Moving On
He scowled at the video and quickly closed the tab. They were catching on. It was only a matter of hours before his entire empire collapsed under his feet. He had to make a few transfers to personal hard-to-trace accounts before they understood the full extent of what heād done. Why couldnāt they have just left him alone? He was, after all, doing good in the world, and planning to do more in the future. What did it matter if he didnāt play by the rules and conform to the status quo? The old systems were rigged anyway. Now heād be made out to be the villain when he was simply doing what had been done before.
His phone rang, it was her. Fuck her. He resisted the urge to hurl the phone across the room and picked up.
āMake it quick.ā
āIām making a run for it, they know too much.ā she said.
āYou shouldnāt be calling me anymore, these numbers are compromised.ā He hung up and tossed his phone onto one of the many colorful bean bags in the room. If he went down, he would make sure she would go down with him. She too had loaned herself customer funds and used them to finance her houses, jewelry, and extravagant LARPing parties. She too had used customer money to donate to a myriad of political campaigns and organizations.
They had hoped these donations would protect them or at least soften the blow of any fallout if their operation went south, but right now it looked as if, contrary to common practice, they were being afforded no such protection. As soon as the extravagant donations were brought up by journalists, the politicians began distancing themselves, saying they had had almost no relationship whatsoever with him or her. Their tune had been different last year when the money was rolling in, and he had the pictures and messages to prove it.
In some senses, he was surprised that his scheme had been successful for so long. He had been invited on some of the largest news programs in the world, been on the covers of popular publications, and was hailed as the financial genius of the decade, who would usher in a new era of finance and prosperity for all. Turns out people want to believe in the average-looking guy with a self-effacing air about him. Maybe they see themselves in him. Maybe they want to believe that an āoutsiderā is capable of significantly altering the world for good. He didnāt know, and he didnāt care. He just wanted their money.
Now though, he had to play his cards right, and project the right image. He wanted the world to believe that his actions had not been deliberate, but rather due to incompetence. The story he would try to spin would be one of a few kids who were in over their head. It seemed that with each passing hour, this story would be harder to sell. He had no idea how the journalists were finding information so fast, but they were. They knew about the self-destructing messages and the un-audited backdoors he had used to transfer millions from the company into his personal accounts.
Only his inner circle had been privy to the true nature of his firmās operations. The rank-and-file staff had been kept in the dark. Many, if not most of them, had been true believers in the companyās mission. And all of them had believed in him, and still did, for the most part. Such was the power of a cult of personality. Even as media vehicles swarmed their headquarters, they refused to talk. They sent encouraging messages to him via email. They asked how they could help. They would be fine. When they realized exactly what he and other company executives had done, heād be long gone, and theyād be hurt, but surely land other well-paying jobs. He hadnāt hired idiots.
His phone buzzed from the bean bag where it had landed just a minute before. It was about time. He answered. āEverything is in placeā uttered a gravelly voice. Then came the clicking noise of the caller hanging up. It was time to go. He took one last long walk around his multi-million dollar beach home, stopping on one of the balconies to soak in the ocean view one last time. He wouldnāt be seeing the ocean for a while. A small price to pay for freedom and wealth beyond his wildest dreams.
He took a deep breath of salty air, and smiled.