Hacker For Hire (Ted Higuera Series Book 2)

by Wallace, Pendelton

  Ted stared at her. Now he was getting annoyed. Who was she anyway? A human computer?

  “Teddy, are you there? Are you listening?”

  “I’m here, Mama. I just can’t believe it. Pop’s been buying tickets as long as I can remember and he never wins anything. I can’t believe it.”

  “Tenemos una problema, Teddy.” Mama’s voice got softer. “Your papa, he can’t collect the money. He’s not a legal resident. We need you to come home. You have to collect for him.”

  “Sure. I’ll get tickets on-line today.” Suddenly his heart beat faster. He had an overwhelming urge to be home, to see Mama, to see his family. “I’ll get the first flight down there.” He knew Mama would have tamales or chile verde waiting for him.

  He didn’t remember much more of the conversation. They chatted a few minutes. His little sister, Esperanza, was at the top of her class at Garfield High. Uncle Ben was recovering from his heart attack. His cousin Carlos had been arrested for dealing dope. And, oh yeah, his Papa won the lottery.

  He hung up and stared blankly into space.

  “So, your father won the lottery.” Miss G finally broke the silence. “Where do your parents live?”

  “East LA.” Ted was still stunned. Gina! That was it, her name was Gina something.

  Gina got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom. She jiggled in all the right places. That brought his mind back to the present.

  “You know, your father is going to have some big decisions to make. A high percentage of lottery winners are broke in five years. He needs to consider taking the lump sum vs. the twenty-six year payout.” She turned and leaned against the door frame.

  “For the most part, I’d recommend the lump sum. You have a larger tax liability up front, but if you invest carefully, you’ll get a better return than you would on the annual payout.”

  Ted stared at the naked woman in his bathroom door. Who is she? How does she know all of this stuff?

  “How . . .?”

  “I’m an accountant. We play that game all the time at work: What would you do with a million dollar lottery payout? We change the amounts to make it interesting.”

  “You’re an accountant?” She didn’t look like any accountant Ted ever imagined.

  “Usually, you want to take the lump sum pay out, but if it’s discounted too steeply, he might be better off taking the annual payments. We really should run the numbers before deciding.”

  Ted reached for his boxers on the floor.

  “A lot of it depends on your father’s tax situation. What bracket is he in? Does he have other deductions? We need to decide how to best leverage the money. Does he need a large sum right away? Is he planning on making any large purchases? We need to outline a strategy for how to manage that much money.”

  “Wait a minute.” Ted’s mind was now hitting on all cylinders. “I don’t want to be rude, but you don’t even know him.”

  “It’s just a game that we play, Teddy. No one ever thought that we’d really need to use this kind of knowledge. Anyway, all I’m saying is that we need to get your dad a good accountant.”

  “We?” Had she suddenly become part of the equation? He didn’t even know her. Was she really an accountant, or was this a scam of some sort?

  Chapter 14

  Ted sat at his new desk sipping coffee. He grimaced slightly. His jaw gave him much less pain than his ribs, but sucking still sucked.

  Was he out of his mind? He gave up a good paying job with the potential to become a millionaire for this dump? What was he thinking?

  His “office” was a grey metal desk shoved in the corner of the big room shared with about two dozen female co-workers. An array of antique computers surrounded him. Shit, some of them were probably steam-powered. There was everything from WindowsNT and Windows 95 to one fairly modern box.

  Flaherty & Associates “server farm,” he chuckled to himself. It could hardly be called a server farm; his personal laptop had more computing power than any three of these boxes combined.

  They had nowhere to go but up. Any changes he made would be an improvement over what they had.

  He opened an Excel spreadsheet on his laptop and began building an inventory. The first thing he needed to do was assess the “as is” situation. Once he knew what they had, he could begin figuring out where they needed to go.

  Budget would be a big consideration. Basically, he didn’t have one. Catrina said that she would see what she could do, but she didn’t promise him anything.

  The ringing phone on his desk startled him. “Hello?”

  “Ted, Catrina. Step into my office for a minute.” She didn’t wait for him to answer, she just hung up.

  Well, the boss lady calls…

  As Ted entered Catrina’s office, he instantly recognized the well-dressed, middle-aged woman sitting in front of Catrina’s desk. He knew her as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and from News Front and other TV shows.

  Catrina stood as Ted entered the office. “Alison, I’d like you to meet Ted Higuera, our new resident computer geek.”

  Ted’s heart jumped. Reaching her hand out to him was one of the most powerful people in the computer world.

  “Ted Higuera?” The woman’s hand froze in mid-air. “You’re the hero of the Inside Passage terrorist attack, aren’t you?”

  Ted felt the color rushing to his face. “I’m not a hero. I was just there.”

  “Ted, this is Alison Clarke, CEO of Millennium Systems.” Catrina sat as Ted took Alison’s hand.

  “Everybody knows Alison Clarke.” Ted appraised the petite woman. She emanated an aura of power that awed him. “Pleased to meet you, Mrs. Clarke.”

  “Call me Alison.” She flashed Ted a warm smile and looked him straight in the eyes.

  Her firm handshake filled Ted with a sense of sincerity. He immediately felt like she was a regular person.

  “I wanted Ted to hear our conversation. He’s going to be helping on your case.” Catrina leaned back in her chair. “Go ahead; tell Ted what you were just telling me.”

  Alison looked from Catrina to Ted and back again. “I was hired by the board of directors about five years ago when MS was failing. It wasn’t a popular decision. The former CEO, Terry Metcalf, inherited the position from his father. It had been a family business for eighty years. I was the first non-Metcalf to head the company.

  “Terry and his cronies on the board have done everything in their power to make me fail. I have five board members on my side, Terry has four on his. It wouldn’t take much to turn one vote and toss me out.”

  Ted saw the pained look on Alison’s face.

  “As I’ve told Cat,” Alison continued, “we have a new product coming out. We’re going to set the technology world on its ear. Someone high up in the organization’s leaking information about it. We have a few bugs to work out before rollout, but they’re trying to make it sound like a technical failure. They want to sabotage the rollout.”

  “And this is worth killing someone for?” Ted couldn’t get his head around that.

  “I don’t understand that.” Alison’s hands shook, her complexion turned pale. “It’s just business. I hired Donna Harrison to find the leak. I never dreamed that I was putting her in danger. I can’t sleep at night, thinking about this. Who would kill someone over a computer?”

  Catrina leaned forward in her chair and reached for Alison’s hands. Alison allowed Catrina to hold both hands over the desk. “Ted’s going to hack into your systems and see if he can find out what Donna was after. She obviously stumbled on some information that someone didn’t want her to find.”

  Somewhere outside, Ted heard the beep, beep, beep of a truck backing up, the growl of machinery.

  “What happens if they catch Ted snooping around?” Alison asked. “What will they do to him?”

  “Donna made a big mistake.” Catrina squeezed Alison’s hands. Did some unspoken communication flash between the two women? “She went physically on the premises. Ted will
do all his work from here. Even if they detect him, they can’t physically assault him.”

  Ted’s hand went to his side. Suddenly he was acutely aware of the ache in his jaw, the pain in his ribs.

  “I’d like for you and Ted to come to our headquarters.” Alison picked up her purse and reached for her camel-hair coat. “I think that you should see our R&D department. You should know what this is all about.”

  “Great, I’ll have Abeba set the appointment.” Catrina rose to escort Alison out.

  “I feel better, knowing you’re on the case.” Alison turned to Ted. “After what you did up in Canada, I know you’ll be able to help me here.”

  Ted hated doing it. He despised the publicity and the hero status, but he was going to use it anyway. The less Alison knew about what he was going to do, the better. “Would you like to see some pictures? I have pictures of the attack taken by photographers on the ship.”

  “I’d love to. I’ve been fascinated by the whole incident. I read everything I could get my hands on.” Alison paused a moment. “I was almost on that cruise ship. We had reservations, but had to cancel. One of my vice presidents went in my place. He could have been killed up there.”

  Ted reached into his pocket and produced a flash drive. “Here. Load these up on your computer at work. I don’t think your kids should be seeing this stuff. Just click on the “OK” button when you get the screen saying that they’re copyrighted photos. You can look at them for your own use.”

  Alison took the flash drive and dropped it in her purse. “Thank you, Ted. I’ll look at them. My VP will want to see them too.”

  Teddy, you’ve still got it. The Trojan horse was planted.

  ****

  Terry Metcalf liked his office, as much as he was capable of liking anything. For the most part, he walked through life devoid of emotion. He had mastered anger and was certainly capable of holding a grudge, but most other human feelings escaped him. Maybe it was better said, that Metcalf’s office pleased him.

  It was quiet, both because of the sound-proofed walls and the lack of ornamentation. He could close his shades, turn down the light and shut out the world. He liked the blank cream-colored walls and heavy dark furniture. For someone as intelligent and powerful as Terry Metcalf, the world was still a frightening place. It took every ounce of his considerable intellect to organize the cacophony of sights and sounds, the visual and aural stimuli, into something that approached order. And he craved order.

  “Terry, everyone’s gone home.” Janice Swanson, Millennium System’s Chief Marketing Officer, stood in his doorway. She was still loyal to Metcalf. Despite what that Clarke bitch had done to his company. “Do you have time to talk?”

  Janice was as close to a protégée as Metcalf would ever have. She was once foolish enough to think she loved him. The sex had been great, but he knew that he could never return the love.

  “What do you have for me?” Terry’s voice belied his impatience.

  “Alison’s moving forward with Delphi.” Janice sat on the loveseat along the north wall, a respectable distance from him. “She thinks they’ve worked out most of the technical difficulties, but I think the unit will overheat. We’ve had two prototypes catch fire.”

  “And she’s still hell bent for leather to take this to the consumer market?” Metcalf sat back in his padded swivel chair. Even with Janice, he preferred to keep his massive mahogany desk between him and visitors.

  “Yes. She thinks it’s the next iPod.” Janice sat back and crossed her long legs. Her short skirt rode up her thighs.

  Damn, she still has a fine set of pins. “She’s out of her mind. This is a business tool. It’ll revolutionize the way the world communicates. It’ll free the knowledge workers from their desks. Besides, businesses are more willing to buy cutting-edge technology.” He knew he was preaching to the choir.

  “I have to agree with you there.” Janice pushed her short brown hair back over her right ear. “The consumer wants something that works. They’re not willing to hang on while we work out the bugs.”

  “Exactly. Businesses are always looking for a competitive advantage. They’re willing to take a little risk. Early adopters will buy version 1.0 to get a jump on their competitors. Then their experiences in the field will help us perfect version 2.0. Consumers would never live with that. If it doesn’t work out of the box, we’d be ruined.”

  “Here’s the big news, Terry.” Janice leaned forward and put an elbow on her knee. Her voice took on a conspiratorial tone. “At our staff meeting today, she announced that she was going to spin off a new company, a consumer products division, just to market Delphi. She thinks that this is just the first of a line of new consumer-oriented products.”

  “She’s out of her fucking mind.” The cream-colored walls turned a pale shade of red. “First she does away with the Dunn & Metcalf name, now she wants to market our most important new product in decades with another name?” Metcalf slammed his fist down on his desk. “Somebody has to stop the bitch before she drives us all into bankruptcy.”

  “What did you have in mind?” Janet’s carnivorous smile reminded Metcalf of a hungry dog.

  Metcalf took a deep breath and regained control of his emotions. He appraised his protégée for the thousandth time. She had worked side-by-side with him on several covert projects. His brilliant mind whirled. Could he trust her on this? Did she need to know?

  Finally he let out the breath. “Janet, you don’t need to know the details. Just be confident that I have this under control. She’s finally gone too far. In a couple of weeks, that bitch won’t be in a position to spin off anything.”

  ****

  “Hi, this is Gina, and I’m sorry I missed your call. Please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

  She never answers her phone. Ted dashed off a text message, pocketed his Blackberry and stared down from his loft bedroom through the sliding glass doors towards Lake Union.

  What was it with that woman anyway? She was so secretive. She wouldn’t give him her home phone number, she wouldn’t let him call her at work. Hell, he didn’t even know where she worked. He didn’t know where she lived either. She’d meet him someplace and they’d go back to his apartment, but she never let him pick her up. And the only way he could contact her was by cell phone, usually by text messages.

  Ted leaned back in his bed and picked up his Kindle. Oscar leapt onto the bed and wormed his way between Ted’s face and the Kindle.

  He had it bad. Yeah, maybe she was a little older than him, okay, ten or twelve years to be honest, maybe fifteen, but they clicked. He couldn’t ever remember another girl that he had connected with like Gina. Maybe that was it. Gina wasn’t a girl, she was a woman. She was pretty and had killer tits, even if she was a little plump, but, man, she was sharp. She knew all sorts of stuff.

  And she got him. After asking him only once about the terrorist attack, she never brought it up again. She never pried into his family life, but offered to help Papa figure out what to do with his lottery winnings.

  His Blackberry buzzed. Ted glanced at the caller id.

  “Gina. Thanks for calling back so quick.”

  “Hi, Teddy. Sorry I couldn’t answer your call right then. I was checking on the kids.”

  That’s right, she had two kids. “I was wondering if we could get together this weekend.”

  “Sorry, Ted, you know my rule. I never go out when I have the kids. This is my week. They’ll be with Freddy next week if you want to do something then.”

  Damn, damn, damn. “I’m flying to LA next weekend. Now that we have Pop’s plan worked out, I’ve got to go down and cash in Pop’s lottery ticket. Can’t we do something this week? Maybe lunch?”

  There was a pause. She was thinking.

  “You know my rule. I never date when I have the kids. They come first.”

  “Maybe we could do something with the kids. I haven’t met them yet. Can we take them to the zoo or something? Maybe you
could bring them to our Thanksgiving dinner. Chris and I put on quite a spread.”

  This time her answer was immediate.

  “No. Not only no, but HELL NO! I NEVER get my kids involved with a man I’m dating. It’s hard enough on them to have to share their dad with another set of sibs. I won’t confuse them by bringing men in and out of their lives.”

  “Maybe I wouldn’t be in and out of their lives. Maybe I’d be around for a while.”

  “Ted. Don’t even say it. You know and I know that this wouldn’t work. Look, I really like you, but this is just for fun. We both know that we can’t be together.”

  “But, Gina, why not? I don’t get it? You like me, I like you. What difference does a few years make?”

  “I’m not having this discussion. I’m sorry, Ted. I have to go. Have a good trip.”

  Ted stared at his loft wall. Oscar purred and rubbed against his face.

  ****

  Darkness came earlier every day. It took forever for the days to grow longer in the spring, but in the fall, Catrina felt like they plunged head long into darkness. She was a Seattle girl. Born here, spent her whole life here. Still, the winter darkness and the incessant rain took its toll. She could feel herself slipping into her annual winter depression.

  She sat in the tan leather driver’s seat of her Ford Explorer. This was by far the nicest car she had ever owned. It was far more vehicle than she needed ninety-percent of the time, but that other ten-percent, when she had to get a battered wife and kids out of a desperate husband’s grasp, she was glad she spent the money on it.

  She usually didn’t hang around in Kmart parking lots. Tom told her to meet him here. If his captain caught him talking about his case with her, he’d spend the rest of his career handing out parking tickets.

  The passenger side door cracked open and Tom slipped in.

  “Hi, Cat.” He reached over, pecked her on the lips and handed her a decaf skimmed milk mocha, cinnamon sprinkle, hold the whipped cream. He always drank drip coffee.