Chapter 1

Janie finished pouring hot water, wisps of steam rising from the mouth of her cup like frosty breath on a cold day, the tea bag steeping. She turned heading back to her desk, cup in hand, when she noticedhimwalking toward her.

Dwayne gave her the creeps. She felt his eyes penetrate her clothing every time he looked at her. If she didn’t need this job, she would quit rather than put up with his constant advances. But her career had languished during the Great Recession, one of its many casualties, alternating from underemployment to unemployment.

It had been a recurring theme. Soon after decent paying professional work that suited her qualifications came along, the money quickly vanished and the business closed. The few jobs that had previously come her way disappeared soon after she landed them, leaving few options.With her husband’s medical problems, she couldn’t think of leaving her present position here and losing their health insurance. She worked for the City as an administrative assistant in the Department of Minority and Small Business Development.

Days like this, with too many tasks and not enough hours to complete them, went by too fast. It was almost 5:00 P.M. already, time to go home for most of the other employees. Janie still had things to finish and planned on staying late. No one else was in the break room as Dwayne approached her before she could reach the exit. He blocked her escape as he stood in the doorway.

He had come close to her again uncomfortably so.Did he have no concept of personal space?Janie needed to raise her head to see his face. Tremendous was the word to described him, with muscles that appeared ready to rip through his shirt. Dwayne’s eyes lingered on her breasts a little too long before returning to her face as he spoke. “Hey, girl, working late again, huh? Why don’t you come out for drinks with us tonight?”

Why do I have to work with this guy? Janie wondered despairingly.She suspected a quota had needed to be filled. Equal Employment, that sort of thing. As theonlyAfrican-American employed here, it seemed Dwayne seldom did any of his work, yet received glowing evaluations. She wasn’t racist. Dwayne was just lazy and spent most of his time either goofing off or trying to flirt with her. On more than one occasion, Helen had her doing his work as well as her own.

“No thanks, Dwayne. I’m not interested. I’ve got work to do, and I’m married, so I’d prefer if you leave me alone. Please don’t make this awkward.”

Would he ever get it through his dense skull?He must have tried asking her out a thousand times since HelenSchwartz, their supervisor, hired him a year ago. He knew she was married. Why did he keep bothering her? Keep invading her personal space?

She had warned him about harassing her before, but like a weak parent, there had never been any consequences for his inappropriate behavior.

And Dwayne grew bolder.

Dwayne Jarvis wanted things he couldn’t have and usually ended up getting them. Janie Fisher was one of those things. A tassel of her strawberry blond hair had fallen in front of her left eye. He reached toward her, gently tucking the rogue strand back behind her ear before she could move her head away from his intrusive hand. A frown formed on her ivory-complexioned face, her green eyes, like two emeralds in a fresh blanket of snow, glaring at him. Despite her tough faade, her eyes were windows to a loving soul and hesaw a hint of vulnerability in them.

“Hey, that no way to talk to a friend.” Dwayne smiled. “Can’t we just be friends, or are you too afraid to have friends like me?”

“Dwayne, I just want to finish work and go home to my husband.”

“Okay, baby, take it easy. I’m just trying to be friendly.” He backed away, giving her room to pass.

She rushed by him, the black tea in her cup becoming a violent sea, burning her hands as it splashed over the rim like waves crashing against a bluff during a storm. Ignoring the pain, she hurried toward her desk.

He watched her scamper away. Beginning with her long legs, his gaze wandered up her business-style dress that fitted all her delicious curves perfectly and showed off her firm, round ass, flowing hips, and thin waist. Was she wearing a thong underneath? He focused, hoping for the slightest hint of a panty line.She was the loveliest woman he had ever seen. He imagined having her bent over a desk, pulling down her panties, sinking his long, fat black cock deep into her tight wet pussy, and hearing her moans. He wished he could make her want him. Undaunted by her efforts to avoid him, he was going to find a way to have her, and nothing was going to stop him.

It was nearly 6:00 P.M. when Janie reached her street, the sun sinking behind her apartment building and painting the sky golden-orange. The cool October breeze whispered as it passed through the branches of a large oak planted in front of their tenement, more of its colorful leaves fluttering off in the wind, like an aging man losing his once full head of hair.

She entered the living roomand carefully shut the door behind her. The curtains were drawn, the lights off, and the dim glow from the television screen providedonly illumination over the quiet and still atmosphere. The television was on but muted, and Kevin wasn’t watching it.

He sat in the recliner, in the same position as when she had left him this morning it seemed, his eyes closed, cheeks pale and sunken, mouth gapping.Was he sleeping?Seven years her senior, he was a shadow of his former self. Janie remembered how strong and handsome he had been when they first married nearly seven years ago. Janie just celebrated her 30thbirthday. She was still a beautiful, vibrant woman that looked at least five years younger than her age due to a combination of good genes and how well she took care of herself.

“Hi, honey, how are you feeling?” she asked, her mellifluous voice interrupting silence like gentle ripples in a millpond.

His eyes opened, his pallid face turned toward her, and his head, too heavy to lift, remained resting on the recliner. The treatments he had received did this to him, the medicine nearly as bad as the disease itself.

“Sorry I’m late. Had extra work today. I brought some lo mein from Changs. Do you feel like eating?”

“Maybe later.”

Janie silently stared at her husband for a moment. She wished she could tell him about Dwayne, but it would only upset him, and Kevin needed every ounce of strength to fight his own battle against his illness.

“I’m tired. I think I’ll go lay down” “Let me help you,” Janie said as he struggled out of the chair like someone three times his age. His arm went around her shoulders for support, and with barely enough strength to overcome the force of gravity, he rose from the recliner. She walked him to their bedroom noting the weight he had lost. She would never have been able to support him like this when he’d been heathy. She slipped into bed next to him for a few moments and fell asleep.

Janie awoke in complete darkness.What time was it?The numbers 7:33 glowing in red seemed to float in black emptiness from the digital clock on her nightstand. She was fully dressed and must have fallen asleep, she realized. Kevin was in a peaceful slumber beside her.

Janie dragged herself from bed. On the kitchen counter, where she had left it earlier, the lo mein still sat untouched and cold. She didn’t feel like eating and put the container in the refrigerator. She thought about work, about the promotion she had applied for weeks ago but still knew nothing about.Had they decided yet?What happened earlier with Dwayne replayed in her mind, leaving her with disgust and uncertainty. She had considered filing sexual harassment charges against him, but Helen marginalized Janie’s concerns when she’d broached the subject to her. “Oh, men will be men, honey. I wouldn’t worry about it. He’s just being friendly,” Helen had replied. If Janie issued a formal complaint, it might jeopardize her chance for promotion, she feared.

A good run always helped relieve her stress and clear her mind. Janie changed into leggings and put on her running shoes. The cool night air kissed her sweaty cheeks as she ran along the winding sidewalk in a nearby park, through the lonely evening darkness. She heard her own blood rushing into her brain, the pounding of her heart in her chest like the beat of a mighty drum, the impact of her sneakers against the concrete sidewalks like the steady cadence of a car’s windshield wipers on a rainy night.

While Janie went for her evening run, her taut ass jiggling with every step, Dwayne Jarviswas across the city visitinga dingy apartment on the opposite side of town, where his Russian friend, Sergei Makarov, lived.

Sergie appeared lanky and pale hunched behind his computer monitor, its bright screen reflected in the spectacles he wore. His desk was littered with papers and various computer peripherals hard drives, thumb drives and cables.

“Sergei, my man, what have you got for me?”

Sergei looked up and smiled. He spoke with a heavy Russian accent. “I have something very special for you, my friend. But what have you for me?”

Sergei spent too much time on the computer and had difficulty meeting attractive women. He needed to get out more, exercise his social skills. Dwayne pulled a clear plastic bag containing blue pills from his pants pocket. With the Molly Dwayne was giving to him, Sergei wouldn’t need social skill to get into some unwary girl’s panties.

“Ah, very nice, my friend. And this is good stuff?”

“Were you disappointed last time, Sergei?”

“No, you have what they say, good connections?’’’ Sergei recalled the last time he had used this stuff on a 19-year-old girl he had met at a club. Using a fake ID, she had come there with her boyfriend, but they quarreled about something and the cad had left her. She was upset and Sergei bought her a drink to help calm her, but he had slipped pulverized Molly in the drink before giving it to her. She seemed to forget all about her boyfriend and enjoyed getting fucked by Sergei later that evening. By the next day, Sergei was long gone and she likely regretted her poor decision.

Sergeitook the bag of pills from Dwayne and handed him a thumb drive. “Install this on computers. File A’ is for master computer; file B’ for targets. Easy to use; I include simple readme file. Master computer has complete access to everything on targets, can reveal any passwords typed on targets. But be quick and use screen shots.”

“Can I use more than one computer as a master to spy on the targets?”

“Yes, up to two masters and six targets possible with this script, but don’t mix up files. A’ is master; B’ target. Don’t forget. I also include dummy document file you send as email attachment to a desired target. You can rename document file if you want. When opened, will appear as empty Word Document but will install on computer and make it target.”

“Yeah, but what about anti-virus software?”

Sergei smiled, pleased with himself. “This new, and you the only one that have it. No anti-virus software have definition to detect. Once on computer, like sex without condom. You have complete access to everything. Readme file explain all.”

Although Sergei’s broken English was difficult to follow, the instructions sounded simple enough. By installing file B’ on the target computers with either the USB or as an email attachment unwarily opened by the recipient, Dwayne would have access to everything on that computer, as if he were there using it, including any passwords used.

Dwayne placed the thumb drive in his pants pocket where he had pulled the bag of pills from a few moments earlier. “If this works as planned, I’ll be one happy Nigger. You look a little pale, Sergei. You need to get out more.”

Sergei frowned. “Not all of us have dark complexions and big cocks like you people.

Dwayne chuckled. “Don’t be jealous, Sergei. Maybe in your next life.”

A week later, Janie sat alone at her desk dumbfounded and unable to do any work after learning the news. The setting sun a glowing orange through her office window, filled the room with glare. It was a cool day and she welcomed the little warmth the sunlight offered.How could they give the promotion to Dwayne Jarvis?Dwayne didn’t even have a college degree, and she did, yet they passed her up for him. She exceeded all the criteria for the supervisor position and had worked there longer. She had also worked harder for that promotion and needed the extra money it would have provided to help pay for Kevin’s medicine.

But Janie only saw part of the picture. She understood Dwayne had the right check marks by minority status in his personnel file, but she didn’t know about his shady family members, crooked friends in a city filled with corruption. It wasn’t what Dwayne knew that got him the promotion, it was who he knew.

She was about to leave for the day when he strolled up to her. His ego, which had been almost intolerable before, seemed to swell out of him now. He slowed and leaned casually against her desk, his thick arms folded across his chest as he looked down at her.

“Guess you working for me now,”Dwayne said, smirking as she stared up at him, her eyes filled with anger.

“Congratulations,” she dryly croaked back at him.

“I hope you planning on treating me a little nicer now that I’m the director of operations.” He paused. “And your boss.”

Janie wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but instead she sat quietly while his eyes began blatantly raking her body again. She hated the way he undressed her with his stare, but she had no choice but to endure it.

“Maybe you and me can go out together some time, to set things right and start out on a better foot,” he continued. “I may need to eliminate a few positions around here to reduce costs, and perhaps you can help me decide who should stay.”

What did he mean by eliminate a few positions? They worked in a small department. Besides Helen who was retiring soon, there were only three other people working here. Which positions was he thinking about terminating and why was he telling her about this?Janie didn’t want to confront the obvious answer. Dwayne’s suggestion to go out with him was completely inappropriate, but with Kevin so sick, she couldn’t risk losing what little health coverage they received through her job.

“Maybe,” she replied bitterly.

Her prior responses to his advances had always been sharp rebukes, like a swift cut tohumanely kill an animal. Maybe’ held hope and was a vast improvement from all those previous rejections; it gave him atiny taste of the power over her his new position brought, like a drop of blood from a helpless swimmer smelled by a shark.Dwayne’s face lit up more brightly than the setting sun that still peered through the window but was beginning to dip behind the rooftop of the neighboring building. “That’s great. Hey, since tomorrow is Friday, why don’t you take it off as a personal day.”

Dwayne’s offer surprised Janie, and she couldn’t help feeling like he might have some ulterior motive. But she really needed a little time off after this setback. She wasn’t in an appropriate frame of mind to come to work tomorrow. “Are you sure it’ll be okay?”

“Positive,” Dwayne replied with an unusual smile.

Dwayne was alone, the building empty. The setting sun had long vanished beyond the horizon, replaced by a silvery moon that had completed much of its journey across the dark evening sky. Downtown was peacefully quite as he exited the tall, stone and glass structure where they worked, even the drunkards and hoodlums sleeping at this late hour. He had finished installing surveillance cameras in his office and around Janie’s desk, all high definition and expertly concealed.

Janie might notice the few changes to her workspace on Monday, but wouldn’t suspect they held hidden spy cams. Some of the alterations she wouldn’t notice at all like the pinholes in the ceiling tiles that, in addition to a view of her ripe cleavage, would provide different angles of her computer screen and keyboard.

Dwayne had similarly hid cameras in his own office and could select up to eight simultaneous video streams that fed to a DVR locked in his cabinet. The DVR utilized a 16 Terabyte external hard drive, giving it over 5000 hours of high definition video storage capacity that could be accessed remotely by computer.

Finally, Dwayne had installed Sergei’s secret software on Janie’s computer. When plugging the thumb drive into the USB port, the snug fit had made him think about sticking his cock into her wet pussy. He seemed much closer to achieving that goal and his cock swelled with anticipation. Sunrise in less than two hours left barely enough time for him to get home, shower and eat breakfast before needing to return to work. Over the weekend, he planned to do more fine tuning with the camera angles and he would make sure everything worked properly by Monday morning.

Janie sat on the living room sofa that Sunday evening, another cold, rainy night in late October, perfect weather for snuggling. She missed having sex with Kevin. He sat in the recliner beside her watching an episode ofLaw and Order.The last few times they had tried to make love, he couldn’t get an erection, and it left them both embarrassed. Was it due to his illness, the treatments, stress?Or was it possible he didn’t find her attractive anymore? an insecure voice inside her head she couldn’t silence kept asking. She hoped his sex drive would return soon.

She noticed email on her phone and checked to see if there was anything important. The first email was from her father, a strong conservative and member of the Republican Party, or more accurately, the Tea Party. He still couldn’t get over the 2008 election and that Barack Obama was president. She rolled her eyes anticipating another forwarded chain email espousing some conspiracy theory about Obama secretly being Muslim or some other political nonsense. She hadn’t voted for Obama, but she didn’t think he was a bad president either. Sureenough, this email had been forwarded to her dad with the subjectObama a Manchurian Candidate. She had seen enough of these ridiculous emails to know better than to waste time reading them. Why couldn’t her parents join the 21stCentury? She clicked delete and went on to the next email which she saw was from work:

FROM:DwayneJarvis@smithtown.gov

SUBJECT: Draft Thank You Letter

TO:JanieFishcher@smithtown.gov

Hi Janie,

Attached is a draft of a letter to send to everyone in the office first thing on Monday thanking them for their support. If you get a chance would you mind quickly looking it over for me?

Thanks,

Dwayne

She thought about waiting until tomorrow to look at Dwayne’s letter when she was at work.After all, it was still the weekend and she was officially off.But good work ethic (she hated procrastinating) and curiosity got the better of her. Janie tried looking at the attachment, a Word document file namedThank you, on her phone, but it wouldn’t open.Perhaps she needed to use a computer, she thought. And like having sex without a condom, as Sergei had so colorfully put it, Janie unknowingly opened her life up to Dwayne’s virus on multiple devices. After her phone, she tried her laptop and then her PC. On each of these only a blank document innocuously appeared. She replied to Dwayne’s email:

FROM:JanieFisher@smithtown.gov

SUBJECT: Re: Draft Thank You Letter

TO:DwayneJarvis@smithtown.gov

Dwayne,

I tried this on my phone, laptop, and PC, but it looks like you sent me a blank document by mistake. Can you try resending?

Janie

FROM:DwayneJarvis@smithtown.gov

SUBJECT: Re: Re: Draft Thank You Letter

TO:JanieFisher@smithtown.gov

Sorry, sent wrong file. Try this one.

The second file Dwayne sent opened for her, and contained a short letter humbly thanking everyone for their support. She corrected a couple of his misspellings and fixed his grammar in a sentence. Impressed by the sudden professionalism he was displaying, she sent the document back to him. After Janie exited her email, she went to Google to find out about erectile dysfunction and chemotherapy.

Janie looked at the framed photograph of Mayor Johnson who she didn’t like. There were all sorts of rumors about Mayor Johnson’s illicit affairs with married women, and allegations of his connections to organized crime, which left an uneasy feeling in her stomach. This might be a city agency, but why was his picture on her desk?

And who put that new digital clock on her desk? She took off her jacket and hung it on the coat hanger.That’s strange, she thought.The coat hanger looks different new as well. Whyhadsomeone replace the old one? The new digital clock that someone had mysteriously put on her desk said it was 8:45, which meant she had arrived 15 minutes early according to it. She looked for the familiar old clock on the wall to verify the time, but it looked new too. And she had never noticed that smoke detector on the other wall before either. Janie decided it was Dwayne, making small changes to the office to show his new position, and she rolled her eyes thinking about men needing to leave their mark on everything.

She pushed the power button on her computer and waited for the Windows login screen to appear while Dwayne emerged from his new executive office and ambled over to her.

“Thanks for helping me with that letter last night. How was your weekend?”

“Fine,” Janie replied. “What’s with all this new stuff around here? Somebody get bored while I was off?”

“We had a little extra money left in the budget and used it on a few upgrades to the office before the end of the fiscal year. You working late all the time, so I thought the digital clock might help remind you when it’s time to go home.”

“The clock’s fine. But what’s up with the picture of Mayor Johnson? I’m not a big fan. Would you mind putting it somewhere else?”

Dwayne’s eyebrows rose. For the moment, he forgot about the spy cam hidden in the picture frame. Mayor Reginald Johnson wasn’t just their boss, he was Dwayne’s mentor from the old days in the hood and a close family friend. Dwayne had grown up calling him Uncle Reggie’.

“What you mean you not a fan? He’s our boss and he’s planning to visit here sometime in the next couple weeks. I think you might want to reconsider at least until after he visits. It will make a good impression.”

A frown formed on Janie’s face. “I suppose,” she said resignedly, taking her seat in front of her computer screen, the login page now waiting for her to get started. She watched with relief as Dwayne headed back to his new office that should have been hers. Even though he tried to act civilized, he still gave her the creeps and she welcomed the quick end to their conversation.

This department basically ran itself according to Mayor Johnson, and Dwayne wasn’t going to rush things. He wanted to play his cards right. He planned on delegating most of his work to the staff, which would give him plenty of time for other pursuits, like cultivating a special relationship with Janie Fischer.

He sat in his office looking at her computer screen from his own monitor. She was checking on the latest Explanation of Benefits from the City Employees’ Health Insurance website. Apparently, her husband was very ill, much sicker than she had let on, and it was costing a lot of money, which explained why their bank accounts hadn’t looked too healthy either.

Sergei was a genius and the computer virus he had written gave Dwayne access to practically every aspect of Janie Jones Fischer’s life. In little more than a day, Dwayne already had entered her personal bank, email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Posted on her Facebook page were some incredibly hot pictures of her in a bikini at the beach. He had studied how her full breasts filled the top piece, how flat and well defined her abdomen appeared, and how the bottom piece of her swim suit barely covered her sweet little pussy. Again, he had felt his cock rise with anticipation.

With the click of a mouse, Dwayne saw what she was doing on her computers at work, home and even on her mobile phone. And the first thing he happened to see that Sunday evening, after she had opened his email attachment, was her search about erectile dysfunction caused by chemotherapy.Her husband was unable to get it up for her, Dwayne thought.And that could be an opportunity.

While Janie was still on the Health Insurance website, Dwayne logged into her personal email account again, using the password Sergei’s virus had obtained, and resumed reading through old emails. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but when he found something potentially useful, he’d know it. When he decided to click on the Trash Folder, he finally found that useful something an email fromDad, with the subjectObama a Manchurian Candidate.The subject intrigued Dwayne.What did her father think about the first black president, and what did that say about her upbringing and beliefs?

Janie had received the message two nights ago, on Sunday, and at the end of it, Dwayne stumbled upon two terribly racist jokes:

What black man holds a job for four years?

Barack Obama

What’s yellow and black and makes you laugh?

A bus full of niggers going over a cliff.

Neither joke was funny or made him laugh. Did Janie think this way? Regardless of her beliefs, her attitude towards black men needed to change, he thought.Perhapsthis email could be instrumental in implementing that change.

Dwayne transferred the email from her Trash Folder back to her Inbox and then forwarded himself a copy. She would be unlikely to notice what he had done since the email was already three days old, far down a list of previously read emails she had never deleted, and was buried deeper with each new message received in what appeared to be a very active account.

Who was her father?Dwayne wondered. He exited out of her email account, returning to his own home screen. Perhaps it was time to go to Human Resources and take a good look at Janie’s personnel file.

The grey cornerstone of the Lindsey Center showed 1922, the year when the 30-story structure was erected to great fanfare as one of the tallest edifices in the city at that time. Today much of the building was used by the City of Smithtown and housed the various administrative departments that comprised the urban bureaucracy.

Dwayne took the elevator downfrom the 22nd floor where his office and the small department he oversaw were located, to the ground floor lobby of the building. The empty stairwell echoed with his footsteps as he descended from the lobby to the basement of the building where Human Resources sat and where records for all city employees were kept.

He hadn’t come down to the basement too often and noticed how the musty, old building smell was much stronger here.

A middle-aged woman, who sat at her desk and had watched Dwayne enter from the stairwell, greeted him. “Hi Mr. Jarvis. What’s the matter? You too good now to ride the elevator down with the rest of us?”

Dwayne laughed. “Hi Carla. You know I’d ride the elevator with you on it anytime. Just trying to get a little exercise.”

Carla eyes quickly scanned Dwayne’s muscular physique. He was tall and his body looked lean, hard and appetizing, like he was a professional athlete and did plenty of heavy exercise already. “Congratulations on your promotion. What brings you down here to the dungeon?”

“Well, Carla, I’d like to look at Janie Fischer’s personnel file. She works in my department and I want to verify a few things for a possible promotion.”

“Sure,” Carla replied. “I’ll show you where we keep them.” Carla pushed on the arms of her chair to help herself up, then led Dwayne down a dimly lit corridor to a room where rows of large steel file cabinets stood like soldiers in formation. “The files are in alphabetical order by last name. I’m not supposed to let just anyone look through them, but I guess I can trust you since you’re now an important person around here! she half-teased. Just put the file back where you found it for me when you’re done. I’ve got work I need to finish. If you need something, come get me.”

“Thanks, Carla. Hey, let’s do lunch some time, my treat.”

“Just say when,” Carla replied from the hallway. She paused until after the door had closed, then added beneath her breath, “stud,” and proceeded down the dimly lit corridor toward her office.

Dwayne found the drawer second from the top labeled D-F and pulled it open, thumbing through folder tabs until reaching Janie’s Fischer’s file toward the back. He removed Janie’s file from the rest as if selecting it from a deck of cards. He left the drawer he took it from sticking out from the tall steel cabinet like a patient’s tongue during a checkup as he carefully read the documents.

Dwayne noticed on Janie’s employment application, where it asked if she had any relatives that worked for the city, she had listed her father, Henry Jones with the Water Department. Dwayne took his cellphone and snapped pictures of her application, resume, evaluations, and college transcripts.