10 February 2022 Thursday

They led Jack and his mom to a conference room for the interview. The detective began the interview by stating his name, time, and date of the interview. He then read Miranda warning to Jack. In the interview, the detective asked many probing questions about the date of purchase of the assault rifle and his relationship with the victim, who was identified as James, Carla’s ex. Jack told the detective about their confrontation earlier in the week, on Sunday. For the guns, he gave a reason that he was resigning from the FBI, so he wanted to buy guns before it became more difficult to own them due to him not being in law enforcement.

The detective started asking about the call, to which he replied he had a subroutine planted in building cameras, which in case of any tempering, triggers a silent alarm to his home. And there is a loud alarm which is triggered when someone breaks in the door.

The detective asked Jack why he had such measures in place, to which Jack replied he was an FBI agent and it was a simple case of extra precautions.

The detective asked him about the password of his servers and the personal computer to which Jack replied that they have no connection to the Camera or alarm system so don't involve themselves in the crime and he was not giving them access. He then asked when he would be returned the servers to which the detective replied that they would need to crack the password and complete the investigation. Jack calmly told the detective that he had an important business secret on that computer, so such activities will lead to the wipeout of the machines, in which case he will sue the NYPD for half-billion-dollar in damages.

The detective was visibly agitated and taunted that Jack was a washed-out member of the FBI and perhaps he killed the guy. At that moment, Lannie took out her recorder and put on a show to pause the recording. She said, “Detective, I think we deviated from the matter at hand. Will you please make a call to your I.T. department to not pursue the Servers till morning so we can get a court order to get them back”

No, madam, I don't think I will make that call.

Detective, I have not recorded this conversation to show my client has repeatedly warned you of material damage that can happen because of the NYPD and you insulted him and now are ignoring the reasonable request of his lawyer. I don’t think the district attorney would like a wake-up call because of this minor issue.

The detective arrogantly said that she could not get the D.A. on the phone and he would pursue the case as he sees fit. Lannie excused herself and told Jack and Graham said that she was going to make a call. Jack was enjoying himself and asked Graham if he wanted to bet that in 5 minutes Detective's phone would start buzzing. Graham said that it was a Suckers’ bet. Lannie returned in 2 minutes and the detective’s phone started buzzing. He had an astonished look on his face seeing the Caller ID. He excused himself. Jack asked how much time did it take for D.A. to agree to return my servers without fighting in court? Lannie smugly replied that D.A. took only 2 minutes to reach that conclusion. Then she asked why he was worried about the servers, to which he replied that his server software was there and the NYPD had tons of leaks, to which Graham agreed. The detective returned and said that he will make sure no one touches the servers till morning.

Jack and his parents drove to his parent’s house. After reaching there, Graham brought a glass of bourbon for Jack. Jack thanked his parents and told them to go to sleep since it was 3 in the morning. Lannie told him to get a good sleep in his old bedroom and to not worry about servers. She would take care of them in the morning.

11 February 2022 Friday

Jack woke up from a ringing sound coming from his phone. He picked it up. Jerry wished him good morning when Jack asked him how he could get in contact with him. Jerry replied that he had activated one of his backups when the shooting started. Jack asked about the process and if it had any problems. Jerry began explaining that he essentially created his basic backup of all his memories and changed the active unit to the backup version with the latest memory. It was a safety feature until they could develop instantaneous communication. When Jack asked why, Jerry said it was a safety feature. Jerry told him that in case of multiple copies in active mode, Jerry can develop a split personality and it can be disastrous.

Jack was jolted from his down mood and remembered the stakes of his actions. Jerry informed him about the other two assailants who were with James and their current whereabouts. He then asked permission for hiring assassins to eliminate them.

Jack said, “How do you have contact with assassins ?”

It is no more difficult to hire an assassin for hacking military satellites.

No, Jerry, we will not hire assassins for the gang members. They did not harm me?

Are you refusing assassins out of principle or this specific case?

Why are you asking that?

Because we might need assassins in the future, there is no ambiguity about that fact, so I need to know if we need some alternatives.

No, I am not refusing out of principle the situation doesn’t require them, and please just make sure we don’t hire someone evil or psychopath-style.

Don’t worry about that, I will make sure of it. I need your direction on a separate matter.

What is it?

How do you feel about Russia trying to conquer Ukraine?

Not good. Is there any solid intelligence that they are planning on doing so?

Yes, they are moving military and making large-scale military maneuvers.

What are our options excluding cyber warfare? What can we do?

I don’t have full intelligence and will need to break into the Kremlin Cyber-infrastructure and also the Pentagon.

Why will you need to break into the Pentagon?

So that I can access their intelligence on the situation and also because I don’t have assets in place, I will need to make use of their assets.

That is a weakness we will have to address in the coming years. Collect all the intelligence you can get your hand on. We will talk in the evening and go over our options.

Jack walked into the kitchen, where he saw his whole family and Carla sitting and chatting. On seeing Jack, Carla rushed and hugged him and started blaming herself for the attack. Jack consoled her and told her to sit in the chair. After that, he told her it was not her fault, and that he was glad James did not go after her.

Carla visibly started trembling. Lannie told Jack that he should not have raised the possibility and scared Carla. Jack asked for forgiveness and told Carla that no one can harm her now and she will be safe no matter what.

To change the subject, he asked Mike how his date was with Aarti. Mike told him it was not his business. Jack started teasing that Aarti might have shot down the possibility of further pity dates. His sister Lyla also joined in on the teasing. Mike, having enough of the teasing, told both of them he had a date with Aarti in the evening, but he canceled it to be with Jack. Heard that both Jack and Lyla were feeling guilty for teasing Mike and asked him sorry. After that, Carla was in a good mood and the whole family had an excellent breakfast.

Jack asked his siblings if they could help him with some things. To which Mike said in a mocking voice, “You are a terrible boy, Jack, taking advantage of our love.” Jack told them he and Carla needed some help in choosing office space and scheduling interviews with people. Carla looked up from the table and asked if Jack had time with all the things going on and shouldn’t he should take it easy for a few days. Lannie also agreed with her and showed the same concerns.

Jack said, “I agree with all your concern but I don’t want to climb walls without doing something and after the police took my server I realized that I have to file a copyright and get in the market as fast as possible. I am also finished with my second product and do not think waiting is a good idea.”

Graham asked, “which new product and what are the specifications?”

A new version with hardware deterioration to 0% and efficiency up by 15%.

That is simply not possible, and what are you doing with it?

It is possible, and you are welcome to look into it. As for my plans, if Carla agrees I plan to give out the software for free

The entire room erupted at the shocking announcement, except for Graham and Carla. Lannie noticed it and asked Carla why she was not reacting. Carla smiled and said, “If I am thinking right, Jake has more versions planned and wants to give out the software as a promotional event so we don’t get pushed out or in the corner by big companies. We will become the Good Guys and it will be very hard to push us around by big companies.”

Graham nodded with the words and Jack said, “Now that is the reason you are going to be a good CEO of the company, and yes, I have more versions planned and will need approximately 5 days to do the work. I am planning the entire series with the following versions:

10% energy efficient and 30% faster efficiency will improve by 25%, but the speed will not be increased meaningfully.

Both these versions will have 5% hardware deterioration

And without hardware deterioration

efficiency version comes down to 15% The other version is 20% faster and has 5% more power consumption.

Everyone was silent Graham and Carla because of the scale of the progress they were envisioning. Lannie, Mike, and Lyla on account of the CEO announcement. Both parties started speaking tripping over each other. Lannie said, “You three can discuss this in the Greek language later. Can anyone explain the whole business partner CEO thing and why was I allowed to invest if Carla was given the same opportunity?” Jack shamelessly threw his dad under the bus and told Lannie that he discussed all the things with him and told him to tell you.”

Graham hesitantly began speaking, “Darling Jack told me, but I forgot in the excitement of the new software Jack sent.”

Lannie showed no emotion but finally broke into a smile and said, “Don’t worry about it now Jack, can you explain everything?”

Jack said, “I offered Carla an offer to become a business partner. She will be given a $20000 a month salary and the 10% stock options at $5 million with the condition that if she wants to sell, I have the first option to buy her out at market rate. Also, she will be the CEO and manage day to day after the company takes off.”

That is a wonderful offer and I assume Carla took it. What about our investment?

You can buy 15% shares for the four of you at 7. 5 million dollars after six months with the condition that the first option to buy the shares back will be to me at the market rate. Is it good for you?

It is fair to me

Everyone agreed, and Jack reminded Mike and Lyla of the matter of help, to which they agreed. Carla asked Lyla about her job, to which she replied, “I am going to the University of Columbia and pursuing a degree in business management.” Carla offered her a job in their business. Lyla tried to make an excuse for her studies, to which Jack told her she can work from home and that he was an idiot for not asking her. Lyla accepted the job. Mike joked Carla was better CEO than Jack in every aspect. Jack agreed with him and bragged that he was smart for hiring her. Carla just became embarrassed and changed the topic by reminding everyone about the Office Hunting and scheduling interviews. She offered to split the work between her and Lyla, scheduling interviews with people they wanted to hire and Jack and Mike viewing the office spaces Carla had found in their needs. They all agreed with Carla. Jack and Mike called the realtor and arranged for the tour.

Jack and Mike arrived at the first location. It was near central park and was bound to be expensive. The realtor took them to the office space. The office space was on the opposite side of central park and had no view. Jack and Mike walked the place and asked questions about the facilities. To their disappointment, they found that there was no possibility of a leased line since the building did not have the infrastructure in place. Jack asked the realtor if there were any such buildings available that can have a leased line from a major provider in hours. The realtor told them some buildings had the facility, but they had more space than they required. Jack told him to show the building. The realtor took them to a building on the upper west side of the city. According to the realtor, the space was comfortable for 40 people and had the rent of 10k a month on a short lease. Jack liked the space. He and Mike discussed their options and asked the girls about the space. When they called Carla and Lyla, they gave their go-ahead since they were planning on hiring 20 employees right off the bat and it would be a spacious office. Jack and Mike told the realtor and sublet the place from the real estate agency for 2 months. Instead of making a deposit, Jack offered to pay the entire rent beforehand, which the realtor accepted.

Jack and Mike ate lunch in a nearby restaurant, where Jack teased Mike about Aarti, the girl he was dating. Mike took the teasing with no outward reaction and ate his lunch. Jack told Mike he had ruined his fun. Mike then asked about the shooting incident and how Jack was feeling about it. Jack told him he was feeling fine about the whole incident since he was fired upon first and had done everything possible to not kill the guy. Mike was skeptical, but after some time talking to Jack, he knew Jack was telling the truth about his feelings.

Carla’s POV:

Carla was having fun working with Lyla and found out that she was competent like her other family members and she was also insightful into several individuals. Lyla had convinced Carla to hire half of the people they wanted from the start. She Justified her opinion by Jack’s decision to give his software for free. She argued that there would be very much interest in their new business because of that move and if they were not ready to take new clients, then it can create a negative image for the company. Carla, after some thought, decided on following Lyla’s advice and if she was doing the same excellent work, then hire her as Chief Operating Officer of the company. She was feeling distrust towards people after James’s actions. She was seeing the reason Jake chose to trust only people he knew intimately.

Carla called for a break and made some lunch in the kitchen. After having lunch, she started calling people who she knew and wanted for the job. 5 people out of 7 she called showed interest and agreed to come for the interview. Now they started calling freelance IT experts and people who had posted on job hunting sites. They made a list of 50 people for the interview after talking to them. These interviews will be done with the help of employees first hired by Jack and Carla from the 5 people Carla earlier called. They had finished their work at 3:00 P.M. They treated themselves to a beautiful trip and invited Lannie with them. Carla was feeling ecstatic about the progress they made and could imagine the heights they could reach.

Jack’s POV:

Jack and Mike returned to an empty house. They knew the ladies had gone on a beauty trip, so they let themselves in. They watched sports on T.V. while waiting for Graham, who was coming home early since the whole day was home. Jack was getting bored and did some research on the Russian army and general warfare. He was immersed in his research and didn’t hear Graham coming home. He finished his research and walked into the living room, where Mike and Graham were watching sports with beer. They offered beer to Jack, who politely declined. Graham started asking questions about the Software and his business plan. Jake got many insights into the business world. He always knew underhanded tricks were used in business, but according to Graham, it was worse than that, and sometimes law was not enough to stop people from doing as they please. Jack was getting a foreboding feeling that James was going to be the first person he had to kill on a long list of people.

Jack was pulled out of his thoughts by Graham who asked what he was going to name the company when Jack said “Blazing Discoveries'' Graham and Mike started laughing when Jack told them it was not a bad name, they told him that this name was going to shut down without a thought by ladies and it was like a teenage boy fantasy company. They argued about the name, then ladies called and told them to order food so they could have dinner without having to make it.

Jack excused himself and walked into his room with a borrowed laptop from his dad. He turned on the computer and then called Jerry, who immediately answered and, after receiving word from Jack, took over the laptop. Jack said, “What is happening according to intelligence agencies with the Russian military build-up?”

Jerry answered, “They are concerned like us and think a Russian attack on Ukraine is imminent and have informed the governments of the matter.”

What is the government’s plan in case of invasion and is it doing anything to stop the invasion?

The government is readying weapons to ship to Ukraine and sharing its intelligence with Ukraine.

That alone would not be enough. Can we take down their strategic ammo depots?

No, that is outside our capabilities and we also can not hire mercenaries to do it for us since it would look like Ukraine did it, which will cause an escalation in the war.

What about logistics and their economy can we target them?

We can do that, but we will need to take over some already established hacking group so we could do all of it without Ukraine taking the blame.

How about the Anonymous Group? Can you take over their leadership and use the group as the scapegoat?

We can do that, but Russian security services are going to go after the group and many members can be killed.

How about we take on the persona of some criminals who are bound to exist in the group and make a splinter group? We could also blackmail these members to keep their mouths shut and help them disappear so there is less chance of innocent people getting caught in the crossfire.

I have to do some work to identify our targets but we can do it as for disappearing them we can use CIA assets for the first layer and we will move them from there so even the CIA could not track them.

Make preparations for all the above things and just take over the anonymous network as soon as possible. We will need to create a backdrop for the whole splinter group.

I will do all that, but you did not consider the extreme option of hacking their satellites and infecting the air defense network.

But the air defenses will be on another network, and we will need physical access to it. And besides all, it would take a software wife to get them back in operational condition. It would only be an inconvenience for the Russian military.

All that can be achieved through hiring mercenaries or by the CIA assets, which can be blackmailed. We would need a tsp in the network which could be achieved physically.

planting an interceptor near a major Russian military base or using CIA assets to get an outside line in the network.

It can be more than a convenience if we use tactics used by Mossad by planting a virus that will overclock the equipment and make it useless.

Is there any virus present that could do it to computer components?

No, all the viruses which various intelligence agencies have can only do some superficial damage. We will need to make it ourselves.

Make the virus but sloppily hide its origins, which should point to China so we can strain their relations.

Jack accepted the compliment and was going to shut down the laptop that he remembered about the Drug money and asked Jerry about it. Jerry told him he had gone ahead with the scheme and had instructed Carlos Mendoza, their lawyer, to establish the offshore companies and deposit the fund. Jack asked him about the retreat of Carlos Mendoza to tell Jerry that he had postponed the recruitment next Sunday because of the workload on Jack. Jack thanked him for showing consideration and told him goodbye.

Jerry stopped him and asked if the name “Blazing Discoveries” was seriously bad, to which Jack replied that he also likes the name but it was not worth fighting the Ladies. Jack told him to relax and not worry about the name too much.

Jack looked at his watch and noticed that Ladies should be back from the trip. He entered the living room, in which there was a fierce debate going on between Mike and Lyla about as far as Jack could tell different names. Lannie waved him over and told everyone that dinner was to be served in 5 minutes and the discussion can go on then