Foundation

by M J Kendrick

  William had managed to buy a considerable amount of the surrounding land, and Quantum now sat isolated in the middle of 25,000 acres of partially forested land. A team of four landscapers had given houses in the second village alongside the guest bungalows that Marek and his team were using as part of their package. As soon as the landscapers had been taken on permanently, they had begun a forestation program for the entire property, and each day the ring of saplings surrounding Quantum radiated ever further outward. In a few years’ time, the new forest would perfectly complement the now beautifully landscaped villages and academy.

  The Smarties had been hard at work constructing and improving the PMGs, and Quantum now had a stockpile of 150 of varying sizes and outputs. Anton had finished developing and refining four very capable tunnel boring lasers and they were now ready to be put out to work.

  Rose had been catching up on Carlton’s work and the discoveries by analyzing his and David’s original research and data. She was now ready to pick up the reins, and, despite Quantum’s heavy expenditure, Tom’s accounting showed they still had over $9m in the kitty, with more coming in each month.

  The Smarties had dubbed the four specialist security guys the “disciples,” as their names were Jon Sawyer, James Lent, Peter Wallace, and Andrew Clayton. They actually loved the name, and it soon stuck. They too had moved to Quantum with their families and took four family homes at the furthermost edge of the first village and, with the exception of Jon, who had never married, the others each had one teenage child that would be able to finish their educations at the academy. The wives were all employed either in the restaurant or with Tom in the admin building.

  Susanna and KennetSvensson had been devising the teaching curriculum and sponsorship program for the academy. They had settled in almost the day after they arrived and were as keen as the Smarties to do whatever they could to advance the project.

  William had been flitting in and out of the country to various meetings to carefully pitch bids for dormant Tunneling projects.

  On occasion, he would take Jon along as being the “lead disciple,” as he knew more than one way to get in front of the right people and, with the help of a few brown envelopes passing under desks, Quantum had secured their first three tunneling contracts, all of which were road extensions through the Italian Alps.

  All of the boys had gone along to oversee the first contract. They were gone for just ten days, but in that time they had successfully cut a 1,200-foot two-lane tunnel, a 2,350-foot two-lane tunnel, and a double-wide 350-foot tunnel cavern service area, and had made full use of the first contracts to fully test and further refine the TBLs, as they were now always called.

  Given their accomplishments and successes with the PMGs, no one was surprised that the contracts had been successfully completed; that is, with the exception of Tom, who had to rush over to Carlton to check if the payment of $427 million into the Quantum account was correct.

  The Smarties had taken the greatest precautions with the TBL contract and, with the help of substantial cash incentives, had managed to keep the process completely off the radar.

  William’s under the table financial “donations” to the decision-makers ensured that. But, in less than a week, additional contracts rolled in for the TBLs, and, by year-end, the account had swollen to $1.7 billion. Carlton called a meeting of the Smarties, and, for the first time, he invited Rose, Tom, Susanna and Kennet to join them, as they were all now considered Quantum’s core personnel.

  For two hours, he recapped what they had achieved and where they were with the overall plan. Since his initial shock, Tom had made a point of liaising with William on the TBL contracts that were likely to be approved, and he was able to produce a forecast of expected revenues.

  When each of the Smarties had updated the rest of where they were individually, Carlton asked Tom for his revenue forecast.

  Tom proudly stood in front of the meeting and said, “I’ve based this forecast on our current revenue streams, namely the mines, the TBL contracts that have already been approved and the TBL contracts that we know will be approved over the next twelve month period.

  “The figures are staggering, so I have condensed them into quarterly totals. First quarter forecast shows revenue of no less than $ 6.8 billion. Second quarter $7.1 billion. Third quarter $17.6 billion, and the fourth quarter forecast shows revenue of no less than $25.1 billion. Along with our current earnings, that gives Quantum total combined revenues of no less than $38.5 billion.”

  Only Rose and the Svenssons were agog at the numbers. Carlton was completely unfazed.

  “Although,” continued Tom, “we expect that figure to dramatically increase as more TBL contracts receive approval.”

  Carlton nodded. “Good, we have a decent starting point. We should continue with the revenue generation program, but please revise the security around how we fulfill the TBL contracts. The more we undertake, the more vulnerable we become, and we can’t afford to get sloppy.”

  William spoke up, “Actually, if I slightly improve the ‘contract incentives’ a little... ”

  Anton’s voice cut in from the back and said, “You mean fatter brown envelopes!” to which everyone chuckled.

  “Precisely,” continued William, smiling. “Then we can pretty much guarantee complete anonymity on every contract. We will hardly notice the difference in revenue.”

  Carlton simply said, “Do it. Now, I think it’s time to move on to the next phase of the plan. We need to locate our island headquarters. I think it may take a while to find one that meets our criteria. I don’t mean geographically. I’m particularly thinking about where it sits in the political world.

  “My parents were always worried about how the Israelis, the Chinese, the Indians, and even the Russians had been identified as threats by Omni—and even William’s early research told us that we should never underestimate their sphere of influence, especially after what happened in Gainesville. At the moment, no one is interested in us. Why would they be? We have a very low profile. But at some point we may get noticed, and with all the issues that we constantly see on the news with the Israeli/Arab conflict, the Russians hacking everything, the Chinese openly stealing tech, and the Indians blowing just about everything else up, we can’t take any chances and let our guard down for a single second. In an ideal situation, we want somewhere that can be acquired lock, stock, and barrel and free of any sovereignty and a place that isn’t in any of their backyards. In short, we need our own, low-key, small independent island country.”

  Anton’s voice crept in again from the back. “So we’re buying a country now, are we?”

  Carlton answered, “William has taught us all here, big enough brown envelopes in the right part of the world will do the trick. All we have to do is find the right island and make some people billionaires.”

  After they had all finished asking questions, Carlton said to all of them, “Quantum is growing rapidly, but we still have to cover too many things ourselves. We still have to increase our staffing levels just to keep up. Quantum’s research and the revenue streams have to be able to run independently, so if you have any thoughts or suggestions, please share them.”

  Haru leaped up, startling Lucy, who was sitting next to him. “Oops, sorry, Lucy,” he said with a childish grin. “I have been speaking to Jon. He was trying to find out if there might be some work for his old team. Apparently, there were seven originally. One is no longer with us, and two others had only been available on a job-by-job basis, so they’ve been freelancing. Jon said he could vouch for them, ex-Special Forces or something like that, plus he has a younger brother currently serving who is due out soon. I was thinking that if they check out, then they could be ideal to train up to run the TBL contracts, freeing us up.”

  Rose stood up next. “I’ve been in touch with Freddie and Bar. They’re all having a tough time at the farm. It’s the same at ACR. The government is secretive, and since David and Jean died, they’ve been installing their ow
n people in place over the scientists, controlling the research, not sharing information and working their own agenda. They said they’re little more than lab technicians now. They’ve definitely had enough of Gainesville and are thinking about joining forces and going into business together, offering their services as consultants. It must be really bad if they’re ready to give up their lives. I think we could get them here.”

  Carlton said to Haru, “Tell Jon to bring his guys over and ask him when his brother can be available. Rose, use your Aussie charm and get Freddie and Bar up here as soon as you can. Also, while you’re talking to them, see who else is left from the old labs. There’s a place here for all of them.”

  As they all stood to leave the meeting, Rose smiled, looked at him, and said, “Just like your father.”

  ***

  Carlton spent the following three weeks working closely with Rose. He wanted to catch up as quickly as possible with his research, and having Rose with him sped things up immensely.

  It also gave Rose a much closer feel for what Carlton’s aims were for Quantum.

  Carlton trusted Rose implicitly, and he wanted her to take over the headhunting for the scientific staff. Rose knew what type of personnel they needed, and she had the perfect cover story of visiting to see old colleagues and show off baby Brendon.

  Rose’s plan was to pre-empt Freddie and Bar’s visit to Quantum by first meeting with them in Gainesville at a reunion party that they had carefully arranged.

  Carlton had given the green light to Jon to bring the new disciples and their families on board and had asked Marek to join him for lunch in the restaurant to discuss the housing needs.

  When Marek arrived, he was dressed in a suit and had made an effort to look respectable. Carlton was slightly taken aback, as Marek was usually in his work gear practically all the time.

  As they sat with their lunch, Carlton said, “Marek, you’ve done such a fantastic job with the housing requirements and organizing the villages that I wanted to talk to you about ideas for further expansion. Everyone loves the way the landscaping is enhancing Quantum’s residential aspect, and I’d like to take that further.”

  Marek produced a set of beautifully drawn plans and spread them out on the table. “Yeah, Carlton, this is a plan for future development.”

  Carlton was impressed.

  “This is outstanding, Marek,” he said, poring over the professional and detailed layout.

  Marek pointed to the first village. “Yeah, Carlton, that’s right. Lucas is our man for this; he was an architect in Warsaw’s city planning office before he was with us.”

  Carlton looked bemused. “Why did he leave?”

  Marek chuckled. “Heh heh, Lucas can earn more here in one week than he would in a year back home, and he has family. For him is easy choice.”

  Then Marek grew a little hesitant, as if he was concerned about something. Carlton saw that he was looking slightly uncomfortable and said, “What is it Marek, you look like you’re about to give me some bad news?”

  “Er no, is not bad news, it’s just that... Well, the guys have been on my back to talk to you about them.”

  Carlton was intrigued and asked, “What about, Marek, what’s on their minds?”

  “So Carlton, they all love it here, a lot, and want me to ask you if they could move here permanent with wives and families.”

  Carlton wasn’t at all surprised at Marek’s request.

  “And what about you, Marek, how do you feel about it?”

  Marek nodded. “Yah, me too Carlton,” he said.

  “How many people are we talking about here? “Carlton asked, trying to think ahead.

  Marek pulled out a sheet of paper with thirty-six names on it, “Here is list,” he said, “ten families.”

  He handed Carlton the sheet of paper he was holding. Carlton began scrolling down with his finger. “Ten women, five teenage girls, three teenage boys, five young girls, and three young boys.”

  “Yeah Carlton, all of wives work. Three of them teachers, two of teenage boys are training for mechanics, but all boys can work with us in building. One of teenage is accounts girl.”

  “All right, Marek, leave this with me. I’ll let you know later what I decide.”

  By late afternoon, Jon gave Carlton the thumbs up. Everyone on the list had checked out. Carlton was pleased. The additional people would fill in many of the gaps in the research academy’s support staff requirements and would save them a great deal of time.

  That night Marek’s celebrations could be heard all over Quantum.

  While Rose was away at Gainesville, Lucy had been working with Lucas on ways to improve the design of the villages. As impressive as the plans were, they lacked that certain touch, and she was determined to have her input.

  The end result was more beautiful than anything the boys could ever have imagined. The villages were to be cobble paved and adorned with old-fashioned street lamps, decorative trees, extravagantly planted green areas and ornamental ponds that had waterfalls and seating areas. Quantum’s villages would be a peaceful, luxurious haven that would delight everyone and would be a perfect place to live.

  ***

  Rose’s trip had been very successful. Freddie and Bar had returned with her to Quantum and were blown away by the incredible success. After they had spent a day with Carlton learning about the discovery, what had already been achieved, and what the future plans were, they instantly agreed to join them. Rose had also managed to track down Daniel and Melanie and had arranged for them to visit Quantum in a few days.

  Freddie and Bar wanted to stay on until they had been briefed. They hadn’t seen them in such a long while—they had been all kept apart by the overbearing security measures between the facilities in Gainesville, constantly watched. There was much to talk about, and they wanted to see if they too would agree to join.

  When they arrived, they were all overcome by the emotions of the reunion. Carlton was glowing at seeing the people he loved so much together again. Despite their surprise at what he had achieved, they also looked agog at what lay before them. Even after being there for three days, Freddie and Bar felt the same way and wasted no time in talking openly to Melanie and Daniel about what Carlton had done and even admitted that they felt the same loyalty towards him as they had for his parents. Melanie and Daniel felt the same way, and, in a record four days, it took them even less time than Freddie and Bar to say yes.

  Melanie was more than a little shocked when Carlton asked her to ask John, her husband, whether if they bought him a plane, he would consider being Quantum’s pilot.

  ***

  It took them two months to build the new hangar and construct the runway so that it was ready for the luxurious new Gulfstream G550 executive jet that had been awaiting delivery, and as the year-end approached everything was coming together.

  Quantum was ready for the first intake of scholarship students. The Polish families were all housed and had settled into their new lives, and the Quantum Research Academy and villages were all complete and able to function independently of the Smarties.

  The revenues were now standing at $62.7 billion and still rising, thanks to the TBL team’s efficient work. Tom had made sure the revenues were all protected and untraceable in a complex web of offshore accounts. To anyone looking, the Quantum Research Academy was just a reasonably successful institute that was funded by nondescript overseas technology companies looking to invest in the future.

  The long hard search for the new Quantum base had finally presented three possibilities that met with all of the criteria, and plans were being made to fully survey the prospects in the new year.

  By March, two of the island prospects had been visited and assessed. Both would work well and, by the end of April, with all three prospects fully surveyed and in contention, it simply boiled down to a matter of choice. All three had the ability to surpass what was required for Quantum, the only thing separating them being their locations.

  In
the end, Carlton called a meeting of the Smarties and core staff and decided to let them make the choice, as, after all, they would be living there.

  It took a full day of discussion and constructive analysis, but after a recess for dinner at the restaurant and some time to think quietly, they reconvened late in the evening and took a vote.

  Copeland’s Rock, which was 800 miles off of the west coast of Australia and the smallest at around 30,000 acres, received no votes.

  Bird atoll, at 48,000 acres and in the Indian Ocean, received one vote.

  And Uharu, a 56,000-acre island 1,300 miles northeast of the Solomon Islands, received the remaining twelve votes.

  With the decision made, Carlton asked William to ask his father to help with the negotiations, and, along with Tom as their money man, John would fly them across to negotiate the deal as soon as they were ready.

  Exactly ten weeks later, just as several government officials happily announced their now-lucrative retirements, a small 230-meter converted cargo ship was added to Carlton’s inventory. Uharu was declared independent and was immediately sold to an unnamed buyer. Quantum had its new base. All for the bargain price of $32.2 billion.

  ***

  The next six months had proven to be the busiest period that Carlton and the Smarties had ever known. The first priority was to have Marek and his team supervise and help with the refit of the cargo ship to upgrade the engines and cargo area and make enough suitable living quarters for them all, as they would be living on board for a while.

  Miles and the Smarties had been producing a comprehensive list of equipment that would be needed. It was colossal and would take them several global trips and months to acquire.

  Anton had built five new TBLs that they would use to hollow out the entire island and create the space needed for the labs, the machine shops, materials storage, equipment storage, communal areas, and accommodation.

  Uharu had a beautiful, naturally secluded beach on the southern side that would be perfect for beach-facing accommodation to be cut into the rock and, on the western side, the sheer rock face lent itself perfectly to cut out a completely enclosed docking port and loading bay that would easily fully accommodate the newly named cargo ship, the MV Star, and keep her out of view from any overhead satellites.