Faster

by Alex Schuler

  Lori exhaled and briefly closed her eyes. She slowly released Sam’s fingers.

  “When I got there, Nico told me they were already deep into a heavy rewrite of some of the software programs. Within weeks, our simulations became shockingly accurate. The team was thrilled, including me. It took several weeks before I started connecting the dots.”

  “What dots?”

  “Sam, GSI’s fingerprints are all over the software protocols.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, I see lines of code I wrote for Leapfrog. Your code, too.”

  “My code? I don’t . . . are you saying Ted stole the autonomy software?” Sam was stunned. She lowered her voice as she scanned the restaurant for any familiar faces. “All of it?”

  “No, not all of it. Honestly, much of it is new. Harry did a lot of great work. But most of the lidar controls are pretty much what Ted designed for Leapfrog. And I know parts of your AI engine are intertwined in the core protocols.”

  “Mine?” Sam shook her head as she tried to digest everything Lori was telling her. “Did you ask him about it?”

  “Sort of. He’s my boss. I didn’t want to rock the boat. I attempted to make light of it a couple of weeks ago. I tried pointing out how so much of what I was seeing reminded me of Project Courier.”

  “And? What was his reaction?”

  “He got this condescending attitude. He said something like, and I’m paraphrasing here, but he said that Project Courier only happened because of his advancements with the lidar array. He brought that knowledge to GSI and could finally advance it at Where2.”

  “Really?” Sam’s cheeks became flush with anger. “His advancements made it a success? I guess the rest of us were just making shit up?”

  “I’m sorry, Sam. I keep telling myself I’m wrong. But the code speaks for itself. I know what I wrote. I know what you wrote. It just doesn’t feel right, you know? We all take stuff when we change jobs. I have my own protocols and procedures I use for my mapping systems. But this . . . this is different.”

  Sam stared at her pizza. Her appetite suddenly vanished and her stomach churned as she tried to figure out what to do next. Should she confront Ted? She could already hear him making excuses. Sam knew if she took it to Vin, all hell would break loose.

  “It’s fine, Lori. I’m glad you told me.” Sam looked at her phone. It was a few minutes before one. “You’d better get back to your meeting. You don’t want to upset your boss.”

  “What are you going to do, Sam?”

  “I . . . I don’t know, Lori. I honestly don’t know.”

  ***

  The oversized red numbers on the digital clock on the nightstand read 10:20 p.m. The clock was angled directly at Sam. She’d been in bed for twenty minutes. Despite her best efforts, she could not calm herself. Every beat of her heart pounded hard within her chest as she ran through the list of questions she wanted to ask Ted. Intertwined in these thoughts was the conversation she’d had with Lori during lunch. The thought that her husband could be or likely was a thief was almost too much to bear.

  Her daze was broken by the hum and rattle of the garage door from downstairs. She pulled herself upright, evening out the folds in the white cotton bedsheet resting across her waist. She heard the sound of the hallway door open and close, followed by a set of keys rattling on the marble kitchen counter. She twisted and twirled her engagement ring back and forth, unconsciously changing its direction with each thud of her husband’s footsteps coming up the stairs. The bedroom door swung open.

  “Finally,” she said.

  “Why are you home?” Ted asked.

  “It’s nice to see you, too. You almost sound disappointed.”

  “Well, it’s Friday. You usually go to your mother’s for the weekend.”

  “I took Dani there earlier tonight.”

  “Oh.” He crossed the expansive master suite and entered the bathroom. “Why didn’t you stay there? Do you have plans here?”

  “Do I have plans?” She chuckled lightly, raising her voice to be sure Ted could hear her in the other room. “Why would I?”

  “What?” He emerged from the bathroom with a toothbrush jutting from his mouth. “What’s with the cocky attitude?”

  “Oh, I don’t know Ted, I thought you might have a surprise planned for me.”

  “For what?”

  “You really are amazing, Ted.” She flung the coverlet away, tossed her robe on, and marched across the room, stopping at a cherry dresser. An eight-by-ten wedding photo framed in solid pewter sat in the center. She grabbed it and brought it to Ted. “Do I need to ask you again?”

  “Shit.” He took the picture into his hands, allowing his toothbrush to droop from his jaw. “It’s our anniversary. I’m so sorry, Sam. I’ve just been busy with work. Why didn’t you remind me?”

  “Don’t turn this around on me!” She snatched the photograph and flung it onto the bed. “I asked you months ago. You kept telling me we’d figure something out. I finally stopped asking, hoping maybe you’d surprise me.”

  “I’ll make it up to you.” He tried to pull her close, but she stepped away. Putting his arms up, he turned into the bathroom and finished brushing his teeth. The bathroom light went off, and he returned. “I will, Sam. I promise.”

  She was now sitting on the edge of their California King bed, feeling lost in the six hundred square foot bedroom. She looked around and suddenly felt like a stranger in her own home. She pulled her emerald silk robe tightly around her waist as Ted came and sat by her side.

  “You know work’s been killing me,” he said, trying to take Sam’s hand, but she pulled away. “I have to work this weekend. Maybe we can grab dinner tomorrow night.”

  “Dinner?” Sam stood up and walked to the other side of the room. She didn’t want Ted to follow her. His close proximity made her uneasy. “It’s our first anniversary, Ted. This should be a celebration. It should be special.”

  “I’m sorry, Sam.” He slouched forward, resting his chin in the palms of his hands. “I know I’ve been distant. But so have you. It’s not like we’ve been seeing eye to eye lately. I thought my going to Where2 would give us some distance—some good distance.”

  “Don’t act like you took that job to save our marriage. We both know you did it for the money.”

  “It’s not just the money, Sam. We’re making great progress. We start testing on public roads Monday.”

  “Monday? So soon? That seems awfully fast.” She took a deep breath. He had just given her the opening she was looking for. “Tell me, how is it that you started there less than five months ago, but are already out of simulations?”

  “What can I say? I’m good.” He smiled and winked at her.

  “Or is it that you’re a thief?”

  “Excuse me?” He stood up and slowly made his way across the room, stopping less than a foot from his wife. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Don’t make me ask, Ted.” She folded her arms across her chest. Her worry and fear from earlier were long gone, as anger and resentment began to expand from within. She leaned forward and looked into his eyes. He took a step back. “I know, Ted. I know about the data.”

  Ted continued to move backward, Sam matching each of his footsteps until they reached the bed. She gave him a gentle nudge with her right hand, forcing him to sit down. She glared at him until he finally lowered his eyes.

  “I went through the log files on the backups we have of the Project Courier data.”

  “You what?” Ted’s head snapped back as he glowered at her.

  “I discovered over eight gigabytes copied the night you resigned. You didn’t cover your tracks, Ted. I’ll admit, it took me a while to find the proper security files. You were good, just not thorough. As always, you were in a rush.”

  She stared deeply into his blue e
yes, hoping for the slightest sign of regret. Instead, she saw emptiness. A few strands of his chestnut brown hair slowly fell in front of his face, obscuring his right eye as it always tended to do. She didn’t bother to flick it away.

  “That was my data.” He stood up, forcing her to back away. “I brought that knowledge to GSI. I expanded on it. I improved it. It has been and always will be mine.”

  “Yours?” Sam was both disappointed and enraged. “What about the dozens of other people on Project Courier? Are you saying they contributed nothing? What the hell was I doing there that entire time? Bowing down before the genius of the great Ted Wolff?”

  “I only took what was mine, Sam. You saw the files. All the configuration-related documentation. I built that.”

  “You took more than that, Ted.”

  “How did you even know to go looking? Why would you go diving into backup files?” Ted’s jaw fell open as the pieces suddenly fell into place. “You talked to Lori, didn’t you?”

  “It doesn’t matter how or why I found it, Ted. The fact is you copied an enormous amount of data the day you resigned.”

  “I’m no thief.”

  “No?” She turned away, suddenly disgusted by his attitude. “Is that what you told Kevin?”

  “Who?”

  “Kevin in Nevada. Was that his lidar you took the night we went to Burning Man? Or yours?”

  “How can you ask that? You’ve seen the work I’ve built. You know what I’m capable of.”

  “Do I? I think I’m just starting to learn how far you’re truly willing to go.”

  Sam lowered her head and crossed the room, flinging the double doors of the walk-in closet open. She fought back tears as she grabbed the nearest suitcase and began shoving clothes inside.

  “Let me guess,” Ted called out from the middle of the bedroom. “You’re going running back to your mother, aren’t you?”

  “Give me a reason to stay.”

  “Do you want an apology? Okay, fine. I’m sorry I took the data. I spent years developing it at GSI, and then Vin decided to slap it on to a golf cart. Remember our dreams of moving the world forward? That’s what’s driving me, Sam.”

  “Do you love me?” She stepped in the middle of the closet doorway so she could see him. It was a simple question—one that should be easy to answer after a year of marriage. She was brokenhearted to see him taking so long to answer her.

  “Of course I do,” he finally said.

  She didn’t believe him. His words rang empty in her ears as if he was telling her what she wanted to hear. Her marriage had fallen apart so quickly. She still couldn’t believe he had forgotten their anniversary. It was time for him to prove his love.

  “Then cancel the test you have planned for Monday.”

  “What?”

  “Let’s go away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary—or take the entire week. Let’s jet off to Italy or any place that’s not here.”

  “I can’t do that, Sam. There’s too much on the line. Too many commitments.”

  “Too many commitments?” She shook her head in disgust as she sadly realized she was fighting a losing battle. She went through a few more drawers, collecting what she could, filling her luggage with whatever would fit. “Your family should be your biggest commitment, Ted. That’s the problem.”

  “I told you I’ll make it up to you.”

  “That’s not good enough. Not this time. It’s our anniversary.”

  “I told you I’m sorry.”

  “You’re always sorry.” She took a moment to wipe her eyes dry. She turned to face her husband—the man she had fallen in love with years ago. The man she had dreamed of spending the rest of her life with. She had once admired Ted’s brilliance and confidence. Now when she looked at him, all she saw was the cocky, overly smug guy she had met in the desert. “You don’t understand.”

  She looked at the mess of clothes jammed into her bag. She had no idea if she’d packed everything she would need. She didn’t care. She zipped the bag shut and slammed her shoulder into Ted, pushing him aside.

  “When will you be back?” His voice quivered with confusion. “Can we talk about this more?”

  “Can we?” Despite her best efforts, she could not stop the steady stream of tears running down her face. “It’s up to you, Ted. Every decision you make seems to be about you. And I’ve had enough.”

  “I can do better, Sam. I promise.”

  “You need to stop making promises you can’t keep. Let me know when you’re ready to focus on us.”

  She turned, lowered her head, and left the room. As she struggled to carry her bag down the staircase, she realized she was still in her robe and nightgown. She didn’t care. All she knew was she wanted to get as far away as quickly as possible. She grabbed her keys from the kitchen counter and wondered if this would be her last time seeing this house.

  39

  Ted cradled his cell phone in both hands, keeping it just below the rim of the steering wheel. He alternated his gaze between his phone, the road ahead, the laptop to his right, and the instrument panel behind the steering wheel. He couldn’t help but smile at how smoothly this test was going. The traffic on Guadalupe Canyon Parkway on this Sunday evening at 10:00 p.m. was almost nonexistent despite it being just four days before Thanksgiving. Thankfully, because of the hour, any holiday traffic was long gone. The Volkswagen Touareg was in full self-driving mode and had performed flawlessly the entire evening.

  He wanted to send a text message to Sam but couldn’t think of what to say. Scattered around his laptop were piles of papers and notepads. Lost within the mess was an envelope he’d received yesterday. He was still somewhat shocked by the contents, but deep down not all that surprised. Sam, citing irreconcilable differences, had filed for divorce.

  The last few months had been a roller coaster for him—personally and professionally. As progress at Where2 accelerated, his marriage had unraveled. He had eventually taken Sam away for their anniversary, but the four-day trip had been strained and less than joyful. Initially, he was happy he had at least convinced her not to move out of the house. But as the weeks passed and Ted spent most of his time at work, their relationship faltered. He increasingly found himself coming home to an empty house, with Sam opting to stay at her mother’s. On the rare occasion when she was home, they would often end up fighting. By July, they’d decided to try couples therapy. Because of his workload, though, he often had to skip the sessions, much to Sam’s disappointment. By mid-September, Sam and Dani had moved out of the house and into a two-bedroom townhome where Dani could continue at her same school. He had hoped to spend the November and December holidays with Sam and her family. He kept telling her everything would change in the following year once Where2 could begin marketing their self-driving taxi. The papers from Sam’s lawyer confirmed that she had given up. He didn’t take them seriously, though. He would fix everything next year, once things at work calmed down.

  He opened his “Rock-It” playlist from a music app on his phone. He turned on the stereo and waited for the Bluetooth. After a few moments, “Burnin’ for You” by Blue Öyster Cult began to reverberate all around him. He smiled and turned up the volume. He checked the car’s speed—forty-five miles per hour and keeping centered within the lane. A sign flashed at the side of the road confirming the forty-five miles per hour speed limit.

  Guadalupe Canyon Parkway was a four-lane winding road adjacent to the San Bruno Mountain State Park, twenty minutes south of San Francisco. This evening’s test involved a mix of city and highway travel that included the downtown area, US-101, I-280, and a mix of urban and suburban roads. The peace and quiet along the winding mountain road marked the midway point of the test. Ted was sure this would be the final run prior to certification. He’d pushed his team hard all year to exceed every goal he’d set. They, and the Touareg, nicknamed Scorpion after the e
ighties German rock band, had performed spectacularly.

  He checked the data scrolling across the screen of his laptop. He thought back to his days of testing Frankie in Nevada. The data on that computer were so primitive compared to what he was working with today. He couldn’t help but smile at all the advancements. A flash of high beams flickered in the rearview mirror, distracting him. He squinted and adjusted the mirror. Whoever was behind him was accelerating quickly.

  Ted debated bumping up the speed on the VW, but figured it was easier to let the other vehicle pass. He found himself chuckling, realizing that Sam’s cautious attitude still had a way of affecting him. Eventually, the car began overtaking him. He was surprised to see a second set of high beams behind him.

  “What the hell?” Ted said.

  He glanced over his left shoulder as the first car pulled alongside. It was a red Tesla Model S. The passenger window lowered, and the person stuck their hand outside and raised their middle finger. Ted was about to return the gesture, when the person reclined their seat and pointed at the steering wheel. Nobody was driving the car. They waved at Ted and closed the window.

  “Autopilot,” he grumbled. Tesla’s Autopilot system had debuted a month before. Where2 had already bought a Model S equipped with the self-driving technology, and Ted’s team had dismantled it to study their competition. He turned his head to face the other vehicle. “Your hardware sucks!”

  The red Tesla pulled ahead. Ted bumped Scorpion’s speed up to fifty miles per hour. The laptop responded with three short chimes, followed by a long pause indicating he was now exceeding the posted speed limit. He ignored the warning.

  He checked his rearview mirror as the other vehicle slid sideways to pass him. He could tell by the headlight design it was another Model S. Sure enough, a few seconds later, a second Tesla pulled up beside him. This one was jet black. The passenger window was down. The driver was actually in the driver’s seat but instead of steering the car, the person was making a video of the event.