3655/Tidepool: Trust but Verify

Tidepool: Trust but Verify
Date of Scene:	15 January 2018
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Skye's story and stolen data is tested to get her back into Rising Tide.
Cast of Characters:	Arnim Zola, Quake

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Arnim Zola has posed:
After confirming Skye wasn't wired, Miles had stashed her in a safehouse in Madripoor's Low Town and like Low Town's name might suggest it wasn't the Hilton by any stretch of the imagination. More like a room scarcely larger than Skye's van with a hot plate, a bed, and a shared bathroom down the hall. He did come through with some money though handing over a five grand like it was pocket change before vanishing with the flashdrive.

Less than forty-eight hours later, he showed back up, with a pair of laptop bags and some decent business casual type clothes for Skye. He held onto the second laptop bag, but handed the clothing to Skye telling her to get changed and meet him downstairs before vanishing again.

The clothes were a touch on the larger side, but fit well enough, and the cab, it winds its way through Low Town up to High Town all the way up to the actual Hilton.

"Going to test the codes you gave us and decide if you're back. The business center here has the best free wifi on the island. Also, like everywhere around here, they don't ask a lot of questions," Miles explains as he hands over some cash to the driver and gets out of the cab. He was dressed in a button down and slacks, trying his best to look like a business tourist as he turns and offers Skye a hand getting out of the cab.

Quake has posed:
Ah, yes. Madripoor.

Not that Skye was worried. The thing about low life seedy places like this was if you weren't poking your nose in their business, they weren't poking it in yours. And she'd lived out of her van long enough that having both a locking door /and/ a bathroom down the hallway that she didn't have to drive to was a blessing.

Still that first night was hellishly lonely. She missed Clint. Her bed, even though it was just a single, and nothing more than a cot, was too big. Empty. There was nobody to curl up to in the middle of the night, or to bother with her random thoughts. Worse, she knew the folks back home at SHIELD were now in the midst of believing she was a traitor, and those who hadn't been aware before, now likely knew that she'd been part of Rising Tide. Or would know shortly.

No help for it, though.

The next day was spent almost exclusively in her room. Quite likely the most boring hours she'd ever spent in her life. She'd slipped out in the morning to travel across town to find herself a decent rig. Early morning commute hid the trip. Noon hid her ride back. For the money Miles had left her, Skye ended up with more than decent gear.

When he arrived with the clothes, she was more than ready to say goodbye to the safehouse, even if she knew it might only be a temporary measure. Still, it was a change of scenery..Especially when he took her to the Hilton.

Stepping out of the cab, she puts a smile on her face, and looks about with that wide-eyed innocence of someone taking in the sights. "They really aren't kidding, are they, when they say you have to see it once in your life."

Then again, Skye has been to one of Tony's parties. She's seen how the other half live. Still, it was a cover. Just some business tourists making the most of the nightlife on their off hours before heading home again.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles takes a second to process the shift in Skye's demeanor before it dawns on him and he grins and takes on his role. "Right? Look at this place? I mean I know they say the Imperial Hotel is better but look at this place. I can't see how that'd be possible," he says as he leads Skye up the steps and through the front doors.

Inside, Miles headed through lobby to the business center and swiped an unadorned keycard through the reader letting them inside the exclusive workspace. "Camera just inside the door, hang left and grab a table, want a coffee or something?" he says nodding to the little coffee bar that's set up on the far end of the room full of little booths set up for people to plug in and work in quiet an comfort.

Quake has posed:
Thank the gods for Agent May and her training. Skye makes a smooth entrance into the place, slipping left with a wall hug that looks casual and as much as she's just wanting to grab a table before the best are snapped up as she's trying to avoid the cameras. She's not sure where Fury's orders are on things right this moment, or whether face recognition software is currently peeling through public access databases, but it doesn't hurt to act like she might be on America's Most Wanted list and avoid having her picture taken.

"Sure. Coffee. Maybe one of those danish things too," she tells Miles before deking off and snapping up a booth that offers both a good view of the room as well as access to an exit. And, like so many around her, it doesn't take Skye long to plug in. Complete with scrambling and via a hotspot through the burner phone, because she was just that paranoid.

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Mm, good thinking, skipped lunch," Miles says about the danish before heading to the coffee bar to grab them a couple of coffees and pastries. Before long he's back declaring, "I bring thee danish," before handing over coffee and pastry to Skye before sitting across from her and tearing into his own, getting a bit of frosting in his scruffy beard before wiping it away with the back of his hand and smiling.

"Alright, so, talked to the team, they're nervous about you, don't like your last employer much and are worried you're trying to screw us," he explains as he sets down his danish and pulls open the little tab on his coffee lid. "Though we did some checking and it seems like the people at your old job are /really/ pissed with you, which scored you some points. So, did the drive," he takes a sip of coffee. Well more of a chug. "We checked it out, it wasn't bugged which is a big plus, second the others who had a look, they say the codes look legit to them too. So, which brings us to today. We're going to do a test run on this cherry rig I brought with me to see if it does what you say, after that, we'll have a vote and decide if you're back in. Good with that?"

Quake has posed:
Skye's lips twist in a wry grin as Miles mentions bringing his own rig for her to work on. It wasn't unexpected. Not that she'd not gotten a decent pice herself with the money he'd given her. If this fell through, she could live off of the remainder and keep the illusion alive for a time. But she needed the rig more than she needed better than the flophouse in Maripoor.

"Hey. You really did pay attention to me, didn't you? Fine by me. Keeps my rig clean. And yeah. They're plenty pissed. I shot someone on my way out. One of their big names." She shrugs, reaching for the danish he'd brought her. "Should have had you bring me a sandwich too. So, everyone's checked out the data stick huh?"

Skye shakes her head, but she's still smirking. "It'll do what I say unless they've changed the passwords and codes. And even that I've a few tricks up my sleeve for. She had backdoors for just such contingencies, even if this hadn't been how she'd initially planned on using them."

Taking another bit of danish, her own rig is moved over on the table to make room for his. "Let's see what you've got."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Was I really that hopless?" Miles asks with a smile. "And yeah, I mean we're going to be checking out something that is supposed to get into people systems and dig up their dirt, so, figured better not give them any dirt to dig," he says about the machine while it boots up the latest version of Tails Linux.

Miles eyes go wide, "Woah, wait, you /killed/ someone?" he asks leaning forward dropping his voice to just above a whisper. "Who?"

The other stuff will wait until that mixup is sorted out.

Quake has posed:
Skye snorts at the killing someone question. "As if. You'd have heard a hell of a lot more noise out of SHIELD if I had. Nah. Just hit him in the arm. He'll be sore for a while, but he wasn't able to shoot me after I did that." She shrugs, remembering the moment, hoping she'd not done any permanent damage. The ICERS weren't supposed to, but that would have been devastating to Clint. And likely the death knell to their relationship, if she hadn't already killed that. In retrospect, she wondered if she shouldn't have tried harder to hit somewhere else, but at the time she was just trying to escape and not thinking of the finer points of things other than 'not the face'.

He gets a smirk. "Maybe not so hopeless. I mean, you haven't been picked up yet." She watches the boot carefully. "Nice stuff you've got here."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Oh, right," Miles says, sounding sheepish. Of course, shot didn't mean dead. "So, who'd you hit? You said it was a big name?" then he smiles as a thought occurs. "Was it Fury? Please tell me it was Fury." Before he gets an answer, another question comes. "What's he look like anyhow? Fury. I've only seen his name in files. I bet with a name like Fury he's got to be a baddass right?"

He smiles then aware of his sudden fanboying, and says, "And well if you put a cap in someone, I guess that's sandwhich worthy, though they've got a pretty good restaurant here, we can grab something to eat after. Provided, I'm not on my way to Gitmo by then," he says with a smile.

The comment about not getting caught, gets him smiling a little bit more as he coughs suddenly before saying "Unlike some paranoid girl I used to know," he says and then turns to the computer once it boots up.

"Yeah, set it up last night for this, should do the trick, how about you get us started, I need to let people know we're about to kick things off."

He digs out his phone and brings up an encrypted chat program, one he and Skye had designed once upon a time for moments like this. He types: Hound >> DS is with me. Running test.

He leaves the screen tilted just enough for Skye to see.

Anomaly >> GL

Jinx >> CYA

Saffron >> GL

The handles of the leadership hadn't changed since Skye's day, either that or they were just using the old ones to keep her off the scent.

Quake has posed:
Skye just shakes her head, peering over at the chat screen. "Oh my god. You're a fanboy. Who'd have thought. And yeah. I know. I'm the one who got pinched. Fuckers took me in my van mid-hack. I'd have laughed if it weren't me. I mean there I am, shit flying across my screen and the door opens. Lesson to be learned, Denny's parkinglots aren't all that secure."

Which was a joke. Anywhere was as secure as you wanted it to be, but they'd spent a lot of weekend mornings at Dennys locations.

"As to who," Skye shakes her head, giving a believable laugh (because even she couldn't believe she shot him), I shot Hawkeye."

Her fingers start flying across the keyboard, opening up command windows and typing in streams of code. "You can snap the flashdrive in anytime you're ready, and we'll see what damage we can do here."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Nah, not a fanboy, just want to get to know my arch nemesis. You meet him at all? Or was he too high and mighty to come down and visit the hacker girl they had chained up in the basement?" he ask before he flinching in sympathy, at the story of how Skye got nabbed. "Ouch, they got you in the van? What was that like? They stick a bag over your head and the whole deal?" he asks grinning before adding. "And hey, don't knock Denny's, where else can you crack an RSA Implementation while eating a Moons Over My Hammy?"

Miles grabs the flashdrive and sticks it into the machine, so Skye can get started but while he does, he's gapping before he just grins from ear to ear and leans in close. "Wait? You shot an /Avenger/? Fuck, getting dinner here then, if all this checks out, I'm taking you to the Imperial. Shit, you shot Hawkeye," he chuckles. "Also, by the way, if he tracks you down? Just so you know, I am staying the heck out of that one," he jokes as he grabs the phone off the table to type:

Hound >> DS shot Hawkeye.

Anomaly >> Damn!

Momnto >> Pics? Talk is cheap.

Hound >> Thanks for being a killjoy, Mom.

Quake has posed:
Skye smirks, looking smug. She had lots of reasons to look smug where Clint was concerned. Just not the reasons Miles would think. "Yeah. Shoulda seen his face. Fuck."

She shakes her head, starting to work on getting back into SHIELD systems via the data she stole. "Had to haul ass to the basement to escape, and narly got picked off there. There's a strike team. Hawkeye, Another Agent. And me. I peel into the same room as them at the same time this other guy shows up - one of the odds they've got there. Someone they didn't know. Total chaos. I took advantage of it. Shot Hawkeye and ran. Really thought my ass was grass, but.."

She frowns at an interception she doesn't like. "Just a minute here.. Need to check something."

And sure enough, at least some of the data she'd stolen had already been dealt with. Likely through regular password change security protocol, but it made her a bit twitchy - even if she knew to expect it. They were riding the edge of the window she'd been given to accomplish this, and she knew Fury wouldn't leave gaping holes. It meant going in another route.

She changes working windows and starts tapping away, searching out one of her back doors.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles listens, raptly to Skye's tale of escape. "Wow, so they train to be that badass? Or did it just come natural?" he asks throwing a smirk her way.

He takes a sip of his coffee, then smirk still on his lips.

That done, he shifts his chair around to get a better look at the screen dragging his coffee cup and phone with him as he does. "Wow, you're going right for the jugular there, no fucking around," he says of her hack. She was coming right at SHIELD in a frontal assault. Which was a little like running straight at a wall full tilt. If there's a door, you'll be fine, if not, then smack, and you flatten yourself. He tugs at his beard while he waits to see which Skye does.

Quake has posed:
Skye scowls some, most of her attention caught up in bypassing being caught digging at a back door. She'll still have to use some of what she stole, but at least this way she'll only be dealing with what she and Fury had negotiated. Or so she hoped. Things were still a crapshoot of sorts. It all depended on how observant folks were over the systems she was about to use.

"Yeah, all part of the training. Hell, you wouldn't believe how anal they were about giving me a weapon, either. Practically had a babysitter almost the entire time I was there."

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles leans in close enough Skye can smell his cologne as he watches the hack. Well, watch isn't the right word, because as always he has comments, notes really, like he thinks she can't handle it. "Are you sure... no, no, let me... here, remember the Visa hack, yeah, like that..." he's all but breaking the cardinal rule and touching the keys himself.

"Shoot the babysitter too?" he asks still watching the screen. "Or was Hawkeye the babysitter?"

He picks up his phone and types an update, one eye still on Skye's screen.

Hound >> Working...

Then the phone is dropped and he's back to meddling again.

Quake has posed:
"Touch the keys and I kill you," Skye mutters without even looking up. "You forget whose systems these are. Been through them with a fine tooth comb.."

She peers at some lines of code between two windows. He's not wrong with his suggestion, but she's learned a little finesse since that hack, and it will serve her better. It's a modification, though. He might catch what she's done with it.

She's not far out of the Fire Supression systems now. And if she's not wrong, the rest should be easy sailing. Nothing she's going to take for granted though.

"No. He wasn't my senior agent. But we trained together. My agent wasn't on site that day. Managed to avoid that hassle."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Hey, wouldn't dream of it," Miles protests holding up his hands. "But you're totally going to need my help if you keep hammering at their encryption like that."

He catches the twist to the code they developed. "Okay, I'll give you that one, that mod was sort of hot. But why fire suppression? I mean I don't want to go to jail behind a high school prank," he says thinking she's aiming to turn on the sprinklers and chemical suppressors as a fuck you to her former bosses.

"I bet they're pissed, your senior agent. Think he and Hawkeye are teaming up to take us down right now?" he asks. "Actually, you shot Hawkeye in the arm, guess he's sort of useless now."

Then looking back at the code he says, "Shit, looks like you're almost in, what'd I miss."

Quake has posed:
"Hey. Don't tell me my job," Skye murmurs, looking pleased as the blocks she's facing up and fall away as her code does its job and bypasses what would have taken out most any other hacker. "You forget, not only have I seen most of their encryption." And she has. Hell, she helped rebuild it after the Hydra attack. "But I'm better at this than you are.'

"If they're not pissed at me, I'll be surprised. Had them all fooled. Including my senior. Pretty sure I've got a burn notice out on me. Though they'll likely aim for taken into custody."

"As to why fire supression systems," Skye watches two windows outside the one she's working on, "Because that system is everywhere. It's got eyes on every level of the Trisk, as well as connections to every other system in the damned place. And they can't shut it off. So my dear H, we're going to use their own build in weakness against them."

She makes a small noise of satisfaction as several windows blink a success at once.

"Annnnnd..... We're in."

Arnim Zola has posed:
Die hard sports fans watch screens less intently than Miles does right now, his fingers practically twitching to get on the keyboard and finish this off. He stops himself though, satisfying himself with watching and laughing, "Better than me? DS, I taught you everything you know."

/That/ was a stretch. Miles had been in the game longer than Skye when they'd met, already making a name for himself with his Kremlin hacks, but there's had been an equal sharing of code, even if that wasn't how Miles remembered it.

"Oh, they put a burn notice out on you," Miles confirms with a nod, not moving his eyes from the screen. "We've got a guy, well, in an agency, he confirmed one came out on you. Sort of wanted him to send me a copy so I could get it framed for you," he looks away from the screen for a second to flash a quick smile. Then his eyes are back on the code.

Miles' expression shifts from skeptical to surprised in the few seconds it takes Skye to explain why she was going for fire suppression. "That's sort of brilliant, DS," he admits.

When they're in he throws an arm around Skye's shoulders and pulls her into a celebratory side-hug. "Fuck yeah, you're brilliant!" he says, before glancing around to see if anyone was looking. They weren't but he keeps his voice down anyhow when he adds, with a chuckle, "Still, not better than me."

Quake has posed:
There's a snort from Skye. "You did not teach me everything I know. You taught me a lot, but not everything. And I damn well am better than you are."

She doesn't push it, though. He's got an ego the size of a football field. But to not say anything wouldn't be like her, either.

"Damn straight it's brilliant. I was good before, H. I got better. I actually paid attention to the shit they were teaching me there."

When he hugs her, she lets it happen, but makes a point of noting, "I'd have slapped your hands, you know, if you'd touched the keyboard. Fuck, when'd you lose your manners anyway? And you got a copy of it, huh? Damn. I'd actually like to see that. I mean, I knew that they would. I just.. like hell, when does a person actually get to see their own name on one of those."

She gives him a look. "And since when do we have folks sitting in actual legit jobs helping us out? Especially in an agency that has eyes on that shit. Fuck. You've really come up in the world. Anywhere I'd know?"

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles snorts and nods so very sarcastically, "Whatever lets you sleep at night," he says with a smirk before he says, "And you so are no!" he says a bit more vehemently than he'd intended. She was getting to him.

"Joking," he covers before he takes a sip of his coffee to give things a little time to lie. He skips right over what SHIELD taught her, and slips the arm from her shoulders when she mentions manners. "Just excited," he says about the keyboard and the hug at the same time. "You did good," he says and then says, "Sure, I can get you a copy if you want. Though, we're in their system, right? Why not pull it up?" he says with a grin.

The other questions, those get a look over his shoulder. "Later, we have one more thing to do. We're in and that's good but the guys want to make sure you're not just giving us a tour," he says before sending a quick BRB into the chat before pulling up a list on the phone. "Shopping list," he explains turning the phone to face Skye.

They want the maser file for the RSA implementation, and a few other odds and ends that will compromise the privacy of SHIELD communications.

Miles gives her an apologetic smile, "They want to make this hurt SHIELD, so they know you're for real."

Quake has posed:
"Why not pull it up?" Skye gives Miles a long look. "You think about that a minute and you tell me why I'm not going to look it up." Because, really, looking for herself in SHIELD was likely going to set off alarm bells everywhere. This really was a case of keep it simple, stupid, and if he couldn't see that, she wans't going to tell him.

At least not yet.

She looks over the shopping list. "Fine. But I'm going to say this once, and not again, you push too hard, they'll notice and we'll lose everything. However, I can get you communications easily enough. That one I can just piggyback onto this." Fury was going to shit bricks, but really that one he expected. The fact that she could create a hole like this, though, that was bad. Even if it was an allowed breach. "The other is going to be a little bit trickier."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Hmm right, bad idea, forget I said that," Miles says about looking up her burn notice. "I'll just get you a hard copy."

He nods about pushing. "Get what you can get without blowing this, the guys were firm on the list, but if we can hold off this export being blown then they'll understand."

Quake has posed:
Skye just calmly starts working away.

The first order of business isn't hard. She really only has to get the systems to cross-reference themselves in ways they're almost already mimicking. With a few patches put in place and some subroutines to cover what she's done, it's really a perfunctory task. It's exactly why she'd suggested this particular route in the first place.

The other, though, was going to be a little bit trickier as it was going to involve an actual transfer of data. And access some bits that weren't exactly on the list of what the fire systems might possibly play well with.

She was pretty sure she had an idea how to do it, but it was going to be a lot riskier. Her coffee, forgotten since the start of this, is sipped absently as she considers her options.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Getting into SHIELD was risky, what Skye was doing now was riskier, so, Miles kindly shuts the hell up and watches her work.

Not that he doesn't watch her work, he does, sucking down coffee while he does so until his cup is dry. He however limits himself to noises and not words. "Hmm," he remarks at a particularly clever string of code. Another makes him chuckle.

When she pauses to consider though then he speaks up, "What are you thinking?" he asks with a nod towards the screen. He won't admit it, ever, but she'd lost him about 20 lines ago.

Quake has posed:
Skye may have lost Miles twenty minutes ago, but she wasn't paying attention to his reactions. What wasn't focused on the code was focused on being aware of her surroundings just enough not to get caught. She'd admit that was a skill she'd become lax in with the security of her not-in-the-field workings at SHIELD. When you weren't worried about being on the run while doing your business, you could afford to hunker down and phase out the rest of the world.

Not so much here.

Still, the bulk of her attention was being eaten with the problem of how best to not attract attention while downloading what Miles and the others wanted.

In the end she decided to burn one of her back doors. It was risky, but doable. And it wouldn't compromise the other action she'd just taken.

"Was just wondering how attached you are to this rig if we have to cut and run. Pretty sure I can get us out before they can notice and follow us back, but on the off chance I can't, you might lose it."

She calmmly starts writing some raw lines of code into an editing window. She might not know his answer yet, but she was pretty sure that this was going to be the path she took regardless.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles was used to this, Skye being completely eaten by a problem. When they were together it used to drive him nuts, just one more icy wall she threw up between them that he couldn't knock down with his charm or any of his skills. Now though it was just mildly annoying, only because he was only sort of understanding what she was doing on the screen.

When she speaks he says, "Kill it if you need to, bought it for this op," he says. He shakes his head. Burner laptops. Quite a different life he led now than when he got started in this game when had to protect his laptop with his life because it was the only one he could afford.

"So, we're close right?" he asks.

Quake has posed:
She doesn't answer immediately. She needs something that's going to seal her pathway behind her on the way out. That he's so nonchallant about killing the laptop actually filters through. Yeah. That he was willing to toss gear of this quality on a job, even a job as lucrative as this one, was telling.

"Close," she nods, peering at her work, doing a double check. "So. Points of trouble are going to be contact with the program. Download time. And getting out."

A finger taps different windows on the screen as she names them. To a casual observer, they all look pretty much alike. To her, and likely Miles as well, they aren't even remotely close.

She knew she'd be asked to dabble in things like this when the mission was handed to her. When she told Fury this was what the mission would be, she thought dryly. Damn him, he'd backed her into that corner and made her suggest the thing. Smug little bastard. He knew they both knew she wouldn't be half what he expected of her if he'd had to bring it up himself. And she wouldn't be here if he'd had to be the one.

Still, it didn't sit well. This action was going to put real lives in danger. The only thing that made it even remotely stomachable was the fact that if she didn't, worse things were likely to happen. That's what these sorts of missions were all about, she reminded herself. That, or they'd be strikes, not undercover operatives. What she was doing was vital in taking down the bigger picture, not just the pieces.

Code in place, all she had to to was engage.

With a confidence she didn't feel, Skye started the infiltration. It would take mere seconds to get in, find what they wanted, and engage the download. Then it would be watching windows and putting countermeasures in place if necessary, and getting out.

She held her breath as she watched things happen.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Once Skye names the windows, things begin to click and Miles is a lot less lost. "Damn, DS. This is pretty tight," he says before lifting his cup to his lips before he remembered it was empty. He hook shotted it at the garbage and missed.

He lets it lie and turns back to the screen. "Anything we can do to compress the file, speed up the download that way? I've been messing around with that lately," he says and the lays out a couple of things that might help get the file out faster.

But when it's all said and done there was nothing to do but sit, wait and watch the screen while the code Skye put in place worked its magic.

Magic though, was unpredictable as was hacking. When the file started to download, something triggers in the system when data gets sent where its not supposed to go threatening an alert and shutdown if it's not stopped.

Quake has posed:
His suggestions are sound, and Skye nods. Where she'd grown leaps and bounds in other ways, he was right, he'd upped his game in compression and speeding up data transfer. Figures, she thought. She wasn't racing clocks anymore as a matter of course, even if she had been with Hydra. Miles' tweaks are put into play and filed away into her store of collected skills.

Her program got in well enough. Even started the download without hassle. But, as she expected, it was noticed. She was actually happy about that. It meant things back at SHIELD were working as they were supposed to. The RSA files were important. With them, anyone could unencrypt just about anything they found in SHIELD. And while the goal was to have nobody get their hands on SHIELD files, it happened from time to time (sometimes with SHIELD's blessing, even, witness Oracle). The security measures around this particular set of data and its program were tight. And functioning.

Which meant now Skye had a scramble.

"Fuck," she grits. "They caught wind. So, you're going to get what you get out of this. But.." Her fingers do a quick run over keys as she take an active role in running interception with SHIELD's security. "I can hold out as long as possible.. Thing is, they're going to know it's me." Especially if Nat got anywhere near the records of this. "Which means you're losing this rig. I won't touch it after."

Skye might be paranoid, but in this case, she was right to be. She'd helped put some of the tracking code in place.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles is visibly pleased when his steps are used. He was not used to being this much of spectator. "Remind me to tell you where I got the idea for that sometime," he says, but now was not the time for stories.

When the security protocols go off, Miles curses right along side, Skye. "Fuck. They're going to know they got hit?" Miles asks as he digs through his laptop bag and pulls out a third flashdrive. "If so, inject this into the system, it'll fuck up things up enough that they may not be able to recover the security log files, it'll hide how we got in."

And it'll be putting an unknown virus live into the SHIELD systems.

"Come on, we're running out of time here, Skye."

Quake has posed:
"You carry those fuckers around with you like tictacs, H?" Skye nods with her chin. "I'm busy. Plug 'er in. Though I was hoping to do it without that. Anything you give them they'll pick apart to understand you better."

She's eyeballs deep in trying to counter the security measures she helped with. She thought she'd been so smart after Hydra, and was silently cursing herself now. ...Though she had to admit, she couldn't have planned better for a scenario to prove she had legitimately defected.

"Go, dammit, go," she whispered to her code, urging it to work faster, before she had no choice but to use the virus.

She watched as the download reached the last few seconds. Fingers flying across the keyboard as she made manual counters to everything being thrown at her. It helped that a lot of it was hers. Or she'd had input on. But it was tight. Extremely tight.

Miles code pulled up in its own window, ready for insertion. If she was going to use it, she'd have to use it now....

<<Download Complete>>

The blink across her screen was a welcome sight. It meant she could close all connection windows. Everything went blank as she shut it down. Miles code not having to be used.

Skye breathes a sigh of relief. "Fuuuuck, I'd forgotten how close that could get."

Arnim Zola has posed:
"Pretty much," Miles says about the flashdrives and he sticks this new one into the rig, frowning as he considers the forensics that his little virus was going to be subjected to. "Fuck it, let them know it was me."

Though that'd pretty much draw a line right from Skye's defection to Rising Tide.

Miles watches anxiously, when Skye says go, damn it go, he misunderstands and starts reaching for the command to start the virus, only to have his hand slapped away. Though as the time ticked down he leaned close, hands on the table, "DS you gotta do it, we're running out of ti-"

<<Download Complete>>

"Fuck yeah!" Miles cheers, ignoring the dirty looks the two of them are getting from the others in the business centre. He grins at Skye. "Yeah, but you missed it right? I know you did."

Quake has posed:
"Fuck yeah, is right," Skye breathes, pulling flash drives out of the rig and passing them over to Miles. "And they're going to to come looking anytime now. If not sooner. So we want our asses out of here. This shits garbage now. They can't do anything with it."

Skye works to overwrite the harddrive. Again, it's just a matter of time.

The phone is worthless now, too. Thankfully she had some cash left with which to buy another.

"Yeah. Missed this." The lie was bitter.

She hadn't missed it. In fact, she couldn't remember missing it at all. What she missed was SHIELD. The people she'd made connections with there. Her job. The thrill her work there gave her. The satisfaction. Things she'd never really found in Rising Tide. Things she'd been constantly trying to find there.

When the trashing of the laptop is complete, she gives Miles a nudge, and she gets up from the table. "You gonna just sit there and wait, or are we out of here?"

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles grins, "I knew it," he says but there's no time to rub it in. He stashes his flashdrives and when Skye nudges him he gets up and grabs his laptop bag a leaving the rest of the kit he brought on the table as they make their hurried exit.

That exit takes them out of the lobby, onto the street, and a few blocks down before he pulls out his phone as he walks, and brings up the chat, typing:

Hound >> It's done. Will send proof tonight. I'm voting yes.

Jinx >> Shocker. =/

Hound >> Eat me, J

Anomaly >> lol

Hound >> Talk later

He closes the chat again and looks to Skye. "They'll say yes when they see what you got," he promises before he tosses the phone into a nearby garbage bin and digs into his laptop bag and pulls out a new one holding it out to Skye. "We'll get in touch on this, so keep it close and keep it on, alright? But in the meantime, dinner? Then I need to go send this data to the others."

Quake has posed:
Shekye runs shaky fingers through her hair. "Right. Food. I forgot."

She wasn't sure she wanted food right now. What she'd just done was another nail in her coffin. Even if it was a sanctioned nail. "Any chance of a raincheque?"

The phone he passes her is tucked into her own laptop bag. He rig hadn't been used. It was clean and safe.

Arnim Zola has posed:
Miles frowns, disappointed. "Yeah, we can skip it tonight. But seriously, I know some places around here," he says. "Way better than hitting up Big Belly burger back in the day," he says turning the frown into a smile. "But I'll hail us a cab."

Quake has posed:
Skye doesn't turn down the offer of a cab, but she does suggest that they walk a couple of blocks away before doing so, leading herself and Miles off into the oncoming crowd of people.

They catch a cab easily enough, and she knocks on the dividing window between herself and the cabbie several blocks from the dive where she's staying.

"You know where to find me," she tells Miles quietly. "Better this way." By which she means the cabbie can't give directions to the flophouse if he's not been there. Even if she knows a wad of cash buys a lot of discretion.

At the dive in Maripoor she locks herself into the bathroom and has a shower, ignoring the knocks of several irate folk who want in. Especially as there's a connecting door between shower and toilet especially meant to allow others to freely use the john while someone is showering. Skye didn't care. She wanted the privacy.

It was much later, while lying in bed, not sleeping, and staring at the ceiling that her phone vibrated.

<<You're in. H.>>

Flipping the screen off, Skye sits up, opens her laptop, and begins typing...


Tidepool: Pheonix - 01/15/2026
Report: Agent Johnson L2
Director Fury's eyes only...