Web 464646

Ruti, in her usual work suit, stood behind Mateo as he raced his fingers on the keypad of the laptop. She burnt with eagerness. And the longer the Mateo took, the more she was consumed with eagerness and restlessness. Mateo had been working on the system that was thrown in the trash during his final year at the university. He however believed that it was his only chance to get back at his former gang led by Deacon. As he went about with the final codes, silence, albeit punctuated by the rattles as his fingers danced on the keypad, was all they had. No utterance was heard from either of them for a couple of minutes. At long last, Mateo relieved his fingers from their duties on the laptop's hardware and he ploughed them back and forth in the head. A moment later, his eyes gaped and a loud shout ensued, "We're live!"

"Yes!" Ruti leaped for joy. But was quick to understand the whole system. "How does it work?" Mateo turned with a smile to face Ruti, "Basically, it will enable us trace and control any bank account. And we will able to transfer funds from one account to the other. From one country to the other." Ruti smiled and shot back at the tech-wiz, "but won't we get caught?"

Mateo stood up and held Ruti's both shoulders and spoke like a man possessed by a demon, "This is system is more less like a mirage. Think of It as a hallucination. We transfer everything Deacon and his demons to dummy business accounts and eventually to our own. We cannot be traced by the bank or the Financial Intelligence Centre. Unless if they have someone who knows about mirage systems, we are in business."

Ruti nodded with glee beaming on her face, "Does it have a name?"

Mateo thought for a while, "let's call it Web 464646".

"That's great." Ruti concurred.

"But we have one problem," Mateo confessed. "We need access to the Financial Intelligence Centre system. This will enable us to pin- point Deacon and his gang. Then we will swing back to our system and transfer the monies." Ruti gave in to a few nods, "What's the plan?"

Mateo fetched a small wireless adaptor and held it in front of Ruti. "I need you to connect it to one of the computers at the Financial Intelligent Centre. It connects to a PC like a flask disk. Once you connect it, it will turn red, then orange and green. When it goes green, I will have access to their system and we will be good to go. The centre has tight security. You need to be discreet about it."

"How do I do it?" Ruti asked. Clearly she was worried. Her countenance had fallen. Mateo took a deep breath and nodded vehemently, "The Centre has advertised for slots for cleaners. They have an e- recruitment system. So, you will walk in with hard copies pose as a job seeker. Am sure they will push you to use their online system, request to use their computers. Once granted a PC, slot in the wireless adaptor. And I will pick it up from there." Ruti nodded softly.

A few moments later, Mateo stood outside the van – he was restless. Ruti walked out of the garage's living quarters and stood a two meters from Mateo. She wore her usual yellow dress. Both her hands clutched the fairly old leather bag that hung beneath her armpit. "You look beautiful," Mateo complimented her. She smiled and remarked, "I was about to ask how I look. Thank you." Mateo opened the door to the driver's seat for her. Ruti's lips curved with a smile and she bobbed her head. She jumped in the van and the drove off.

The electronic door to the Financial Intelligent Centre opened as Ruti approached. She walked in and straight away, marched to the reception for a quick inquiry. "Good afternoon. I am here to see anyone from the HR department over the just advertised vacancies." The old security officer looked at her, "for Janitors?" Ruti was quick to reply, "Yes sir." The officer gave Ruti the visitors' register, "fill in your details and you will be on your way to the fourth floor." Ruti scribbled her details, got the Visitors' identity card and jumped into the elevator. A seconds later, she emerged from the lift and motioned to the Human Resource section. "Good afternoon, sir" She greeted the lone man who was glued to an article in the newspaper. "I have come for the job opening." The man looked at her, and folded the newspaper up. "You haven't read the ad? You need to apply online." Ruti, with a trembling hands fetched an envelope from her handbag and remarked, "I was just told by a friend and to be honest, I'm in a position to afford the services of an Internet cafe at the moment. Please help."

The Human Resource Officer looked at Ruti for a while before nodding his head. "But look, I am alone in here. I can let you use my computer. I trust you will find your way to the system." Ruti smiled graciously, "sure." The unsuspecting Human Resource officer gave Ruti his computer and continued reading the article. Ruti quickly plugged in the small device and pretended to be working on her application. A minute went by but the light was not coming on. After another minute, the small light on the device turned red, then orange. The Human Resource Officer glared at Ruti for a moment and commented, 'Are we winning?" Ruti replied quickly, "Yes sir. I have my documents on the disk." Five minutes ticked away before the light turned green. Mission was accomplished!

Ruti smiled and announced, "Done." The Human Resource officer nodded his head and acknowledged, "That was quick. I wish you the very best." Ruti stood up and gave the laptop back to the Human Resource Officer, "Thank you so very much for your help." The man smiled and acknowledged, "Anytime Ms."

After a short while, Ruti stepped out of the elevator, checked out in the register and walked quickly to the entrance, the door opened and she walked out. But before she could descend the stair way, a call was head from behind. "Excuse Ms." She startled to a halt. Ruti stood still. It was seemingly over. She had no strength to turn around. The security officer approached and informed her, "You forgot to surrender the identity card." Ruti silently breathed a sigh of relief and quickly removed the ID hanging around her neck gave it back to the Security Officer. "Oh my goodness." She apologized, "Am sorry sir."

The officer raised his hand, turned and walked away. Ruti jumped into the van and sped off!