Infinite Exposure (13 page)

When the hour approached 4 PM, Jeremy struck pay dirt. One of the skirts he used to do in college was now working at Big Four
Consulting. After offering to meet her for supper the following evening at a four-star restaurant she really wanted to try
and the possibility of a roll in the hay, she volunteered that Big Four Consulting had won a contract to off-shore all of
First Global Bank's data centers. By the end of the project, the 10 original sets of data centers would be down to one set
located in the cheap labor market of India. Admittedly, First Global Bank had already consolidated down to four sets of data
centers before Big Four Consulting got involved, but the project was quite large anyway. Jeremy thanked her and asked what
time he should make the reservation tomorrow.

Exactly at 4 PM, Lenny called the analysts into their meeting. Lenny went around the room asking each analyst what they had
learned. The other two simply regurgitated what the computer analysis had told them. Jeremy informed him he had to fly out
tomorrow to repay the contact who had given him the information Lenny needed. First Global Bank was moving all of their data
centers off-shore. In about another year, they would have no computer systems in any country other than India. The nine sets
of data centers they had were being sold or having their leases terminated. All of the hardware inside of them were being
sold as well. They had outsourced all of their data center work to a partner of Big Four Consulting in India.

The other two analysts had graduated with 4.0 GPAs from good business schools. Jeremy had barely graduated from a state college.
Yet here he was, once again bringing home the bacon.

“You can verify this?” Lenny asked.

“The New York data center just sold for a killer profit,” Jeremy responded as he handed Lenny the print out from the commercial
real-estate Web site. “Two more are up for sale,” as he handed over two more screen prints. “It appears some were leased and
now have leases listed as available.”

“At first I thought they had simply completed a consolidation project getting all of the other banking chains onto their original
system, but it didn't fit given all of the countries involved. Then when I found the person who knew the details, it all made
sense. They never attempted a consolidation project, they simply got rid of all the machines and outsourced to the land of
cheap labor and low rent. I doubt anyone's banking records could ever be subpoenaed now given that the data centers are in
another country.”

Lenny sat back and thought for a moment. “This is very interesting indeed. Does anybody else have this information yet?”

“I don't think their shareholders even have it,” responded Jeremy. “Normally you don't send out letters to shareholders when
you are simply moving computer systems around.”

Lenny pondered awhile longer. “The board had to know. A project of this size would have had to get their approval and funding.
I imagine their next step will be to use all Indian IT labor to do the consolidation project. Only one problem with this situation.
Not one person depositing money in these banks knows the banks no longer control the access to the data systems.”

The three analysts looked at each other, then at Lenny. Finally Jeremy asked, “Does any depositor know if their bank controls
access to the system it uses?”

“It is both assumed and required,” responded Lenny. “Your research said they were selling off all of their computers, but
said nothing about buying new computers. This means the off-shore data center is providing a turnkey service. The banks don't
own the computers they are now using, which means people who have not been vetted by the FBI, SEC, FDIC or whatever government
agencies in this country perform the background checks. Each country has its own rules, but there are some common rules across
most of the countries we do banking with. No convicted felons and nobody on a terrorist watch list can ever be employed at
a bank or financial institution. When the data center isn't in this country and the bank doesn't own it, who is to say what
type of people are hired and now have accounts with complete access to the system?”

At that moment, the reality of what Lenny was saying sank into all three analysts. After the money was made over the next
couple of weeks with the share price run up, Lenny was going to start a very slow process of shorting the stock. Once he had
achieved the kind of short position he wanted, this very story was going to leak. It would be timed to leak right about the
time the off-shoring project was past the point of no return.

Jeremy was told to book a convenient flight out tomorrow. No need to come into the office if he didn't want to. He needed
to find out which divisions of the bank already had 100% of their data center operations migrated off-shore. “Focus on the
U.S. branches for now,” Lenny told him. “You also need to book a date with her for the day/evening after they complete migrating
the last data center. I'm sure you can find a jacuzzi hotel suite in a nice restaurant to thank her properly.”

“Do you really think we can do a shred with just this?” Jeremy asked.

“How little you watch the news Jeremy. In 2002 a former UBS Systems Admin planted malicious code that took down about 2,000
servers in their network. His arrest and trial have been appearing in the news over the past couple of weeks, but most articles
are focusing on weeding out bad employees. Imagine a story surfacing about a global bank who didn't bother to screen that
type of employee at all? Once the federal agencies get wind of it there will be congressional hearings. We will not only shred
the bank, but we will shred Big Four Consulting as well. Whether they know it or not, they've been a willing accomplice in
a crime.”

A Little Nudge

Stacie was looking forward to tonight. She hadn't hooked up with Jeremy in a couple of years. Oh, she knew nothing would come
of it, but she remembered he was pretty good in bed. Since he had a hotel room, she wouldn't have to deal with her two roommates
tonight either. She loved her roommates. They had great fun hanging out together. Having roommates meant they could have a
really awesome apartment and spend a ton of money on clothes. When you are 20-something, dressing to the nines and partying
all weekend is a priority in life.

Big Four Consulting didn't pay her much. Then again, she had a degree in mass communications, not IT. That, coupled with her
looks and minor in English got her the job with Big Four. They always wanted the young people working for them to dress for
success. Thankfully, two of their clients were major retailers which extended a “partner” discount to the employees of Big
Four Consulting. Every Saturday Stacie got up at the crack of noon and took shopping whichever roommate was home. All three
of the girls had run out of closet space and were buying wardrobes to store additional clothes in.

Still, the roommate thing had a major drawback. When you decided to score, you had to inconvenience others. Stacie wasn't
dating. Older people described it as “playing the field.” She found it when she needed it, and sometimes she would find it
in the same place more than once, but her career came first. Big Four promised her she would travel and told her to get a
passport. She had already flown to several states in the U.S. and recently returned from Bangalore, India.

Unlike most of the girls Stacie worked with, she wasn't a complete fool. She knew full well which guys had left the compound
to visit the Red Light District just a few streets over. There was no way she was going to hook up with any of them. Jeremy
had always been a safe hook up. He didn't want anything long term and had only asked her to attend one wedding with him. They
had both known the groom getting married so it wasn't a big deal, just lots of drinking, dancing, and fun. Stacie let Jeremy
know when she accepted that he now owed her a wedding and he was cool with that. When you are 20-something, you really hate
going stag to a wedding. When you're in your 40s you can play the divorcee field at a wedding, but 20-somethings always seemed
to be paired off.

All of the girls had heard about the four-star restaurant that had opened up a couple months ago. It was the new “hot” place
to be seen. Stacie was going to be the first of her roomies to eat there. They would have to wait until she got home tomorrow
to find out what it was like.

The nice part about having a friend with benefits is you don't have to come home in the same clothes you left in. Nothing
tells the world you were picked up like leaving a hotel in the morning wearing an evening dress. A “date” would require she
meet them at the restaurant or have him pick her up here. She wouldn't be able to pack an overnight bag and bring it along.
You meet a friend at their hotel room and leave your bag there.
So
much more convenient.

Stacie left her apartment promptly at 6 PM. She had the doorman turn on the cab light and was quickly picked up. Fifteen minutes
later she arrived at Jeremy's hotel. He had called earlier in the afternoon to let her know he had checked in and gave her
his room number. She told him he had better be wearing a damned nice suit when she arrived because there was a strict dress
code at the restaurant.

As far as anyone at work knew, Stacie was simply hooking up with a flame from college this weekend. She didn't tell them where
Jeremy worked, mainly because she could never remember the name of the company. She simply told them he worked for some small
accounting firm. Saying he worked at an investment firm would have gotten her a meeting with HR and a chat about disclosing
insider information. She knew damned good and well Jeremy was coming here to thank her for that. He was going to owe her a
weekend at Salish Lodge when she fed him the other little bit of information she had.

Today had been a hectic day. Stacie had to participate in the presentation to First Global Bank's board of directors selling
Pytho's new banking software to them. It started off as a tough sell. Pytho hadn't thought to bring anything in the way of
eye candy to the meeting, so the Big Four Consulting girls were laying it all out to the board. Stacie hadn't participated
in the sales pitch that sold the off-shoring contract, but some of the girls in the room had. Only the women they had shown
the most interest in were asked to display themselves again. Stacie was asked since she had been to India and had established
the best relationship with the on-shore team. The rest appeared to be models who didn't have a runway gig this week. They
knew nothing about the software being pitched or the client. They did know how to dress though.

In contrast, Kathryn had made Stacie take home the entire CD kit from Pytho. She had to work with a team of girls creating
a PowerPoint presentation, then show it to Kathryn. Once Stacie had finished giving her five-minute summary of how the data
center consolidation was going, Kathryn had her segue into the presentation and even remain walking around answering questions
during it. When the questions came up about how far along the globalization project had gotten, the Pytho reps had to take
over. Kathryn made sure she dropped the names of the audit firms handling certification of each country's banking laws. The
board was quite shocked to learn their own auditing firm was certifying the system met French banking regulations.

When the meeting concluded there wasn't a dirty old man in the room who hadn't seen every breast and leg on display at least
twice. All of the girls had worn tight skirts, but not so tight they looked like they were trying to stop a gun shot wound
from bleeding. All of them had some part in the presentation where they were supposed to walk around keeping the board's attention.
Stacie thought it was a lot like stripping, but you didn't have to break a sweat or get dressed when you were done.

The board ended the meeting taking copies of the plan and cost spreadsheet. They said they were going to have a meeting with
their auditors to see how close the French regulations really were to being implemented. The Pytho sales reps were all smiles
and handshakes until the board left, then they showed outright rejection on their faces.

“They didn't buy it,” one of them said.

“They never buy on the first pitch,” responded Kathryn. “Unless you've taken steps to ensure their auditors give them a glowing
report about the progress made on French banking regulations, this sale is dead.”

“Our 'World View of the Bank' pitch really hit home though,” Stacie remarked.

“Yes it did,” Kathryn said. “It was the only reason we were allowed to make this presentation. They just had everyone jumping
through hoops to prepare quarterly financial reports and the cost of doing that is fresh in their minds. We even scored big
with the cost savings from staff reductions, but
any
package is going to do both of those things for them. This sale hinges on the French regulations.”

“How so,” Stacie asked.

“Our biggest IT headcount and operating cost is in France,” responded Kent. “Even if you never got the other countries operational,
the entire project could be paid for by eliminating those people along with our U.S. and Canadian IT staff.” Kent had stayed
in the post pitch debriefing because this project was his baby. He was the corporate sponsor and project champion. It was
his job to sell it to the board because his name was on it.

Stacie knew that if this deal went through, she was going to be spending some grueling overtime training at Pytho software.
She was also going to have to spend some time brushing up on her French. She had only taken one semester in college and couldn't
speak or read it very well now.

That was four hours ago. The thoughts of her awaiting treadmill left her mind as she stepped into the elevator with her overnight
bag and went to Jeremy's room. Tonight was an elegant meal with fine wine and some long overdue physical pleasure.

When Jeremy opened the door she was floored.
That man can wear a suit!
she thought. She made him spin around to check him out and even commented that he bothered to shine his shoes. Stacie wasn't
an expert in men's clothing, but that suit would retail for around $1,200 in this neck of the woods. Jeremy made some very
appreciative comments about the way she looked, kissed her passionately, then took her bag to the bedroom.

“Must not have been a killer kiss,” Jeremy said with a smile when he returned.

“You did good!”

“Not good enough for you to follow me to the bedroom,” he grinned.

“If I did that I wouldn't get dinner!” she exclaimed. “Let's catch a cab before we don't make it out of here!”

With that they proceeded to the restaurant and ordered dinner. It was everything Stacie had heard it was. The food was fabulous
and the menu didn't have any prices. Stacie had no idea what the champagne and wine cost, but it had to be a down payment
on a car. Finally, the opener came:

“So, how are things going at work?”

Stacie flashed a mischievous smile. “Well, I'm going to be putting in some grueling hours soon becoming a trainer on a new
software product Pytho has coming out.”

“What product is that?” Jeremy asked.

“Before I answer that question, you have to promise me a weekend at Salish Lodge any weekend I ask,” responded Stacie.

Jeremy had heard about the place and knew it had an amazing reputation. He also knew if Stacie was putting it on the table,
there was something big coming out of her mouth next. He was pretty certain Lenny would allow him to expense the weekend,
and even if Lenny didn't, he was certain to have a fantastic time with Stacie. He looked her in the eyes and said “Done.”

Stacie positively beamed! She had wanted a weekend there ever since one of her girlfriends had told her about it. Her roomies
would be
so
jealous when she told them.

Conversation had to pause while the server came by to inquire how things were going. Stacie wondered how the server's feet
felt walking around in heels all night, then she thought that skirt and stockings demanded heels. Anything less would ruin
the atmosphere of the place. It struck her as kind of odd how women who weren't bisexual could easily appreciate the phenomenal
body of another woman. She guessed you simply didn't get jealous when you looked hot yourself. Briefly she thought it would
be a pity when she had kids one day and it all went to hell, then she snapped her attention back to the table.

Jeremy had that stupid grin on his face again. It was the kind of grin he got when he had some smart ass comment to make which
would be the perfect zinger for the moment and would ensure he didn't get sex that night. What Stacie appreciated about Jeremy
is that he had the good sense to save them until after they had sex so they could both laugh about them when they were more
relaxed.

She smiled back at him, then took his hand and said, “I need a necklace and matching earrings to wear when we go to Salish.
Diamonds would be nice, but as long as they are real stones and set off my eyes, I'm fine with it.”

“I didn't even make the comment,” Jeremy sputtered.

“But you were thinking it,” she chimed back evilly. “Besides, after I tell you what I have for you, I think you'll agree you
should be able to afford them.”

That widened Jeremy's eyes and made him sit up.

“It was a long day parading my body around the board room,” she said, toying with his hand. “Once the auditors for First Global
Bank give a glowing report on how Pytho software's new banking product meets all of the U.S., Canadian, and French banking
regulations, they are probably going to buy it. Every location they have will be migrated onto the new software. Every country
will move as Pytho completes certification for said country. In much less than a year, they will be rid of all their IT staff,
save a token few, and have all of their business run by software in an off-shore data center.”

“I had to wear a sheer blouse and my finest stockings. The skirt and heels really showed off my form. If it wasn't for their
own auditors being involved, we would have closed the sale today. The board really admired my legs. Just imagine how many
of those rich old men want to be where you will be tonight.”

“True,” Jeremy responded. “Not to break the mood, but you wouldn't happen to have some marketing literature on this product
would you?”

“Greedy bastard!” she teased. “Here I am talking about sex, letting you know I'm ready to go and you are still talking about
making money.”

“Well,” Jeremy sputtered.

Stacie laughed, “Remind me to take it out of my overnight bag when we get back to the hotel.”

When they stood up to leave, Stacie nuzzled his ear as he put his arm around her. “So, am I getting diamonds?”

Laughing, Jeremy said, “Yes, the best I can find at my local Helzberg.”

Now it was Stacie's turn to have her eyes go wide and head snap up.

***

Margret was somewhat surprised to come out of the demonstration and find there was a meeting request from Carol waiting for
her. They rarely had any meetings unless some big contract was going down. If the girl was going to become clingy in the office,
Margret would have to nip it in the bud. Still, she accepted the meeting and half an hour later Carol arrived in her office
closing the door behind her.

Before Margret could get control of the situation Carol said, “I did some more research and we need to get some letters on
file with notary stamps and dates on them. The letter or letters need to inform Kent of the pending regulation change requiring
all data center employees to be U.S. citizens for U.S. banks and have passed all of the new background checks prior to being
hired.”

Margret was not expecting this. She thought they were going to keep it a secret. Carol read the confusion in her eyes.