The Idiot Tax

"Hey, what's up?" she asked with a neutral expression.

"Just starting to get hungry, wondered if you'd join me for lunch somewhere? I don't really know any place that's good here yet, so I was hoping..."

"Yeah, I suppose I can show you around. Didn't Barbie already give you the tour?" she asked, nearly scowling.

"If you mean, Melissa, then yes, she did take me to that one place on the beach already. I just hoped for something different, if you know what I mean. Some place that the locals enjoy, not just tourists."

"Fair enough. I'll drive."

They left the building and she pointed out her car. Jared stopped and gawked, having never seen a brand-new X-treme auto-car in person. The craft was a combination of a powerful turbine and controls, all wrapped up in sexy sleek curves. Jared looked but couldn't find any of the seams where he knew parts were supposed to be joined. He had the quick thought that the ALC must pay its employees VERY well.

He finally began moving again when Clara chuckled. "It's just a car, dork."

"Yeah, but it's an awesome car. Damn, this is nice!"

"Thank you. Now let's go, I'm hungry."

They got in and she took off, not really waiting for him to finish engaging his safety harness. The powerful engine roared to life, and the craft lifted off the ground, steadily climbing upwards. When she got it to about twenty feet off the ground, she pushed the steering collective forward and the craft surged forward as it climbed, racing towards the sky.

Jared held on tightly as he felt the adrenaline pump into his veins, his excitement battling with the anxiety of flying. Clara pushed the craft faster and looked like she was having the time of her life.

"Woohoo!" she hollered out as she pushed it even harder, both driver and passenger being pressed into the backs of their seats.

Jared had no choice but to hang on and enjoy the ride, although he didn't vocalize it nearly as much as the crazy IT manager did. He held the armrests tightly as she turned the wheel, banking it sharply as it rocketed forward. She whipped the steering in the other direction, as she zoomed between buildings and climbed higher still. After a few short minutes, they were descending back towards the ground, having left the downtown corridor of Miami behind.

"God DAMN that's fun!" she announced. "I only wish I could have sex as good as that!"

Her comments and attitude were a source of amusement for Jared, and he finally let out the laugh that he'd been trying to hold in. Clara turned to him with a smile as he continued to chuckle at her antics. He also silently wondered about the apparent lack of quality sex in her life.

"You're crazy, you know that?" he asked, finally able to stop laughing.

"Yup," she agreed simply.

It took about another five minutes for them to reach their destination, coming to a stop at what looked like an old wooden barn from at least the early 2000's, if not as far back as the late 1990's. It was decorated with a huge sign that looked like a bull head, horns sticking up at least 50 feet. Dave's Texas Roadhouse was proudly displayed on the sign under the bull.

"Oh, I haven't had barbeque in ages!" Jared excitedly announced, already drooling at the idea of having some ribs.

"You've never had it like Dave's, either," she promised.

They went in and found there was a short wait for a table. As they waited, Jared decided it was time to start probing Clara for information about the systems and how they might be involved if something shady was going on at ALC.

"So, how long have you been at ALC?"

"Is this the part where you start to grill me for information?" she asked in a flat tone, her annoyance once again obvious.

"Not really. I mean, it's my job to evaluate the entire system, which does include you, but to answer your question, I'm not grilling for anything. I just enjoy meeting new people and finding out how they tick, and since I don't really know you yet, I was curious. Sue me."

"Sorry, this whole thing is really bothering me. I don't understand why we needed an expert to evaluate our systems when they already have one as an administrator. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you have excellent qualifications, but I seriously doubt you're more of a nerd than I am."

Jared bit his lower lip, briefly looked down and then back up to stare directly into her penetrating gaze.

"Look, I get that this is strange for you, but imagine how it is for me? I'm told to fly out early for an important client that I haven't even had a chance to read up on. They gave me some stuff to read on the flight, but it was mostly just information about the ALC at a high level. Then, I get here and am supposed to try to help where I can, without getting in anyone's way. Oh, and trust me, I believe you. I've been a nerd since before puberty, but after talking with you earlier, I sense that you might just out-nerd me," he said, the last part with a smile.

Clara had the good grace to stop scowling at him. "Okay, that's fair, I guess. To answer your question, I've been in charge of the IT assets at ALC for a little over four years now. When I first started, they were still running on old cloud-based systems, and very little in the way of modern security. The out-going IT guy had just been fired under what I was told were some very dramatic circumstances. Seems he'd been nailing the Commissioner's wife, and the boss man didn't take too kindly to that. What an idiot."

Jared's eyes opened wide, and then he joined her as they both chuckled at the stupidity of it all. "Some people," he agreed, shaking his head.

Just then, the hostess directed them to a table. They perused the menu, both salivating over the choices of mouth-watering meats. Clara decided on the beef brisket and Jared chose the rib plate, both sharing a side of mashed potatoes and some corn muffins. They ate mostly in silence, nodding in appreciation of each other's ability to get barbeque sauce all over their hands and face.

When they'd finished, both looked like they'd just put their faces into the food directly on the plate, skipping hands or utensils. Clara was the first to speak up after wiping her hands and face with the provided cleanup towelettes.

"Damn, that really hit the spot," she proclaimed.

"Hell yeah, it did," Jared quickly agreed.

"So, truce?" she asked him, looking contrite for the first time since they'd met.

"Absolutely!" he agreed, smiling in return. "You are quickly becoming the most fascinating person I've ever met."

She smiled to match his, and they continued their conversation on the way back to the office. "How long have you been doing, whatever it is that you do?" she probed.

"That's a long story, but I guess I can give you the short version. My first job was working for a small startup company, right out of college and new to big business. I'd been a geek all my life but working in an office for a boss was a new experience for me. Add to that fact that the company was also new, and I felt like a tiny fish out in the ocean.

"Thankfully, I quickly found my groove and felt like I was contributing to something important. Sadly, that company has since folded, but not before I'd left to start with my current company. At first, I was hired to work as an administrator of their own systems, but that changed when one of our larger clients asked for assistance with their own systems. Our company normally only evaluated a business and its processes, things like that. Never the tech.

"Anyhow, the board, my bosses, asked if there was anything I could do to help the client. I offered to at least inspect what they were using and provide some guidance for their own staff on what they could do to improve things. That assignment was nearly three years ago now, and I've helped dozens of clients with their environments since."

"Wow. I guess it really does pay to be in the right place at the right time, huh?"

"Yeah, I've been pretty lucky in life, lately anyhow," Jared replied with a smirk.

"Tell me," she began, "have you ever had a client where you didn't find anything major to report to them?"

"Hmmm, that's a good question. I don't think every client has needed major changes, but I usually find at least a few smaller things that could be optimized. It sounds like that was a challenge?"

"Not really, just curious if you were ever stumped during an investigation, that's all."

"Oh, um... well to be honest, so far I haven't found anything at ALC, but I've only had half a day to investigate. Just wait," he said with a wink and a chuckle.

Clara parked at the ALC office and the pair separated once inside. The IT manager returned to her office while Jared walked around for a bit. He quietly observed the people as they worked, noting that while the offices on the outside of the floor provided some measure of scrutiny from prying eyes, those that worked in the cubicles weren't afforded the same luxury. He thought it was funny that after so many years, companies still liked to herd their employees in the ancient style of office furniture. While it did allow for some efficient use of space and provided employees a place to work from, he often thought there had to be a better way.

As he walked, he noted a few of the admin personnel working on what looked like documents that involved numbers, and one that was working on a list of some kind. Jared never lingered at any one cube, just walking past and glancing to see whatever he could. He'd often thought that a simple walk-through can often reveal some easy things to fix.

Ah, there it is... he thought as he continued his walk. He spotted the one person who was logging into their system and had the password stored on their personal communicator. He made a note of the cube number that the young woman was sitting at as he returned to his own space.

"Shit, you'd swear the kid never works," Henry lamented to Sam, as the pair were diligently working away. "It's a wonder he still has a job."

"Henry, you're just jealous because everyone likes me more than you," Jared quipped.

"Well, of course they do, I'm an asshole," Henry said, grinning.

Once Jared sat down, he figured it was about time to move on to his next phase. He pulled his tablet out of his bag and pushed a few buttons. Once the tablet was connected again to the ALC network, he tapped several on-screen buttons rapidly, and sat back as a progress bar moved across the screen.

"What'cha doin'?"

Jared looked up and saw a smiling Clara, pointing to his tablet. He blushed at being surprised by her, having not even heard her approach.

"I just finished my walk-around and now I'm running what I like to call the White Rabbit. Dang, you snuck up on me like a ninja. Are you sure you're not like secretly NSA or CIA or something black ops?"

"Ha, hardly," she replied. "What's the White Rabbit?"

"It's a routine that I've been using for a while now, been trying to perfect it every time it runs. Basically, White Rabbit is a bot that I've programmed to act like a human user and attempt to access files at random. It also looks for open ports on systems and then asks politely for access. Most systems are hardened to stop brute force attacks, worms, viruses, basically anything malicious. Not many are actually setup to stop sneaky operators doing what seem like legit operations on the system."

Clara seemed to get red in the face. "Well, don't feel bad when you don't find anything!"

The short and fiery IT manager moved off toward her office quickly, almost stomping as she moved. Jared had no idea what he'd said to piss her off, but it seemed to come with the territory with Clara. He looked back to the tablet and saw that the bot upload status was at 100%, which meant he could pack up and head back to his room for the day. He would check on the bot's progress in the morning.

**********************************************************

Returning to his room, he quickly got into his uniform for the rest of the day, the same robe that he'd briefly worn the night before. Jared ordered room service, and enjoyed his android delivered. Shortly after cleaning up, he sat on the bed and again tapped the screen next to it to connect with his girlfriend.

Sasha answered the call, standing in front of the communicator in only her robe. Jared moaned at the sight of her, "MMMMmmmmm. Damn I miss you, babe!"

"Aw, you poor baby... Do you miss little old me?" she purred seductively, rocking her hips slightly to the side, hands already working their way slowly down her narrow waist. "I think I know how to fix that..."

"Uhggggnnn..." he moaned, opening his robe and grabbing his already painfully hard cock. "Damn, babe, you make me so fuckin' horny!"

Sasha smiled and moved her right hand to her mouth, slowly rubbing her index finger over the soft lower lip it found, barely extending her tongue enough to lick the digit. Her finger worked its way back across the top lip, before moving into her mouth and getting slowly sucked inward. She sucked in so much that her cheeks hollowed in somewhat, and she pushed the finger as far in as it could go, before pulling it back out slowly, moaning as she did so.

"OH MY GOD... You are SO fucking hot, Babe!" he praised, working his hand up and down his shaft.

"Stand up," she ordered, pulling her finger out of her mouth and moving her hands towards the sash of her robe.

Jared readily complied with his gorgeous girlfriend's commands, standing up without letting go of himself. After he fully stood, she pulled the robe off, and he watched as her hands traced their way around her groin, rubbing up and down her thighs, pushing fingers around and over her already flushed womanhood, lips enflamed an angry red.

He continued rubbing his hard cock subconsciously, speaking up, "That's it, show me your wet pussy," he directed. "Get on the bed on all fours..." and as she got into position, he continued, "GOD you're sexy!"

Sasha looked back at the vid, smiling in the seductive way that drove Jared crazy with lust. He groaned as she pushed her shoulders down onto the mattress, her hands reaching back to spread her ass cheeks wide open, revealing her inner moistness, the brown puckered star of her asshole winking at him.

Jared groaned again, "Uhhh, damn you turn me on. Play with it. Play with that hungry pussy!" he ordered.

Sasha had long ago trained him to talk dirty to her, admitting to him that it drove her wild with passion, hearing her man talking to her like that, knowing that she was making him wild with his own passion. It hadn't taken much, as her desire and demeanor always had that effect on him anyhow. He told her so as often as he could.

"I love watching you. I love fucking you!" he declared, as he began pumping his cock faster, rocking his own hips as he stood before the vid.

"Yes... that's it... baby!" Sasha panted from the vid, her own digits now exploring her pussy with gusto.

She was so wet for him that it looked like it was running down one of her legs, as she began obscenely shoving three fingers of her hand into herself, moaning as she pushed her fingers in and out of her sodden hole. The fingers of her other hand were furiously rubbing circles around her clit as her ass began moving slowly back and forth, swaying in time to her thrusts into herself.

Jared couldn't help it, his pent-up release arriving suddenly. "OH FUCK!!! OH GOD!!! FUCK..." he called out, spurting heavily onto the floor, making a mess as his cum shot out. Just then, Sasha moaned out her own explosion from the vid, yelling out his name. "Yes! Jared!! FUCK YEAH!!"

He continued his pumping as he finished unloading, still groaning at the site of his hot girlfriend deep in ecstasy on the screen in front of him. Her fingers slowed their assault on her womanhood, her ass slowly falling to the bed as her legs gave out. She slumped all the way down, panting for breath rapidly.

"Holy fuck," she managed.

After a moment, "Uh huh," he intelligently replied, now lying back on his own bed, semi-hard cock in hand.

It took the pair at least two full minutes before either started moving again. Sasha was the first to rise, followed by Jared. The pair blew kisses at each other and professed their love, before disconnecting to go clean up for bed. Jared took a long hydro-shower, increasing the temperature from the previous evening, before relaxing in bed and falling asleep to dream about his sexy girlfriend.

**********************************************************

The wakeup-call once again came too early, and Jared again cursed out the uncaring android. He decided to head to ALC earlier than the previous day, to see if he could get there before most of the employees showed up. He wanted to see who the people were that got there early. It had been his experience that employees generally came in early for one of two reasons. Either it was more convenient for scheduling around family to leave the house early, or they wanted to work undisturbed.

As he entered the office, an android sat at the desk and nodded its silicone head, greeting him, "Good morning, Sir."

Jared looked around and saw what looked like two people already at the office. The door to Clara's office was closed, but a light shown from under it like a beacon. The rest of the cubicle space was lit but only about a fourth of the ceiling lights were illuminated. Jared saw one face peeking up over the cube walls, to see who'd just arrived. He waved to Sam, already guessing that she'd be the other one in already. Jared always felt she was more like a machine than human.

Jared moved towards the IT managers office, wondering why she would be there as early as she was. He knocked gently on her door, hearing a quick, "Come in," and entered. Clara motioned for him to close the door, so he did, before sitting in the chair in front of her desk.

"Good morning," he greeted.

"Yeah, yeah," she replied. "What's got you here so early?" she asked without preamble.

"I just felt like getting a jump on the day," he replied.

"I don't buy it. What's the real reason?" she asked again.

"Fine, I came in early to check on the progress of my bot. You seemed to want to make a competition out of things, so I figured I should actually try," he said with a smirk.

"I still think you're wasting your time, but whatever," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "There's a fresh pot in the kitchen if you want any," she said dismissively.

Jared rose and left her office, getting the distinct impression that she wasn't a morning person.

So, why is she here so early then?

He made his way to the kitchen and poured a mug of coffee, returning to the cube he'd been assigned. Sam barely registered his arrival, lifting her head momentarily before pouring back into her own spreadsheet nightmare.

Jared pulled out the tablet and tapped a few icons. He began typing on the keypad, connecting to his bot as it ran. The bot reported back, but it took a lot longer than usual. The bot reported that it had been allowed to do several operations on the systems and asked if he'd like to review them.

"I really need to make it less polite," he moaned quietly at his own programming, irritated that his spy bot acted more like an elementary school teacher. He made a mental note to make it more serious when he got home.

He tapped the yes button, then quickly slid the report around with his finger, noting several entries all linked with a green line. There were a few red lines in the path, signifying where the bot was stopped from an operation. His bot displayed where two of the three red lines also had yellow going around them, letting him know that it had bypassed some of the security features to make requests. He had programmed it to access things, but never to modify anything. Jared would only do destructive testing if the client had paid for that service, which in this case the ALC had not, even with the secret mission that the Commissioner had given him.