Nick left to arrange payment with the bondsman, and Cody stayed with his client. They were taken to a small room while they waited on bail to be posted. He stuck his hand out as the door shut behind them. "Hi. I'm Cody Allen."
Bozinsky returned the gesture, a little jittery. "Thank you for coming. You're a friend of Nick's?"
Cody nodded, "Yeah. He's…my best friend."
His client offered a weak smile. "You're lucky. Nick's the kind of guy who'll really go out on a limb for you. That's one of the best feelings in the world, knowing you have someone like that. I, uh, I really don't, actually. Have anyone like that, I mean. I didn't have any right calling him out of the blue after so long, but I couldn't think of anyone else in this part of the country who might help me out. I haven't been in this much trouble since…" He glanced worriedly at Cody.
"Nick told me how you met."
"He kept me from going to the stockade, you know. First taking me out that night in New Orleans and then calling that general. I'd only known him for a few hours, but he did all that without me even asking. Now this… I just couldn't think of anyone else."
Cody nodded. Talking was a good way to calm an anxious client, but maybe they could swing the topic in a more helpful direction. "So, Nick told me a little about what happened yesterday. Can you give me some more details?"
And the whole story spilled out. Bozinsky's response to the company's changes to his game seemed a little disproportionate, but then it wasn't Cody's work that was altered without asking. Bozinsky got all worked up again just talking about it, and Cody saw for himself just how serious his client felt about the issue. But regardless of what had happened, Cody thought he could get the company to see reason. They wouldn't want the bad publicity when it got out why Murray Bozinsky had gone ballistic. After all, he was famous, and the public would likely side with a guy who had proven he could produce a good computer game. Being a lone underdog against a huge corporation would also help sway public opinion. And if he could get management to back off, Cody figured he could probably get the state charges knocked down to misdemeanors.
By the time the bailiff showed up to say that bail had been arranged, Cody was clear on his plan. He led Bozinsky into the hall where they met an anxious Nick who shook Bozinsky's hand and pulled him into a quick hug. "You okay?"
Bozinsky managed a fidgety shrug and broken grin. "Yeah, yeah, of course. You know me."
Nick's look was reproving, "Yeah. Seems like we've been here before, Boz. Who'd you hit this time? You gotta learn to talk about these things before you go off the deep end."
"Yeah, but Nick, you don't understand what they did to my game. They took the whole spirit out of it! Let me just tell you—"
"Murray! Just—" Nick gripped Bozinsky's shoulders, "Let's try to get you out of this mess, and then you can tell me about it." Nick looked desperately at Cody.
He nodded, "I've got a plan. Let's find somewhere to sit and talk—"
Bozinsky piped up, "And eat."
"And eat. I'll explain, and we'll hammer out the details."
And then Cody proceeded with the plan exactly as he'd explained to Nick and Murray. He talked to the lawyers at Dynagame where Murray worked—used to work. And after an hour or so, they decided it was in their best interests not to proceed with any civil charges and agreed to talk to the DA.
It was a compromise for both parties. The company kept Murray's game. Murray got to leave the company free and clear and was allowed to remove all his personal projects from his office/lab. Murray agreed not to disclose Dynagame's not-so-ethical changes to his game, and management stated they would not publicize how Murray came to leave their company. Neither party was completely satisfied, but both got the essential basics for surviving the mess with the least amount of bad publicity.
And Murray got to stay out of jail.
Once the agreement with Dynagame was made, Nick landed his helicopter on the roof of their building. Murray and his supervisor marked what belonged to who. For the most part, anything still intact was Murray's which Nick probably could have figured out for himself. As Murray accompanied Cody back to see the district attorney, Nick loaded all of Murray's…stuff…into Mimi under the watchful eye of his friend's former boss. Who didn't lift a finger to help, but that didn't matter. Whatever Nick had to do to get Boz away from these leeches was fine.
Carrying the various pieces of equipment up to the roof gave Nick some time to think. Cody had really saved Murray's hide today. Nick couldn't imagine what might have happened if Cody hadn't agreed to come. The idea of Boz spending any more time in jail was just…scary. A place like that would kill him. Murray was too innocent—too naive—to survive anything like extended jail time. Nick needed to find some way to show Cody how much he appreciated everything he'd done for them today.