Seer (11 page)

“Travis,” said a voice I recognized. It was Monty Stanton, the company president. “Got a few minutes? There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

I turned around, and Monty was standing in the doorway.

“I’m under a deadline,” I said. “Does this have to be now?”

“If you’d share more of the work with Brody, maybe you wouldn’t be under such a tight deadline,” Monty replied. “Yes, it has to be now.” Monty stepped into my office and closed the door. He sat down. “We have updated sales figures.” He slipped a sheet of paper. I glanced at them then narrowed my eyes at Monty. “You’re going to get caught.”

“No, we’re not,” he said. “Look, I’m under pressure from the investors-”

And the dream ended with the buzzing of the alarm clock.

I sat bolt upright. “God damn it,” I said. “Just when it was getting good.”

I hopped in the shower then pulled on a robe and grabbed my comput
er. I was still digging through the log files I’d taken from the servers yesterday when my phone rang. I glanced at it and swore before answering.

“We’re in the lobby,” said Solange. “Are you coming?”

“Um. I think we have a problem. I need a few hours to be sure.”

“How big a problem?”

“Big.”

She sighed. “I’m coming up. Should I bring anyone else?”

“No.”

I quickly through on some clothes
and ran a brush through my hair, and then there was a knock. I opened it and Solange stepped in. She took one look at me then stepped past me. I closed the door and followed her into the room.

She turned to face me and raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down.

“I know. I was still in the robe when you called. I woke up and realized something was fishy. I’ve been chasing it since.”

“Fishy how?”

“I think they’re faking their sales data.”

“We have their books. They show the revenue. It matches the bank statements, and we’ve been to the bank.”

“Uh huh,” I said. “They show a dramatic improvement in sales six months ago.”

“Right.”

“They didn’t grow their sales team, but suddenly sales shot up.”

“It’s a few big customers. They’ve been working them for a while.”

“Uh huh. Their revenue has increased threefold in the last six months, but you know what’s funny?”

“Oh?”

“Their web traffic has only increased by ten percent. Why are they getting three times the revenue but only a minor growth in use of their product?”

She stared at me. “Fuck!” She screamed. “God damn it!”

“Solange,” I said, “that’s not the worst. You could use that to drive the price to nothing, especially with what I’m going to tell you next.”

“Oh just… Fuck. What?”

I smiled.

“What?” she asked. “This isn’t a smiling moment.”

“I wondered what it would take to break that cool exterior of yours.” I paused. “Sorry. Um. So, they’ve got a development team of six, right? John manages the team. He’s got four guys doing that gorgeous user interface, and Brody works on the back end. Right?”

“Right.”

“What’s more important? A pretty user interface, or the technology that we actually care about?”

Solange stared at me. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”

“Brody has a hard time answering questions how the software works.”

I let her think about it.

“I think we need to know who someone named Travis is.”

She stared for a good five seconds longer before letting out a stream of profanity.

“Whoa, sailor,” I said.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“Not at all.”

She turned away and walked to stair out the window. “How sure are you?”

“90 percent.”

“How long until you’re one hundred percent?”

“I’m running a lookup on all the addresses that appear in their logs. On the hotel internet, it’s taking time. It would be faster at their offices, but I don’t want them to see the traffic. I don’t know if it will be proof or not. The addresses are typically assigned to an internet provider, not the company that is actually using them. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. But you’re sure about the amount of traffic?”

“Yes, unless they have servers they’re hiding from us.”

“You think they funneled money to these companies to turn around and pay it back, creating a false paper trail.”

“Yes,” I said. “Good luck proving it.”

“And this Travis guy?”

“He shows up in a few comments deep in the code.” That was actually a lie. I got his name from the dream. “Solange, I need to dig through their source change history to be sure. I bet Brody shows up a little more than six months ago. I bet nearly everything before that is Travis, maybe just some initials starting with T. But I bet you can look at past payroll. Or we could just get the right people in a room and without any warning ask them, ‘Who is Travis?’ “

“What are the implications?”

“Solange, the tech is amazing. It works. But Brody doesn’t understand it. It’s well-written but damned hard to understand. It’s going to take someone years before they’re going to understand it.” I paused. “Let me refine that. It’s going to take one of the best programmers you can find years to understand it. This Travis guy is brilliant and has an ego to match.”

“Could you learn it?”

“Yeah, probably, but there are better people at this kind of thing than I am. I’m more general purpose than this. I don’t want that job, Solange. Find someone else.”

“Felix?”

“Felix is good, but he’s young. Maybe in ten years.”

She turned back to face me.

“Solange, the technology is amazing. I couldn’t have invented it. My brain doesn’t work the way this stuff works. There’s code in there I don’t understand, but I know it’s critical. And there’s nothing for documentation. Nothing.”

“But we have all the code?”

“Yeah, I think so. I was able to build everything. They’re using a ton of open source libraries, but I’m pretty sure they aren’t hiding anything about the code. I think we have all the code.”

“What do you want to do?”

“That depends. Do you want me to try to figure out which companies are paying but not using? I can’t promise results. Or do you want me to go help you ask who Travis is?”

“We’re going to keep the first part quiet. I need you to prove this Travis thing.”

“All right. Give me a few minutes to change. I won’t have time for makeup. I’m sorry. I should have gotten ready.”

“No. You were doing your job. Take five minutes for your face then get dressed and come down as quickly as you can while putting on a professional appearance. Aubree and I will wait for you and send the rest along.”

She headed for the door, but I stopped her.

“Solange. I could do my analysis after today. Unless Ed wants to pay me to try to figure out this software, which would take months, there’s not much more I need to do. I don’t even need tomorrow.”

“I’ll call Ed while we’re waiting for you. Maybe we’ll leave tonight.”

* * * *

Access to the source logs took Solange and Aubree raising another fuss. I had asked for it when they set up the new laptop, but they hadn’t given me a password. After that, it took me three minutes to verify someone with a login name of “tjf” had written nearly all of the server code. There were no current employees with those initials. I showed the evidence to Aubree, and she just nodded.

“Let’s find Solange.”

Solange in turn said, “Let’s see if we can summon a meeting. Who do we need?”

“Monty,
Kent, John and Brody,” I suggested.

“Sounds good,” Aubree agreed. “You know, we always find this stuff. You would think our reputation would get around by now. Good job, Sidney.”

“Did I earn my bill rate?”

She just laughed.

It took Solange twenty minutes to arrange the meeting in the conference room. Aubree and I sat on either side of Solange, and the guys from Green Gulch sat across from us. Solange turned to me and asked, “What did you think of their software, Sidney?”

“It’s amazing,” I said. “Brilliant. It’s simply brilliant.” I paused. “Travis must be truly something to watch. Why haven’t we met him?”

They all froze. It was Monty who answered. “Travis is no longer with the company. He didn’t play well with others, and we let him go.”

“Sidney, how much of the software did Travis write?”
Solange asked.

“From the signs,
” I explained, “I’d say he started the software before Green Gulch even existed and wrote about, oh, absolutely everything we might care about. Brody’s name begins to appear about six months ago, here and there, with minor bug fixes and improvements, but there seem to be a lot of bug fixes on top of his bug fixes. I’d say he’s having trouble understanding Travis’s code. I don’t blame him. It’s darned difficult to understand.”

The three of us looked across the table. “It seems,
Monty,” said Solange, “that the loss of your key developer and one of your company founders would come up during initial negotiations.”

“It wasn’t pertinent,” he replied. “You heard her. The technology is outstanding. Your own consultant admits it.”

“Yes,” Solange said. “The technology is brilliant. The ability of Green Gulch or even MetaWolf to build and expand the technology may be hampered, especially as apparently you are right about Travis. He does not appear to play well with others.” She paused. “We’re going to get out of your hair a day early. We have everything we need to give our report to MetaWolf.”

They all deflated.

“Is the deal off over one former employee?” Monty asked.

“That will be Ed Frank’s decision,” Solange said. “As you said, the technology is brilliant, and you have some intriguing customers in your customer list. We’re really interested in the upswing in sales that began about six months ago.”

* * * *

The mood
on the plane ride home was varied. Solange, Aubree and I were subdued. Everyone else seemed pleased to be going home. I guess I was pleased, too, but I felt bad that we’d encountered such deep problems. I hoped that Ed found a way to make this deal work, but if so, I knew it would be at a much lower price than he had first offered.

An hour into the flight, Solange bumped Aubree from her seat across from me. She leaned forward and gestured me to do the same.

“You did a good job, Sidney. We’ll still need a formal write up based on the assumption the sale will go through. Do a proper job.”

“Of course. I’m glad we found the problems, but I wish there hadn’t been problems to find.”

“There are always problems, and these aren’t as bad as some. They aren’t faking the technology. You’re sure about that, right?”

“Yes, I’m sure about that, but it would take me years to tell me how they do it.”

She nodded. “I wanted to talk to you about something else.”

“All right.”

“From time to time, Casper and Associates evaluates software firms. We’ve had someone we use, and he’s been good, but I’d like to involve you in the future. May I call on you?”

“I might not be available, but yes, I liked working with you and Aubree.”

“Would your rate be what Ed is paying you?”

“That’s the highest rate I’ve ever received,” I admitted. “Ed is paying that because he called me at the last minute, and he didn’t want me to say ‘no’. I’m not cheap, but I’m more reasonably priced when you schedule ahead.”

“All right,” she said. She pursed her lips. “I’m going to give you some unsolicited advice.”

“I welcome it, Solange.”

“When you work for me directly, I want a better rate. But if I call you and someone else is paying the tab, I want you to quote what Ed is paying you.”

“Really?”

“Yes. And hold the line. If I need you to come down, then I’ll take you to dinner and we’ll negotiate away from the client.”

I laughed. “So he’ll love you for talking me down?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

“Aren’t you suffering a conflict of interest? You’re supposed to do the best job for your clients.”

“Getting the best people on the job is doing the best job,” she said. “I never promise anyone I’m the cheapest solution. I promise I’m the best, and probably the most expensive. I need you to be expensive.”

I smiled. “I don’t mind being expensive.”
I paused. “Solange, I never want to be across the negotiating table from you.”

“Stand your ground with me when you need to,” she said. “And avoid putting yourself in a position where a particular deal means too much to you.”

“What do you think Ed is going to do?”

“I think he’ll still buy them, but not at the price they negotiated, that’s for sure.”

It felt good to be home.

I collected Felix’s report on the web software and built my report. Solange asked me if there was any way to tell which accounts had been using the software in the last six months. I went digging through the data I’d taken from the server, told her I could do that, and added it to my report. A week and a half after getting home, I presented everything in front of a subdued audience at MetaWolf. Ed looked sadder than I’ve ever seen.

“I’m sorry, Ed,” I said when I wrapped up. “It’s good technology.”

At the end of the meeting, Ed thanked us all and said he was going to take a pass. The meeting broke up after that.

I felt bad. It really was good technology, and Ed had wanted it. Worse, I felt guilty, and I hadn’t done a single thing wrong. While I was putting my things away, Ed and Solange stepped up to me.

“Thank you, Sidney. You saved me a ton of money.”

“I’m sorry, Ed,” I said again.

“Don’t be. You did what I hired you to do. You did more than I hired to do.” And then he actually hugged me. What was with clients hugging me lately? But Ed was a good guy, and we clung to each other for a moment or two.

Then he wandered away to talk to a few of the others, and I found myself facing Solange.

“Well,” I said. I held my hand out. She took it, and we clasped hands longer than would be normal, staring into each other’s eyes.

I looked down at her hand, and I was reminded of the massage she’d given me. I smiled at her. Five minutes later, I was gone.

* * * *

“Hello, Dolores,” I said. “Sidney Welsh.”

“Sidney!” she said warmly. “Are you back from your trip?”

“We flew back last night.”

“Did it go well?”

“I’m glad to be home,” I replied, evading her question. I didn’t like to offer fake answers, but I didn’t share one client’s data with another client. I couldn’t say, “Yes, it went well”, because I didn’t believe it did. But I couldn’t say, “No, it didn’t,” either. “I’m calling for a few things. First, did you need me for anything next week?”

“If you can just make sure the current projects are on track, that’s all I need,” she said. “I appreciate it, Sidney.”

“Excellent,” I said.
“Unless you had any business you wanted to discuss, the rest of this call was going to be personal, if you had time to chat.”

“I’d love to,” she said. “What’s up?”

“I was going to ask you that. How are you doing?”

“You know, I’m a lot better than when I cried on your shoulder. I had a great time at your place last Saturday, and Elsa called me last night. We chatted for an hour.”

“In German?” I asked.

“We tried, but it was too hard for me over the phone. Eventually we switched back to English.
You know, I haven’t spoken German to anyone in eight years. That was fun.” She laughed. “Elsa said I’m easier to understand than you are.”

I laughed with her. “My accent is atrocious,” I admitted.

“Sidney, are you going to be able to invite me to cards every month? I understand there was an opening this month.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “You’ll have noticed I was the single. That last spot is there for my girlfriend, when I have one, and if she’s a decent card player. I haven’t had one for a while, so we have a couple of people who have been coming regularly. It is exceedingly rare when any of the people you met are gone. I’m sorry. Everyone liked you, and I’d like to promise the slot, but I don’t think I can.”

“I overheard what you told Gabby about expanding to three tables,” Dolores said. “I don’t blame you. Twelve is too much stress.”

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “But we can do other things.”

“Elsa and I talked a little about this,” she replied. “Elsa, Gabby and I have tentative plans to do something tomorrow night, and I think Elsa was going to call you.”

“I have a message to call her, but it was late last night, and she doesn’t like personal calls at work.”

“She and I didn’t make a final decision what we wanted to do. She wanted to talk to Gabby first. We talked about going to a dinner or a movie, but we also talked about cards at their place.”

“No,” I said.

“Excuse me?”

“Trust me. They fight. If we’re going to play cards, it has to be my place or yours.”

“They fight?”

“Gabby will want to dress in the crappiest clothes and serve frozen pizza on paper plates. Elsa will want to use the fine china and have everyone in cocktail dresses.”

“Gabby doesn’t seem like the cocktail dress kind of woman.”

“She’s not. So t
hey fight. So yes on cards, if it’s at my place or yours. Or a movie would be fun, too. I haven’t been to a movie in months.”

“How about dinner and cards at my place, then,” she said. “House rules.”

I laughed. “Nulla?”

“Yep.”

“Gabby will bitch.”

“What’s her favorite dessert?”

I laughed. “She gets crème brûlée at the restaurants.”

“So,” Dolores said, “I’ll bribe her with c
rème brûlée if she agrees not to fuss about nulla.”

“I was hoping for more tiramisu,” I said.

“It turned out okay, hmm?”

“Oh yeah,” I said.
“What time and what can I bring?”

“Let’s call it the same rules as your house,” she said.

“So I should arrive at 3:01 with wine, a veggie platter, and an amazing dessert?”

She laughed. “I was nervous. I’ll have everything here, but I won’t be peeling broccoli.”

We chatted for a few more minutes before disconnecting. I found myself in a better mood than when I’d woken up. What a change in Dolores!

I began calling my other clients.

* * * *

Gabby stared at Dolores.

“What is that?” she asked.

“Dessert,” Dolores said.

“Is that crème brûlée?”

“It might be,” Dolores admitted. Dolores ran the flame across the top of the dessert, caramelizing it. Elsa, Gabby and I watched carefully.

“Crème brûlée is Gabby’s favorite dessert,” Elsa announced.

“Is it?” Dolores asked. “This probably isn’t very good. We could have the tiramisu I made instead.”

“No way!” said Gabby. “Give me!”

Dolores looked at her. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” She already had her fork waiting.

Dolores smiled. “
Nulla.”

Gabby froze, and after two full heartbeats, Elsa began laughing full out.

Gabby turned to me and glared. “You told her!”

“I arranged for your favorite dessert,” I replied. “You can thank me as well as Dolores.”

“Fine,” Gabby agreed. “Just tonight.”

“No,” Dolores said. “House rules when we play here.”

“Am I going to get crème brûlée every time I come?”

“Probably not, but I’ll make it from time to time
,” Dolores said. She set the dessert on the table so Gabby could get a good look at it.

“You’re not blackmailing me for our monthly card games, are you?” Gabby asked. “I don’t want to play
nulla around Dean. As soon as he figures out how I feel about it, he’ll bid it constantly just to piss me off.” He probably would, too.

“If Sidney wants to bribe you, that’s her business,” Dolores said. “So we’re agreed?” She edged the dessert closer to Gabby.

“Only if it’s good,” Gabby said, pointing at the dessert. “I’m not playing nulla for sub-standard crème brûlée.”

Dolores slid the dessert the rest of the way to sit in front of Gabby. The woman didn’t even wait before attacking it. Soon, she was making “mmm” sounds of pleasure.

“Elsa? Crème brûlée or tiramisu?”

“Tiramisu,” Elsa said. “I’ll sneak a little of
Gabby’s though.”

Gabby brandished her fork. “No, you will not. Get your own.”

Dolores laughed, serving Elsa and me our tiramisu, then making two more crème brûlées, leaving one in the center of the table. “That one is to share.”

Ten minutes later, the cards and
score cards came out. “There are only four of us, so the rule about partners playing together is suspended,” Dolores said. “Unless the two of you really can’t get along.”

“That rule is primarily for Patty and Frank,” I said, “although we’ve had other partners who tend to squabble in the past. Elsa and Gabby are fine.”

We drew cards to see who partners were.

We had a great time. Gabby muttered about
nulla a couple of times, but she bid it a few times herself, so I thought her complaints were on principle more than anything else. Dolores was a little nervous at the beginning of the night, but she calmed down once dinner was on the table and we’d expressed pleasure. By the time we were playing cards, she was cool and confident. And, I had to admit, quite funny besides.

It was a refreshing side to see.

When we got done, Dolores turned to me and said, “Will you teach me how you score at the end of the night.”

“Oh god,” I said. “Do you have prizes here, too?”

“I just might,” she said.

I already knew I had done the worst. I sighed and then showed Dolores how I totaled up the games. I had the worst record, and in spite of
nulla, Gabby did best. Dolores disappeared for a minute and came back with two wrapped presents. She gave Gabby hers first, and she unwrapped a gift card to a clothing store wrapped inside a box from that store. I thought that was clever.

They all turned to me. “You may take that to one of the bedrooms to change into it,” Dolores said with a smile.

“Oh god,” I said. “Seriously?”

They all grinned at me.

I headed off to the guest room and opened the gift. “Dolores!” I screeched. Laughter from three voices wafted back to me. I wondered whether she told them what it was.

I had to remove everything I was wearing to put it on. It was a “one size fits most” costume with laces I could tighten to fix everything. I checked myself in the dresser mirror and sighed.

“I’m going to remember this!” I said, receiving more laughter.

When I walked into the living room, Gabby already had her cell phone ready, but Dolores had a pretty serious camera.

I was dressed in a Halloween French maid’s costume. On a younger woman it would have been sexy, if you’re into the whole exposed cleavage and legs thing. And, I admit, I was. But on me, it just looked ridiculous. Forty-something-year-olds shouldn’t dress like this.

They took a lot of pictures, making me model for them, and Dolores announced I had to wear it until I left her house, but if I wanted to change out of it on the front steps, that was my choice.

We chatted until late. Before I left, Dolores asked me, “Was this too much?”

“No,” I said. “I made Patty wear one once. Frank loved it.”

“So you’re saying I can expect payback sometime?”

“I don’t know. Not the way you play.”

At the door when it was time to go, Dolores hugged and, briefly, kissed each of us. Gabby was first, and I think it surprised her, but she went with it. None of us had that type of relationship, and Elsa didn’t typically even touch any of us, much less hug or kiss. But Dolores did it like it was no big thing, and it wasn’t. Elsa accepted her hug and kiss with a smile, and so did I.

I wore the damned
costume home, but I wasn’t sure I minded that much. I decided Dolores was going to be all right, and I had made a new friend.

I liked making friends.

I laundered the costume, ironed it carefully, and then wrapped it up again. I couldn’t wait to give it back to her, although I had a couple of other things I’d see she wore first.

* * * *

“What are you doing Tuesday evening?” Dolores asked me.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “What am I doing Tuesday?”

“Going to dinner with me, and maybe a movie afterwards.”

“Oh, a date?”

She laughed.

“Is 5:30 too early?” she asked. “That way we won’t be too rushed to make a 7:15 movie.”

“5:30 is great,” I replied. “But you’re supposed to use that gift certificate for a date.”

“I’m not ready to date,” she said.
“So. Tuesday?”

“I’d love to,” I replied.

“Perfect. I’ll pick you up. I’ll be in a dress.” We were going to a pretty nice restaurant after all, even if it was a movie afterwards. She paused. “Is this too much? I don’t want to burn out our friendship.”

“No, Dolores, it’s great, as long as you promise me you’re open to friendships with other people, too.”

“I am,” she replied. “But it’s hard. I used to have so much more confidence. I was outgoing. Now, it’s really hard to put myself out there. It took me two months to delve up the courage to tell you what I did. If you’d rejected me, I don’t know what I would have done.”