Chapter 7
The gang sat around the living room eating their communal dinner. Amy spoke up and asked Penny, "Can we go to that new country/western bar for our next girls' night out?"
Penny squelched an urge to scream 'hell no' and simply smiled and said, "That sounds great; what do you think, Bernadette?" As Bernadette answered, Penny felt as if the blood was going to start squirting out of her ears; the blood was pounding out a staccato rhythm. She merely nodded at Bernadette as she nodded her head in the affirmative.
Leonard had just about feinted when Amy had asked Penny a direct question. He had noticed that Penny had avoided; although not glaringly so; being left alone with Amy and had been polite to her the whole evening. But the direct question had forced Penny into a one on one exchange with her and Penny had deflected it beautifully. If Leonard had not known that Penny was seething with hatred, he would have never suspected it.
"When is our next night out?" Bernadette asked.
"I'm free this weekend. How 'bout you, bestie?" Amy directed to Penny.
Penny's eyes grew large and a smile blossomed on her face. "Not this weekend… Leonard has promised me a romantic trip up the coast." She glanced at him and he smiled back.
This was news to him, but if she wanted a romantic get away; he would gladly oblige. His mind quickly assessed his schedule and he nodded at her. "I've been planning this for a while, and both our schedules opened up perfectly."
"Where are you going?" Amy asked.
"No. No. I haven't even given Penny any details. I just told her to pack warm clothes and…"
"And my lingerie." Penny interrupted. "He promised it would be an adventure as well as romantic."
"Well that sounds like a boring weekend," Sheldon said. "I for one have plans to do a complete defrag and back-up of my laptop and re-watch season 5 of the new adventures of Doctor Who."
"We could always join you; me and Sheldon, I mean," Amy said.
"Not a good idea Ames. Sheldon is already uncomfortable with my 'vocalizations' when I stay in Leonard's room. We are going to be on a weekend getaway in a romantic setting; he will not want to be within a half mile of me when I get going." Amy glanced at Sheldon and Penny saw a look of jealousy flicker in her eyes. 'Good bitch, feel the wrath of reality'. "But I should be free next Wednesday night." She was interrupted by a knock at the door. Raj was closest to the door so he stood up from the floor, picked up his bottle of beer and walked to the door. Everyone watched with curiosity as he opened the door. Raj took a step back in surprise and the gang could see three uniformed security officers standing in the doorway. Behind them was Dr. Siebert; whom upon the door being opened, stepped in front of the officers.
"Dr. Cooper, may I have a word?" Dr. Siebert asked in a formal tone.
"What is this about?" demanded Sheldon as he stood; hovering near his spot.
"This is a confidential matter. It would be best to speak in private" Dr. Siebert replied.
Sheldon teetered on his heels and considered this. "Everyone needs to leave," he declared. He looked around at his friends and nodded toward the door.
"If you'll just step into the hallway, Dr. Cooper, this will only take a moment," said the president.
"They can leave. I would be more comfortable speaking here."
"I would prefer we speak in the hallway," Dr. Siebert said with conviction in his voice.
Sheldon frowned but finally stepped out into the hall. Dr. Siebert closed the door behind them. The rest of the gang just stood there in shock. Finally Howard voiced the question everyone was thinking, "What the hell is going on?"
Everyone seemed to begin to talk at once, jabbering about what they thought was happening. Leonard noticed that Amy was the only one not talking a mile a minute; she was standing very still and staring at the door. "What's he working on at the moment?" Bernadette asked loudly to be heard over the din of other voices.
"He mentioned that he was writing up a proposal for a new research topic. It has something to do with possible variations in the speed of light in certain regions of space. He thinks that it may be a way of detecting new areas of dark matter?" Leonard said clinically. "I don't think it will be accepted; from what he has told me, the theory is too vague and mirrors some research already being done at a university in south Mississippi."
"What do you think it's about?" Bernadette asked Leonard.
"I have no idea," he replied as he glanced at Penny; who frowned at him. He turned to look at Amy who had not taken her eyes off the door. He looked at Penny and nodded toward Amy.
Penny shuddered slightly and then walked over to Amy and put an arm around her. "Ames, do you know what is going on?" Amy nodded her head from side to side and a tear formed in the corner of her eye. 'Damn' Penny thought. 'She's actually scared for him'. "Everything is going to be okay" Penny said as she rubbed Amy's back.
Leonard looked on with astonishment. Penny was a hell of an actress. It looked like she was actually feeling sorry for the backstabbing, manipulative bitch. The door being opened interrupted his musings. He saw Sheldon walk in and he looked ashen. The three security men followed Sheldon. Leonard noticed that they were campus security, but Adam was not with them.
"Attention" Sheldon said in a meek voice, "These gentlemen are going to be doing a sweep of the apartment; they are looking for listening devices, bugs for those of you without advanced degrees." He looked at Penny and Howard. Howard bristled but Penny just ignored him.
"What prompted this?" Raj asked.
Sheldon glanced at Dr. Siebert and he nodded. "It seems that one of my colleagues in the Theoretical Physics department found a very unsophisticated bug in his office. When they investigated, they found spyware on his computer. They did an initial sweep of my office and found the same type of bug in my office. Under campus security policy, any threat detected requires a complete security evaluation of the affected party. Thus I must submit to a security check of my living quarters."
"Are you okay with this Sheldon," Amy asked as she put her hand on the small of his back. "You have rights; you don't have to allow this violation of your personal space."
"No. No I don't. But someone has violated my privacy by spying on me. I want to know who it is and I need to know if that someone has been in my home." Sheldon shivered and nodded to Dr. Siebert.
"Gentlemen" he nodded toward the three security men, "start here and work your way back to the bedrooms."
"Umm, bedrooms, as in plural?" Leonard asked. "I don't know if I'm comfortable…"
"Under University policy we have the right, neh, responsibility to check all employees homes for security breaches. But just to clarify, we are checking for listening devices; no intrusion will be made into personal items."
"Well, okay; I guess" Leonard said in a conciliatory tone.
Dr. Siebert turned abruptly as one of the men clicked his tongue. He walked over as the man reached up to the bookcase against the wall and removed a small replica of a blue police box; he looked it over carefully and turned it over. The bottom had been removed and a small camera had been inserted with the lens pointing out through one of the painted on windows.
Sheldon let out a horrified gasp. "How dare they destroy my Tardis. Who did this? Find them and bring them to justice. I bought that at the last Comic-Con."
"I think I would be more concerned with the fact that someone was watching my every move," said the man who had found the device.
"Where was the camera pointing?" ask Bernadette in a panicked voice. Howard put an arm around her and squeezed her into his side. She looked up at him and saw the panic in his eyes as well. "Howard?" she asked in a pleading voice.
Just the week before, she had been attending a meeting outside of work in the morning and it had taken less time than she had allotted. It was not far from Sheldon and Leonard's apartment. It had been a very productive meeting for her and she was full of vim and vigor. She had called Howard at work and he had told her that he had been having a rough morning. She decided to try to make him feel better while burning off some extra energy. She remembered the phone call.
~ Flashback ~
"Howie... do you still have a key to Leonard's apartment?" she asked in a sultry voice.
"Yeah," he drew out in a question
"Wanna do something naughty?"
"Yeah," he answered in an excited squeal.
"Meet me there in thirty minutes; get naked and wait for me in Sheldon's spot." Her voice caught. "Thirty minutes." And then she disconnected the phone.
~ Back to the present ~
They had defiled Sheldon's spot that morning and she had relished that thought many times since then when she had been forced to listen to Sheldon drone on. But now; had someone or worse more than one, watched them, as they were intimate? She gasped and all eyes turned to her.
"Howard, I want to go home. Take me home." Bernadette walked towards the door and Howard followed her.
"Keep me apprised of what you find," he nodded to Leonard as he followed Bernadette out of the apartment.
The three officers had finished their sweep of the living room and each indicated by raised fingers how many devices each had found. "Chuck, you take Sheldon's room," he nodded to Sheldon. "If you will show him your room and stay while he does the sweep. Sanders, you and Leonard check his room. Bill, you take any other closets or rooms as well as the kitchen area." Dr. Siebert sat in Sheldon's spot as the officers, along with Sheldon and Leonard left the room. Raj sat next to him and asked, do you think this is another University trying to find out in what direction we are taking our research?"
"I can't speculate at this time. That camera disturbs me. It is a lot more sophisticated than the devices we found in the Theoretical department." They sat in silence for about twenty minutes before the officers made their way back into the main room. When they nodded to Dr. Siebert he said, "How many more devices did you find?"
Chuck spoke up. "Living room: 1 live feed video and 4 passive audio; kitchen, 1 passive audio; hallway clear." He looked puzzled. "Sheldon's room... clear. Leonard's room, 2 live video feeds and 1 live audio feed. Restroom, 1 passive audio feed."
"What's passive and what's live mean?" Penny asked.
"Passive means that it only sends a signal when activated by sound; live means it transmits constantly," explained Leonard.
"Do you mean someone has been spying on us in our bedroom?" Penny gasped.
"Leonard? Do you have any idea why there would be such coverage in your room and none in Sheldon's?" Dr. Siebert looked up to see Sheldon staring at him.
"You're in my spot," Sheldon said.
Dr. Siebert stood and said, "I don't have time for your weirdness, Dr. Cooper." He sidled over to Leonard. "Can you shed any light on this, Dr. Hofstader?"
Leonard did his best not to glare at Amy. "No idea. You know my current project. I'm trying to recreate the results of the South African team that claims to have developed a process for extracting heavy metal traces from saltwater. No new research at this time." He paused. "Is there anyway to tell how long the devices have been there?"
Chuck spoke up, "The battery life for the video equipment is 6 weeks. They look to be close to depletion. I'd say about 4.5 to 5.5 weeks. Same indication from the audio feeds."
"That brings me to my next question. Who would have access to the apartment?"
"Just our friends and close acquaintances," Sheldon said.
"The building manager has access and we had LeVar Burton over a couple of weeks ago to film a web show." Leonard added.
"They've been watching us Leonard; somebody's been watching us; in our bedroom." Penny said with tears coming to her eyes. Do you think they're watching us at my place?"
"I don't know sweetheart." Leonard said.
Dr. Siebert turned to Penny, "Ms..."
"Call me Penny."
"Penny, where do you live? I'll have Chuck and Sanders go with you to do a sweep of your home."
"Just across the hall," she said as she walked toward the door.
"Do you think that is necessary?" Leonard asked.
"It would seem that you are being targeted, Dr. Hofstader. I'll have them expand the search at the university," he took his phone from a clip on his belt, "I'll advise the team that is currently working in the theoretical department to expand to the experimental…" he paused. "Dr. Koothrapoli is in the Astro department; isn't he? I'll expand it there also."
"Penny, I'll go with you; if you want. You know…" Amy started, "…for support." She stood and followed Penny and the two officers into the hallway.
Penny led them all into her apartment and walked to the center of the room. She stood still as the men started a patterned search of the apartment. Amy walked over to her and put her arms around her shoulders.
"Someone has been intruding on mine and Leonard's intimate moments." Penny said as she stared forward. "Who could do something like that? I mean, god, the depravity of it all. Just two night ago; we were in his room and I let him…" she trailed off.
"I'm sure they weren't watching you," Amy said as she rubbed Penny's back.
"Do you think it's more than one person?" Penny said in an exasperated sigh. ""Would could do something like this?"
"Maybe it doesn't have anything to do at a personal level; maybe it's something professional and they are looking and listening for key words, phrases or actions. Maybe they aren't watching everything you do and say." Amy paused and stepped in front of Penny and looked her in the eyes. "This is about Leonard; it has nothing to do with you."
Penny looked at her in astonishment. Through pursed lips she hissed, "Whatever affect Leonard…" her eyes narrowed, "affects me." She stepped back away from Amy and walked out of the apartment.
