"Brian Lumley - E-Branch 1 - Defilers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lumley Brian)

the numbers," she answered, "but he did get the name of the bank: a branch of the rather obscure
Burger Finanz Gruppe, or Citizens Finance Group. In fact it's the only branch we were able to
find, and I think if we were to dig just a little deeper we might well discover that it's owned-or
was owned-by Manchester himself! His own little piggy bank, as it were.

Anyway, as you know, seven years ago most of the world's countries, or their governments, were
signatory to a convention that opened up their banking systems to scrutiny. This was supposed to
spell doom for the world's crooked, high-finance speculators, and write finis on the money-
laundering activities of the organized crime syndicates. It was supposed to, but didn't, mainly
because several major players wouldn't sign up to it."
"I remember," Trask nodded. "Russia, China, Italy, Greece, oh, and one or two South American
countries, naturally."
"And Switzerland!" she told him. "For in case you've forgotten, some of the big Swiss banks are
still fighting off Second World War Jewish claims on massive sums of money that the Nazis stole
and stashed away. As for Italy: well, the Italians didn't at all fancy the idea of opening up
their Mafia-riddled banking systems to scrutiny. And Greece didn't have any cash worth arguing
over! The Chinese weren't interested,- indeed, in light of China's alleged 'lack of crime'- the
fact that under its then regime merely socializing with international criminals was punishable by
long terms in their infamous 'correction facilities'-they felt insulted! And then there were those
South American countries you mentioned, which for obvious reasons wanted nothing at all to do with
it. As for poor old Ma Russia: well, financially speaking the Russians didn't know-and still
haven't discovered-which way's up . . ."
She paused again, and Trask noticed she was looking a little pensive.
"Go on," he urged her.
She shrugged and went on, but mainly on the defensive now. "The trouble is," she started slowly,
"that I've always been an eager beaver, you know? Sort of rushing in where angels fear to tread?
And this time I may have sailed too close to the wind."
"You're certainly full of cliches," Trask's eyes had narrowed. "And perhaps just a little of the
other stuff, too?"
"Oh, I wouldn't try to, er, 'shit' you, Ben Trask," Millie said. "No, not you."
"So get on with it."
"Well," she shrugged, "I suppose that I really should have got authority before I, er . . ."
"Before you what?"
"Er, before I spoke to the Burger Finanz Gruppe bank," she told him, and paused yet again.
Trask sighed and said, "This is like pulling teeth! So who did you, 'er,' speak to at the bank?"
"Not me, exactly," she answered. "I mean I didn't speak to anyone-or thing-at the bank. But I got
our tame tech, Jimmy Harvey, to do it for me . . ."
And now things came together.
First the time: an hour ago in UK it was nine at night in Zurich. The banks would be closed. And
Millie had said she didn't speak to anyone-or thing-but that Jimmy Harvey had done it for her.
Harvey, a tech, one of E-Branch's whiz-kid communications and covert surveillance experts. The
answer was obvious.

"You got Jimmy to hack into the bank's computer?" Trask's question was more an accusation, and his
stare was penetrating.
Still looking innocent, but not, Millie tried to shrug but her shoulders weren't working. "The
work of five minutes," she said nervously. "Enough time to get in, get Manchester's file, download


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