Purpose

"And this is where the magic happens." Greg smirked at Floyd's comment while walking in to the center of the room. There were computers lined on all of the walls. Many stacks of loose papers were littered on the floors and desks. There were two other men in the room, both with headsets covering their ears, glued to their monitors.
"We're going to station you over here, right next to the window so that you'll be able to look down and keep up with the world every once in a while."

Greg walked over and sat in the chair.

"This seems just fine," He said as he swiveled around and checked out the space.

"So, you need help getting set up or anything?" Floyd asked.

"I'll be fine putting out my own belongings, but I've got to admit, I'm still a little confused on what I'll be doing."

"I'd be happy to walk you through your first time," said Floyd.

"That'd be great," answered Greg.

"Here we go, we're linking in." Greg said as he sat controlling the computer and Floyd talked over his shoulder. A live camera feed popped up on the screen. An elderly man was staring profusely at his screen trying to read.

"This one will be easy," said Floyd.

"Can he see us?" asked Greg.

"No, not at all," answered Floyd. "They usually have no idea that we're linked with them, now you'll see the files button in the bottom bar. This gives you access to all his files. What we are looking for is any kind of personal information for this man; credit card and social security numbers, pin numbers for his credit accounts, anything we can use to rob this guy."

"Wow, look at all of this, he had all of his personal information in this file named Matt." Greg said in a surprised tone.

"Yeah, these people who download the virus usually aren't the brightest. Look there at that file named Marcy, I bet it's his wife's information as well."

Sure enough, he found the credit card numbers and pin numbers for the wife.
"So, once you locate the information, you make sure to either write it on one of these forms, or post it all in a file to keep on this computer."

"Ok, well what am I going to do with it?" asked Greg.

"You don't have to worry about that, our man Jay up in the front room deals with all of the fraud for the apartment, he makes us the money. You just remember to drop the forms off to him at the end of the day."

Greg nodded in agreement. "Alright, sounds easy enough."

"Fantastic, it's great to have you on board. But just remember, we have to be good about what we do, any problems can ruin us, and everyone involved is going down with the ship, so be smart and try not to screw up."

"I understand." Greg stated in a serious tone.

The two men shook hands and Greg sat down to work. He wrote up his first form and then took one last look at the still perplexed man focused on his computer. Greg shook his head and then closed the tab.
Three weeks later.

Greg walked into the apartment and started his normal routine. He waved at Jay and walked back to his work space. His work days were long. He spent hours linking up with people who accidentally downloaded the virus. He'd search around for their secrets, he wrote up his forms and then moved right on to the next sitting duck. Greg started to feel his heart empty out. Every new day, brought new regrets. He knew he didn't have many options though. His brother was the one who introduced him to Floyd. Greg was desperate to find any place where he could earn some money. He knew that he needed to cling onto a stable income to move forward in his life, but he thought to himself that there must be a better purpose he could be serving.

About halfway through the day, the server that divided up all of the signals responding to the virus sent a new link to Greg's computer. He opened it up. Greg's eyes lit up for the first time in weeks, there staring back at him in the screen was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her big brown eyes were illuminated by the light from the computer. Her luscious, curly brown hair flowed down her neck and shoulders, outlining her naturally toned cheeks. Her expression had such an effortless beauty to it. Greg was too distracted to perform any kind of illegal business. He leaned closer trying to feel her emotions and read her mind. Greg's thoughts raced as he tried to figure out what she might have been doing that led her to their virus. Maybe she was trying to get some new music off the internet, or play some game. Regardless, Greg took it as a sign. He jumped to the conclusion that it must have have been destiny. Out of the hundreds of faces that Greg had scanned over in the past few weeks, none of them were even close in comparison to the unique beauty that this one contained. He wanted to know everything about this girl.

Greg examined every one of her files on her computer, he admired her photos, learned about her taste in music, and found out who she was. Her name was Isabella. Greg loved her name. He thought it fit her so well. He felt so close to her knowing about all of the things she put on her hard drive. He had never had such a fantastic, growing feeling inside given to him by a girl. Just as Greg was about to indulge in some more of her personal files, he glanced back at her camera feed. He jumped up out of his chair after watching a man come up behind her in the screen, and then begin to beat her senseless.

Greg yelled and all of the other guys in the room turned and looked at him. "Sorry, stupid spider crawled up my leg."

The other men didn't seem very amused by Greg's comment, they went about their own business again. Greg focused back on the computer. Once the man had knocked Isabella out, he dragged her over to the bed in her room. Greg watched closely trying to see the man's face. He could barely make it out. The man started to gather up belongings in Isabella's room. Greg quickly scanned through her files again. He found a party invitation that she had created with her address written on the bottom. Greg took his cordless desk phone and walked over to the bathroom, then he locked the door and dialed 911.

"Yes, there needs to be help sent to 17 Terrace Avenue in Los Angeles, California right away somebody broke into the house and assaulted the girl living there."
The emergency operator answered him. "I understand sir, I will alert the local police there to get her help immediately... Sir how is it that you are aware of this crime here in Chicago? Were you on the phone with her or something?"

"Uh..." Greg didn't know what to say.

Frantically, he hung up the phone and collected himself. Then he opened the door to find Floyd standing right in front of him.

"What is going on Greg?" he asked.

Greg was surprised and nervous. "Uh... Uh... well you see I was linked with this girl who all of a sudden was attacked and beaten."

"What? Are you serious?" Floyd asked.

"Yes, I watched the whole thing and I... well I had to call the cops."

"What did you just say?"

"I may have just saved her life, the local police are getting notified of the crime."
"Greg, did you just use that desk phone to call 911?"

Greg glanced down at the phone in his hand. "Well yeah, I left my cell phone in my car."

By that time, a few of the men working in the office came up to witness the discussion.

"Greg, did you tell them where you were calling from?" Floyd asked.

" No sir, I... well I hung up on them."

At that moment the crowd of men started freaking out.

Floyd spoke up, "You idiot, they're probably on their way right now coming to find you! Everyone, the cops are coming! We need to destroy everything! Shred all the papers and any kind of evidence to our operation... even the computers. Smash them! Greg you've jeopardized our company. You're done. Get rid of all of your belongings."
Greg was enraged. "What company?!" he exclaimed, "This is all bullshit. We are ruining people's lives."

Floyd acknowledged him without saying a word and then turned away in anger to go help.

The apartment was chaos. Everyone ran in different directions with huge piles of papers in their arms. Greg sat down in his chair and watched everyone tear the place down. They flew out the front door of the apartment one by one after they were finished getting rid of the evidence. Floyd was the last one in the apartment with Greg. He was overwhelmed with piles of papers to shred. Eventually he gave up. He walked over to talk to Greg one last time before he left.

"I started this operation five years ago, I've been tied down to running it for all of that time and now you've ruined it in just one day. I thought we had an agreement." Floyd said.

Greg sat up to talk. "This is wrong Floyd, it was going to end sooner or later. Your idea was very cruel, and you are a terrible man."

Floyd was just about to lunge at Greg when they heard a knocking on the door.
"This is the police, open up or we're going to break down the door."

Floyd frantically ran to the bathroom to hide. Greg sat back in his chair as three cops broke in. They looked around and found all of the evidence that Floyd hadn't destroyed, then they walked in to find Greg.

"Who are you?" They asked.

"I am Greg Panmont. I worked here and was in cahoots with an organization that implanted a virus on the internet to scam people and steal their personal information."
The cops were surprised. There was dead silence for a second but then they quickly jumped on Greg and hand cuffed him. As one of them held him down reciting to Greg his Miranda Rights, another one of the cops went in the bathroom and found Floyd and did the same to him.

Both of the criminals were brought in for questioning at a Chicago police station. Greg confessed everything that he had been doing for the past few weeks. Floyd did the same. Greg never saw him again after that day. They were both put on trial and pleaded guilty. Greg was sentenced to prison for a number of years. Floyd's sentence was for life. A number of the other men working in the apartment were tracked down and arrested, and received similar sentences. Greg was transported to a prison facility located in Texas. All of the regrets he had about joining the group floated around in his head for some time. He contemplated the idea of if his actions were the right way to handle the situation or not. He often thought about the girl, Isabella. The image of her beautiful face was starting to fade from his memory. He was losing her forever.
Two years later

The mail boy came around on his normal route past all of the cells in the prison. Greg read a book from the prison library when the mail cart halted in front of him. The boy handed him a letter. He opened it. Greg slowly sat down on his bed as he read it to himself. It read:

"Dear Greg,

I don't know when you will receive this letter, but I can only hope that it will someday reach you so that you will know what I have to say. I have to admit that when I first heard about how I was saved from being murdered in my own house I was disturbed and confused to learn that you were the one who alerted the police. You disgusted me. I looked into your case though. Once I observed how honest you were about exploiting the organization you worked for, I came to my senses. I found and read everything I could about you, all of the news articles and such. I know that you are more than just some creepy criminal now. After much consideration, I feel like I understand almost everything there is to know about you. It's a really strange feeling. I've realized that it was destiny that brought me to downloading that virus accidentally. I don't know if I would still be alive without you. I've been thinking about you a lot recently and now I'm glad that there was someone looking out for me, even if I didn't know it. Thank you Greg, you are truly my guardian angel. Whenever you get out, come find me. I think you know where to go.
Love,
Isabella"

Greg laid the letter down next to him on his bed. He sat back and thought to himself for a while. As he stared at the letter again, he started to smile. The memories of her face began to race through his mind again. Greg got up and pulled out a box with his mementos in it. On the bottom of the box, he pulled out the piece of paper with her address on it. Greg no longer regretted any of it. He was enchanted by the letter that he received and he knew that he now had a reason to keep his head up and keep moving forward. He had a good purpose to serve for in his life and he had every intention of finding out about it once he was released from jail.