11 February 2022 Friday

In the kitchen, everyone was having dinner. Mike shattered the peace by telling the ladies about Jack’s suggested name of the company “Blazing discoveries”. The ladies groaned at the name and suggested different names. Jack tuned everybody out. He was thinking about the Ukraine invasion and their lack of influence in events, he came up with a plan to remedy the situation. Lannie, who asked him about his thoughts on the matter, pulled Jack out of his thoughts. Jake blankly looked at her and told her he was open to suggestions for the Company names. That started a round of suggestions in which some names were terrible. Lannie, taking charge of the situation, made everyone suggest 2 names from which 1 would be final. Everyone agreed and anime suggestions began.

Equinetworks Phoenixworks Bridge Coms Cryptic Solutions Equinox Solutions Motion Security Crux Technologies Pride Softwares Cloud Electronics Arcane Enterprises

They all let Jack and Carla decide the name. Hearing that, Jack told Carla that it was her time to pick up the slack and he will only reject a name picked by her if it was terrible. Carla picked Crux Technologies as the company name and Jack approved of the name.

Everyone took their leaves after dinner. When Jack stood up to go to his room, Lannie informed him he can pick servers up from the police station. Jack thanked her and asked if she knew when can he could have his apartment back. Lannie told him he would not go back into that apartment because it had terrible memories and would just shift to their home. Jack wanted to refuse, but seeing the look on her face, he knew it will be futile, so he agreed on the condition that he will have to install some equipment in his room.

Jack wished his parents’ good night and walked into his room. He was thinking of all the things he wanted to do and getting bogged down because of the lack of options and capabilities when he started he knew he had to abide his time to achieve his goals without making himself or Jerry target but now he was understanding the implications of him not bothering with some aspects. He decided he had to change his attitude and started by calling Jerry and getting the status of the D.N.A. enhancement he was working for Jack. Jerry informed him he had made the modifications and will only need to synthesize the serum to finish the work. Jerry also informed him he had finished working on the Gene editing of the Bacteria for the e-waste project. Jack praised him for a job well done and asked what was plaguing his mind, “Jerry, am I becoming a roadblock for the progression because of my desire to control every little technology you discover?”

Jerry said, “that is a difficult question to answer because on the one hand, it is your only lever to force the change you want to view in the society, and it can also result in a very long time frame because we don’t want to attract attention on ourselves, but I think you will need to loosen up some technology to outside source without a speck of involvement either by you or our alter persona which I have named Mr. Ross Dunn because in time people will question the coincidences and my goal is to make sure that when the time comes we are not anyone’s mercy.”

That is a good point of view and I also agree with that, so how about you give me all the technology which would benefit people and we can give it away without major repercussions?

Jerry sent him a list on his smartphone’s screen. He pursued the list, and there was an interesting discovery in the list of Diesel producing algae. When asked about it, Jerry tell him a nonprofit which was on the cusp of success researched it, but Big Oil Corporations had halted the research by making the funding available for research go away. Jack asked about the business implications on the oil companies to which Jerry answered that the nutrients and space requirements make sure that only people on farms and with open spaces could use it and it would be far from profit endangering for the oil companies. According to Jerry, for an average farmer, it would be only a 10% reduction in his cost because of the land and labor requirements. When Jack asked about the advantages of the algae, then Jerry told him that for places far from cities and in difficult terrain, it would be a boon and it can get all the nutrients required by algae from animal or Human waste. Jack asked Jerry about the funding, to which he replied it would take 15 million to complete the project in 6 months and if Jerry could manipulate their testing equipment a bit, then they reduced the time to 1 month with funding going down to 5 million.

Jack asked if they had that kind of money lying around, to which Jerry told him he was having very much success in the stock market and would generate 10 million in that week. Jack's eyes went up seeing the amount of money Jerry made last evening when asked about it Jerry told him he was correcting the market meaning if a stock oversells, then Jerry would buy it up to keep it from tanking and later sell it back with small profits and the reverse for hyped stocks or artificially inflated stocks in which case he would take positions assuming a correction. Jerry told Jack that they would never lack the money for their projects or ambitions, so he did not need to worry. Jack trusted Jerry.

Jack moved on from the subject because he learned that for most of the developments, Jerry would need access to labs and had to familiarize himself with the work and do improvements. Jack asked Jerry to look into ways to solve that problem. He then asked Jerry about the schematics of the Chicago lab where the secret research was going on. Jerry complied with the request immediately, and he showed Jack schematics and all the corresponding information on his phone’s screen. Jack was astonished by the amount of data collected by Jerry, with no physical presence. Jerry informed him they will need to case the place for the heist beforehand in person to verify all the data since it can be wrong. Jack agreed with him and told him to make a list of equipment needed. Jerry sent him a list of equipment immediately and told him to buy the electronic parts so that Jack could practice making a jammer and other accessories needed from widely available electronics.

13 February 2022 Sunday

Jack was having lunch with 5 people who Carla had invited to an interview and was not having a good time. He had asked Jerry to look into all the candidates, and the results were the reason for his predicament. Jerry had found out that one candidate named Liam Shaw, an accountant, was skimming from his current company, and that was the person they needed most. He was having trouble coming up with a reason to reject the man. Jerry’s suggestion to expose the man for his crimes and be done with it tempted him, but Jake knew that was a slippery slope and he had to eventually make some decision to which Carla would disagree and so he tackled the issue head-on. The other people Carla had invited were Daniel Bowen, an IT expert who could take over general maintenance and day-to-day operations. Harper Wright specialized in equipment buying and, according to Jerry, had contacts who could supply them with the equipment they needed without records in the future.

Olivia Ellis, a cybersecurity expert, was redundant because of the presence of Carla and Jack’s prior experience, but Jack insisted on hiring an expert because of the time constraints on both of their schedules. Declan Walker, a lawyer who specialized in public relations, Jack thought they did not need the guy, but Carla and Lyla had convinced him otherwise by arguing that they needed to be prepared for the inevitable smear campaign from the competitors after launching their software.

All five of the people had responded favorably to the job offer and wanted to know more. Jack took Carla aside and told her he did not want to hire Liam when Carla pressed for a reason. Jack replied he had a gut feeling. Carla was not in the habit of doing things without logic but knew that Jack had good instincts and he was ultimately the owner of the company so she agreed with Jack’s call but raised concern about needing to hire an accountant to which Jack replied that for some time Jack would take care of the finances and then they will hire someone competent after the company has a good start.

The four people were told to sign a standard N.D.A. so they can go into detail and Liam was told to go. When everyone signed the contract, Jake took them to the office space he had rented previously and showed them the building. He took them to the conference room, which was already furnished. He told everyone to be seated and to not intrepid him with questions because he would cover them in the presentation and they could ask their questions in the end. Everyone agreed, and Jack told them the capabilities of his software and all the ramifications. He listed out the complete list of advantages and disadvantages of the plan. After the presentation, Jake told them to ask their questions.

Harper asked, “What would be my role in your company? I am only seeing normal equipment requirements for a normal IT company?”

We are going to expand in the server business from the 1st month after launching and would require you to purchase commodity hardware. Also, you will need to buy hardware for my research projects. I hope that satisfies you.

Decan asked, “Are you going with the open-source route for the software or free subscription from your site?”

We are going with a free subscription because we want to attract potential clients and they can edit the source code to make the other software so it will increase the chances of piracy.

Jack satisfied everyone with the presentation and the discussion devolved into the salary section. He and Carla had prepared a surprise after they negotiated the salary for the first 6 months. They told them they would have stock options of 2% at 1 million between the four of them. When they asked for clarification, Jack told them that every one of them could buy.5% of the company for 250k and if the chief financial officer they hire doesn’t want his/her share, then one of them could buy their share as well. Jack told them about the condition of his first rights on the selling of shares. Everyone agreed. Carla gave them contacts for their employment. Everyone was told to come to work from the Monday since Jack wanted to register the company as soon as possible.

Jack had hired his mom’s firm to set up the company and file the paperwork. It was not cheap, but he knew the firm would take good care of him. His mom had refused to be his lawyer, citing conflict of interest, and referred him to her colleague Leo Dixon, who was also a corporate lawyer like her. Jake had satisfaction with Leo’s work, and Jerry also had revealed no problems with him. Jack had also told Harper to buy a list of equipment for starting the office and to add to the list if she thought of something else. Jack wanted to launch his software by next Monday when he told Carla his intentions Carla had some doubts so Jake showed her the website he had made with the help of Jerry she suggested some aesthetic changes but had approved of the plan and agreed with the launch on Monday.

Jake went to the central park after finishing the exercise in the gym. He told Jerry to go ahead with the call to Carlos Mendoza for the recruitment. Jerry called Carlos, and Jack started listening to the conversation through his phone. Jerry said. “Hello, Carlos. Looks like you set up all the offshore companies and accounts according to specifications.”

Yes, Jerry, our business seems to be finished.

That depends on your answer to my question

What question?

Do you want to work for me?

That is a strict no.

You did not even pretend to think about it, Carlos; I am hurt.

Don’t take it the wrong way, Jerry, but your way of doing business and level is beyond me

You mean my criminal ways as you think about it

If I am being blunt, then yes, Jerry, that is exactly what I mean.

How about I show you how wrong your thinking is?

I am all ears, Jerry. How did you get all the info?

You don’t want to know, but what I can tell you is it did not involve Drug Lords Nor I am in the business of drugs.

That partially answers the question, but you did not deny being a criminal.

No, I did not, but I can tell you that my intention to provide info was so that the drug business takes a big hit.

So then that whole 270 million were to further your noble cause.

That was exactly the reason for the money

Jerry, are you serious? You are expecting me to believe that you are furthering some noble cause.

Yes, I am expecting you to believe because you are going to help me in my cause.

Jerry, I think enough is enough. The only reason I am not hanging up on you is that I don’t know what will you do.

Carlos just relaxes and listens to my proposal and as for doing something, I am not doing anything to you.

Okay, Jerry, I am listening. Give me your pitch.

That was the moment Jack had been waiting for when Carlos painted Jerry’s picture. Jack had been feeling guilty because they had purposefully intimidated Carlos for convenience's sake and did not dissuade him from making the wrong assumption. He keeps that in mind for the future. The reason he was waiting was that with the help of Jerry, he had made some concrete plans to increase their influence and remove the corruption and criminals from the upper echelons of power. The reason they were approaching Carlos was simple they knew him and he was a single man who had a meaningful relationship in his life he was also an orphan but had been in foster care from the age of 5. Their new scheme had many risks to Carlos and everyone associated but they had got Carlos in their fold and use him to maintain their operations so that Jerry could hide from everyone in the future when Mr. Ross identity inevitably exposed.

Back to the conversation, Jerry started pitching their plan. “Carlos, we both know that upper echelons of power are both morally and by law corrupt, and many are much worse than that. So I have done something about it and you are gonna help me. You are going to take care of all the companies you set up, and we will use them to fund research, take over companies that are doing good work, and make the earth a good place.”

So this is all you are going to give. That is the same corporate bullshit every CEO gives what is noble in it.

That is only the front activities of the organization we are going to identify and help the people who can make the change. These people are going to be humanity’s best minds and they will work on making the world a better place. You are probably thinking I am giving a speech for a cult and you will be right about the speech because all this depends on everybody playing fair, which we both know is Naïve. After all, one thing is for sure: if we will move forward a single inch, someone is going to bring us down. In that very situation, our cause is going to matter and the real reason we want you. We will create an organization where people can give evidence of wrongdoing by the government officials and business tycoons and they will receive money and, if need necessary, relocation like a witness relocation program. Before you say anything else, look into the information I sent you.

After some time

Carlos said, “That is just absurd how are you going to pull this off the amount of money required will be astronomical if we get evidence and the relocation effort is going to cost more even if we have to move 100 people per year, it is going to require unimaginable resources. How are you going to generate them if you siphon money from your offshore company? People won’t take long to find out about it and the company and people working for it will become targets, A.K.A. me?”

Does that mean you are accepting the job?

No god no I am just enquiring if you have some solution to the problem.

I have a solution, Carlos, but you are going to have to accept the job to know it.

Okay, I accept, and earlier you said we, so it means you have a partner

Yes, I have a partner and if you don’t want to listen to a lie, don’t ask the question. As for the resources, I will provide all the money, relocation mechanism, etc. I need you as the front man who will be in contact with select few people involved in the whole relocation effort because some people don’t do business without face to face.

In another word, if they catch us, my neck will be in the noose.

Yes, but we will protect you and compensate you fully for your troubles.

Well, I am bored with the job and it is not exciting as I thought it would be and no one in my life could get caught in the crossfire. And I have my suspicion that is also the reason you are offering the job.

You would be right, but you can just work in the company and be away from all this business.

No, I am interested, so are we targeting every government?

No, that would not be a good idea. We don’t want enemies everywhere. We are going to target the American and Russian governments first. So after the spring cleaning, we have honest and competent people in charge of both superpowers.

You know that targeting these governments can cause a one-way ticket to a CIA black site or end up poisoned by the F.S.B.

I know so we will not be going to open our relocation program until later and just gonna pay money for the evidence. We will handle rewards discreetly and you will never be in any danger for the first six months. Your job will be to only approve the evidence and advice us on how to release it or act on it.

What do you mean by act on it?

Do you want to know?

No, I think not. I would want plausible deniability.

Now for salary, we could give you 10% stock options for our companies at a face value of 200 million and 20000k a month as salary

Why would I want to pour 20 million into a company that will, if ever, be in profit because of a miracle?

That is a wrong assumption, Carlos. Nobody said that for working the betterment of people, you had to get poor while doing it. I have sent you the company portfolio and earnings from the last 3 days.

Carlos opened the email and saw the 10 million in profits from the stock trading around the world it stumped him for words and said, “Fuck, Jerry don’t tell me after that whole noble cause and anti-criminal speech you are doing insider-trading.”

I am not doing such things and as you can see in the trade history with it, all the trades are justified and legal.

Jerry cut the call and began venting. He said to Jack how it was unfair to assume that he had done something illegal to earn money. Jack just laughed at Jerry’s predicament and said that he had made his entire image as a guy who takes laws as suggestions, so he should not let people’s views bother him.

Jerry asked Jack if he was sure about the taking action part of the plan, to which he replied that he had to take action because sometimes the people would attempt to cover up or not prosecute fairly. Then they both discussed what evidence and to whom they should expose first. The entire plan was a way to explain all the evidence collected by Jerry. They wanted people to come forward also and had planned for reward money but most of the evidence would be collected by Jerry and to make sure all evidence released would not be digital they would hire some people to retrieve physical evidence and take evidence given by people and mix it in to hide Jerry’s involvement. It was a risky plan, but Jack wanted to be more active in his pursuit and not just make money to not squander the potential Jerry had. They both came up with the plan. They had hidden Jerry’s evidence from everyone for now and revisit it later, but they both agreed to never expose Jerry to the entire world because that can create many problems, from cults to an arms race between superpowers.