"Hey dude, do you know what time it is?" Susanne complained as she opened the door. Bor did not dare make any communication online. He had had to come all the way to Susanne's physical address, which meant spending several units on the damned shuttle.
"What I have to say cannot wait," Bor said as he entered the apartment, without waiting for an invitation. Susanne walked to the kitchen and pulled out two beers.
"What's got you so serious," She asked as they both sat on the couch.
"Something's up. I think we or they are burned." Bor said.
"Other side, you remember that helmet guy? He was acting all suspicious. Haven't even checked the account."
"Dude, its a prime account, I think we are safe on that front."
"Titan authorities are no joke, they are even cracking down on these accounts." Bor had heard that from somewhere, and he knew to be careful. "If they are somehow compromised, then we better off not checking it."
"Do you know how much is in that account?" Susanne was clearly not as cautious as Bor. "I thought you were the ambitious one, now you want to loose more than a year's work?"
"How much have you laundered so far?" Laundering was the boss's work, while Bor dealt with the nefarious characters.
"Barely ten percent."
"WHAT! WHY? You've had so much time?" Bor momentarily forgot who was the boss to who.
"Hey watch it, Besides, you never told me there was a ticking clock on this," Susanne said. She could see the look of disappointment in Bor's eyes. What sort of criminal doesn't want to get the laundering done ASAP and get their money.
"Setting up legit businesses while also faking sales and cash flows is not easy," Susanne said, "Especially if you want it done right. I thought I was setting us up for the future, where we could walk away from all this."
"I get the feeling that the chicken is coming home to roost." Bor said ominously.
"Hey come on, don't be a nervous nellie. Look, we can just move the money to a few other accounts, anonymously. That way, if that account is tagged, we won't end up loosing everything."
"If its tagged, then we'll be found the moment we touch the money, let alone move it!" Bor almost face-palmed. Who in this century didn't know that?
"Look, I know what I'm doing. My money guy says one can make movements anonymously, as long as you have the login credentials and an encrypted port."
"How sure are you on this? You know if shit goes down, I am the one exposed," Bor couldn't make Susanne back down, so now he was looking for assurances.
Meanwhile, while these two were bickering, a dashing young man was waking up from his capsule. Unlike usual, his capsule had been open the entire time and his VR feed in the helmet was being projected in a monitor, where there were about half a dozen Titan Agents milling about in his room.
Having been born in Alcove, Mousa lived like a king. He pretty much got everything he asked for, and there was really nothing out of reach for him, other than illicit items.
He couldn't explain where his entrepreneurial side came from, maybe from his father's repeated exhortations or his desire to be more than what his family saw him, but he had always wanted to be more than just another rich asshole.
Too bad, with little life experience and whole lot of money to spend, the boy had ended up going down the wrong path, rather, fallen in with a bad crowd. Of course at the time he'd been ecstatic. All the money he could wish for, and the certain feeling of independence from family, propped up his pride, making him more indebted to the crowd.
Unfortunately, every dog has its day, and this time, not in a good way. He was a rich spoiled brat, and with him operating outside the protection of family, the Titan Policing Agency hadn't taken long to break him.
Now here he was, giving intel to a few Superintendents (High level Agents) on his criminal alliances. Problem was, he didn't know much. He was in charge of running some smugglers. The problem was, these were low hanging fruits that didn't have much value to the Agents, who were looking for the real top dogs of the operations.
"I think you screwed up that meet intentionally," Superintendent Charlotte said.
"What? How could I? I was nervous as shit man, cut me a break!"
"You didn't get that guy to admit to anything, and you even tipped him off to us being on him!" She retorted. "I thought you said this guy was dumb? Or do you think there's nothing we can do to you?"
"Look. I admit it, I screwed up. I didn't think this guy would be so alert, he's usually all about business. Besides, they have a quite a pretty penny saved up, I doubt they will want to loose it just yet." Mousa was doing all he could to defend himself.
"You think we are dumb? Since you failed on getting this small fly to spill the beans, we just have to renege on some of the promises we'd made earlier ..."
"Charlotte, leave him be, we have a trace on the smuggler's account. If he dips his fingers in the account we'll have him dead to rights." Said Mark as he eyed Mousa. Unlike Charlotte, he was well aware the boy was untouchable. The only reason they could even harass him like this was because his family allowed it.
"And if he doesn't?" Charlotte wasn't convinced. The boy was a wuss, granted, a protected wuss, but since he didn't have his protection, then now was the time to squeeze him.
"Either way, we still have a few things on him. We'll have enough to squeeze him." To Mark, squeezing the actual criminals was easier since most tended to be Blackpiners who were trying to rise in life. The poor sods did not have any backing.
"How long do we have to wait?"
"Ha! Not for long it seems. Who said criminals were smart?"