by Karl, Victor
According to a phone call just received, people were starting to show up at the main site. The event appeared to be going as planned and start at 7 pm. I saw Fiona back by the office. She was dressed in a plain black dress and comfortable black shoes. She called dibs on the Hummer and was going to be driving it tonight. She looked fantastic; then again, she always looked good. I took the opportunity to sneak up behind her, gave her a quick kiss, and on her long slender neck adorned with pearls that I had bought her years ago. I wished her good luck. She turned towards me and seeing no one watching, gave me a hug and told me to not make a fool out of myself up there today. She also added, “by the way don’t wear yourself out, I want you to have energy for later on tonight,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. She then pushed me away and said she had heard the first bus should be here any second. Straightening out my nametag, which everyone was wearing along with his or her title, I walked out to the front to meet the bus.
The luxury bus arrived a minute later and as people streamed off, it was apparent that there was significant diversity in this group. It was easy to tell who the press was and slightly more difficult to figure out who were the investors and who the business representatives were. All wore a nametag with their affiliations and carried an Efficio carry bag, which had an assortment of information and goodies in them. About a quarter of the group were women. I shook everyone’s hand as they walked by and introduced myself and directed him or her to the refreshments. About 20 minutes later the bus returned with the second and last load of attendees. It looked like Julius’s estimate was right on the money with about 67 guests. After ushering everyone inside, we let the group socialize for about another 20 minutes. At that point, I made my way to the podium and announced “thank you for coming, grab a drink or some food, and have a seat in the main presentation area.” The buzz in the room went up another notch as everyone started to grab their seats.
Once everyone sat down, Bill and I took the stage. Bill introduced himself and me as the two founders of Efficio and then introduced the management team around the room. He then told everyone in the room to “get ready to be astounded by an amazing story which will fundamentally change how the world operates. Michael Carter will guide you on this amazing journey for the next half hour afterwards you will get to see and touch what all the excitement is about as you learn about Electricus. Our team gave Bill a round of applause, which included audience participation. To say I was surprised at Bill’s exciting introduction would be an understatement. In my opinion, he nailed it and it was up to me to carry that energy forward.
“Thank you Bill for your introduction and setting the tone for what will be an amazing evening.” Fiona worked the slide show for me and brought up my first slide, which posed the question “What if,” I said and paused then repeated it again. “What if, humanity was provided with a living organism that when exposed to even the most imperceptible amount of natural or manmade light will generate electricity and not only produce it, but produce in a consistent and predicable manner that would allow the harnessing of this energy for a myriad of uses?” I let this statement sink in for a few seconds before I asked the next question. “What if, “this organism could be reproduced in a predictable and consistent manner? The answer my esteemed guests would be a clean, free source of electricity that would replace the type of energy used today.
Now many of you may have seen a recent video released on YouTube a few weeks ago, and in truth, this was an inadvertent release of the information. The video was in fact a recruiting tool used to entice the management team you see around you and provided a basic understanding of what my colleague Bill spoke of as Electricus. I cannot provide you all the details of how Electricus came about, however I can share with you the concepts of how it has been harnessed.”
For the next 15 minutes, I ran through the practical applications from housing to automobiles as well as field installations from deserts to glaciers. As I was going through the slides, I was keeping an eye on the audience’s reaction. It was evident by their rapt attention that they were witnessing a life-changing event. I ended the presentation by asking if there were any questions. A flurry of hands went up and the one that looked like it went up first I selected. Her name was Sharon Trey and she was a reported for the largest New Jersey daily paper. “Mike” she said,” this all sounds fantastic, but how can you prove this is what you say it is. In fact it is almost too much to believe.” Sharon, I am very glad you asked that question first. After we are done with questions, you will all have access to cars that are equipped with Electricus as well as is everything in this building, which is running off our Power Pads and Power Modules. We also have a demonstration set up outside to simulate an installation in a wilderness situation.” “Next question” I asked.
The next question was from a scientific journal reporter and asked what form was Electricus or in other words, you said it was a liquid. Could you provide more information? Definitely, I said. Electricus will reproduce until it reaches a saturation point in a water solution. When the saturation point occurs, all reproduction stops on its own accord. The organisms’ then work together to form polarities, which then allow current to flow. Our Power Pads are designed to work with the polarities and channel the output through our Power Panels.” Mike noticed to himself that only reporters were asking the questions and shrugged it off expecting the others to ask their questions in a private session After fielding a variety of about 20 questions, the audience was directed to follow Bill and Sean for the unveiling.
The audience was herded behind the partitions and greeted by the site of the four vehicles. Bill and Sean directed equal groups to the four cars where Steve and Fiona took over their anxious audience. For the next 20 minutes the team members explained the design of Power Pads, incorporation of standard DC motors to replace combustion engines and the installation of driver controls. Each talked about the drive train and controls and explained that it was no different from factory built electric cars currently on the market or retrofitted cars. Lastly, they explained that a simple battery function provided options for maintenance and could be removed if desired. This reduced the car’s weight by hundreds of pounds since a large bank of batteries were no longer needed. Rico was enjoying the unabashed astonished looks on the faces of the guests. They were all over the cars trying to get a better look and looking for some kind of trick. Fiona created a huge stir when she announced that she was ready to take passengers for a test drive. Who wants a ride she asked, and when all the hands went up, instead of there being a dilemma, she laughed and said that we had anticipated this and on the back of your badge is a number. For those with 1-5, please take a seat in the Hummer.
After the first group started loading up, I directed the remaining guests to the interactive web application created by Fiona as well as to Kristen and Taylor who were ready to show the visitors how the building was running on Electricus. I also reminded everyone of the demonstration outside of a portable platform. Most guests went to see what Kristen and Taylor had to say with a quarter heading out the doors towards Julius and Iris and their demonstration. A trio of men came my way and introduced themselves as friends of Julius. The man in the middle introduced himself as John Zimmerman and appeared to be the spokesperson for the group. Mr. Carter, he said “on Julius’s recommendation alone we would have invested with your company, but after seeing what we saw tonight, we wanted to tell you we would be proud to invest in your organization.” The others were all shaking their heads in agreement and all I could do is shake my head along with them. John excused them and said that they had a ride coming up in the Hummer with that beautiful young woman and did not want to miss it. Looking out from the front doors, I could see the cars loading with the next group.
I noticed a very severe looking taller woman and an older powerfully built man heading for me from across the floor. The woman introduced herself as Giselle Brinkerhoff and introduced the man as her father and owner of Brinkerhoff Builders, Max Brinkerho
ff. “Mr. Carter” Giselle said, but before she could continue, I said, “Please call me Mike.” “Mike,” she continued, “we are flabbergasted at Electricus. If it does what you say it can do and is as simple as we see here, we would be excited to use your technology in the future. We have two specialty areas. We build housing developments typically in newer open spaces as well as low-income housing. My father, years ago felt that he could make an affordable house for those less fortunate by using optimized building practices. Electricus can help us meet that agenda. At that point, Max smiled at his daughter and said, “If I don’t insert myself, I don’t think Giselle will ever let me speak for myself.”
Max continued by saying,” Mike, if you want to put your product in play with a working environment we would be willing to allow you to use our new development as model homes. We have a 100-unit track starting in about a month and if possible, I would like to build them using your technology.” “Max thank you for your interest, we are very interested in ideas such as yours, but we will be reviewing feedback from this event to determine next steps. I think you will find information in your handouts that will allow you to submit your ideas for consideration. I am not saying no, however we have a process and a committee to review all options.” “Good enough” Max said, “We will submit the forms and hopefully we can work together.” They headed for the doors for their car ride in one of the Camry’s. The rest of the evening was very busy and as soon as one person or group left my side, another sauntered up. An AP reporter cornered me for about 10 minutes and asked a slew of questions including sensitive ones such as the impact on organizations that make money off of oil. For this question, Bill and I had a canned response with stated, “Electricus is in its infancy and we have a long way to go before this technology is embraced and adapted. Ask me the same question in about 2 years and maybe we will have a better understanding of the impact of Electricus.” The AP reporter would not let that comment slide easily and it was scary how quickly he had focused in on Bill and my concerns on how Electricus would affect the world economies. Eventually I wore him out and he walked away with a quick congratulation on an interesting evening and with a pointed look said, “This could be a monster change to the world as we know it.”
As the last guest got on the bus to headquarters, Bill and I gathered the team and had a quick debrief. Bill started the discussion and said, “In my opinion it was an unqualified success.” He based this on the genuine excitement by the participants and the absence of any skepticism that smoke and mirrors were involved. He then admitted that he had directed many of the tougher attendees my way and said “Mike what was your take on the evening?” I started by echoing Bill’s sentiments, but then talked about some of the interest from builders and investors, which met with some clapping of hands from the assembled. I also mentioned the persistence of the AP reporter and their quick connection to the potential impact we will have on the world’s economic stage. Then I reminded everyone of what to expect which was that the legitimate press would most likely publish articles on what transpired tonight, which most likely would set off a hectic chain of events. With a final thank you from Bill and me, we all headed home. I think Fiona was still wound up and was chatting away non-stop about the people she met tonight and their comments. We got into her car and headed home where she proceeded to ‘jump my bones’ so to speak, before we even got to the bedroom. I have to say, I did save my strength and gave as well as I got. Those rug burns I will feel tomorrow, but for now no pain…
Chapter 17: It Gets Serious
Fiona and I were on a five mile run down the Oak tree lined streets of Summit when she reminded me that she was going to California to make some updates on our systems out there on Monday. I thought about it for a minute, before I asked her if she wanted company and added, “I don’t know if you are aware that Bill and Steve will be here in Jersey working to outfit the cars we are giving out to the management team. The only ones at Chez Rico are the Clavis people.” Fiona without any breathing effort at all for having already run four miles said that she had not known that. She then added, “It’s a date.” “Perfect” I said, I could also work with Clavis to ship our stock of Electricus while I’m there. We decided to go out there on Sunday to have a little time together and we made the reservations as soon as we got back to the house.
Before we knew it we were landing in California. With the time zone change, we got there early in the afternoon. Fiona dropped me off and took the rental car to go to the market for supplies and tonight’s dinner, which she was to cook. Using the new biometric keypad to open the side door, I walked into the darkened cool area of the lab expecting to see one of the two Clavis guards sitting at the desk near the doors. Not seeing anyone, I was not concerned about it and figured they were upstairs. I started to navigate through the darkened space, which was darker now that a special film coated the windows to block viewing of the interior as well as block radio signals from passing. As I was walking past where the Clavis guard should have been, I noticed a form on the floor.
Two things happened simultaneously, I realized it was one of the Clavis guards lying there just as powerful arms wrapped themselves around my chest and lifted me off the ground. Another form moved in front of me and drove a fist into my gut. I had tightened up just as the punch was thrown and my abs absorbed the blow with only a grunt from me. That is when my training kicked in and I drove my head back into the nose of the assailant holding me crushing his nose with an audible crunch. This in itself was not enough for him to release me so with a kick to the face of the assailant in front of me, I used the slight relaxation by the giant holding me from behind and managed to slip down out of his grasp. Before he could react I kicked him on the inside joint of his knee with a short kick. He was not able to react quickly enough, his leg buckled, and he tumbled over to his side.
I turned back to the second adversary, which was a mistake on my part because a third intruder blindsided me from my right side with a tackle, which drove both of us over the table. I was the first one up and drove a knee right up through his jaw, which sent him flying backwards. I had turned my attention back to the second intruder and barely avoided his roundhouse punch directed to my jaw. I stepped inside his punch and landed a combination to his draw to drop him.
Having a moment of calm, I took it as my cue and ran through the dark maze of my shop to the rear door, and ran outside. As I was running, my mind flashed through the events that led to this intrusion and attack and knew what it was about and what had triggered the attack. I then sprinted a couple of buildings away and standing behind a large metal dumpster saw my new friends leaving hustling out of there while dragging the big dude who was limping badly and they all got into a large dark SUV. I was able catch most of this and the vehicle on video my iPhone, but may have been too far away to capture any useful features.
Instead of calling the police, I called Jeremy and told him he probably had two guys down in my building and included the rest of the details. I also forwarded the pictures to him in a text message. Even though he said not to go back inside, I could not stay out there without knowing how the Clavis people were. This time I opened the large garage door bay to allow more light to shine inside for when I entered. Thankfully, it appeared that the guards had no permanent injuries from the effects of tranquilizer darts. I was waiting by the door and Jeremy drove up at the same time Fiona arrived. I motioned for Fiona to get out of the car and come over to where I was standing next to Jeremy so I could fill her in. I told Jeremy about his people and the tranquilizer darts and my belief that I thought they would be fine. As soon as I informed Jeremy of the situation, I caught Fiona up on the recent events much to her shock. Within five minutes a few more members of Jeremy’s team showed up and we all walked through the entire building. The guards came out of their stupor and provided a few limited details. Apparently, the downstairs guard expecting Mike opened the door after viewing the outside camera. Someone had done their homework and sent one person to the
door with the same general build as myself. As soon as the door opened, the intruder shot the guard with a tranquilizer dart and caught the second guard, upstairs unawares.
It was just pure luck on our part that we came in on Sunday instead of Monday and interrupted their plans. According to the downstairs guard, I must have entered only minutes after the intruders did. Jeremy was extremely embarrassed regarding how things had gone down and apologized to me while Fiona was checking out the side of my head, which had a nice sized bump on it from hitting it on the floor or table when tackled. “You’ll live” she said and I was a little disappointed because I guess I expected her to fuss over me after my narrow escape. She then started talking to Jeremy about what other measures needed to be put in place and just that quickly, she became in charge of the situation. I just accepted it, because when Fiona got involved in something it was never halfway and she has been like that for as long as I could remember.