Vital Force by Trevor Scott Page A

up?”
    â€œThe two of them talked for a moment with a banker and then Cliff went into the vault without her.”
    â€œProbably a safe deposit box.”
    â€œThat’s what I was thinking.”
    â€œWhat else?” he asked her.
    â€œCurrent Visa rates are nine percent. I might apply.”
    He gave her a callous look.
    â€œAll right. Give me a break. It’s not like I got much sleep in this beast of a Blazer last night. Cliff did fill out some paperwork.”
    â€œWire transfer?”
    â€œCould be.”
    â€œI’ll call and have that traced.”
    â€œWhat about probable cause now?” she asked. “Last night...”
    He waved her off. “You wanna sleep in here again?”
    â€œCarry on.”
    He called Portland and initiated a trace. Just as he got off the phone, he noticed Cliff and the woman departing the bank.
    â€œHere we go,” Fisher said.
    Agent Harris started the engine and waited for them to pull out.
    â—
    Li was behind the wheel of the Trooper and Cliff sat in the passenger seat, squirming about nervously.
    â€œYou act like we just robbed the bank,” she said, checking the rearview mirror as she pulled out into traffic. “You should be happy. You’re half a million richer.”
    Cliff sighed with her words, as if he had finally just realized what she was saying. On one point she was correct. He did have more money. But he was now also culpable for a crime. He had stolen from his country and sold the data to this woman who worked for...well, that was the problem. He assumed it was the Chinese government, but it could have been the Taiwanese, the Koreans, North or South, or even some terrorist group. And the DVD he had just given her was useless without his encryption codes.
    They made their way toward the Parkway that led out of town. She turned North toward Redmond and picked up speed, keeping her eyes on the rearview mirror.
    â€œWhat’s the matter,” he asked her.
    â€œI think someone’s behind us.”
    â€œA tail?” He looked over his shoulder and saw at least five vehicles. “Which one?”
    â€œTurn around,” she said. “Don’t want them to know we know.”
    A moment later she looped around and picked up Highway 20 toward Sisters. But the Blazer with the two people were still there.
    Cliff leaned forward and looked into the right outside mirror. “The Blazer?” he asked.
    â€œYeah.”
    She passed a long line of cars before the highway turned from four lanes to two. Now there would be a little cushion.
    The road quickly became a series of curves that would not allow passing.
    â€œListen,” Cliff said, “what difference does it make? So we’ve got a tail. What do they have on us?”
    She glanced sideways at him, a look he had not seen in her before. What was it? Desperation? Concern?
    When she spoke, her words were measured. “We have the DVD you just gave me. We have the transfer of money you just got. We have you not showing up for work for the last two days. And, how we sure you not get caught sending data to yourself?”
    That was the only thing he was sure of, but she was right about the rest. Well, not the money. For, although she had transferred the money to his local account, he had set it up days ago to have all of his transactions, however small or large, split into fractions of one hundred. So, a transfer of one dollar would look like one cent. Subsequently, a transfer of five hundred thousand, would end up as one hundred transfers of five thousand each, keeping it well under the ten thousand dollars that would send up flags with the Feds. He smiled now thinking of his own genius. Not only would the incoming money be fractionalized, it would immediately shift before the end of business to five other accounts in various sheltered countries. And, over a period of a few days, the money would again collect in a single account in