Chapter Thirty-Four
Alex Green looked across the table at Rachel Dominquez, one of the programmers with whom he had worked on the ZApp program. Rachel was on a break, and they were having a late-afternoon Cuban coffee at a coffee shop near the Z-Tech facility.
“Are they making progress removing the bugs I threw into the program before I left? I was really hoping to slow them down.” He’d gotten a charge out of putting a stick in the spokes of Zack Talbot’s wheel. Fighter pilot, polo player, multimillionaire, pain in the ass, arrogant bastard—they all described Zack Talbot. He would have loved to see the look on Zack’s face when he found out he was about to be scooped, and by Alex Green, a geek. He knew that management was willing to suck his brain dry, never mind that he made a good salary. Talbot was a businessman, a money man, not one of the programmers putting in the long hours to write the code. Why should Talbot be the only one to profit?
“We’ve been working on it night and day. We’re also adding some new features that were not in the original program when we sent it out to you in May.”
“What new features? Can you get them to me?”
“I don’t know, Alex. They have really tightened up security. Let me see what I can do. I’ll have to get back to you on that. When do you think you’ll be ready to release your version of the program?”
“It will be ready in another few months, I think. I’m doing some debugging of my own. The program I took was not in final format. I’d really love to have those new features though. I can make it worth your while, Rachel.”
Rachel was a single mother with two kids to raise, and she’d been so easy to manipulate that he’d almost felt bad about doing it. Almost, but not quite. He knew she was attracted to him—like he’d be interested in a single mother with two kids. That didn’t fit into his plans for his future, but he had played her along with sexy smiles and flirty comments just the same. He was in a position to make millions when he got this program out on the market. If he got it out. This damn lawsuit was going to be a problem. It was just too bad Z-Tech had gotten wind that he was about to get a similar program on the market and filed the lawsuit. He realized now that he had made a mistake in putting out feelers to see if he could find a buyer for the program instead of having his own new company release it directly. Obviously, someone he’d contacted about the sale had clued in Talbot.
That was unfortunate. What Alex wanted was to cash out with a really big payday and retire to Hawaii to surf and live the good life while he was still young enough to enjoy it. He was damned tired of working for a living. Well, he’d make his money one way or the other. He’d either make it on the program, or he’d make it on a malpractice suit against Barlowe, Cannon, Alvarez & Robertson, P.A. That stupid bitch, who wouldn’t have dinner with him when he’d asked her so nicely, had played right into his hands. He couldn’t ask for a better scenario. She had screwed Zack Talbot, and now she would have to admit it to everyone. She has a personal relationship with the plaintiff? Sweet.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Tori and Robert were having a cup of coffee beside the rooftop reflecting pool on the tree-covered outdoor terrace off the eleventh floor sky lobby of their office building on Monday afternoon. Tori had needed to get away from her desk for a while. The view across the city was stunning. The mid-March afternoon sparkled, and they could hear the slight hum of the traffic far below. Tori was always amazed to see the squirrels darting in the trees. How the heck had they gotten up here in the first place? She always made sure to drop something for them to eat.
“Tori, this doesn’t look good. I haven’t heard any rumblings from the Grievance Committee yet, but I expect to.”
“I’m sure when Green sees that the suit is going against him or Grossman confronts him with the evidence of his criminal activities, Green will be sure I broke attorney-client privilege. I can’t imagine that Z-Tech won’t find the same damning evidence on their e-mail archiver that Jorge found. They don’t need me to point the way.”
The week since she had withdrawn from Z-Tech vs. Green had been busy. Tori had spent time going over the file with her replacement counsel and preparing evidence in the event Alex Green went forward with his threat to file a malpractice suit and a grievance against her with the Bar Association. It had left her little time during the day to dwell on her broken heart, but at night she had tossed and turned in the bed where she had slept with Zack. Finally she had tried moving temporarily to another bedroom in the hope that the memories wouldn’t follow her. It hadn’t worked. She replayed their month together again and again in her head looking for clues she should have seen, but Zack’s performance had been flawless. One thing nagged at her memory. She had to admit when she looked back on Zack’s behavior that he hadn’t tried to pump her for information about the suit. He had actually always distracted her when she mentioned work at all. She had thought that was a little strange at the time, and she had even felt a little hurt. She just didn’t understand any of it. How could he have done this to her? She hadn’t been eating much and sleeping less, and it was definitely starting to show. If it wasn’t for chocolate chip cookies, she would probably starve to death. Are cookies a food group?
“What are you planning to do?” Robert looked concerned. She knew he was a good friend and would stand by her to the best of his ability. She just didn’t know how much he could actually do under the circumstances.
“Short term, I’m going to cooperate with Alex’s new lawyer. Long term, I’m going to start to prepare a defense to the malpractice suit I know is coming and prepare for the inevitable Grievance Committee hearing. Have you contacted our malpractice carrier to give them a heads-up? I never liked or trusted Green. It’s a shame Jerry brought this case into the firm. He’s willing to take any case that walks through the door. I never would have taken on this matter in the first place if I had had a choice. Just goes to show that the old saying about picking your clients well couldn’t be more apt.”
“I wish I could help you with the Grievance Committee angle, but as a member of the committee, I have to be strictly hands-off with that. I’ll contact our malpractice carrier just to let them know that something unpleasant may be coming down the road. I can work on the malpractice angle since I don’t have a conflict of interest there.”
“Our review of the e-mail archiver and web filter was handled by a third party, and that can be documented. Jorge will have detailed notes on everything he found and when he found it. There was no indication from Grossman at the deposition that they have found anything incriminating yet, but of course, he might not have wanted to tip his hand. He’s a wily bastard.”
“I’ve been across the table from him myself, and he is a wily bastard. Let’s just continue on as we are and try to get ready for the shit storm that we can be pretty sure is coming.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Zack, Chuck Jackson, and Bob Grossman met over lunch in the conference room at the sprawling Z-Tech complex in Miami Lakes. The debris from three huge subs littered the table along with the spread out files from the Green lawsuit, as well as the other technical information found on the e-mail archiver and programmers’ logs. This was one of the few occasions lately on which he’d actually eaten food. The ZApp program was highly innovative, and they had hoped it would be a game changer in the cell phone, tablet, and computer industries. Having the program pirated by Green was a nightmare.
Chuck looked disgusted. “I can’t believe that geek had the balls to do this in the first place—and right under our noses. It was bad enough when we thought he was just infringing on proprietary material, but to actually steal the entire program boggles the mind. Do you think he’s been working alone?”
“I don’t know. It’s something to consider. Obviously security was not what it should have been, and that’s going to have to change immediately.” Zack looked around the table. He still felt like shit, and he hadn’t been sleeping. Whenever he closed his eyes, Tori’s face floated across his brain. The
situation was intolerable. His horses were about the only thing still keeping him sane at this point. He just had to do something. He could no longer sit by passively and let this happen around him. It simply was not his way. He had been a fighter all his life, and now he had to fight for himself, his company, and Tori.
“We’ve already instituted some new security measures,” Chuck responded.
“Be that as it may,” Grossman interrupted, “we have to make some decisions about how to proceed. I’m thinking if we let it slip to Green’s new counsel that we are considering bringing criminal charges against him and that we have the evidence to back them up, we might be able to negotiate some sort of resolution that will get Ms. Alvarez off the hook and retrieve all of the rights to the program as well.”
“How will that affect Tori’s problem with Green? Could he use that against her in his malpractice suit?”
“It’s possible that he could try, especially given that he’s a vindictive son of a bitch, but we can document that we discovered the information independently and that Ms. Alvarez had nothing to do with it. I don’t know. We’re taking a chance any way we go with this. It’s an unfortunate situation.”
“Well, we have to do something. I’m not willing to just see what happens. That’s not acceptable.”
Grossman looked uncomfortable. “Zack, you are just going to have to be patient here. Moving too quickly could jeopardize everything. Considering the ramifications of his criminal activities, we might still be able to pull this situation out of the fire, so to speak. But we have to do it carefully, or we might make Tori’s situation worse not better.”
* * * *
Chuck Jackson was scanning through the most recent activity reports on the e-mail archiver when his face began to get red and his eyes began to narrow. “Son of a bitch. There were more transmissions going to Green’s FTP server.” He pulled up the web filter reports. “It looks like the new modifications to the program were sent out.” He continued to page through the report. “The transmissions of program data have started up again. We’ve got a mole, and it looks like it’s one of the programmers, Rachel Dominguez.” Chuck opened one of the attachments and looked it over as rage rolled through him like a storm.
Zack looked up as he was just about to take a bite of his sub. “What do we know about her?” Chuck could see that Zack was thunderstruck. He had to be feeling betrayed. Zack Talbot cared about his employees more than any other man he’d ever worked for. Healthcare, child care, overtime, bonuses—he was never cheap with the people who worked for him. If the ZApp program hit big, he knew that there would be bonuses for the entire company. This had to suck big time.
“Single mother, appears to be a hard worker. She puts in a lot of overtime. Now we know what she’s been doing on those late nights.”
Bob Grossman said, “Show me what you have before you jump to conclusions.”
Chuck turned his laptop around so Grossman and Zack could see it. There were the records of transmissions to Green and a copy of the latest version of the program, the new, revised ZApp 2.2 in all its glory.
“I think we need to have a conversation with Ms. Dominquez. Print some of that out for me, and let’s get her into Chuck’s office after lunch. See what she has to say for herself.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Rachel Dominguez was scared when her supervisor told her the CEO of the company, Chuck Jackson, wanted to see her in his office at 1:30 p.m. As a lowly programmer, she had certainly never before been invited to Mr. Jackson’s office. This could not be good. She was severely tempted to grab her purse and make a run for the parking lot, but she needed this job. She had a mortgage to pay and kids to feed. She wasn’t sure what was coming down, and she didn’t want to be premature and tip her hand. The money Alex Green had paid her was long gone, and it was beginning to look like she hadn’t made a very good bargain for herself if it cost her job. The extra money had seemed like a bonanza at the time.
Just before 1:30, Rachel got up from the desk in her cubicle and began the long walk to the corporate wing of the building. She felt like she was walking the last mile. Her knees were shaking, and she didn’t want to be late. She wondered what she was going to encounter when she opened the glass door dividing the corporate offices from the rest of the facility. She knew the owner of the company, Zack Talbot, had an office in there that he rarely used. Just about the only time she had ever seen him had been at company picnics and the annual Christmas party. She had to admit the company went all out on those occasions.
“Hi, Rachel. Mr. Jackson is waiting for you in his office. Second door on the right. Just knock and go on in.” The receptionist smiled at her and didn’t act like anything was amiss.
“Thanks, Peggy. How are your kids?” Peggy’s two girls attended the same parochial school as Rachel’s two boys but were not in the same grades.
“They’re fine. Better not keep the brass waiting.”
Rachel opened the door and walked into the large but somewhat cluttered office of Chuck Jackson. She looked around and saw the other two men sitting at Mr. Jackson’s desk. He stood and gestured her to a seat in front of his massive executive desk. What she wouldn’t give to have all this room to work. Cubicles sucked.
“Have a seat, Ms. Dominquez. I’m sure you’ve met Zack Talbot before, and this other gentleman is Bob Grossman, the company’s attorney.”
Rachel gulped. Oh, this is really not good.
“I think you know why we called you in,” Jackson said with a frown.
“Uhh, no, I have no idea. Is it about my overtime?” She was hoping against hope that it was. “If I’ve put in for too much, I can scale back, but I thought there was a push to finish debugging ZApp.”
Chuck deferred to Zack. “No, Ms. Dominguez, that’s not it.” Zack pushed some papers in front of her on the desk and sat back.
Bob Grossman continued. “You will see that those are activity reports from Z-Tech’s e-mail archiver and web filter showing the transmissions you made last night to Alex Green’s FTP server. It appears you have illegally transmitted the ZApp program to him using the company e-mail system. I believe everyone in the company is aware of the current lawsuit Z-Tech has against Mr. Green for copyright infringement among other things. You must realize, Ms. Dominguez, that not only does that violate your employment agreement, but it is illegal. It’s stealing from your employer, and not just paperclips. Actually, it’s civilly and criminally actionable. You could be joined as a co-defendant in the lawsuit. Not only that, but the contingent value of the program could boost this up to the felony level—fraud, grand theft, conversion, mail fraud. You could be facing a long prison term.
Rachel gasped and then began to sob. “I didn’t mean to do this.”
Zack lowered his voice and said, “You mean you didn’t intend to get caught. How much is Green paying you? Or are you a partner in his new company?”
“No, no. Alex gave me some money to bring my mortgage current, that’s all.” She was really scared now. She might go to jail. Who would take care of her kids?
* * * *
Zack looked at Rachel. He could plainly see the terror on her face. He felt a little sorry for her, but considering what she had done, he had to stiffen his resolve.
“Oh, no. Please…I’m not his partner, and I have two little kids to support. I can’t go to jail.
Bob Grossman frowned at her. “Well, it’s a definite possibility, Rachel. What were you thinking? Surely you must have known what you were doing was illegal, immoral, not to mention that you signed a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement when you were hired. Don’t you have any loyalty to your employer? Hasn’t Z-Tech treated you fairly? You mentioned a lot of overtime. Has anyone questioned that or denied you fair compensation for your work?”
Damn. Grossman was good at laying on the guilt. Zack could see she was about to burst into tears again.
“Yes, you’ve been more than fair. I really didn’t think of it like that. I was two month
s behind in my mortgage—my ex-husband had missed a couple of child support payments—and I didn’t have anywhere else to turn. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Please don’t call the police. I have no one to take care of my kids.”
Zack knew that Chuck Jackson had been raised by a single mother and that of the three of them he probably had the most sympathy for Rachel Dominguez. Zack could see it in Chuck’s eyes but not his demeanor. He watched him square his shoulders and say, “Rachel, Mr. Talbot, Mr. Grossman, and I have to talk about this. Go back to your cubicle, and we’ll get back to you later this afternoon. Maybe we can work something out, maybe we can’t. Don’t be so foolish as to leave the building without talking to me again today, and don’t, under any circumstances, try to forward any more material to Alex Green. Your access to ZApp has been terminated, at least for now.”
* * * *
Bob Grossman looked at the other two men. He could see the sympathy there, but his job was to protect the company—not to be Mr. Nice Guy.
“I’m thinking we may be able to use this to our benefit. If we set up a sting using Rachael and record Green admitting that he stole the program and that he’d gotten Rachel to forward him even more material, we might be able to use it in several ways.”
“What are you thinking, Bob? I could really use some good news right now,” Zack said, looking hopeful for the first time.
“I’ve been working on one idea that I have not shared with either of you yet, and this situation may actually complement that plan. I think we should form a new entity—Screw Green, Inc. would be good,” he said with a grin. “No really, I think we should form a new company to approach Green to buy his version of the program.” He could see Zack’s outrage, but he continued before Zack could build up a head of steam. “Just wait a minute. If we buy all of the rights to the program and tie it up tight in the contract, we can be rid of the bastard. He will have to make representations and warranties in the contract. He will have to state in writing that he is selling all of his rights, past, present, and future, and that he has the legal right to sell the program.”
The Appearance of Impropriety [The Horsemen] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 18
