They stared at each other, Luke feeling guilty as hell as he thought of his wife, even though he hadnt done anything. He peeled himself away before anything more could happen and couldnt help wondering how this would affect their working together.

He also, worst of all, couldnt help but admit, deep down, that he didnt want to leave the room.

*

Swann sat a long table with his three video monitors arrayed in front of him. With his thinning hair and glasses, he reminded Luke of a NASA physicist at mission control. Luke stood behind him with Newsam and Trudy, the three of them hovering over Swanns narrow shoulders.

This one is Ken Bryants checking account, Swann said, moving his cursor around on the center screen. Luke absorbed the details: deposits, withdrawals, total balance, a date range from April 28th to May 27th.

How secure is this connection? Luke said. He glanced around the room and out the door. The main room of the command center was just down the hall.

This? Swann said. He shrugged. Its independent of the command center. Im connected to our own tower and our own satellites. Its encrypted by our guys. I suppose CIA or NSA could have somebody trying to break it, but why bother? Were all on the same team, right? I wouldnt worry about that. Instead, I would focus on this bank account. Notice anything funny?

His balance is over $24,000, Luke said.

Right, Swann said. A janitor has a pretty sizeable chunk of money in his checking account. Interesting. Now lets go back a month. March 28th to April 27th. The balance goes as high as $37,000, and he starts spending it down. There are transfers here from an unnamed account, $5,000, then $4,000, then, oh well, forget the whole IRS reporting problem… give me $20,000.

Okay, Luke said.

Go back another month. Late February to late March. His beginning balance is $1,129. By the end of the month, its over $9,000. Go back another month, late January to late February, and his balance never reached $2,000 the whole time. From there, if you go back three years, you see that his balance rarely went above $1,500. Here was a guy living month to month, who suddenly started getting large wire transfers in March.

Where are they coming from?

Swann smiled and raised a finger. Now for the fun part. Theyre coming from a small offshore bank specializing in anonymous numbered accounts. Its called Royal Heritage Bank, and its based on Grand Cayman.

Can you hack it? Luke said. He glanced sidelong at Trudys disapproving look.