The Last Day

TWENTY-FIVE

The FBI agents looked to Ward like a pair of young stockbrokers dressed to call on a wealthy client. They introduced themselves as Bill Firman and John Mayes, though Ward quickly forgot which was which.

Despite what he had told the assembled seconds before the agents entered, Mark immediately started to explain to the pair what had happened, but as soon as they looked at the computer screen over the techs’ shoulders, Agent Firman said, “Sir, close the computer and move away from it.” To Mark he said, “Tell your employees to turn off their monitors. We'll have our techs here as soon as possible to take over.”

“Agent Firman, we can't operate without our computers,” Mark protested.

“I understand that,” Firman told Mark. “But someone here sent a virus of child pornography over the Internet. Whether or not you did it on purpose, it's a federal crime, so we'll need to interview any employee with access to your computers, see if we can figure out exactly who is responsible.”

“Our attorney is on his way,” Ward said. “You can work it out with him. Until he gets here to sort this out, he's advised us not to answer any questions.”

“Well,” Agent Firman said, “that's your right, Mr”

“McCarty Ward McCarty.”

“Ward is our CEO,” Mark said.

“Well, Mr. McCarty, until we get this sorted out, we're closing down your computers. No employee is to remove anything from the premises, or leave the building, until we say so.”

“You can't do that,” Ward said. “We called you.”

“Actually Mr. McCarty,” the agent said, taking a folded piece of paper from his suit pocket. “Certain recipients of your illegal pornography called us. I have a warrant on the way,” he said. “Your computers are closed down until we say differently. Are you still online?”

Paul shook his head. “We closed off the servers to the outside as soon as we saw what was happening.”

Agent Mayes said, “Just make sure all of the computers are turned off. Yours, too; it's illegal for you to look at that.”

“You can't be serious,” Mark said.

“You can't think we did this on purpose?” Ward asked, incredulous.

“Of course not,” Firman answered.

Ward's cell phone rang and he recognized Natasha's number. When he opened the phone, everybody in the room could hear the sound of his irate wife letting him have it with both barrels. Ward shuddered at the thought of the people on her e-mail list.