Page 10 of Scammed

“Son, I told you that I asked for a companion for him when all the ghosts came forward. I didn’t do anything recently. I’m not sure how he’s suddenly alive, flesh and blood, with a heartbeat.”

Gaspar frowned at his parents, wanting to ask his father the same questions, but he also didn’t want to piss him off. I mean, as an angel, was he capable of taking his life?

“As me anything, Gaspar,” grinned Matthew.

“Okay. Did you, I mean, are you capable of, I mean, is he back?” His brothers were seated around him, all of them looking at their parents. Nine, Wilson, Trak, Tailor, Whiskey, and a few others were present as well.

“Your mother made the call to help him. I only prayed for her wish to be answered. Marcel died before his time, Gaspar. Long before his time. He should not have been killed on that ship. It wasn’t his time, and everyone has a time. He should have survived the storm and made it to shore safely so that he could continue his good works. Someone else made certain he didn’t.

“Sometimes, in cases such as these, the individual is given another chance. Usually, it’s not so far off from when the event occurred, and usually, he’s not in the same body. In this case, he is. Now, that could be because he knew Amy’s ancestor, or it could have something to do with the painting. I don’t know.

“What I do know is that none of that is important. The only thing important is proving that young woman’s innocence and helping her to have a thriving career again. If she becomes a part of our family, then so be it. If not, at least we know that we did our job.”

“Okay. Thank you both for being honest with me,” said Gaspar. Nine smirked at Irene and Matthew, shaking his head. They were something else. He just wasn’t positive what they were exactly.

“Something you want to ask me, son?” asked Matthew, staring at Nine.

“Well, sir, we were just curious as to Irene’s gifts. You told us not to discount them, but it was never made clear what they were.”

“No,” said Matthew, nodding his head. “It wasn’t, was it?”

With that, he and Irene walked off toward their own cabin, not saying a word to the men. As they left, Kari and Kat arrived, the team of brothers still shaking their heads.

“What’s the news?” asked Nine.

“Well, they won’t file charges against her as long as she resigns. They’ll give her two months’ salary and a good recommendation,” said Kari.

“What the fuck? She did nothing wrong, and we’ve proven that. Why in the hell do they want her gone?” said Antoine.

“We can’t figure that out. She’s been a stellar employee, raising more than twenty-five million in the last few years. She works harder than anyone there and follows every project from start to finish. I’m not sure what their game is,” said Kat. “We encouraged them to rethink this because if she wants to file for wrongful termination, we’re going to help her, and we believe we’ll win.”

“But she won’t get her job back, will she?” asked Whiskey.

“No, babe. She won’t get the job back. She’d probably get a bigger severance and a small settlement, but that’s all.”

“Damn. That’s so unfair.” He looked at Code. “Anything else on these people taking money from the accounts and moving it around?”

“Nothing yet, but Monroe and the other kids are working that angle for us. Those guys are unbelievable at finding the trails, but I’m telling all of you, this is the most efficient and savvy program I’ve ever seen.”

“How so?” asked Tailor.

“Normally, I can find the trail back to where it started. It’s usually an IP address bouncing off other IP addresses, satellites, servers, that sort of thing. This program is using the target organizations’ own servers and satellites to get what they want.

“In the case of Prometheus, someone called the office to report that there had been a corrupt file downloaded, and they were with their software company to help get it off. They convinced the head of IT that what they were doing was legit. They had all the right answers when he asked the questions. Once he opened the gates for them to get into his computer, they were in and could randomly select what they wanted and choose who they wanted to use.”

“Maybe we need to speak to the IT guy, and maybe we need to point out to the Prometheus board that we’ll expose that shit and show how inept their systems people are,” said Trak.

“I would recommend it, but I would also suggest that we get into their systems and find out what all they saw. If they have personal information on Amy, we can’t let her go back to her home.”

“Agreed,” said Baptiste. “Where is she now?”

“Wherever Marcel is,” smiled Jean. “I’m not sure how long his new life will last, but I sure as fuck hope those two don’t fall in love and then he disappears.”

“Hold on,” said Gaspar, “I’ve got a call coming in from Molly and Asia. Hi, ladies, what’s up?”

“We need some tech help down here ASAP,” said Molly. “Something was going haywire with our network, and we got a call from someone saying they were with our software company and needed to come and test it out. We knew it was bullshit, so we told them we’d be available in an hour.”

“On my way,” said Code. He turned to head toward the docks, then turned back. “I’m taking Hiro with me, Bull, Whiskey, care for a ride?”

---