Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Part Nineteen

Priss made a face, "Well, hell. What did I do THIS time?"

"Do you want the short list or the long one?" Nene joked, sitting on the side panel of Sylia's car as hey watched the confusion unfold.

Priss ignored that. "Inside?" she repeated, "Please?"

Sylia looked amused as she teased, "Where the fire is? I mean, really..."

"And chemical smoke, and so on," Nene added impishly.

Priss sighed, but conceded the point. "So, somebody snuck in, got into the high security computer core, planted a bomb and walked out?" she asked.

"It DOES sound unlikely when you put it like that," Nene admitted after a moment, wondering where Priss was going with this.

Sylia nodded thoughtfully. "But we know that Genom's security is compromised. So it is possible," she noted.

"Electronics, yeah. Conceded," Priss agreed, "but there are people and boomers on those floors. And no one saw anything?"

There was a beat as both Nene and Sylia processed that. "Someone should have seen something," Sylia agreed thoughtfully.

They tracked down Jeena Malso, who looked less than happy to see them again. "Yes, ma'am?" she addressed Sylia.

"Priss here had a thought," Sylia nodded to her.

"Mark it on the calendar," Nene muttered.

Priss ignored that, instead addressed Jeena "We know that the security system is compromised, but we should have eyewitnesses if someone planted the bomb. Whomever it is HAD to go by someone. Interview the staff?"

Jeena gave them a look, "I'm not incompetant, you know."

Nene, still typing away at her keyboard, noted, "I don't see the computer staff separated out or being interviewed, ma'am."

Jeena pressed her lips together in irritation at being caught out like that. "I'll get my teams right on it," she said, not quite admitting she hadn't considered their suggestion.

"You might end up paying for that later," Priss noted once she left.

"I'm not in her direct chain of command," Nene shrugged, "and right now my primary loyalty is to Sylia, anyways. If she fires me, I can probably get a better job elsewhere."

Sylia smiled slightly. Being unemployed was not in Nene's future, if she had anything to say about it. They watched Malso getting the computer staff separated out as she asked, "Is it too late, at this point?"

"Testimony wouldn't hold up in court," Nene spoke from the experienced point of view of a cop, "they've talked among themselves too much. We might get some useful data though."

"Guess that's why you separate witnesses?" Priss wondered.

"Yeah, otherwise they compare notes and contaminate the data," Nene nodded. With a sigh she finally closed her computer down, "That's all I can do."

"Bad?" Sylia asked.

"Whatever is going on in there is changing a lot of the system," Nene shrugged, "using what little access I can see, anyway. The good news is, with what I've downloaded back at base we have a uncorrupted copy. Pretty much."

"Which means?" Priss had to ask.

"We can compare our copy to the actual system and spot the changes. Might even help us figure out what's going on," Sylia explained. She grinned at Nene, "Nicely done."

"Thanks boss." Nene winked back.

It wasn't much longer before the fire was out, the safety inspector went in and the tower was officially reopened. As workers filed back in, Sylia sighed as she said, "Hate to wreck your days off, but I'm going to have to put a appearance in today."

"I'll stick around," Nene nodded.

Priss made a face, "Yeah, you need at least two guards. I need to make a call, tho."

"Take your time," Sylia agreed, smiling, "and thanks."

Priss moved off, dialing then talking. As Nene watched her face it was clear the call was not going well. Finally they finished, Priss winced then put her phone away. "Trouble?" she asked gently.

"Had to cancel a date," Priss admitted with a sigh.

"I'll try to make it up to you," Sylia said, patting her on the arm.

"So what's the plan?" Priss asked as they headed to the tower.

"I'm mostly going in to show the flag, as they say," Sylia admitted. "Let the staff know I'm there and have a handle on the situation, as well as the investors."

"And find someone to replace Mason, I expect," Priss noted.

"I have some ideas on that," Sylia smiled mysteriously.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"You can't DO that," Quincy blinked, stunned.

It was a week after the fire, and they were having a executive board meeting. Heads of departments, Sylia, Quincy and various assistants. The board room was actually quite crowded, but Sylia cut through the murmurs easily.

"Actually I can, and will," Sylia said calmly.

"But..." Quincy started.

Reika Chang spoke up, "Sir, President Stingray has the authority, both as major stock holder and company president." She looked at Sylia, "I admit it's a unusual choice, however. Would you be willing to explain why you wish to elevate Nene Romanova to head of internal cyber security?"

Sylia hid a smile at how this was playing our exactly as practised. "Of course," Sylia nodded. Addressing the board she continued, "As you know, we've had several serious security breeches over the past two months since I've arrived."

Jeena looked like she wanted to protest that, but kept quiet. There wasn't much she could say, after all, and Sylia had even told her she didn't blame her.

"All of which were cyber crime related," Sylia continued. "In my opinion, the cyber crime department in Genom, while doing it's best, needs a shake up."

That was, arguably, a blatant lie. But you couldn't tell the board that the previous head of internal security had run black projects for Genom, and was possibly a murderer. As well, his second in command, who took over after he was killed in a drug deal gone bad, was incompetent. It just wasn't polite, if nothing else.

Quincy tried to rally, "We normally only promote from withing a division..."

"But not always," Sylia smiled like a shark, "in fact, Brian Mason himself was promoted from 'special projects,' I understand."

Quincy paled a bit, subsiding. "Are we certain she's qualified?" he tried one final gambit.

"May I?" Nene asked. As Sylia nodded she addressed the board, "I've worked cyber crime for ADP, as well as conventional police. My certifications are fully up to date, as well I have successfully raided Genom's own system." As gasps of alarm rose up she continued, "You need to tighten up security a lot."

"You're lying," the former assistant to Mason managed. James Yamako had risen through the ranks to become second in command of cyber security at Genom, but he had mostly done that via ass kissing. He wasn't good at the job itself.

"Check your phone," Nene said as she taped a few keys on her own device, "I just sent you the access codes to your Genom accounts and personal email."

James paled visibly when he checked and found that yes, she had clearly hacked into his own accounts, at least. "Shit," he muttered softly.

"If anyone else has any problems working with Ms. Romanova," Sylia added, "you are perfectly welcome to tender your resignations. I'll even throw in the usual golden parachutes."

"Are you seriously suggesting...," Quincy managed after a stunned moment.

Sylia faced the crowd, "I have been running Genom for two months now, and I have had a opportunity to review a lot of our business practices." She paused, "I was shocked and appalled to see the sheer level of corruption, graft and underhanded dealings I found. The only reason I haven't considered mass firings was that much of what I found is also industry standard."

You could have heard a pin drop as almost everyone looked at Sylia, wide eyed. Nene and Reika were the only ones not actually freaking out, mostly because they were the ones that helped Sylia find the incriminating evidence.

"That corruption ends now," Sylia said grimly, "this is your first and only warning. If I catch you up to something like this again, you are OUT."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Well, that was fun," Reika smirked as they all filed into Sylia's office where Priss and Linna were waiting, monitoring a life feed of the meeting.

"You were wonderful," Linna hugged her lover warmly.

"I'm still not sure this is such a good idea," Priss noted, "you've both just plastered giant targets on your backs."

"From the executives or our secret adversary?" Nene asked mildly.

"Both!" Priss laughed.

"We need to try to draw out our opponent," Sylia shrugged, "this might do that. And putting Nene in charge of cyber security will help us immensely."

"And the threats over corruption?" Linna asked curiously.

"All real," Sylia sighed, "I think Quincy has really not been watching as close as he should. Genom is a industry leader, but it shouldn't be leading them into crap."

"Are you replacing your assistant?" Reika asked Nene curiously.

"I expect him to quit," Nene admitted, "but we'll see. I have some ideas of who I could grab..."

To be continued.

Notes: More next chapter on the fire & computer elements. Wanted to set up some stuff first.