Chapter 5:

Christmas Day was not as large of a celebration in the Moretti/Piccolo family as Christmas Eve. The family and two guests were able to enjoy the day at a leisurely pace. The younger members didn't roll out of bed until well after 10 am and spent the rest of the morning in their pajamas, drinking hot chocolate and opening presents. At first Lucas felt embarrassed that he had not bought presents for his hosts, but with a little convincing from Aunt Rose, he soon realized that they really did not care. Christmas was not about the gifts given, but rather the time to spend together as a family. Something that was far more valuable, and much harder to come by these days.

It wasn't difficult for Tony and Lucas to pull Marco aside without the rest of the family becoming suspicious. Dagwood, of course, was right with them. The boys used the guise of playing video games in the basement, to discuss what to do about Marco's gambling debt. There was no way he was going to able to scrounge up the full amount by the next day, and Tony and Lucas couldn't be much help with that either. In total, Marco thought he might be able to get his hands on two thousand credits. Not nearly enough to placate his bookie. The only thing they could possibly do, was to stall for time.

Lucas had been quiet. He had never been in this kind of situation before and wasn't exactly familiar with the whole illegal gambling world. He only had one particular skill set that set him apart from most people but wasn't sure if it would be of any use in this situation.

"Hey Marco?" Lucas broke his silence.

"Yeah?"

"Do they only take cash payment?"

"I guess. Why?" Marco looked quizzically at his cousin's friend.

"Think you could convince them to do a bank transfer instead?"

It didn't take long for Tony to figure out where Lucas was going with this. He grinned.

"I dunno. Maybe?" Marco was confused. "If I don't have the cash, why does a bank wire matter?"

"Can I borrow a laptop?" Luca chewed his bottom lip, his mind working on a plan faster than he could explain to Marco. He started to pace around the room. "If we can find out what bank this guy uses, I can see what level security it has. I mean, it can't be more difficult to hack than the UEO or World Bank -" He paused. "Depending on how many layers it has, I can probably release a virus that will target just that one account. Maybe freeze it or hold it "ransom"?"

Marco looked at Lucas as though he had lost his mind. "You can do what?"

"You know, lock his bank account so that he can't access anything. Hold it ransom until he forgives your debt." Lucas stopped pacing. "Yeah, that could work. It won't work unless we get the routing details though. I'll need to attach the virus to the wire."

"Yes!" Tony grinned. "I knew we'd come up with a plan."

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Wendy dropped her small carry-on bag onto the bed, kicking her shoes off as she did so. She closed her eyes for a moment, focusing on the sound of waves crashing outside her window. After three days surrounded by family, the empath needed time to recharge and rest before heading back for duty on the seaQuest. She'd planned this short respite at the beach resort at the same time she'd confirmed her travel details to head home. The secluded location is what drew her to this particular hotel. While in close proximity to the Florida Keys, it was far enough away that the hotel did not see that many tourists. Nor did it have heavy beach traffic. Wendy was hopeful that the distance from others would allow her to relax control over her empathic senses at least for a short while.

Wendy pushed the windows open, and breathed in the thick, salty air. While at sea most months of the year, she missed the sounds and smells of the ocean. It just wasn't the same being within the confines of the deep in a large submersible. For now, she'd enjoy the salty air and rush of waves before heading back for duty.

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Two days later, the three young men quietly climbed the basement stairs, hoping to slip out without being noticed. Their chances were shot the moment Dagwood's heavy footsteps echoed from behind.

"Hey!" Uncle Pauly's voice bellowed from the family room, "What are you boys up to?"

Tony popped his head around the corner, noticing Angie sitting with her father. "Uh, just goin' out ta get some air. Maybe head over to the shopping center on main street. Catch a movie?"

"I wanna come," piped Angie, quickly abandoning whatever show she was watching online.

"I don't think so, Ange. It's a guys trip." Marco responded, not wanting his little sister joining them. "Plus, there's no room in the car."

"There is too!" Angie stood up, glaring at her brother. "Pop, tell him that he has to take me. I can text Delia to meet me there to hang out."

"Come on boys, just give her a ride. She and her friend will be out of your hair once you get there."

Angie stood with a look of victory on her face. She was already reaching for her hand-held device to message Delia.

Tony and Marco shared a look, neither happy to let the 14-year-old girl tag along.

"Fine, but you're on your own once we get there." Marco huffed. "And, you be ready to leave when we say it's time to go. I don't wanna have to spend an hour looking for you in all those girly clothes shops."

Angie just rolled her eyes in response. "I'm ready. Let's go."

As expected, they were squeezed tightly into Uncle Pauly's car. Dagwood was given the front passenger seat to allow three smaller people to fit in the back. Of all of them, Angie seemed the least concerned about their seating arrangements. She'd happily taken the middle spot wiggling into the small space between her cousin and Lucas.

"So Lucas," she turned to face him, ignoring the look her brother gave her through the rearview mirror. "What's with the laptop?" She motioned to the machine he held tight against his chest.

"Uh, you know me. A computer nerd who never likes to be without one." He smiled hesitantly hoping she'd leave it at that. It would be a little tough trying to explain why he needed the computer if they were just planning on hanging out at the shopping center for the day.

From the look on her face, Angie wasn't quite buying his response, but at least she didn't follow up with more questions about it. "Oh kay – so how come you didn't spend Christmas with your family?" Angie piped up. She'd obviously been dying to know.

Tony dug his elbow into her side.

"Oww, hey! She glared at Tony.

"Don't be rude, Angie. He was invited to stay with us."

"I know that. But why?"

"It's fine, Tony." Lucas looked at Angie. He was surprised his friend hadn't told her and was even more surprised that it took so long for her to ask." "I was supposed to go to my dad's but he had to take a last minute business trip."

"What about your mom?"

Lucas bit his lip, thinking about how he was going to respond. He didn't mind speaking about his dad. Most of his friends and crew mates were aware of his history with his father. The scientist was constantly traveling and working to get funding for his projects. At least he made a somewhat regular effort to keep in touch with his son. His mom was a different story. His relationship with her was shaky at best. She was much more aloof than his father. She was never the type of mother to hug him when he cried or kiss his scrapes when he was little, but she wasn't neglectful either. Cynthia Holt was just not born to be a hands-on parent. As he'd grown older, she'd treated him more like another one of their adult relatives rather than her son. Lucas just hadn't thought it worth the effort to try and reach her at the last minute to convince her to let him join her new family for Christmas.

A quick glance at Tony revealed that his friend was interested in his answer too. His mom was not a subject of their conversations – ever.

"She's in Aspen for the holidays. I just – I just thought it was be more fun to spend Christmas with you guys, than hang out with a bunch of people I don't know."

Lucas' response seemed to placate Angie, at least for a little while. Tony, he knew, would not bring up the subject again without Lucas first mentioning it. Regardless of how his friend reacted, Lucas sighed in relief as Marco pulled into an open parking spot near the shopping center.

The car had barely pulled in before Angie nudged her cousin to open the door. "Get out, Tony."

"Gimme a minute. What's the rush?"

"Told Delia I'd meet her by the fountain." She pushed her way out of the car. "Bye!"

"Wait!" Marco yelled as she started towards the main street. "Keep your phone on. Be ready to leave when I text you."

"Yeah, yeah." Angie waved her phone at her brother. "I know."

"Finally." Marco sighed. "I did NOT want to deal with her today. His face displayed his discomfort with the situation. Not surprisingly, none of the three young men looked particularly relaxed. Only Dagwood didn't appear too concerned with what they were about to do.

"How much time'd we have?" Tony inquired, staring at Lucas.

"About thirty minutes." Lucas adjusted the laptop to the arm without the watch. "That's more than enough time to get set up."

"Right. Let's go." Marco pointed in the direction of their pre-arranged meeting location.

Marco knew the shopping center well enough to have selected a central, yet quiet, spot to set up. From the small patio area outside of the Ink! coffee shop, they had an unobstructed view of the promenade. Their presence would not send up red flags with people passing by, but it also wasn't in the more heavily trafficked area of the center. It was open enough that Marco's bookie and his thugs would think twice before reacting violently when they realized Marco wasn't carrying ten thousand credits in cash.

Lucas opened his laptop on the café table, making sure he had the program set up and ready to go before the bookie arrived. The virus he'd created was simple – at least he thought so – and easily attached to a direct wire between bank accounts. Marco had agreed that in order to get into their bank account, Lucas would start the wire with the bare minimum of 50 credits. Once the money moved locations, the virus would take effect, locking the bookie's bank account until Lucas entered the multi-digit passcode.

"Hey, Lucas" Tony nudged his friend. "Want a coffee?"

Lucas glanced at his watch, noticing that they still had plenty of time, before nodding. "Yeah, sure. Thanks." He checked the program one last time before looking up to watch Marco. Tony's cousin was noticeably nervous. He continued to pace back and forth along the sidewalk directly across from the coffee shop, repeatedly wiping his sweaty palms on his pant legs.

"You think this is gonna work?" Marco stopped directly in front of Lucas, his voice indicating the slightest tremor.

"I hope so." Lucas didn't want to lie to the guy. "I mean, I know the virus will work. I just don't know how those guys are going to react."

"You think they'll get mad and do something stupid." That wasn't a question.

"I think they'll be angry. Ten grand is a lot of money and I'm not sure if they'll be quick to agree to our demands. But, it'll at least buy some time."

"Yeah. I guess so." Marco went back to pacing. "I just don't know what I'm gonna do if it doesn't work."

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"Whadya mean you don't have all the money?" The bookie demanded. Turns out, he was the taller of the two men Lucas and Tony had encountered the night of the Christmas party. The shorter guy, the "muscle" Lucas presumed, was standing menacing behind him.

"Yeah, well it turns out that most banks don't have good hours over the holidays. Could only withdraw the max from the ATM in such a short time."

"How much you got?"

"Uh, just two grand." Marco shifted uneasily. This was going to be a hard sell.

"TWO GRAND?!" the bookie suddenly was in Marco's face. Finger jabbing into his chest." "You've got to be fuckin' kiddin' me!"

Tony was just about to step between the two, but Marco held his cousin back. "I got this Tone." Marco shot a quick look at Lucas who just nodded.

"Listen, Sal. We figured this out." Marco indicated towards Lucas, sitting at the table with his laptop. Dagwood stood behind him, ready to step in when needed. "That's Lucas. He figured that a wire transfer would be easier than tryin' to figure out how to get the rest of the cash on such short notice."

Sal and his thug glanced at Lucas, and then turned their attention back to Marco. They didn't seem too convinced.

"All ya gotta do is give Lucas your bank routing number. He'll type it in and move the money over. You ok with that?" Marco was doing a great job feigning confidence. It was apparent to both Tony and Lucas that the guy was nervous, but he was hiding it well.

"How long?" Sal still didn't look too happy with the change in plans.

"To do the transfer?" Lucas looked up from the computer. "Once I type in the routing details, it won't take more than a couple of minutes to request the transfer. The actual transfer of money can take up to 24 hours."

"Fine," Sal pulled his portable computer from his back pocket. "This better work. If it doesn't, I know where you live, Moretti. I'll make sure you regret messin' with me."

Lucas watched as Marco paled slightly. These threats were not to be taken lightly. They all knew what was at stake.

"I got it. It'll work."

A few minutes later, with the routing code entered into the system, Lucas initiated the first transfer of funds. To the bookie, it would look as though the money was passing from one account to the other. But Lucas and his friends knew better. The "money transfer" was merely a ghost. While the money would stay safely where it belonged, it would appear to the recipient that the funds were in the process of being moved. This apparition of sorts, was an important means to buy time, as well as a way in which to conceal the virus Lucas was feeding into the bank account. It would take at least 12 hours for Sal to realize that the money was not in the process of being transferred. But that was plenty of time for the virus to start working. Lucas had it programmed to attack the banking system over the next four hours. The virus would begin by locking all external access to the bank account without setting off any alerts at the bank. After that particular account was incapacitated, the virus would start a sweep of other accounts with the same individual identification. As he explained it to Tony and Marco, if this guy had any other bank account within the United States, his virus would find it and lock it until Lucas was able to enter the code to release it. By that time, there would be enough distance between the two parties that they could avoid any immediate violence. This was a solid bargaining chip for Marco and his debt repayment, and Lucas was relatively confident it would work, but you never want to get involved with people like this.

"Done." Lucas sat back and watched as code filed across the screen.

Sal had his eyes glued to his screen and appeared somewhat appeased, at least for the moment. "You got until tomorrow noon to get the rest of the money to me." He growled, pointing directly at Marco.

"I know, I know."

"If I need to come after you again, I'm gonna make sure you, and your family pay." Sal turned back towards his partner. "Let's go."

Lucas and the other three guys watched as the two men walked off. Neither of them looked very happy, but at least they had been somewhat accommodating. If he was to be honest, Lucas wasn't sure if they were actually going to go for the idea. Regardless of how seamlessly this situation had gone, Lucas was aware that things were going to get nasty, fast.

No one said anything until Sal and his partner were out of sight.

"We good here?" Tony asked, his attention on Lucas.

"Yeah. I think so."

"Shit. Thought I was going to crap my pants for a minute there." Marco let out a nervous chuckle. "Didn't think they'd let me go til they got cash in hand."

"Yeah, well don't get too comfy, buddy. I'm pretty sure they're gonna be pissed when they figure out what's goin' on." Tony scanned the open area, double checking to make sure those guys had left. "Let's get out of here while we can."

"Angie is not gonna be happy. We've only been here about 45 minutes and I doubt she's gonna wanna leave so soon." Marco pointed out. "Who wants to be the one to tell her?"

"Just text her, Marco."

A few minutes later, with no response from Angie, Marco started to get annoyed. "I told her to keep her phone on. Just like her to be a brat and ignore me. I knew we shouldn't've let her come."

"Actually, I think I just saw her and her friend a couple of minutes ago. Want me to go and get her and meet you guys at the car?"

Tony chuckled, "I'm pretty sure she won't be mad at Lucas." He bumped shoulders with his friend.

"Shut up, Tony." He shoved his laptop at his friend. "Give me 15 minutes."

"Got it. Come on, Dag." Tony grabbed the D.A.G.G.E.R's arm to direct him towards the parking lot.

Lucas turned in the opposite direction of the guys. He'd seen Angie from the corner of his eye no more than 10 minutes ago. He was pretty sure Marco was right and she was ignoring him, but Angie might be persuaded to leave by someone other than her older brother. He jogged in the direction he'd last seen her not paying too much attention to the other people hanging around the shopping center. It was a busy day, but not so busy as to not be able to glance in stores as he passed by. Lucas reached the end of the promenade. He stopped and turned. There was no way he could have passed her without seeing her. He decided to walk the way he'd just come, looking more carefully.

Lucas had barely passed a narrow alley when he thought he heard Angie's voice. It sent a chill down his spine.

"Hey, let me go!"

Lucas turned back and ran through the alley only to see Tony's cousin being manhandled by Sal's thug partner.

"Let her go!" Lucas yelled, willing himself to run faster. He wasn't quite fast enough. The man shot Lucas a quick look then turned quickly around a corner, not letting up on his grip on Angie. Lucas was too far back to catch up. His heart sank as he saw Angie being shoved into the back of a car, followed closely by Sal's partner. Lucas knew he needed to do something, and fast. He had to stop that car from taking off with Angie in it. He did the only thing he could think of at that moment. He stepped out in front of the car's path, hoping that they'd at least slow down.

Lucas had gambled on the wrong horse. At the very moment he realized that the car was in fact speeding up instead of slowing down, he lost his breath. He barely had a fraction of a second to register that the front bumper had just hit him squarely in the chest. He had the faintest recollection of seeing the face of Sal at the wheel as he felt himself lift from the ground. After that, nothing. He didn't hear Angie scream in terror or feel the force at which he hit the pavement. Everything went black.