Red Alert [Closed]

[Claude Harris]

It was times like these that made Claude wish he was a little less inept when it came to technology. He didn’t know much about computers (it took him ages to get use to e-mail), but he hoped that there was something that kept Underwood away from the vital information the recruiters had access to. That last thread of hope severed when James explained how his system worked, and that there was an entire database of meta-humans that Gabriel could have easily found. So the breech really was that bad, and he had had access to information that jeopardized the well-being of hundreds of people. At every turn, things seemed to get worse.

Claude tried not to cringe at the thought of explaining all of this to the Board. It had to be done, but he definitely wasn‘t going to enjoy doing it. (At this point, nothing he‘d do for the rest of the afternoon would be enjoyable. Going home for the day wasn‘t even worth looking forward to.) “I can take care of that.” Sean was doing enough as it was, the least Claude could do was make a phone call. A dreaded phone call, but it was his duty as the headmaster anyway.

Unlike Sean, Claude composure was quickly waning, but he didn‘t get to be headmaster by breaking down whenever things turned for the worse. The fact that Sean seemed to know exactly what to do next helped him rebuild his calm. Chase‘s stubbornness helped to bring it back down. He would have yelled at the younger man for being selfish had Sean not spoken first, and Claude grunted when the psychiatrist let him go. “That’s understandable,” he said when migraines were mentioned. For all the work Sean was doing, Claude wouldn’t mind keeping a light or two off. No doubt it would take a great deal of energy to clear that many people, and he wasn’t about to blame Sean for being exhausted afterward. He himself was beginning to feel drained from the stress.

Claude nodded to James when he asked if he could leave. James had told them what happened, a planned had been formed, and each of them had tasks they needed to attend to. From his perspective, they were done. “Right, I don’t think there’s anything else.”

[Chase Campbell]

The news that James had been logged in didn’t surprise Chase. Not in the slightest. Of course he was logged in. It was his office, and he would have been doing his job. Of course, he had access to a lot of private information, and if it fell into the wrong hands... Chase shook his head. This was one of the worst ways to breach security. Not only had it compromised their family, and the school, but the future recruits of Hammel, and their families. Though Chase didn’t know for sure what this Underwood guy was like, he could imagine that someone twisted enough to make James do what he had could figure out something just as bad for the kids. God. Kids. He’d always been protective of his students, but now he had Niko as his sort-of-own child, that feeling had grown tenfold. This was not good.

He half listened to Sean’s instructions, knowing he was right. About all of it. If James didn’t want him to leave when he finally lay down, he wouldn’t. As important as the school’s safety was, his husband was more important. He could check on Niko, make sure he was safe, let his teachers know to keep a firm eye on him, and reassure James that he’d done everything possible to ensure their son’s safety. “We can do that. And I’ll get James to lie down afterwards.” Of course, his chances of saying “no” to James were pretty slim at the moment. If he didn’t want to lie down, he didn’t think he could make him.

It seemed that the need for all four of them to be present was quickly waning. Which was just fine with Chase. The atmosphere within the headmaster’s office had always seemed intimidating, suffocating. Even more so now with the situation at hand. He looked up at James as he stood, following slowly. Staff meeting at 3:30, that would be okay. He’d just have to arrange something for Niko during that time. “We’ll change the passwords before the meeting,” he managed to get out. It made him nervous that he knew the state of James’ office, and he knew how much he wasn’t going to like going back there. At least he could help him clean and organize it. His students could handle having one day out of class. Worst case scenario, he’d send them to another trainer for today. “It’s okay, James. It’ll be okay.” If he couldn’t comfort him mentally, he had to do it verbally. It wasn’t as strong, but it was something as they retreated from the office.

[Dr. James Campbell]

Everything that was running through Chase's head about the severity of this security breach had already occurred to James. Even worse, if the bastard who had really done this and taken information, it had been done with his hands. He'd handed over information on hundreds of meta-humans to this monster, and he didn't even remember doing it.

He really, really had to get out of there.

James barely heard Chase saying he'd get him to lie down, because yeah, that just wasn't going to happen. He wasn't going to stop doing everything in his power to fix this until he had exhausted every option. The platitudes about it being okay also fell on deaf ears. He got what Chase was trying to do, but he didn't see the virtue in saying it. Not when he wasn't going to believe him anyway.

Since Claude had already excused them, James turned and tried to leave the room, only to have his bandaged hands unable to get a good enough grip on the old doorknob for it to turn. Embarrassed and frustrated, he let Chase open it for him, then he led the way out, and back to his own, disheveld office. He realized now exactly what he was walking back into, and he tried to steel himself, preparing for another jarring shock at the sight of his clean and perfect office ransacked, and the blood and remains of his photo and picture frame to be on his desk.

...Okay, maybe after this he would need to lie down.

[Dr. Sean Neville]

Sean nodded and thanked Chase for the assurances, as the two younger men left Claude’s office. It would be best for them to tend to the password matter to the best of their ability – by which he primarily meant to the best of James’s ability to see his office in disarray and experience flashbacks and Chase’s ability to see his husband that way with no practical way to calm him. Then the telepath hoped that they would heed his advice and James would lie down for a while; he had experienced a great trauma and needed a rest. Eventually, he would need some time to speak to Chase privately, but he would put that off until after the meeting this afternoon.

On the topic of the meeting, he would have to make a formal presentation lest it sound like him ranting for twenty minutes after a clinical explanation of the attack. Most of the current staff didn’t know Gabriel at all, and those that did knew him vaguely as a peer rather than from staff perspective.

The telepath breathed a heavy sigh, now that he was alone with Claude, and he began to pace; he had energy to work off and that was the simplest way. “Hierarchy of people to clear: tech support, security, Clarisse, other staff, the students. Do you have any objections to that?” The telepath was open to suggestions, although he was inclined to do this his way regardless, since this was his realm of expertise.

In the midst of all this, he wanted to call Josh and give him a warning, but that would have to wait until the school had been cleared, otherwise there were more problems ahead of them. He went on, holding back his emotions, “We can use the general conference room for the meeting; we’ll need everyone there because everyone has to be on the same page for this, has to know what to look out for.” Sean paused and then sighed, “Do you think you can keep luck on our side today?”