“Hey, dinner is ready. Come eat, worry about all that crap on Monday,” Rachael grabbed him and shook him from his thoughts. “None of that is going to matter in a few days anyhow, you need to relax. The world isn’t going to end this weekend.”
“Alright, what’s for dinner?”
Flora and Oliver were good kids, but distant from their father, an affliction all too common with members of the high business class. Far too many children had executives as parents.
God, I hope I am not like that. Am I a good father?
The two children had to be home schooled because of the successes of their father. Taken and isolated from the friends and schools they knew. Even when Daniel built a private school for his children and the children of Mariposa he wasn’t sure that Oliver forgave him, his unguarded looks were too common toward his father. Twelve year old boys are not easily forgiving of their fathers.
The Tehom family isolated themselves for the weekend. Only Daniel’s private cell phone remained turned on for emergencies, a number only a scant few in the whole world had access to.
As dinner came to a close the household staff took to their private suites in the guest houses and the main house was locked up and secured. A team of armed paramilitary guards patrolled the compound with automatic weapons.
Is this any way for children to live? Is this a prison to them?
Daniel sat in the bedroom dressing chair and loosened his tie from around his neck. Somehow over the years his wife had managed to get him into a shirt and tie, but Daniel never gave up his casual denim. Above the belt Daniel Tehom was all business, below it he was still in college.
Rachael kneeled on the floor and tugged at his blue jeans with a mischievous look in her eyes. He was tired, but not that tired. Her sexual presence had grown stronger as they entered their mid-thirties together.
Her pants were already off and she wore only panties and her dirty tee-shirt from the day.
Is there a bra under there?
She grabbed the cuffs of his pants and pulled them off, he could feel her hot breath on his boxers as he raised his head backwards and closed his eyes.
He had just begun to respond to her advances when an all too familiar soundtrack filled the room.
“God, Seriously?!” Daniel exclaimed and fished the earpiece from his pants on the floor. “This sucks.”
“No, but I do…” Rachael said and closed her mouth around him.
“Hello.”
“Good evening sir, I am with the Pan-Africa Food Fund. Have you seen today’s news headlines? We could really use your donations to assist in…”
“How did you get this number?”
“Uh, sir?”
“This is an unlisted number.”
“Uh, I am on a random dialer sir.” Chirped the kid on the other end of the phone.
Rachael had begun to laugh even with her mouth full, which caused Daniel to smile.
“I’m not interested. Thank you, and please take this number off your dialer, I will wait while you do so, so that you do not call me again.”
“Ok sir, sorry to bother you.”
“Mmmhmm.” moaned Daniel as his wife pleasured him and the phone went dead.
“I own our cell phone carrier, and I still get telemarketers calling me.” Daniel laughed without opening his eyes as his wife gave him a playful bite.
For the remainder of the evening Rachael and Daniel took turns pleasuring each other, it was standard playful lovemaking between partners that trusted one another completely. The journey into the darkness of sleep was slow, comforting and relaxing.
The remainder of the weekend the Tehom family spent with themselves, each of them knowing that by the end of the weekend their lives and the lives of everyone they knew and loved would change.
I am doing it again. Moving them, uprooting them. Will they forgive me this time?
Monday morning came quickly. Rachael, Flora and Oliver got on one helicopter with a few members of staff. Daniel and his personal assistant Claudia another, headed back to work. The Lion of Silicon Valley was coming back to his fields, one last time.
Chapter Two: A New Direction
“This meeting of the board of directors of Tehom Acquisitions is hereby called to order with all members present. Daniel Tehom has the floor.” Spoke Rich Goddard, everyone was in their seat.
“As many…” Daniel started.
“I have something to say,” interrupted Hal. “I…”
“Sit down in your chair and shut up Hal.” Daniel chided.
“As many, well I suppose by now everyone knows we are taking the company headquarters to Texas,” said Daniel. “This will be a permanent move. We are moving nearly everything, all of our assets. We are starting today and will be finished by the end of the week.”
“That is impossible,” said Michael Chong director of the cellular division. “We couldn’t possibly have cellular moved by then, much less social networking. The type of move you are talking about will take months. We are dug in here, we can’t just cut and run.”
“That is why we are separating ourselves from cellular and letting them become their own entity. Tehom Acquisitions will loan the new cellular company the money to buy itself outright, and we will expect the loan payments to be prompt, on a quarterly basis over the next seventy five years. Enjoy your promotion Mike.”
Michael sat stunned, not quite sure what to say or do.
“We are doing the same with Social Networking. Trisha, enjoy your promotion as well, we all know you have earned it.” Daniel began to gain his rhythm; it always took him a few minutes.
“At this point I must ask Michael and Trisha to leave. It has been an honor to work with you both. We will hash out the details and corporate loan schedule later in the week.”
Michael and Trisha walked out of the room quietly, they had both been handed the reins of billion dollar companies and told to leave, neither of them blinked.
“Now, the rest of you I need. If you are going to quit, resign, storm out in a huff or whatever. Do it now, collect your shit and get out.”
Daniel waited, waited and waited. Not a soul moved, even Hal sat quietly and attentively.
“I know you all think I am crazy, even you Rich. I know it may seem that way to you, but we are about to start another journey together. Some of you were here near the beginning. We took a small little gaming company and turned it into a world power. We preyed on people’s boredom and cyber addiction. That mess outside, we are partly to blame for that. Don’t get me wrong, if we hadn’t done it someone else would have. The people outside are simply addicted to information, totally and utterly addicted to hourly updates from people they barely know, to random games with instant gratification. There are no goals or grand ideas. The soul of America has been stolen by the demons in our pockets; I will not be a part of it any longer! We are cutting cellular and social networking loose. Their low loan payments will keep a large portion of their profits coming in till Oliver is an old man. We are shuttering the gaming division, I do not want to lose those people though. We are moving them to Texas with us. Anything that doesn’t produce an actual tangible asset, promote an actual positive outcome or move us toward our new goal is being shut down and the assets reallocated.”
Daniel waited, he knew the question was coming. He expected it to come from Hal.
“What is this new corporate goal you are talking about? A new mission statement, are we going to try and fix that mess outside? How does moving to Texas have anything to do with any of this?” it was Jude Hargrove that actually voiced the question in the room.
Daniel was proud of Jude, he had pirated her away from some low rent technology firm almost a decade ago. A company he had purchased only for a couple patents, patents he would have gladly given up to have Jude.
“Seven years ago, when the mess outside started one of the first things the government did was shut down the space program. They shifted assets from the single most important driving force behind fi
fty years of technological progress. They said they were leaving it to corporate America, gave us all the keys to infinity and moved on to what they called bigger and better things. What has happened since? The Russians are shooting for the moon and laughing at us. We have to pay THEM when we want to stick something in space now. How many billions have we paid the Russian Federation just to be able to launch our own equipment into orbit? The Chinese are shooting for a man on Mars. What are we doing? We are playing cheesy video games, throwing digital fowl at bricks and logs for a giggle. I find it disgusting.” Daniel paused for a moment to judge the reaction of the remaining members of his board.
The door swung open quickly and everyone looked to the door. John Utgaard, the security chief for the building walked into the room with two of his men.
“Is there a problem John?” Daniel didn’t like being cut off mid thought.
“Bit of one sir. May I?”
“By all means, we are not busy or anything.”
“Sorry sir, but I thought this warranted the interruption.” He said and walked over to Hal Cabot.
What have you done now you idiot?
Hal had always been an arrogant pain in the ass, but never disloyal. However, since he had married the snake of a woman he had met through a matchmaker Hal had slowly begun to crumble.
Utgaard patted Hal down and pulled a wire from out of his shirt and the transmitter unit from his belt. A look of absolute horror passed over Hal as the surveillance equipment was tossed on to the table.
“Saw it on the security x-ray when he came in the building, took me a while to figure out what it was. Thought you’d rather not wait.”
“None of us can argue with you here Daniel, you can just pull voting rights and we can’t do anything to stop you ruining people’s lives! I had to do something, I had to try and break your votes somehow. I figured you had to be up to something illegal, I knew you would have to come clean to the board eventually.”
Rich stood up and shouted, “So you tried to put him in jail so you could try and push around the board? Have you lost your mind Cabot?!”
Daniel looked across the table at his friend, someone he no longer recognized. Hal Cabot had once been the better looking of their little group in college. His wife had turned his hair grey at thirty six, and he still followed her orders like a dog. Hal had slowly gained the look of a madman, something in him had snapped.
You idiot Hal, why did you do this to yourself?
“You’re fired.”
With those two words, Daniel knew he had ruined a man. Hal was piss poor with money, Daniel had bailed him out of trouble twice with both legal and illegal creditors. He wouldn’t last long. Daniel no longer felt sorry for him.
“Escort Mr. Cabot from the building, and take his equipment to the lawyers. I am sure they will invalidate Hal’s stock options and have a field day with whatever judge signed the warrant. I hope whoever is on the other end has a backup for their line of employment.” said Daniel to Utgaard as he left the room with Cabot.
“Foolish!” Rich had to get one last jab in before the door closed.
Daniel continued without skipping a beat. He just fired someone who had been with Tehom from the beginning. A fact not lost on the board of directors in front of him.
“I want to instill some pride. The last time America was in trouble we took on projects so large people thought them impossible. Public works and construction on a level not seen in thousands of years brought us back from the brink. The American people have grown to think that getting their hands dirty or actually working for a living is beneath them. Construction and manufacturing, leave those to others, getting our hands dirty isn’t posh right? Being proud, unskilled and homeless has replaced hard work, personal responsibility and national pride. I want to move humanity along, brush this national hiccup under the rug and move on, and I am not afraid to put this entire company on the line to do it. They constantly cry and moan on the television and internet for someone to do something. So let’s do it. But let’s be smart about it.”
Rich Goddard was the only one brave enough to speak, “So you want to start your own space program?” Rich looked at him with in an odd sort of manner. Rich thought he had missed the punch line to a bad joke.
“The level of capital to get a project like that off the ground would be insane. You are talking about building an entire industry virtually from scratch. There is a reason every single space based company has gone under Daniel, there is no money in it. No profit, it is nothing more than sticking a flag on a rock somewhere for shits and giggles. What is the point?” Eric Fuller found his balls and finally spoke up.
“I know you are not so short sighted Eric. The space program that pushed for the moon brought about the technological revolution. The goal developed new sciences, new innovation and is the only reason any of us have on ten thousand dollar shoes instead of work boots. I can push this company in any direction I want, I can pull voting rights, go at this alone and then I would fail. I need you, I need you to be fired up, and I need your passion, all of you. I cannot do this right without all of you. I put you each on this board for a reason; you push and inspire the best out of your people. Each and every one of you is a good person.” Daniel finally sat down in the high back leather chair behind him. The bulk of his planned speech over it was time for discussion.
“Still the level of capital you are talking about here Daniel, I don’t think you could do it. The company is large and…” Eric stopped finally coming to an epiphany of realization, “we have many of the divisions already in place in our family of companies. You have been planning this the whole time haven’t you? How did you possibly think this would all work out?”
“It started as a private amusement at first. I bought companies and patents we could use. I helped fund research that would push the technology in the right direction. I never thought the company would ever get this large. I never really thought it would be possible; it was an unrealistic dream, a simple wish, a secret goal. As we got larger and larger it started to scare me, the possibility. I think we have reached a point where we might actually be able to do this.”
“No Daniel, you are talking hundreds of billions of dollars just to get started, what are you wanting? A company flag on the moon?” Jude seemed to be turning away from the idea.
“Jude, we need to build an industry. Not just fly out and throw a sign somewhere. I want us to build a viable industry, while at the same time putting people to work and taking the next step in innovation. I want to pull this country out from the brink of oblivion.”
“What are we talking about here, mining, power generation, satellites and cargo capability?” said Rich.
“You are also looking at exploration, surveying and even semi-conductor innovation.” Yoko Yuan finally spoke.
I knew I was paying you for something Yoko.
“Where would we put all this? You are talking launch platforms, construction hangars; you would need an entire city. Daniel have you even thought about the startup costs of what we are talking about here? You are dumping our two most profitable businesses and talking about spending an utterly absurd amount of money. Not to mention refocusing the aspect of our entire line of manufacture toward our own company project. We are going to run out of money before we even get anything into the sky.” Eric couldn’t wrap his head around the idea.
This is what I wanted, discussion. Maybe this really is possible.
“Eric is worried about money Rich. What is the official cash position of the parent company?”
Rich smiled as they shared a private joke. “The ‘official’ cash position is,” Rich read down a piece of paper from the folder in front of him, “Two Hundred Seventy Billion US Dollars. As predicted, we hit that figure this morning.
“And foreign cash?”
“You are looking at half a billion Euros, which might as well be firewood. Seventy Billion Chinese Yuan, and a five with too many damned zeros behind it in Japanese Yen.” Rich laugh
ed at his own joke and the board laughed with him.
“God that is a lot of money Daniel,” Eric looked exhausted, the math calculations in his head were running a mile a minute. The man was a numbers machine, the type of genius that knows how many tiles there were in the floor of a room he was in last Thursday for lunch. “I still don’t think that is enough, you are talking a massive expenditure list. Something on par with the Egyptians building all the pyramids at the same time. We could get started, but we would have to have some sort of income coming in while we spun up the project into some kind of profitability.”
“Can I tell him?” Rich anticipated the turn in conversation.
Daniel motioned for him to continue with a sly smile.
“I lied, sort of. On paper, that is our actual cash on hand. However, what is secret is, much of that figure is in gold, platinum and rhodium. We have been hoarding precious medals for years, which is why our official cash on hand is so high. That does not take into account the years of appreciation or gains on the metals prices.”
“Oh my God.” Eric’s head had just filled with more numbers. Daniel could almost see the zero’s bouncing off Eric’s eyes from the inside and laughed out loud.
“Our actual liquid cash assets are roughly a trillion in just metals, with about one hundred billion in cash of various denominations. The economic crisis really did a number on metals, the value just expanded exponentially I was amazed.” Rich looked relieved to finally let go of a secret he had held onto for years. Rich was the only person he trusted fully besides Rachael.
“We are really going to do this, aren’t we?” Jude looked pale. She was the oldest person in the room in her sixties.
“Does that mean I can count on each of you? Your full devotion, passion and drive as I have come to rely on?” Daniel looked to each of them. Everyone was in agreement.
Tehom: The Tehom Legacy Book One Page 2