Well, none of this is good news.

[simon_didnt_say]

Simon had been a bit on edge every since he'd had a look at Nikki's phone, uncovering that it had been bugged.  Of course, Nikki dragging him unceremoniously to Director Fury to report directly probably hadn't helped.  Simon was much better toiling away in the lab, writing reports and designing equipment to be used by other agents.  He wasn't so good with people, especially important people.

But the fact of the matter was, security had definitely been breached.  Multiple analysts were working in the issue at least.

In the meantime, he was taking point on examining the phone itself, carefully having it in a signal blocking cube while he used small robotic tools to manipulate it.  He was currently carefully peeling away the outer frame to get at the circuits underneath.

"Come on," he told it.  "I'm going to learn your secrets one way or the other...  So you might as well talk to me..."

Comments

[shieldbrat]

It was a risk. Nikki had wanted to keep it between the 3 of them, play it out. Hydra didn't know they knew, that was an advantage, as soon as the systems when on high alert, the jig was up....

But she was out voted. There was nothing worse than a field agent who had no field mission, not until they tracked down a lead. Which was why she was striding into Simon's lab, "Aww...that's how I was asked out to prom.."

[simon_didnt_say]

Simon, unfortunately, had his back to the door, so the sudden arrival of anyone came as a bit of a surprise. Especially with a relative non-sequitur.

"I... what?"

[shieldbrat]

"'You might as well talk to me'...? Never mind..what have you found out...?"

[simon_didnt_say]

Okay, back to technology. Simon was much more comfortable with that. "Not a terrible amount yet. I've only really begun disassembling it. Had to make sure this little beastie wasn't going to explode or anything first. But I am already sure of one thing. This was never an iPhone to begin with. It's a clever copy, top to bottom."

[shieldbrat]

"I knew not to try an apple." Not that it was an apple product...

"Couldn't we set up some dummy servers, activate it and trace to where it's transmitting?"

[simon_didnt_say]

"We might be able to," he said, "but not until we learn exactly how it works and was put together first. It might explode first if we tried that."

He concentrated on operating the miniature robot arms, carefully removing the "phone"'s motherboard. "Told you you'd talk," he told it. "Now all I have to do is get a look at your programming...."

[shieldbrat]

Her lips twitched as she watched him, "...I may need to study your advanced interrogation technique sometime....Can I get you anything? Coffee?"

[simon_didnt_say]

The thought of coffee got Simon to brighten up considerably. "Oh, yes, please," he said. "2.2 ounces of cream and 40 grams of sugar... Er, sorry, doing the math. Five creams, ten sugars."

[shieldbrat]

"That's not coffee, thats sugar water with a little java flavoring." but still...she paused before heading to the nearest breakroom and coming back with a cup of coffee with more sugar and cream than god ever intended and a redbull for herself, sitting across from him, careful to put the drinks well out of elbow knocking range.

[simon_didnt_say]

Simon took a long drink of coffee, carefully putting his drink back down where it couldn't get knocked over.

"That is a perfectly acceptable amount of sugar to help keep a healthy brain working," he told her.

Motherboard extracted from the signal cage, he slipped it into another device. "Circuit reader," he explained. "Not connected to any other database. No transmittal equipment at all, just data-reading. It should let us know what exactly this little fellow's marching orders were."

[shieldbrat]

"Unless its a distraction...we're focused on this thing while something else logs into all our snap chats..." she was just making noise, she knew this was beyond he paygrade or understanding... "...have you heard about my brother...?"

[simon_didnt_say]

This distracted him for a moment. "Steve?" he asked. "What's... what going on? Is something wrong?"

[shieldbrat]

Nikki had nerves of steel. She was a field agent, it took a lot to make her flustered, even more to make her upset...but that's how she looked as she traced a finger over the rim of her can, "He's getting married. To a girl he 'sorta likes' who's involved in organized crime."

[simon_didnt_say]

Simon was glad he was neither holding his coffee cup nor drinking from it, because it would have ended up all over everything.

"I... what?" he stammered. "I... I can't possibly have heard you right."

[shieldbrat]

"You heard me right. He's marrying into the thieves guild. A Le Beau."

[simon_didnt_say]

"I er... that... that can't possibly be right," he said. "How would he even meet someone like that?"

[shieldbrat]

She just shook her head, suddenly wishing for some Vodka to go with her redbull. "I...have *no* idea."

[simon_didnt_say]

"Are you sure it's really him? Not some imposter or Skrull or something maybe? Because that would make more sense."

[shieldbrat]

She snorted at that, "I wish...I really do. At least then...but I know my brother. Even at his most stupid. This is going to ruin his career...and it's going to destroy his life, he's going to be facing the legal ramifications for *years*, let alone the emotional baggage..."

[simon_didnt_say]

"This just... this doesn't make any sense," Simon said. "Steve is much too level headed for this kind of thing."

[shieldbrat]

"He's supposed to be the smart twin. I'm the good looking twin." She snorted at her own little joke before popping the top. "There's surveillance equipment in my apartment. There has to be, it's the only way they could of known I dropped my phone in the toilet..."

[simon_didnt_say]

"We could... we could check it out?" Simon suggested. "I've got lots of toys for seeing if a place is bugged."