, unpleasant places?" Skye asks
"Body probes? Now that's ridiculous. SHIELD doesn't do that. We don't do that, do we?" Fitz asks
"The methods vary. Mr. Chan was a low risk. He was assigned a case agent who checked in with him every few days. That's how we discovered him missing" Coulson says
Then May starts speaking Chinese to the agent on the screen, "Everyone, this is Agent Kwan, Chan Ho Yin's case agent" We wave, "What can you tell us?" May asks
"Not much, I'm afraid. Chan is a magician, so, at first, I thought he'd made himself disappear" Kwan says
"The file says you'd caught him violating his Index agreement before" Coulson says
"On two separate occasions. Claimed we were hampering his artistic expression. But late last night, he was taken by professionals. The only thing they left behind was this scrap of aluminized material" Kwan says
"Fire proof clothing" Simmons says
"So whoever took him knew about his power" I say
"Yes. We think we know why. In the last few days, tech division discovered a crack into our data stream. It's the same cyberpunks who hacked us before. Somehow they got in again. It's the Rising Tide" We all look at Skye, "Hello? It got real quiet. You guys still there?" Kwan asks
[Coulson's Office]
Coulson asked Ward and I to come to his office with Skye, so she could try to explain why the Rising Tide hacked us again, "The Rising Tide is a huge organization of hacktivists from all around the world. Any of them could've done this. It wasn't me" Skye says
"No one's saying it was" Ward says as I say, "We're not saying that"
"But you're thinking it. I can see your faces thinking it" Skye says
"We're assessing the situation" Coulson says
"Then I'm sure you're taking into account that I have been living on a place with you this whole time. It would be impossible for me to hack SHIELD" Skye says
"Or easier. We're gonna need more than that" Coulson says
"Fine. Let me trace the hack and I'll prove it" Skye says
"I believe her, sir" Ward says
I look at Skye, "So do I, sir. And if she's telling the truth, we need to track down the person responsible" I tell him
He stands up, "Dig up something, and fast. The longer Mr. Chan is missing, the more danger he's in" Coulson says
[Command Center]
We're all around Skye, watching her trace the hack when Coulson walks in, "How close are we?" He asks
"Almost there" Skye says
"She's identified the remote access Trojan and infected endpoint" Fitz says
"Yeah, and is searching for a TCP to correlate a hypertext with signature information, and then, voila!" Simmons says
"Bob is your uncle" Fitz sats
"You get any of that?" Coulson asks
"Only the uncle part" Ward says
"We got our origin. Austin, Texas" Skye says
"You got a name?" Coulson asks
"Just a cafe our hacker worked out of, but I'm in the system. I'm gonna check to see if any credit card charges from that day match up with any known hackers. We got a hit" Skye says
His drivers license pops up, "Miles Lydon. Not Skye. That's to all of our relief" Fitz says
"You know him?" Coulson asks
"Every hacker in the world knows him" Skye says
"Not just the hacker world. He infiltrated the Kremlin" Simmons says
"Yeah, the picture of Putin shirtless on horseback, that was his hack" Fitz says
"It was also his hack that got Chan kidnapped" Ward says
"May, set a course for Austin" Coulson says
"Just did" May says
"What about Chan?" Skye asks
"Kwan's got a SHIELD team on the ground. Our best bet is to chase this thing from the other end. Find Mr. Lydon, bring him in, see what he knows" Coulson says
YOU ARE READING
Finally Falling
Fanfiction"Finally falling in love with you was the best feeling in the world" In which Cassandra King is plucked from the field to join a top secret SHIELD team. But on their first mission, she comes across an intriguing girl that catches her eye immediately...
