Knox had been working in that particular department for years before Bridgette, and he felt slighted, when Bridgette was named director. However, she was simply more qualified than him, and everyone else agreed. This did not stop him from trying to cozy up to her, though. Knox continuously worked at getting her to rely on his skills and efforts, always angling himself for more responsibility and duties. Bridgette saw through his methods, and she did not like the fact he was trying to slither his way into her good graces, when he secretly detested her existence. She was not one to mince words, either, so Bridgette often told Knox what was on her mind, in a very politically correct and professional manner, of course. Nonetheless, Knox got the hint. Thus, he ceased trying to ingratiate himself with Bridgette, and vowed from afar to make her pay, when he had his day.

Well, that day came when President Enid Remington approved the controversial Project INTEL. The program, which Knox had been working on for some time, became, in essence, a response to the growing threat of the criminal mastermind Edgar Lockhart, the seemingly psychotic hyper-cog, London Lockhart (Edgar’s sister), and the potential far-reaching dangers of hyper-intelligence. Knox’s work on INTEL shot him right up to the top of the food chain in Homeland Security – and since Bridgette was on record as being against it from day one, he gained a solid amount of leverage over her. She essentially let it go, since it kept Knox busy, and she figured it was doomed to fail. And when it did, she would finally have ample reason to fire him. It was an oversight the POTUS highlighted as a grave misstep on Bridgette’s part, one, which ultimately saw her taking orders from Knox. Never in her wildest dreams did she expect for INTEL to get approved, nor did she think Knox would ever be her boss. Alas, the tables had turned, and things were not looking pretty.

After a few meetings with President Remington and her cabinet, Knox was instructed to begin aligning his entire department to focus on INTEL, as well as assess any other resources he might need, and to notify the POTUS’s advisors. Meanwhile, President Remington was going to start rounding up support in Congress. So, Knox did just that, and in the process, he railroaded Bridgette. She was kept out of the meetings involving decision makers, and during the meetings she was involved in, Knox gave her remedial tasks, such as keeping minutes and sending out meeting recap emails after the sessions were over. Her breaking point came, though, when Knox told her to make sure everyone had donuts and coffee for the next meeting. Up until then, she gritted her teeth, and went along with Knox’s games. But lowering her to donut duty was beyond disrespectful to the woman who single-handedly built that department from the ground up. She had had enough.

Bridgette made the decision to quit. She drafted her resignation letter, and prepared a speech that would surely give Knox a piece of her mind, while leveling a giant “screw you”. However, before she could deliver either, she was visited by special agent Alejandro Garza, aka “The Asset”. Garza had been seeking a person inside the Dept. of Homeland Security he could flip to work with him, and provide him with information. Once he caught wind of Bridgette’s disgust for Knox, he knew he had his opening.

The Asset introduced himself, and subtly began assessing Bridgette’s propensity to turn informant by asking her leading questions. It was not long before she caught on, and when she did, her facial expression gave Alejandro all the confirmation he needed. Bridgette smiled and sat down in her chair, ripped up her resignation, deleted the file off her computer, and said she was not only willing to be a spy for him, but she was willing to sabotage INTEL the first chance she had. Alejandro welcomed Bridgette’s cooperation, and filled her in on the alliance he had with two top-ranking, key military personnel. Bridgette did not need to be sold, though. She was in for the long haul.

From that day forth, Bridgette attended every INTEL meeting as planned. She even began doing some espionage work, and started slyly gaining information from people in the decision-maker meetings. Alejandro was able to pull some strings, and soon Bridgette began attending those meetings herself. Eventually, she learned some key information: INTEL was to outsource their technology needs to Universal Intelligence.

When Alejandro learned of this, he knew something was awry. UI was one of Edgar Lockhart’s former major corporations, as it was an enormous revenue generator for him. The company had escaped any legal or financial repercussions during Edgar’s recent fall from grace and outing as a criminal mastermind, because there was no concrete evidence that the company itself had performed any illegal activity. On the books, none of Edgar’s criminal earnings were used to finance UI. Frankly, he didn’t need to. UI was making billions on top of billions of dollars by itself. Also, there was no documented affiliation with any criminal organization. Universal Intelligence was clean from the outside. But Alejandro knew better.

Weary of this new development, The Asset instructed Bridgette to dig deeper into all things INTEL. They had to get some damning evidence against Knox and/or the program, to stop it before UI began production of the intellicap technology, which was planned be used to monitor, and in some cases, literally cap the potential intelligence and cognitive development of humans and hyper-beings identified as “too smart for everyone else’s good.” At that point the project would move into beta testing, and it would be far too difficult to interrupt its momentum. So, Bridgette pushed the envelope in her efforts. Many times she was almost caught trying to hack into digital files. She was careful, though. However, despite her efforts, she was still coming up empty-handed.

One day, she received an anonymous package at her home after work. The letter in the envelope said the device was very intuitive, and should help her with her “IT issues”. Along with the letter was a USB drive. Bridgette was confused, and she was even more so, when she saw an ancient Japanese symbol stamped to the bottom of the paper in place of a signature. What she did not know was that Alejandro reached out to Alpha Initiative commander Lt. Rashard Bonds about their hacking needs, who in turn had the Iga Clan master hacker, and member of the Alpha Initiative, Interface send Bridgette a foolproof device to help her steal Knox’s files!

Bridgette reluctantly plugged the USB into her laptop, and a window popped up, instructing her to double click on the “issue”. So, she hit the INTEL program secured files. The device did the rest. Before she knew it, the hacking program traced the IP of the computer used to create the locked files. From there, it remotely accessed the computer in ghost mode, as a program running in the background. Alas, the USB device was breaking into Knox’s computer, while he was using it! From there, Bridgette gained access to all of Knox’s dirt and underhanded dealings. She immediately began copying everything, and sending it to Alejandro. Bridgette then saw a file that piqued her interest. It was titled “Patient Zero”…

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