Overview

By Tom Parker as Carlton

I had been with the agency for almost eight months, most of which I had spent learning my way about the agency and re-arranging what I had left of my personal life. As fulfilling as my role at my previous employer had been, I had become heavily involved in several computer crime investigations. The agency decided that I was their guy for heading up any investigation that involved anything with a transistor in it, and I decided that it was time for a change.

Don t get me wrong: I had no problem with investigating computer crime-related cases, but for the most part, the cases landing on my desk were related to the investigation of illegal, underage pornography something that I am really not cut out for. Discussions with peers in other agencies revealed that such a problem existed across the board: enthusiastic computer engineers, entered their agency hoping to investigate hacker case after hacker case, but were given nothing but child pornography and an occasional fraud investigation. They were working for the wrong people.

A number of weeks after a meeting with my boss, where I had aired my concerns regarding the cases that my agency handed to me on a regular basis, I received a phone call from one of the not-so-well-publicized three letter agencies. My boss had come through on his promise to see what he could do, and had thrown my name over to one of his directorial peers during a...