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attacked my bank,” Dysart said.
    A look of stunned horror spread across Dees’ face. Kelleher looked grim but said nothing.
    “You can’t be serious,” Dees said.
    Dysart was rapidly losing what little patience he had started with. He angrily tossed the letter opener onto his desk, where it clattered to a stop against the phone.
    Glaring at Kelleher, he said, “At least tell me you can prevent more accounts from being scrambled.”
    “Our best bet is to replace the AMS executable. Rob and Tim are going through the source code as we speak, making sure there are no obvious problems. Once that’s done, we’ll generate a new executable and run through the automated test suite we used four months ago.”
    “And how long will that take?”
    “Working around the clock, a day or two … and that’s assuming we don’t find any problems.”
    “Can you protect the other accounts in the meantime?” Dysart said.
    Kelleher looked at Dees, who still looked furious from Dysart’s accusation. Dees shrugged and said, “I don’t see how, except by shutting down the system. But that’d basically mean closing the bank.”
    Dysart gave his desk chair a frustrated shove and turned away to face the window behind his desk. Angry blooms of condensation formed on the cool glass when he exhaled.
    “Forget that,” Dysart said, turning back to face the other two. “That’s what the attackers want, not to mention what it would cost. How would we explain to our customers that we’re out of business for a couple of days? Oh, our computers are down. Bear with us. That would do a lot for customer confidence, wouldn’t it? No, the system stays up while you fix it as fast as you can. And I mean nobody even thinks about going home until it’s done. Is that clear?”
    Kelleher and Dees nodded in unison.
    “And,” Dysart continued, “you have to assume someone on your team is a rat. You need to smoke them out, or at least make sure they can’t do more damage.”
    “How are we supposed to do that?” Kelleher said.
    “How should I know?” Dysart shouted. “I don’t run the computer department.”
    Kelleher’s cheeks turned a mottled purple. “And we’re not investigators. If you ask me, we need to call the police.”
    “We can’t,” Dysart said. “As soon as we do, then it’s out of our control whether this thing goes public. We have to make this go away quietly.”
    Dysart pointed an index finger at the two men, his face flushed with anger. “But if I find out someone working for me did this, they’re going to wish they had never been born.”

C HAPTER F IVE

    Tuesday
    A LATE LUNCH crowd filled most of the seats in the Burger King. Lesley and Shayna sat at a table along one wall. Lesley took a bite of her burger and moaned with pleasure.
    “Oh, man,” she said. “My stomach was looking for this hours ago.”
    Shayna finished swallowing her mouthful. “Mine too,” she said. “I thought that press conference would never end.”
    They ate in silence for a while, and then Shayna said, “You’re staring at it.”
    Lesley smiled. She hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off the diamond ring all morning.
    “Caught me again.”
    “I still can’t believe you let him get away with not taking you to dinner.”
    “I didn’t have any choice.”
    “That’s almost as bad as my cousin. Her husband proposed to her between the national anthem and the opening tip-off so he wouldn’t miss any of the game.”
    “Well this wasn’t that bad,” Lesley said. “And he called this morning to make sure the flowers he sent showed up. Said he worked all night and he’s still at it.”
    “I guess we can forgive him, then.”
    “As long as he grovels properly next time I see him, right?”
    “You’re learning,” Shayna said with a grin.
    Lesley laughed. “And you’re a bad influence.”
    “I’m not bad. I just act that way.”
    “Lucky you.”
    “You should be so lucky,” Shayna said.
    “What makes you think I’m