“Pretty good,” Noah replied. “We got the final go-ahead; we fly out tomorrow afternoon. You got everything ready on your end?”
Neil broke into a big smile. “I have got things so ready that I’m making every bank in the world nervous,” he said. “I’ve written a program that can get into every financial computer network in the world, and make fake transactions appear in any bank account I want to play around with. What that means is that Uncle Sam doesn’t have to spend any money for all these drug buys you’re planning to make. All you do is tell me where you want money to appear, and I’ll make it appear there.”
Noah’s eyebrows almost met his hairline. “Are you saying you found a way to create money out of thin air?”
Neil squinted at him, and sneered. “Why would I do that? The Federal Reserve has been doing that for years; that’s not new. Hell, every bank in the country, probably the world, can do that. No, I’ve done something even better. I can make money appear in any bank account, looking just like it came from a normal transaction, but sometime later, depending on how long I set it for, it automatically disappears. Poof! Gone like it never existed, which it didn’t. Of course, the beauty of it is that you’ll be long gone before anyone notices what happened.”
Noah looked at him for a moment. “What happens if they spend the money before your time limit runs out and it disappears?”
Neil grinned. “Then, suddenly, a whole lot of bank examiners and federal agents from every country involved are looking for whoever owned that account, because it will be so deep in the hole that they may never figure out just how much money is really missing.”
Noah nodded. “And somehow, the banks are aware of this program of yours? You said they’re all scared, right?”
Neil blinked a couple of times. “Well—okay, they’re not really scared, because they don’t know about it, but if they did know about it, they’d be terrified. I mean, like, shaking in their boots, that kind of terrified. Holy crap, Noah, in the wrong hands, this program could destabilize the economies of some fair-sized countries!”
Noah stood there and looked at him for a moment. “Have you told our bosses about this program, yet?”
Neil blinked again. “No, not yet. Why?”
“Do me a favor,” Noah said. “When you do tell them about it, don’t mention that part about destabilizing economies. If the wrong people got hold of that idea, you might disappear, and I don’t want to lose you.”
Neil opened and closed his mouth three times, but nothing came out. He dropped into a chair close to where Noah was prepping the grill. “Have I ever mentioned that you come up with some of the most unsettling notions? Do you really think I could be in danger over that?”
“I think there are people who would decide that was a useful program, and wouldn’t necessarily want its author hanging around. If you wrote the program, you could probably write one to defend against it, am I right?”
Neil nodded, but didn’t say anything.
“Seriously, dude, let’s just keep that part between us, okay?”
Once again, Neil only nodded.
Noah put him to work a few moments later, helping him to get the chicken cut up and marinating in a wine sauce. Noah put potatoes on to boil for potato salad after that, while Neil shucked a dozen ears of corn, coated them in butter and wrapped them in foil so they could go right onto the grill.
Sarah pulled in just a little after four, and volunteered to make coleslaw. By this time, she knew where everything was in the kitchen, so Noah simply nodded and got out of her way.
Moose showed up a half hour later, so Noah decided to move dinner up by an hour. The coleslaw and potato salad were already done, so he carried the chicken and corn out to the grill and started laying it all out, basting the meat with his own homemade barbecue sauce.
“So, I’m curious, but where on earth did you learn to cook like this?” Moose asked.
“One of the foster homes I lived in,” Noah said. “The lady who ran it had a grill, and in the summertime, she liked to cook on it about once a week. I was always the one who volunteered to help, so she taught me a lot about it.”
Moose nodded. “I want her name and address, so I can send her a thank you card.”
“Yeah, I wish I could send her one, too. Hey, you want to get us a beer? There’s a case in the fridge, and I could use one.”
“I’ll get them,” Sarah said, and she hurried inside. Moose had started to rise, but he settled back into his chair.
“So, is this just a social dinner, or is there more to this meeting than meets the eye?” Moose asked.
“Bit of both,” Noah said. “I met with Allison today, and found out we’re flying out of Denver tomorrow afternoon. We’ll be in El Paso tomorrow night, meeting with Mr. Jefferson.”
“What did I miss?” Sarah asked as she came back and passed bottles of beer around to everyone.