I don't want to give anyone the wrong impression but the chapter doesn't contain what the title says

Eric

Chapter XIII

The Next Level

Lilly was six months old and despite how long we have been going our separate ways in the morning I still missed her half way through the day. When I was able to get away I took the short drive to see her. Today Pam joined me. We ate at a place close to Lilly's daycare. We were almost finished when our phones went off simultaneously. That couldn't be good. I checked mine. A text from Thalia confirmed my suspicions. It read: 911-security breach. Pam looked up from her hand held at me. I knew she had gotten the same message. She gathered Lilly up and I threw money on the table that would more than cover our bill.

Less than five minutes later we were in front of the day care. I exited the car and brought Lilly in. When I tried to hand her off she wouldn't release the hold she had on my shirt.

"Lilly please" If this child had any concept of money she would be a rich little girl. In her short life I have pleaded and offered her bribes more times than I could count. "I have to go" I could easily break her hold but instead I was gently stroking the back of her hand to get her to let go. Rita was her favorite person here and she waiting to receive her but Lilly couldn't care less. I couldn't understand her problem. She seemed to love it here. It was why I was able to cope with the initial separation.

Lilly buried her face in my chest and whimpered when Rita reached for her. I was frustrated. She was fine but something at work wasn't. I didn't have time for this right now. I kissed her head "I love you. I will always come back for you" I pulled her away. Her little face puckered as if what I had done surprised her. She skipped crying and jumped right to screaming.

I felt lower than dirt. She began flailing her hands trying to get back to me as the Rita held her. It took everything I had not to reach for her as she was reaching for me. I had to stop outside the room and do a few sets of breathing exercises. "She's fine" I kept telling myself that.

A day would come when I would be able to walk away and let her cry it out or self soothe. Maybe when she was older and could be reasoned with (or bribed). It wasn't today. I didn't make it to the outside corridor before I spun back around. Yes I am well aware I'm spineless. But I wouldn't be able to focus on the crisis at hand thinking of how distressed she was. She was still wailing when I reentered the room. She saw me and almost leapt out the woman's hands. She was bright red and tears were all over her little face. I felt terrible. I took my child back and held her tight. She clung to me and her cries ceased immediately. I was patting her back and murmuring reassurances to her.

"Babies run off instinct. If you are tense or nervous she will pick up on it" Rita said looking relieved. I don't think she had ever to deal with Lilly in this space.

I had no idea. But that made sense. It explained her sudden reluctance to leave me. "I didn't know that" I said. It was more to myself than an outward reply. I felt worse for having left in the first place.

"I'll get her things" She said.

Back at the car Pam looked at my tear stained shirt and a still shaken Lilly. She just shook her head dryly. "No time like the present I suppose. She's going to have to learn the business someday" I just couldn't help but smile.

I had brought Lilly into the office with me before. There were times when I forgot something and had to double back quickly after I had picked her up. Some days when she woke early we came here before I dropped her off. It was a perk of being my own boss.

"Lilly if you are going to stay you need to be quiet" I gave her a stern look and ran my finger over her lips to reinforce my words. She tried to bite me. She had very recently grown two teeth on the bottom row and she would bite anything that got close enough. I chuckled and set her down. She couldn't quite crawl but she enjoyed failing at it.

When I had gotten her settled I changed my soiled shirt and waited for Thalia. Pam came and joined me in my office. We speculated for some time as to the nature of the emergency. It must be something that no one else knew of. The atmosphere in the office was calm. By the time Thalia arrived Lilly was asleep leaving me free to focus in the matter at hand.

Thalia looked at Lilly and smiled, well kind of. It was a small shift from her usual glower. "Sorry about the wait. I had to do some foot work" She had a very long leash because she got results. I knew her tardiness was needed to make her work thorough. It was not her lateness that bothered me it was her appearance. Usually she was wearing black or varying shades of grey. She was wearing a flower dress. Over that was a black backpack. It was so not her. It could have been a mark of the apocalypse. Pam and I exchanged glances but neither of us said a thing. We watched as Thalia began pulling out the contents of her bag. It was all folders. I recognized one to be a personnel file belonging to Bill Compton. Another was red and it was labeled: Project Mask. Fuck me.

"Tell me you are just carrying that for fun" Pam said coolly. Her voice was slightly elevated as it very well should be. Thalia didn't respond she pulled out the last folder with the logo of one of my competitors: Nova. It was owned by Russell Edgington. I was new money he was old money. He was a ninth generation tycoon based in Jacksonville and he was my biggest pain in the ass. I tried not to think what it would mean if he got his hands on project mask. Not only would it cost me a lot of money but it would mean someone here aided him. Only five people knew of the development of that program. Three were in this room.

Thalia opened the folders to a page she was looking for. It was a graduation picture. "This is Bill. This is Lorena"

"Who is she" Pam was past anxiety and well into pissed. I remained calm. Thalia flipped through the pages of the file she had on Nova. Highlighted was the name Lorena Ball.

"What…" Pam began but I raised my hand to silence my sister.

"Let her explain" I said. Pam sat. Her demeanor was one of forced calm. "Start from the very beginning leave nothing out" I said to Thalia. She nodded.

"We run a comprehensive back ground checks on all employees every year" She said. "Bill always came back clean. When he got promoted he got the executive CORI" I knew that already.

Some people would call it over kill or invasive but I would call it careful. The executives here had a CORI done every six months. It was extensive. "They were a couple since college; Lorena and Bill. He graduated a year ahead and went on some adventure to Peru. When she graduated she went to Mississippi and began working at Nova. They hadn't had any contact up until a year ago. In an email he was trying to impress her. He said, 'he had an idea that would put him in the big leagues'" He was right in a sense.

When the predecessor of Bill's current position passed away the competition to fill it was steep. Bill impressed me. He was one of the youngest to apply. He was imaginative and I saw potential. What he presented was a dream. He assured me with the proper funding and support he would make it reality. Faster than I could have imagined he was making headway. This would be Encore's first actual product. There was an entire global advertising and launching plan in place, which in itself cost multi millions. Couple that with the money I put into the development and research as well as patent and licensing of the product. If this tanked Encore was out close to three hundred million dollars (give or take a few zeroes). That loss was bad but it was not fatal. The most detrimental part was the timing. These times were critical. The deal with Leclerq Inc. was going to cost more than that. I intended on using the success of project mask as a platform for that endeavor. With no springboard that move could prove too risky to pursue.

"She has been in this state heavy since then. She knew to remain out of sight. Her phone wasn't under her name neither was her apartment. Bill kept it hush, hush as well because he had a fiancé" Thalia continued.

I held my child tighter and rocked in my seat. It was to calm myself. What I wanted to do was run Bill's head through a fucking wall. He had been under orders to keep what he was doing quiet. He signed a gag order to the fact. Obviously he forgot about it during pillow talk.

"Damages" I said. I wanted to recoup what losses I could.

"You know how selected employees can link one other PC to their work ones" I nodded. A lot of higher management did this. It was how I was so easily to work from home when I needed. "Bill's laptop has gone missing" I had hoped for a second that Thalia had stolen it but I knew if she had she would have said so.

"Jacksonville" I said.

"I would bet my left tit on it" She said gravely.

Did I already say how fucked I was, because I was seriously fucked. It wasn't that the work was completely lost. While Bill couldn't make duplicates of his work and progress on an outside source like a disk or flashdrive for security purposes everything was saved on a motherboard here for the same reason. I was fucked because my next big thing was in the hands of a competitor.

Thalia continued with the bad news "I fried the hard drive on Bill's work PC and the laptop's as well because without physically having the laptop I couldn't sever the link between the two due to Bill's security clearance" That let's face it we were all regretting authorizing.

"Nicely done" Pam said. I nodded my agreement that was the right thing to do.

Thalia didn't seem pleased. "They aren't dummies over there" She said. "The I.P address still has a…pulse if you will"

"They can revive it" I asked.

She nodded solemnly. "With time, doing what I did told them they have what they are looking for" I still stood by her decision. It gave us time to think and act.

"Wait a second" Pam said. "Bill doesn't seem to have had knowledge of what his former flame was using him. It can't be that he's playing us. Then why hadn't he come to us yet?" She sounded as though she was thinking out loud. Thalia shrugged in response. Maybe was not her department. She dealt in cold hard facts.

I agreed with Pam. Bill was not the type to turncoat. He lacked that certain killer instinct that such a thing required. "I think he's in way over his head and scared and trying to cleanup his own mess without jeopardizing his future" I answered. While that was all very understandable I didn't give a shit.

"Call him in here" my sister said. From the sound of her voice she was going to tear Bill a new asshole.

"No" Thalia said. Pam was about to argue but Thalia continued "Telling Bill right now may work against us. It was why I fried his PC instead of asking him anything" I had wondered about that as well. "We risk tipping him off if he is playing us. Plus this will test his loyalty" Pam silenced herself and we both saw the wisdom in what Thalia said. "Also I may have a solution" She immediately had my attention even though she was heavy on the 'may'. "It's an old friend. There is no one that speaks binary like him if anyone can fix this he can-providing I can find him"

"Beg, borrow, steal do whatever else you must but set it up ASAP" She nodded. Then she gathered up her things and left. Pam and I just sat there thinking about the same things. This was bad but it wasn't the end. It would take so much more to break the Northman's. We both returned to business as usual. Lilly woke and I saw to her needs. I hadn't expected to hear back from Thalia today but I was pleased when she called me as I was heading out for the day.

"I tracked him down he's in little rock. I'm heading there already. I don't how possible it is but I think it would go better if you and Pam came as well" That was interesting. Thalia has never asked our presence in any matter before. Whenever she did what she did we kept our distance to clear our conscience and to be able claim deniability. "He's not all there…mentally and he's very particular. He only does things for people he likes" She said in explanation.

There has always been a thin line between genius and insanity. It made me believe he was as good as she said. I thought about it. The best possible solution would be for me to go. It would require Pam staying with Lilly because Octavia was off and Jenna Lynn sat for another child on Thursdays. I sighed internally. The shit storm continues.

"Send me the specifics" I told Thalia.

I walked over to Bobby's desk. "What do I have on the agenda tomorrow morning?" he pulled up my calendar.

"A ten o'clock with the operations team and a working lunch with Wildfire" He said.

Wildfire was the marketing company that was handling my upcoming launch. That is not what I wanted to think about right now. If things didn't go well with Thalia's connect I could cancel tomorrow. Right now I still had hope.

"Pull me from the meeting with operations but tell them I want a transcript of the meeting. I won't be in until my meeting with Wildfire" he nodded.

I moved down the hall towards my sisters' office. On my way there I saw Bill in his office he looked pale and his face was twisted as if he was being tortured. Serves him right he was being stupid. Chow was a pain but with all the grief he caused he has never once been in this position. He was forthcoming and served him well.

Bill was suffering needlessly. I stopped to torment him further and give a chance to come clean. "Bill, are you able to sit in with the people from wildfire tomorrow? They will be here at noon" I wasn't telling him he had to go. My tone was nonchalant. It insinuated his opinion was wanted. He however looked nauseated at my words. I turned my eyes to Lilly and readjusted her in my arms pretending not to have seen. When I looked up again Bill he was entirely self-possessed.

"I can do that Eric" I nodded.

"See you then, Good night" I turned and left his office as he returned my pleasantries.

Pam was scowling at nothing in particular when I entered her office. This was not going to be easy. Pam was not one to left behind in anything. Lilly reached for her and she thawed.

I could tell an outrageous lie and not blink. I had no tells that I knew of. In fact I was so persuasive I have had people believe me contrary to what common sense was telling them. Fooling my sister was not something I had ever been able to do. Our mother had said she was born with her eyes wide open. In a situation like this I couldn't help but try.

"I got word from Thalia. Her friend is a bit off. She thinks it will help our case if I came along" It was not a complete lie but she didn't buy it.

"Bullshit" Her tone was completely dismissive. I frowned both at her language and her calling my bluff. "Lilly aside I'm easily the best looking Northman ever. No man crazy or sane can resist my charm" I rolled my eyes. Ego much? Yes she did. We all did. When she got like this there was no remedy. No matter how uncomfortable I was I saw no way to stop her.

"You know if you hired a nanny like a normal multi-millionaire parent this wouldn't be a problem" She said. While she understood my reasons she still felt I was being unreasonable on the matter.

"It's a long drive to Arkansas" was my response. She gathered her things and we left.

We were waiting for the elevator when Pam suddenly asked, "Why not ask Sookie?" She used her key card to allow us an express ride to the parking garage. It would blur that line. Don't get me wrong I wanted the line dead and gone. I just didn't know exactly how to properly get rid of said line. Dating a man and getting a child in the bargain was a lot to deal with. I had been careful to always put the ball in her court. I had a child that I was afraid of pushing on her. I explained it to Pam on the ride down.

"You would be with her even if you didn't have a child" My sister's voice was gentle as she sensed my uncertainty. I nodded.

"I think you don't want her to feel you need her" Pam said.

I rolled my eyes. This was my sister channeling dear Abby. At the tender age of eight Pam discovered it and I have been plagued ever since. She thought it made her an expert on life, love and everything in general. I have wanted to give Abby a piece of my mind for years. I was disappointed when I found it was an advice column and not an actual person.

Pam saw the look derision on my face and continued "Think about it" She implored. "When have you really truly needed anyone? It is out of our nature. But you want her to need you don't you?" Pam was making sense which should be alarming. "If you care about her let her know you need her and she will come and if not well you need to know that as well" I was quiet thinking over her words.

I had just assumed I was having a hard time integrating the relationship I had with Sookie with my daughter. I had treated them separately. I never wanted Sookie to feel like I was trying to have a fill a role for Lilly. That sounded logical enough but in light of Pam said being afraid of putting myself out there completely was also feasible. It was understandable it would be a first for me. The doors of the elevator opened with a ding. My phone was already in my hand.

Read on my Friends; Read on! But not too quickly given the sporadic nature in which life has limited my updates to... :( Down with higher edumacation...on the other hand looks like I could use more schooling LOL