“Yeah, the best lookin’ suit you got, since you gotta look the part of the big boss. If you do what Wilbur is suggestin’ we do, we need you to look like one of those business sharks. Oh, almost forgot. We’ll need some money to make this happen.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. Yep, gonna cost me again. “I’ll tell Alice to spring for whatever you need. She’s got access to one of my accounts.”
“Hope you got some big bucks in that account, this could get expensive before we’re done.”
“Much as you’ll need.” I hoped. “I’ll get with Alice soon as we hang up to okay it. Make sure you two get good suits, too. Go to Saks or somewhere like that and get a suit for about a grand each. See you in Belize.”
Once he hung up I stared at the phone, mind shifting into planning mode. Let’s see, make sure Mom knew I’d be gone for at least two days from Wildacres; call and get plane tickets from Charlotte to Belize; double-check I had my passport; and what else? Oh, yeah, call Saks Fifth Avenue in Charlotte. They probably still have my measurements from a sports coat I had made when I first showed up in North Carolina…
* * *
Charlie and a light-haired man in his mid twenties were waiting for me when I deplaned in Belize. “Francis, glad to see you,” Charlie said, giving my hand a shake. He still looked like an overgrown teddy bear with dark brown hair. “This is Wilbur Carlyle, not only my friend but the guy who taught me all I know about computers.”
I shook hands with Wilbur, the epitome of a computer nerd. Glasses, rumpled look, and an air of not being on the same wavelength as the rest of humanity. In other words, a shorter version of Charlie except his hair was blonde. “Nice to meet you, Wilbur. Any friend of Charlie’s is a friend of mine.”
He nodded shyly. “Nice t’meet you, Sir.” He perked up and glanced at Charlie. “Okay, can we put ‘em on now?”
Charlie shook his head. “He’s wanted to put on his new suit ever since we got here.”
“No time like the present,” I said, heading towards the men’s room.
I came out of the stall after changing, and chuckled at the sight of Wilbur preening in front of the mirror.
“Snazzy, man. Hey, can I keep my suit after this gig?” He stroked the front of his suit jacket again, turning to view himself in the mirror once more.
Charlie gave me an exasperated look. “Jeez, you’d think he’d never owned a suit before.” He unconsciously fondled his virgin wool grey suit jacket even as he spoke.
“I haven’t,” Wilbur said, giving one last admiring look in the mirror. “Hey, we better get a move on. Our meeting at the bank is in an hour and a half, and we still have to brief you up, Mister Baker.”
“Like I said before, call me Francis.” We exited the men’s room and hurried out. I had to admit, we definitely looked the part of big-time businessmen. I touched my dark blue coat, admiring its feel. Cripes, I was as much a rube as they were about fancy clothes. Sure felt good, though.
We settled at a corner table in a restaurant that was two blocks from the Atlantic International Bank, our eventual destination. No one was within fifteen feet of us, which was secure as we were going to get.
Wilbur opened his briefcase and laid a sheet of paper in front of me. “Mister-er, Francis, all you gotta do is go in and look really important. Charlie and me are your accountants, and Charlie will do the talking while I do the computer work. That all right?”
“Sounds good.” I studied the form, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.
Charlie tapped the document. “I know it looks complicated if you haven’t done this stuff before. Simply put, the top of that form is a list of the first three accounts we’re gonna suck dry. The second half shows we successfully audited each account, and everything was okay.”
I studied the form. Something was missing–“Signature block. Where do I sign?”
Wilbur cackled. “Nowhere, man. That’s the beauty of the system. Everything’s handled by numbers. If you know the right sequence, and have the pass code to be able to do transactions for those accounts, it’s simple.”
“An’ the transaction code was in the second file you couldn’t get in,” Charlie said. “The person who copied these files probably didn’t even know what they were copying.”
I shoved the paper towards Wilbur. “Man, this is complicated. Why are we conducting an audit? I thought we were going to steal money.”
Wilbur grinned, a smug look on his face. “Rather than alert the bad guys before our main event occurs, we’ll have all of it disappear at once.” He shook his head, smile becoming lopsided. “Only took us twenty-eight hours of straight programming to get this set up but if it works, it’ll be one for the ages.”
“They had an unbreakable alarm set up on the funds in the encrypted file,” Charlie said. “The only way we could get it was when it was released to the North Koreans.”
“North–What?” I sat up straighter, a chill running down my spine.
Charlie grinned. “Yeah, them. That’s why I thought I’d better tell you about this particular account face-to-face. Things are a lot more than they seem. A lot more; forty million more, in fact.”
My mouth was open, but for once no sound came out. Shit, that was serious money.
“Haw! Lookit him,” chortled Wilbur, elbowing Charlie. “Same face you made when we found out how much was in that account.”
I made an effort to relax, and leaned on the table while sipping my coffee. “So how does this plan of yours work?”
“Simple,” Charlie said. “If it all goes like we planned, anyway. We just need to attach Wilbur’s lap top to the files that have the moolah, add
