Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 39: Unexpected Success
THE PARTNERS met with Darla Gallitzin in Luke’s office on Monday. The last three days of the previous week had been frantic. The number of queries to Pythia Speaks continued to climb. About one out of ten users followed the link that led to the Forever Yours landing page. One of twenty-five people who hit the landing page eventually bought Forever Yours.
“That doesn’t sound like so much when you look at the percentage,” Darla said. “Just four-tenths of a percent in sales. But Pythia had 35,000 hits on Friday. That came down to 140 sales of Forever Yours. We didn’t anticipate that many sales in the first six months of release. It’s a high-ticket item. Of the $495 price, EMEE collects $145. The cost of goods and shipping comes to $91.40. That means a royalty payment of just over $250 per copy. Friday’s sales netted $35,000.”
“Holy shit! And I was happy to get the payment from the government. This is going to change things drastically,” Isobel said.
“Well, with success comes the pain,” Darla said. “First of all, EMEE was not prepared for the volume. They ran out of stock for the drives last week. They have about two hundred back orders as of this morning and are placing rush orders from the manufacturer. Statistically, when orders are not shipped within twenty-four hours, two in five are canceled. EMEE has one employee devoted to flashing the drives and packaging them for shipment. I’ve sent an assistant to Savannah to negotiate shipping costs on their behalf. And shipments aren’t just going to the US. Shipping costs will be greater for overseas customers, not to mention VAT and Tariffs.”
“But if the number keeps growing...” Chastity said. “I mean we went from 9,000 to 25,000 queries a day overnight and 35,000 within three days. Daily! Your number can’t include all the sales since the release of Forever Yours.”
“I gave you an adjusted percentage based on the past week,” Darla said. “What you will see is the percentage dwindling, but still feeling pretty consistent.”
“Why’s that?” Luke asked.
“A significant portion of daily visits to Pythia Speaks is repeat visitors,” Darla explained. “If four-tenths of a percent of Friday’s 35,000 bought, the likelihood is that only one-tenth of a percent of today’s 50,000 visitors will buy because over half of that 50,000 will have already been to the site and made their decision to purchase or not purchase. The total will still look something like 100-150 units sold. Of course, these are all projections. We just don’t have enough history to get a real number on it.”
“I can’t believe we’re looking at 50,000 visitors,” Henry said. “How is Pythia Speaks holding up?”
“She’s expanded to six servers,” Darla said. “Response time is still holding under ten seconds. Like the orders for Forever Yours, a proportion of the queries are coming from outside the US. As long as the question is phrased in English, Pythia responds.”
“I asked a question Tuesday morning,” Isobel said. “I know you said she was non-political, but I asked who I should vote for.”
“How’d it ... she respond to that?” Henry asked.
“She said, ‘A pure heart will make a pure choice.’ I wonder how many people asked the same question and how many different answers she gave,” Isobel said.
“I’ll review the logs and see what they say,” Henry said.
“It’s not all positive,” Darla broke in. “There are crackpots out there who believe you, Henry, are the devil incarnate, offering eternal life to the damned. They believe you said the Bible, the Koran, and other sacred texts are irrelevant because the world has changed. There is even a meme floating around that has cut your statement from the interview that, ‘The wisdom is not always going to be wise. You see that all the time with religious writings and the people who follow them.’ Those people who believe the religious writings—even a little—are ready to go to war against you.”
“Well, they aren’t exactly incorrect in their assessment of where I stand,” Henry said.
“It’s a hornets’ nest,” Darla warned. “We’ve even seen a small number of death threats against you. To those people, you are the next worst thing to an abortion doctor. Most of this chatter is just venting. They are on about the same plane as threats against a billionaire for putting tracking nanochips in vaccines a few years ago. But we have to consider the possibility there are some credible threats out there. We’ll forward all those to proper authorities.”
“Well, that sucks,” Henry said.
“Oh, honey,” Chastity said, putting a hand on his arm. “We need to talk about physical security. If there’s a threat against you, it could easily extend to all of us. I’ve been worried about this for a while but didn’t have any data to put with it.”
“You’re right,” Isobel said. “The boys go out and get in front of a camera, but they aren’t the only ones in the sights. Even our office could be targeted.”
“In all likelihood, just taking reasonable precautions will be enough to safeguard all of you. Monitor traffic coming into the office. Be aware of people who might be following you. Don’t walk alone—especially at night,” Darla said.
“In other words, act like a woman,” Chastity said.
“What?” Luke asked.
“It’s the way we have to act all the time. Don’t accept a drink in a public place. Always leave together. Stay out of poorly lit areas. Get an escort to your car. Women have to live like that every day. Predators are everywhere.”
“Shit. We’re so blind to what’s around us,” Henry said. “I knew all that. It just never really sank in. I’m sorry to all of you.”
“It’s a good warning, but don’t get paranoid,” Darla said. “Our agency will continue to monitor all comments and track keywords on social media. We’ll report anything that looks serious to the police. You have work to do. The purpose of these threats is to make you afraid to do your work. Don’t let them.”
“Thank you, Darla. Chastity, let’s start putting together some ideas on corporate security,” Luke said. “But we aren’t going to slow down either the development or marketing of our products. We’re on the cusp of doing something remarkable. Let’s not let it get away.”
Two army officers were waiting for Henry when he left the meeting with Darla.
“Captain Bernard,” he said, greeting Rebecca. They were usually casual, but since she had a subordinate with her, he decided on the formality.
“Mr. Pascal, may I introduce Lt. Michael R. Smith of the Pentagon’s Cyber Resilience team,” Rebecca said. “The two of us have been assigned to your development team to work on the military grade version of the network defense system if it meets with your approval.”
Henry shook hands with the tall and skinny black lieutenant. The uniform hung to his angular frame as if on a wire hanger. Henry wondered that anyone was allowed in the army with such large glasses.
“Welcome to Open Cloak, Lieutenant.”
“Thank you, sir,” he said straightening to a height of about six-four and towering over Henry’s six-foot frame.
“Let’s go back and get you set up and introduced to the rest of the team. We’ve got another new hire just finishing up paperwork with Conrad. By the way, here in the office, I just go by Henry. There is no need to call me Mr. Pascal. The only one in the office who insists on the use of her title is Mrs. Riordan, our financial manager. You can also refer to her as ‘Her Highness.’ Just not to her face.”
“Thanks, Henry. I’m Rebecca and this is Mike. It appears we’ll be assigned here for at least six months. When army personnel are assigned to a civilian office, we are not required to wear uniforms so, with your permission, we’ll go to regular business attire tomorrow,” Rebecca said.
“Thank heavens! The uniforms are nice, but a little intimidating in a small office like ours. Here’s where we’ll make magic happen.” Henry led them into the mini office where six desks were arranged to all have a view out the window.
“Wow! I expected a cubicle in the basement,” Mike said.
“Just because that’s where we keep you at the Pentagon, doesn’t mean it’s your equivalent in the civilian world,” Rebecca laughed. “Remember, I don’t even have a window at HQ.”
“It’s a pleasure to know our office is an upgrade,” Henry said. “Ah, here’s Conrad and Leanne.”
Conrad entered the small office with a woman of indeterminate ethnic background. Her skin tone was slightly darker than that of Henry, but could have been Latina or Middle Eastern or Mediterranean. She appeared to be in her mid to late thirties.
“Conrad and Leanne, let me introduce you to our two army staff, Rebecca and Mike,” Henry said.
“Charmed,” Leanne said, offering her hand first to Rebecca and then to Mike.
The single-syllable greeting belied any other thoughts about her heritage. She was obviously from the deep south.
The group went about setting up their workstations and chatting about the task they had at hand. Henry excused himself to work on his other projects. Conrad was in charge of this team. Henry wasn’t sure how well it would work if he came in conflict with his girlfriend over the direction of the code. He’d wait and see.
Henry called Scott Perkins at Page Services. With the sharp increase in traffic, he wanted to be sure the server farm was prepared to handle things.
“We’re in good shape, Henry,” Scott said. “With our current setup and adding a couple more boxes, I believe we’ll be able to handle half a million queries a day. We were caught a little flat-footed when the traffic started to spike last week, but we were back to speed in an hour.”
“That’s great to know, Scott. How about the hits on our Forever Yours sample pages?”