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to keep him here, where he can’t poison your reputation with anyone who might listen to him.”
    “Ed…” I laughed at that.
    “I’ll pay,” Ed said. He paused. “Two-twenty-five an hour.”
    I sat still for several heartbeats. Ed knew right then he had me.
    “That’s for anything you have to do off-site,” he said.
    “Off my site or off yours?”
    “Yours. Meetings here, travel, etc. Plus expenses, of course. One-twenty-five for the work you can do at your own offices.” My own offices were in my house, and Ed knew it, but he was treating me as a professional.
    “What was Kirk supposed to offer me?”
    “One-seventy-five and one-hundred.”
    “You wanted me.”
    “Yep.”
    I thought about it. “This is going to be more than one trip, isn’t it?”
    “Probably, but you can probably do a lot remotely, too.”
    “How onerous is the NDA you want me to sign?” An NDA was a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Basically it was a legal means of making sure I didn’t give his technology away.
    “It’s the same one you signed last time, with updated details. You won’t have a problem with it, but I can mail you a copy. Sidney, I’m not going to let the details of an NDA serve as an excuse to say ‘no’.” He paused. “Travel is via private jet.”
    “I didn’t know you had a jet, Ed.”
    “I don’t. It belongs to the law firm I’m using.”
    I looked at my calendar again. “I can find the time, Ed.” I paused. “I can make the meeting tomorrow if I move one phone call. But I have to sweet talk two existing clients if I’m going to be gone next week, and I have to be here the following week.” I looked ahead. “I could go again one of the following three weeks, but I’d need to know by early next week when.”
    “So that’s a yes?” he asked.
    “Let me call the two clients and sweet talk them.”
    “I’m offering you a great deal of money, Sidney,” he replied.
    “Yes, but you are hiring someone whose integrity is important to her, and that’s a good share of the reason you want me. I wouldn’t be the person you want to hire if I screwed an existing client that’s depending upon me.”
    “How soon can you call me back?”
    “An hour,” I said. “If I can reach them. I have your number.” I read it off.
    “That’s the main line,” he said. “Let me give you my cell.” He read a series of digits, and I wrote them down then repeated them. “Call me directly,” he said. “Sidney, I won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. If you can’t make it, we’ll adjust, but it won’t be at two-twenty-five if you can’t make this schedule.”
    “I’ll see what I can do, Ed. I might have to do a phone call or two next week, but otherwise I think I can focus on this.”
    “Excellent. I look forward to your call, Sidney. You know there’s only one answer you’re going to give me.”
    I laughed. “Thanks for thinking of me, Ed.” We hung up.
    I’d been taking notes during the call. I had written down the numbers. Two-hundred and twenty-five, with a dollar sign in front of it. One-hundred and twenty-five with another dollar sign. The one-twenty-five was the rate I usually charged for the type of analysis I mentioned earlier, and I’d never gotten more than one-fifty before. And that had been work I hadn’t wanted; I’d thrown out a number I thought was twice what the work was for just to get the possible client to look elsewhere, but he’d winced then said, ‘all right’.
    I had also written down 150-200 hours. I shook my head. Ed wanted me bad.
    I wasn’t really motivated by the money, not exactly. I was happy with the money I made doing pure programming, the lower end of my bill rate, which was quite a bit less than these numbers. I had a nice home, I lived relatively simply, and I liked my work. But the numbers involved were a sign of success. It wasn’t about the money; it was about a client putting his money where his mouth is. Basically, Ed was saying, “You’re the