NCIS
Rhiana twirled absently as she fiddled with a pen in the basement. She was supposed to be upgrading the firewalls, but she had done that when she arrived for work. Now she had nothing do to except drink her coffee and occasionally read the newspaper. Suddenly, her cellphone began ringing in her pocket; the ring tone told her it was McGee. Answering it, Rhiana stifled a yawn. "Yes, Tim?" she asked and rolled over to her computer.
"Your new laptop came in earlier than we thought. They're up here now waiting on a signature," Tim said and Rhiana raised an eyebrow.
"I'll be right there," she said and ended the phone call. Grabbing her coffee and external hard drive, Rhiana stepped into the elevator and waited patiently for the right floor. Hearing it ding on the morgue level, Rhiana made room for Palmer, who had some bags in his hands. He saw her look and smiled.
"Just… taking some stuff to Abby," he said and Rhiana nodded, but took a cautionary step away from Jim as he exited on the floor Abby's lab was on. Waving until the doors closed, Rhiana breathed a sigh and stepped out of the elevator on the main floor. Spying her usual delivery man, she smiled happily.
"Hi, Tommy!" she said enthusiastically and gave him a hug. Tommy smiled as he handed her the form to sign.
"Hey, Rhiana, I see you fried another computer," he said and Rhiana playfully elbowed him in the ribs. Jumping away from the familiar move, Tommy handed Rhiana her new laptop and headed for the elevators. Removing a small knife from her pocket, Rhiana sliced the tape open and eagerly removed the layer of protective foam around her laptop. Sitting in a chair that was available, Rhiana set up her notebook and soon attached the external hard drive. Loading everything onto it, from pictures to the destructive firewall, Rhiana was soon happy to find herself a new laptop.
Glancing at the report, Rhiana removed the external hard drive and shut down her computer. Reading over it, she kept everyone waiting as she finally handed the report to McGee to translate into English for Gibbs. "Well, what did you find, McGee?" Gibbs asked and Tim looked up at him.
"It seems that someone used an IP address that traces back to a library on the Virginia Tech campus. They were just proving they could do it," Tim said and Tony was confused.
"I thought you said that the firewall only went haywire when someone went after certain files on your computer," he questioned and Rhiana glanced over at Tim.
"He's right, you know. The only files that set the firewall off are things that pertain to work or personal information. The only thing that's on here about work is the case about my brother; suspects and all that. But why would they be after that?" she asked and someone exited the elevator.
"That's what we want to figure out," a familiar voice said and Rhiana turned.
"Elizabeth!" she said and hugged her friend tightly.
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Gibbs stood waiting for someone to explain something and Ziva noticed first, who nudged Rhiana in the side, pointing out the obvious. "Agent Gibbs, this is Elizabeth Khushrenada. She's the one that updates my laptop. I guess when I burned out my fifth notebook, she began to take notice," Rhiana explained and Elizabeth nodded.
"Is there a place where we could talk in private?" Elizabeth asked and Jethro led them to an office that was just to the side; McGee, Tony, and Ziva followed. After sitting down at the oval table, Elizabeth began to explain.
"Once Rhiana burns out her fifth notebook, a warning is sent directly to me. We're sent the report, the IP address, everything that you hold in your hand right now. I was on edge when Benny was killed, so I knew this was a possible result of it. Since I got the report before you did, we were able to contact our Virginia field office and inform them of what happened.
"They brought in a freshman, who admitted everything. He said someone paid him $10,000 to hack into your laptop. He was never given a reason why; just took the money and did what he was told. We tried to lift some prints off the money, but all we found were smudges and the students'. Are you sure Ben wasn't into anything that might trigger these events?" Elizabeth asked Rhiana, who was deep in thought.
"Not that I'm aware of. After his death, nothing popped up on my radar as strange or out of place. Do you have any ideas?" she asked openly and Elizabeth opened her pink laptop.
"A few days ago, the FBI was attacked and the only file that was partially accessed was yours. Do you have any idea why?"
"No idea; but that's probably how Boggs knew where I lived," Rhiana growled and McGee touched her arm lightly, trying to calm her down. Gibbs spoke up to call out a suggestion.
"Bring him in for questioning," he said and Elizabeth gave him a skeptical look.
"But they already interviewed him, and he's in county lock up at the moment."
"Then say we need to ask him a few more questions," Gibbs almost snarled and stood to leave. Tony and Ziva looked at each other, unsure of what was pushing Gibbs' buttons. They didn't say a word as they exited the room before anyone else.