Paige sat in her office at Centipede Partners finalizing the latest contract bid when her computer dinged letting her know she had an email. She smiled hoping Walter had finally replied to her last email. Three weeks after they broke up she'd finally felt like she was ready to try and talk with him. But he was refusing to engage her. She had just wished when he called out to her from outside of the office of the Gettleman bid that she had gone to him then. Centipede was supposed to just be a stopgap according to the guys, something to demonstrate to Walter that they could function without him and that he needed to reconsider things.
But the more time that passed, the more it seemed like both Toby and Sylvester were set in staying as they were. Happy seemed to have some remorse but she was so focused on trying to adopt that she wanted the stability of the new partnership.
She moved her mouse and clicked the email icon and watched the program come up. She was shocked to see an email from Carlson at Homeland. She clicked on the email and her eyes went wide as she read it. Paige sat there stunned for several minutes before she reached over and lifted her phone up and then hit the intercom button.
"Guys, I need everyone to come to my office, now." Paige said dispirited before dropping the receiver on the base. She fell back heavily against her chair and waited.
Sylvester entered her office first and frowned seeing her sitting there, twisting back and forth. He stepped over and sat in the far chair to wait. About three minutes passed when Happy stepped in.
"What's up?" Happy asked but Paige just sat there. Happy frowned but stepped over and sat in the chair next to Sylvester. "Did she say anything Sly?"
Sylvester shook his head. And so they sat there watching Paige slowly twist back and forth in her chair. It was almost another ten minutes before Toby finally entered the office.
"Okay so what's up?" Toby asked.
"Why are you always late?" Sylvester snapped at him.
"What's it to you?" Toby quipped back.
"It's rude and disrespectful of everyone else." Sylvester told him while standing up.
"Oh, big man now are you? Finally grow a little set after pushing around a pacifist?" Toby glared at him.
Sylvester took a step towards Toby even as Happy pushed back against him and then her other hand flew out and caught Toby in the gut, just above his belt buckle forcing him to bend over and drop into the seat next to her.
"Knock it off, both of you." Happy glared at Toby. "Okay Paige, what is up?" Happy said in a loud and demanding tone.
Paige looked up, puzzled at the tone in her voice and then sighed as she shook her head and sat up in her chair.
"I just got an email from Director Carlson." Paige started.
Toby laughed.
"Walter screwed up already huh?" Toby said gleefully.
"No. Stop being an arse." Paige pointed at him. "But, he says he isn't willing to continue Scorpion's contract without more people on his team. Apparently he fired Florence the other day and it was too much so he's offering the contract to us."
"Yes, we'll take it!" Toby yelled as he jumped up with his arms up over his head.
"Stop that Toby and sit down. We've got to stop and think this over guys. We've been beating Walter at every bid, we've got more then enough to not only keep us busy but to keep us well paid. Do we really want to be that vindictive?" Paige pleaded.
"Hell yes." Toby said.
"I'm okay with it." Sylvester nodded.
"You guys aren't even thinking about it. You just want to do as much damage to Walter as you can. What is wrong with you? When we started this stupid company you both promised me it was just to show Walter we could make a go of this. But you are not acting that way now. You're really showing your ugly sides." Paige yelled at the pair of them. "Happy?"
Happy had leaned forward and had her elbows on her knees as she thought about it.
"Is it the exact same?" Happy asked quietly.
"Well as far as I can tell it is, with one change for sure. There's a clause barring Walter from ever being part of Centipede Partners." Paige told her.
"Who the hell wants him?" Toby demanded.
Paige sighed and shook her head as Happy looked over and glared at him. Toby swallowed hard at that look.
"You guys need to really think about this. I don't know if Walter would forgive us for what we've already done. He isn't responding to any of my attempts to contact him, but I can almost promise you he won't forgive us if we accept this contract." Paige told them as she rolled her pencil back and forth on her desk. "I'm 100% against it. There isn't anything we can do about him pulling the contract from Walter but I'm not agreeing to take it if he does. And I still want us to get past what has happened, I want to be part of Scorpion again. I thought that was what we all ultimately wanted?"
"I get that Paige and I'm not saying I like the idea but, even with how well we're doing getting jobs and even raising our rates, this contract could give us a substantial buffer. We want to adopt, this contract would carry a lot of weight in getting approved." Happy said softly.
Paige stared at her in disbelief, her mouth opened showing how unbelievable Happy was.
"You're Walter's oldest friend, you risked a criminal record and jail time to help him stay in this country. And you are just going to go along with these two and stomp all over what remains of Walter? After all he has done for all of us?" Paige nearly screamed.
"Hey, the majority rules in our partnership. And you are in the minority. So just sign the contract and submit it to Homeland." Toby told her.
"Screw you Toby, I'm not signing it without it being read completely by our attorney and everything being broken down in bullet points so he can advise us of what is in it." Paige all but spit at him.
"Well then maybe we should have a vote and see if we have a majority to accept it as is." Toby said as he stood up.
"You can vote until you are blue in the face, I'm not doing it, regardless of our partnership. As a matter of fact, the three of you can get the hell out of my office now. I sent a copy of it to your email Sly. Study it and have a report for us by tomorrow morning." Paige dismissed them.
"You can't dictate to us." Toby screamed.
Paige jumped up as she slammed her fists on her desk.
"Get out!" Paige screamed.
Happy just got up and pushed against Toby forcing him to leave her office and Sylvester slowly got up. He watched Paige fearfully as he made his way out of her office.
"This is bull poop. She can't treat us this way." Toby stewed by his couch.
"Just shut up Toby, you were being a complete arse in there and rude to Paige. I don't blame her for getting mad." Sylvester told him even as he was reading the offered contract.
Paige turned off her light and locked her door. She looked around the office one last time to be sure everything was off and then closed the door. She looked down the front of the office and saw Sylvester at his desk reading something on his computer.
"I'm leaving for the rest of the day." Paige told Sylvester as she pushed the outer door open and walked out. 'Three stooges, Ralph's so right about that.' Paige thought as she walked on down to her car.
As Paige left the parking lot she thought once again about Walter. She thought about calling Cabe but he'd been pretty curt with them since the Gettleman bid last week. She just decided to drive to the Garage and see Walter in person. So instead of hanging a left at the stoplight, she turned right and drove towards the Garage.
Paige frowned as she reached the Garage but didn't see Walter or Cabe's vehicles. She saw Freddie down by the overpass of the highway and she drove on down and slowed to a stop across from him.
"Hey Freddie." Paige smiled.
Freddie looked up and smiled.
"Hey Paige, how you doing?" Freddie asked even as he kind of stumbled over towards her car.
"Freddie, are you okay? You haven't been drinking have you?" Paige asked concerned.
"Naw, ran out of my blood pressure meds a week or so ago. Been having dizzy spells." Freddie continued to smile. "Missed you girl, you doing okay?"
Paige smiled.
"Thank you for asking Freddie, I've been fine. Do you need some money to get your medicine then?" Paige asked as he got up to her window. Now she could tell he hadn't been drinking.
"Well if you are sure you can afford it. I know you and Walter are still having a bad spell." Freddie nodded.
Paige dug a twenty out of her purse and handed it to Freddie.
"That's kind of why I'm here. I was hoping to talk to Walter. Do you know where he is?" Paige asked.
Freddie nodded as he tucked the twenty away.
"He had a job for that big slick guy that comes around from time to time." Freddie told her.
"Big slick guy?" Paige frowned as she thought.
"Yeah, you know him, he's the one that gave Walter that car that he crashed a few years back." Freddie told her.
"Oh, Richard Elia." Paige nodded.
"Yeah, that was his name…Almost called him big Dick but I thought that would be a bit disrespectful." Freddie laughed.
Paige grinned as she shook her head.
"Well if you see Walter, tell him to please call me. I'd really like to talk to him, in person if possible." Paige told him.
"For you, sure thing Paige." Freddie nodded and waved before she put her car in gear and drove off.
"So what are you waiting for Sly?" Toby asked minutes after Paige left the lot.
"What are you talking about Toby?" Sylvester frowned as he looked from his screen to Toby's couch.
"Just accept that damn contract. Majority ruled on it." Toby told him.
"You don't want me to read it first?" Sylvester frowned.
"You heard Paige, it is the exact same." Toby told him.
"No, she said as far as she can tell. She isn't a lawyer, Toby." Sylvester told him.
"Just accept it before he changes his mind." Toby yelled.
Sylvester sighed and entered his authorization code and digitally signed the contract for Centipede Partners and sent it back.
"I hope you know what you are doing." Happy said softly.
"What's the big deal? If it is a job we can't handle we just tell them. What job have we ever had that one of us didn't solve the problem?" Toby grinned.
"Uh, we never solved the problem. Walter solved it, I might have been needed to make a device, you might have had to treat or talk to someone, Sly might have had to calculate something, but Walter had always come up with the solution. You're just getting too cocky because we've been lucky so far." Happy told him. She was beginning to have reservations on supporting the guys over Paige in this.
"This is messed up." Happy complained as she got up and stormed off for her shop. A minute later they heard her heavy ball peen hammer slamming into her workbench.
"Walter, thanks for coming so quickly." Richard grinned as he greeted Walter and Cabe.
"You're welcome Richard. How can I help?" Walter asked as they shook hands.
"One of my employees, somehow, allowed a virus into one of the back systems. And it is trashing everything working its way towards the main server. We tried to deploy your Guardian 5 software, it slowed it a bit but it is still taking over control of the whole system. I got the lines to our backup servers physically pulled so we can hopefully redeploy everything once it is eradicated. But one experimental system I can't separate without irreparable damage." Richard explained even as they moved to the main server room.
"The virus is still continuing even against Guardian 5?" Walter frowned as he sat his backpack down and got on the main server system.
"Yes, you can see through the reports on these monitors what is happening. We have no control of the remote systems but we can still see what they are doing." Richard pointed.
Walter nodded as he tapped on the keyboard and got an odd response from Guardian 5.
"Someone altered Guardian 5 or it had been attacked before you ran it. Someone would have to know it was there to do that. And we can't just force a shut down?" Walter asked as he looked at Richard.
"That is our least favorable solution. We have a new biological computer in the testing phase. If we have to shut it down, we'll lose over a year's worth of work. It'll have to be rebuilt from scratch." Richard told him as he gestured to one of the monitors in a research lab.
Walter frowned as he looked at all the data coming in.
"Did you at least sever the connection to that computer? That way we can shut everything else down and we can test that computer specifically." Walter asked.
"No, it still needs to maintain a connection to the mainframe here. It is a security failsafe if someone tries to steal it." Richard explained.
"Can we run a direct line between this computer and that one? Then we can disconnect the other line and shut down access to this computer from the rest of the systems." Walter told him.
Richard smiled as he nodded before he moved over and opened a closet door and pulled out a heavy spool of cat6 wire.
"When we get this plugged into the other computer you have to pull the other connections." Walter told the tech standing by watching.
The tech just nodded.
"It is still possible that the biological computer might not adapt to the new connection quickly enough. You do realize that right?" Walter told Richard.
"I'm aware of that Walter, but I don't think we have any other choice at this time." Richard nodded.
They plugged the one end that was already set with a plug into the server even as Walter grabbed the tools he'd need. Cabe grabbed one side and Walter the other and they began running with Richard to the lab with the biological computer. Walter quickly used the tools he brought to put a connector on the other end of the wire and plugged it into the port for the biological computer. He waved at the camera even as he pulled the other cable out.
They watched the monitors of the biological computer and they saw a few glitches crop up on the screens and then returned to normal operations.
Richard let out his breath.
"Thank you Walter." Richard smiled and held his hand out.
"Let's get up to the server and see what we can find out. I'm going to get a copy of your Guardian 5 to figure out why it failed. We can begin testing the server to ensure the virus isn't in it too." Walter nodded as he shook his hand.
Greetings! Hope this finds you all well!
Well, I'm kind of stuck here in limbo and since Grudges hasn't talked in so long, I'm just going to go ahead and dump it in the Grab Bag. Maybe something will move before I get to what is finished with this story and I can finish it, but I'm not too confident in that.
I did have an idea yesterday that moved me to write and that was good, for those who follow me as a writer probably got an alert to my story "Kili - King Under The Mountain". It is a story written based on the 3 Hobbit Movies. A simple one chapter story. So clearly the muse is still with me, but it is just taking a while. Callan is up to chapter 60 but not yet done with 2003 so I don't want to post that. Depending on how things go in the next 18 days or so I might post my "Walter Under The Bridge" here in the Grab Bag after this story "ends".
To the Adventure! -Tim