Forever Yours
53
Announcement
HENRY HAD FARREL and Jason in their new private office on Monday, with Don Harvey, his long-time patent attorney, Don’s secretary, and Chastity. Henry and Chastity were in the meeting to observe and take notes. Henry wanted to know and understand all the implications of the technology. He wanted to be sure he could discuss it with someone without disclosing protected information to anyone else in the company, so Chastity agreed to take detailed minutes on his behalf and the company’s.
Don led the discussion, starting by having Farrel and Jason give the demonstration they’d given on Wednesday. They had to discuss what elements they thought were patentable and spent the entire day, with lunch ordered in, going over the technology.
Henry spent most of his time, while attentively listening to the discussion, making notes on the number and type of personnel they would need to staff the project. Everything the company had done to date had been on a shoestring budget. He was a believer in getting top competent developers and letting them run with the project. He could tell that even though Farrel and Jason were top creative talent, they would need a good manager and enough people around them to truly work on every aspect of the development. They’d file preliminary patents as soon as possible, but he was sure they would be amending and expanding them frequently over the next year.
The joint paver venture led by Dale Jacoby had shown him how much progress could be made quickly when adequately funded. Currently, the second floor of the office was split three ways with the paving project, perimeter defense and the newly allocated space for ‘Alice.’ They were going to outgrow the space soon. He made a note to ask Chastity to work with Ray on acquiring the rest of the building for their company.
He wasn’t particularly worried about current expenses. The Argos investment was funding the company at $25 million a year and they had mostly been able to fund operations from the profit of the company. They’d acquired Page Services and a significant interest in Agora Fuel Cells. He could hire and staff a new operation from their bank for at least six months. He hoped Isobel and Luke could get an IPO together by that time. If not, in six months the next installment of the Argos investment should be in the bank.
It was Thursday before Henry had a chance to meet and thoroughly debrief with Nathan on the deployment of the perimeter security at Page Services.
“Darrel has set up the hardware for perimeter defense around Open Cloak,” Nathan said. “We have the software ready to go active when you say.”
“I say. Let’s get this company and the joint venture protected. And Agora Fuel Cells. And I want to ask about some other things I’ve been thinking about.”
“You’ve been active. I’ve noticed you have a new area of the office blocked off with locks and the patent attorney has been in each day this week. Something related?”
“Yes and no. I’ll bring you in on the whole Alice project, but first I want to talk about internal security,” Henry said. “Maybe having been hacked and attacked physically has made me paranoid. My counselor says it could be related to my PTSD, but I can’t ignore issues that might be serious.”
“Tell me. I take it all seriously,” Nathan said, focusing on Henry with intense eyes that bored into him. Henry took a deep breath.
“I’m feeling better about our external security, but we haven’t done anything about internal security. We run a background check on new employees. We issue a key code and a computer and an RFID card. And we connect them to the company network. How easy would it be for an employee to copy everything on our network and walk out the door with it?”
“That’s a lot of data, but it would be possible over the course of a few days or weeks, I suppose. Don’t you trust your employees?”
“I asked Germaine a similar question last week. Their answer was ‘I don’t actively distrust them, but I wouldn’t call on them in an emergency.’ It’s something between trust and distrust. We evaluate them based on performance. But aside from a confidentiality agreement that’s just a piece of paper when it comes down to it, we don’t push employees to be ‘loyal’ or even trustworthy.”
“You want to monitor employee behavior?” Nathan asked alarmed. “That’s really Big Brotherish.”
“Yuck! We’ve seen what that can do to people and even the whole country. It’s exactly what I want to avoid.”
“I entered the Army thirty years ago when computers were pretty much landing on everyone’s desk—in the office and at home. All our systems were computerized,” Nathan said. “It was still the young innocence of the internet age. The area I was assigned was cyber intelligence. Not AI, but more traditional. How could we use computer networks to spy on our enemies and be better prepared. That was when we all realized that we were vulnerable to every spy attack we could devise and started working on cyber resilience. Wasn’t called that then. We just used catchall words to step up our actions a little further.”
“Same group as you retired from?”
“No. Vastly different. The Pentagon didn’t decide to consolidate all the military development in the field until the Russian election interference in 2016. Then US Cyber Command got serious. When I entered the service, we were all pretty green hotshots who believed we could take over the world with our computers. In a training session, a team of hackers was led into a room with computers. We were told there was a threat against US cyber security with some parameters around it. We were told to identify the threat. We got busy and started working on identifying where the threat was coming from.”
“Did we take over that job with Delphos Network Armor?” Henry asked. He was intrigued by the look inside Nathan was giving him.
“To some extent. But it points out exactly the weakness you’ve identified. We were all hackers and in competition with each other to identify the threat first. About two frustrating hours into our exercise, I felt a gun at my head. When I was allowed to turn around, the other hackers all had their hands behind their heads with a black-hooded man holding a gun on them.
“The result was that our commanding officer walked into the room and lectured us for an hour about assuming a threat to our cyber security was only online. By the way, that was the beginning of the ban on wearing headsets while on duty unless it was a team with at least one member required to be alert for physical dangers. You’ve identified a similar threat. Something that doesn’t come from an external online attack. It’s exactly what we failed to anticipate when you were attacked by the suicide driver.”
“What I want,” Henry said, “is the same kind of system that can identify internal attacks that we have in Delphos and Porcupine. Only, it has to not spy on our employees. We moved the server farm to the perimeter defense so we didn’t need to monitor every box on the farm. It’s the same principle we’ve had with optimization and search. Don’t report individual information on employees. Only identify threats.”
“We may be talking about a new generation of AI,” Nathan said.
“I’m good with that.”
Of course, nothing was more important that day than Isobel’s twenty-second birthday. At least according to Isobel. She paraded around the office with an actual tiara on, declaring she was the mother goddess. She seemed upbeat and charming to all the employees, including Nancy, with whom she’d had a few upsets.
After work, the partners and a couple of other honored employees—including her assistant, Rachel—were invited to a restaurant where her parents were hosting a party. Luke’s parents, as the other impending grandparents, were also at the party. The food was good and there were several toasts, both to Isobel and her impending motherhood. She was wearing down as the dinner went on and managed to grab a martini from in front of Luke. She downed it in one swallow.
“Honey! Please don’t drink anything else!” Luke said.
“Oh, one little drink isn’t going to hurt the kid at this stage. Look at Felipe. He’s been drinking since before conception.”
Her brother was a brawny guy who had starred on his high school football team in the fall and was extremely bright. A couple of colleges had started recruiting him in the fall of his junior year. He’d recently committed to the university where Isobel and Luke were both struggling to complete their degrees while running a multi-million-dollar business.
Isobel had hired an assistant in her department who was more qualified than she was to manage the finances of the company. Henry wondered how that was all going to shape up when Isobel went on maternity leave. Luke had also hired a vice president who carried the title of chief operating officer. While Luke managed to get to the office every day for at least a while, Craig Matthews was the go-to guy for daily operations.
After her drink, Isobel’s mood immediately elevated again. Henry and Chastity could both see signs of the manic effect wearing off quickly, though. When Isobel began getting surly again, Luke thanked everyone for coming and got them out the door.
“Poor Isobel,” Lisa sighed when they were home. “She really suffers so much.”
“She makes everyone around her suffer, too,” Henry said.
“Lisa’s right,” Chastity said. “Mental illness is serious. And with her sky-rocketing hormones, it’s got to be extremely difficult to control.”
“Did you see her hair?” Lisa asked. “I hope I don’t have a mental illness, but at the same time, I hope my hormones affect my hair like hers.”
“It is beautiful,” Chastity said.
Isobel’s weight had gone up more than the doctor wanted and part of her mood swings had to do with trying to eat less and always being hungry. But she was growing a little human inside her body. All that growth taking place had made her hair grow long and shiny.
“When are we going to let people know you’re pregnant?” Henry asked Lisa.
“Hmm. What fun occasion is coming up on a Saturday when we can have people over and show them the new baby’s room?” Lisa asked.
“Oh, fuck!” Henry said. “Where are we going to put the baby? We should get furniture and decorate. But where?”
There was an unexpected panic in his voice as if he’d never thought about where the baby’s room would be. They could scarcely expect to put the baby’s room in Chastity’s suite where there was a spare bedroom. The spare room in Lisa and Henry’s suite was filled with computers.
“The lounge on the fourth floor was nice while we had it,” Lisa said.
“We can’t put the baby on the fourth floor!” Henry said.
“No, of course not. We need to move our offices upstairs. You hardly use yours at home these days. I need to have a place to work, though. With the offices upstairs, the baby can have a room of her own just a few steps away from ours. And we can still use the fourth floor patio this summer.”
“Put an extra bed in the room and I’ll sleep there on some nights when you need to get some sleep,” Chastity laughed.
Henry thought about the move of his personal office upstairs. He’d already adjusted things to accommodate Lisa’s move into the shared space. Moving computers upstairs would be an adjustment, but he thought it would be minor compared to having a baby in the house.
“Um… What special occasion?” he asked, just remembering the original question.
“Your birthday, silly!”
It was nearly two weeks later that Nathan stayed after the tech leads’ meeting to talk to Henry. The three major projects were all on track, though everyone was asking questions about ‘Alice’ and why that manager wasn’t in the meeting.
“At the moment, I am functioning as the direct lead for that team,” Henry said. “We’ll soon have enough stability in the project plan that I can discuss it with all of you. I’ll say it is simply AI-powered holography. For now, only the members of that team have access to any details. Their computers are not even networked with the rest of the company.”
His words served to excite the managers. Conrad and Dale had an inkling of what the project involved because they were in the original meeting where Farrel and Jason had demonstrated the hologram. They’d been given the general term ‘AI-powered holography’ as a way to refer to it before cutting off discussion.
“I think that project needs the kind of internal security we discussed before we bring anyone else into it,” Nathan said after the meeting. “I have an idea to run by you.”
“Great! I keep running up against a brick wall when I think about it. Everything seems too invasive to employee privacy. I really don’t want to spy on employees,” Henry said.
“This is a work-around, but I think it will work,” Nathan said as they went to Henry’s office and closed the door.
“Okay. Shoot.”
“It’s a type of failsafe security. It would require that anyone working on a project remotely would need to attach to the corporate server regularly. Or that people not be allowed to work on development projects remotely. And it still requires developing a training method for an AI so it’s sophisticated enough not to make mistakes.”
“That worries me. AIs always make mistakes.”
“The narrower the AI, the fewer the mistakes,” Nathan quipped. “This one is extremely narrow. It would be a simple trigger that says if a code in all our dev software isn’t activated every day, the project will self-destruct on that device.”
“Whoa! Wait! Self-destruct? Our whole dev server would be at risk. What happens during a power outage? Vacations? Holidays?” Henry exclaimed.
“I mentioned it requires a training method for the AI. Those are all things that need to be put into the training. And there needs to be an override that a corporate officer can trigger, both an override to prevent the self-destruct and an override to the AI approving use.”
“Hmm. How does the military handle that kind of thing? Just the highest ranking general able to override? Two people with a key? You’ve posed a lot of questions for this, but I can see a perfect world where that kind of failsafe would protect the IP without actually looking at individual computers.”
“I’d suggest we keep this under wraps for now,” Nathan said. “I’ll want to sequester my team to be sure I have the people I can trust before we start developing.”
“I agree. I’ll start looking at training methods. That’s really my strength. You should start gathering the information and operating requirements for the AI.”
“My, my! Having a party on the first floor!” Isobel said. “Thank you! I don’t think I could climb to the top of the stairs.”
Isobel looked like climbing stairs could be a challenge. She groaned with every step she took. She looked like she could deliver her baby at any moment.
“We moved our personal offices to the fourth floor,” Chastity said. “How are you doing?”
“I haven’t slept in a week. How many years do I have to be pregnant? Is he out of high school yet?” Isobel moaned.
“You’ll be fine,” Sylvia said. “We women have been doing this for millennia. It won’t be long now, Izzy.”
Sylvia and Ryan were the ‘mom-and-dad-in-residence’ for Henry’s birthday party. Beside his parents and Luke and Isobel, the party was fairly small. The family never left Germaine out of anything, of course. Otherwise, they’d just invited college friends to the celebration: Josh, Simon, Leonard, Dale, and Conrad. Conrad brought Rebecca. Josh had also finally found a girlfriend. Her name was Deborah.
“Chastity, you look as lovely as ever!” Simon cooed. “Where did you get this incredible ring? It’s so chic!”
“That’s my version of a wedding ring, sweetie. I’m with them.” She pointed to Henry and Lisa.
“Oh! How scandalous! That’s perfectly delicious. Speaking of delicious, I smell wonderful things cooking. Can I help you?”
They hadn’t spent much time together since school started in the fall, but Simon, Josh, and Leonard had all been told they had jobs waiting for them when they graduated in May. Josh would join Conrad’s team working on the consumer products. Leonard could hardly wait to get started on Dale’s paving project team. Henry had zeroed in on Simon for the Alice project. He had all the AI skills of his classmates, but also had a creative flair Henry felt was needed for the newest project.
The party got started when everyone sang. Then a buffet of finger food was set along with a selection of soft drinks and sparkling water. Isobel scowled a little at the omission of alcohol, though she wouldn’t have any regardless. Henry, Lisa, and Chastity simply didn’t keep any in the house.
“Thank you all for the birthday wishes,” Henry said. “What a year. The business is going well with lots of new projects. And did you know I got married? I suppose you knew that by the condition I was in when I returned to the office.” There were a few chuckles as they all thought back to Henry’s auto incident.
“Straighten up if you don’t want to end up in a wheelchair again,” Lisa laughed. “Chastity and I still outweigh you.” She patted Henry’s stomach and he realized he’d put on a few pounds. He resolved to get rid of that before the baby was born.
“So, maybe you are wondering, as Izzy pointed out when she first got here, why we are having a party on the first floor instead of the fourth floor. Well, we’ve been re-arranging things in our little home. We moved our home offices to the fourth floor. We’ve been re-arranging the second bedroom on the third floor.”
“That’s cool,” Josh said. He immediately assumed they wanted Chastity closer to them and were announcing the consolidation of their living spaces.
“It seems we need to prepare a nursery,” Henry said.
There was stunned silence as people looked from Chastity to Lisa and back.
“We were going to wait a year before we got started,” Lisa spoke, “But with Luke and Izzy getting ready to pop, we didn’t want the kids to be too far apart in age. They’ll probably want to get married one day. And I’m not due until the end of July, so it will be more than a year after our wedding.”
Everyone clapped and shouted their congratulations.
“You don’t look sick,” Isobel growled when she got close to Lisa.
“I’m not! Never felt better,” Lisa answered.
“I hate you,” Izzy said. “I was sick for three months and then started packing on the pounds. You don’t even look any different. I might never get rid of these bags under my eyes.”
“Isobel, you will snap back to your old self in no time,” Lisa said. “I’ll join you for exercises and we can let our babies play together.”
Isobel puckered her face a little and a tear leaked out of her eyes.
“I’ll try… to be a better friend. I’m such a bitch! I hate myself, not you.”
“Izzy, you and Luke and Chastity and Henry have been friends for years and years. You welcomed me. We’ll always support each other,” Lisa said.
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
