Monahan 02 Artificial Intentions (26 page)

“What’s today? Wednesday? Yeah? She was here on Monday morning. A regular
team
meeting. Hah! I guess I haven’t seen her since.”

“You didn’t think it was strange that two days have gone by and you haven’t talked to her or seen her?”

“Nope.” Jenn shook her head. “Sometimes I’d go weeks and never see her. She worked weird hours. Heard sometimes she’d come in and work all night. I’d get emails from her time stamped three in the morning. Whee!” She jumped up a little bit and the smile I’d seen earlier was back. “She’s gone. The wicked witch of the west has flown the coop. I used to think she looked just like Margaret Hamilton.”

“Margaret Hamilton?” I didn’t get the reference.

“The woman who played the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. She and Nat Scott had the same nose.”

I had to agree.

chapter thirty-six

My next stop was a visit with our in-house security manager. His office was on the same floor as Nat Scott’s but on the opposite side. Jenn Ludlow showed me the way to his office, chatting a mile a minute as she weaved her way around the maze of workstations, loads of crap on the floor, and quietly working staff members.

“What do you think it means?” she asked me. Without waiting for an answer, she kept chatting. “I think it means she’s left the company.” Duh. “Nothing in her office. Everything gone. What did she do with all the files in there?” Good question, I thought. “How did she get everything out of the office?” Another good question.

We had arrived at the other side of the floor, where there were several glassed-in offices along the wall. The walls of the offices were made of glass brick that obstructed the view into the offices, but allowed the light from the windows to seep through. Jenn stopped in front of one that had its door open and she poked her head inside.

“You’re here Kelly? Good. Kate needs to talk to you.” She put her hand on my shoulder and said in a whisper, “You need anything, you call me. Okay Kate?” I nodded to my new best friend.

“I’ll do that. Thanks Jenn.” She walked off, bouncing to the internal music in her head, with a wide smile plastered on her face.

Kelly was standing when I entered his office and he walked around his desk to greet me. “Hi, Ms. Monahan, I’m Kelly Northland.” Kelly spoke with a soft southern drawl. I wasn’t sure if it was Georgia “south” or Texas “south” because my ear wasn’t attuned to American accents.

We shook hands and he offered me a chair in front of his desk. Kelly appeared to be in his late thirties, early forties and he was what you would describe as wiry. Probably no taller than five foot seven or eight, with not an extra ounce of fat on his trim body. His hair was curly, grey and cut very short on the sides. He had great posture and I guessed he was ex-military.

I made a snap decision not to trust him. Not that he gave me any initial reason for that decision, but I was finding out the hard way that not every employee at Phoenix was loyal and trustworthy. From this moment on they were all going to have to earn their way with me. The fact that we had never met but he knew who I was, was only a wee bit disconcerting, because if he was in charge of security, he would know who I was at this point in the game.

“So,” Kelly started. “Are you here about the mess with Global?” He was either a mind reader or very well plugged in.

“Yes,” I told him. “There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you. First off, why don’t you tell me a little about yourself.” I was going to sit back and get to know these people.

Kelly Northland was all business. He didn’t balk at my request to talk about himself, and he didn’t glorify himself in the telling.

“Been with Phoenix for almost five years now,” he told me. “Before that I was a Marine. Served twenty years in the Corps as a Military Police Officer.”

Ah, I thought. A meathead. At least that’s what we called the MP’s, or military police, in the Canadian army.

“Got interested in doing corporate security work the last few years I was with the Corps. Was stationed at headquarters in Arlington and then got promoted to Staff Sergeant and worked as an investigator at NCIS. That’s the Naval Criminal Investigation Service. Some of the work we did was with the civilian authorities. So when I took retirement after twenty years, I decided I wanted to get out of policing and into protection. That’s how I ended up here. I consider myself lucky, ma’am. Tom Connaught was a good man, and I’m damn sorry about what happened to him.”

He finished without a flourish. Kind of reminded me of that detective in the old TV show, Dragnet. Joe Friday. Just the facts, ma’am. A man of few words.

“Tell me about security here at Phoenix, Kelly. What do we protect and how do we do it?” I asked him.

“Well, our mantra is to protect our people and our assets. On the people side of things, we make sure that everyone coming to work here has a background check done on them. Lots of our work is with government agencies, so those people need more in-depth security clearances. Government’s coming out with more onerous requirements soon on background checking and security clearances, thanks to Mr. Bin Laden. On the asset side, we protect our proprietary property. That includes our patented technologies, our source codes, our software development stuff. We don’t own any buildings or much of anything on the physical side, save and except for computers. But we do have a lot of money invested in our technology. So our job is to protect that technology and the designs and software work that goes into it. And with the way technology is advancing these days, it’s a moving target. Our biggest threats right now are hackers and cyber terrorism.”

“How many staff do you have?”

“It’s me and four others. That’s it. But a lot of our work is done from our desks. We’re well-connected all over the world.”

“Okay. Tell me what you know about the mess with Global.” I sat and stared at him, with my hands on my lap.

“What I know, I heard from Russ Freeson. He called me late yesterday and filled me in. Told me that Global had cut ties with us. Told me that Natalie Scott didn’t let anyone know about it. That’s it.”

“Did you know that Nat Scott has vacated the building?”

“Not sure what you mean. She comes and goes at very odd hours, so I’m not sure that I’d know whether she had vacated or not.”

“Well, I just came from her office. And it’s empty. The only thing in there is a desk, a chair and a phone.”

His eyebrows went up, just a little. I’m pretty sure he was surprised to know that. He didn’t say anything.

“Any idea when she packed up and left?” I asked.

“No ma’am. This is news to me.” He looked a little perturbed. “Can you give me a few minutes to look into this?”

“Sure. Come and see me in my office.” I stood up to leave. “And bring me the background checks on Nat Scott and all of her team leaders.”

When I got back to my office I asked Carrie if Cleve Johnston had arrived. She told me he had been there for about an hour and he was working in one of the boardrooms down the hall.

He was on the phone when I opened the door but he waved me in. The round boardroom table was strewn with newspapers and files, two empty coffee cups, and a plate with half a muffin, some grapes and an apple core. The small credenza against the wall had a coffee urn and a tray of breakfast goodies. I helped myself to a coffee and waited until Cleve got off the phone.

“Morning Kate,” he said as soon as he hung up.

“Morning Cleve. Looks like you got right down to work.” I nodded at the mess on the table.

“Lots to do. And I brought some work from Toronto. I hadn’t planned on coming to New York, so I brought some files with me. Some of my clients expect round the clock service.”

We spent the next hour in a meeting. Cleve had asked Carrie to gather the executive management team for an urgent meeting. Barry Golden, the lawyer from Cleve’s New York office had been asked to attend as well.

When we arrived in the main boardroom, the silence was deafening. The tension in the room was palpable. Steve Holliday and Mark Hall were doodling on papers in front of them, Sandra Melnick was staring at the wall. No one was talking and no one was looking at the person next to them or across the table from them. Needless to say, Nat Scott’s absence from the table was noticeable. Barry Golden was the one face I didn’t recognize so I walked over to where he was sitting and introduced myself.

“Barry, Kate Monahan.” He stood up and we shook hands. Barry was medium-sized, with a bit of age on him. Part of the age was showing in his middle, which was thick and he had a bit of a paunch. He hid it well though in a tailored, double-breasted suit. His hair was snow white and well cut. “Thanks for joining us. I’m sure Cleve has filled you in and I think you’ll get the flavour of the problem shortly.” Barry nodded and sat back down quietly.

Sitting beside him was Terry-Lynn Jacobsen, our in-house counsel. Although she wasn’t a member of the executive management team, Cleve thought it was important that she be at the meeting. Terry-Lynn was sitting hunched in her chair, staring with her head down at her notebook. Her face was covered by her thin, stringy, badly permed, chin-length hair. I had never met her but Carrie had told me a couple of days ago to be quiet around her. Apparently she scared easily and was very self-conscious of a large strawberry-coloured birthmark that covered her left eye and part of her left cheek. She didn’t look up at me so I decided not to introduce myself. If she scared easily, she wouldn’t want to be around me. Apparently she was a wizard at patent law (yawn, bore) and that’s why Tommy had hired her. The types of problems we were about to talk about fell outside her area of expertise, but still, she was in-house counsel.

I sat at the head of the table and looked around. No one was watching me and all heads were down. A sign of guilt perhaps? I hoped to hell not. One bad apple in the barrel was enough for me. I took a deep breath and told myself to remain professional, remain calm, and above all, remain in control.

“So, as you may have heard, we’ve got some problems we need to deal with a-sap. You all know Cleve Johnston. He’s brought his partner Barry Golden with him. Barry works at the New York office of McCallum and Watts.” I took another deep breath. “You all know that Nat Scott isn’t here. I just came from her office downstairs, which has been cleared out. There’s not a sign of her in R and D.” With that revelation, everyone was now looking at me. Even Terry-Lynn.

“We’re trying to ascertain when it was that she left. Anyone here got any idea?” No takers. “When was the last time any of you talked to her?”

Sandra Melnick, our VP of Operations offered that she hadn’t seen Natalie for days. That pretty much jived with everyone else’s memory as well.

“Well, apparently, several weeks ago, Nat Scott received notice from Global Devices that we were to cease and desist all work on their products. Was anyone aware of that?”

Every head around the table shook in the negative. Mark Hall, the Vice President of Sales put his head in hands and I was pretty sure I heard him moan.

“Mark, you okay?”

He looked up at me, closed his eyes and nodded. Grim. I took this as a yes, and pressed on.

“So, we need to do some damage control. That’s why Cleve and Barry Golden are here. Barry’s got some familiarity with the SEC and hopefully we’ll be able to finesse the fact that we haven’t disclosed this information. Yet.”

Barry spoke up. “First off Kate, this is for everyone in the room,” he glanced around the table. All eyes immediately focused on Barry and everyone was paying attention now, because having the riot act read to you by a high-priced securities lawyer was the same thing as having your grandmother grab you by the earlobe. You listened. It might be painful, but you listened.

Barry had a voice that commanded attention and he continued, “As of right now, everyone in this room refrains from trading in any shares of Phoenix. We’re all in possession of material information and until that information is disclosed to the public, any trades would be considered illegal.”

All heads around the table were nodding, some in acknowledgement and one nodding as if to say, “tell me something I don’t know”.

“I’ll need a record of any shares you, or anyone in your immediate family, may have bought or sold since the date the company was put on notice by Global Devices. I’d like that information right after this meeting.” Everyone nodded. “Normally, you file your insider trading reports on EDGAR at the end of each month.” EDGAR was the SEC’s electronic document filing system that public companies used to submit reports and filings. “We’ll need to let the SEC know if there have been any trades in this period. They’ll look favourably on us if we put all our cards on the table.”

“Okay so far?” he asked the room.

There was a chorus of yeps, yeahs, and okays around the table.

“Next thing we need to do Kate, is get a press release out on the wire. I’ll work with your communications people on the drafting. We should have something worked up this morning. As soon as we get it drafted, and ready to release, I’ll call over to the Enforcement Division at the SEC. Cleve and I’ll go over there and fill them in on what’s happened. It should be no big deal, as far as they’re concerned. The law says we have an obligation to disclose to the public on a rapid and current basis. This’ll be rapid because we’ll send out the release as soon as the markets close today. As for it being current, well, we’ll have to take the position that we have only just found out. Which is true.”

Cleve jumped in at this point. “One of our partners in Toronto will be visiting the Ontario Securities Commission Enforcement Branch at the same time as Barry and I are visiting the SEC.”

Cleve and Barry’s plans made me feel a little more at ease. “Sounds like a plan,” I told them. “Thanks. Barry, you and Steve Holliday might want to get started on that release.” Steve stood up to leave and Barry was right behind him.
Cleve left to make some phone calls and I was left alone with the others.

It was a pretty small executive team when you boiled it down. With Nat Scott out of the picture and Steve off drafting press releases, I was left with Russ Freeson, our chief financial officer, Mark Hall, our VP of Sales, and Sandra Melnick, our VP of Operations. Terry-Lynn was looking forlorn and lonely so I thanked her and sent her on her way.