NIGHT FLIER

Kitty walked into Forge's workshop and immediately frowned in surprise. Forge was furiously pounding away at a computer keyboard, obviously lost in thought. That wasn't too unusual, but whatever Forge was doing, he was pretty wrapped up in it. He hadn't even noticed Kitty enter the room.

"Hey, Forge, what's up?" Kitty asked.

Forge's response was to squeak in surprise and leap out of his chair. He ended up a good two yards away from his computer, with his back up against a wall, staring at Kitty with comically wide-open eyes.

"Oh, for Pete's sake," Kitty said disgustedly. Then she stalked over to Forge's desk, picked up his mega-sized cafe mocha with double-espresso, and dropped it into the trashcan. It impacted with a very solid thump.

"You are so completely, utterly, totally, cut-off," Kitty said with an exasperated shake of her head. "And I'm gonna take a crowbar to that coffee-machine of yours."

Forge's "coffee-machine" was a minor legend. It was on the other side of the workshop. It covered an entire lab table and rumor had it that both Starbucks and Dr. Doom would kill to get the plans. Forge had once casually told Kitty that it was nuclear-powered, but Kitty was 70% sure that it really wasn't.

By now Forge was leaning against the wall as his breathing slowly returned to normal.

"Don't sneak up on people like that!" he suddenly yelled.

Kitty sat down in the chair Forge had been sitting in and glanced at the monitor, "I didn't sneak up on you! I just walked in the door. What's gotten into you, Forge? I mean besides enough caffeine to keep a Tyrannosaurus Rex going all night long?"

Forge skittered over to where Kitty was sitting and yanked Kitty's chair away from the desk. In fact, he almost yanked it right out from under her ass.

"Nothing's wrong!" Forge said hastily as he rolled the chair through the lab door while a shocked Kitty held on tight with both hands.

"I'mbusygotthingstodoseeyoulater!" Forge rattled off as he slammed the lab door in Kitty's face.

And Kitty was left alone in the hallway.

"No," Kitty said slowly to herself as she contemplated the lab door. "There was absolutely nothing strange about that at all."

The lab door opened again. Forge was standing there with a resigned look on his face.

"That was pretty rude, wasn't it?" he said.

Kitty crossed her arms and nodded her head. She didn't trust herself to say anything.

"And you're just going to phase through the wall and ask me what the hell is wrong with me. And you won't let it go until you have an explanation. Am I right?"

Kitty nodded again.

With a sigh, Forge stepped away from the door and said, "Come on in."

Kitty got up and pushed the chair back into the lab. As she tucked the chair back behind the desk, she said, "So... why the attack of extreme social-incompetence? I mean, that was pretty amazing even for you."

Forge pulled another chair over to the desk and collapsed into it. Kitty took the hint and planted herself as well.

"Our network got hacked last night," Forge said mournfully. "The good news is that nothing critical was compromised, but some of our security video files were copied."

Kitty frowned, "Okay, that's definitely a problem, but you just said we didn't lose anything critical. Why are you so wound up?"

A disgusted expression appeared on Forge's face, "It's like this: we've got an... issue... with the security and surveillance system and I've been trying to figure out a way to deal with it. So I had some of the data files in question on our development server where I could easily access them. Well, it turns out that the d-server had a security flaw and someone managed to exploit it. I'm trying to backtrack to whoever did it."

Kitty nodded as she effortlessly slid into geek-mode, "Are you sure we didn't lose anything important? What was in those files?"

Forge took a deep breath, "Like I said, nothing mission-critical. But some of those files are kinda... sensitive. I mean... well... the stuff on some of those files..."

Then he ground to a halt.

"Darn it, Forge!" Kitty said irritably. "Tell me what's going on!"

"Okay! But let me give you the background. What do you know about our video-surveillance system?"

"Cameras feeding standard video to a pattern-matching system via our network," Kitty said promptly.

Forge nodded. Pattern-matching was a means of analysis in which information was checked for input that didn't fit the normal range of activity. When a pattern-matching program was applied to video data, it was triggered by anything that struck the program as unusual. By definition, if something unusual was happening, then it was a matter of interest in terms of security. A simple pattern-matching system might simply note motion in an area where there normally wasn't much movement. A more sophisticated system would ignore extraneous factors like trees blowing in the wind. An even more sophisticated system would ignore artifacts caused by wind while it specifically look for mobile, two-legged, figures carrying linear objects. And so on.

The pattern-matching programs that Forge had applied to the mansion's security network were incredibly sophisticated. They were better than the software the CIA and US military was using in Iraq and Afghanistan and some other places that for various reasons didn't appear in the evening news. And it was on par with - maybe even a bit better than - software that the National Security Agency was willing to kill to keep secret.

"So what's wrong?" Kitty asked curiously. "Is the system having a problem with acuity?"

"No," Forge said dryly. Then he keyed up a video-display.

Kitty blinked in surprise. The display showed a view from one of the stealthed camera drones that circled the mansion at an altitude of over a thousand feet. It was of a red sports-car departing the mansion. Kitty instantly recognized it as Scott's classic Corvette convertible. Then the camera zoomed in and Kitty could see that Scott and Jean were together in the front seats. They seemed to be laughing about something, although the drone wasn't able to provide sound to go along with the audio. Kitty took a moment to marvel at the clarity of the image. Yes, the angle was a bit awkward, but it almost as if Kitty was just a few yards away from her friends.

Jean snuggled up against Scott, and they kissed tenderly as the car cleared the mansion gate. Kitty couldn't help but smile at that.

And then Jean leaned her face into Scott's lap and started unzipping his fly.

Kitty squeaked in surprise. Then she leaped out of her chair and away from the computer monitor.

Forge was looking closely at Kitty with his head cocked to the side, "You know, I don't think I've ever seen anyone blush that red before."

Frantically waving her hands at the monitor screen, Kitty yelled at Forge, "Turn it off! Turn it off! Turn it off!"

Jean's head was moving up and down in a steady, age-old, rhythm. Meanwhile, Scott was leaning back in his seat as his free hand ran through Jean's long red hair.

Forge hit a key and the video display vanished.

Kitty took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Holy cow," she said softly. Of course, Jean and Scott were a couple. They shared a room, and it shouldn't be a surprise to her or anyone else that things between them got physical. But... this... it was just... well...

"You know how those two are always talking about basketball?" Forge asked.

Kitty blinked in surprise at the seemingly completely unrelated statement and then nodded.

"I think that's how Jean pays off whenever she loses a bet," Forge continued analytically. "That was last week's Celtics game."

Kitty was about to slug Forge, and then she realized something, "Wait! You mean that was one of the files that got copied?!"

Forge nodded miserably.

More than a little embarrassed, Kitty sat back down in her chair. Closing her eyes, she massaged her temples and tried to think.

"Sorry," she said. "We've got a serious problem here and I flipped-out like a seventeen year-old girl as soon as I saw something... unusual. So Scott and Jean do the things that couples do. Lucky them. I'm happy for them."

"Kitty, you are a seventeen year-old girl," Forge sighed.

"That's not the point!"

Forge threw his hands up, "Okay! It's not the point! Now, can we get on with this?"

Kitty nodded. After all, she had to do something besides sit around and wonder if maybe she could quietly ask Jean for some advice on some things that Kitty didn't have a lot of experience with.

Later on, Kitty thought distractedly to herself, she would take a cold shower. Or maybe a hot shower. A long, hot shower. With Bobby. Who she kept putting off and wasn't sure why. Except she really did know why. It was about Peter, of course, who was back in Russia taking care of his family. They exchanged emails regularly and she knew Peter wasn't coming back any time soon. And she really wasn't being fair to Bobby who was a cute and decent guy...

Hey, how about a nice, long, hot shower with Bobby AND Peter? In fact, while she was fantasizing, maybe they could invite Scott and Jean and then...

"My shower's not big enough," Kitty muttered to herself.

"What's wrong with your shower?" Forge asked curiously.

Kitty instantly jerked from her stream-of-consciousness-wet-and-slippery-fantasy-land and back to reality.

"Nothing," Kitty said in her best tough-grrrl growl - she'd adapted it from Logan. "Do you know exactly which files were copied?"

"Yeah, it's in the activity log. Of course, they aren't all like... what I showed you earlier. But you get the idea. Lots of stuff turns up in the surveillance video feed that's private or awkward. And that stuff tends to trigger the pattern-matching program as being 'unusual'. I was trying to figure out a way to filter that sort of thing out while not losing acuity."

"Well... we obviously can't just write a program that ignores our people," Kitty said thoughtfully.

Forge nodded in reluctant agreement, "Yes. For one thing, there are too many variables. And besides, it might ignore someone that was in trouble."

Kitty thought about that, drumming her fingers on the desk as she did so.

"How about the backtracking program?" She asked. "Has it got anything on the intruder?"

"The program's still running - there were a lot of cutouts and dummy servers. There's not a lot we can do there but wait."

"How many files were copied?"

"Seventeen. All were .avi files about a half-gig in size."

"How many of them were... uh... how many were like what we saw with Scott and Jean?"

Forge shrugged, "I'd say six others were in that range."

"Could they have been the target of the exploit?"

"Probably not specifically," Forge said thoughtfully. Then he pulled up the network activity log on the computer.

Pointing to a line of jumbled letters and numbers that seemed to mean something to him, Forge said, "About three A.M. last night, the hacker cracked the development server. He used some first-rate intrusion software, but nothing that's off the charts. It's the sort of thing a big company, or a federal law-enforcement agency, or a first-rate private hacker, might use. So I don't think this is someone who's all that much of a threat. We're not talking Magneto or the NSA or Microsoft or something like that."

"Unless that's what the intruder wants us to think," Kitty said slowly.

Forge nodded, "I considered that. But look at this: he didn't even try to hack anything else. Once he got past the d-server's firewall, he didn't go any further."

Kitty thought about that, "He probably thought he was all the way in. He didn't detect the rest of the network."

"Bingo," Forge replied.

"So he's good, but not great," Kitty conceded. "What did he do once he was in?"

"He began wandering through the file system, opening and closing files. He was clearly focused on video and image files."

"Maybe he's just a pron-hacker," said Kitty. "Those guys like to go looking for interesting home-made stuff. And he sorta found it."

Forge gave Kitty a look that seemed to suggest that a nice girl like her shouldn't know about that sort of thing. Kitty ignored that. Then Forge gestured at the activity log that was still displayed on the monitor.

"About ten minutes after he broke in, our hacker found the directory that had the .avi files. He opened and watched about thirty seconds of four of the files. Then he copied the entire folder and bailed out. But he got sloppy on the way out - another reason to believe he's not a super-pro - and the intrusion counter-measure program finally noticed him. That was when I was notified."

Kitty considered what Forge had said. "What were the four files he opened? And in what order?"

Forge glanced at the activity log, "The first file was 'automatic_plus_ two'. That's the one with Scott and Jean."

Kitty gave Forge a long and level look.

Forge wilted a little, "Hey, I had to give those files useful names! Names I would recognize!"

Kitty irritably flicked some of her hair away from her eyes, "Whatever. What was next?"

"A file called 'evening_conversation'. You know that Irish woman Charles knows? I think her name's Moira? The last time she visited, she and Charles had a long talk by the swimming pool one night. It must of got kind of intense. She started crying and he held her for a while."

Kitty frowned, but didn't say anything.

"The third file was 'by_ moonlight'. It has Logan and Rogue. Every now and then, they do some evening hunting in the woods."

"Hunting?" Kitty said in surprise.

"Yep."

"Rogue hunts?" Kitty persisted.

Forge stirred uneasily, "Not exactly. When she and Logan go out, she's not a hunter. She's the hunted. It's... uh... well, you see Rogue's not wearing any clothes. And Logan tracks her down and then..."

Forge ground to a halt. Kitty gulped.

"They both seem to get a real kick out of it," Forge finished weakly.

"Moving on," Kitty said quickly.

Forge nodded hastily, "The last file was 'rooftop'. That's Warren and Ororo doing some naked midnight flying, which is followed by some private time together on the roof of the mansion."

Kitty blinked, "How often do they do that?"

"Pretty often."

Kitty considered that, "Is that why we have an evening electrical storm whenever they're both here?"

"Yep. Very observant."

Kitty bit her lip as she processed what she had just been told.

"Oh!" she finally said.

Forge frowned at Kitty, "'Oh,' what?"

"The first file that was opened. Assuming descending alphabetical order, was it the first on the list of files in the directory?"

Forge nodded immediately.

"Okay," Kitty continued, "so that's an outlier - the intruder was just trying checking out the first of the files - and the rest of the files he opened are the ones that form a meaningful pattern. They are: 'evening_conversation', 'by_moonlight', and 'rooftop'. And the 'rooftop' file was the last file opened. After that, the intruder copied the directory and exited."

Forge narrowed his eyes. Then he saw what Kitty was suggesting and whistled in surprise.

They agreed to keep what they had found between themselves for the moment. Then Forge went back to fixing the hole in their security while Kitty went upstairs to grab something for them to eat. It was going to be a long day.

She almost ran right into Jean.

"Eep!" Kitty said. It was supposed to be, "Hi!"

"Hi, Kitty," Jean smiled. "Scott and I are going into town. Do you want us to get you anyth..."

Kitty turned bright red, said something indeterminate, and promptly fled.

Behind her, Jean shook her head.

The backtracker program eventually gave Forge and Kitty something to work with. After that, it took another day to determine the actual physical location of the computer that had been the source of the intrusion. It was obvious by then that the hacker was actually just a talented amateur with way above-average equipment and software.

"Congratulations," Forge said to Kitty with an admiring shake of his head. "I'm going to call you Sherlock Pryde from now on."

Kitty didn't say anything at first. They were standing in the server room of the "Worthington Industries" building in Boston. It was well after midnight, but Kitty's phasing ability had made it easy for them to break in. They had just finished ransacking the computer the intruder had used against them.

"How did he know about the files?" Kitty eventually asked. It was the one thing that didn't quite fit.

"Everyone looks at Warren and sees a handsome rich-kid, and they underestimate him." Forge mused. "But it was his father's company that provided the hardware for our security system - so he knew we had video. And Warren knows a fair amount about computers. He has the basic skills he needed to pull this off. He used a high-level 'Worthington Industries' password - probably one only he and his father knows - to get access to the top-of-the-line facility in this building. Then he conducted the exploit."

Kitty nodded in mute agreement.

"Still, Warren was pretty lucky," Forge continued. "He never really cracked into the main part of the network. But that really didn't matter since he found what he was looking for in the part he did manage to access."

"He just wanted some video of Ororo," Kitty said. Her voice shook a little.

"And he definitely got it," Forge added carefully. "According to the log on this system, he downloaded those files from us, checked them to see what they contained, then copied the one of him and Ororo making love. After that he deleted the rest. He even made sure that it was a full-delete. The other files are unrecoverable from this computer."

It was cold in the server-room and Kitty had wrapped her arms around herself.

Forge didn't say anything. He just stood behind Kitty and put his hands on her shoulders.

"We've got to get him back, Forge," Kitty said quietly as she fought back tears. "No matter what else was done to him - Warren is still in there. And he's trying to get out."

Ororo was sitting on the bench that was perched on the cliff overlooking the sea. She was watching the seabirds. She'd been doing that a lot lately.

Kitty sat down next to her. Ororo glanced at her, smiled, and then said, "Hello."

"There's something you should know," Kitty said after a moment's hesitation. Ororo raised her eyebrows questioningly.

Then Kitty told Ororo the whole story. When Kitty was done, Ororo didn't react. She simply looked away and began watching the birds again.

"He'll come back to us," Ororo finally said to Kitty.

Kitty leaned her head on Ororo's shoulder and wrapped her arms around Ororo's waist. Ororo draped a long arm across Kitty's shoulders and then gently kissed her on the forehead. And then they sat together for the rest of the morning, watching the sky as the seagulls wheeled and called and cried to one another.