Chapter 34: Piracy

January 2, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

Tasha was quiet as we headed west on the Eisenhower expressway early on Saturday afternoon. We'd spent six hours together the previous evening, with me taking Tasha around the world before making slow, passionate love three times. When we finished, we showered together, then I'd gone upstairs to sleep with Kara. Jessica hadn't specifically given me permission to sleep overnight with Tasha, so I wasn't going to chance getting in trouble.

I exited onto I-88 — as the East-West Tollway, IL-5, had been re-designated — before Tasha finally spoke.

"Thank you for last night," she said. "I'm just sorry it has to end."

"Are you going to be OK?" I asked.

"Yes," she sighed. "What I told you last night when you left to go back to Kara was true."

She'd told me, with moist eyes, that she loved me and wished that the circumstances were different. That had made me question the wisdom of Jessica's decision, but what Tasha had said next had told me that Jessica was right. Tasha had said that she was ready to move on, and that making love was, for her, the only way to properly end things between us. It reminded me of Bethany and how we had finally brought things to a close. As I'd thought about it, that had more or less been the case with Stephie, Sofia, Karin, and a few other girls.

Tasha's sadness had tempted me to stay, but she'd encouraged me to go back to Kara. As I had walked up the stairs, it had come to me that staying the night with Tasha the first time had contributed to the problem. Sleeping in my arms had made it more than just sex. Had I stayed the night this time, it would have made things even more difficult for her than they already were.

"And what I said was true as well," I said.

I'd told her that I loved her deeply, as a friend, and that I'd always be there for her. She'd compared it to Penny's situation, and I wondered if they'd talked again. I suspected that they had, if so, then I was grateful to Penny for talking to her and explaining how my relationship with her had turned out. Penny and I loved each other, but our intimacy was different from what it had once been. The same was true with Bethany, Kathy, and Sofia. And now, I'd added another girl to that same group.

"I need to find a boyfriend," she said.

"Need?" I asked.

"You lit a fire that I don't want to go out!" she giggled. "Ever!"

"Just be selective, Tasha. You don't strike me as someone who would have sex just to have sex."

"No, I'm not like Charlie! I need a steady boyfriend who loves me before I'll do it again. But I might go crazy before then!"

I chuckled, "There is something you can do in the interim."

"What's that? Just my fingers? I'm not sure that's enough."

"A vibrator," I said. "Just look for a 'personal massager' at Osco. Trust me, you'll know the right one from the shape."

She giggled and blushed.

"And buy LOTS of batteries," I teased.

She blushed even deeper, but she smiled. I wondered how she'd manage with a roommate, but she could probably work around class schedules. She directed me to her house, and I pulled into the driveway. I started to get out to walk her to the door, but she stopped me. She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, then unbuckled her seat belt and got out.

"See you on Monday," she said.

"Bye, Tasha!" I called after her.

I watched her walk into the house, then backed out of the driveway and headed back into the city.

At 5:00pm that afternoon, Kara and I were sitting on a bench outside the ER waiting for Jessica. It was a bit cold, just above freezing, but Kara and I were bundled up and it wasn't too bad. Jessica was running late, but that had happened a few times. I saw Alicia come through the doors, and when she saw us, she walked over and sat down next to me.

"She has a tough trauma," Alicia said. "They're having trouble keeping a stable heartbeat and waiting on a cardiology consult. It'll probably be another fifteen minutes before she's done."

"Thanks," I said. "Did you enjoy the party?"

"I did. What can you tell me about the Navy guy, Howard?"

I suppressed a smirk, "He's a logistics officer and is my friend Nick's best friend. Nick is a JAG officer. He's a nice guy."

"He asked for my number, and I gave it to him, but I wanted to check before I agreed to go out with him."

"You could do a lot worse than a Naval officer. Just make sure he knows about your crazy schedule up front. That's part of how Jessica and Kara and I make it work."

"I was truly shocked when I found out! You have two kids, Kara's pregnant, and yet Jessica is your legal wife."

"Legal, yes, but she, Kara, and I all consider ourselves married to each other. It works for us."

"I bet it works for you!" Alicia laughed. "You get all kinds of nookie, and regular threesomes!"

"I'm not sure that Elyse would like to be referred to as 'nookie'," I said. "And the last time I was with Jesse's mom was when she got pregnant. She's married to Josie. And they're monogamous."

"I think I need a scorecard!" she laughed. "I need to get home. See you again!"

I watched her walk away. She seemed like a nice enough person, though the fact that Jessica had characterized her as a gossip bothered me a bit. I wondered if I should say something about that to Howard, but quickly decided that it was none of my business.

"I'm not sure she's the right girl for Howard," Kara said.

"What makes you say that?" I asked. "She seems nice enough. And she's past the worst part of her Residency."

"Honestly? He needs a wife like Ginny. A stay-at-home mom. A doctor or lawyer or anyone professional would be a bad match. That's what happened with your sister and him."

"Stephanie and I never talked about it, but I can see that. Nick sort of split the difference because Bethany can make her schedule as flexible as she wants, and she can take time off to be a mom without messing up her career. But isn't that up to Howard?"

"Of course. I'm just saying that it won't work out for her and she'll be disappointed again. From what Jess says, Alicia is pretty demanding of boyfriends and lovers."

"I know all about THAT," I chuckled.

"Jerk!" Kara said with a laugh. "But if you think about it, given how crazy her schedule is, it's counterproductive to be overly demanding. Look at the stress we have, and we all work hard to deal with the demands of Jessica's job. And honestly, Howard can find a nicer, prettier girl!"

"Meow!" I said, making an angry cat sound. "I didn't know you were that catty!"

Kara laughed, "I'm not in competition with her, I was just saying he could do better all around! Here comes Jess!"

"How's your patient?" I asked.

"He had a fatal MI while the cardiologist was working on him. Nothing we did could stabilize his rhythm. Thirty-two years old. It's probably something congenital because he seemed like he was otherwise in good health, didn't smoke or drink, and exercised regularly."

"Damn," I said. "No previous history?"

"No. He told us that he'd just had his physical and his exam and blood work were perfect, except for the cardiac enzymes associated with a heart attack. He started feeling bad this morning and came into the hospital because he was dizzy. The pathologist will tell us what happened. Well, probably. Sometimes you don't find the smoking gun cause."

"Are you OK?" I asked.

"Sure. I'm getting used to it. I don't like it and it bothers me, but not like it did before. Does that make me a bad person?" she asked with a sigh.

"No," I said. "I don't see how you can do this job without turning off your emotions at times."

"Is there anything we can do for you, Jess?" Kara asked.

"No, I just need dinner, some time to relax, and then a reasonable bed time. I didn't get much sleep last night, but I can sleep in tomorrow, so we don't need to be in bed super early. How was Tasha?"

I smiled, "Fine. I believe you analyzed the situation correctly."

"Did you spend the night with her?" she asked.

"You didn't give me express permission to do that, and, this afternoon, I realized that I'd made a mistake spending the night with her the first time. That made it more than just sex for her."

Jessica smiled, "He can be taught, can't he, Kara?"

"Yes, he can!"

"So, this was a test?" I asked.

"Not at all! I wouldn't have gotten on your case about it, but I'm pleased that you understood how this is supposed to work."

"I need express permission for ANY kind of relationship with another girl beyond simple friendship, and that absolutely includes sleeping together. And I don't mean that euphemistically."

"Good," she said. "Now, kiss me and we'll walk home."

We kissed, and then Kara and I looped our arms with Jessica and walked home with her between us.

January 4, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

The management team was gathered in a small conference room on Monday morning after the staff meeting. We had a number of items to discuss, including software piracy, budgets, and hiring. The budget was quickly dispensed with, because nobody had any concerns about it, and we'd all seen preliminary numbers the previous week. The hiring request was dealt with just as quickly, as nobody disagreed with Cindi that we needed another full-time salesperson. The only question was the low base salary.

"I want to encourage them to sell, so the commission structure would be higher to compensate," Cindi said. "That also reduces our risk. If they can't sell, it hasn't cost us as much."

"Are you going for a new graduate, or someone with experience?" Elyse asked.

"Somebody with a couple of years' experience and good computer skills. It might take some time to find the right person."

"Approved," Julia said. "Just keep us posted. Now, on to the problem in Dallas. They've refused to even talk to anyone at Jamie's firm and have denied that they've done anything wrong."

"But they're using our software!" I protested.

"I know. Jamie's asking what we want to do."

"Why don't we call the Bar Association?" Cindi asked. "I have quite a few contacts. If we put out the word, I suspect we can get some help."

"We can't do that," Julia said. "Jamie warned me about saying anything about this to anyone at this point. He gave me two options, which aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. First, we could sue them. Second, we could try to have a local prosecutor bring charges against them."

"What does he think we should do?" Dave asked.

"Well, a lawsuit would have to be in a Texas state court or a federal court in Texas. That's going to be expensive if they fight the suit, which he thinks that they would. It won't cost them much, except some time, and they could tie us up in court for a long time. He suggests that we report them to the district attorney in Dallas and see what happens. The problem there is that they may have a relationship with the DA and that could make it more difficult."

"Do we have ANY clue how they got the software? Or who it was originally licensed to?" I asked.

"No," Julia said. "Jamie had hoped that they would be reasonable, but they haven't been."

"How big is this firm?" Dave asked.

"I looked them up in the ABA directory," Cindi said. "They have 30 lawyers, so it would probably be an eighty-seat license if you included all their legal secretaries and paralegals."

"That's some serious money," Elyse said. "If I stole that much from a bank, the FBI would be breaking down the doors and hauling me away in handcuffs!"

"This is a whole new area of law," Julia said. "On the plus side, our first run-in here in Chicago taught us to make sure that we display a prominent copyright notice, a license notice, and a clear statement on the login screen that says that the software is licensed and not sold. They can't claim ignorance. But it's still going to be difficult."

"Have Jamie talk to the DA in Dallas," I said. "We can always go to court ourselves if we need to."

"What about hiring a private investigator to try to get some information from someone there?" Cindi said. "I bet that wouldn't cost much."

"I'm OK with it, if Jamie doesn't tell us not to."

"He did mention that offhandedly as a possibility," Julia said. "He was just concerned that it might backfire."

"How?" I asked. "So they get mad at us? They'll be mad if we sue them or if they're charged with a crime. Get Jamie to approve it and let's do it Cindi's way to start."

Cindi smiled and nodded her thanks.

"Does anyone have anything else?" Julia asked.

"I'm going to have Greg and Alonzo implement the license validation that we discussed," Dave said. "It will go in 3.0, and when it's ready, it'll go in the early release software that we send to Ford, Jackson, and Finch."

"They are really a fantastic client," I said. "I'd say that they were more important than any of them, even ones we make more money from."

"I agree," Cindi said. "I have Barbara doing a conference call with them every Tuesday morning to talk about their testing, their change requests, that kind of thing. And once a month, she'll walk over for a face-to-face. And that's in addition to the visits that Mario makes to every customer once a year."

"Make it so!" Julia smirked, causing us all to laugh as we filed out of the conference room.

January 14th, 1988, Chicago, Illinois

"Steve, could you come to my office," Julia said over the intercom just before lunch on Thursday.

"Be right there," I said.

I saved my work and got up and walked over to her office to find Dave and Elyse already there.

"What's up?" I asked.

"The private investigator got back to Jamie. He managed to get someone to tell him the license number on the software."

"Who?" I asked.

"You aren't going to like this," she said. "Volstead and Braun in Cincinnati."

"Fuck!" I growled. "Ben van Hoek's firm! I need to call him."

"Jamie advised caution," Julia said. "But he agreed that because you have a personal relationship with them, a quiet word to Mr. van Hoek is probably the best approach."

"I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it's their computer support firm," I said. "I can't imagine a lawyer could do this, or a paralegal. It has to be a really knowledgeable person."