On The Inside (backdated scene)

June 06, 2016:

Following the events in Internal Security Breach May and Peggy go investigate LexCorp

New York

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Not too long ago, Jemma had heard 'chatter' the LexCorp had tech going missing. Given the nature of that tech, it had caught her attention and she reached out to Peggy Carter to help her investigate. The very scant data that Jemma had been able access (she's good, but she's no Fitz when it comes to hacking) showed experimental technology had made it's way to the underground market - tech that should be a well guarded secret for LexCorp. A closer look showed that the job might be an inside one. Peggy had agreed to go undercover and see what else they could find.

It had taken a few days to get the required paraphenalia for Peggy to pose as one Theresa Ivers, someone transferring into the company very soon. Whilst gaining that paraphenalia, Jemma had also briefed May and sent a message to Jericho, asking for hacking assistance - if he could at all spare the time.

With things set, it's time to move.

"From what I can see, their R&D section is on the fifth floor." Jemma points to the building schematics on her tablet "There's a security checkpoint on the ground floor and one as you enter the fifth. Theresa Ivers is one of the admin people who has access to that area. Getting in there shouldn't be a problem. Finding out who, if anyone, is leaking the tech - that's going to be challenge."


"May, whilst Agent Carter is searching for physical proof, you can target the computer system and pull whatever data you can off it. Ultimately, we want to stop this tech leaking - so … do whatever you see fit." They had been removing tech from the board, LexCorp might just be another casuality.


Having more than one person physically infiltrate the same building is never 'clean', so May devised another way to get into the building's computer system. Wireless access has a greater chance of being traced and the servers are very securely housed in one of the building's upper floors. There is, however, an access point that many people never consider, mostly because of the insane complexity required in hacking a system from an entire building's T3 trunk. But, not everyone is Jericho Trent.

Having entered the building's subterranean electrical access via the city's underground access grid, she locates a particular steel door and pauses before trying to get past it. Setting her backpack down carefully, she opens the main compartment zipper and looks at K'Nert passenging inside. "Your turn."


Peggy is already dressed for the op. She doesn't have the blonde hair that Theresa Ivers has, but that's what wigs are for. She's researched the woman through Facebook and found a bit more about her style of dress and her interests - she's ready to play her, she believes. And, she has practiced her American Accent quite a few times. Finishing off the look with a pair of glasses and her badge pinned to her jacket, the woman has a SHIELD ear piece tucked into her ear. "Got it." She looks determined, nodding at Simmons and grins. "Piece of cake."

Then, she's out the door to infiltrate. Walking straight through the doors and into the building, she flashes her badge and a nervous smile at the security guards in front of her. It's her first day, after all.


May has the latest dataspikes from Jemma. The ones with the updated algorithms. Once she's got physical access to the computer, pulling the data shouldn't be a problem. That steel door though, Mays going to have to deal with that. There is a coded lock on it.

"Good luck then." Jemma says to Peggy, watching the woman as she moves off.

When 'Theresa' enters the building and flashes that security card, the guards give her and it the 'once over'. She seems to pass that muster at least as she's waved through. The trip to the fifth floor is relatively uneventful - people in the elevator give her a quick look, she is new afterall. Stepping out onto the fifth floor, she's confronted by an 'admin' desk beyond which she can see the research area, behind thick security glass and a biometric reader.

"Hello, can I help you?" The well dress admin asks as Peggy approaches.


Melinda May watches K'nert meander off and really hopes he's actually going to bring Trent back with him. But she can't worry about that now. Now, she's got a steel door to concentrate on.

Reaching into her backpack again, she pulls out a combination of high tech and old school lock-cracking tools. The first, a tablet computer with a cable dangling out of one connection port. The second, a small glass vial half filled with black powder and a makeup brush. SHe uses the powder and brush first, dusting the lock to see which buttons get used the most frequently.


Tucking a piece of blonde hair behind her hair, Peggy gives a shy smile. "Yes," she says, American accent in place, putting her somewhere near Boston, but not full on 'hahvahd yahd'. "Sorry, I'm Theresa Ivers. I'm a bit early. I'm new. First day!" She holds out her badge for the admin to inspect, practically beaming with pride at starting work for LexCorp. "I'm a little nervous, sorry. You know, first big job."


May can see the buttons that are used most frequently, she can even guess the order in which they are pressed. The oil on the finger diminishes after pressing the first key, so theoretically the keys that appear 'brightest' will be the ones that have been first. For now, the corridor she's in remains silent and she can't hear anything beyond the door. "Next patrol is due by your location in four minutes, May." Jemma's been timing the security patrols, it seems.

"You're early." the admin grumbles at the blonde "Weren't expecting you in for another couple of days. Let's get you into the system then, so you can go through. Follow me." She gestures, moving Peggy to have her fingerprint scanned for the biometric reader. "And, yeah, welcome to LexCorp."

Peggy might want to think about those fingerprints before she leaves!

Once through the door, the research area is clean and tidy. Work benches in the middle, some with computers, others with plans. There's a half dozen people working at those tables and one comes over to greet her. "Stephanie tells me you're the new start. I'm Doctor Hindmarsh. Let's get you started. We need these records collated and filed." she says, handing 'Therese' a pile of paper - stacked in alternating directions.

Now, how is Peggy going to find out how the tech is being leaked?


"Acknowledged." Apparently she won't need the tablet right this moment after all. Good. May quickly stows the objects back in her pack and shoulders it again, then with a gloved knuckle presses each key in the code sequence, using enough pressure to wipe the dust off at the same time. She tries the door, slips through when it opens, and closes it again gently while looking around. She's not going to say she's successfully accessed the computer hard lines until she locates them.


It hasn't escaped Peggy's notice that she has to give her fingerprints to get going forward. Looking abashed, she replies, "Am I? Oh, I'm so sorry." However, she doesn't offer to leave. She's here, after all. "Oh, Doctor Hindmarsh, thank you! I'm Theresa. It's nice to meet you." She reaches over to shake hands. "Yes! Of course, of course. Is there a particular place I should do this? I don't want to be a bother to anyone. It seems like everyone is so busy."


The door opens to a communications nexus. Most, if not all, the communications for the building run through here including the main trunk for data access. Everything is organised into cabinets or termination racks and May finds two that could be two computer hard lines. Which might seem a little unusual, unless one is a backup line. Either way, she might need to tap both.

Hindmarsh gestures vaguely to the filing and plan cabinets that line one wall of the room. "Each pile should have a project number on it. Locate the project in the cabinet and file it." There's a desk near the area, which will give Peggy good access to the room and working at the next workbench is another scientist. A scientist who seems to be doing their own filing.


Melinda May looks through the various cabinets and racks in the room, and finally settles on two sets of wires that are likely hardlines for the building. "Target located. There are two hard lines here. Please advise." She's really hoping she doesn't have to tap into both. That will be annoying. Hurry up and get here already, Trent.


Project numbers, files, that seems like a good place to start. "Will do!" She gives the best first day on the job and nervous jitters grin and moves to the filing cabinets. If all the projects are listed, maybe she can start to get some information. To the scientist next to her, she smiles and puts her files right down next to them. "Hi," she says quietly, to not disturb the others, to get a good lay of the land. "Nice to meet you. Looks like we'll be working on something similar."


It entirely possible that Jericho's been caught up in another of his projects and won't be there to help May. She and Jemma are going to have to work this out on their own.

The scientist that 'Therese' speaks with gives her a blank look. It's almost like they're working on autopilot and not altogether there, or just very focussed on filing. Strange? What Peggy will notice is that the Scientist has some type of device that they hold over the papers they're filing … a camera perhaps? Some form of imaging device? Whatever it is, what they're doing isn't noticeable and if Peggy hadn't arrived when she did, she would have missed it.

"Two lines, May?" Jemma asks, letting out a sigh as she pulls up the records she's got. "Uh… just a moment…" Poor May, this is going to feel like hours whilst the biochem tries to work out which one. Finally, Jemmas' voice crackles back over the comms "The main line is the one with the connection number ending in 56723. I'm not showing records for a second. It might have gone in recently and the database not been updated or it might be something else."

May can tell by looking at the lines, that whilst the second seems newer - it's not new. It's been there for awhile.

"You've got two datapsikes, don't you May?"


"I have two dataspikes." May studies the two bundles of cabling until she finds access points for them and see that one has the aforementioned number noted on it. "First is connecting… now." She plugs the first one in, then studies the second and similarly attaches the second data spike. "Second is connecting."


Peggy looks at the other scientist, tilting her head slightly to take the other person in. "Hey, I'm Theresa," she tries again, attempting to keep the other woman's attention. "Is all they have us do is filing?" it's a friendly conversation, but she's certainly attempting to keep them in conversation. Surreptitiously, she looks for their name tag, a way to identify. She also, attempts to keep an eye on whatever it is that's being used over the files. It may be a red herring, but it may also exactly what she's looking for.


As May connects the second dataspike, Jemma see's an alarm triggered in the system. Strangely this alarm doesn't notify LexCorp security directly, it seems to be going out to a select few security guards and some of the personnel on the fifth floor.

"May, Agent Carter." Jemma breaks radio silence with Peggy "There's alarms been set off, to select people on the fifth floor and some of security. Expect trouble."

Therese's introduction gets nothing more than a non-committal grunt as the other woman slips that device back into her pocket. The woman tenses for a moment, about the same time as Jemma's information comes in. Without another word to Peggy, the woman turns and walks briskly across the room heading to the door out. As does one of the other scientists. Seems they're heading for the lift.

May can hear footsteps coming towards the door - she'll have seconds to do something before that door opens - and the dataspikes haven't finished their work yet.


May mutters a faint curse, then closes the access points of the cable sets so the data spikes aren't instantly visible before moving to hide in a dark corner behind a communications rack that looks antiquated compared to everything else.


Peggy waits a moment before following the other scientist. If there was an alarm set off not to LexCorp and these two people are leaving, that means that they must be involved on. Grabbing a few of the files, she keeps moving, using them as some form of cover so that should she be asked questions, she has a good reason. As soon as the others have turned their backs on her, she is quick to follow. She means to get on that lift with them one way or another.


Mays just in time as the door opens and a security guard pokes their head in.

"Nothing here, Hothman."

"Something triggered that alarm. We need to look around."

Two armed guards enter the room and slowly look around. Seeing the door to the comms rack slightly ajar, they make their way to it. They'll find those dataspikes if Mays' not quick.

Peggy is quick enough to make the lift with the two scientists, even if she has to catch the door with her hand. As she does, she catches some of their conversation "… compromised. We've been advised to deliver what we have and go to ground till further notice."


Melinda May carefully palms two ICER rounds, and the moment both guards have their banks turned to her approaching that comms rack, she steps out and hits them both on the backs of their necks with those ICER rounds as hard as she can. And she REALLY hopes her gloves are enough to keep the dendrotoxin from affecting her as well.


Peggy isn't about to let them all leave. "Following two rabbits," she says softly to her com link, alerting Simmons that she's on the move. "Elevator." With her files tucked properly under her arm, she sticks her hand resolutely into the doorway and pulls it back open. Though she hears the sentences, she pretends as if she doesn't. Giving the others a very good natured smile, she moves inside and smiles. "Going down?" Her expression is noncommittally friendly.


Mays ploy works and the security guards slide to the ground, but she's going to have to move quickly. Someone will be expecting a report from them soon. It takes a few moments longer before the dataspikes blink, indicating they've got their data download. "May, we need to disable those feeds. We can't be sure who they are yet, but it's ending up on the underground market. Make it hard for them to recover." Which might mean the main and secondary feed should be destroyed. That's up to May.

"Be careful, Agent Carter, if they're Daemonites… you have that device I gave you, right?" Jemma had given Peggy one of the prototype detectors she'd created with Sue Storm. It looked something akin to a keyfob remote "Just press the button on it as you aim at each person. If it buzzes, pretend it's your phone … but it should tell you what you're dealing with."

The Daemonites are tough - but Jemma knows two things - one, they'll run before risking being exposed too much and two, the only way they've found to disable them is deepfreezing.

Certainly, as Peggy tests them, one of the scientists produces a positive result. The Agent Emeritus might not want to throw down with that one. The other scientist though? Seems human.


"I have just the thing." May pulls the dataspikes now that they've done their work, and digs into her backpack again. She pulls a handful of tiny (the size of a hockey puck) devices and attaches two to each trunk. She sets little timers in one on each side, sets them, makes sure the two guards are well away in another part of the electrical room, then starts the timers before ducking back out. "On my way back."

Sixty seconds later, the little thermite charges go off, hissing and sparking and completely melting all of the wires in the trunks. The second charge on each trunk makes doubly sure those connections are well and thoroughly melted through and fused into one useless mass. Conveniently, the charges and their timers are also completely consumed.


Peggy can't say anything to Jemma without alerting the others in the elevator to her intentions. However, she puts a hand in her pocket and there is a buzzing sound. Giving the others a bit of an apologetic look, she goes to find her phone. She picks it up, checking it for messages before putting it back into her bag. Looks like there's one of them. At least she knows that. She again attempts to figure out some form of identification of the others. Either that or an attempt to follow the human member of the infiltrators. She doesn't want to fight a Daemonite, but she will if she has to.


It's a good thing that Peggy doesn't want to fight a Daemonite, and as she looks she gets the two peoples name. Rachel Saunders and Peta Griphon (the one that triggered the detector). As they exit the elevator, the pair split up, allowing Peggy to follow Rachel to the ladies room. Peta heads out the door to the street - looks like she might be heading to coffee.

The thermite goes off, frying the connection and throwing the building into chaos as all the communications fail - except for cell access of course. As May exits the comms room, she comes face to face with another guard "Hey, what are yo—-" he tries to grab for the agent as he reaches for his gun.


Melinda May lashes out at the the guard the moment they notice each other, one hand striking out at the hand reaching for the gun, the other aiming a jab at his throat. With another ICER round. That's proving to be kind of useful, actually.


Peggy follows Rachel at a normal clip. She may just be using the ladies, too! Why they would both come downstairs to do so is up to debate. As she follows, she says softly to Jemma, "I may need to make a hasty exit. Also, my fingerprints have been scanned. If it's possible to erase those, I'd much appreciate it." However, as soon as she's inside, she looks to see if there are others inside before attempting to confront Rachel. The last thing she wants is a public fight.


The guard manages deflect Mays blow, but is caught offbalance and lets go of his gun, leaving him to go hand to hand with the Secret Agent. He's nowhere near as skilled as May is though, sloppy even. This shouldn't take long to finish.

There's no one else in the bathroom, it's just Peggy and Rachel. Rachel is at the sinks, touching up her makeup and fixing her hair. She certainly doesn't seem to be expecting anything.

"Exit just behind your location, Agent Carter. Out the doors and to your left. It lets out into a side street and I'll arrange a pick up for you and May." May can hear this discussion, though she'll have her own way out. "I got a worm into their system before May hit the comms lines. They're being erased as we speak…"


This guard is so pathetic it's almost insulting. May doens't lament that the ICER punch didn't work a second time, there's always a chance of that. Instead, a few quick jabs and one good kick to the man's torso to send him against the far wall with a possibly excessive amount of force, and hopefully that'll be the end of it. The clock is ticking.


"Much appreciated," Peggy tells Simmons as she pushes into the bathroom. Moving toward the sink nearby, she puts the files down on the sink. Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out a bit of lipstick and places a hand on the edge, deliberately slipping the folders onto the floor, spreading the papers everywhere. "Oh! Dear! I am—oh, I am just so sorry." Continuing with the klutzy trend, she slips on the papers, jumbling right up next to Rachel. As she does so, she attempts the classic pickpocket trick - grab the device Rachel was using to take pictures with while making contact with her.


Mays successful and her way is to clear to get out. She needs to move quickly, there's about 7 minutes till the next security sweep is expected. Her exit will take her out to the car that Jemma is waiting in - they can pick up Peggy and be gone.

Peggys gambit has Rachel stumbling off balance, trying to catch herself on the counter and then the wall, not noticing the pickpocket manoeuvre employed. Peggy has it - it's time to get out.


Melinda May doesn't waste a moment. In fact, she takes a good portion of the distance back to the extraction point at a run, to make sure she misses that next guard rotation. She also takes that time to make a mental note to find out why Trent didn't show to help them. Was he otherwise occupied? Or did K'nert just not bother to let him know?


"I am so so sorry," Peggy continues in her American accent, slipping the device into the arm of her shirt while she simultaneously attempts to straighten Rachel against the basin. Ducking down, she scoops up the papers, haphazardly slinging them into folders and standing. Her sweet dreams lipstick - her back up plan, is slipped back into her pocket. "I'll just, I should go fix these," she practically squeaks. "I am so sorry again!" Wiping down the folders, she holds them out to a random passerby. "These need to get to the 7th Floor. Stat. Go!" Using the voice she used to use to order Cadets around, she doesn't even wait to hear the other person say anything. She's betting they'll put their own finger prints all over them in an attempt to figure out what they are.

Then, she turns a corner, taking the left and through the doors. It lands her out on the street. "Alright," she tells Jemma, still in the American accent. It'll take her a few minutes to get herself off of it. "I'm out. And I think I got whatever it was they were using to steal intel."


As May enters the car, Jemma drives off. Poor May is going to have to put up with Jemma as 'wheelman'. The car pulls up at the end of the sidestreet, pausing just long enough for Peggy to get in and then they're off.

"Excellent. And you've also proven that it's Daemonites." There had been the possibility that it wasn't. That it is … well, that's just another company to add to the list.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License