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Erin: The Forcing of Wisdom
Erin: The Forcing of Wisdom
Erin: The Forcing of Wisdom
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Erin: The Forcing of Wisdom

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For years, Erin has used the intricacies of cyberspace to banish unwanted emotions. Others call what she does hacking, and her manipulations criminal, but now her skill was exceptional - in, out, traceless.
She was wrong. Someone betrayed her.
Travis has dangerous plans. He needs an electronics expert – one he can coerce through fear. Erin was perfect.
With the inescapable threat of prison looming, Erin accepts his offer of sanctuary. When she realises his intentions, she is in too deep. But the terrifying of innocents is unforgivable. She cannot walk away. She is an empath and shares their distress.
She has to help them, even if it means prison, and insanity...

LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 31, 2018
ISBN9781925332452
Erin: The Forcing of Wisdom
Author

Margaret Gregory

I have loved writing stories since I was in high school. Now...some years later...I am enjoying making them come alive again.After being a scientist for years, I have since turned to writing fantasy for upcoming publication and creating science articles for The Australia Times.

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    Book preview

    Erin - Margaret Gregory

    The Third Generation Series

    Book 4

    Erin:

    The Forcing of Wisdom

    by

    Margaret Gregory

    Copyright © 2019 by Margaret Gregory

    All Rights Reserved

    Smashwords Edition

    ****

    This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

    ****

    Please note that I use Australian spelling throughout.

    You will see ‘ou’ (colour) and ‘re’ (centre) as well as a few other differences from American spelling.

    Cover designed by msgdragon

    Cover Image Credits: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Ocusfocus

    Cover Image Credits: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / Pichunter

    Cover Image Credits: Pixabay

    Also by Margaret Gregory

    TYMOREAN TRUST SERIES:

    Book 1 - Power Rising

    Book 2 - Great Ones

    Book 3 - The Return to Earth

    Book 4 – Earth Mission

    Book 5 – Alien Contact

    Book 6 - Invasion

    ATAPI SORCERESS SERIES:

    Prequel – Korvu: The Beginning

    Book 1- The Wild One

    Book 2 – Atapi Sorceress

    THE THIRD GENERATION SERIES:

    Wanda: From Bad to Worse

    Wanda: Choosing Crime

    Wanda – Early Days (anthology) Book 1 and 2

    Wanda – Risking Life to Live

    Table of Contents

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    Chapter 15

    Chapter 16

    Chapter 17

    Chapter 18

    Chapter 19

    Chapter 20

    Chapter 21

    Chapter 22

    Chapter 23

    Chapter 24

    Chapter 25

    Chapter 26

    Chapter 27

    Erin: The Forcing of Wisdom

    Chapter 1

    Erin Mason glanced at the clock on her desk and began to close down her computer. While she waited for it to finish the auto backup, she collected her coat and bag from a cupboard beside her desk, and closed the vertical blinds on the windows. Her office was on the third floor of Washington’s prestigious Capital Finance Building, and looked out over the Potomac River.

    A voice from her open office door, made her turn.

    Glad I caught you, Erin, Gloria Nyall greeted. Your father told me to tell you that he will be held up for a while longer. He suggested that you should head to his place on your own.

    Oh. Is there a problem? I was just about to go up and see if he was finished.

    Gloria shrugged. She was secretary to Edward Mason, who was Erin’s father as well as CEO of Mason Investment Industries.

    I let two FBI agents in to see him an hour ago. They are still in there. I was hoping he would sign the letters before I left so I could send them off tonight.

    I wonder what they want, Erin said with natural curiosity and a twinge of alarm.

    They didn’t tell me and your father asked not to be disturbed. Gloria pouted and then shrugged. I left the letters on my desk, so if you can remember, ask him to sign them. I’ll see you in the morning.

    Gloria wove her way between the other desks in the area as she headed for the elevators. Erin made a show of packing things into her bag and doing a last minute tidy up. She was heading for the stairs when the lift door closed to take Gloria down to street level. There was no one around to see Erin do a rapid turn and go back to her office. She used her phone to dial zero to by-pass the switchboard and get an outside line.

    Erin tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for Nick Bosley to answer his phone. The guy worked under her, and he should have had enough time to get home. The wait gave her time to wonder why the police were talking to her father. He had been approached by the FBI for advice before, but this time it might be something else. It might be that they had traced some interesting financial swindles to her father’s companies.

    Nick! Erin greeted, thinking he had sounded odd as he answered the phone. I had an interesting idea that we might be able to fit into the game. Have you got your notes for Battle Monsters there?

    If the police suspected a swindle, then either she or Nick had slipped up. She needed to warn him, but caution made her watch what she was saying. Battle Monsters was a code word covering the activities that she and Nick were involved in that were, without doubt, illegal. The innocuous reference was also the name of the video game they were collaborating on.

    No, Erin, I was working on an idea at lunchtime but I didn’t bring it home because I expected to be out tonight. As it is, I have some unexpected visitors, so I am busy anyway. Tell you what, if I am free tomorrow, come around and we can program it after work. Will that do?

    Sure, Nick. Bye.

    Erin broke the connection thoughtfully. Almost certainly, the police had Nick, but the only incriminating evidence was here. Erin knew what to look for and realised that she had better find it before the police thought to search the office and it wouldn’t do for them to find her looking. She dialled her father’s number.

    Mason!

    It’s Erin, Dad. Gloria said you were busy. Will you be long?

    I’ll be a while yet, Edward Mason said with a sigh. Come on up. You might be able to help.

    OK, Dad. I’ll just close up down here and be right there.

    Nick’s desk was the closest to her office door. Erin glanced under it and saw Nick’s case. She reached for it and drew it out so she could manipulate the combination. Nick had told her what it was as a safety precaution.

    Erin rifled through the folders in the case. What she needed to find was a thin notebook with numbers pencilled on one page. The numbers were the security access codes for a number of the countries biggest financial institutions - the ones that Mason Industries had dealings with. If the police found the book and were to realise the significance of the numbers, she might be suspected of having the means to have obtained them. She had in fact, but not in the course of her job.

    Erin slipped the notebook into her pocket and closed the case. As an after thought, she wiped the lock release with her handkerchief. She didn’t worry about the handle because she could simply say she had put the case under Nick’s desk out of the way of the cleaning staff.

    When she left the office, she doused all but the security lights and made her way to the lift. The early shift security guard noticed her leave the office and called a greeting. She acknowledged it with a wave. He knew that she was the Executive Manager in charge of that section and had a right to be there.

    Erin went directly to her father’s office when she reached the top floor. She knew better than to go straight in. Instead, she knocked on the door marked ‘Private’ and waited for her father to call her in.

    Close the door after you, Mason said tersely. Erin, my guests are federal police. Gentlemen, this is my daughter Erin. She is the Executive manager of the Computer Services Division.

    Miss Mason, one of the men nodded acknowledgement.

    Dad, am I allowed to ask why the police are here? She glanced at the two men in turn.

    We are carrying out an audit, Miss Mason, the same man informed her.

    They are going to need access to our records, Edward Mason broke in irritably. I would rather keep this as quiet as possible for now so I’m putting you at their disposal.

    To the police officers he explained, My daughter is in charge of data storage and retrieval. She knows as much about things as I do.

    I’ll certainly give you any assistance that I can, Erin agreed politely. What exactly are you looking for?

    To put it bluntly, Miss Mason, we are looking for evidence to suggest that someone connected with this company is involved in diverting large sums of money from other financial institutions, through the company to other institutions.

    Phew! Erin whistled. Why do you think that Dad’s company is involved?

    We’ve been investigating the matter for some months. Several things have pointed this way.

    The officers were not telling her very much, but if they were onto Nick, they must know a lot already.

    Do you have any suspects? Erin felt she could ask.

    Yes, one so far. Nicholas Bosley. We are questioning him at the moment.

    Nick? You must be wrong! Erin exclaimed.

    The police officers looked at her grimly. There is little chance of that, Miss Mason.

    Erin shook her head, feigning disbelief. Nick works in my section - storage and retrieval. He has access to records of financial transactions but none to the actual terminals that handle cash flow. Frank Saunders and Kurt Ryan deal with that part of the business. As far as I know, they are the only ones that know the access codes.

    The police officers did not respond to the comment.

    We will return tomorrow, Mr Mason, as soon as the office opens.

    Edward Mason watched the men depart, and then turned to his daughter. His expression was grim. Could you help me put these files in order? Personnel sent them over. Those two were really going over them.

    Including mine, huh? Erin guessed.

    Her father looked uncomfortable. As if I would ever suspect…

    Me? Erin broke in. Dad, it’s not so strange. Look at from their view. I have a PhD in computing, a working knowledge of computers that few people can beat and I know the company system inside out. I’m probably suspect number two on that basis alone. Don’t worry though. If someone is using the company’s terminals for embezzlement, I’ll find out.

    We’ll have to wait and see what turns up, Edward Mason advised, as he rose from his chair. I’m not going to worry about it any more tonight. Let’s get home. Your mother is probably wondering where we are.

    Erin was quiet during the drive to her Father’s house.

    Where did we slip up? She didn’t pretend to herself that Nick’s scheme was foolproof, but she had found no flaws in it. Yet how had the police come to suspect Nick? The company, yes, but Nick?

    The company was in an intermediate position between the big financial institutions and the smaller companies and investors. Nick was an accounting wizard. He knew all the tricks. He used his terminal during work hours to shunt around sums of money, taken from various large companies. Erin had installed a device in Nick’s computer that permitted it to work through hers and not directly through the main computer.

    Only Nick knew that she could unlock the files and access financial data as well as the administrative details. He wouldn’t implicate her. He needed her to remove the evidence of his manipulations. That was her part of the scheme.

    Between them, they had thought of the idea and worked out how to do it. She had created a program to monitor transactions to and from the finance department terminals and to trap references to money coming in from the big companies. Those that fit a certain criteria, that were transactions that she and Nick had instigated, were held in a file they controlled and the others went to where they were meant to be. As far as the main computer was concerned, the total money received by the company, was correct. It agreed with the amounts the company should have received. The amounts that Nick triggered to be sent from the big institutions did not go into the company reserve that was used by the financial division for their transactions. It went into an account they alone knew about. It would be difficult for anyone to check for discrepancies in the company reserve because the balances changed rapidly as the financial team dealt and traded. Her monitoring program was also the means by which she had obtained the access codes that enabled them to manipulate the money.

    Erin, who had been hacking into her fathers’s company since she was in high school, had inserted the program. By now though, her skill was more of the nature of a delicate surgical operation.

    She accessed the file holding the money references that her program trapped. Nick called up the details from her computer and used the money to perform his wizardry. Then he sent the results to their home computers. She accessed the relevant programs to remove the evidence of his manipulations.

    As far as the company was concerned, only the three most senior executives were able to access the reserve. Erin had simply diverted her funds before they arrived there. Her official authority related to the routine administrative tasks - updating company and personal details, collating monthly statements to investors and such. Her division accessed the stored data and translated it into reports. Officially, the financial details could not be altered from her section.

    Erin understood how Nick worked. He shunted the money in their reserve to twenty nonexistent companies. The money was held there until they got home and they each further shunted the money to other accounts, at legitimate banks using the access codes for those institutions.

    Erin then transferred the money in her ten accounts into credit accounts and paid it to yet other accounts. It would seem like the money was used to pay a bill, but the account for the company being paid was not an official account. It finally settled into an account that she withdrew from and it was banked elsewhere. She was quite sure that the money she handled would never be traced. Perhaps Nick was not so thorough.

    There was little Erin could do. Unless someone knew their monitoring program existed and the code words to access it, it wouldn’t be noticed. Even if someone were to use her work terminal, no one would find any reference to the program. The device in her terminal and Nick’s was innocuous enough and even an expert would find it hard to determine its use.

    Erin rapidly considered all the aspects of the transactions. She had to assume that if the police looked hard enough, they would find discrepancies. However, the way she was working things, it should look like her fathers company was being used by an outside infiltrator. There should be no evidence of Nick’s manipulations on company time.

    One thing she would have to do, as soon as she got home, was to finish the manipulations on the money they had sent off that day. In its current form, it was still directly traceable to Mason’s. She would have to do it for the accounts Nick normally dealt with – it was unlikely that he had time to do it after work. Unless, the police had walked in and caught Nick in the act – that was a potentially dangerous situation. It wouldn’t affect her accounts, but they might notice her actions if they were monitoring his computer. Well, if she just asked for a situation report – that wouldn’t be noticed and it would tell her if Nick had started moving money around.

    Erin wished that the police had not chosen that night to pounce. She could not get out of having dinner with her parents. She would just have to wait to hide the evidence and make her home system look less sophisticated.

    It was just as well that her boyfriend was out at one of his meetings and wouldn’t be calling around. Gerry might look like a seventies’ hippie, but he would be interested in what she was doing. Moreover, if he saw her opening up her computer, he would want to know why and would not be deceived by facile lies.

    Well, once the extra memory chip was removed, her computer was safe. A snooping policeman would not be able to access her manipulating program, which was written in a modified form of basic, or the private files, which were her record of transactions. All that was stored on the extra chip. She had a backup disc with the information, but again, they would have to know her extra keywords before they could read that. She should be safe enough.

    What she needed to do was find out all she could from her father and project the idea that she was less involved with Nick than she was.

    Chapter 2

    The family tea was to celebrate the twenty-seventh wedding anniversary of Edward and Katrina Mason. Erin was only expecting the three of them for the meal, but when she entered the entertaining area, she recognised an old family friend and guessed he was staying for dinner. She crossed to him at once and gave him a hug.

    Uncle Quinn, she greeted him enthusiastically. He had known her since she was a baby. When her father had finished hugging her mother, Erin went over and gave her a quick hug too.

    The talk over the meal touched on many topics but later, Edward Mason settled down to talk to his old friend. Naturally, the talk drifted to the days events. Erin perched quietly on the arm of her father’s chair. She listened intently as he discussed the situation at work with her uncle.

    Erin didn’t forget that Quinn Haroldson was a policeman and she paid particular attention to his suggestions about how such investigations would proceed. It was useful to know. However, she really learnt little more than she knew already of the work situation. Just that the police had requested specific personnel files, hers included, but they had been very close-lipped about the reasons for their requests and did not reveal any hint of what evidence they had. They had also come prepared with a warrant to obtain copies of company records.

    When the conversation died, Erin broke in.

    I have a bad feeling about Nick. I rang him shortly before I rang you, Dad. He sounded tense and mentioned unexpected visitors. Thinking on it, I don’t think they would have told us they suspected him before they had a chance to pick him up. They must have been waiting for him when he got home. But I find it hard to believe that he would be involved in something like that.

    How friendly are you and Nick? Quinn asked.

    He works under me and we are working on a computer adventure video game together. It’s a fascinating project. If we get it going, I reckon we could make a fortune.

    Erin went into detail of the program, describing how it would work when it was finished.

    It does sound interesting, Edward Mason agreed. Doesn’t Gerry object to you seeing Nick?

    No, Dad, Erin assured him. He knows that Nick is just a friend and we only get together to work on the program on the nights that Gerry has his ‘Save the world’ meetings. In fact, he has offered to be our salesman when we perfect it.

    Erin chuckled. Gerry is smart. He can follow what we are doing but hasn’t the foggiest notion about how to get it to work. And he likes to have a cause to work for, so we’ll be his cause and we’ll all get rich.

    Let’s hope you do, Haroldson said with a smile. Then he teased, So little Erin has finally got a boyfriend.

    Erin blushed at his teasing. Gerry was more than just a boyfriend. He was her lover too.

    I’ve had other boyfriends, she protested. And I’m a grown woman. But, yeah, Gerry’s special. Better still, Dad likes him.

    He’s a shade better than those other young louts she brought home, Mason growled.

    It doesn’t seem so long ago that Erin wouldn’t play with the boys… Quinn teased. He stopped talking when Erin threatened to hit him.

    Would either of you old darlings care to drive me home, Erin asked pointedly. "I am going to need my beauty

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