Chapter Text
Falkirk was examining a computer in the high rise London flat of Craig Mitchell. M and James speaking not far off.
“I don't thing he smoked” James dead panned just before M threw an ashtray across the room. Falkirk hit James' shoulder at the insensitivity of the Alpha's remark.
“I hope you didn't see this coming” M said speaking to Falkirk. Quickly shaking his head Falkirk turning back to the computer.
As M argued with James a phrase suddenly jumped out. Clearing his throat Falkirk drew her attention again. “Someone else said 'We have people everywhere' “ Falkirk reminded.
“Look into it and him” M ordered.
--
Falkirk sat back tapping his fingers idly on his desk. Grimshaw had just not tended contracts properly or fully investigated the companies and their production methods. The damage he had done was through incompetence rather than maliciousness. Lions had been his right hand man hoping he would escape direct notice, as he acted as an agent.
As part of the investigation into Lions. Hundreds of pieces of equipment were tested. None had unexpected vulnerabilities as Falkirk suspected they had. He had gone through the test records and even inspected a range of devices himself.
The problem with Lions. No one knew who he was working for. He had been gathering intelligence but had not distributed it or made contact with anyone. His interrogations had not revealed anything either. He was more afraid of his spy masters than of MI6 and it's inquisitors.
Now the exDeputy director of Cyber Division was linked to a trigger phrase. Spoken by a random bad guy and a supposedly trustworthy Bodyguard.
Standing Falkirk made his way to the Executive Branch. Approaching a conference room Falkirk started playing with the overly stylised interface being projected onto the glass wall.
Pulling open a cabinet Falkirk pulled out the network cable and connecting his laptop to the base unit. His finger flew across his keyboard a look of speculation turning to a frown.
“Who are you” demanded a I.T. technician coming into the room. Every piece of equipment was monitored inside the building. I.T. would have been informed the moment the base unit went offline. Just as every piece of equipment needed a live connection to function.
“Unimportant” Falkirk responded unplugging his laptop and standing.
“I'm finished here” Falkirk said exiting the room.
“You can't” the technician shouted after him.
“Yes I can” Falkirk interrupted, nodding to Tanner on the way passed.
After E Branch Falkirk went to the Security Branch. In the security offices for bodyguards. Falkirk approached an older Alpha who carried himself with the air of authority. “Excuse me, What work station did Craig Mitchell use” Falkirk asked.
“ID” came the gruff but respectful demand. Ever since the Q Branch riot all the guards had been more respectful to Omegas because they weren't sure which one had started it.
Falkirk duly handed over his ID for the man to inspect. After a short phone conversation the Alpha returned the ID with a respectful “Sir”
Pointing to a set of four desks. With several computes on them. “There, communal use” the Alpha said.
“Did he have a preference, Eh..” Falkirk asked trailing off, waiting for a name.
Immediately he went to the workstation that James would have chosen. Circling the desks Falkirk could see the whole room with none able to see the screen.
“Right you are sir and the lads call me Kip” the Alpha confirmed.
As Falkirk placed his laptop in front of the PC. Kip added, “They have all be checked over”
Kip followed him round to the back of the desks. “Not that I'm discouraging you. Bad business when you can't trust the man at your back. It can't be cleared up soon enough, for moral” Kip hastily added, voice dropping very quiet at the end.
Finally looking up Falkirk took in the atmosphere in the room. The dozen or so security, bodyguards and police milling around. Their relaxed attitudes not quite fitting with the scents coming of the Alphas.
“I didn't realise it was that bad” Falkirk responded tuning back to his laptop.
“You're suspicious of everyone and everyone is suspicious of you” Kip responded shaking his head. Realising the calm Omega was affecting him. Kip shut his mouth with an audible snap
“Find something” Kip asked.
Falkirk cursing himself for not controlling his reactions. “Nothing I can discuss” Falkirk responded.
Repeating the process with the other stations Falkirk stood, his silent guardian watching.
“Security Cameras” Falkirk asked and was duly pointed out both the obvious and concealed cameras.
“Well hopefully the cloud of suspicion will be lifted soon” Falkirk reassured. He then flipped the barker for all the room's computers. Disconnecting Mitchell's computer Falkirk called Hal up to help him back down with all of it.
-
“That's him” the techie from that morning accused as Falkirk entered the I.T. Room.
I.T. technically falling under Q Branch and him as head of Cyber Division. However it was considered maintenance rather than Operational support. So it was generally left to run it's self.
After having his ID checked the IT Manager showed Falkirk through to the server room.
Just as Falkirk was about to disconnect a server from the network the Manager protested. “You can't do that. Without a live connection the users will be locked out”
“Really I didn't know that” Falkirk said, pulling the jack. It took only a few moments for all the phones in the adjoining room to go mad. Pulling the server from the cabinet. Falkirk started inspecting it.
“I must insist” the manager said. The Beta was working himself up to a full blown panic.
“M's going ballistic” a different Techie interrupted. The Manager looked to Falkirk desperately.
“Tell her, Thomas would like to go to Claridge's for afternoon tea” Falkirk said pleasantly to the Techie.
The Techie looked uncertain but did go to deliver the message. Coming back a few moments later, “She says half past two in the garage and if you could please hurry up” the Techie relayed.
“Thank you” Falkirk said.
Yanking the power cord he walked out the room with the server perched on his hip.
-
Falkirk was concerned. He, Hal and Tigress were in one of the labs. Tigress was suppressing the desire to look at the security camera in the corner. Falkirk couldn't blame her, it was scary to think there someone watching over them, him.
They had found the evidence that had turned Mitchell. The fact Falkirk found Mitchell's family was also troubling. As the MI6 archives currently stated he had none.
Falkirk had found the evidence too easily, far too easily. There was a vulnerability in the hardware that allowed them to circumvent MI6's security. He found it in the Graphics Card. Someone directly controlled the image on Mitchell's screen without using the system memory. Given what he read and how it was delivered Falkirk couldn't blame Mitchell for not having faith in MI6's ability to protect him, his fiancé, his sister or his nephews and nieces.
There was no way of reconstructing a Graphics Card's memory. Someone, somehow managed to get the message to be written to a special place on the hard drive. In the Paging Files Falkirk was able to recover the message. Not only did it show they had a problem with all MI6's hardware. It showed someone was in their system, who was helping Falkirk in his investigation.
The only comfort was this was beyond himself so would be beyond Moriarty. Hal, Tigress and Falkirk as the best hackers had been investigating the Squatter as they had been calling him.
They had found the Squatter had been there a long time. He had two targets beyond the general information that MI6 dealt with. One was M. CCTV of her had been uploaded to servers around the world, schedules and her personal archives had also been accessed
The other was himself. Schedules, psychological assessments, archives, interactions and CCTV. Falkirk thought he had destroyed one piece of security footage in particular. Hal had squealed when he found it. Tigress had been impresses as Hal looked shell shocked.
Now they stood in silence. All feeling eyes on them from an unknown watcher. Looking to Hal Falkirk made his voice as hard as possible. A difficult thing since the man had just seen him pad into a shower naked and fuck an Alpha and Double Oh.
“My bond to Double Oh Seven is considered Eyes Only” Falkirk said to Hal. Tigress was not a concern as she already knew, and knew how damaging the information could be to herself. Falkirk waited for the Beta to acknowledge.
“Are you aware what will happen to you, both of you. If James finds out about locker room and you knowing about it” Falkirk said. He left the implied threat of of a raging Double Oh to their imaginations.
Hal gave him a frightened nod. Tigress raked her eyes over Falkirk, “You have a fine ass boss”
-
“David not joining us” Falkirk greeted as he got into the car.
“No I have asked him to take leave during this time” M responded. She looked over the frighted and stressed Omega with concern.
As the car pulled off M needed something and she couldn't indulge Falkirk's fear at the moment. “Are you still friends with Director Wade” M asked pleasantly.
“Yes I suppose so” Falkirk responded
“I would like to know the CIA's interest in Dominic Green” M said.
“I will enquire” Falkirk responded.
Arriving at the hotel Falkirk blocked M's path before they could move away from the car. He asked for all her communications equipment.
Accepting there was a reason behind his odd behaviour M duly handed over two phones and removed her watch. Leaving his own phone as well as M's items in the car they headed into the hotel
After their waiter placed the last item down. Falkirk poured his tea and took a couple of sandwiched off the stand.
Falkirk had four points to make with M. The first was their system. Mitchell the next point, whoever was in there system and his solution the last two.
“Our system is fundamentally compromised” Falkirk informed and sipped his tea. M had a look of annoyance and relief. Filially about to get some answers.
Placing the reconstructed message to Mitchell, that he had taken from his workstation. It detailed how Mitchell, his friends and family would be destroyed. If he did not help Mr White at the appointed time. It also detailed a payment as gratitude.
“Mitchell was not a threat until just before you left for Italy.” Falkirk informed as M read over the document.
“Is this possible” M asked.
Falkirk scanned the room. Seeing an old couple enjoying an afternoon tea. An Alpha Male and a small round Beta or Omega. It was hard to tell from the distance.
Indicating the couple and making sure M could see them Falkirk spoke. “If I so desired. I could put images in his computer. Create supporting search records on his computer, and on the records of a search engine. Create historical credit card records. And put him to the top of a list of people the Police are investigating. From the comfort of my pyjamas I could send him to prison as a paedophile. All because he was in my line of sight.”
Looking away from the couple Falkirk met M's eye. “In the grand scheme of things. Is one Murder and one suicide a high price to pay. How far would Edward go to protect David or James me. You have two children how far would you go, if they were in danger and you knew MI6 couldn't protect them” Falkirk said.
“It sounds like 'We have people everywhere' was a trigger phrase. It doesn't look like they have people everywhere” M said with Falkirk agreeing. She pointedly ignored how far a rational person could go with the right pressure point.
“You suspected Lions had an association to your father” M asked.
“He used dataDyne hardware and Daddy owns part of it. There is no evidence of a closer link than that, between the two” Falkirk answered.
“I could always go ask him if he has links to an evil organisation” Falkirk offered, innocently. M gave a dark chuckle at the prospect. An Omega inquisitor could be a very frightening thing in her opinion. She had just never been able to find one.
When M asked about dataDyne she opened up a host of potential suspect.
“I don't know. The vulnerabilities in the hardware seems too convenient for standard incompetence but there are a host of reasons both benign and malicious for them. From forcing companies into perpetual upgrades to being able to compromise any system they choose. It may not even be dataDyne itself. It could be the Chinese, where dataDyne have the majority of their manufacturing. Or it could be anyone else who knows about the vulnerabilities in dataDyne hardware. I myself, have commissioned a Trojan Horse program. It will access all affected dataDyne systems around the world. It will be ready for testing in three weeks” Falkirk informed.
Mitchell was an inconvenience in Falkirk's opinion he was not the problem. With M as the Alpha leading the conversation. Falkirk was having difficulty bringing up the scary thing he found. Just as M was about to ask a question Falkirk called “M” with a slight whine to his voice.
Seeing and scenting the fear from the Omega. M stopped her questioning and told Falkirk to continue.
“I didn't find the message fragment. Someone else ensured it survived for me.” Falkirk informed. M did not look pleased with the new information. She was experienced enough to be encouraging to the Omega who may be frightened to bring up more bad news to an Alpha.
“We, You and I specifically have been watched by someone for some time.” Falkirk said. He then outlined what the Squatter had been doing on their system. “Whoever is in our system. Has been there since before I joined MI6, five years at least” Falkirk said.
“Why do you think he was not the one to turn Mitchell” M asked.
“I don't. But if he was the one to blackmail Mitchell why did he help me find the message to Mitchell.” Falkirk said.
M thought Falkirk had a point. The person in there system had revealed himself to help Falkirk and to protect her. As a tactician she knew that whoever it was had sacrificed a lot in showing them the vulnerability. “What is so important, to burn such a valuable source” M mused.
Shaking off the though of the Squatter's motivations. M turned her attention to Falkirk again.”You have a solution” M asked.
Falkirk hesitated. No one in their right mind who relied on an IT system would go for his plan. However it was the only plan Falkirk could see to deal with the Squatter on there system and the vulnerabilities of the dataDyne hardware. “Like an infection remove all affected hardware” Falkirk said.
“How long” M demanded.
“Working around he clock three weeks minimum” Falkirk said. He had expected the question and done the calculations methodically.
“Three days maximum. Use who and what you need. I want it done” M ordered.
“Impossible” Falkirk said at the arbitrary number. He couldn't do it. There was no way he could coordinate and replace every piece of computer hardware in MI6, in the time.
When M spoke Falkirk looked at her. Asking her to repeat what she said M gave him a proud maternal smile. The Alpha's smile making the Omega's insides tingle. She was showing him faith and every instinct as an Omega screamed at him to live up to her expectations.
“If you don't do it. You will have the shortest reign as Quartermaster” M repeated.