Hawk and Dove

"Someone is lying."

While Phil was in reading class, Dan found himself lounging on the sofa in PJ and Chris's room. PJ tapped away on a laptop while Dan and Chris played Halo 3 on one of the TV screens. When PJ made yet another noise of frustration, his roommate paused the game.

"All right, Peej, what are you doing?" he asked.

PJ didn't look up. "Trying to figure out how Dr. Hurley knows anything about us," he replied.

"You know how. Someone is ratting us out," said Chris.

With another annoyed grunt, PJ shut his computer. "We can't just take that. Everyone in that group is there for the same reason, and we know every single one. It just doesn't make sense!"

"People are complex creatures," said Dan, putting his arms behind his head, "It doesn't have to make sense."

Chris scoffed. "Especially considering we're all a bunch of mutants locked up on a hill in Britain," he said.

PJ just frowned while Dan gave him a look. "You make us sound like the X-Men."

"And that would much cooler then what we've got going on around here."

Dan turned to PJ again. "What are you investigating, then?" he wondered.

Once again the technopath opened his laptop. "Security footage, computer mainframes, anything really," he said, "But what I've found is not promising."

Chris got up to look over his roommate's shoulder. "Why?"

"All the cameras in and around the areas of our basement are always on the fritz, I make sure of it so it's never suspicious. As for hacking into the computer system... it's impossible," he continued, irritated.

Dan sat up a bit, looking confused. He had never heard PJ use the word impossible before. He was hardly twenty and he made a school bus work like a small jet plane. "How is it impossible? You're a genius," he said.

PJ sighed and shook his head. "I'm not a genius, I'm a technopath. Technology comes naturally; I know how to build the hardware. I've caught onto software, such as the programming like in the bus, because that usually comes with the job. But these firewalls are... impenetrable," he said, scrubbing a hand through his curly hair, "Someone up there knows how to do this better than I do."

"Well, they are the federal government. I would think they have the best," said Dan.

PJ waved a hand. "I hacked into MI5 like a year ago," he said breezily.

"What?" Dan gasped, "Why, how?"

"Emma told me I couldn't."

Dan looked up at Chris, who nodded to affirm it was true. If PJ hacked into a secret intelligence agency, surely a firewall on the systems around this little place would be a piece of cake. Dan wasn't about to question it, considering he knew nothing about hardware or software or really any differences between the two, but it still seemed... odd.

"So, why can't you break through it?" asked Chris.

Growling in annoyance, PJ put both his hands in his hair. "I don't know," he muttered.

Dan drummed his fingers on his knees. There was a knock on the door then, and Chris went to answer it, only cracking the door a bit to see whom it was. "Just me!" chirped the voice, and Dan recognized Phil right away.

They let him in, and he sat down beside Dan. He asked what was going on, and with great contempt and lots of sighs, PJ filled him in. And Phil just looked confused. "Didn't you hack MI5?" he asked.