Patsy Murray

by Douglas E Roff

  To that end, Patsy was tasked with collecting the names of every organization on the planet that had a genealogy database that was digitized. This included universities, societies, religious organizations, and others, identify specific institutions and whether the data was digital and could be accessed. She was trained by Eene and Cia in using the Mainframe, augmented by lessons from Beata. She connected to Kalindra and JoJo on the results of hacking information she wanted for a side project she had undertaken without authority. She reasoned it was on her own time and might speed up the project.

  Simultaneously, the Mainframe got its module for their project; it was two-way to the team but not to anyone else. All genealogical data collected would go in that module and be connected to all other data in the Mainframe. New algorithms were developed by Beata and Adam, while Eene and Cia processed data into various directories and subdirectories. All were connected by new data extraction and AI software.

  As Patsy developed her institutional list of databases in order of priority, Alana and JoJo hacked into and downloaded the relevant data. It was easier than they thought; most databases weren’t considered worth spending money to provide adequate security or any at all.

  Kalindra was tasked with following the money trail, assisted by JoJo and Alana when access to funds transfer data was required. Kalindra and her partner now had 24/7 security and were asked to move to a safe house. Security was enhanced radically at the Mindwerks central facility. Kalindra and Zeke eventually moved in there; Zeke worked from an office on site and left day to day management of facilities to his facility managers. Adam assured them this would all be over soon, a boast he could not make with certainty. He told everyone it might take a year, but then everything would return to normal. He hoped he was right. Kalindra wanted to move west to Zeke’s hometown but realized that it was impractical at present. She asked her husband to be patient and let things work out. Funding for new projects would be waiting at the end of the ride. Ezekiel was satisfied that it would be worth the wait. Lots of money went into escrow to make good on Adam’s promise. Now all that was required was to wait; Zeke said it would take a year to find sites and make plans for construction anyway. Most of that could be done by phone with associated professionals.

  Within a month, Adam’s projects were beginning to take shape. Then the group as a whole would turn their attention to concrete steps, the action plan.

  Separately, they were closing in on the list of who stole the data and why. Based on the data they recovered from the air-gapped genealogical information and other data not stolen, Patsy was beginning to see a pattern emerge. Certain things only made sense in certain contexts. Connecting the dots through data extraction and AI generated reports led to a multiplicity of plausible scenarios that could explain what they already knew. Integrated with the Mainframe, they now had a working hypothesis, all of which could be checked out with new data from the Mainframe.

  Patsy concluded that more than genealogy was going on and, while she had no idea what exactly that was, she was closing in on organizational structure and financial transactions that couldn’t possibly have anything to do with genealogy. Getting the missing data was vital. Patsy concluded that the genealogy output, the reports themselves, were not likely to be that relevant, other than to confirm her underlying hypothesis. But she told Adam and the group that the data likely had separate lists of people and organizations that were involved in whatever the other project or projects were.

  Those projects only tangentially involved genealogy. It had to include a whole lot of other stuff. Patsy wanted to speak to the group soon, as it might impact the direction of research substantially.

  On a Saturday morning, the group gathered as a whole. Patsy wanted to explain what she knew, what she didn’t know and the directions she thought they needed to focus on.

  “That is, if that’s all right with you, Adam.”

  “Are you kidding. You get bonus points.”

  “Good for what?”

  “Whatever you want.”

  “Let’s hope my PowerPoint is just that good.”

  ***

  “OK, first I wish to thank everyone on the team, all of whom helped me with one of the two projects I undertook for the project. My first project finished quickly, so I elected to work on a second project far more germane to moving our objectives forward without permission. I told everyone who helped me that this project was approved but should be kept quiet. I’m sorry I lied to you. I didn’t’ think you would help otherwise.”

  “You only have one job assigned,” said Adam. “We’ll discuss undertaking the second project in strict violation of your instructions afterward. You should have discussed this with me.”

  “We can discuss this now if you like; then you can tell me what fucked up stupid rule I’ve broken, what I did wrong, phony up my ridiculous punishment which I will never accept, after which I will leave. Furthermore, I will not be punished by you or anyone else. I have suffered too much at the hands of men; I’ve been there, done that and have the t-shirt. Are we clear? You have no authority over me.”

  “We are. I will be sad, yet again, to watch you leave.”

  “Your threats mean nothing to me anymore. After learning what I have learned recently, I’m not afraid of anyone and realize my strength is real. So, fuck you, fuck them, and I am my own person from here on out.”

  “That’s all we ever wanted for you.”

  “We?”

  “All of us here. We all agreed you needed to ‘butch up.’ You have. Leave if you wish, but we hope you don’t. This was a rather cruel test but one we felt we needed to give. Hecate has all your research and data so, presentation today or not, we are up to speed. You can connect the dots better and, as we all believe your work with the team is indispensable to our continued success, we wish you to remain. I am sad to inform you that the test revealed not a problem with you for the project, but a personal change in the relationship between Hecate and I; outright lies and deceptions that shall be dealt with immediately.”

  Hecate said, “What are you talking about?”

  “One moment, Hecate. Patsy, what punishment of any kind have I levied upon you since every one of you women insisted on this change in dominance, work, and bed? Hit you, hurt you, abused you in any way?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Whatever happened before me isn’t relevant in my mind. I have been as loving to you as all who reside here. In fact, to all women, I have ever cherished. So, what you just said was categorically false and was a product of misplaced anger. Your issues are your own; I cannot take responsibility for them, and will not. I think it is best for you to choose what you wish to do once and for all, at least until this matter is concluded. You need not have any interaction with me if that is your desire. Beata or Alana can handle information flow between as an intermediary. But I weary of the threat to either get your way or leave. Feel free to leave. I am indifferent to your continual cycle of anger-threat-remorse.”

  “Now as to Hecate. You ask what this accusation is about?”

  “Yes.”

  “Hana and my wives, the Community, foundlings, and mates. Do the names Amil and Marin mean anything to you?”

  “How could you…”

  “I visited Him. It seems you have been recalled, our children assigned to me and you will be asked for an explanation. You should depart immediately, or you will be pulled back. Hana will take your place as soon as she is free of her duties in the Immortal realm and, it turns out, is quite anxious along with my other wives to reunite with me contrary to your lies. I shall once again be their Master, though I doubt there is any need for it. There never was.”

  “Please do not do this thing. I shall never be permitted to visit you again for eternity.”

  “Yes, but I understand you now have two more children by the lesser Immortals; equal in rank and Immortality status to me. You have chosen lives with them and kept your infidelity from me, and our Lor
d. They reside on other worlds in other Universes. Our Lord thought the liaisons were with my knowledge and permission. He was shocked to find out you misled him and deceived me.”

  Adam paused to think. This was no small matter.

  “You will be lucky to be permitted to remain with your sisters. Ask Fionna, Niona, and Kendra how they are enjoying full Immortality now; the thing they wanted so much. They have petitioned to return home to the sisterhood, having learned their lesson, and wish to reunite with their children and re-enter my life. Hana has remained with our Lord to run the Community and teach the Way and the Balance, which our Lord favors as a philosophy for all mortals. Changes are coming.”

  Adam paused.

  “Of all I have loved and trusted the most, it was you, always you I relied on and missed the most. I would bother to ask why things changed, but I truly don’t care. This betrayal fits the pattern of painful experiences repeating over and over again in my long existence. Our Lord has not ordained it; it was built randomly by the forces present in my first life. But I shall take greater care from now on. Our Lord, now understanding the pain this causes me, has forbidden such conduct from my Immortal mates in the future. I have asked him for leniency for your breach of faith. I wouldn’t want to see you taken from our children or separated from our sisters. Both your male mates will, unfortunately, be put to death for transgressions knowingly undertaken, having been warned of their risky behavior. Interesting, each blamed you in their defense. You henceforth are banned from Earth and me in any Universe I inhabit and are on your own in the Immortal realm.”

  Hecate began to speak but was whisked away as if dust in a storm.

  “Now, the presentation, please. And the yacht awaits anyone else angry enough who wishes to depart should you choose to move on to safety elsewhere. That threat grows old and cold. This is your last chance. And ladies, what did you know of this?”

  “Patsy said it was approved and we chose to believe her.”

  “Did you?”

  “No. But we saw no harm and the project had great merit, as you will see.”

  “Would it surprise you to know I was already working on the same project with Kalindra and my colleagues at the Mindwerks? That we were monitoring Patsy and everything she did and knows along with her surmises and conjectures.”

  “No, sir.”

  “We shall talk later. Study the word ‘duplicity’ before we talk. I’m very unhappy with the vast disparity between commitment made and actions taken. We shall decide next steps after our talk. Don’t expect our discourse to be civil.”

  ***

  Patsy began.

  “I decided that the place to begin to unravel this mystery was with the Society itself. I focused on who worked there, what they did and funding. As a reporting entity to HM Revenue and Customs as a non-profit historical society, they aren’t watched very carefully, and they don’t report in much detail. I found they had received funding of about ten-million-pounds sterling for at least ten years, confirmed by the HMRC and the accountant for the Society. The sources of funding were mainly from three sources until three years ago. About £1 million from selling genealogy data, approximately £2 million from individual projects, court testimony, and research and the balance from one source offshore and private. Recently, the one source added three more offshore companies and they divided their contributions of £2 million each, eight million in total. They all had genealogical sounding names, so no suspicion was raised. None would anyway; the Society was old and well-respected.

  “So?”

  “There are twenty or so paid employees; seventeen Board members and three support staff. That’s around £500,000 each. The non-Board Members were paid regular wages, so the seventeen were paid handsomely.”

  “Consultants?”

  “Not in the HRMC Reports and filings, and not in the accounting records.”

  “Unusual?”

  “Very. Most genealogists are paid nowhere near that amount. Next, I had JoJo, Alana and Kalindra follow the money back to these contributing organizations all offshore, but with banking relationships in various banks worldwide, including funds on deposit in the US and UK. Also, the Caymans, Switzerland and other bank secrecy locations. No skullduggery in the US, so the IRS is powerless to enforce the new US citizen disclosure agreement with Switzerland. We got statements and transfer information leading us to individuals and organizations; not all were upstanding citizens. We followed those leads and found some individuals dead, some alive but subject to strict agreements with affiliates of the Society on asset ownership and disposal, and some for specialized work.”

  “Like?”

  “Top of the line forgers and authenticators. The kind of authenticators courts would accept. Heirs would die and another pop up out of nowhere. Or a ‘last of the family’ would die and a remote heir heretofore unknown would suddenly be discovered. And with history and documents on the ready, like they had been planning something all along. Convenient doesn’t even begin to explain what was going on.”

  “Go on.”

  “The organizations funding the Society are private, registered in Panama, and have one member as sole Board Member, CEO and all management positions. We believe that one individual controls the other three.”

  “Why?”

  The one controls the oldest corporation, and that corporation controls the other three, directly or indirectly. These entities control money, but not activity. That’s the Society. We believe the Society is involved in four main ventures. Two are legitimate and public, and two are not.

  One of the two that isn’t public is responsible for murder and extortion. This follows from who gets money from the offshore accounts as well as the Society.

  The second illegal activity is responsible for accumulating the money, flowing it properly and keeping people in line in one way or another. This may include bribery and extortion of royals and other wealthy families whose patriarchs and matriarchs are less than discreet or who are probably guilty of crimes.

  This money is accumulated and invested in assets worldwide, making them worth countless billions. Official corruption is rife and pays huge dividends.

  “I guess I would only ask why any of this concerns us?”

  “You, your father and Misti are on their list. You are remote heirs to vast fortunes that will soon go unclaimed. The Society is hard at work finding your replacements. Carlos is dead, and Misti should definitely be on the run along with your Dad.”

  “You know this how?”

  “We accessed the air-gapped genealogy at the Society. Alana and JoJo found other evidence from other organizations.”

  “Good work.”

  “So, you’re not angry?”

  “Don’t be absurd. I knew all of this already and had contacted Misti and Dad, told them to collect the Barrows Bay family and await instructions. They’re coming here. So are Octavio, his family, and the Twins. I applaud your work, but I cannot trust any of you any longer. We can discuss this later. I have work to do.”

  He left.

  Patsy said, “Shit. That wasn’t what I expected.”

  Beata said, “Where to next, ladies? I assume we have all now been replaced by the Mindwerks and the Mainframe too.”

  “I was only trying to help.”

  Alana said, “No worries. I for one will be happy to finish Patsy’s project somewhere warm and sexy like Brazil; then when the Society is in tatters, we will have our first all-girls project complete and ready to go; Patsy Murray, CEO. Then we do our own computer thing above board for a change. We don’t need Adam; we never did.”

  They all were delighted with the idea except for the part of “no Adam.”

  Beata was most aggressive. “There are far more Adams in the world to keep us amused. And besides, we aren’t male-centric anyway. Don’t fret; there’s more to life than him.”

  Eene said, “Adam is a lot more than this recent sex play; he has never been that for us a
s far as I can remember. He has always been our friend and we his. Without his help and support, there would be no ‘witches four’ or Alana the Anonymous. He has taken all the heat, made sure we had work, and good work. And he has kept us secret and under the radar. Thinking that we can move on like he means nothing to us is absurd. I don’t like this one bit. I intend to do whatever I can to repair this crack in our relationship, and if that means we five or six each go our separate ways, then fine. I will not blow off Adam for any reason, especially when we know he’s right. We all agreed to ask him to do something that was our idea. Then we decided we didn’t need to keep our word.

  Pasty sullenly agreed, as did most of the ladies.

  Patsy said, “Besides thinking any guy is like Adam is ridiculous. They’re not Adam. I don’t want generic guys; I want him. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking what we would lose and what we might gain. Truthfully, if I could, I’d go back to the Clinic and restart counseling. With Adam.”

  Chapter 18

  The Director of the Soliti gather once again for the second day in a row to discuss the events concerning Adam St. James and the Mindwerks being hired to investigate the theft of critical, highly sensitive Society information captured by an outside third party.

  The Eleven were not pleased, and not pleased on many levels. The leader said, “I have not only been chastised for incompetence in the installation of the new computer security system, but for the many failures that followed.”

  Another senior member, in his 80’s asked, “Such as?”

  “Such as why the paper documentation and digitized version thereof was air-gapped, while the most important information was not. And why the console controlling the air-gapped system was wireless rather than wired. Seems to defeat the whole purpose of air gapping your most sensitive data. Everyone now thinks we were stupid to try to save money and wound up protecting the wrong things.”