Don sat at his desk, reviewing folders, when his phone rang. "Eppes?" he barked into it. "Meet with the director in five? Yeah, I'm on my way." He got up from his desk and went to the assistant director's office. As he stepped in the look on Merrick's face gave Don a sense of unease.
Merrick motioned for Don to sit before speaking. "I just got a call from the NSA. They want us to work with their team to try to salvage what remains of the cyber virus case."
Don raised an eyebrow. "The NSA? What do they have to do with this case?"
Merrick leaned forward and made a resigned gesture with his hands. "Look, Don, all I can tell you is this. The team you guys nabbed yesterday – they're NSA. The cyber thieves we were after... well, it turns out they work for someone who is developing a super virus, which is a huge threat to national security, and that is why the NSA is involved. It has been decided that the FBI and NSA will collaborate on this. Listen up: YOU will be in charge of this. That team is taking their lead from you, so utilize them as you see fit. They should be here within the next half hour."
Don looked at his boss, more than a little stunned at the unforeseen turn of events.
"And Don, they're a covert op team, identities are on a need to know only."
Don went back to his desk and informed his team of the situation.
Colby's jaw dropped in disbelief as he exclaimed, "You mean we're going to be working with those people? And they work for the NSA?"
Don nodded. "That's what Merrick said. So, no more digging into their identities. They're covert ops and their backgrounds are off limits."
Don looked over and spied the "ghost" group entering the bullpen area. They carried a few boxes of information but stopped when Assistant Director Merrick saw them. He pointed at where Don and his team were sitting; they nodded and walked over to them.
The two teams stood there and sized each other up with cold stares. Finally Toro broke the silence. "We brought what information we had with us. Where do you want it?"
Don mentally began to assess the NSA agents as he replied, "Follow me. You can put it in this conference room." He motioned for them to follow them to the room that he and his team called the 'war room'. Once there he opened the door, allowing the two teams to file in.
Megan turned with a pleasant smile. "I'm Special Agent Megan Reeves. This is Special Agent In Charge Don Eppes, and Special Agents David Sinclair and Colby Granger. The restrooms are down the hall, and we have coffee in the break room if you'd like some."
Toro nodded at Megan. "You can call me Toro. I'm team leader of this group. This is Mae, she's our data miner." Mae looked up from the laptop she had started to set up and smiled nervously. "This is BJ, our profiler."
BJ gave an unfriendly look to the four agents and went back to pulling out case files.
Toro continued, "The big guy is Mario."
Mario walked over and shook each agent's hand. He said, in a strong, Southern drawl, "You want to know about explosives or weapons, I'm your man." Mario pointed to Elle. "And this is Elle, who, among other things, is our decryption analyst." He turned a sly smile at Don. "We like to call her 'the weapon' and I believe Agent Eppes here saw her in action first hand."
Don glared at Mario and noticed that Elle also shot the big man an annoyed look.
Her gaze met Don's briefly before she quickly looked away. Don muttered, "Yeah, don't remind me."
Toro turned to everyone and said, "Well, now that all the niceties are done, where do you want to start, Eppes?"
"Why don't you tell us a bit about your side of the case, and we'll do the same on our end. Hopefully we can plug in the holes that led to yesterday's fiasco," Don said, with emphasis on the word 'fiasco.' The two teams sat down and went through their cases and intel step by step.
A few hours passed and Don decided that he would call Charlie to see if he could come up with some type of expression to narrow down their search grid. He had Colby and David work with Mario and Mae to sort through the data to see what was redundant on both sides. Megan and BJ went through the profiles of the suspects they had fingered to see if they could shake loose any new information. Don and the remainder of the "ghost" group checked up on the newest leads.
Elle stood up and cracked her neck. "Gonna get some coffee. Anybody want some?" Don caught a glimpse of the small tattoo again on her hip when she stretched.
Everyone shook his or her head no in reply. She got up and walked out of the conference room.
A few moments later, Don's eyes were bleary from reading through the reports and he thought that coffee sounded like a good idea. He got up and headed towards the break room. He saw Elle pour a cup of coffee and blow over the rim; she then took a sip of the coffee and grimaced after tasting it. He heard her mumble as he stepped into the room, "Feds, can't even get a good cup of coffee."
He quirked her a smile and said, "You work for the government, you should know that our coffee is terrible." He poured himself a cup of the hot liquid and added cream and sugar to it.
She replied dryly as she handed him a swizzle stick, "You would think."
Unnerved by her almost friendly demeanor, he took the stick from her and stirred his coffee. He sucked the stick for a moment while pondering the woman who stood before him. He scanned her appearance. She was very attractive, if maybe a little too thin. She was pretty much the type of woman Don found him self attracted too, beautiful, seemingly self-assured and intelligent. She wore minimal makeup, if any, and her curly hair was tied back in a clasp at the back of her neck. She was dressed in khaki cargo pants and a brown t-shirt that fit her like a glove. While biting on the swizzle stick, he said in an amused tone, "So ghosts drink it black?"
Elle looked up from her coffee. Don saw a smile threaten to form at the corners of her mouth in response. He found his lips beginning to mirror a grin of his own.
After a moment she finally responded, "No extra additives. That's how we ghosts stay transparent."
He snorted in amusement at her glib comment.
They stood in silence for a moment drinking their coffee.
"So how's your face?" she asked as she stepped towards him, leaning in closely, her body mere inches away from his. Don watched her hand instinctively rise up to touch his face, her eyes darkening, but a second later she stopped herself from the intimate act.
"Hurts, but I'm sure I will heal," he said, hiding how uncomfortable he felt with her body in such proximity to his.
"I'm sure you will."
He then added, "You pack one hell of a punch."
Her lips once again curled up with a small smile. "I've heard that rumor."
Finally tearing his gaze from hers, he said, "Well I should get back."
"Yeah, sure." He watched the friendliness that she had momentarily worn slide off her face to be replaced by the woman whom he dubbed in his head the 'ghost woman.' She turned her back to him and poured herself a second cup of coffee. Don looked at Elle and again wondered who this woman truly was when no one was looking. There was something more to her but he couldn't quite place it. He observed her for a moment before leaving the break room. On his way back to the conference room he ran into Charlie, who had just gotten there.
"Hey, buddy. Thanks for coming to help."
"Yeah, sure, Don. Glad to try to help. Hey, how's your jaw feeling? I ran into Megan and she said someone by the name of Elle punched you yesterday."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Don said, waving off Charlie's inquiry. "Yeah, let me fill you in." Don took Charlie aside and gave him a quick rundown of the events from yesterday and that morning. They walked into the conference room. Charlie greeted the other members of the FBI team.
Don introduced his brother to the "ghost group." "That is Toro, Mario, BJ, and Mae on the computer. This is my brother, Dr. Charles Eppes. He is an applied mathematician and has helped us before on cases."
Mae jumped up and ran over to Charlie. "Wow, you're Dr. Eppes. I loved your paper on H Infinity Control of Non-Linear Systems. I have read all of your work. I can't wait to read your next article in American Journal of Mathematics. This is absolutely so fantastic that I'll be working with you."
Charlie looked a little embarrassed at the attention the younger woman gave him, but was able to mumble a sincere thank you.
Elle walked back in the office. "So what did I miss?" she said to Mario.
Mario answered, "Apparently our little Mae has met her math hero."
"Math hero?" She waved her hand. "Forget I asked."
Don decided that he'd better rescue his brother from the adulations of the data miner. Seeing a puzzled expression on the black op's face, he introduced Elle to his brother. "This is Dr. Charles Eppes; he is a professor of applied mathematics."
She extended her hand to Charlie. "I'm Elle."
Charlie smiled warmly. "Hello."
Don continued talking. "He's worked with us on past cases. Sometimes he gives a unique look into the data we are investigating. I asked him to see if he can analyze our data using some type of math theory."
"Math, yeah, it has all kinds of practical uses besides balancing one's checkbook. I use Asymmetric-key algorithms when I decrypt all the time," she replied with a nod of her to Charlie.
Charlie said, with some surprise in his voice, "You know what Asymmetric-key algorithms are?"
"Yeah, doesn't everyone?" she answered with a shrug.
Charlie gave her a bemused look and then turned towards his brother. "Wow, someone in the FBI understands what I am talking about for once."
Elle replied, sounding insulted, "I'm not a fed. I'm NSA."
"Ah, that explains it," Charlie chuckled.
Don squinted his eyes at Charlie's comment and grunted a reply.
Elle scanned the two men before carefully asking. "Brothers?"
Charlie shot a wicked grin to Don and said, "Yeah, could be worse."
Don shot him a scowl back. " Yeah, yeah, real funny. How about dropping the routine and getting to work."
"Pleasure to meet you, then." She gave a smile towards Charlie before heading over to talk to Toro.
Charlie said privately to Don as he watched Elle walk away, "Hey, wait, isn't she the one that hit you?"
Don shot him an annoyed look, making Charlie grin. "It was. I think I'm gonna like her."