No Apologies and No Regrets

by Roddy Wix

For Bart Zeigler the day began looking at the pretty, sleeping face of the woman whose company he quickly came to crave. He kissed her softly on the lips and from somewhere deep in her throat she made the purring sound he found adorable. With one more kiss he forced himself to roll out of bed and head toward the bathroom scooping up his BlackBerry along the way.

  Between brushing his teeth and shaving, Bart’s day got even better when he received an incoming email from a venture fund he’d been talking to. The investors agreed to give him ten million dollars for forty percent ownership of the app he created to start Ivan’s car with. Ten million dollars! The firm also promised another five million to fund full development in anticipation of a sale to a big service platform.

  Bart jumped up and down but stifled his urge to whoop and holler and run around the condo because he already determined not to tell Sally. Not just yet. He had a special moment in mind, and he had a lot of things to think through, not the least of which was how this might impact his work at Dynamic Integrity. If he left would Sally come with him? The happy new complications in his life put a distinct spring in Bart's step as he emerged from the bathroom fresh, showered and wrapped in a towel. He found Sally awake and sitting up in bed reading her email. Bart loved the look, naked except for a pair of old school “intellectual” reading glasses.

  “Good morning, Einstein.”

  Sally self-consciously yanked the spectacles off.

  “Hey, I thought you looked like a trifecta.”

  “Trifecta?”

  “Yeah. Beautiful face, great rack, and an immeasurable IQ. That’s the girl I love.” Bart sat on the edge of the bed.

  “You got two out of three right.” She giggled and poked him playfully.

  “What? You don’t like your boobs?”

  Sally glanced down at her chest and said, “No, they’re fine, but my IQ is only one forty-eight. I hope it's not a deal breaker.”

  “One forty-eight? I don’t know. Maybe I need to reconsider before I get in any deeper.” Bart stood up as if to go.

  “Oh come on. Give a dumb girl a break you fucking intellectual snob.”

  Sally laughed a deep sensual laugh as she pulled his towel off and dragged him into bed. They made passionate satisfying love, showered together, and got to work two hours later than usual.

  At the office, Jack Button waited for an elevator and observed their arrival. Holding hands. An unrepentant romantic, he long believed this was inevitable. Plus, he had won a thousand bucks from Gabe. As they all got into the elevator he addressed them in his favorite language.

  “Bon jours, Sally e Bart, C’est un beau matin.”

  “Bon jours, Jacques. Oui, il l’est certainement.” Sally replied, her glow confirming Jack’s suspicions and more.

  “Qu’avez-vous faits deux?”

  “Faire l’amour, Jacques, faire l’amour.” Sally beamed and Jack winked as if to say "good for you.”

  Bart possessed only a modest command of French, but he understood Sally’s answer when Jack asked what they’d been doing. “Faire l’amour: making love.” He blushed and Jack smiled silently. It's about time.

  At the top floor the romantic Mr. “B” got off the elevator and said, “Have a wonderful day, kids. Make something great happen.”

  With a casual wave over his shoulder he walked off toward his office.

  Before they’d taken two steps Jerry Bachman accosted them.

  “Well, there you are. I’ve been searching everywhere for both of you. Am I to presume you’ve been busy off premises?”

  “You may presume whatever you like, Jerry. What’s up?” Bart said unperturbed.

  “Gabe wants to see you. He wants to introduce someone to you, but we can wait until you settle into your nest.”

  “OK, Jerry. Be there in ten.”

  "So now we have a nest?" Sally wondered aloud as the happy couple headed in the direction of Bart’s workspace. They made good on their promise and arrived in front of Jerry’s cubicle precisely ten minutes later. Seeing them, Gabe walked out of his office.

  “Sally. Bart. Good morning. I looked for you earlier." Gabe glanced at his watch.

  “Morning, Gabe. Sorry, but we had mechanical problems." Bart offered the lame excuse without thinking.

  "Your car?"

  Sally cut in, "No, Gabe. Bart brought some special equipment to realign my underperforming circuitry." Sally gave a deep earthy laugh, a new one on Bart.

  Gave shrugged and gestured toward his office. "Come in, I’d like to introduce you to someone.”

  “Sure. No problem.” They followed, with Sally still laughing, and found a young woman with short auburn hair at the conference table engrossed in her notebook computer. The young woman turned toward them to reveal a pretty, smiling face and delicate features. Bart continued smiling, Sally, not so much.

  “Dr. Anne Fitch, I would like you to meet Dr. Sally Ramsay and Bart Zeigler.”

  They all shook hands and Gabe invited them to sit around the conference table.

  “Through a mutual friend I found Anne hiding in a research lab at MIT and I asked her to evaluate our theories on the “Flash Crash” code. I believe Sally named it “Blitz”.

  Sally nodded affirmatively but said nothing. Bart noticed a little of the sparkle gone from her eyes.

  Gabe Bowman continued. “Dr. Fitch successfully identified the true purpose of the code we’ve been working on and located a second string embedded in the exchange’s system. I invited her to come work with us on what I hope will be a permanent basis. She will be a senior research associate.”

  “And here I thought we were the only ones hacking into the exchange.” Bart eyed Sally and chuckled, but she gave a thin smile in return.

  “Hardly. After a lot of work I recognized the program you had as a “red herring”. It served as camouflage while a "sleeper" code inserted itself into the system and now awaits instructions.” Anne’s face lit up with an innocent smile.

  Smart girl. I wonder how much else she’s figured out. Wonder how surprised she'd be if she knew the 'camouflage' sold for 20 million?

  “That’s the direction Bart and I were headed with this. What are your conclusions at this point?” Sally sat back and fixed her most charming gaze on the newcomer.

  Anya thought for a moment because she needed to be very careful how she worded her response. She wasn't ready to reveal the source or depth of her knowledge.

  “I wouldn’t characterize them as ‘conclusions’ yet. Gabe only asked me to try to validate the code you thought caused the crash and to see if I might devise a method of quarantining or removing it.”

  Sally, with a superb ear for languages, picked up the faintest trace of an accent in Anne’s speech. She went on guard, but made no comment.

  “So, Anne, were you successful in your project?”

  “Partially. I wrote some code to disable the program’s ability to receive instructions. The virus is still in the system, but I believe I can effectively remove it.”

  “Interesting. I worked out the same kind of a patch a couple of days ago.” Sally reached in her pocket and dangled a thumb drive hanging on a silver key chain. She continued, “But, I tried to remain focused on removing the code altogether.”

  Gabe hid his surprise at Sally's revelation.

  “Sally, I had no idea you'd gotten so close”

  “You were traveling, Gabe, and I didn’t think just a patch was the real objective of our work. I planned to update you later today.” Her voice did not reveal her rising territorial instincts.

  “You have a fair point about our objectives, but the ability to disable this virus is important. At least we have some measure of defense.”

  “You know me, Gabe. My focus gets pretty narrow when I’m in pursuit of something.” She smiled at Bart then sat back and casually appraised Anne and Gabe sitting on the opposite side of the table. Their faces gave up nothing.

  �
��Like a laser, Sally, and why you're so valuable to this team.”

  Sally, not in the mood for management “attaboys”, smiled anyway. Gabe glanced at his watch and pushed his chair back.

  “It’s almost noon and I have a meeting in Santa Clara. I’ll leave you three to get better acquainted,” An abrupt benediction even for Gabe, Sally thought.

  “So, Anne, are you living in the area?” Bart tried to make lighter conversation.

  “I’m in a townhouse on Bryant.”

  “Amazing. We live on the same street.” Sally put a hand possessively on Bart’s arm.

  Where ‘we’ live? Damn. I guess I owe Button a grand. Gabe shook his head and exited.

  “I missed breakfast this morning and I’m starved. How about we go get a bite of lunch?”

  To his surprise Sally responded enthusiastically.

  “Sounds good to me,” Anne chimed in. “I’m a stranger here so I’ll be glad to learn about some of the local restaurants.”

  “Let’s go to Zibibbo,” Sally suggested with a pleasing smile.

  “Then lunch it is,” he said with gusto.

  63.