THURSDAY

Chapter Twenty Three

Westlake and White watched Savage arrive a little after nine the following morning. Savage waggled an eyebrow at them and walked on by, straight to Scott Armstrong's office. A few minutes later Echo arrived.

'You're late,' Westlake said.

She gave them both a big smile, 'I know,' and a wink. Then headed straight for Armstrong's office as well.

Less than thirty seconds later Violet Wilson the CIO stepped out of the lift and headed for Armstrong's office too. She went in and closed the door.

'What the hell's going on in there?' Westlake said.

White shrugged, then pointed a finger, Savage closed the blinds.

'Guess we'll never know.'

*

'Why's she here?' Vi said, looking at Echo. 'No offence.'

'She's helping me.'

Vi still looked suspicious.

'She helped me find out what Scott was up to, if that helps any?'

Vi blushed.

'It's okay,' Echo said.

'To business,' Savage leant back against the desk. 'I called you all here for a reason. I need your help.'

Vi and Scott looked at each other. Scott held up a hand, let Vi go first.

'Anything John. Just ask.'

'Okay, first thing, a bit of brainstorming.'

All three grinned.

'What?' he said.

'You're speaking corporate John. There isn't anyone here who can't storm brains eight hours a day.'

'Beats work.'

'The money for the Six Degrees algorithm,' Savage said. 'We know how to get it but we don't know where it's coming from. Any ideas?'

'It's in plain sight,' Vi said, ‘but we can’t pin it down.’

'Somebody must have agreed to the allocation,' Scott said.

'Who?'

'Simple,' Vi said. 'Climb the food chain until you reach the top.'

'Already on it. Any other ideas?'

'Well, what about the service charges?' Echo said.

'What do you mean?' Vi said.

'Well,' she motioned to Scott, her boss, 'when we have to sign off on a project there are any number of inter-departmental admin fees that roll into the final cost.'

'Sure,' Scott said, 'but how could you hide it?'

'You don't,' Echo said, 'it's in plain sight remember? Like how every new recruit costs the business 25 per cent above their base salary in extra costs.'

They all focused on her. She fidgeted with the attention.

'You have fees for IT, HR, payroll,' she said. 'Ask anyone on the office floor what some of the lesser known fees are for, no one would have a clue.'

'No,' Scott said, 'That couldn't happen.'

'Okay, so what the hell is the fee for Administrative Support for? Or the Back Office Registration Function? Want to fill me in?'

'I think she's got us,' Vi said smiling. 'Even I don't have a clue and I know my department implemented the payment facility for all those services.'

'Can you look into it Vi?' Savage said. 'See where the money for each account goes and who set them up?'

'Now that money is no object, ask me anything.'

'How's that log-in?'

'Apart from that,' she said. 'Nothing yet John. It's labour intensive. I've got brute force attacks at the front door and more subtle manoeuvres at server level. Be another day at least.'

'Can you go any faster?'

'Only if we get lucky.'

'Okay, stay on it. Scott, I need to use Echo here for surveillance on your department's time. I'd go to Thomson, but I don't trust him.'

'Sure. Who are you watching?'

'You need to focus on cleaning up that Cerberus money. Crystal's not off our backs yet.'

'Understood.'

'Echo here will stay on Natasja, Sutherland's PA. I'll be on Sutherland, and tying down a few loose ends.'

Savage examined each face of his new ad-hoc team.

'Everybody clear?' Affirmative nods. 'Okay, that's it. Vi please keep me updated on the hack.'

'Sure, John, I just thought of something that might help you. My department has what it calls the blueberry division. Ever since PDAs and mobiles combined with GPS we've given all mid-level execs and up smart-phones.'

'For the GPS?'

'Exactly. With GPS and always-on phones we now track all our employees and have them on-call twenty-four-seven. We can tell where they are, whether they're lying about their reasons for missing meetings, if they're in country on their holidays, we can call them in. And they always come.'

'At no extra cost. I bet management love it.'

'They're orgasmic John. The only thing that would make them happier would be employee implants with no off-switch. Think about that next time you hear a ping from a crackberry on the tube.'

'Roger that. Okay team, let's go to work.'