"I think this is a bad idea." Jess told Tex, she had told him what she heard in comms. They had discussed it at length. She wanted to keep the information to herself and root out the mole given she had no proof but her word. Sure, Tom trusted her, but she highly doubted he'd trust her word on this. The crew had suffered a major trauma together, it built an incredible bond of trust. To think one of them was a Russian sleeper would be too much to bear. Especially from her, who was in essence a 'nobody' to them.
But Tex made a compelling argument that if she ran around the ship in 'CIA' mode, she was more likely to alienate the crew and tip off the mole who at the moment had the upper hand. It would also betray Tom's trust to keep him in the dark. That last part of his argument was the push she needed. She'd rather Tom think she was paranoid and hallucinating from months of bad sleep.
"No, it's not." Tex said as they were outside Tom's quarters.
"What's a bad idea?" Tom asked, his presence made Tex and Jess nearly jump out of their skin as they'd been too engrossed in their conversation they hadn't seen him come down the p-way.
"Nothing, forget you even heard or saw us." Jess said she turned to leave but Tex held onto her and gently pulled her back. "Fine, Tex and I'd like to discuss our sleeping arrangements." she lied as there were people in the p-way. It was the only thing she could think of on the spot.
"We know you said 'no' before but we'd like to discuss it further in your quarters. We have a pretty convincing argument." Tex said, Jess inwardly groaned as it sounded like they were inviting Tom for a threesome.
"Please, just hear us out and then we'll drop it." Jess said lamely, Tom sighed and looked at his watch.
"I have exactly two minutes." Tom said, he opened his door and gestured for them to go in. Tex closed the door and Tom wore a suspicious expression as Jess looked around the room. "You must have some argument if you think I'm giving up my own quarters." Tom said in amusement as he couldn't believe this was something that needed further discussion.
"You have a mole on your ship working for the Russians." Jess said bluntly. Silence descended in the room as Tom gave Jess a cold, hard stare for a long minute.
"That's a pretty dangerous accusation." Tom warned her, Jess was not put off by his reaction at all. If anything she expected it.
"I was sifting through encrypted backchannels to see if any of my friends were still alive." Jess started.
"Ok." Tom said carefully as he folded his arms across his chest and frowned.
"I put in the wrong encryption key, just by one digit and landed on an active channel. Two men speaking in Russian. They were talking about the ship and the doctor's work on a vaccine." Jess explained.
"Do you know the odds of landing the right channel with an encryption key that works at random?" Tom asked her incredulously, she shot him a droll look.
"One in a billion, I guess I'm lucky because I heard them. It explains why they haven't made another run at us. The mole explained to someone with the rank of Admiral that the doctors need a month to make a vaccine." Jess said, Tom narrowed his eyes at her and Tex as his frown deepened.
"Dr Scott has given me no such timeline." Tom told her.
"I'm only telling you what I heard," Jess pulled out the folded pieces of paper she'd written down a transcript of what she heard and how she accessed it. She handed it to Tom. "I told Tex that this wouldn't go over well." she told him.
"I don't think we should sit on the information either." Tex argued as Tom read through the transcript and looked at the channel and key to access it.
"A month, he said we'd be in Costa Rica in a few days. That they have three viable vaccine prototypes that they need to test. But Costa Rica is only a day away even if we take our time. The Russians would know this as well." Tom told them, he wasn't sure how to digest any of this information. He knew everyone on the ship, there was not one man or woman he could not imagine any of them betraying him, the crew or their country.
"He's probably buffering for eventual delays in the development of the vaccine and you dragging your feet. I don't know. I just know what I heard." Jess said, a sharp knock sounded on the door.
"Come in." Tom said, Mike stepped into the room. Mike looked at Jess and Tex, his expression remained neutral as he turned his attention to Tom.
"Dr Tophet stopped me and said Dr Scott has requested we change course for Costa Rica." Mike told him.
"What's in Costa Rica?" Tom asked.
"Monkeys, Tophet believes by the time we get there and collect the monkeys they'll have three viable vaccine prototypes. He seems to think it will take a few days to get to Costa Rica like we're going to row the ship there or something." Mike said in an unimpressed tone as if he was insulted by the man thinking the ship would sail so slowly. His eyes narrowed as Tom and Jess exchanged looks. "What?" he asked.
"Close the door." Tom said, Mike did as he was told.
"Morley tuned into a discussion on an encrypted channel between someone on this ship and the Russians." Tom said as he passed the papers over to Mike.
"Someone?" Mike asked before he read through the pages and frowned.
"Male, not native Russian speaker, his grammar was messy. I think he's colluding with the doctors or at least one of them. How else would he know we were going to Costa Rica and the vaccine prototypes before you two?" Jess asked. Mike gave her a look of scepticism.
"You could be the mole. You ingratiate yourself to the Captain, you've had access to the doctors, CIC, and Comms. You're doing this to throw suspicion off yourself now that we know the ship is out there tracking us. Not to mention, you had a valid reason for why they weren't coming after us yet." Mike stated as he passed the papers back to Tom. Jess turned to Tex and threw him a 'I told you so' look.
"And, I was left alone in comms during the shift change when the call happened. So, there's no one to corroborate what I heard." Jess said as she helped Mike dig her metaphorical grave.
"But Jess was not on the ship when the Russians first found you and from what I heard, the Russians came at you guys hard in the Arctic. That there was about a 10 second delay between when the radar picked up the incoming helos and the alarm being sounded." Tex stated as he didn't need Jess muddying the situation just for the sake of proving she was right. When she wasn't, at least in his opinion.
"Who told you that?" Mike asked, he looked at both Tex and Jess suspiciously. Neither were offended as they were the new kids on the ship.
"People like talk. I listen." Tex said as he wasn't going to give up names. It wasn't relevant to the situation for him to say who.
"There was a glitch that has since been corrected." Tom said, but even he couldn't help feeling a little paranoid at the connections one could make. They assumed one of the doctors calling home had led the Russians to them. But it made a lot more sense for someone on board to be selling them out as they'd know all their weaknesses and have the time to prepare for the oncoming assault.
"We weren't on the ship then." Tex pointed out.
"But Morley admitted to Tom that she was read in on our mission. Occam's razor, the most obvious answer is the right one." Mike argued, Jess smothered a smile as she wondered if Mike was being serious or just mocking them.
"This is mildly amusing." Jess said.
"It's not for me." Tom said, he looked to Mike, "Being read in and knowing our exact location and where the landing team would've been on the ice that day are things Jess could not know at the time. We need to find the mole before they sabotage the ship and cripple us. We would've been notified immediately if Morley stepped into more sensitive areas of the ship." Tom reminded Mike.
Tom trusted Morley to a certain point. But he wasn't letting her or Tex move through the ship's more sensitive areas without someone informing him. It also helped that they were a novelty so they have no anonymity. Where they went, people talked.
"If they haven't done so already, how are we supposed to search for sabotage and the mole without tipping our hand?" Mike asked in mild annoyance.
"We have time to find this person, my main concern is the doctors. They could potentially kill our crew with a counterfeit vaccine prototype. Make it look like the trials are failing or worse, vaccinate himself and the mole and expose the crew to the virus through the ventilation system." Tom said.
"Jess and I can suss out the doctors. We already have an in with them." Tex offered, Jess nodded in agreement.
"And the mole had to use a SAT phone. Those things are easy to hide but not to use. You gotta find a private spot on the ship. How many private spots on the ship could there be to make a call?" Jess asked Tom and Mike as they knew the ship better than her.
"More than a few. But we can go over the rosters and personnel files start whittling down the list of suspects." Mike said thoughtfully.
"At least we can rule out the female personnel." Tom said wryly, although it didn't mean much given there were only 24 female crewmembers leaving them with 191 male crewmembers to whittle down to one man.
"Assuming there's not a sleeper cell on the ship." Jess said.
"God, you had to go there." Tom said exasperated.
"How well do you know your crew?" Jess asked them.
Danny sat in the wardroom with Halsey as they chowed down on an early dinner. He looked up when the door opened and sucked in a breath as it was Kara. He didn't know how it was possible but she became more beautiful every time he saw her.
"Hi." Danny said, Kara gave him a closed lip smile.
"What's for dinner?" Kara asked.
"Pasta of some description," Danny hadn't paid attention when he took his dinner. He just ate it. "Tastes good." he offered.
"How is it going with your sister?" Kara asked, she grabbed dinner for herself and sat down at the table opposite him. This was their new normal, no more secrets and he felt he owed her some clarity on his family especially when she'd been open about hers.
"It's not easy, I should be grateful she's alive but there's just a lot of bad blood between us." Danny sighed.
"I'm sure whatever happened in the past is surmountable." Kara said, he wanted to tell her everything but it felt petty and childish.
He realised Jess was right, he was being a child. He was nearing 30 and still upset about things that happened in his childhood as if it was still relevant to where he was in his life at this moment. It wasn't.
Jess lying about her occupation, well, he was slowly getting over it as she was right. He lied about his job all the time, so it was hypocritical for him to be completely bent out of shape. He just assumed that she'd tell him, to trust him. He recognised that he never really opened up to her about his job, so he couldn't expect her to reciprocate. He looked at Kara, realised that she had been open to him about a lot of things while he had played it close to the vest. He realised if he wanted a real chance with her, he needed to be open with her.
"You're right, it is. I just need to work through it, I guess." Danny said with a shrug.
"So, you have sisters." Kara drawled with interest, Danny smiled and nodded, if he wanted their relationship to grow beyond the physical side, he knew he had to open up. It wasn't easy for him, but Kara was worth the discomfort or so he hoped.
"Three, two older, one younger. Jess is 8 years older than me and then the rest of us have a three year age gap between us." Danny said.
"Jess is 36? I wouldn't have pegged her at that age. She looks much younger." Kara commented before she ate a bite of her dinner.
"Green Genetics at play. But basically it goes Jess, Simone, Me and then Keeley is the youngest and possibly the most famously accomplished of the Green siblings." he said, he waited for her brilliant mind to make the connections as everyone knew Keeley.
"Keeley Green." Kara said, rolling the name over her tongue, Danny watched as it dawned on her. "Wait, is she the Olymp-"
"Yep." he said cutting her off, he knew how that conversation went. Keeley the young superstar athlete who won multiple gold and silver medals at winter and summer Olympics. The Green Sibling that graced cereal boxes and magazines for a good portion of the year. All the siblings paled in contrast to her success.
"Wow, Alisha has a copy of Vanity Fair with her on the cover in our quarters right now." Kara told him in awe.
"Yeah, Berchem has the Guns and Ammo magazine that she's also on the cover of too. So, you can see why I don't mention her because usually when people know we're related, they just want to talk about her. Non-stop. It gets old fast." Danny sighed.
"You're jealous." Kara teased.
"A little but only of her intense focus and drive." Danny said, he didn't like being overshadowed by his sisters. It was hard enough being the only boy, but the feel like the underachiever just added an unpleasant layer to his life that he could do without.
"I beg to differ." Kara said with a coy smile. Danny smiled as she was not wrong, he did have the capacity for it as he had been very single minded when it came to hooking up with her.
"Ok, maybe in some things I do share those qualities," he conceded.
"What about Simone?" Kara asked out of curiosity.
"She's a dancer, prima ballerina for some Russian dance company. Apparently it's very exclusive and prestigious, I never really paid much attention to it or her, which I regret now." Danny admitted softly.
"Maybe the immunity is hereditary on the girl's side of your family." Kara offered, Danny wanted to tell her he was immune but they weren't alone. There were crew in the galley, he didn't want them to overhear. But he made a mental note to find a way to tell her. Just not here or now.
"Maybe, but even if she has survived, I think her talent would be wasted on me. I'm not into classical music or ballet. Keeley and I got along best because we both liked guns, martial arts and other sports." Danny said with a soft smile.
"You and Jess not so much." Kara stated, Danny could see how it didn't make sense given Jess' work and lifestyle complimented his own when it came to interests and skillsets.
"We have that eight year age gap, she was a child prodigy. She graduated college at 17 with two degrees, a year later she had a PhD. How can a normal kid keep up with that?" Danny asked her.
"It would be hard for both of you." Kara said sympathetically.
"She breezed through it." Danny said, he hadn't seen Jess struggle at anything in her life. The last few weeks being the exception which was unnerving to say the least.
"Or made it look like that. I skipped two grades in school, it was hard." Kara told him, Danny wasn't surprised, Kara was incredibly intelligent. Sometimes he was worried she'd get bored with him. Kara gave a self deprecating shrug. "The studying was easy, but the social aspect was harder. You're younger than your peers, so you kind of miss out on a lot of milestones." she confessed, her smile dimmed a little as she thought back to that time.
Danny noticed that when she spoke about her Mom and her childhood there was always a tinge of sadness. But then he couldn't imagine growing up with an alcoholic mother. He knew she had to grow up fast and be the adult when her mother couldn't. But when Kara spoke about it and her mother, she always tried to spin it in a positive light. Kara was a very forgiving person, she was always about giving people a second chance. Something he wished came easy to him as it did for her.
"What kind of milestones?" Danny asked.
"Having friends your own age. Parties, boyfriends, dating and all that stuff. In hindsight, it's not a big deal cause you catch up on it all later on. But as a teenage girl, it was sad to miss out on them." Kara said with a dismissive shrug but Danny knew better. Kara had to grow up fast and be the adult her mother struggled at being.
"I guess, I don't know what it's like to be a teenage girl." Danny joked, Kara chuckled, he loved the sound of her laugh and seeing her smile.
"I would've loved to have siblings." Kara told him.
"You can have Jess, she already comes with a brother in law." Danny offered. Kara smiled.
"I like Tex." Kara informed him with a coy smile.
"Tex?" Danny scoffed, Kara nodded as she took a sip of her drink.
"He's very charming." Kara said.
"He looks like an extra from Duck dynasty and farts more than Halsey does." Danny told her, Kara laughed. Danny knew Kara wasn't interested in Tex romantically but he couldn't help the petty need inside him to turn her off Tex.
"I highly doubt that." she scoffed.
"You don't share quarters with him. He's loud and deadly, honestly, I'd rather he go sleep with my sister, rules and regs be damned." Danny told her. Kara laughed and Danny smiled as he enjoyed her joy.
"Maybe you should petition the Captain. I'm sure, he'd offer his sea cabin to Jess and Tex if he knew the mental and physical anguish you're experiencing." Kara said in a tongue and cheek manner.
"Now, you're just mocking my pain." Danny deadpanned.
"Maybe a little." Kara said before she giggled at him as he clutched his chest pretending to be hurt by her lack of support.
"So, how was my sister in CIC today?" Danny asked as casually as he could.
"You know I can't talk about it." Kara mused. She took another bite of her dinner. She was teasing him, he knew it.
"You can't tell me what you found, but you can tell me how Jess was."
"She was good, actually she's probably the friendliest COO that I know." Kara remarked thoughtfully.
"How so?" Danny asked.
"Usually ONI or CIA liaisons are more reserved, tight lipped as they keep everything on an need to know basis. I think in the new world order, we're living, Jess doesn't feel that need to keep herself apart from us." Kara explained, she frowned as she didn't think she was explaining it very well.
"She most likely decided it wasn't valuable information to keep to herself." Danny said.
"Maybe, but it didn't feel like that." Kara said with a shrug before she finished the last bit of her meal.
"So, will I see you at Breakfast?" he asked, as he had lingered too long with his empty plate before him.
"No, but maybe at dinner." Kara said, they both knew her schedule wasn't always set. It was ever changing with the situation on the ship.
"Same time?" Danny asked.
"I'll try." Kara told him.
"I'll wait." Danny said in a low voice, but she knew he would be here waiting for her. "I'll get the dishes." Danny assured her. Kara smiled softly, a light blush graced her cheeks as she nodded.
"Have a good night, Lieutenant." She said, she rose from her chair. Danny watched her leave the wardroom before he gave a satisfied sigh. He smiled down at Halsey as Danny saw he'd finished his food.
"Good boy. Let's go to back to our quarters." Danny told him, he rose from his chair and cleaned up the table. He headed out of the wardroom with Halsey at his side and bit of a pep in his step.