tap dancing in a mine field with a blindfold and big shoes

I finally was able to talk to the other Notes developer here about the application he's working on. He is ultra paranoid cause it looks like others are trying to copy his application for other deptartments here in the fine governmental institution I work at. I'm being brought in as backup and after being given a single 9 page document on the high-level structure of the app and told not to send it to anyone , I was assigned a small non-unique module to create. He has locked the application design so if he he quits/dissappears.. it's all up in smoke. He does not look well and one time I overheard him talking to our manager about a biopsy. He drinks Ensure. The funny thing is that this app is most likely going nation-wide and possibly to 4 other locations in other countries. He is the sole developer w/ me as backup. I can see this as being very good or very bad. I have little control over anything in this app and have no leverage on him giving me access, information or his locker combination. wheeeeeee!