By the winter break of their junior year, Amir and Jane had amassed a fortune in their stock market investments and their savings account. It was time to reset their personal situations.
They asked their uncles for a meeting at Amir's parents' house about a business proposition. Amir asked, “Could you please bring the title papers and the contract for Jane? I want to examine them for illegal clauses.” Amir's uncles joked about how much money that they would be asked to lend to Amir. They also tried to guess about whether they would ever see their money again.
Amir asked his parents to leave the room. He and Jane wanted to speak just with Amir's uncles. Amir asked how much they had contributed/loaned his branch of the family on his behalf. They said $440,000 for Jane, $190,000 so far for college, and $65,000 for other items.
Amir said, “That is a lot of money to repay. You have done so much for me, and you have yet to get your money back on your investments. I would like to purchase Jane. I want to reimburse you for all of the expenses you have absorbed on my behalf. I have here a bank draft for $900,000. This draft is made out to both of you. You can split the money as you desire. In exchange, please sign over the slave title papers to me, and sign this simple statement that you have been paid back for all of your generous loans. I know you have also supported my parents over the years as well. At this time, I do not think I can repay all of that, but I am giving you some extra to help satisfy some of the obligations of my parents.”
Amir's uncles were astonished. Mo looked at the bank draft and said, “Is this real?” The check required two signatures, Jane and Amir's. Jane's signature was a rubber stamp with her first name in handwriting, and her slave serial number in tiny characters. Mo could not understand a bank draft that appeared to require a slave's signature (his slave!) before it was valid. Amir said, “You can call the bank, and ask about this check; go ahead. I would do that if our roles were reversed.” Mo called the bank and read out the identification number. Mo hung up the phone and told his brother that the check was good. Everyone looked like they had won the lottery when Mo and Fred signed the title papers. As of that instant, Jane now belonged to Amir. Her fate was safe. The nagging worry was that financial problems would cause Mo and Fred to sell Jane and foul up all that they had worked so hard to accomplish. Jane did know that if she were put up for sale, Amir would be the winning bidder. Nonetheless, it was better that it was handled this way.
Before his uncles could ask any questions, Amir called his parents into the room. Amir said, “You have done so much for me, in so many different ways. I am about to launch into a fully adult life. I will be spending much more time away from you, and I may do things that do not please you. My biggest fear is that you, my beloved parents, will think I am ungrateful. I also know how hard it has been since your father did not let you inherit your fair share of the family business. Thus, I wish to give you this bank draft for $500,000 as my way of saying and showing how grateful I have been for your support.”
Pamela immediately yelled, “Where did you get this? What sort of deal have you made with my husband's brothers?” Amir held up his hand and said, “No, this is from me. At this point, I do not owe anything to my uncles. And I did forget to say that there is one thing I ask in return for this money. For the rest of today, I ask you to refrain from saying anything that is hurtful to Jane or me. If you do say something that we find offensive, you must quickly retract it. For the rest of the day, I wish to be free from any of my parents finding fault with me, or saying that I do not measure up. And I am serious about this. I do offer you this bank draft, but I can call the bank and have it withdrawn before it can be deposited if we have even one argument. Jane can address the questions about the source of the funds after some important news.”
Amir paused and switched to a much more festive tone. He announced, “And there is good news. I am pleased to announce that Jane and I are getting married in early July. You are all invited.” Pamela yelled, “What, you are getting married to a slave? There can be no marriage to anyone wearing a slave collar.” Amir said gently, “We are getting married, and you cannot stop it. If you oppose this marriage with one more word and do not apologize for what you just said, you will lose the bank draft.”
Pamela stopped dead. She stayed quiet for a full 30 seconds. She said in a low voice, “I am not opposing this marriage, but I am asking you to be practical. How can you marry the property of your uncles? If they need funds, their slave could be sold outside of the family.”
Mo and Fred then showed the bank check and the sales contract that they had just signed to Pamela and Yassir. Yassir asked, “You now own Jane? But how could you? Where did you get such immense sums? Did you make a terrible deal with my brothers?”
Jane stepped into the center of the room and looked at Amir's close relatives. She said, “I hate keeping secrets, but Amir and I have not told you a secret we kept from you ever since the first few weeks that I joined your household. It turns out that I had two key pieces of information about how to make serious money in the stock market when I came. The other two keys are found in this room. Those two items are Amir and those piles of old magazines. You may remember that the first summer, I spent almost all my time looking through those magazines. My excuse was that I was creating tests for Amir. This was a lie. We were working out the roadmap for personal wealth.”
Jane paused and then continued, “Amir was able to borrow his $250,000 college fund for the summer. During that time, we managed to make a profit of $210,000 by the end of the summer. I am pleased to say that our holdings are now about $23 and a half million, but today's checks take that down to $22 million. We need a few weeks to make up for our spending here today. Yes, the money Amir borrowed was used for the one thing you expressly prohibited, which is speculating on the stock market. Speculating is one thing. If you know which companies are going to fail and which are going to succeed, then it is less of a gamble.”
Fred blurted out, “If you had such a surefire scheme, why didn't you come to us earlier? We could have launched this with much more money!” Amir said, “I remember how I felt when Jane first talked to me about her insights on the success and failure of different technologies. I was very skeptical. It took a lot of time on my part to feel that I was seeing something real and not imaginary or a trick. I do not think you would have been able to spend a few weeks of full-time effort to thoroughly test these ideas against historical data. What I am saying is that the easy part is having a surefire system. It is a hundred times more difficult to convince you that it is real.”
Pamela asked, “What about Jane's freedom? If you are marrying Jane, why not set her free now?” Jane answered slowly, “This may not make sense to you, but I prefer to be married as a slave, not as a free person. If I were free before the ceremony, then it would say to people that Amir could not marry someone who was a slave. But I am and he will. Besides, the invitations already say that Amir Hassan is marrying The Slave Formerly Known as Jane Foreman. It would cost too much to change the invitations.”
Pamela looked upset. Then she calmed down and said, “If I were writing the invitations, they would be worded differently. But I see what you mean about how expensive it is to change the invitations. I think it would cost me $500,000 to object to what you just said. Could I see an invitation, please?” Jane asked Amir “Get an invitation.” She added that this would be a great time to bring in a bottle of champagne and some glasses. They had just taken care of a major hurdle.
The invitations were very sweet. The text inside indicated that the invitations were expressly for the persons listed on the envelope, with the addition of any unshackled slaves in their household. The instructions were clear that to gain entry to the wedding, free people and slaves needed to send a response individually, called an RSVP. Who issues an invitation to a potentially large number of slaves? Who had slaves that were unshackled? Who had slaves that could be trusted to use communication tools without supervision? These aspects of the invitations had so many people talking that everyone wanted to attend. Jane and Amir got many contacts from people who wished to attend but were not on the invitation list. Jane and Amir anticipated this and sent out quite a few additional invitations.
Even Jane and Amir's closest friends and relatives did not know what to expect at the wedding. When guests arrived, they came into a large room with a wide central aisle. Amir was in the front, looking somewhat alarmed, annoyed, and concerned. Jane was nowhere to be seen.
When the appointed time came, Amir looked even more concerned. He kept looking at his watch. Jane and a close friend, referred to as a bridesmaid, came down the aisle. Jane was wearing her gold slave collar and a leash, being held by her friend. They hurried down the aisle. Another bridesmaid intercepted them halfway down the aisle and started to argue, “How can Jane be married this way?” The second bridesmaid whistled loudly, and a third bridesmaid showed up with a series of documents. She went to Amir to get signatures, then to Jane for more signatures. Once all the bridesmaids had reviewed the signed documents, there were two more quick whistles.
At that point, three men came in quickly wearing government uniforms. They set up a photo booth and some other portable equipment. They took a long time asking Jane for her personal information. Amir was pointing to his watch, and Jane was just shrugging. Eventually, they put Jane in the portable photo booth to take her picture. The assembled wedding guests could not imagine what was going on. There was considerable noise and hubbub as the crazy scene played out in front of everyone. Finally, the government men studied the ID card the machine had just produced. It was then passed to the bridesmaids, and they all seemed to approve. They unlocked the leash, and the four bridesmaids walked Jane without a leash to Amir.
They turned and faced the wedding guests. The person officiating the wedding examined the paperwork and the ID card. Then he looked happy and finally started the wedding. At that point, Amir looked a bit more relaxed and happy. When the officiating person said, “Do you, Amir Hassan, wish to marry the free woman named Jane Foreman?” the guests went wild. They had just witnessed the entire process by which a slave becomes free. That Jane and Amir had invited as many slaves as possible to witness this made many points to many people. That they had made the event as silly and comical as possible within a minute of starting the wedding astonished everyone.
The reception was one for the record books. There was so much excellent food and so many wonderful substances that allowed people to have a good time; guests wondered who could pay for such an event. Amir's parents and his uncles were beaming. Their Amir was a very nice man who knew how to throw a party.
Just about every guest asked, “How does it feel to be free?” She said, “On a day-to-day basis, it is the same. I am the business partner and the life partner to Amir. I have already been free of leashes and leg shackles for a few years. But it was nice to know that the government was not keeping a file with my DNA, ready to grab and sacrifice me the moment my sale price falls below the price people are willing to pay for my internal organs. That is one advantage that free people do not appreciate having.” Each guest made a face as if they were thinking, “Did I just ask the wrong question?” and went somewhere else, usually towards the food, alcohol, and the dancing. If they were expecting her to say, “It is wonderful to be free!” then they did not know Jane. This gave the next person a chance to approach Jane and ask the same question.
Of course, Jane's glib and scary answer did not address two advantages of being a free person: she did not have to be chained up for the night while she slept, and she did not have to wear slave restraints when she was a passenger in a car. Jane smiled because she regarded her answer as “more educational.”
Many guests asked about her slave collar. She said, “This gold collar was awarded to me when I was very young. It shows the great deal of trust that was given to me. I like having this collar. When I no longer want it, I will remove it. For now, I am a proud woman, for six years, I have worn a slave collar. I was sold three times wearing a slave collar. I am now a married woman of some means. I am not taking this off tonight.” The idea that a newly freed slave would want to wear a slave collar with pride was astonishing. It turned out that the law was filled with rules about how slaves needed to be restrained. There was not a word about the removal of a slave collar when a slave obtained their freedom. Perhaps the woman formerly known as the slave formerly known as Jane Foreman might inspire a new law that required her to forfeit the slave collar.
Amir and Jane slept that night in a large hotel suite. It was very nice. They had some difficulty signing into the hotel. The hotel staff was suspicious of an ID card issued on that very day when all the government offices were closed. The ID cards identified Jane and Amir as level two people, even though at best they looked like two college students, and at worst looked like a not so nice person trying to smuggle a low-class slave into a hotel as if she was level two! The hotel called the police, who came and examined all the paperwork. They determined that the hotel should not have called the police and fined the hotel $200.
After spending two nights, and a long and wonderful day, at the hotel, the newly married couple traveled by train to Jane's hometown, Warren Ohio. They traveled “first class” and had comfortable sleeping quarters. This was the first time Jane had ever traveled in any comfort. Jane was, in fact, very much enjoying being free. Since there was some uncertainty in their travel plans and connections, they called ahead a few times to make sure Jane's friends knew she and Amir were coming.
All of Jane's friends and many others greeted Jane and Amir at the train station. They were tired from the long train ride. They went to Sarah's house and crowded into the rooms the best they could. Jane and Amir took a two-hour nap. When they woke, they called Skipper's to rent a large room for everyone. It was quite an affair.
Sarah insisted on starting off the proceedings by reminding everyone of the farewell dinner three years ago. She had demanded that everyone drink a glass of wine and then imagine the moment of Jane's freedom. She added, “We all missed the wedding and that magic moment. We have Jane alive and well. She is a newly minted bride. And she is free. I ask, no, I demand that we all drink a glass of wine to recall that moment and to delight in where we are now. And I do think Jane has a story to tell.” Everyone wanted to hear from Jane. Glasses filled with wine were quickly distributed. They were all consumed quickly. All eyes were now on Jane.
Jane described the wedding in detail. She delighted in describing the total confusion they caused during the “slave freedom” sequence of the wedding. Several people at Skipper's then wanted to see the ID card. Someone remarked, “The photo looks very nice. You do not look disoriented.” Jane smiled and said that each bit was carefully practiced. Deb screamed when she saw the description of Jane as “level two.” She said, “What is this about? How did you get the government to write that on an ID card? Can you be arrested for having a fake ID card?” Jane had Amir show his ID card that also said “level two.”
Jane said, “Questions about these ID cards and their status cannot be answered here in this location. There will be a serious discussion about these issues at Mr. Mitchell's house tomorrow at 10 am. If you were part of the Sophomore Summer Enrichment Program six years ago, you are welcome. If you are not, I will just say that the ID cards are legit. For anyone who is doubtful, I can give the computer access codes to verify my ID card. But the story needs to be discussed in detail behind closed doors. I will just say here and now that Amir and I are involved in a unique business that is quite profitable, moral, and legal. I wish I could say more right now.”
Bit by bit, Amir and Jane filled in many details. They described Jane's examination right before the sale to the Hassan family. They told all they could about their life together, leaving out the business details. There was a thirst by everyone for the rest of the story.
At 10 am the next day, ten people came into Mr. Mitchell's house. Amir was taking Rose's place in the gang of ten. They had decided they should now use the name The Five Couples instead of the gang of ten. Some thought that switching their name was erasing Rose's memory. But keeping the name made it hard to add Amir. Somehow saying, “The Five Couples” was difficult without remembering Rose.
When they entered, Jane was happy to see Danny wearing a gold collar. She asked him how he was doing. He said, “Mr. Mitchell purchased a car for me. I am able to do errands around town all by himself. I have been meeting many people who want to be friends with someone with a car.” Danny winked at the end of the last sentence. Danny was very different from the lonely young man whom Jane had befriended six long years ago.
Everyone gathered in the large study in Mr. Mitchell's house. He greeted everyone, especially Jane and Amir. He said, “If he had an invitation, he would have taken a whole train to the wedding.” Jane replied, “Yes, and that is why we are here now, we want to save you from making such a large and unneeded expense.” Jane and Amir described the wedding, along with the comical series of events technically freeing Jane when she was halted halfway down the aisle.
Mr. Mitchell asked about the financial issues. Jane told the group about their extremely busy first summer when Jane and Amir were working out their first investment ideas based on Jane's notebooks. Jane explained that the key insight came from the high school presentation, where the guest had never heard of “Microsoft.” To Jane, that showed how rare were the insights she got from Mr. Mitchell's books. Jane gave an account of borrowing from Amir's uncles, obtaining $210,000 by the end of the summer. Jane explained that the money was expanding by multiplying about 4.5 times each year. After three years, they now had about $27 million.
There was a gasp from Jane's friends when she gave out that last number. No one had any idea. It is one thing to say goodbye to your friend, the math and science nerd, who was devastated at leaving to be a business teacher. To imagine that she had embraced the topic of “business” to the extent that she had such a massive “side business” was hard to grasp. What happened to the Jane that was teaching them calculus and studying chemistry and physics with them? Besides, it was so common to remark that everyone lost all of their money investing in technology companies that it seemed like a most unlikely path to wealth.
Mr. Mitchell asked detailed questions about the money Amir and Jane had obtained through the purchase and sale of stocks. He asked detailed questions about what they had purchased with the money. Amir explained that until recently, his closest relatives did not know. They did not buy anything extra at all. He said $1,400,000 for Jane and to buy the acceptance of his relatives, especially his parents. They had spent about $15,000 on their car and a long series of expenses that they hid from Amir's uncles. Amir said they spent about $12,000 on the wedding and the travel after the wedding. That was about it. They just kept their money in a savings account and a few stock trading accounts.
Mr. Mitchell said, “I want you all to stay quiet as I explain the danger in which you have put yourselves. First Jane, there are six social levels. Two of them have names with the letter 's'. What are they?” Jane said, “That is easy, level six is a slave, level one is a slice owner.” Mr. Mitchell muttered, “I think I do not have to explain to you what a slave is, but let me explain what ‘slice owner’ means. It means that the person owns a slice of this world. They could own a large slice of the world's gold. They could own a vast tract of farmland. They could own a major company.”
Mr. Mitchell paused to collect his thoughts and then continued, “A slice owner does not have a bank account; he or she owns a bank. A slice owner does not just buy and sell stocks; he or she installs the management and the board of directors. But that is not enough. He or she then keeps these holdings safe by holding the actual shares with layers of law firms to protect these holdings from any sort of lawsuit or attack. By way of contrast, your money is in accounts whose value is set by a few characters in a computer file. If you have a rich and powerful enemy, your money can disappear overnight. You are protected as someone deep in level two, but you are exposed if you think that you can become level one just with a large bank account. Just about every person who is level one was born to money. If they were not, they started a great company. To attempt to join the collection of jerks in level one by these methods is pure folly. You will vanish, and your money will vanish. You will have accomplished nothing with your life.”
Everyone was silent for a few minutes. Jane spoke up, “Charles, I think Amir and I can continue this operation with some modest modifications. We use the savings account for money we want to protect from catastrophic trading losses. We could hold a maximum of $40,000 in the savings account and hold the rest in physical gold. We can cap the amount invested in stocks at any one time. For large stock holdings that we intend to keep for several months, we can request the stock certificates. That way if the computer records are erased, we would still have most of our stock holdings in a secure and safe place.”
Charles Mitchell replied, “That approach is much better. In my opinion, that should be the way you should be operating at your current level of wealth. But to break into the ranks of the slice holder, you need to own majority shares in companies that you create from top to bottom. Every part of the company must owe their allegiance to you and no one else. Unless you do that, stop your stock trading, even if it is insanely profitable. Your greed will take you to oblivion.”
Amir said, “You are saying that this world is rigged, that others can take what we have unless we protect it. I understand this. My wife has lived as a slave for six years because of the desperate choices her parents took to keep a failing business alive. I am sure they were loyal to their own staff, and as well as trying to protect their position. We just need to change our approach. What Mr. Mitchell is saying is that very soon, the stock trading must stop. Instead, the money needs to be used to form our own technology companies.”
Amir continued, “I am majoring in business. I have a lot of seed capital. Who here is interested in starting a new company? The only requirement is that you have to be insanely loyal to us. In return for your loyalty, we will make sure you have the capital for your company to grow rapidly. I suspect that Jane's basic approach to picking stock winners can also create a list of technologies that are on the cusp of development that would flourish in this marketplace.”
Mr. Mitchell chimed in, “This is a sound approach. Amir and Jane, you do have a crew of people who are totally loyal to you. No one had ever heard of a technology company that was privately funded that was unknown to the billionaire class. You could be totally off the radar until the entire network was doing well. I am not sure how many of you want to be part of this. I think if we here are all in, I could get into level one just by collecting or owning 5% of the network. It might take ten years, but I see many of us in level one. Speaking of 5%, I propose that Emily and Danny form a company whose sole function is to offer business consulting, human relations, staff development, and management vetting for this proposed network of businesses. By doing so, it will be hard for any other parties to get an idea of what each company is doing. I also suggest that we work out some codes so that we can communicate. I think having a large number of words for the proposed network such as the octopus, the network, the web, the AJ System, would be good. If someone is trying to read our messages, we need to send them in many different directions. I think each of you needs to spend an hour with Jane and Amir to plan the rest of your education and to plan the launching of each of your businesses.”
Amir added, “As I see it, secrecy is critical. This is a conspiracy. Each of us can do things like explaining to others that you want to study microwave communications, or that you want to create a company that makes or uses microwave communications gear. Each of us needs to be able to speak about our individual projects. Never speak of your individual project as being part of any larger effort. When it is clear that there is a connection between these companies, it will be too late for anyone else to stop this project. By that point, the network companies will be essential for the future of this nation and this world. But there is another secret that is even deeper, and it is essential that it be kept secret. I know it. Jane knows it. Charles knows it. But it is the one thing that cannot even be whispered outside of these walls. We all know that the technology was much more advanced forty years ago than it is right now. But we further know that our government leadership, which has access to the true details, is too busy or otherwise occupied to delve into this information. They assume the engineers and scientists know it, but they do not. We know it, and we are unique to have this information and be able to exploit it. Of this, we will speak no more.”
Jane added, “I think the biggest focus of our network should be to provide a better solution for the problem known in the past decades as the 2038 Unix Problem. The solution should be better than the patchwork of incompatible solutions that have caused so much fragmentation of our present-day computer networks. The trick is that you cannot make money directly from this solution. We must construct a full set of compatible hardware and software ready to sell when this solution is rolled out. If we do this right, we will have one single, vast, integrated computer network linking all parts of our world.” It was an intoxicating vision of the future.
Deb had been very quiet during the homecoming and the meeting at Mr. Mitchell's house. She was, of course, happy for Jane. But she was also jealous of Amir. She very much wished that it was her that was sharing Jane's life. She squeezed Cathy's hand. Deb and Cathy were planning on getting married after college and were already talking about raising children. Now, they would be raising businesses as well. Deb had to keep her feelings about Jane as buried as she possibly could.