Warming The Cold One - 30. Who is playing with our money?

“That is another thing off our list of concerns!” Jay exclaimed as he walked into the bedroom. “I just got a call that Karla and Ann are in the air.”

Tala looked up from the suitcase he was packing. “That is great news.” He zipped up the suitcase and set it on the floor. “I’m just glad they understood the flights had to be diverted. Portland to St. Louis and then a private jet back to North Dakota is not shorter by any means.”

Jay nodded. “It wasn’t ideal, but they understood.” Jay rolled the suitcase next to the growing collection by the door. “Did you get ahold of Tucker?”

“Yes, I did. He was happy to hear that we were ready to head back east to finally meet with him.” Tala grabbed a small suitcase from the closet. “Do you know if we are going to be dropping Bjorn off at the council?”

“He hasn’t gotten back to us,” Jay replied. “I’ll call him and see what is going on.”

Olav set down the report he was reviewing turned to the financial auditing committee and sighed. “Have you been able to unravel anything yet? Looking through the council records is giving me a headache.”

Deirdre laughed. “Honey, you don’t know the half of it. I tried following the ledger of just where all the Celtic dues went and got lost somewhere and I can’t find the money anymore. Cooper, what are the chances that there really is fraud so rampant that we can’t find all the money?”

Cooper looked up from the last internal audit he was reviewing. “At this point, one hundred percent chance there is fraud. The problem is if we can prove who did it. The positions on the financial and budgeting committees all rotate so no one person could do this.”

“We need to compile a list of who was on those committees and when. Maybe we will find a pattern in the chaos,” Olav finished speculating.

Deirdre turned to her laptop and did a quick search. “It looks like the committees were formed back in the late seventies. The council resolution stated that it was proposed by the Amazonian clan. It had only narrow support and was tied on the vote. It went to the senior council for the tie-breaker, and it passed without any Saharan support.” She then got up and grabbed a stack of papers from the printer and handed them to Olav.

“What are these?” He read through them and smiled. “You are always one step ahead of me.”

“It’s all listed in the records as public information,” Deirdre replied. “It looks like a solid balance but not quite perfect.”

Cooper looked over Olav shoulder and saw what she was talking about. “The Celtic clan never had a chair position and there are a few people that served on both committees back-to-back.”

“That is statistically improbable based on the number of packs there are. You’re one of only three from California in the last fifty years. I know there are over fifty packs in California. The only area that has more is Texas and they have had fifteen committee members.” Olav continued to count and analyze and then gasped. “I found it! Look how many times this person served as the committee lead assistant and how many time these initals are listed as the comptroller.”

Cooper looked where Olav was pointing. He started nodding in agreement. Deirdre was still reading stuff on her laptop and stopped for a second. “We don’t have a comptroller.”

“Maybe the last one left and never got replaced because of the council change,” Cooper retorted.

Deirdre shook her head. “We’ve never had a comptroller. All of our books were always inspected by PWC so that we didn’t need to hire one. It is all in the current financial services agreement and council resolution from four years ago.”

Olav set the papers he was reading down. “I think we need to talk to our team at PWC and see what they know.”

Hans had just gotten back from lunch when his phone rang. He picked it up and greeted the caller. “Thank you for calling, this is Hans.”

“Good afternoon, Hans, my name is Deirdre. I have you on speakerphone with my colleagues Cooper and Olav. We are calling because you provided a report to Master Tobias Whelan and we have a few questions about it.” Not hearing an answer, she continued. “The report you gave him does not match the other report from KPMG that Master Whelan commissioned.

“Two reports,” Hans questioned. “Why did he request two reports?”

“We wondered the same thing until we actually read them both,” Deirdre answered. “They don’t match up well. In fact, one looks disturbingly inaccurate. The problem is, though, that we can’t seem to find out why they are so different. Are you able to shed some light on that subject?”

Hans started to sweat. He looked around to see if there was anyone else around and saw that most of the office was still at lunch or in meetings. “I, um, I can attest fully that the report I put together is accurate to the best of my ability. The council’s finances are a very complicated matter hence the reason why we keep a staff just for you.”

Cooper spoke up this time. “Hello, this is Cooper. You said you keep a full-time staff for just us?”

Hans pulled himself back together and got back into his normal groove. “Yes, of course. Managing that much money is a full-time job and we aim to make sure all your investments continue to grow.”

Deirdre pulled up the latest council resolution to check something while Hans continued to rabble on about rates of return and the ways they keep the council insulated from risk. When she found what she was looking for she interrupted him. “Sorry to interrupt, but in the latest council resolution three years ago, it says that ‘this council retains PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited in its capacity of audit and forensic service and will maintain separate banking and investment services with the aforementioned firm earlier in this document.’ If that is true, why would you be droning on about rates of return?”

“I can explain that easily,” Hans replied. “The council’s money is managed by Actuarial and Insurance Management Solutions. AIMS is a wholly owned division of PWC.”

All three looked at each other in shock. Deirdre scrolled up and saw in plain language that all the investments were indeed handled by AIMS.

“That explains it then,” Cooper spoke once he got his bearings back. “We will look over a few more things and then get in contact with them directly to see if they have more in-depth numbers. Thank you for your time.”

Deirdre quickly hung up before Hans could say anything more. She turned to the others. “I think we found out where the problem is. Do you think we can request to know who work on our accounts?”

Cooper got a determined look on his face. “We better find out or else there will be a lot of packs that will not be pleased with us.”

“I really wished Bjorn was flying back with us,” Tala said to Jay as they were flying East toward North Carolina. “I’m worried about him. I don’t think he really understands some of the dangers.”

Jay nodded. “I called up Peter and to see if he had someone he could spare for a week to add to the security detail. He said he would do what he could. We need to get the Florida pack in place soon.”

“I hate having to rely on one pack to do everything for us. We need to get all the packs we can in place.” Tala thought for a second. “Would it be crazy to invite them to come and see us instead of us going to them?”

Jay shook his head. “While it would work, we’d be the laughingstock of the council. It is your job to manage your packs and not the job of the packs to come to you.”

“It was worth asking,” Tala sighed.

Tala and Jay walked down the jet stairs to the runway skirt in a small airport outside New Bern, NC. Waiting next to a SUV were two young men. They walked over to them. “Hello, my name is Tala and this is Jay. Are you the guides we were promised by Alpha Tucker?”

The younger of the two perked up. “Yes, my name is Jamie, and this is Dalton. My uncle asked us to drive you out to our pack lands. It’s going to take about two and a half hours.”

“Sounds good,” Tal replied. He grabbed his shoulder bag and Jay grabbed his and got in the back of the SUV. Dalton started the engine and pulled out of the airport area. Tala turned to Jamie in the seat in front of him. “Any thing I should be on the look out for during the trip?”

Jamie thought for a second. “Just the gators, I guess. Where we are going is called Alligator River for a reason.”

“Why did you come here,” Dalton asked, interrupting the conversation.

“Dalton, why are you being so rude to my uncle’s guests?” Jamie turned to the back seat embarrassed. “You’ll have to excuse Dalton.”

“They are just more people that are going to promise us the world and then crap on us like the last ones did.” Dalton’s anger edging out as her drove very aggressively.

Tala closed his eyes and focused on Dalton for a second. He nodded to himself and then opened his eyes again. “Dalton, can you slow down a bit? I don’t want to end up like your brother.”

Dalton slowed down; a bit startled by Tala’s comment he slowly spoke. “What do you know about my brother?”

“I know you still blame yourself even though you know it wasn’t your fault. Just because he was in a hurry to bring you back a birthday gift doesn’t mean it was your fault.” Tala turned to Jamie. “He is a very angry person on the outside, but inside he is hurting.”

Jamie was still recovering a bit. “How did you know that?”

Jay spoke up. “Tala has a gift when it comes to things like this. You get used to it.”

Tala smacked Jay’s leg. “Good to know you are getting used to me, my dear mate.”

“Um, that’s not what I meant,” Jay stammered.

“I know, but if I can’t give you a ration of crap, who can?” He turned back to Jamie and Dalton. “It easiest to say that I have an ancient wolf spirit. That has some perks.”

“Keep your gifts out of my business.” Dalton refocused on the road and sped back up.

“I thought I told you I wanted full access to their systems and offices already.” The voice on the phone sounded angry. “What do I pay you for?” The young technician quaked a bit as he sat there listening. “Answer me!”

“I have been trying,” he squeaked out. “Every bug I put in the system, they find it. I’ve never had any group so diligent in testing their doors.”

“How hard is it to add a bypass to a door,” the voice asked violently.

“They audit the access list every day trying to find the bug in the badge reader. They won’t stop until they feel it’s secure. I’m afraid they are going to pull the logs soon and see that I have been hacking their doors.” The technician started sobbing. “Please, we need to stop.”

“If I must tell you again, you are not going to like it. Get me anonymous access to those offices and get me full access to their computer files, or else!” The voice hangs up.

“Okay, tell me again,” Clay said into the phone.

“I decided to pull the logs on the door system. I wanted to see if there an error that was messing up the access list.” The technician hesitated before continuing. “I found another user account in the logs that shouldn’t have been there.”

“What,” Clay exclaimed. “Who is it?”

“It was one of the system-level super user accounts,” the tech answered. “Someone has been using system logins like a normal user.”

“Are you able to restrict the system accounts so they are only one-way access,” Clay questioned. “Just for a little while. I just want them to be able to pole user data from the main database for updates. We can write a script to provide access levels by profile flags until we can get a better solution.”

“I’ll get on it,” the tech assured Clay. “I’ll put the doors on ‘clan only mode’ and manually add the needed overrides for the security group.”

“Thank you so much! I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Clay hung up the phone and sent an email to the management group with the update.

The SUV pulls into Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and stops in front of a medium size building. Tala and Jay get out as does Jamie. “Here we are. Home of the Alligator River Red Wolf Pack. Follow me.”

As they head toward the building, Dalton peels out of the packing lot and down a gravel road. “I’m guessing Dalton isn’t joining us,” Jay queries Jamie.

“I am sorry about his attitude. He didn’t want to drive down, but Tucker told him he had to.” Jamie opens the front door to the building and ushers Tala and Jay inside.

Once inside they head down a hall and into a good size office. Inside a man in his late forties stands up. “Welcome! I am so happy you could make it. I do hope the drive was nice.”

Tala walks over to him and extends his hand. “I’m Tala and this is my mate, Jay.”

Tucker grabs his hand and gives him a powerful handshake and then pulls him in for a hug. When he lets go, he apologizes. “I’m sorry but I am just so happy you are here.”

Jay laughs. “You and Jamie both seem giddy we are here.”

Tala chimes in, “Dalton on the other hand…not so much.”

Tucker’s smile fades a bit. “Well, that boy has a lot of anger in him. Try not to be too hard on him.”

Tala nodded. “I know. He’ll stop being angry someday and I hope when he does, he sees that the anger was silly.”

“It is silly indeed. But where are my manners, please have a seat. Can we get you anything to drink?”

“I would love some Coke,” Jay answered.

“What flavor,” asked Jamie.

Jay looked perplexed. “Flavor? Just a regular Coke is fine.”

Tala laughed. “Jay, all soda is called Coke here. It’s a Southern thing. I told you to watch those videos on the plane.” Tala turned back to Jamie. “I’ll just have a sweet tea.”

Jamie nodded. “You sure?”

Tala smiled. “I have traveled all over the world in my life and a glass of southern sweet tea is just what I need right now.”

Jamie turned to Tucker. “Do you want anything Uncle Tucker?”

“I think I will join Tala and have a sweet tea as well. Thank you, Jamie.” Tucker sat down in a chair across from Tala and Jay. “So where do we stand?”

“I talked to Master Tobias and to Jay the last couple days and they filled me in on the rift between red wolf and gray wolf,” Tala began. “I think it sounds silly but again I am still kind of an outsider.”

“I agree, Tala. Most don’t understand the origins of the rift in the first place. They just know that my fellow red wolves and I are different.”

Jamie came back with a small tray with four glasses on it. He handed everyone their drinks and then sat down on the couch on the other side of the room. “Jamie, why don’t you join us,” Tala asked.

“I’m okay, really.” Jamie pulled out a mobile gaming system. “I was trying to get further in ‘Black Spirits’ today.”

Satisfied by that Tala turned to Jay. “Want a sip of my tea?”

Jay took a small sip and gasped. “Did Jamie use the whole bag of sugar?”

Tucker and Tala laughed. “No, he didn’t. Southerners like their tea sweet.” Tala turned to Tucker after taking a sip himself. “It is wonderful tea, by the way. Not too sweet and not too weak in the tea flavor.”

Tucker smiled. “Thank you very much. I made it this morning while Jamie and Dalton were out picking you up just in case you liked sweet tea.”

“I appreciate it. As I was going to say though, I see us getting your pack back together and making sure your pack is treated the same as everyone else in the American Clan. I can’t say others will do the same.”

Tucker beamed. “I like the sound of that. How do we begin?”