Part 2
It was the morning of the hacking test when Charlie was able to meet up with Clint. The man had been off on a mission of sorts until that point. They choose to meet at the old oak at the back of the compound, a place that was quickly becoming their usual meeting place.
“Why did you bring me out here too early?” Clint groaned in lieu of a greeting.
“I found something,” Charlie said as she pulled a file out of her backpack and handed it to Clint.
“What did you find?” Clint asked as he began to flip through the large file.
“William Young is running a secret undercover operation with Rachel McKinley. It’s off the books and I haven’t found any correspondence with any higher ups giving Young the approval to do so.”
Clint hummed as he skimmed the pages.
“She has concern over Alex Manson so I have been keeping an extra eye on him,” Charlie continued, “she’s right on one thing, he is sneaking off to question her.”
“Good catch, I’ll bring this to Fury,” Clint informed her as he closed the file and stuffed it into his own bag. “Keep your ear to the ground.”
“That’s it? I have been trying to meet with you for days.”
Clint looked at his watch, “Unfortunately, it's not me that has to leave right now. It’s you. Your test is in ten minutes.”
Charlie’s eyes widened, “Why does Young choose to have our tests so early in the morning?”
Clint shrugged, “to torture you, maybe?”
Charlie rolled her eyes.
The duo started to make their way back towards the main building. They were allowed to be seen together as agents should be seen with their recruits, it was the information that they shared together that required the secret meeting place.
Clint could sense there was more Charlie wanted to ask, “she’s okay, you know.”
Charlie raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Natasha,” Clint answered, “she’s working with your father still.”
“With? No one works with Tony Stark, only for,” Charlie said with a scoff.
“You care for her?” Clint asked.
Charlie stopped walking, “she was there for me when I needed her to be.”
“Yeah, Natasha’s good at that.”
Charlie nodded as she began to walk side-by-side with Clint again.
Once they got to the doors, Clint bid Charlie farewell and went on his way.
Charlie made her way, alone, to the grand room; a plain room that was basically the size of a high school gym. It seemed that she was the last recruit to arrive. The room was filled with clusters of computers, twelve in each cluster.
“Wyatt, so glad you could join us,” Young said sarcastically.
Charlie just tilted her head at him and joined her team.
“Where were you?” Alex questioned in a whisper.
“I got held up talking with my agent,” Charlie explained vaguely as she shrugged.
Rachel scoffed.
It seems that Young hasn’t responded to her request of changing her behaviour.
“Listen up!” Young started, “As you can see there are groups of twelve computers around the room and thirteen in each of your groups.”
Charlie looked around at the confused faces of the others.
“Leadership is important in our line of work,” Young explained, “As I said before, your team is only as strong as your weakest member, so to make matters worse, I have taken out your best. Your team will have to complete this test, one member short.”
Marissa physically paled.
“Hey, it’s okay. You know what you’re doing. Just like we practiced, right?” Charlie reassured.
Rachel scoffed, “Who said it was you that Young choose to sit out.”
“DeLais, Fredrickson, Prince, McDonald, and Wyatt,” Young listed, “You will be sitting this one out.
Charlie raised an eyebrow at Rachel, “hmm, I think Young said he choose me.”
Rachel growled under her breath.
“You will find your names assigned to each computer. Go, find our spots,” Young instructed.
Charlie quickly located the cluster of computers assigned to her group.
Once each recruit was settled and the team leads were standing by, Young continued, “The job of the team leads is the hardest. Beside each computer is an earpiece, put them on. If a recruit becomes stuck you may communicate to your team lead through said earpieces. The challenge is that they will be in another room. Sometimes agents need help while in the field, and that is okay, within reason, but your help is almost never with you. Team leads will be communicating blindly to their team, instructing them through their problems.”
Charlie took a deep breath as she reached for the earpiece on the table labelled with her name.
“Team leads, you will be going with Agent Quinn to another room where you will complete your task,” Young explained, motioning the blonde female agent standing closely behind him.
Charlie securely placed the earpiece in her ear and with a wave instructed her fellows to do so, even Rachel did as instructed. “Can you all hear me?” she asked receiving nods and thumbs up from her team, “you guys have got this. I will be here if you need me.”
Charlie followed the other selected recruits and Agent Quinn to the room just off to the right of the grand room. In the room, there were five small stalls with a single stool in each, nothing else.
“Take your seats,” Agent Quinn instructed, “It’s going to be a long day folks.”
Once each team lead was sitting in their assigned stalls, Agent Quinn shut the doors, leaving them alone.
The stalls were painted black with a white door, but they weren’t dark as each stall had an overhanging light.
“Colette?” Marissa’s voice came through indicating that they must have started.
“Tell me what you see,” Charlie instructed, “I can’t see your screen so paint a picture for me.”
“We have to break into a student’s school email,” Rachel’s voice broke in.
“Okay, we’ve practiced this one,” Charlie said, “Did Young give you any information from the school itself. Is the school private or public? What type of school is it? Elementary, high school, post-secondary?”
“It’s a private high school,” Alex added.
“Okay, and is Young making you look for specific information?”
“We are given the tip that a group of students are planning to bomb their school,” Marissa explained.
“We have to find out if it is true and if there is corresponding with anyone else,” Alex continued.
“We have to give a list of the involved names to Young,” Rachel added.
Charlie rolled her eyes, “And they think a kid would use their student email? Well okay, um, you first need to create the worm you want to sift through the kid's emails. A student’s email could receive upwards of tens to hundreds of emails weekly and we don’t have the time for us to look through each email separately.”
Charlie sat in silence for a few minutes, waiting for the next recruit to ask a question.
“I’ve got the worm implanted, but the system keeps kicking me out,” Zachary Jackson commented.
“Alright, it means that your hold is not strong enough,” Charlie explained, “You will need to exit the firewall and use a different code to enter. The code you have used to enter the system has already been found by their anti-virus.”
The line went quiet for close to half an hour before another spoke.
“I’m in,” Rachel said, “I have the proof that Jack A. is involved.”
“Good job, McKinley,” Charlie praised, “Now that you know who, you need to find out why.”
“On it.”
Charlie sat in silence for what felt like hours before her stall door swung open.
“Wyatt lets go, your team is done,” Agent Quinn informed, “head back to the grand room and await your results.”
Charlie furrowed her eyebrows, she expected the test to be a lot longer than it was, she expected to be a lot more involved in it then she was. Something was wrong and she knew it. There was nothing she could do but head back to the grand room.
“Colette,” Marissa ran over to her as soon as Charlie walked into the room.
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked, “Did you guys complete the test?”
Marissa nodded enthusiastically.
Charlie sighed in relief.
“Wyatt, please join the rest of your group quietly as others are still working,” Young grumbled.
Charlie stiffened, giving the man a nod.
Young turned on his heel and addressed the remaining groups, “You have five more minutes to submit the names.”
“You guys went quiet, I got worried,” Charlie whispered to Alex.
Alex shrugged, “You taught us well.”
Charlie turned to Rachel who was standing uncharacteristically quiet, “McKinely?”
“We found that it’s not a real threat,” Rachel answered, “The worm you taught them how to make dug up an email chain between all the suspects.”
Charlie furrowed her eyebrows, “what do you mean?”
“The ‘bomb’ was the surprise senior party and the suspects were the planning board,” Rachel explained.
Charlie’s shoulders sagged, “How did Young take your findings?”
“He just hummed and nodded,” Alex explained, “he didn’t say anything to us, just sent Agent Quinn to go and get you.”
“One minute!” Young yelled.
“I don’t think we would have been able to uncover what we did without your worm software,” Marissa pointed out, “it really was the hero of this test.”
Charlie scoffed, “I did nothing, you guys are the ones who remembered what I taught you in such a short time.”
“Listen up! It seems that only one group completed the test correctly,” Young announced at the end of the test, “Team lead Wyatt, please present your group’s findings.”
Charlie squared her shoulders as she addressed everyone, “My team had uncovered a string of emails from all of the suspects with detailed descriptions of how the bomb is actually a secret senior party they had been planning.”
Young nodded, “That is indeed correct,” he said, “You see, not every threat and not every lead actually leads to something. After confirming all of the students were involved in said bomb, Wyatt’s team dug further. They uncovered the students’ true intentions. Intent is very important in law enforcement cases. Other than proof, intent is what makes charges stick and we are in the business of making charges stick.”
Alex fist-pumped the air beside Charlie which caused her to snicker.
“Yeah yeah, that’s enough Manson, we all know you did well,” Young continued, “But what we need to discuss is the lowest ranking team.”
Silence spread out amongst the recruits.
“Team Lead Fredrickson, please step forward.”
A strong-looking dark-haired man stepped forward with an air of arrogance, “You’re team couldn’t even make it through a level one firewall. Care to explain.”
Fredrickson puffed out his chest, “We made it through sir, we found all the names.”
“But not everyone did,” Young mentioned, “to pass this test, every single member of your group had to pass the firewall, and one of your members failed to do so.”
“It’s not our fault sir, we shouldn’t be penalized just because Dawson couldn’t get his head out of his ass,” Fredrickson hissed, giving a glare at the recruit in question.
“That is not the point!” Young yelled, “You are a team! If one fails you all fail! All of you, pack your bags and get out of my sight!”
“But sir!”
“NOW!”
Various recruits snickered as Fredrickson and his team scurried out of the room.
“Wyatt, divide your team in half, you can move into the empty room tomorrow.”
Charlie turned to her group, “McKinley, Manson, Haynes, Jackson, Rodriguez, and I will be moving into the new room.”
“I don’t want to room with you,” Rachel hissed.
“Of course you don’t, and that is why you will be.”