Chapter 25

4014 18th St
San Francisco, CA

September 2011

"This is why I love technology." Penelope said.

They had set up on the dining room/conference table, Penelope with her laptop, Spencer and Ash looking over her shoulders, Morgan and Clooney hanging out to advise and listen. "What exactly are we doing?" Morgan asked.

"Cutting Ashton Pettigrew loose the mortal coil." Spencer replied.

"Excuse me?"

"We're creating an online persona with the name 'Ashton Pettigrew'." Penelope replied. "This way we can control at least part of the message going out there and also as an even stronger decoy to get her parents looking in another direction for the foreseeable future. Then we're going to give...her...a new identity she can make into whatever she wants. Once we find the missing bits in the data trail and have enough to make our arrests Ashton Pettigrew can fade away into the sunset and she can go on with her life."

"How are you going to do that?"

"Primarily through Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest might be too much work."

"How much time am I going to have to put into this?" She asked.

"Little to none." Penelope replied with a smile. "We're going to automate the whole thing. And these profilers here are going to help."

"How?" Morgan asked.

"We have interview notes about what Senator and Mrs. Pettigrew want in a child." Spencer replied. "And a general overview based on the likes and dislikes they posted on the Senator's website. Based on that we'll fill out the profiles on the sites, then come up with likely content he would share."

"Then I'll automate it so that content is regularly shared." Penelope said. "Something bland and inoffensive, just enough to support the persona. Like, you know those images with supportive quotes on them. 'Have a blessed day' over a sunrise kind of thing?"

"Only just a little more specific." Spencer replied. "Like ones geared toward cancer survivors."

"Right, so it looks like the profiles are active, and he's posting every few days. We'll make it look like he's a real person, living the kind of life his parents would approve of, just out of the public eye. In the meantime..." Penelope looked at the woman next to her. "Okay, you need a new name."

"I haven't even thought of it." She replied.

"What's your middle name?"

"Theresa. That will do."

"Yeah! So while my scripts keep Ashton alive online Tess here can go off and live her life with a whole new identity."

"Yeah, but is that legal?" Morgan asked.

Penelope gave him one of those looks. "Do you have any idea how many identities they created for Emily? We'll give Tess here Ash's old financial profile, so long as the IRS and the credit reporting agencies are happy no one will complain."

"All right then." Morgan nodded and was in.

"Okay, so Theresa what?" Penelope asked.

"I have no clue." Tess replied. But then, "Not Reid."

"No, you need a ring for that." Morgan said with a grin. Spencer immediately turned red.

"You know, you and I could be cousins." Penelope said.

"Theresa Garcia?" Tess asked.

"No, I took my stepfather's name, because he was amazing. My mother's maiden name was Hansen."

"Theresa Hansen." Tess nodded. "That will work."

They got out the computers and worked the rest of the afternoon and in to the evening. They started with Facebook, giving 'Ashton Victor Pettigrew' a cover with a blandly religious theme and using the old high school picture they had used on her father's website for his profile picture. They gave him a neat set of likes, used Tess's actual education history, and with the script Penelope wrote the page started slowly filling with likely inspirational images, human interest pieces and conservative click bait. Then she cross-linked it with Twitter, followed some likely celebs, and set the artwork to coordinate. After that she went to LinkedIn and with Morgan's help and Spencer's advice created an ideal profile.

In the meantime Tess created herself online. Her new profiles reflected her own likes and interests, her artwork was decidedly feminine, had a cat cuddling a yarn ball for her profile picture, and she set the privacy options to the most private she could. She followed only a few writers she enjoyed on Twitter. But when it came to LinkedIn she was stuck. "The one problem with this," She said, "is that I'm losing my educational background to Ashton."

"Do you actually like your educational background?" Penelope asked. "Or did you just go after it to make your folks happy?"

"To try to make them proud of me."

"Then go for what you want now. I'll make it air tight, don't worry."

"It might be kind of silly."

"Be as silly as you want to be." Penelope said with a smile. "Just send me the notes."

Tess smiled, shook her head, and started working on it.

Just then 'Ashton's' e-mail pinged. "It's from Follows." Spencer said.

"They're watching me that closely?" Tess asked.

"We haven't seen any sign of that around the neighborhood." Morgan replied.

"Likely he has an alert set on his devices to ping him if you set up a profile." Penelope added. "Passive surveillance, which is the easiest kind to work around now that we know."

Spencer read the e-mail. We appreciate the effort. Please add the following to your profile. We'll continue to tell the media that you're recovering from the side effects of cancer treatment and while you support your father you're not up to helping him on the campaign trail.

Tess came over and looked at the list. "You have got to be kidding me." She said.

"We don't have to." Penelope replied.

"No. Let's add that one, that one and that one. But instead of those two let's add these." She found two other groups to follow and linked them up.

A few minutes later Follows sent another note. Good enough. Thank you.

Tess leaned over his computer and typed a reply. You're welcome. Keep my parents and their circus away from me and this profile will stay as is.

A moment later the reply came back. Deal.

"All right then." Morgan said.

Eventually it was done. Penelope had Tess go put her wig on, snapped a picture and moments later handed her a printed slip of paper. "There you go, Theresa Margaret Hansen. Welcome to the world. Your new ID should be here in seven to ten days."

Tess looked at them all with utter wonder, and burst into tears.

Spencer pulled her into his arms as the others smiled. "You're welcome."