Even Lovers Drown CH 34

Olivia had done her best to hide her aching heart from her people before she’d retreated to her private office at OPA. It had been hard.

It had been damned near impossible. Too many sleepless nights were finally taking their toll on her; normally she went through her days confident that her emotions were locked tight behind unscalable walls. But for the last few days, she hadn’t been too sure about that any more.

  That thought made her stop and think. Olivia tried to recall if any of her people had been eyeing her strangely lately. Harrison, yes. But then again, Harrison tended to keep a closer eye on her in ways the others did not. Huck was the same.

Usually very perceptive to all of their moods, for once she couldn’t be sure of them at all. That made her uncomfortable and uneasy with herself.

Olivia Pope was not a woman that shared her secrets or her inner thoughts easily. Now she wondered if that distance had come to create a barrier between and her associates. Without trust, they couldn’t work together as they did.

And that was just one more issue to lay at the feet of one Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III.

No.

She wasn’t going to think about him, she told herself - she wasn’t going to let him play her like a yoyo, like a toy upon a shelf. Now he’s angry, now he wants her, then he doesn’t any more.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

No.

She wasn’t the girl who gets gotten at the end of some cheesy flick no matter how she’s treated in the second act. So, even if she’d allowed herself to be swept off of her feet in the first with that unexpected kiss, she’ll be directing the outcome of the third act. She was bringing down the curtain on their own little personal sideshow. Brava, Ms. Pope.

Right?

The answers to that question danced with mockery behind her mind’s eye. Before she could look too deeply into that, she heard a murmur of voices outside her door. Thankful and irritated all at once, she stood and joined her people in the common office space, just as Quinn led Shireen Davis in.

A quick round of introductions were made and soon they were all gathered around the conference table in one position or another. Quinn had sat herself across from Shireen, while Huck as usual, pulled a fade back, leaning against the doorway of his own offices.

Harrison leaned against one chair, with Abby lurking nearby, regarding Shireen with bright-eyed curiosity.  She had already stated her interest in meeting a “mini-me” of “super-computer man” Huck.

Shireen was still standing, draped in a charcoal shawl and matching slacks; the only reason Olivia noted her ensemble was because of the unique brooch holding it in one place at her shoulder. It looked very old - ancient in fact - a beautiful piece of polished golden-hued  amber bound in intricately woven silver-work.

Olivia wasn’t surprised - most people were uncomfortable the first time they visited the OPA offices - not surprisingly since it was some sort of crisis that had brought them to their door to begin with. Their coming here did not mark the most pleasant day of their lives.

To try and put their newest client at ease, Olivia complimented her on the unusual brooch; she was surprised by the expression that crossed Shireen’s face. The other woman was not overly pleased by the compliment.

“It’s part of the case.” she explained as she removed the brooch and set it on the table where they could all see it.

“It looks antique.” Harrison said. “Museum quality.”

“And expensive.” Abby added.

Without being told, Quinn and Abby both fetched cameras and began taking pictures.

“Every so often - always on a Wednesday, but never two in a row - I’ve been sent some sort of jeweled piece by private courier. No tracing, I checked.” Her eyes challenged them all before she continued.

“There’s been a hand-bracelet, a few arm bangles and a pair of earrings so far.” She reached into her kit and pulled those same pieces out of a compartment in her bag, laying them alongside the first. All of them were old world from their design, designed to delight a woman’s eye with their sensuous curves and inlaid precious stone-work. Besides the polished amber, diamonds glinted in exquisitely carved baguettes along the silvered edges and the amber-stones glowed even under office light.

Shireen frowned at them. “I’ve been instructed to wear a piece on the following Wednesday after I received it.”

“And if you don’t?” Olivia asked.

“The first time, I refused of course. And the consequences were that a cyber denial-of-service attack was aimed at my mother’s husband’s law offices. Nothing was deliberately stolen or hacked beyond repair, but it was deliberate. Enough information was left so that I would know that it was deliberate - plus the intrusion packet was set so that the breadcrumb clues left behind insinuated that my mother’s terminals might have been a originating point. Or at least they left a strong possibility that they could have been. Whoever did it, they deliberately left that directional packet intact - and that’s usually the first thing any grade- hacker will eliminate.

“They wanted you to know what had been done.” Quinn said. It wasn’t a question.

Shireen nodded. “They wanted me to know not only what had been done, but how throughly they had done it. The message that came after made it clear that it was no coincidence. They could have just as easily gone after my mother - her job has much higher security than his, but...” She stopped as though she were  unwilling to go any further.

Olivia had been studying Shireen as she’d been talking; now she spoke up. “We know who your mother is, Shireen. I’ve had the occasion to meet her myself a few times, but I can’t say I know her well. She’s a lovely, intelligent woman - and it seems like her daughter has taken after her. Have you told her about what’s happening?”

“No - I don’t want her involved, either.” Shireen said - it was clear from her tone that she meant it. “There’s enough on her plate and I don’t - won’t add to it.”

“This cannot be discussed outside of this room. Ever.” She paused and looked around the room, taking the time to look each of them in the eye.

“I had brunch with my mother the other day. During the course of the conversation, there were certain things she said - about her time being tied up for the foreseeable future, so she was so glad that we could meet - our schedules are usually opposite of one another’s -  the bottom line is that I am ninety-nine percent sure that she’s involved with the hostage situation on some level. I’m not interfering with that.”

“This could be some sort of attack against her and not you, you understand?” Abby pointed out.

Shireen shook her head. “No,  I don’t think so, this whole thing started before the hostage crisis began.

“I told Harrison this,” she said with a nod to him. “At first, it started with flower deliveries. Harmless enough, I thought. It was flattering at first, of course - what woman wouldn’t be? But no one ever came forward and it was cute to a little creepy. After a month, the jewelry started coming. Again with no I ignored the gifts until the requests began to come to wear them.”

Harrison took up her tale. “This is where things went south. The threats were vague, but they were made. When Shireen refused, the first cyber-attack came. So it’s obvious it’s someone with mad computer skills.”

“So you think it’s someone you know?”

Shireen shrugged. “I don’t know at this point. That’s why I’m here.”

“Okay, so if we go with it not involving your mother, what kind of proof would you need to keep from running to Momma Bear?” That was from Abby.

Shireen’s eyes shot up in a challenge. “Last time I talked to my mother, she also  asked me to do a systems check on her home set-up. It’s all very encrypted and very secure.”

“Like you would expect for a member of the administration.” Huck said quietly. “And you ran your own pi-level diagnostics?”

Shireen turned in her chair and looked at him. “Of course.”

“Deep scan?”

“A level delta-one.” Shireen raised her chin, just a little. “And I set some additional data lurker watchdogs in place in case of stealth intrusions. They’re just SQL-D actuated, but that was best, in my opinion, so as to not to show my hand in them.”

Huck considered her words for a moment, then nodded in appreciation.

“Does anyone care to translate any of that?” Abby asked. “Or is it just me that’s feeling that all kinds of goodies just got lost in translation?”

“Maybe later.” Quinn answered absent-mindedly - her concentration was all on the conversation between Shireen and Huck and she was drinking it all in like a dry sponge in a puddle. She didn’t even notice Abby’s frown as she rolled her eyes in the other woman’s direction.

“What about your own systems?” Huck asked. “Are they secure?”

“I’ve left everything in place. I thought a fresh pair of eyes could see something I missed.”

“Well, I’m sure if you’re not up to it, Huck can fix that.” Abby said. She frowned as Huck and Shireen shook their heads at the same time. Even Quinn raised an eyebrow. “I guess you’ll be strengthening her firewalls or whatever.”

“That’s the worst thing she could do.” Quinn was the first to start explaining, after one quick glance of approval from Huck. “One assumption is that we’re dealing with an oer the top suitor. Another assumption we should be looking at is a hacker, a data thief with a specific goal in mind.

“The intruder may want to test out Shireen’s capabilities. If she responds with a certain level of defenses suddenly thrown up - if she attacks, which the data thief almost certainly knows she’s more than capable of doing, then he learns what her threat response it and can tailor his work to that. Maybe work his way around something that she won’t catch at all. All of his moves so far may just be a feint to throw her off of his tracks. The trick is to try and get the attacker to relax and feel smug, secure and superior, then catch them with a runaround program they aren’t expecting.”

Abby looked disdainfully at Quinn. “And how do you know all that?”

“Because those are the first things I might try, if I were scoping out a possible target.” Huck answered for her.

“Okay people,” Olivia said, shutting Abby down before she got herself started - she just could not seem to help herself when it came to pretty much anything Quinn said or did.

“If it’s an inside job, there’s better ways to work it.” Huck told the group.

“By all means.” Harrison said. “Enlighten us.”

Huck did. He beckoned and they all followed him into his offices. The OPA team watched as Huck directed Shireen to one of the chairs facing his main monitors. Quinn perched herself closest and the others found places behind them.  A few basic instructions and Shireen was leading them into the heart of her systems, the schematics on the triple monitor set-ups flickering and chasing one another across the screens.

Huck followed, his keystrokes as deft and as sure as her own. In spite of the seriousness of the matter, both of them began to smile a little, as they fell into an easy working synchronicity as she opened up her cyber-space to him. They barely spoke to one another and when they did it was with short cryptic phrases that made no sense to the rest of them.

Olivia noted that only Quinn’s face showed any kind of comprehension and her face reflected awe. Everyone else’s expression was pure incomprehension.

After a time, they withdrew slowly, leaving no traces of their entry. Just in case.

“Wow.” Quinn breathed. Outside of the two computer technicians, she was the only one that had even the slightest clue as to what had just happened.

Shireen and Huck both sat back in their chairs and exchanged a glance and - was that a smile?

Huck swiveled to face the others. “Shireen is probably right - it’s an internal probe and it’s set deep. Very well done and it will probably prove to be close to being untraceable.”

He bared a slight smile, a predator’s smile. “Probably- not necessarily. It’ll take some time...” he let his voice trail off.

“Data pipeline?” Shireen asked. “High or low octaves?”

“Data pipeline.” Huck agreed. “Multiple frequencies, low sonics maybe,  multiple variations,  triad pronged pipelines.”

“I just might agree with that.” Shireen said.

Quinn’s eyes were wide open as though it were the first day of kindergarten and she was the teacher’s pet.

“But you can handle it.” Olivia smiled at him as she laid a hand on his shoulder.

Huck looked up at her and nodded. There was no doubt of it in his expression. “I can handle it. It might take some time, though. Days instead of hours.”

“It doesn’t matter. Do it.” she said.

Quinn stayed behind with Huck as the others filed out of his office and reseated themselves around the table.

“So what now?” Olivia asked, looking at each of them for their response.

Abby spoke first. “Well, obviously, you continue with your regular routine - at least until we can manage to close in on this idiot. If he approaches you in the meanwhile, play the victim.”

“Excuse me?” Shireen clearly didn’t like the sound of that.

“If they pressure you, cry and moan.” Abby frowned. “Playing the helpless victim is not the same as being the helpless victim. You’ve pretty much done that by not retaliating with a cyber attack - which I get the impression that you’d have no problem unleashing one of epic proportions on your unwanted suitor. But it is what men like this love. Try a moment of false indignation, followed by a bout of tears. They get off on that. Breaking a woman down.” Her eyes grew distant for a moment, clearly caught up in some personal memory.

Olivia could see by Shireen Davis’ expression that the idea of that did not set well with her. She added her own opinion.

“Abby has a point. We need to keep your harasser at bay - at least long enough to get a handle on who they might be and what exactly do they want. If it’s a peer, then we’re good. But if they are higher up in the Pentagon’s power structure- or even outside of it - it might become a problem. So instead, we - you - play along.”

“You said you wanted to keep your mother and her husband out of the situation.” Harrison pointed out. “This is the best way to do it - for now.”

Olivia gave Shiren Davis a calculating look.”Unless you think you can’t handle the pressure.”

As she’d guessed, Olivia’s words were exactly the challenge her client needed.

“I don’t want to cause any trouble to anybody - I just want them to take their toys and go home, so if this is what it takes to get things done, then do it.” Shireen looked back at Olivia. “I can handle it.”

"Good. I thought that you could." Olivia nodded. “I’m sure that you and Huck have some more issues and protocols that the two of you need to work out, so I’ll leave you to it.”

She looked around the room. ‘Everybody else, let’s do what needs doing.”