Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 60: Friendly Investor
HENRY TRIED to put the office out of his mind on Friday. It was an important family day. Chastity, however, felt she needed to go in so she could handle the issue of physical security. She should have been notified of the office closure so she could coordinate with the security company.
Dr. Mikesel, Cassie’s pediatrician, arrived for her promised home visit. While weighing and measuring the baby, she discussed issues of breastfeeding, sleep routines, parental care, and environment. She expressed some concern about the stairs.
“You’ll be surprised at how fast time flies,” she said. “Start childproofing your home now. Think of all the danger points. The stairs, your offices, locking cabinets, and sharp corners. I guarantee you that when you have done everything, Cassie will find something you missed.”
“We know this house isn’t the most child-friendly place,” Henry said. “We hope to be in a new home by the first of the month. It has fewer steps and even room for expansion. And Germaine will become our nanny and will live with us.”
“Don’t lose track of the baby while you’re packing. You wouldn’t be the first parents to have to open and unpack every box in order to find a missing child.”
“Oh my God!” Lisa gasped, holding Cassie tighter.
Dr. Mikesel considered her visit to have been successful.
Germaine arrived from taking Chastity to the office in plenty of time to pick up Henry, Lisa, and Cassie to go to the airport.
They weren’t traveling today, but were meeting Cassie’s great grandparents, Beau and Solange. Lisa’s grandparents really weren’t very old. Henry had never had grandparents he could remember, so he enjoyed Beau and Solange as if they were his own Grandma and Grandpa. Beau often talked about retiring, but complained that he couldn’t collect Social Security until he was too old to enjoy it.
It wouldn’t really make a difference if he could. Beau didn’t depend on anything for an income. Benoit Intracoastal was one of the largest privately held companies in the South. Beau was among the billionaires on the Forbes list.
“Grandma and Grandpa!” Lisa waved as Beau and Solange approached the baggage claim area. “Come meet your great granddaughter!”
People in the airport smiled as the older couple rushed to see the baby. Solange immediately took Cassie from Lisa and Beau hugged his granddaughter. Finally, Beau got a chance to chuckle over his granddaughter and then motioned to Henry to join him at the baggage carousel. He motioned to a bag about the size of a large briefcase. Henry picked it up and checked the tag to be sure it was Beau’s. Beau had already turned back to Lisa and Solange.
“What else, Beau?” Henry asked.
“Oh, that’s all. We’re only spending the weekend,” Beau laughed.
Henry looked at his in-laws. Solange had a large purse over her shoulder and Beau carried a paperback.
“Pack light,” Henry said under his breath. He led the way to the exit, carrying the suitcase. Germaine pulled up just a minute later.
“I just hate carrying things on the airplane,” Beau said. He sat in the back row with Henry. Solange sat next to the car seat in the second row and Lisa rode in front with Germaine.
“So, where is Chastity?” Solange asked.
“She had to go in to work this morning for a bit. She’s reviewing security measures with our team. There was a failure yesterday.”
“A hack on your system? Not encouraging after your big IPO.”
“No, not on the system. It was a physical attack. The security team wasn’t where they were supposed to be.”
“Are you putting our grandchildren in danger?” Solange asked, putting an arm around the seat where Cassie was sleeping.
“It was company security,” Lisa hurried to assure her grandmother. “Germaine is always vigilant over the family.”
“I’m surprised you aren’t at the office as well,” Beau said.
“I’m on parental leave. We have good people at the office,” Henry said.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Beau said. “I’d hate to think I invested in something risky.”
“You invested, sir?” Henry asked.
“Don’t sir me now! I wanted to be sure my great grandchildren would be provided for in the future, so I set up a trust and put shares of your company in it. Wanted to be sure control stayed in the family.”
“Well, we have the largest investment within the partnership. I haven’t looked at the breakdown of the public sales yet, but I’m sure we no longer have a majority.” That irritated Henry a little. He didn’t want to lose control, but to progress to where they wanted to go, they needed a lot of cash.
“With my shares and those of your venture group, I’m sure we’ll maintain a majority. Let me know if we need a seat on the board.”
Henry looked at his grandfather-in-law in shock.
“If I may ask, Beau, how many shares did you buy?”
“Ten million. The underwriter was very helpful.”
Henry was struck silent. He knew Lisa’s family was wealthy, but to invest $150 million in a startup? Sure. He’d happily recommend a board position for Beau.
About the time the family had finished lunch and were headed home, a very different scene was playing out at the office.
“I’m sorry, Colonel. Mr. Pascal is not in the office today,” Chastity said to the officious officer.
“Are you one of these artificial things, too?” he demanded, reaching toward Chastity.
A burly guard stepped between them. Chastity had just finished her meeting with the security company and was preparing to leave when the colonel and his specialist entered the lobby.
“Sir! Your uniform is not a license for assault,” the guard said. The colonel stepped back a step.
“Of course not. Misunderstanding. I’m here to see Henry Pascal. Now!”
“As I attempted to tell you before, Mr. Pascal is not in the office. He is on parental leave,” Chastity said.
“Parental leave? Who’s in charge?”
As soon as the colonel had walked through the door, Deena had activated her emergency protocol, based on her previous encounter. When fully operational, that would connect directly to authorities, but at this stage of her development, it only connected to the Alice Project upstairs. Mia immediately called Nathan. He stormed into the lobby behind Chastity.
“Jamison! What the hell do you think you’re doing here?” Nathan yelled.
“General!” the colonel snapped in surprise. He quickly regained his composure, knowing Schwartz was retired. “Well, it’s good to know there is a human adult here to talk to.”
“Human adult male,” Chastity growled. Nonetheless, she realized Nathan was a better choice to deal with the situation. She stood her ground with the security guard and made the colonel step around her to talk to Nathan.
“What are you doing barging in here acting like you’re leading an assault team instead of a spec four?” Nathan demanded.
“I’m here to collect all code and computer files related to the Open Cloak security system and to have all such files removed from the premises. This is by order of Admiral Jonathon Graves of the Pentagon Cyber Defense Department.” The colonel announced.
“Tell the old swab to come and get it himself. If you want to speak to the chief technical officer of the company, you’ll need to send someone of equal rank. And while you’re at it, remind him he doesn’t have the right or power to walk into a publicly owned US enterprise and make any kind of demands.”
“This is a privately owned company. We’ll offer the market value of $25 million for it and close it down.”
“Believing and using accurate intelligence has always been a shortcoming of the Pentagon,” Nathan snickered. “The company went public on Wednesday and has a current market cap of just under a billion dollars.”
“What?” The colonel snapped around to his specialist. “Why didn’t we have this intel?”
The computer hacker just stared dead ahead as if he wasn’t in the room at all.
“Go home, Colonel,” Nathan said. “This isn’t a battle you or your man should be in.”
“We tried to do this the nice way, Schwartz. I’ll put our best team of hackers on it and rip the code out by the guts. We’ll declare the patents top secret and prosecute anyone who uses them.”
“Simple piece of advice from someone who once did your job far more effectively. Don’t run your hackfest from the Pentagon. You don’t want all the computers in the building corrupted.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“It’s automatic. The defense system is run by AI. We keep our hands off,” Schwartz said.
“We’ll just see about that,” Jamison snarled. He turned and stormed out of the lobby. The specialist hurried after him.
“Deena, send the transcript of this encounter to the corporate officers. Copy me so I can respond with a message.”
“Yes, Mr. Schwartz. Or should I call you General, sir?”
“Don’t be a smartass, Deena.”
“The good news is Deena is developing a personality,” Chastity said after she’d rejoined the family and greeted Lisa’s grandparents.
“If that’s the good news, I hesitate to ask what bad news brought it about,” Henry said. He and Chastity had stepped away from the others so she could fill him in on the happenings at the office that morning.
“The Army showed up again today.”
“Oh, shit. We let Deena handle it again?”
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