Not a fool this time…. Chapter 24

Simone messaged back she would be in LA within days after finishing up some arrest reports and doing research on the person in the screen shot Dave Jessup sent. She will let him know date and time she gets into LAX. Richard said he will send a car and take her to Dave Jessup's office to swap information. Homeland said they will be sending an agent when informed the Interpol agent was in town.

For the next five days Walter had a car and driver assigned to him and Gale anytime one or the other needed to get to an Elias Enterprises site. For the most part they worked from the den.

"This is pretty neat," Gale remarked one afternoon. "Work a while in the den, jump in the pool, lounge around watching Peaches and Cream patrol the place, have coffee with Adam and Sue, jump into bed with you for some afternoon delight… quite the lifestyle we have my love."

"Enjoy it while it lasts, my wife." Walter said from his chair by the pool working on his laptop. "Another day or two and we will undergo some changes." He frowned and turned to Gale. "Undergo some changes," He repeated. "That reminds me, have you made your decision on when to get off birth control?"

"Walter, I got off it when you signed for the house," Gale said smiling. "Thought you understood that….. maybe I was not clear, but, yes, been off for a couple weeks now."

Walter's huge smile lit him up like a sun. "Excellent! Just think of it, a baby. Won't that be remarkable? What do you want a boy or girl? One of each? TWINS…. fraternal, not identical. Names- we must come up with names….. not Sean, not Walter…. I will have to get some books….. I know the mechanics of gestation and birth, the changes you will undergo physically. I will keep you comfortable at all times- stress free at all times. We can well afford for you to not work- want to be a 'stay at home mom'? HOME SCHOOL- public schools are abysmal!"

"Good grief, Walter, I have not even gotten pregnant yet and you are already picking out which university the child will attend," she laughed. "You are definitely going to be a fun father."

Walter looked at Gale with a stunned expression, "me, ME, a father… a FATHER. That is something I never thought would happen- never thought I would ever find someone who could possibly love me…. me, a so-called total emotional dumpster fire no one could possibly want to have a child with… gods, how you have changed my life."

Walter's laptop alerted new mail. Walter continued to stare at Gale a moment then snapped out of it and looked at his laptop, "a message from Richard," he said.

Walter- Homeland is sending an agent, Interpol agent Simone on the way from the airport, car to bring you in is on the way…. time to get the ball rolling. Richard

"Well, Gale, you want to meet Simone? Looks like those changes are going to be taking place sooner than expected. This will be a planning stage, so you may as well join in. Shall we get dressed for going into the office a car will be here shortly" Walter said closing his laptop.

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Jessup suggested everyone gather in Richard's main conference room. Security personnel at the gate would escort those coming in for the meeting. First to arrive was Simone who introduced herself to Richard and Dave. She had her briefcase with files and information gathered by Interpol on the Eastern Bloc hackers. She sat down and pulled the files out of her briefcase so Richard's secretary could make copies to add to the files Dave had for all who would be attending. Once the copies were made, they were piled at each seat at the conference table. Richard and Dave Jessup were seated along with Simone engaging in small talk when Steve Roehr was escorted in, "Good afternoon, everyone. Homeland Security agent Steve Roehr. Sit anywhere?"

Richard was surprised when Roehr walked in. "Thought you had a problem with Walter O'Brien, the subject of this investigation and planning session."

"No problem at all, Mr. Elias." Steve said sitting across the table from Simone. "Mr. Obrien and I had a discussion of a personal nature, issue resolved. My being assigned here is solely for the attempted kidnapping of an American citizen and harassment by known international criminals and as a person with extensive knowledge of the cases worked by Mr. O'Brien's Scorpion team while under contract with Homeland."

Next to enter was two of Jessup's crew, Joe Bishop and Mike Hoffmann followed closely by Walter and Gale.

Walter saw Simone, put his laptop on the table then took Gale to introduce the women. "Gale, this is Simone of Interpol, Simone, this is my wife, Gale."

Gale shook hands with Simone with a big smile. "So nice to meet you."

Simone smiled as well, leaned forward to quietly say, "happy to meet the woman who landed Walter, congratulations to both of you."

Richard got himself a cup of coffee, Walter joined him to get some for Gale and himself. Richard leaned close to Walter to say, "I was surprised when he walked in. Homeland assigned Roehr- seems he knows a lot about your past cases. You have any problems with him being here?"

"He does his job well, why should I have a problem? Homeland makes the decision on whom to assign to what cases, usually for good reasons." Walter glanced at Roehr who was pulling files out of his briefcase. "We shall see how it goes," and took the two cups of coffee to hand one to Gale and sit down next to her at the conference table opening his laptop.

"Everyone is here, so best get started," Richard said. "I am just an interested employer, so will sit down and let those who have the experience take the lead."

Dave Jessup sat back, "you all have the files on everything gathered so far. We are working on the assumption O'Brien is being targeted due to his security systems causing problems for the Eastern Bloc hacking farms- they are unable to get through the system for information gathering, extortion attempts and system hostage taking for ransoms. We believe the kidnapping attempt was to get O'Brien out of the US and get him to hack his own security system to get their revenue streams back. With the number of systems that have their security up-graded, from US based Fortune 500 companies, Interpol itself, financial concerns here in the US as well as England and Germany, their revenue has been greatly impacted."

Simone picked up the file she had brought. "The Eastern Bloc hacking farms have impacted the financial sector throughout the EU. We have profiled a number of the people involved- some of whom have been arrested. Each arrest leads to others and a number of the sites have been shut down."

Steve Roehr spoke next. "Homeland has had numerous attempts of getting into our system but have not had any incursions so far. We are well aware of the Eastern Bloc hacking farms as well as similar Asian internet hackers trying to infiltrate numerous American infrastructure, companies and military sites. The ransom issues have become quite problematic. Our computer people have been endeavoring to get at risk systems into totally closed computer systems- keep it off the open net, there will be fewer incursions."

Mike Hoffmann then spoke up. "The problem immediately at hand is the attempt to kidnap Mr. O'Brien. This may be the opening needed to shut down a large swath of this international computer hacking business. HOW to shut this all down is the problem."

"There is a case where a method was used to alleviate an attempt to procure classified information." Steve Roehr said, then turned to Walter. "You are familiar with that case, Mr. O'Brien?"

Walter, quietly tapping a message on his laptop said without looking up said, "Bosnia?"

"Yes," Steve said. "You managed to completely shut down that attempt to obtain classified information rendering the captured equipment useless, all due to the fact that no one involved were computer knowledgeable enough to know what you were doing."

Gale immediately understood the implication. "You want Walter to allow himself to be taken?"

Steve turned to her, "I merely give information on one example that worked in the past," he said complacently. "I am sure there are other examples Mr. O'Brien can cite himself where his expertise was far beyond the understanding of others involved rendering a positive outcome to the case."

Walter looked up, "Please, everyone, Mr. O'Brien is unnecessary, Walter or Walt is fine." He then turned to Gale, "I worked a lot of cases with Homeland and US military and came home safely. I will not unnecessarily risk myself, especially now- everything, when thought out and planned, has less risk than it looks when in action." He then turned to Steve, "I am sure you are also familiar with a couple other cases of Eastern Bloc hacking issues Scorpion was involved in… I will not reveal more details here, except to say they also had positive results."

"Yes they did," Steve said. "Each incident was critically dependent on your expertise to get those positive outcomes."

"But these people are not computer illiterates as these examples obviously were." Gale interjected. "Plus, I gather these cases had the Scorpion TEAM, so Walter was not working alone."

"True," Steve admitted. "However, the team involvement for the most part was nothing more than personnel for extraction once the case issue was resolved. As a matter of fact, an overwhelming number of the Homeland cases involving Scorpion, Walter was central if not entirely dependent to the planning and execution."

"And in how many was Walter hurt to obtain these 'positive outcomes?" Gale asked heatedly.

Walter leaned toward Gale, "Gale, probably the closest I came to dead was on a job for Richard," he said quietly. "A simple static testing of my booster design that went terribly wrong- I did not do the planning- that is the difference. Believe me, I will not be risking myself"

Richard stood up. "I think everyone needs to take the files, digest the information and formulate a plan. We can meet here again tomorrow at one and see what can be brought together."

Everyone gathered up their data and profile packets, put in cases and rose to leave.

"Simone, Walter and Gale could you wait a moment- Dave, you too," Richard said. When everyone had left to be escorted to the gate, those remaining sat again. "Simone- you being Interpol, you are more familiar with these criminals, have dealt with them probably much more than agencies here in the States by the sounds of it. Walter, those other cases Roehr was talking of- how dangerous was it?" Richard looked to both of them, "The truth. We have to know exactly how dangerous these people are- they aren't all what people imagine when they think of 'computer geeks', sorry Walter, but you are not exactly G.I. Joe."

Simone looked to Walter. "Well, even in Paris working on a small concerns security system, one of the criminals was discovered BY Walter when going through their computer system so he was able to warn me and I got his weapon away from him. Walter was wounded in the process, but had he not given me warning the outcome would have been deadlier. That arrest led to others and a total of twelve people arrested and three sites shut down."

"Would it be possible to track these hackers? Locate their site and arrest them? Surely there has to be a better, safer way of interfering with their activity besides Walter being a sacrificial lamb." Gale said. "I have done some hacking myself. Let's face it where there is a will there is a way. Why so many companies have big prizes for anyone that can hack their program. Contrary to popular belief around here, Walter is NOT the only person in the world with the ability to get into systems. And why does he have to be taken out of the US to find out who these people are?"

"And you are exactly right, my love." Walter said. "It isn't necessary for me to leave the US- these kidnappers obviously are not truly computer literate beyond their criminal activity. There is a difference between using a system and actually designing a system, the ability to track, source, and interfere with or even totally shut them down may be possible." He smiled at Gale, "hacking can go both ways."

"Simone, Richard, have a good evening. Call the car, Gale and I need to go home. I need to think, possibly a trip down a rabbit hole for the night." Walter said. "I will get back with you tomorrow when this reconvenes." He put his laptop in its case, stood waiting for Gale and they both left for the car waiting at the gate to take them home.

"Ah Gale, you are so insightful. Why you are so very valuable and dear to me."

Gale looked at him, "OK, what did I say that I didn't know was meaningful but piqued your ingenuity? How your mind works will never cease to amaze me."

"Track the hackers, locate THEM." Walter said with a smile. "A very old whim I worked on many, many years ago that is still on a hard drive that, though incomplete, is a valid start." He leaned over and gave her a kiss. "Everyone leaves a trail….. that means everyone can be followed….. ah, we're home."

They both went into the house. Walter put his open laptop on the corner of his desk in the den and powered up his desktop unit, then sat back in his chair.

"I'm going to fix some sandwiches, want one? And some coffee?" Gale asked.

"I'll just have some coffee, thanks," Walter replied. "Gale, before you go…. I want you to know I have a lot of thinking to do this evening. I may seem a bit unfocused, do not worry, but don't interrupt. By tomorrow morning…. oh say around ten, if I am unresponsive, just do as you did the other day, glide your hand across my chest, maybe a kiss, and talk to me and out of the rabbit hole I will pop…. possibly with a solution to the whole problem." He looked up at her. "Gale… I do love you, you know, emotional dumpster fire that I am."

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