Splicer by Theo Cage, Russ Smith Read Free Book Online Page B

complete computer network of all project data. What Jeff didn't know was going to hurt him in a major way.
    Ludd became sick with anxiety. He called the police again. They told him they needed more than just circumstantial evidence. He promised he would get it. He sent one of his employees into Grieves' new office. She snooped out serial numbers on the office equipment and brought it back to Ludd who had fake invoices generated in their accounting system. It was easy, after all, they had written the program. And if it comes out of a computer, mused Grieves, people, especially cops, believe it . They supplied the documents to Kozak, convincing him the equipment was stolen from GeneFab , who promptly arrested Grieves and Redfield on possession of stolen property. In the process, they cleaned out Grieves' home of every file and piece of hardware he owned.
    Grieves fell further into a sleepless funk.
    Now that Ludd had possession of a truckload of files and equipment, he felt safer. He had his baby back. Little did he understand the judicial process.
    Dimbrowsky, the crown prosecutor, a bear of a man in a bad suit, attacked the two former employees like a bloodhound. He took the position that they were two opportunists; slyly taking GeneFab for everything it was worth. Ludd told him that the missing software had a value of ten million dollars. Dimbrowsky had swallowed hard. He wanted these guys. White-collar crime was in all the headlines lately - bagging these two would make him career points.
    But there was no software. Grieves hadn't stolen it. He had destroyed The Splicer by erasing and eliminating every last trace of the code. He wasn't sure he had gotten it all until he saw Ludd's face in the courtroom. Ludd was in pain.
    The court case became a long deadly bore. But the subterfuge over the so-called stolen hardware was going to stick to someone. Rusty wanted to testify, even though he was advised not to. After two hours in front of the judge, he was dismissed. The charges against him were dropped.
    Grieves refused to take the stand. He had a record - a patchy distant one, but by taking the stand he faced cross-examination over it. It was apparent that the judge didn't find his refusal to testify as prudent. He gave Grieves two years on several counts of possession and fraud. Grieves wasn't sure, but he felt somehow that Rusty was responsible. He hated his former partner more than the men who had manufactured his arrest.
    Two months after Grieves' incarceration, the prosecution delivered several boxes to Ludd's office. He tore through them, but found only various pieces of battered office equipment and dog-eared file folders. Grieves had outsmarted him. The software must be hidden. It was possible to rewrite the code of course, but with a programmer of even half the intelligence of Grieves, it could take four or five more years. Then it would be too late. He was certain that others were on the verge. If you weren't first - you were nothing. Hundreds of millions, even billions, hung in the balance.
    And Ludd had important clients he had to keep happy. Very important clients. People with serious money invested in his start-up.
    Shortly thereafter, Rosenblatt made a visit to Grieves in prison. Grieves looked thinner, tougher. His eyes were red and watery from some infection. They sat at a small table in a meeting room. A guard with a deeply pockmarked face stood in the corner, out of earshot.
    "I'm here on my own," said Rosenblatt. He told Grieves he felt responsible - that events had overtaken them - that they had over-reacted. That, and an over-eager prosecutor, had put Grieves away. Grieves acted like he wasn't listening. "I think you were framed," said Ludd's puffy-faced partner.
    "Yeah? By who?" asked Grieves.
    "By Rusty"
    "Just because he tried to break your nose once?"
    "Who cares about that. Where do you think we got the serial numbers for your office equipment?"
    Grieves' look was full of high-octane anger. "From that