Enjoy. :D
"Please, Dr. Peate," he offered. As she passed, she could see a light sheen of sweat on his head. She kept an eye on the door as she sat down, trying to look at ease, but staying ready for a fight.
"Dr. Peate, first of all, let me thank you for taking the time to—"
"Save it," she snapped, on edge from his odd behavior and from being trapped in this office. "Where's my money?"
"U-unfortunately," he swallowed. "I can't tell you where your money is."
She stared at him, her eyes wide. "Why?"
"The funds in question were seized as part of a U-POL investigation a few years ago." He nervously clasped his hands in front of him.
Her heartbeat quickened. Why was the U-POL digging in Lyssa Peate's inheritance?
"Is there something I did wrong?" she said, forcing her voice to sound normal.
"Oh Great Creator, no, no," the manager stammered. "I believe that there was some kind of…issue with the fidelity of the account, and the entire account was seized for investigation."
"Were they looking at any of my other transactions?" she asked, still not convinced that he was telling her the truth. If the U-POL looked at even a week's worth of transactions from Lyssa Peate, they would see a bunch of transactions that placed her in pirate bars and parking garages on D-882.
If that were the case, then someone out there, someone in the Universal Police, knew that Lyssa Peate was really Razia.
She wasn't ready to give up being Lyssa Peate yet. She'd just now come to terms with being both people. She couldn't go back and give up—
"Of course not, ma'am," the manager said, mistaking her nerves for annoyance at the invasion of her privacy. "We received an official request, and we complied with providing only the time period in question—right around three years ago. We in the Universal Bank pride ourselves on protecting the privacy of our customers, even in the face of Universal Police requests."
She let out the breath she was holding, letting him ramble on about their privacy laws and policies. Her secret was still safe.
"So where did the money go?" Lyssa asked, her heart calming down long enough for her to take a breath.
"Unfortunately…I can't tell you."
"Yes, you can." Lyssa laughed. "This bank keeps sterling records of all transactions in the universe. U-POL or not, you can tell me where that money is right now."
"…I'm afraid the record and transaction histories were…expunged from our data servers."
"Ex...expunged?" Lyssa gaped at him. "How? You're not allowed to delete data! You're the Universal Bank!"
He withered under her stare. "Under extremely special circumstances, we may remove files from our electronic databases. Unfortunately, when the U-POL tell us to do something, we can't argue with them." He laughed nervously. "But…there is a paper copy of the records, or should be." He paused to look at something on his computer. "On B-583. I believe your family's entire archive is there, what with all of your cousins and second cousins!" He laughed nervously.
"Good. So go get it," Lyssa snapped.
"I'm afraid it will take ten to twelve weeks to retrieve the information," he stammered, nervously. "That is, after we receive approval. I'm afraid the case was never closed, and in order to release the files, we'll have to check with the U-POL officer who was leading the investigation"
"And who is that?"
"The captain of the U-POL Special Forces."
---
 |
| Don't forget to pre-order your copy of Alliances on Amazon Kindle today! |
No comments:
Post a Comment