Part 64 (1/2)
”You hast
”We took all your savings and invested them in a new startup fast food franchise called Press Rat and Wharthog Sandwiches, Inc”
”You have got be kidding” Scott saw the sweat drops at Higgins'
hairline
”Yeah, I am But he did show me how easy it is to make adjust- ments in account files Like pay off loans and have them disap- pear, invoke foreclosures, increase or decrease balances, whatev- er anted to do”
”Jesus Christ!”
”That's not the half of it Not even a h lots of accounts The bank computer must hold hundreds of thousands of account records, and we had access to them all If we had wanted to, we could have erased theht”
”Are you telling ins spoke carefully, ”that you and thishacker, illegally entered a bank coed records and”
”Whoah!” Scott held up his hands to slow Higgins down ”We left everything the way it was, no changes as far as I could tell”
”Are you sure?”
”No, I' for the ride”
”What else did you do last night, Scott?” Higgins sounded re- signed to al implications must have been too much for him to handle
”We poked around transfer accounts, where they wire h the Fed Reserve Transaction accounts, reserves, stateina- tion If a bank does it,it The point is, John, I need to knoo things”
John Higgins sat back, apparently exhausted He kneas co, at least half of it His expression told Scott to ask away He could take it
”First, did I do anything illegal, prosecutable? You knohat I ins' head leaned back on the leather head rest as he began to speak deliberately This was going to be a lawyer's non-answer
Scott was prepared for it
”Did you cout reaction says no, but I'islation Did you, at any ti to the bank's computers?”
”No He had control I only had a ”
”Good, that helps” The air thickened with anticipation as Doug and Scott both waited for words of wisdoument that you were a reporter, with appropriate credentials, interviewing an individual, as, coincidentally, at the sa a crime That is, if what he did was a crime
I don't know the answer to that yet
”There have been countless cases where a reporter has witnessed crimes and reported on them with total iins seey The laas his bible and Scott was listening in the congregation ”Reporters have often gone into hostage situations where there is no doubt that a cries That's OK They have followed drug dealers into crack houses and filht a little e the rules You said you couldn't affect the coht I just watched Andasked his”
”No you didn't! Got that? You watched, nothing else!” Higgins cracked sharply at Scott ”If anyone asks, you only watched”
”Gotcha” Scott recognized the subtle difference He did not want to be an aider or abettor of a crime