+18 eps. 17-21 - After a hard case that takes the team to DC in order to catch a blackhat and prevent a bombing, all hell breaks loose on their return to Boston , when the ghost of the Libra killer comes back to torture Brock seven years after the m...
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Back at the Hive, the waiting allowed the techs to relax, and the volume of their banter escalated. But all of them trailed off when Connor stood up, face to the screens, with one hand in the air and the other to his earphone. Tanya kept her eyes on her computer when Gillian said two targets were in the wind as planned.
Connor looked at the girl, saw her nod and faced the techs. His deep voice filled the Hive. "Battle stations! He's coming!"
Garret answered the questions from the brass, trying not to get too technical. Until Wright frowned and pointed at the Hive.
"What's going on?" he asked.
She turned to the glass wall and her eyes widened: four screens across the room were already on and covered with changing lines of code in different colors.
"The subject is attacking us," she replied, years of experience working to keep her voice calm.
"What? And we didn't notice?" asked the Deputy Director.
The Director stood up and buttoned his suit coat in a single, fluid move. "Let's go."
Even Garret was surprised at the thick silence looming over the Hive, hardly disturbed by the soft, regular murmur of typing. She stood with the brass on the balcony, unnoticed by the techs down there. Another screen came to life. The number three flashed in red for five seconds. From the balcony, they saw a tech crack his fingers and start typing. The card on his screen read "3". The brass turned to Garret for an explanation.
She turned her back to the techs and kept her voice low. "The subject is trying to hack our mainframe, unaware it's actually a mirror, not our real servers," she said. "Any system has automatic verification and defense protocols. Our mirror doesn't." She waited for the men to wear some puzzled frowns, then she smiled. "Our techs are acting as those protocols."
Instead of approval nods and congratulations for such a clever plan, the men around her frowned deeper.
Garret swallowed a sigh. "Our techs copy the software behavior, but as they do, they're attacking the subject at the same time."
"To kick him out of our system?" asked some aide.
"To dare him and keep him busy."
One more screen came to life, the number four flashing on it until passing lines of codes replaced it.
"Why do we want this man attacking our system?" asked the Deputy Director.
"He's not into our system, sir, but into a duplicate of it. And we want to keep him busy to give Agent Gillian a chance to arrest him."
"Shit!" a tech cried down there.
Everybody around shushed him to shut up.
"He's beaten one of our techs," explained Garret. "Two more will take his place. They'll keep releasing malware hidden in their response."
"Malware, you mean, like, a virus?" asked the Director.
"Yes, sir. Every of our techs brought one virus and one worm of their own making today, to try to bring the subject down."
Another tech snorted as more screens kept coming to life. Garret and the brass approached the handrail. Ten techs worked now, besides Tanya and Connor, who faked the main access route and coordinated the techs.
"He's fighting ten of ours at the same time?" asked the Director, admiration and concern mixing in his voice.
"Yes, because we're fighting to lose, sir. If our techs deployed all their skill, he'd realize what's going on right away and back down before we can trace him and confirm his location."
Three screens flashed new numbers.
"Incoming!" warned Connor. "Get ready!"
The brass frowned. All of a sudden, all the active screens went black.
"Three!" Connor counted out loud. "Two! One!"
All the screens covering the wall were turned on at the same time, showing endless lines of red code.
"Now!" thundered Connor.
All the techs started typing at the same time, at a furious speed. The brass turned their questioning looks to Garret, who could only shake her head. She didn't know what was going on anymore.
From the first row, typing in her usual Warp 5, eyes fixed on the wall of screens, Tanya whispered on the radio, "You're on, Reg."
.
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Keep reading on the next episode: BLACKBIRD 19 - one libra
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