"Davis, Jerry - Penalties Of Pirating, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

They were in a parking garage and there was no one else in sight.
"Hey, Dano! That software works great!"
"Yeah, man, yeah of course it does." Dano was still looking
around nervously. He leaned close to Leo and said in a low voice,
"You haven't given a copy of it away to anyone, or anything, have
you?"
"No."
"Have you told anyone about it? About where you got it?"
"No. I haven't even told anyone I have it. I know better than
that, man. It's pirated."
"That's really good man, because you'd better keep it to
yourself. You know what I'm saying? To yourself." Dano's voice and
expression was intense, like he was afraid.
"Sure, of course I will."
"You better, and don't you tell anyone where you got it."
"I won't. Why, what's wrong?"
"You really got yourself a deal on that program, man," Dano
said. "It's hot, it's really hot. You say it's working good for
you?"
"Yeah."
"Well there's feds poking around looking for it, man. You
don't want to know who wrote it. You just don't want to know."
"Who?"
"The Central Intelligence Agency, man. The CIA."
"No way!"
"Yes way. I knew it was a government program when I sold it
to you, but I didn't have any idea how heavy a government program
it was. As far as I'm concerned, I never sold it to you. I never
saw it. You know what I mean?"
"Yeah. And I definitely don't have it."
"You got it man. You don't have it. It doesn't exist."
With that, Leo left and drove home. The next morning, which
was the first of the month, he got a call from a representative of
one of the insurance companies he dealt with. It was a friendly
guy named Ted Franklin. "Jeeze, what did you do?" he said. "Hire a
hit man?"
"What?" Leo said.
"You didn't hear?"
"Hear what?"
"Oh, well . . ." Ted's voice assumed a more somber quality.
"Three of your clients were all killed on a bus last night."
"You're kidding! Which ones?"
"Three biggies, Leo. A Maxwell Stout, a John Segrahm, and a
Wendy Boston. All three had policies for 5 million a piece."
"Oh no!"
"Yeah." Some of the humor crept back into Ted's voice. "What
are you trying to do, break us? Fifteen million new dollars, Leo!
All from clients who's policies just barely matured."
"You're not saying you think that I had anything to do with
it!"