Midii brought herself firmly back under her own control in the safety of her own solitary little cubicle by working away at the small little nothing that Lady Une had given her to do the previous night. It was just basic prep work for the next assignment she would be sent on, researching the blueprints for the floor plans and vent system layouts for the building where the fete would be held, background checks on security personnel, familiarization with the security system installed. Midii could do work like that in her sleep. Under the guise of industriously double checking the information for veracity before she looked it over Midii contemplated her enemies, her allies, and her next move.

<Things are moving quickly, I need to think so that I can act.> The best thing for her to do and do quickly would be to remove their primary targets from the guest list. Not enough to make the Consortium suspicious of her possible involvement, but certainly enough to cut down on the number of sitting ducks. The Vice-Speaker was a definite, as was the Foreign Minister, Jameson. She could pick up some virulent spray or darts and hit her targets one by one, a cold here, a fever there, an attack of e.coli… Nothing serious, just enough to keep them out of business and out of her way for a while. She could take out a few of the ESUN Council reps too, she’d have to be careful to only pick ones from a few of the different Consortium target lists to keep Smith from suspecting a planned attack. It wouldn’t do for him to catch on to her because she picked all the targets from only the list that he had supplied her. Only the top brass of the Consortium had all of the targets in mind and to try fingering one of them would unravel the entire system.

<Hmmmm, an interesting notion,> she thought with a new consideration. <I wonder what happen precisely if I threw that particular stone in their pond. It would be very beneficial to sew some chaos within their own ranks, keep them too busy arguing amongst themselves to pay attention to me as I set them up or at the very least it will buy me some time… And I think I know just the way to do it. They hired me to be a spy and infiltrate the Preventors to gather information for them; it would not be entirely out of the realm of possibility that I would accidentally stumble upon such a discovery in the course of my work. It would not do however for me to look too eager, I am supposed to be working for the grudgingly and if I handed them this information too eagerly it would look suspect and my family would be in even more trouble. I am working on a bit of a stilted time table however, well.> She paused to consider ways and means. First, she had to find the perfect target to use for her ploy, then she had to find a way to make or use incriminating evidence against him.

<I suppose I could use my own actions in taking the targets out of bounds as a sort of evidence. But that leaves out the why as to why I would suddenly turn against him.> She paused. Her family. <I could say this mystery higher-up approached me with a deal; if I would do something for him, perhaps run interference or relay messages even cover his tracks or something of that nature for him, he would protect my family in exchange. It’s plausible; everyone knows how I am when my family gets involved, desperate enough to do anything for them. I could say that he turned on me with the intention of… well gee, what motive could he possibly have?> She paused to consider it, then abruptly switched tracks.

<Nevermind that for now. I have the most important members of the fete out of the way, or I will if I can get enough time and access to them; what about the rest of the members? I can’t just leave them there to get shot at. I’ve had my hands tied by the Consortium so I can’t protect them directly. My best chance of winning this one is to make all the preparations I can. Hm, the Consortium has a lot riding on this one night; this is the night where they launch their big campaign. I can use this to my advantage. They’ll have all of their attention focused on this event; that means that their guard on their other holdings, such as manned bases and contact points will be lessened. If I can just find a way to sow enough chaos in a single night that will cripple them I know I’d be able to take out at least a couple of their bases remotely. There are still a few Alliance weapons bunkers lying around that the Preventors haven’t discovered yet and I know just how to get into them. The question is, how do I cripple them? What can I do that would affect every single base and operation that the Consortium owns at the same time?>

Midii felt her headache returning. Maybe it was all too much for one person to handle alone. One person against the entire mustered might of the Consortium? Perhaps she has lost her mind somewhere along the way and just hadn’t noticed until now. Maybe she should just give in, tell Une about the Consortium and hope she was a merciful woman. But Midi dismissed that notion the very moment it crossed her mind. She had come too far by now to hope for forgiveness or understanding; she was in too deep. The only choice she had now was to ride it out and pray she was as good as she needed to be. She just needed to calm down and think for a minute. She knew there had to be a way.

She needed something, something that would throw an enormous wrench in their gears, something that would affect all of their bases at the same time. Midii absently looked around her office, picked up a music file case and checked her hair and make-up. She was fidgeting and she knew it; maybe if she let her mind go fallow long enough she’d just intuit an answer to all of her problems. Oh, darn, her lipstick had smudged. She continued holding up the dark shiny case she was using as an impromptu mirror as she fished her lip gloss out of her desk drawer; she wasn’t even really registering what case it was… some new group, probably alternative. Out of curiousity she let her eyes focus in on the cover.

Virus.

The reflection of Midii’s face cracked open into a wide grin as a tremendous smile worked its pleased way across her face. She had her answer.

<A virus. Of course! I have access to the codes for a good part of the system from the downloaded version of Smiths hard drive, I have access to a lot of their high traffic areas, especially the high security ones. I know which places need to be hit and hit hard, I can access all of their hidden data stream bursts. The Consortium relies heavily upon its telecommunications to continue functioning. If I knocked that over and timed it with a simultaneous strike, I could take out half of their bases singlehandedly I’ll bet! The problem with trying to take down their whole organization is two fold, one creating such a massive virus that would only infect target areas and systems would take time, I’d need to program the self adapting kind so that none of their own specialists could contain it immediately. Plus, even though such a massive blow to the com system would cripple them for a few days, and taking out some of their bases would slow them down, they’d eventually get on their feet and then they’d figure out who did it and they’d hunt me down. Plus there’s my family to consider, total black-out of their communications would mean that the guards would be out of touch with headquarters for a while. They wouldn’t be able to call for back up so that would be the only time I could rescue them.>

She needed to get some biological viruses, mild ones, to infect the Vice Speaker, The Foreign Minister and the targets she was about to pick out, then she had to do reconnaissance on all of their homes and security systems so that she could break into them and infect the people she’d picked out. She needed to pick out the Consortium bases she was going to hit and have them targeted for remote missiles from some of the abandoned Alliance Missile bases. She needed to find a target in the top brass of the Consortium and set him up with some incriminating evidence. She needed to get this computer virus of hers cooked up to create the necessary distraction so she could destroy or at least cripple her enemy. And last but certainly not least, she needed to rescue her family from the danger it was in. That was quite a To Do list.

<And I only have three days to do all of this! I need to get moving!>

The computer virus would be easy to take care of; she’d just call in a favor from an old associate of hers. The man was a hacker genius named X12 (said “cross twelve”), he’d taught her everything she knew about computers. He never could resist a good challenge. Midii hauled out her private console and logged on to the virtual bar he and a few of his cohorts tended to frequent; she’d set up a meeting for tonight and have him get started on her super-virus, he owed her a favor or two and it was time she collected. She didn’t really want to get seriously into her other job while she was inside the Preventors office, she wasn’t certain her location was secure and unmonitored and getting careless and getting caught were two things that were not on her agenda for the morning. It was a start at least, the rest would have to wait until she got home tonight. Maybe she should try to manufacture an excuse to take the next two days off because all of this was going to take every spare minute she had, even with the delegating of the virus into more capable hands.

<Well manufacturing a family emergency wouldn’t be too much of a stretch,> she thought ironically. She hacked into the backdoor of the medical office where her father took his treatments, logged on as the good doctor, and sent out a note to his loving daughter that she needed to come home immediately. It was a start; now, she just had to get everything else ready.

* * *

“X12, I wonder who that guy is,” Une mused aloud. Trowa had reestablished his link to Midii’s personal laptop and was observing her along with his nominal employer.

“A hacker,” Heero supplied. He had been let in on their little conspiracy of light by Une shortly after Midii had closeted herself away in her cubicle. “One of note, he crashed one thousand seven hundred and eight systems in a single hour back in 179 and he’d only been about seventeen at the time. His specialty is computer viruses and security systems infiltration. A worthy opponent.”

“She’s setting up a meeting, I wonder what she wants with him,” Une said curiously. “We could always find out. Heero, if you would, go find this X12 and keep tabs on him. I don’t know for certain what Miss Midii Une is planning and any information we can get about her next movements will be helpful. Trowa, fix her apartment; I don’t want to get jammed while she’s moving online.”

“Already done,” the tall man assured her.

“Hn, looks like she’s faking a sick note,” Heero observed.

“She probably intends to be very busy,” Une said. “Looks like the hacker and her plans for him are only the tip of the iceburg. Alright, Barton, I’m going to let her go home. Your mission is to keep tabs on all of her movements, real life and online, and keep me posted. I want to know everything she does and why she does it. I’ll find a way to move some of my own people into convenient places for when the action starts. With any luck we’ll see this to a good conclusion.”

* * *

Next time on Along the Razors Edge: In which a to-do list is written, homework is done and an on-going report is made. Look forward to it please!