Chapter 228

After Ida had gone to bed for the night, Darius moved to his charging station, then focused on moving into the network. Since most things were wireless, it'd be easy to manipulate the Angel organization's computers. Most of their assets were digital currency, so he'd just swipe it while they slept and leave a message for them. 

He'd also root around their files while he was at it. They might contain something useful, and whatever he seized would be passed to the military as evidence for whatever charges they wanted to lay. 

First, he had to connect to their network, though. It was easy this time, since he'd counterhacked them while he was trying to crash the ship. He just had to retrace his steps. They'd tried to cover their tracks, but Darius found the thread they'd left behind and followed it. 

Now that he was looking through the files, a lot of them looked like financial scams. Loan sharking, embezzlement from major corporations, straight-up fraud...

The lists in the data were huge. Ida had said to seize the ill-gotten gains, but she hadn't said precisely what to do with them. Every victim was listed here, along with what they 'owed' and how much they'd paid. The corporation embezzlement wouldn't be as major, but...

Darius started systematically going through the list of victims and dispensing the precise amount they had paid into their accounts. A reimbursement of sorts. He also deleted the data as he went, so Angel would have a hard time tracking them all down later. When the organization's liquid funds ran out, he started seizing money from the individual members. If they were headed to jail, they wouldn't need it anyway. 

Somehow he managed to compensate all of the victims. When he was done, not a cent was left in the account of any Angel members, including Jacob Hinton (who was already imprisoned). Next up was looking through her list of employees and getting whatever information on each of them he could. 

Jacob Hinton. Age 33. Also known as Whiplash. Currently in prison. 

Justin Gates. Age 28. Also known as Twinblade. Currently in prison. 

Peyton Crawford. Age 22. No alias. Currently free. 

Travis Carr. Age 51. No alias. Currently free. 

Sasha Silverman. Age 31. No alias. Currently free. 

Anne Tate. Age 40. No alias. Currently free. 

The list went on and on. Darius dug through the files, finding each person's place in the organization and tallying up a list of charges for the military to slap on them. Each charge would of course be accompanied by evidence. The military could do with it what they wanted. 

Oh? What was this? 

Darius dug into an interesting little trail he'd found, and realized that Angel was actually paying a military colonel and a member of city council. The money trail was complicated, and he only found it because he was combing through every file Angel had. Of course, he'd have to pass this on to one of the generals. Or maybe all three. That way one of them wouldn't be able to cover it up. 

Yes. This evidence would be distributed to all three generals and every current member of city council. It was obvious that Angel was paying them off for something, though Darius couldn't say what precisely. That would be for investigators to figure out. 

Not his problem. 

He moved on through the list of employees - if they could be called that. And at the center of it all, one Angela Ortiz. Age 66. She'd gotten into organized crime in her twenties, and her ambition had led her to become the biggest crime lord in Arx Nubibus. Any who defied her quickly lost everything. Only Jase had held out so far, but records indicated she was trying to find him and his crew. 

But her reign would end. 

Even if he left her to die, someone would undoubtedly fill the power vacuum she left behind. How had people let things get this far? They were lucky he had orders from Ida. 

He made a special set of notes regarding this Angela Ortiz. Since she was the ringleader, he took special care in digging up every speck of dirt he could on her - from any source he could find, not just Angel's data - and compiling it all into a neat little file for whoever was assigned her case. By his estimate, she'd earned a couple of death sentences according to the old law. Nowadays, that just meant she'd be locked up in prison for the rest of her days. Though, based on her health history, she might not have long left. 

Not that that mattered too much. She'd be off the streets soon, locked up nice and tight where she couldn't hurt anyone. As such a villain deserved. 

Darius kept compiling the data, making it neater for whoever had to sort through it. For each victim, he replaced their name with a randomized alphanumeric code. If they wanted to come forward to testify, they could, but their identities would be protected in the case that they didn't. And, of course, the only copy containing both names and codes would be secure in the Underwing. Only he and Ida would be able to access it. 

On second thought, Ida didn't need access to it. He generated a 50-chracter passcode to protect it, then stored an encrypted version in his memory hardware. No one but him would be able to get in there now. 

He'd have to keep an eye on the progress of this case in case the military needed human witnesses. He'd probably be able to help out there. While protecting confidentiality of course. 

By the time Darius was done everything, it was morning. Time to get up and make breakfast. His body was charged and ready to go, so he left Ida's room with thoughts of pancake mixes in his head. 

When Aila dragged herself downstairs for breakfast the morning after her adventure with Darius, she was still trying to process everything he'd said and done so nonchalantly. It felt like she'd gazed into an unfathomable abyss, something mere mortals should never touch. 

Because of that, she didn't realize what Kath was saying until Casper yelled at her. 

"Aila!" 

"What?" she asked, looking around in bewilderment. 

"You okay?" Abby asked, looking between Aila and their mom, who was pale and holding her phone in her shaking hands. 

"I'm fine. What happened, Mom?" 

Her mom wordlessly handed the phone to her and Aila scanned the screen. Once. Then twice to make sure she saw what she thought she saw. 

No matter how many times she looked at it, though, the screen didn't change. 

A deposit had landed in their bank account, with the message "From the Angel Victims Fund" attached to it. It was huge. With this much, Abby would be able to pay for post-secondary no problem. But what was this? Angel? 

"What do you think happened, Aila?" her mom asked, obviously anxious. 

"I don't know," Aila said, running information over in her head. Angel - wasn't that Jase's nemesis? Who ran Kwik Kash? Angel Victims Fund? What the heck was that? 

She pulled out her phone and texted June. If anyone had answers, it would probably be her, right? 

"I'll figure it out, Mom," Aila said. "Just don't touch it for now. Once I find out what happened, I'll let you know." 

Mom nodded, taking the phone back and sighing. 

"Are we in trouble again?" Abby asked. 

"I don't know. I'm going to find out, though." Aila started searching the term "Angel Victim Fund" and found a few posts already asking about it. No one seemed to have any answers, and when June texted back several minutes later, she didn't know what had happened either. Finally, she found a response online. An anonymous person had said that the "Angel Victim Fund" was for anyone who had been a victim of a scheme run by the organized crime group known as Angel. They'd soon be arrested and charged, but some kind of investigation had already been done to compensate the victims. 

Aila couldn't handle it anymore. She spent most of the day in her room, trying to make sense of the world. 

And then, on the evening news, the Angel Victim Fund was reported as being compensation by an unknown individual for each and every person who'd been scammed by a crime group no one seemed to know the name of. Every member had also been arrested, and Aila couldn't help but wonder who in the big blue sky would be behind this. 

Then June finally got back to her to say that Ida and Darius were responsible. 

With a groan, Aila explained to her mom that the money was indeed for them, no mistake. And then she went to bed and stayed there until noon on Monday.