Chapter 58

There had been something that had been niggling at Steve ever since he became aware of the full extent of Wo Fat's underground hacking and intelligence network – the man had essentially created his own intelligence department, but with entirely nefarious goals in mind. These people would be looking for other employment and would be quite happy to provide their services to anyone with deep enough pockets. He thought of all the covert missions with which he had been involved and the direct action taken against terrorists, drug cartels and militia groups. What if one of these groups could get their hands on classified information? Five-0 also had highly sensitive intel on their computer, including the identities of confidential informants. These CIs were vital to their work, but would be at great risk of retribution if their names got out. He resolved to get everyone who knew about all this stuff in one room to hash out the likelihood of a data breach – he didn't have the understanding to know if this would even be possible as surely the secure Naval and Five-0 databases were impenetrable?

A few nights later, Harry cracked open another beer and passed it across to Toast. The man actually went by the name of Adam Charles, but the nickname bestowed upon him by Danny had stuck – although in his defence, he had seriously cut down on his marijuana consumption and was now gainfully employed by a tech company. Most people now just assumed that his nickname came about because of his undeniable love of breakfast. The man himself decided that if he ever made it big then he would fly to different parts of the world just to have breakfast somewhere.

Kono, Chin and Jerry were also present, having been asked to come around to Steve's house for drinks and a chat. Chin was intrigued, "So, Steve. What did you want to talk about?"

Steve talked them through his thought process about how he had gotten to thinking about all this highly classified intel and how bad it would be if a hacker could get their hands on it. He threw the question out there as to how secure all this classified data really was and what could be done if there was a breach. They were all comfortably seated in his living room and started to debate this in earnest. Steve just sat back and observed, as the combined brain power currently slouched on his sofa kicked into life. They banded around many different ideas, some immediately being shot down and others taken more seriously and debated.

After a couple of hours Steve had to ask for a translation of what they had concluded. Harry took point, "Even a highly-skilled hacker couldn't get anywhere near our Naval databases without having their door kicked in by a team of special operators within the hour . . . but, if money was no object and you had access to the combined skills of the right people then I could envisage that it would theoretically be possible. While we might not be able to stop it, then we should at least work on being able to detect a breach so we can take immediate preventative action." Chin chipped in,

"Same with the Five-0 database, someone might be able to get to it. I think we should seriously consider what is stored electronically and have some information in paper form only. Of course, we would need a very safe place to keep that, but at least it couldn't be hacked."

Harry added, "I'm going to take a proposal to ONI . . ." he paused when he saw the blank looks on the faces of the non-military people in the room, "um, sorry, the Office of Naval Intelligence. It's based at the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Maryland. Toast here has given me some ideas about how to detect a breach. At the moment, if you knew where to look, you could probably detect the evidence of a breach that a hacker would leave behind - while they might be able to get in, it's impossible to do that without leaving a trace. But, that's no good if you don't know to look for it in the first place. We need a system that is scanning files all the time to look for this trace activity. Obviously it would be better to prevent unauthorised access ever happening, but this would be helpful if the unthinkable did happen . . . excuse me, I'm going back to base to make some calls."

The eager young man nodded at everyone and then rushed off to his car. Toast was a genius and he wondered if the man could be tempted to work with the Navy as a consultant. He then quickly dismissed that idea, shuddering as he thought of the reaction of some of the higher-ups to the laidback stoner. At least Five-0 could see past the dubious first impression to the man's considerable capabilities. He was sure that Toast would prove his worth to the task force again in the future.

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Life got back to normal for Five-0, cases were assigned to them and they solved them – most of the time. None of them like it when they couldn't wrap up a case, but it was just a fact of life that every law enforcement officer had to accept or risk the unsolved cases becoming an obsession. Although Steve really was trying to not cause mayhem just for the hell of it, sometimes the demands of the case came first and a bit, and on occasion quite a lot, of destruction of public property just seemed to happen and the ammo requisitions didn't seem to be getting any smaller.

Chin, ever the diplomat, had become extremely adept at condoning the methods employed by Five-0 to the Chief of Police and he seemed to be more at peace with the ends justifying the means - a number of very dangerous criminals were now no longer at large on his island because of the task force. They had crossed paths a few times with a competent ex-Homeland Security agent by the name of Lori Weston, who had been appointed by Sam Denning as his Public Safety Liaison. After a bit of initial friction, they discovered that she had profiling expertise and occasionally called upon her to help with cases. Steve wondered if the Governor might have assigned her to his team to keep an eye on them had he not made the effort to rein things in a bit. He shrugged, it didn't matter anyway - they were the fab four and got things done in their own way.

The new Organized Crime Unit had got up and running and from talking to the officers within the unit, Chin discovered that they were building an extensive database with far more functionality than he was used to seeing and would have access to intel from the specialist organized crime squads across Japan and China.

Deciding that he would like a bit of that for Five-0, he offered to provide his expertise during the design phase in return for being allowed to replicate the system at Five-0. He suggested that he 'borrow' a couple of HPD techies to help get it installed and validated on the surface table and Steve was quick to agree, liking anything that showed that the task force was cooperating more closely with their policing counterparts.

Chin was a happy bunny, in his element as he inputted data from all of their cases. The system would identify patterns and links between seemingly unrelated cases far better than the human eye. He had also deleted all electronic information on their CIs and now only had a list of their names and specialities in a paper-based file that was stored in a hidden safe at Five-0 HQ.

He also sought permission from Steve to bring Jerry Ortega in as a temporary consultant, as the man had been perfecting ways to link seemingly unrelated facts for years. Admittedly, his prior experience was skewed towards proving more outlandish theories but the basic methodology was the same. Steve found himself feeling strangely protective of the socially-awkward man, recognizing someone who just wanted to fit in but didn't quite know how. It was not unlike how he had felt when he'd been uprooted from his home, shipped off to boarding school and been the 'new boy'. He had struggled to find his place and had been bullied quite badly until he started to stand up for himself and found a couple of loyal friends. The experience had stayed with him and he intensely disliked seeing anyone being singled out for a perceived weakness. He had seen his fair share of 'hazing' in the Navy and had waded in on more than one occasion to put a stop to it when it had gone too far.

Danny was staying out of the way of the 'tech-fest' going on around the surface table and had taken refuge in his office. He looked up as Kono came sidling in and took a seat. She seemed reluctant to say anything and Danny wondered what was up. Eventually he had to start the conversation himself, "Anything I can help you with, Officer Kalakaua?" She sighed,

"I just wanted some advice and there's no way I'm going to Chin with this." Danny was intrigued and sat up in his chair,

"Pray tell. Just what can be bothering our resident rookie?" She cracked a smile and started to offload what was on her mind,

"I've been seeing Charlie for a little while now and he wants it to be more serious . . . but, I don't know if I'm ready. I mean, relationships fail all the time, I don't want to get hurt."

Danny made a face as he contemplated this, "Yeah, they do. But does that mean that you don't want to even try? That's a pretty risk-adverse approach from someone who jumps headlong into danger on a daily basis. You're only one notch down from McGarrett on the crazy scale." Kono frowned as she thought about Danny's words,

"Yeah, it's weird right? There's just so much expectation and I don't know if I'm ready." Danny smiled fondly at her,

"There's nothing wrong with not being ready. But you need to talk to Charlie, let him know how you're feeling – he might think that you don't like him and when I see you two together I get the distinct impression that you like him rather a lot."

Kono nodded and then asked another question, "Would you do it all again with Rachel, knowing what you do now?"

Now that was a loaded question and the detective gave it the consideration that it deserved. After a while he answered, "You know what? Yeah, I would. It didn't work out for us but there were lots of reasons why and I am forever grateful that our marriage gave me my little monkey. You're not committing to marrying the guy, but if you like him as much as I think you do then you should at the very least commit to exploring the possibility of something more serious." Kono jumped up from her chair,

"You're right Danny. I just got a bit panicked, that's all. I'll talk to Charlie tonight after work . . . thanks, I appreciate it." Danny waved off her thanks,

"Don't even mention it. I realise that I am the all-knowing voice of reason around here."

Kono laughed in his face, "Oh, hell no - that would be Chin, Brah! But you'll do as an acceptable backup when it comes to matters regarding my love life," and ran from his office before he could launch into an indignant tirade.