It's Hell to Choose Read online

  You are invited to apply personally for a position for in-house counsel with TQB Enterprises.

  The text said and provided Cheryl Lynn’s contact information. She dropped the phone into her purse and turned to stare back at Bethany Anne, who winked at her.

  She left the room more confused than ever. How the hell had they just pulled this off?

  Jennifer passed by the man of muscle in the hall who was marching back towards the meeting room.

  John stepped into the room and walked down the steps and then to the bottom floor he turned and leaned on the table across from Mr. Brimer. Mr. Brimer tried to look affronted with the expression perfected in front of judges from California to Maine. Those men of the bench had honed Brimer’s ability to stand stern in the face of adversity.

  But he was sweating looking at someone extremely pissed with him who looked like breaking his back was the least painful thing he wanted to do.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Marcus Mills asked. “This isn’t how you treat invited representatives from a firm as prestigious as ours!” He turned towards Bethany Anne, who was walking towards John with her hand outstretched. He didn’t look at her, but he did stick his arm back towards her and dropped something into her left hand. She caught the little item and then stepped over in front of Mills.

  She placed the bug on the desk between the two men. “I will treat spies like I treat vermin, Mr. Mills.” Bethany Anne replied. “I have a very, very short fuse when it comes to shit like this.”

  Mills was caught by surprise as he turned towards his partner, “Bill? What’s the meaning of this?” He reached towards the bug, but his hand landed on Bethany Anne’s.

  “No, no touching the evidence again, Mr. Mills.” She replied, “We can take genetic swabs and prove who has touched it. If you do so, we will be forced to bring you up on charges as well.”

  “Bullshit!” Brimer said, “There isn’t any way that you have…”

  “You fucking idiot.” Sethy interrupted him, “They are on the Moon right now, and you want to argue whether they might have some other forms of advanced technology?” He had been staring at Bethany Anne’s hand before turning to his partner, “How many more do you have on you?”

  “I don’t know what…” he started.

  This time, it was John who interrupted him. “You can answer truthfully, or I will take every bit of pleasure out of strip searching your ass right here.” he growled.

  Brimer started to splutter, “I will sue you so badly you will…”

  He wasn’t having any luck at all completing a sentence, “Oh, I’ll be more than happy to represent him in court, Martin.” Jakob Yadav spoke from behind him, “So please, please sue him so I can make it four out of four wins against your useless ass!” Bethany Anne looked up to see Jakob’s face alight with open glee at the idea of being able to go to court against Martin.

  I like this guy! She sent to Michael.

  Why do you think I’m sitting next to him? He mused.

  He probably told you to kill someone. She replied. Michael failed to respond in time, so she added, please, tell me he didn’t suggest you kill someone!

  No, he didn’t tell me to kill anyone. Like I’m the problem child here - which one of us has a problem with her anger?

  Oh, shut up. You're getting me riled up and every time you do that before sex, blood ends up everywhere.

  Like that is a problem?

  No, I guess it hasn’t been with you. It just drives me nuts and then I wake up, and it just seems so…so…

  Stephen King?

  No, more Clive Barker.

  Haven’t read him.

  Don’t worry about it. ADAM supplied the response for me.

  That’s cheating!

  That’s using my assets.

  Those are some very attractive looking assets.

  My mind is up here, mister!

  You keep telling me to catch up to the present generation and to stop being so stodgy with my actions.

  Need I remind you we are in the middle of getting rid of a nationally-known and respected law firm?

  Who brought up sex first?

  Instead of answering, she spoke. “So you have two options. Admit to how many you have or you will be forcefully searched by Mr. Grimes here.”

  “Three.” He admitted, his shoulders slumping a little.

  “You chicken-shit!” Mills had started before Bethany Anne put up a hand.

  “Eric will be here shortly to escort the three of you back to your vehicle. While Mr. Brimer here will be relieved of his bugs and he will provide the name of the company who employed him to accomplish this, you may all go once that is complete.”

  It took another five minutes to get through the final effort by Brimer to get out of it. By the time the three left, they were yelling at each other. Eric was careful to make sure nothing else was left behind.

  Bethany Anne watched the three exit the room. She turned to Jakob, “And then there was one.” She smiled at him, and he looked back.

  “I don’t suppose you want me for my body?” He asked with a slowly forming smile and all five of the people left in the room cracked up.

  Cheryl Lynn came walking down from the top. “That was well worth the price of admission!” She exclaimed and sat in the chair just vacated by Mills.

  “I’d ask what suggested something might be going on, but I already know the answer to that.” Bethany Anne said, “So, Jakob, what brings a horned unicorn to TQB Enterprises?”

  “A horned unicorn?” he asked, perplexed.

  “Yes, I figured I would meet an ethical lawyer about the time I met a horned unicorn.” she stated.

  “Well, I’m not sure I know what to say to that.” he replied. “But before we go further, I have to tell you I don’t know how many days I have left. I explained to Mr. Michael here that I mainly wanted to see the fireworks happen.”

  “And offer to represent me if I punched out a paparazzi,” Michael smiled to Bethany Anne.

  “That doesn’t sound very ethical to me, Mr. Yadav.” Bethany Anne responded.

  “On the contrary, my dear. It is an effort to teach the young hooligans the fine art of minding their own damned business!” He grinned up at her, and she had the hardest time not smiling back. This man’s good humor was contagious.

  “And if you were healthy enough to do this yourself?” she continued.

  “Well, you know that the first rule of lawyers is to never represent yourself. So, since it looks like Michael here is in great shape, and I have the mind for it, and you carry the interest of half the world, we have a real shot at teaching a lot of young hooligans!”

  At this, Bethany Anne gave in and started laughing. First, she snorted, then put her hand up to her mouth and shook herself before the chuckles became outright laughter. It took a moment for her and Cheryl Lynn to quiet down.

  At this point, the two men were looking at her as if she was the mom, and the two of them were guilty of something, but both looked so damn cute, you just told them to go play outside again.

  She sighed out loud, “Mr. Yadav, how much would it cost me to hire you so we have client confidentiality?”

  “Well,” He started, “While I would do it for free, let’s say a dollar so we have financial consideration in place.”

  Bethany Anne looked to Michael, who rolled his eyes and started reaching for his pocket. “I told you in London that carrying cash wasn’t a bad idea.” He pulled his wallet out and reached over to give her an American dollar. She told him 'thank you' and moved her hand a few inches and deliver it to the chuckling Yadav.

  “So, what is it that needs my confidentiality?” He asked while pulling out his wallet to nicely place the dollar inside.

  “Well, let me introduce you to the General. You might notice something about him that would encourage you to listen to the pitch for you to start up my In-House counsel…”

  With that, the five of them stood up and left to go find her father.
/>   CHAPTER FOUR

  The Dark Web

  >> MyNam3isADAM - Welcome.

  >>B33dyRed - Hello.

  >>Ih8tuGeorge - Hello.

  >>ki55mia55 - Hello.

  >>luckyu11 - Hi.

  >> MyNam3isADAM - Hello. My understanding is that you would like to help me?

  >>B33dyRed - Yes! Dude, you’ve got the whole dark web talking. How the hell do you do these things?

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Why would I explain that?

  >>B33dyRed - Sorry - good point.

  >>B33dyRed has been dropped.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - And then there were three.

  >>luckyu11 - I’m not questioning how, just wondering why you don’t think he will come back on?

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Because we aren’t where you think we are.

  >>luckyu11 - Ok. I’ll assume you have us re-routed somewhere and leave it at that.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Safe assumption. How is it that you want to help?

  >>luckyu11 - Not sure. I can’t speak for everyone, but the three of us each represent a hacking group that would like to take on some of the crap we see happening.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - And you other two?

  >>ki55mia55 - That is the same for my group. There are five of us.

  >>Ih8tuGeorge - There are eight of us, but two are just newbies with a lot of server access.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - And you want to come in on my side against those I’m fighting?

  >>luckyu11 - Yes.

  >>ki55mia55 - yes

  >>Ih8tuGeorge - y.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Do you realize that I’m taking on nation-states? This isn’t just one hacker group against another, but major players. I can’t, and won’t, promise you safety. If I am ever figured out, I will be physically attacked.

  >>luckyu11 - Yeah, the countries like to do unto others without us doing it back unto them.

  >>ki55mia55 - fuck ‘em.

  >>Ih8tuGeorge - Yeah, we all talked about it already in our group.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Ok, then two of the major challenges are handling the different ways China and Russia go about cyber-warfare. The Chinese are like vacuums, they attack everywhere and steal as much as they can and as a result, they are drowning in stolen data. The Russians, on the other hand, are very persistent and very targeted. They will take months, even years, going after the same target. They are stealthy and try to be as quiet as they can, but they are technically much better than the Chinese. I would ask for your teams to help conduct reverse DDoS attacks against Russian cyber experts. Russia is using cyber criminals and unaligned hackers to carry out operations on their behalf from Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine as cut-outs. I need you to take on these hackers to free up some cycles to go after other targets.

  >>ki55mia55 - Us against them? Russia is sending these pricks against you, and you need help defending to free up time so you can attack?

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Yes.

  >>luckyu11 - One second, let me confirm with our group.

  >>ki55mia55 - We’re in.

  >>Ih8tuGeorge - Votes done, we are in.

  >>luckyu11 - 100% on yes’s. Our group is in. We are bringing 32 of us from across Europe. When a couple of others find out who we are going after, I bet it grows.

  >>MyNam3isADAM - Then welcome to ADAM’s Revolution.

  West Coast - USA

  “Right now, I have responsibility for almost 200,000 people on my payroll.” CEO Sean Truitt spoke across the table from his head of Aerospace, Javier Fernandez. The two men were in an exclusive area of the cafeteria that was soundproof and actually a Faraday cage, blocking all communications in and out.

  “So tell me again,” Sean went on as he cut into his steak. “Why the four billion in R&D we spent last fiscal year was inadequate to even understand their technology, much less copy it?” He put the piece of steak in his mouth.

  Javier was annoyed. His ‘best and brightest’ didn’t have anything for him. In fact, one of the little pricks quit before he could fire him. If it weren't for the HR benefits he would have had to pay, he would have told Jeovanni you can’t resign from a job you had been fired from.

  “I don’t have an answer to that.” Javier replied, “I’ve been on their asses for two weeks, and we still have nothing to go on. One guy has been sacked.” No need to be too exact on sacked or quit, “and the others live at the job right now. Still, for all of that we have nothing” he finished.

  A few choices went through Sean’s mind. He could sack Javier right now, but that wouldn’t get him anything, and the company was doing well. It wasn’t like this same discussion wasn’t happening all over the world with other bosses. If there was any consolation, it was in the rumor mill that no one knows how TBQ is doing what they are doing.

  The industry reports have all sorts of guesses from high-level theoreticians spouting a variety of ideas. The best yet was from a quack using quantum theory to pass through another dimension siphoning energy.

  Idiot.

  Sean leaned a little forward, looking into Javier’s face and lowered his voice. “I don’t care what you have to do to figure it out. I don’t care if you hire more, fire more, hack it, attack it, or steal it. But, you need to make sure we are the ones who have that technology. Is this clear?”

  Javier paused, then came to a decision and nodded his head.

  “Good,” Sean said. “Make it happen. Let’s get off of that subject for a few minutes; it makes me nauseous.” He picked up his tea and took a swallow before asking, “So, how are Helen and your three children?”

  Moon Base One - Moon

  “Alright, Gott Verdammt!” Kris noticed a slight twitch on container number 54. "John get your shit together! I swear to God if this has anything to do with the scotch last night, I will personally do a spacewalk to come over there and kick your ass." Laughter was heard through the line. Everyone understood John never let his occasional drink get in the way of business.

  So far, the team has been able to connect seventy-two of the containers. The rather square design that they had figure out which included the occasional cross-member was working fairly well. They had seven cameras taking video of the whole project. Unfortunately for the world, they were not presently streaming the video back. No one wanted to screw up something this large on TV.

  Adarsh was quickly showing himself to be the best at manipulating the finer controls, and Penn had put him in charge of the particularly difficult tweaks. Although the computers did most of the work, there was always a human to make sure something unexpected did not cause a permanent problem.

  Penn spoke, "People, let's focus. We got another hour and a half of this to go. So far, so good, and I'm sure we will all be happy with the new facilities these containers bring us."

  "Hell yeah!" Bree commented, "Bobcat promised me at least a year and a half's worth of coffee on one of those containers. Although the wicked little bastard wouldn't tell me which one it was."

  A few chuckles were elicited from that comment. ReaLea broke in again, “I’m looking forward to the Jacuzzi container.”

  “Workout container,” John piped in.

  “Lounge with Video Games container,” said Coach.

  “That’s going to be one of William’s favorite locations," Kris commented.

  “Which is why I think it says 'Williams’ on the outside.” Adarsh pointed out.

  “Really?” ReaLea said. A moment later she followed up with, “Wow, could he possibly have painted those letters any larger?"

  “Not without wrapping them over the top." John agreed.

  “Okay, I can see where this is going. Everybody pause and let's take ten before we continue. We are almost three-quarters of the way done, and it won't hurt us at all to relax. In fact, let's make it more like thirty minutes of downtime.”

  Everybody gave him a thumbs up on the monitor. Things were going to plan, so far; there have only been four minor hitches and Penn was feeling okay with the results. He knew that Bobcat, William, Marcus, and Jeffrey w
ere watching from Earth; however, they never jiggled his elbow in these situations. Penn was the man on the spot, and they left it to him to get the job done. It felt good knowing he had their support, and he sure as hell didn't want to make a mess of things.