World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (27 page)

"I will look for
it," Charles responds with a nod and continues moving on. He
will log into his administrator account to take a look at the
messages between the two employees later on. The CEO believes in
running a tight ship in his company, and the marvels of technology
today means that he can read any and all communications that pass
through his company’s servers. It enables him to supervise his two
dozen employees more closely, and the information gleamed from their
electronic exchanges allow him to build personnel files. That was how
he learned that Priscilla’s twin sister, Diana, is a member of The
Strangers, and made sure that this team won last year’s tournament
event in the World of Eternia.

Charles doubts that the
fools running EDE were aware of his manipulations with certain
encounter scripts in the Curse of Eternia campaign. Even if EDE later
became aware of the breach in their game server and alterations in
the event script, what could they do about it? Eternia Development &
Entertainment, Inc. could not publicly announce the breach and lose
all credibility with their consumer base. Nor could they nullify the
results and redo the campaign from the beginning. Charles smiles
smugly as he continues walking down the hallway to his office.

Finally the CEO arrives
at his northwestern corner office, and sees a middle aged man waiting
outside his door. Charles hides the annoyance from his face as he
smiles broadly to greet Martin Pembrose, the Chief Financial Officer.
“Good morning, Martin,” he says in a pleasant tone of voice that
masks his annoyance at the unpleasant sight of the goody two shoe.

As founder of the
company, Charles had handled all the financial and accounting
transactions for the company by himself. And it was his preference
anyway since it allowed him a tight grip over the cash outflows for
the company. However, his venture capitalist investors had insisted
that Charles hire a CFO to handle those responsibilities, all in the
name of good corporate governance. Furthermore, they insisted on this
man in particular, Martin Pembrose, to take the CFO position, no
doubt to keep an eye on Charles for them. The CEO seethed at the idea
of having a supervisor over Charles’ action, especially since
Martin has de facto veto power by simply refusing to sign over the
checks. Nonetheless, Charles has to play nice with the man.

The former army soldier
turned Certified Public Accountant nods his dark tanned, bald head in
greeting, clearly waiting for the younger man to open the door to his
office. As usual, Martin is a taciturn man who prefers physical
gestures to speaking.

Charles nods back
politely and unlocks the door to his corner office, turning on the
lights. He quickly looks around the room, comparing the current
layout of items around the room to his memory of how it was left the
night before.
Good
,
the intensively secretive man thinks to himself as Charles confirms
that the office was left untouched. He sees that no one has picked up
the baseball on the floor just a few steps in front of the door.
Casually, he taps the baseball with his left foot towards the left
wall. The ball rolls silently on the lush, dark blue carpet until it
hits the coat rack. The CEO casually removes his charcoal gray suit
jacket, and hangs it on the rack. When he finally takes his pricey,
thousand dollar ergonomic chair, Charles is not surprised to see that
the CFO is already seated across the desk and ready to talk
seriously. Seeing the man in a serious mood Charles asks directly,
“What is it, Martin?”

“Sir, I went over the
monthly expense report in your account, and there seems to be some
unusual expenditure. I just want to talk to you for clarification
before I submit the report to the Board of Directors,” the CFO
replies while staring intently at the pale skinned, youthful looking
man. He secretly hates these young kids who haven't paid the dues and
worked their way from the bottom up to the top the organization. The
chairman of the board, who was instrumental in getting Martin this
job, convinced Martin that this company needed an experienced
corporate man to help steer the company as it grows. And Martin was
certainly ready for a new challenge in his career after he was passed
over for a promotion at the last company he worked at. However, he's
just about fed up with what this kid is doing on his own. Even though
Virtuous Gaming is a privately held company it has venture
capitalists to answer to, and it is Martin’s role to ensure that
the private investors have a say in the direction of the company.

Charles leans back into
his cushy chair with fine black Italian leather, showing not a hint
of panic. “Is it related to the Eternia project?” he asks. The
CEO might as well cut to the chase with this man.

Martin nods.

“Let’s be frank.
You’re my CFO and you know what the company finances are like,”
the CEO begins. “Our company specializes in casual gaming, but the
growth of our company’s market share has curtailed sharply in this
competitive market. We are still profitable at the moment, but who
knows if that will be the case five years from now? That is why I
believe in the importance of virtual gaming, which will have
potential for exponential growth in the near future.”

“Are you engaging in
corporate espionage?” Martin asks bluntly, ignoring the monologue.
He would rather address the elephant in the room directly. And if the
answer is “yes,” he is prepared to resign on the spot.

Charles responds with a
question of his own. “Did you know that I went to college with the
CEO of Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc.?”

Martin shakes his head
with mild annoyance. He is very disappointed by the CEO's refusal to
answer the CFO's question. When he leaves the office, the CFO will
draft his letter of resignation and submit it by the end of the day.

“You are probably
thinking ‘why is it relevant?’” the CEO continues,
acknowledging the shake of Martin’s head. “We submitted a college
project together that eventually became the game engine for World of
Eternia. Yes, Richard T. Gibson built his company’s product based
on our joint effort for a class project in computer programming.
However, if you go to the company’s website, there is absolutely no
mention of this, and I received no credit at all.”

“So the Eternia
project is your personal revenge?” the middle aged man interjects
with alarm.

Charles chuckles at the
notion.
You silly fool
,
he sneers silently. “Not at all, Martin,” he denies calmly while
raising a hand in the air as if to swear an oath of truth. “After
all, I am a business man who runs a vibrant, growing company. Instead
of online, hardcore role playing gaming, we went for the casual
market, with a focus on puzzles, matching color beads, and other
games on social media. If Virtuous Gaming Co. can join forces with
EDE and go full steam ahead into virtual reality gaming, then the
future of our company will be secure for a long time to come.” He
looks at the skeptical man directly in the eyes. “I built this
company from the ground up, putting my heart and soul into the
company. This is my child, and I will do everything in my power to
ensure its survival. I need you to believe in me. Can you do that?”
he implores the skeptical man.

Martin frowns and looks
away. He is a firm believer in loyalty and honesty. He thinks that
Charles is a visionary whose ability to spot emerging trends in
casual gaming has helped guide the company. The fantastic holiday
sales figures proved that Charles is right, in this regard. If this
kid believes that virtual gaming is the next emerging gaming market,
Charles will do everything possible to position the company to adapt
to the new market, even if it means engaging in illegal activities
like corporate espionage.

Martin sighs and
decides on a compromise. The CFO turns to face Charles again. “I
was going to resign from the company because I do not want to engage
in illegal activities. Now I’m not a lawyer, but corporate
espionage is a civil tort rather than a criminal activity. Worst
comes to worst, EDE will sue you in court, and you lose your company.
You won’t go to jail for it. Thus, that is where I will draw the
red line. So long as you don’t engage in criminal activities, I
will stay on and support you. But once you cross that line, I will
leave the company ASAP.”

Charles nods in
acceptance of the condition. “Fair enough,” he replies.
It’s
a good thing the fool doesn’t know that I created a secret company
account right before Martin joined my company,
he smiles
smugly.

The spy waits for the
project manager to leave his desk. The CEO sets aside an hour every
Wednesday, from 10 to 11 in the morning, for a management meeting.
This means that Mark will be away from his desk at that time.

At five minutes to 10
o’clock, Mark Whitney gets up from his desk and starts walking
towards the conference room. A short, portly, middle-aged man with
thick brown glasses, he is wearing a red and white checkered t-shirt
that accentuates his rotund “dad bod.” A black leather belt is
strapped tightly beneath the folds of his flesh, preventing the man’s
blue jeans from spilling down. A ring full of keys dangle on a chain
attached to the front of his belt, jingling slightly as the manager
takes big strides. He sees Deana Naples, the attractive looking
college intern from Washington State University, and winks at her.

The teenager with short
curly black hair and bronze colored skin, denoting her Italian
heritage, winks back.

Mark happily whistles a
tune as he walks pass her. He would love to ask her out if she is
like fifteen years older. She’s bright, cheerful, and extremely
pleasant to be around. Since Deana has some experience using a Wacom
pen and tablet as a former web comic artist, the manger assigned the
intern to help the graphic artists with the conceptual designs for
the outfits of the new character classes for a top secret Greco-Roman
themed expansion to World of Eternia after the oriental expansion’s
release. The young woman is also a tee and jeans gal, albeit she cuts
a much better figure than him obviously.

Deana waits patiently,
listening to the sound of the keys jingling grow fainter, until Mark
finally disappears around the corner. She walks casually to the front
of his office, and seeing no one in the hallway, quickly opens the
door and enters Mark’s office. Thankfully, the guy doesn’t like
to lock the door, because he keeps a bunch of reference material in
the office for his staff to utilize and browse through when
necessary. She locks the door, turns off the light, and makes a
beeline for his desktop computer. Deana quickly enters his password,
“geewhiz,” and is logged into his account. She once saw Mark
enter his password while she was searching for something on his
oversized desk. When the man is zoned into his work staring at his
computer screen, he loses awareness of his surroundings. And it
became a cinch to hang around the office until she stole his
password.

Working quickly, Deanna
pulls a thumb drive from her front jeans pocket, and starts
downloading his latest work files. Thankfully, the man doesn’t
bother to encrypt his files, and he organizes his work by date. If no
one tries to enter the office for the next few minutes, she can leave
without being discovered.

* * *

Richard T. Gibson and
Mark Whitney are sitting next to each other in the conference room.
No one else is present. The two are staring at the laptop computer,
remotely watching the project manager’s files being accessed back
in his office.

“Sir,” the manager,
begins.

“What is it?”
Richard replies.

“Are you sure we
should not intervene and kick her out, or have her arrested for
stealing the company’s files?” Mark asks.

Richard’s eyes remain
glued to the laptop screen as he contemplates his response. “I want
to know who she’s working for,” he replies a moment later. “We
planted a hidden camera right above your desk after you discovered
that your computer had been tampered with. With the video recordings
of Deana sitting at your desk and accessing your files, we have
enough evidence to have law enforcement arrest her. However, I doubt
that we will be able to make her talk about her employer.”
Realistically, the CEO expects the spy to lawyer up, with her legal
defense funded by whoever had hired her in the first place.

“I’m sorry,” Mark
says suddenly.

“For what?” Richard
glances at his manager briefly and turns his eyes back to the screen,
even though he could review the recording later.

“I was the one who
hired her,” the rotund man replies sheepishly.
I’ll
be lucky if I still have a job by the end of the day,
he
thinks.

Richard gives the
depressed man a reassuring pat on the back.
The
project manager is far too useful to fire over a bad hire. But given
this situation, I may have to take a more proactive role in hiring
decisions,
he thinks.
Nonetheless, it’s good to string Mark along and make him walk on
egg shells,
he gloats silently at the mind games that he
loves to play with his underlings. “She’s pretty,” the CEO
notes as he watches the young intern on the screen.

Mark is startled by the
remark and its implication, and quickly tries to defend himself. “It
wasn’t like that, sir! Deana has excellent grades, artistic talent,
and the graphic artists like her work.”

The CEO laughs
heartily. “I was just kidding, Mark. You really need to learn to
lighten up.” He smiles at the distressed man.

The project manager
breathes a sigh of relief.
I
guess I won’t be fired after all.
“What exactly did
you have me put on my computer?” he asks, trying to change the
topic.