Dismal Angel 2010 - Episode 11
Chapter 3: A New Plan
Kitty entered the kitchen quickly, yanking a cupboard door open and hauling out a very large pot, she felt flustered and confused. She couldn't understand why Kurt had chosen this moment in time to kiss her, and she couldn't understand why he'd chosen to ignore the fact the last time they'd broken up she'd said it was the last time.
"God, I can't deal with this right now…" she said to herself.
"Can't deal with what?" she heard Rogue's voice, she turned to see Rogue sauntering looking thoroughly confused.
Kitty shook her head, "dinner…I can't deal with dinner…help me…?"
"Alright," Rogue shrugged, "what are you making."
"Mac and cheese, Garlic Bread, Spaghetti Bolognaise and for those who aren't into pasta, French fries and vegetarian sausages" Kitty hauled the pot up to the sink and began to fill it with water, "I spoke with Jean, she's going through the list of people who attended the conference Hank and looking them up on the database to see if any of them have medical or scientific professions…"
"Did she find any information on high profile robberies that Remy might have been involved in?" Rogue asked softly, she headed for the fridge and began to retrieve the ingredients Kitty would need.
"Not really…" Kitty shrugged, "Oh, by the way, Logan and Hank secretly sent the clone to the hospital and someone found the body, it was in the news," she gestured to the kitchen table, "thought you might want to see."
"So…do they think it's Remy?" Rogue asked.
"They have no reason to doubt it," Kitty reminded, "he's identical. And...the good thing is because they think the clone is Remy, they're going to give up looking for him, which means Remy might actually NOT have to live in fear any more."
"Yeah, if he has a face lift, dyes his hair and changes his eye colour," Rogue gave Kitty a strange look. "God I wish we'd just find him already, I'm frantic not knowing where he is…not knowing if he's safe…not even knowing if…if he's really behind all this…if he did this to spite us."
"Remy isn't like that…he still LOVES you, and he wouldn't do something like this…he's made some pretty critical errors in judgement in his life, but to give a lunatic the kind of information that could destroy all the work we've done for mankind? I mean…he's not THAT stupid…"
Rogue sighed, she began to grate some cheese, "I know, that's what I feel in my heart…but if he isn't working for that lunatic willingly…then…he's in trouble…and god knows what kind of trouble he COULD be in…"
"Has anyone checked the Global Criminal Database?" Kitty asked casually, she retrieved a large box of pasta from a cupboard.
"Not to my knowledge, you think we'd find anything?"
"Well…" Kitty paused for thought, then poured the pasta into the pot of water and hauled the pot onto the stove, "Maybe, I mean…Remy has a criminal record, it'd be interesting to see what kind of information he'd have on there…" she explained.
"But…isn't it out of our accessibility?" Rogue folded her arms giving Kitty a curious expression.
"Of course it is, it'd need to be hacked into."
"I thought you didn't believe in hacking."
"Yeah, well, a guy I dated taught me how to," Kitty shrugged and turned the heat on under the pot. "it might come in useful."
"So…what would we need to hack into this database thingy?" Rogue asked.
"Well…it's a government site, so I'm guessing that security for that site is going to be majorly high. We'd have to use the computers in the war room."
"And?"
"I'd need about twelve thousand dollars worth of software," Kitty made a face, "I'm just not sure the Professor would be up for me hacking into the government information servers," she chewed her lip, "And I'm about eleven thousand dollars short."
"We could talk to the Prof. You never know, he might be up for it. I can talk to him…what kind of software?"
"Okay, first we need a HUD connection analyser, otherwise we won't be able to tell what kind of security they have on the server."
Rogue made a mental note, "Okay, what else…"
"It's hard to say without knowing what kind of security they have first…"
"Well…make a rough guess…" Rogue suggested.
"Trace Tracker 4.0, proxy bypasser 5.0, firewall bypasser 5.0, monitor bypasser 5.0, Elliption Curve Decipher 1.0, Password Breaker 1.0, Log Deleter 4.0, and Voice Analyser 1.0," Kitty said quickly.
Rogue raised an eyebrow, "that's all, huh? You scare me sometimes," she grabbed a pen and notepad from the small table by the wall near the phone, "write this down…I can't remember all that…Elliption Curve Analyser?"
"Decipher," Kitty stated, "We'll probably need it to get past the login screens."
"Right…" Rogue was quite surprised at Kitty's sudden knowledge about this, she'd never really shown any interest upon Hacking in the past.
"I know a guy who knows a guy in the City who'll get me the stuff at a lower price…usually this stuff costs about thirty thousand dollars, but I can get it cheap…" Kitty said. "All we need is cash up front."
"How do you KNOW all this?" Rogue raised an eyebrow.
"I told you, the Tommy – the guy I dated – showed me. He was a big computer geek," Kitty grinned.
"Were you the one who turned him in by any chance?" Rogue smirked.
"No," Kitty began quickly jotting all the software down.
"Is that the same guy who got twenty years for hacking into three different banks and dropping two point three million into his own bank account."
"That's the one," Kitty smirked. "He got a little sloppy with that one…the stupid buffoon has this program he calls a 'log deleter' and he deleted all the logs in the administration section of the bank's server, but he forgot to delete the statements left when the bank transferred the money over."
Rogue rolled her eyes, "only a guy could do something stupid like that," she shook her head. Kitty handed her the list of software and Rogue gave it a quick glance, "hope the Professor will be up for this."
"It's breaking the law,"
Kitty said, "I don't think he will be but…we're desperate, god knows what kind
of bad stuff this evil scientist guy could be doing and what it could lead to."
"What if we get caught by the
way?" Rogue's green eyes met Kitty's sapphire blue ones momentarily.
"We won't. I can bounce the connection from one place to another from different servers long enough to prevent being caught."
"I hope you're right."
"Professor…"
Professor Xavier raised his head as Rogue knocked on the door of his office, he was doing some investigation of his own, but as of yet had not come up with anything remotely useful. "Come in, Rogue," he said softly, and watched Rogue enter.
The sunlight streaming in from between the blind slats at the window hit Rogue, as the bright white light hit her face Professor Xavier could see she'd barely slept at all in the last few days, and he felt an immediate concern.
"Rogue, you look terrible."
"Just what a girl always wants to hear," Rogue stated, but smirked a little, she walked over, the piece of paper still clutched in her hand, "I…I have something to ask…just hear me out before you make any judgements, that's all I ask," she added.
"Alright…" Professor Xavier leaned up straighter in his wheelchair, and folded his arms comfortably over his stomach, "ask away."
"Me and Kitty were thinking, and…well…Kitty came up with this…uhm…idea," Rogue sat on the edge of the desk and turned towards the Professor, "that maybe we should uhm…hack the uhm…database of criminals or something."
"The Government Global Criminal Database?" Professor Xavier asked, "do you realise that would be illegal?"
"Yes," Rogue stated, "We both realise that, of course, but…Kitty figured that maybe Remy's criminal record would be up there and that we might find something useful on it…"
"What would you expect to find?" Professor Xavier asked.
"I'm not sure," Rogue shrugged, "Maybe some idea of who he might have worked for…or if he'd ever been caught before, or whatever, I just…I don't know, but it's worth a try isn't it?" Rogue put the list down in front of the Professor, "this is the list of stuff Kitty would need to do it."
"The software we would need to pull off something like that would cost a fortune, Rogue," the Professor explained, "And...it would be extremely difficult to buy this amount of software anonymously…"
"Kitty says she knows a guy who can get it all for around twelve grand."
"More illegal activity, I'm appalled," Professor Xavier made a face.
"Professor, we're running out of time…I don't know HOW I know that, I just do, god knows what could happen if we don't act quickly on this, if we don't find Remy and this scientist guy, who knows what might happen, for all we know the whole world could be crawling with clones…"
"I do realise that," The Professor sighed, "it does concern me that whoever is doing this may be cloning politicians and replacing them…"
Rogue tossed her hair over her shoulder, "So…I guess – and I feel horrible for asking this because you've already done so much for me – I'm asking…for some cash to buy this stuff…" she looked at him pleadingly, "I will somehow pay you back…I don't care if I have to be come a waitress at McDuggins or a topless model for some sleazy porn magazine, I will get that money back to you…"
"Rogue, I will give you the money on one condition," Professor Xavier moved away from the desk, wheeled over to the wall, and pulled a painting away from the wall – it was almost attached like a door. He reached up and turned the combination lock, and moments later the thick safe door built into the wall swung open.
"What condition, Professor?" Rogue asked feeling a little panicked as to what the terms of the agreement might be.
"I'm going to give you some sedatives, and I want you AND Kitty to take them after dinner and get as much sleep as you can. I'm worried about the both of you."
"I…uhm…" Rogue didn't like the idea of sleep, afraid she might miss some vital information or might sleep through something important and miss her change to save Remy. But…she was tired, and the Professor was right, she and Kitty both needed sleep – they'd both been stressing too much lately about Remy and with the avoidance of sleep, Rogue was already beginning to feel light-headed constantly. "Alright," she finally agreed, "alright."