Replicate: Beneath the Steel City: Book 2 by Lovejoy Ben

Author:Lovejoy, Ben [Lovejoy, Ben]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Airbook Publishing
Published: 2017-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

My computer pinged me the following morning: the standing search I’d put in place for the missing purchase order in the government procurement system had a hit. I’d done it mechanically at the time, not imagining that the document was going to reappear, but it seemed that somehow, against all the odds, it had!

I logged into the system and clicked the link. I was not prepared for what I saw.

TSY/BOE/SGR/04/6580284918 was indeed back in the system, but it was not the original. The details in this one were different. Very different.

Contract number: TSY/BOE/SGR/04/6580284918

Summary description: Consulting services as per specs delivered to service address

CPI: Cr500,000

Quantity: 1

TCV: Cr500,000

Service address: As per previous delivery

Terms: Mandatory completion

I read on, noting the final lines – the commencement and completion dates. The commencement date shown was today’s date; the completion date was one week from today.

What the hell?

As a coded message, it didn’t appear to need much decoding. Someone – the same someone behind the gold scam – was seemingly trying to hire my services, and apparently offering me half a million credits to do so. I would apparently find the details of the assignment in the serviced offices I’d used for the gold delivery.

I clicked the icon to display the full document.

‘No matching record.’

I refreshed the screen. The document was gone. As before, I selected a list view and ordered by contract number. Once more, TSY/BOE/SGR/04/6580284918 was absent. It seemed that whoever was behind this had set an alert to be notified when the document was accessed it, then deleted it. With the message successfully delivered, it was no longer required.

I admired the ingenuity. Without any knowledge of who I was or how to contact me, they had still come up with a communication channel they knew would reach me. And they could only know that channel would work if they’d seen that a standing search had been put in place. Whoever was behind this wasn’t stupid.

I logged off the system, then sat back in my chair to think.

Fact one: I didn’t need the credits. Frankly, I had enough to retire to a suite in some luxury beachside hotel, leaving it to a combination of room service and the robocierge to take care of my every passing whim.

I wouldn’t, of course. I was as hooked on my underground life of nefarious activities as any drug addict – the credits were just a way of keeping score. But I certainly didn’t need to carry out a project for someone else for the income it would provide.

Fact two: the person or persons behind this didn’t appear to view it as an invitation. The ‘mandatory completion’ part suggested that my agreement was not considered optional. It was clearly intended as an implied threat.

Fact three: The method of contact confirmed my earlier view that they knew what had been done, but not who had done it. If they’d somehow been able to figure out the who, they would have contacted me directly. They’d used this indirect method because it was the only one open to them.

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