Alex said, 'The thing is, Jay, we don't really want to talk to him on the virgil. This is the kind of thing you need to do personally.'
'You think he might run if he knows we're on to him?'
'Right now, given what we suspect, we're talking about an end to his career and fifteen years in a federal penitentiary — if Platt is working at his direction. He might decide that retreat is the better part of valor. And if he is somewhere in Africa, extradition might be iffy.
'And we have to consider the idea that maybe White is implicated.'
'Wishful thinking,' Toni said.
'Probably, but you never know. We might get lucky.' Alex smiled.
'What I don't understand is what he would have to gain from this,' Toni said. 'Yeah, he gives his boss a platform to stand on, makes Net Force his whipping boy, but that seems a small payoff for such a big crime.'
'I think I have the answer for that,' Joanna said from the doorway.
They all turned to look at her.
She waved her flatscreen. 'I just got back from the federal money hounds. While we all were running around stamping out little fires on the bank incursion yesterday, somebody snuck in and siphoned off almost two hundred million dollars.'
'Now there's a coincidence,' Jay said.
'Damn!' Alex said. 'Of course! It was misdirection! We thought somebody wanted to take the system down! It wasn't about terrorism at all, it was about money!'
'That lets White out,' Alex said. 'He's probably got more money than that in his personal checking account.'
Joanna continued. 'The hounds have traced part of the funds through a Caribbean bank and two Swiss numbered accounts, but they are stonewalled at some Indonesian trust company.'
'Part of the funds?' Alex asked
'A hundred and sixty million,' Joanna said. 'Forty went somewhere else.'
Toni said, 'That would be a pretty good reason to break into a few computers to raise hell.'
'It gets better,' Joanna said. She looked at her flatscreen. 'Seems an anonymous tip to the FBI has just resulted in the arrest of one Jamal S. Peterson, a former bank employee wanted for a similar kind of sting in South Dakota last month. They recovered the money from that, a couple hundred thousand, but Peterson was not apprehended at the time. The tip claimed that Peterson was responsible for this theft too.'
'And he's been picked up?'
'About fifteen minutes ago. I just got off the phone with the special agent in Charge. Peterson had a forged passport, a one-way ticket to Rio, and a new account in Switzerland with forty million dollars in it, transferred in last night.'
'So that's all the money,' Jay said.
'Not exactly. The hundred and sixty very large went into a bank in Bali, but there's a good chance the money has already left the building. The institution in question has a history of such transactions.'
'So Hughes, if he's responsible, has probably already gotten his hands on more money than you and I and everybody in our department will make for the rest of our lives,' Alex said.
'That would be a fairly safe bet,' Joanna said.
Alex sighed. 'Damn.'
'I hate to add more rain on the parade,' Toni said, 'but with that kind of money, there are probably a dozen poor African nations who'd be happy to grant Hughes political asylum. Maybe not the Ethiopians, but some of the third-world presidents would jump at the chance to sell out. For a tenth of that much.'
Alex said, 'And that might be his plan. He might already be sitting in his new villa in Sierra Leone, sipping some banana-and-rum drink and laughing his head off at us.'
'And it gets worse, Boss. We've been backwalking the various penetrations as best we can, and casting about for any side trails, and we think we've uncovered a problem.'
Michaels looked at him. 'Why am I not surprised? What is it?'
'The way it looks to us, Platt has set it up so that he has to log in to various systems at certain times. If he doesn't, and if he doesn't send the right messages, we think he has several more surprises set to be unleashed on us.'
'Dead-man switches,' Alex said.
Jay nodded. 'That's how it looks. We're tracking them as best we can. Given enough time, we'll get them all, but if anything happens to Platt before we do…'
Alex glanced over at Joanna, then back at Jay. 'Stay on it,' he said, 'and let me know as soon as you've got them all.'
'Right, Boss.'
'First thing the rest of us have to do is find out where Hughes is. Then we'll worry about how much immunity he thinks he's got.'
Alex looked thoughtful. 'Toni, see if you can get hold of Colonel Howard at home, would you?'
Joanna said, 'He's not at home. He's doing a survival course in Oregon.'
Everybody turned and looked at Joanna. She said, 'Uh, that's what I heard.'
Jay grinned at Joanna, and Toni wondered why.
'Ah,' Jay said. 'You get that from a certain NCO we all know and love?'
Joanna blushed, her pale complexion flushed a deep pink.
'Of course, some of us apparently know him and love him more than others,' Jay said. Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
'Go, people, find me a bank thief,' Alex said, saving Joanna more embarrassment. 'Oh, and good work on what we've done so far. You four are the best, don't let anybody ever tell you different.'
'Yeah, but — who gets the trip to Hawaii?' Jay said.
'Go, Jay. We aren't done yet. And while you're looking, get me everything you can on Hughes. Let's find out what we're dealing with here.'
Chapter Thirty-Six
John Howard was nearly a mile into the morning's trek when his virgil cheeped at him.
Uh-oh. Nobody was supposed to call unless it was an emergency. He unclipped the device from his belt — he'd learned
Assistant Commander of Net Force Toni Fiorella.
He pressed the connect button. 'Howard,' he said.
'Colonel, I'm afraid you're going to have to cut your survival trip short. We've got a situation here, and Alex — Commander Michaels — wants you back at HQ to put your teams on standby alert.'
'Copy that.'
'Find a flat spot, sir, and a copter will be there to pick up as soon as possible.'
'Affirmative, AC. What's up, can you say?'
'We may be doing an extraction, Colonel, though it's a little early to tell. If we can locate the quarry, it's likely you won't need to pack your cold-weather clothes.'
'Copy. I'm looking for a landing site now.'
'Drop by when you get back, Colonel, and we'll fill you in. Discom.'
'Discom.' After the link was sundered, Howard began looking for a place for the copter to land. They'd home in on his virgil, and if a bird lifted from the nearest local military base, his ride should be there within the hour. Giving up his survival trip for a real assignment was not in the least bit distressing to him. War games and camping trips were only the maps, not the territory.
