Infinity

TITLE: Infinity (6/?)

AUTHOR: Master F&M

FANDOM: Law and Order: SVU

RATING: Everything from PG to R—just like life.

SUMMARY: A Fin fic— to give him a life that the show refuses to give him

DISCLAIMER: L&O: SVU and all its characters belong to Dick Wolf, NBC, and whomever

                          else puts the show out for our enjoyment. I just get to play with them.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sam is a character of my own creation. She does not exist on the show.

FEEDBACK: Please give some. If no one likes what or how I’m writing, then I should stop

                      posting. But if you do like . . . then let me know so I will keep going.

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CHAPTER 6

            Detective John Munch sat hunched over the laptop on his desk steadily pecking away at
its keys. He paused, looked at his notes, then sat back with a loud sigh.

            “Finally! It’s all in there. Everything we know about the victims in this case.”

            Fin looked up from the file he was reading. “About time. Took you long enough.”

            “Well pardon me if my typing skills aren’t up to par. Manual dexterity tends to decline in
old age, remember? And besides, I didn’t exactly hear you volunteer for the job.”

            “Your niece, her program.”

            “Yeah, but OUR case.”

            “Okay, okay, you two.” Elliot Stabler walked around his desk and leaned down to peer
over Munch’s shoulder.

            “What exactly is this program, anyway?”

            “It’s a search program complete with artificial intelligence,” Munch explained. “It’s
designed to take all the factors programmed into it and find even the smallest thread of a common
link between them. Once it gets a match, it stores that information so it can use those parameters
in the next search it’s given.”

            “So it learns from experience, so to speak?”

            “Exactly. The more often it’s used, the smarter and faster it gets. It also has access to a
federal database.” 

            Elliot straightened up, impressed. “That would be handy to have around the station
house.”

            “And illegal. Sam sold exclusive rights to it to the Bureau, though she has permission to
occasionally use it on cases she’s working. She developed it after 9/11 to target possible terrorist
cell group members and activity. The government paid her a pretty penny for it.”

            “That explains her being able to live on the Upper West Side,” Fin speculated.

            It did not escape Munch that Fin had retained that bit of information, and he smiled as he
added, “That explains the penthouse she bought there.”

            Olivia Benson left her desk and came over to stand next to her partner.

            “Penthouse? Now I’m impressed. Must be nice to be made at an early age.”

            “Believe me, she’s worked hard for it.”

            “And how is that, again?” Elliot crossed his arms over his chest and frowned slightly.
“Only twenty-four years old, but with ten years at the Bureau?”

            John quickly gla at at his colleagues, then decided to give them the story. He’d explain
later to Sam if he needed to.

            “In a nutshell? Sam’s great with computers. Always has been, as I found out one day
when I came home and discovered that she, at the tender age of ten, had managed to hack into my
system. She even fixed a few problems I’d been having with it. There wasn’t any trouble until
she was twelve. Having heard many of my theories on government coverups, she decided to take
a peek in the FBI’s files to see if there was any truth to them.”

            Munch chuckled at the memory. “Naturally, the bureau was not amused, and I might have
landed in a federal prison if Sam hadn’t convinced them that she was the one who broke into their
system using my computer. She showed them how she got in and pointed out flaws in their
security system. Again, the bureau didn’t think it was funny, and threatened both of us with
everything short of death if she ever did it again.”

            “One forward thinking agent, however, was impressed with Sam. He came back after a
few weeks and had her repeat her ‘breaking in’ process step by step for him. He listened to what
she had to say about their security and jotted down notes to take back to the Bureau. It must
have impressed a few more people because after that, she had a running dialogue with a couple of
their computer techs. When she was fourteen, they offered her an official position and paid her to
design new programs or fix flaws in their old ones. She officially went through the academy at
eighteen, but her personnel file reflects the four years she worked there prior to that, though they
don’t like to advertise that they hired a kid.”

            “Wait a minute,” Elliot interjected, the father in him far less impressed with Sam’s story
than his detective side. “Her parents let their fourteen-year-old daughter work for the
government?”

            “By that time, her mother had long since passed away, and her father had pretty much
given her over to me to raise. It was what she wanted to do, so I let her. She’s worked on
everything from abductions to matters of national security.”

            Munch shrugged his shoulders in defense of his decision. “I suppose there are worse
things she could have done under my watch.”

            “Why didn’t she want anyone to know you were related?” Fin asked. “Not that I blame
her.”

            Munch leaned back in his chair and stretched grandly before answering. “We thought it
would be best if she didn’t publicize the fact that she had an uncle who was once considered a
thorn in her company’s side. Probably best for me, too. No need to reopen old files to see what
I’ve been up to.”

            A loud beep emanated from Munch’s laptop and everyone turned toward it. John pushed
a key and read the screen.

            “I’ll be damned. It’s got a hit. An address in Brooklyn.”

            “One address connected to all the victims?” Fin asked.

            “Apparently so.” John responded.

            “Tell the Captain, will you?” he directed to Elliot and Olivia. “Fin and I are going to
check it out.”

            Munched glanced meanfully at his partner as they headed out the door.

            “You gonna be alright with this?”

            “Why wouldn’t I be?”

            “Gee, maybe because you rode in last night looking like you were ready to take the
Wilsons’ heads off,” Munch retorted, referring to the case they caught the night before, “only to
end up practically bawling right beside them when their kid turned up safe and sound.”

            “You saying you weren’t happy she was okay?”

            Munch stopped and laid a hand on Fin’s arm. “What I’m saying is maybe this case is
starting to hit a little too close to home for you.”

            Fin stared at his partner then scowled. “Am I gonna be sorry I told you about Dorian?”

            “No. But you can’t keep seeing him in every kid that gets taken.”

            “I ain’t doing that.” Fin resumed their walk toward his car.

            “No? Then how else do you explain your reaction when that girl came home? It was
almost like it was your kid who walked through the door . . . ”

            “Look! I was happy for them, okay?” Fin got in the car and slammed the door. He
waited for Munch to climb in beside him before continuing. He sighed then relented.

            “Maybe I have been gettin’ a little too involved. I’ll watch it, okay? Will that get you off
my back?”

            Munch jumped at an idea that had quickly formed in his head. “Tell you what. Sam’s
cooking dinner for me tonight. She told me to invite you to come along,” he lied. “Come over
and enjoy a free meal. If you seem okay, then I’ll back off. Deal?”

            “Yeah, sure, whatever.”

            “Good.”

             Pleased with himself, Munch sat back and tried to think of a way he could get away from
Fin long enough to call Sam and inform her that they would be having a guest for dinner. He had
already figured out how he was going to have himself called away from it . . .