14462/I Hate Wait

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I Hate Wait
Date of Scene: 27 June 2022
Location: Operations, The Triskelion
Synopsis: Alexander is missing. Natasha is getting information. Even if they don't want her to. The clock is ticking...
Cast of Characters: Phobos, Black Widow (Romanoff)




Phobos has posed:
    02:01 EST, Interpol data transmission.

    DDH: Data link to be distributed to operatives on enclosed list. Work ups to be submitted for variations of evacuation protocol. Risk/Cost analysis required.

    DDW: Submitting removal of Operative Romanoff active agent list for ensuing operations.

    DDH: Denied.

    DDW: Interpol ops already in latter stages of operational planning.

    DDH: Interpol proved unsuccessful, information stream diluted in operations with Interpol. Primary Agency operation recommended.

    DDW: Tech likely secure. Operative depletion harms SHIELD day to day .4% Operation against fiscal concerns.

    DF: Move on this Hill. Wilson take the week off.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
It had been 49 hours since Natasha had received the unexpected visit to her office. The conversation she'd had with Maria Hill and the information she obtained and been gone over about a hundred times since then. Then she had branched out. She used SHIELD resources openly. She had promised she wouldn't act without speaking to the higher-ups first. She hadn't promised she wouldn't look. Truly, they had to know she would.

First was all the information she could find on Sarkovia. She had hints. Bits of information from here or there. Throw in what she had been told by Alexander himself. It gave her an overview of the country. Who was active there that might gain attention from SHIELD or Interpol. Things she would consider targets of opportunity.

But when that last stream came through a moment ago, she sat back in her chair. Her eyes were the only movement as she scanned the lines. Removal of Operative Romanoff. There was a twisting of one corner of her mouth. A smirk as she saw the response from Deputy Director Hill. Because anyone that tried to keep her off this op would be in some serious pain. She could lose her position over this and not care if it meant finding Alexander. Certainly those above her knew that as well.

It was for the best Wilson was taking a week off.

Phobos has posed:
    It was a small data stream she had picked up, that quick exchange of encoded speech that she was able to decipher fast enough. It was an ever evolving game as Fury likely knew that Natasha kept her hand in and eyes on some of the data that went back and forth. But this... this was already a record for the Black Widow.
    Yet it was only the tip of the iceberg. It gave the quick back and forth, but what they were talking about? There were no files nor evidence that showed. It would take some digging.
    Some burning of assets.
    And some hustling to get copies of what information was sent to Hill and Wilson from Interpol.
    But nothing that was beyond her abilities. It took perhaps twelve minutes total, and a server farm in upstate New York suffered a loss of several clusters when she had to trigger an old fashioned hardware duplication that funneled all the data from the last twenty four hours that passed through there to her. It was a brute force technique. But it got results.
    Which ended with a series of files she could view remotely, leaving no trace she had accessed them. Files that had:

A data display of the suit's vitals over the course of the operation.

Aerial reconnaissance stream.

Drone strikes in support footage.

Local power grid feed.

A series of roughly deciphered blueprints for the base of operations that the operation was aimed at.

Files on the assets in play, Red Talons, an off shoot faction of Hydra that had strong differences in beliefs.

And a series of intelligence assets in the field that were monitoring enemy comm centers. Their reports are elaborate but in the abstract they detail a heightened level of activity since the operation engaged.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
It wasn't a scalpel. This was a sledgehammer. But it was effective. Natasha might have done so with more finesse but time was starting to run out. She had a time in her mind. After 48 hours, they had lost all rights in her mind. That started the final timer. 24 hours. And she was already 1 hour in when she set to work on getting that information they had hidden so well.

First was the aerial recon followed by the drone strikes. Picking out the targets. Placing the location of the op and if it was anywhere in Sarkovia to see if she could overlap with data she'd already obtained. Otherwise, this was going to be a totally new dig into targets there. But it was good data with the blueprintes. Red Talons was good information to have. It eliminated some of the targets she already had chosen in Sarkovia. Narrowed the scope.

She titled her head at the assets in the field monitoring the enemy comms. Still on high alert. Though was that because the attack happened and was successful? Or had it failed and they had an operative in custody? It could go either way.

Then finally she looked at that file. Data display. She hovered the cursor over the file and paused. Her hand left the mouse to pick up her coffee cup. A quick sip of the coffee. It was cold. She glanced at it, wondering how long ago she had taken her last sip idly.

She was stalling. She knew it. She closed her eyes a moment, centering herself mentally. Separating. She needed to listen but she didn't need to lose it entirely, no matter what she heard. Once she was certain she had steeled herself, she opened her eyes and clicked to open the file.

Phobos has posed:
    With the recon data she was able to narrow it down to a forested area twelve miles West of a town known as Neuvoboyarsk. Satellite feeds show nothing but wilderness and a lake, but the direct feeds she could access showed there was definitely a facility there and a large one.
    The enemy comms were still encoded, not even Hill had gotten them processed yet for the key was evasive. It would take time to break it down without possibly compromising the data but Natasha had multiple unconnected sourced copies to work on and tear through, multiple versions to cross-reference, and to finally start the process by likely pulling in a cypher focused StarkAI that worked in the background.
    Until finally she pulled up that data display for the suit's readouts while it was in the conlict zone. When she activated it she could see it was incomplete. No visual feed, none of the system's cameras were recorded. The internal audio feed was there but empty, she could look at the wave pattern and see that he hadn't said anything during the entire operation. The suit integrity systems showed full green lights, along with biometrics displaying heart, respiration, brain activity...
    All steady until 23 minutes into the operation when abruptly one of the suits integrity lights switched to red, and the biometric data showed the brain activity halted as the occupant must have been rendered unconscious. Good news at the least...
    Until the cypher program flashed activity as it displayed several words that had been translated as it passed through those enemy comm channels.

<< ... ... ... Olympian ... ... ... advise. >>

<< ... ... Red Trigger ... ... >>>

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
JARVIS likely got a notification that someone was using the StarkAI program to work through the cypher. If he told Tony, she had no idea. She wasn't hiding that either. She needed full translation of those comms as quickly as possible.

The lack of information on the data display had her frowning. She watched it through fully once. Then she went into the file, checking out the details about it, if it showed signs of tampering. Right into the code of it. Only then did she go back to it and look at it once more. Watching the biometric data and the system integrity. He was in the op for 23 minutes. That should've given him a good start. With his abilities, it honestly was likely he could've finished it in that time. So how did someone get the drop on him? There would have to be no fear present in them to sneak up.

Her biggest concern was those words which came out from the cypher program. Olympian. How the hell had they known that? SHIELD knew but that information was limited on who had it. Interpol was not given that information. So someone at the location knew what an Olympian was and how to recognize one.

First thought was his family honestly. Had one of them chosen to interfere in his life again? She dismissed it almost as quick as it came to her. More moved it lower in the list. not removed entirely. If they got him killed, they would face the ire of Ares. And none of them wanted that.

Which brought her back to SHIELD for now at the top of the list. Did they have a mole? Someone who would know he was Olympian. She quickly accessed the files for Alexander. To see who all might be in the know about his specialness.

Phobos has posed:
    Digging into that data she was able to check to see the moment to moment data triggers that were recorded in the system. She was able to discern the connection between the suit's pressure mods and the brain sensors that created the readouts. She could even tell his exact speed and direction of travel, which linked up with the blueprints of the operational area...
    Only to show that he had moved through the mapped areas into a tunnel system beneath the initial engagement that led... under the lake.
    But beyond that there was no sign of tampering, nor a sign of a kill switch or anything within the suit that might signify treachery on some technical level. It was like a switch had flipped from one moment to the next.
    Yet it did leave her with questions.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
It could be something on sight. The fact the engagement went into an area she hadn't expected meant that it could be there. Hydra, including the Red Talons, did have extreme tech. Not quite as much as AIM but they were well above the average tech. They sometimes even outclassed SHIELD. Which, honestly, SHIELD would then take that tech when they took confiscated it in ops so it helped the security agency.

But she still had her list of people within SHIELD. Including R&D who had the access to that suit. Who might have something in there that was created to shut down the operative. After all, SHIELD would set up backup plans in case operatives went rogue so Natasha wouldn't put that above them.

Which is when she tapped into the SHIELD files again. Now it was focused on the suit itself. And an attempt to gain information about the programming. Though this might take a while if she did gain access. She was going to need more coffee.

Phobos has posed:
    After a moment she likely was able to compose the list of individuals who had clearance of the level needed to know that Operative Aaron was an Olympian. Only deputy director level and above. Yet she knew herself that there were two agents who knew from his strike team. There was Agent Johnson. And the director of the research department...
    Then the files as to the suit itself came back with no access. It would take some footwork to get around the security measures. Redirect the query from one of the deputy director's offices by spoofing the handshakes. It just took a bit of time until...
    She was in those files, delving deep. And there was a kill switch inside the suit. Much like other pieces of SHIELD tech, this was designed to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
    Yet the disabled state that was recorded didn't have the same profile as a kill switch being triggered. For when that occurred all of the integrity alarms would fire and the suit would purge its data as well as its electrical components. That didn't seem to have happened.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Natasha sat back, sipping her now fresh cup of coffee. She waded into the code, scanning thousands of lines. It took time of course. But then she found that there was nothing on record for the kill switch built in being activated.

This wasn't helping. She was going to have to wait until the cypher program gave her more information on the details. A glance was given to the clock in the corner of her monitor screen. Another hour burned. She frowned. She felt like she was working in quicksand. Sluggish, not quick enough, not able to do anything to help.

She felt her mind starting to rush and stopped herself with a firm mental word. No freaking out. No panic. She had to continue to focus on the work. To make a plan.

She would give the cypher a few hours to do what it could. Now she focused on Red Trigger. Searching all the files of SHIELD to see if she could find anything that matched it. It might be something that the Red Talons had created which allowed them to shut down tech. But no, it happened after the suit had malfunctioned and Alexander was knocked out. That was all she was going to consider it to be. Knocked out. Injured and captured. So was the Red Trigger something to eliminate an Olympian? Or simply contain one?