Wolves and Sheep

As Kevin ranted from the berth, Dozer gave a yeesh look.

"Yeah, good luck in there," he said to Beatrice as she unslung her backpack.

Dozer put the shotgun down, and grabbed the device she handed him and listened to her.

"Well, that saves one step, at least," he said, looking it over as he opened the door for her to enter.

"Yeah, yeah, you guys can do a forum debate about it later," he said over Kevin's continued ranting, "you two have fun now," and closed the door.

Taking a breath, Dozer looked at the device again, then around the car. Scooping up the now-unconscious boss's gun, he stepped over towards the back hallway where he could get some space, and sat down on the floor, back against the starboard wall, jammer (he guessed) to his left. Placing the pistol down, he pulled off his headset to double check it's settings.

"Twist the knob to the left 'til the click..." he said as he followed the instructions.

Hearing his headset come back to life, he put them back on.

"Agent Barnum to HQ, Agent Barnum to HQ, come in HQ..."

Silver Star - First Class Car

As Beatrice entered the confined berth the hacker's rant cut off, a slightly worried glance at Dozer as he seemed to be handing him off to this battered abused and battered woman. The worry faded to curiosity and amusement as the woman set his laptop down on the small desk where it had been sitting previously, a second one set next too it. At Beatrice's question, Kevin had one last nervous glance towards the door and no doubt the heavily armed and armored federal agent behind it, before sitting down at the desk ... his brow rising slightly as to say okay, you have my attention.

In the corridor Dozer had secured the weapons and had taken a seat, deactivating the signal jammer and calling into headquarters as he did. Nik sauntered in as he waited for a reply, a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other.

"The car is secure," he intoned with a nod towards the Cafe Car, "You seemed more like a whiskey man." Smirking, he rubbed the sides of his face down to his chin indicating Dozer's beard. "Maker's Mark was the best they had," he added as he set the bottle at the FBI agent's side.

Before he could reply Dozer's radio crackled to life, "Agent Barnum. Special Agent Thompson. Sitrep. I have an HRTteam ready to go"

---

Dozer chuckled, giving a relaxed little two-fingered salute at Nik's Whiskey Man comment.

Aaah should have been more specific. Still on the job after all. Oh well, it'd be rude to turn it down...

"Agent Barnum. Special Agent Thompson. Sitrep. I have an HRTteam ready to go"

"Special Agent Thompson?" Dozer quirked an eyebrow, before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose, "Did Cho crash the car? That would be the capper on my day if that happened..."

Silver Star - First Class Car

Nik sat down opposite Dozer, his gaze shifting from the closed door of the berth where Kevin and Beatrice were working and the FBI agent and acknowledging the salute with a nod. Smirking he took the cap off the bottle of vodka and took a small, slow pull.

"Agent Cho is still following the train and has been providing me with updates," came the response over Dozer's headset, "I gather now that communication has been restored that things are going well?

Inside the berth, as Beatrice waited for her computer to load, she took the opportunity to add water to the seed Dozer had planted confirming she was involved with certain parties the self-important hacker had shown interest in. The worry and defeat on Kevin's face faded slightly as he took in the meaning of her words, his actions a bit more enthusiastic and hospitable as he unlocked his computer's screen and nodded in understanding and agreement of her plan.

As he took the thumb drive and inserted into his rig, Beatrice could see all the lines of code where Kevin had set up the auction board and had had SEER ready to upload. She also noticed it was keyed to upload and extract its self to the internet.

---

"Depends on who you ask," Dozer picked up the pistol.

"Got a bunch of scared passengers stuffed into the last three cars like sardines, though they are unharmed otherwise."

*Clicksliide* The magazine comes out.

"All Tangos have been neutralized, I'd say roughly a platoon of Russian footmobiles, armed with pistols and shotguns. About, oh, half of them are unconscious, and tied up real good for their court appearance."

*Click* He tilted the pistol a little so the bullet flew up to where he could catch it, before nonchalantly tossing the empty gun onto the floor.

"Including their head boss, who did not go down easy."

Dozer finally looked over to where Sebastian fell, and sighed, flicking the bullet away.

"Though his last mook got lucky on his return fire. Agent Sebastian Milford is gone. I repeat, Agent Sebastian Milford is KIA. He took a pair of blasts to the chest after catching the Tangos on the flank."

Alright, moment of truth. Speak carefully.

"I've also done some emergency field deputizations. I'm sure I'm going to catch some flak about this when I get back, but I wasn't able to get more back-up at the time."

Dozer looked over at the door Beatrice and Kevin were hopefully doing their thing behind.

"Especially when the HVT was secured. Be advised, the package is still live," he tilted his head back and forth, "Turns out hacking isn't a series of minigames," he then shook it, "So unless you can man-cannon a techie over here in the next few minutes, I'm having to improvise here."

Silver Star - First Class Car

There was a long pause on the other end of the radio, that Dozer assumed meant Agent Thompson was digesting the information he had provided in his sitrep and most likely conferring with her superiors. Eventually the radio crackled to life in the grizzled agent's ear, "Understood Agent Barnum. The HRT is positioned to receive the passengers from the rear of the train. Please confirm your last statement ... the package is still live?"

Inside the berth, Beatrice was busy at work implementing a plan that would see the SEER program secured and the potential buyer dealing with a virus that would hopefully set their organization back a bit and tarnish the Mikhailovich family in the process. With a nervous sigh, Kevin handed the thumb drive with the SEER program to Bea and took the one containing the virus and queued it up to be sent to the auction winner. His weary eyes drifted to the clock at the bottom right of his screen, We still have 2 minutes until the satellite is in range and the auction can be started. Anything else?

---

Dozer pulled himself up in anticipation of Thompson's question.

"Stand by," he said as he stepped over to the door.

He pulled off his headset, and made sure to turn it off before knocking. Opening the door, he poked his head in.

"We all having a good time?" he asked without pausing, "Good."

He then stepped over to Beatrice and leaned in.

"Got an Agent Thompson on the line, standing by with HRT at the station," he whispered, "I didn't recognize her voice from the regional office, so I tried to imply over the line that you were an emergency field deputy. If you want to run with that, or admit to being CIA, that's up to you. Right now I'm trying to 'confirm' if the package is still live or not, so I intend to hand this over to you."

Dozer held up the headset, waiting for her okay.

Dozer quirked an eyebrow.

"'Not supposed to be here?' Okay, so that pistol jumped out of that thug's holster in the last car, beat him cross the face, then shot its way through twelve train cars. The last thing I reported on, before the jammer went up, was coming across that body you left back there. And forensics is going to confirm that a .45's been fighting along side us the whole way.

"It's going to look a little suspicious that I left out what happened to whomever was wielding it."

Beatrice frowned.

"Yea, I see your point," she seemed lost in a thought for a second, before adding, "You're right, you'll need to include me in your reports but we need you to buy us some time. Kevin is going to go ahead with the auction but I gave him a different package to unload that doesn't contain SEER, but a virus that wreak havoc on whatever system it is activated on.

"But I need to get the list of the bidders. We might be able to backtrack them to their source."

"Hmm, sneaky," Dozer nodded.

"And, hopefully, whomever does get the package will blame the duplicitous Russian Mafia for their underhanded methods."

"Alright, I can back that plan. But..." Dozer shakes the headset for emphasis "What if a tech from HRT tracks the auction going through, and tries to block it somehow? Thing is, I want to say we can just tell them, but I don't know how reliable they are."

Beatrice gave Dozer a smile. "So you'll need to convince them to NOT do that."

Beatrice started to look a little impatient, "I need to get something from the my luggage. This may be hard to believe, but electronically duping several criminal organizations wasn't on my radar when the fighting started.

"Can you keep an eye Kevin, here? And if he starts the auction before I get back, keep track of the names of the bidders?"

Dozer sighed, scratching his forehead under the watch-cap.

"Why did the Captain put me here?"

He nods with his head, and puts on his headset.

Beatrice's face lightened up for a moment and she placed a hand on Dozer's shoulder.

"Because from what I've seen, you were the best man for this job."

"Heh. Thanks for the vote of confidence."

She patted it, adding, "I couldn't have asked for better."

Dozer moved to let Beatrice get her luggage, and pulls out a phone, intending to record video of Kevin's screen.

Sitting down next to Kevin in a way that kept the door in sight, Dozer adjusted his rifle (after double checking the safety was on) so as to be away from the hacker. Dozer then looked at the screen as he pondered his next words. He then turned his radio back on.

"Agent Barnum here. I am currently running myself cross-eyed trying to figure this thing out. Mind double checking something with Cho real quick? Ask him what I, as in Agent Barnum, tossed in the back seat?"

Silver Star - First Class Car

Laying out her plan for Dozer and finding the grizzled agent in agreement, Beatrice left some last second instructions before excusing herself to retrieve her luggage.

Settling in next to Kevin and ensuring his weapons were secured Dozer took note of the hacker's screen. Kevin's mouth opened slightly, his face betraying his curiosity towards Bea and Dozer's exchange, before closing wordlessly with a worried glance towards the agent's weaponry.

There was a small pause following Dozer's question before Agent Cho's somewhat emotional voice came over the radio, "It was a spare grapple and your NVGs." Another pause, "Witting has confirmed that the HRT is on site and ready to deploy on your signal and that Agent Thompson has taken over by order of the Office of Special Assignments."

"Understood," a smile tugged as Dozer heard Cho's voice, before he half-heartedly patted his pouches, "Now if I could remember which pocket..."

He then held up his phone with a fake smile.

"Ah, there's my phone."

It wasn't really necessary to do the physical bit, because only Kevin (and maybe Nik if he poked his head in) could see him, but Dozer had a tendency to talk with his hands, and he felt it made him sound more natural over the radio with the "assistance".

"Alright, small correction. A package is live, as in Alpha Package is live, not "THE" Package is live, as in Sierra Package. I've got Kevin here right now."

Dozer leaned closer and held his mic out.

"Say 'Hi', Kevin."

Dozer waited a moment for a response, then pulled away.

"Now I want it on the record that Kevin's being a very good boy, and has agreed to have a little surprise ready for everyone that was interested in Sierra. The type of surprise with glitter, paint, and fart gas. How copy so far, over?""

Silver Star - First Class Car

Dozer provided the outline of the plan in his unique, yet concise way and informed Agents Cho and Thompson that SEER had been secured and a hopefully nasty surprise awaited the successful buyer. As the rugged agent held his mic out a rather confused looking and unsure Kevin responded with a meek "Hello?"

A small chuckle briefly preceeded Agent Thompson's sultry reply, "That's a copy Agent Barnum."

Numbers began to pop up on Kevin's screen, the previously flustered hacker's demeanor suddenly becoming all busines. "The satellite link is up," he exclaimed, a skinny finger tapping the screen where the numbers had begun to populate, "Those are the buyers. IP address only so as not to identify themselves."

He turned towards Dozer, a slightly worried expression touching the intelligent features of his face, "They're probably fake," he added with a shrug.

A sudden knock on the berth's door caused the pair to jump as an out of breath Beatrice cautiously stepped in, clearly being cautious so as not to get shot.

---

"Yeah, well, fake or not, every little bit of info helps," Dozer said as he lined up his phone to take a picture of the screen, focusing on the IP addresses (and trying not to show too much background details) before clicking a pic, "even more so when you have a second copy to be sure."

He checked his phone, then put a hand up to his headset.

"Alright, auction is in progress. Stand by," he said before clicking it off, giving Beatrice the thumbs up to speak.

Dozer, upon hearing this, leaned forward and rubbed his face as he pondered.

"My first choice would be to just let you go with it. My main objective was to prevent that from being uploaded. You walking out here still does that, it just means we would have a do-over of that at a later date. No doubt your, ahem, 'friends' could lob a burner to throw off the trail.

"That said, we might have a second option: The HRT's going to be focused on the passengers at the back, on my command. I could try telling them to focus on that, but I need to see Agent Thompson alone for something sensitive, which this technically is, up here. How confident are you in talking your way out?"

"Disappearing into the crowd of passengers is my way out."

"So that's a 'not very'."

"How much access do you have to the FBI's intel records? Is it possible you could retrieve the contents of this laptop once SEER has been scrubbed?"

Dozer shook his head.

"I'm stuck in the armory, because the FBI doesn't want to tick off PITFALL too much. Turns out putting one of their agents in the hospital over the little manner of murdering civilians gets a person in trouble."

Beatrice raised an eyebrow quizzically, but declined to comment.

"If I take the hard drive, you could track me down later and get it back," she said, "I just need a way to contact you so I can return once it I have what I need from it."

Dozer grinned, "That I could do."

He motioned for Beatrice to lean in closer. Pausing for a second, she nervously obliged.

"Lynch's Pub, next to the Freedom Way Church," he whispered, "Can buy a few drinks while we're at it."

"You want to risk being seen in public together after this?"

"Don't worry, it's where my friends hang out," Dozer winked, before pulling back, "Go ahead, take it. Worse comes to worse, I got a fallback position."

Beatrice gave Dozer a sad smile. "Thanks. This won't be the first hit you've taken for me."

Dozer shrugged, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm used to taking hits."

Shaking her head, Beatrice's attitude returned to the matter at hand. "OK, let's get this auction over so I can get to work," she said, opening her tool kit.

Turning to Kevin, she added, "I assume you keep your data encrypted at rest. If you could please provide us with the password to access it, we'd appreciate it."

Suddenly the sound of a ringing phone filled the room. Everyone turned towards Dozer as he looked at his, and saw him doubletake before rolling his eyes.

"No Mom, it's not a good time right now!" he gritted his teeth as he stood up, turning off his device, before asking rhetorically at it, "How did you even get this number?!"

Dozer gave a baffled shrug as he went to walk into the hallway. Before he got there, Beatrice spoke up.

"Make sure you call her back," she said, a look of melancholy on her face, "You shouldn't ignore your mother, you never know how much time you really have.""

Dozer paused at that, before quirking a lopsided smile, "Trust me, calling back won't be a problem. She probably saw something on the news, and is already on a plane, with intent to run up and glomp me."

As Dozer made his way into the hallway, he gave a nod towards Nik. He then walked over and scooped up the whiskey bottle, before walking over to the dead thug, and rubbed the bottle in the blood on the floor.

"There," he said, "Now I can accept this in evidence as a 'potential' weapon'. Get the feeling I'm going to be needing this later..."

Silver Star - First Class Car

As Dozer and Beatrice quietly discussed their options regarding the operative's need for the information contained on Kevin's laptop, the defeated hacker silently monitored the auctions progress. His head slowly began to tilt towards the pair, eyes curiously flicking between the glow of the screen and his captors, vainly attempting to be privy to the conversation whilst not appearing to do so. When Beatrice suddenly turned to address him his head guiltily snapped towards his laptop screen.

Voice cracking a bit, before composing his self he replied with a defeated sigh, "I ... I can deactivate all my security measures." With practiced ease, the young hacker's hands flew across the keys, even as he continud to monitor the auctions progress. "Aaand ... done," he exclaimed, turning towards Bea with nod.

The sudden sound of a cell phone ring nearly caused the hacker to jump out of his seat, his glare following Dozer into the hall. "The auction has concluded," he croaked as his head whipped towards his screen and his demeanor again became all business, "The funds have been trasnferred." Eyes widening, a slight smirk tugging the corners of his mouth as he turned to look at Bea, his head nodding in approval, "Two point two eight ... billion," he purred. The satisfied look was quickly replaced by alarm, his hand lashing out to slam the laptop shut. "Uh ... they didn't go for the fake" he groaned, "And have ... graphically described what they will do when they catch up to me". Hand shaking slightly as he brought it up to look at his watch he added, "You have about a minute until we reach the station"

In the car corridor's tight confines Nik returned the burly FBI agents nod with a mock cheers of his borrowed vodka bottle, that Dozer noticed had a decent amount of the clear liquid now missing. Smirking the thief, watched Dozer as he scooped up the whiskey bottle and ensured he'd be able to partake later. With a chuckle he pointed towards the front of the train, "Feels like we're slowing. Must be nearing the station." Standing, the rugged thief steadied his self, and pulled Dozer's lent sidearm from his waist and handed it to the agent, "I think that's my cue to return to the back with the passengers ... be rescued."