A few days after Cathy and Deb's wedding, it was time for some planning meetings. Naturally, Cathy and Deb needed their families to provide childcare for most of the day. They looked exhausted and told everyone how their children were doing.
Peter started the meeting. He said, “Jane, I think you are wrong about date issues in computer systems and networks. In my university lab, we experiment with a variety of computers. We have a few with unmodified software from decades ago. None of these have any problems or issues. You might be right about computer networks shutting down. But plain vanilla computer software seems to have been cranking along year after year without any problems.”
Jane looked confused; she asked, “Are you sure?” Peter stood firm, “I think you are about to make the biggest bet in your life. Our future and fortune are at stake. I get the idea that you want all of us to be the instrument to transform the world so that everyone can better communicate and interact, but we cannot do this if we are solving a problem that is not a problem. We are operating in the dark. So far, we have no real information about what is happening in the computer industry except what we read in the trade press. Do not get me wrong; I am amazed at what you can do with the trade press and those golden notebooks of yours. But now we need to know about the key forces driving this industry, and we need to all recognize that we do not have a clue. My best guess is that entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to some central committee, and they either offer or do not offer initial funding. Our plan, of course, is to avoid this altogether. But it would be better if we knew more about this process. I am wondering what goes into the decision-making process other than the technical or business merits.”
Jane stared hard at Peter, “I know you do not speak up like this without a plan. What are you thinking of doing?” Peter lowered his voice, “So far, our planning has been based on keeping a low profile. But I think we need to show our hand a tiny bit. I could pretend to be a major stockholder and say something at a public meeting. If someone asks where I got the information, I will mention Jane's name. Then it will be Jane's turn to get a phone call. I suspect they will invite Jane to a meeting. Jane, your job will be to go and gather way more information than you reveal.”
Jane offered, “I will try to find a company that would bring out all the big shots to the stockholder meeting. It has to be a company where there is a major controversy. It has to be a company that is directly owned by a selection of level one people. Give me a few days to do some research. But Peter, you will not be pretending to be a stockholder. We will set you up with a newly formed shell company that has a major stake. To get away with this, everything has to be legit. They will be checking identification and proof of stock ownership to enter the meeting.”
Peter took a train to Louisville Kentucky. It was one of the longest trips he had ever taken in his life. Peter was playing a role, that of a confused stockholder. But it was more than a role. Thanks to Jane, he was the president of a shell corporation. The sole asset of his company was about $230,000 of Black Moth Limited. He had the paperwork to prove this. He was on his way to a large meeting room in a hotel for a meeting of the stockholders. The board of directors was divided on a major expansion project. The purpose of the meeting was for the stockholders to vote (one share, one vote) to break the deadlock.
At the hotel, several staff people checked his ID card and his stock certificates. It was a complicated procedure. Peter needed to prove that he was the owner of his enterprise, Principle Investments and Technology, and that his enterprise owned the stock. Eventually, he was admitted. Peter was surprised that there were only about 120 people in the meeting. Peter took a seat at the back of the meeting hall.
So much of the meeting was carefully scripted. But eventually, the time came to deal with the issue that had divided the board of directors. Two members of the board on opposite sides each gave a short presentation of their views. There was a point when stockholders could ask questions. There were two microphones, one labeled “approve of expansion,” the other labeled “disapprove of expansion.” Peter lined up at the “against” microphone. When it was his turn, he said, “I do not want this company to end up like Atari.” The moderator looked confused and asked, “What do you mean by that?” Peter replied, “The expansion is based on the company being the market leader for years to come. If market share dropped because of lagging technology, that would accelerate our problems because of the costs of expansion. What I want to know is, has this possibility been fully considered?”
Peter's attention was not on the canned answers to his question. He looked around to see if anyone had a startled or concerned look about what he had just said. He did notice two men in fancy suits staring at him, even after he got back into his seat. At the end of the meeting, Peter kept his eyes on them. When the meeting was over, Peter noticed that they were coming over to intercept him. The two men asked if Peter could join them for a restaurant meal. Peter asked, “What is this all about?” One of the men with a dark coat just said, “We want to talk about the Atari Corporation.”
The two men were pleasant. They refused to give their names. Over a very nice meal, they asked Peter repeatedly about his company and his investment in Black Moth Limited. They wanted to know what he thought of the prospects for the company. Peter had difficulty answering their very specific questions. They wanted to know his business history. Peter said he ran a business to help wealthy people invest. He had the money from “his clientele” and was investing some of it in Black Moth Limited.
The two men wanted to know why Peter had said something about Atari Corporation. Peter asked what the big deal was. They just said that knowledge of older corporations had almost vanished from the earth. How had he learned about Atari, and why did he think a reference to Atari would be meaningful to anyone else? Peter was puzzled about why mentioning an old corporation would cause such a strong reaction. Peter at one point said, “My friend Jane Foreman mentioned Atari to me.” Peter immediately knew this was a mistake. When asked who she was, Peter said, “Jane was one of my friends from high school.”
Peter was trying very hard to think of some way of asking why they were so upset about hearing the name of an older company. But they seemed to be menacing him, and he was afraid of making them angrier. Peter was happy when they started asking more questions about Black Moth and the expansion plans. Peter kept saying that he felt certain that the expansion would be a mistake. It would be the move that would lead to oblivion. But it was frustrating that Peter could not offer a convincing argument as to why this was a reasonable concept. Peter now understood the power of knowledge of the past. He had hoped to find someone else who shared a love of fascinating details of the past. Instead, he was talking to some thugs who were determined to eliminate traces of the past. What was going on?
Peter was relieved that he was allowed to leave the restaurant and find a hotel room. The next morning Peter was off on a train back to Warren, Ohio. At one point, the train was delayed at a station, and a squad of police went through the train, making a list of everyone on the train. When they got to Peter, they asked, “Where are you going, and what address will you be at for the next week?” Peter answered. He wondered if the train was being delayed just to make sure that someone knew where to find him.
Once he arrived at Warren, he walked around the downtown until he was certain that he was not being followed. At that point, he walked to Mr. Mitchell's house. Danny opened the door for him. Peter ran inside and said, “Summon Jane. I think we are in real trouble.” Danny asked, “What happened?” Peter started to tell the whole story. Danny held up his hand to stop. Danny said, “Follow me to the library; you can tell Jane, Amir, Charles, and me.” Peter told his strange story about being asked politely, but firmly, about Jane and Atari. He described his terror when he realized that the train stopped just for him. Peter seemed surprised that no one seemed to be very interested in what he had said as if his story was merely confirmation of something they already knew.
Jane sensed the confusion on Peter's face; she said, “Peter, the morning after the stockholder's meeting, I got a phone call summoning me to something called The Supreme Council of Sunnyvale California. I cannot tell if I am being invited just for a friendly chat, or a meeting, or being summoned to an investigation. I am to travel by myself. I need to get some paperwork together. Sunnyvale is one of the ten cities in America where level one people live. It is guarded by thousands of police using what used to be called military weapons. I need to bring proof of the invitation so that I am allowed to travel to Sunnyvale. It is sort of like traveling to the Emerald City.” She looked around the room. Except for Charles, no one knew what the Emerald City was. Charles said, “The Supreme Council is a very important organization. If Jane is summoned, she has to go.”
Others had intended to argue that Jane should not go. Charles' flat statement stopped that line of discussion cold. Her mission would be to deflect interest in her work and business interests. The discussion switched to how Jane could answer the questions that might come up. Peter warned, “They know much more than you think. Be very careful what you say. Listen to the questions, and think carefully before saying anything. I mentioned your name when I should not have. I know you will be more careful than I was.”
After a few days, Jane got paperwork in the mail. The papers gave her name and ID number. The invitation and her ID card would allow her to travel all the way to Sunnyvale. She was able to purchase a set of train tickets all the way across the country to California. She bought one ticket to Chicago, another to Emeryville/San Francisco, and a final ticket on the special train from Emeryville to the “Emerald City” of Sunnyvale. The trip was long, and Jane got to experience for herself how big America is. She experienced days of traveling across the plains, into Colorado, through the Moffat Tunnel under the Continental Divide, followed by Salt Lake City, and then a trip over the Donner Pass across the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is the old line of the California Zephyr train of decades past. Once in Emeryville California, she submitted her paperwork to take the guarded train into Sunnyvale.
Jane brought a new notebook to write about and sketch her great journey to California. The mountains of Colorado and California were beyond her imagination. It was late at night when she got to Emeryville. It took a little time to find the place in the station for the special shuttle train. There was a line of people waiting their turn. When Jane got to the front of the line, there were two very tough looking police officers. They looked at Jane, at her ID card, and at her letter inviting her to Sunnyvale. The cops found several things wrong. Jane was wearing a gold slave collar. Her ID card indicated that she was level two. Her letter said that she was “invited” to attend a meeting with the five most powerful level one people in Sunnyvale. This did not add up. The police agreed that she was a slave who was attempting an escape into Sunnyvale. They threw her into a dark cell until someone had time to sort out who she really was.
The result of this action was that Julie Hildebrandt, the chair of the Supreme Council, made some inquiries. There were several reports that Jane Foreman was on the long train to California. But there were no reports of her getting on any of the guarded trains to Sunnyvale. She called the chief of police at the Emeryville Station and said, “If Jane is not personally delivered in two hours, you and your staff will be guarding borax mines in Death Valley.”
Within a few minutes, Jane was pulled out of the cell, given a quick shower, changed into some clothes used by policewomen who work undercover, put into a police car, and sent in a fast police convoy to Sunnyvale. Jane was amazed at the number of police that were guarding the region. They whizzed through a border crossing. Every other car was being searched, but the convoy of police cars with their sirens blaring did not have to stop or even slow down. About 30 minutes later, they pulled in front of a small conference center. The police quickly got her out of the car and had her jogging into the building. Jane turned around to see two police officers carrying her luggage. She started to wonder if this meant that she would find some of her valuables missing.
As Jane got into the conference center, she met the five-member Supreme Council of Sunnyvale, California. She recognized Roger Carter from the days when she was sold after high school graduation. She was introduced to Julie Hildebrandt, Roger Carter, James Chu, Lillian Min, and Fred Smith. Each had their specialty, but together they were the top governing body in America for technology issues. Jane thought, “So this was it, a five-member committee that controls technology companies with an iron fist.” Jane sensed that the day of the billionaire clubhouse government was soon to be over, but she certainly did not say this to the Supreme Council.
Staff workers ushered them into an elaborate meeting room. The six sat around a big table. Julie started the discussions. She asked, “Jane, could you explain how your high school friend Peter Anderson showed up in Louisville Kentucky at a stockholder's meeting, and why he asked a question very provocatively?” Jane answered, “I set up a company so that he could learn investments. It appears that he purchased stock in some company and then went to the stockholder's meeting. I have no idea about a provocative question. Could you tell me what he said?” Julie looked very unhappy; she said, “Our records show that you purchased the stock and turned it over to Peter. We thought you might not be telling the truth. I am warning you now that if you lie again, you may never leave this building alive.”
Jane's mind was spinning. Every word she said from then on had to be the truth. Any hope of doing anything else with her life depended on telling the truth, but perhaps holding something back. It dawned on her that she had always dismissed rumors of a small committee that decided all technology investment issues as a “conspiracy theory.” Well, now that “conspiracy theory” was staring at her right in the face. Instead, Jane had focused on the date issues. It was clear that Peter was right all along. The date issues in all critical software had been fixed all along. Jane realized her only hope was to use any opportunity to switch focus to side issues, like the Unix 2038 problem. She also knew that she had to be totally honest about where she had learned about Atari.
Jane gulped and said, “I visited a house with many books about old technology companies. I liked these books and told my friends interesting stories about Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, and Atari. So yes, Peter had mentioned Atari at the meeting. I think Peter was hoping that he could find a friendly face that knew more stories about these older days of the microcomputer. But instead of a friendly face, his use of that sentence got me invited to speak to you. Now that we have established that, why don't you ask me whatever you have on your mind?”
Julie said, “Before we get to that, could you state for the record all of the contacts you have had with Roger Carter?” Jane said, “Sure, that is easy. When I was sold after I graduated from high school, I was presented to five bidding finalists. Roger was one of the five. As your records show, I was sold to the Hassan family. I eventually became a free woman and married Amir Hassan. Before the marriage, I wrote to Roger, asking him to sign my paper so that I could get this gold collar. He signed the paper so that I was able to obtain a gold collar. I have kept the gold collar out of respect to all the people, especially Roger Carter, who have placed their trust in me.”
Julie asked, “Was that the only contact you had with Mr. Carter?” Jane replied, “As a slave student at Georgia Tech with a gold collar, I advocated that other slave/free teams obtain a gold collar. I explained how to obtain one since I had just done so. I collected the names of seven slave students who wanted a gold collar. I sent a second letter to Mr. Carter asking that he sign the paperwork for the seven additional names. The contact I had with Mr. Carter was the privilege of him bidding on me, and his answering two letters that were entirely a matter of asking him to trust me, and for him to sign his name. I am as grateful for his helping my fellow students, and I am grateful for his helping me. Again, I want to stress the pride I feel when I recall these events, and that pride is reflected in my refusal to have this gold collar removed.”
Roger Carter had been nodding in agreement as Jane related her story. He added, “I will state for the record that Jane is speaking the truth. I do recall visiting her hometown of Warren Ohio and bidding on her. She was obviously smart, talented, and capable. I would have purchased her, except for some family problems. She was to be the companion for my nephew, but as the bidding got higher, my brother started acting up. He seemed to resent my purchase of an expensive slave as if I would be holding the purchase price against him for years to come. I did not want my purchase to complicate my family, which is why Jane was purchased by a family of much lesser means. And yes, I do recall signing Jane's two letters. They were very persuasive and well crafted. It would appear that Jane has well used her talents now that she has obtained her freedom. I ask this wise counsel to respect Jane. I sense that there are many issues that Jane has mastered and that we would profit from her analysis.”
Jane looked around. She had so much to think about, beyond what to say to survive the day. Jane thought about the guarded train to Sunnyvale, the tanks, machine guns, infantry troops, the barbed wire fencing and border patrols she had seen with her own eyes defending Sunnyvale. What was all of this military might guarding? Sunnyvale itself was no “Emerald City of Oz.” There were no fantastic sights. It was just another place where people worked and lived. It was, in fact, a place for people of all levels of society, but just one that included people at level one. She guessed that there were a few neighborhoods with some very, very nice homes. The idea that seemed so fantastic was that thousands were guarding the city just to protect certain people. The five people she was sharing the table with were some of those so-called special people. They dressed just like her. They seemed just like the other business people she dealt with in Atlanta. Why were the lives of the level one so much more special than the level two? Once again, she told herself that she needed to be very careful about what she said and to be very careful to pick up any clues about the lives of the level one.
Jane's train of thought was interrupted when Julie suddenly asked, “Jane, when was the last time you had any food at all?” Jane admitted that it had been about 19 hours. The Council looked shocked and asked what had happened. Jane explained, “I had been sick of the train food and was waiting to get into a good hotel at Emeryville, or Sunnyvale where I could have some proper food. But when I showed my papers to get on the shuttle train, the police threw me into a filthy cell. I had no food, no anything until I was late for this meeting. I am totally exhausted and hungry. I do not mind being detained, but a modest meal or two would have gone a long way.” The Council members looked very surprised. Lillian said, “How can this be; you are a level two?” Jane just said, “The police must have mistaken me for a slave with false papers. I am sure they would have sorted me out in a week or two. Someone here must have made a phone call. I was pulled from my cell, given a shower and some clothes, and then we raced over here in a police convoy.”
Julie added, “I made a phone call to the police in the train station. I told them who I was and explained that the five members of the Council were waiting for Jane Foreman. I then threatened them with guarding the mines in Death Valley unless they produced Jane in two hours. But somehow I forgot about food.” Julie turned towards her staff, “I do not care what it is, but get some food for Jane here in one minute. After that, have someone cook a full meal for her, I do not care if it is breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Make her something and get it to her fast. This poor lady has not eaten in a day, and this is not Yom Kippur.”
Within seconds, a plate of some pastries and some fruit was put on the table in front of Jane. About 15 minutes later, a hastily prepared breakfast was brought in by several staff persons. They all looked very scared that the food was not good enough or prepared fast enough. Jane thought that while the staff members were not slaves, she rarely saw slaves that looked as scared about whether they pleased their masters.
The meal was a good break in the proceedings. Since the Council members all ordered snacks from the staff, they could all have some food to eat. Jane used the time to tell her basic story, from the night raid to her marriage to Amir. She left out the financial details and the deep bonds she had with her friends, but she felt that telling her basic life story would put the additional details into a more positive light. When Jane was just finishing up, the rest of the Council were all telling Roger that the worst decision he had made in his life was not buying Jane.
When the meal break was over, Julie started things off by saying, “Now let's make sure all the recording equipment is on. Jane, can you explain your remarkable trading system? We want to know who you have been in contact with, and your method of communications.” Jane was astonished. The Council was certain that she had a network of people in the technology industry feeding her “inside information.” Jane wished she had a network of friends. She would not be threatened with instant death if she had a few friends to tell her what to avoid.
Jane spoke very slowly, “I have no contacts or friends in this industry, or any other industry, other than the normal contacts someone of my status has who has been investing money. I have quite a few social contacts, but no one has given me inside information. My father, of course, has been telling me for years the secrets of running an ultra-efficient bicycle factory. But I know you are not interested in that.”
“But I do have an investment system. When I was a high school student, I was able to visit a private library in Warren. This library contained about a dozen books about the conflicts between technology companies in the early days of the microcomputer era. I found these interesting but did not study these carefully. In my senior year, there was a presentation in our school about the field of re-engineering. I asked a question about Microsoft Corporation. The presenter did not recognize this company name at all. I could not imagine how you could rebuild our technology without knowing about Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation.”
“I concluded that these books had special knowledge that no one else had. I re-read them all several times. I asked for permission to borrow them and was refused. I copied down their contents in several notebooks. I constructed company indexes, technology indexes, timelines, and more. I attempted to integrate all the information found in these books into a single document that I could refer to that held all the forgotten secrets from decades ago.”
At this point, Roger interrupted Jane to ask, “And you did this analysis before you graduated from high school?” Jane nodded yes. Roger added, “So when you were offered for sale, you already had those notebooks?” Again, Jane nodded yes, and then she continued, “The second element in my method was finding stacks and stacks of old and new business magazines in Amir's house that summer. I could use the entire matrix of information combined with news reports on current technology companies to predict the rise and fall of the financial fortunes of companies. I spent a day or so convincing Amir that I could predict the technology stock market. Amir borrowed the $250,000 college fund from his uncles for the summer. By the end of the summer, we had holdings of $210,000. I should mention that my dear husband Amir has made many improvements to my methods, including adding proper risk controls.”
James Chu seemed to have all of Jane's trading records. He asked for a list of her investments that summer and for an explanation for each one. Jane was able to list the 15 companies she had started with, and why these seemed to be good ideas. Jane listed which were total losses, which were moderate losses, which were moderate winners, and which one was a massive winner. James nodded and told the Council that Jane's historical trading history matched her verbal account before the Council.
Julie seemed flabbergasted at this turn of events. She asked, “Who were your contacts who fed you information?” Jane said, “I have none. I would have done better if I could have talked to people. I just used news stories and compared these stories to my knowledge of the previous development of technology. Where my knowledge failed, I consulted my precious notebooks.” Julie turned to Roger Carter and asked, “Did you have any idea that such a thing was possible, that books written in the 1980s or 1990s could offer such profound insights?” Roger answered, “Frankly no. I had no idea, but I thought we would learn interesting things here. I think we are all getting a real education here.”
Julie turned again to Jane, and asked, “What is the value of your holdings now?” Jane said that she had not been able to check the value of her stocks for a week, but they should be in the range of $25 to $30 million. James nodded. He did say, “Jane, your holdings went up in value by about $2 million in the last week, so that you and your husband now have about $29 million.”
Julie now spoke gravely, “We now get to the heart of our issue with you Jane. What are your intentions? At the rate you are going, you will be the technology industry in a few years. We cannot allow this exponential growth to continue. So Jane, were you intending to stop at some point? Were you planning to uproot our social order? Do you imagine a revolution of slaves and lower classes against the level one stratum of society?”
Jane remembered her obsession with critical dates and operating systems. She said, “I did think that I could use my funds to start a company to rebuild some of the major operating systems so they would be without date defects. I am talking about the 2038 Unix Problem and similar problems with Mac OS and Microsoft software.” Jane continued to discuss her idea of improving the computer environment with better operating systems.
Roger interrupted and said, “The date issue is very complex. We will be here the rest of the night before we get to a resolution. I think I am the only person on the Council with any experience with older and more modern computer operating systems. Could I suggest that we stop this meeting, and I take Jane to my house for the rest of the day? We will come back tomorrow with a resolution of this case.”
Julie frowned and said, “I do not like this, but I do not want to argue with Roger. Jane is to be considered a dangerous person still under investigation. I like the fact that she still has a slave collar. I want her to wear a nationwide locating device on her collar, to be leashed or restrained at all times. Jane is not a slave; she is a level two free person. But she is under investigation. I want to see her at 10 am tomorrow in these chambers.”
Roger used his phone to request a car with a set of slave restraints. Staff members fetched a locating device and a leash for Jane and Roger. Within minutes, Jane had a locating device locked to her collar. A leash was on her collar, and she was led to Roger's car. Jane had never heard of a nationwide locating device. Jane thought it was interesting that she had one now that she had obtained her freedom from slavery. When she was placed in the all-encompassing embrace of the slave car restraints, Jane wondered if she would live to see the next day, or whether she was already a slave again.