I spent Saturday evening with Jeff in the new Casino. Molly was right, they caught on to Jeff's card counting within a couple of hours. We played some slots and ate dinner there. Despite the fact he was four or five years younger and twenty or thirty IQ points smarter we were getting along quite well together.

Over dinner Jeff asked me if I needed him to pick me up in the morning to take me out to Molly's boat club.

"She gave me directions," I said. "But I'm still not that familiar with the area. I'd appreciate a ride if you wouldn't mind."

"No problem. I'll swing by your place between eight and nine in the morning. That should get us to the docks by ten."

"Have you been out with Molly and her daughter before?" I asked.

"Several times."

"How big a boat is it?"

"She actually has access to several different size boats through the boat club she belongs to. It is kind of like a time-share for boat enthusiasts. It is a lot cheaper than owning and maintaining your own boat. Since there will be four of us, she will probably reserve the twenty-six foot, J/80 sportsboat. Molly's daughter, Amy, likes the J/80 it's big and fast. I think that is why they invite me, because it really requires a three-man crew."

"That's nice of you to help them out. You must be pretty good with kids." I was impressed that a guy like Jeff would give up part of his weekend to spend time with a preteen and her mom.

"Not really," Jeff said sounding confused. Then he realized why I had asked. "Oh, I see what you're thinking. Amy and I get along just fine. I don't mind spending time with her at all, but I also really enjoy sailing."

"Amy must be quite a sailor."

"Oh, she is quite remarkable in many ways, but I'll let you find that out for yourself," Jeff said smiling. "I am sure you will find her very surprising."

#

Jeff picked me up Sunday morning we filled an ice chest with beer, and we drove to the Chesapeake boating club in Annapolis. It was a beautiful summer day and there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean.

The scenery as we approached the marina was quite pleasing. The weather was perfect. The ocean breeze was invigorating. I scanned the area looking for Molly and her daughter but couldn't spot them. Jeff pointed out a sleek looking sailboat and informed me that it was a J/80. Two young women were rigging the boat. Although they were, at first, too far away to get a good look at their faces, what I could see of them was without flaw. They were the epitome of the heathy outdoor living stereo type. For me, there is nothing sexier. They were wearing deck shoes, cargo shorts, bikini tops covered by short sleeved unbuttoned denim shirts with the shirt tails knotted in front just above their midriffs. That wholesome clean-cut look does more for me than high heels and tight-fitting evening gowns ever will. If you remember Gilligan's Island, think Marianne rather than Ginger. They had short pixie style haircuts and wore sun visors and sun glasses which continued to obstruct my view of their faces even as we got closer. They belonged on the cover of a sailing magazine. They would surely increase the circulation of the magazine and the popularity of the sport.

I pointed them out to Jeff and said somewhat lasciviously, "I see why you like to go sailing now. Obviously, it is for the scenery."

Jeff laughed and said, "Would you like an introduction?"

"You know them?" I asked somewhat surprised. Jeff had not impressed me as much of a lady's man.

Before he could explain, the taller of the two women called out to him. "Jeff! Glad you could make it."

Jeff waved back at her and led me over to where the two women were working. When the second woman turned around, I realized it was Molly I had been ogling. My embarrassment was complete when Jeff had to tell them what I'd said when I first spotted them.

"In my defense," I stammered. "I had no idea it was you."

"No defense is required' "Molly said. "I'm taking it as a compliment. Lord knows how she will take it." Molly indicated the tall blond standing next to her. She then introduced us, "Chuck, I'd like you to meet my daughter, Amy."

"I'm pleased to meet you," I said to Amy. "You are not what I was expecting."

"Likewise," she replied somewhat snidely. "So you are from California, I hear that is the land of fruits and nuts. Your ogling implies you are not a fruit; so, can I assume that you are a nut?"

"I wasn't ogling. I was admiring," I said defending myself. "It is, however, safe to assume I'm nuts. It will save me much explaining."

"Whatever... let's get this boat ready." She and Jeff got on the boat and began tying knots or whatever you do to get a boat ready.

I turned back to Molly and said. "I was expecting your daughter to be much younger." I paused and then added in a whisper, "and nicer."

"She's nineteen. This is as nice as she gets," Molly said with a sigh.

"Jeff told me you adopted her when she was five?" I asked still trying to understand the age discrepancy in my mind.

"And that was fourteen years ago.

"Were you twenty at the time?

"Thank you, I' m definitely taking that as a compliment. I was twenty-four. I adopted her, because she was a bit of a problem child and they thought she might respond better to someone my age."

"Did she?"

"Who knows? She has actually turned out quite well. She's a sophomore at Rutgers. She has a three point three GPA majoring in business."

"And she is willing to spend part of her weekend with her mother, "I added. "Sounds to me like you did all right by her."

"Oh, she's not here to spend the day with me."

"She just likes to sail?"

"That, and hanging out with Jeff."

"Oh, I see," I said glancing over at the two of them working on the boat. I asked, "And how do you feel about that?"

"Mixed feelings. I really like Jeff, but he's a coworker and if they get involved and then they breakup, I will still have to live with her and work with him. That could be difficult. So, I just stay out of it. All relationships come with some risk."

"Yeah, tell me about it," I said.

"You sound like the voice of experience."

"You could say that."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really, it's a long story."

"Let's get on board. I have asked Amy to give you a tutorial of what you need to know. We let her captain."

"Because she's the best sailor?"

"That, and she so enjoys bossing people around."

Once on board Amy asked me, "So what do you know about sailing California boy?"

"I know the words to 'Sloop John B'," I said. She had no idea what I was talking about. She went ahead and explained the basics to me in the pedantic fashion every nineteen-year-old girl has mastered. Basically, I was to sit on the high side of the boat, keep my back to the wind, watch out for the boom, and stay out of her way.

We motored out from the docks took off the boom cover and hoisted the mainsail.

"Jeff check the jib clew, haul it up tighter," Amy said. Clew refers to the lower aft corner of the sails.

"Yeah, Jeff get a clue," I said proud of my intentional double entendre. It made Molly smile.

Amy and Jeff busied themselves raising the jib, trimming the sails and doing all sorts of nautical things that had us skimming along the ocean at an invigorating pace.

I stayed out of their way and sat in the back with Molly who was manning the tiller.

"Is there beer in that ice chest?" she asked.

I got up and got her one and one for myself. As I sat back down, I asked her, "Why did you adopt when you did? Aren't most girls at that age just thinking about their careers, getting married, or just having fun?"

"I wasn't interested in marriage. My career has always just been the NSA. I hired on straight out of college. It is interesting work and job security and that is all I want from a job. My parents were killed in a car wreck when I was six. I was adopted by a really great older couple who gave me everything. They made sure that I had lots of fun growing up. I was ready to commit to something. I guess I wanted to pay it forward as they say."

"So, you've been at the NSA for about sixteen years?"

"That's right."

"So you know where all the skeletons are buried?"

"A few. I'm really not into office politics.

"But I bet Mystie is. How did she get so high up the chain of command so fast?"

"She has some very special talents the male hierarchy really appreciate."

"Is that your tactful way of saying she slept her way to the top?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to be tactful."

We both had sips of beer which gave me an opportunity to change subjects. "I'm guessing Jeff hasn't been around long enough to accumulate any dirt. So, who else could you dish me some dirt on?"

"You are not very good at this, are you?" she asked.

"At what?" I asked confused.

"Spying," she replied knowingly.

"What are you talking about?"

"Look Chuck, we all know about the suspected leak. There have already been several internal investigators asking us questions. The next logical step is to plant a spy. You showing up is way too coincidental not to be suspicious. And your questioning is not very subtle. Think about who you are dealing with here. We are the smartest most paranoid people on the planet. Catching spies is what we do. Only the CIA would be dumb enough or conceited enough to think they could plant a spy in the NSA and not get caught. Is that who you are working for?"

That took me by surprise. I had another sip of beer while I decided what to say next. I decided I could trust Molly and could use her help. I thought she might make a really useful ally.

"Help me out here. If I were looking for the leak where should I look?"

"I assume you realize it's not Jeff or I?"

"Granted."

"Then ask yourself, why anyone would have you begin your investigation at such an obvious dead end?"

"Because they don't want me to succeed?" I suggested.

"And..." she raised her eyebrows indicating I should continue.

"Because they are the leak? All I have to do is find out whose idea it was to start me in your section! I'll start looking into it on Monday."

I noticed that while Molly and I were talking, Amy had stripped down to her bikini.

"Put your clothes back on," Molly scolded. "You are going to get sunburned."

"It's called a tan. I'll cover up before I burn."

Molly just rolled her eyes.

"You're a good mother," I said. "And an amazing woman," I added.

"Save it. I'm too old for you."

"No you're not, but I wasn't hitting on you. I already have an amazing woman in my life. Sort of, anyway."

"I hope you're not referring to Mystie?" she asked doubtfully.

"I'm not," I assured her. Then I told her about Rogue and our on-again, off-again relationship. She sympathized with me. We drank more beer. Around one in the afternoon we ate the picnic lunch Molly and Amy had made for us.

While we were eating, Jeff asked me, "Have you thought any more about that problem we were working on back at the fort?"

"Can we talk about that out here?"

"We shouldn't talk about sources or specifics, but we can contemplate why someone in general would tamper with a signaling system."

"What's a signaling system?" Amy asked.

"It is how the phone company controls telephone call routing," Molly told her daughter.

"Sure, she gets the one sentence explanation. You spent a half day explaining it to me," I complained.

"She's a quick study," Molly teased me.

"How has it been tampered with?" Amy asked.

"So far, we've only detected a few cases where they have rerouted calls to slower routes," Jeff replied.

"Is it possible that is the only objective? Slowing down select communications?" I suggested.

"Why would anyone want to do that? Jeff asked. "We are only talking about milliseconds. What would that accomplish?"

"I can think of lots of reasons," Amy said.

We all just looked at her.

"Have you read The Flash Boys by Michael Lewis?" she asked.

"That's about high frequency trading on Wall street, isn't it? I haven't read it. Why have you?" I asked.

"I'm thinking about applying for an internship at one of the large brokerage firms. Nobody explains the inside stories on Wall street better than Michael Lewis. I started reading his books after I saw the movie The Big Short. Anyway, speed of data is the major theme in the book; the faster the data travels, the better the price of the trade and milliseconds matter."

"How does that work?" Jeff asked.

"There are several possibilities, one is called front running," I said not wanting to be out done by a nineteen-year-old. I brought out what I had learned from the project Pixie was working on. "That is where someone takes advantage of advance knowledge of pending orders to buy stock ahead of the order and then filling the original order with the shares they just purchased but at a higher price. To do this, they have to get their order in faster than the original order. Which they could do by delaying the original order. A telltale sign that front running is taking place would be delayed traffic on links used by financial networks."

"But they would also need advance knowledge of the trade' "Jeff said thinking out loud. "Monday I'll look into what type of traffic has been rerouted and also see if there is any evidence of someone tapping into the actual trade data."

"I'll give you some specific banks that may be the victims. I have a private investigator friend who investigates cybercrime. She is currently looking into a possible front running operation."

"Are you saying there are actually private companies out there that investigate cybercrime? I thought that was only handled by the government, FBI and the like."

"The threshold for government agencies to get involved is usually crimes that exceed a half million dollars. So, there are many cases where the threshold is not met or the client can't prove the threshold is met or the client needs the incident to remain highly confidential. The FBI and the like also hire private consultants. So yes, there are actually private companies out there that investigate cybercrime.

"Interning at a place like that sounds like more fun than interning at Goldman."

"Maybe, but these are small companies, I suspect there is more of a future at Goldman."

"Yes, but small companies are where the fun is."

"I can't argue there. Do you have any programming experience?"

"Just some basic beginner courses for business majors."

"Well, if you are seriously interested in interning this summer investigating cybercrime, I am quite close to the partners of one of those companies. I can virtually guarantee you a summer job if you want."

"Are you serious?" Amy was excited.

Molly gave me a really peculiar look.

"The job is in the land of fruits and nuts. Talk it over with you Mom. If your mom gives her okay, I'll have a lady named Donna Fieldhouse contact you with details." 

"Great. That's enough work-related talk for today. Let's see what this baby can do sailing downwind," Molly said steering us downwind. Jeff and Amy adjusted the jib and mainsail and got out the spinnaker.

While Jeff and Amy were busy with the sails, Molly turned to me, "Is Donna Fieldhouse the girl you call Rogue?

"No, she is the one I call Pixie. All the partners have codenames. I think Amy and she would work well together. Pixie has the software expertise she could share with Amy and Amy could share her Michael-Lewis financial knowledge with Pixie. She can stay with Rogue and Jean. I'm sure they wouldn't mind looking after her. Of course, if you are not okay with it, I'll take the offer back."

"Let me think about it."

That afternoon I got some quick lessons on tacking and jibing before we headed back for the docks.

As we neared the dock at the end of the day, Amy asked, "What was that Sloop John B you were talking about when you got on board this morning."

"It is an old tune by the Beach Boys," Molly told her.

My affliction kicked in and I started to sing:

"I was talking about the sloop John B \

With my new-found friends and thee \

Around Annapolis town we did roam \

Drinking Bud Lite \

We solved part of our plight \

Now I'm so stoked up \

I don't want to go home."

Amy and Jeff just gave me strange looks. Then to my surprise, Molly took over and sang:

"So hoist up the J/80 sails\

See how the mainsail sets\

Let's go sailing some more\

I don't want to go home\

I don't want to go home, Oh no\

This in the best trip I've ever been on."

Molly and I sang the last verse together and then broke into laughter. I had found a soulmate.

#End Chapter Five