“Then finish this part so we can go out for a bite.”
“Rafe’s treat,” said Max with a grin as his stomach rumbled.
Rafe shook his head but didn’t refuse. “We have a long night ahead of us.”
Gemma’s stomach growled too. “I’m almost done. And hungry.”
Simone came hometo find the three bent intently over their computers, typing furiously and laughing. She went to the stove to heat some chocolate milk and poured a cup for Gemma. Then she brought Rafe and Max a beer. “You’re still at it? What are you three up to now?”
“Fixing banking errors,” Gemma said, stifling a laugh.
“Banking errors?”
“Well, the bank didn’t really mean to transfer the money, so we’re fixing it.”
Gemma frowned. “Can any of this get her in trouble, Rafe?”
Rafe looked up. “She isn’t doing anything. As far as the web is concerned, Brad is doing all this.”
“But…”
Gemma looked up and sighed. “Simone, you wouldn’t understand and don’t really want to know.”
“I suppose not.”
“Done.” Gemma sat back and picked up the mug of chocolate. “Thanks, Simone.” She stared at the screen. “Brad seems to have canceled his credit cards, Max. I guess he doesn’t need them anymore.”
“That was silly of him.” Max was smiling.
Rafe chuckled. “Did he remember to cancel the alert to his telephone, too?”
“No!” She put the mug down and her hands flew to the keyboard. “There. He canceled all alerts and put in a new phone number and mailing address.”
“What did he use for those?” asked Max.
“They belong to a halfway house Simone made a donation to a while back.”
Rafe nodded, looking satisfied. “That’ll do.”
“There’s a mistake in his cell phone plan, too. I’m afraid they’re going to cancel him.” Gemma tried to sound sad, but it wasn’t working.
“I thought Brad made good money,” Simone said.
Gemma grinned. “Rafe and Max taught me something important tonight. There is a super, giant, huge difference between making money and keeping it.”
“What was the other lesson we talked about?” Rafe asked.
Gemma grinned. “It’s a samurai idea—if you decide to go into battle, first visualize your own death.”
“We use that in martial arts training,” Simone said. “What’s the application here?”
“That if you can trash someone else’s account, they can do yours.” Gemma sounded more serious this time.
After a few moments, Max stopped typing, picked up the beer, and raised it to Simone, who watched with her hands on her hips. “Done. We undid what was done and did some good while we were at it.”
She frowned. “Some good?”
“Well, Brad had more money than he took from you, and I didn’t think you’d want to profit from his crime.”