Chapter 102
DRS. ESTHER GOLDBERG, Lauren Hollings, and Katherine Clarkson—the ladies of Cal Poly—were all cutting-edge computer scientists. They went quickly to their laptops, gave them instructions, and within seconds the photograph of Cobb’s team disappeared and the screen split into thirds.
The center third showed a secure website inside the California State Treasurer’s Office. The right third displayed the Google Earth macrosatellite view of the globe. The left third of the screen featured a live feed of the face of Carlton Watts, the current treasurer of the State of California.
“Are we ready?” Watts asked.
“We are, Carlton,” Mayor Wills said, handing Esther Goldberg her cell phone so she could read the codes and routing instructions.
Goldberg quickly entered the information into the secure website, hit ENTER.
A moment later, Watts nodded. “Request is here.” He hesitated, appearing worried. “You’re sure this tracking thingamajob will attach on the way out?”
“As sure as I am that Einstein discovered the photoelectric effect,” Goldberg said coolly.
“You tell ’em, girl,” Mo-bot muttered.
“On your say, then,” Watts said. “I’m entering my password and the transfer authorization codes.”
We heard the clacking of his keyboard, then the snap of a return.
The center screen hesitated, jumped. Below the California State emblem, and along with an icon that looked like a slender green tube, the figure $10,000,000 appeared. The tube began to drain of green, and in less than three seconds it was gone. On the screen to the right, Google Earth zoomed in on California, showed a line from Sacramento to Los Angeles.
“Got it,” said Lauren Hollings, staring at her screen. “File and metadata are moving through our tracking software. Ticks embedding. Almost ready to transfer onto that bank account.”
“I’ve already got a jump on that, tracked it through the bank identification code on the SWIFT network,” said Katherine Clarkson. “The money’s heading to Banco Delta Asia Ltd in Macau.”
“And there she goes,” said Goldberg.
Up on the screen, Google Earth had retreated, showed the Pacific Rim, and another line speeding toward Macau. It was there in less than four seconds.
Mayor Wills said, “Can we contact this bank?”
“It’s not staying there,” said Goldberg. “They’re not that stupid.”
Sure enough, fifteen seconds after the ten million arrived in Macau, two lines burst on the Google Earth map and began to arc away from each other.
“Five million, five million,” Hollings said.
The first five million landed in a bank in India; the second I couldn’t tell, but it looked near England.
“The first is in the Bank of Rajasthan, New Delhi,” Clarkson announced. “Second in Conister Bank, Wigan, Isle of Man.”
“I’ll be a son of a bitch,” said Sheriff Cammarata. “It’s working.”
“What did you expect?” Mo-bot asked with a slight sneer.
Before Cammarata could reply, four lines burst from those locations, each heading out in one of the four cardinal directions. But when they had traveled only a short distance on Google Earth, they hesitated, stopped, blinked, and then disappeared.