Sorry about the wait. I originally planned to post this chapter on Christmas Day but the issue with my hand took a turn for the worse. Turns out, I have some persistent damage from my accident a while back and over time, something has locked up in my wrist. I probably need surgery at some point but due to Covid, all non-essential surgeries are on hold :(
Still, enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"What's wrong, Howard?" Leonard asked, his annoyance at being interrupted momentarily forgotten.
"The encryption on this thing was off the charts." Howard said as he sat down. "But even worse, and I learned this only this afternoon, it did this right after plugging it in."
"What?" Leonard sat down next to him, looking at the screen. "What am I looking at?"
"It's a very sophisticated rootkit." Howard sighed. "I almost missed it and the only reason I didn't was because I noticed the increased average processor load."
"What's a rootkit?" Penny asked, sitting down on the arm chair.
"A rootkit is computer software that gives you access to a computer system that you usually don't have, after it is installed ." Howard explained. "For example, I have administrator access to this laptop and if were to I let you use it, I would create a user account for you that doesn't give you any access to changes in the system."
"I see." Penny nodded.
"But usually, to get one, you need to do something as the user, be it click a link in an email or install software from dubious sources." Howard continued. "This one installed itself by hijacking the computer's automatic driver install when you attach a new external drive."
"But those usually only happen once, right?" Leonard wondered. "And you must have used flash drives on that machine before."
"True, but this is special because the flash drive you copied includes software that mimics a completely new usb standard, hence the fake driver installation. It also does it in the background without any notification windows."
"You take apart the rootkit?" Leonard asked.
"I did." Howard nodded. "It doesn't steal any data, it doesn't really allow a takeover of the system, it just transfers a notification of its presence to somewhere."
"You mean it's like a beacon?" Penny suggested.
"Essentially." Howard agreed. "It's really just sending a ping."
"To where?" Leonard wanted to know.
"I don't know yet." Howard sighed. "The trail is convoluted, going through numerous public servers and even loops back sometimes. Very hard to pinpoint the destination."
"What does that mean?" Penny asked. "Cartel connections?"
"Possible." Howard shrugged. "Though this kind of technical expertise is beyond the usual cartel stuff."
"Wait." Penny just realized something. "If that software transmits its location to someone, they now know that we have it, right?"
"No, this is an air-gapped computer." Howard told her.
"A what?"
"Air-gapped." Leonard said. "It means that this computer is not connected to the internet at all and therefore, a signal can't be transmitted through it."
"In TV shows they sometimes show that intelligence services can turn on phones, what if that thing can do the same?" Penny asked.
"No." Howard chuckled. "Yes, while intelligence services actually can do that with cellphones, they would need to know who it belongs to. Also, this laptop has no internet connection information that they could use to establish one. I also removed the wireless network antenna from it to prevent something like that, as improbable it would be."
"What else, beyond the transmitter, did you find?"
"It's weird." Howard said. "Take a look."
"That is weird." Leonard agreed after perusing the head notes that Howard made.
"What is it?" Penny wanted to know, getting up to lean over their shoulders between their heads so she could see the screen.
"This is a extensive list of their business, their clients, dealer networks and suppliers. But their reach was far beyond anything a gang of their size could feasibly achieve." Leonard explained. "It seems that whenever some criminal element rose to challenge them, that element was then quickly taken out."
"By the gang?"
"If that gang consisted of people like me, then yeah." Leonard nodded. "They list accidents, poisonings that suggest accidental ingestion and so on. Nothing really that could be attributed to gang warfare, no drive-by shootings, no direct killings or similar things."
"So, was this guy an assassin too then?" Penny wondered.
"If he was one, he was never active." Howard stated. "Or, he never used any of the organization's services. And he was a little too young to be rogue."
"Rogue?" Penny looked at Leonard.
"Going rogue means you do what you want." Leonard explained. "You don't get to use organization assets and you essentially become persona non grata."
"What grata?" she wondered.
"It's Latin for unwanted person." Howard translated for her.
"Isn't that what you're doing anyway?" Penny asked. "I mean, the doing what you want part."
"No, I only take listed contracts, I don't make my own." he told her. "Going rogue means you look for a target yourself and take them out."
"Right." Penny accepted.
"By the way, Howard, even Lillian only knew him as a gang leader." Leonard pointed out. "And she keeps tabs on every assassin coming here and also the organization's assets."
"That's true." Howard nodded. "I will keep working on the ping destination."
"Won't that risk you getting caught?" Penny asked. "I mean, if that thing is sending its location?"
"Not really, I can get all the connection information from it and build my own kit to mirror this one, essentially making it sending to its destination without giving away its location." Howard said.
"Don't take any unnecessary risks." Leonard told him.
"Please, you're talking to me." Howard grinned.
"Exactly." Leonard looked at him. "Remember, it doesn't matter how good you are, always expect someone to be better."
"Don't worry, I will do this work only in public networks." Howard waved him off. "You know, you could help, sit there next to me with your laptop, so we could make it look as if we're playing a game."
"Better not." Leonard shook his head. "If the recipient of the signal does know about our business, the last thing I want is me being recognized."
"Right." Howard realized. "I'll take Raj."
"But if it's someone in the business, won't they recognize Raj and Howard too?" Penny wondered.
"If it's someone from our business, maybe." Leonard conceded. "However, they are more my support staff, for lack of a better term, with Howard and Bernadette being the only one that sometimes works for others."
"And here I thought we were friends." Howard gave a theatrical huff.
"What about people like Stuart?"
"He's providing ingredients for poisons for the organization as a whole, not just me." Leonard explained. "And he gets paid for it."
"Anything else?" Howard asked, getting up.
"Send a copy of the information to the LAPD and the local FBI field office." Leonard told him.
"Including the data being sent away to an unknown destination?"
"Yes." Leonard nodded. "Maybe the FBI can find out where it goes."
"But aren't you concerned that whoever is behind this will go into hiding?" Penny asked.
"Sure, but it's not my job to dismantle their operations completely." Leonard shrugged. "And if they are a powerful organization with a wide reach, with the FBI on their tail, they most likely won't look for me."
"Makes sense." Penny conceded.
"Howard, can you make another copy with the gang data without the ping destination right now?" Leonard asked, holding a flash drive out for Howard to take.
"Sure." Howard nodded, confused, but still did it, the superior USB standard on his laptop making the copying process last thirty seconds instead of the twenty minutes that Leonard had had to wait in the hideout.
"Thanks." Leonard said when he took the flash drive and got up.
"Where are you going?" Penny asked.
"To a brothel." Leonard replied as he left the apartment.
"What?" Howard looked at her.
"Apparently, I'm not enough for him." Penny huffed theatrically, mirroring Howard's reaction from before.
"He's going to see Lillian, isn't he?" Howard chuckled.
"He better be, otherwise you will see a Mister and Misses Smith situation once he's back." Penny grinned.
"Good evening, sir." the same man that had greeted him and Penny said. "What fantasy might we indulge for you tonight?"
"I need to see Madam Lily, is she in?" Leonard asked.
"May I inquire who you are?"
"Tell her, it's Leonard." he told him.
"Madam Lily, there's a man called Leonard here to see you." the man spoke into the intercom.
"Hogan, I told you that he has an open door policy!" a female shout echoed from the speaker.
"You can go in." the man, whose name was Hogan, told him.
"Thanks." Leonard chuckled and walked past him, opening the door and finding Lillian sitting behind her desk.
"Leonard, my boy." Lillian smiled and got up to hug him. "Where's that beautiful protege of yours?"
"She's home." Leonard replied. "This isn't a social call though."
"I figured." Lillian shrugged and pointed to a chair in front of her desk for Leonard to sit down on. "I also hear that congratulations are in order."
"What for?" Leonard wondered.
"You took out the gang leader I helped you find." Lillian winked, seeing Leonard's questioning face. "News travels fast and the other gangs are already sharpening their knives to take over the territories that have opened up."
"How do they know, I just killed the guy two nights ago?" Leonard wondered but put it aside for the moment. "I hope it won't lead to civilian casualties."
"So, why are you here?"
"Take a look at this." Leonard handed her the flash drive. "I found it on the computer of the guy I killed."
"What is it?" Lillian asked while sticking the flash drive into the slot.
"It's an overview of their operations." Leonard explained. "The drive also contained a very sophisticated root kit that sent its location to a yet to be determined location."
"Leonard?" Lillian looked at him.
"Don't worry, Howard took it out, this is just the data." Leonard calmed her.
"For a small gang like that, their operations seemed to be very widespread." Lillian remarked.
"Exactly." Leonard nodded. "Look at page sixteen."
"I see." Lillian nodded, seeing the signs.
"Was he one of ours?" Leonard asked the obvious question.
"Not to my knowledge." Lillian shook her head. "I never knew him as anything else but a gang leader. But the way their competition died does raise questions."
"Could one of us work for them?"
"It's possible though I don't know of any who would stoop that low." Lillian mused.
"How many of us are in the city currently?" Leonard asked. "Both active and retired?"
"I know of six." Lillian shrugged. "Though except for me and Siebert, none of them have been in the city for more than three months."
"So, either it's someone that even you don't know about or they have knowledge about our business." Leonard mused. "Could he be an applicant who learned most of it but didn't finish training?"
"It's a possibility but I don't see how he would still be alive if that's the case." Lillian agreed. "Hey, can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"What's Siebert's first name?"
"You don't know?" Leonard chuckled.
"No."
"Well, I don't either, I never asked."
"Want me to do anything with that data?" Lillian wanted to know.
"Can you even do something with it?" Leonard wondered. "I'll send a copy to the LAPD and FBI too."
"Why would you involve law enforcement?"
"I hope that whoever used to get the signal from that rootkit will be too busy to take care of those investigations to be looking for whoever destroyed their presence here." Leonard explained. "The sophistication of it and their organization makes me sure to avoid becoming known."
"Aren't you worried then that you were seen on security cameras?"
"No, I used scramblers that Howard developed to mask every part of my body and I used a disguise while outside." Leonard shook his head. "And Howard flushed my presence from any outside CCTV cameras."
"I hope you're right." Lillian conceded and after a short goodbye, Leonard left the brothel to go back home.
"Where are we going?" Penny asked.
"To the university." Leonard told her. "Sheldon has prepared the training course."
"At the university?" she was surprised. "Isn't that a bit... I don't know, public?"
"There are areas of the university that no student has access to and are even off limits to some of the faculty." Leonard explained.
"Then how did you guys manage that?"
"The president of the university used to be a colleague." Leonard chuckled. "By the way, what are you doing all day now that you are done with the Raj's stuff?"
"Usually just taking care of the dogs and doing some physical exercise." she shrugged. "I can't find a gym where I'm not ogled at, it's aggravating. It's like the guys think that I'm a new piece of meat, so I must be in their beds, at least in their minds."
"Any more who tried something?"
"A few struck up conversations but none of them actually did anything more than that, I guess they understand when I either say that I'm not interested or I have a boyfriend, whichever comes up first."
He finished the drive, parking the car on his spot and exited it. What surprised Penny the most as they walked over campus was the absence of many people though Leonard explained that classes were already in session. He led her to a building, whose door he opened with his access card, leading her down the stairs into the basement level.
"This is where the course is?" she asked, looking at the bare walls with pipes and cabling going along it.
"Yes, but I just have to check something in my lab first." he told her, continuing on through various corridors until they reached one of the many nondescript doors.
Leonard swiped his card and the door clicked open. Penny followed him inside and was greeted by a comparatively small room, about the size of their living room, filled with machinery, blackboards and a multitude of other science equipment. Leonard turned one of the monitors on, the screen lighting up with what looked like a simulation program.
"Nice." he commented what he was seeing.
"What is?" she wanted to know.
"The experiments I created to test one of Sheldon's theories gave a very encouraging result." Leonard explained. "A few more runs with the same result and he might be able to publish another paper."
"Okay." she accepted, not knowing what he was talking about.
"Now, come on." he waved her after him as he left the office.
He locked it again and led her through more corridors. He took turns that seemed almost random but after another seven minutes of walking, they arrived at yet another door without any description on it. Leonard took another card out of his pocket and swiped it over the reader, the door unlocking with an audible click.
"We're here." Leonard shouted, making several people turn their heads, including one that Penny had never met.
"Ah, finally." Sheldon said. "I had thought you to be more punctual."
"Sheldon, it's two minutes." Leonard sighed. "I had to check on the experiment first."
"Oh, how does it look?" Sheldon asked, getting excited, at least she thought he was.
"It looks good." Leonard nodded. "I'll have it run a few more times to confirm it but it looks like your idea is good."
"Of course it is." Sheldon said as if the opposite was completely unthinkable.
"Since they are too busy with their own stuff, let me introduce myself." the unknown man said and held out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Jeremy Siebert."
"The university president." Leonard added, now having learned his full name as well.
"Nice to meet you." Penny smiled.
"What are you doing here?" Leonard asked him.
"I wanted to meet this new protege of yours." Jeremy smiled. "Given that I provide the space for her to train."
"So, what's the verdict?" Leonard chuckled.
"Easy on the eyes, which can help her in certain missions." Jeremy evaluated and the way he said it told Penny that it was meant as a compliment, not a degradation. "Sheldon and the team are doing the theoretical training, who trained you to fight?"
"Leonard's dad did." she told him.
"Very good." Jeremy nodded. "At least you had the perfect trainer for that."
"We should begin." Sheldon interrupted them.
"Yes, we should." Leonard agreed.
"Have fun." Jeremy said and left the hall.
"So, what do you want me to do?" Penny asked, looking at the contraption that the guys had built, which seemed to be a few rooms and corridors.
"This is a representation of an average building floor." Sheldon explained. "In the middle is a chest. Your quest is to get what's inside it."
"Do I need a key?" Penny rolled her eyes at his choice of words. "Or a passphrase I need to find first?"
"No, the chest is unlocked." Sheldon didn't get her sarcasm and pointed to the floor plans that were hanging on a blackboard. "Just go into the center and get what's inside."
"Seems easy enough." she shrugged, wondering what the catch was and looked at the route she would take.
"Take this." Leonard handed her a helmet.
"What's that for?" she looked at it.
"Just trust me." he winked.
"Fine." she huffed and put it on. "So, anything else?"
"No, just go." Sheldon gave her a smile she could only describe as creepy.
She walked into the corridor and looked around. The walls were unadorned and a few doors let to the various rooms she had seen on the floor plans. Shrugging, she walked forward and after taking five steps, an alarm blurted for a second before a small, hard object hit her in the side of her right knee.
"OW!" she yelled and dropped to the floor, seeing a red blot on her knee. "What the hell was that? Did you just shoot me?!"
"It's a paint ball." Sheldon's voice came from a speaker somewhere above. "Go back to the starting point and try again.
"Jesus!" she cursed.
She walked the fourteen feet back to where she started and tried again, this time keeping herself as tight to the wall as she could. She had just taken her sixth step when the alarm sounded again and another paint ball hit her, this time in the chest, directly on her solar plexus.
"Son of a bitch!" she yelled, rubbing the spot and getting paint all over her fingers.
"Again." Sheldon's voice came from the speakers again.
She tried again, and this time she managed eight steps before the alarm sounded. She tried to shield herself from the paint ball but it hit her nonetheless, the ball smacking against her hip bone, making her grunt in pain. Sheldon told her to repeat it once more and that time, she got hit on her pinkie finger, the pain making her cry. She took several breaks but the result was the same every time she tried.
She felt that this would be a long day.
"Is this going to go anywhere?" the girl asked as she sat on the bed, her shirt off but her pants still on.
"Give it time." he man replied, rubbing his manhood in an attempt to elicit a reaction from it. "This has never happened to me before."
"When you told me that this night would be great, I thought it would be something else." the girl sighed.
"I don't know what's going on. It worked last week." the guy whined. "You could help me, you know?"
"Nah, I think I'd rather leave." she rolled her eyes and grabbed her shirt.
"Come on baby, I..."
"LAPD!" a loud shout interrupted him as two men in suits broke down the door and rushed into the apartment, guns drawn. "On the floor, now!"
"Whoa, whoa." the guy turned, startled, before being tackled to the ground and turned onto his stomach.
"You're coming with us." one of the men told him.
"For what?" the guy shouted.
"What's going on?" the woman asked.
"Mam, if you're not out of this apartment in ten seconds, you'll be charged as an accessory." the second man said, making the girl grab her shirt and rush out.
"Guys, this must be a mistake, I didn't do anything wrong." the guy wailed as he was pushed and almost thrown down the stairs to a waiting car, still naked from the waist down. "Could you at least let me put some pants on?"
"Depending on what he decides, you may not need pants anymore, Jake." the first man said.
"What?" Jake looked and saw the gag and hood in the second man's hand before finally recognizing the two. "Oh no, no no no no, please!"
Jake could only give a nasal scream as a gag was put into his mouth and the hood over his head before he was thrown into the trunk.
Typed this mostly with one hand. I proofread it but if you find more typos, just ignore them ^^
Review please :)