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KINGPIN

The scattershot approach meant Max would be spared the frustration he'd felt in his last legitimate penetration test. Hacking any one particular target can be difficult; depending on the target, maybe even impossible. But scan hundreds or thousands of systems, and you're guaranteed to find some that are soft. It was a numbers game, like trying car doors as you walk through a parking lot.

Charity had only the broadest notion of what Max was up to, and she didn't like it. In an effort to win her over, Chris and Norminton invited the couple down to Orange County for a short vacation, paying their way for a weekend at Disneyland. Charity could see that Max and Chris were clicking, but something about Chris didn't smell right. He was too slick, too polished.

Max's hacking moved to small e-commerce sites, where he grabbed transaction histories, some with credit card numbers. But his efforts were unfocused, and neither Chris nor Norminton was sure what to do with all the data he was stealing.

Fortunately, Chris had some money coming in. Werner Janer owed him $50,000 and was ready to wire-transfer the money to a bank account of Chris's choosing. Determined to get his hands on cold, hard, unreported cash, Chris asked Norminton to do what he did best; Norminton agreed to have one of his friends receive the transfer and pull it out over the course of a few days.

The first round of withdrawals went as planned, and Norminton and his friend showed up at Chris's and handed over $30,000 in $100 bills. The following day, though, Norminton reported that his friend had taken ill and would have to take the day off.

In truth, Norminton had discovered the source of the windfall: It was Chris's cut from a real estate scam he'd helped Janer pull off. The money was dirty, and Norminton was now implicated in the scheme. The next morning, Chris found the Honda he'd loaned Norminton parked outside his office, one tire flat and a fresh dent in the fender. There was a note from Norminton inside: The FBI is after me. I'm skipping town.