This is an authorized translation in English of a post in French by Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy): LE DOSSIER VALMY (Thriller) : Chapitre 13

^{As my primary language is not English, there are probably some mistakes in my translation.}

Remember that the person who speaks here is NOT me, Vincent Celier (@vcelier), but Vincent Le Roy (@vincentleroy), a French guy.

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Chapter 13: May 3^rd, 2006

Paris. 5:00 am, like every day when the sun rises, I jump in the car. Direction Amiens. This morning, I am invited by the Chamber of Commerce for a presentation of the new innovation programs. The kind of clamps I would miss in a heart beat, especially given the circumstances. But the Region has done everything to welcome us, I owe them a thank you. Suit and tie required.

I find my banker greeting me politely. The accounts are fine. The transfer of the ANVAR has arrived. The accounts are shielded. He asks me how things are going. Without being very precise, I inform him that we are confronted with some internal concerns that I am trying to solve. My face is reassuring. No need to stress the banker. The boss of ANVAR is there too. He's the one who unlocked the money. I go forward to greet him. The handshake is cold.

• Mr. Le Roy, I am happy to see you, I have a problem with you. Yesterday I had two calls from your associates. It seems that it's been months that you no longer pay your employees and that the money that you have been paid could already be in Luxembourg ...

He cut my breath. First, all salaries are paid and the only movement of money between the two companies is in the direction Luxembourg to France. The banker next door is no longer just mundane. He is interested in the discussion. And I take the opportunity to answer:

• The money has not moved, you can also ask my account manager who is precisely there.

The banker nods. And I follow:

• We have a slight conflict with two employees but their salary is paid. Including charges.

And to look good, I add:

• You know I contract all of my accounting to Price Waterhouse & Coopers, including payroll. You can call the director, you must know him, in Amiens, it's the biggest accounting firm. He will tell you that everything is in order.

Even though my arguments are correct, I feel that the guy is only moderately convinced. He informs me that he will exercise greater vigilance and that we will postpone the other two installments. I understood. The civil servant in all his splendor who is afraid of his shadow. And it is the blokes of this caliber who are supposed to revitalize the French economy. They know nothing about companies and their world and are supposed to help! We are not done.

Back at the office, my secretary informs me that the chemists will not come today. God is sick and his spokesman had a problem with his car. That's good, I do not want to meet them. She also tells me that the contractor responsible for maintaining the servers has tried to reach me three times since this morning. And indeed, I also have missed calls on my cell phone.

Olivier is the IT provider. He is the one who manages our servers. It is true that last week, I had asked him to take a look at the mail server since Alex complained that he had cut his email.

• Vincent, there is no problem with emails. Everything works nickel, however, there are quirks.
• I'm listening to you Olivier ...
• For a few days now, your chemists, Mathieu and Alex are no longer using their mailboxes. They are empty!
• Huh ???
• Yes, yes, they are empty. But they work perfectly. I checked. And there is more to worry about.

More to worry about? I start to tense on my chair. He explains that some sensitive data that was on the protected server were mass copied yesterday on the same server. In my head, Mathieu is strong in IT but he does not have the administrator code. I do not have it myself. Only the provider has it. Olivier explains to me that he has analyzed the connections and that it is the graphic designer's account that has been used.

Holly shit! I just got it. It is true that the graphic designer who deals with the website has an extended account which he uses only for updates and that we have never changed his password nor his extended rights. Mathieu knows this password.

Olivier continues:

• What is amazing is that he changed the rights of the designer by putting him in codification 5000.

• Olivier, it's gibberish for me. What does it mean?

• That he left no trace of his actions. I myself did not know this property. I just know he's plugged in an external hard drive called "mathieudde". What he copied, I can not see it.

If Olivier, the French apple server specialist knows less than Mathieu, I can fear the worst... I ask him to continue his analysis and make me a written report. My secretary brings me the mail of the day. We are summoned to the "Tribunal des Prud'hommes" for each of the two chemists. Claims for damages and interest are surrealistic. They claim more than 80,000 Euros each. And I know too well that at this tribunal, there are only 2 articles.

Article 1 says that the employee is always right. And article 2 specifies that in the opposite case, it is necessary to refer to article 1.

It's definitely a good day, not. You have to stay focused and take care of orders. I call the suppliers and especially the resin producer to send everything to my partner in Poland. If CPCU is honored, the company will survive all that. The chargé d'affaires of my main supplier picks up. Small talk done, I'm going to the heart of the matter:

• Until then, the chemists were your interlocutor but they will soon no longer be part of the company. So I am your only interlocutor and I have a big order.

• I know...

How does he know?

• Your chemist has called us to tell us that he was no longer part of the company and that we had better be vigilant because your company no longer has any money. And so before any order, you need to pay the bills in progress and for the new, it is payment in advance.

In any case, I have no choice. I know it. I tell him that I will do what is necessary, give the instructions to my secretary, sign the checks and I decide to leave. In the car, I take stock. So they called everyone. Financial, bankers, institutions, customers and suppliers. I'm going to suffer.

Continue to Chapter 14

Introduction
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6
Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12