Title: Defence
Author: ALEO
Genre: Gen
Characters:  Don, david, AD Wright with guest appearances by Charlie, Alan and Colby.
Rating: PG 13+
Warning: some violence
Spoilers: rampage, Chinese Box, Sniper Zero, Uncertaintly Principal

Summary:  Just how can one lone FBI agent, strike that, one lone unarmed FBI agent protect not only the civilians in the bulding but all the sensitive data as well?

Status: Chapter 3 of 19
Wordcount (this chapter): 2468

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just borrowed them.  Numb3rs and its characters are the property of those that created them. No copyright infringement intended.  No financial reward gained.  All real places and organisations are used in a fictional sense.  Original characters and the storyline are mine however.

CHAPTER THREE

-100-1111-1110-

It was dark in the alley, far darker than it should be.  The floodlight that normally illuminated the area was off, another mysterious malfunction.  His eyes had not yet adjusted after the brightness of the garage but there was just enough ambient light cast by a nearby streetlight that a vague shape registered on his senses.  Without conscious thought he drew his Glock before he could fully identify what he was seeing.  It took a few more moments before he recognised the shape of a man lying still against the wall of the building. 

Don swept his gun around in an arc clearing the alley before he could move any further.  No dangers were immediately visible, it appeared that the alley was empty bar him and the body. 

Despite being sure what he was going to discover the agent slowly approached the still form, weapon held ready.  A little closer and he recognised the uniform worn by the building’s security officers.  After another quick check of the area around him he squatted beside the body, his left hand reaching for the carotid artery on the man’s neck.  Nothing, the man was dead.  Two red rimmed holes in the otherwise pristine white shirt showed that he’d been shot twice at close range in the chest, directly into his heart.  He would have been dead before hitting the ground.  Glancing around once more Don took the man’s weapon from its holster.  He carefully inspected the muzzle and saw no residue from it having been fired.  A careful sniff confirmed it, just gun oil.  The guard had never even got a shot off in his own defence.

Don kept the weapon in his hand as he stepped back thinking on his next move. The guard’s shirt was barely wet, he hadn’t been outside in the lightly falling rain for long, perhaps five minutes at the most.  If Don had gone straight to his vehicle instead of stopping off at Control he might have been caught in whatever had happened here.  Or he might have prevented it.  The agent shook it off, there was no time for what-ifs.

He quickly moved a few paces towards the street, checking the ground as he went for any useful evidence.  A couple of bright glints reflected in the faint streetlight, throwing back a hint of yellow.  Bending he was able to confirm that they were shell casings, picking one up carefully by the edges he sniffed.  The strong aroma proved that it was fresh.   He put it back where he’d found it having also learnt the calibre of the weapon used on the guard, 9mm.

He was convinced, there had been entry made to the FBI building by force.  He holstered his own gun and pulled his cell phone back off his belt and hit redial.  He barely let Alexis answer before he started speaking.  “Control, full alert.  There has been a breach to the building.  I’ve just found the security guard dead in the alley.” 

The operator’s voice was shocked.  “You found Steven?”

Don remembered seeing the name on the dead guard’s nametag.  “Yeah.” 

A sudden thought occurred and he looked up at the camera mounted on the corner of the building pointing down the alley, it didn’t need the floodlight to work.  “I’m still in the alley, can you see me?”

The now alarmed and puzzled voice came back.  “No.  Alley is clear and empty.”

So, not only was the spotlight not working, but the surveillance system was actually showing an active image, an image that could not be real.  It was too much, the glitches could not possibly be random.  His line of thought was interrupted.

“Orders, Agent Eppes?”  Alexis requested briskly, all trace of emotion gone now from her voice.  There were protocols in place but he was the agent on the scene.

“Buzz the door, I’m coming back in.  Call the bosses then get the LAPD down here to secure the alley and the body.”  Don had retained the man’s weapon so that it was secure from thieving hands, not too likely in this weather but one could never tell.  Technically he should remain with the body until LAPD arrived but as harsh as it sounded, the man was dead and nothing more could happen to him.  The agent had far more pressing concerns, there were armed intruders who had killed to gain entry.  He was now the only armed line of defence to defend the security of the building, protect the civilians and locate the intruders.

“We’re on it.  Is the door open?”

The lock flicked green as she spoke and he pushed the handle.  “I’m in.  Lock the building down, full security protocols.” 

His order would secure all the possible exits and entries to the building including the fire escapes, internal stairways on opposite sides of the building.  A potential national security threat overrode fire safety ordinances. 

“Done.” 

The automatic alert siren sounded but abruptly cut off, with the building all but empty there was no need to allow it to continue after the first few tones.  Red lights suddenly winked on across the garage at each exit, including the main vehicle exit.  The lights mounted above each door, separate to the locks, indicated that it was sealed.  Swipe cards and control pads were overridden.  The only way to access doors locked in this manner was to call Control and be buzzed through each individually.  The indicators next to the elevators counted up as the cars ascended to stop, locked in place, on the top floor.  They would not respond to calls from any floor until released by Control.

The system was intended to make it difficult for any unauthorised movement from section to section or floor to floor.  The building’s designers had been working to a very detailed brief covering a whole range of eventualities.  The full lockdown was to be used for everything from chemical, biological or radiological threats both internal and external to the building, through to preventing the escape of prisoners or forced entry.  It was a little late for the entry component but if he could hold the intruders in until help arrived then they would be caught.

It would also serve to restrict his movements but not as much, he hoped, as it would restrict the intruders.  He had a way through the locked doors.  He added another instruction.  “I’m going to conduct a sweep, working my way up from here.  Monitor me and buzz me through each section.” 

“Will do.  Reinforcements should be on their way shortly.”  Alexis responded.  Her voice softened slightly as she added, “Take care, Agent Eppes.”

Don snapped his phone closed and debated for a moment what to do with the security officer’s weapon.  He glanced over at his SUV.  He could secure the weapon there plus the vehicle also contained further equipment that could be of use.  Cautiously he once again scanned the garage before unlocking the Suburban and pulling out the equipment tray.  Working as quickly as he could he put on a vest and slid his smaller back-up Glock into the holster mounted against his chest all the time keeping his other weapon close to hand.  His rifle caught his eye and he stopped, considering.  He really didn’t know how many intruders there were or what armaments they might have beyond at least one 9mm.  He put it back, the length of the weapon would be a disadvantage inside the building.  Being well practiced gearing up in a hurry it was only a few minutes later that he was settling the radio earpiece into his left ear.  Re-locking the Suburban he called in for a radio check and received the welcome response.

“3695 this is Control.”  Mark’s voice confirmed the link.  The reception was a little distorted due to the concrete between him and the nearest receiver.  The building had been wired with small receivers and transmitters placed strategically to allow for effective comms within the structure, just as it had been re-wired recently to allow for cell phone reception in the basement.  “LAPD en-route.  ADIC being advised of situation.”

“Received.”  Don replied into his mic as he headed for the stairwell door.  “Further comms via radio unless otherwise directed.”

“Control, acknowledged.  Radio comms.”

The lock buzzed as he approached and he once again opened the door.  Knowing a bit more about what he now faced he was more cautious.  He ducked his head in and then back out quickly.  Taking a second he processed the mental snapshot he’d taken in the quick glance and stepped all the way in.  The stairwell was still empty.  Weapon up and ready he made his way up to the first landing and the door.  The lock buzzed and he pushed downwards on the handle and opened the door a crack.  No hail of bullets greeted the movement.  He opened the door further and peered through, no one in sight.

“Control, 3695.  First floor, entrance.  Anything on the cameras?”

“Negative.”  Mark responded. 

Don heard the doubtful tone in Mark’s voice.  It reminded him of his interrupted musings in the alley.  The cameras couldn’t be fully trusted at the moment, the one in the alley had showed all clear, no body, not even Don.  The camera was not down, it was functioning, just getting it’s feed from somewhere other than the alley.  That led to one conclusion, the building’s surveillance system was being hacked.

“Get the techs to check the camera system.”  Don ordered.

“Already on it, more internal cameras are going down.”

Don clicked his transmit button twice to acknowledge the response before moving out.  It wouldn’t take too long to check this floor which pretty much consisted of the entry foyer, information/security desk, metal detectors and public bathrooms. 

-10100-101-11-1000-10011- 

“Computer lab.”  Angela answered the phone, putting it on speaker.  The three technicians listened with growing fear as Mark from Control explained what was going on, that there were intruders in the building. 

The alert siren had sounded briefly a few minutes before leaving the techs wondering what was going on.  From their lab they could see the elevators and they’d noticed the indicators change as they ascended.  Stepping out into the hall she’d checked the status lights over the section door at the end and saw that it was sealed.  They were in lockdown.  She’d reported back to her co-workers and with no call for evacuation they had remained in the lab waiting further instructions.  All of which was strictly according to the procedure that had been drummed into them through the monthly building drills.  Angela had been reluctant to call Control assuming that with an alert they would be busy dealing with the cause. 

“So for the moment we need you to all stay put.”  Mark said when he’d finished.

“Okay.”  Angela agreed.  That was not going to be a problem, none of them were agents and thus not inclined to seek out trouble.

“In the meantime we think the cameras are being hacked, we are getting intermittent feeds from some and false images on others.”  Mark went on to list the ones they knew about.

“We’ll get right onto it.”  Angela promised, already opening another window on her multi-screen workstation.  She suddenly remembered they were down a man.  “Our supervisor, Simon Prentice, is down on three checking on a dud terminal.”

“I know, but because of the camera glitches I can’t see him, which terminal was it?”

 “D3-192.”  She consulted a schematic.  “Cyber Crime Supervisor’s desk, third floor.” 

“Remember, no matter what happens stay put unless you get a call from us, understand?” 

“Got it.  We’re not going anywhere.  We’ll call if we get anything on the cameras.”  Angela hung up and shared a worried look with her two companions. 

Suddenly the sealed door down the hall and disabled elevators didn’t seem to be enough.  She got up closed the lab door, turning the lock.  As if the movement was the needed catalyst her companions turned to their screens and started work.  Angela returned to her own desk and closed off everything they no longer needed, including the diagnostic that would chew up precious processing power and slow their search.

-10011-1001-1101-1111-1110-

The ring of the desk phone was unexpected, as had been the alert siren several minutes before.  He’d had no word from Kurt, or from anyone else leaving him to wonder what had gone wrong.  Checking the LCD display he recognised the calling number as Control.  He fought down the sudden spike of alarm that went through him, he had to answer it.

“Prentice.”

He listened in silence as Mark explained what was happening.

Mark’s information about intruders had been almost a relief, relief that Simon had not been discovered even if Kurt and his men had.  He dutifully promised not to leave the supervisor’s office and hung up.

A moment later and his alarm returned.  How had they determined that there were intruders in the building?  Urgently he double-checked his systems and saw that everything was as it should be, the accelerated virus randomly disabling cameras and hiding itself from the attempts of his co-workers to resolve the problems with the system without him.  Checking the mainframe he found that the deep level scan had been paused.  Wondering what they were doing instead he searched further, pulling up a mirror of Angela’s monitor using a cookie he’d installed just in case.  He frowned as he noted that they seemed to be working directly on resolving the camera problems as he tracked her attempts to access the systems that controlled them.  Simon had to pause his other work to attend to that, successfully blocking their attempts.  He could almost feel their frustration in each command that he diverted, replied to with garbage or just plain deleted.  A quick few lines of code were added to the virus and it was updated.

Whatever the cause behind the discovery that all was not well in the building it was an unwelcome wrinkle in a plan that until then had been going perfectly.  Reassured that the virus would be able to handle their future efforts he clicked resume and waited for the last few seconds that it took for the first flash drive to reach capacity.  Simon pulled it out and connected the second, clicking his mouse to continue the download.  There was nothing for it, he would hold to his plan until something else happened, trusting that Kurt knew his business and would make his way to him in due course.

That reminded him, he opened another window and accessed the next series of commands he would need as a result of the alert.   He was ready.  When the first request came through a few minutes later he was able to act smoothly.