A Better Life

by Liza O'Connor

  Once she was all made up, she was led to her new home. It had everything she could ask for. A large room for the boys, a room for Mrs. Adams with sufficient space for Johnny’s crib, a smaller room for Kelly, and separate rooms for Derrick, Tom, and Davenport and her. But the best was the large living room filled with toys and a kitchen with a table large enough to hold her extended new family.

  “It’s a home!” She then frowned. “But where is everyone?”

  Davenport’s hand rubbed the small of her back. “The children are attending school. Derrick is supervising them. Mrs. Adams took the baby for a walk in the halls. Tom is at work probably wondering where his miracle worker is. However, I believe you will make a better impression with your co-workers if you take a shower first.”

  She sniffed herself. “I’m shocked the people at the salon didn’t throw me out.”

  “I warned them not to make any complaints if they wanted to keep their jobs. Otherwise, they’d be washing floors come tomorrow.”

  She looked about. “So where is the bathroom?”

  “Each room has a private shower.” He led her to her room. She stopped and stared at the large bed and a very familiar floral bedspread.

  “Tom chose the bedspread.”

  She grinned. “It looks just like the one I had at home.”

  He edged her to the bathroom. “Water is a scarce commodity down here, so army showers are advised.”

  “I’m glad to do that, if you’ll tell me what you mean.”

  “I’ll guide you through it.”

  After a short-wet down, she turned off the water and lathered herself down then rinsed herself off as fast as possible.

  When she finished, Davenport assisted in drying her off. “You did that like a seasoned soldier.” The admiration in his eyes cheered her immensely.

  He then led her to the bedroom and opened her closet filled with dresses, pants, and blouses.

  “Tom and I selected these, so you would fit in. However, there is no official dress code, so you can wear whatever you want. As long as you are producing, no one will complain if you become a catalog junkie.”

  She selected a pair of light blue trousers with a pink and blue knit top. “Any chance there’s underwear in one of those drawers?”

  “A large selection. Tom and I differed on what you’d prefer to wear in that category.”

  She studied the assortment of sexy lacy panties and then selected the white cotton briefs that Davenport had clearly chosen, because they wouldn’t show beneath her slacks. She then chose a lacy bra, so she didn’t slight Tom’s selections.

  Once dressed, with her youthful hair style and sultry eyes, she turned to Davenport. “Ready to report to duty, sir.”

  As they left her quarters, she was so damn happy with all the positive changes that she was nearly prancing.

  “Have you listened to the tape of Max’s comments to the profiler yet?” Angel asked.

  Davenport sighed. “You need to let this go. You’re in a good place. You have your kids. Just stay focused on that.”

  “That bad, huh?” Angel then wrapped her arm around his waist. “You’re right. I need to stay focused on my new life.” Angel smiled up at him. “I’m glad you are here.”

  Davenport kissed the top of her head.

  They passed through several doors that required Davenport and her to provide a retina scan with her new brown eyes. Finally, they entered Black Hole.

  Tom looked up, smiled, and stood. “Everyone, this is our newest member. Angel Brown.”

  A thin man in his forties stood and shook her hand. “I’m Sinclair and it is an honor to finally meet you.”

  She stared at him in confusion. Why would he say ‘finally’? Still, she shook his hand. That began a slow progression around the table, shaking hands with a whole bunch of smiling faces, some of which seemed less than sincere. She rather missed her unruly, but genuine, pups of the past.

  These people would no doubt expect her to remember all their names, but twenty names at once had overwhelmed her. She remembered the first guy, because he seemed so sincere and his name was Sinclair.

  After that, the memorization trick Max had taught her failed her completely because she didn’t have time to think of clever reminders before they were on to the next introduction.

  When she had gone completely around the conference room table, an empty chair waited for her. She sat down, next to one of the women. Sadly, she couldn’t remember her name. She desperately wished she had a notepad and pen like everyone else.

  Tom must have read her mind, since he walked over and placed a pen and pad before her. She smiled her appreciation and settled in.

  It had been a very long time since she’d had attended morning business meetings, and she was sorry to discover they hadn’t gotten any more useful or interesting during the time lapse. Not even when the underlying topic should have been interesting.

  “We’ve been requested to reassess targets 159, 198, and 395.”

  “Why?” a man further down the table demanded. He’d been one of the few who didn’t bother to pretend he was happy with her arrival.

  Tom glared at him. “If you wish to argue the point with Director Hamilton, feel free to send him an email.”

  “Did you even ask him?” the man challenged, his tone clearly stating he saw this as Tom’s failure.

  “No, Tyler, I didn’t. If my superior wishes to give me an explanation as to why he wants something done, I will gladly listen. However, I do not require such to do my job.”

  Several of the men chuckled softly, evidently approving of Tom’s sharp reply.

  Angel was wide awake now. This was far more tension-filled than the average sleepy morning meeting.

  She noticed that the two other women in the group, both of whom pretended to be thrilled with her arrival, seemed angry at her now. She still couldn’t remember their names, nor did she want to now, for they bookended Tyler and glared at the men who chuckled.

  “Team One, work on 159, Two 198, and Three 395. When you get into an account, let me know at once,” Tom ordered.

  “Why?” one of the women challenged.

  “Because Angel will attempt to find what we haven’t been able to find before and teach you her skills at the same time.”

  Rage radiated from the woman’s eyes even as her tone remained calm. “I am quite certain that if I couldn’t find anything, she won’t be able to either.”

  “That’s not your call.” He then rose. “I expect everyone here to be working their very best in five minutes.”

  The woman stormed over to Tom and pulled him into a corner. Although why she bothered when she planned to speak so loud, baffled Angel.

  “My test scores rank me the best forensic auditor you have. What the hell is a housewife going to teach me? Whatever skills she had are lost by now.”

  Angel’s stomach roiled. What if the mean woman was right? What would happen to her and her kids then? They evidently spent over a trillion dollars making this place tolerable for her. What would they do if she couldn’t deliver?

  Davenport gripped the woman’s arm and led her from the room.

  When he returned without the woman, he spoke softly to Angel. “Do not let that prima-donna kneecap you.”

  “But what if she’s right? What if I’ve lost my touch?” Angel whispered in return.

  “Then you’ll keep pushing until it returns. If not today, then tomorrow. Just don’t let other people stop you from being your best. You had to come upon people in your prior work who didn’t believe you were so special.”

  She nodded. “But I knew deep in my heart that I was.”

  He pressed his lips to her forehead. “You still are. You haven’t changed, Angel. You are still the best forensic auditor this world has ever seen.”

  Davenport’s statement left no room for doubt, so her confidence returned. To keep it that way, she decided to move far away from Team One.

  Thankfully, Sinclair stood at once and waved
her over to Team Three. At least one team wanted her! He introduced her to the other five team members again. “Bob, Leon, and Scott are three of the best hackers you’ll ever meet. I’m the forensic guy, looking forward to learning from you, and Cole and Davis are untraceable money movers.”

  Each of the men, mostly in their mid-twenties, nodded when their name was mentioned. Only Leon was older. In fact, he looked a bit like Albert Einstein with white hair sticking up as if he’d been electrocuted. He seemed lost in thought and didn’t respond when his name was stated.

  Once the introductions were done, the three hackers focused on their computers. Sinclair nudged Scott. “Mind if Angel watches over your shoulder?”

  Scott chuckled. “Not at all. A pretty lady always makes me perform better.”

  ***

  Black Hole was a frightening improvement over Carnivore. It could sniff out every possible entrance and had a password buster that could filter through millions of possibilities in less than a second.

  She studied the list of over a hundred ways into the bank’s firewall. She pointed to one that only had a single user permit. “Try that one.”

  “We normally start at the top and go down the list, so we don’t miss any,” Sinclair explained.

  “But that one’s a backdoor, probably for the guy who wrote the firewall. That’s its weakest link. It’ll be your best shot.”

  Scott glanced up at Tom standing behind them. “Your call, boss. Protocol or intuition?”

  “Make note you were given permission to break protocol and proceed.”

  Scott chuckled. “Yes, sir.” He flipped to another screen, logged in his deviation and then returned to Black Hole.

  Angel moved in closer the moment Black Hole isolated the password and they were in. She studied the index. Then she pointed to one. “Let’s go there.”

  “Why? Those aren’t bank accounts.”

  “How can you tell?” she asked.

  “We’ve gone after this target before. The files beginning with 3950 to 9999 are business accounts.”

  “And you found nothing? Then let’s try these alphabetical files.”

  He looked at Tom, who nodded. After filing another deviation, he returned to Black Hole and began entering various files from the backdoor. They located personnel files, 401K files, executive pension files… With each new file showing no promise, Scott’s sigh would deepen, but he never complained.

  He sighed again when they entered what looked like a second 401K fund. Angel covered his hand before he could exit.

  She pointed to the quantity of money exiting the account.

  Sinclair spoke from beside her. “Pension and 401K’s should have lots of money going in, and very little going out. This appears to be 50/50.”

  Scott stared at him. “You mean we’ve got something?”

  “Maybe,” Angel stated.

  Scott transferred the connection to Sinclair’s monitor. Instead of taking his seat, Sinclair offered it to Angel. “I’d rather learn than drive right now.”

  His confidence she had something to teach gave her the boost she needed. “This can be tedious, because we need to assess the validity of transactions.”

  He nodded in agreement and grabbed a pad. “Tom, I’m assuming we have carte blanche to deviate from protocol?”

  “Yes.” The pleasure in Tom’s voice gave her even more confidence.

  Three hours later, all she retained was stubbornness. Every line they had so far tested appeared to be legitimate. For some reason, this particular 401K account had an amazingly large number of people leaving it.

  When the bell chimed for lunch, Team One disappeared within minutes. Most of Team Two wandered over to see what Team Three had found.

  Their forensic guy leaned in, snorted, and shook his head. “It’s a 401K. You’ve got nothing.” He then left, and his team reluctantly followed him.

  Angel stopped and looked at her team. “I’m not ready to give up on this yet, but there is no reason why you guys shouldn’t have your lunch. To be honest, I’ll probably work better without the pressure.”

  That earned her a chuckle. “Know that feeling,” Bob stated as he glanced at Tom. They all stood except for Sinclair.

  When she looked at him, he shook his head. “I’m learning. You can’t send me away.”

  She smiled. Well, at least something positive had occurred this morning.

  Leon gripped her shoulder. “Stick with it. I think you’re on to something.”

  Now with everyone but Tom and Sinclair gone, she relaxed, feeling the pressure off. Her determination had been strengthened by Leon’s comment.

  She stopped typing and looked at Sinclair. “If you were going to move money in and out of a 401k how would you do it?”

  He shook his head. “Creating false people would cause a red flag in a second.”

  “Then the people are real, but do they really work for the bank?”

  “Let’s have Black Hole verify that. He moved her over as his fingers flew across the board. Less than a minute later a list of twelve people came back that had never been bank employees.”

  “Bingo!”

  From that short list, Angel focused on their transactions. She pointed to a number on one column of data. “This number is always 157 on the outgoing monies.” She pointed to real people’s transactions. “These are different from a normal transaction. I’ll bet you a dollar that this is the code for an internal error being corrected.”

  Sinclair typed away and soon they had the banking codes. “Right, again.”

  She followed the trail and stopped upon hitting a new firewall. “Tom, can we have a hacker back?”

  He kissed the top of her head. “Of course, you can.” He nodded at Davenport and her handler left. A moment later, Leon arrived, with a scowl and furrowed brow, shaking his head. “You people give up too easy. These things take time.” He sighed and took his seat. “For the record, I think you were on to something.” He then frowned at the data on his screen.

  “Thank you for your confidence. It helped. Sinclair and I found twelve fake people in the 401K. But it’s a pass-through, the money goes in and out within seconds and disappears entirely at the end of the day. So, we need to get into these other accounts as soon as possible.”

  Leon’s mood cheered immensely. “How many?”

  “Twelve.”

  He turned to Tom. “You need to get all the hackers back in here, so they can each work on an account.”

  Leon then turned back to the computer and typed away. “Permission to deviate from protocol?”

  “Granted.” Tom replied. “Just make note.”

  “Do you want money or clean paperwork?” Leon snapped.

  “I’ll make note of the deviations,” Sinclair offered.

  Leon winked at Angel. “You are just what we needed here.” He typed in a search and a moment later, located the backdoor. When they had more time, Angel hoped he’d show her what he’d just done.

  A moment later, he transferred it back to her screen.

  With Sinclair’s help and the knowledge of where it was supposed to go, they quickly located the IRA account. The money had sadly already gone out to over a hundred other investment funds. Leon took charge and easily broke into the first of the funds.

  Angel sighed with relief. The money had not been transferred yet. It remained in the processing account. She pointed out similar amounts from other IRA transfer accounts. “We’ll have to check each, but I’m certain we are going to find these are from our twelve fake-people.”

  “How much?” Tom asked.

  “Not sure.”

  “Ball park?”

  “Well, there’s four billion in here, but the movement we just followed is only two hundred thousand. If I’m right about these twelve and the amounts are similar then you’re looking at almost two and half million, which might still be the tip of the iceberg. This was all moved yesterday. We need to evaluate this fund and see if the money stays here or goes somewhere
else.”

  Tom massaged her back. “Do your magic.”

  The Team One hackers arrived. “What is so damn important it couldn’t wait until our lunch was over? It’s not as if we are going to find anything in these accounts.”

  While their bitching had no effect on her team’s enthusiasm, it did seem to affect Team Two. When the phone rang on the wall, everyone but Team One stopped and stared in its direction. Tom picked it up, listened, and handed the phone to Davenport. The man barked a ‘yes, sir’ and hung up the phone. “Team One, come with me.”

  “For what? For stating the truth? We are wasting our time with this. She’s tracing back thousands of dollars? That’s nothing!”

  “Now!” Davenport barked, and even Angel jumped at the deadly tone in his voice.

  Sinclair rubbed her back and whispered. “He hasn’t shot anyone yet.”

  She chuckled at his attempt to sooth her. Clearly, he didn’t know she and Davenport were old lovers, and would be again once Dr. Hanson cleared her for sex.

  The loss of Team One sped matters along. Now seeing how to follow the trail, Sinclair could follow his own money line, and no longer fearing Tyler’s disapproval, Eduardo, Team Two’s forensic auditor learned the procedure and thus their speed tripled.

  By six that evening they had determined six fake corporate accounts had sold fake stock and bonds for real money by the investment fund totaling over three hundred billion dollars. Unfortunately, only a hundred and thirteen dollars remained in their coffers, the rest had already been distributed to terrorist groups.

  However, the list of vendors receiving the money gave them a slew of new accounts to go after. Thus, Angel was thrilled with her first day on the job and invited both Team Three and Two over to her house for a celebratory dinner tonight.

  The clearing of Tom’s throat made her grimace. She evidently had overstepped. Turning towards him, she apologized. “I’m sorry. Am I not allowed to have people over?”

  He rubbed his eyes for a long moment. “It would probably be better if we had this celebration in the communal dining room. That way we can have a five-star meal which means you won’t have to cook.”