A/N There's a total of three chapters and I'll be adding the next chapter soon.
Chapter 1
Neal rolled out of bed and walked to his window and looked upon the city. A few wispy clouds but generally blue sky and sunshine. So much better than a jail cell.
Without thinking about it he knew deep down that whatever transpired today he would make enjoyable. He smiled to himself and walked to the shower to start his day.
Dark gray suit, white shirt, baby blue tie. He looked in the mirror as he grabbed his hat and overcoat on the way to the door.
During his walk to the office he watched people, little eccentricities.
For a block it seemed everyone was checking their reflections in car windows or doors, then the next block everyone was too busy on their phones, then the next everyone was eating, too focused on their bagels and doughnuts.
It made him smile. Each group Neal would pick out someone and think how easy it would be to slip his hand into their coat, their back pocket or their purse and in three blocks he knows he'd have over three hundred dollars.
He wouldn't do it, not at least while he was tied to his anklet, but his mind still saw all these opportunities present themselves. Feeling a little guilty he decided he needed to look at something else.
There was just enough frost on the trees that each one seemed to glow and sparkle in the sunlight. It was truly beautiful in its simple elegance.
The coffee shop had a Dean Martin Christmas CD playing.
"What can I get you, Neal?" The barista smiled.
"I love this song, Sherry, I'll take the usual please"
Sherry was singing quietly as she readied Neal's cup, "My mother will start to worry"
Neal picked up the duet, "Beautiful, what's your hurry"
Sherry was embarrassed but didn't stop singing, "My father will be pacing the floor"
"Listen to that fireplace roar" They both stopped, looked at each other and smiled.
Neal paid for the coffee and headed out the door, "Put some records on while I pour..."
"Good morning, Diana" Neal said.
"Morning, Neal"
"Good Morning, Jones" Neal smiled
"Morning, you're in a good mood" Jones noticed.
No reason not to be Neal thought as he walked to his desk, "Baby, it's cold outside."
Jones asked, "What's that?"
"Oh I heard this song and it's stuck in my head."
Jones nodded.
Neal stripped off his overcoat, sipped his coffee and looked at the clock on the wall. The morning meeting would start in a few minutes, what would he help them solve today?
Peter sat at Hughes' desk, Hughes stood behind it looking out the window. He turned around, his arms crossed. His right hand went up to his chin.
"This is a tough one, Peter, he's a Senator. We need to make sure we have enough on Appleton that there are no questions. Dot every i and cross every t, Peter. If you do that we'll be okay."
Peter called Diana into his office. "You're going to be busy, but if you think you can do it I could really use your help."
"Tell me what you need, boss?" Diana asked.
"You know how much we have seen on Senator Appleton and the ties with Fowler and Larsson, as head of the foreign relations committee he has ties to a number of foreign government officials.
We need to know what his involvement is, his interest in the music box and what he hopes to get from all of this."
Diana nodded, "We know who had the music box, as well as a number of people who wanted it as well. I'll make some contacts and look into the history and folklore as well."
"Thank you." Peter looked at his watch, "Guess we better get ready for today's meeting."
They were sitting around the table in the conference room, Peter at the head of the table standing with a stack of folders.
"The term 'corporate espionage' has existed for eighty years or more, Coke and Pepsi, GM and Volkswagen, but industrial spying can be traced as far back as Europeans trying to get the process to make Chinese porcelain in 1712."
Peter slid a folder to each person sitting at the table, "The Smartphone industry has seen more that fifty five percent growth in the first half of this year. Companies are fighting to come up with the 'next' must have application for these phones."
Peter walked around the table, coffee in hand, enjoying the chance to get his team up to speed. He'd had a great run by FBI standards, better closing rates than those Smartphone's growth. He looked out the window to conceal the smile.
"You'll see on the second page that the Step four ward company..." the logo was a foot print with their name, Step4ward emblazoned across it, "believes that their last three applications were stolen by their competitors."
Peter looked at everyone at the table locking eyes briefly with each person. No questions.
"With over one hundred fifty million smartphones sold just this year companies selling these applications will make millions of dollars or lose it for not being first to market.
"We believe there is a number of ways Step four wards information might have been stolen; employee, either direct or through the building, like a janitor, a visitor, or through network eavesdropping, spyware or hacking.
Neal raised his hand.
"Yes, Neal?" Peter asked.
"This isn't really my area of expertise. How am I going to help?" Neal wanted to get this moving, the meeting was moving too slowly for him.
"I'll get to that in a minute."
"We've talked with Paul Hansen, the owner, and he is hiring a new employee. That will be Diana, in quality control. He is also hiring the Competitive Intelligence Services firm. Neal, you'll be Nick Halden, his contact at CIS.
"Jones, I'll need you to setup and analyze a trace of all network traffic in and out of their location. We need to know where it's going and who is getting it."
Peter sat down and they went over what each would do and how they'd go about trying to track down who was stealing and how it was being done.
Diana was the first to show up as an 'eager' new employee. She was in orientation when Neal walked in the door and greeted the receptionist. "Good morning, I'm Nick Halden, CIS." He smiled. "Here to see Paul Hansen."
This was business casual to the Nth degree. Most employees wore jeans and T-shirts even in winter, the receptionist was the best dressed in nice slacks and a blouse.
Neal felt he was appropriately dressed down in his 'CIS' polo shirt and wind breaker.
"Are you from, like, the TV show, 'Crime Investigators'" The receptionist asked. Had to be from California.
Neal saw the name plate on the desk, "Crime Scene Investigators? No, Michelle, Competitive Intelligence Services." Neal handed a business card to Michelle. She pressed a button on her phone.
"I thought for this time of year it would be cold outside" There it was, the song was back in his head, he unzipped his windbreaker. The office was warm and Neal didn't mind the short sleeves.
Paul came out and greeted Neal and lead him through the labyrinth of office cubicles to the offices in back.
In Paul's office, Paul handed Neal a list of all employees, and a chart of the different departments and explained what each group did.
"Do you have any questions?" Paul asked.
"Do you rent this space?"
"Yes, of course"
Neal asked, "Do you contract for janitorial?"
"Yeah"
"How about other vendors, insurance agents and anyone's family?"
"Ooooh" The light went on and Paul realized he had too many people with access to his office space. "Well, I'll take the info you give me and put it in place, but how is this going to work?"
Neal asked, "What have you told them about me?"
"You're a consultant to help with security"
"Good, when does your new product come out?"
"Next week."
"OK, Thanks." Neal looked at all the paper work, "I'll review everything you've given me, work with my associates and come up with a game plan. I should be able to tell you more in a day or two."
Diana was on her phone driving away from Step4ward. "Hi boss, I told them that I had a previous doctors appointment and would be in late tomorrow, but I was shown my desk and I put the 'sniffer' on line to track the network traffic. Jones should be able to check everything in and out now."
"Great. Try to get some sleep tonight", Peter suggested, "you're going to have some busy days coming up."
"I know, thanks." Diana was thanking Peter for his concern but also for the opportunity to do such a high profile assignment, even if no one would know about it for some time.
She knew Peter understood.
Neal read through all the documentation Paul had provided, department function, employee lists and resumes.
Developers created, Network team stored the data as well as gave access, Quality Control, tested and reported bugs, Customer Support walked buyers through their issues, Marketing made it look pretty in advertisements and then there were a few admin staff as well.
Through interviewing Neal started to trim the list of suspects.
Marketing sold the product, usually with little idea of what it actually did. They didn't need to know, they were selling opportunity and they did their best to pump up the product. "It'll comb your hair and deliver your babies for all I know", their department head had said. This was a nine to five job and he really didn't care what he did as long as he got a paycheck. Marketing seemed to be a long con, Neal thought he could fit right in.
Take them off the list.
Customer Support walked people through a script telling them how the products should work. Few even had the applications.
Neal didn't suspect them either.
The small development group was low on his list as well. They worked hard on creating new products and wanted credit for the work they did.
QC did not have access to the code, but to a working copy. These would go into another pile.
There were a few admins and the Network team that had access and opportunity. Neal would take this list to Peter.
Peter pressed a button on his dash and hung up with Diana and before he could move his hand away Neal was calling.
"Hi, Peter"
"Hi, Neal, what have you found out?
"I found out that I really don't like regular jobs, I don't know that this one is one I would last long at."
"You're only there until we figure this out." Peter said to relieve Neal of any concerns.
"I've gone through all the names and resumes, we have four network guys, three administrative assistants, three QC and then Paul himself. Eleven employees we need to run background on."
"Great, send them over to Jones. Are you headed home?" Peter asked.
"Yeah. Question for you, do I have to wear the same shirt tomorrow?"
"You sure do, you have to look like an employee of CIS, you can wash it though."
"I plan to." Neal sighed.
Peter pulled up to his house, glad to be home.
Who would have ever thought that he would be investigating a seated high ranking US Senator.
He thought about that as he grabbed his briefcase and shook his head, crazy world.
Elizabeth opened the door, "How's Italian sound?"
"I love Italian." Peter smiled. He could smell the garlic bread as he walked up the stairs.
El hugged Peter and kissed him, "How was your day today?"
"Running two investigations, one is something very few people will ever know about, the other might land me on TV."
They closed the door.
El smiled, "Oh the famous Peter Burke, FBI." She teased, she knew Peter didn't care to be on the television, didn't want it.
Peter gave her another kiss, smiled and said, "If I'm right, you may not be too far off."
El could see past his smile and deep in Peters eyes she could see he had a lot on his shoulders with this one.
Neal opened his door to find Mozzie drinking his wine.
"Hi, Mozzie, make yourself at home."
"I did, this is good." Mozzie said raising his glass, "Appleton has a lot of secrets."
Neal pulled off the polo shirt and grabbed his sleeveless t-shirt.
"You gonna go work out?" Mozzie asked.
"I should, but I have to wear this again tomorrow." Neal said, holding up the polo shirt.
"They didn't get you two?" Mozzie asked.
"We weren't sure I'd need to go back. Tell me about Appleton."
Mozzie got up from the couch and walked over to the table where a file was sitting. He set his wine down, pulled out a chair and sat down.
"Come, sit."
Neal swung the chair around next to Mozzie, "What did you find?"