Chapter 3

He's Scared of Black

"Roman, got a few minutes before you leave?"

Roman closed a folder and nodded at Jericho. He was surprised to see Marko trailing after the older man. Jericho pointed at a chair, and Marko quickly sat down as Jericho closed the door.

"Do we have a problem?" Roman asked.

"No," Jericho assured him as he also sat down. His blue eyes twinkled as he glanced at Marko who sat with his head down for all the world looking like a kid just brought before the school principal. "Marko's been leading the team on find more out about the Elite. I thought he should be the one to explain." He managed not to laugh when Marko gave him a horrified look.

"I see." Roman managed to keep a straight face. "It's good to see you again, Marko. What have you found?"

"Um…" Marko's fingers tightly gripped the folder in his hands. "We used the list of assassinations allegedly credited to the Elite…then did a cross reference with passenger manifests on flights in neighboring airports…as well as car rentals and hotel reservations. It…uh…was a lot of data so it took some time to find patterns…of sorts."

Roman nodded. "And what did you find?" he prodded after a few moments of silence.

Marko quickly handed him the folder. "I can't say with 100% accuracy, but we've associated names with four individuals…men. It's above the statistical acceptance of random occurrence. Especially when you consider the same grouping of names repeating with each other."

Jericho coughed. "Basically, the name group of names are associated with the same four men."

"Were you able to track their method of paying for the flights and such?" Roman asked.

"They always use prepaid credit cards," Marko explained. "I included a spreadsheet showing who used which card. They load the cards to the maximum then must dispose of them when they're emptied. There's no record of them being used again once they're emptied. They use cash to load the cards so they can't be traced."

Roman glanced at the spreadsheet. "Some of these cards are loaded with thousands of dollars. Didn't that raise a red flag?"

"That would depend on where the cards were obtained," Jericho carefully answered.

Roman thought for a moment then nodded. The Authority would have no problem obtaining high limit prepaid cards. "No way at all we can trace them?"

"We can't," Jericho admitted, raising an eyebrow at Roman.

Roman glanced at Marko who gulped and tried to disappear into his chair. "Your call," he answered.

Jericho nodded, knowing he would be held responsible for Marko. "As you know, we've been shadowing Angle's efforts to track down the Elite. Thanks to Marko and his team, we got ahead of them. With this information, Angle could get subpoenas from the Courts and track the transactions."

Roman leaned back in his chair for several seconds. "Keep an eye on Angle's efforts. If he gets bogged down, we may decide to help him. In addition, keep digging into the Elite; but be very careful. We don't want to them to ghost on us." He nodded at Marko. "Another job well done, Marko."

"Thank you, sir!" Marko widely smiled as he straightened up in his chair.

"That will be all. Jericho, please stay."

Jericho nodded at Marko. "I'll meet you back in the office." He again managed not to smile when Marko nervously swallowed and nodded with a jerk.

Roman waited until the door was closed before quirking an eye at Jericho.

"Black's in the office. He's scared of him," Jericho explained with a chuckle.

"With your exception, he seems scared of everyone," Roman pointed out. "His background?"

Jericho carefully spoke. "Really good hackers are either naturals or learn it easily. Marko's a natural. It's how his brain works. His father, however, was an NFL wanna-be. Successful jock in high school and college, but couldn't make it in the pros. So, he transferred his ambitions to his sons. None of whom, by the way, made it out of college and into the NFL."

"Let me guess, Marko was a disappointment to him?"

Jericho nodded. "Threw him out of the house before he was out of high school. Worthless runt was probably the nicest thing he said about him. Marko started hacking to make money for food and rent. At the time, mostly hacking into the local board of education's system to alter grades. Pretty much got away with it, too. Started getting hired for more…intricate jobs. Our IT guys crossed paths with him a couple of times and reported him to me. He wasn't doing anything to us or trying to get into our systems. We just…had common interests. So, I took an interest in him. Eventually, he took on a job that was a set up by the FBI. Guy who hired him had been flipped by the Feds. We spotted it, and got him out before anything happened."

"And he agreed to work for us?" Roman asked.

Jericho shrugged. "He sees hacking as a challenge. He couldn't play sports, much less football, but he can hack with the best of them. Successfully hacking proves to him that he's not 'worthless'. He gets paid well to do what satisfies him. And also gets a level of protection."

Roman nodded. "As soon as feasible, have him review our previous attempts to gain access to the Authority's computer and phone systems along with recommendations for trying again plus recommendations for strengthening our systems against a similar try from the Authority. And do a similar reviews and recommendations yourself. Then let's compare the two."

Jericho grinned as he nodded and stood. It had been a long time since he'd gotten to work with a hacker almost as good as himself.

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"How long will I be gone?" Becky Lynch asked as she slowly sipped her coffee.

Hunter shrugged as he poured himself another cup. "At least until the cops stop digging into Leah Moxley's murder. Hopefully, they don't have anything to connect you with her. But, best to be safe than sorry. I'll get you back here as soon as I can. Possibly in a couple of months." He smiled, "You're too good to be stuck down in New Orleans. While there, you'll be reporting to Toni Storm. When you return, I want an in-depth report on her. Things have been slipping a little there. It could be because of the new city administration is playing their 'clean up the city' card. But I want to be sure that's the case."

"Does she know this is a temporary assignment?"

Hunter nodded. "Don't expect to be taken into her confidence on anything and don't push her."

"Understood."

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"I'm very impressed with what you've got here." Joey Mercury took one more look at the lobby before turning to the other three men. "When is your meeting with the Mayor?"

"Next Monday," Seth replied, giving Mox a quick glance. "We may have to compromise on a few minor points, but we're not willing to budge on the major ones."

Mercury nodded in agreement. "If you need me to join you, let me know. You have my full support for this project."

"Actually, if you could put something in writing outlining the reasons for your support, we could present it at the meeting," Roman suggested, handing Mercury a business card for the Foundation. "My email address is on the card."

"I'll do it," Mercury agreed, putting the card into his pocket. "As I said, my only conditions are that any students at the Vo-Tech must be at least sixteen years old and will need at least a GED to graduate."

Mox held out his hand. "Thank you, Mr. Mercury. I…we appreciate your support."

"My pleasure." Mercury shook their hands and walked out of the building.

"Well, that went really well," Seth grinning, rubbing his hands together.

"I have to be at that meeting on Monday, don't I?" Mox grunted.

"Yes, you do," Roman firmly answered.

"You guys got anything planned for dinner?" Seth asked. "I'm free tonight."

"Nikki kick you out? What did you do, Seth?" Mox demanded with a glint in his blue eyes.

"Nothing!" Seth protested. "She said she wanted some peace and quiet so she could finish…my latest book." The last words were mumbled. He saw the other two men staring at him and thew up his hands. "I needed a fresh set of eyes to look at it before finishing the edits to send to publisher!"

Roman put a hand over his heart. "Seth, we're…hurt."

"We are?" Mox muttered.

"We're your friends," Roman continued, ignoring the muttered comment. "Good friends. Close friends. Family. You could've asked us to read it for you."

"Yeah, why didn't you?" Mox demanded again.

Seth pushed his hands into the pocket of his jacket. "I thought it would be a good way to explain that I…write books."

"Wait…you didn't tell her that before the wedding?" Mox smacked a hand on the side of Seth's head. "You're lucky she didn't sic Mitch on you."

Seth glowered at Mox. "And I guess Alexa knows everything about you?"

Mox nodded and scratched his bearded chin. "Pretty much, yeah. Can't think of anything she doesn't know."

Roman chuckled. "Let me see if I can get a reservation at La Trieste." He pulled out his cell phone and walked away.

Mox silently nodded. Given his choice, Roman would always choose Italian.