“Tom Elias, executive vice president for administration at XYC, sitting in with us today.”
“Hello.” Elias wore the jeans and the facial hair. He gave her a relaxed and curious smile. He had been part of the start-up. The XYC legend had to do with Stanford students and garages and the famous IPO that had made Elias and his friends multimillionaires overnight.
“And Special Agent Aaron Dietz, from the NSA.”
“The National Security Agency?”
Dietz nodded slowly, taking her measure. He had on the stiffest suit of all. The shoulder pads put him in the linebacker class. Nina waited for an invitation to sit down, but all she was getting was stares, so she pulled out a chair and helped herself.
“Water?”
“Yes, thank you.” Each had his own glass and carafe of water, the carafes half-full to empty, which meant this meeting had been preceded by a strategy session, of which she had undoubtedly been the focus.
“You have sued XYC,” Branson began from across the table. His face had lost none of its pugnacity. “We’d like to know why.”
“I’d be happy to lay it out for you. Your employee committed an armed robbery two years ago, in the course of which my client’s wife was shot to death. He appears to have killed three more people since then, as well as attempting to kill me and another person. Last night he attacked the owner of the motel where the robbery took place. It’s a no-brainer,” Nina said. She folded her arms.
“Leland Flint has not been in XYC’s employ for a long time,” Foster said. Nina remembered that Flint had been noted on the XYC Web site.
“Well, if you want to get right to it, maybe you’d like to tell me the date he left XYC’s employ,” Nina said. “That is certainly important.” She uncapped her new Mont Blanc pen and let it hang obligingly over her yellow legal pad.
“We didn’t bring you here for a free discovery session,” Foster said.
“Then he was in XYC’s employ at the time of Sarah Hanna’s death,” Nina said.
“Nobody said that.”
“It’s clearly implied in your evasive answer.”
Foster sighed. “Let’s start again. Why have you sued XYC?”
“I thought I just explained it. The basis of corporate liability is the doctrine of respondeat superior, as you all know, and that’s the fifth cause of action in the amended complaint served on you.”
“You allege in that complaint that XYC authorized Flint’s robbery attempt. But you don’t have a shred of evidence of that, do you?”
So she was to be cross-examined. They expected her to be intimidated, but she was much too focused on finding and stopping Flint to get involved in a male-lawyer-dominance game. She would be straightforward, ignore the rudeness, and-
Oh, shucks. Live a little.
“Ask nicely, and I might tell you a thing or two,” she said. She smiled, nicely, and clammed up.
They all looked at Elias, who still wore his own faint smile. He looked friendly and approachable, which was why he had surrounded himself with warriors. He’s the only one who matters, Nina thought to herself. The others were just legal poundage, except for Dietz. Dietz was from a government security agency, not XYC. Nina had only the vaguest idea what the NSA did, but it was clear that a threat to XYC’s encryption method was relevant here.
They were apparently less familiar with female-lawyer-domination games. Foster said, “Look here, Ms. Reilly. Forgive our exasperation. We understand that XYC’s former employee has become a menace, and we intend to cooperate to find him as soon as possible. Here is the main piece of information we would like to convey to you today: XYC did not authorize that robbery attempt. Flint heard about Elliott Wakefield’s work from his sister, Carleen-”
“Who is a consultant with XYC, I believe,” Nina said.
“Here is what happened. XYC has been following Mr. Wakefield’s work for years.”
“Through the professor here, and through Carleen Flint,” Nina said.
“Never with any intention of harming Elliott or stealing anything from him,” Professor Braun interjected. “In fact, we met with him and offered to hire him.”
“I heard about that,” Nina said.
“He is difficult to deal with.”
“Back to Flint,” Foster said. “He is an ex-Navy operations officer who worked at XYC’s headquarters in our security division. He was not a supervisor. He was not a high-level employee. Obviously, we regret hiring him now. He had been with XYC about a year when Carleen discussed Mr. Wakefield with him. Carleen was a summer intern with us at that time, still at MIT, and in fact Flint had persuaded her to apply for the internship. Anyway, Flint decided that Mr. Wakefield was a threat, and he decided, unilaterally, without any authorization from XYC, let me make that clear, that he would obtain Mr. Wakefield’s notebook.”
So Elliott was right. Elliott was sane, and he was right. The man in the mask had wanted the notebook. Nina mentally apologized to Elliott for doubting him.
“No one, including Carleen Flint, and I emphasize, no one, at XYC knew of his intention.”
“That’s your position,” Nina said.
“It’s not just a position. It’s the truth. You can litigate this case for years if you want, depose every single XYC staffer, and you will not learn anything different.”
“Is that correct, Mr. Elias?” Nina asked.
Elias smiled and said, “Greg’s doing the talking.”
Foster went on. “Flint called his sister the day after the robbery and told her that he was going underground. She informed management immediately. He was fired and XYC had no further contact with him. Carleen stayed with us and became a valued member of our team. Your client, Mr. Hanna, filed a lawsuit that was about to die a natural death, and then you came along.”
“Yes,” Nina said. “It’s all my fault. Where is Mr. Flint? You know where he is, don’t you?”
Another exchange of glances. Foster said, “I haven’t said that.”
“Well, do you?”
“I wouldn’t say that, not in so many words.”
“He’s still listed as an employee on your Web site.”
“That’s a mistake.”
Nina turned to the NSA agent. “What is your interest?” Dietz did not respond. He was regarding her as Nabokov might have regarded a specimen butterfly just before impaling it on a pin.
“I’m getting to that,” Foster said. “The point is, we may be able to help regarding Mr. Flint.”
“Except that?”
“We still have an interest in Mr. Wakefield’s work. An even stronger interest, at this point. And he won’t talk to us. In fact, he told us you represent him.”
“I see,” Nina said. She would have to talk to Elliott, quickly. It put her in a pickle, because she didn’t represent him. On the other hand, she couldn’t pretend to represent him, that would be unethical.
Professor Braun had been listening quietly. Now he said, “I wonder if you have any idea how dangerous Elliott’s work is.”
“Well, it sure has been dangerous to him,” Nina said.
“It’s a danger to the whole world. It’s a lethal bomb. It’s the equivalent of Hiroshima.”
“I won’t let you get away with that, Professor. People won’t die in the hundreds of thousands because of Mr. Wakefield’s work.”
“They will be homeless in the millions. Their national economies will be in ruins. The Internet will be down for the foreseeable future, Ms. Reilly. I don’t think you have the slightest idea what that means in this day and age.
“Elliott doesn’t understand. He doesn’t care about large institutions and he thinks individuals will not suffer. He has to be made to understand that they will suffer. How will they pay their bills? How will they talk to each other? Do you have any idea how this will impact civil liberties? Ordinary people can now encrypt their E-mails to each other. They can talk to each other and there is some check on the government’s technical ability to listen in. That check will be gone.
“He’s young, his judgment is poor, and he has chosen you to be his representative. That’s why we are talking with you today, Ms. Reilly. We need your help.”