"Make me laugh, and the job is yours, Radia," said the elderly man in his late fifties, his expression solemn.
The first thing the IT department hiring manager at Mercy Enterprises asked Orlee, who had come in for the interview under the alias Radia Velvet, was to "make him laugh" after reviewing her fabricated resume. She was applying for a key role within the Cyber Security team at the company.
The interviewee observed the man in front of her, who wore an impassive expression and seemed impatient, drumming his fingers on the table as he waited for her to begin.
She heard a giggle through the earpiece, which was discreetly hidden behind her hair. The small hearing device, allowed Crystal to assist Orlee with the technical aspects of the interview, as Orlee wasn't particularly adept with computers.
"He just had to pick you to tell a joke, of all people!" Crystal couldn't stop laughing as she listened through the hearing device.
"Shut up!" Orlee hissed barely above a whisper, covering her mouth with her hand to keep the guy in front of her from hearing.
The interviewer raised an eyebrow as if he were patiently waiting and had all the time in the world.
"Umm..." Orlee racked her brain for a joke but came up empty.
When the interviewer was busy making faces, Orlee couldn't help but notice a few stray hairs sticking out of his nose. Desperate for a joke, she roughly threw one together.
"Do you know what the nose said to the finger?" Orlee asked the interviewer.
"Oh God!" Crystal rolled her eyes at the impending joke.
"What?" the interviewer asked, his curiosity evident as if he was genuinely eager to find out what the finger said.
"Stop picking on me!" Orlee said. Afterward, she laughed and gestured dramatically, as if she had just delivered the greatest joke ever.
"You should probably stop picking on him with your booger jokes and your boogeywoman laugh," Crystal said through the device, a small, amused smile playing at the corners of her lips.
The interviewer looked rather unimpressed, his face settling into a bored expression.
Orlee's laugh faltered and died when she saw that the interviewer didn't even twitch.
"Wanna hear two short jokes and a long joke?"
"Joke, Joke, Jooooooooooooooooooooooooke"
Crystal was laughing her ass off while her sister struggled to coax even a smile out of the old grump.
"Beg him, Orlee!" Crystal laughed, after giving her a piece of advice that might actually work.
In your dreams, sister, Orlee thought.
After an hour of session with Orlee cracking jokes while he sat there with a bored expression, she finally gave up and decided to follow her sister's advice.
"Roses are red,"
"Violets are blue,"
"I'm lucky to have an interviewer like you,"
"So, please, hire me, would you?"
Upon hearing this, he snorted as though trying to stifle his laughter, but couldn't contain it and burst out laughing. This reaction weirded out Orlee while causing Crystal to laugh even harder.
"You are hired." said the interviewer shocking Orlee.
'Weirdo,' Orlee muttered under her breath.
******
Brents wanted to con this organization for a reason, just as they had a reason for every con they carried out. On the surface, it appeared to be an IT company providing software services, but behind the scenes, it was involved in many illegal activities, such as running a drug cartel, selling sensitive information, morphing data in public records, and defrauding NGOs of their funds—all under the facade of Mercy Enterprises.
It had been almost a month since Orlee was hired by this organization. She was still puzzled by the interview she had that day. She wasn't sure how a cybersecurity engineer interview typically went, but she was certain that being asked to make them laugh was not part of the standard procedure for getting hired.
During this period, Crystal, leveraging the remote access provided by Orlee, who was working in that organization, managed to transfer about twenty million dollars of illegal funds into their accounts.
Initially, when Orlee joined and Crystal managed to access the sensitive information of the organization, she realized that there had not been any illegal activities of that nature for over a month. Both sisters assumed that the organization might be keeping a low profile to avoid raising any suspicions when they noticed a recurring pattern.
"Anything new?" Mason asked his younger daughter, Crystal, as he approached her and glanced at her computer.
"Nothing concerning," the computer prodigy replied, "but I think we can still take out ten more from them."
"Hmm," Mason hummed, then asked, pointing to the phone, "Is Orlee on the call?"
"Yep," Crystal replied absentmindedly as she busily typed away at some code.
While looking at the data displayed in an incomprehensible language, Mason rolled his eyes and picked up the phone from the table.
"Gosh, Orlee, only Crystal is getting some action while we're bored to death" Mason complained
"Old man, I'm not complaining; I actually enjoy sitting here in front of this computer, doing nothing while Crystal works her magic. It feels like I'm on a vacation" Orlee replied with a hint of humor in her voice.
"Dad, Lee, I feel like there might be some changes in the dynamics at the organization. I haven't seen any illegal activities recorded for over two months now," Crystal said, gaining the attention of the two.
"I can't even access one of their databases now; I can't get through it. At all. Just a few days ago, I was able to go in, delete the record of a $2 million transaction, and wire it into our account," Crystal said, concern lacing her voice.
"Do they have any pattern?" Mason asked with utter seriousness.
"They record activity every fortnight, but we haven't seen any for over two months now," Orlee answered.
"May I know why you ignored this important piece of information and kept me in the dark?" Mason inquired, his frustration and anger mounting.
"Orlee, leave the office premises and come home," Mason instructed before Crystal could even answer.
"And you, stop whatever you're doing and cover your traces in the system." Crystal nodded, on the brink of tears, as her father spoke to her in a rather harsh tone.
"Cut her some slack, will you? I was the one who decided it was negligible. I mean, they don't necessarily have to follow their scheduled times. We're talking about drugs, fraud involvement with the government, among other things," Orlee said as she gathered her things and prepared to leave.
"Exactly, they don't have to deviate from their routine, which they've been following for a decade," Mason snarled.
"Chika, chill! Crys, I'm sure you can cover up any traces we've left behind and please ignore this grumpy old chick for now. I'm on my way home, and we can talk about it when I get there, okay?" Orlee said in a soft voice, aware of her sister's sensitivity.
About an hour later, when Orlee returned, they discussed the possible outcomes—both the best and the worst. Orlee didn't like how Mason had blamed Crystal, who had played no part in the decision to ignore the recurring pattern of the organization's activities. This made Crystal burst into tears and leave the room.
"Why?" Orlee sighed.