Meet At Joe's

5 Back at the Bar Part 2 Or in Trouble

I told Pixie to meet me in the office where we could talk in private.

"I know you aren't supposed to tell me anything, but there has been a recent development and we could really use your help."

"What sort of development?"

"Apparently, Julie has fallen in love with Galt. I don't want her to get hurt. Can you tell me anything to give me some indication if he is a bad guy?"

Pixie leaned back against the filing cabinet and muttered, "Believe me, I don't want to see her get hurt either." It seemed, Pixie and Julie had gotten really close. It was as if they had known each other for years. Another mystery. It would have to wait. The mystery of Mr. Galt seemed more important at this point.

Pixie was clearly torn. Finally, she said, "I guess I can tell you this much, but I'm not sure it will be of much help."

Pixie took a deep breath and began, "Honestly, we don't know what he is involved in. The FBI got an anonymous tip that Galt and his friends were up to something the FBI should look into. A friend of ours, Agent Lee is in charge of the office that got the tip. He turned the investigation over to one of his agents who said there was nothing to it. Still, Agent Lee, did not want to ignore the tip completely considering the number of tips that had been ignored in the past and had led to catastrophes like 9/11 and the capitol insurrection. Lee couldn't justify using any FBI assets; so, because we had helped him before, Agent Lee asked if we would look into it for him "off-book." She gave that time to soak in.

"So, we really don't know if he is up to no good?" I asked.

Pixie shrugged and continued, "Now the bad news. From what I've seen of what they have been working on, it's not good. They appear to be developing some very sophisticated backdoors and other spyware. That doesn't mean they are developing them to use malevolently. They could be just experimenting to find ways to block potential threats. At this point it is too early to tell.

"Like I said, that doesn't really help you, but at least there's hope he could be okay. I've gotten to know him a little bit and he certainly seems like an all-right guy to me." Pixie forced a smile and said, "Sorry, Joe that I can't be of more help. But I promise I won't let anything bad happen to Julie."

"I really appreciate what you've told me. Thanks Pixie. Do you think we should tell any of this to Julie?"

Again, she paused to consider all the possible consequences. "If we tell her, she will no doubt tell Galt that we are on to him. But I'm not sure that really matters now. I already have everything I'll probably be able to get. I've taken pictures of their code and sent it to Agent Lee. He can see if they've come across anything like it before and they can be on the lookout for it. They might be able to figure out how he plans to use it.

"There might even be an upside to her confronting him. It might trigger him to divulge exactly what they are up to or at least get him to offer an explanation why we shouldn't worry about what they are doing."

"So, you think that we should tell her?"

"I'll take care of it, Joe." She said and started to leave.

As Pixie was headed toward the door, I added, "By the way, Destiny is on to you. She doesn't know what you are up to, but she has seen you checking out those guys' software."

"That's okay, I was afraid you were going to say she caught me checking out their butts." She laughed as she left the office.