People go about their lives in their own way. Some believe the world is against them. Some believe the world is their's. But when your world has been destroyed, what would you do? What would you pay, to get some part of it back. What would you pay, to balance those scales? At what price; love? Safety? Sanity? Justice? At what price; Revenge? *Warning- Does contain hyper-violence*

Walter quietly closed the door and walked back to his car. Inside his house, his wife was reveling in the orgasmic throes provided by her latest conquest. He got back into his car and drove away. For the past three years things steadily went further away. Now it was almost routine. Work all day, come home to his wife having sex with someone in their bed, leaving to dine and drink alone, return to sleep in a guest bedroom or in the car if too drunk to drive, shower and go back to work. One night the previous week, she had four at the same time. It hadn't been the first for that. At the bar he was just barely maintaining himself, asking for a drink. The bartender already knew his situation, due to a drunken confession sometime back.

"Walter." The bartender said, standing in front of him and holding out the credit card. "Problem. The card is maxed out."

Walter blinked then took it and switched to his bank debit card. "Sorry Lou."

Lou was back and sighed. "Insufficient funds Walter."

Walter was confused as he took his card. He pulled out his phone and used it to check his bank balance. A large withdrawal had happened that afternoon, of several thousand dollars. Then card transactions upward of hundreds of dollars to a spa, salon, clothing store, shoe store, limo service and finally the restaurant he had eaten at. He was broke, officially.

"Walt, I'll spot you that one. Ok?" Lou offered.

Walter shook his head and pulled a Ten from his wallet. "I got it, Lou, but thanks. I have to go."

Lou shook his head, watching him leave. "Man, you deserve better. That whore is out to ruin you, just for the fun of it."

Walter drove directly home and went inside. Downstairs, Walter logged into the computer and accessed the bank and turned off the online service then cancel all debit cards. That was followed by canceling the credit cards. There would be no way the computer could access anything. He went up to the bedroom and found Ellen's purse. It took a minute to dig through it to find all the cards then the cash as well and walk out. In a moment of anger he reached down into the man's discarded pants and pulled his wallet free and took all the cash inside and walked back out.

Ellen had seen the door open and ignored it until it closed. A quick glance around and she saw her purse was moved and open. She shifted her position and made her lover climax faster.

"Be right back." She purred and went, without covering herself. In the kitchen she found her husband. "What the HELL do you think you're doing?"

Walter was holding the cards over a stove burner with a pair of tongs as they were burning. "Solving a problem. I already shredded the checks. Right now, the bank account is overdrawn. I don't know what you thought you needed that much money for, but put it back in the morning."

"I bought Reggie a new watch." Ellen spat.

Walter turned the cards to make sure they were burning through efficiently. "You'll have to return it then."

"No. He satisfied me." Ellen retorted smugly.

Walter looked at her. "Use your own money. Oh wait, you don't have any; all you do is lay around and fuck all day and night. The money was mine, so you'll have to return the watch and put the money back in the account. Get a job, earn money and then you can spend money on dicks. Or, you can always have them give you money."

"I wonder what Edward would say to that?" Ellen smirked.

Walter wanted to slap her for that. Edward was his personal attorney and she had seduced him along with three others he knew and made friends with several female divorce attorneys if they weren't lesbians she could also seduce.

"He'll probably tell you it was stupid to pull that." Walter leaned closer. "You may fuck him to get him on your side, but he still has to pay bills and if you piss away ALL the money, he won't get paid, which means he won't give a shit about you. Return the watch and put the money back in the account in the morning."

Ellen snarled. "Fuck you! Just for that, I'll go max out the other cards."

Walter held up the melted cards. "These cards?"

Ellen looked and was about to start shouting, but Walter cut her off. "I canceled all the cards and online service with the bank. I also shredded the checks. There is NO money in the account because of you. None! And I don't have any to put in there! You want money; go earn some!"

Walter went upstairs and moments later the man came down, putting on his clothes. He told Ellen he was leaving and did so. Walter came back down moments later carrying a suit bag along with a duffel and left as well. Walter backed out of the driveway and a crazy idea hit him. He pulled over at the end of the street and dug through his business card collection and found one for his bank. It was for a manager. Luckily, the manager was a woman, so he dialed.

"Mrs. Romero? Walter Deitrich. I am so very sorry to call you like this, but it's an emergency." Walter apologized then told her what had happened.

In a very tired voice, Amy Romero replied. "Alright. Good thing I keep a notepad close by. I'll inform the bank president about locking the account and denying card and check privileges."

"I hope this can be done, otherwise I'll have to close the account and go to another bank." Walter stated.

Amy Romero sighed. "I didn't say this, but it would probably be best if you did exactly that. It would put you back into control of your finances. I'll have everything ready for you to close the account first thing in the morning."

Walter sighed. "Thank you. I'll see you first thing."

He checked into a cheap hotel for the night and was standing at the bank door half an hour before it opened. Amy spotted him and let him in. Ten minutes later the account was closed completely and he was on his way to a different bank. By Ten that morning he was in front of the head of Payroll, filling out the direct deposit form for the new account.

"Dietrich. My office." A voice called from the doorway.

Walter signed off on the form and followed his boss. He had a feeling he should cover his ass, just in case, so he turned on the digital recorder he kept in his pocket for reminders. In the office he sat down and looked to Walter.

"Got a call." Walter's boss stated.

Walter sighed. "My wife is out of control, Mister Carothers. I'm having to make new pay arrangements. She's out of her mind and spending like there's no limit."

"She's also good in bed." Carothers smirked.

Walter got close to the desk and leaned forward slightly. "WHAT was that?"

"I said; she's also good in bed." Carothers repeated looking satisfied with himself.

"You're sleeping with my wife? You plan to use that against me? Money or otherwise?" Walter asked hotly.

Carothers sat back and chuckled to himself. "Let her do what she wants and don't worry about money. I'll have your checks sent directly to her. My dick was deep in her ass late last night and she'll be by in an hour to do it again on this desk. You'll be watching."

Walter beckoned him forward. "Jack."

"That's MISTER Carothers to you." Jack Carothers contested as he sat forward in the chair, about to mouth off more.

Walter cut him off with a punch then ran around to the other side as Jack had fallen over. He got behind him and kicked him between the legs twice then walked out. "I'm filing a suit against you for that, Jack-ass."

Walter drove directly over to the Board of Labor and filed his grievance. He had refused to meet with any male case workers. When a woman agreed to take his case, he explained his situation. The woman shook her head in disgust and assured him she would look after him. Walter let her make a copy of the recording and copies of the bank statements. They included card numbers, which revealed which person was responsible for the transaction. She also recommended the name of a divorce attorney, unfortunately it was one he knew she already had slept with.

Walter had left the house with more than had been seen. He also took several high value pieces of jewelry and the sales receipts. Selling them at a couple of pawn shops was no problem and gave him a bit of a cushion. Money in hand, he went to the bar and sat down.

"Something happen? Like, an asteroid hit your house right after you left this morning?" Lou asked, setting Walter's usual drink down.

Walter shook his head. "No. Lou, I have to do something. I can't get a decent divorce attorney here, hell she's probably been fucking the damn judges too. I need help."

Lou looked at him and asked quietly. "How bad do you want it?"

Walter held up his hands. "Whoa! I don't mean illegal. I just want to get a divorce, clean. I need a lawyer or somebody that she can't get to."

Lou and Walter were alone, so he went to his office and came back with a card. Lou struck a match and held it below the card, gently warming it. The card turned black and revealed red letters for contact information.

"She won't get to that person." Lou said and set his laptop on the bar top.

Walter was about to use his email and thought twice. Ellen might have been able to get into it. Quickly he set up a new account with a different service and was about to send out a message.

"Walt." Lou said then added. "Go get a new phone. Prepaid. Then do that."

Walter did just that. Fifteen minutes later he sent out the message. An hour later he got a reply. The message was simple. He was to be at Angela's cafe at Four that afternoon and ask for patio table Nine. Jacket and tie required. Walter went back to the same hotel he had stayed at to clean up and change.

"Ah. There you are. Mister Dietrich?" An attractive young woman with a British accent and long red hair greeted him at the table.

Walter nodded and gently shook her hand. "Yes, Miss?"

"Rebecca Sharp; Becky, if you like." Rebecca said warmly.

Walter smiled. "Thank you for seeing me Becky. Please call me Walter."

Becky poured a cup of tea for him. "Sweet; with lemon?"

"I think so. Sorry, I'm not much of a tea drinker." Walter admitted.

Becky giggled. "Just think of it as a tame coffee, Walter. How may I help you?"

"It's my wife. A simple divorce is out of the question. Just telling you that up front. She has managed to seduce or befriend every good divorce attorney in the area. The woman is beyond comprehension. She'll sleep with just about anyone she can for influence, especially over me." Walter said.

Becky looked stunned. "My. That is direct. Just exactly how did all this get off?"

Walter sighed. "I met her at a mixer eight years ago, dated for a year and got married six months after. Things were great, then. Four years ago, a couple we were friends with invited us to a party. Turned out to be a swinger party, quite a bit of drinking going on. We both got a bit curious and agreed to a one-time thing. Never should have gone to that damn party. She goes into a room with the husband we knew and I found myself getting attention from some woman I didn't know. I thought we had an agreement and went with the flow. Big mistake. Ellen had planned it all out. The woman was a prostitute and I didn't know Ellen had snuck into the room with a video camera. Right when I finished and hadn't even caught my breath, she asked if I got my two hundred dollars worth. I don't mean to get so graphic, but I was still shaking from my climax when she did that."

"Bugger. That was rather nasty." Becky remarked.

"Yeah. That's when I saw her eyes weren't on me and turned to look. Ellen was standing there with a video camera and huge smile. She turned it off and laughed that she now had proof that I cheated on her first. I have, well had, a modest job. I wasn't going to be rich, but I made a decent living. I never thought about a pre-nup. Now I'm nailed. She's ruining my life on every aspect and can nail me to the cross anytime she wants." Walter informed her.

Becky sat contemplating that and finally asked. "Just, off chance, can you make a list of who she has 'influence' over?"

Walter pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and handed it to her. "Actually I can. Bluntly; my wife is a slut that will lay down at the very mention of Penis. If it's attached to somebody important, she won't even bother to waste time getting undressed. She hasn't worn underwear in two and a half years."

Becky gave a look of disgust. "So much for subtlety. Just out of curiosity, what about disease or pregnancy?"

Walter shrugged. "I haven't slept with her since that night and she used to be on the pill, but I have no idea now. To be honest, I lost all sex drive after that night. I don't even care to see a doctor about it, she probably got to him too."

"I see." Becky said then began reading the list.

For quite a while she read silently then tucked it away.

"Becky, can you help me at all?" Walter asked.

Becky nodded. "Please understand, I am not some civil servant or Samaritan. I provide a service. That service of course, comes at a fee. It must be paid in a timely manner."

Walter took out the new phone and brought up the information for his retirement and stocks then offered it to her. "I'll give you all I have, forty-four thousand and change. It's yours, but you have to do it now, before she gets it. Will you help?"

Becky looked at him. "The question is: what do you want Walter? If you want to go back to the way things were, I'll tell you now that it won't happen. If all you want is to be free of her, arrangements can be made for you to simply leave. Otherwise, you are wanting revenge for all that she has done to you. Do you want freedom....or revenge?"

Walter thought long and hard then finally looked up. He had made the most difficult decision of his life.

"Revenge." Walter said, knowing the words were final. "I want revenge."

Becky nodded and took the phone. "You shall have it, Walter."

Walter accepted the phone back, then was surprised when she also handed him a thousand dollars as well.

"Check your car for any tracking devices then get out of state for a month. Go somewhere you can prove every minute of being at. Come back in thirty days. Goodbye, Walter." Becky instructed.

Walter stood up. "Thank you."

Becky watched him leave then signaled the waitress for the check. After paying it she left. Passing between two delivery trucks stopped for a light, the red wig and floral dress came off to reveal her own longer blonde hair and short pale blue bodycon dress then slipped on a pair of sunglasses as Dara changed directions while concealing the Becky disguise into her large handbag. No one noticed the quick change, including the man with a video camera she spotted tailing her from the cafe. He merely stood on the sidewalk looking both directions in confusion at losing his quarry.

"So much for amateur hour. That was a very big mistake, Ellen." Dara said to herself then sang softly. "Everybody knows, everybody knows. That's how it goes."

Ellen hung up the phone angrily. Her lawyer's investigator lost the woman her husband met with. The red head was a total mystery. She hadn't made a reservation at the cafe, paid in cash and vanished into thin air. The waitress never even heard the woman's name mentioned. That wasn't the only bad news. He had lost Walter as well. He had found out that Walter had checked out of the hotel and left, but had no idea where he went. The tracker on Walter's car had been found inside a random Uber driver-less car.

Ellen had called her lawyer as soon as she saw Jack Carothers nursing a black-eye and packing up his belongings snarling that Walter was fired, but had filed grievance with the Board of Labor against the company that could not be fought. She was told to leave and no longer had any business coming back as he was now fired. Walter would have a good reference from the company, but Jack would not. Ellen wasn't even out of the building when she called her lawyer. Hours later, he called her back with the news. Walter had met with a mysterious red-haired woman that disappeared without a trace on a busy sidewalk and Walter was nowhere to be found either.

All Ellen knew was that Walter had spent the night at hotel, alone, went to the bank first thing in the morning and closed out the bank account with notice of not being able to be reopened. The credit cards had been canceled and he also had his name removed from renewal lists. She had no way to open anything in his name now. Ellen was left with one option and headed for the bar Walter always went to. Hopefully she could get something out of the the bartender there.

Ellen smirked as she said to herself. "He won't say no to a blowjob for telling me what Walter's up to."

Dara had hopped on a tram and took out her phone after ditching her tail to send Walter a new message. It was plain and simple: on his way out of town cancel all services with next day cut-off, including insurance then obtain new car insurance for only himself through a different agency. The purpose was for the wife to be stuck without comfort. No electricity, no communications, no entertainment. Eventually she would be stopped by the local police and be found to not have auto insurance. She would be ticketed and the car would be impounded as well. Dara made it home and cleaned up before receiving a message from Walter that her instructions had been followed and he had even went one step further. Walter had sneaked back to the house and removed all her jewelry along with the receipts, she would not be able to sell any of it. He was now on his way out of town.

Daryl sat down in front of the computer system and brought it up. Within seconds information began coming in on the life and times of Ellen Deitrich. Any niceties ceased after Middle school for her. The online yearbook for High School made him face-palm.

"Wow Ellen. I've never seen somebody actually voted: Most Likely to wind up in low-grade porn and/or get multiple STD s. Damn, that's just bad." Daryl sighed, he had hoped her current M.O. was a recent development.

Shaking his head he then hacked into the home computer. There were many videos of her trysts, usually with references intent to humiliate Walter via comparison. Suddenly her phone came up on the network. Daryl hacked it. He could only get contacts and any stored data. Anything added after that moment or any calls or next texts would not be available. For that the phone would need to be cloned. No problem. He committed her identity to memory then began to get dressed. Long cycling pants and long jersey. It looked solid black. With that he also grabbed a black helmet then strapped on black shoes and brought out a black racing bike. Rolling onto the street he pressed a button under the seat and the entire frame lit up. A button on a box in the center back pocket of the jersey was pushed and the pants and jersey lit up similarly. Ribbon lights. They were very much like micro-LED lights but flat and flexible. Waterproof and gave off so little heat, they could be taped directly to the body and used for hours with no discomfort, save for the tape itself. Perfect for riding at night.

Almost an hour later, the lights suddenly went out and Daryl became a void in the night. A blur of darkness narrowly avoiding any pools of light from streetlights. A single lap around the block revealed all had settled in for the night. Only soft light came from the upstairs of Walter's house. Daryl coasted up the driveway and dismounted the bike. Carefully looking around the corners he checked for motion sensors and saw none. Until looking around into the backyard. There was one motion sensor there. Around the other side of the house Daryl used his scanner to try locking in on Ellen's phone. It was there but not alone. There was another phone coming up in the proximity as well.

"Well now. Who might you be?" Daryl whispered to himself then used his own phone to access the reverse-directory.

An expanded search made Daryl want to groan. "Judge Wilfred T. Brahmski. Family Court. He's who would hear any divorce proceedings. Oh? Hello. What are you?"

A new WiFi entry came up on the scanner. It wasn't a phone as it was linking to the computer. It was a wireless camera. Daryl pulled the signal and was surprised to not only pick up video, but audio as well. He had to mute it until plugging in an earbud then brought the volume up and started recording.

Inside, Ellen was now working to get past her earlier disappointment. Trying to pump the bartender for information on Walter had been a bust. Not only did Lou know all about Ellen and her antics, his husband hadn't like her making passes at him. Though the bar wasn't strictly LGBT patron-ed, there were enough there to make things very uncomfortable. Almost to the point that she began to feel threatened and made a hasty exit. Now she was pulling the most effective card she could; the Judge that presided over all divorce cases in the city. Ellen had already known that the Judge was a philanderer, he had been married to the same woman for thirty years. However she was reputed to be very conservative when it came to sex.

Ellen danced a striptease, removing her dress to reveal she wore only thigh high stockings under the dress. She sauntered over to the edge of the bed, turned around and began to grind and rub against the Judge. She turned around and helped him take off his own clothing until naked then knelt down and gave some oral attention to finish completely arousing him.

"Ellen, this is turning out to have been well worth the wait!" Judge Brahmski chuckled clenching her hair.

Ellen lewdly let her mouth pop as she released him and said. "I'm filing for divorce and couldn't hold back anymore Wilfred. I'm sure I'll prove my side of things. My husband simply doesn't have your air of authority....or girth. There's just nothing to appreciate."

Wilfred firmly pulled her up, still clutching her hair and pushed her onto her elbows and knees on the bed as he moved up behind her. "I'll give you plenty to APPRECIATE, Ellen. Now, do you solemnly swear to give your ass, the hole of your ass and nothing but moans, so fuck you hard?"

"Oh YES! I DO solemnly give: my ASS, the HOLE of my ASS and nothing butt MOANS, SO FUCK ME HARD! I THROW MYSELF ON THE MERCY OF YOUR COCK! Oh please Your HONOR, DISPENSE your jizz-tice!" Ellen cooed and giggled then yelped as he took her.

"Court is now IN session!" Wilfred laughed thrusting into her.

Outside Daryl tilted his head and whispered to himself. "Really? They couldn't come up with anything better, seriously? Adultery is reason enough, but these two have to go down after that idiotic dialogue. I have to, off sheer principle now. Judge, you need to be out of the picture, fast. Ellen, you are bad luck for guys."

While recording the session inside, Daryl also cloned Ellen's phone then the Judge's and muttered. "I'm sure I can get some shits 'n giggles somehow."

That's when it hit him and Daryl grinned at the pure sadism of the thought and sent out a text using the Judge's clone at the perfect moment. He almost lost it when the answer came immediately and the judge swore at the distraction. The orgasm ruined, Wilfred dug through his pants and found his phone only to swear more. A text from his wife:
pick up milk on the way home

Outside Daryl was silently howling. He had sent the text to the Judge's wife, stating he was now on his way home and asked if anything was needed. The Judge was snarling and Ellen was griping, they had both been right on the edge of climax and a phone ruined it. To make matters worse, he would not be able to justify staying out any later to try again. In the past, Daryl had many of such incidents due to his sister barging in after fiddling with the lock on his door and knew the frustration. It was fun to inflict that on someone such as those two. After the judge left, the camera shut off. The small netbook monitoring the home computer revealed that Ellen saved the video into a file and marked it with the Judge's name. Then it was backed up onto an external device.

Daryl used a mirror to watch her movements through the windows. Finally climbing up onto the roof to see into the bedroom. Ellen had a secret hiding place in the stool of her vanity table. He then saw her start texting. The message, when sent, showed up on his clone. It was a message to her lawyer stating that she now had leverage on the Judge to ensure any divorce hearing went her way. The lawyer told her she needed to visit his office in the morning and to wear something convenient. Daryl had to roll his eyes at that. Ellen replied that she would see him at Ten. Daryl watched her go to bed, turn out the lights and begin masturbating. That was his cue the night was over. He left as silently as he arrived.

The next day, Ellen paid no attention to the cyclist that passed her on street. She was too angry. All utilities and other services were suddenly off. To make it even more infuriating, it had happened while she was in the shower, shampooing her hair! Hair still damp, she was able to put on makeup and dress then leave. She would have to stop along the way for coffee.

Daryl rode past the house once, checking his scanner. No WiFi signal detected. He pulled in at a house for sale down the street and made his way back, using the roof tops. At the Dietrich house he leaned over the edge and saw no indicator for the motion sensor and went to a window. The contact detector revealed the alarm system was off. No power to the house. Carefully he finessed the window locks and opened it then went inside. With no power, not even the cellular back up for the alarm system worked. Without delay, Daryl went to the master bedroom and picked the lock on the vanity stool. Inside were a passport, several flash-drives, file folders, two phones, computer discs, digital recorders for audio and video and seven bundles of hundred dollar bills. Daryl went to work, he had no time to waste. Everything had to be copied or cloned. Only one thing could he take with him, the video of Walter. Daryl set out three netbooks and a laptop, each connected to a burn phone he had slaved to them. He had no idea how much time he actually had.

Ellen went into her attorney's office in a huff, slamming the door behind her and pulled off her dress. "Hurry up!"

Melton Felds stood up unzipping his pants. "In a mood Ellen? Good, me too!"

She climbed on top of him as he laid back on the couch and snarled. "The Judge didn't get me off, the batteries died in my vibe and on top of ALL that, everything got cut off at the fucking house while I was in the shower!"

Melton rolled over with her and thrust in. "Then I'll just have to fuck you like I hate you and you take it like the cock-craving slut you are."

It wasn't long, the secretary in the outer office put in her earbuds to drown them out. It wasn't anything new to her, though she couldn't stand either one. Not even three days after going to work for him, he tried to sexually harass her. Being new to him, didn't mean she was stupid. She had kept a digital record turned on every time he spoke with her and she caught it. Two threats kept him from ever doing so again. Sending the recording to the Bar Association and a visit from her husband, who happened to undefeated for the past two years on the amateur MMA circuit made her stance very clear. Leave her alone and pay her fairly.

Ellen lay back afterward and finally caught her breath. "What's going on with Walter and who did he meet?"

"He is not in the state and I have no idea." Melton replied as he lit a cigar.

Ellen sat up. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'YOU HAVE NO IDEA'?"

"Exactly what I said. I have no idea. My guy wasn't able to get a picture of her and the cafe doesn't have cameras he could pull footage from. He gave a composite and the search came up with nothing. She has no criminal record, no issued ID or passport. The staff at the cafe had never seen her before. Whoever she is, she's damned good. So good; she could completely disappear on a crowded sidewalk and nobody paid any attention." Melton said after a puff on the cigar.

Ellen used some tissues to wipe herself then looked over. "So? What's that supposed to mean?"

Melton glared at her. "That means she is some kind of professional. Sophisticated enough to go around to meetings in the daytime in public."

When she didn't get his implied meaning he leaned forward. "Professional. Sophisticated. Untraceable. Like; an assassin."

"An assassin? You think Walter would...." Ellen trailed off.

Melton puffed his cigar. "Put out a Hit on you? I wonder why he hadn't done that already. You rub everything in his face enough. If it all came to light, I doubt a jury would convict. Oh and you may have a divorce judge, but you don't have a criminal judge and you won't get one either. They don't play. You aren't that good of a lay or have enough money to buy one."

"I can get money. I can get into Walter's retirement portfolio." Ellen sneered.

"Yeah? Is it worth ten million?" Melton countered then added. "Of course that's just the deposit. To fight the appeals, two million per year after. Oh that's assuming you can find out who she is and buy her off, so you don't get killed first. That's also assuming she'd let you. Not many will switch like that. Bad for the reputation and all that."

Ellen dug her phone out of her purse and made a call then started making demands when it was answered. "Yes. This is Ellen Dietrich. My husband is preoccupied at the moment but wanted to know what the latest is with the retirement portfolio. What? What do you mean it's been liquidated? I demand to know who authorized that! Walter did?"

Ellen disconnected and almost threw the phone across the room.

"Obviously, he realized you might try getting to that and jumped first." Melton speculated.

Ellen swore. "Bastard started laughing! Said he had been told to tell me 'too late, you're cut off'. If he hadn't been so old I was scared it would kill him, I'd have tried getting him in the beginning. Two heart attacks and six bypass surgeries; the man barely risks anything that might be exciting."

Melton sighed. "I'll draw up the papers and file for your divorce in the morning. My guy is still trying to find him. Once he does, he serve him the papers."

"Fine!" Ellen huffed. "Now get over here."

Daryl had only started his work when he glanced over at the money again. If he took it, she would know. Still though, it was another resource she could use. How could he make it worthless? Then it hit him; by making it worthless! He used his own phone and made a call.

"Fitz. Hey, I'm in a rush. You still have that counterfeit money, the hundreds? How much do you have? Two hundred K? I'll buy seventy K for ten grand but I need it in half an hour. You have a drone right? Good. Use that." Daryl then gave the address, location of a good spot to park and his location in the building.

Thirty-five minutes later a drone hovered at the window with a box strapped underneath. The drone landed on the roof and Daryl quickly took out the fake money and stuck a bundle of real money inside. The drone took off and disappeared. Minutes later a message thanking him for the business came in as a text. Daryl put the stacks of counterfeit hundreds back into the stool along with everything else, except the video of Walter. He had checked for cloud service previously and only found business entries for Walter. If Ellen had any copies, they would be in real-space, probably with her lawyer. He finished up, made sure he was leaving no trace and left.

Brenda answered her phone. "Yes?"

"When you have dirt on a lawyer, how do you leverage it?" Dara asked.

Brenda almost held the phone to look at it, but answered. "I go to the Bar. They deal with them. It has to be pretty much spelled out though, so the attorney can't spin it. Why do you ask Dara? I thought you knew that."

"What about a judge?" Dara asked.

Brenda groaned. "Oh dear God Dara, what have you gotten into now?"

"Oh, probably the biggest sex scandal since Madame Fluffy's appointment book got delivered to the newspaper." Dara remarked casually.

Brenda wanted to lay her head on her desk. "Oh hell! You did that?"

"No. But it was really funny! I have a guess who did, but I won't tell since I have no proof." Dara giggled.

"GAH." Brenda responded. "Just how bad?"

"Poor guy can't get a divorce attorney she hasn't fucked in the city. She has Melton Felds and she slept with the hubby's attorney. If she isn't sleeping with them, she's friends with them and now she has the Judge in her bed too. The upside is, she got them all on video with audio and there are timestamps in the video." Dara informed her.

"Melton Felds?" Brenda asked.

Dara replied. "Yep. I can put up some money for one of your office people to watch for him down at the clerk's office, but it has to be cash."

"Jenny just found out she's pregnant, so she needs the money. She just needs to watch for him and if possible, hear what he's filing?" Brenda asked.

Dara answered. "Yes. Three grand. Front steps of the courthouse at eight tomorrow, a purple bike messenger will hand-off deliver. Tell her to wear bright blue. Pay and instructions in envelope. Can you find out who Felds' P.I. is?"

"Oh I can tell you. It's a guy named Herman Stanfield." Brenda said.

"Stanfield? Where do I know that name from?" Dara asked.

Brenda sighed in disgust. "He's a low-life. He used to be a cop, but got kicked off the force for trying to extort some underage working girls. He didn't know the State had a sting going at the same time to try catching their trafficker. The department couldn't cover that up, neither could the A.D.A. It was state level and the A.G. wasn't happy. Stanfield is real bottom feeder. Be careful around him. He has nothing to lose."

"Everybody has something to lose Brenda. You know that." Dara reminded and disconnected.

Brenda cradled the receiver and sighed. "Except you Dara. You can drop everything, run, never look back and not have a second thought about it."

That night Dara crouched outside Melton Felds' office watching a small monitor. She had managed to sneak in a small drone only two inches by two inches like a small car when a courier came by to make a delivery. It was able to be positioned to see the alarm system keypad. Melton had been the last to leave. An hour later Dara, in all black form-fitting spandex and balaclava, picked the lock on the door and slipped inside. Melton's code was entered and the system turned off. Dara had been impressed, he used a twelve digit. Now she owned the office but wasted no time. First was the file room. She pulled Ellen's file and read while making copies.

Dara searched the rest of the files. In Melton's actual office she searched his private cabinet. Ellen had a second file in there that was thicker. What looked like an inventory was in there with entries of names and numbers. None of the files were numbered which made Dara stop and think. What could they be? Thinking it better to stay moving, she resumed searching the room and found a safe in the floor under the desk. It took an hour a half to manipulate the lock, but only because the lock was loud enough to be heard perfectly by the audio of the netbook's audio software. It was an update to the old classic technique; listening to the tell-tale clicks of the tumblers.

The safe opened and there was a rising rack that could be lifted up. The rack held plastic bins on the shelves. In one were a collection of flash-drives. They were numbered. Dara retrieved Ellen's file and checked the inventory. It matched. It clicked now. The flash-drives were her insurance policy against any that would try to fight back against her influence. Dara took them all then also pulled the inventory page of the file. Doing so would tip her hand, but it would cause considerable mayhem. Now she turned her attention to Felds' computer itself and the external drives. Forty-seven minutes to crack his password, the guy actually took decent precautions against intrusion. There was cloud service and the same files were there.

Normally, when someone deletes items from a cloud service, they never ask if it can be recovered. It could, but the service charges you a hefty fee for that. However, for those very familiar with cloud service capabilities, there was a way to remotely delete items that could not be recovered without a full system shut-down and reconstruct. The problem with that was, it didn't always work. Dara worked for nearly twenty minutes and was amazed to be asked if she wanted to purge those files. Purge was altogether different. Not even with a reconstruct could the files be recovered. She smiled and launched it. Dara was closing the safe when she noticed something. There was an odd wire under the desktop. She traced it and found it running to the phone. In complete silence now, Dara all but tore the room apart. She found three cameras and two microphones. The phone was also tapped as well as hardware installed on the computer to monitor it.

'SHIT!' Dara mentally raged.

Dara was glad she had worn the face-covering now as she retrieved her mini-drone. However, it was beyond time to leave. She would have to be extremely wary as she left, others were watching. She re-entered the alarm code, went out and locked the door. With very deliberate movements, she left the building and immediately cleared the area. Dara even looped back on her travel to see if she was being followed then rode her racer through permanent camera traps she had set up. After another hour, she decided she had nobody following her and went home. The shop would have to be closed for the day while she rested and worked her new acquisitions.

Melton Felds shook his head in disappointment. His investigator came up dry. Walter had cleared out of the town he was staying in and moved on. There were three towns within five hours of each other the man could stop in and stay for days before being found again. He had went to file the divorce papers first thing that morning, but now it was all on hold as Walter couldn't be served until found and there could be no legal ruling for two years minimum without doing so. Ellen would have to actually file a Missing Person Report, which would bring all her own activities to light and ruin any chances of getting a ruling in her own favor.

Walter had found a pawn shop in the first town with a very sympathetic owner. Walter had said the magic word; divorce. The shop owner quickly agreed to give him fair price for the jewelry, including the very watch he wore. That set Walter up to move around for a while. He didn't know why it popped into his head to switch towns after one night, but he did, going further and further across the state. It seemed like the thing to do, so he did. For now though, he had found an efficiency apartment cheap. He then signed up with a temp agency to do unskilled labor and they got him a job working on a construction site as a laborer. It wasn't rocket science, nor comfortable work, but they were paying him a fair wage and not asking questions. That was enough for him for the time being. The best part, they didn't even bother with his references.

Daryl finished eating a salad and sat down at the computer. All the flash-drives had been the back-up copies of Ellen's sex videos. Her insurance policy. He pulled up the picture he had taken of the ones she kept at home and smiled. He had been so focused, he missed the obvious. They were all identical in appearance. He called a friend with a computer service and asked if he carried the same flash-drives in stock. The answer was yes and even had more than enough for Daryl. Daryl took an hour and half to go purchase the drives and back at his house, used pictures of each one to copy the written numbers on them. Including Walter's. Just for fun, he loaded them with enough Off-the-wall Indie music to seem like serious data was on them.

Ellen's text messages revealed she had opted to stay in a hotel for the night. That would make it easy enough to swap out those drives. She hadn't gotten into the counterfeit money yet apparently. Pity, it would simplify things more. Possession of such a large amount of counterfeit currency would take her out of the picture. Felds not having any of the videos anymore would negate anything else she could think of to save herself. A glance at the picture of the undisturbed contents reminded Daryl of the passport as well. It too was a resource that should neutralized.

"Hmmm.. maybe you should become Russian, Ellen. Maybe Elena, da? Elena sounds right for you, blagodarya." Dara said in a Russian accent.

With that she dug into her collection of ghost passports and found one for Russia. A picture online was able to be added and now Ellen had a Russian passport proclaiming her to be a woman from Moscow named Elena Todokova. There was just one catch, Elena Todokova was wanted by the Moscow Police in connection to a Prostitution and blackmail ring. Dara went to dress in the stealth riding apparel again and rode off on the bike. Dara wanted to shake her head. Sure, leaving all that evidence there helped, but she wondered just how the woman had gotten away with all this so long with such a monumental blunder.

An hour and a half later, the flash-drives and passport had been switched. As far as Dara knew, she now had all the evidence. There were none online anymore. As she turned onto the main street and switched on her riding lights it hit. The lawyer. Walter's lawyer. The guy was too easy to change sides. Something had to be wrong with him. Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to search his office at the time. It would have to wait til the following night. the day wouldn't be wasted though, there was still the judge to deal with. He needed to be out of the picture before anybody made the docket.

Daryl sent his packets of information with the video of the judge out first thing the next morning. It would be a two-pronged attack. One packet was going to the Attorney General and the other to the state's Bar Association. It was very tempting to send a duplicate to his wife, but that wouldn't have the desired results. With that accomplished, he began to look into the lawyer for Walter. It didn't take long to find bad news. The lawyer had gone to the same high school as Ellen. Things went further downhill. In law school; he not only went to the same college as Felds, they were in the same fraternity. They interned for different firms at one time, for the same firm another time. They went to work for the same firm after graduating. That was when things became interesting. The firm dissolved a year later.

Daryl dug deeper into Dark Nets and found out why. The Senior partners were both involved with a sex scandal. The woman was one Ellen Atkinson. Atkinson was Ellen Dietrich's maiden name.

Daryl sat back and sighed. "Now I see how this started, but I don't understand how they got to where they are now. Walter is just a regular guy working a 9 to 5. What's the end-game?"

Suddenly Daryl grabbed the inventory sheet and started looking at the names then began searching them. There he hit pay-dirt. It was the lovers that were the real targets. They were almost all married and well-to-do. The ones not married were not so high-up but appeared to be on the fast-track for upward movement.

"They aren't really blackmailing Walter, it's these other guys! Walter is just there for appearance, no. Walter's company has some kind of connections to the companies these guys are with. He's interacted with them socially. HE'S THE INVITE! Damn why didn't I see this sooner?" Daryl exclaimed.

Now it all made sense. Walter's company was needed by the others. He attended social functions, to which Ellen would be along and she would meet the executives. Those executives would then be targeted, seduced then blackmailed by the two lawyers and they made sure that any mistakes she made, couldn't be exploited. If the blackmail ran out, either of the lawyers would represent the wife in divorce and therefore be able to 'earn' part of the divorce settlement.

"I have to get into the other lawyer's office, tonight!" Daryl snarled then got up to get ready.

It took seven hours after the office was locked for Daryl to re-emerge from inside. He had waited an hour before going in. He made sure to check for any out-going video feeds and neutralized it with a ten minute loop. He came out with a bigger haul than he had from Felds' office. Edward Wilton even had dirt on Felds, just in case. The funny part, it was a double-edge sword. It all incriminated him as well. Daryl now had it all. Including some very shocking things about Ellen that Felds hadn't known about. The State Attorney General was about to get a rather large box.

A week later, things came crashing down. Melton Felds, Edward Wilton and Ellen Dietrich were arrested by State Police. Judge Brahmski was stunned when Marshals entered his court and halted the case in progress then arrested him, for Judicial Misconduct. Walter was easily found and summoned by the State Prosecution. He gave his testimony without flinching. The Defense team wanted to crawl into a hole after hearing it. There was no way they wanted him on the stand, for anything. In fact, with all the overwhelming evidence, the three scrambled to make plea-deals only to find themselves being slammed instead. None had anything to deal with that the Prosecution team didn't already know about. The worst of all, it had made National news.

Walter walked along the garden path and stopped as the red-head turned around to greet him.

"Hello Walter." Becky greeted.

Walter nodded back. "Hi Becky. I guess it's all over now?"

"Yes. It was quite the mess. I believe you have certain questions though, yes?" Becky asked as they began to walk along the path.

Walter sighed. "I don't even know which to ask first."

Becky frowned. "Such is no surprise Walter. Ellen became a horrid creature back in Middle School. It seems that her principal was a pedophile. Her grades had become below standard and she would not promote. She exchanged her virginity for passing grades. In High School she befriended your lawyer. They began to work together, exploiting the student body and teachers for their own gains. From grades to money, nothing was off limits to them. Edward was the brains, Ellen was the means."

"That had me coming and going, didn't they?" Walter asked.

Becky continued. "During High School, there was an incident. Ellen was arrested for solicitation. She was sixteen and therefore the records were sealed. Somehow, Edward had a copy of those records. She was diagnosed as a sex addict also. Their 'relationship' continued through Edward's college years. That was when Melton entered their partnership. Some details become rather foggy, but it is possible that they tried to blackmail Edward and Melton's professors. It was unsuccessful, professors are more cautious than practicing attorneys of such things. There was a botched attempt to overtake a law firm there after they graduated. That made them relocate here and they started over. It was pure chance you entered their scene."

"What made them pick me?" Walter asked.

"At one time, you were being groomed for higher promotion. You met Ellen and married her. However, nepotism took place and you were passed over in favor of a relative. Not that he didn't have the proper skill and training, but you had seniority with the company. Time in the trenches so to speak. He got the promotion, you were given a raise and stock-options. From a financial stand-point, you received the better end. Unfortunately; Edward, Ellen and Melton wanted more than you were in-line for. You became the pass-key to others for them to exploit." Becky explained.

"Oh." Walter frowned. "The Attorney General didn't seem to want to tell me much of anything. Just said that I could go and handed me divorce papers that were finalized."

Becky nodded. "He understood that you had been duped and were being exploited. Melton will be spending the next twenty years in prison on a variety of charges. Edward will be spending a longer time, about seventy from what I understood, but may be paroled in forty. If he survives. I've heard that the judge was brought up on corruption charges. Turns out, it wasn't the first time he...enjoyed liberties...with ladies going through proceedings. He will spend some time in prison and never practice law again."

Walter gave Becky a sad look. "And Ellen?"

"I'm afraid she will spend the rest of her natural life in prison Walter. She tried to seduce her guards, the prosecutor, the judge. Even the transport drivers. Finally she lashed out in frustration and attacked guards with a broken toothbrush. She will never see freedom Walter. Please try to find a way to put her behind you." Becky tried to console him.

Walter sighed. "Well, a construction company I worked for ended up needing somebody in their office. I had the skills so they made me an offer. I guess I'll tell them yes."

Becky gave him an encouraging smile. "A fresh start wouldn't be a bad thing Walter. Make the most of the opportunity."

"Well, they did keep my name out of the news. I guess I could make a fresh start. Thank you Becky Sharp, thank you for everything." Walter said and shook hands with her then turned to go.

"Make a new life Walter, try to enjoy it." Becky said then continued down the path alone, singing softly to herself. "That's how it goes. Everybody knows."

To be continued.....