Chapter 2

Tom sat down in the slightly undersized chairs directly across from Adam. They looked at each other both seemingly trying to read the other's mind. Finally, Adam broke into a wide grin.

"OK, I give." he said.

"What?"

"I give." Adam stated once again. "I'm not going to ask why you didn't tell me you needed your backups, but had to quietly sneak what little you had available to you out over the past few days. I'm sure it's hard to know who you can trust here."

Tom was starting to sweat now, had Adam spoiled the surprise? He hoped not. But regardless, he had the prick by the short hairs and that thought calmed him.

"I have friends, and I have family. I knew that my earlier stuff was archived somewhere off the main servers, somewhere I couldn't get to easily. I'd have asked, but I didn't want to get labeled a thief." Tom thought that the better part of valor here would be to see if he could convince Adam that he was still his friend, at least for a while longer. "Besides, it wouldn't do for you to get caught helping me."

"Well, just so you know, I run this department; the tricks of the trade are with me alone. Do you think that son of a bitch would really know how you got your projects? I mean, you should have kept a copy yourself anyway, but since I know you didn't, I took the liberty." He handed Tom a couple of burned DVD's. "Here, it's labeled, categorized by date and project number, there's a table of contents in web document form, so you just have to open one file and click on what you want. I took a few 'extra' liberties while I was copying data from the servers. You now have everything on the servers even if it wasn't your work, if it was remotely related to your work, you've got it. I also backed up your hard drive data here." He handed Tom another pile of disks.

"I don't know what to say." Tom sat unbelieving, wondering just what Adam was up to...

Adam broke into his reflection by standing. He chuckled. "Well, now unless I'm mistaken, there'll be some kind of party this evening?"

Tom was thinking that Adam was ok now, but just to be sure, he said, "Yeah, I'm meeting a couple of people for drinks later. You want to stop by? It's the usual place." Tom had not mentioned the name of the place, Adam had been out with him before, and knew where the party would be. He agreed to meet after work so they could all get a belly laugh at the company's expense.

"Thanks for the disks. Are we ok? I mean, I'm leaving today. Victor - he doesn't know does he?" Tom asked, referring to the boss. "I've been trying to get this stuff for a while, but having it all here at once, I don't even have to go back to my desk."

"Nah, he doesn't know anything's up." said Adam. "He's about as sharp as a well used sponge. I haven't talked to anyone. Actually, I found all this out by snooping on what you've been up to since day one. I've pretty much had your back. If anyone had tried to get something incriminating on you, I've wiped all trace of anything they 'thought' they had. I actually made you out to be a saint with your project work times... Not a single web search, not a single minute of logged time on that damn card game everyone has on their pc that they don't think I know about." Adam grumbled that last part under his breath slightly.

"Well, Thanks again Adam" Tom said turning to leave. He paused, and turned back to shake Adam's hand. Adam looked him in the eye and took his outstretched hand.

"Just remember your old buddy sometime down the road." Adam said, meaning it as a joke on the surface, but with a serious undertone as well, especially if someone as talented as Tom could do something for him in the future. Tom left the office, tucking the 'stolen' data in his jacket, and headed down the hall toward the office of the prick. When he reached the office, he asked the secretary if she thought he was busy. When she said that he was with the company's CEO, well, that just made Tom's day.

Entering the office, Tom noticed that some of the renderings on the wall were of his most inspiring work. Another move that pissed him off. The guy stole his work, then flaunted it. The only one who didn't know was in the room sitting with his back to Tom and nodding his head at something Tweedle Dumb had just said.

Victor Lewis was 'the prick' or the A.L.P. (arrogant little prick). Standing just shy of 5'6", he wasn't very impressive. In fact, quite the opposite. His features led one to believe he was descended from rats rather than the apes from high school science class. He leaned back in his chair as Tom walked in. Seeing that, Tom Smiled. He wouldn't get up. Made him feel inferior to be looked down on while standing. He nodded to Mr. Jay, the CEO. Mr. William Jay had come to the company as a family friend many years ago and had rode the coattails of the company's namesakes until they retired and left him in charge. Not that he didn't deserve it, from all accounts, Mr. Jay was a workaholic. Spending most of his time at work meeting clients, and just trying to keep this boat afloat. His problem seemed to be that he was blind when it came to Victor Lewis. They were friends, but only because Victor kissed his ass considerably more than anyone else around. Tom guessed that Mr. Jay must have liked having a brown-noser around all the time making sure that someone told him his shit didn't stink.