In back corner of what a few years ago would have been a smoky coffee shop, Zillah put the finishing touches on the research she could do on the computer. It was a lot more than most people would have thought could be accomplished. The flash drive the kid had included with her stuff had proved most useful for working around several obstacles to the information she required. She saved the most risky trip for last, so she could leave upon completing it.
The NYPD IT department was definitely good at their jobs, but apparently not given the budget to completely redo their system architecture, leaving some little wormholes open for the dedicated to wriggle through. And dedicated was the word. They had done a hell of a job covering their known weak points, but in the end, a few hours of patient drilling had gotten her through the firewall. Zillah had decided that knowing more about who she was looking for as well as who she might be facing would be a "good idea". Plus she had to admit, she wanted to know if this guy was worth it. The information on the prison personnel, the shift times, and all the other secret tidbits were just a bonus.
The little terminal beeped at her, letting Zillah know that someone had found her in the system. She considered dropping her ICE and making her getaway, but noticed that they seemed to be interested in what she was doing more than booting her out and running her down. At least for the moment. And she didn't really want to info-bomb the NYPD either. They were going to be needed by the time everything was over. Zillah wasn't a strong believer in law & order, but cities needed effective police to keep them from devolving into bubbling pits of chaos. Plus there was the whole idea of keeping this little expedition on the down low and scrambling the NYPD computer system was very a Big & Obvious thing to do.
So Zillah decided to do the next best thing. She pushed a few buttons and the notice flashed more insistently in the corner of the screen. A few seconds more and she had a window open on both her screen and one of the terminals she determined to be in the IT command center.
"Hello," she typed. "I know you know that I'm here, so I figure I shouldn't pass up the chance to chat with some of New York's finest." She hit enter and waited, senses extended to pick up any trace of officers closing in. Marlo still looked chill and she knew he would get spooked the minute he sensed trouble. He'd stay put, but it would show in his face like a neon sign.
The words typed themselves across her screen a few moments later, "You are aware that you have intruded into the New York Police Department computer system? You do know that it's a felony to do that?"
"Yeah, I know. But I needed some information. Sorry I to go about it this way, but I didn't really have a choice. I'm not trying to mess you guys up or anything. I have to commend you actually, it took a good long time to crack your wall. You really need to bitch at your brass more to get the funding for upgrading your architecture. I'm sure you know that already though."
"We see that you visited several parts of the system: Personnel, prisons, private files for a number of detectives, quartermasters' records. What are you looking for information on? What are your plans?"
"Now see, you're going all establishment on me, d00d. c0m3 0n. ! n03s y3r b3773r 7h4n 7h4t. (come on. I know you're better than that.) I'm sure you realize no little script-kiddie could be here chatting with you, so show some speckt, kk? I'm not going to tell you anything about my plans. Really it's for your own good. If I did, you might want to help me, & that just wouldn't do now would it?"
"Is this information going to be used to carry out an attack against the police or any civilian targets?"
"I'm not a terrorist. I'm a freelancer. I'm not going to hurt anyone. At least not permanently… Just relax and stop freaking out. We're just l33t h4x0rs talking and hanging out. I know this is unexpected and perhaps even a bit surreal, but I assure you, I'm not trying to game you in any way."
"Why can't you tell us what your plans are if you're not going to be carrying out any terrorist actions?"
"If you're going to be that way, I'm just going to leave. But I will let you in on a secret before I go. One of your own is lost. In pain. Suffering. And there is only one, maybe two of your brother officers who know about it. Then there's me. I know. Now I know everything. And while they're doing their own thing, using their own tactics, I've been retained by an outside party to resolve the situation in a more direct manner. Now the question is, who will get there first?"
She sat back and watched the screen. Nothing happened. 'Heh,' Zillah thought. 'That shook em. Don't know what to make of something like that. Well to tell truth, if I was in their shoes, I wouldn't know either.'
Two minutes crawled by and she wondered if she should be leaving. If they had finally called the beat officers to go get her. She was sure they'd have the area she was in narrowed down considerably by now, if not her exact location. She had been careful and put up a lot of trace traps and signal bounces before going in, but the time she had spent combined with their superior computing power meant it was still likely they knew right where she was sitting. Marlo was looking bored, smoking his cigarette and reading his manga.
The words spelled out, "What are you talking about? We don't know of anything like that. I'm sure all resources would have been mobilized if there was an officer in trouble."
"You believe what you want, I know what's really going on. Keep this channel open and I might come back to fill you in on more happenings later on. It's going to be exciting I'm sure. That is unless you've reported me and are on your way to come arrest me? It's your call. Don't you want to see what they're hiding in the dark places? Where no one looks… They even keep cops there sometimes, though they may not know that. Yet. Have a good day, and if you've already sent the cavalry after me, happy hunting."
And with that Zillah simply signed out of the system, imploded all her traps, and walked out to her waiting cab. 'Yup. The next best thing. Scramble their heads. Now to put together a team.'
"Marlo, where would one find people of a persuasion to be physical now and not worry about it later?"