Chapter IV

Hazardously blissful. That was how the past could be described. Before she was watching the man she'd fallen in love with through a rifle scope.

There hadn't been much to tell her that Peter was turning. While being an open, cheerful person, he had always been quite cryptic about his less-than-shining past. She had been ignorant enough to be fooled by his ruse- just like John.

Wrong me once, shame on you. Wrong me twice, shame on me.

"Peter," she'd asked one morning as he and Walter entered the lab, late on a morning exactly one week before they had disappeared, "what's up? I heard Broyals called you in."

He'd given her a beaming smile to hide his dark thoughts, he always did that, "Ah, just hassling me about mine and Walter's living arrangements. Walter wants his own room, and I don't care, but Broyals says it isn't safe for him to be left on his own."

Olivia hadn't thought to check if it was a lie. She had only smiled as Walter pulled up a chair beside Astrid's desk, leaning in to murmur his greeting to her, "Wow. He's growing up and leaving the leaving the nest, now?"

Peter chuckled, "You have no freaking idea. Yesterday he demanded that stop and get him an Etch-E-Sketch. He played with it for about an hour, and then dismantled it to play with the aluminum powder. The old bastard would have started snorting it, if I hadn't taken it from him."

"So do you think he's ready to be out on his own?" Olivia asked.

"He said it himself- he's a grown man. Besides, it would be nice to get some sleep."

Unheeding of their gaze, Walter reached forward to Astrid's keyboard, pushing her hands aside and typing something. Astrid laughed, shoving his shoulder and returning to her work.

Olivia watched the two with a suspicious smile, "Is he… ?"

"Flirting? Yes. Creepy, isn't it? Astrid is giving Walter computer lessons, as per his request. But I'm pretty sure he's developed a bit of a crush on her."

Olivia laughed, "Poor Astrid."

Peter laughed himself, "And then some."

xXx

"I did my homework," Walter was telling Astrid, "Peter helped me a bit, but I managed to figure out most of it for myself."

"You set up an E-mail account? Very good, Walter. You're catching on pretty quick," she finished up a sentence on her report and closed the document with a quick save, "did you have any questions, about e-mail?"

Begrudgingly, Walter shook his head. Astrid smiled, "Great. Today we'll get into html security coding…"

Only minutes later, Astrid was watching with joyful amazement as Walter seemed to spit fourth website security coding like breathing, "You're really great at this, Walter!" she exclaimed.

"It's just math," he answered, "just simple equations, written out to the extent to which they are needed. But… none of them are complete," he looked up at her, "why?"

Astrid raised her eyebrows, pulling the keyboard to herself, "Because that's my job. With security systems, solving the equation would mean busting the system, splitting it open like an oyster. It's my job to make sure the FBI system doesn't start hemorrhaging information, by scrambling it with bits of code and rendering the firewalls impassible."

Walter watched her typing curiously, "So… the firewall can be broken?"

"Everything can be broken, Walter. It's numbers, not concrete." she continued to patch up his attempts at bypassing the security coding on her mock website, "don't go spreading this around, but a few of my friends and I used to go around to sites and tag. That's when you bust the code and poke in a little of your own, like a signature. A friend of mine tried it in a government site, and he got trapped… the code just kept looping… the FBI busted down his door in all of about twenty seconds. I never saw him again. At that point, I decided that I needed to create firewalls to keep out hackers, so they wouldn't even try to get in." she smiled at him, "So far, I've done pretty well."

Walter seemed awed at her story, and watched her, as if absorbing the information tentatively, savoring it. At last, he said, "You went against your friends… to save them?"

Astrid shrugged a shoulder, sipping her Pepsi as she finished the coding, "I guess. It has to be something, the pay is crap."

"Miss. Would you… would you hate me, if I broke that code?"

Astrid looked up at him, "Walter, what are you talking about? I'd say you've got a ways to go, before making claims like that. You haven't even managed to send an e-mail with more than three words in it." she returned to her typing, "now, let me show you how to post HTML coding…"

xXx

The cold seemed to gnaw at her features, and she felt the tips of her ears and nose grow numb. Every now and again she would lift a handkerchief to her upper lip, unconsciously making sure her nose wasn't running.

Flashlights flashed in the empty parking structure, and she squinted painfully in the glare. A small blue Toyoda slowed to a halt beside her own black Ford Mustang, and the engine quit. The door opened, and Astrid stepped out, pulling her heavy coat around her shoulders, "Hey, girl!" she chirped cheerfully. And loudly, "'you ready to go?"

Someone had followed her. Olivia couldn't be sure who, but, for now, she would play it off, "Hey," Olivia replied, echoing her smile, "Yeah, let's go. It's freezing, out here."

"Thanks again for volunteering your car, this time," Astrid said, locking her car doors and tossing her keys into her purse, "Last time-" she laughed, "Well, you know what happened, last time!"

Olivia laughed with her. Someone had bugged Astrid's car- switching vehicles was necessity, "Yes, how could I forget? You'd just better not mess up my baby- the lease is nearly up, and I want to keep her."

They got into the car and Olivia started the engine, cranking up the heater to remove the chill, "So, how's your sister? Your little niece?" Astrid reached into her bag casually, drawing out a mass of wires and speakers, controlled with a face board of pitch switches. It was her own creation, and she called it 'pest control'.

"I got a postcard just the other day. They say it's boring, in Connecticut… but really peaceful. I'm a little jealous." she followed Astrid's silent instructions to head for the tunnel, "And now, with Greg out of the picture, I think they've got a real chance."

"That's wonderful," Astrid replied, plugging her contraption into the MP3 hookup for the speakers, "It's sounds good. I could use a vacation, so could you… but, hey, what's a night out for? A week in Hawaii, one drink at a time." she switched on the stereo, and gave an exclamation, "ooh! I love this song!" she then cranked the volume, Cree Summer rushing to speakers. They entered the mouth of the tunnel, and Astrid flipped on her invention, an immense buzz rattling the car. She then turned down the radio, "Okay, if anything was in your car, it's fried. I'm sorry I had to call you out like this, Olivia, but I had to talk to you."

Olivia nodded, "I figured. But what's this all about? We're being followed," she glanced up into her rearview mirror, at the headlights of a van in the distance, "What's going on?"

"two nights ago, at Massive Dynamic… I was wrong," Astrid said.

"How do you mean?" Olivia questioned seriously.

"Well, I thought the system had been wiped clean, a blank slate, and irreparable. But I was wrong- this," Astrid pulled out a floppy disk, "Walter didn't get it all. I repaired as much of the system as I could, and I discovered that the last of the information had been left behind."

"Is it enough to get a trace?" Olivia asked, merging.

Astrid shook her head, her curls bouncing back and fourth softly, "No. I can't even get a make on the equipment, it's that bad. Olivia… I deleted the information."

Olivia nearly slammed on the breaks, "Why the hell would you do something like that?!" she demanded, "If Sharpe doesn't get Massive Dynamic's system repaired, it'll be our ass!"

"I saved only one copy. Listen to me," Astrid reasoned calmly, "This is our chance, Olivia. We can get them, Peter and Walter, we can make them tell us what's going on, what they're doing-"

"Make them repair the systems," Olivia realized, "That would save us a tremendous amount of work…"

Astrid looked uncomfortable, "I-I meant… maybe they're innocent."

Olivia gave an agitated sigh, "Astrid…" She growled.

"Just let me keep the information for a little longer, and don't put it in the report," Astrid begged, "If I get nothing, we can give it right back to Sharpe."

Olivia looked over at Astrid, wondering how such a brilliant girl could be so stupid, "Fine," she answered at last, "We've got nothing else to go on, so why the hell not?"

Astrid smiled gratefully, "Thanks, Olivia," she said. After a brief bit of consideration, she added, "You know, the last bit of the information is critical. If it is removed… all of the pieces of the puzzle won't fit."

Olivia couldn't tell what puzzle she was referring to, "Antonio's?" she questioned.

"Sure."

xXx