A/N1: Perhaps Marco can figure out who owns Chuck while he's undercover at Roark.
A/N2: I know I'm no longer as dependable as I once was and I'm hoping to work my way back to that reputation. I do hope you guys will please stick with me while I do that. My office is still going through a ton of shit and I'm trying to deal with it. Anyway, I felt that it's more important than ever that I drop this chapter today. September 28, 2018 was the drop of the first chapter of New Day. So, it's been five years. Holy smoke. I don't know if I get a pat on the back, a cigar, or a straight-jacket, but I think it's cool. For those of you who have been with me for all those years, thank you so much for all the joy you have given me. For the newer arrivals, thank you so much for all the joy you will give me. Love you guys and hope to be around another five years at a minimum. With your support, I will be going strong.
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Marco heard the beep of the alarm and sighed in his sleep. He instantly moved to silence it, hoping against hope that he'd gotten there fast enough to stop the noise from waking his live-in boyfriend, Justin. He knew Justin had to be up early to be in class, but not as early as he, Marco, had to be up to clean the bathrooms at the Roark complex. It normally worked the other way around where Justin was up before Marco, but this particular gig switched the order in the morning bedroom.
Justin said, "You ok?"
"Yeah. Sorry to wake you," said Marco, getting out of bed.
"No worries. Real life interferes with sleep and comfort. For, like, forever," said Justin with a sleepy chuckle. He was a high school history teacher and could always be counted on for a long-term perspective.
"Try to go back to sleep," suggested Marco.
"Ummmm," said Justin, rolling over. There was only another hour and a half until Justin's alarm itself went off.
Once Marco was fully dressed and ready to face the day, he leaned over his sleeping partner and said, "Gonna be another late night. Don't wait up."
"Right. Be careful. I love you," said Justin.
Marco gave him a kiss and said, "I will. Love you too."
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Chuck was engrossed in a software problem for CI and sitting at his desk with his head down when there was a knock at the door. And, a moment later, a louder knock at the door.
Jim Presti, one of his most talented software engineers said, "Gotta talk to you, boss. Right now." Jim was a pretty calm guy. The fact that he was acting with such urgency was a loud alarm.
Chuck immediately got up and followed the man to a conference room, closing and locking the door.
"Ok, Jim. What's up?"
Jim and his team from Carmichael Industries had been tasked with ripping into the new RIOS software, the new operating system Roark intended to try to replace Microsoft's Windows systems. With the program lifted from the mainframes by Jorge they had been given the full run of the base code. None of Chuck's guys knew the client for the job. (Sarah and Casey had convinced Chuck to bill the ODNI for the work.)
Chuck said, "Ok, Jim. What did you guys find? A bunch of bugs that will need costly upgrades to solve?"
"Yes," said the man. He paused and said, "No. I mean yes that it's buggy. That's to be expected. But, no, that's not the thing. Chuck, this is a nightmare. A huge fucking nightmare. This goddamn thing has a back door. An actual fucking back door. Anyone who installs it can be raped by Roark or his people whenever they are in the mood. This doesn't even come close to having security. It's the opposite of computer security.
"And, boss, it's so fucking brazen. Arrogant fucks. Like no one can catch them. I made the guys check it three times because I couldn't believe anyone would have the balls to try something like this. If everyone installed this monster, you and I would be out of a job. Roark could get in everywhere and there'd be nothing we could do short of re-writing the entire base code.
"The worst thing is, he's touting it everywhere and it's pre-selling like crazy. The release date is only a couple of days away. Huge media blowout for the release. Big event at his campus. Interviews. Magazine covers. It's getting a ton of play in the computer world and the business world. The next big challenge to Microsoft domination, yadda, yadda, yadda. And it's all fucking poison. We'll spread the word and it will die immediately, but I still can't believe the balls on this guy. Take a look here, Chuck."
"You spread the word by yourself and we're buried in litigation for a decade. That's his MO," said Chuck.
"Shit," grumbled Jim.
Jim pulled up the screen on the side of the room and showed him a few pages with computer code, some of which were highlighted in yellow. Chuck sat and considered the code he was reviewing. After a few minutes he asked a question or two. Finally, he said, "Jim, you and your guys aren't going to say a thing to anyone. Until I tell you, and I will. And then you are going to scream it to the stars and give any and all interviews you can set up. Take your info and drop it on every site you love. But, just wait for my word to pull the trigger. What we do is being coordinated with a bunch of other things about Roark being handled by other people. It's important that everything happen at the same time. Please get all your evidence solid, as I'm sure there will be lawyers looking at it and trying to call you a liar."
Jim grinned and said, "Sounds good."
"Jim," said Chuck. "We are going to destroy the son of a bitch."
Jim grinned from ear to ear and left the conference room. "Fuckin' A, Boss."
Chuck sat for a few moments and smiled to himself with a sudden idea. He took out his cell phone and punched a number. After a moment he said, "Hey, Bill. It's Chuck. Got a minute?"
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Later that day, Chuck explained to the rest of the team what the CI software engineers had found in RIOS. Together they discussed a big reveal to the public once the rest of the attacks on Roark Instruments were triggered.
"Oh," said Rachel with a far-away look.
"What is it, girlfriend?" asked Sarah.
Rachel slowly developed a smallish smile, one that sparkled of mischief. "I have an idea. Yeah, I have an idea. It just might drive Teddy-boy insane." She started to laugh softly.
"Ok," said Chuck. "Get us sued for defamation or something?"
"Oh, my God, Chuck. Trust me, if this works out, suing us for defamation won't even reach the top twenty things he is shitting himself about," said Rachel.
"Now, I like that," he said.
Rachel said to him and Sarah, "Thing is, I need some discretionary funds from CI."
"Sure. Whatever you need," he said.
"Good. My guess is between three and four million," she said, her smile getting wider.
"Ok. What are you going to use that for?" asked Sarah.
"Lawfare," said Rachel, now grinning (and almost giggling) with glee.
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Marco made his way through the huge complex, pushing his rolling trash bin loaded with cleaning paraphernalia. It was past business hours and the facility was mostly quiet. He wore glasses with clear glass and old-fashioned frames. In fact, the glasses were transmitting both sound and a live feed of whatever he was observing to members of his extended team located in a rented apartment a mile away and overlooking the Roark campus.
As Marco passed the entrance to the secure area of the R&D facility the doors opened and two people came out, a man and a woman. Instantly, their images were being run through the Carmichael team's computers for facial recognition.
Marco reached out to catch the door before it closed behind the couple. Pulling it open he edged his cart inside, only to be stopped by an armed security guard, a very large security guard.
"Nope," the man said. "Restricted area."
"But I thought..." began Marco.
The man pushed the janitor's cart back outside the room and said, "Stop thinking and go back to your mops, dickweed. Don't come in here again."
"Sorry, Sir," he said deferentially.
Marco backed away from the door as it closed. He'd managed to get a look at the interior, but it had nothing to distinguish it from any other computer lab he'd seen. He knew that whatever he had glimpsed would be reviewed by both Chuck and Jorge from the video feeds, but to him it was just some banks of computer stations with some mainframes along a long balcony on a second story. There were only a few men and women manning those stations at that hour.
If he'd managed to get past the guard, he could have planted any number of surveillance cameras and microphones, but he hadn't.
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Later, Chuck and the team debated strategies to at least get an inclination of what was in that space, short of a physical entry. They recognized that a direct intrusion might be necessary, but it carried the risk of warning Roark that he was a target. So far, at least, he seemed unaware.
The taps on Smith's phones were still active, although he had thrown away one of them and obtained a clean replacement. The remaining ones, though, were still useful. Through them Chuck and team discovered that they were no longer the targets of assassination effort by Fulcrum, allowing for a somewhat less paranoid attitude. Well, except Casey, of course, who reveled in his paranoia.
"Ok. So, we are all agreed that the list of Fulcrum operatives is the goal. Likelihood it's behind those doors in his facility?" asked Chuck.
"The alternative is he has another computer facility someplace else more secure. Not impossible, but a waste of effort and resources," said Zondra.
"Paper files?" said Casey.
"Fair enough," said Chuck. "We have to keep those in mind. I mean, I sort of doubt it, especially with Roark as the mastermind, but fair point. His understanding of computers might, alone, lead him to paper. If it's paper, though, it could be anywhere."
"Naw," said Sarah, "They'd need regular access to it. If it's going to be an up-to-date list, it has to be used. It has to be available to the managers. Whoever they may be."
"Fair point. Any list has to be a usable document," said Rachel.
"I think we are best off assuming there is something behind those doors," said Colt.
"I'm with Mike," said Fitz. "Whatever is there is going to be useful to us. Sort of regardless of what it is," The two men shared a fist bump with their agreement.
"Yes," said Chuck. "Agreed. But is the Holy Grail there, or just something else interesting? Just to use an example, what if that's hub of their Intersect research..."
"An interesting discovery by itself," said Casey, nodding his head. "Even if we get nothing further."
"Exactly," said Chuck. "Good to know. Good to sabotage or blow up. But doesn't, by itself, kill Fulcrum. Guys, we are looking for the Achilles Heel. Something to take them out root and branch all at once."
"And," said Sarah, "whatever we can identify behind that wall may or may not be what we need."
"And," said Zondra, "In any event, no matter which why we go, we may have to get inside regardless."
"So, the thing now is to get inside?" asked Fitz. "See what's there?"
"Maybe," said Sarah. "But we can't forget that there are options before that."
"Exactly." said Chuck. "We may have to get in there, but who knows what they have planned against a full frontal assault? They could have a kill switch to erase files or something. God knows I'd do exactly that if I was setting it up. Being air-gapped, you would have to kill it all from the inside. No way to do it by remote control. And the files may be encrypted. We may need to hack our way into the systems. That means Jorge and I have to sneak in."
Jorge grinned, "I can be a ninja if you want."
Chuck grinned back at him and said, "I'm glad you can be. I'm much more Fred Flintstone when I'm on a black bag job."
"So, we sneak in, with some of you as protection, hack into the systems and look for a file labeled 'Fulcrum Members' or something. Download the file and run away," said Jorge.
"Why two of you?" asked Casey.
"We don't know how the computers on the other side of the wall are set up. If they are networked, one of us would be enough. If they are ten stand alone systems, though, even two is not enough guys. But it's twice as good as one," said Chuck.
"We'd need one hell of a distraction to keep the opposition distracted while you do your thing," said Fitz. "What about if we coordinate all the other attacks against them at the same time you are trying to access the restricted area? All the security and Fulcrum guys would be busy and you should be able to walk in easy peasy."
"And we'd still be behind the scenes," said Zondra.
Colt said, "Yeah, behind the scenes. Why do we want that? We know they hate us already. Well, they hate the Carmicheal team, anyway. What if we're approaching this all wrong? What if, rather keeping him in the dark about our interest, we instead confront him and provoke a reaction?"
Marty said, "Sebak."
"Exactly," agreed Colt. "We were running ops in Afghanistan near a town called Sebak. There were a team of muj we were after, but we couldn't pin them down. They were really good. Ghosts. Even when we'd get a whiff of the guys they'd disappear. You know how it is when you see something out of the corner of your eye and when you turn your head to look directly it's gone? It was like that. Well, we believed that they were in contact with one of the elders from the village. I met with the man over cups of tea and laid some insults on the leader of the muj team, hoping they would be repeated to him.
"The leader took the bait, got offended and attacked. His pride led him to make mistakes and come out from hiding. We wasted the whole team of them. Hell, if not for the leader's ego, we'd probably still be chasing those guys around in the dirt. From what we've learned in these meetings, the son of a bitch Roark has a huge ego. Can we get Roark to make a mistake by giving him a good solid poke?"
Sarah began to smile and said, "Now that's a promising idea, Mike."
Chuck caught her change in mood and said, beginning to smile himself, "Yeah. Promising indeed."
Sarah said, "And I think I know just the thing."
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A few hours later, Rachel was on the phone with John Neilson, in New York.
"How's it going?" she asked the man.
"Just about on schedule. I have ten paralegals working on it full time for the last few days. We'll be done tomorrow unless something surprising happens."
"You need any more money?" she asked.
"Give me a second. It's hard to keep track." She heard the sound of a keyboard clicking as Neilson checked something on his computer.
"Yeah," he said after a second or two. "You could send another million. What we don't use we'll return anyway."
"I'll get it wired right away. And the draft complaint?"
"I'll be reviewing it tonight. We'll have to fill in the details of the purchase, but that's easy enough, I guess."
"OK," she said. "Let me know when you want me to review the complaint and Chuck's affidavit."
"I will," he said. "Probably close of business tomorrow. That still work with your schedule?"
"Perfect. Thanks, John."
"Always my pleasure, Rach."
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A/N3: Chuck uses the word "sabotage." I had always understood that the etymology of the word came from the actions of the protesting workers in a Belgium factory throwing their wooden shoes ("sabot" in Belgium French) into the factory machinery. The internet tells me that I've been wrong all along. As, I suppose, I am about many things.
A/N4: So, that's that for today, my old friends. Let me know what you think, if you don't mind. And what the hell are Rachel and John Neilson up to?