Chapter 8: Back To Reality

July 18, 1991 Chicago, Illinois

“Thanks for letting me just crash when we got home last night,” I said.

“You were beat, Tiger! I’m surprised you’re walking me to work today! And surprised you’re going into the office!”

“I’ve missed too many days walking with you and too many days of work! Plus I’ll miss a few days when I go to New York in a few weeks.”

“Do you know which days yet?”

“No. I need to call Katya today and figure it out. It has to be the first week of August or so, or else it has to wait for our new bundle of joy! I’m not missing a birth for ANYTHING!”

“Not even Fawn?” Kara teased.

“Not even Fawn!” I confirmed.

“So?” Kara smirked.

“You can guess one, I’m sure. In fact you know.”

“Pia,” Kara said.

“Yes. She stayed a few extra days and we reconnected.”

“I bet!” Kara giggled.

“Hey, Jesse got to sleep with a girl four nights in a row!”

“Pia’s daughter?”

“Yes, Marta. He had fun with Marta, Kjell, and Anna.”

“Since you said we’d guess one, there has to be at least one more.”

“Tanya’s cousin, Vera. She has a son named Eugen and he and Jesse got along famously. Jesse also got to spend some time with Lara, but Tanya and Dima could only be in St. Petersburg for the weekend.”

“Only two?” Kara teased. “You’re slipping!”

“If you recall, I planned on ZERO. So two is infinitely more than planned!”

“You didn’t think Pia would sleep with you?”

“I hadn’t talked to her for years and hadn’t seen her for even longer. You know I make no assumptions!”

“And Vera?”

“You know how I have a confidante? Vera was Tanya’s confidante.”

Kara gasped, “Prim, proper, demure Tatyana? Talked about sex? No way!”

“Well, Vera didn’t read it in Pravda or Izvestia!”

“Russian newspapers?”

“Yes. Pravda means ‘Truth’ and Izvestia means ‘News’. In Russia, the joke is that there is no Izvestia in Pravda and no Pravda in Izvestia.”

“Cute,” Jessica said. “So?”

“So Vera is the one person on the planet that Tanya talked freely to, and Vera decided she wanted to meet me.”

“And she was swept off her feet by your dashing good looks, your dreamy eyes, and inestimable charm!” Kara giggled.

“Or the reports that he could fuck her senseless better than any other man she might meet that day! Or any other!” Jessica observed.

“Or that!” Kara agreed.

“You followed the rules?” Jessica asked.

“Yes. And you were right about the Russian views on HIV. She used the exact words you did.”

“But she was tested?”

“Yes. For a visa for a trip to India a few months ago.”

We arrived at the ER and we hugged and kissed, and Kara and I turned to walk for home.

“I have something to tell you, but only you,” I said to Kara.

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

“In this case, yes. Katt and Mikael are having trouble conceiving. Mikael asked for my help.”

“Your help? You mean... ?”

“Yes. He appears to be the problem. My history says I’m a good donor.”

“You’re right. You can NEVER tell Jess! Not after what happened with Carla!”

“Exactly. I turned them down. And told them why. They understand.”

“So what will they do?”

“Wait their turn for fertility treatments.”

“That must have been difficult to turn down! You’ve always said how much you enjoyed fooling around with Katt!”

“It was one the easiest things I’ve ever done,” I said. “No hesitation. No equivocation.”

“Good. I suggest we don’t ever mention this again.”

“I agree.”

At home, Jennifer and Josie were waiting to talk to me.

“Do you guys mind if I run while we talk? I need to get on the treadmill!”

They went to the basement with me and I started running.

“Jesse talked our ears off last night! He was so hyped that despite barely having slept he told us everything he did!”

I chuckled, “I bet! He told you about Marta?”

“Oh yes!” Jennifer laughed. “It’s a good thing he broke up with Francesca! And in Russia?”

“You know they’re more conservative there. He and Lara spent time together, but Tanya and Dima could only stay in St. Petersburg until Sunday evening. He spent more time with Eugen, Tanya’s cousin’s son, than with Lara.”

“Jesse says you kissed Pia and Vera,” Josie smirked.

“And Jesse would be correct,” I chuckled. “Jen, you remember who Pia is, right?”

“Yes, she was your first girlfriend when you went to Sweden. You wrote me about her. Who is Vera?”

“Tanya’s cousin. Did Jesse give you your gifts?”

“Last night,” Jennifer said. “He wanted to give his siblings their gifts but most of them were in bed.”

“I assume he’s still crashed?”

“With the time change and adrenaline withdrawal? If Abbie sees him before noon I’ll be shocked! She’ll check on him until he returns to the land of the living. How are YOU doing?”

“Sorry to be back,” I sighed. “I had thirteen days when I didn’t have any stress and didn’t have to worry about lawsuits, the FBI, mental health, hiring staff, and all the other bullshit.”

“Two weeks of drowning himself in hot Swedish and Russian girls, and the poor baby has to come back to the real world!”

“Jen,” I said between breaths, “Cut it out.”

“Sorry,” she said. “We’ll leave you to your run.”

They left and I finished my run, then went up to my room to shower.

“Daddy!” Birgit squealed when I walked into the kitchen fifteen minutes later.

“Hi, Pumpkin! How are you?”

“Good! I missed you!”

“I missed you, too!”

She got out of her chair and came to sit on my lap. I kissed her forehead and she hugged me.

“Did you have fun, Daddy?”

“I did, Pumpkin! Jesse has a present for you when he finally gets out of bed!”

Elyse came into the kitchen and sat down.

“The wayward CEO returns!” Elyse said.

“And the world didn’t end while I was away!”

“No, but I have some news. Now or at the office?”

“Office, please,” I requested.

“How was the trip?”

“I don’t know that it could have been better!” I said.

“Dada!” Matthew and Michael both squealed when they came in. I hugged both of them, as well as Albert and Stephie when Abbie brought them into the kitchen. I finished my breakfast, and after kissing Kara goodbye, Elyse and I headed for the office.

“You seem more relaxed than I’ve seen you be in months!” she said, slipping her hand in mine as we walked south on Woodlawn.

“Yeah, and now you’re about to ramp up the stress again, aren’t you?”

“I suspect so. We got a raft of subpoenas from the BLS suit, the attorneys filed the motion to remove it to federal court, the FBI got the names of all the board members, and we had two resignations.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Shauna and Jefferson. Shauna’s getting married and moving to Texas. It’s like what happened with Heather. Not much we can do about it. And we’re at a good point in the release cycle, so we’ll have time to hire a QA person.”

“And Jefferson?” I asked.

“He’s going to work for BLS.”

“The fuck he is!” I spat. “When did he tell you this?”

“Right after you left.”

“And you didn’t think I needed to know?”

“To do what? I called Jamie right away. Jefferson gave two-weeks’ notice, so we simply told him not to come into the office. Jamie says it’s best we pay him for those two weeks.”

“Bullshit! I know Illinois law. We can terminate him at any point, for any reason. Or no reason.”

“Yes, you could. But we also can’t really go after him. We have to go after BLS. Jamie and I talked about filing for an injunction against them, but he doesn’t think we’d win it.”

“So they can fuck us this way and we can’t do anything about it?”

“It’s murky. The result from the lawsuit Apple lost against Microsoft means they can more or less copy what we’ve done, with minor cosmetic changes, and they’re in the clear. About the only way we could win something against them is if they were to use actual NIKA code. That does give us an opening. As Jamie pointed out, as soon as they release, we claim they’re using our proprietary code that they stole.”

“Which starts a whole NEW round of lawsuits,” I sighed. “Fucking hell. So, what is Jamie going to tell me when I call him this morning?”

“That we need to add non-compete clauses to every new-hire, and get all current employees to agree to sign a non-compete agreement.”

“And why would they do that?”

“Because if they don’t, we’d terminate their employment.”

“No. I won’t make that threat. I think everyone will sign it, so long as it’s reasonable. If they don’t, they don’t.”

“Then you open yourself up to more poaching by BLS.”

“I wonder about that,” I said. “Do we know what kind of offer they made?”

“If you factor out the higher cost of living in Boston, about a 30% raise.”

“From all of the competitive analysis that Cindi has done, and your financial analysis, I’d say this is a one-shot deal. At least for now. They can’t afford to keep doing that. And they don’t need to, really. Do you know if they talked to anyone else?”

“Jamie, Julia, Dave, and I all felt you would get more honest answers to that question than any of the rest of us. Your dad and Joyce agree.”

“What did they say?”

“Pretty much the same things you have, though both of them want the non-compete to be mandatory for all existing employees as well. Karl agreed with them. Beth and Doctor Barton both said we should wait for your input, and the others agreed.”

“Who do we know that is an employment law expert?” I asked.

Elyse smiled, “I already asked Cindi. She has a list of four attorneys who work for firms either in Illinois or Massachusetts. Allen & Baker has someone, so I figured we’d use them here.”

“Yes, I think so. They have all the rest of our business. Any OTHER good news?” I sighed.

“The FBI called me and Cindi for interviews. We both told them to go fuck themselves. I didn’t use those words; she actually did. Jack and Jamie expect them to try to talk to Board members next.”

“Swell. Well, there’s nothing they can find there, because other than my dad, nobody has ever been involved in any day-to-day operations.”

“What about Joyce being Italian?”

“Is every Italian part of the Mafia? Are you seriously making that connection?”

“No, of course not! But given how the FBI is treating this, THEY will try to make that connection, even if she’s squeaky clean.”

“Even if? Come on! Kara’s MOM is her second-in-command. And Kara’s family background is English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian! Tom Hagan was a character in a book! The Mob doesn’t put people of Irish-German descent like him or me, or someone like Kara’s mom, into a position like that!”

“Sorry, you know what I meant, though.”

“I do, but the FBI will parse every single word you say and twist it in a way you don’t mean.”

“Take a deep breath, Steve. You’re starting to get riled up.”

I sighed, “I know. But God damn it! Anything ELSE?”

“Steve Markman from Pencom called and said he had two candidates for Greg’s position that he wants you to see.”

“Now that’s better news. Back to BLS, what subpoenas?”

“They want to depose Greg, Dave, Jeri, you, Julia, Zo, Mario, and Ralph.”

“No surprise there. That’s the rogues collection I’d want to talk to if I were in BLS’ position. What else?”

“All business records relating to any contact with any existing BLS customer, or any potential customer that we won.”

“They can kiss my pasty white ass in Daley Plaza in broad daylight before I allow THAT to happen.”

“Jamie agrees. He’s moved to quash that subpoena as overly-broad. They will get the records relating to Nelson, Reed, and Pulver.”

“I figured.”

“They also asked for copies of the code that Greg wrote, and any notes or records related to the conversion. Jamie says that’s fair game, though he’ll insist on limited access to the code.”

“Which means?”

“That the attorneys for BLS would have to hire an outside firm to review the code for any alleged violations. Nobody at BLS would get to see the actual code without a court order, and that would only come if the outside expert ruled that we had somehow stolen code from them. Jamie talked to Greg and is confident that’s not the case. All Greg did was dump their database schema and write code to extract the data.”

I nodded, “Yeah. I looked at that before I left. So long as Greg didn’t dump any code, we’re probably fine in that regard.”

“You know damned well that if this goes to a jury, all bets are off. There won’t be twelve programmers or database analysts. It’ll be people who are technologically ignorant, with a judge who is likely technologically ignorant. Anything could happen, even if we’re right on all the technological points.”

I sighed, “Which is the exact reason Jamie likes to stay out of court.”

“Yes.”

We arrived at the office and I asked Kimmy to set up an emergency meeting with the Board for Monday morning, and include Jamie. She brought my coffee, then began making the phone calls. I pulled the management team into my office to go over what Elyse had told me.

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Dave said. “But I see Jamie’s point.”

“I agree,” Cindi said.

“We can’t do it,” I insisted. “That is NOT how we treat our staff. I simply won’t make that kind of threat. You all know me well enough to know that’s the case. I’ll ask, but I won’t force it. I will, reluctantly, agree it needs to be part of our hiring documents for all new staff members. But I’ll resign before I start threatening my employees. Dave, Cindi, from a business perspective, I see your point. Now tell me personally what YOU would do if I threatened you that way.”

They were quiet for a moment.

“I believe I’d quit,” Dave said.

“I’m not sure,” Cindi said. “I’d probably sign it, though.”

“I think Dave’s response won’t be so rare as you might think. Look, we know that if I ask Penny, Jeri, and Zo, they’ll sign. That’s the core team. Those are the ones that BLS probably wanted, and I’ll bet you anything that they tried to recruit them. They went for Jefferson when they couldn’t get who they really wanted.”

“I’m not taking THAT bet,” Dave said. “I suspect you’re right. If I was going to try to peel someone away, it would be one of the top people. But they’re so loyal that they wouldn’t go.”

“Which raises the question of why they didn’t tell us that BLS contacted them,” Julia said.

“They all get calls from recruiters,” I said. “We know that happens. The company we’re using to find Greg’s replacement doesn’t tell the candidates who we are until we agree we want to see them. Can you imagine any of the people I just named saying they were interested in leaving?”

“No,” Julia said. “Which means they wouldn’t have even known.”

“Correct,” I said. “And to give Jefferson the benefit of the doubt, if the recruiter described the general role, and the money involved, that set the hook for the big reveal. At that point, Jefferson was already hooked on the raise, the promotion, or whatever else they offered.”

“So you understand what he did?” Julia asked.

“Understand? Yes. But what offends me is that he didn’t talk to us about it. He just turned in his notice the day after I left. He didn’t have the decency or respect to talk to me.”

“Jamie asked if you would consider a counter-offer.”

“No way. First of all, no offense intended, but Jefferson isn’t worth that much money. BLS is overpaying to try to either piss us off, get inside information, or both. Second, that would blow our egalitarian pay scales out of the water. We can’t afford to give everyone a 30% raise. And that’s not sustainable for BLS unless they’re making him a manager. Dave, is Jefferson someone you would make a team lead or manager?”

He shook his head, “No. He’s a decent programmer. But he’s not a leader.”

“Elyse, did Jamie give you proposed language for the non-compete agreement?”

She smiled and slid a sheet of paper over to me. I read it and didn’t like it, but I could also tell that Jamie had crafted it to try to win my approval. It was very specific and only restricted someone from working on software in the same market as what they worked on for NIKA. By my reading, it wouldn’t have prevented Jefferson from going to work on medical software because he’d never worked on NIKA’s medical software. And it was only for twelve months, though the redline showed his original proposal was for twenty-four.