Kristin's Demotion

Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Two days after his dismissal, Henry found himself sitting in a booth in a quiet corner of the Wheatsheaf Tavern, an unfashionable watering hole situated a few blocks from the OFS offices. On the other side of the table, nervously fingering a chilled glass of Heineken, sat Miles Bishop. The young programmer, a year out of college, was a strange-looking man who, it appeared to Henry, had stopped physically developing at the age of sixteen. Tall and lanky, Miles wore his greasy hair long, and his bony face was constantly breaking out in pimples. He also conveyed the same excruciating shyness common to pubescent teenagers. In fact his interpersonal communication skills were so poor, that when they had first met, Henry had thought he might be autistic. In fact, he had botched his interview so badly, that if Henry hadn’t intervened, he wouldn’t have been hired.

Henry’s instincts had been correct, because Miles had turned out to be a brilliant programmer. His work entailed spending hours developing and refining code and he was very good at it. And of particular interest to Henry, he had been heavily involved in the obscure enhancements to ABACUS that had led to the Motoko success.

Henry had spent the past forty-eight hours festering at home. Despite Kristin’s efforts to the contrary, Brian had ensured that he walked away with a more than generous severance packet, so seeking employment was not an immediate priority. This was just as well, considering Henry’s current state of mind.

In her office that day, he had been torn between two basic impulses. The first had been to put his hands around her neck and squeeze the life out of her. The second, which, given the circumstances, he hadn’t been expecting, had been to lift up her skirt and bury his face between her thighs. The cursed woman was just so damn sexy that even through his fury he had still wanted to f**k her.

The moments after the meeting had been a total humiliation for him. Company policy dictated that any released employees were to clear their desk immediately. Poor old George had been handed the job of escorting Henry from the premises. Some of the sales team had shaken Henry’s hand and wished him luck but most had been too embarrassed to talk to him. Brian had remained out of sight, and although Henry had been bitterly disappointed with his impotence, he had concluded that his hands must have been tied.

So he had gone home, turned off his phone and seen off a bottle of Jim Beam in an attempt to purge Kristin from his mind. Drinking steadily, gazing at the television and sleeping fitfully, he had tried to fathom out how he had allowed her to infiltrate, overwhelm, and ultimately destroy his world. Even when he had slipped into an alcohol-induced sleep she had been in his delirious dreams, showing him the tantalizing dips and crests of her body, always out of reach, always with that condescending sneer on her enticing lips. How could it be possible to despise and yet desire the same person so much?

He had woken on his living room couch, unshaven, hung over and depressed. Eventually, he’d turned on his phone to find several text messages from co-workers expressing their sympathies and best wishes.

And then there was the message from Miles. Simply, We need to talk.

Henry’s instincts told him it had something to do with ABACUS and therefore, with Kristin Hartman.

So now Henry nursed his beer and waited for Miles to get to the point. From past experience, he knew there was no point in hurrying the lad.

Miles swiveled his glass on the wooden table top and then said, “I’m sorry for what happened.”

“It’s done now,” Henry shrugged.

“She shouldn’t have fired you.”

“I know.”

“Nobody’s happy now. Only her.”

“Is she giving you a hard time?”

Miles continued to stare into his beer.

“She’s rude,” he said.

“Yes, she is.”

“She talks to me like I’m a little kid.”

“She’s not as clever as she thinks she is.”

Miles looked up now.

“I should have told you when you asked me before. I’m sorry.”

Ah, Henry thought, he’s getting to it.

“About ABACUS?”

Miles nodded.

“She thinks I don’t know, but I found out. I cracked her pass codes.”

Henry leaned forward.

“What did you find out, Miles?”

Miles looked around the bar furtively and then said in a low voice, “The architecture was stolen.”

Henry nodded. The whole affair had always seemed wrong.

“Who else was involved, Miles?”

“Nobody. At least I couldn’t find anyone else.”

“So it was just her?”

“I think so.”

“Who else knows about this?”

“No-one,” Miles said. “But I think some people have their suspicions. They’re afraid to say anything though.”

“What about Brian?”

“I don’t know. He should do. But I think he just…”

Henry put up his hand.

“Right, I get the picture.”

Even if Brian suspected something was amiss, thought Henry, he was desperate to get the Motoko contract. Why ask any unnecessary questions?

“Besides, he couldn’t prove anything,” said Miles.

The kid was looking agitated, like there was something he needed to do, but was unsure about it.

“But you can,” Henry prompted. “Right, Miles?”

Without answering, Miles produced a memory stick from his pocket and pushed it across the table.

Henry picked up the blue plastic device and turned it in his fingers.

“Everything is on there,” Miles said. “I copied it all.”

“This will implicate her?”

“She thought she was being smart but I was smarter.”

Henry slipped the stick into his pocket.

“I don’t want to work for her anymore,” Miles said, looking back into his beer.

“Well, Miles,” Henry replied. “If this is everything you say it is, then just maybe that can be arranged.”

Two hours later, Henry was back at home in front of his laptop, with his head in a spin. E-mails, access codes, source codes, bank account details, it was all there as Miles had promised. Kristin, it seemed had hired a mysterious ‘information broker’ to hack into a proprietary software called VIRGO, which belonged to a rival company called ZifCom. All of the enhancements that had been made to ABACUS were strikingly similar to the finished VIRGO package. Now it was all beginning to make sense. Henry recalled reading a news report discussing the similarities between the two products but for whatever reasons, the story had gone away.

Regardless, Henry now had in his possession enough evidence to have Kristin arrested and charged with intellectual property theft. The US Attorney’s Office and the FBI were taking a hard line on economic espionage these days and Henry knew that if he exposed her, she would be facing serious jail time.

He poured himself a drink and tried to calm himself down. Suddenly, out of the blue, everything seemed to have dropped into his lap. The question now, was what to do?

The obvious option of course, was to call the FBI’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Unit, and then sit back and enjoy watching it all on the news. That would be fun, but somehow not quite satisfying enough. Plus, the fall-out would shake OFS to its foundations and Miles and all the other employees would suffer.

Henry didn’t want that. There was only one person he was interested in hurting. As he sat there savoring the moment, a diabolical plan began to formulate. If it worked, the potential possibilities were endless, and he could gain a whole lot more than mere revenge. It was risky and could backfire, but the more he thought about it the more it began to consume him. It all hinged upon Kristin’s reaction.

It was eight in the evening by the time Henry was ready to put his plan into action. He had played it over and over in his head, making sure he had all the details correct. Miles had been very thorough and also very devious. Kristin must have assumed that her security system was impenetrable, but she had underestimated the geeky whiz kid.

He picked up his cell phone and composed himself. It was absolutely vital that she didn’t detect any hesitancy in his voice. If this was to work, Kristin must be left in no doubt that he was fully prepared to blow the whistle.

Henry dialed and after a few rings, Kristin’s haughty voice came on.

“Hello? Who is this?”

Well, thought Henry, it didn’t take you long to delete my number.

“Don’t you recognize my voice?” he asked.

“No, should I?” Kristin replied with a trace of annoyance.

Henry could hear background conversation and it sounded as though she was in a restaurant. Maybe this would spoil her appetite.

“The last time we spoke, you rather unpleasantly terminated my contract at OFS Software.”

“Oh, you. Why are you calling me? We have no further business to discuss.”

“Well, as a matter of fact, that might not actually be true. In fact, I have a proposal for you that might result in us seeing an awful lot of each other in the future.”

Henry could just imagine Kristin recoiling from her phone.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Kristin said, “but I can assure you I have no interest in any proposals coming from you.”

Henry heard a man’s voice asking her if everything was okay.

“I think you’ll be very interested in what I have to say,” Henry said. “But we have to meet face to face. Tonight.”

“Absolutely not!”

Henry realized that he would have to give her something more. If she hung up on him now, the opportunity might be lost.

“Kristin, for your own sake, I strongly urge that you meet with me.”

“What do you mean ‘for my own sake’?”

“Because,” Henry said, “I want to tell you everything that I’ve learned about Clouseau.”