A Better Life

by Liza O'Connor

  “No.”

  “Of course not, because you wish to use your men efficiently and perform the job in the shortest time possible. It should be the same for us. The best entry is more likely to be a backdoor created by the programmers who wrote the program.”

  Hamilton frowned. “Do all programs have a backdoor?”

  “Yes, at least during development they do. They should be removed before they are moved to production, but given most programs have ongoing changes, the door remains open, albeit well hidden.”

  “If it’s hidden, then why is it a better way in?” Braddock challenged.

  “Because it can’t hide from Black Hole. In fact, their passwords tend to be easier to break. It’s among the list of thousands of access points Black Hole locates. However, most of those access points go nowhere of interest, which brings me to the second reason it pays to locate the backdoor first. The programmer’s entrance almost always begins with an index of all files to make his life easier. For an intuitive hunter, this gives you the opportunity to hit the most likely places to find what you are looking for.”

  Braddock snorted softly. “So, it’s like having an easy lock to pick and a floor map to the building you want to search.”

  She smiled and nodded. “And then you add your own knowledge that a pool is probably on the ground floor.”

  Hamilton seemed most pleased and glanced at the Colonel. “So, we have no issue with removing the protocols associated with this issue.”

  “No, but I’d like to review how Black Hole is backdoored,” Braddock added.

  Angel nodded in agreement. “You should verify it’s truly gone on the live version to prevent entry in and out. I know Carnivore allowed one of the boys to enter through the backdoor and send out messages.”

  That removed the smile on both men’s faces. She returned to the list and started labeling ‘B’s on another twenty percent of them.

  “These are squelching intuition. For example, the account we accessed yesterday. I understand that it had been previously reviewed and nothing was found.”

  “That is correct. Evidently they hadn’t begun using it yet.”

  “Sir, that account has probably been in use for years. I expect the data from yesterday will be gone when we review it today and new money will be pushed through in the same manner.”

  Braddock frowned. “But the entries began yesterday.”

  “No, you misunderstood my notes, and for that I apologize. I will try to be clearer in the future. I said I believe they were deleting the erroneous inputs and corrections at the end of each day.”

  “I read that, but you stated ’believed’ so I discarded it.”

  She had to give him ten for consistency. “Well, today I will be able to either prove or disprove my theory. And while I will never be able to prove past monies passed the same, and this account was moving money when it was last studied, I will continue to believe that is what occurred.”

  “Then why wasn’t it caught before?” Hamilton asked.

  “Given this account was a 401K and they are highly scrutinized by auditors, your people probably moved on down the list with only a glance.” She leaned forward. “I had no intentions of going through all those accounts. It would take over a month. When I go in, I search for things that look off.”

  “It took two months to analyze this site.”

  “Which is why intuition is so important. I’m looking for small anomalies that hint of something wrong. When I found a second 401K with excessive withdrawals, it made me stop and focus on it. I pondered how they could move money through a highly scrutinized and regulated account and not be caught. Upon thinking of a possibility that fit the facts, I began by accessing person by person. But they were all coming up fine.

  “However, upon explaining that I suspected some of the people were fakes, Sinclair did a fast comparison of people in this 401K to all people who had ever worked for the bank. We found twelve people who never worked for this bank in the 401K. However, in this account they appeared to be normal pensioners having their 401K’s transferred to a mutual fund. Only by Sinclair’s list did we know to dig deeper and question what the mutual fund was doing with the money.”

  “So, the bank and the mutual fund are in on this?” Hamilton asked.

  “Probably not the bank executives. But someone in the Pension department of the bank certainly is. The fact he or she clears the errors each night indicates the boss probably isn’t involved. It’s really a brilliant methodology to move money.”

  Hamilton leaned forward. “And the mutual fund?”

  “We need to study it more and get further evidence, but whoever is purchasing those stocks and bonds of the fake companies is probably involved.”

  “But you aren’t certain?” Braddock snapped.

  “No, sir. However, given sufficient time, we will be able to forensically prove it one way or another.”

  She refocused on Hamilton. “You were right about most of the team. They are very talented and should be allowed more leeway to use their knowledge and intelligence.”,

  “What about this last batch?”

  She frowned at some of the items on the lists. She placed question marks upon them. “I don’t understand why these protocols had to be overridden. In fact, this one concerns me.”

  “Which one?”

  “A member of Team Two entered the system using an admin’s clearance.” She sighed. “My team didn’t need to do that, and they were supposed to be doing what we were doing on other accounts.”

  “Anything else that bothers you?”

  She studied the list. “The two accounts opened by one person looks odd, but if that agent code is Leon, then he was trying to speed matters up by having two computers busting passwords at once. That helped move matters along.”

  Braddock stared at his document. “That’s his code.”

  “Then, in my opinion, it was legit, but I don’t think the protocol should be changed here. I think generally it’s better to limit users to one entrance into the system. Otherwise, they are apt to forget they are logged on twice and leave without properly logging out on the second machine.”

  Hamilton smiled. “I believe that was the reason for the rule in the first place.”

  She noted C on five others. “These are money moving protocol. I don’t understand why they are here. We didn’t move any money last night.”

  “Those are from a prior day. I wanted your opinion on them.”

  She read the reasons for requesting protocol and sighed. “If these were situations where the money needed to be moved quickly or it would disappear, then these requests to deviate were reasonable, but hopefully this deviation creates an obligation for the protocol to be followed at a later time.”

  “It does,” Braddock replied.

  She grimaced. “Good. That boy I mentioned before also moved a million dollars to David Petty’s account. We only discovered it when another boy reviewed his work. I think a review should be mandatory on all money transfers. The only difference is instead of being done before the money moves, it is done as soon as possible after the money is moved.”

  Hamilton stared at Braddock. “What’s the delay time?”

  “Twenty-four hours.”

  Angel shook her head. “That’s too long. It should be done within an hour of the transfer. That way if a mistake was made, it may be correctable.”

  “See to it,” Hamilton ordered.

  The fierce soldier nodded slowly. He then glared at Angel. “How long is it going to take to get sufficient proof to close this money channel down?”

  “We have sufficient evidence to have the bank close down the channel. And they should be willing to hand up the clerk in their 401K department involved. However, if we do that, we lose a huge farming potential.”

  Both men frowned, so she explained further.

  “Proving the mutual fund stock pickers are actively involved will take weeks, possibly months. But what interests me are all the recipients o
f fake expenses being paid by these fake companies. That’s got to be a who’s who list of terrorist groups hiding under fronts. I honestly believe getting into those accounts will yield our best results, and there were hundreds of those.”

  The director sighed. “Most of them are probably legit.”

  “On a fake company? I don’t think so. I’d say 95 percent of those expenses will be to terrorist cells, some of which you may never have picked up on.”

  Braddock stared at Hamilton. “You know where I’m landing on this.”

  Hamilton refocused on Angel. “I believe we have a few bad apples in our team, and I need you to keep your eyes out for anything that doesn’t seem right. Do not tell Tom, just call me on the phone when you are alone.”

  Braddock interrupted. “She’s never alone. But Davenport can be trusted.”

  “Tom can be trusted as well!” she added.

  Hamilton sighed, clearly not liking this rebellion. “Are you willing to put your career on the line that Davenport isn’t working for someone else?”

  Braddock didn’t hesitate in his reply. “Yes.”

  Angel liked him all the better for his certainty.

  “Then you may speak in front of Davenport. But not Tom.”

  “All right. But if my opinion means anything, Tom would never betray or steal from this country.”

  Hamilton’s eyes narrowed. “I never said anyone was stealing.”

  “No, but the protocols that worried me, and clearly you, since you put them on this list, are all about stealing. And that request to log in as an admin worries me more, if admins are the ones who double check the money transfers.”

  “They are. But as you said, no money was transferred yesterday.”

  “True, but if these deviations were open from the day before then someone may have cleared their work yesterday under the admin’s name.”

  Braddock stood up. “I’ll get right on it.”

  Hamilton nodded and waited for him to leave the room. “You, my dear, are worth your weight and then some in gold.”

  She smiled at his compliment.

  “Davenport mentioned to me that you wish to be paid in hard cash. You do realize you have no legitimate identity anymore.”

  “But I have kids, and someday they will want to leave here and start a life. I would like to ensure they can afford college and a nice little house.”

  “As someone who has no children, this problem never occurred to me.” He sighed heavily. “We are going to have to be clever about this. I cannot transfer you money, because you do not exist.”

  “Can my children get their new identities sooner than later, so you can give them money I earn?”

  He steepled his fingers before his chin and gave the matter thought. “Not unless they are hired employees. I can’t hire a five-year-old. However, Max did establish a precedent for a ten-year-old being a valuable asset, so if you could give them enough knowledge on computers that if an auditor shows up, they could look impressive, then once they reach ten, I can move what should be your bonus into one of their accounts, claiming it was them.”

  The plan felt wrong to her. “I’m not comfortable with having my boys pretend to be of value. It would be like teaching them to lie or steal. I would prefer they learn either my or one of the other team’s skills, and truly earn their own money. Could we do that?”

  He smiled. “Absolutely. That is a far better plan.”

  Hamilton led her to the door and handed her off to Davenport who waited in the hall. “Angel is going to teach her boys computer skills. Make sure there is a non-confidential computer in her home by this evening.”

  Davenport nodded and led her off. “Did something go wrong?”

  “No, why?”

  “My boss looked upset when he left.”

  “Oh, that. We may have some bad seeds still on the team.”

  “Any guess who?”

  “No, but I’m sure Braddock knows which employee is 2443.”

  Davenport breathed in clear disappointment.

  “Who is it?”

  He glared at her. “You know I can’t tell you.”

  She nodded. “Okay, but for the record, I probably shouldn’t have told you his code.”

  “No, if you were told to keep it confidential, you shouldn’t have,” he snapped.

  “Don’t go grumpy soldier on me. I’m allowed to tell you anything I know or suspect. Braddock stood up for you.”

  “Why did he have to?”

  She grimaced. “I don’t feel comfortable sharing that without direct clearance.”

  “Say no more.”

  He led her back to her home, where everyone was seated at the table waiting for breakfast to be served.

  Angel and Davenport joined them.

  She smiled at her boys. “We are going to get a computer for the house. It’ll be so we can play a game called Find the Money.”

  Stevie smiled. “Do we get to keep the money we find?”

  She had to be careful or the precedents she sets now could come back and bite her later on. “There may be a real prize when you get good at it.”

  Derrick and Tom delivered the platters of food to the table and Angel helped sort out the food for the kid’s plates. In short order, everyone had food and only one orange juice got overturned in the reaching about.

  “How is the game played?” Stevie asked.

  “Well, you’ll all be FBI agents.”

  “Yes!” Tommy declared, evidently inheriting his father’s love for his job.

  All her children’s fathers were either police or FBI, including the one within her.

  “Do Dare and I get to play too?” Kelly asked.

  “Of course, you do! You are my kids now. I don’t treat my kids differently.” That got her glowing smiles from Derrick and his two children.

  “How do we play?”

  “Very carefully. This is a grown-up game, where FBI agents stop bad guys by finding and taking back their ill-gotten money.”

  Tommy smiled. “So, it don’t matter that I’m small?”

  “Nope. This is all about thinking.”

  Stevie chuckled, and the other boys looked worried.

  “And to win, you’ll have to work as a team.”

  Dare’s eyes rounded. “So, I won’t be going against Stevie?”

  “No. You’ll all be a team, and only by helping each other will you succeed at your tasks.”

  Derrick roughed up his boy’s hair. “That sounds like a great game.”

  Angel thought so too. She just wondered when the hell she was going to have time to write it before tonight.

  The moment the kids left for school, Tom asked her that exact question. “You have set high expectations for results today, and I don’t think that’s going to leave you time to write a game.”

  “Can I skip lunch and work on it then?”

  “Work on it where? You can’t write a game on Black Hole.”

  Davenport’s hand rubbed the small of her back. “I’ll have the laptop here by lunch and you can work on it in the cafeteria while you eat.”

  She playfully bumped against him. “Thank you.”

  “That’s one hour. Can you seriously write a game in one hour?” Tom challenged.

  She gripped his arm. “Why does this game upset you so much?”

  He breathed in and let the air escape as he slowed his pace a bit. “What you located yesterday has huge potential, but if Hamilton thinks you are giving it short shift, so your kids can have a game to play, he’s not going to be a happy camper. You are putting Tom the manager in conflict with Tom who loves you, and Tom the manager is going to have to win this time.”

  She pressed her head against his arm. “I support that priority, and I promise you, I will not place the game over my job. But we are normally allowed to leave and eat, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll work on it then and once I get home tonight. Believe me, I’m not writing a game that would ever interest any children b
ut mine. There will be no graphics, no characters, just pages with numbers in columns.”

  “Okay, that sounds like a terrible game,” Tom conceded.

  “The kids might think so as well unless they have their mom’s love of numbers.”

  When they entered the conference room, four members were missing. She stared at Davenport when she realized Leon was gone.

  Davenport’s eyes warned her to remain quiet.

  “Where’s Leon?” Tom asked.

  “He’s with the medic. Had a fever this morning,” Davenport replied.

  Tom nodded and sat down. “Let’s make this quick. Tyler, Robin, and Janice were removed from the team yesterday due to poor performance and disruptive attitudes. Does anyone here need examples of their unacceptable behaviors, or can we move forward?”

  Sinclair snorted softly. “Thank you, God!”

  The group chuckled and nodded in agreement.

  “All right then. The director was pleased with the teamwork he saw yesterday and so as of now, we are one team. We work together, hopefully as well as we did yesterday.”

  Everyone smiled.

  “Did the director remove all those protocols?” a guy from former Team Two asked.

  Tom flipped to another page. “We are no longer required to perform systematic searches. You are in fact encouraged to go straight to the backdoors. I believe Leon has a program to locate them faster, so when he returns from the doctor, I will ask him to share it.”

  “Was that all that was dropped?” the same guy challenged.

  “No, once in, you may select your targets based on what looks most promising.”

  “Dust off your intuition, men,” Sinclair added.

  Eyes turned to Angel.

  Sinclair noticed. “Angel doesn’t need to dust off anything. Her intuition is alive and well.”

  “What about the other protocols?” the guy persisted.

  “Entering two computers at once remains a breach of protocol, but I will allow it when warranted. Entering as an admin remains a breach of protocol and will not be given clearance in the future unless you give me a damn good reason it’s necessary.”

  The only one who seemed upset with this decision was that same guy from Team Two. Angel wrote “What’s his name?” on her tablet and let Sinclair read it. He wrote “Clark—not a team player, avoid working with him if at all possible.”