Disclaimers in Prologue
Team One - Part Four
Back at the apartment Quinn sank down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table. Jack sat down in one of the easy chairs.
"So?" asked Jack.
"So what?"
"What did you find?"
"Oh, a hard drive and a stack of zip disks," answered Quinn. She yawned wide and stood up. Stretching for all she was worth, she then bent over and touched her toes. "I'm going to bed now. I suggest you do the same."
"Wait a minute," protested Jack.
"What?"
"What did you find on the hard drive and the disks?"
"Nothing."
Jack shook his head. "Alright. I'm confused. You found a hard drive and some disks with nothing on them. So ..."
Quinn leaned over and emptied the cargo pockets of her pants. She took out a hard drive and several zip disks. "So I brought them with me. I'll check them in the morning."
"You took his hard drive?"
Quinn looked hurt. "I'll put it back as soon as I've checked it."
"That's not what I'm concerned about. You said there wasn't anything on it or the disks."
"Yeah."
"So why bring them?"
"How much do you know about computers?"
Jack shrugged. "They're really expensive typewriters."
"Yeah right." Quinn tried to explain. "Look, there is nothing on the hard drive or the disks. Who has a computer with nothing on the memory devices? These have been purposely wiped clean. I'm going to try to find what was wiped off of them."
"You can do that?" he asked.
"Yes I can. Now can I go to bed?"
"No."
Quinn shot a stunned look at Jack. "No?"
"No."
Shaking her head she sat back down on the couch. "Alright. So what now?"
"Your going to tell me about your father."
"Oh for crying out loud. Why?"
Jack paused for a moment, shot a fast look at the ceiling, and then looked back at Quinn. "You keep throwing out these little bomb shells. Your father being a thief is one of them. Tell me about it and anything else that you feel I need to know."
"I don't think you need to know about my father."
Jack was getting exasperated. "Then why did you mention it?"
"You asked?"
"I didn't ask what your father did."
"Semantics. You asked where I learned to pick locks. I told you."
"We're not getting anywhere here."
"You're right."
"You're not going to tell me?"
"I told you. Someday ... maybe."
Jack closed his eyes, took a breath all the way to the basement, and let it out slowly. When he opened his eyes he was calm and Quinn was smiling ... again. Jack stood up. "Alright. If you feel that strongly about it."
"I don't."
"You don't?"
"No, it's just so much fun to bait you."
Shaking his head he started for the hallway leading to the bedrooms. "I'm going to bed now."
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes," growled Jack.
"Okay." Quinn put her feet back up on the table. "It's really quite simple."
Jack sat down on the coffee table and crossed his arms.
"It starts back with my Grandfather. He was a second story man. Shoot back then that's about as high as any of the buildings went. I'm told he was pretty good, but he did get caught a couple of times. The last time he decided that it wasn't worth the hassle so he stopped and got himself an honest job working in the silver mines in Idaho." Quinn started to chuckle. "He probably thought it was honest work even though he did bring home some of the silver he was supposed to be mining for the silver company.
"Anyway, he taught my father what he knew about second story work and my father expanded on that knowledge. Dad got real good with locks, safes, and alarm systems. But instead of going out and robbing people for himself, he hired himself out to insurance companies as a 'retrieval expert'. Someone would get robbed, the insurance company would contact my dad. Then he would find out who did the heist and steal whatever it was they took back. The insurance company paid him ten percent of what they would have had to pay the insured for the item.
"He taught me everything he knew about it plus all his investigative techniques to find out who had committed the robberies. I just followed in Dad's shoes and built off of what he taught me and did it for the military."
She stood and smiled down at Jack. "Satisfied?"
"Yeah." Jack stood also. "Is your Dad still doing that?"
The smile vanished so fast from Quinn's face that Jack wasn't sure he'd seen it in the first place.
"No, he was murdered along with my entire family."
Quinn quickly left leaving Jack behind. But she didn't go to the hallway leading to the bedrooms, she walked out the front door of the apartment instead. Jack stared after her for a few moments. Then he shook his head and went to bed.
***
When Jack got up in the morning, he found Daniel making breakfast with Teal'c watching. Carter was at the dining room table with Quinn watching her connect Zelig's hard drive to her lap top. After seeing what the two women were doing and talking about, he decided it would be safer in the kitchen with the cooking.
"So," he said rubbing his hands together, "what's for breakfast?"
"Oh, good morning Jack."
"Good morning, O'Neill."
"Good morning, now what's for breakfast?"
Daniel lifted the lid to the pan he was watching. "Denver omelets and hash browns and one Denver omelet without the ham extra cheese and onions."
"Umm. Sounds good. When do we eat?"
"In a few moments. I'm almost done."
"Teal'c learning how to cook?"
"No I am not, O'Neill. I am just standing."
Jack looked back and forth between a grinning Daniel and a stone-faced Teal'c. "I see that ... now. I, ah, think I'll go and see what the ladies are doing."
"They are working on Armin Zelig's hard drive."
Jack paused in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. He turned back to Teal'c. "Thank you Teal'c."
"You are welcome O'Neill."
Shaking his head slightly, he sat down opposite Carter and put his chin in on his hands. "Having fun?" he asked.
Carter looked over the table at Jack. "Sir we've already checked the zip disks and there wasn't anything on them relating to the Stargate. Quinn's connecting Zelig's hard drive up to her lap top now so we can check it."
"I see. And any idea how much longer that is going to take?" he asked.
"Not much longer, sir. In fact ..."
"I'm done." Quinn started punching some keys and symbols began scrolling across her screen. "Well whoever wiped this didn't know what they were doing, or they didn't care. I should be able to reconstruct all of it."
"Anything about the Stargate?"
"It's going to take a little while Colonel."
"Well then while we're waiting, why don't we set the table? Breakfast is almost ready."
***
"Daniel, you can make my breakfast any day," commented Jack with a satisfied smile.
With Teal'c's help, Carter and Quinn had cleared the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher. After only one day they had seemed to have established a routine. Whoever didn't cook, cleaned up after.
"Thanks Jack but I don't think I want to make a living cooking you breakfast every morning," responded Daniel.
"Hey, it was just a suggestion."
Everyone was back gathered around the table and Quinn was looking over the notes that Carter had made the night before about Kinsey. "Looks like we might have something here."
"What?" asked Jack.
"Well our Senator here has shut down five projects in the last year. Companies in three different states. Two in California, one in Nevada, and one in Washington. He's raised funding for three. Two in Minnesota and one in California."
"He's from Minnesota."
"I know. Two of the companies are developing weapon designs: one for air to ground missiles and the other for hand held rocket launchers. The one in California is working on stealth technology."
"Your point being?"
"Two of the five projects he shut down were weapons designs."
"Let me guess? Air to ground missiles and rocket launchers?"
"Actually no." Quinn looked up and grinned at Jack. "A ground to air missile delivery system and a new rifle ... similar to the MP9, but with a grenade launcher attached."
"Okay, I'm confused," said Daniel.
"I'm just trying to look beyond it Daniel. When companies submit bids for new technology they have to also submit the specs for that technology. Kinsey gets copies of all of that. Now say he's got a pet corporation that makes weapons for the military. They pay him kick backs to make sure that they are the low bidder. But what if they are also paying him for copies of other bids and the design specs for other projects? It's the premise I was going on when I investigated him before and was pulled off.
"Now if he gave the design specs from the ground to air missiles and the rocket launchers to those two companies in Minnesota, then raised their funding for their current projects, then those companies could use that extra cash to begin work on two new projects. They'd have a jump on things when they submit their designs for approval."
"But how are we going to prove that without waiting around to see if those companies submit designs?" asked Carter.
"That's the difficult part and the one that needs the most planning. But I'm not sure if we even need to go into that. We are after all looking for you leak. If it's Kinsey, we need to find some way to tie him to it and a reason for his doing so. If it is because he wants the Stargate in the private sector, then that's where we have to look. What would the Stargate benefit by being taken out of military control? It's in these companies he's funding, I'm sure of it. It's going to take a lot more research and maybe some serious breaking and entering."
"Serious?" Jack asked. "What was last night?"
"That was just child's play. Getting into a company with Government contracts can be like combat. It's tricky and dangerous. A JAG lawyer I know was almost killed breaking into a place in California that held a Government contract."
"But you can do it, right?" asked Carter.
Quinn shrugged. "I've done it before. I'm thinking we're going to need to get into Kinsey's office and home, too."
"Oh now that ought to be fun," said Jack.
"As much fun as sitting on a land mine."
Daniel got up and went into the kitchen. When he returned he had the coffee pot and a pitcher of apple juice. He refilled everyone's cups and set the pot and pitcher down in the center of the table.
"So what now?" he asked.
"Do you think Zelig's hard drive is reconstructed by now?" asked Carter.
Quinn opened her lap top and entered a few commands. Then she passed it to Carter. "It's done. You look. I've got something I need to do." She rose from the table. "I'll be back in about an hour."
When she had left Carter took the lap top and began scrolling through Zelig's directory. Daniel sipped his coffee and Jack seemed lost in thought.
"Jack?"
"Yeah Daniel?"
"You're awfully quiet all of a sudden."
"Oh sorry. Just thinking. There's a lot of 'research' here. It's not what I'm used to doing."
"Yeah, you're more of an action oriented type of guy." Daniel grinned.
"Yeah."
"Well I wouldn't worry about it too much. If we have to break into one of those companies or Kinsey's office and home, we'll probably be in for a lot of action."
Jack slapped Daniel on the shoulder. "You might be right Danny boy. You might be right."
***
Quinn was back an hour later. SG1 was still seated around the kitchen table and they didn't look too happy.
"What's with all the long faces?" she asked.
"Carter didn't find anything about the Stargate on Zelig's hard drive."
She sat down in the chair she had vacated earlier. "Oh. Hey that's okay. It goes like this sometimes."
She reached in her pocket and pulled out the Driver's License that Jack had found at Zelig's and tossed it in the center of the table. Jack reached for it.
"What's this?"
"It's Zelig's phony ID."
"I can see that, but now it's got my picture on it."
"Hi Harvy."
***
To be continued ...
Team One - Part Four
Back at the apartment Quinn sank down on the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table. Jack sat down in one of the easy chairs.
"So?" asked Jack.
"So what?"
"What did you find?"
"Oh, a hard drive and a stack of zip disks," answered Quinn. She yawned wide and stood up. Stretching for all she was worth, she then bent over and touched her toes. "I'm going to bed now. I suggest you do the same."
"Wait a minute," protested Jack.
"What?"
"What did you find on the hard drive and the disks?"
"Nothing."
Jack shook his head. "Alright. I'm confused. You found a hard drive and some disks with nothing on them. So ..."
Quinn leaned over and emptied the cargo pockets of her pants. She took out a hard drive and several zip disks. "So I brought them with me. I'll check them in the morning."
"You took his hard drive?"
Quinn looked hurt. "I'll put it back as soon as I've checked it."
"That's not what I'm concerned about. You said there wasn't anything on it or the disks."
"Yeah."
"So why bring them?"
"How much do you know about computers?"
Jack shrugged. "They're really expensive typewriters."
"Yeah right." Quinn tried to explain. "Look, there is nothing on the hard drive or the disks. Who has a computer with nothing on the memory devices? These have been purposely wiped clean. I'm going to try to find what was wiped off of them."
"You can do that?" he asked.
"Yes I can. Now can I go to bed?"
"No."
Quinn shot a stunned look at Jack. "No?"
"No."
Shaking her head she sat back down on the couch. "Alright. So what now?"
"Your going to tell me about your father."
"Oh for crying out loud. Why?"
Jack paused for a moment, shot a fast look at the ceiling, and then looked back at Quinn. "You keep throwing out these little bomb shells. Your father being a thief is one of them. Tell me about it and anything else that you feel I need to know."
"I don't think you need to know about my father."
Jack was getting exasperated. "Then why did you mention it?"
"You asked?"
"I didn't ask what your father did."
"Semantics. You asked where I learned to pick locks. I told you."
"We're not getting anywhere here."
"You're right."
"You're not going to tell me?"
"I told you. Someday ... maybe."
Jack closed his eyes, took a breath all the way to the basement, and let it out slowly. When he opened his eyes he was calm and Quinn was smiling ... again. Jack stood up. "Alright. If you feel that strongly about it."
"I don't."
"You don't?"
"No, it's just so much fun to bait you."
Shaking his head he started for the hallway leading to the bedrooms. "I'm going to bed now."
"Do you really want to know?"
"Yes," growled Jack.
"Okay." Quinn put her feet back up on the table. "It's really quite simple."
Jack sat down on the coffee table and crossed his arms.
"It starts back with my Grandfather. He was a second story man. Shoot back then that's about as high as any of the buildings went. I'm told he was pretty good, but he did get caught a couple of times. The last time he decided that it wasn't worth the hassle so he stopped and got himself an honest job working in the silver mines in Idaho." Quinn started to chuckle. "He probably thought it was honest work even though he did bring home some of the silver he was supposed to be mining for the silver company.
"Anyway, he taught my father what he knew about second story work and my father expanded on that knowledge. Dad got real good with locks, safes, and alarm systems. But instead of going out and robbing people for himself, he hired himself out to insurance companies as a 'retrieval expert'. Someone would get robbed, the insurance company would contact my dad. Then he would find out who did the heist and steal whatever it was they took back. The insurance company paid him ten percent of what they would have had to pay the insured for the item.
"He taught me everything he knew about it plus all his investigative techniques to find out who had committed the robberies. I just followed in Dad's shoes and built off of what he taught me and did it for the military."
She stood and smiled down at Jack. "Satisfied?"
"Yeah." Jack stood also. "Is your Dad still doing that?"
The smile vanished so fast from Quinn's face that Jack wasn't sure he'd seen it in the first place.
"No, he was murdered along with my entire family."
Quinn quickly left leaving Jack behind. But she didn't go to the hallway leading to the bedrooms, she walked out the front door of the apartment instead. Jack stared after her for a few moments. Then he shook his head and went to bed.
***
When Jack got up in the morning, he found Daniel making breakfast with Teal'c watching. Carter was at the dining room table with Quinn watching her connect Zelig's hard drive to her lap top. After seeing what the two women were doing and talking about, he decided it would be safer in the kitchen with the cooking.
"So," he said rubbing his hands together, "what's for breakfast?"
"Oh, good morning Jack."
"Good morning, O'Neill."
"Good morning, now what's for breakfast?"
Daniel lifted the lid to the pan he was watching. "Denver omelets and hash browns and one Denver omelet without the ham extra cheese and onions."
"Umm. Sounds good. When do we eat?"
"In a few moments. I'm almost done."
"Teal'c learning how to cook?"
"No I am not, O'Neill. I am just standing."
Jack looked back and forth between a grinning Daniel and a stone-faced Teal'c. "I see that ... now. I, ah, think I'll go and see what the ladies are doing."
"They are working on Armin Zelig's hard drive."
Jack paused in the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. He turned back to Teal'c. "Thank you Teal'c."
"You are welcome O'Neill."
Shaking his head slightly, he sat down opposite Carter and put his chin in on his hands. "Having fun?" he asked.
Carter looked over the table at Jack. "Sir we've already checked the zip disks and there wasn't anything on them relating to the Stargate. Quinn's connecting Zelig's hard drive up to her lap top now so we can check it."
"I see. And any idea how much longer that is going to take?" he asked.
"Not much longer, sir. In fact ..."
"I'm done." Quinn started punching some keys and symbols began scrolling across her screen. "Well whoever wiped this didn't know what they were doing, or they didn't care. I should be able to reconstruct all of it."
"Anything about the Stargate?"
"It's going to take a little while Colonel."
"Well then while we're waiting, why don't we set the table? Breakfast is almost ready."
***
"Daniel, you can make my breakfast any day," commented Jack with a satisfied smile.
With Teal'c's help, Carter and Quinn had cleared the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher. After only one day they had seemed to have established a routine. Whoever didn't cook, cleaned up after.
"Thanks Jack but I don't think I want to make a living cooking you breakfast every morning," responded Daniel.
"Hey, it was just a suggestion."
Everyone was back gathered around the table and Quinn was looking over the notes that Carter had made the night before about Kinsey. "Looks like we might have something here."
"What?" asked Jack.
"Well our Senator here has shut down five projects in the last year. Companies in three different states. Two in California, one in Nevada, and one in Washington. He's raised funding for three. Two in Minnesota and one in California."
"He's from Minnesota."
"I know. Two of the companies are developing weapon designs: one for air to ground missiles and the other for hand held rocket launchers. The one in California is working on stealth technology."
"Your point being?"
"Two of the five projects he shut down were weapons designs."
"Let me guess? Air to ground missiles and rocket launchers?"
"Actually no." Quinn looked up and grinned at Jack. "A ground to air missile delivery system and a new rifle ... similar to the MP9, but with a grenade launcher attached."
"Okay, I'm confused," said Daniel.
"I'm just trying to look beyond it Daniel. When companies submit bids for new technology they have to also submit the specs for that technology. Kinsey gets copies of all of that. Now say he's got a pet corporation that makes weapons for the military. They pay him kick backs to make sure that they are the low bidder. But what if they are also paying him for copies of other bids and the design specs for other projects? It's the premise I was going on when I investigated him before and was pulled off.
"Now if he gave the design specs from the ground to air missiles and the rocket launchers to those two companies in Minnesota, then raised their funding for their current projects, then those companies could use that extra cash to begin work on two new projects. They'd have a jump on things when they submit their designs for approval."
"But how are we going to prove that without waiting around to see if those companies submit designs?" asked Carter.
"That's the difficult part and the one that needs the most planning. But I'm not sure if we even need to go into that. We are after all looking for you leak. If it's Kinsey, we need to find some way to tie him to it and a reason for his doing so. If it is because he wants the Stargate in the private sector, then that's where we have to look. What would the Stargate benefit by being taken out of military control? It's in these companies he's funding, I'm sure of it. It's going to take a lot more research and maybe some serious breaking and entering."
"Serious?" Jack asked. "What was last night?"
"That was just child's play. Getting into a company with Government contracts can be like combat. It's tricky and dangerous. A JAG lawyer I know was almost killed breaking into a place in California that held a Government contract."
"But you can do it, right?" asked Carter.
Quinn shrugged. "I've done it before. I'm thinking we're going to need to get into Kinsey's office and home, too."
"Oh now that ought to be fun," said Jack.
"As much fun as sitting on a land mine."
Daniel got up and went into the kitchen. When he returned he had the coffee pot and a pitcher of apple juice. He refilled everyone's cups and set the pot and pitcher down in the center of the table.
"So what now?" he asked.
"Do you think Zelig's hard drive is reconstructed by now?" asked Carter.
Quinn opened her lap top and entered a few commands. Then she passed it to Carter. "It's done. You look. I've got something I need to do." She rose from the table. "I'll be back in about an hour."
When she had left Carter took the lap top and began scrolling through Zelig's directory. Daniel sipped his coffee and Jack seemed lost in thought.
"Jack?"
"Yeah Daniel?"
"You're awfully quiet all of a sudden."
"Oh sorry. Just thinking. There's a lot of 'research' here. It's not what I'm used to doing."
"Yeah, you're more of an action oriented type of guy." Daniel grinned.
"Yeah."
"Well I wouldn't worry about it too much. If we have to break into one of those companies or Kinsey's office and home, we'll probably be in for a lot of action."
Jack slapped Daniel on the shoulder. "You might be right Danny boy. You might be right."
***
Quinn was back an hour later. SG1 was still seated around the kitchen table and they didn't look too happy.
"What's with all the long faces?" she asked.
"Carter didn't find anything about the Stargate on Zelig's hard drive."
She sat down in the chair she had vacated earlier. "Oh. Hey that's okay. It goes like this sometimes."
She reached in her pocket and pulled out the Driver's License that Jack had found at Zelig's and tossed it in the center of the table. Jack reached for it.
"What's this?"
"It's Zelig's phony ID."
"I can see that, but now it's got my picture on it."
"Hi Harvy."
***
To be continued ...