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Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS:LA.
As the tablet powered up the three techs stared at it like it might explode. As the screen came up to the log on screen, nothing happened.
"Well that was anti-climactic." Sam looked at everyone waiting for some sort of response.
Eric looked up with an aggravated grimace. "I haven't tried to bypass the log in yet. Nothing is going to happen until I do that or possibly not until I try to break the encryption protocols."
Sam raised his hands in the air signaling he wasn't trying to start a fight.
Eric cracked all the knuckles on both his hands and began typing on the computer hooked to the tablet. After about a minute he stopped.
"What is it?" Nell started looking over his shoulder.
Ashely spoke first. "It's an actual NSA tablet. Not just a copy or set up kind of like an NSA tablet. It's an actual NSA tablet."
Eric started typing again when the laptop sitting in front of Nell started blinking through screens and making noises. "We just trapped a cell signal giving the GPS coordinates of the tablet." Nell hit a few keys. "I have the IP address of the machine it was sent to."
"But the signal didn't get sent, right?" Callen wanted to be sure.
"Nope. Nobody but us heard the distress call."
"Depending what else you find, I might have an idea."
Once he got past the encryption, it didn't take Eric long to discover that there wasn't much else on the device.
"It looks like this is mainly used for email. I can pull the emails that are stored locally, but even if I knew the id and password logging onto the mail server would be a bad idea.
Kensi didn't even get a chance to ask the question before Ashely answered.
"They could track the device. They could delete its contents. They would know we have it and that we had compromised it. They could then plant information to throw us off the trail."
"Or trap us." Eric finished.
Nell got a questioning look on her face. "The two of you sound like you've done this before."
"Several times before." Deeks added.
Eric completely ignored the comments. "Here are the emails. Wow, looks like these guys got orders from D.C.. Emails about Langus, what he said, Ashley, what they found at her place."
"Crap!" Ashely exclaimed. "Guess that confirms my apartment is a total loss."
"Here is an email about me and how I'm missing as well. They assume I'm helping Ashley, so they alert the group here."
"What's the timestamp on the email about you, Eric?" Sam inquired.
"A little after 8:30 AM."
"That's right after our call with Devro and Sellings." Callen sighed. "Sorry Eric."
"Hey, this is interesting. That last email that came through had an attachment." Eric hit several buttons to bring up the document. "It's a schematic of the NSA offices. There are even access codes for the secure doors."
Kensi looked over at Sam. "I guess that proves your theory. They wanted Ashely and Eric to do something from inside the NSA secure network."
"That's about it for the tablet. Looks like it's a cut out for orders."
Eric powered down his system along with the tablet. "Next up, the phone"
Nell and Ashley helped him move things around to get the phone hooked up. When they all sat back down again, Eric turned his laptop and the phone on.
"The security on this is much less than the tablet." He tapped away at his board for a minute before finally leaning back in his chair. "Yep. This has only made phone calls and only to about half a dozen numbers. Most are local, but two are east coast."
"Now we are getting somewhere." Ashley exclaimed. "One of the east coast phones is a burner cell, so that's a loss. The other is…" Ashley tapped Nell on her shoulder.
Nell leaned over to look at the screen. "Damn!"
Sam waited for one of them to explain. When it became apparent they weren't going to share, he lost his patience. "What!?"
Nell looked up at everyone. "It routes back to a secure phone. A secure phone currently in use by the NSA. We can't track or record it, but whoever has this phone is the leak."
"Finally, some headway." Callen exclaimed. "Alright, we leave the devices here in the safe. Everything else goes back to the Mission with us. I have a plan but I want to run it by Hetty and Granger."
While everyone else headed up to OPS, Eric, Nell, and Ashley put the equipment back where it belonged. As Eric entered the storage room to put up the cell blocker, Nell followed him in and closed the door behind them.
Eric hadn't heard the door shut. After setting the case on the shelf, he turned around stopping short, when he saw Nell standing there. He wasn't sure what was happening, but it was certainly warm in the small room.
"So, Eric, I had a little talk with Ashley."
"You did? About what?"
"Is seems you've been keeping something from me." Nell took a step into Eric's space. He instinctively took a step back, bumping into the shelves behind him.
"Keeping something? No, no. I don't think so." He was going to kill Ashley. She was supposed to be his friend. He had risked so much to save her life and in the first 24 hours here she tells Nell his biggest secret.
"I think so." Nell took another step into Eric. He flattened himself up against the shelves but there was nowhere for him to move. He could feel the heat radiating off of Nell's body, she was so close. "I'm really attracted to you to." With that she reached up grabbing Eric's head, pulling it down while raising up on her tiptoes.
When their lips met, Eric felt his brain completely short circuit. Nell Jones was kissing him. The NSA agents from yesterday had obviously killed him and this was heaven. He was going to have to do something really nice for Ashley, because he was positive she was behind this.
Nell pulled back from the kiss. She wiped the lipstick off of Eric's mouth and straightened his shirt. "Now, we will talk about this more later."
"Later." Eric said absentmindedly.
"Yes, later." Nell let a small smile creep across her face. "Right now, we have to go upstairs to OPS to tell Hetty and Granger what we found. Can you do that?"
Eric just nodded his head in the affirmative.
Nell laughed. "Why don't you take a minute to gather your thoughts and I'll see you up there."
Eric nodded again.
With that, Nell turned and left the storage room and a completely dazed Eric, heading for OPS.
Ten minutes later Eric, looking mostly composed and only getting slightly unusual looks from Callen, Deeks, and Sam, entered OPS. He avoided looking at Ashley and Kensi altogether as he made his way to his seat.
Now that everyone had arrived, Callen let the brain trust explain what they found on the two devices and what had happened when it had been accessed.
When they finished Hetty spoke. "It appears that you have a plan, Agent Callen?"
"Yes. I want to send the tablet location alert. Problem is, it would burn a safe house. If we can lure them to us, makes things a lot easier. It would also get the immediate threat off of Ashley's back."
Granger was skeptical. "I'm sure they would be ready for a trap. These guys aren't idiots or sloppy."
"Of course they will think it's a trap. That's why they will run surveillance and find a house that has been abandoned quickly. When they see the house, they contact the leak back in Washington. We follow them to see where they go after that. When we've learned what we can, we swoop in and round them up." Callen turned to the three tech's standing next to one another. "I'm hoping you guys will find a way to find or listen to the phone in Washington."
Nell was first to speak. "That's a secure phone. Sure the NSA could crack it, but it's theirs. We don't have anyone that can. And if we did, we don't have the equipment."
"Eric can." Ashley said looking at Eric, who looked like he had just been pulled into the principal's office for fighting.
"Ash!" Eric looked both betrayed and scared.
"Come on, Eric. Now isn't the time to hide. Our lives are on the line. Cracking secure communication systems is your thing. You helped design the system the NSA is using."
"I don't do that anymore." Eric found his voice.
"Don't give me that. You game against me and the duo at CIA all the time. We shutdown hackers all the time. You are still elite."
The rest of the room, minus Hetty, just looked on in surprise at the argument occurring in front of them. Sam managed to get the question out first "What!?"
Eric looked defeated as he began to tell the story. "I originally became a member of NCIS as a deal to avoid prison. Ash and I accessed and browsed a lot of secure servers in high school. We never broke anything, or stole anything, but it wasn't legal. We got caught when we accessed a secure navy defense contractor's server. NCIS was in the middle of a sting operation to catch actual spies and we blundered into it. That's when we got offered the deal to join up rather than serve hard time. I went to NCIS because they weren't as uptight as the other agencies. I worked off my time, got my degree, and stayed because I liked the work. I've kept my nose clean sense then. I haven't done anything outside of my job duties."
OPS was completely silent for several heartbeats.
"That is so cool!" Deeks exclaimed.
Kensi immediately hit him in the shoulder giving him the 'will you just stop' glare.
"Ow. What? It is! We are secret agents backed up by a world renowned hacker. This would be a bestselling book and block buster movie. Maybe even a hit TV show."
"Deeks, do I need to slug you again?" Kensi eyed him dangerously.
"Alright. I'm just saying." Deeks looked a little defeated.
Granger squeezed the bridge of his nose with the thumb and forefinger. "Can you do it or not Mr. Beale?"
Eric turned to face the assistant director. "Yes, but I'm going to need to get something. I could build it myself, but it would take to long."
"You are about to tell me, the assistant director of a federal law enforcement agency that you need to procure illegal items to perform an even more illegal action, aren't you?" Granger said staring Eric down.
"Ah?" Eric hesitated for a moment. "No?" Eric looked around the room for support.
Granger smiled, causing more than just a little unrest in the room. "I'm messing with you Beale. Just get it done." With that Granger left the room.
Hetty and Granger authorized Callen's plan, but didn't want Eric or Ashley to actually ever be at the house. That wasn't a problem for Callen, because he didn't want them physically there either.
As the group walked down the stairs, Callen asked the obvious question. "Eric, this piece of technology you need, what is it, and where are you going to get it?"
"I know a guy that builds black boxes for accessing secure phone networks. It's mostly just a rebuilt laptop with special software. Before everything went digital, the box actually interfaced with the analog system. Now, that everything is computerized, the software will let us by pass most of the security and decrypt the signal in real time."
"You still know people like that?" Nell was a little surprised.
Eric looked embarrassed. "We game together. I haven't done anything illegal, but I do like to know what is going on."
"I assume this is going to cost us money?" Callen asked trying to bring the conversation back on course.
"Yes."
"How much?" Callen knew the answer wasn't going to be good and he was the one that was going to have to go Hetty to get it.
"That depends on how desperate he realizes we are and how much he wants to gouge me."
Callen sighed. "Alright. Take Nell and Sam. Go get this device and then get back here."
"Why are Sam and I going?" Nell was curious.
"Because, Eric is going to negotiate with a geek. I'm sending the two biggest weaknesses that geeks have, a beautiful smart woman and a big irritable jock. Whichever one of you has the most influence, keep the price down."
Sam would like to have argued but had to admit to the wisdom of the decision. "You do have a point."
"I don't know if I should be flattered or insulted." Nell said as she, Sam, and Eric headed toward the door.