One from Without

by Jack Fuller

  “I’d expect nothing less,” said Rosten.

  “My point is that I needed you to do exactly what you’ve been doing,” said Joyce. “Getting people to battle stations. Trimming the ballast.”

  “The team in Finance pulled together a draft PowerPoint that we can take to the Street,” said Rosten. “I want some guidance from you about what we should prepare for the board. But first I should tell you that Lawton is implementing steps to totally lock down the database. It may slow response times, but not materially, and we need to be sure all the doors are closed tight before we can even think about a long-term security strategy. Gunderman already has some good ideas about that.”

  “Lawton has been behind the curve, hasn’t he,” said Joyce.

  “We all have been.”

  “Greener was his guy.”

  “Actually, he was Chase’s,” said Rosten.

  “Lawton trained him,” said Joyce.

  “I’m sorry to say that he started in Finance,” said Rosten.

  “I’m not saying complicity, Tom,” said Joyce. “It obviously humiliated Dell to have this happen. I think Greener wanted that. Dell was the first man he attacked.”

  Actually, Joyce had fallen prey before Lawton, but only by a matter of seconds. There was no point in correcting him.

  “I don’t imagine all those medications Dell is taking make it any easier to stay on top of things,” said Joyce.

  “He’s done with chemo,” said Rosten. “He’s cancer-free.”

  “They never are,” said Joyce. “But I’m glad to hear things have looked up. It makes it a little easier to think clearly about him.”

  “What I’m saying is that the fact that he was sick has become irrelevant,” said Rosten.

  “Then you agree,” said Joyce.

  “He’s solid.”

  “We are going to have to move on him,” said Joyce. “He was the man on the bridge when we hit the iceberg.”

  “Chase was the one who pushed Greener,” said Rosten. “If anybody has anything to answer for—”

  “Forget about Chase,” said Joyce. “He’s a server farmer. He doesn’t signify to the Street and even less to the government.”

  Whose voice was Rosten hearing?

  “Have you discussed this with Morrie Berry?” said Rosten.

  “He has given me his insights,” said Joyce, “just as you are giving me yours.”

  “What does he say the government wants?” said Rosten.

  “Somebody a lot bigger than Greener,” said Joyce.

  “We’ve got to assume they want the right person,” said Rosten.

  “Talk to Snow,” said Joyce. “Work out a fair package, but run it by Szilard before you lay it on Dell. We do have to be careful that we don’t appear to be buying silence.”

  12

  For years Berry and Szilard had ordered the same lunch: Union League Club black-bean soup and a half Cobb salad, mixed. If someone had put them in the witness box and demanded to know who had been first, each would have been able to swear that he had no present recollection.

  They did not share every habit. Berry liked to arrive at work before 6; Szilard left well after Berry had gone home. Szilard read mysteries for pleasure, Berry biographies. Once Berry realized that his personality was not suited to winning elective office, he stopped going to church. Szilard still kept attending, out of habit, just as Berry kept ordering the half Cobb salad long after Szilard began opting for animal flesh.

  “Is Rosten prepared?” Berry said.

  “Best coaching we sell,” said Szilard.

  “Lawton certainly stood tall,” said Berry.

  “You were right about him,” said Szilard. “He was the safest to terminate. Will that do it, do you think?”

  He had finished his roast turkey and looked like a man feeling the tryptophan, but it was Berry who yawned.

  “If Rosten doesn’t fuck up,” he said, “I think our government problem will be over. Then we’ll see.”

  “They haven’t questioned Simons,” said Szilard.

  “They aren’t thinking,” said Berry.

  “Let’s hope,” said Szilard.

  “You know, we used to see her in here a lot at lunch,” said Berry.

  “I thought she was a member,” said Szilard.

  “Maybe she’s avoiding us,” said Berry.

  The thought lifted him, like a sugary dessert.

  Q: When you first learned that the credit-history database had been tampered with, didn’t it occur to you that the government needed to be informed?

  A: It was not material.

  Q: We may have a different view of that, Mr. Rosten

  A: It only affected two executives of the company.

  Q: And one of them was only the CEO.

  A: It was a malicious prank. But it was isolated. And not material.

  Q: It was a violation of a number of federal criminal statutes.

  A: I’m not a lawyer, but in the real world it was not meaningful.

  Q: To the law, the statutes are the real world, Mr. Rosten. Did anyone at Day and Domes inform Gnomon Co. of the security breaches?

  A: We were prepared to discuss any and all subjects, including data security, but as you know, Gnomon canceled the meeting.

  Q: You were planning to inform them the day the attacker struck Gnomon?

  A: We were prepared to discuss any and all subjects.

  Q: Was it in your formal presentation?

  A: We anticipated questions. In fact, this was indicated on the first slide, which laid out an agenda for the evening.

  Q: For the record, the agenda says Q and A, nothing more. Let’s move to the second attack. It went beyond your CEO, did it not?

  A: The first one did, too. It targeted Dell Lawton.

  Q: The man with cancer you fired.

  A: The second attack was very similar to the first, affecting only a slightly larger group of very senior executives of D&D.

  Q: Including you?

  A: Yes.

  Q: You must have felt the materiality of that.

  A: Actually the second incident reinforced our view that the activity was a strictly limited internal personnel issue. I’m sure Dell Lawton was able to explain why better than I can.

  Q: Confine yourself to what you know, not what you assume others have told us. Or have you discussed with Mr. Lawton his testimony?

  A: We did not speak.

  Q: Not since you threw him under the bus?

  A: Not since he left the company.

  Q: Why did you decide you needed him out?

  A: Database security had been his responsibility. I believe he understood.

  Q: You chose the man who was expendable.

  A: The decision concerning Dell Lawton was made in light of all the facts and circumstances.

  Q: Facts and circumstances. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were a lawyer, or had been taught to speak like one.

  Counsel: I must object to the insults. The Assistant United States Attorney did not even ask a question.

  Q: You think it is insulting to tell someone he sounds like an attorney at law?

  Counsel: I am not here to be questioned.

  Q: Let’s turn to the issue of disclosure. Mr. Rosten, did you ever talk with Mr. Joyce about whether to report the crime?

  A: We discussed operational matters regularly.

  Q: Did you recommend disclosure?

  A: My role is to identify options. Pluses and minuses. Disclosure at various levels was among the options.

  Q: And did you favor it?

  A: I tried to keep an open mind.

  Q: Didn’t the CEO want your view?

  A: He got advice from many people, including distinguished outside counsel.

  Q: Are you talking about the man sitting next to you?

  A: I am talking about his firm and about Hardy Twine.

  Q: You certainly bought a Lexus and a Lotus.

  Counsel: It is not for you to comment on the compa
ny’s legal team.

  Q: You’re just unhappy that I didn’t call you a Porsche.

  Counsel: I am advising my client that the interview is obviously over and he is free to leave.

  Q: Struck a real nerve there, didn’t I. Stay where you are, Mr. Rosten. I want a direct answer to whether you favored disclosure.

  A: The CEO and I concurred in the decision.

  Q: Didn’t you advise him to at least notify the Audit Committee?

  A: We discussed it. We agreed that there was nothing material to notify the Audit Committee about.

  Q: Given all the multifarious facts and circumstances.

  Counsel: You do not have to respond to that.

  Q: So you did not notify your Audit Committee or board. You did not notify the firm you sought to acquire. You most certainly did not notify law enforcement authorities. You wanted to acquire Gnomon without its shareholders and yours being any the wiser about the failure of your security systems and the felon in your midst.

  A: We were prepared to deal with all issues pertaining to security if the discussions reached that point. But of course they did not take place.

  Q: So if they were smart enough to ask exactly the right question during a frantic weekend, you might have given them a straight answer.

  Counsel: I am not hearing a question.

  A: I cannot say what would have happened. The negotiations were aborted. I can only say that we were prepared.

  Q: Just as you have been so very well prepared today.

  Counsel: Will that be all?

  Q: For the moment.

  The prosecutor stood abruptly. She was first out of the room.

  Joyce could not hide from Rosten his strained relations with the board. The directors had hired their own lawyer. There were long executive sessions with Joyce out of the room. Decisions were held in abeyance. Pending what? The Admin News Network provided nonstop rumors. One had it that Sabby Chandrahari had been asked to become CEO but that he preferred to continue running money. Another was that the board retained Joyce only on condition that he identify and groom a successor. But in the end nothing happened, except that the executive sessions abated and the company settled back into itself.

  Joyce seemed firmly in command as the spring board meeting approached. Rosten had a group working up a list of new acquisition targets. If it had been up to him, D&D would not have plunged back into the hunt so quickly. Drive operational results. Let employees catch their breath. Give the stock price a chance to rise. He was pretty sure that the board was not feeling a need for speed. In fact, on a conference call Sabby had observed that relationships on the rebound did not usually last. Afterward, Joyce told Rosten that if he ever wanted a marriage counselor he would get one without a turban.

  The board meeting went well—with Joyce magisterial and Rosten doing the numbers with his hand on the Bible. The directors’ questions showed that they were engaged, but not dangerously so. There was a bit of discussion about next steps, but Joyce suggested they hold it until staff left the room.

  After being dismissed, the members of the senior team waited in the Green Room. Eventually they heard a door open. Two directors sped past, heading for the urinals. Rosten left the antechamber and came face-to-face with Sabby. “First-rate, as always,” Sabby said. “Thank you.” He turned to the elevators before Rosten had a chance to thank him back. All the directors seemed more eager than usual to be on their way. After they cleared, Rosten went to Joyce’s office.

  “Thought I’d debrief,” he said.

  Joyce nodded.

  “They seemed satisfied,” Rosten said, “though they weren’t too talkative after. Sabby was complimentary.”

  Joyce continued nodding, the way he did when he wasn’t listening.

  “It’s been a good run, you and me,” Joyce said. “But nothing is forever.”

  It took a moment for this to register with Rosten.

  “They can’t do this to you,” he said.

  “It isn’t a marathon,” said Joyce, “one man going the distance. It’s a relay. A runner goes as hard as he can, then he puts the baton in the next man’s hand.”

  “If you leave, I’m leaving, too,” said Rosten. “I hope they realize that.”

  “I’m staying on,” said Joyce. “It is time for you to step off the track.”

  When Lawton walked away with the package Snow offered him, friends told him he should have hired a lawyer. He could claim age discrimination and a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act for starters. He told them that if he had known how good things would be, he would have gotten himself fired years ago. That day to this, he’d had little contact with D&D save a few short e-mails from folks in his old department checking in. Life is good, he always replied. Very good. Then came the news that Rosten had been let go and soon after that a call from Gunderman asking to get together.

  Gunderman was already seated when Lawton arrived at the diner. His fingers were turning a large, sweating soft drink on the table.

  “Don’t get up,” Lawton said.

  “You look well,” said Gunderman. “Really . . . Well, really well.”

  “I feel great,” said Lawton.

  “I mean, you would never know . . . ,” said Gunderman.

  “Relax, Sam,” said Lawton. “I survived. Rosten will, too.”

  The waitress came and took their order. When she left, Gunderman had his glass spinning like the icon on a frozen computer.

  “It should have been me,” he said.

  “Is that why you came all the way up here?” said Lawton. “Or were you just envious?”

  “I was responsible for system security,” said Gunderman.

  “Not when the trouble started,” said Lawton.

  “I left you a mess,” said Gunderman.

  “That was some other universe,” said Lawton. “Say, how about that daughter of yours? Didn’t I see her name in the Tribune?”

  “I never said one bad word about you,” said Gunderman. “They tried to get me to. Alexa Snow. The investigators. But I didn’t.”

  “You don’t have to answer to me for anything,” said Lawton.

  “The prosecutor was all about the people above me,” said Gunderman. “Who put Greener on the investigation team? I told her I did. But somebody approved, she said. Was it Rosten? Joyce himself? And why did we fail to notify the Audit Committee? I’m just a computer nerd, I said. But did you agree? I don’t have opinions about anything but code, I said.”

  “Sounds well played,” said Lawton.

  “The whole thing,” said Gunderman, “I can’t get it to sit right. She was pushing, pushing, and finally she got me to admit that I had warned Rosten. Ever since, I haven’t felt good in my skin. I failed the test.”

  “It was that old nightmare, Sam. We’ve all had it,” Lawton said, “the one where you never took the class.”

  Bureaucratic rules are supposed to hold everything together. A server farm in Iowa must look exactly the same as one in Colorado. A cubicle in a newly constructed building in North Carolina should have precisely the same dimensions as one on the sixth floor of the landmarked Dome. This was why it had taken an age for Sara to get the full-length mirror in which she was now examining herself for flaws. There simply were no corporate specs for “mirrors, door mounted, individual.” The one they finally installed was so heavy that whenever she closed the door and watched herself disappear, it felt as if she were locking herself in a vault.

  She stood sideways before it, talking to the image the way she did before a cold call. You’ve made the most of what you were given, old girl. No, not so very old. Younger than the man you’re dining with, though he seemed to live outside of time. When she finished and closed the vault, he was standing there.

  “Am I way too early?” Sam said. “I always do that. I don’t know why. Can’t seem to help it. I’m sorry.”

  “Goodness,” she said, “I don’t believe I have ever seen you in a suit and tie.”

  “I want
ed to be sure they let me into that club of yours,” he said.

  “Not even at a board meeting,” she said. “Ratty sport coats, yes, but jacket and pants that match?”

  The suit had lapels as wide as wings.

  “Wedding,” he said.

  “Vintage.”

  “My wedding, actually.”

  “Ah,” she said.

  She maneuvered him toward the closet then swung the door back open until the two of them were in the same frame. For a moment she leaned out of it to lift a hanger from the bar. When she came back into the picture, she held a sharp new sport jacket against his chest.

  “Thank goodness it works with your pants,” she said, though they were almost as floppy at the cuffs as bell-bottoms.

  “I wouldn’t feel right,” he said.

  “Yes, you will,” she said. “Exactly right. I had it tailored from the measurements the salesman made when we were at Brooks. We do need to bring you in for final alterations. Would tomorrow work for you?”

  “I can’t accept it, Sara.”

  “And I can’t return it,” she said. “Anyway, it isn’t only me. Margery went in on it. We both owe you.”

  She went behind him and slipped off his suit jacket smoothly, the way she had learned working retail, so that he felt no more than a breeze whispering across his shoulders. It had been a long time since she had taken a jacket off a man.

  “Isn’t there a policy about gifts?” Sam said as she put the new one on him.

  “It looks great,” she said. “You look great. Look at yourself.”

  Her line of sight was over his shoulder, which made it appear that they were much closer than she dared. She moved a little to the left so that their cheeks seemed to touch.

  “You will be the envy of all the gentlemen at the Standard Club,” she said.

  “Because of who I’m with.”

  She caught him looking at the reflection of her eyes, but then he looked down. She circled slowly, keeping her face to him like an old and stately dance from Masterpiece Theater. When she was back in front of him, she settled his lapels and swept his shoulders.