It was a beautiful summer day in Ocean Grove. Across the street from the big frame house that held the Anchor 44 Group, the wind blew in from the ocean and created substantial waves and the paradoxically soothing sound of crashing water.
Damon Drake was sitting on the porch steps as they walked up to the house and introduced themselves. Damon was about the same height as Terry, but he had the lean, wiry frame of a runner. High-end nerds were of two basic types. The kind that sat around all day munching on all manner of confection, and the opposite, the ones who ran or worked out or shot hoops. Terry pegged Damon for a runner.
“I did a little research on you both after Charlie called me. The Senator Roman thing was a work of art. You should be very proud that it finally got the government off its ass and doing something about all the hucksters out there.”
“I’m not gonna ask you how you found out about that. But that’s part of the reason we wanted to see you. Shawna has come up with something that could take an even bigger bite out of that activity.”
“Well alright. Come on in and meet the gang.”
While Shawna and Terry got their coffees together in the kitchen, Damon rounded up the crew. A few minutes later they were all seated in the large back porch, which served as their boardroom.
“So this is the core of our company. Tina Marshall is from Toronto. Dimitri Yelovich, Istanbul. Joseph Lee, Tokyo by way of Beijing. And finally,” Damon said gesturing to one of the monitors, “Ray Conlin is our legal counsel. He’s in New York. Ray is our patent attorney, business coach, and a pretty shrewd financial guy.”
“OK. It’s great to meet you all.” Terry said. “I’m Terry Moorehouse from Plymouth Mass, and this is my partner in crime Shawna Lennox. Our company is called The Human League, we have about six people at the moment, and we are getting ready to go to Washington to present this idea to the Committee For Cyber Safety. If they buy into the program, the dam will bust open and this software will be made available to anyone who wants it. We’re hoping that it will turn into a pretty decent money-maker around the world. Why we’re sitting here with you is that we both consider you to be the best people in the country to advise us on moving forward. We’re happy to pay for that advice. We would even be willing to partner with you if you’re at all interested in doing that. So that’s my piece. I’ll turn it over to Shawna because this is her baby.”
Shawna looked around the table. “You probably hear this a lot, but you guys are gods to people like Terry and I. So I am honored that you would take the time to see us.”
With that Damon, connected Shawna’s laptop to the large monitor and she went through the entire demo presentation that they had prepared for Senator Roman’s committee.
The demo only lasted a few minutes and included three examples of the analysis it would perform. One on text, one on stills, and one on audio/video. Shawna was very confident about this, having rehearsed the hell out of herself in anticipation of going to Washington.
What Shawna explained to them was that the Bloodhound program was designed to be an app that worked in more or less the same way that Grammarly worked. It functioned by identifying pre-programmed ‘markers’ or indicators of plagiarized material, in text, audio, and visual formats.
The Anchors sat there and simply marvelled at the brain it would take to figure all this out and then do the lion’s share of the work to program it.
When she was finished, the Anchors all looked at each, wide-eyed. Then Damon spoke. “Almost four years ago now, another couple about your ages, sat where you are and showed us an idea that ended up becoming not just the industry standard, but the beginning of a whole new category of Business AI.”
“Penny Jones and Deacon Fredericks,” Shawna said. “I wrote my Masters paper on Lilliworx. It’s a hell of a story.”
“Well, they say that lightning never strikes twice in the same place,” Damon said. “But I think they were wrong. This could certainly be refined a bit and the database, of course, expanded ongoing, but kudos to you Shawna. This is really something special.”
It was all Shawna could do to keep from crying, after all the work she had put into developing this software without actually showing it to anyone but her team and Terry.
“Thank you.” was all she could muster and still keep her composure.
Then Terry said. “So the real questions are: What’s it worth? How much more work needs to be done? How do we get it out there? And, do you guys want to play?”
Damon looked at his partners. Then he turned to Terry and Shawna as the printer at the far end of the room came to life. Damon got up and retrieved several sheets from the prints.
He handed one to everyone. “This is our standard non-disclosure agreement. We will all sign it, and you can leave us a copy of your prototype and we’ll analyze it and give you our recommendations and our decision within a week from today. But yes, we are very interested in what we saw.”
And with that, the agreements were signed. Shawna gave them a thumb drive with the program demo on it, and the meeting was over.”
As they walked to the door, Damon said. “After our next meeting, hopefully to go into business together, we should be able to do the rest of what needs to be done remotely, so we’re not spending valuable time on travel. AI has turned into a virus, and a program like this will be worth its weight in gold to anyone who uses the web for any reason.”
“Understood. That’s really the main reason we’re doing it. Profitability is just the icing on the cake.” Terry said. “And thanks for your interest. It means the world to us.”
“We’ll give this our top priority, guys. And thank you for thinking of us. This comes at a very good time for us as well.”
Terry and Shawna climbed into the car and took off. As they did Shawna burst into tears. She was six different kinds of happy. Terry just smiled and held her hand pretty much all the way to New York City.
Charlie Drake was a younger version of his older brother, Damon. Terry and Shawna met him in the lounge of the Pierre Hotel where they were staying on their way back home to New England.
Shawna could see that these two men were tight. And as they told their stories she could see why. They were indeed kindred spirits.
“So, New York, huh?” Terry said.
“Fish where the fish are, amigo’. Charlie said. “The incompetence here is just as great, if not greater, than anywhere else. So many fires to put out, so little time.”
“Terry has told me almost nothing about you, Charlie. What exactly do you do here?”
Charlie took a sip of his beer. “Misconception and willful ignorance, my dear Shawna, are everywhere. But in New York, it happens to be packed in tightly and most of it is within walking distance of my apartment. Right now, I’m doing a lot of course correction for businesses that thought they knew a lot about AI, but in actuality knew next to nothing. These folks have been sold a bill of goods by the new charlatan class. These are next-generation scammers. Most are just crooks who flunked out of the big tech schools but tell everybody they graduated because most people don’t bother checking education creds. You kinda are what you tell people you are.
“Anyway, sooner more often than later, these companies find themselves in a complete mess. I started early this year just cold-calling big IT departments. I got almost every meeting I asked for because the little dweebs in these companies realized almost from the get-go that they were in way over their heads. So I hold their hands, set them on the path to glory and send them a whoppin’ big bill for my time, and they pay it almost instantly. In just six months, I’ve already sewn up troubleshooting contracts with a dozen companies and have my number of a dozen more rolodexes. Life is good thanks to the criminal element of the AI universe.”
“Whoa.” Shawna said. “I had no idea.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not like they’re broadcasting it. These companies, they call them early adaptors, are really just greedy little American predators trying to maximize their profits and minimize their overhead. Simple greed economics and nobody does it like the good old USA.”
“So I guess offering you a well-paying job in an out-of-the-way place like Plymouth, would be an exercise in futility.”
Charlie just smiled. “I’m flattered, but…thanks but no thanks. Everybody’s got a tolerance for this city, and mine is pretty high. Maybe after a few years, when it all settles down and the rules get written into law.”
“At least let us take you out to dinner?” Shawna said.
“I’d love it.”
They finished their drinks and headed down to 58th Street and then east to an Italian Restaurant called Serafina where Terry had reserved a table the night before. He knew that Charlie loved Italian food and always raved about Serafina.
As they walked along Charlie said. “You know, my brother called me the minute you guys left to tell me how pumped he was. He hasn’t been this excited since the Lilliworx days. I think they want to make you a partnership offer.”
“Yeah?” Terry said, pretending to be surprised.
“Yeah they’ll probably want 40% but they will cover off all the marketing, sales and service,” Charlie said. “They’ve got the best network in the country by a long shot. All really smart people. All reliable. If you try and build a network like that yourselves you’ll go nuts. I know the Anchors almost did when they first started out.
“Yeah.” Shawna said. “We were hoping they would like the program enough to want to partner up for that very reason.”
“If this goes the way of Lilliworx’ You can look forward to a lot of travel. They don’t like being out in front. They’ll want you guys to do all that.” Charlie said.
They arrived at the restaurant and stood at the bar for about twenty minutes with another drink. Then they got their table and proceeded to get stuffed on veal scallopini and Valpolicella wine.
As they said goodbye to Charlie, he said. “You know who might love to be part of your group is Kyle Jameson.”
“I thought he was teaching?” Terry said.
“Naaa…we keep in touch. I think his tolerance for young idiots is all used up. I’ll text you his number. Give him a call.
