Warming The Cold One - 14. Resistance is Futile

“Sorry I’m late, I got caught up in Building Management.” Björn sat down across from Rolf. “The IT department and Management teams need to work on their customer service.”

Rolf laughed. “I heard about a huge incident. Did you have to break into everyone offices?”

“Seems like it was the only way to get something done without a staff to do it for me.” Björn waved down a waitress for a menu. “Tell me it will get easier. Please tell me that.”

Rolf shook his head. “It only gets worse.”

“I was afraid of that,” commented Björn as he flagged the waitress back over. “Can I get the house salad and some ranch dressing on the side?” The waitress walked away to place his order.

“How soon will everything be up and running,” Rolf asked in between bites of his chicken fried steak.

“Well the IT department should have everything ready tonight. The requests were still in the system, but they just needed to be turned on. Also, they had to set up a page for requesting a new sign-in that converts the old one over and no one loses any data. I was assured that it would be as seamless as possible.” Björn looked down at his phone at a text from Brandon. “Ah, IT said that everything should be set up now for sign-ins and the conversion process can start on Monday for the existing packs.”

Rolf smiled with his mouth full. “Great!”

Björn shot him a glance. “Next time swallow before talking. You have gravy on your shirt now.” Björn started to laugh. His salad arrived right then, and he started to eat ravenously.

Rolf shot him a look and said while trying to keep a straight face, “I’ve never seen a wolf go after a salad like that. I figured dedication like that should go only to meat.”

Björn looked up from his salad. “You’ve never had the house salad then.” Björn pushed back some of the greens to show sous vide steak mixed in. “You never read the salad part of menu in how many years you’ve been here?”

Rolf looked defeated. “I admit, the salad section usually isn’t my favorite reading. Maybe I’ll look it over next time we have lunch together.”

Toby looked down at his phone when it rang. He saw the name and picked it up. “Hello, this is Master Tobias. Yes, thank you for working so hard Hans. I understand it was a lot of work and I am grateful you gave me such an incredible rate considering the circumstances. I will expect it later today then. Thanks again.”

He was surprised that PWC would have a report that fast, but they did do most of the day to day finance checks so maybe they were able to blend it in to their run of the mill work. He decided that he’d hold judgement until he read the report.

Fredrick was looking at his screen and was sweating. The numbers just were not adding up. He saw the money going into general fund from pack payments. He saw all the normal building management and IT expenses going out. All the day-to-day expenses were being paid. When he got to the staffing budgets something wasn’t right. The Himalayan and the Saharan staff budgets were perfect, but the Amazonian and Celtic budgets looked like they were being shorted. The Amazonians seems to be spending the same amount as everyone, but they were showing over budget and the packs had been tapped to pay more per member. The Celtic budget was the one that baffled him. They did not spend any council money on staff or incidentals. Yet all their money showed allocated. They too were being tapped at twice the normal per member rate.

Fredrick picked up the phone and called a college. “Ori, can you come over to my office for a minute? I have an odd audit I want you to read over and see if you can find what I’m missing.”

A minute later Ori arrived at Fredrick’s office. She knocked and came in. “What do you have Fredrick?”

Fredrick smiled when she came in. “I’m doing a legal audit for a pending fraud lawsuit and I just cannot find where the money is going.”

Ori walked around to look at Fredrick’s screen. She whistled when she read it. “Your missing about $2 million dollars this quarter alone.” She grabbed a chair from the other side of the desk and sat down next to Fredrick. “Do you mind if I click around a bit?”

Fredrick agreed. “Yes, I have the filtering on so it shouldn’t have any account names, just department names.”

Ori clicked through a few pages and clicked on a project just named ‘Power’. “What is this project?” She ran a quick once over the budget and pointed. “There is your money.”

Fredrick looked at the numbers and then clicked on the master project billing list. “It’s not there! You found it Ori. How did I miss this?”

Ori smiled. “Sometimes it takes a couple sets of eyes. I hope you are going to be on the winning side of this audit.”

Fredrick looked over at her. “Me too!” Ori put the chair back and started to leave the office. “Ori, before you go. Can you keep it secret that I’m doing this audit?”

Ori turned back to him. “I guess.” She joked, “I don’t want the wolves scratching at my door.”

As the door closed, Fredrick was thinking the same thing. He finalized the report and had it sent by same day courier to Toby.

Tala and Jay were sitting on the front porch of a brand-new house built for Björn and Lisbeth. Tala turned to Lisbeth. “This tea is excellent.”

Lisbeth blushed. “I just followed the instructions on the box.” She leaned back in her oversized rocking chair she had moved when their stuff was packed up. “It is going to be nice having some of our own security here. I always feel like we are over working Toby’s teams.”

Jay nodded. “I know they are liking the overtime, but it is hard on them. A lot of them have wives and pups to care for. Do you know if any of the new families have kids?”

Lisbeth smiled. “Yes, four of the six families have kids. I made sure that we had added a school and a couple playgrounds and parks to the map.”

Tala smiled as well then. “Thank you so much for taking on so much of the planning work here. Why won’t you let me hire you an assistant?”

Lisbeth shook her head. “I like to keep busy and I demand to stay hands on. However, I think I am going to delegate talking to Alpha Boehler to you from now on.”

Tala sighed. “I think I better get this over with and call him. He sounds like he might be a handful and I want to gauge him before I visit in person. He lost three families in one day and I think it best to call before they arrive tonight.”

Tala went inside the house and sat in Lisbeth’s office. He pulled out his cell phone and looked at the number Lisbeth had on the desk for him. The phone rang three times before a voice answered. “Hello, I’m looking for Alpha Boehler. Yes, I can hold.”

A second later a different voice picks up. “Yes, this is Alpha Boehler.”

“Good evening Alpha, I’m sorry to call so late in the day.” Tala took a deep breath. “My name is Tala and I wanted to speak to you about what happened this afternoon.”

Instantly, Tala could hear rage in the man’s voice. “How dare you call me after what you did?”

Tala quickly jumped on the defensive. “I had no idea things were going to go the way they did. I believe you are aware I am very new to this world and had no idea that my invitation would have such an effect on them.”

Alpha Boehler continued in his rage, “be that as it may, I demand to know what you are going to do to make amends.” He then started to get a patronizing tone in his voice. “Pack member theft is a serious crime and I would hate to see a new pack leader lose his pack so quickly.”

Tala instantly was offended but did not let Boehler know. He decided to lay it on thick. “Amends is what I wish to make with you. Is it possible to meet with you tomorrow? Lunch at your choice of restaurants perhaps?”

Alpha Boehler smiled to himself. He was right, this young pup wasn’t a threat at all. “That sounds excellent. I’ll see you about 1pm then?”

Tala could hear the smile in Alpha Boehler’s voice. “I’ll be there with bells on. See you tomorrow Alpha.”

Tala hung up the phone and went back out to the porch. Jay quickly sensed the mood of the call. “He is just as big of an asshole as we heard?”

Tala nodded. “Yep, I think we are going to have to do some research before lunch tomorrow. That alpha will not be an alpha for long and I don’t trust his one beta either.”

Lisbeth chimed in. “Guys, already done that for you. He has a younger brother that also lives on the pack lands that got looked over as alpha when their father died. What I have found in Toby’s records show that he could have been a great alpha.”

Jay perked up. “You have been busy! Call him and have him ready to meet me about the same time as Tala is having lunch.”

Lisbeth smiled a knowing smile. “You got it Jay. I think we just finished planning the rest of that coup d’état.”

That evening Tala and Jay were waiting by the newly finished airstrip for the Clan jet to touch down. When it finished taxiing, they wheeled over the stairs and opened the door. They welcomed each and every one of the newcomers as they exited. The last family to exit was the Freemans.

Tala reached out his hand to Sean. “Sean, it is so good to have you and your family here.”

Sean beamed brightly. He pulled Tala into a tight hug. “Thank you so much for having us. Tala this is my wife Selma and my two boys Troy and Phillip.”

Tala shook all three of the offered hands and then turned to Jay. “This is my mate, Jay. Jay, this is Sean Freeman and his family.” He turned back to Sean. “We have some cars outside to take you up to Master Whelan’s land as we don’t have enough homes ready yet. I was not expecting all six of you to come on the same day.”

Sean laughed. “I guess we all saw the writing on the wall about the same time.”

Jay turned to Selma. “Mrs. Freeman, I’m sure you are still a bit frazzled from your hasty trip. Please let us know if there I anything you need. You will find Lisbeth down near the cars. She will make sure you have all of our contact information as I’m sure Tala will be keeping your husband busy bright in early in the morning.”

Thank you, Jay,” Selma replied. “But please, call me Selma. Did I hear we were staying with Master Whelan?”

Jay started guiding Selma and the two boys down the stairs as Tala and Sean continued to talk about future security plans. “Yes, he is my father and has offered to help us out as much as he can.”

Selma looked a bit surprised. “Your father? I didn’t know that. It is no wonder you have been able to handle all of this so quickly. I hear he is a great leader.”

Jay smiled. “Yes, he really is and made sure to help us get things going fast. Your husband and his colleges are going to help us be able to defend ourselves without having to rely so heavily and my father’s security teams.”

They reached the spot that Lisbeth was waiting for them just as Tala and Sean caught up. “Sean, I look forward to seeing you in the morning before I leave. Selma, I’m sure Jay told you, please let us know if you need anything.” Tala was about to say goodbye when he turned to the two boys. He got down on one knee. “Troy, do you and Phillip like sports at all?”

Troy stammered out a reply. “Ye...yes. I like football and Phil likes to play baseball.”

Tala grinned. “Then I have something for you.” He grabbed a bag from the ground near the last car. He pulled out a football and handed it to Troy.

Troy looked confused. “This is for us?”

Jay chimed in. “We wanted to make sure you had something to do while you and Phil get to know all the other kids in the area.”

Selma thanked Tala. “I now see what Sean saw in you. Thank you so much.”

The family got in the car after Lisbeth gave them a packet of information. The three lycans watched as they drove away. They turned and walked back to Lisbeth’s house. Tala turned to Lisbeth as they sat on the porch again. “Have you heard from the crew on the building delays on the main house and our house?”

Lisbeth turned to look at Tala after sipping her tea. “Yes, they said that they will have the last items installed in your house in the morning and then they just have to clean up. So, you should be able to move in this weekend. The main house is still delayed because of the drainage issue. Maybe another two weeks to get more pipe and to redo the main drain stack. That should be about it though.”

Tala looked relieved at that update. “That’s wonderful. Maybe that means we can work on getting started on the other houses soon.”

Jay’s phone rang and he stepped inside to answer it. “Hey Toby, the six families are on their way.”

Toby chuckled. “You can just call me Dad you know. I teased you that one time when we were in a meeting and now, I’ve lost my title again.” Toby got a more serious tone. “That isn’t why I called though. Can you and Tala come up tonight? I have something you both will want to see.”

Jay caught the tone in his father’s voice. “Yeah, we’ll head up right now.” Jay came back outside and Looked over at Tala. “That was my father. He wants us to see something tonight. I told him we’d be right up.”

Tala got up. “Thank you, Lisbeth. We’d better not keep Toby waiting.”

They walked over to their truck and drove north along the logging roads to Toby’s office. It took them about an hour over the rough terrain. They parked outside Toby’s house and knocked on the door before they entered.

Toby stood up from his chair and gave them both a hug. “Come into my office. I want you to read something.” He ushered them into his office, and they sat down on a small sofa as Toby rolled his desk chair over. He handed them both a thick bound report. “Both of you hold a copy of a report I paid for based on the fraud lawsuit. Tell me what you think.”

Jay looked over the report from PWC for a few minutes as Tala looked over the report from KPMG. Jay finished and turned to Toby. “It all looks like it is fine. We might be in trouble.”

Tala looked up from his report. “Jay, I would jump to that conclusion until you read this report. Toby’s clan has been defrauded almost 1.5 million dollars in the last three months.” Jay’s mouth fell open. “Plus, Master Tsit is out about 500 thousand dollars. Toby, have you told anyone about this yet?”

Toby sighed. “Not yet, there are a total of five people that have seen the KPMG report. The three of us, the man who generated it and a college he called to verify a redacted version. I plan on calling Raul and Björn in the morning.”

Jay finally was able to compose himself enough to comment again. “Let us know if there is anything we can do. I know these reports are going to blow the council up a bit. If you want us to be there, just let us know.”

“I agree, please let us know when to be ready.” Tala stood up. “For now though, Jay and I should get ourselves ready to go to Arizona tomorrow for our meeting with Alpha Boehler and his younger brother at the same time.”

“I wish you well. Boehler has been a blunderbuss for years and it is time someone put him in his place in the way only you two can.” Toby walked them out to their truck and gave them both a hug. “Let me know if there is anything I can do to help you too.”

The next morning, Björn and Hawk met in Björn’s office and went up to the 17th floor together. The doors opened on a floor that look very much mothballed since the World War II. The main office was cleaned out as expected and a basic desk was set up with a 20-year-old computer sitting on it. The IT tech that Björn first interacted with was just finishing with some wall connections and plugged a network cable in.

When he saw the two walk in, he jumped up off the floor. “Good morning Master Björn. I was just finishing up this workstation here. I did the one in the larger office to the right here earlier this morning. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to upgrade the computers yet. The work orders that my boss fixed allocated money for new machines, but the purchase orders had to be rewritten. It will be a few days before they will be here and imaged.”

Björn nodded. “I thank you for all your hard work to get Hawk’s office going so quickly. Do you mind showing him how to log in?”

The tech quickly nodded back. “Sure, go ahead and sit down and I will walk you through the process. It might be a little different when the new machines arrive, but the basics always stay the same. Do you know what your login is?”

Hawk blushed. “Not anymore. I don’t know if it was converted already or not.”

The tech didn’t look surprised. “I guess it’s hard to email you when you never had email. What was the old ID and I will call down to the office and get the new one.” Hawk wrote down the ID on a twenty-year-old Post-it note. The tech pulled out a crude looking cell phone. “Hello, yes this is Clay. I need you to look up an ID conversion for me. Yes, I can hold. Thank you so much.”

Hawk took the information that Clay had written down. “Okay, what do I do first?” It took Hawk about five minutes to sign-in and change his password.

Clay started pointing at a few links on the intranet page. “For now, click here to check your email and over here for the phone directory. Our SharePoint team is already working on creating a whole network of pages just for the American clan and it’s packs. I expect to see a rough draft by the end of the month.”

Both Björn and Hawk smiled. Björn held out his hand. “Thank you, Clay. You have done a lot of work for us that is above and beyond. I hope your boss knows how valuable you are.”

Clay shook it vigorously. “It really was no trouble, and I think he got your point yesterday.” Clay held up his badge. “He shocked me when I got here this morning with a new assignment. Lead Network Technician, American Clan Operations Center, 17th Floor.”

Hawk looked confused and looked at Björn. “We have an operations center?”

Clay laughed. “Your meeting crashing had wider effects than either of you know. Most clans have at least 2 floors each. You will be having the 17th and 21st floors built out by the end of the year. As soon as we can hire more staff, we will be fulling staffing both floors with an IT team. I believe that Building Management is creating a team for you as well.”

Björn looked impressed. “Well Hawk, it looks like you have two teams to manage until you can hire some staff too.”

The American Clan jet touched down at a private airstrip just outside Sedona, AZ. Two cars were wait for them. Tala got in one car and started to head toward the city while the other took Jay out into the Northern Arizona desert. He arrived at the North Central Pack about a half hour later. His note said to find a man named Jose at a small office just past the main pack building.

Jay walked in and a found only a single man behind a desk. He got up as Jay walked in. “Can I help you?”

Jay put on his friendliest smile. “I hope so. Are you Jose?”

The man nodded. “Yes, I am Jose. What is this about?”

“My name is Jay and I am here to offer you a job.” Jay pulled a chair next to a desk and sat down.

Tala’s car pulled up to a swanky 3-star restaurant in Downtown Sedona. He got out and straightened his jacket and walk up to the door. A doorman in a 3-piece tuxedo opened the door for him. He walked through the finely appointed lobby up to the hostess desk. He waited for the well-dress hostess to finish up on a phone call before he approached her.

“Good afternoon Sir.” She smiled at him. “How may we help you today?”

Tala replied trying to sound dignified. “I am meeting someone for lunch at 1pm. Has he arrived already? His name was Boehler.”

She typed into her computer for a few seconds. “Yes, Alpha Boehler has already arrived and is waiting up in the Garden Dining Suite. If you will follow me, I will take you over to Manny. He will escort you through the members area.” Tala followed her over to another desk. “Manny, please escort this gentleman up to Garden 105 to meet with the Alpha.”

Tala and Manny went wordlessly up a flight of stairs and through a security gate. After the gate, they went down a long corridor that opened to a spacious indoor garden room. They turned to the right and down a hallway that had numbered doors. They reached number 105 and Manny knocked three times on the door before opening it. He ushered Tala in and closed the door behind him.

Tala did a once over with his eyes and decided that this seemed a little too posh even for his old lifestyle. Alpha Boehler was sitting at a small table by the window with a rocks glass full of what looked like whiskey. “Good Afternoon, Alpha Boehler.” Tala held out his hand as he walked over.

Alpha Boehler stood up and shook it firmly. “Glad you made it on time. People just don’t understand how busy a man like me is and that my time is valuable.” He pointed to a seat across from him. “Please sit down and we can discuss some things.”

Tala sat down and suddenly a waiter appeared and asked him if he wanted something to drink. “I’ll have a lemon water, please.” The waiter disappeared and was back just as fast with a tall glass of lemon water and a plate of sliced lemons as well. “Thank you.”

Boehler was laughing inside. ‘He could see what I was drinking and then he ordered lemon water. This guy really is a push over.’ “Now, let us get down to business. What are you offering?”

Tala took a sip of his water and looked in to the Boehler’s eyes for a second. He nodded to himself and spoke softly. “I will offer you your life and your dignity.”

Alpha Boehler took a second to process what he heard and almost fell on the floor laughing. “My life? My dignity? Where do you think you are? This whole club is owned by me. I could take your life right now and no one would ever know what happened.”

Tala’s face hardened. “Just like what happened to your father?” Tala stared right into the other man’s eyes. “You think that I’m weak. I didn’t get through life being weak or pampered or entitled. I earned everything I have.”

Boehler froze then his mood flipped to pure rage. “How dare you talk about my daddy! My father was a great man.”

Tala kept eye contact. “Yes, he was. Master Tobias actually told me stories from when they met. He had just taken over the Celtic clan and your father was very gracious to him. He has fine memories of him, until his untimely death.”

Boehler went on the defensive. “Are you accusing me of my father’s death? I was nowhere around then. He was out in the desert talking to some of the wolves on our packs borders when a poacher shot him.”

Tala looked at the man across from him coolly. “I never said you were there. Also, I am not accusing you. I am flat out telling you that you planned your father’s death so you could take over this pack. He was about to announce your younger brother was going to be selected as Alpha-Designate. You couldn’t allow him to take over as you had plans for power and wealth.”

Alpha Boehler got a wry grin. “Nice story, but you can’t prove it.”

Tala got a grin of his own. “I don’t have to prove it. You’re going to hand the pack over to your brother and you are going to disappear.”

Boehler stood up laughing and motioned to a security guard through the window. When the door opened, Boehler made a demand of the guard. “Get this guy out of my club. I don’t ever want to see him again.”

Tala put his hand up to the guard. “I will see myself out. But I warn you publicly, you should have taken my offer. I only wanted what was best for you and for your pack. These people have had enough of your tyranny.” Tala walked down the hall and out the front. When he got outside, he pulled out his cell phone. “Plan A failed but now I have some information we can use. How is our future Alpha?”

A minute after Tala was gone, Alpha Boehler got up from his table and walked over to the corner and placed a call. “I couldn’t keep him here as long as I would have liked. He basically told me to give up the pack and disappear. I was going to have him ejected but he opted to leave on his own.”

The man on the other end of the phone frowned. “I told you not to underestimate him. I will protect you if he tries anything, but I can only do so much without Raul finding out I’m messing with his packs. How much does he know?”

“He told me about the plan to kill my father. He didn’t say anything else.” Alpha Boehler bobbed back and forth. “Do you think he knows more than that?”

The man gave a short answer. “If knows that, then he knows everything. Find your brother!”