"Of course. With this amount of data, it's not a matter of if the FBI will get involved, but when."
Our conversation was interrupted as Tabby Williams buzzed for entrance. We were on the fourth floor of the Smiley Headquarters, far enough away from the noise and music of the gym on the first floor that we could work uninterrupted. After buzzing her in, Mark shut down the files we were looking at and went back to his normal desktop. Tabby may have known our real identities, but there was no reason to put her at risk by letting her in on more secrets than she already knew. "Hey you guys."
I could tell as soon as she came in the door that something was different with her. Tabby was always bubbly, but this was almost perky. "Hey Tabby. What's up?"
"Oh, just wanted to drop off some more files for your perusal," Tabby said, practically skipping across the floor. "How's life in Mount Zion?"
"Good," Mark replied, turning towards her. "You seem rather chipper this morning. Get some extra caffeine in your latte or something?"
"I just had a really good night last night, that's all," Tabby said, starting to blush. I looked at Mark, who nodded.
"What was his name?" Mark asked with a smile. "And just how good a night was it?"
"Marcus Smiley!" Tabby said in mock outrage. I was glad that Tabby knew Mark more under his assumed alias than as Mark Snow, because you could tell she was being flippant and not really thinking. "I will let you know sir that despite all appearances, I am a very hard to please woman. In fact, I'm just the sort to take home to your mother for Sunday dinner."
"Uh-huh. So is he or she cute?"
Tabby rolled her eyes and nodded. "Yes, HE is very cute. But more than that, he was a total gentleman the whole time. In fact, we only kissed once, when he walked me to the door of my apartment."
I was surprised. Tabby was no slut, but she rarely played hard to get like this. "Really? And you're seeing him again?"
Tabby smiled and started giggling. "Tonight, in fact."
I was flabbergasted. "Whoa, two dates in two nights with the same guy? He must be a good one."
"He is. Listen, I'd love to tell the two of you all about it, but I just barely had time to drop these files off before getting to the office. I have a meeting in thirty minutes that I can't be late for."
"Okay. Well, give me a call tomorrow or something, we can talk all about it," I said, picking up the inch thick pile of file folders. "And when do you need these back?"
"I don't," she replied, heading for the elevator. "Those are your copies now. See you!"
As quickly as she arrived, Tabby was gone, the elevator taking her down stairs. I turned to Mark, who had a careful look on his face. "What is it?"
"Have you ever known anyone interested in Tabby who was willing to settle for just a kiss at her front door at the end of a good date?"
"No, but that doesn't mean it can't happen," I said. "Maybe Tabby has finally run into a guy who will treat her with respect and admiration. Trust me, when that happens, it feels great for a woman."
I saw Mark blush, and he turned back to his computer without a reply. "Okay, well, if you want, could you start taking a look at the businesses while I work my way through the files from last night?"
"Okay," I said, starting with the top folder on the pile. The first sort was easy, really. While we had given Tabby very specific ideas on companies that we wanted to look at in terms of income, potential for growth and other hard data, there were factors that we hadn't told her.
For example, one of our rules was that we didn't invest over a hundred thousand dollars unless the company was either offering very close to a majority stake, or that the company was already so wealthy that the stake offered was under ten percent. The first group of companies were true angel investments, meant to provide people with the ability to achieve their dream. They were relatively high risk, but still we did it to help people. The other group were companies that we were assured to get our money back, and we used them for growth of our total portfolio. Companies who were in neither group were eliminated because they either didn't need us, or were high enough risk that it wasn't a good investment for the amount of potential return.