33. Thirty-Three

Val

We’re two weeks away from our imaging camera software launch. Our buyer hasn’t approved the marketing ads we sent over more than a week ago. So, I give him a call.

“Henry, It’s Val Carlucci-Knight. I was wondering when we can expect approval for the marketing ads.”

“Oh, hi Val, um. I’m not sure. Let me get with my team and I can call you back.”

“Henry, we’re getting down to the wire. Your manufacturing company agreed to bundle our software with your security cameras. Are you backing out of our deal?”

“Now, Val. I wouldn’t put it that way.”

“How would you put it, Henry? I need a straight answer.”

“Look, let’s just say that I’ve decided to go with another Carlucci’s recommendation.”

“Another, Carlucci? As in my uncle, Vince Carlucci?”

“Listen, Val, I couldn’t turn him down. His deal was too good. All he asked me to do was back out of this deal. So, my hands were tied. Look, I wasn’t supposed to let you know that we were asked to back out. Victor wanted me to keep it under wraps until the end of the month.”

“I see. Okay, Henry. I wish you luck.”

I sit there in my tiny office, fuming. This could sabotage our company. If my Uncle Victor wants to make me look bad, that is one thing, but to risk our company? I will not allow that. Controlling stock or not, I will make the board listen to me.

“Ellen, I need you to come into my office.”

I tell Ellen exactly what Henry said.

“You are freaking kidding me. Why would your uncle do that? What’s in it for him?”

“I don’t know. I do know that he’s done everything in his power to stop me from gaining the controlling stock interest. What’s crazy is that since he’s been CEO, the company has done well. We’re profitable. I mean, he knows I want to start moving toward different types of software, but I never once said we would stop making video games. I’m as stumped as you are.”

We both just shake our heads, as this doesn’t make sense.

“You know what, Ellen? I want to run this by Chase. He’s just really good at seeing things from a different angle, you know.”

I pick up my phone and call Chase.

“Hey, Val, what’s up?”

“Are you busy? I really need to talk to someone. Get another perspective.”

“No, I’m not busy. How can I help, Babe?”

“The company we had lined up to bundle our software with their camera sales backed out of the deal. They admitted my uncle asked them to. In the long run, this deal falling through would hurt Carlucci’s. Not just me or the project. My uncle has always done what he thought was best for the company. It’s been profitable with him as the CEO. Ellen and I are both stumped as to why he would go to these lengths to keep me from having control. It just doesn’t make sense.”

“Unless there’s another reason why your uncle doesn’t want to lose control of Carlucci’s.”

“What other reason could there be?”

“I don’t know, Val. You know, Carson was approached once about getting kickbacks if he recommended one vendor over another. Are there any, I don’t know, suppliers that your uncle recommends that might be lining his pockets?”

“Not that I know of. But... um... Let me do some digging. Thanks, Chase.”

I look over at Ellen. “Do you think that might be what my uncle is doing? Who could we bring in on this?”

We both look at each other...

“Dave!”

“Well, what do you think?” I ask Dave, ”Do you think you could hack his computer or email and see what he’s up to, possibly trying to hide?”

“Hack? Maybe, but let’s just try to guess his password. Sometimes that’s easier,” Dave states with a shrug.

“Easier? Are you kidding?”

“No, let’s just try. What is your uncle passionate about? A sports team, Movie, Game?”

“He loves football. The Jaguars.”

“Okay, any other hobbies?”

“He plays golf.”

“What’s his age? Any pets? I know his daughter’s name. Wife’s name is Gloria?”

“What’s Cristina’s birthday? His birthday? His wife’s birthday?”

“Favorite color?”

“Green,” he types in all the answers I gave him to his many questions.

“Okay, let me run this code I’ve been playing with. It will give us all the options and then we can narrow it down to the most common ones.”

“You have software that will do that?”

“Yeah, doesn’t everyone?”

“No,” both Ellen and I answer him.

“Okay, it just generated a list. Here are the top twenty. You look over the list and see if any of these resonate with you. Maybe you saw one of his old passwords, and it could be in the same format. You know a word, then a number. That kind of thing?”

I take the list and look it over.

“Couldn’t we just try the passwords on this list?”

“There’s a lockout policy in place; you’ll be locked out after three bad attempts. The lock does fall off after fifteen minutes, but waiting would be a very long time.”

“Of course.”

I run down the list, and then one password jumps out at me. “This one seems familiar. My uncle asked Cristina to sign into his computer once. She had the password written down. It was a combination of her parent’s names and their anniversary or birthday or something. This looks like the word he used. Glorvic”

“Let me type this into my program and see what it comes up with. Val, we should also implement multi-factor authentication here. You know, so others couldn’t do what we’re doing.”

“If I ever get controlling shares, I promise to implement that security.”

“Bingo, I’m in. Glorvic, then Cristina’s birthday.”

“Dave, that’s very impressive and a little scary.”

“Now, what are we looking for?”

“I’m not sure. Could you sort his email by sender? Maybe see who has sent him the most emails over the last two months.”

Dave keeps typing away on his keyboard.

“Also, Is there any way we can get copies of these emails?”

“Printed or screenshots?”

“Which is faster?”

“I can send multiple print jobs to our printer next door, but your uncle would never know.”

“Printed.”