The head of the Barkleyscape legal department was unperturbed by the taller man's angry posturing. ``Nobody knows that better than I do, Brother Nick, but we can't take on the largest software company in the Valley single handed. There are other smaller start up companies that have been hurt as well. We need their support.''

The dark haired hazel eyed executive glowered. He and his father had built this company from the ground up, long before Will Bates touched a finger to a keyboard, and he'd be damned if he'd let the now multi billion-dollar corporation drive them into the ground. He had pride, but his brother had a point. ``All right,'' he finally conceded. ``You go out and get your signatures, but don't be to long about it. We need you back here!'' He accentuated the point by stabbing his forefinger onto the desktop.

Jarrod frowned and nodded. ``I'll do the best I can, Nick, but those other companies will take some convincing. Valleysoft is a powerful adversary. Corporations that go up against them have a tendency to go up in flames.'' He paced in front of his brother shaking his head and inching the dark hat around in his hands. ``The hardest part will be getting the first few to sign on. Afterward I'm sure the rest will follow suit.''

``They'd better, or else we may just have to take matters into our own hands.''

``What do you mean by that?'' the older brother looked up seriously.

``We still have some tricks up our sleeve,'' the younger responded setting his jaw. Noting Jarrod's disapproving countenance he added. ``Its not as if Bates didn't start it.''

``What you're contemplating is illegal, Nick, and dangerous. Nobody wins a range war. And do you know who gets hurt in the cross fire? The users, Nick. The users. I don't think you want that on your conscience.''

``Now hold on there a minute, Jarrod,'' Nick responded holding up his arms and shaking his head. ``Nobody said anything about a range war. Just one harmless little worm to show the world how full of security holes Windowpanes '78 is...''

``That's how it all starts, Nick. First one company does something stupid, like letting loose a harmless little worm aimed at a competitor's operating system. Then another company does something even more stupid, like launching a virus through a mail attachment. The next thing you know the whole Internet is down, and the industrial world is paralyzed.'' Nick took a deep breath and exhaled. He chewed the inside of his lip impatiently. ``Be patient, Little Brother. At least give me a few days before you try anything rash.''

Nick looked away noncommittally and drew his hand through his hair. He changed the subject. ``Mother came by the office this morning.''

``Oh? What did she want?''

``She was angry at me for firing Eugene again.''

``So he didn't work out in tech support either, huh?''

``Naw. That boy seems to be under the impression that computers are run by elves and fairies.''

``Maybe you could put him in marketing?'' Nick considered the thought and figured he'd give it a try. It was better than facing the wrath of the silver haired matriarch for excluding their less than talented brother from the family business. Oh well. If all else failed he could set him up managing Special Projects (i.e. no budget or personnel).

``You'd best go on now, Councillor. I wouldn't suggest taking a corporate horse, though. You don't want to alert any possible spies for Valleysoft about what we're up to. They just might start putting pressure on the others themselves. If they get to the smaller companies first we're done for.'' Jarrod nodded in agreement, and left.

No sooner was the lawyer out the door when his little sister came in. ``Good morning, Nick!'' she greeted him cheerfully. ``I hope you haven't forgotten you're having lunch with Bhrama today?''

``No, I haven't forgotten,'' Nick sighed. He wasn't looking forward to dining with the old employee. It would be yet another two hours listening to tales of the glory days when he and Tom were programming in machine language. ``Not assembly language, <emmachine</em language. Yes, those were the days when the word ``hacker'' really meant something!'' The black haired man was yawning already. Bhrama may have been a good programmer back then, but now-a-days he had difficulty putting together anything that would even compile.

Audra's voice interrupted her brother's thoughts. ``That new programmer you hired last week is here to see you.''

``Well, send him in.'' This was another tricky problem. A few days back a blonde stranger showed up at corporate headquarters asking for a job. He was a sort of jack of all trades with experience in sys admin, tech support, R&D, you name it. He had even worked as a kernel hacker on the gnu hurd a while. Nick was a little dubious about him at first. He had been a drifter, never working for one company for more than a few months then moving on, but there was something about him that appealed to the executive. Maybe it was an earnestness about his eyes, or the the confidence in his gait. Maybe it was the quantity of coffee he drank that alerted him that this was a real programmer.

For whatever the reason he hired him on the spot even though they were in the process of down sizing. For a while his instincts seemed to pay off. Heath was a natural programmer. He put out code at an alarming rate, elegantly documented and compiling without a hitch first time round. He seemed too good to be true. Then just yesterday Dace had reported seeing him running a Valleysoft program off one of their Hereford 2000's. Dace had read him the riot act. He reiterated Nick's instructions upon hiring the man: their operating system was the Barkley Standard Distribution, and they only ran open source code. No exceptions. Reluctantly Heath had agreed, but Nick's suspicions were awakened. Could he be a corporate spy? Why would such a hot shot hacker keep changing jobs, anyway? He certainly meant to find out....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

COWBOYS OF SILICON VALLEY

[Synopsis: A silly short. The noble Barkley family runs a respected, ethical, and successful software company with the backbone to take on evil goliath Valleysoft Corporation run by the unscrupulous Will Bates]

The CEO of the prestigious, family owned software company banged his fist on his mahogany desk. ``Jarrod, we need this lawsuit to succeed! We can't let Valleysoft get away with sabotaging our web browser!''

The head of the Barkleyscape legal department was unperturbed by the taller man's angry posturing. ``Nobody knows that better than I do, Brother Nick, but we can't take on the largest software company in the Valley single handed. There are other smaller start up companies that have been hurt as well. We need their support.''

The dark haired hazel eyed executive glowered. He and his father had built this company from the ground up, long before Will Bates touched a finger to a keyboard, and he'd be damned if he'd let the now multi billion-dollar corporation drive them into the ground. He had pride, but his brother had a point. ``All right,'' he finally conceded. ``You go out and get your signatures, but don't be to long about it. We need you back here!'' He accentuated the point by stabbing his forefinger onto the desktop.

Jarrod frowned and nodded. ``I'll do the best I can, Nick, but those other companies will take some convincing. Valleysoft is a powerful adversary. Corporations that go up against them have a tendency to go up in flames.'' He paced in front of his brother shaking his head and inching the dark hat around in his hands. ``The hardest part will be getting the first few to sign on. Afterward I'm sure the rest will follow suit.''

``They'd better, or else we may just have to take matters into our own hands.''

``What do you mean by that?'' the older brother looked up seriously.

``We still have some tricks up our sleeve,'' the younger responded setting his jaw. Noting Jarrod's disapproving countenance he added. ``Its not as if Bates didn't start it.''

``What you're contemplating is illegal, Nick, and dangerous. Nobody wins a range war. And do you know who gets hurt in the cross fire? The users, Nick. The users. I don't think you want that on your conscience.''

``Now hold on there a minute, Jarrod,'' Nick responded holding up his arms and shaking his head. ``Nobody said anything about a range war. Just one harmless little worm to show the world how full of security holes Windowpanes '78 is...''

``That's how it all starts, Nick. First one company does something stupid, like letting loose a harmless little worm aimed at a competitor's operating system. Then another company does something even more stupid, like launching a virus through a mail attachment. The next thing you know the whole Internet is down, and the industrial world is paralyzed.'' Nick took a deep breath and exhaled. He chewed the inside of his lip impatiently. ``Be patient, Little Brother. At least give me a few days before you try anything rash.''

Nick looked away noncommittally and drew his hand through his hair. He changed the subject. ``Mother came by the office this morning.''

``Oh? What did she want?''

``She was angry at me for firing Eugene again.''

``So he didn't work out in tech support either, huh?''

``Naw. That boy seems to be under the impression that computers are run by elves and fairies.''

``Maybe you could put him in marketing?'' Nick considered the thought and figured he'd give it a try. It was better than facing the wrath of the silver haired matriarch for excluding their less than talented brother from the family business. Oh well. If all else failed he could set him up managing Special Projects (i.e. no budget or personnel).

``You'd best go on now, Councillor. I wouldn't suggest taking a corporate horse, though. You don't want to alert any possible spies for Valleysoft about what we're up to. They just might start putting pressure on the others themselves. If they get to the smaller companies first we're done for.'' Jarrod nodded in agreement, and left.

No sooner was the lawyer out the door when his little sister came in. ``Good morning, Nick!'' she greeted him cheerfully. ``I hope you haven't forgotten you're having lunch with Bhrama today?''

``No, I haven't forgotten,'' Nick sighed. He wasn't looking forward to dining with the old employee. It would be yet another two hours listening to tales of the glory days when he and Tom were programming in machine language. ``Not assembly language, <emmachine</em language. Yes, those were the days when the word ``hacker'' really meant something!'' The black haired man was yawning already. Bhrama may have been a good programmer back then, but now-a-days he had difficulty putting together anything that would even compile.

Audra's voice interrupted her brother's thoughts. ``That new programmer you hired last week is here to see you.''

``Well, send him in.'' This was another tricky problem. A few days back a blonde stranger showed up at corporate headquarters asking for a job. He was a sort of jack of all trades with experience in sys admin, tech support, R&D, you name it. He had even worked as a kernel hacker on the gnu hurd a while. Nick was a little dubious about him at first. He had been a drifter, never working for one company for more than a few months then moving on, but there was something about him that appealed to the executive. Maybe it was an earnestness about his eyes, or the the confidence in his gait. Maybe it was the quantity of coffee he drank that alerted him that this was a real programmer.

For whatever the reason he hired him on the spot even though they were in the process of down sizing. For a while his instincts seemed to pay off. Heath was a natural programmer. He put out code at an alarming rate, elegantly documented and compiling without a hitch first time round. He seemed too good to be true. Then just yesterday Dace had reported seeing him running a Valleysoft program off one of their Hereford 2000's. Dace had read him the riot act. He reiterated Nick's instructions upon hiring the man: their operating system was the Barkley Standard Distribution, and they only ran open source code. No exceptions. Reluctantly Heath had agreed, but Nick's suspicions were awakened. Could he be a corporate spy? Why would such a hot shot hacker keep changing jobs, anyway? He certainly meant to find out....