A/N: Italics are Duncan's voiceovers. This story is fictional and all resemblances etc….

December 19, 2005

4:03pm

"First of all, I wanted to congratulate you on your father getting his job back, and I wanted to apologize, well, for everything, and to thank you as well."

"I appreciate that Mr. Kane, but I have a feeling that that's not what you really wanted to talk about."

Veronica? Why the heck is he having a secret meeting with Veronica?

"You always were very perceptive."

"What can I say? I take after my father."

"Yes, well, I guess I'll come straight to the point. I have a problem, one that requires your…talents."

"Spill."

"How much do you know about data compression?"

"I know how to use most of the popular compression programs, but that's about it. Why?"

"Well, for the last few years, Kane Software has been secretly working on a new method of data compression. We call it Data Express. That's just a working title though. It's significantly more efficient than any of the other applications currently on the market, but that's not its most important feature."

"Okay."

Warming to his subject, Jake continued, "The theory behind data compression is that most data contains a lot of redundancy, or information that isn't really essential. Let me give you an analogy: you could take just about any page from any book in the English language and take out all the vowels, and yet you'd still be able to understand what it was saying, right?"

"I haven't ever tried that, but I suppose so. It's like writing in shorthand."

"Perfect, like writing in shorthand. And once you get used to text like that, you'd be able to read it on sight, without even having to think about it. Computerized data compression is a lot like that. The problem is that your computer can't read the 'shorthand' file. It has to decompress it before it can do anything with it. But what if you had a program, or, more precisely, a procedure, one you could add to other applications, that could read from and write to compressed files just as easily, and just as quickly, as with uncompressed files."

"You'd make data storage much more efficient."

"Yes, but you're thinking too small. You'd make real-time data transfer much more efficient."

"Real-time data transfer? Like streaming video?"

"Exactly. You could send just as much information content over substantially less bandwidth, or alternatively in less time. Even streaming video would be just the beginning though."

"Well, congratulations, Mr. Kane. I can only imagine that this'll make you fabulously rich…er. But even if I had the money to invest in Kane Software, it would now be insider trading, so I don't see what this has to do with me."

I don't either. Just what are you up to?

"Ah well, there's the rub. The program isn't quite perfected yet, and about a week ago, one of the top programmers on the project, Calvin Selkirk, left and went to work for a company up in Silicon Valley called VenTech."

"And you think he brought the secrets of Data Express with him."

"Exactly. Of course, he signed our standard nondisclosure agreement, and there are anti-corporate espionage laws about this sort of thing. But there's not much we can do about any of this without proof."

"And you want me to get this proof for you? What exactly would you need?"

"A copy of the algorithm that they're working with. With that, we could prove that they've stolen proprietary information."

"But why me? You've got your own in-house security team."

Yes, why her, Dad?

"Well, normally this is the kind of thing that Mr. Weidman would take care of, but—"

"His parole hasn't come through yet. Of course. The law," Veronica emphasized that word to indicate that she did not share its opinion, "looks more harshly on those who commit crimes than on those who pay to have them committed."

"My lawyers promise that he'll be out in just another few months, but obviously that'll be too late, and my wife told me about how well you took care of the whole Montclair thing, and well, I wanted the best."

Montclair? Kelly Montclair? What does she have to do with any of this? How did Veronica "take care" of her?

Kelly Montclair was a gossip columnist in L.A. who, after Aaron Echolls' arrest, had begun a series of rather embarrassing stories on the whole affair, and had indicated that she was about to expose some particularly dirty secrets about the Kanes in particular. Then one day she had simply moved on to another matter entirely, and had not brought the subject up ever again.

"Well, the best is going to cost you."

"Understandable. How much are we talking about?"

"Stock options."

"Stock options?"

"You'd want me to have an incentive to do the job right, wouldn't you?"

"And you wouldn't have to worry about insider trading."

"Exactly."

"Fifteen hundred shares? Strike at sixty? One-year holding period?"

"Two thousand. Strike at fifty-five. One year."

"Done."

"Knew I should have asked for more."

"You do this, those options'll be worth more than enough. Here's everything we have on Selkirk and VenTech. When can you start?"

"Tomorrow's the last day of school before the break. I can tell my Dad that I want to go up to Palo Alto to have a look around, figure out where I want to live next year."

"Great. Congratulations again on Stanford."

"Thanks. Pleasure doing business with you."

As Duncan heard their meeting concluding, he raced back out of the office suite, and past Bethany. He considered telling Bethany not to mention that he had been there.

No, that'll just make her more likely to tell.

"I can't believe I left my car's headlights on," he said instead, giving her a sheepish grin. "I just hope I get there before the battery dies."

"You better hurry then," answered Bethany, smiling and shaking her head.

Duncan hurried out of the building and into the parking lot, and began looking for Veronica's car. Spotting it, he crouched down behind the Jeep that was parked next to it and waited for Veronica to exit the building. When she came out a few minutes later, he waited for her to put the key in her car door before he stepped out from behind the Jeep.

"Hi Veronica."

"What the—" She leapt backwards. "Duncan, you startled me."

"Sorry. So, how did you 'take care' of Kelly Montclair?"

"What? Duncan, were you spying on me?"

Duncan just tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.

"Yeah, alright, but I had a reason for what I did. What's your excuse?"

"How about I just want to know what's going on? So what, with Weidman out of the picture, my parents had to pick you to handle their dirty work?"

"That's the way the world works Duncan," she replied resignedly.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"People like your parents hire people like me to protect their interests. That's how things are."

"You don't have to do this."

"I need the money Duncan."

"Why? Your father's sheriff again, you don't need to—"

"You don't understand; everything I had saved for college is gone."

"What? How?"

"It doesn't make any difference."

"It does make a difference. You shouldn't have to do this."

"You make it sound like I'm doing something wrong. I'm protecting your parents, Duncan. I'm protecting you. Heck, this whole town depends on Kane Software; I'm protecting all of Neptune."

And who protects you Veronica?

"Fine, then. I'm going with you."

"You are not."

"Why not?"

"You want the first volume of answers to that question?"

"No. I'll just call Calvin Selkirk and let him know you're coming."

"You wouldn't."

Duncan got out his cell phone. Dialing directory assistance, he asked "I'm looking for a number in…."

"Alright, alright. But even if I said yes, what are you going to tell your parents?"

"I'll just tell them I need a look around Palo Alto, figure out where I'm going to live next year." Duncan gave a small smile.

Veronica's face lit up. The tension between them dropped measurably. "Seriously? Duncan, congratulations. That's wonderful."

"You too."

"Thanks. Alright, but you do what I say, okay?"

"Okay, if you tell me what happened with Kelly Montclair."

To be continued….