TABLE OF CONTENTS Jeremy! A voice shot across the office. Jeremy stood up to look over the cubicle wall and watched as his partner walked across the office toward his cubicle. He was truly enjoying his new life in a real job. His security clearance had been approved about five months earlier, enabling him to start working on actual cases versus sitting in an uncleared facility studying investigation training manuals. When Jeremy had walked into this office for the first time, he found the work already piling up for him, since apparently, the other employees had been anticipating his arrival. But much to his own disappointment, he found all the initial cases to be exercises in futility. The other team members had already grown accustomed to those cases that were likely to be fraudulent and had graciously taught Jeremy his first real lesson on the new job.
The voice currently bellowing his name from across the room was his partner, Neil Hanson. Neil was a nice guy and had worked in the intelligence community for over 20 years, but had not adapted very well to the change of working environment that came hand-in-hand with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Neil s position had been absorbed into the new agency because his job duties were believed to fall into that gray, confusing, nebulous realm of responsibility given to the new DHS. Unfortunately, Neil s technical knowledge was dated. In short, it had simply been too many years since he had...
