Page 2 of Scammed

“I agree,” said Angel. “Why would we ever want to implant thoughts for someone?”

“We don’t.”

The entire room jumped, grabbing their chests, turning to stare at Trak. He grinned at them, taking a sip of his coffee and raising the mug.

“I swear to God, I think you’re getting quieter the older you get. Your bones aren’t even cracking like the rest of us. Do you even wear shoes? You know what, never mind,” said Whiskey.

“My bones are just fine, thank you. We don’t want that device, but if it helps us to understand what others are doing, maybe we can devise a way to interfere in its communication to the person or there could be a medical reason for wanting to use it.”

“That’s a good thought,” smirked Nine. Trak stared at him, that blank stare he always gave when others questioned him.

“I know.”

The door opened, and Code walked in with Monroe. Monroe was one of the genius children rescued in El Paso, now adopted by Jax and Ellie.

“Hi, Grandpa,” he smiled, running toward Nine. Nine picked him up, setting him on his knee.

“Why aren’t you in school?” he frowned.

“Grandpa, it’s summertime. Even genius kids don’t have to go in the summer. I’ve been helping Code and the others with the computers.”

“He’s doing more than helping,” said Code. “Tell them what you found, kid.”

“Okay. I found a highly technical and capable banking trojan that was filtering money from non-profit organizations into another account where a third-party was removing the funds and giving it to someone else.” They all stared at him, his big smile not helping their comprehension.

“Could you try that again? This time in baby words?” asked Alec.

“Sorry,” he giggled. “Mr. Code was making sure that money could be moved to the right account for the shelter downtown. While he was working in it, it gave me the chance to go into the back of the system and make sure it was safe. I found someone on the other end, trying to get our data and our money.

“When I kept digging, I found that they were trying to do it to lots of non-profits. They got a bunch of money from about five just in this area. They were trying to take about twenty-one million from our accounts, but I stopped them,” he said, thrusting his little fist in the air. Nine chuckled at the boy, kissing his temple.

“You did good,” he smirked.

“I know. Mr. Code said it was compl-, compli-.”

“Complicated?” smiled Gaspar.

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“The kid understands complex mathematical equations, computer terminology, coding, formulations, and physics but can’t say complicated,” smirked Antoine. “How is that fair?”

The little boy shrugged his shoulders then turned to Nine.

“Mr. Code said I did good. Can I have one of Grandma’s cookies?” Nine laughed, shaking his head.

“Fine, but don’t tell your parents.”

“Awesome!” he said, jumping down. “Bye, Mr. Code. I’ll come play more later.” The room laughed as the little boy ran toward Nine’s house.

“How bad was it?” asked Gaspar.

“It could have been really bad. That kid picked up on the malware immediately and stopped it all. He probably saved at least four or five other companies from the same fate. He gave it a virus back, which will stop them for now, but no doubt they’ll go around it and build something else.”

“How do we find them?” snarled Mac.

“We’re working on that now. As soon as I have some idea of where it originated from, we can throw our nets out.” He started to leave, then turned back to the men. “I know you already know this, but those kids are beyond genius. It’s like they’re all from another planet. I’m good, Hiro is good, Pigsty is better than good, but that kid? He’s great.”

The men all looked at one another, nodding. Ian finally spoke up.

---