Top+Secret

It all started about 10 years ago, the story that I am going to be telling. My name is Bill and I was just a normal guy trying to raise a family. Everything was going great. I had my dream job, a loving wife and a child on the way. At work, I was always in charge of creating ideas to launch great investments, and everyone knew it. We were on our way to becoming a major corporation and everything was looking perfect. Our CEO who started this enterprise was a great boss, when it came to the business side. He was really dedicated to his work, but lacked the ability to please his employees. He rarely visited any of us, or looked to see how we were doing, and when there was a meeting he had his assistants do all of the talking. My partner and I were the employees whose job it was to develop the ideas that put our company apart from the rest. Richard's goal for the rest of us was simply to beat every other company. He hated the rest of the businesses and let me tell you, everyone noticed. He would call the other CEOs of companies and boast about how everything we did was better than the rest. He bragged about our success and his attitude towards the other companies was not always pretty. When my partner and I came up with a new idea he took all of the credit and left us behind. This didn't bother us though because we were not ones to brag about what we had done. I have known my partner Bryan for a long time now, 25 years to be exact. We went through most of school together when we met in the eighth grade. Everyone always told us that when we were together we were inseparable. He would come over to my house everyday after school and we would work on inventions. I would do most of the thinking but Bryan loved to build the designs and create the models. Anything he could get his hands on would turn out to be something incredible. We have been there for each other through everything; he was even the best man at my wedding. Through college we soon found out that we were heading toward the same career. It wasn't until 15 years ago that we both landed a job at the same business and were able to work together doing what we loved most. Together we have put a lot of sweat and tears into this company and it would be nice to get recognized for what we have accomplished. Bryan had always told me it will come soon enough. Bryan always saw the brighter side of things. Now that I look back on it, I wish I could go to the happier times in my life. It was a normal day at the office, and one of my assistants came in and told me that someone came up with a brilliant idea. When I asked who it was, I was flabbergasted. It came from our CEO Richard and I was immediately suspicious. Richard never came up with the ideas and I was not the only one at the office to notice. That was what everybody was talking about through the morning and even at lunch. The next day I stayed late at the office busy finishing up some last minute work. I went in to see if Richard was still there, but he had already left for the night. My curiosity kicked in and instead of turning around I went and started rummaging through drawers and searching his documents. Nothing out of the ordinary, but then a small box hidden behind one file cabinet caught my eye. I decided to take a look. There were many useless papers and some office supplies, but then at the very bottom I found something. There was a little slip that was lying on top of a stack of papers with big, bold, red lettering. It read, Top Secret. I searched a little more and what I saw took me aback. It was another companies plan and it resembled the idea in which Richard had just come up with. I kept reading, I wanted to know everything there was to know. Richard had stolen the idea for the product from one of our competitor companies. I pondered what had just witnessed and after a long time alone I came to the conclusion not to tell anyone. I did not sleep much that night. I was to busy reflecting on what had just happened. I tossed and turned all night not knowing how hard it would be to keep it a secret. The next day Bryan noticed that I was not acting like myself lately. He asked what was wrong and began questioning me, but I couldn’t tell anyone. I told him everything was fine and walked away ending the conversation in fear of spilling the secret. Things were starting to seem strange. The secret was eating away at me and I just had to tell someone. I decided that Bryan would be the one to know. Later that day after work I invited him over and spilled everything. He was more shocked than I was when he found out. There were so many mixed emotions coming from him I began to think his head was going to explode! We decided this would be best just between us, nobody else. When I talked to Bryan the next day he didn’t seem himself. You could almost feel his irritation and I became worried that something bad was going to occur. I noticed that he left work early and I immediately knew something was up. Bryan was the best employee is this corporation he would never go home early. I invited him over for dinner that night but I could not reach him on his home or cell phone. I drove over to his house and I saw that his car was gone and all of the lights were turned off. I didn’t think much of it at the time and headed back home. I woke up early the next morning and decided to head into work. All the entrances were boarded up and there were police cars surrounding the building. I began to panic knowing Bryan had something to do with this. I frantically ran up to an officer and asked what had happened. They told me that somebody died and I instantly knew what had happened. Bryan could not take the guilt anymore and he decided to confront Richard at the office when no one else was in the building. When he told him that he knew what Richard had done he was so shocked that he killed Bryan right on the spot. I for sure thought that it was going to be all over then, but it sure enough wasn't. When I tried telling the police what I knew had occurred that night they told me that I had it all wrong and Bryan had committed suicide. I was so frustrated because nobody would listen to me. I attended Bryan's funeral shortly after the tragedy and Richard even had the guts to show up at the ceremony. That is what put me over the limit. I planned to get back at Richard for what he had done, but I was not sure how. If law enforcement could not take care of it, then I would have to take over the responsibility. When I went into work on that dreaded Thursday morning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. That is until I saw all of the stuff from my office outside of the door with two police men standing right over top of them. I approached them and asked what the problem was and as soon as the words left my mouth I was turned around in handcuffs. It all seemed to go so fast with everybody watching and nobody knew what was going on. I could not get a straight answer out of both police men and all they said was that I was in big trouble. The problem was I didn't even know what I had done. The police car pulled up to the holding area where someone finally told me what was wrong. The head officer told me that they found a stack of papers in my office with the words Top Secret written on it. They said that it contained ideas stolen from another company. I knew who was behind all of this and the blood bubbled inside of me from all the anger that was on my mind. They held me there for three nights and whenever I tried telling someone that it was Richard who set me up they just turned away and ignored me. Once I was released I had to go to court in the next two weeks so the judge could come to a conclusion. I knew that I would be found guilty if I did not do something. It was late at night and I decided to take a ride down to Richard's home. When I pulled up in my car I could see him pacing through the window and I did not know why. The front door was opened so I decided I would just walk in. I know what happened to Bryan not to long ago and I was very careful not to just come straight out with what I knew. When I told him that I knew everything just like Bryan had known he got very flustered and started to scream. I became very frightened and did not know what was going to happen next. He pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it straight at me. I closed my eyes in fear for my life and then I heard the gun shot. I was waiting for some kind of pain or anything to happen but well I opened my eyes I could not believe what I saw. Right there before my eyes Richard was lying on the ground with a puddle of blood around him. He was so guilty with what had happened that he decided to take his own life. The police found the body the next day after I had explained what had happened the previous night. They soon realized that I had been telling the truth the whole time and it was Richard who stole the idea and not me. When the F.B.I. searched his office they found hundreds of papers all leading back to stolen ideas. The company took a big hit after that and was forced to go bankrupt. Thousands of people were left jobless and I knew I could not let that happen. I rounded up all of my life savings along with the money I obtained from the crime and decided that I would buy the company. I changed many things as the business was starting up again. I visited all of the employees and gave them the attention that they have always deserved. Now I am the head C.E.O. of the company and I know Bryan is looking down proudly at what we have accomplished.
 * “Top Secret”  **