Chapter 10

Cavanaugh was quick to answer the knock on his door. In truth, the man had been pacing back and forth across his living room so much he was sure he was wearing out the carpet. He paced when he was nervous and given what he was about to do that night he was definitely nervous. So when he heard the approaching footsteps outside of his doorway, he almost didn't let Alex's fist hit the door.

"Jesus Sean," Alex exclaimed. "Were you just standing on the other side of the door waiting for me?" The door opening as quickly as it had startled the veteran officer. "I'm not late," he also pointed out.

"No," Sean admitted, "you're not late. Sorry. I'm just a little on edge." Sean stepped aside and invited Alex inside. Alex was carrying a duffle bag Sean knew contained everything they were going to need for their evening.

Alex took in his friend and could see the tension in his face. Actually, he could see the tension in Sean's entire body. "Sean, we don't have to do this," Alex pointed out. "We can try to think of another way."

Sean shook his head vehemently. They were going to do this. "No. I'm fine," he said only marginally convincingly. "This needs to be done. We all agreed to that."

They had too. Jane, and by extension Maura, Sean and Alex all had a long discussion about how to handle everything. It had been quite a colorful debate. But in the end it was decided that this was their best available option to not only handle Crowe and the external source but also protect Maura. Jane had been insistent that any plan of action had to cover protecting Maura and Sean couldn't blame for her that.

Sean looked at his friend and couldn't remember a time he had been more appreciative of any person. Alex was risking a lot to help him and he really didn't even know what was at stake. Sean and Jane had agreed to withhold Maura's paternity from Alex. Jane was just unwilling to add even one other person to the list of people who knew who her biological father was. The entire point of everything they were trying to do was to keep that information from ever seeing the light of day.

So Alex wasn't told. Instead, they focused on what they could tell him. They focused on Detective Crowe being a dirty cop. They focused on the external source being one of the Irish mob families. They focused on the fact that whichever family was behind the failed hacking would be sending into the station a federal agent, also on the take, who would attempt to gain access to files from inside the station. And they focused on the fact that Crowe seemed fixated at using Maura or Jane to gain information.

All of that was true and enough to convince Alex to help set up a trap for Crowe, the federal agent and the external source. They just kept from Alex what the federal agent would find if he ever gained access to the files. He didn't know that if the federal agent found the lab results Maura had deleted those results not only confirmed Colin was Patrick's son but they would show that Maura was Patrick's daughter. All of that was need to know and Alex just didn't need to know.

"I have everything we are going to need," Alex said holding up the duffle bag he brought. He had to admit he was kind of excited. He hadn't been a part of anything this 'cloak and dagger' in too many years. He loved his job but most of his responsibilities nowadays were administrative. This attempted security breach had been the first time in almost two years he had personally seen to an investigation. He missed the rush he used to get as an officer and a detective. His world was almost entirely a desk job now.

"Alex," Sean said and paused. He needed to thank his friend for what the man was willing to do. "I don't know if I know how to thank you for this," he admitted. Just saying it didn't feel like enough.

Alex smiled. Sean was a good man and a better friend. In the years they'd known each other he'd only asked for a favor one other time. So when Sean came to him for help a few weeks ago Alex knew the circumstances were extraordinary even though Sean wouldn't tell him all of the details. But he would do anything he could to help his friend. Including this.

"You don't need to thank me," Alex said with sincerity. That wasn't why he had agreed to help. "Things like this," he pointed out, "this is why you have friends."

Sean nodded but still didn't feel as if that was enough. But for now he couldn't really do anything about that but he would think of something later. "Alright," he said and looked at his watch. "We should head out. Unless something goes seriously wrong we should have plenty of time to get this done."

Alex nodded and turned to head for the door. "She's going to signal the all clear I assume," Alex asked as he waited for Sean to lock his front door and they headed out the Alex's car.

"She knows to signal the all clear as well as to let us know if anything drastically changes," Sean said. He also knew to signal her when they started and when they would be done.

"Alright," Alex said as he climbed into the driver's seat. "Let's get this show on the road."

R&I

Promptly as 8 pm there was a knock on Jane's apartment door. She'd been pacing back and forth for at least an hour. She paced when she was nervous and given how she was planning on spending her evening she was definitely nervous. Poor Jo finally had given up trying to keep up with her. Jo must have decided that Jane's pacing all throughout the apartment was some sort of game because for about the first twenty minutes Jo was right at Jane's heel and following along.

But the poor pup tired out and probably couldn't understand the point of what her owner was doing. There was no new toy or treat at the end of any path. They just kept making laps. Finally enough was enough for the dog and she just hopped up on the couch and watched her owner continue to pace around the apartment.

Jo was the first one to the door when she heard the knocking. She was hoping it was the pretty blond. She hadn't seen that lady in a really long time and she hadn't even been taken over to that other place that felt like home. She hadn't been able to play with the big turtle in so long she was afraid he would forget who she was. Jo barked when the knocking on the door turned out not to be the pretty blond.

Jane agreed with Jo's sentiments. She wasn't happy to see Dean either but she put on her best fake smile as she opened the door knowing she was going to have to 'enjoy' the night. All of this was for Maura which Jane kept reminding herself. It would be the silent mantra running through her head the entire evening.

"Hey," Jane greeted the agent with a smile. She stepped aside and invited him into her apartment.

"These are for you," Dean said with a smile handing over a bouquet of roses to Jane.

He looked so smug as he handed them to her she wanted to smack him. But she resisted the urge. It was going to be a long night. "What happened to 'just dinner'?" Jane asked pointedly.

Dean gave a sheepish grin. "I couldn't resist," he said. "There's a florist right across from my hotel."

Jane took the flowers but gave a scolding look. "This is just dinner Gabe," she warned. "You are going to need to do a better job at resisting for the rest of the night." Otherwise she might have to break the weasel in two.

Dean held up his hands and admitted defeat. "Just a friendly dinner. Promise," he tried to convince Jane he was sincere.

Jane took the flowers into the kitchen to put them in water. Thankfully, Dean didn't follow her as he stayed in the living room area. "How was the rest of your day?" she called out as she ran some water.

He started talking and Jane was only half listening. She needed to take advantage of the moment of privacy she had. She grabbed her phone and text a quick text to Sean.

Labs came back positive

She shook her head as she sent the text. Between her burner phone and the rendezvouses with Maura and text messages to Sean that said everything but what she really meant Jane again wondered how her life started to play out like a spy novel. But she had given the signal to Sean and that was all that mattered. She clipped her phone back to her hip, placed the roses in water and rejoined Dean in the living room as he was still carrying on about something.

"…Bristol police may have a new lead that looks promising. So hopefully that will pan out and they can steer their investigation in a new direction," he finished his statement as Jane reentered the living room. "Did you manage to get your paperwork complete?" He was hopeful so Jane wouldn't want to just eat and be brought straight home.

Jane smiled. "I did," she said. "I can't say I was real happy to have to write the summaries that quickly but if it means the DA will end up making a deal then I suppose it's a small price to pay."

"So you think the case will plead?" Dean asked.

"I do," Jane said and not simply because they had in fact worked out a plea agreement two months ago. She had known a deal was likely for the case prior to the DA agreeing to one. "The evidence is solid so a trial won't really do him any good. He won't get much by way of jury sympathy. I'd guess somewhere in the neighborhood of Man 1 and 10-12." The Abbott case did settle for that exactly. First degree manslaughter and 10-12 years with credit for time served.

"It's got to be frustrating to always have to watch the DAs office play 'let's make a deal'," Dean pointed out.

"That's how the system works," Jane answered back. "But the US Attorney does that more often than a State's Attorney so you should know the drill."

"True," Dean pointed out. "But I handle primarily white collar investigations. You handle homicide. There's a big difference between dealing with fraud versus dealing with murder."

Jane had to resist the urge to make a comment. It really was going to be a long night and she was going to have to watch her tongue closely. "It is what it is," Jane said wanting to let the topic go.

She was going to have a hard time maintaining eye contact with him knowing he was on the payroll of a mob family. There was a difference between fraud and murder but Jane wondered if Dean even respected those lines anymore.

"Let's not talk too much shop tonight," Dean said perhaps sensing Jane didn't want to discuss their current topic any further. "Are you ready to head out?"

Jane was happy for the subject change. "Yeah," she said. "Just let me get my jacket. Where are we going?" she asked.

Dean smiled. "Carmen's in the North End."

Jane smiled. She was going to hate the evening. She was going to hate the company she was keeping. But at least she was going to get a decent meal out of the night. Carmen's had excellent food.

"Perfect," she said. She grabbed her jacket and headed towards the door. She turned to look at Jo. "Be good," she said and Jo wagged her tail as if it promise to. She then barked once at the man who wasn't the pretty blond and returned to her place on the couch. Maybe tomorrow she'd get to visit the big turtle.

R&I

Labs came back positive

Sean looked at his phone and had to laugh at the lengths to which they were trying to stay undetected. Even their text messages had become cryptic.

"Alright," Sean said looking at Alex. "He's with Jane so the coast is clear for us."

Both men got out of the car and Alex grabbed his duffle bag. They headed into the hotel skipping the front desk and heading straight to the elevators. Sean had run Dean the morning he had made his appearance at the station so he was aware of which hotel, and what room number, the agent was registered. That he could do. Managing to get into Dean's room was part of Alex's responsibilities that night.

They made their way up to the seventh floor and got out of the elevator. Both men looked around and were glad to find the hallway empty. Sean had in his jacket pocket an impressive looking, all be it completely fake, search warrant on the off chance they were caught and questioned by hotel management. He just didn't want to have to use it being afraid that someone would mention to Dean a search warrant was executed on his room. This whole 'mission' depended on their ability to get in and out of Dean's room undetected. Comments about search warrants certainly wouldn't leave them undetected.

They walked down the hallway until they stood in front of room 719. That was when Alex went to work. He put down the duffle bag and unzipped it. He fished around for the device he was looking for and pulled it out. Cavanaugh just watched him and occasionally the hallway looking for people. He didn't understand much about computers, even less about hacking and absolutely nothing about any of the equipment Alex had explained he would need to use in order to pull everything off.

Alex pulled out a gadget that looked like an iPhone with a two wires attached to it. One wire looked like it was meant to plug into something and the other wire was attached to what looked like a generic hotel room keycard. Alex ran his finger underneath the lock to the room until he found what he was looking for. He then took the wire that looked like a plug and inserted it into what Sean assumed was some sort of port. Alex then slid the generic keycard into the lock. Powering on the smart phone apparatus Alex simply smiled at Sean as in less than a second the green light on the lock flashed and Alex opened the hotel room door.

Sean shook his head. That was the quickest he'd ever seen a lock 'picked'. "Makes me miss the days of actual keys," he muttered as they both entered the hotel room.

Alex quickly unplugged his device and closed the door wanting to get out of the hallway. "Tumbler locks are easier to pick than electronic ones," Alex pointed out. "You need an open source programmer and the right software to get into these."

"I still miss actual keys," he said again. All this technology stuff was sometimes just a bit too much for him. He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Jane to signal that they were in Dean's hotel room.

I'll review the results and confirm

He returned his phone to his hip and walked into the room. Alex was soon to follow after he slid the 'privacy' latch on the door. That was their best line of defense in case Dean returned to the hotel and Jane wasn't able to signal them. With the privacy latch engaged, Dean's keycard would not work in the door and he would be forced to return to the front desk to request a new key. That would allow them the time to get out of room undetected and Dean would just assume there was a defect with his room key.

Both men looked around Dean's hotel room. The man was pretty tidy and it made finding what they were looking for easier. They needed access to his laptop and any flash drives they could find. Looking at the desk in the corner of the room, Sean pointed out to Alex that there was a leather shoulder bag sitting on the desk chair.

Sean went to touch the bag but Alex stopped him. "Wait," Alex said as he pulled out his iPhone. He took a picture of the desk area including the chair and shoulder bag before nodding to Sean. "Everything needs to get put back exactly as we found it," Alex pointed out. They would take several 'before' photos to ensure everything from the position and contents of the bag to the overall desk area was perfect before they would leave.

They found a laptop and three flash drives in Dean's shoulder bag. "What do you want to do first?" Sean asked.

"The laptop first," Dean said. He took a seat at the desk and again rifled through the duffle bag. Looking up at Sean he said, "Go check all of his coat and pants pockets for any other flash drives." There was a chance they wouldn't find them all. After all Dean could have one or more on him right now but they would check what they could find.

"On it," Sean said and he went towards the closet area of the room.

While Sean continued to look around, Alex flipped over the laptop and started removing the screws. He took his time as he didn't want to scratch or scuff any of the screws in case Dean routinely checked this. But he got the screws removed and he popped off the back cover of the laptop exposing the laptop's hard drive.

He carefully removed the hard drive from the laptop and set it on the desk. He then set aside Dean's laptop and pulled out a laptop of his own from the duffle bag. This one he turned on and entered his password to launch his operating system. As his laptop loaded, Alex pulled out an external hard drive and a wire which he used to tether the external drive to Dean's hard drive. He then connected his external drive to his laptop.

By now Sean had checked pockets, jackets, suitcase pockets and even dresser drawers in the room. He found one more flash drive in a jacket pocket in the closet. He walked over to Alex and set the fourth flash drive down. He then took a seat and watched his friend and computer expert work his magic.

Alex started the program that would copy Dean's hard drive to the external drive it was now tethered to. Thankfully, that process didn't take too long. Once copied, Alex disconnected the external hard drive and carefully placed that back in his duffle bag. He then tethered Dean's hard drive directly to his laptop and opened a software program.

"So I get what you just did with the other hard drive," Sean said. "But what are you doing now?"

He knew Alex had just copied Dean's entire drive so they could examine the contents of anything he kept on it later. Their hope was that he stored incriminating documents or evidence on the drive they could use against him. Given that they had in fact broken into the Dean's room and were accessing everything illegally, none of the information they found would ever be able to be used against Dean in court but it could potentially tell them who Dean was working for or what he may still have planned.

"Now I'm about to add a rootkit to his drive," Alex said as if that would explain everything to Sean.

"A what?" Sean asked.

Alex snickered. "A rootkit," he said again. "Basically I'm giving myself access to Dean's laptop so we can monitor everything he does going forward."

"Oh, so like a virus," Sean said trying to think of things he's heard about computers and software.

"Not a virus," Alex corrected. "I'm not looking to effect the performance of his laptop or destroy any of his data. That would tip him off that something was wrong." Looking up at Sean he asked, "Have you ever heard of 'spyware'?"

"I've heard the term," Sean admitted but with no confidence that he understood what it really was.

"How do you exist in the modern world old man?" Alex asked again with a snicker. "Spyware is software that gives a remote user access to information such as internet activity, passwords and even bank or credit card information."

"Alright," Sean said. That sounded relatively familiar. "And I'm not old," he pointed out.

Alex laughed again. "You'd still have a rotary dial phone if they made them Sean. You are an old timer through and through. The problem with spyware is that it can be detected pretty easily if someone routinely scans for it which all federal agents are trained to do. So I'm installing a rootkit instead.

"A rootkit is just like spyware only it grants me administrative rights to his laptop and it won't be found during a routine scan. It's masked in a location a scan won't detect it. Once installed, I'll be able to remotely see everything Dean does with this laptop, including anything offline, and I can even change his system configurations. So in case of some sort of emergency I can lock him out of his own laptop to prevent from him trying to delete files or records."

"Wow," Sean said. All of this hacking stuff was pretty scary. He wondered if the department administrators watched everything people did on department issued laptops. He had a suspicion the answer was yes.

It didn't take long for Alex to install the rootkit to Dean's hard drive. He disconnected everything and went about the task of reinstalling the drive and reassembling Dean's laptop. Again, he took care not to scratch or scuff any of the screws.

"That just leaves the flash drives," he said. This was the part they was hoping to get lucky with. When they talked about someone attempting to gain server access in person, Alex theorized on how that might happen.

The easiest way would be for someone to gain access to a computer on the BPD network and either pull files immediately or install either a rootkit or a bot of their own to access remotely later. If time was an issue, which everyone agreed would be the case as no one felt the agent would be left alone long enough to manually search through computer files while at the station, it would be most probable that the agent would just download the rootkit or bot.

That meant the agent would have to have that software available at the station which again Alex theorized meant he (or she) would most likely carry that rootkit or bot on a flash drive. No one felt the agent would carry around a laptop and tethering wires. That would be too impractical. The flash drive was the easiest way to go.

So now Alex was going to try to find the rootkit or bot on one of the four flash drives they had found in Dean's room. If Alex could find it he could make a copy of it and that's what they needed. So one by one, Alex checked the contents of the flash drives they found. The first three, all from Dean's shoulder bag, contained miscellaneous files but no software programs.

Alex plugged the last flash drive, the one from Dean's jacket pocket, into the USB port and ran the analysis of the drive. He looked up at Sean and smiled.

"Got it," he said. They had found the bot.

Alex copied the bot onto a flash drive he pulled from the duffle bag. Once copied he handed it to Sean. "This is all she will need to give to him," he said.

Sean took the drive and nodded. Jane's computer expert was certain he could manage the last part of the plan.

They reassembled everything in the exact place they had found it all. They even triple checked the photos on Alex's phone. When they were sure nothing was out of place, they packed up Alex's equipment and headed out of the hotel.

Once down in the car, Sean pulled out his phone and sent the all clear signal to Jane.

Results were what we wanted

Jane would know exactly what he meant by that.