Pushing back from my computer, I drop my head into my hands. “Why now?” The deep breath does little to stop my heart from threatening to burst through my chest like some alien parasite.
All morning, I’ve tried to find an explanation. Some reason for Kyle to violate his employment agreement. To make a copy of Alfie’s code and send it God knows where. We’re less than three weeks from launching the most advanced home security device the world has ever seen. And he has to do this now?
He’s always been a model employee. A little dismissive at first—but so are a lot of guys in this industry. Until they realize I can code circles around them. And control their paychecks. Kyle got over himself after less than a week, and though every one of my team of fifteen programmers is top-notch, Kyle’s the best of them.
Firing him this close to the finish line feels wrong. But the agreement he signed is ironclad. And Noah Goset—the CEO—won’t stand for disloyalty. After four hours poring through the logs, hoping for some explanation, I admit defeat.
Buzzing Noah, I try to relax my jaw. If I’m not careful, I’ll crack a molar.
“Yes?” His terse voice warns me he’s about as stressed out as I am, and I force a deep breath before I respond.
“I need to see you. There’s a problem with Kyle. Do you have a few minutes?”
He sighs. “I’m meeting with New England Insurance Services in thirty. You need me, get in here right now.”
Silence blares over the line, and I lock my workstation, grab my tablet, and head for Noah’s office at the other end of the bullpen. Beacon Hill Technologies takes up the top floor of one of the newer office buildings in the South End of Boston, and Noah and I have the two corner offices with the programmers working in a giant open space between us.
At his frosted glass door, I tap softly.
“Come in,” he says.
Noah’s blond hair sticks up in all directions as he pours over paperwork. His suit looks like he slept in it—and he probably did. We’ve all been working twelve to fourteen hours a day for months preparing for the launch of Alfie—our home automation and security device. If we pull this off, we’ll redefine the entire industry. “Evianna, what’s so important it couldn’t wait until tomorrow?”
“This.” I unlock my tablet and show him the logs. “Kyle transferred a copy of the code base to an off-site server five days ago. And a second copy last night.”
His brow furrows, and he pages through the systems log. “He knows that’s a violation of company policy.”
“We just renewed our contracts last month in preparation for the launch. The lawyer you brought in was very clear about the need for complete confidentiality.” I sink into Noah’s guest chair and work my jaw back and forth, hoping to avoid the searing headache I usually get when I’m stressed out. “Tell me not to fire him. Please.”
“I can’t.” Noah shakes his head. “Fucking idiot. If we get audited and this comes out, we’re done for. Legally, we don’t have a choice.”
“Fantastic.” The amount of sarcasm dripping from my tone could drown a small child. “I’ll put security on standby to escort him out of the building.”
“Do it. Is this going to put us behind on the final feature work and bug fixes?” Noah pushes the tablet back across the desk and holds my gaze.
“The rest of the devs won’t be happy about picking up Kyle’s slack. But we’ll make it. A few extra catered meals the next three weeks, a couple more bottles of bourbon for the launch party, and they’ll all pitch in.”
“Then do what you have to do.” His tone tells me I won’t get anything more out of him, so I nod my thanks—not that he notices—and trudge back across the bullpen to my office.
Time to put on my “I’m the boss” face.
“Kyle,” I say from my office door ten minutes later, “can you come in here for a minute?”
His desk is less than thirty feet away, and his eyes narrow as he rises and grabs his phone. “Sure, boss.”
After I shut the door and slip back behind my desk, I fold my hands on the leather blotter to stop them from shaking. “Kyle, we have a problem.”
“I knocked out those three bugs from yesterday,” he says, then runs his hand through his jet black hair. “Checked them again this morning. No performance degradation at all.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” I angle my monitor towards him and bring up the system logs. “You made a complete backup of Alfie’s code base twice in the last five days. Want to tell me why?”
“I…can’t.” His pale cheeks redden, and he starts to fidget with the employee badge clipped to his belt loop. “But I’m the only one who has access to the cloud drive. The code’s safe. I’m not doing anything that’s going to hurt the company. I swear.”
My heart aches. He sounds so sincere, but we have rules for a reason. And there’s no legitimate cause for him to take code home with him. Not when he has access to the company’s servers remotely. “Kyle, what you did is against company policy. The new employment agreements we all signed two weeks ago? We all read them. Noah brought in a lawyer to explain all the legalese. What you did is a fireable offense.”
“What?” His brown eyes widen, and he leaps up to start pacing the room. “You can’t fire me. You need me to finish Alfie. And I just wanted to…help.”
“I don’t have a choice,” I say quietly. “I need your employee badge.”
