Author: Gina Sheridan (GinaS on the bboard - creative, huh?)

Email: ginam@support.ucla.edu

ACT 1

The Official was standing in his office with the mechanism to change projector slides in his hand, Eberts dutifully by his side. Darien sat slouched in a chair only half facing the screen while Hobbes carefully observed each slide.

A slide containing a fuzzy security camera picture of a man appeared as The Official launched into his description of their new mission.

"This man has been a thorn in the government's side for months and I would like this agency to be the one to remove that thorn. He is a genius computer programmer who has been hacking into 'top secret' files and is considered a national security risk. He has sent two video tapes so far regarding his intentions.
Eberts?"

Eberts promptly set down a tape recorder and put an audio tape in it.

"I thought you said he sent video tapes", inquired Darien.

"He did", explained Eberts, "but my VCR is in the shop so I couldn't bring it in today. This is an audio copy that has been made from the video tapes." Darien just shook his head slightly at the Agency's lack of proper equipment.

Eberts played the tape for them in which the hacker made threats and vowed that, in the end, he would succeed.

"That sounded choppy, like there was some dialog missing", noted Hobbes.

"Yes", confirmed The Official, "the missing dialog is 'need to know' information." He left the last part unsaid and Hobbes nodded in acknowledgment.

"This thorn have a name?" asked Darien.

"That is, if we have clearance for that information, Sir" added Hobbes.

"Byte me!", replied The Official.

Hobbes blinked and then stammered, "Uh… what did I…?"

Eberts cut him off to explain, "He leaves a note behind at every one of his secret headquarters each of which he signs 'byte me', so that's what the government has been calling him. That's byte, spelled b-y-t-e as in… ".

"I think they get the picture, Eberts", said The Official cutting him off as he flipped to a slide showing one of the "Byte Me" notes which is hand written in large printed letters.

"How many headquarters does this guy have?" inquired Hobbes to which the Official replied "Only one… at a time". Eberts finished the explanation as if he and The Official had practiced this speech. "He always manages to abandon his center of operations between the time agents pinpoint his position and the time they move in. They have no idea how he knows they're coming".

"On the audio tape he promised he would be successful, but didn't say successful at what" Darien said questioningly. The Official answered with a quick "Need to know".

"Need to know… of course", repeated Darien sarcastically.

"His current location was pinpointed early this morning and I've volunteered you two to apprehend him", said The Official ignoring Darien's last statement. Eberts then handed a meager file to Darien containing the address to which the perp had been traced and very little else.

"Go get 'im boys!" said The Official before he turned his attention to some paperwork on his desk indicating that the briefing was over.

As Darien and Hobbes left The Official's office Hobbes snatched the file from Darien and started reading the contents. Darien hardly noticed as he was still thinking about The Official's send-off.

"Go get 'im boys?", he questioned.

"Yeah, what's wrong with that? You don't like a little encouragement?"

"You call that encouragement?"

"He was smiling wasn't he?"

"You eat that stuff up, don't you Hobbes?"

"The problem with you, my friend, is that you're too cynical."

"I'd rather be cynical than deluded."

They continued down the hall in this manner as their voices faded away.


ACT 2

Hobbes pulled the van up to the curb outside a two-story office building. "This is where the perp is holed up", reported Hobbes.

"Byte Me?", asked Darien jokingly. Hobbes didn't answer, he just gave him a disgusted look and nodded once.

"Do we know what kind of security he's got set up in there?" inquired Darien as he put on the headset, which would enable him to communicate with Hobbes. Hobbes consulted the file. "Nope. No one's been able to get close enough. They're afraid they'll tip him off".

"Do they know what floor and suite he's in?" Darien asked without much hope.

Hobbes consulted the file once more, "Nope. Don't know that either."

"Great! That should make my job easy… I don't know even what he looks like because Eberts' VCR is on the fritz" Darien said exaggerating his disgust.

"Would you quit complaining. Just go invisible and go have a look around", replied Hobbes.

Darien got out of the van, immediately quicksilvered and headed quickly into the lobby of the building. He saw very little in the way of security, just one guard and he was dozing at his station. There wasn't a camera in sight.

There was one main hallway on the first floor so Darien quietly made his way to the first door. A peak inside revealed that the entire left side of this floor had been gutted and was in bad need of reconstruction. He found the other side in a similar state. "I'm going up to the second floor", Darien whispered as quietly as possible into the microphone.

He took the stairs to the second floor and found the door unlocked. As he started down the hallway, it became very clear where "Byte Me" had his headquarters. All the suites had glass doors and only one had light emerging. When he reached the door, he found it slightly open. "It can't be this easy" he said under his breath.

"What was that?" asked Hobbes straining to hear.

"Nothing… never mind", replied Darien as he headed into the suite.

He found the hacker calmly writing a note like the one from the slide earlier. He noticed that the man was wearing a pair of gloves that fit him like a layer of skin. "No wonder the government can't get any information on this guy", Darien thought. As soon as the hacker finished the note with the familiar moniker "Byte Me", Darien shed the quicksilver and commented, "clever signature". The man jumped out of his chair and whirled around to face Darien.

Back in the van Hobbes was struggling with the equipment, which was less than reliable. "I'm losing you Fawkes. You'll be on your own until I get this thing working again", he said but Darien heard only bits and pieces.

"Who are you and where did you come from?" the man before Darien asked, still relatively calm.

Darien showed his ID to the man who grabbed it from him for a closer look.

"You're name is Darien Fawkes?" the man inquired.

"Yeah, why? Do I know you?" asked Darien reacting to the surprise in the man's voice.

"No, but I know about you.", he replied. "Your name, and more importantly, your uncle's name are in several of the files I've been borrowing."

"Borrowing?" Darien asked in reaction to the man's description of his activities before the first part of that sentence hit him.

Hobbes finally got the equipment working and said, "I'm back with you partner. What's going on?"

Darien decided that the next part of this conversation might not be something he would want Hobbes to hear. "Everything's under control Hobbes, I…" Darien switched the microphone off in mid-sentence.

"Not again!" exclaimed Hobbes as he started trying to restore the connection.


ACT 3

"What do the files say about me and my uncle?" asked Darien, his heart racing.

"Your uncle was mentioned in files concerning a team hired by the government in the 60's to run various experiments on human subjects. Many of the subjects, or 'victims' is more appropriate, were children.

I've found descriptions of a project where radioactive isotopes were added to kids breakfast cereal over long periods of time. Those kids grew up and contracted
cancer at an early age. Other projects involved surgical patients who went in for one thing and had internal organs partially removed or altered…"

"Or implanted?" Darien asked almost rhetorically.

"Yes, I'm sure they did that too", the man agreed. "They played god with people's lives. And to this day, even when confronted with the truth, the government denies everything because there's no evidence to prove any of it… the files have been buried very deep. Well, I decided to find that evidence and I've got nearly enough to bring it all to the public's attention."

Darien stared at the floor, mouth agape, at hearing this information and tried to tell himself that the man was mistaken about his uncle's involvement in anything so diabolical. "Were you one of the victims?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Not that I know of, but I grew up in a neighborhood where a lot of this illicit activity took place, so I know a lot of victims. Hell, I just might turn out to be one of them and the symptoms of what was done haven't manifested themselves yet!"

"How did my name get in the files?" Darien asked, suddenly remembering that part of it.

"The files track the lives of all involved and their families. The government wants to make sure that the whereabouts of all possible leaks of this information are known", he explained.

Darien's mind tried to take this all in subjectively, but he couldn't… he had to know the truth. "Can I see those files?" he inquired.

"I've risked my life to get my hands on that information. You think I'm just going to hand it all over to a federal agent?!" The man exclaimed incredulously.

"I didn't mean I want to keep them", said Darien explaining. "I only want a copy of the files and only the ones with my uncle's name in them. This has nothing to do with my job, it's personal".

"Now you don't really expect me to give up the goods without getting anything in return, do you?"

"Like what?" asked Darien.

"Like my unimpeded escape, of course" the man replied as if Darien missed the obvious.

"And you'll give me the files then", Darien confirmed.

As he said this, the man started copying the appropriate files onto a CD so he could make a quick escape if Darien agreed to the proposal. Since he had copied all the information for himself long before Darien's entrance it just remained for him to execute his normal routine of wiping out all the data on the computers.

Darien remained silent during this process as a raging debate went on inside his head. Could he really betray Bobby when he had saved his butt so many times? Did he really owe the agency anything? After all, they did blackmail him into this position, didn't they? But they cared for him during some dark moments and genuinely seemed to be his friends… could he lie to them after the deed was done (that is if they didn't find out)?

The man broke Darien's trance by thrusting a CD toward him and asking, "So, do we have a deal?"


ACT 4

"Face it Bobby, you're no electrician", Hobbes, all tangled in wires, told himself. "And Fawkes has been in there a long time", he added. "I better go see if he needs
my help." He got out of the van and headed for the building saying "backup's on the way, partner" as he ran.

As he made his way up to the second floor, he drew his gun and prepared for anything.

Inside the suite Darien heard footsteps echoing in the stairwell. With no time left for internal debate, he grabbed the CD from the hacker and quicksilvered it along with himself, leaving the man seemingly alone.

At first, he just stood there dumbfounded, staring at the spot Darien had just vacated. "You better get outta here" Darien warned from the other side of the room.

"How did you…" the hacker started to ask in amazement. But he cut himself off in mid-sentence to heed Darien's warning as he heard Hobbes nearing the suite.

He ran through a door to another suite just as Hobbes rounded the corner. Hobbes gave chase through several suites, all interconnected, before he lost his perp. He looked out the nearest window to see if he could spot the hacker running away from the building but he was nowhere in sight. He had planned that escape long ago and knew every inch of the building and its surroundings. Hobbes hadn't stood a chance.

While Hobbes was off chasing the hacker, Darien scanned the room for a good lie he could use to explain his failure in capturing 'Byte Me'. He spotted a stun gun next to the computer at which the hacker had been sitting when he came in. "Perfect", he thought. He grabbed it, shuddering at the thought of actually being shocked with it, then went and laid down in a heap behind a desk. He set the stun gun on the floor near him and shed the quicksilver.

Hobbes ran back into the room and saw Darien's legs protruding from behind the desk. He ran over and found Darien looking groggy and struggling to sit up.

He noticed the stun gun and asked "He zapped you with this?"

"Yeah, I guess so", Darien lied as he picked up the gun and looked at it.

"Don't pick it up Fawkes, it may have finger prints on it!" Hobbes said with irritation.

"Relax Hobbes, the guy was wearing skin tight gloves the whole time", Darien countered.

Hobbes helped Darien stand up and clear the cobwebs (or so he thought) before asking, "so, what happened?"

"When I came in, he was writing his note here at the desk. He looked harmless, so I shook off the quicksilver and started asking questions. Before I knew what was happening, he pulled something out of his pocket…" Hobbes gestured toward the stun gun. "Yeah, must have been", Darien agreed, then continued. "He thrust it toward me and that's the last thing I remember." He finished his bogus story with, "I guess I wasn't fast enough to get out of the way".

Hobbes shook his head and said "you should never assume the perp is unarmed, what's wrong with you?"

"You mean aside from a splitting headache?" Darien asked still playing the victim.

"It's your own fault you've got that headache. It could be worse, you could have a bullet wound" Hobbes responded without sympathy.

"Okay Hobbes, I got it. I was sloppy. No need to keep pointing it out", Darien said irritated even though he knew he had no right to be.

"The Fat Man is not gonna be happy" Hobbes announced as he phoned The Official to report their failure and get the process of going over the place with a fine tooth comb started. "As soon as the investigation team gets here to check out the place, we should get you to The Keeper and have her check you out" said Hobbes.

"I don't need checking out, I'll be fine. But I do need a shot of counteragent" Darien replied.

"Counteragent? Already? Did you go invisible just before he zapped you and stay that way while you were out or something?" Hobbes asked.

"I don't know, maybe" Darien replied then walked out of the room to avoid further questions.


ACT 5

Darien entered the lab to get his regular dose of counteragent and found it empty. While waiting for Claire, he took the opportunity to check out the files he had, so he slipped the CD into her computer and opened the one file that was on the disc. He did a search for his uncle's name and found it in only one spot; a paragraph listing the contributors to the "Imperial Project Series" that said:

The following is a complete list of agents and civilians who have contributed to or been a member of the team assembled to carry out the projects outlined in the following document:

Anderson, John
Arnold, William
Bateman, Kurt
Benton, Marie
Byers, James
Carter, Weston
Davidson, George
Dickens, Sharon
Donovan, Peter

Darien stopped at his uncle's name. Until that moment, he still held out hope that the hacker had been lying to save his skin. After all, he never did mention Darien's uncle by name and only knew Darien's name because of his ID. But this file dashed that hope. He read on.

No one person has full knowledge of all aspects of this project series and the degree to which each person contributed to and/or contains knowledge of the projects varies from virtually nothing to approximately 50%. The full details of each of the projects outlined in this document are kept in separate files and are to remain unknown to most of the participants and all of the subjects.

Darien stopped reading at that point. He looked it over one more time and said to himself, "just an alphabetical listing... no indication of who knew or did what. Great, I betrayed Hobbes for nothing." He heard Claire approaching the lab, so he removed the disc and pocketed it again. "It could be worse", he thought. "It could have stated explicitly that Uncle Peter was fully aware of his actions. At least now there's the chance that he didn't know who or what he was working for. Or it could even be that he didn't have a choice, like me".

Claire walked through the door and approached Darien. "I heard you had a rough day."

Still deep in thought, Darien didn't answer. Claire misread his silence saying, "Don't look so glum, everyone messes up from time to time. And it's not as if anyone else has had success catching the bloke. I heard you and Hobbes got closer to apprehending him than anyone else has… that's something".

As she tried to console him, Darien sat on the lab chair and presented his arm for her familiar syringe full of counteragent. "Yeah, that's something", he answered unenthusiastically.

"Did you learn anything new about the case that may help them catch him next time?" she asked.

"Yeah", he thought. "Don't send me to do the job". But out loud he just said, "No, I didn't learn anything positive today".