Chapter 103
THERE WERE GASPS from the various law enforcement officials present.
“Where’d it go?” Mayor Wills asked.
“I don’t …” Goldberg began.
“I knew it,” said Sheriff Cammarata, spitting the words like they were tobacco juice.
People began to argue among themselves. State Treasurer Watts cried, “What’s going on down there?”
“Your money’s gone bye-bye, Carlton!” the sheriff shouted.
“It is not bye-bye!” Goldberg shouted emphatically. “They’re not stupid, they found the tick and stripped it.”
“What?” Chief Fescoe said. “I thought—”
“But the ladies from Cal Poly are smarter,” Mo-bot said. “Or actually, Dr. Hollings is smarter.”
The youngest of the computer scientists beamed.
“What are you talking about?” Cammarata demanded.
“She thought of putting an easy-to-spot tick on the transfer, and another virtually impossible to spot,” Goldberg said with great satisfaction.
Mo-bot poked me in the ribs with her index finger, whispered, “Told you they were good.”
Hollings, meanwhile, had given her computer more instructions, and almost instantly the lines on the Google Earth screen ran on, dividing and moving, dividing and moving, until within no more than a minute the satellite view of Earth looked loosely strung in almost every direction. I was focusing on the dizzying complexity of the transfers, barely aware that the center third of the screen, the one still linked to the account within the California State Treasurer’s Office, was now blinking.
“We’re out to sixty-four different accounts,” Goldberg announced. “And they appear to have stopped. We know where every dollar—”
She stopped, stared up from her laptop screen toward the large one on the wall, her mouth gaping. “What’s going on?”
The center screen showed one of those green tubes, then three, then ten. Beside each was the figure $15,000,000. They began to drain.
“What’s happening?” I demanded.
Mo-bot had lost all color. “Someone’s looting that account.”
“What?” State Treasurer Watts yelled. On the live feed, he was frantically typing on his keyboard. “No. Goddammit! It won’t stop! What the fuck!”
The tubes emptied. The screen blinked. The numbers went to zero.
“Holy shit,” Goldberg said, her hands across her face.
Watts looked like he’d been hit with a left hook.
“How much did they get?” Mayor Wills asked in shock.