“Get up! Get up Get up! Samael! Get up!” Panic found life in her voice and flourished in her words as Lilith found herself shaking, half dressed at 7 in the morning, shaking her brother out of his peaceful slumber. She barely gave him time to sit up before she threw some clothes at him. “Get dressed, you need to get out of here. Right now. Hurry up.” Leaving the room and running down the hallway, her hand smashing against the lightswitch so the narrow strip of building and the stairs attaching to it was illuminated, she disappeared into her room, swearing.

“What’s wrong?” Moments later, Samael stood at the door, shoving the t-shirt over his head. “I don’t know what I’ve done” she murmured, looking back to him and slamming her laptop lid down with little care to it’s condition afterwards, shoving it into a backpack. “You need to leave her. I….I did something bad, Samael, I was just playing around, and…I found this site, these files, I thought they were nothing but…they traced me! Quicker than anyone ever has before! They followed the path so fast I didn’t have time to pull out! We have to go!” Samael seemed to realize, in these broken sentences that didn’t really make much sense, what this meant, because he took her shoulders and shook her, only to be pushed away.

“What did you do? Hack the CIA?”

“No”

“FBI?”

“No! Samael! I don’t know who they are! But they found me! Go to Gemma’s. I’ve got to dump this thing. It’s going to be red hot and we can’t be anywhere near it. Do you understand me?” She gave him another shove, pulling a pair of jeans on and some trainers, before reaching for the backpack.

“Lilith—“

“For once, don’t argue, don’t say I told you so, don’t question. Just trust me and get out of this house. I hacked someone who is quick enough to find me, despite my attempts, and we can’t stay here.” Heading down the stairs, she didn’t say much else and grabbed her keys and her phone – careful that neither would be able to give any identity if she by any chance happened to be caught - and retreated out the door. Samael would leave, in fact, she heard him, she heard his car powering off down the road to go to Gemma’s. He was safe, now she just had to make sure that she was. She hadn’t used her phone, so she was fairly sure that it was safe to carry that around, at least, but she needed to get rid of the laptop. The one thought that ran through her mind was the need to get rid of her computer. She wasn’t ignorant enough to think that she had hacked into something greater than the CIA and how have her own system made useless and instead turned into a homing device. She had to dump her laptop, as soon as possible, and then run in the opposite direction until she practically collapsed.

And that’s what she did, dumping her laptop in a garbage dumpster and then turning and running, literally, in a straight line for a good hour before her legs finally gave way and her stomach hurt in hunger and exhaustion. Her paranoia was gripping her, and this overwhelming, uncontrollable fear took over her body as she curled up in the toilet stall and tried to relax. She might have even fallen asleep, she didn’t know, what she did know was that the banging on people on her door of the cubical, stating who they were, was not a good thing to suddenly become aware to.

She didn’t really remember being yanked out of the cubical, she remembered hitting someone – well, wouldn’t you if you got yanked out of a cubical? – and then she was travelling. She figured the stress, exhaustion and hunger got the better of her, since the rest of the journey from the bathroom stall to this…wherever the hell she was now, was one huge blur accompanied by one hell of a headache. Placing a hand to her forehead as she was led…somewhere...to a seat – which she was sort of grateful for – Lilith covered her eyes from the evil that was currently florescent lighting and tried to push the headache away for another time when she wasn’t tired and hungry.

Brigadier Alan Mace yawned tiredly as he walked into the staff kitchen in the far corner of UNIT Base One, "I know Marion," Mace sighed, talking over the ear-pod-link with his cell-phone he rubbed at his eyes, "Yes dear, look I don't care how she got in - I'm going to talk to her, find her contacts and- wait what?" setting his coffee down on the round table in the middle of the room Mace sat down and put his head in his hands, "No wait slow down... how did she find that? Your telling me this... this little nobody-kid from a nobody family managed to find YOUR backdoor into the CIA and used it to reach the UNIT mainframe?" listening to his ear-pod shook his head, "We are talking about the same kid right? Red hair? Glazed expression? She's fallen asleep in my office twice while I've been observing her... they found her in a bathroom stall half-asleep, she gave one of my officers a black eye..."

Listening to Marion's next comment Alan rolled his eyes, "No of course she has no combat-training, she kicked him in the face... dear I- yes I know I need someone competent with computers but... what?" sitting up Alan took a drink of the coffee in front of him, "The programing you had covering that hole... your telling me this kid is some sort of genius?" raising his eyebrow Alan tapped his chin, "Hm... in some ways she reminds me of you... no not now, of course not now - we're trying to get pregnant, no... no that's NOT what she reminds me- Marion!" Mace tugged the ear-pod off and waited a few seconds before talking, "Marion my darling, there is no chance - no chance, Mr. Monogamy me... no, look I meant that she reminds me of the dumpy little blond I picked up and turned my sister loose on - the little genius sprite who not only ended up as my wife but as the foremost civilian attache and engineering genius in UNIT,"

Listening to what Marion said Mace set his coffee down and grinned slowly, "Your telling me this kid has the intelligence to not only do your job... but mine? Really... her test scores are remarkable I admit but... okay no I don't REALLY understand what they mean, that stupid computer shredded the print-out... look one red button's the same as the next and-" listening sublimely Mace raised an eyebrow as Marion read off Lilith's school record and test scores, "Impressive... hm... alright, I'm about to go in there with her... we'll see what happens, yeah I'll call my sister later - she won't die without lecturing me on staying away from fast food... yeah, I love you... yeah... bye," hanging the phone up Mace picked up his jean-jacket and tugged it on.

In some ways Mace missed his days in uniform - as the proverbial head of UNIT organization and order his days usually consisted as being called Brigadier and wearing a suit (the only sign of his military service being the badge of rank on his collar and the medals in his office) or blue-jeans, a white shirt and a leather-or-jean jacket. Kicking the mud off his boots - as it had been pouring rain when he'd arrived this morning - Alan put his hand on his office door and raised an eyebrow in surprise when the red-head jerked awake and almost fell out of her chair in surprise at his entrance, "As you were," Mace said with a cool tone. Brushing past her Mace set his coffee down on his desk and pulled off his jacket.

Hanging the jacket on the back of his chair Mace walked over to the small fridge on the far wall and popped open the door, "I've got something for you," pulling out a small basket wrapped in paper he walked over to the desk and set it down in front of the small woman... though she seemed more like a girl, un-wrapping the basket Mace sat on the edge of the desk and nodded at the basket, "Liverwurst, liverwurst, chicken or liverwurst?" he raised an eyebrow as she examined them, "I made them myself, I'm a chef part-time... I promise you if we were going to poison you or kill you we wouldn't have broken our backs breaking you out of that bathroom stall," watching her stare at the food Alan sighed, "Kid, you've not eaten in forty-six hours, I know because that's when our operatives tagged you and when you were first put under surveillance,"

Watching her face Alan rubbed at his temples, "Ms. Anselm we wouldn't have found you in that bathroom stall so quick if we hadn't started following you as soon as the alarm went off - we'd have lost you when you ditched the laptop but half-an-hour after you set off the system we had you followed from your flat with your brother-" Mace held up his hands, "Look your brother is fine - you didn't need to scare him or send him driving off, he called the police trying to tell them you were in trouble and got arrested," watching her face Alan shook his head, "He ran six red lights before he woke up enough to realize he was in the middle of town... never mind, he'll be released on a traffic violation later this afternoon... YOU are the one we're interested in,"

Leaving the sandwiches in front of her Mace walked over to his chair behind the desk and sat down, "Tell me... what were you doing in our mainframe?"

So, this was a slight improvement from the bathroom stool, it wasn’t damp, and it wasn’t cold. The only thing that was wrong with it is that she didn’t know where she was, but she was alive and last she checked, prison cells did not look like this. Running both her hands through her hair, tugging at the ends of it in something close to boredom, Lilith let herself relax – even slip unconscious a few times – as she went through various memories in her head. A defense mechanism, if you will, to think of times where she had been in worse trouble and survived to live another day. Samael’s asthma attacks, for one, were a strong memory in her mind, they had both survived that, same with the car crash four years ago. They had both survived that, although the car had been totaled and Samael had almost mourned the loss of his to-date favourite car. He did not, however, mourn the increase of his insurance.

‘Idiot’ she thought bitterly. Looking around again and jumping in surprise to the door suddenly opening, the man was greeted with a glare, which only intensified at the first words he addressed her with. She watched him, quiet and assessing, not saying a single word. She wasn’t one for talking at the best of times – especially to people he didn’t know, but to this guy, she supposed it went double. Crossing her arms over her chest, Lilith glanced to him as he addressed her again, this time with ‘something for her’ that didn’t do much to encourage her to say anything.

Oh, yay, food. Why did she really not feel the need to actually eat anything anymore? Besides, a human being could go a week without food – as a student, she already knew this – so the interest of being stubborn, she stared at them blankly, before looking to the man, who she still didn’t know the name of, which was irritating as hell because she would bet any amount of money that he knew hers. Incline her head slightly at the comment about being a chef, Lilith frowned, before she was brought into the real issue at hand.

Half an hour? Damn that was quicker than she had anticipated, the mention of Samael, however, made her eyes go ice cold in a glare. She was sure he was fine, because she would have felt something if he wasn’t. ‘…idiot’ she thought again, twice at bitter realizing his driving skills hadn’t improved from the last time he wasn’t concentrating on his driving. She wasn’t too worried about his driving violation; she’d deal with that later like she usually did. The part she was worried about was when this man – still nameless, and was soon to get a name of his own if he wasn’t quick – said they were interested in her.

She watched him move to sit behind the desk, still not saying a single word, and sit own. Ah, this was definitely his office then, interesting, but the question he asked next was even moreso. Why? In truth, it was an accident, she hadn’t realized what she had been decrypting until it was too late and her computer had been made useless, but still, that wasn’t an answer she wanted to give. Nor was the answer referring to how she was just hacking through the CIA and accidently stumbled into their territory. It was a dead end, nothing she could say would actually make the situation better, and denying knowledge would just be stupid. So instead she let out a small sigh and glanced back to him. "No comment."

When Lilith simply fired off the age-old 'no comment' shtick Mace sighed and grabbed a Liverwurst sandwich, "Look, I am simply a government administrator for the organization known as UNIT. I'm trying to manage a branch of UNIT in each corner of the world with overworked people and under-allocated funds," taking a drink of his coffee Mace sighed, "We could make your life SO much more difficult if we wanted to... but we're not, we simply want to know if you're flying solo on this or not - if not we do not care about your partners, we'll let you off with a warning because we simply have no need for more bad publicity... however, if you WERE alone... then we might be able to help each other,"

Biting into his sandwich Mace continued, "I looked at your records... and my wife translated them for me, I was never good with computers..." he sighed, "You are a brilliant woman... your test scores are off the charts... yet you are content to do no more than tend to your slug-a-bed brother and attempt to find work in a five-and-dime while studying in a backwater university... why?" he shook his head, "What's wrong? You could have gotten scholarships with those scores yet you were insistent on making it on your own... are you afraid of success? Are you afraid that your brother might... I don't know... collapse without you?"

Watching the look on her face Mace sighed again, "That offer for help wasn't a phony... I need someone good with my computers - Marion, my wife - Marion Mace... or Price - you might have heard of her, priceloves.org is her screen name... she was hacking and programing back when something called DOZ and thirty-point-one was in use. She's some sort of... monument to hacking from what I gather, she's the one that caught you and told me about your scores," he shrugged, "When you invaded our systems and my techs were unable to track you as you ran through our systems looking for a way to unlink your computer I called her and she locked your computer into the system and froze you out," he shrugged again and looked at her face, "She said that she almost lost you - you'd have got away if it hadn't been for all of the back-doors she knows to this system,

Looking at her face Alan scowled, "Look I know this isn't 'blowing up your skirt' but if you help us we'll help you - your heavily in debt, in danger of losing your flat and - if you don't get a job - you'll have school-fees you may never be able to pay off. If you tell us the truth - if you were alone on this - then we'll pay off the debt, your flat to small? We'll give you AND your brother a home on base - in your name so that even if you retire you can live in that house or in another house on any of the bases in the various world capitals. We also pay you enough to enroll in ANY college - maybe even N.I.T tech - you want," Mace held up his hands, "In return... you sign a civilian contract with UNIT for five years. Agreeing to keep anything and everything we teach you or show you confidential or face capital punishment, you also gain a civilian rank of Lieutenant and become part of my personal staff,"

Watching her face Mace nodded, "My wife wants you to take over her duties - she's been handed command of the Canada branch and I've been unable to... anyway, I need someone capable... if you really did this job by yourself - and don't worry, I plan to test you - then you are exactly what I need. If not... then like I said, we kick you out with a warning and your right back where you started... except that you have to buy a new computer and create various new email and storage accounts because we WILL be wiping those," he tapped the badge on his jacket, "The United Nations Intelligence Task-force kid, we have that right... and the power, you've compromised various levels of security... so its up to you," he held up the basked, "Sandwich?"

Was she supposed to feel sorry for him? It was a thought that crossed her mind and was then quickly abolished because any government organization honestly didn’t deserve pity. So he was struggling, big deal, she didn’t have a job, and whilst it was a pain in the ass living off such little funding, they were doing okay, and they didn’t complain. So, she almost dared him to make her life more difficult, it would certainly be a change in atmosphere, but wisely kept her mouth shut and simply raised an eyebrow at the rough prospect that this could be beneficial to her on one way or another.

He sighed a lot, she noticed, and Lilith wondered whether that was frustration or him being dramatic. His attempt at breaking down her life, however, didn’t earn him any brownie points and she found herself glaring. ”Do you always like to play psychiatrist or am I just really lucky today?” It was a sarcastic question, but anything to get the geezer – ah, there was his name – off his high horse would make Lilith a little bit happier. Besides, Samael wasn’t totally useless, he hadn’t broken the law and got caught, so that actually put him above her for once.

She actually pulled a face when she heard the word: Dos. She hated those systems, admittedly she should love them, they were all code and nothing else, but you were so limited with commands it always took her longer to do something. Still, she continued to listen, figuring out she had his wife to thank for being here, and closed her eyes, trying to relax or at least drive her headache away again. After the brief explanation of how she’d been caught, the geezer – yep, she decided that was definitely going to be his name – finally got down to the point, and she snorted, opening her eyes to look at him again. He had no clue, obviously had no family aside from his wife, and definitely didn’t have a twin. Brilliant, someone she could never relate to on any single level. Not even on computers.

Ugh, effort required.

”I don’t want any of that” she spoke, finally, glaring at him. ”I don’t want you to pay off my debt, give me a flat then offer me some bullshit contract.” It just didn’t…appeal to her. Honestly. She lived a simple life, or as simple as you could for one who loved technology. ”I already want to smack you in the face and you’ve only been here five minutes, imagine how big that urge will be after five years” And she honestly wondered why people thought her cold, but still, she gave a sigh and thought of the upside. ”…would be nice to put my hacking skills to work though.”

Moving to rock back in the chair a moment and give a small grin, Lilith shook her head. ”No one else would be able to keep up with me. I did it solo, so you can test me all your want.” Afterall, if it’s technology, it’s hers. Always had been, and always will be. Glancing to the sandwich, she pulled a face and shook her head. ”Uh…no thanks. How about my phone and laptop back?”

Alan seemed annoyed that this child was not only spurring his attempts to figure her out - something he had to do in order to deliver a report to the higher ups - but his attempts at 'dealing' with her was going worse than he'd expected them to, "Look kid, I don't go around handing this deal out - you impressed our foremost technical expert who just happens to be my wife. If she says your the best I want you, there is no better recommendation I can think of than what she's handed me - either you take the whole deal or no deal. And while we may not harm you with that warning and the black mark on your public record, you will be hurt in kind. UNIT is known to the world over - including Chiswick, do you really think this won't affect your chances at getting work? Not that they were all that grand to begin with,"

Sitting down behind his side of the desk Mace scratched his chin, "I want you to take our deal - including the house on base, your brother need work? I'm sure he could handle the UNIT kitchens or something... the point here is that - if your a civilian - you need a cover, the last thing we want is some xeno-assassin or Forge operative capturing you or him. So if you have a place to live on base then not only will it be safer for you - it will be safer for us, do you understand?" when she just shrugged and asked him when she'd be getting her laptop back Mace rolled his eyes, "It's being disinfected - you threw it into a dumpster full of throw-off from a fish factory... incidentally, covering it in a water-proof sack was smart... but a pink sack? And tying it with a bow?"

Alan shrugged, "That depends, if you don't accept our bargain the hard-drive will be wiped and all data cleared out of it AND the disk or disks inside your apartment will be confiscated. You will be re-building it from scratch," he held up his hand up at her protesting, "Look kid I'm not being unreasonable - you broke into a facility sanctioned by every government in the world. This isn't some secret society full of humming monks or drug-crazed yobbos - this is UNIT, in the world of paper-work YOU are the criminal - or would be charged as such if I allowed my bosses to think of you as anything else," he laced his fingers together, "Let me put it in perspective for you... Ms. Anselm - I am the head of all UNIT operations for the whole of this world, I say world to put it in perspective... the people I answer to could buy up continents or sanction wars - I have come down to help you Ms. Anselm... I'm not asking that you be grateful, just that you put some of my demands in perspective... and think about what they WILL do to me if you prove to be a... loose end,"

When she mentioned her phone Mace shook his head, "That's being held too - I may know about as much about technology as my wife does about cooking... but I know that programs and information can be stored on a cell-phone, granted it's a long-shot... but I'd rather not explain in triplicate that our entire UNIT portfolio on the planet Nebulon 6 was leaked to the local tabloids while I was trying to feed some starving waif and give her a job," he held up his hand again, "I already told you - if you agree to take the job, including the provisos involving a house on base and getting your brother to move in with you then you'll be given a place on my personal staff - and after your computer and cell-phone are scanned for unauthorized programing or devices you'll get them back, all you have to do is agree to the bargain and perform one simple training mission - you flunk that you keep the job but are booted out into the typing pool instead, that's the offer - take it or leave it,"

Taking a bite of his sandwich Mace cleared his throat, "Look kid, I'm not saying that we're being angels in this but we are trying to help you - you're getting a better offer than the Forge or Torchwood would give you... hell, with our local branch of Torchwood you'd have to deal with Captain Jack - and that's not a fate I'd wish on anyone," when she repeated the deal Mace nodded, "That's it - no strings, yes or no - if you say yes you'll be given a standard UNIT Mac laptop for the mission and your house on base will be chosen for you - if you say no you'll get your paper-weight and cell-phone back in a week... what will it be?"

Watching him, always watching, Lilith thought the idea over in her mind whilst also figuring various other things out. She was obviously not going to have much choice but to accept the offer, she knew that, and she’d dealt with it, but she wasn’t going to degrade herself by seeming grateful. Frowning, she listened, watched and waited, although every word that he said seemed to irritate her even more, although she couldn’t pinpoint why, and her arms found themselves crossing over her chest again. “This is your attempt to convince me, nice show” Shifting on the chair, letting her neck roll back in attempt to keep the cramps at bay, Lilith decided to count the ceiling tiles for a few minutes.

“Stop trying to help us,” she murmured, rolling her neck back to look at him, frowning. “I understand perfectly, but stop trying to help my brother when it’s only me you’re interested in. It’s fake.” To her, at least, it was. Samael was fine in getting jobs, and Lilith knew that he definitely didn’t need this guys help, even if they were to live on their damn base. Another cage, really, except it was supposed to protect them, it was still a cage. It still had rules and regulations and ways to keep her under control. Great. Just what she had been running from, was something she was being thrown into. She wondered briefly how long it was going to be before she punched this guy in the face.

“You call me kid, one more time, I’ll sue you and despite my position, with today’s laws, it’s very possible.” Still, she managed a smirk at the condition of her laptop. “Call it a present?” Shifting on a chair, she managed a laugh. “You act like you weren’t asking for it. Here’s a little tip, geezer, if you don’t want hackers to get into your site and information, don’t leave secure access logins on the front page of your website. Okay?” It was as much as their own ignorant fault as it was hers, that was the whole reason she had become interested, afterall, then it was just a case of running down the train of connecting corridors into the systems and getting the information she wanted. “Well, good, because I will not be grateful to you.” Who the hell did he think he was, anyway? Sighing, knowing full well she was going to end up agreeing to the contract, but preferring to let him run out threats first, Lilith closed her eyes and let her head roll back again, although it was rather obviously she was still listening by the little twitches in her expression.

She scoffed at the mention of tabloids. “If I really did stuff like that the CIA would be in a lot of trouble round about now, thank you. I don’t profit, I learn. Difference.” Looking to him again and twitching, Lilith finally felt her shoulders relax. “Fine. I won’t like it, but you’ve not left me with much of a choice, geezer. I’ll take the job.” She was becoming more and more fond of that nickname the more she kept using it. “And my whole laptop is used of programs created for me, which will be unauthorized to you, so either you give it back to me with them, or it’s useless anyway. Not like I can just buy authorized hacking programs out of a computer store, you know.” The sound of a training mission did little to lighten her mood, but if it gave her food – and a working fan, yes! – then she supposed she could just sulk about it whilst she did whatever menial ‘prove your worth’ task they were going to ask of her.

Watching him for a moment longer, she inclined her head, curious. “Hey. Geezer. You don’t have kids, do you?” It seemed a random question, but Lilith had a hunch of the answer and waited for it to be confirmed.

Mace leveled a finger at her, "I'm trying to help you because something is wrong - no, I don't have kids. But for the past year and a half my wife and I have been trying, and failing, to have kids of our own... you look like your in trouble - you were smart enough to hack into UNIT center and here you sit with no family other than 'Sam' and expect me to just take all this guff and keep my temper... well I've got news for you, I've dealt with WORSE than you - people so full of themselves that they wouldn't even give me the time of day... my life has been destroyed not once, but twice, and when I see someone dealing with stuff like that... just barely surviving... yeah, I want to help them - call it a failing,"

Mace scowled when she mentioned the login page and the fact that he kept calling her a kid, "So far you've not shown me that you can act like an adult - don't roll your eyes think about it. I came in here to try and talk to you and the first thing I said not only seemed to alienate you but you've been acting like I'm some operative of the secret police... you broke into MY computer network, you violated SEVERAL laws and - thanks to your laptop - we have evidence that you've done it frequently... I don't know about you, but personally... it seems to me that that sounds - not only dangerous - but like an addiction, a problem that - if you don't conquer, someone less sympathetic and needy than UNIT is going to track you AND your brother down one day and... lets just say their not even going to bother talking to you,"

When she stopped muttering and told him she would take the job Mace dumped the rest of the sandwiches in the trash can next to his bench and stood up, "Fine, let's go," leading her out of the office Alan tossed her a circular badge with the words UNIT printed on the top, "The security code is on the back - clip it to your blouse, it's temporary so don't try using it outside of area's I've designated for your access," leading her past several doors Mace knocked on the one at the far end of the hall and sighed when it was opened, "Six months ago an unidentified flying object crashed off the coast of Canada - my wife was there when the site was examined and something stood out among the lot," pulling his sun-glasses on as they walked down a flight of stairs that led outside Mace continued.

"We've investigated the sites of Alien AND governmental crashes... but what we found at that site blew everything away, that ship we found wasn't a ship - it was a computer. One giant computer, with wings... it was almost like... it was almost like the ship itself was the pilot," as they crossed the tarmac headed towards the air-field Mace moped at his brow and shook his head, "What's more something alive HAD been inside that ship - some sort of living electronic signal, but it had already fled... over the past six months, as I said before, there have been several murders - this thing has been trying to harvest electronic devices, unfortunately it's partly telepathic and when it interfaces with electronic devices it interfaces with the people that own them at the same time,"

As they reached - what appeared to be - a cargo-plane Mace unlocked the side door and beckoned his 'new friend' inside, "We don't know if it knows it or not - but every person that thing has come into contact with has gone on a murderous rampage followed by a suicidal phase and then a quick drop or sudden impalement..." he shook his head as he flopped down into a chair inside the jet and sighed, "It left the jurisdiction of the Canada branch at twelve o'clock last night - we've been trying to track it and as far as we know it's killed two more people... from what we gather the program - if that's what it is - and the data inside it damages the human mind in some way and the short-circuit that follows..." he shook his head, "The point is we think that it's been located in Laport Indiana, at a computers convention of some sort... without concrete evidence of this program being the thing that's doing the killing I've not been given permission to usurp American jurisdiction and bring more than three people to investigate, I'm bringing you, myself and a driver,"

Reaching under his chair Mace pulled out a small box with a USB adapter on the end, "Ever see ghost busters?" handing her the box Mace leaned back in his chair, "That thing will be plugged into the Mac UNIT Laptop you'll be given, when you find the program your job will be to download it into that storage device... it will then be carted back to UNIT and experimented on to find out its planet of origin - once we know how it works and whats its been doing - and done - we'll be able to find a way to stop anymore of these programs from invading," Mace shrugged, "As for myself, my job is mainly chaperon," locking his fingers together Mace closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, "Though I'll count myself... lucky if it works out that smoothly,"

She smirked. ”You have no idea how obvious that is. I just hope the way you talk to me will never be the way you talk to them, because they’ll take to the hills sooner than anything.” Although, she would envy them for having someone even wanting them, unlike Derek and she quickly made a mental note to divert his post this year, again. ”And I have one thing to say to you: Violin. Play it. No one wants to hear your sob story on your life. Especially not me.” Scratching her hair, thoughtfully, tugging on a few strands if only to keep her fingers moving – damn, she really needed a keyboard in front of them.

”Shouldn’t make it so damn easy to break in, then, should you? She retaliated, almost to the point of laughing, he was really going to sit here and lecture her when she didn’t really d anything to hurt their little network. With the amount of times she had hacked in, she could have hurt them, but had chosen not to. ”It’s not an addiction. It’s learning, I hack in to keep my sill up, I never, ever cause trouble with what I learn. What’s the point? I just end up stuck with places like here.”

Yelping in surprise at the sudden movement, having been stuck in the room for god knows how many hours, Lilith trailed after him. ”Hey! I want to talk to my brother!” Glancing to the badge and shoving it in her pocket, Lilith quickened her pace to catch up with him, listening closely for a moment. Jumping down the flight of stairs rather than walk down them like any normal person, Lilith attempted to wake her mind up and not fall asleep on the spot..

”…Aliens don’t exist” She declared stubbornly. Still, a computer piloting itself and causing havoc, really? This was what this group was doing? Listening and trying to picture any sort of code in her mind that would be able to fly a ship by itself, there were actually quite a few. Pausing a little as they got to the air field, Lilith looked around, running both hands through her hair. ”Uh, where exactly are we going? Oy! Geezer!" Quickly running to catch up with him, listening again and frowning even more, not understanding how the code would even function, always about code, when it came to electronic devices. ”Telepathic? You mean it’s emitting a sort of radiation that controls people? What kind of machine does that?”

She definaely stopped when they reached the plane and shook her head. [b]”We’re not…” Well, but the looks of it, they obviously were, and with some reluctance. ”Look, I, uh, don’t do too good in planes, alright?” Looking to the USB adapter, she frowned, and nodding. ”Unfortunately.” She glanced to the laptop and nodded. ”I can work one of those easily. Although you don’t fill me with much confidence by saying that, why wouldn’t this work out smoothly” Still standing, looking around the jet, Lilith looked back to him again. ”Are we really going to be…flying in this thing? And can’t I call my brother now?"

Mace smirked when she said how easy it was to break in, "If it was so easy to beak in how'd we catch you? Eh? You caught a fluke and you know it - it my have taken my wife to catch you but that doesn't say much FOR you - just against you. So don't blame this on me, you got yourself into this mess," when she said that she didn't break in to computer networks for the addiction - just to keep herself in training - Mace popped an eyebrow, "Really? Well did you ever pause long enough to think that... oh... just maybe... those computers and servers are locked for a reason? Maybe oh... for instance... your own safety?" he snorted, "There is information inside those archives and servers that could make or break a civilization... once you realize how much UNIT is protecting - just what we are sitting on here... oh," Mace shook his head and dropped his paper cup into the trash can, "The things you will see,"

As Mace strode down the halls towards the landing strip on the west field he glanced over his shoulder and laughed when Lilith said there were no such things as aliens, "Ms. Anselm say that to the Mexican worker in an American field - or the French carver in a British factory, aliens are a fact of life... whether they come from another continent or another planet - we just happen to be the lucky receivers of the dregs of the galaxy," looking at his watch Mace began to pick up the pace, "Nothing 'good' or 'proud' ever comes to this planet - we aren't located in that sort of corner, we get the refuse from war fleets and the pieces of a ruined civilization... hungry for territory and a nice helpful little slave race,"

Yanking a door open Mace began to run across the landing strip, "Keep up!" he shouted over his shoulder when she called him a geezer, "You need to start working out Anselm - this is UNIT, you may be a civilian but if you can't even run across a mile-long field then you've been at the desk too long," reaching the plane first Mace leaned against the fuselage and watched her stagger up and ask him about the program releasing some sort of radiation, "This isn't nuclear Anselm, I'm not talking about some man-made botch of chemicals that got loose... this is an actual thinking, living electronic being - unfortunately the 'waves' it uses to communicate with our technology is... hm... incompatible with human minds. It produces a high level of hormones... the end result being that the people who are 'hit' by the living energy this creature projects are driven into an animal panic - the fall out from that makes them suicidal. That's why every one of the twelve murders has ended in a suicide, usually by the very weapon that was used to kill everyone else,"

As they sat down in the plane and Mace pulled out his cell-phone to turn it off the man looked up at Lilith and rolled his eyes at her comment about not 'dealing' with flight too well, "Here," he tossed her a barf-bag, "Try not to hit the carpet, it leaves a mark," Mace didn't mean to appear callous but she not only seemed to resent any attempts he made at being friendly or even his attempts at common courtesy. If she wanted a stand-off he could bloody well stand for England... and judging from the sweat on her forehead from that half-mile dash across the run-way and the queasy look on her face as the plane began to move down the runway she wasn't going to be doing much standing against him.

When she asked him why this might not go smoothly Mace shrugged, "I got my Major's clusters in Iraq. I was sent over there with American and British troops, most of those troops are either dead... or rotting in some rehab hospital because the American and British governments not only won't fund for the people who actually dealt with those wars... but many won't even recognize it as anything more than... patriotism that those men and women were killed or ended up stuck in those facilities," Mace shook his head, "During all that I learned something," he tapped his forehead, "All those paintings with the generals standing on the hill far from the battle? Bollocks - nothing but, you want to know people? You want to know a situation? You fight and you watch as people you were laughing with fall down in front of you in the mud and die,"

Mace pointed at his heart, "This tells me to stay alive," he then pointed at his stomach, "And this? This tells me that anything that seems simple is always a set up, you go hacking and cutting through the internet, or whatever they call it. You can't always go by skill eh? Gotta go by gut sooner or later... my gut says that this life-form won't take too kindly to being approached or recognized when it's worked so hard to NOT be found," Mace shrugged, "I don't know what it'll do, but your my ace in the hole Anselm... because if your even half as good as my wife than I'm betting you can beat it,"

When Lilith asked about phoning her brother Mace shrugged and reached into the pocket attached to the side of his chair. Pulling a phone-plane out of the pocket he tossed it to Lilith, pulled his sun-glasses down and leaned back in his chair with his hands resting on his stomach.

“Oh. I probably should tell you this. I hate the government and I am under the strong belief that, generally, you hide things from the public that you shouldn’t. So if I find out this “super secret” information, good for me, because them at least I don’t walk around ignorant like the rest of the world.” That’s what people were, afterall, ignorant, constantly, every day of their lives, they were ignorant to the turmoil of the world and Lilith never wanted to be associating with them, or worse, be one of them.

“Lilith. My name is Lilith. Call me it.” She growled, glancing to him as they crossed the airfield. “Yeah, well, I’m sure there are little aliens running around in your mental mind, but I’ll wait until I see one to believe it, fair?” And for the rest of their little run across the airfield, Lilith remained rather quiet, thoughtful and probably just a little moody. She listened, whilst feeling the inevitable twist in the back of her mind of anxiety and panic.

A thinking, living electronically being? Really? Which communicates with other technology, whilst driving humans practically insane – or panicked, Lilith declared them the same thing – she had never heard of such devices, or even programs. Not in all her time connected to the rest of the world, the rest of her little hacker friends. They hadn’t got that far creating technology like that on this planet, yet…this planet? Ugh, the damn geezer was actually having her think about other planets and other creatures, Aliens, even. She quickly shook it out of her mind, whilst trying to come up with a code – any code – that would create similar waves, anything to try and break down what it was this geezer was shoving her towards.

She felt the twist in the back of her mind go straight to her heart when the plane began to move, so much so that she could barely here what he damn geezer was going on about. Clenching the paper bag in her hand, Lilith quickly sat down and concentrated on breathing. Aviophobia – That was what she remembered it being, fear of dying in something that flies, and oh goody for her, a plane came underneath that category. She was briefly aware of being told some various information that she would have probably insulted him for anyway, but the pounding in her head, followed swiftly by the feeling of becoming very dizzy, Lilith chose to ignore him.

Glancing over to him as he tapped his heart and then his stomach, Lilith clenched both her hands tightly to stop them from shaking. “…I can’t beat if…if I have a panic…attack….” Taking the phone and punching the number in wrong at least three times before she managed to do it right, Lilith held the phone to her ear, whilst trying to breathe properly and rid the choking, tight feeling in her chest. “Samael.” She breathed, grinning a little at what was his reply. “Yeah…I’m in a plane…kinda happens…” Shaking her head, she glanced to Mace before lowering her voice to at least try and calm her brother down, explaining her situation as quickly as possible whilst trying to cope with her tight chest and dizzy spell.

A good few minutes later, when Lilith found herself becoming breathless, she ended the call and handed the phone back, eyes closing again to try and cope through her panic attack.

When the young woman told him to call her Lilith the middle-aged Brigadier raised an eyebrow and thought about cracking off a shot of his own - this young woman seemed to irritate him in ways his wife had no hope of matching - but vetoed it as it was the first sign that she had some manner of 'common sense' inside her head, "Mace, Alan... I'd insist on Brigadier but that year I spent waiting tables taught me a few things about dealing with civilians... so call me either," when she said that she didn't like the government Alan nodded, "Quite right - petty-minded chocolate-scoffing sadists the lot of them and that's true," Alan crossed his arms, "We don't work for any one government - no one faction in this world controls us. We function by a majority of vote under the gaze of the United Nations. What we protect we protect by the order of ALL nations - so, in a sense, we work for the ANTI-Government since a PRO-Government represents only one people at a time,"

As Mace started to continue he noticed the sweat and panic literally eking out of this woman - the same sort of feel he got around his wife whenever they got on a boat (she couldn't even take a bath without having to take one of those pills she used to counter her hydrophobia) or near a pool. If anything he'd learned not to comment or watch when something like this happened so he got up and walked over to the soldier at the far end of the plane. Whispering in her ear Mace nodded when the woman saluted and walked out of the room. Heading back to his seat Mace pulled his glasses on and leaned back against his chair - seeming to go to sleep as the soldier walked up behind Lilith and said, "Ma'am," when she looked at her the soldier handed her glass of water and a bottle of pills, "It's a sedative, nothing strong just enough to shut your brain down so it can't register whats going on around you,"

Seeming to be asleep Mace watched as the soldier saluted him and then left Lilith to either dump the water in Mace's lap or take the pill. Ten minutes later the door at the far end of the plane slid open and a stock technician with huge horn-rimmed glasses stepped out, "Och there ya are Colonel!" Mace seemed to sigh at that as he sat up, "Brigadier Jetix, Brigadier," the stocky Scotsman seemed to grin at that, "Och! Yer given me a rank now? Ah'm touched!" Alan rolled his eyes, "Yes, in the head, Lilith," he said to his co-passenger, "This is Jetix - he watches too much Television and pretends he works for the Disney channel, he'll be your coordinator for this mission,"

"I should be so lucky Lass, me main job 'll be gearing you up fer the job," reaching into the cart he'd drug out with him the stocky man pulled out a slim black Apple laptop and handed it to Lilith, "This is a standard UNIT Apple Mac Laptop - back at the base our main computers are run by Windows 7 and XP, but on the run we use nothin but the finest Macintosh tech and that's the truth," reaching into his cart Jetix pulled out a strange box with a weird-looking USB plug attached to the front, "This is our Ghost-Grabber, when the light is clean the trap is clean," he said as he plugged it into the laptop and a small green LED lit up, "One word of advice, don't cross the streams... it would be BAD!"

Watching the bizarre Scotsman get to his feet Mace rolled his eye as Jetix saluted Alan and waved at Lilith before pushing the cart out of the passenger section, "Don't pay any attention to him - there are no streams or screams or whatevers to cross, I told you he watches too much television, just trick the thing into the box - maybe give it some sort of signal to feed on - and close the door, that's it," feeling the plane start to vibrate slightly Mace grinned, "Ah here we are, we'll be landing soon," noticing the look on Lilith's face the Brigadier shrugged, "The tech on this plane is ten or twelve years ahead of the fastest Jet Liner, the speed this thing can pull off out-strips sonic-speed by a mile... and every time we jump to full speed there's a slim chance we could be turned inside out," he shrugged, "Not quite ready for public use just yet I'm afraid,"

Ah, finally, she got a name. Not one she would have pegged to belong to him, but she took it all the same. Alan Mace, huh? Interesting. Still, in her humble opinion, she preferred the nickname of geezer more than anything, she supposed she could try and call him by his name, if she called him by hers. “Brigadier? I forgot, how high up is that exactly?” She’d always been terrible with ranks, even when referring to the police force. Still, the fact he wasn’t exactly pro-government gave him extra points in her book, and double points for confusion. Yea, politics was lost on her as well. ”But aren’t you still controlled by a group of arguing idiots?”

The craft rocked and Lilith found herself almost clenching her fist to the point she was ripping into it with her nails, and only spared the soldier a glance before shaking her head, but took the water anyway. She drank the water and quickly put the glass down, before she clenched it so hard that it shattered in her hand – again – toying with the bottle of pills that she had been given. ”I don’t take tablets.” she murmured softly, putting the bottle down with the glass and continuing to clench her fists. ”…thanks anyway” The silence, even though it was only to last ten minutes, was twice as suffocating as the fact that she was in a metal container that was flying (since that was all that a plane was) but the sudden appearance of another person (which caused her to question why so many people were on one jet that wasn’t a public aircraft) came out.

These people were way too noisy and happy for the job they were doing, she soon decided, and watched the exchange with an expression that displayed this thought. It made her feel a little bit better than it seemed the old geezer literally could not be nice to anyone if his life depended on it, if his attitude with Jetix was anything to go by. Taking the laptop she pushed the small pressure point button to flip the lid up, powering the small device up. It didn’t take long to load, which told her immediately that the gear on the machine wasn’t clogging up the system, which meant it would work fast and hopefully keep up with her skills.

”All I can say is that it better be good, cause damn I hate slow computers.” Taking the USB plug and looking it over, she gave the male an expression which literally told him to cut it, lest she use the USB plug for something else before using it for it’s designed purpose. Taking the time she had to experiment and get used to the machine she was to be using for this mental case mission, Lilith gave him a nod as he left, wondering whether she had died, and this was hell, because it summed up how she felt accurately enough.

Looking back to Mace, Lilith shrugged, quickly returning her gaze back to the computer. ”I have a brother, trust me, he’s playtime compared to Samael and his damn comics” Tapping away on the computer almost lazily Lilith gave the geezer a sharp glare at the lovely information that they could die in this stupid flying tin can. ”Keep it up, geezer, going to prison is currently sounding a lot more comfortable than sitting on a plane with you whilst you tell me that there is a slight possibility that we’re going to die.” Returning to the computer she gave a irritated twitch of her nose and decided to change the subject onto someone she could probably outwit him at. ”So, how much about computers are you completely and utterly ignorant to?”

When she made a crack about his rank Mace didn't even pull his sun glasses down. Having dealt with a certain arrogant pin-striped jerk he had skin of iron - though her question about 'working of squabbling idiots' made Mace smirk and pull his shades down, "'Yes but I have a lot of sway with these idiots - also, there are a lot of good men just trying to do their job... if you want perfection you're not going to get it on this planet, I do my job and try to get the best I can out of what I have. You can either work with that or you can ignore it and spend the rest of your career sulking - your choice,"

Dozing comfortably in his chair while Lilith muttered about her temporary top-of-the-line UNIT laptop the middle-aged man pulled his shades down the bridge of his nose and glanced at Lilith when she asked her question. Getting to his feet Mace smirked down at her, "That's the thing about passing the rank of Colonel... when you reach that level they cut out the part of your brain that makes you answer stupid questions," tapping her on the nose Mace winked, pushed his glasses back up his nose and nodded as the plane cruised down the runway, "We're here,"

Picking up his duffel bag Mace motioned for Lilith to follow him, "C'mon Anselm - let's get those legs moving," reaching the jet's exit Mace slid the door open and inhaled, "The stench and down-to-earth decay of small-town America... gotta love it," climbing down the staircase that had been rolled up Mace reached the tar-mac and started a quick-step across the landing pad, "Report," he said as three UNIT soldiers came walking up, "According to our Canadian Branch the virus has been detected entering the Washtown building in downtown Laport," the left-most soldier reported as Mace, Lilith and the other soldier quick-stepped towards the truck at the far end of the landing pad.

"Status of the press and the surrounding area," Mace said evenly as they reached the truck and he tossed his bag over the back, "The area in an eighty mile radius has been cordoned off - but we've not used any electronic equipment to coordinate it. All electronic equipment has been shut down within that radius thanks to the 'damaged power station' which the press is currently flocking around," nodding Lilith into the other side of the cab Mace watched as the medic he'd requested jumped into the back of the truck and then said, "Good, the back-fire should trap the virus within an eighty mile radius of the drop zone - all we have to do is corner it and cut off it's escape. Eventually it will get hungry enough to go for the bait our new tech here has,"

Watching her superior climb into the truck the right-most soldier bit her lip, "With all due respect sir, I wish you would allow us to staff your group with someone who has combat training," Mace raised an eyebrow as he slammed the door shut, "Are you of the opinion that I can't handle myself in a fire-fight sergeant?" she paled at that, "No sir I... permission to speak freely sir," Mace beckoned for her to do so with his hand, "This virus or whatever is dangerous - we don't know it's capabilities, with all due respect to central command they should have given you full control over-" Mace shook his head, "Don't question the movements of the UN kid, it'll only hurt your head. Is that it?"

When she saluted Mace nodded, "I'm hoping to do this without anyone getting hurt... but if they do I want you to monitor our actions inside that eighty miles - if we get in trouble UNIT command will have to respect the order I'm about to give you," leaning over the side of the truck door Mace whispered into the soldiers ear and nodded, "Go to it," when she saluted and the two of them marched off Mace turned the engine over and rolled off the tar-mac, "Don't look so shocked Anselm, I fought to get UNIT to step in on this deal... America and Great Britain and several other governments have their own 'encounter group' for this sort of situation... the majority of them being staffed by thugs," Mace shrugged, "The point is that this thing is beyond them - unfortunately UNIT central command won't allow me full command over the mission or even a small assault group without sufficient cause after what happened in-"

Glancing at Lilith the Brigadier cleared his throat, "Never mind, the point is that you, me and Joe back there are the only one's who UNIT will sanction on this deal. We have to either catch this... thing or get enough information on it to convince the High Command to allow me full discretion over the ordeal," turning the truck onto the highway Mace pointed the truck towards the town of Laport Indiana, "Sounds simple doesn't it?"

Slamming the lid to the laptop down and yanking the usb out of the plug, Lilith quickly picked up the high tech piece of technology and followed after Mace. She screwed her nose up a little as he went marching off and left her to catch up, which was fine, she wasn’t particularly interested in what the three soldiers were saying. Instead she had opened up the laptop again as she walked, balancing it on her arm – a trick she had learnt early on, it made walking around the house easier and more constructive if she could hack or program something at the same time.

The press? She actually looked up at that point, interested in how much of a big deal this really was. It seemed big enough, shutting the laptop lid down again and doing as she was instructed and getting into the cab, Lilith lifted the lid back up quickly enough to prevent the machine from going to sleep. She probably didn’t have much time to mess around with the thing before she was told to go and do whatever the hell it was she was meant to do, so Lilith hoped the learn as many different commands as possible in that time. The mention of her providing bait, however, got her thinking on how exactly she was going to bait the damn thing to come into a trap that – if it was as smart as Mace said it was, then it was going to have to be the most tempting piece of bait she could think of.

She stopped then, frowning, suddenly aware she believed everything this man was telling her. About aliens, about technology that could have a mind of it’s own and was something causing people to go insane or whatever it was that Mace had explained to her. Still, her fingers darted across the keyboard in an attempt to create her own small spark of bait that would lure whatever she was trying to capture.

Looking back over to Mace as he described that there were only going to be three of them puling this stunt, Lilith found herself frowning, closing the laptop lid once again. “And how exactly do you expect me to trap it? If this is as smart as you’ve informed me, it isn’t going to just walk into this dingy little usb thing” She tapped it for emphasis, feeling a little – okay, well, a lot – out of her depth, probably because she was the only sane person in this truck. Finding herself almost glaring at how calm and how simple Mace had described their little mission, Lilith shifted to pop the laptop lid open again, before she looked back to Mace. “You’re crazy. I don’t know if anyone had told you this before, but it might make more impact coming from a total stranger. You. Are. Out. Of. Your. Mind.”

And with that, she returned the tapping the keys on the laptop.

Mace didn't even glance when she commented that he was insane, "I think you'll find that the greatest military minds boarder on the eccentric," he shrugged, "And you can still back out - with your hacking and slashing skills I don't expect a black mark from UNIT will do you all that much damage, you'll still have the same chance of getting a job saying 'paper or plastic' whether we want you to or not," when she just continued to type Mace sighed, "I don't know how intelligent this thing is - I believe there is a greater purpose behind it but I don't know what,"

Looking at his watch Mace nodded, "If I'd known I wouldn't have had to beg to get the UN's permission to investigate this," he shook his head, "This isn't Torchwood - we aren't freelance, we actually care about the people - about the big picture - instead of personal vendetta's and the gratification of shagging any new species we run across we actually have an agenda. It's fine if people have those desires and urges - but never take them to the office, what we do is above Torchwood and it is sanctioned... and so very important that you can't even believe,"

Pulling off the highway Mace sighed, "The Press will be busy covering the story about the 'damaged power-station' so we have free reign of the building, whatever happens we've got two hours before... before... oh my god..." as they pulled up in front of the Washtown building Mace looked disgusted and shocked all at once, "What sort of supreme being would condone such irony?" the building had a huge banner hanging above it's doors 'WELCOME TO THE 85th COMPUTER AND TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION' and people could be seen striding in and out of the building like chickens with their heads cut off.

"Well we know why it came here then... dear god there must be close to three hundred people here," slamming his door shut Mace nodded for the Medic to climb out of the back of the truck and open the door for Lilith. Cocking his service pistol Mace nodded, slid it into the holster around his back and pulled on his leather jacket, "Well we don't have to worry about it spotting you Lilith... you look like an average computer-crazed teenager. Hope you aren't ravaged by the geeky populace - I doubt if any of them have ever seen a woman at one of these things,"

Tossing Lilith an ear-pod Mace then threw the Medic one, "Alright Janet, Lilith, keep these lines clear unless you spot something - Lilith you stick to the less populated areas. This thing probably isn't ready to make it's move yet - Janet, I want you to go down the front I'll go around the back and meet you in the middle," activating his ear pod Mace nodded, "Let's go girls," he said as he jumped off the stairs to the front and made his way around the service entrance. Glancing at his watch again Mace licked his lips and then poked his head in and grinned when he saw a kitchen, "Oh..." adjusting his collar Mace put on his most serious expression, "Alright... frog mode... okay,"

Charging into the kitchen he grabbed - what he assumed to be the sous chef - and started to rant at her about the pot she was stirring, "Ce qui?! Ce qui vous appellent ceci?! Est-ce que ce supposé est pour être de la pisse de sauce ou de vache? Débarassez-vous de ceci! Maintenant!" watching the woman almost panic as she ordered to commies to take the pot Mace tugged on an apron and started barking orders, "Je veux ces oignons coupés vers le haut d'en ce moment, découpe vers le haut de quelques clous de girofle d'ail et puis prends que graisse de poulet et vois si vous pouvez appeler cela quelque chose mais ambroisie..."

When they just stared at him Mace rolled his eyes, "Now! Get to it! Go!" suddenly the kitchen was abuzz with activity and Mace began making his way towards the door to the main room, "Et ne m'incitez pas à revenir dedans ici," closing the door behind him Mace chucked the apron into the can next to him and exhaled, "I'm in, Anselm - Janet - what have you two got?" there was a surprised shriek from one end of the com and then a slapping sound followed by a scream, "Anselm?" there was a growl from the line and then Janet spoke, "No it's me sir - I was being chatted up by a child and she decided-"

Mace coughed at that, "She?!" Janet growled, "Take's all sorts sir, she decided to make a grab for what I had to offer and I had to discourage her," Mace bit his lower lip, "Broke her arm I hope," that finally got a laugh from Janet, "Just dislocated it sir," shaking his head Mace sighed, "What have you got Lilith? Any signal?"

“Eccentric is different. You get called eccentric instead of crazy if you’re famous or have a lot of money, considering you’re part of a secret service, you can’t be either.” Watching the screen load with numbers and data, telling her fountains of information in just a few abbreviated words. Frowning and pressing a few buttons to retract the information and bring up various other routes into any and every active network within a certain radius Lilith spared a glance up to Mace and frowned lightly.

“You say that name like I’m supposed to know what “Torchwood” is” she commented before shutting the lid to the laptop down again, thinking, her eyes glancing up to the offending banner that educated them about the hell they were about to enter. “Never underestimate the power of geeks, geezer, especially since you’re currently relying on one.” Not that this was the scariest convention Lilith had found herself in, no, Samael’s World of Warcraft conventions were actually quite scarier than this, mainly because of the obsessive nature that people had over a simple game.

“I bet there is more than three hundred, if these things are anything like they usually are.” Glancing to him and grinning lightly, she mock saluted him. “Considering I gave one of your men a black eye when he was trying to yank me out that toilet cubical I think I can handle myself around a few geeks who wouldn’t know what to do with that think dangling between their legs.” Catching the ear pod with one hand and slipping it in her left ear, Lilith managed another small grin.

“Less populated areas? You’ve never been to one of these conventions before, have you geezer?” Jumping out the vehicle she made sure to keep a tight hold on the computer, opening the lid again and resuming the scan, although she was still unsure to exactly what she was supposed to be looking for. Entering the building and immediately moving her way through the crowd, watching the screen for any and all information that could pop up from the scan. Bluetooth phones plagued the system, as did wireless connectors, which was suspected. So perhaps she was supposed to be looking for something less than obvious? Right, that was easy.

Not.

Hanging back and placing herself within the chaos of the convention, but out of any crowdedness that would let other people look at what she was doing. Still, not real signal. Crouching down so that she could type across the keyboard with both hands, Lilith expanded the search, letting it dig deeper, although causing it to take longer to bring up search results. She nearly dropped the laptop at the scream that came in through her left ear Lilith winced, but relaxed as the answer for it came through, concentrating on the screen.

“Signal? Oh yeah, I’m getting plenty of signal, but I don’t know what it is I’m looking for. Bluetooth phones, wireless networks…” she paused, frowning at he screen. “…Hold on, now, what is that…” Quickly typing code into the computer and waiting for the results, Lilith reached up to gently touch the ear pod. “I, uh, I might actually have it. I mean, I don’t recognize what the hell this is, so I’m going on what I don’t know rather than what I do, but it’s…it’s kind of getting stronger, the signal.”

Tapping quickly onto the keyboard again, she almost grinned, against the other “usual” electronic airwaves floating around, this had to be it, and there wasn’t another thing even close to how strong the signal was. “I think I found it. Definitely. It’s too strong a signal to be anything else around here…”

Mace glanced at the young woman when she said he had neither excuse and snorted, "It's so reassuring to know that... you're sure then?" he nodded, "In that case... what's YOUR excuse?" he shrugged as the truck pulled into the parking lot, "Not to throw names, but I've met more sane people wearing giant trash-can armor - and that's going some,"

When Lilith said that he said that name like she should know it Alan looked confused, "You're a hacker right?" when she nodded he shrugged, "I'm no computer expert... but it's been my experience that just about anyone can hack into the Torchwood hub - most hackers share stories of Torchwood like so many..." glancing at her Mace gave a sly grin, "Unless you've already met the irrevocable Master Harkness and he just decided not to leave you with a lasting impression,"

Sighing at the look she gave him Mace shrugged as he pulled the truck to a stop and turned the engine off, "Torchwood is - basically - the UK's version of the secret alien police," he shook his head, "Billions of our American-copying taxes go to support the various branches of Torchwood every year," he shrugged, "They say they're 'above the government, beyond the united nations and there to protect our interests'... unfortunately, as of late, Torchwoods interests have become more important than the interests of the British people... or even any HUMAN on this planet. They are reckless, self-serving and - in the majority - untrustworthy,"

Climbing out of the truck Mace checked his side-arm, "But they were founded even before UNIT - the founding of UNIT was something they tried to prevent as they might actually have someone to answer to since, because of how the charter is worded, UNIT automatically outranks any 'native' army or group - in other words Torchwood is subservient in an officially sanctioned UNIT action (no matter who ranks higher) and - again - Torchwood doesn't like to answer to anyone so they tend to resent UNIT and make cracks about it because while THEY are immune to the United Nations the United Nations is also immune to them since it is - collectively - controlled by various countries,"

Tossing Lilith her ear-pod Alan nodded when Janet angled her way around the front and walked in, "There are a few - minor - acceptions in the case of Jack Harkness and his Lieutenant Gwen Cooper-Williams... Jack is completely untrustworthy but he's loyal and a good fighter. Gwen is uncomplicated as the day is long and would tell the truth to an alien that asked her if she tasted like chicken... before she kicked him in the love-spuds and ran," he shrugged, "By and large they are - what most would call - thugs, lowlifes, outcasts and miss-fit geniuses who have saved this planet about as half as many times as they've almost destroyed it, clear?"

Turning on his heel Mace went inside around the back and - after his game with the kitchen staff and Janet's little adventure with an overweight female geek. He began 'browsing' certain stalls hoping to look inconspicuous as he waited for Lilith to report. When she said she didn't know what she was looking for Mace sighed, "Look for something you can't describe - something alien, something that looks non-human," when she changed her examination to try and find what 'shouldn't be there Mace grinned as she said she'd located it.

"Alright, start broadcasting the bait and I'll-" suddenly Janet said, "I've got it too," freezing in his tracks Alan swallowed, "What do you mean you've got it?" Janet sighed over her ear-com, "I mean I've found it, my cellphone just went off - my husband sent me a picture of our puppies and my phone locked onto the signal," Mace began to walk faster, "That's not possible," Janet snorted, "Sir I think we should leave the technological advice to-"

Running now Alan yelled into his mic, "Stow that! You don't understand! I don't know anything about computers but I do know cellphones - they don't just 'pick up' something by accident, they're not designed that way... if your phone is picking up the signal - picking up the virus-" as he ran past a plasma-screen monitor it suddenly exploded in a flash of green energy and began to glow. Freezing in his tracks Mace swallowed, "That IT is trying to call YOU... Lilith! Has the signal gotten any bigger?"

That was a pointless question - as they watched computer screens, televisions, gaming consoles, electric coffee makers - thousands of pieces of electronic equipment began to turn themselves on as they were bathed in an eerie green light, "Dear god..." suddenly Janet said, "Sir! You better get over here - the people around here... their screaming," opening his mouth in confusion Mace shook his head, "Scr- what are you talking about?" Janet sounded worried as she replied, "Some of them are bleeding - their passing out! Others are picking up weapons- put that down! No! Sir this thing is hurting these people - it's doing something to their minds! Get over here now!"

Breaking into a run Mace clicked on his ear com again, "Lilith! Get moving! Meet up with Janet!" pumping his arms Mace let out a shout when the computer bank he was running past suddenly exploded and a bundle of wires shot out. Throwing him into another stall the wires then began to plug into other electronics. Picking himself up Mace grabbed his service pistol from his belt and cocked it as the television, keyboard and mouse it had plugged itself into formed a sort of 'body' and began to swing themselves at him. Firing several shots into the computer screen Mace growled when the computer just exploded and continued to attack him, 'Just once! Damnit! Just once!" popping his now empty clip out Mace began to reload his weapon as he ran - before a long black cable shot out of the monitor and grabbed him by the ankle.

Shouting in surprise and pain Mace was hefted into the air and the monitor stared at him before roaring - literally - and then flinging it's captive over the stall.

"Hands down! HANDS DOWN!" firing another shot in the air Janet cocked her pistol again, "I will use this damned thing if you don't get down! Hands on your heads NOW!" several of the obviously crazed civilians (if the growling and drooling was anything to go by) looked like they were going to attack again (while the others simply clutched their heads and wailed) but slowly lowered their sticks and makeshift clubs and dropped to their knees. Hearing boots behind her Janet spun around and breathed a sigh of relief when Lilith came running up, "You almost scared the... where's the Brigadier?"

Suddenly a shout of pain could be heard and - like a Frisbee - Alan Mace came flying OVER six lines of computer stalls and then slowly spun into the gathered people. Landing in a heap Alan didn't move as Janet and Lilith helped him roll over - revealing one of his eyes was swollen shut and his lip was bleeding. Wincing in pain the man said, "Where is it? Did I get-" there was another roar and - as the people and the two girls spun around to watch - Alan slowly began to pick himself off the floor. As they watched every single computer, mouse, keyboard, video-game controller, television remote and who-knows-what-else began to 'mesh' together.

Staring in awe Janet watched as almost a dozen robotic forms were created from nothing but electronic scrap... and began to growl. Realizing they were being surrounded Janet cocked her pistol and asked, "Orders sir?" leaning against the wall Alan wiped at his bleeding face and panted for breath, "Sir! Sir your orders?!" as the roboforms began to move towards them Mace suddenly yanked a tiny Pistol with a huge dish-like attachment and shouted, "Down!" watching them drop to the floor Alan squeezed the trigger and smirked when a huge ball of charged energy fired in the middle of the gathered hulks and exploded.

Screaming as only electronics can the robots were bathed in blue energy and started to jerk and walk spasmaticaly as Alan hefted Lilith and the others to their feet, "Here's an order - all of you, RUN!" pointing them towards the fire escape Alan began to recharge the gun, "I've only got a few shots before this thing goes - run NOW!" as they ran up the fire escape Janet shouted, "Where did-" Alan shook his head, "Birthday present - my wife's version of a 'stun gun' - don't ask," and so no one did as they and their 'charges' (the people not screaming or roaring) hefted their legs and ran down the halls with the roboforms behind them.

”I never said I was crazy, or eccentric. Besides, I’m neither, I’m slightly disturbed.” She informed him with a frown, before listening about his explainion of what exactly Torchwood was. ”That sounds like such a biased report there, geezer”

Murmuring under her breath, the urge to hit Mace repeativedly around the head with the laptop in her hands once returning, Lilith closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten. Something Alien? How was she supposed to…Nevermind, she’d do what every good hacker did and that was improvise, she was definitely going to have to think of her feet anyway by the sounds of it, and whilst that was something that was almost required if you were a hacker, it wasn’t what Lilith enjoyed. Throwing at the conversation that was coming through the earpod Lilith looked back to the screen. ”What the hell is that…?” Tapping a few more commands into the computer to bring up various boxes of code and data, Lilith winced at the yelling down her earpod. ”Don’t yell, I’m trying to concentrate here!” Taking the earpod out of her ear and shoving it in her pocket instead, Lilith slammed the lid to the laptop down and stood up from her corner.

Looking around, no amount of horror movies had prepared her to simply watch as machines turned themselves on, and started to work on their own. Sure, there were timers and things that could get devices to do that, but every single device at the exact same time? Either someone was pulling the biggest prank of all time, or they were hitting fun time. Backing up and running down one of the corridors, suddenly very aware all she had to protect herself was a damn computer and a USB drive she sought out Janet first, grinning a little despite herself at the look of surprise that crossed across the woman’s face. Looking around, ignoring her question for the moment, Lilith opened the laptop lid again and retraced the signal. ”I don’t know, I took my earpod out, so your guess is as good as mine…WATCH IT!” Quickly moving herself out the way as someone was thrown in their direction, Lilith frowned before looking back over to where Mace had been thrown from.

”When you said you weren’t good with computers, you weren’t kidding, were you?” she commented, keeping a tight hold of the laptop, watching the results pan in again, the signal becoming so strong that it was literally off the charts and if it got any higher then the computer wouldn’t be able to give her accurate data on it anymore. Not a good thing. Still, the roar that didn’t sound quite as animal as it should have been, almost made her drop the laptop in surprise, turning around to watch as the perfect plot for a Michael Bay movie developed in front of her. ”…that doesn’t look like it’s going to be fun…”

Backing up, feeling like she was once again well out of her depth, with the one thing going through her mind was how she didn’t want to die. She really, really, really didn’t want to die. She gave Janet a look of disbelief when she actually pointed her gun at the things, not that it would really do much damage. ”Too bad we don’t have one of those electromagnetic pinch things or we could just shut everything down and leg it…” Admittedly, Lilith was up for running away, but she didn’t like the chances that the things in front of her, were going to run after her as well.

Ducking and watching the explosion, Lilith managed a grin. ”Or a nice, lovely gun like that'll do. When do I get one of those?” Being pulled up and shoved in the general direction of the fire escape, Lilith yet again slammed the lid to the laptop down and ran off up the stairs, easily taking them two at a time and twisting around to keep running. This was what she was actually good at, running, it was something she’d done all her life, for once it was actually being done with a good reason. ”I so want your kind of birthday present, geezer, all I get are video games!”

They were going to run out of fire escape soon, she slowly released, slowly her speed to taking the sitars one at a time and quickly working out exactly where they could go next. ”Geezer, if you want me to try and trap this thing, I can’t be doing it whilst running up stairs.”

As his UNIT soldier and UNIT brat worked their way collectively up the stairwell behind him (herding what people they could) Mace kept his stun-gun trained on the mass of technology forcing him up the stairs as well, "I am a member of UNIT - I'm sure you've heard of us-" when the robot-thing roared at him and forced him back a bit further Mace cocked the pistol and swallowed, "This does NOT need to turn into an international incident - I can help you, I'm a brigadier with UNIT - if you're trapped here we can help you leave. If you need something we can help you get it - you're holding the cards,"

Watching the creature calm slightly Mace lowered his pistol a little, "That's right... see? No need... just please... we can work this out - you only need-" suddenly the creature's left-arm-like-attachment shot out and grabbed Mace's pistol, "Up the stairs! Up the stairs now!" forcing the stragglers up in front of him Mace covered his balding head when a sharp bang was heard behind him followed by the sound of massive electrical short-circuit, "Short-timer EMP burst... activated it before I lowered the pistol," Janet swallowed, "Sir... if you'd-" Mace glowered at her, "I shouldn't have needed to do that... but I did, it'll keep them busy,"

Leading the civilians and Lilith towards a store room Mace glanced at a grumpy-looking fat man who bellowed that he didn't know what was going on here but he certainly didn't intend to be detained, "Sir if you'll just-" but the fat man would have none of it - not even allowing Janet to help him into the room. Finally Mace could take no more, "You're a total fool aren't you sir?" the fat man sputtered angrily at that, "Why are you unable to grasp this incredibly basic concept?" when the man just asked WHAT concept Mace pushed the last number of civilians inside the store room and began to close the door on the fat man, "The concept that we are all about to expire in less than ten minutes... unless we find a way to protect ourselves - in which case we might last twenty, understand?"

Janet spoke up then, "That thing down there has access to all our computers, all the security systems - everything! If you don't-" suddenly the man was through the door and yelling at Mace to shut it, "Clever man isn't it?' Mace muttered as he locked the door and pulled a metal-frame shelf down in front of it, "Anselm, I need answers," Mace said as he checked his pistol and limped over towards the window at the far end to check it. His face was badly swollen - the lump on the back of his head suggested a possible concussion and the fact that the left side of his body was either purple or blue didn't do too many points for his circulation, "Forget what I said about being secretive, keeping yourself hidden - listen to what I'm saying NOW!" suddenly the door at the far end began to shake.

Pulling out his service pistol Mace cocked it, "At the other end of the room - move... NOW!" watching the civilians drag themselves in that direction Mace nodded and cocked his service pistol, "Find a way to grab that thing out of those machines - cut it into pieces if you have to - just do it," when a huge hole was cut through the door Mace cracked a shot off at the 'arm' and yelled, "Lilith do it NOW!"

Opening up the laptop as soon as they got within the store room Lilith fixed her eyes to the screen and started to process the data, frowning as she racked her brains for a way to trick the thing into the small usb device. The fact that it was a learning, self-aware piece of technology that wouldn’t fall for the same trick twice wasn’t exactly helping her here, since all that was running through her brain was how much she really, really didn’t want to die. Not here, at least, not by some monster piece of technology that reminded her of a bad Michael Bay film.

Glaring up at Mace, Lilith once again resisted the urge to hit him. ”You want your answers, stick your head out that door, that’s all the answers you got right now” Closing her eyes and thinking, knowing there was a way to shut the stupid thing down if she could only have a second to think about what she was going to do. Coding up things to trick other things wasn’t exactly the simplest of thing to build. It didn’t help that Mace was yelling at her every three seconds and breaking her damn concentration.

The shock came to her system when he actually used her first name, and she opened her eyes. ”Shut up! I think I got it.” Placing her hands on the keyboard again, starting to type rapidly and also trying her best to ignore the approaching doom that was trying to come through the door, Lilith found herself murmuring the codes she was quickly bashing out, opening door after door after door in her computer, leading a pathway through most of the systems inside to where she wanted it to go. It was a big enough shot to try, and she had to make sure the thing – whatever it was at this point – followed through the doors without diverting anywhere it wanted to. Which meant she needed a signal, something to communicate with it, something to distract it with whilst she went about what she usually did and hacked into things. It was basic, it was what she did everyday, it was a bouncing code that changed every time the locator ‘caught’ her, and if she applied it to the virus then when it reached where she wanted to reach it, it would be smaller.

”I got it, I got it, I got it” she murmured, just in case Mace was deciding to turn around and yell at her some more, activating the bouncing doors and taking her route elsewhere, desperately shutting down whatever systems she could hack herself into, and much to her relief, the more she hacked into the damn things the easier it was to get into the next one. Like dominos, almost, whilst she was hacking into various systems she left the doors open to distract the damn brain of the virus from what she was doing, mainly because she didn’t want to think how hard it would suddenly get if it knew about her plan.

”Standby, I’m nearly done, I’m nearly done” Just a few more systems, unfortunately these were larger than the smaller ones she had been shutting down without hassle, so it took more than a few simple ‘off’ codes to break through and shut them down, but the banging on the door was keeping her going as she reached what she guessed would be the brain of the entire thing and start to shut it down. And still, the one thing still running through her mind was how much she didn’t want to die here. And how much she really wanted to kick Mace in the balls right about now for dragging her along to what could be her death, and how much she really, really, really didn’t want to die.

Pushing crate after shelf after box after pile in front of the door Mace (the left side of his face and side a dark shade of purple from where he'd hit the wall and then the floor) winced as a huge fist-like-bundle of wires and cables slammed THROUGH the door, "Lilith! We're running out of time!" never a truer word was said because - at that minute - all hell broke loose. The whole door was thrown wide open and Mace was flung back against the far wall as the crates and shelves and boxes exploded away from the door frame. The Tech yanked out her pistol to fire into the robots but she only got off a shot before the lead automaton grabbed her by the arms and tore her in half. The loud tearing scream she managed before dying sent half of the rest of the room screaming as civilians tried to get away from the robot-like creatures.

The lead robot made a guttural roaring as it dove for Lilith - but just as it was about to grab her a shot rang out as Mace dug himself loose from the shelving and limped into the clearing of boxes to fire a bullet right into the robots face. Shrieking in an electronic approximation of a scream as its 'face-screen' exploded. Grabbing the pistol from the ruined pulp that was the dead tech Mace emptied both clips into the surrounding robots as they continued to push him, Lilith and the civilians back against the wall. Once the pistols were emptied Mace tired to punch the lead robot in the face... and got about half-way there before the leader grabbed him by the head and began to squeeze, "Don't... DO THIS!"

Yelling in pain as his nose began to bleed from the pressure on his skull Mace braced himself for the 'explosion' when his skull cracked like an egg... and fell to his knees. Holding his head as he lay there on the floor Mace panted and looked up at the bundle of electronic parts and panted as he realized that it had frozen... but more than that... it was breaking apart? Staring at it in shock Mace swallowed as the 'robot' began to fall apart... ALL of them began to fall apart. Suddenly a hand was behind Mace's head and as his vision came back he realized he was laying in someone's lap. He knew there was blood all over his face and the left side of his head must have been pretty swollen.

"Anselm... where..." blinking against the pain Mace realized it was Lilith who was trying to keep his head from popping off his shoulders - ignoring the blood that was probably dripping onto her lap, "I'm... sorry," Mace said weakly, "Put too much pressure on you... you... you've done enough... when we get back I... I'll let you go - drop the charges, you did... did well," swallowing Mace looked up at the now collapsed pieces of electronics lying on the ground and groaned as Lilith made him lay back in her lap so that his brain didn't drip out his ears, "What... what did you... do?"

Watching someone die, wasn’t something that Lilith saw everyday, and hearing the scream from the tech made her pause, almost in shock, eyes wide and frozen. She’d never seen someone die before, and…it was horrible, and the noise, the scream, replayed itself in her ears. She didn’t want to die.

Almost smashing at computer buttons, entering all the codes she could think off, Lilith tried to zone out what was going on around her so she could at least concentrate. But that was hard when you had screaming, yelling and roaring going on, still, opening up another terminal screen she paused, just for a moment, before entering another set of codes, shutting things down whilst leading the virus towards the usb trap she had set up. Another terminal screen, another set of codes, another terminal screen…this had to be timed for it to make any effect, she had to like the whole thing together and shut it off at the same time, art of surprise and all that. Another terminal screen, another long set of annoying codes. Great.

Looking up sharply and yelling at the monster seemed to target her, she dodged herself backwards to try and move away from it, letting Mace jump in. She didn’t have long, not if it was through, but she only had a few more codes to enter, and then she could run the trap and hopefully everything would fit into place. Nearly…nearly…done! Looking up, tapping the run code in with a dark look in her eyses, Lilith hovered her finger over the enter button. “HEY!” screaming over to the technical monster in a hope to distract it for just a second, she slammed the return button down and watched as the codes entered in one go, shutting down everything and giving the virus literally one place to go. The light flickered on the USB light and she smiled, before slamming the laptop lid down so hard it probably cracked, and scrabbled her way over to Mace.

Death she had never seen before, but there was always something worse, and that was watching someone slowly die, she knew, she’d been there once before with Samael, when he'd had a asthma attack without his inhaler. Shifting Mace to lift his head up, manovering his body so it wasn’t on the ground, she placed her hands over his head and pushed, literally pushing the bone back into some sort of connection. ”Don’t die, please” she whispered, glancing up at the robot, watching it break. ”Not again…” Focussing on making sure that she placed as much pressure as possible on the back of the head, trying to stop it from overflowing out, Lilith closed her eyes for a moment, only opening them again when her name was spoken.

”It’s Lilith, remember?” she reminded him, blinking a few times, the shock of seeing…everything she had in the past few events still quite evident in the way she shook a little. ”You really shouldn’t speak, and lie back down, I’m trying…trying to keep your head together…I can’t watch another person die today…” Watching him for a moment, before thinking on how to explain anything in a simple manner to him, she sighed. ”I ran a code that hackers use to basically destroy a system…and I trapped it as it tried to escape, by giving it one single route, into the USB trap.”

Mace winced at her request not to die, "I'll do my... best... could you please not hold my hand so tightly?" smiling at the childs blush as she let go of his palm Mace nodded, "That's a girl..." suddenly the door at the far end of the room was kicked open and six or seven fully-armed and armored UNIT troops marched in. Mace was relatively aware that Lilith was helping him to stand and smiled as she tried to help him maintain his dignity, "I think this time..." he said as she cried out when he fell - only to be caught by the lead soldier, "We'll sit on the issue of standing..." examining his leaders bruised skull and - several - fractures the UNIT commander bit his lower lip as Mace passed out and the medics began to look him over, "Lieutenant... Lieutenant!" getting Lilith's attention the soldier saluted, "Corporal Davies ma'am, I've been given temporary command of this Rescue and Recovery operation... do you have any orders?"

Looking at the confusion on her face Davies tilted his head to one side, "You're a civilian operative ma'am - civilian operatives are given formal ranks, the Brigadier wanted you on his personal staff, to be on his personal staff you'd need-" he nodded, "A rank yes... I assumed that since you were here you might be able to explain-" watching her stare at the unconscious figure of Alan Mace the Corporeal nodded, "But you'll be needed to bring the Brigadier up to speed of course... why don't I perform the clean up and you... you make sure that he gets back to UNIT HQ and into the critical ward?"watching her smile Davies saluted, "No problem ma'am," catching her shoulder he smiled, "The Brigadier is a good man... I served under him in Iraq and we almost lost him when... look after him, alright?"

*******

Groaning weakly Alan slowly opened his eyes and smiled at the figure asleep in the chair next to him, "I was hoping to see my wife," seeing Lilith jerk awake Alan smiled, "Shhh... it's alright, I feel like I could fly right now... they must have done their job, I told you didn't I? I'm quite alright," looking at the phone in her hand Alan laughed at what she said next, "How'd you convince her to go to bed? You're a better coordinator than I am if you could convince MY wife to do ANYTHING but what she decides," closing his eyes Alan sighed, "The medic... Janet... did she?" watching Lilith's face Mace sighed and slammed his fist against the side of the bed, "Damnit... just tools... just pawns - that's what I've been accused of thinking of the soldiers under my command... I've bloody well proved it again I suppose..."

Sighing he looked at Lilith and smiled sadly, "For what it's worth I... oh... I um... I'm sorry for all of that... I needed your help, but... but you've earned the right to choose... no pressure this time... I'll uh... I'll get your brother clear, I suppose you found out about me giving you-" watching the look on her face Mace winced, "Right... military rank... I'll get that remove too... I'm sorry, I'm sorry you had to see that and be there for all of it... if you have any questions or requests... or if you want something you've more than earned it," he smiled sadly, "Do you have anything to say before I uh... uh... before the medication wares off?"

Jerking awake at the sound of a familiar voice, Lilith smiled lightly, not even aware she had fallen asleep to begin with. “Welcome back to the land of the living.” Turning the phone over in her hand, Lilith glanced down and listened to him. “I glad you’re okay, really…I don’t think I could have watched you die.” Looking up and smiling lightly, Lilith shrugged and glanced down to the phone again. “It wasn’t easy, Ill tell you that, I promised her that I’d have you call her as soon as you’re able to hold the phone to your head. I gave her my word, so tell me when you think you’re able to, and I’ll press redial…” She glanced back down and smiled softly. “It took me a while to convince her though, and I know how she feels. I’d be the same with Samael, if anything were to happen to him, I think I’d lose my mind.”

Looking over to Mace at his question about Janet, she nodded, her voice very quiet. “Quick. Really quick. She wouldn’t have felt anything. Still not a death I would wish upon anyone.” She shook her head. “She knew, much more than me, how dangerous this would be if anything went wrong. These soldiers of yours, they have minds of their own, and they know what trouble they’re going to get into. They know the moment they sign up, and they make that choice. You can’t be blamed for that.”

Screwing her face up. “I literally had to order someone to not call me by that title for them to stop.” Turning the phone over in her hands once again, Lilith side. “Uhm…you…if you can get…them…the doctors to not shove me into psychiatric therapy…for…” she tapped her head “…post…traumatic stress disorder…then I’d really appreciate it” Taking another deep, shaky breath, Lilith let a small frown come over her features. “I also suppose I better tell you think now while you’re drugged up. The virus? It’s not your usual ‘set loose and rampage’ virus. Normally, a hacker will create the virus, let it loose and there’s little way to trace it back. With this virus…it’s like and ID tag, and until we trapped it, it was sending out a signal and receiving transmission. It wasn’t a virus that was self aware, it was a virus that was being given orders.” Glancing down to the laptop she had placed underneath her chair, Lilith bit her lip. “And for all we know, since this isn’t a one off virus, there could be more, unlikely, same trick twice and all that, but there could be.”

Looking back over to Mace, Lilith shrugged. “I wanna stay, I mean, I’m not good at handling death and…everything we just saw, but I’m know I can help, and if you can give me and my brother a place to stay, that’d be great too.” Curling up in the chair Lilith yawned. “Although I bet he’s just as worried about me, as I am about him.”

Alan raised an eyebrow (the one that hadn't been shaved off and bandaged over) and glanced at her, "You are serious aren't you? You realize that means you'll be given the formal rank... uniform... full nine yards, you'll even be required to wear it for meetings with higher-ups... and people WILL salute you - I promise you that," Alan grinned slightly, "There are some aliens who I'll introduce you to someday... just you wait and see how they react to a salute," Alan shook his head, "You will never be the same,"

When she stopped him from rambling long enough to mention the virus Mace looked confused, "But you said that... that thing lacked the uh..." he rolled his eyes, "Never mind, how is that possible?" listening to her explanation of how it was being tracked - how it was being given orders and that someone had been controlling it since the beginning - Mace leaned back against his pillow and licked his lips, "Sounds a little like the Forge... or maybe something from..." starting to sit up he groaned and lay back down, "Right... unrealistic... it'll wait,"

Laying back down Mace tried to pay attention to what Lilith was saying - but his left leg had been bandaged at the ankle and his right leg hadn't... focusing past the buzzing in the back of his head about how they 'weren't even' was difficult... so when she asked him about not having to be sent to a head hunter Mace swallowed, "I can't get you uh... uh out of that but uh... if you'll cover my feet with the blanket I'll see you just spend a week with a sleepy counselor who'll just jabber at you," when she did so Mace nodded, "Bring the paper-work by tomorrow - I'll get your group changed,"

Looking at the phone when she mentioned that she was SUPPOSED to hit redial Mace sighed, "I really shouldn't wake her... if she gets in touch with you - and she will - just tell her I didn't wake-" suddenly the phone began to ring and Mace groaned, "The woman is psychic," when Lilith answered Mace smiled, "Yeah I'm here... give it over," taking the phone from his new assistant/main tech Mace smiled, "Of course I'm fine... did you eat dinner? No I don't mean pizza I mean a meal... yes I know you're not allowed in my kitchen but if you're going to eat that trash- what do you mean I've never tried it?"

Mace rolled his eyes, "Look I make pizza - real pizza. That stuff they send in boxes... yes I know you used to live on it - that doesn't make it any better..." he sighed again, "Could we discuss this later? Hm? Yes I'm fine... yes... can we discuss this- yes I promise to take the pills... good, now you take some pills and go- I'm sure Lilith would have told me about going to sleep as soon as you hung up... yes I'll get some sleep, you get some too... alright, goodnight... I love you..."

Closing the flip-top Alan tossed it to Lilith, "The woman knows bloody-well to go by my sisters for dinner - that Ceasers junk and Hutt stuff will kill you," leaning back against his pillow Mace yawned, "Sorry, we got distracted... are you sure you want this? I mean... I know your brother needs work, and you could be getting swept up in the heat of... whatever heat you're in... once you sign over to UNIT it's at least an eight-year commitment," Alan reached out with his hand and put it on her shoulder, "I put a lot of pressure on you... pressure you weren't ready to handle... there's nothing wrong with being afraid of not measuring up... but when it becomes a driving force..." letting go of her shoulder Mace yawned again, "I just... I nearly cost a dear friend her life and career because of UNIT... I wouldn't want a chi- young woman whose just started to live to face the same thing on my behalf,"

She shook her head at the thought of the uniform, and the saluting, raising a hand. ”If that happens, then I’m no use to you. I can’t be associated with this place in any way shape or form. If I’m in the records or anything, then my job is compromised and you know it. I’m not the only one able to hack into this place, I’m just the quickest…and if I’m known to be working for you then…it complicates matters to the point it’ll be difficult for me to do anything” She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. ”Hacking…it’s almost like a community, we’re all friendly with each other, but we’re cautious of new hackers due to the fact they can be working for the government, and if they are, we tend to make their tasks difficult because that’s what we do. Our live, our gift for computers and hacking, is to buck the system, not work for it”

Watching him try and soak up the information about the virus, Lilith managed a grin. ”I’ma get you a “Viruses for Dummies” book, okay?” Tapping the phone against her open hand, Lilith smiled, but blinked at the sound of the new name, something she assumed to be yet another organisation. ”The transmissions aren’t anything I’ve ever found before. I don’t think it’s human, at least.”

Standing to shift the blanket over his feet, Lilith paused. ”They can session me all they want. I just won’t go.” Handing the phone over before she curled up in the chair, Lilith let Mace talk, whilst she took the time to think about her own family. Who were probably worried out of their own minds – or at least, Samael would be, Lilith doubted that her mother would be aware of any events that had transpired.

When Mace spoke to her again, Lilith shook her head. “Can’t help some people, Samael eats icing sugar for breakfast.” Leaning back in the chair Lilith closed her eyes, taking in what Mace was saying and thinking deeply. On one hand, she had to give eight years of her life up to this organisation, on the other, she had Samael to look after (not that the lad needed it, but she was the eldest, and she wanted him to have a half decent life, even if it meant sacrificing her own).

”You’re going to have to work with the information I just gave you, I can’t be a full time person for this organisation, or my work won’t be worth jack. She twitched away when he put a hand on her shoulder, lightly shaking her head. ”Don’t do that.” Looking back to him, she shrugged. ”That’s the point of pressure, isn’t it? To force you into handling something you’re not ready to?” Curling up on the chair, Lilith closed her eyes and rested her forehead on her knees, she was well aware what could happen to her if incidents like this were repeated, she knew that she could end up like Janet. The thought alone terrifyed her, death terrifyed her, but… ”What other choice do I have?”

A very simple one, it seemed. Take it and be sorted for at least eight years, or leave it and go back to struggling for money.

Listening to what she said about being unable to do her work if he gave her a rank and a position within UNIT Alan - yawning sleepily - sighed and scratched his chin, "Then we've got a problem... I need you to have upper-level clearance - that's not something I can just hand out with a visitors card," he shook his head, "I mean if the few - but powerful - people I answer to... if they find out that a non-com with... oh... no," he snapped his fingers, "Ha... yes, Lilith Anselm," he pointed a finger at her, "You are henceforth my technological adviser," he shrugged, "Don't know why I didn't think of it before - the advisers have their backgrounds sealed by UNIT, anyone hacking into that data is fed a lot of useless information," he snorted, "A lot of them don't have backgrounds at all... twenty years ago there was this real old guy with... never mind,"

Mace yawned again and sighed, "That's what we'll do... it'll get you clearance - probably a salute or two - but it means you won't be attached to any one office... strictly my responsibility - meanwhile your brother can get employed in the kitchens or something - that's up to you," he grinned, "But as far as the public and your slicer - I mean hacker friends know you're still just sitting on your couch at home growing a pot-belly," when she said about eight years of her life Mace shook his head, "No if you're an adviser you can leave at any time - you won't have any insurance and UNIT will have, virtually, no 'claim' on you... as far as MOST UNIT members will be concerned you won't exist - you'll walk around with a gold-level badge but that's nothing new, half of the employee's spend most of their time in civis anyway," he shrugged, "You're brother - if he just works in the kitchens or something - will get much the same treatment. UNIT won't owe you two anything besides pay but - on the flip-side - you won't be officially 'tied' TO UNIT,"

Alan shrugged again as the drugs started to take full effect, "It's the best I can do Lilith - usually the people who get offered this are only after asylum... you and your brother will be given a place to live on base, pay AND security AND work - I can't give you the full insurance/retirement/attachment deal and still live up to UNIT's policies... while Torchwood and your odd splinter group can get away with murder - and I do mean murder - UNIT actually has to ANSWER to the people it serves," he smirked, "Strange I know," when she said that she had no other choice Mace took his hand off her shoulder and put it behind his head, "Lilith you have a life of your own - thanks to a little manipulation of some government records by myself you've got work and cover as you'll be - technically - in MY employ... no, that doesn't mean you get to call me boss - but that doesn't mean that you've been sold into slavery. Walk out the door if you want... but I tell you... you'll never find anything more interesting than what UNIT does every day,"

Well, this looked like it was going nowhere, she couldn’t abandon who she was, she needed her freedom. That was what a hacker was, a free person who rode against the system. They were the tech-hippies of their era, rebelling against society, keeping the balance, if they weren’t there, then what would be the point? Everything would be so, so…dull. Looking up sharply when Mace put on a tone that sounded like he’d just kicked the system himself, a weak grin graced her lips at the plan that he laid out before her. ”From the sounds of it, you need a technological advisor” She smiled, before listening to the rest of the plan, nodding a little, it made sense, and it kept her freedom. Or as much as she could keep, anyway.

Wait a second.

“Don’t refer to my friends as slicers, they’ll take it as a compliment that you even use that sort of slang” She had learnt that the term “slicer” meant many things, but generally with hackers they took it as the star wars reference. Personally, Lilith hated star wars, unfortunately, a lot of her “slicer” friends loved it.

”No claim on me? Good, that’s how I like it.” And it was, hence why she was currently unemployed, her previous jobs hadn’t lasted well for now obvious reasons. She didn’t like to work with people, she didn’t like to do physical labour that involved being nice to people (like, you know, serving them over a counter) but if it came to jobs that involved being mean to people then she guessed she could get on pretty well with it. ”Samael will find a job somewhere else, it’s okay”

Samael hated the government and anything to do with it more than she did, hell, he even hated the receptionists to places he had to call up sometimes just to get something fixed that should have never been broken anyway. ”I said I’m staying, didn’t I? You’re going to need me again sooner or later, besides, I want to break that virus down and figure out the code, I’m too curious about it to back down now.”

So it was settled then, she was now a part of UNIT (technically) and if the life of a UNIT employee was anything like Mace was saying it was, Lilith guessed her life was going to get a little big more interesting.