| Subject: .For Meritorious Service, Chapter 26b, conclusion |
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TxJAG_b
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Date Posted: 20:35:37 05/07/09 Thu
In reply to:
TxJAG_b
's message, "...For Meritorious Service, Chapter 25d, part two - continued" on 16:25:09 01/08/09 Thu
..For Meritorious Service, Chapter 26b conclusion
A/N: Here we are folks. Enjoy. Kudoes to all who
helped put this together.... :)
0210 Baghdad/2310 Zulu
2310 Zulu/1810 Local
JAG Headquarters
Falls Church, Virginia
JAG HQ OPS was quiet. Most of the staff had secured their stations and left for the evening. One or two offices were still lit, but for the most part, it was quiet. The main hallway lights were only half off, but all the overhead lights in the Bullpen area had been extinguished.
Tiner sat in early the evening gloom at his computer. The sun would not set for another couple of hours or so, but sunlight that would have been shining into his office was blocked by the solid wood door that lead to Admiral Chegwidden’s office. Like most of the other offices, his overhead lights were off, but he did this because it would allow him to better see the program he was running.
He, Jen, Marla and Lieutenant Sims had managed to find and isolate four computers in the JAG Corps network that contained trojan and keylogger programs. Each of these machines were originals that had survived the attack on JAG Headquarters unscathed.
He had Corporal Gillis and Seaman Cathart help him take those workstations offline, citing connectivity testing for a new server. A surreptitious check by Lieutenant Sims verified none of the people using these machines, neither Chief Petty Officer Franchine, Sergeant Buswell, Seaman Brooks, nor Lieutenant Perez were the person they were looking for. Their workstations though, were key entry points into the JAG Corps servers.
Coates and Givers found most of the listening devices that had been placed at other key workstations. They noted where they were and gave that list to Tiner. He then reported to the Admiral what they had found.
After discussing their options with Admiral Chegwidden, they determined the best way to
flush out the mole would be to disable the spyware on the four workstations in such a way, that the person or persons would have to come into JAG Corps Headquarters and find out what had happened to his spyware. AJ charged Tiner with staying after hours to find out who would try access the machines.
Tiner knew the mole would probably try to access the stations remotely first, and if that failed, then he or she would make a personal visit.
Tiner made sure the workstations could not be accessed remotely. He used a program he had borrowed from PO3 Helms, a friend of his who worked at NCIS, to block remote access to the machines. The program also tracked when someone was trying to directly access the workstations.
Now he sat in the semi-gloom, intently watching the program monitoring the four workstations. Besides the usual network traffic, someone had tried repeatedly to access those workstations about an hour ago.
Then about five minutes ago, they had tried again. After several minutes, the activity ceased. Jason knew the next logical step was for the mole to come in and check out the workstations in person.
“Hey Tiner!”
Jason Tiner started, but kept himself from yelling out in surprise. He whipped his head around to see Jennifer Coates standing next to him looking at his screen.
“Coates?! What are you doing here?!” He snapped, trying to hide the scare she had put into him.
“I thought you might be able to use some help,” she said suppressing a grin, then her expression changed. “Is this the program that Vaughn told you he would let you borrow?”
Jason didn’t know whether to cover the screen with his hands or just let her see what he found. He decided on the latter. “Yeah, I’m monitoring those four workstations I told you about.”
Jennifer pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. “Any activity?”
She was so close Jason could tell she had put on some perfume despite still being in uniform. He struggled to keep his mind on the task at hand. “Uh, not in the last few minutes.”
“When was the last time they tried to access the machines?”
“The last burst of activity was about five minutes ago.”
“What do you think their next move will be?
“I think their next move is to come up here, in person, and see why they can’t access ‘their’ machines.”
Suddenly the program chirped.
“Do you think--”
Jason nodded, cutting off the rest of her comment. “Yeah, someone’s still trying to access one of the machines….”
“Whose machine?”
“Lieutenant Perez’s. C’mon….”
“Shouldn’t we alert security?”
“No, not yet, we have to catch them in the act….”
Jason and Jennifer made their way through the silent JAG OPS bullpen and to the attorney offices on the left hand side of the building.
“What are we going to do when we catch them? We don’t have any weapons, they’re in the armory.”
Tiner couldn’t fault her logic. “Good point.” “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on them. You go to the duty desk and get security.”
“Okay, but be careful, all right?”
“Uh, sure; I’ll be fine, go…”
Jennifer gave him one last look as she stole back down the hallway to the elevator. Jason, in the meantime, moved slowly and quietly through the sunset lit hallway.
Lieutenant Oscar Perez was on temporary loan from the Army Judge Advocate General’s office.
He was currently using office 209. It belonged to Lieutenant Porter, who was on maternity leave.
Tiner passed Lieutenant Bernard’s office and the bathrooms. He was about to pass the offices of Lieutenant Vansen and Ensign Pertsch when he felt there was someone behind him. He knew it couldn’t be Jen. He readied himself for a fight.
“Easy Tiner, it’s just me.” Said a hushed female voice.
Jason inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. “Sergeant, what are you doing here?” he hissed as he moved her back down the hall toward the bathrooms so whoever was in Perez/Porter’s office wouldn’t hear them.
“I passed Coates on her way to the security desk; she told me you were up here. I came to back you up.”
Tiner looked for her pistol holster. “Are you armed?”
“No, but I am a Marine. Did you want to try and take them?”
In all likelihood Marla could take whoever it was in that office, but she probably would also get hurt in the process. “No, no…just make sure that they don’t leave….”
“All right,” she sounded disappointed.
They moved back down toward Porter/Perez’s room. From inside they could hear shuffling and an occasional bump.
“Is it possible that Lieutenant Perez is still here?” She asked.
Jason shook his head. “No, he left on travel this afternoon…JAGMAN case in Washington State….”
“I can’t find anything wrong with it...” they heard come from the room
The second voice was more gruff and insistent. “Well, look again; something’s blocking our access….”
“Look; all the connections are plugged in…see?”
“All right; then it has to be software based…turn her on and use that software kit of yours…”
“Now you’re talkin…”
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t do this from your office…”
“Has to do with the type of software block. I have to fix it while I’m physically at the machine…”
“Well, just hurry up; the guard will be making his rounds soon…”
“Relax; we got at least twenty more minutes…that’s plenty of time….”
So there were at least two people in Perez’s office. Jason didn’t recognize either voice. Worse yet, he and Marla didn’t know whether or not they were armed.
*~*
Alan Mattoni was calling it a night. He had one plea bargain in the morning, but then that was it; he’d finally cleared through the backlog of cases that resulted from the attack on JAG Corps Headquarters. Sighing, he rose from his chair and began packing folders into his attaché case. He made a mental note to check with Commander Burford before he left. Alan wanted to see if there was anything else the John could add to their notes on this case.
After he secured his station, he gathered his coat and his cover, and headed for the door. As expected, there was John Burford waiting for him. Despite his injuries from the attack, he was back on the job.
Alan nodded. “John,”
Commander Burford returned his nod. “Evening sir,”
“I take it you have something you want to add to the Sergeant James plea bargain case?”
“Yes sir, Commander, we can talk about it on the way out….”
Alan turned and locked his door, then motioned for John to go ahead of him. He caught up with the junior officer as they headed through the glass double doors of the quiet Bullpen.
“You see, sir, I don’t think--”
He noticed that Commander Mattoni was looking down the hallway toward the attorney and staff offices.
“What the devil is going on down there?” Mattoni said more to himself than to John.
John turned to see Petty Officer Tiner and Sergeant Givers standing in the hallway, looking as if they were listening to something.
Not wanting to startle them, the two JAG Corps attorneys quietly walked down to where they were.
*~*
Jason and Marla turned to see Commander Burford and Commander Mattoni approaching them. Both had puzzled looks on their faces.
The Petty Officer and the Marine Sergeant moved back up the hall toward the two attorneys.
“Tiner? What’s going on?” asked the senior Naval officer.
“There’s someone…make that two someones, sir, in Lieutenant Perez’s office,” Marla responded.
“Who?” John felt apprehension rising in him.
“We don’t know, sir,” Jason answered, “but they came here after someone unsuccessfully tried to breach Lieutenant Perez’s computer’s firewall remotely.”
Alan didn’t usually carry his service pistol with him, but since the attack, he had decided that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to do so. John had obviously felt the same way since he also produced his.
The four moved cautiously back down the hall to the Lieutenant Perez’s office where more noise could now be heard through the door.
“Okay, let’s get outta here,” said the gruff voice.
Marla and John quickly scooted to the opposite side of the office door. As it opened, Marla yanked with all her might on the arm of the first person that appeared and slammed him against the opposite wall, pinning his other arm against his back. The bigger man started struggling until he saw the Naval Commander had his side-arm out and aimed at him.
A second face appeared at the office doorway. “Hey! What th--”
Before he could say anything else, Jason punched the second person as hard as he could in the solar plexus. A whoosh of air left him that ended in an ‘ugh’ as he doubled over, dropping a small zippered bag.
As Jason pulled him upright, Alan had his service pistol trained on the second man. “Don’t move…”
“Jason!”
The Petty Officer turned to see Jennifer Coates, flanked by two heavily armed Marine guards, quickly coming down the hall.
“Commander Mattoni?” said one of the guards keeping his weapon trained on the group.
Alan and John pulled out their wallets and flipped them open to show their JAG Corps IDs.
Jason and Marla did likewise. “These two were trespassing in Lieutenant Perez’s office,” Jason explained as he also produced the zippered bag “And they’re guilty of espionage.”
*~*
0200; in the civilian world, most folks, with the exception of those working the graveyard shift, would be asleep. For the 36th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 0200 would normally be a time of rest as well – except they were at war. Brigg’s Fragmentary Order [FRAGO] sent out before midnight meant there would be no rest today. All across the camp engines were being started, and vehicles of every size and shape were rumbling through the camp.
Under the eerie glare of flood lamps, the MEU was assembling its armored punch known as GATORFORCE.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!! Either climb in or climb aboard!!” Barked a burly Sergeant to a squad of Marines wearing flak jackets and extra bandoliers of ammunition. They quickly helped each other on top of the vibrating amphibious assault vehicle.
The AAV was one of a line of fifteen rumbling, snorting, armored behemoths sitting on the main supply route running through the camp. Right next to them, were fifteen more AMTRACs, borrowed from another MEU specifically for this assault. As they idled, Hum-vees zipped back and forth between the armored giants, ferrying supplies and additional Marines to the assembled group.
Amidst all this noise and confusion, three Marines stood by an AMTRAC which was separated from the rest of the armored group. They did not seem in a hurry like the other Marines, in fact they seemed to be taking their time getting ready.
A closer inspection revealed it was actually NCIS Special Agent Gibbs, who was helping Tony DiNozzo and Faith Coleman get the last of their body armor in place. With Tony it was more telling him what he had done wrong. With Commander Coleman, it was more of not so gentle tugs here and there to make sure the Kevlar vest and pads were properly seated.
“Haven’t you ever been in the field before, Commander?” Tony quipped while grinning. “I thought all of Admiral Chegwidden’s attorneys had combat experience.”
“My first duty station was North Island, DiNozzo; I haven’t been assigned to a combat duty station yet.” She looked decidedly uncomfortable in her Marine uniform and Kevlar helmet.
“You’re all set to go, Commander,” Gibbs said to Faith, and then gave her that wry smile of his, “Did I ever tell you about Tony’s first combat experience--"
Tony’s smirk vanished. “Hey Boss, look at the time; we’d better get on board before we get left behind…”
Faith turned away from Tony and gave Gibbs a wicked smile. “I’d better get to my carrier.”
Gibbs nodded, “Tony’s right about one thing; they will leave us behind.”
Faith gave the silver haired NCIS Agent a small smile and then headed for her AMTRAC.
“Boss, you weren’t really going to tell her about my first time in combat, were you?”
Gibbs threw his senior field agent an annoyed look. “Well yeah, DiNozzo, I was if you didn’t stop harassing her...c’mon, we gotta get aboard our AMTRAC.”
The back door panel was still in the locked open position as the two NCIS Agents hustled over to the idling carrier.
A clean cut Sergeant met them at the door’s edge. “Special Agent Gibbs?” Gibbs nodded. “I’m Sergeant Canella from the military police detachment assigned to Task Force Tarawa. Brigadier General Thornton assigned us to you and your team.” He led them inside “Watch your step, gentlemen.”
The two NCIS Agents settled into their sparsely padded seats inside the rumbling carrier.
Tony was like an excited kid. On either side of him, Sergeant Canella’s team members were checking their rifles and in their own way preparing for combat. Tony looked over at Gibbs who seemed to be meditating as well. “Wow Boss, does being here bring back some memories?”
Gibbs fingered his M-16 rifle. “Yeah Tony, unpleasant ones,”
---TBC...
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