Chapter 16

Nelson LLC was created as an ‘anonymous’ LLC in New Mexico in 2017 because the identities of the managers and members are not required in that state, making it nearly impossible to determine who the owners are. The owner of the building that housed the workings of the LLC was shown on the Centerville records as one “I. Novator.”

The garage was built like a fortress. It had walls two feet thick, redundant power sources, HVAC systems, Internet, phone, and security including external cameras and microphones. As its business used heat-producing equipment such as computers, tool and die equipment, a laboratory, offices, bedrooms, a lunchroom, conference rooms, and a furnace, the redundant HVAC systems and power sources kept the work going uninterrupted.

Nelson LLC, in its first year of existence, made computer-related devices such as intelligent interfaces that allowed users to communicate with computers and smart devices without keyboards or keypads, as well as a sensor-laden sleeve that sensed impulses generated through the spinal column to the arms and wrists, allowing commands to be sent to the computer without being typed. Much of this laid the foundation for the work that would be started the next year, when Stone set their brains on fire with a challenge.

“Let’s create special eyeglasses that will take the energy from people’s thought areas of the brain and translate that energy into the thoughts themselves and display the thoughts on the eyeglasses lenses.” he told them.

Their initial reaction was to have Stone committed, but as he continued to describe what his vision was and how to make it come to life, they became believers. Some failures slowed them along the way, but nothing stopped them.

At his workstation in a corner office on a Thursday morning, Gary Danders was on the phone with Stone.

“I have made the changes to the eyeglasses that you wanted and the initial test results are encouraging. They are ready for you to try out. Ok, but what about a second pair? Sure, it makes sense to hold off until you test these; so that you know, it takes a day to make a pair. I’m keeping all our proprietary information under control in the safe like we discussed. Right, I’ll see you in a few.”

No sooner was Danders through with the call than his phone rang again. It was his wife.

“Maybe I can sneak in to your office and seduce you? Is that what it’s going to take to see you? You’re never home any more. I miss you,” she pouted. “He’s good looking, you know. Maybe I should seduce him,” she said with a roguish laugh.

“You know we’ve been working so long and hard to finish this invention that I’ve barely had time to sleep. You think I enjoy not being with you? Whom are you talking about?” he finally asked.

“Whom? Jon, of course. I bet he has time.”

Danders didn’t want to argue, not even in a good-natured way. They were so close to finishing that he didn’t want to think of anything else.

“Sure, give him a try,” he said absentmindedly.

“A try? I love your sense of humor. Men find me irresistible, all men,” she said, teasingly. “Don’t you mean that you are giving me consent, not allowing me to ‘try’? As if I need your consent, bahaha..”

All Danders could think of at that moment was a song by Harry Chapin, “My Old Lady,” wherein a married man’s worst fears came true: his wife made love to a younger man, and then came home and mocked him. He did not respond to his wife’s provocation. He ended the call, got up, and headed to Sai Jain’s office next door.

Sai was a nice-looking Indian woman with shoulder-length black hair, uncommon blue eyes, a medium sized nose, and full lips. She had the build of a nice-looking woman. She and Danders were simpatico, an obvious requisite for the CEO and president of a company, but they shared a genuine affection for each other.

Roy Summa was in Jain’s office.

“Good, I’m glad you are here Roy. Stone is ready to try the eyeglasses. I know they are going to work. Let’s be ready to build another pair once he’s done. Stay here in the office; grab a couple hours of sleep if you want. No alcohol, grass, or coke, nothing to mess up your minds. Roy, give all your notes, files, test results, all that stuff to Sai so they can be locked up,” said Danders.

It had been a long, stress-filled year that they spent working on this invention, and poorly chosen words said through fatigue were not easily ignored, even though success was at hand.

“I don’t need a reminder to do that. I’ve done it all along. I am the CFO, I wrote most of our security measures, including this one,” responded Summa. “And you know, I’m the only major officer who doesn’t have the vault combination, which really pisses me off. And I don’t do drugs. So shut the hell up.”

“I’m talking out loud, reminding myself to remind everyone that we can’t let our guard down, not for one second. No offense intended.”

Summa didn’t accept Danders peace offering—he was too out of sorts. He didn’t respond verbally; he looked at Danders with a look of disgust and disbelief.

Danders decided that giving Summa the vault combination was the wisest thing to do, and wrote it on a slip of paper.

“I know you remember how to properly dispose of this paper once you have committed the combination to memory, since you’re the one who wrote the security manual,” said Danders. His less than sincere smile as he tossed the paper on Jain’s desk was hard to miss.

Summa picked up the paper and put it in his shirt pocket without looking at it.

Jain tried to change the mood.

“How about we get something to eat, I’m starving.”

Danders agreed; Summa declined. “I’ve got some food in the fridge,” he said.

Danders and Jain nodded to each other, and Jain told Summa that they would see him in half as hour or so. Once they left, Summa went to his desk, pulled out a joint, grabbed a beer from the fridge, and headed to the sleeping quarters. Only a few people, Summa included, knew that the vault was hidden in the floor under one of the beds. He moved the bed and the section of floor that covered the vault, and spun the dial to the numbers Danders had written. Every aspect of the design and development of the eyeglasses was copied to an electronic medium and stored in the vault, and every storage device was marked with a special code signifying what was contained on the device. He was looking for the one labeled ‘EER’, for eyeglasses energy read, and it had all the coding needed to design a pair of Stone’s eyeglasses. He expected it to be near the top of the devices, and it was.

He brought it into his office and attached it to his own computer, not his company computer. He scanned the files as they uploaded and began to copy them. He wasn’t worried about how much time he had; Danders and Jain never spent less than an hour dining. He lit the joint, turned on the air purifier next to his desk, and opened the bottle of beer. After a few hits and several swigs, he began to relax. A few moments later, the file copy was done. He removed the storage device and put it in his pocket, shut down his computer, and returned the device to the vault. Returning to his office, he finished the joint and the beer. Feeling drowsy, he put the beer bottle and his computer into his backpack and brought that into the sleeping quarters and stored it under the bed. He snuffed out the joint, put the remainder in his pocket, then fluffed up the pillow, lay down, and was asleep before they returned.

The unseen overhead cameras captured everything.

“Why has the vault suddenly become an issue? We’re almost done with the development of the eyeglasses and now he wants the combination?” asked Jain.

“I thought it was simply fatigue and Roy’s apparent belief that his efforts were not being recognized. But I never noticed that he felt that way, did you?”

“No, I didn’t. I think we would have. I don’t think it was fatigue, either, that made him lash out like that.”

Danders grabbed the check. “Let’s get back to the office. I don’t think Roy would do anything stupid. I know he wouldn’t,” Danders replied, not sounding convinced of his assessment of Summa.

Five minutes later, they were back in the office. Danders flicked on the lights in the sleeping quarters and found Summa seemingly asleep.

“We should do the same thing,” Danders said loud enough for Summa to hear him if he was awake.

“Okay,” Sai whispered, and they did just that, Jain on the bed to the left of Summa, Danders on the bed to his right.

They got some much-needed shuteye.