Page 23 of Scammed

“Marcel, we have a bit of good news for you,” said Jean. “The items that were recovered from your vessel were placed in trust at the New Orleans Museum of Art and History. We arranged to sell those items despite the fact they were for the crown. They were, in fact, yours. This is an account book from the bank. You have quite a sizeable amount of your own money.”

Marcel stared at the seven-figure number, wondering how this was possible. He looked up at Jean, who was smiling at him.

“I don’t understand. How can this be?”

“Inflation, my friend. Inflation,” smirked Jean. “There is a debit card here, and I’ll explain how that works.”

For the next hour, Jean did his best to explain checking accounts, saving accounts, IRAs, debit, and credit cards. It was all too much for Marcel, so they stuck to the basics of how to access his cash and how to use the card.

“What of the men we found at the shelter?” he asked the others.

“They refuse to talk,” said Nine. “We’ve filed charges, and they’re in jail for now but haven’t retained counsel as yet.”

“Do you think it’s odd that the virus is named Pirate’s Booty?” he said, frowning. “It feels personal. As if it’s directed to me.”

“I’m not sure how that could be,” said Gaspar. “It might just be luck.”

“Or it could be someone who knew my history when they targeted Prometheus.” The men stared at Marcel, then at one another. There were a lot of working parts to this story, and none of them were making any sense.

“Hi,” said the sweet voice at the door.

“My love,” smiled Marcel, standing to hug his wife. “Are you well?”

“I’m perfect,” she smiled. “It’s just that I got a call from Mr. Sheffield, and he said that the foundation had reconsidered my employment and needed me back. He said something about a donor with a twenty-five-million-dollar donation. I didn’t have anyone willing to donate that much money.”

“That was us,” smirked Nine. “Sorry, Amy. We were trying to find out the truth about what was happening there.”

“I thought it might be something like that. I told him I had another offer, and I wasn’t interested. Besides, I can’t believe that the investment group would want me back.”

“Investment group?” frowned Jean.

“Yes. The investment group took over the non-profit about eighteen months ago. Apparently, they have companies all over the world and wanted to have something that would help them with taxes and, of course, would make them look more appealing to possible investors, that sort of thing.”

“I’ve never known of a non-profit being owned by an investment group,” frowned Jean. “It doesn’t make sense. Non-profits don’t really make any money. Not technically.”

“I thought the same thing when they bought us. In fact, I was quite vocal about it. I just felt that it wasn’t a good look. Investment groups are designed to make as much money as they can, then sell to corporations or other investment groups for huge profits. We would never generate a huge profit.”

“What’s the name of the investment group?”

“The Hermes Corporation.”

“Hermes? As in god of mischief?” asked Marcel.

“Y-yes. Although I never thought of that,” said Amy. “I always thought about the clothing and leather goods retailer.”

“This is very strange. We have a group named after the god of mischief, who took over a non-profit named for the god of helping humanity. They have a portrait of Marcel in their office, and we have a virus named Pirate’s Booty. Can they all be connected?” asked Gabriel.

“We need to find out more information about Hermes. Amy, do you know anything about them?” asked Nine.

“I’m afraid not. They never came to the offices. They only conducted meetings via video conferencing, and I was never involved in those. I know that we received new computers and updated software about a year ago, shortly after they took over. At first, I was relieved, then it was a nightmare. We were always having shutdown issues.”

“They were overloading the servers,” said Baptiste. Everyone turned to stare at him. “What? I know a few things. I listen.”

“Are you saying that you think Prometheus and Hermes are behind these cyber-attacks?” asked Amy.

“I think it could be possible,” said Baptiste. “I know it seems unfathomable that a non-profit would do this, but the non-profit could have just been cover for them. Maybe they became victims themselves to throw off any suspicions.”

“That would be horrible,” said Amy. “All that money I raised, that I asked for. I can’t imagine facing those people ever again.”

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