Troubleshooter

Chapter 21 - Did We Just Have 'a Moment'?

           

AMY SCREAMED and Tom jerked upright. He glanced at his watch, close to midnight. He had fallen asleep at his keyboard and had slept hunched over the desk.

"Tomtom, come over here, you cutest intern of all interns."

He rubbed his eyes and walked around the table to glance at Amy's screen.

"Look at this."

Tom squinted. "I see two long columns of Pound Sterling, both at the end with a zero."

"And that is the answer. That is the i-e-answer!"

"You lost me." Tom yawned.

"The financial system of Strom Defense is in perfect order."

"So, there is no money missing? But what did the auditor find?"

"The auditor was right. The money is missing, but it has not been within the financial system." Amy jumped up so that her chair crashed into the table behind her and she started pacing. "The financial transactions are okay, but the company is missing one hundred million US dollars. So we have to follow the money as soon as it leaves the financial system."

"You still lost me."

"The financial system does all the accounting work. It knows how much money we have, how much money do we earn and how much money we spend. But it is not real money, just numbers in a computer."

"When does it become real money?"

"Same as in your private life: when it is in the bank or in your pocket!" Amy stopped pacing and jumped up and down like a yo-yo. "Whenever you expect to pay someone or wait for money from someone, the financial computer system needs to talk to the bank. Can you pay Tom his salary, please? Show me the money from my latest sales!"

"So the financial system talks to the bank?" Tom rubbed his eyes, but he was awake now.

"On a regular basis. Maybe once a day or once a week. A good time to skim off money is when the system talk to each other."

Tom understood. "So finance system says: pay a million Dollars to Tom. Someone intercepts the message and says instead to the bank: pay Tom a million dollars and Amy another million, but don't tell the finance system I told you."

Amy jumped at Tom and gave him a big wet kiss. They were locked in a full embrace for a second that turned awkward. Tom was clearly uncomfortable, but Amy didn't let go of him.

"Are we having a moment here?" Amy asked, mouth close to his ear.

"A moment?" Tom was wiggling to escape her arm-lock.

"You know, a boy-girl moment?"

"A what-moment?" They again looked at each other.

"You know, boy likes girl, girl likes boy, they don't talk about it, suddenly at the same time...."

Tom unraveled himself from Amy. "Amy, I have a girlfriend, and you are my co-worker. And you are, what, in your thirties?"

"Still on the lower end, thirty-two. And, don't be old-fashioned. I probably could teach you...."

"Say no more, it makes me sick. And I am turning twenty-three next week, which makes you approximately fifty percent older than me."

"I know, don't tell me: I could be your mother?"

They briefly stared eye-to-eye and then both burst out laughing.

"We could make this a sitcom," Amy said. "Let's see what the boss says."

She gave Paul a quick call on the mobile phone.

"Were you are already in bed?" Amy asked.

"No, had dinner with a source," Paul said. "On my way home now. What's up, Amy?"

"I have not found the money yet, but I know where it is not." Amy explained her methods to eliminate all other possibilities and her crosschecks. "I'll be on the analysis first thing tomorrow."

"Take care. See you at eight?"

Amy hung up.

Tom tapped on the computer display with the row of numbers. "What's next?"

"We call it a day, go home. Can you order two taxis for us? My retinas are burned beyond recognition, my brain is fried and I have to get rid of germs from the kiss."

And so they did.