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THE MALL

want to quit. He liked hacking; it was all he wanted to do. So screw him. Chris had his own exit strategy in place. He’d poured his profits into an enterprise for Clara, a denim fashion company called Trendsetter USA that already employed several full-time workers at a bright, pleasant office in Aliso Viejo. Eventually, he was certain, it would be profitable. And 100 percent legit.

Until then, he’d be busy.

Shitrit was a clotheshorse, and they’d already squandered some of their stolen credit on men’s clothing for him. On this visit, they’d stay focused. They walked into the air-conditioned coolness of the Bloomingdale’s and made a beeline for Ladies’ Handbags. The Coach purses rested on small shelves along one wall, individually spotlit like museum exhibits. Chris and Guy each picked some out and went to the register. After some swipes at the point-of-sale terminal, they were headed for the door with $13,000 worth of Coach in their hands.

Chris was breaking his own rules by going in-store himself, but his crew was suddenly thinning. Nancy, who’d helped set up Max’s new safe house, had since moved to Atlanta and was doing only a little cashing there. Liz was becoming paranoid—she was constantly accusing Chris of ripping her off, conveying her displeasure in meticulous, hand-drawn spreadsheets summing up how much Chris owed her for each in-store appearance: $1,918 from a trip to Vegas; $674 for iPods and GPS systems; $525 for four Coach purses worth $1,750. The “amount paid to me” column was zeroes all the way down. In the meantime, his newest recruit, Sarah, was balking at big-ticket items, though she was still useful for running errands. On Valentine’s Day she bought Chris’s presents for his wife and his girlfriend.

With the demands of vending, starting a legitimate business, and trying to resuscitate his crew, Chris now found it more efficient to pay someone else to make his plastic. He’d met Federico Vigo at UBuyWeRush. Vigo was looking for a way to pay down a $100,000 debt to the Mexican Mafia, after accepting that amount in front money to import a pallet of