Bennie and the Ace of Hearts

Chapter 2 has Adam tell us how he got to this point in his life.

Chapter 2

Adam

I was sitting in my office reviewing some papers from my last case when the phone rang. I looked up from the papers and into the outer office to my assistant Dallas. He continued to stare down at his phone, still playing Candy Crush or whatever time-wasting game was the latest craze.

I cleared my throat, “never mind Dallas, I’ll get it.”

Not even flinching, “ok, it’s probably for you anyway.”

I shook my head as I picked up the phone, “Edwards Cyber Security, this is Adam.”

“Mr. Edwards, this is John Cabot, with Cabot Imports. I would like to inquire about your services.”

I replied, “yes sir, what would you like to know.”

He said, “my computer guy is telling me our system is being probed, I have no idea what it means, but he assures me that we need an expert to help us so that we aren’t breached.”

I grabbed a pen to take some notes, “yes Mr. Cabot that is something I can help you with. What details can you give me at this point?”

“Not much, this technology stuff is not really my strong suit, and evidently the guy that I hired to take of it for me isn’t much better.” He told me.

I could feel him glaring at his employee as he spoke, I told him what services that I offered and gave the rates that I charge for each service. After I briefly spoke with Cabot’s IT guy, we set up a time for me to come to his office and to see what could be done with his system.

I hung up the phone, “Dallas, can you come in here please?”

I heard a loud sigh, “what is it, Adam?”

I repeated myself, “come in here please?”

Another loud sigh as he came through my door. I asked, “what are you working on?”

He still had his phone in his hand, “I’m up to level 67, why?”

I took the phone from his hand, “I am not paying you to play games, I hired you to help me out around the office, you know filing, answering phone calls, that sort of thing.”

He rolled his eyes, “yeah, yeah. Is there anything else?”

I stood and handed him my notes, “I am going to meet a client, I need you to get as much information on them as possible, all the standard stuff, employees, bank accounts, any large business contracts, government or private, you know the drill. I’ll be back in a couple of hours and if you are any higher than level 67, you will be fired.”

He smirked at me, “you mean just like the last ten times.”

I glared at him as I walked out the door, the worst part was that I knew he was right, I probably wouldn’t fire him. Dallas started working for me when I started my business, about the same time that we broke up our two-year relationship and he moved out of my apartment.

I grew up on the south side of our city, the second child of a police officer and a hotel maid, my sister was two years older than I was. Like many other black families, my parents were working hard to get us out of the neighborhood and into a better part of town. There were a few gangs around and my dad made sure to tell us to stay clear of them and work hard in school, we listened and because he was a cop, we were mostly left alone. When I was 16, mom came and picked my sister and I up from school, I was happy to leave early, but soon the feeling turned to grief when mom told us that dad had been shot trying to stop a robbery and was killed. We moved in with my grandmother after the funeral, it was in a slightly better area, and we had to change schools. The new school was better as well, and the gangs were held in check. Mom worked 2 to 3 jobs to keep us all fed, and we all made the best of it. I started working at the market down the street, bagging groceries and carrying them out to our customers’ cars. I wasn’t paid a lot, but I gave it all to mom to help with the bills, Claire, my sister, also worked as babysitter to help.

Since I was working, some of my grades were starting to slip. The guidance counselor had started a tutor program for students that were falling behind. They paired students that were having problems with another student who was doing well. I was paired with Lucas, a shy kid that I don’t think I heard say two words in any of the classes that we had together. My counselor worked with my boss at the market to adjust my hours so that Lucas and I could study several times a week. We set up our first study session to take place at Lucas’s house, he only lived a couple of blocks from my house.

I arrived at the time we had set up, Lucas answered the door and invited me in. I noticed that no one else was home, he told me that he was an only child and that his mom had died when he was a baby and his dad worked long hours, just like my mom. Lucas was about 4 inches shorter than I was and skinny with blonde hair and blue eyes, the exact opposite to my black hair, dark skin, and somewhat muscular build. He appeared so nervous as he led me to the kitchen table to start our homework.

I said, “you know you don’t have to be nervous, I really appreciate you helping me like this.”

He gave me a slight smile, “I’m fine, we should get started.”

I smiled, “sure.”

We dug into our work, but after a couple of weeks, he was still just as nervous as our first session. I really did like him, and he helped me raise my grades.

Once we finish our math problems I said, “Lucas, can I ask you a question?”

He looked down at his books, “I-I guess.”

“Do I scare you?” I asked.

He froze, “no, it’s just that… well I don’t… I mean I…”

I felt so sorry for him, he was really a nice guy, and he was helping me a lot. I felt really bad that I was making him so nervous.

I put my hand on his, “Hey, it’s ok. Calm down bud if you want to talk to me, about anything, you can.”

He gave me a sad look with those big blue eyes, “well, there is something.”

I smiled, “it’s ok, you can tell me anything, I promise, it will be stay between us.”

He took a deep breath, “well, you do make me a little nervous.”

I said, “I’m sorry I don’t mean to, I just…”

He shook his head, “no, not like that, it’s just that you are so, well I don’t know how to say this…”

I took his hand again, “what is it? I promise you can tell me anything.”

He took another deep breath, “here goes, I think I like you.”

I paused a second, “that’s cool Lucas, I like you too.”

He closed his eyes, “no Adam, I think I like you more than that, I mean I really like you.”

I stared into those scared eyes, “you mean like in as a… um, are you saying that…”

He put his hands over his face, “oh God, I should have never said anything.”

I thought for a few minutes, “Lucas, are you gay?”

A tear rolled down is cheek, “I don’t know, it’s so confusing.”

He’s right, it is confusing, I had never really given it a lot of thought, but if I was being honest with myself, I wasn’t attracted to any of the girls at school and I would catch myself looking a few of the guys.

I moved my chair next to his and put my arm around his shoulder, “it’s ok Lucas, I know how you feel.”

He looked into my eyes, “really?”

I stared at him for a while, I don’t know why but I felt the need to kiss him, I leaned in pressed my lips to his. He pulled back slightly.

I said, “I’m sorry, I should have…”

He grabbed my face, “no I liked it, do it again.”

Thus began our exploration and our first sexual experience with another guy. We spent the last two years of high school studying first and satisfying each other after. It was so great to see Lucas come out his shell and all that shy nervousness disappear. By the time we were seniors, Lucas had become the more aggressive of the two of us. I was happy to let him take the lead. My grades improved and soon we were preparing for graduation. Lucas had been accepted into a great college with an academic scholarship, I was going to work and go to the local community college. We both knew that would be the end of our sexual relationship, in fact Lucas had a boyfriend by the end of his first semester. I was happy for him and to this day we remain friends and talk often.

All my plans were suddenly changed when mom’s health began to fail, she was diagnosed with cancer and three months later we laid her to rest next to dad.

Claire had gotten a job at a lawyer’s office answering the phone and typing and filing. She soon started to date one of the lawyers, she told me it was her way out of the old neighborhood. I am not sure she really liked the guy but soon enough she was married and as her husband David, worked his way up the ladder, she moved up into a big house in a much better neighborhood.

I didn’t start college as planned since mom was sick. I still had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. After mom was gone, I decided the army would be a good place to spend the next two years. According to the aptitude test that I took, I was best suited to be in the army’s computer unit. So, after basic training I was sent to Washington DC and worked on the team that monitored the Pentagon’s computer system from outside attacks.

When my enlistment was coming to an end, several of us were being recruited by the FBI to work in their cyber-crime unit. I quickly accepted, thinking that this kid from the wrong side of tracks had hit the big time, working for the FBI. It wasn’t as glamorous as it sounds, I spent 95% of my time in the basement sitting in front of a computer following up on the all the information that the field agents collected. Five years in the basement filled with government red tape and politics were more than enough for me. I sent out a few resumes but got no offers and I decided I really wanted to move back home. I did a little research and found that small companies were hiring a lot of small contractors to help with keeping their computer systems safe. I packed up and moved back home and started my company.

I met Dallas on one of the last cases that I worked on. We were both witnesses in the case, I had to present all the digital evidence that I uncovered, and he worked for the guy that was on trial and became an informant for the government. We spent several days together while we were waiting to testify and started to date afterward. After the trial, he was of course out of work, so when I suggested that he move back home with me, he jumped at the chance. After a few years of working and living together, we decided we were spending too much time together, he moved out of my place, but stayed working for me. He was very good at gathering a lot of information, whenever we got a job, he would go to work collecting everything he could find. He would do background checks, view all social media sites, and find any news on anyone that wanted to hire us.

On my way to the Cabot Office for our initial consultation, I got a call from Jeff Thomas, Cabot’s IT head that I had spoken to earlier.

He sighed as I answered, “Adam, we called you too late.”

I asked, “why, what happened?”

He continued, “$1,000,000 has already been transferred out of our account. I have no idea how to track where it went.”

I said, “I’m 10 minutes away, I will have to look to see if I can find anything, when was the money transferred?”

He took a deep breath, “two days ago. You aren’t looking to hire any help, are you? I have a feeling when I tell Cabot about this, I will be escorted out the front door.”

I tried to reassure him, “let’s see what we can find first, then you can worry about your job.”

Jeff met me at the front door and ushered me directly to an office filled with computers and two guys frantically typing. We stood behind one of the guys as he explained what he found so far. I took his place at the keyboard and dug a little deeper. Every hacker leaves little bits of information behind, and each hacker has different marks. They don’t identify the hacker, but the more times that you see the same marks, you are able to find the habits and prove the same guy is responsible. I had not seen any of the marks this guy had left before, I was going to have to have some help with this one.

John Cabot came into the room, “Mr. Edwards, I was told you were in the building, thank you for coming so quickly.”

I looked to Jeff, before I could respond he filled his boss in on the missing money. Cabot was clearly upset but kept his cool.

“Ok, Mr. Edwards, what do we do now?”

I said, “I am gathering all the details of the transaction now, the hacker leaves little clues, I just need to find those and try to track them back to our thief.”

He nodded, “what are the chances that I get my money back.”

“Well Mr. Cabot, to be honest, not very good. I am afraid that even if we find this guy, chances are he has transferred the money three or four times already. This is the first time I have seen a 2-day delay. The money was actually taken two days ago, but just showed up today. Your staff did everything they could, but this guy is good.”

Cabot thought for a minute, “thank you for being honest, please do whatever you can.” He turned to Jeff, “help Mr. Edwards as much as you can and make sure to give him access to anything he needs.” He left the room.

Jeff breathed a sigh of relief, “that went a little better than I expected. Thank you for telling him we did our jobs. What do we do now?”

I resumed my typing, “I want to keep searching, the first step is to see how he got in.” I kept working as Jeff and his staff gave me anything I needed and answered all my questions. I found a few more clues and took down notes. I compiled all my information and prepared an email to send to one of my former colleagues at the FBI.

I called him before I sent the email, He answered his phone, “Agent Dan Winter.”

He said, “hey Dan, Adam Edwards, do you have a minute to talk?”

“Adam, yeah, sitting in an airport waiting to head back to DC. Good to hear from you, how’s life on the outside?”

We exchanged some small talk, and he updated me on what I was missing with Bureau.

I said, “I just got new case, an import company out here lost a million bucks to a hacker. I don’t recognize any of the marks, do you think you could take a look at my notes and see if you might have come across him before?”

He answered, “sure, send what you got. I just finished a case and am waiting for the trial, the defense keeps getting it postponed. The chief has me going through old cases, he doesn’t want me to get started on a new case and have to leave to testify. I am actually bored out of my mind right now.”

I said, “great, I really appreciate it. I am sending an email with all the details right now.”

“I’ll be back at the office this afternoon, I’ll see what I can find.” He told me.