“Bart? No. He’s my best friend. He is kind of lazy, but he’s very generous.”

  Nadine nodded, but she didn’t look convinced.

  “But he’s not a very good friend. Getting you to do all that extra work.”

  “What? Bart’s the best friend I could have. He knows that I don’t have much money, and I don’t like charity, so he gets me to do all his papers for him, even short ones that he could do himself, and he pays me every time. And he’s helped me in other ways. He got me this job. I couldn’t have got it without him.”

  “I’m not so sure about that Jake. But I am sure he got some sort of kickback from Danny.”

  “What?”

  Nadine sighed and leaned back in her seat. “Never mind. Jake, that’s the longest conversation you’ve had with me all year. Did you know you’re sexy when you talk that way?”

  Jake blushed. “No.” He looked down at the desk.

  “In fact, I was talking to Alicia about that—about you.”

  “Alicia was talking about me?” Jake tried to sound cool but blew it badly.

  “Yes, I was with her at the spa yesterday. The one on J deck? Alicia and I were there. They do this thing where they sit you down and give you a scalp massage and run their fingers through your hair. It’s heavenly. But we were talking.”

  Jake fantasized for a few moments about running his fingers though Alicia’s hair. Then Nadine’s. Then both.

  “What?” He had missed what she was saying.

  “I said Alicia says she admires your dedication. She said it was so interesting to see somebody involved in their job and trying so hard to make a difference. She said it made you hot.”

  Jake sat straight up. “She said that?”

  Nadine shook her head and laughed. “Of course not, Jake. You are so easy to tease. But we thought everything you said was very interesting. We never would have figured it out that way. That was very shrewd. Did you find any more information about your log things?”

  Jake knew he had promised not to talk about this but Nadine didn’t say anything else. She just stared at Jake and smiled. Jake blinked once. The silence stretched. Jake felt he should say something, just to be polite.

  “Uh, well, I found others. Four different claims that don’t match the mass readings. I sent out requests, and I got some e-mails back—kind of snarky, but I do work for corporate auditing and we’re supposed to audit things, I guess. And I am an auditor, so I should audit stuff.”

  “That’s what Alicia said. She told me that she thought auditing was fascinating,” Nadine said.

  “She said that?” Jake asked.

  Nadine raised her eyebrows.

  “Of course she didn’t,” Jake said, with a grimace.

  “You’re improving. Right, but we had finished having our massage, and we were sitting in the steam room together, talking about this, about how we would handle something like this when we were out of school.”

  Now Jake was picturing Nadine and Alicia in the steam room. Did they wear towels? Were they naked in the steam room? Would they run their fingers though each other’s hair…?

  “What?” Again, he had missed what she said.

  “I said she was interested in what that e-mailed log told you,” Nadine said.

  “Oh, it proved my theory. The deck officer even made a note of it. The ship’s fuel consumption was way lower than expected. Fuel consumption would only be so low if two containers had been empty, rather than full of three thousand kg of ‘office fixtures.’”

  “So, what does that mean?”

  “Uh…” Jake paused. “I’m not supposed to talk about it.”

  “Danny’s idea, right?”

  “What?”

  “To not talk about it. He doesn’t want anybody knowing how dumb he is, and how smart you are. This has all been going on under his nose, but I’ll bet he’s going to tell everybody how he figured it out without your help.”

  The silence stretched. Then Nadine leaned forward and rested her chin on her hand. “Jake, I’m interested in what you found. I’m at school to learn about business. This is part of that. Please, tell me what you found.”

  Jake shifted in his chair and dropped his head. He didn’t like Danny. Danny didn’t like him. Danny made fun of him in front of everybody. Jake saw a vision – Danny shaking hands with Mr. Dashi and accepting a reward chip, while Jake stood, unnoticed, in the back of the crowd.

  Jake bit his lip. He hated it when others took credit for his hard work. Like the term paper writing. It was all his work, but others reaped the benefits. It was frustrating, and lonely. And here was a woman who was interested in something he knew all about. An attractive, intelligent, woman, with attractive friends. Friends he wanted to impress. What the heck.

  “The insurance claim is false, I guess. Could be false, I guess.” Jake squirmed on his chair a bit.

  “People are stealing things?”

  “Kinda. Yes.”

  “Have you told anybody?”

  “Well, I told Danny. He’s following up on it. He’s the boss, you know, and I was just, you know, doing some extra stuff.”

  “Is Danny following up on it?” Nadine asked.

  “Well, there’s nothing really to follow up on. All the approved paperwork was OK. It was just my extra stuff that showed some problems. It’s up to Danny. He’s the boss.” Jake shrugged his shoulders.

  Nadine stared at him, then shook her head. “You’re too smart to believe that.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t believe that. Last time I was here with Alicia, you were all fired up with excitement about what you had found. You had found a mystery, and you were going to figure it out. Sending e-mails. Reading logs. And now you’re trying to act all cool. I’ll tell you something, Jake.”

  “Yes?”

  “You don’t pull off cool well.”

  “No, I don’t. I’m not cool,” Jake agreed. He sighed. He wanted to be cool.

  “No, but you can be other things.”

  “I can.” Hopefully.

  “Yes, in a cute, involved sort of way. Like those dogs in that show. You know—the black ones on the vid?”

  “Labrador retrievers?”

  “That’s it. Big, fun, furry dogs. Smart. Loyal. Excitable. Cute.”

  Jake stared at Nadine. He was hoping for sexy, or dangerous, or even intriguing.

  “I’m cute and excitable. Thanks, Nadine. That’s great to know.” He pursed his lips.

  “Oh, don’t get so offended. Cute is good. So is smart.”

  “Uh huh.” Cute. Great.

  “In fact, because you are so smart, Alicia and I did some research.” Nadine pulled out her pad and played with it for a moment.

  “Research about your cargo logs. Remember, I’m here to learn about how to work with my corporation, so I pulled my own corporate records. I found one of these mass discrepancies you talked about. Cross-indexed it with our shipping records. Found an empty container that was shipped by us.”

  “You did? You did all that research?”

  “I did. Don’t sound so skeptical. I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”

  “Sorry. I didn’t mean to imply anything.”

  Nadine put his hand on his arm. “It’s OK, Jake. I’m not just a pretty face; some guys say I have a nice ass too.”

  Jake choked.

  “But Jake, I have responsibilities to my corp. Alicia and I deal with Danny’s department too, and we wanted to make sure we weren’t involved in anything strange. We’ve covered ourselves. Did you find any other issues?”

  “Well, I sort of stopped looking after I told Danny about it. He’s the boss. He can take care of this.”

  “That’s not what you said before. You told Bart, didn’t you?”

  “Yes. How did you know?”

  Nadine ignored the question. “He told you to drop it, didn’t he? ‘Just stop checking those reports and let it go, my young Belter friend.’” Nadine did a good impression of Bart.

  “He said it wasn’t my problem. I’m just a clerk.”

  “He did? Why would he do that, I wonder?” Nadine tapped her fingers on the desk.

  “Bart’s my friend. He got me this job. He gives me good advice.”

  “As far as you know.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. I know Bart’s your friend. And he’s right; it’s not really your problem. Keeping your mouth shut might be the best course.”

  “Yeah.”

  “But Jake…you are a smart guy. Ask yourself this: are you the only smart guy here? Can somebody else figure this out? And if they do, will it come back to you? And what does say about you and your choices? What will other people think about you, if they find out you knew and didn’t do anything?”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Are you going to be a corporate drone, doing whatever for whomever? Believing what they tell you? Or are you going to think and act for yourself?”

  “It’s just a bunch of reports, Nadine.”

  “For now. For now. Listen, I gotta go. Give this data chip to Danny, please.”

  She dropped the chip, turned, and walked away. Jake watched her go. She did have a nice ass, he noticed. Athletic. He sighed again; he didn’t understand women.

  He went back to reconciling his traffic. He had to get it all done before his midmorning classes. He started typing, but the discussion with Nadine kept coming back to him. What was the right thing to do? He didn’t want to make waves, but Nadine was right. This couldn’t go on; he needed to do the right thing. But he had promised Danny. What if he warned Danny? He could do that.

  Jake typed an e-mail to Danny. “Need to talk about that report thing. Having second thoughts. Can I meet you in office?”

  The response came back immediately: “On video conference call with HQ. No time today. Meet me in my office after class tomorrow morning.”

  Jake got up and walked into Danny’s office and put the credit chip Danny had given him on his desk.

  Well. That was done.

  * * *

  Next morning, Jake had one long class on cargo-loading procedures. He barely paid attention for most of it; he had loaded cargo before. He did take notes, since Bart would need them. He was sure Bart had never loaded a cargo ship in his life. It was possible that Bart had never actually even seen a cargo ship.

  The class was almost done when there was a knock at the door. The instructor leaned out of the door and conferred with someone, and then she turned around. “Jake Stewart, Mr. Dashi wants to see you. You need to go.”

  All eyes in the classroom turned to Jake. He stood up, collected his things, and carefully saved his notes before walking out the door.

  Mr. Dashi’s assistant, José, stood outside the classroom.

  “José? What’s going on?”

  “Mr. D. wants to see you. Let’s go.”

  José walked ahead of him up the stairs toward Mr. Dashi’s office, and gestured Jake to follow.

  “What’s this about, José?”

  “Mr. D will explain.”

  When they arrived at Mr. Dashi’s office, José walked right up, knocked perfunctorily, and then thrust the door open. He stepped aside and gestured Jake in.

  Jake walked into the room. The door made a thunk as it shut behind him.

  * * *

  Mr. Dashi was sitting behind his desk. He had pulled his chair right up to the desk and was sitting very straight in it. His hands were clasped in front of him, and he was leaning forward. Two women Jake didn’t recognize sat on chairs to his right. They could have been sisters. Both were short with long black hair and black eyes. One of them wore a black jacket over her skin suit with a matching head scarf. The other wore an elaborate cravat in TGI colors. They looked very neat and precise, like accountants.

  On Mr. Dashi’s left sat Danny.

  Danny? What was going on? Was he in trouble too? Had they caught Danny and now wanted Jake to testify against him?

  Mr. Dashi didn’t invite Jake to sit.

  “Well, Mr. Stewart. What have you got to say for yourself?”

  “Sir? I don’t understand.”

  “We know everything, Mr. Stewart. The auditors have been working all night since Mr. Lalond informed them.”

  “Mr. Lalond?” Oh, thought Jake. That must be Danny’s last name.

  “What did Mr. Lalond inform them of, sir?”

  “We’ve been looking into your e-mails, Mr. Stewart.”

  Jake relaxed. It was about the e-mails to the corporate ships.

  “I’m sorry about that, sir.”

  The silence stretched. Mr. Dashi looked at Danny, then back at Jake.

  “That’s it. You are sorry?” Mr. Dashi asked.

  “Sir, I thought I was doing my job. It was just a few e-mails, sir. I didn’t think it was a problem.”

  “You didn’t think it was a problem? That’s all you can say for yourself?”

  Mr. Dashi looked at one of the women to his left. She shrugged.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to cause trouble,” Jake said.

  “Didn’t mean to cause trouble? That’s all you have to say?” Mr. Dashi took a breath.

  “Mr. Stewart, I have to admit, you were quite smart about the whole thing, and you had an excellent act. It’s partially my fault, really. I bought the whole thing—the poor Belter, the disadvantaged family, the dead father, the heroic work history. All of it. I should have known better; I’ve seen things like this before. Was he really your father, or is that a story you heard at your station?”

  “Sir? My father died helping rescue that TGI ship.”

  “Of course he did. Of course he did. Good for you—sticking to your story.”

  Mr. Dashi leaned forward and put his head in his hands for a moment. Then he looked up and continued. “But you forgot about the auditors. They found you out. Why did you change how you took the money? That’s how they found it out so quickly; that’s what proved it to me. If you hadn’t started just keeping the money here, we wouldn’t have believed it.”

  “Sir? What money?” asked Jake.

  “The money you stole.”

  Jake shook his head. “Sir? I didn’t steal any money. What are you talking about?”

  “Oh, don’t try to act all innocent. We pulled your banking records. We see all the payouts, going back this last month.”

  “My banking records?”

  “Yes, Mr. Stewart. We are allowed to do that. It’s in the student guide, remember.” Mr. Dashi gestured at his screen. “Or didn’t you read that page?”

  “But what do you need my banking records for, sir? I just sent some e-mails asking for logs.”

  The woman with the head scarf spoke for the first time. “Is that what you are claiming now? That you sent the e-mails? That it was your idea?”

  Jake turned toward her. “But it was my idea. I just wanted to double-check the insurance claims.”

  “Look, Mr. Stewart.” Head scarf fiddled with her tablet. “We’ve got all the proof we need. We see that you and your gang have been falsifying insurance claims for the last year. You’ve been paying off an auditor, or auditors, to certify empty shipments as full. And you’ve been certifying the paperwork as all present, and taking a kickback.”

  “A kickback? What kickback?”

  “We’ve been tracking all these deposits in your account: ten to fifty credits at a time,” headscarf said. “It was smart of you to keep them small; these small irregular deposits are easier to hide. And of course, deleting those files and canceling those e-mails was a big red flag.”

  “Canceling e-mails? Deleting files? What are you talking about?” Jake’s legs started to shake, just a little bit.

  Danny cleared his throat. “Jake, it’s too late for that. We know everything about you. I told Mr. Dashi this morning that you knew I was onto you and that we had to act fast. I told him how you were telling me the ships were not sending the logs I had asked for, but then in fact I saw that you had sent out e-mails canceling my requests.”

  “Your requests? But I sent those e-mails. You are the one who told me to cancel them. You said not to bother the captains.”

  “Jake, we’re not that stupid,” Danny said. “Nobody will believe that. I told Mr. Dashi about my suspicions immediately after I realized you had been deleting documents.”

  Danny turned to the two women. “By the way, did we find out what he deleted, and can we get it back?”

  The cravat woman flipped up her tablet and tapped it. “We got some of it back. We can confirm the e-mails were deleted by Mr. Stewart. He deleted files that went back well over a year, almost two. We got enough of them back to confirm that there was impropriety and theft. It will take a very long time to identify all the players, though.”

  “I didn’t delete anything. What deletions? When?” Jake’s shaking got a little worse.

  “Last week,” Danny said. “You stayed late at work; you even used my office to hide your work. There is a record of you logging in from my office for five hours.”

  “But that was you,” Jake protested. “You had me log in and delete those files.”

  Everybody laughed at that, even Mr. Dashi. He looked at Jake. “Mr. Stewart, you are the only student who consistently uses a hardwired terminal rather than a tablet or some mobile device. You are religious about logging in and logging out with your credentials. We know it was you.”

  Jake looked at Mr. Dashi, who appeared sad. The women’s faces were stern. Danny was frowning.

  “But I didn’t do anything,” Jake insisted. “I didn’t take anything. I didn’t steal any money.”

  Head scarf tapped her tablet. “OK. We found dozens of deposits in the last few months for small amounts. How did you earn that? Where did it come from?”

  “Other students. They were paying me,” Jake said.

  “Paying you to do what?” Mr. Dashi interjected.

  “Help them with homework. Write papers. I wrote their papers for them.”

  “And they will confirm this, of course?”

  “Well, no, they weren’t supposed to hand in my papers as their own.”

  “So, no confirmation from your classmates?”

  Danny leaned forward. “Jake, you were going to class full time and working in my office. Are you saying that in addition to all that work and studying, you had time to do all this classwork for other people?”