Prolog

The individual members of the team have a series of odd and/or disturbing lunches with various of the Numbers.

• Calvin eats take-out Chinese with Number Six in her office, from a bunch of bags with Hong Kong market names printed on them. Good Chinese. Number Six lauds the satellite links provided from the Korea mission. Unfortunately, most have recently gone black or are broadcasting disinformation, but those sorts of intelligence assets are the most fragile. Either Sun's pulled the plug, or folks have gotten wind of his activities.
  
  She inquires about some odd security activity related to Calvin's machine when he's been tied into the Agency network. He declines to go into detail about [Little Anime Girl]? ([Red Robin]?), but does say he's been dealing with some security attacks. She offers whatever assistance they can provide.

• Dylan has a nice nouvelle cuisine nosh with Number Three, who indicates the Numbers remained worry about why the gent at Narita Airport (whom he refers to as Mr Grey or, clearly a code name, "Twilight") approached Dylan.
  At any rate, I fear some of them might be a bit worried about you. The ... individual you encountered rarely does anything by chance. Every word, every nuance, is meaningful. And if he chose you as the one to send some sort of message -- well, some might wonder why. Why you, why then, and what else may have gone on that either wasn't reported, or that you weren't even aware of.

  I guess what I'm saying is, just tread lightly for a while. I don't think there's anything in particular you need to worry about. Just ... tread lightly.

  He and Number Two were ... very close, once. They had something of a falling out, as you no doubt gathered. I think Dom -- Number Two -- feels that many of the problems we've encountered since then stem directly from that falling out, though I'm not sure I'd agree. But he's very direct about these sorts of things, whereas I try to be more ... discerning of meaning.

• Gina has an elegant lunch at the Top of the Hub with the aforementioned Number Two. Over dessert, he expresses appreciation for her work, and indicates that the Numbers have decided to take a more direct hand in the operations of the Agency, in terms of staying in touch with the operatives, to make sure they are acting in the most "effective and efficient" manner possible.
  
  Gina is encourage to come to him with any concerns she has, or any matters raised by others on the team that he should know about.

• Lou, back from her vacation to Greece, goes out to a nice restaurant in Salem with Number Eight. Driving back in his muscle car, he warns her again how dangerous Mr Grey is, but advises her that, if the circumstances warrent, she should "take the shot" -- but make it count.

[TMS: Black Ice Prequel]

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Briefing

Upon arrival at the Christchurch, NZ, Agency office, the group is briefed by Mrs Drake. A recent unsuccessful but sophisticated hacking attempt against the Agency's computer system has folks worried, and the team is dispatched on a routine mission to find out more about the source.

Calvin tracks the intrusion down to a computer at the School of IT, University of Sydney.

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The Uni

The team travels to Sydney, and Calvin poses as a potential transfer student, with Dylan and Gina his parents, as Lou scopes out the campus. The computer turns out to be a notebook loaned out to a grad student, and Dylan convinces the receptionist at the desk to turn over info on the borrower, a kid named Bruce Chen. Calvin confirms that he's an IT student, with some previous problems with hacking, though not yet drawing a link between the online persona of W12ARD and Chen.

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The Dorm

Gina and Lou go to Chen's dorm room, finding the door jimmied and ajar. Lou steps in, to discover a quartet of motorcycle gang members tossing it. She slams one into the wall, while Gina makes the rest think she's run for help. They high-tail it, hampered by Dylan's fortuitous arrival and disabling of their hogs. Leaving another of their number behind (again at Lou's hands -- er, feet), but waving guns around, the team lets them go before someone innocent gets hurt.

Interrogation of the two left behind easily cracks their defiant facade. They, and some others (a dozen or so?) muscle, are employed by one Iain Hawking. Hawking had Chen taken by force to his office downtown, and this group was sent to make sure there was nothing incriminating left behind (or anything that could link Hawking to Chen).

Calvin is able to determine that Hawking is the sole officer (indeed, the sole member he can determine) of a new "IT Gentleman's Club" named Black Board, headquartered downtown where the thugs are pointing. The team also finds a (battery-run-down) Black Board business card/tracking device tucked into one of Chen's [C Ds]?.

No further info is easily determined on Hawking, though Dylan's sure he's heard of the name in some sort of intelligence context ...

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Plotty Goodness

Black Ice