Chapter 29: Investing

“As long as there is an AI shortcoming in any such area of endeavor, skeptics will point to that area as an inherent bastion of permanent human superiority over the capabilities of our own creations. This book will argue, however, that within several decades, information-based technologies will encompass all human knowledge and proficiency, ultimately including the pattern-recognition powers, problem-solving skills, and emotional and moral intelligence of the human brain itself.”

— Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near

“WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?” Isobel shouted.

Henry looked down at himself.

“Sorry,” he said. “Someone was screaming my name and pounding on the door upstairs. I didn’t take time to dress.”

“I don’t fucking care about that!” Isobel shouted. “Fuck whoever you want to. Congratulations. What is this?” She shoved her cell phone in front of his face. Henry pushed it back a little so he could see the numbers in focus. $25,000,000.00.

“Oh. I didn’t expect that to hit until late today. Sorry you drove all the way over here on a school day. I intended to tell you about it tomorrow.”

“Did you sell the company, Henry?” Luke asked. It was all either of them could imagine would result in a deposit that size to their LLC account and not directly into the corporate account.

“No,” Henry said. “Kind of a limited license. I need to go get my clothes. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”

He closed Luke and Isobel out and returned to Lisa. She was sitting up in bed, her beautiful breasts on display for him.

“Do you have to leave?” she asked, moving her legs apart.

“Oh, geez. I wish not. My partners just discovered everything that happened yesterday and I need to go settle them down a little.”

“Go ahead,” she said, getting out of bed and wrapping her arms around him. “I don’t think I could cram that thing into me again today. I’d try, though.”

“Lise, let’s not hurt ourselves. As soon as I get the crisis settled down out there, we can go back to the plan of spending the weekend in front of the TV with snacks and each other.”

“I’ll be snacking on you,” she giggled, handing him his underwear. She opened a dresser drawer and found underwear for herself while he dressed.

“I think the four of us—as in Luke, Isobel, Chastity, and me—will probably go to the club for lunch while we discuss business,” he said, not sure if Lisa was planning to join him.

“I’m going over to the U. I can still make our last class this afternoon. I want to see what that army captain looks like,” Lisa answered. “Be sure to explain why the apartment and office are posted like an Army base.”

“Yeah. I didn’t expect them to drive over this morning. I figured the earliest they’d get here would be tomorrow. I need to get out there before Isobel becomes even more hysterical.”

He kissed Lisa again and hugged her, then left to join his partners.

“I have to tell you about everything that happened. It’s my fault that the Army was interested, but the Army might be what is keeping me out of the hands of the FBI or the CIA,” Henry said when they sat at lunch at the club.

“What the hell happened?” Luke asked.

“You remember last Friday? We discovered an attack on the corporate server, attempting to break through our firewalls. We presume the intent was to steal our AI research,” Henry began.

“We were here. You told us about that,” Isobel said.

“There was more. Lisa and I were told to keep quiet until the university could divert suspicion. I intended to tell you this weekend anyway.”

He went through all the steps that led to destroying the hackers, and the subsequent discovery that he’d knocked out ten percent of China’s Internet infrastructure.

“Chastity gave the colonel the routing information and account for the LLC. I felt it would be easier to keep buried there than having it paid directly to the company.”

“Do you know how much tax we’re going to owe on twenty-five million?” Isobel asked, shaking her head. “You might as well have just given it all away.”

“Oh. I forgot to mention that the money is a government reward and is tax-free. Or post-tax dollars or something like that,” Henry said.

“Twenty-five million,” Chastity sighed.

“I think it takes care of our next round of funding for the company and we don’t lose any control,” Henry said.

“You don’t,” Luke said. “You have twenty-five mil to invest.”

“Uh ... I don’t see it that way,” Henry said. “When the money was paid into the partnership, it became equally owned by the four of us. That’s the way our LLC is set up.”

“You mean you want each of us to have an equal share?” Chastity gasped. Even Isobel’s eyes popped open wide.

“I think we should issue shares at a dollar a share to the LLC,” Henry said. “We’ve got enough product in the pipeline to ramp up sales and marketing and get a couple of full-time developers onboard.”

“Twenty-five million shares owned by the LLC in addition to the ten mil we already have, at a dollar a share is nearly $9,000,000 each!” Isobel said.