Part of me wished Curt would've been at work on Monday just so I could tell him that his suggestion of going out and having a life was completely fucked up. It hadn't really done much of anything except make me even more exhausted than I normally felt after working most of the weekend. I hadn't gotten much sleep, and what I had gotten hadn't been very restful. I hadn't gone to the gym either and that didn't help matters much. I was far from obsessive when it came to working out, but I liked to stay in shape, and the exercise always helped me clear my head and get ready for the new week.

Instead of that, however, my brain was still foggy and I had a slight headache. Even as I walked into the office, I felt irritable for no good reason. This was going to be one of those days, I just knew it. The kind of day that the slightest little thing was going to annoy the hell out of me and I would end up snapping at someone, regretting it later.

“Here's your coffee.” Emmaline smiled brightly as she held out my cup.

“Thank you.” It took way too much effort not to sound annoyed even though she hadn't really done anything. Bringing me coffee was going above and beyond. “Have you seen Christophe?”

“He was taking something up to your office last I saw him.” She followed me to the elevators. “I didn't think you'd mind.”

“I don't,” I said. And I really didn't. If I couldn't trust Christophe in my office, I couldn't trust anyone. “How's the beta testing going?”

Emmaline was part of a group of employees who were monitoring beta testing of a couple of new games as well as a minimum security firewall. They weren't programmers, but rather collected the data, collated it, and wrote up a report about the various products. Technically, she was more of the assistant to the group, running errands, that kind of thing, but she also paid attention to what was going on and offered her opinion when she could.

“It's going well,” she said.

She seemed pleased that I'd asked her rather than one of the senior members of the team.

“Guardian's Cross has been testing well in its demographic,” she continued. “And it doesn't seem to have too many glitches. I think someone mentioned some sort of problem with a graphic, but nothing big. Legions has been having problems on level five, but Nadine said she'd be able to get it fixed before the launch.”

I nodded, taking mental notes as she kept going, telling me other stats and tidbits she'd gleaned from the group as well as her own insights. One of the reasons I'd asked her, aside from the fact that she'd been right here, had been because I knew she'd give me everything. The others in the group might've tried to gloss over some things, figuring if they could get them fixed, I didn't need to know. I wanted to know though. If programmers were turning out faulty products, it was my job to deal with it. Glitches happened to the best of us, but repetitive issues meant I needed to take a closer look at people.

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

“Thank you, Emmaline,” I said sincerely. “I really appreciate you being so thorough.”

I had a mental list of things to check, but put them aside when I reached my office. Christophe was at my desk, a serious expression on his face. He looked up when I came in, cheeks flushing slightly.

“Sorry, Rylan. I knew you'd want to see this as soon as you came in and I didn't want to risk not catching you until later because I was off on another errand.”

“It's not a big deal.” I glanced down at the manila envelope on my desk. I wasn't close enough yet to see the address. “Who's it from?”

“The Justice Department,” Christophe said nervously. “Is something wrong?”

I shook my head, relieved. If it was coming to me rather than our lawyer, it didn’t have anything to do with the easter egg issue. If it had been a summons or something like that, it would've gone straight to me. The fact that Christophe had it meant it couldn't be too bad.

I took a gulp of my coffee and sat down. “Thanks, Christophe.”

“Anything I can get for you?” he asked.

“If you could start a pot of coffee, I'd appreciate it,” I said, not looking up at him. “Caffeinated.” I'd never get through today with decaf.

I opened the envelope as Christophe went to do as I'd asked. It wasn't anything bad. In fact, it was very good. I'd been selected as one of the frontrunners to receive a contract from the Department of Justice for digital security. I'd forgotten that I'd even put a bid in for it. I'd done it the week before Curt's accident, so I'd been a bit preoccupied at the time. No surprise it had taken the Justice Department so long to get back to me.

I smiled as I leaned back in my chair and called up my latest security program. I was still tired, but at least the day was looking up. The system I was working on now might be exactly what the Justice Department needed. There were still bugs in the system, but the big glitches had already been worked out. I hoped I could try it out on my system here within the week.

Like most things at Archer Enterprises, the program wasn't the work of a single person, though I'd done most of the detail work. I had programmers who wrote the base code for pretty much every system we put out. Then there were the second level people who specialized in certain areas like games or security. In groups of two or three, they wrote the rest of the code, and then sent the program to be reviewed by a select set of people.

I'd had other CEOs tell me I was crazy to let that many people have their hands on each program, but I'd found it worked much better. Not only was each person only working in their area of expertise, but they held each other accountable. The field we were in was a competitive one and if anyone saw someone else slip up, they'd point it out in a nanosecond. The multi-layered approach also allowed for teamwork within the competition. I always gave bonuses for work well done, which meant they had to work together if they wanted those bonuses.

I frowned as I looked at the time logs for work done on the security program. One particular programmer seemed to be logging extra hours, but doing it alone rather than with his assigned team. It wasn’t strange that someone seemed to be trying to show off by working overtime – that was fairly common. What was strange was that it was Ned Baker.

Ned was one of the quietest, most unassuming men I'd ever met. He was also a lot older than most of the other programmers. Well into his fifties, Ned had been on the cutting edge of technology from moment one. He'd not only been coding on some of the first personal computers, but had kept up with changing technology.

That left another option. One I really didn't want to consider. Someone else was using Ned's information to work on a system they hadn't been authorized for. If that was the case, it meant two things. Not only did I have someone in the company who was up to no good, but my security technicians hadn't caught on yet.

I had three, two part-timers and one who worked full time. He was supposed to be in charge of the digital security here, making sure all the electronic records were accurate. If someone was using Ned's log-in, Truman should've caught it.

I frowned. Truman might not know Ned very well, so I did have to consider the possibility that it was an honest mistake. Still, something in my gut told me that I had a problem at Archer Enterprises and I needed to figure out what it was before something bad happened. When you worked at a place like this, bad didn't necessarily mean someone slipping an obscene image into a game. It could be federal indictment kind of bad. The last thing I needed after the recent flood of bad press was the NSA or FBI breathing down my neck.

I was tempted to simply fire Truman and hire someone else who could do things the right way. I didn't like the guy very much, but he had been the most qualified candidate who'd applied for the job. Plus, I couldn't just fire him. Well, I guess I could. Technically, I would have cause if I discovered Ned hadn’t made those log-ins. That part wouldn’t be difficult to prove. If that was the case, it meant Truman had missed it and I could fire him on the spot. But I had a bigger reason why Truman had to stay.

I didn't have anyone else. I supposed I could've done it, but I had enough on my plate as it was. If I added security to my duties, I might as well just move into my office. I might've been a workaholic and there had been times I'd crashed here, but that would've been taking it too far.

No, I needed to first figure out what was going on with this system and who'd been logging in without permission, then I could worry about finding someone to replace Truman.

I ran my fingers through my hair and scowled. Some days, I wondered why I'd ever bothered to start a company in the first place. Sitting in a small room, music blaring while I worked on a laptop, losing myself in the numbers and beauty of code...I missed that.