Chapter 29: Keeping Busy, Doing Little

Monday, September 15, 1986

Angie started the day the way we always started September 15th. She got out a candle, lit it, and said, “Hi, Daddy Frank. I miss you. We miss you. I hope you’re doing well, wherever you are.”

Most of us said something. Amy’s version was, “Hello. I do not know you, but you brought us Angie — who is wonderful — and people whom I love love you. I am sorry you have died, but I hope one day we will meet, and that you are happy now.”

For me, I said, “Hello, Uncle Frank. I truly wish I’d known you better. Thank you for Angie. Without her, my life would be missing so much.”

Paige’s was very similar to mine. Jasmine’s wasn’t too far off Angie’s.

The candle would burn all day, as it should. We put it safely next to the sink. No matter what happened, it couldn’t burn down the house or even the kitchen. Frank wouldn’t want that — that was for sure!

P.C.’s Limited was all over the papers. I found a copy of P.C.’s Limited’s ad in the Houston Chronicle and the Austin American-Statesman. The new machine’s thoroughly boring name was ‘P.C.’s Limited 386’. The ad actually mocked that itself. The subhead was: ‘The name may be boring. The performance is not.’

The Statesman also had an article by an industry analyst saying exactly that. He had a stack of benchmarks showing outstanding performance. Of course, that came via new, 386-specific versions of everything. For existing software, it was better, but not night-and-day better.

Angie, however, found the best article. She pulled out a copy of the Wall Street Journal and flipped to the same ad. Next to it was a pretty fascinating article. Someone had dug, and dug deep. They had ‘inside sources at Intel’ proclaiming IBM ‘inept’ and Compaq ‘dysfunctional.’ That Intel and Microsoft had selected P.C.’s Limited as the player most likely to deliver a product was crystal clear. That Intel and Microsoft both needed a hit was also crystal clear.

They didn’t quote anyone at P.C.’s Limited by name, but ‘inside sources’ claimed this was just the beginning, and that the company was planning an entire family of 80386 systems. They would take long enough to come out that the author felt P.C.’s Limited would have no trouble selling every 386 it could make for the foreseeable future, even if the base model cost almost half as much as a new car.

Fortunately, it was a quiet day in my classes. The only really interesting part was talking to Dr. Parkins. She’d talked in person with Dr. Dinkins and was even more interested in how this all worked. It still didn’t dovetail with her course, and I still couldn’t be put on the spot about it thanks to the NDA, but it was clear I’d caught her attention.

That, and she said she was glad we’d had a good trip in terms of the game. She’d watched it on TV and said she, her husband, and their friends had thoroughly enjoyed it. It felt like we might have a shot at becoming at least somewhat friends. That’s always a good thing.

Cammie and Mel fully supported Amy knowing and thought the delay was a good thing. We phoned Laura at night and let her know. She agreed, and reiterated her permission to fill Amy in on her role in things. I would basically have to, so that was good.

We left a message for Jane that simply said, “Following up: we’re planning a big conversation with Amy for next month.” She would know what it meant, and it wouldn’t be particularly odd for her receptionist or anyone else who might hear it.

I called Kyle to check in after classes. He hadn’t heard anything about McBride, Delacroix, Pemberton, or anything else. We were still on the lookout for an angle. Whether we would go after McBride was an open question, but having something ready just in case would be good.

Kyle was strongly considering putting our Houston-based PI on the job, along with checking with some shadier contacts. It would cost money, but we had money, and having plans in place was a good move.

I made a mental note to check with Harry Penders soon. It would be interesting to know if anyone was checking up with Code Enforcement or doing anything else to try to get at us.

I checked with Michael in the evening. The WSJ article had been a surprise, but he’d already talked to both Andy Grove and Bill Gates. Both of them were happy with it. Now that the product was announced, the NDA wasn’t as important. It would have been simply impossible for P.C.’s Limited to ship a full-featured 386 system without serious collaboration with Intel and Microsoft. IBM and Compaq might be annoyed that they hadn’t been chosen, but both of them knew they hadn’t been. It was hard to imagine they had thought Intel and Microsoft would just sit on their hands and wait for something to happen.

That didn’t mean the Microsoft IPO deal was public, though. But it would mean people (including Dad!) would know I’d had material information on a seriously big deal for months. There would be some curiosity, certainly.

Heck, there might be curiosity within the College of Business.

The French study group, now optimistically named the French Fluent Legion, had its first meeting tonight. I hung out with them as much as I could.

By the time the meeting ended, several of them wanted to rename it the ‘Fucking French’ Legion. Angie vetoed it on the grounds that fucking was fun, while studying French was not. Jas helpfully pointed out that the French had a reputation for being good at fucking, though.

Based on our sample size of one, she had a point there. Including Camille and Francis on the basis of anecdotal evidence made it an even better point.

Still, ‘fucking’ was officially out. Also out were ‘niquer’ and ‘sauter’, both apparently French words roughly translating to ‘fucking’ in the sexual sense. ‘Putain,’ the equivalent in terms of an intensifying word, was similarly banned.