Disclaimer: NUMB3RS doesn't belong to me, I'm just having fun with those characters. I own nothing :(

SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT

Chapter one: The man behind the curtain


The place was fairly crowded, given the early hours. Though it was 5 a.m. almost all the tables were occupied, some by lone drunk man, some by groups of shady characters doing their equally shade business. Then there was a corner where a few tables were full of empty coffee cups, papers and laptops. If you knew enough about the society flowing through that pub, you might realize that those people were ones of the most resourceful characters in the area. And if you knew how to ask, you could make them arrange almost anything for you. If you had money, of course.

One of them, skimpy, small person with bandana on his head and quite long, straight brown hair emerging from under this piece of cloth, looked as if he was engrossed in his work on the laptop. In reality, he was systematically scanning all the place, searching for somebody. He's been doing it for a few months now, and although he had done some smaller jobs for a few guys, who paid him for pulling off some petty thefts and cons, he was waiting for them to appear and hire him.

That they'll hire him, he was certain. He produced himself quite an opinion, based on those thefts he pulled off, and he faked some real good scams in the Net: any hacker could say that a man who used the nickname Chunkie was a solid, bright and eager to get a lot of money.

In the other words: perfect conman.

While he sat there, he began to recall all the events that led him to this place and this situation.

"Professor Eppes?"

He was just entering his office at CalSci, when he heard someone calling his name. He stopped to find out, who was that and was startled to see one of the NSA agents, who he worked with a while ago.

"Agent Morrison, it's a pleasure to see you," Charlie extended his hand in invitation.

"Likewise, Professor. Can I ask for a minute of your time?"

"Most certainly. Let's go inside."

They entered the office. Charlie couldn't help but wonder what that was about. It was only few hours ago that he got his security clearance back. He was sure that NSA was notified about that, but didn't expected them to act in such a hurry.

"Please sit down," Charlie indicated the chair in front of the desk as he sat on the other side. "How can I help you?"

"It's quite a complicated matter Professor, not to mention, confidential. I have to ask you to keep this conversation in secret… Not one person can know about that,"

"I understand, Agent. I've been through this before." He couldn't understand why Agent Morrison was making such a big fuss about that. "Has something changed?"

"Yes and no, Professor." Agent smiled, but there was no smile in his eyes. "I'm here representing AD Robert Tompkins himself. He's proposing you an assistance in one of our operations, which is so confidential, I don't know all the parts of it, despite the fact, I'm actually leading it."

"Operation involving what?" Charlie demanded.

"I can't really tell you all the details, until you agree to participate, at least not until Director Tompkins will agree to it. All you can know at this moment is that it involves the group hacking into bank accounts. And there's something else." Agent looked uneasy.

"There's always a catch, Agent. What is it this time?"Charlie tried to be cautious and tried to gather as much information as he could, but he couldn't help himself, he wanted to go into action, after those few weeks of stagnation. Losing his security clearance made it clear to him: he wanted to do good on this world, and he knew how to do it. So, the moment, he was offered a chance, he was eager to take it.

"Field work."

Agent Morrison heaved a sigh, while Charlie stared at him. He didn't understand. What kind of field work?

"Excuse me? Could you elaborate?"

"Trick is, I can't tell you much. But that is all you are supposed to know for now, the rest you will be informed about from Director himself…"

Charlie settled to listen. But deep down he realized that he already made his decision. He wanted to act.

The man in the corner almost made a movement as if he wanted to stand up, when he saw the people he's been waiting for. Luckily he managed to contain himself, and sat still.

The group of people – there were four of them – sat down by the table near the exit and talked quietly. None of them looked in his direction and they shown no intention to make any contact with him.

So he waited. He was good at it.

Charlie felt fairly nervous when he entered the office.

"Sir? You wanted to see me."

Robert Tompkins smiled in greeting.

"It's Bob, don't you remember? And yes, I wanted to see you. Please, sit down."

"It's been a while, Bob… Many things changed." Charlie noted, while sitting down.

"Right you are, Charlie. We haven't worked together for a while… And then this problem of yours came up…" Bob's eyes bore into Charlie's. "You do realize, Charlie, that all this affair with you carelessly loosing your clearance could have quite bad ramifications?"

"I do realize that. At least for me and for my brother."Charlie shook his head. "But I don't understand where are you going with it."

"You are an exceptional mind, Charles, and I know you know it. It would be really a shame to waste all the chances to use you brilliance for the good of us all."

"Wait a second." Charlie raised his hand. "Are you saying that you had your hand in my getting my clearance back?"

"Exceptional mind, as I said." Bob smiled. "I had a few talks with guys at ADIC and reminded them of a few favors they owed me."

"So I guess I owe you a favor now, don't I?" Charlie nodded his head, it made sense to him now. "How about Don, then? I don't think you had any reasons to press that issue…"

"Actually it was just him, who mined his own fate. You might want to listen to that." Bob lifted up a dictaphone and pressed 'play'.

"Charlie Eppes is a vital part of the FBI, and as a Supervisor of the Los Angeles Violent Crime Squad, it is my belief that I cannot perform my duties without him…"

Charlie was shocked.

"Was that…"

"Yes, that was your brother. And I guess they thought: if you want one Eppes, you need the other one, too."

"Yep, we're 'two in one' kind of product."

Bob chuckled.

"Not this time, though, Charlie. Now you're on your own." Bob stopped talking as he saw Charlie lifting his hand again, politely interrupting him.

"So, the way I see it, Bob, you pulled some strings, and even now, you're softening me up," Charlie looked into his eyes. "All that for a reason. You really need me on that case of yours."

Bob's expression changed to grave, but he couldn't hide the appreciation in his eyes.

"You're right, Charlie, I need your help. In fact you're one of a few people in the world who can help us out. I trust Agent Morrison has briefed you?"

"He had, although it was really brief." Charlie smiled a little."I still don't see what is the problem with that case. I'm also trying to guess why you have undergone all those troubles just to get me on this case."

"Let's think…" Bob stopped for a moment, seemingly trying to organize his thoughts. "I need a mathematician, although a good hacker would have done the job. Then I need someone with an indisputable loyalty, which you are, and I'm saying it after taking into the consideration you sending those info to Pakistan. I know you did it to help a fellow scientist and people in need. Next thing, I need someone who knows quite a bit about the way we roll, who knows how an Agent is supposed to work, but who doesn't have some habits, that could expose him as someone working for us or the FBI…" Bob stopped again. "In need you, Charlie. I need a genius, who may be able to infiltrate a group of hackers, who are a possible threat to national security."

"Infiltrate…" Charlie was stunned. All his work for NSA and FBI was strictly a 'consultant thing'. He didn't work undercover, he barely could defense himself, the only thing he was good at, was shooting, but this have been at the paper targets. "You mean… As a spy?"

"Maybe a mole is a better word." Bob sighed. "I know, it's a lot to ask… But trust me, you're the only person who could pull it off. Of course you would need a little training in basic defense and some acting skills, but it should come to you quickly."

For a second, Charlie was sure that Bob was kidding. Defense? Him? Did he know about his failure at the FBI training course? But Bob's expression hasn't changed.

"You'll do fine, Charlie. I'm sure about it."

Charlie understood now, that he had no real choice. Of course he could still say 'no' and walk away. But was it the best move? He knew Bob will make everything to be sure of his safety and that the training will guarantee him some level of protection from the criminals. He also knew that he was smart enough to manage to do it.

Then something hit him.

"But is it legal…? I mean, I'm just a consultant, how can I be a mole in some super secret action?"

Bob smiled a little.

"Not that I'm trying to hold something over your head, but you stretched the FBI policy more than once not so long time ago. And you did it for the best of reasons, remember?"

Bob searched a little through his cabinet and found a little tape, which he put into the Dictaphone. Again, he pressed 'play'. But this time Charlie recognized that conservation, although he had no idea how Bob got his hands on a recording of that situation.

"…McGowan can go to hell if he doesn't get that."

"Look, you don't understand the politics here."

"I'm beginning to. You have a guy who kidnapped and murdered and facilitated rape. He's smart and he's going to do it again. If it were you, would you let the rules get in the way of stopping him?"

"Let's do it."

Bob pressed 'stop' and looked at Charlie in silence. The mathematician closed his eyes for a second thinking it through. Wasn't he the one who wanted action? He looked at Bob, the true man behind the curtain, who orchestrated everything in order for him to join this operation.

"When do I start?"

It was about 6:30 a.m. The man in the corner was the last one of the 'resourceful' ones still sitting in the bar. It was high time for him to return to his daily responsibilities, so he decided to call it a day. Just in this moment one of the guys he's been waiting for, got up and headed to him. It was brawny, big man with bald head.

"I hear you can do some stuff." His voice matched his posture. It was deep and monosyllabic. It also had some funny accent to it.

"I make favors for friends." The man replied calmly, not even raising his head.

Five one-hundred dollar bills landed on the table.

"That's just for beginning."

Charlie Eppes smiled a little, shifted and raised his eyes to meet the eyes of the hulky man.

"How can I help you… My friend?"

Game's on.

A/N: This idea has been in my head fora long time, so I had to write it down, but don't worry, I won't abandon "Broken innocence". I'll try to update both of these stories as frequently as I can.

Anyways, I hope you liked it and got hooked on this story. I quite like this storyline I came up with. I was trying to make Charlie do some more "Don" stuff, but without making him heroic and completely OOC. I hope I succedeed at this.