- To uncover a password, the team infiltrates the high school reunion of an amoral software magnate who's the IT department for the Axis of Evil.
- Alec "feels" new client, Cyrus Mahdavi, fellow hacker. Cyrus was days away from cracking Manticore, software used by Iran to hold on to power and track dissidents at home when CM was brutally attacked and his work destroyed. Eliot is not sure the Vezarat (Iranian Secret Police) was behind the attack. Larry Duberman (Arye Gross) of Dubertech has his own thugs, he wrote Manticore and Dubertech is the one administering Manticore for Iran. Alec and Parker infil Duberman's office, a 1985 'high school tribute' Roman Room. Once inside, Hardison is able to crack all but the master PW using his tech with the 1985 desk computer. Fans of Neuro-Linguistic Programming know: that which one cannot crack, one may be able to hack. Add one 25-year high school reunion and stir.—LA-Lawyer
- A Middle Eastern man with an Iranian flag and posters on his walls types frantically on his computer. He's shutting it down when two masked men break in and knock him around and steal the computer.
Cut to that guy, Cyrus Modavi, meeting with Nate and Hardison in the bar. He tells them he was days away from cracking Manticore, an electronic surveillance system that the Iranian government uses to track protesters.
They're planning a protest in Iran next week and he thinks if they can't shut down the system the organizers will be hunted down.
After he leaves, Hardison argues toward taking the case.
Hardison and Eliot go check out the cafe they hear is the local hangout for the Iranian secret police, posing as health inspectors. They see a man lock a room in the back when they walk in. Parker accesses it through the air duct. She links up to their computer. Hardison looks at the info on his laptop and doesn't see Cyrus's info. Parker finds a ledger with payments.
The latest one was to Larry Duberman.
Back at HQ, Hardison explains he's an expert on digital database security. Eliot makes Sophie some tea, earning a soft touch on the arm. Duberman is essentially the IT department for the Axis of Evil.
If they shut down his server here, it'll shut down Manticore over there.
Parker asks about the tea pouring and Sophie fesses up is was subtle mind games.
At Duberman's company, Eliot bumps into Duberman with a bonzai tree and Parker and Hardison come to clean up the mess - also also lift his prints off the plant and swipe his ID card.
The hallways are lined with fancy Japanese art but the office is an 80s throwback with high school posters and gimmicks. Duberman is running Manticore from his high school computer. This explains why Hardison couldn't get in from the outside.
His people are alerted to the computer breach and come running but Parker and Hardison get away.
They buy a copy of high school yearbook. All of his computer passwords are high school references, to a locker combination, a teacher and a crush.
Nate explains the practice of a Roman Room, a memory trick. They need his final password but have no way of hacking it. Duberman's class is having a reunion in eight months. Sophie works the phones and gets them to move it up to this month.
Duberman video conferences with the man from the Iranian cafe, telling him he wants double payment or he'll turn over info to the FBI.
Larry takes a call from Sophie, his reunion committee. He'll be there.
The team decks out a high school gym. Eliot waits outside Duberman's company to break in and enter the final password when they get it.
Sophie pretends to be a classmate and chats up Larry. Then Nate arrives as Drake McIntrye, a laid back hippie. He's clearly a peer favorite. He calls Larry "Doucherman." Hardison feeds Nate info so he can blend.
Sophie walks with Larry, reminiscing. Hardison passes a name on to Eliot and it unlocks the payroll files in the computer. But it's not the one they need.
Nate joins them and tries to get him to talk about more good times but is interrupted by an old conquest who wants to relive past glories. Her name is Nikki and Hardison tries to look her up in the yearbook. She takes him to a supply closet to make out and locks him in when he turns her down.
Eliot's still waiting for passwords in Duberman's office when someone starts cutting through the door with a welding torch. It's the Iranians.
Parker frees Nate. Nikki returns for Larry and dumps her drink on Sophie to get him alone. Hardison is still searching for Nikki in the yearbook and comes up empty. Then he finds that she's a hired assassin. They split up to look for Larry.
Back in his office, Eliot fends off the Iranians with a chess trophy.
"Nikki" takes Larry to the locker room to make out then pulls a gun on him. Sophie whacks it away with a fire extinguisher and fends her off.
Nikki catches up to them in the hallway and Nate steps between her and Larry and stalls her until Parker can sneak up behind the assassin and zap her with a stun gun.
Larry thanks Nate for saving his life and says he wasn't the meanest to him in high school, Pat Brander was. When Nate refers to Pat as "he," Larry picks up Nikki's gun and asks who is is. Pat was Patricia.
Nate tells him what they're up to and Larry remotely changes his password on his phone to Badger85. Nate tells Eliot via earbud that it's done and he finally fights back against the Iranians. He enters Badger85 and gets in to Manticore and kills it.
Nate explains how they subliminally pushed Larry around using Sophie's neurolinguistic programming techniques. Flash back to the numbers 8 and 5 everywhere and Nate and Sophie saying "bad" or "badger" a lot. Larry runs off after realizing they hacked his mind.
Larry is stopped by the FBI in the high school gym and dragged away as all his old classmates watch.
Nate tells Sophie the FBI got an anonymous tip and the ledger from the cafe, so Larry's looking at a lot of time.
Cut to Cyrus talking to his family back home via webcam, excited about the upcoming protest.
As Nate and Sophie are leaving, their alter egos are voted king and queen of the reunion. The lights lower and Sophie and Nate dance in the high school gym. He asks her if she thinks they'd have been a couple in high school, Nate Ford and...Sophie still won't tell her name.
Parker lowers from the rafters and joins Hardison for a dance, too.
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