InsaneJournal

Current mood:	angry
Entry tags:	(c) jake mackenzie, (c) jilleen simmons

Leak Plugging

Colonel Jake Mackenzie was not a happy camper. Someone had leaked a copy of the old inventory of resources in the civilian fleet to the Prime Minister's Office and Jake wanted to know who it was. According to the information he had, he was fairly certain it was someone in the S-3 Staff, which made it Jilleen's problem. The Colonel stalked through the corridor leading to the Operations Officer's compartment, his demeanor such that people took one look and got out of his way.

Jilleen was in the copying room speaking with one of her enlisted staff. "Good initiative. I really like that notice bulletin, Mister Kook. And so does the Commander, he wants me to give you an extra twenty-four hour liberty pass. Congratulation." With a smile she shook the Petty Officers hand.

Her day had been good so far, after a little help with a good nights sleep. The day had been uneventful thus far and she would never had expected a special visit from the Chief of Staff. After a few more words with Mr. Kook, she turned to return to her own office.

And found a visibly angry Jake Mackenzie waiting for her there.

The Colonel had done his best to get his temper under control so he could talk to Jill rationally about this, but such a breach of security was unprecedented since the war began. It still stunned him that someone would hand out a classified document about such an obviously sensitive issue. The press would have a field day with it and accuse the strike group of planning to strip the civilians of everything and leave them to the tender mercies of the Cylons.

"Good morning Major," he greeted her, "come on in and close the door. We need to talk."

Obviously surprised by Jake's visit, she closed the door behind her. By the tone of his voice, he was not there for a social call.

Did he know? She feared that her friend might have found out about her illegal possession and use of semerald. It really frightened her and made her a little nervous, and she had never been nervous around Jake since their weeks of Plebe Camp at the Academy.

As she slowly walked around to her side of the desk. "Is there something wrong...sir?"

Does she know already? Did she leak it? Jake shook his head, the thought was ridiculous. But still...he couldn't dismiss it outright.

"Why don't you tell me Major?" he asked in a deceptively pleasant tone. "Is there anything wrong? Anything you want to tell me?"

There was no way, Jilleen was going to stand there and confess she had an addiction. He probably did not know by the way he had asked his question. Knowing him too well, Jake would have come straight out with it, at least she believed. Its that faith in her belief that she felt now more at ease. "No," she let out a nervous laugh, "you had me scared for a moment there."

He must have come to tell her that she was not going on the reconnaissance mission. "You're too late, I already know I'm not going on that long patrol."

"I'm not here about the patrol, Major." The fact that he still hadn't referred to her by name was an indicator of just how angry he was, but it seemed as if Jilleen hadn't caught onto it.

"I'm here about the fact that someone from your office has leaked classified information!" Jake was not by nature a screamer when it came to command styles, but his voice raised several volume levels as he tossed the flimsy down on Jilleen's desk. A flimsy containing the report title and copy number of the document leaked to the Prime Minister's office.

"Now the Prime Minister is wanting an immediate conference with the Admiral, who is still over kicking ass aboard Pacifica. Do you have any idea what will happen if the press gets hold of that document?"

Jilleen was utterly shocked to hear that someone from her office may had leaked classified information to the Prime Minister's people. She picked up the flimsy to take a closer look as she backed up to her chair to take a seat. Frak! she thought to herself. This would have cost her job in peace time, and may have ended her career back then.

"I know," she returned the flimsy onto the desk and then looked up at Jake. "Its bad." She did not know what else to say.

"'I know'," Jake repeated dubiously, "'It's bad.' Is that all you've got to say Major? Do you have any idea what the Admiral is going to say when she finds out? I motherfrakking guarantee you that it won't just be that! The only -only- saving grace is we haven't finished working up the updated report, so the Admiral can point to it being a study commissioned more than two years ago when we were still running with our tails between our legs!"

"This is your mess Major." Jake planted both hands on the desk and leaned forward. "Clean. It. Up. Find the leak or have your resignation on my desk by lunchtime." He knew he was saying things that he really shouldn't, but he was too angry not to. This made the entire Admiral's staff look incompetent, and he was worried about the fallout if-gods help them- the press got hold of it.

He'd apologize later, after the leaker was caught.

Jilleen stood up and snapped to attention. It was serious, very serious. She had never seen Jake this angry with her since the first time they met. "YES, SIR!" Her eyes locked on him and saluted. "I'll personally see to it that the leak is plugged." She was going to crucify the person she found that leak the report. Names were already coming to mind as she stood there, all those that had access to the old report. One name started to stand out from the rest. Petty Officer Second Class Kook.

"See that you do, Major," Jake replied, "see that you do. And no matter how tempted you might be if you find them, don't toss them out the airlock. I have a special punishment in mind for them." Scrubbing the hanger deck with a toothbrush sounded like a good first step. With that he returned the salute and left the office, the door rattling on its hinges as he slammed it back.

He felt a little bad about the way he chewed her out. When it came down to it though, Jake was her superior officer and couldn't afford to be nice just because they had been friends since they'd been plebes at Gladius Cross fifteen years earlier.

As Chief of Staff sometimes it was his job to be the hard ass.

"Holy frak!" she let out with a breath after the Colonel slammed shut her door after he left. Everyone in Operations would know that something serious was about to come down on them.

She grabbed the flimsy off the table again and quickly walked to her door. Once she opened it, she saw the others outside looking in her direction expecting to see...What a broken officer? Hell no. She slowly looked around the room with narrowed eyes and just caught Jake's back as he left Operations. "KOOK, HAMILTON, MOORE! In my office NOW!" She shouted loud enough for those outside in the corridor to hear.

Out in the corridor Jake smiled to himself before moving on down the way back toward his own office with a slight spring in his step.

He'd been giving Wyndom's office the runaround about the Admiral's availability until he could brief Sinclair personally about the security breach and how it had been plugged. The time he could hold off actually letting his boss know about the problem was about up, but hopefully he'd have the name of the leaker before long.

After ten minutes of having those three in her office, she got PO2 Kook to confess that he had sent a copy of the report to the Prime Minister's people. He had done so because he thought it was the right thing to do. Jilleen did not care why he did it, it was the fact that it had been done it. She sent a message to Colonel Mackenzie with the name and that the Petty Officer was being sent to the brig, adding 'unharmed' to the message.

Twenty minutes after receiving the message and having a brief phone conversation with Jilleen about the soon to be Ex-Petty Officer in question, Jake was in a raptor on his way to personally brief Admiral Sinclair aboard Pacifica. There was no way in hell he was going to talk about this over the wireless.

What a frakking mess.