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Undercover	By : IrenaAdler Category: M through R > NUMB3RS Views: 2309 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own NUMB3RS, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

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Part 32 � A Fan
�Hi,� Charlie said, awkwardly standing right inside the door
to the interrogation room.� �I�m Dr.
Charles Eppes.��

From the other side of the mirror, Don and Megan watched
Matt Rubel as he sized up Charlie.� Don didn�t
think Rubel likely of violence, but there was an armed agent standing outside
the room, just in case.

�Another FBI interrogator?� Rubel asked, disbelief obvious
in his voice.� Charlie was dressed
similarly to Rubel, in a t-shirt and jeans, and his hair was certainly not
regulation.�

�Um, no,� Charlie said nervously.� �I�m just a consultant. I�m a professor of
Applied Mathematics at CalSci.� My
brother works for the FBI and brings me in for the interesting math and
computer problems.�

�Eppes.�� Rubel
grumbled.� �Your brother the guy who just
tried to take my head off?�

�Uh, maybe,� Charlie said.�
He pulled a chair out and sat at the table.� �But I just wanted to talk to you about
backtracing your email.� I�m the one who
did it and I was really impressed by your skills.� It took me a lot longer than I expected.�

Rubel looked smug.� �I
knew that none of these drones could do what they say they did.� They would have to bring in outside help,
someone who�s brain hasn�t been crushed by the system.�

�What I want to know,� Charlie said, leaning forward, his
eyes alight.� �Is how you trashed the ISP
logs after your email was forwarded.�

�That part would be tough,� Rubel said, smiling.� �If I were
to do it, I�d have each email carry imbedded code to create a buffer overflow
as soon as the email was remailed.�

�But wouldn�t that be countered by lightweight logging
methods?�

�Sure, but there are plenty of systems that don�t use
that.� You only need a handful to work
it.�

Soon the two were chatting about spoofing, relaying,
remailing with stripped headers, SMTP, log alteration, encryption, and so
on.� As the conversation went on, Rubel
began to slip up, forgetting his disclaimers as he spoke to a �worthy�
listener.� Charlie was listening and
asking questions with gratifying attention.

Don turned to Megan and smiled with dark satisfaction.� Give someone an admirer, and they�ll talk
every time.� Rubel was now admitting to
serious computer crimes, plenty to hold him on while they searched for more.

�That drone comment was interesting,� Megan said, off on her
own train of thought.

�Oh?� Don said, his eyes back on the men still chatting with
animation.

�Might give us a clue to motive,� Megan said, �Because he
never asked for money, at least in the emails.�

Don blinked.�
�Huh?� Some kind of protest
against the government?�

�Perhaps,� Megan mused.�
�But probably more targeted.� We
have to get to why he went after the DEA.�

�And who in the DEA turned.�

Megan nodded and they both watched Charlie and Rubel talk
for a while.� They got deeper and deeper
into techno-speak until Don was only recognizing one word out of five.� Rubel might be confessing to hacking the NSA,
but Don wouldn�t know it.

�We�ve got enough,� Don said and went back to the room.

�Hey, Charlie,� he said casually as he opened the door.� �You two have a fun chat?

Charlie turned to him with a sunny smile.� �Don, Matt is amazing!� I�ve got to have him give a lecture to my
Advanced Computing class.�

�Well,� Don said, �It�ll have to be a video-link from
prison.�

Rubel stared at him, and Don could almost hear Rubel
mentally play back the last half hour�s conversation.� Realization slowly dawned in his eyes.

�Oh, shit,� Rubel said and Don let himself smile.

Charlie looked back and forth between them, his face
confused.

�Good trick, getting your little brother to get me talking,�
Rubel snapped.

�You tricked yourself,� Don said.� �Charlie just listened.�

�What?� Charlie asked then his eyes narrowed.� �Don, I don�t appreciate being used like
that.�

Don shrugged.� �Yell
at me for it later.� Right now, all I
care about is that we have enough to lock up your buddy here somewhere where the
most sophisticated computer they have is an abacus.�

Rubel growled, and Don saw real fear in his eyes for the
first time.

�Now, you need to ask yourself,� Don said, �If you want to
go down for this alone.�

Rubel�s face cleared and Don could tell that he�d
miscalculated.� Rubel was back to looking
superior.�

Frowning, Don folded his arms.� �You�re finding this entertaining?�

�Some, yes,� Rubel said with a smug smile.� �Just to see you bumbling around like
muscle-brained idiots.�

�Are you calling the FBI idiots?�

�Well, if it quacks like a duck ��

Don put his hands on the table and leaned forward.� �You�ll
be the one quacking when I��

�Don,� Megan said behind him.� He twisted around to see her holding open the
door.

�What?� he snapped.

�I�ve got something I really need to show you,� she said.

Don glared at her for breaking the flow of his
interrogation. Not that there really is a
flow �� Rubel had gotten him badly
off his game.� It was like trying to
break Charlie down in interrogation, but a Charlie without uncertainty or
guilt.

�I�ll be back,� Don promised Rubel then followed Megan out
of the door.� She walked back into the
observation room.

�What is it?� Don demanded.

�Nothing,� Megan said with a smile.� �But my instincts on Rubel say that he will
clam up if you press.� You�ve
successfully re-routed the conversation from technical stuff, let�s see where
it goes from here.�

Don eyed her, trying to decide how annoyed he was.� She didn�t say it, but it was obvious she was
thinking, Not like you were getting
anywhere yourself.� In the room,
Charlie started talking again.

�Sorry about that,� Charlie said miserably.� �I didn�t mean to get you in trouble.� I mean, what you�ve been doing is totally
illegal but extremely cool.� I can see
why anyone would jump at the chance to see if they could do a truly untraceable
email.� The real bad guy is whoever in
the DEA gave you the info to start with.�

Rubel looked at him silently for a moment then glanced up at
the one-way mirror.� He bent closer to
Charlie and said, �You seem like an intelligent person.� Probably the only intelligent person in this
building.� But what you don�t seem to
understand is that the DEA is the bad
guy.�

�What do you mean?� Charlie replied.

�The DEA causes more pain and suffering that I ever
could.�� Your brother is a soldier in a
war on the American people.�

�Umm,� Charlie said, his eyes widening with uncertainty.

�Bingo,� Megan breathed.�
Don silently urged Rubel to continue.

Rubel obliged, still leaning towards Charlie.� �Alcohol and tobacco are much more harmful
than marijuana, and substantially more dangerous than LSD and ecstasy.� Is the DEA going after Budweiser or
Busch?� No way, they focus all their
attention on stupid things like meth, which is used by less that 0.2% of
Americans.�

Rubel�s eyes shone with a light that Don had seen many times
in interrogation rooms, in the eyes of people who believed they�d done the
right thing and they just needed to explain for everyone to agree.�

Rubel continued, �Prison populations will grow thirteen
percent in the next five years, triple the U.S. population growth rate, and
it�ll cost an additional $27.5 billion to what�s already being spent.� Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses are the
largest group of Federal inmates, fifty-five percent!� The proportion of women serving time for drug
offenses has shot up, while the proportion serving time for serious crimes has
dropped.� The US has the highest
incarceration rate in the world!� All
this money and effort spent on petty drug users and dealers.� What about murderers?� Rapists?�
Child molesters?

�We spend billions of dollars on �counter-drug aid� to
Columbia and has that helped?� It has had
zero effect on prices or availability.�
We could spend those billions on health care and have a huge impact.�

�But �� Charlie said, his eyes wide.� �Why hurt Will?�

Rubel was brought up short.�
�Who?�

�Will Stevens, my brother�s partner.� The Richland brothers shot him and he barely
survived.�

�Consider him a victim of the War on Drugs,� Rubel said
dismissively.� �For all the people the
DEA kills or ruins their lives.�

Separated from Rubel by a glass wall, Don ground his teeth
together and his hands tightened into fists.

Back in the room, Charlie�s lower lip was trembling as he
said, �But Will � He�s almost like a brother to me.� He didn�t deserve to get shot.�

Rubel didn�t waver.�
�Everybody�s someone�s brother or son or friend.� Do they deserve to get shot?�

�No �� Charlie said.�
�I guess not.�

�That�s why I send the warnings to people like Richland,�
Rubel said.� �So they can clear out and
no one gets hurt.�

�But someone did
get hurt.�

�Unfortunate but it happens.�

Charlie asked, �What about, what about the people that die
from the drugs the Richland brothers made?�

�What about people that die every year from prescription
drugs?� Are we arresting the drug
manufacturers?�

Charlie shook his head.�
�But prescription drugs also help people.� Does Cloud Ten help anyone?�

�Marijuana can dramatically help AIDS or Chemotherapy
patients, better than any prescription drugs.�

�I�ll grant you Marijuana, but crack?� Meth?��

Don had heard enough.�
Charlie was trying to have a rational debate with a fanatic.� Rubel was not going to listen to reason.� Regardless of Rubel�s facts or opinions about
the War on Drugs � some of which Don had a feeling his father would agree with
� Rubel had taken the wrong route to resolve them.�

Something else was becoming clear. �All along they�d assumed that the DEA�s mole
had initiated the relationship, recruited Rubel because of his hacking
skills.� Now it looked like Rubel had
done the recruiting.

Don turned to head back to the interrogation room but Megan
grabbed his arm.�

�Let them talk some more,� Megan said.

Don gritted his teeth.�
He wanted to tear Rubel apart and Megan kept stopping him.�

�You�re not thinking clearly,� Megan said firmly.� �Let me talk with Rubel.� He needs different handling.� You can�t intimidate him, Don.� And every time you ask him a question that
shows him how little we have, he gets more confident.�

�I�m the head agent here, remember?� Don snarled and pulled
out of Megan�s grip.

Don ignored Megan calling after him and strode back into the
interrogation room.� He snapped out, �So
is this how you convinced someone in the DEA to supply you information?� By convincing them what they were doing was
wrong?�

�Ha!� Rubel snorted.�
�As if I would approach one of these brainwashed zombies.�

�Who was it?�

�You don�t get it, do you?� Rubel said disdainfully.� �I didn�t have to get someone in the DEA to
supply information.�

Don shook his head.�
�So what, you just pulled info on secret drug raids out of the air?� Using your hacking tricks?� We�ve checked the computer system so don�t
tell me that.�

Rubel snorted again.�
�You�re an ignorant stooge.� Have
your genius brother figure it out.� I
ain�t telling you anything more.�� He sat
back in his chair, that superior smile on his face that Don just wanted to grind
his fist into.� Instead, he slammed his
fist to the table, making Rubel jump despite his air of contempt.

Still, Rubel crossed his arms and pressed his lips together
stubbornly.� Don didn�t need Megan to
tell him that Rubel was done talking.�
And that he had screwed up the interrogation royally.
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