Disclaimer. I have nothing to do with the show NCIS. Just playing. I will put the toys back in the box when I am done.
A/N: I'm making up almost everything about programing and computers. If someone wants to tell me how to do it right, I'm all ears.
Abby's Big Day Out
Whimsical title, Yes?
Abby's Lab the following morning.
Abby flipped on the lights in her lab and found a fresh Caf-Pow sitting on her desk. There was a post-it that simply read, "For Abby" in Gibbs's hand writing.
"Good morning my babies." Abby said to her machines as she flipped them on one by one. "What shall we listen to today?" She settled on industrial and turned it up loud enough to drown out her thoughts of Gibbs.
She looked at the Caf-Pow! And found herself growing both sad and outraged.
"Can you believe it's come to this? Today will be different. Today will be better." Abby shouted as she held her Caf-Pow in the air and gestured to her machines.
"Abby."
"Lt. Col. Mann." Abby jumped
"I'm not in the Army anymore Abby, call me Hollis."
"Hollis." Abby smiled brightly, "What can I help you with today?"
"I've got a new case."
"I'm all ears. Do you have the case number?"
"112189." Hollis read off of the paper file in her hand. Abby pulled the case up on her computer and transfered it to the plasma screen. "The Navy office of Commerce discovered the anomaly during a self audit. Someone stole five million dollars over five years. Had to be an inside job but there appears to be no trace on any office computers."
"I doubt they would do this from work computers. It would be hard to hide this kind of program." Abby read lines of code and already seemed to be one with the program.
"Can you tell me anything about the person who wrote the program?" Hollis asked
"This guy has serious programing skills." Abby said, "Old school but highly functional. You're probably looking for someone who learned how to program in the 1970's. I'll be able to tell you more in an hour or so." Abby looked up to find three guys hauling large hand trucks holding computers. "That's a really big pile of computers. I could use a little help on this one. Is McGee available?"
"This isn't for Gibbs team." Hollis said, "This is for mine. They're interviewing possible suspects, I'll introduce you later." With that Hollis was gone and Abby re immersed herself in line of code.
45 minutes later...
"Abbs." Tony held a Caf-Pow! in front of her face.
"Tony!" Abby smiled and grabbed her Caf-Pow!, "Interesting that you should arrive just as a movie reference presents itself."
"Explain yourself women."
"Computer program that takes a few pennies off of each transaction and stores it in an separate bank account. I'll give you a hint, "It's like the take a penny leave a penny cup at the gas station."
"Office Space, great movie."said Tony, "But I'm pretty sure it was actually half pennies."
"This guy is apparently more ambitious." Abby said grimly.
"Who's case is this?" Tony asked
"Lt Col. Mann." Abby answered, "And I think I just found her bad guy." She highlighted a section of code and turned on the speaker phone.
"Hollis Mann" answered the voice at the other end of the line.
"It's Abby, I've got something you're going to want to see."
"Be right down."
"What are you doing?" Tony asked
"Making friends-- now scram." Abby hugged him fiercely, "And thanks for the Caf-Pow." Tony left moments before Hollis arrived hold a cup of coffee.
"What do you have?"
"I figured out how they did it." Abby said excitedly
"We already knew that Abby." Hollis said
"But did you know where they did it from?" Abby asked before pulling up a piece of code on the plasma, "I recognize the ISP. Club Trash downtown DC. Well it's actually more like a cross between an arcade, a computer lab and a club. But they only serve caffeinated drinks. Even the water" Abby paused for a moment to take in the rush that came with the idea of all that caffeine.
"So we know where the program originated?"
"Yes. It still would have had to be an inside job but the program was uploaded from this address. Club Trash keeps has a key capture programs on all of their computers plus surveillance video. The owner is a real kook. If we found the computer used to upload the program... "
"We could find the person who did it." Hollis finished
That's the good news."
"What's the bad news?" Hollis asked
"Club Trash's firewall is harder to break into than the pentagon's. You have to be on sight to access it.
"You've been to this club before?"
"Not for a while, but yeah" Abby said, suddenly shy.
"You could access this program from a terminal of the club."
"Well yeah but..."
"But what?"
"I don't really go into the field." Abby said
"My team will do all the grunt work. If we can convince the owner to let us take a look, I just need you to run the program and find the computer for us."
Club Trash
The owner agreed to let Abby go through his file but not to shut down his club. The music blasted throughout the club, reminding Abby of her lab and she set to work typing while chatting with the club owner.
"Found it." Abby said looking at the code she had practically memories over the last day. "Computer number 27. I'm pulling up the surveillance video that day.
"Admiral Jeffery Louis." Hollis said, staring at the screen. "Good work Abby."
"But wait, there's more." Abby said, pulling up current surveillance video, "He's trying to erase his trail but I already made a copy and put a lock on his computer." With that, Hollis and her team left to arrest the Admiral, leaving Abby alone with the club owner.
As soon as the team was out the door, the owner had a gun on Abby. She put her hands in the air and tried to remember what Gibbs told her to do in these situations. They were becoming far too common and she was reminded why she didn't go into the field.
TBC
A/N: Yeah I did that. I'm a bad writer monkey