[Modern AU - Fic: Center of the web
Title: Center of the Web
Characters: Ray, Batista, mentions of both Marcel and JL, though not by name
Summary: Really, Ray manages everything perfectly. If only some people would stop nearly getting themselves arrested...
Ray had always found the constant hum of servers relaxing. The perfect background noise for getting things done. He sank into his desk chair, scanning the array of computer monitors on the desk in front of him. Nothing was flashing or making noise, which meant there wasn't anything needing immediate attention. Any true crisis would have been forwarded to his iPhone of course, but it was always easier to deal with problems before they got to that point.
Not that there weren't things to attend to of course. Laurentine had flagged a handful of new articles that needed his approval to be posted, either because their accuracy was in doubt, or because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Yes, the point of the whole site was to disseminate any and all information, especially the things that governments and corporations would prefer people didn't know, but that didn't mean abandoning caution all together, no matter what their detractors might think. If nothing else, releasing too much at once tended to increase the trace and hack attempts to a point where one of them succeeding became a slight possibility. Better to dole such things out slowly. Let the furor over one die down before releasing the next. He smiled slightly and leaned back in his chair as he pulled up the first file. It was a constant ebb and flow of information that he controlled. Who wouldn't take a little enjoyment in that?
It was a little over an hour later when a flash from one of the monitors pulled his attention from the rather fascinating document regarding oil price fixing. He glanced over at the monitor in question and smiled slightly. Honestly, when would the FBI learn that attempting to trace the location of his servers was a wild goose chase? They'd do better to track down the leaks inside their own organization. He slid his chair over, and cracked his knuckles before getting down to the business of confounding their trace. It only took a quarter of an hour before he'd led their trace in enough circles that they gave up. That was new. Usually it took those idiots at least half an hour to realize they were outmatched. Maybe they were learning.
He was about to turn back to the article, when his phone rang. Not his iPhone, or his Droid, which could have been practically anyone. No, this was his off-the-shelf pre-paid phone ringing, the one he kept specifically because it could be disposed of with no issues. Only a tiny handful of people even had this number. He could feel his nerves come alive, even as he flipped it opened and answered.
"Need me a guardian angel" the voice on the other end said.
Ray sighed. He should have guessed it would be Batista "How much is bail this time?"
"Don't need bail," Batista said, with far more cheerfulness than was probably necessary, especially since there was an obvious 'yet' at the end of his comment. "But I've got a cop on my tail and my current papers ain't going to hold up if he pulls me."
Ray sighed and slid over to another one of the computers. "Why is there a cop on your tail this time?"
"Well, I was driving something like twice the posted limit…"
"And why were you… Never mind. Let me guess. You were running late because there was this absolutely devastatingly gorgeous redhead with legs up to here, and you just had to fuck her, but now you're running late, and you though speeding was a good idea even though you're traveling under false papers," Ray said with a long-suffering sigh even as his fingers flew over the keyboard.
"Just about. But she was a brunette actually. You might'a liked her."
Ray shook his head. "Whatever. You're still in Luxembourg, right?"
"Yes."
He made Batista sweat a few minutes as he worked his digital way into the Luxembourg police databases. "Pull over and take your damn ticket then. I've got it so the identity should hold. And remind me again why I keep doing this for you?"
"Because I give good head."
"Not that good."
He could almost hear Batista's mock pout. "Fine. Then because I've got a folder full of juicy details about that gentleman you wanted to know about. Including some interesting pictures of him and the State Minister. You'll like'em. Hey, cop's here, gotta go."
The line went dead and Ray sighed. It was always, always like this with Batista. The man had a practically superhuman ability to ferret out information, especially about specific people. But it seemed tied with a similar gift for stumbling into the exact type of official attention that none of them could really afford. And it always came down to Ray to bail him out. Sometimes he started to wonder if it was worth it, or if he should just cut Batista loose and save himself the headache. But if Batista really had managed to acquire more details on that frustratingly elusive man who seemed to always shadow the Luxembourgian State Minister, that was worth a little bit of risky identity forgery.
And he did give good head.
Characters: Ray, Batista, mentions of both Marcel and JL, though not by name
Summary: Really, Ray manages everything perfectly. If only some people would stop nearly getting themselves arrested...
Ray had always found the constant hum of servers relaxing. The perfect background noise for getting things done. He sank into his desk chair, scanning the array of computer monitors on the desk in front of him. Nothing was flashing or making noise, which meant there wasn't anything needing immediate attention. Any true crisis would have been forwarded to his iPhone of course, but it was always easier to deal with problems before they got to that point.
Not that there weren't things to attend to of course. Laurentine had flagged a handful of new articles that needed his approval to be posted, either because their accuracy was in doubt, or because of the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Yes, the point of the whole site was to disseminate any and all information, especially the things that governments and corporations would prefer people didn't know, but that didn't mean abandoning caution all together, no matter what their detractors might think. If nothing else, releasing too much at once tended to increase the trace and hack attempts to a point where one of them succeeding became a slight possibility. Better to dole such things out slowly. Let the furor over one die down before releasing the next. He smiled slightly and leaned back in his chair as he pulled up the first file. It was a constant ebb and flow of information that he controlled. Who wouldn't take a little enjoyment in that?
It was a little over an hour later when a flash from one of the monitors pulled his attention from the rather fascinating document regarding oil price fixing. He glanced over at the monitor in question and smiled slightly. Honestly, when would the FBI learn that attempting to trace the location of his servers was a wild goose chase? They'd do better to track down the leaks inside their own organization. He slid his chair over, and cracked his knuckles before getting down to the business of confounding their trace. It only took a quarter of an hour before he'd led their trace in enough circles that they gave up. That was new. Usually it took those idiots at least half an hour to realize they were outmatched. Maybe they were learning.
He was about to turn back to the article, when his phone rang. Not his iPhone, or his Droid, which could have been practically anyone. No, this was his off-the-shelf pre-paid phone ringing, the one he kept specifically because it could be disposed of with no issues. Only a tiny handful of people even had this number. He could feel his nerves come alive, even as he flipped it opened and answered.
"Need me a guardian angel" the voice on the other end said.
Ray sighed. He should have guessed it would be Batista "How much is bail this time?"
"Don't need bail," Batista said, with far more cheerfulness than was probably necessary, especially since there was an obvious 'yet' at the end of his comment. "But I've got a cop on my tail and my current papers ain't going to hold up if he pulls me."
Ray sighed and slid over to another one of the computers. "Why is there a cop on your tail this time?"
"Well, I was driving something like twice the posted limit…"
"And why were you… Never mind. Let me guess. You were running late because there was this absolutely devastatingly gorgeous redhead with legs up to here, and you just had to fuck her, but now you're running late, and you though speeding was a good idea even though you're traveling under false papers," Ray said with a long-suffering sigh even as his fingers flew over the keyboard.
"Just about. But she was a brunette actually. You might'a liked her."
Ray shook his head. "Whatever. You're still in Luxembourg, right?"
"Yes."
He made Batista sweat a few minutes as he worked his digital way into the Luxembourg police databases. "Pull over and take your damn ticket then. I've got it so the identity should hold. And remind me again why I keep doing this for you?"
"Because I give good head."
"Not that good."
He could almost hear Batista's mock pout. "Fine. Then because I've got a folder full of juicy details about that gentleman you wanted to know about. Including some interesting pictures of him and the State Minister. You'll like'em. Hey, cop's here, gotta go."
The line went dead and Ray sighed. It was always, always like this with Batista. The man had a practically superhuman ability to ferret out information, especially about specific people. But it seemed tied with a similar gift for stumbling into the exact type of official attention that none of them could really afford. And it always came down to Ray to bail him out. Sometimes he started to wonder if it was worth it, or if he should just cut Batista loose and save himself the headache. But if Batista really had managed to acquire more details on that frustratingly elusive man who seemed to always shadow the Luxembourgian State Minister, that was worth a little bit of risky identity forgery.
And he did give good head.