I wasn’t planning on stealing the source code from my brother’s partner. I am not a software engineer or a businessman. I am a fourth-grade school teacher and I was raised not to lie or steal. I even have a game we play in the class called, “Will I do the right thing.” In the game the kids are faced with a choice, a temptation and they have to decide if it’s honest or not. The game makes the kids go right to the edge of right and wrong.
“Something is up with Raul.” My brother said to me as I scrambled eggs in the small windowless kitchen in the apartment we’ve shared for years. My brother is younger than me by three years and older than me in courage and accomplishments.
“He’s been taking calls some outside, his phone rings and he gets up and walks outside.” my brother says. “I think he uses a fake name for the calls too, he kinda talks louder and says “Bill! so glad you returned my call, how is your family….” Raul is not a chummy guy like that, all friendly and stuff. Seems fishy”
“You’ve been partners for years, and best friends, maybe he has some personal stuff going on, maybe he is becoming a decent guy,” I say as I put the eggs on two plates and dash them with hot sauce. “Ask him, be direct,” I said as I sit down in front of him at the small white table in the corner of the kitchen.
Our kitchen table is a vintage Formica-topped, with an extra leaf that seats four when open, and two when it is collapsed. I bang my knee on it, how many years now? It’s the table we had as kids and it still has my initials carved in it from when I was fourteen. My dad yelled at me for an hour over that move of mine. I never did something like that again, defaced someone else’s property, and I stopped turning to my Dad for anything of interest or importance.
“I think Raul is holding out on me, maybe cutting a deal behind my back.” My brother adds more hot sauce. “Check this out.” He turns the phone toward me and it’s a screenshot of Raul with a tall man in a hat. “That’s a VC, and look at the setting, looks like a resort right?”
“How did you get that shot? I ask as I pepper my eggs and mix them up.
“Hacked his account.” he says
“What?”
“Calm down Boy Scout. It’s messy out there, something you know nothing about.”
“You love being the tough guy, edgy, kinda psycho..”
“I need your help. It’s real. I got all my money tied up in this company and I am not going to lose it or have it stolen.”
“So, knowing you as I do, you’re going to steal it before he does?”
“Something like that. As I say, I need you. Time to return the favor for paying off your debt.”
I put more hot sauce on my eggs and push them around the plate. and say
“What’s the play boss?”