“Nucky, are you sure it was wise to pay for Jimmy’s cousin’s 30000 credits worth of frame and implants?” Tony asked his boss.

“Yeah, I do,” Nucky replied after a moment of thought. “I’m going to use her as a courier for a few simple runs while she makes herself a reputation, which she’ll do for a very low fee by the way, and then we’re going to use her to make a bank run.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I’m going to use her to deliver a Hog into the bank’s system.”

“You want to rob our own bank?”

“Yes.”

“Insurance scam on top of the stolen credits,” Tony concluded.

“Got it in one,” Capone said shaking a finger at his subordinate. “Not only do we get the stolen credits, but the bank also gets paid by the CSA’s insurance division, which we take a percentage of.”

“Yeah, that will be a nice haul.”

“And depending on how things go, we either use the girl to do it again at another bank just to steal some credits or we toss her after she’s done. You know, if we toss her, we can just use the same idea with others using cheaper equipment,” Nucky said.

“That’s genius boss!” Tony replied lifting his glass of wine in salute.

“Get our slicers working on the Hog. I want it to be able to hide from an Eye.”

“Maybe we should get them to use a self-replicating Squirrel instead of a Hog,” Tony mused. “In fact, why not use both?”

“Explain.”

“Squirrels are quicker even if they take less. That should let them hide easier,” Tony replied. Nucky nodded in agreement. “We set the Hog to take identities and other personal data while the Squirrels siphon credits from each account.”

“The Hog is a distraction and if it doesn’t get caught, we get something else we can sell to the Chinese, Russians, and other pissants running around on the streets,” Capone concluded. “So yeah, I think spending 30000 credits on a courier wannabe is a worthwhile investment considering how much we’ll get in return.”

*

“Speaker Nathaniel has been a naughty boy,” Zoe muttered to herself. Not only had the leader of Purity Church been embezzling funds, but Nathaniel Wyatt had made a harem out of several of the most attractive women and girls that were church members. Some of the women were even married.

A beeping in her head sounded, causing Zoe to jump. A message appeared in her vision alerting her that Jimmy was calling. Zoe accepted the call.

“Hey cousin. How’s the new frame?”

“Hey Jimmy. How did you call me? I don’t have a phone number,” Zoe replied. Jimmy laughed.

“With frames you just need to know the person’s name if you don’t have their number or email address.”

“What if there is more than one person with the same name?”

“Then you keep trying them until you get the right one,” Jimmy replied.

“Even if there are thousands of people with the same name?”

“I guess that’s why there are auto dialers.”

“You would use an auto dialer to annoy people,” Zoe teased her cousin.

“Yeah, I would.”

“What about those running under masks?”

“In that case, you’re up the creek without a paddle,” Jimmy answered.

“Then how did you get through to me?”

Jimmy laughed. “Somehow I’m not surprised that you are running a disguise daemon or two.”

“Three, but that’s beside the point.”

“Alright. I called the clinic and Bill put me through to your room. Sometimes the old ways are still the best way of doing things.”

“True,” Zoe conceded. Zoe shrunk the call screen and moved it to the left of her vision allowing her to focus on her snooping while keeping Jimmy’s image on screen. A few of the girls in the harem were as young as 15. “That’s just gross.”

“What’s gross?”

“Nathaniel Wyatt, the Speaker of the Purity Church, has a harem with some of the girls having just turned 15 years old.”

“That’s sick,” Jimmy agreed. He then grinned. “I’m surprised you weren’t approached to be part of it.”

“Jimmy!” Zoe exclaimed. She frowned as he laughed. Zoe did a quick search of Wyatt’s emails and found two to her parents. The first was when she turned 16 asking for her hand in marriage. Her parents had denied the request. The second was dated about six months ago and included a dowry offer of ten thousand credits. No wonder they had been furious when she told them she hadn’t wanted to marry anyone before deciding to leave the farm. “Ugh. You’re right though. Nathaniel had asked for me twice. Mom and dad turned him down the first time and said they would think about it the second.”

“Which wife would that have made you?”

“Number 15,” Zoe muttered to Jimmy’s laughter. “Laugh it up fuzzball!”

“Sorry Zoe. It’s funny though,” Jimmy replied ignoring the old science fiction movie reference. “Maybe you should leak that info to some of the news sites.”

“That’s a good idea,” Zoe admitted. She copied the data and sent it to several news outlets including ANN. America Network News was the leading corporate owned news site and gossip rag in the CSA. After doing that, Zoe left the Squirrel to gather more information and downloaded her Bastion.

Zoe talked to Jimmy and Aunt Anne for half an hour while she continued testing her toys. She had decided to slice Nathaniel Wyatt after finding out he wanted her as a wife. Zoe used the secure site to spoof an email to Wyatt from one of the other church elders. Kunoichi proved its worth as Zoe had attached the intrusion daemon to the email. Zoe smiled to herself as she realized she hadn’t capitalized church in her mind that time.

“Zoe, you seem distracted my dear,” Anne said. Zoe jumped a little and sheepishly grinned at her aunt.

“Sorry Aunt Anne. I…”

“She’s playing with her new software and frame,” Jimmy said. Zoe nodded. She silently swore after realizing the call software only showed a picture or avatar of each user instead of live streaming them.

“Yeah, I’m playing with my new toy,” Zoe admitted. Anne and Jimmy laughed. Zoe joined them as Kunoichi proved its worth slicing through Nathaniel’s Bulwark and skipping past his Guardian Angel in quick order. “I got you now.”

“What was that?” Jimmy asked.

“Nothing. Just playing a game,” Zoe said.

“Well, we’ll leave you to it,” Anne replied. A couple of minutes of more small talk and they ended the call.

Zoe sent a Squirrel to find any incriminating information in his memory. The Squirrel didn’t find anything like that. What it did find was just as good though.

“Bank account information works,” Zoe muttered to herself. “Especially when there are five million credits in it.” Zoe was quite happy until she went to the bank’s site. “Ugh. It’s an offshore account that only allows withdrawals of 5000 credits or less unless in person.”

Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers. Zoe spent a few minutes routing through several small companies, a few cities, and a couple of countries before withdrawing 5000 credits and depositing it in her own newly set up offshore account. That would be enough to buy her some wheels without having to use the mob’s money.

“These corporate daemons sure are nice,” Zoe happily said to herself as she closed her browser after ensuring she had done everything possible to erase her tracks. Checking the time, Zoe decided to start modifying Bastion to work with her frame and Bulwark. Bulwark may be nice and a good piece of ICE, but it had been easily enough to get around with Kunoichi. Bastion’s extra protection should come in handy. “That’s if I’m not overestimating my own skills.”