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information is normally confidential.”
    “We can’t admit to anyone outside this building we were vulnerable to attack,” Dysart said. “As far as the public is concerned, any issues are strictly technical.”
    “Then we’ll have to give it careful thought before we try contacting UCLA,” Kelleher said.
    “ If we contact them,” Dysart said.
    Kelleher nodded in acknowledgment.
    “But how did someone hack into our systems?” Rob said. “I would have bet that was close to impossible. Did you check the security logs?”
    Dees nodded. “Of course. As far as I can tell, only the system operators have logged on to the account server in the past several weeks. But their accounts don’t have the privileges they’d need to mess with AMS. And according to the firewall logs, no one has hacked in either. I also looked to see if there was any new software on the server. I mean, they’d need some sort of program to create the encrypted files.” Dees spread his hands. “All I found was the stuff that’s supposed to be there.”
    “So you don’t know how they did it,” Kelleher said.
    “Not yet,” Dees said, “but I’ve only had time to check the obvious things so far. With a little persistence we should be able to figure out what happened.”
    “ Should be isn’t good enough,” Dysart said. “This problem has to be fixed right away. Any other option is simply not acceptable.” He punctuated the last word with a jab of his finger. “Customer confidence is everything to a bank. The only reason people give us their money is because they know we won’t lose it. What do you think will happen if we have to tell our customers we have no idea how much money they have in their accounts?”
    Dysart swept the room with his gaze but this time only Rob met it. All the others were studying the wood grain of the table.
    “We’d have lineups out the door at every branch,” Dysart said. “People demanding their money. In cash. Right now. All of it, thank you. No bank can withstand that kind of run.”
    He paused to let these words sink in.
    “There will be no special fund,” Dysart continued, “or public announcements of any kind for that matter. I’m not letting a bunch of terrorists tell me what to do. Apparently you people built some jerry-rigged system that’s not good enough to keep out the unwashed hordes. Now you damn well need to fix it! I want that second account restored to its proper balance, and I want you to fill in whatever electronic hole these people crawled through so this never happens again. If you can do that, it’s possible—just possible mind you—some of you might keep your jobs. Otherwise, there probably won’t be any jobs left to keep.”
    With that, Dysart rose and stalked out of the room. Rob’s feeling of surreal disbelief ratcheted up to a whole new level as he watched Dysart go.
    Kelleher took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
    “Well, people,” he said, “I’d say we have some work to do.”

C HAPTER F OUR

    LATE AT NIGHT in his cubicle, Tim leaned forward in his chair and hit the Page Down key occasionally while he stared at the computer monitor. He was skimming through the AMS computer programs, supposedly looking for any irregularities. He went slowly on purpose, since he knew there was nothing to find.
    The calmness of his face belied the energy that churned within. He had burned up so much nervous adrenaline that day that he felt like a wrung-out dishcloth. What a rush to watch everyone running around like mice on exercise wheels. After all the months of planning and scheming, he couldn’t believe this day had actually arrived. A big part of him was still terrified that something he hadn’t anticipated would rear up and derail everything. So far, though, everything had played out exactly as he predicted. He had to wait another twelve hours for the next step in his plan, but he didn’t mind. Tim was good at waiting. After all, he had been doing it for