Chapter Seventy

Walking into Leah’s office in his black three-piece suit, Trapper said, “Are you ready? We’re supposed to be at the courthouse in an hour.”

“What have you been up to? You are still on medical leave, but for some reason, I get the feeling you’ve been visiting patients.”

Trapper laughed and shook his head. “You’re a master deflector, aren’t you?”

Taking her black clutch from a drawer, she turned in her chair, removing her pink pig slipper and stepping into her shoe. “I’m ready,” she said, moving up against him, waiting for him to bend his head into a kiss.

“We should be careful. People will talk.”

“People are already talking. Did you know there’s a pool?”

“A pool?”

“Yes. They’re betting on how long it will last.”

“Ah. Well,” he said, with an impish smile. “They may have to wait awhile to find out.” He kissed her again, and then sighed. “As much as I’d like to continue this non-verbal discussion, we have to go or we’ll be late. I called a cab. I thought it would be easier on both of us.”

As they walked down the hall to the elevator, Leah asked, “Have I ever told you what that suit does for me?”

“You mean what this suit does for me?”

“Exactly.” As Leah continued on, Trapper stopped for a moment, moving a hand to his hip, wearing crooked, naughty smile before he caught up to her. On the way to the courthouse, she held Trapper’s hand tightly in the back seat of the cab.

“Are you nervous?” he asked quietly.

“I’ve never been sued before. I’ve never been to court either. Albert says even though Doug rejected a discovery hearing, he won’t go far with this. He’s still trying to intimidate me into admitting…something. Or at least wavering enough to shed some doubt.”

Taking her hand and covering it with his other hand, he responded, “You have no reason to be nervous. Just tell the truth. You’ll have him wavering.”

Trapper escorted Leah into the courtroom when their docket number was called. Albert was already there, waiting for Leah at the front table. Trapper sat in the first row of the gallery right behind her and was joined by Arnold Slocum.

Turning, Albert motioned for Trapper to sit forward and listen to what he had to say to Leah. “Manning waved his right to a jury, thinking we’d do the same. My suspicion is that he knows this judge, so we did not wave your right to jury. That takes any power away from the judge in the decision…no risk of Manning having that judge in his pocket.”

“Does that still happen?” asked Leah.

“Leah, my dear, you are a brilliant computer scientist, but there are still so many things you are quite naïve about. What happens in judge’s chambers, for instance.”

Pouting, she said, “Thanks, Albert,” while Trapper sat back and chuckled to himself.

“Today we will be filing any last minute documentation, then go through jury selection. You don’t have to stay for that part. The trial for the lawsuit will start tomorrow. But I’d like you to stay anyway. I don’t think we’ll get to jury selection. I’ll be submitting Mark’s deposition into evidence.”

Everyone stood when the judge entered the courtroom. Leaning Leah’s way, Albert said, “Manning’s watching you very carefully. Once we sit down, I want you to glance over with a slight, but confident smile. He should see he’s not having any success at intimidation.”

Leah did what Albert asked, looking over at Doug with one corner of her mouth turned up and her eyes narrowed. Then she crossed her legs and held her chin up, maintaining a comfortable, self-assured smile.

“Will the council approach the bench?”

Leah, Trapper and Arnold watched as the attorneys spoke, as Albert handed his new evidence to the judge, and as the judge read quickly through it. It seemed as if Manning’s attorney was arguing, and indeed, their voices raised, but they overheard the judge say the deposition was legally recorded and appropriately witnessed document and could not be refuted. With that, the attorney asked for a moment with his client. As he and Doug conferred, those on Leah’s side of the room watched closely. It was easy to see by Doug’s demeanor and red face that he was unhappy. Eventually, the attorney returned to the bench, and shortly afterward, the judge said, “Mr. Manning has agreed to a settlement pending a discovery, so we will dispense with any further motions and get this done.”

When Albert returned to the table, he whispered to Leah. “They’re looking for holes. Don’t leave any.”

“Ms. Haverty, Mr. Shaefer has advised the court that the only intellectual property you have that might belong to Mr. Manning is an encryption program. Mr. Detwiler, Mr. Manning’s attorney says there is the matter of a proprietary system upgrade.”

She looked at Albert who nodded for her to speak. “Your Honor, I’ll address the upgrade first. There are no upgrade plans for San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Historically, I have planned an upgrade of software and equipment after each initial installation of a system under Manning Consulting, however I don’t agree that an upgrade is always the best course of action. Upgrades were performed as a matter of increasing revenue, not necessarily because it was what the client needed. Since I have resigned my position from Manning Consulting and am now an employee of the hospital, I have a fiduciary responsibility to the hospital, and it simply does not need the standard upgrade. I have solicited input from the department heads as to what they need that would make their applications work better for them, so only software changes are likely. But I’m not driving them. The people who use the systems are. I’ve never done that at Manning because there’s no profit in it.

“And what about the encryption program?”

“I used an encryption program I created to protect the hospital systems during what turned out to be a national scandal. Once the danger in the hospital passed, I uninstalled the programs and destroyed the listings. Nothing is written down.” She leaned forward and addressed Doug. “The difference in my encryption program is the level at which the encryption is performed. Today, the government and black ops teams generally use a device that encrypts passwords and passkeys at the decimal level. My encryption takes those decimal numbers and translates them to binary, so for each set of two decimal numbers, the encryption becomes a sixteen bit number containing only ones and zeros. I used sixteen of those sixteen bit numbers. The only other requirement is a numbering sequence where the progression is calculable to reset any compromised strings. I used a Fibonacci sequence, but any other calculable progressional sequence will work.”

“And you’re willing to give Mr. Manning that information?” asked the judge.

Sitting up straight, Leah furrowed her brows. “I just did.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you give him this information before now?”

“He didn’t ask for it. The first time I was aware that he wanted it was when I was served papers. I don’t even understand why he’s so interested in it. If someone hasn’t already figured out a binary encryption, it will only be a matter of time before they will…I’d bet within the year.”

“Mr. Schaefer, Mr. Manning is offering five hundred thousand dollars to settle this.”

“Your Honor, when Mr. Manning decided to go to trial rather than an initial discovery, the countersuit became five million at that time. The standard reduction once my client had to walk into this courtroom can only be reduced to thirty percent of the amount of the original claim, in addition to attorney’s fees.”

“And what are you basing that amount on?”

“Other than filing a frivolous lawsuit designed to intimidate Ms. Haverty, there is much more to this story than the evidence you see in front of you. The major basis is on what was revealed in Mr. Hansens’ affidavit along with the surveillance information that has also been certified with an affidavit. I do have witnesses that can attest to Mr. Manning’s behavior and threats toward Ms. Haverty.” He turned, indicating with his hand, “Dr. McIntyre, Chief of Surgery and Mr. Slocum, Hospital Administrator, both from San Francisco Memorial Hospital. In addition to that, we could go into detail about what is in the deposition and surveillance folders, if necessary. I also request that no gag order be granted as it denies Ms. Haverty her First Amendment rights.”

Everyone looked at Doug who was shaking his head. “Mr. Detwiler, please advise your client that if he doesn’t agree to the stated terms, we will go forward with a trial by jury, and we will exercise our First Amendment rights,” Albert added.

Detwiler looked at Doug, who whispered in his ear. “Mr. Manning requests that this not be discussed with the press.

Albert looked back at Leah, who said under her breath, but loud enough to be heard in the echoic room. “I just want to be rid of the creep.”

Doug sneered, but nodded curtly.

“I’ll work with Mr. Detwiler to transfer the payment by the end of the week,” finished Albert as he closed his briefcase. The judge slammed the gavel down and everyone stood as he left the courtroom.

“Is that it?” asked Leah. Albert smiled, nodded and hugged her while Trapper sat back with his hand covering his mouth, amazed at how deftly Albert handled the case.

Standing, he leaned over the rail and pulled Leah to him, giving her a long embrace. “You did it, kiddo. We should celebrate.”

“At the moment, I just want to get out of this courtroom.”

The two walked arm in arm toward the back doors and were met by several camera flashes. Reporters had gathered in the back of the courtroom, shouting questions as they watched the man who took a bullet for his country and the woman he saved walk out. A barrage of questions came at them to which Leah answered after she looked back one more time at Doug with that same confident smile, “No comment.”