Turbee slowly, reluctantly nodded and set to work. As he often did when working on such an exercise, he fell into the project to the exclusion of everything else.
Several hours later, Turbee messaged Richard again: GO AHEAD AND GAS UP. AMERICAN EXPRESS WILL THINK THE POINT OF SALE IS A SMALL VENDOR AT DAR ES SALAAM IN TANZANIA.
It was late in the afternoon when a gaunt, haggard Turbee resurfaced in the control room. His two friends George and Khasha pulled him over to one of the side conference rooms.
“Turbee,” began Khasha. “There’s something else going on. Over the past week you’ve been looking worse and worse. I know you’re not sleeping. What’s happening?”
Slowly and piecemeal, the tale of what George and Turbee had done to Dan Alexander began to take shape. Once Khasha had it sorted out, she turned to George in anger.
“Why would you do that, George? Worse yet, why would you drag Turbee into something like that? This is not an April Fools’ thing. This is criminal. You know what Dan is like. He will exact his revenge one way or the other. How are we possibly going to get you out of that mess? And Turbee, you know better than that. You have never done a criminal thing in your life, other than hacking.”
Turbee hung his head and opened a can of root beer. “Khasha, we were over the line with that Dan thing. Yes, he deserved to be put down a notch, but we stuck him in Guantanamo for several days. He’s going to get even. Now, to try and protect Richard and Zak, I broke into the Amex system using TTIC technology. That’s got to be a federal crime. And the whole intelligence community is looking for Richard and Zak and Kumar and we know exactly where they are and we are going to help them gas up. Khasha, I am absolutely sick about this. I just want to run. Dan will be looking for stuff. He’ll say we’re criminals and we are. How did we get so far over the line? How do we keep going further over the line every day?”
“Maybe it was a little over the top,” said George defensively. “But look at the big picture. Dan was on Turbee’s case because of those alleged conspiracy websites. Dan arrested Liam in front of everybody. The admiral himself was arrested and Yousseff is the president’s best buddy. There is something evil going on. We need to flush it out. Richard and Zak were following orders when they broke Kumar out of Inzar Ghar. They became rogue after the fact. People, powerful people, do not want Kumar to get his message out. We’re in the same boat. We know what really happened, and for whatever reason, Dan and virtually everyone above him is covering it up. If we don’t do what’s right here, the truth will be permanently submerged and Richard and Zak will, somewhere along the way, probably be murdered. As far as Dan Alexander goes, I suppose he is a bit pissed,” said George, “and maybe we went a bit too far, but he’s learned his lesson. He won’t come after us.”
“We shouldn’t have done it,” said Turbee, fear permeating his voice. “George, we’re going to go to jail. I couldn’t live there. I would die. I was in jail here in DC, remember? I was almost killed there. My ribs still haven’t healed and I still can’t sleep at night. I can’t do this anymore, you guys.” His voice rose in pitch every few words.
“He can never prove it was us,” George said. “We covered our tracks way too well.”
“Actually, not quite, George,” Khasha said. “My friends at the NSA could figure it out. Sure, you and Turbee are very clever, but the NSA and many of the other intelligence agencies are full of clever people. In fact, the FBI cybercrimes unit is crawling with geniuses and crack coders.”
“It’s not even that,” said Turbee. “Dan doesn’t even need a reason. He’s got stacks and stacks of inherited money. He’s not above bribery. And he hangs out with POTUS. One simple presidential order would probably do it. George, we’re going to jail, and we deserve it. I’m going to turn myself in right now. Tell them everything. Maybe they will stick me in an easier prison.”
“C’mon, Turbee. You were there when we talked to him down in Gitmo. He won’t dare cross us again. He knows if he does, he’ll end up in some prison camp in Uzbekistan. Permanently.”
“You know what he’s like,” Turbee said. “We humiliated him when all his cards bounced at the airport. We got him publically arrested. He will never forget that. If it takes him ten years, he’ll get even with us. And now we’ve made things worse by breaking into Amex and dummying up a credit card bill, and breaching orders. The whole military is looking for Kumar and we know exactly where he is. We are in so deep, George. We can’t keep doing this.”
“If Dan comes for us, Turbee, I’ll take the fall for it,” George replied. “After all, it was my idea to stick him in Guantanamo for a few days. And it was Richard and Zak who asked you to disguise that fuel bill. Those two will take the heat for that.”
“Yes, but
