Abby chewed her lip as she glared at the computer screen. "I mirrored the entire hard drive, but the second I tried to access a file, it locked itself up with an encryption algorithm like I have never seen before! Who is this guy? What is he involved with that would need such security?"
McGee connected leads to the laptop's ports to attempt another copy. "He claims to be an undercover agent."
"For which Agency?" Abby demanded. "I hope he's on our side… If the US Government had encryption like this, the IRS wouldn't have gotten hacked!"
McGee shook his head. "It's up to us to find out. Our suspect won't talk until he gets his phone back."
"I'll bet that went over like a lead balloon!" Abby snorted.
"Yeah, this guy sure got under Tony's skin. I can't wait to watch the tapes of Gibbs in Interrogation!" He finally got the wires set up the way he wanted, then started tapping away at the keyboard before him. "Okay, starting with a fresh mirror-image of the hard drive... How many partitions do you think he's got set up on this thing?" he asked in surprise as he read the screen.
"This thing is more segmented than most people's silverware drawers!" Abby observed. "Every single kind of file possible has its own partition! Wait… What's that?"
McGee dug deeper at a bit of code that danced across the screen. "It's a tracking program!" he exclaimed. "According to Tony, our suspect has been following our victim for the past three days." He frowned as he continued to read. "As a matter of fact, it's still pinging something, but because of the encryption, I can't figure out what." He reached for Abby's "Safecracker" program, but the moment the first code was entered, the screen he was looking at went to static. "Oh, no!"
On to her next project, Abby shook her head in disgust. "McGee, who took this guy's prints? They're a mess! I think I only have three or four clear ones, and none of them are from an index finger!" Abby fed what prints she had into the computer, gnawing on her lower lip as she turned her attention to the next item on her list. "The security card we took off of this guy came from the Phoenix Foundation…. Phoenix Foundation… That sounds so familiar! Where have I heard that name before?"
McGee shrugged. "I tried accessing their employee records, but they're sealed; we're waiting for our Director to talk to their Director."
Abby repeated the name a few more times as she looked the card over again. "The picture on here isn't the greatest quality either; it looks like this card has spent a few years in a rock tumbler. If the card looks this rough, what does the rest of the wallet look like?"
"There wasn't one. Everything in his pockets was loose," McGee shrugged.
'Who doesn't have a wallet?" she wondered in disbelief. "Ugh, my poor computer is having a fit with those prints!" While she waited for the results to come back, she picked up another object from the evidence bin. "What is this, now?" she demanded, rotating the squarish black plastic box in her hand. She pulled it out of the plastic evidence bag, tracing her gloved fingers around the seams to see if it opened. A button seemed to give under her finger, and a brilliant light flashed in her eyes.
"Hey!" she bellowed.
Author's Note: Okay, fellow "Rememberers of the '80's..." Have you figured out who this is yet? And, any guesses on what Abby just found? Let me know what you think. (Not like I'm begging for reviews, but... Okay, I'm begging for reviews!)