one week later...

Tim stared at the lines of code whizzing by on his laptop. He hadn't been back to his apartment since he'd learned William Cloud was responsible for Director Thomas' shooting, and the attempt on Tim's life. He'd spent most days in his office, going through code and creating programs to aid in tracking the bastard. He had his own laptop on his desk, running code, and he had four others brought up from IT, and he had them set up and running 24/7 searches and trackers.

The door to his office opened, and Laura stepped in, carrying a large coffee, and a to-go bag from a pastry shop. She'd been his life saver for the past week. She'd kept his supply of coffee constant, and since she couldn't make him leave his office, started bringing him food. After a week of helping him, they had a familiar relationship forming, and she started to become very comfortable with her new Boss.

Today, he wasn't any different than he had been since the Op had started. She crossed the room and set the coffee down in front of him. The aroma seemed to bring him out of whatever trance he was in, and after a few moments, he registered that Laura was in the room.

"Thanks, Laura."

He took the coffee gratefully and took a long drink.

"I brought you a bagel, for breakfast. Did you sleep last night?"

"I'm not sure. I think I might have."

Laura glanced down at the trash bin. It had four large, empty coffee cups in it. She'd emptied the bin the previous night, before she'd gone home for the evening.

"You have to sleep. You can't run on coffee alone."

Tim clicked a few buttons on his laptop. She was starting to lose him again to that computer. She needed to bring him back, before he got lost in whatever he was doing again. Laura held the bag with the bagel in front of his face and waved it.

"Stop looking at that damn computer and eat something," she ordered.

Tim looked at the bag in front of his face, and then up at Laura. She had a frustrated look on her face. He took the bag and got up from his desk.

"I'm sorry, Laura. I have been making your job difficult this week. I appreciate everything you've been doing, and all the long hours you've been putting in."

"You would have starved to death, or passed out on your keyboard, if I weren't here," Laura said with a chuckle.

Tim crossed the room and sat down on the sofa, and opened up his breakfast.

"I have been a bit obsessed with this, haven't I?"

Laura sat down next to him.

"Well, you did almost get blown up. You have every right to want to catch this guy."

He bit into the everything bagel she'd brought, and suddenly realized how hungry he really was. "Thank you for bringing this," he said as he took another bite.

"Anytime, Director."

"Please, call me Tim."

Laura smiled.

"All right."

Tim's desk phone rang, and he quickly crossed the room.

"Director McGee."

"Director, this is Agent Barnes. We have a lead on Cloud - Agent McKenzie has been running a brand new program, and he's got a hit."

"I'm on my way - oh wait - where am I on my way to?" Tim asked, embarrassed. Agent Barnes chuckled.

"Two levels down, Cyber Unit #3."

"Thanks." Tim hung up and bit into his bagel. "I have to go. Thanks again, Laura."

"Hey," she said as he rushed for the door. "How about dinner later, not in your office?"

"It's a date." he smiled and left ahead of her to head downstairs. He quickly boarded the elevator and jabbed the button for the ground floor, which housed five Cyber Units. The Cyber Unit in Rome was the largest in the Agency, and was responsible for Cyber Crimes in all of eastern Europe. Tim had remotely worked with them from DC, but he'd never had the opportunity to see the Unit in person. The elevator doors opened, and Tim stepped out into a long hallway, with windows lining either side. He walked down the hall, glancing in awe at the sheer size of the Cyber units and the work they were doing.

This is way more impressive than I ever could have imagined.

He came to the door for Cyber Unit#3 and stepped inside. An Agent immediately came to greet him.

"Director, I'm Fred Barnes, Supervisory agent for Cyber Unit 3. It's nice to finally meet you."

Tim shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you as well, Agent Barnes. You told me on the phone that we have something on Cloud?"

"Yes, Agent McKenzie has been working on a way to track his movements, and he's finally made some headway after almost a week of work on this program." Fred signaled Tim to follow, and they joined an Agent situated with three computer monitors on his desk. Tim was impressed by the amount of code being sorted through and the speed in which it was being searched.

"Agent Ryan McKenzie, this is Acting Director McGee. He's here to see your program."

"Right." Ryan did some fast typing, and soon the code was gone from one of his screens, replaced by a program that, at initial glance, looked very impressive.

"I've been working on the parameters all week in my new program. It's designed to execute multiple attempts at once to ping Cloud's location, and when it finds him, automatically tracks his movements online."

"That's incredible," Tim said. "Show me what you've done with it so far."

Ryan did more typing as he talked.

"I've been waiting on a ping all week, and I finally got one this morning. The system automatically locked on." Ryan grinned. "I've got him."

Tim grabbed a chair and sat down next to him.

"Show me everything."

Ryan was a bit alarmed - the Director of Cyber Crimes was now seated next to him - at his desk - wanting to work with him on a program that he created.

"It's all right, McKenzie, I don't bite," Tim said reassuringly.

Ryan smiled and hit a few keys.

"I found him trying to hack into another airline database. I want to see what he is doing, so I'm watching his keystrokes right now. I'm afraid that if I try to stop him, he'll know we're onto him."

Tim leaned forward. They were indeed inside an airline database, and they were watching someone remotely changing code and erasing their "footprint" after every change they made.

"This is a very impressive program, Agent McKenzie. I've been staring at my computer all week, trying to sort code, and I never thought of anything like this."

"Thank you very much, Director."

Ryan's computer made a noise, and both of them glued their eyes to the screen. Cloud was changing screens, and backing out of the system.

"What should I do? He's backing out of the system."

"Let him back out, only I want you to ping his IP address before he does."

"On it."

McKenzie started typing with great speed, attempting to get a location on the hacker.

"No, no no, oh come on!" Ryan suddenly shouted in frustration as he typed faster. Suddenly, his screen went black. "No!" he slammed his fist down on the keyboard.

"What happened?" Tim asked.

"Cloud knew I was in there with him. He booted me, and overloaded my system so I couldn't get back in. I've lost him." He brought his eyes to the floor. "I'm sorry, Director."

"We'll find him again. Get your computer working again and get back on it. Call me when you ping him again." Tim reached into his pocket and produced a business card. He wrote his extension on the back of it. "That's my extension - the one that gets you past the secretary."

"Thanks, Director."

"Call me Tim. I hate being called Director."

Ryan smiled.

"Okay, Tim."

"Get that program running again, ASAP."

"I'm on it right now."

Ryan turned back to his desk and got to work. Tim stood and returned the chair, and left Cyber Unit 3 to head back to his office. When he got there, Laura was standing at his door, waiting with her arms crossed.

"What's wrong, Laura?"

"You had an appointment a half hour ago. She's been waiting in your office."

"Who?"

"You'd better get in there."

Tim gulped and went into his office. Seated in a chair across from his desk, waiting for him was the SecNav.

"Madame Secretary," he said almost nervously as he extended a hand to greet her. "My apologies for keeping you waiting." She shook his hand, and he went around to his side of the desk.

"How is your first week as Director of Cyber Crimes?" she asked.

"Eventful," Tim confessed. "We're working hard to catch the cyber-terrorist responsible for trying to kill me, and for putting the hit out on Director Thomas."

"So you have a suspect?"

"William Cloud, the most well-known cyber-terrorist in world." He handed her a file, which she opened as he continued to talk. "He's been in and out of several airline databases, manipulating or erasing flight plans and manifests for cargo planes. He's masking the shipment of illegal firearms across the world by altering the cargo manifests to look like the illegal arms aren't aboard the plane."

"This man is smart."

"I was just down in Cyber Unit 3... I have an Agent heading up the development of a program that will ping us when he hacks into a database. It will allow us to follow his tracks, and when he goes to back out, we follow him."

"Good. Keep me informed on your progress."

"Yes, Ma'am."

She handed back the file.

"I have something else to discuss with you, Acting Director McGee. No one but myself and Director Vance knows what we are about to discuss, and you may not discuss it outside of this office. Are we clear?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"I regret to say that Director Wesley Thomas has passed away this morning, from complications due to his injuries."

"I'm sorry to hear this, Madame Secretary."

"In lieu of his passing, I wanted to be the one to discuss with you the possibility of staying here in Rome longer than the assigned month you were first given."

"Longer?"

"After you have served the month you were assigned, I would like to look into the possibility of you taking this position on a permanent basis."

Tim nearly gaped.

Permanently? Like in, move to Rome, forever?

Tim cleared his throat nervously.

"I-I'd be honored to be considered as his permanent replacement, Madame Secretary."

She smiled.

"I'm glad to hear it." She stood, and he stood with her. "Keep me updated on the Cloud investigation, and we'll have another face-to-face meeting after your month is over."

"Yes Ma'am."

"Have a good day, Director McGee."

"You too, Ma'am."

He walked her to the door, and she met her security team in the outer office, and left.

Tim walked back to his chair in a daze, and practically fell into his chair. He was shocked with the SecNav's job offer, and he wasn't sure what to do next. He couldn't tell anyone, because no one was supposed to know that Director Thomas had died. It were better that no one knew for the time being, as it was sensitive information pertaining to his current case.

Speaking of that... I have a program to finish writing.

Tim turned back to his laptop and pulled up the specs of the program he'd started the previous evening, and got back to work.

TBC...