Private L.A. (Private 6)

We heard the clacking of his keyboard, then the snap of a return.

The center screen hesitated, jumped. Below the California State emblem, and along with an icon that looked like a slender green tube, the figure $10,000,000 appeared. The tube began to drain of green, and in less than three seconds it was gone. On the screen to the right, Google Earth zoomed in on California, showed a line from Sacramento to Los Angeles.

“Got it,” said Lauren Hollings, staring at her screen. “File and metadata are moving through our tracking software. Ticks embedding. Almost ready to transfer onto that bank account.”

“I’ve already got a jump on that, tracked it through the bank identification code on the SWIFT network,” said Katherine Clarkson. “The money’s heading to Banco Delta Asia Ltd in Macau.”

“And there she goes,” said Goldberg.

Up on the screen, Google Earth had retreated, showed the Pacific Rim, and another line speeding toward Macau. It was there in less than four seconds.

Mayor Wills said, “Can we contact this bank?”

“It’s not staying there,” said Goldberg. “They’re not that stupid.”

Sure enough, fifteen seconds after the ten million arrived in Macau, two lines burst on the Google Earth map and began to arc away from each other.

“Five million, five million,” Hollings said.

The first five million landed in a bank in India; the second I couldn’t tell, but it looked near England.

“The first is in the Bank of Rajasthan, New Delhi,” Clarkson announced. “Second in Conister Bank, Wigan, Isle of Man.”

“I’ll be a son of a bitch,” said Sheriff Cammarata. “It’s working.”

“What did you expect?” Mo-bot asked with a slight sneer.

Before Cammarata could reply, four lines burst from those locations, each heading out in one of the four cardinal directions. But when they had traveled only a short distance on Google Earth, they hesitated, stopped, blinked, and then disappeared.

Chapter 103

THERE WERE GASPS from the various law enforcement officials present.

“Where’d it go?” Mayor Wills asked.

“I don’t …” Goldberg began.

“I knew it,” said Sheriff Cammarata, spitting the words like they were tobacco juice.

People began to argue among themselves. State Treasurer Watts cried, “What’s going on down there?”

“Your money’s gone bye-bye, Carlton!” the sheriff shouted.

“It is not bye-bye!” Goldberg shouted emphatically. “They’re not stupid, they found the tick and stripped it.”

“What?” Chief Fescoe said. “I thought—”

“But the ladies from Cal Poly are smarter,” Mo-bot said. “Or actually, Dr. Hollings is smarter.”

The youngest of the computer scientists beamed.

“What are you talking about?” Cammarata demanded.

“She thought of putting an easy-to-spot tick on the transfer, and another virtually impossible to spot,” Goldberg said with great satisfaction.

Mo-bot poked me in the ribs with her index finger, whispered, “Told you they were good.”

Hollings, meanwhile, had given her computer more instructions, and almost instantly the lines on the Google Earth screen ran on, dividing and moving, dividing and moving, until within no more than a minute the satellite view of Earth looked loosely strung in almost every direction. I was focusing on the dizzying complexity of the transfers, barely aware that the center third of the screen, the one still linked to the account within the California State Treasurer’s Office, was now blinking.