Overdue Settlement

Lucy had become obsessive about writing everything down in her little black book, she knew that continuously re-reading her thoughts and feelings from her past really would change nothing, but she just could not stop herself.

Her therapist had told her that committing things to paper would be therapeutic and he was right. What he had not foreseen however was that it brought no closure to her at all, but then she had not shared all of what her life had been like with Lee, only those bits which did not reflect so badly on her and how she wanted to appear in her new guise.

Sometimes she thought that her head would burst with the guilt of deception, the therapist did not even know her true identity. Of all the people in the world only Lee knew that and these days with him residing in ADX Florence Jail such information was of little use to him. He had come to realise towards the end of their marriage that Lucy was no longer the victim that he once took her for and that it was wise to commit what they had done together to the past. In any event Lucy had ensured that when he had been arrested sufficient evidence was not too difficult to find to make sure he was regarded as a National Security threat, hence his current location. She had to stay safe from him and his friends. He had hurt her for the final time on that fateful night nearly two years ago now, when she had decided to change the direction of her life. No more cuts, no more bruises and no more anguish caused by others wanting to control her. Never more a victim.

Lucy looked down at her little black book again, this time at the section dedicated to her finances. There was a lot of red ink. Going straight was tougher than she had thought. She was several months behind on the rent, her credit cards were maxed out and she was in arrears with those payments too. Her new life saw her operating as a graphic designer and had seemed promising but she had made a mistake committing to a start-up company, it was however the only contract on offer. Self employment brought fewer questions about her identity and past work record and put her in less social situations which might encourage a chance recognition. She had 4 months invoices outstanding totalling some $20,000 dollars and just lately the company had stopped responding to her emails. Their head office was in Amsterdam and so a personal visit was not feasible. She was beginning to think that she might have to return to her past despite everything. She dismissed it from her mind and instead concentrated on trying to get some heat out of the well past it radiators throughout her apartment.

As she was kneeling at the largest radiator sited under the huge bay window which looked out onto the Seattle Waterfront, trying to shift the large wheel like valve, she heard her mobile ping. She hoped that it was another message from Francois; he was as she had guessed when she first saw him leaving her building, a romantic Frenchman, sadly poor rather than the wealthy guy she had determined to find, but he was what she needed for now. He was not possessive, did not check her movements and did not probe too much into her past. He accepted that she wanted to keep things locked away and she sensed somehow that he had secrets too. He worked in finance he had told her, but like her was reticent about what exactly he did. Lucy was not bothered, she was not yet sure that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, in fact she was not sure she wanted to spend her life with any man ever again. Her secrets provided little room for others in her living space.

The valve suddenly gave way to her pressure and the hissing release of trapped air coincided with 3 more pings on her phone in quick succession. She went into the kitchen, flicked on the coffee maker and entered the passcode on her mobile. There were 4 new email messages very similar in construct. She opened the first one and a big smile came across her face. It was a remittance advice confirming $5000 had been credited to her bank account. The other 3 emails held similar messages. Fantastic! The coffee pot seemed to share her elation, popping and whooping on cue. She poured herself a good sized cup of the brew, treated herself to a cookie and took them and her phone over to her work station. Her mac took ages to fire up, it was well past its’ best, it had been a trusty friend and like Lee held secrets that she hoped would never be given up.

She went into her bank account and what she saw made her smile once again. She was in credit. She reached for her little black book and noted the monies received against each of the issued invoices. That was when she noticed a small discrepancy, the remitters details were from a company called Vague Cosmetics NV and not Hague Cosmetics NV. Somebody must have made an inputting error at the bank or in the company, how annoying. Lucy did not like inconsistencies. She sent an email off to the Finance Director at Hague and got an out of office reply referring her to their new owners Vague Holdings. At least this offered some sort of comfort and audit trail, but somehow Lucy felt unsettled, her past had encouraged her to think in such a way. A search on Vague confirmed the same registered office address as Hague and operated out of the same industrial unit near Amsterdam Holland. She would ring them tomorrow on the contact number on the company records file.

Further concerns were interrupted by her mobile vibrating across her desk, it was Francois. He had booked a table at a fish restaurant they had both been keen to visit for some while. Lucy told him that she would pay and that she would catch him on his return to their building tonight. She then suddenly realised that she had never been up into his apartment. Their private time had always been spent in her place. Another uncomfortable little concern, Lucy told him that she would call on him tonight when ready. Did she sense displeasure in his agreement to these arrangements? She was just being silly she thought, why spoil such a good day?

It was a wonderful evening, Francois was enchanting and when they got back to their building suggested they could go to his apartment. Lucy could not wait however and pulled him through her front door. It was true what they said about oysters. When she woke in the morning Francois had already left. There was a note on her pillow however ”You are special Lucy, we cannot be together forever, but I do have feelings for you, please remember that always.”

Lucy smiled, she might have used exactly those words to Francois if it had been her leaving his bed this morning. She slipped out of the covers, pulled on a gown and turned on the coffee maker. Sitting at her workstation she noticed the mac was already on in sleep mode. She must have left it on from yesterday. She went into her bank accounts and paid off every one of her debts. It felt good to be making a clean sweep. She looked at the time at the bottom of her machine and decided to go upstairs and catch Francois before he left for work.

There was no answer and she found herself listening at the door. No sounds at all and so she guiltily dropped onto her knees and peeked through the letter box. What she saw left her more concerned than anything she had felt the day before. The place was completely empty as far as she could see, in fact it looked as if it had been empty for some time judging by the dust and debris on the living area floor. She rushed back to her apartment and dialled Francois’ number. There was no reply and in fact her connection was almost immediately cut off. She reckoned the battery had been disabled. What the hell was going on?

As she sat there trying to work things out her laptop sprang into life and there was an email freshly arrived with the heading in bold ”Lucy, your new assignment at Vague.”

The email contained little information other than a link for Lucy click on to download some software. She did not need to do that to realise what was happening. She recognised the link, it would give her access to a dark web messaging service and then no doubt she would be directed to the deep web. Had Lee found her? Had she not been as clever at covering up her past as she had thought?

She clicked on the link, and as she expected found herself being directed towards a layered encryption construct, one like she had created many times herself in the past. A video was now on screen, enticing her to click on the play option.

A hooded character came to life and in a disguised metallic voice began to address her.

“ Welcome to the Vague Network, you are now one of many recruits across the world who have used money that did not belong to you to improve your position. We get that, in fact it shows that you share the morals that we have here at Vague and we will therefore get on very well. Your new role is very simple. We will create contracts of work for you for which you will do nothing. You will raise monthly invoices on Vague equivalent to the schedules in the contract and we will pay you on time straight to your bank account. You will file all necessary IRS returns and to all intents you will appear to be a successful and growing business. You will be allowed to keep 5% of the invoice proceeds, you will buy cryptocurrency tokens with the remainder and when we tell you will exchange those coins via one of our Digital Currency Exchangers for hard currency remitting funds to bank accounts which appear to be settling dummy supplier invoices raised on you. You will have files downloaded each week evidencing legitimate business contracts, sums due in crytocurrency and correspondence with real companies. In short you are now one of our Money Launderers and you will do nicely by our arrangement. The alternative is we will make you bankrupt for what you have spent of our money and we may even have some incriminating photographs of you and your French boyfriend, or should I say our Head of Recruitment, that will embarrass you. Welcome to our team Lucy, we will be in touch.”

Lucy sat back in her chair. Well it was not Lee, that much she knew, he would know that she understood more about the methods at play here than these people had any idea of. So her past had caught up with her but not in the way she had feared. In fact it was better than she could have hoped. There was no doubt she would have to disappear in a while and take on another identity but not before she had set up the means to redirect the cryptocurrency proceeds to her own bank accounts and certainly not to where the blackmailers wanted. She turned on the coffee pot and fired up her own software for the dark web. A new passport would be a good start, the coffee pot hissed in support of her plan as she begun to write in her little black book.

THE END. Or is it?........