Chapter 6

I felt like a lizard, my back pressed flat against the boulder looming above me. It had been baking in the unwinking sunlight for hours. I imagined I could feel the heat of that huge rock seeping through my skin and into my spine. I was sure the suit didn’t actually create the feeling, but the rest of the illusion was so strong I couldn’t tell if it was me or Memorex.

The gun in my hand was very light, yet it seemed to hang heavily from the shoulder. Part of it was physical, of course. I wasn’t used to carrying any type of weight around, especially while doing wind sprints. My pitiful physical condition was showing. Psychologically, I’m sure I was also ‘weighted down’ with my aversion to weapons, and felt somewhat guilty about playing this little game.

Which returned my attention to the situation at hand. I’d better take the game more seriously or it would soon be over, at least for me. Time to get moving again.

I peered around the edge of the boulder and decided I was exposing too much of my head without really being able to see any better. What the hell. It was time to make a dash for those scrub trees about fifty feet away. They would provide better cover, as well as a better chance to spot my adversaries coming out of the rocky plains before they saw me.

After one last quick peek left and right, I took off. I tried to go as quickly as possible while still keeping low, occasionally with a random zig or zag. Suddenly I felt a sharp sting in my left biceps. That hurt. But it had only been a glancing hit, and I could still use my arm.

It wasn’t exactly a thick forest, but I certainly felt a lot better as I cleared the first line and jumped behind the widest tree I could find. None too soon, as a beam of light flashed off a branch just inches from my head.

Since the tree wasn’t as thick as my body, I dropped to my knees to present as low a profile as possible. It was truly amazing. As I pressed against the tree for more protection, I could feel the rough bark and sharp little rocks digging into my knee through the thin material of the suit.

I peeked around the tree carefully without exposing too much of my body. Will was dashing across open ground, also heading for the relative safety of the tree line. Quickly snapping off a shot, I probably missed by twenty feet. I hadn’t practiced much at this, and had no aptitude whatsoever.

Still, I figured seeing where he had entered the trees gave me the advantage. Immediately heading deeper into the trees, I started circling around to a point where I hoped I could surprise him. After several minutes of moving quietly yet quickly, I actually managed to maneuver into a position where his back was to me.

On cat’s paws I crept silently but surely towards my prey. It was him or me, kill or be killed. I soon saw his back clearly as he scanned from side to side, evidently waiting for me to come to him. This was no time for mercy. I held the gun in both hands as I had been shown and tried to steady the shot. One deep breath, exhale, and then squeeze off the shot.

At that moment, an intense pain shocked my back. The gun fell from my nerveless fingers, and Will turned with a ruthless smile on his lips and looked past me. I also turned and saw Mary behind me, the gun in her hand still pointing at my body. He had obviously acted as a decoy to enable her to also get into the woods and then set up an ambush for me. The look on her face mirrored that of Will.

The pain was still spreading through my body. For me, the game was over.

“That’s no fair!” I complained as I pulled my goggles off, only semi-kidding. “It’s bad enough I’m a beginner at this, but did you two have to tag-team me?”

We were all stripping off our ‘sensor suits,’ revealing the somewhat skimpy bathing costumes beneath. Naturally, the tiny suits looked a lot better on these fit, young people than on me. Will and Mary never lost their Cheshire smiles.

Even though Tommy and Cuong had been dismissed early in the game, they were both grinning as well. Of course, they had been ‘killed’ through their youthful aggressive actions. I had only lasted so long through being extremely cautious, running a lot more than shooting, and hoping the four ‘kids’ would eliminate each other, ignoring the old man until one or none of them remained. So much for those hopes.

“That’s the way they approach everything,” Tommy claimed. “That’s why the company has been so successful.”

“Well, if that’s the case,” I grumbled half-heartedly, “then I guess I can’t complain too much.”

Indeed. I had been doing pretty well financially before. Then, with my help, these four had formed AmazeInc., an entertainment company based on the development or adaptation of futuristic technologies. My already sizable fortune had literally taken off. That had been over three years ago, and each of them was also a multi-millionaire now.

What had first attracted me was that the name was on Solomon’s list of companies to watch out for. As the company quickly grew and my profits along with it, I truly became fascinated with the creative genius of the founder. He was a young man named Will Tamarra, who had graduated magna cum laude from M.I.T. at the age of nineteen. Will had started the company literally in his father’s garage by building a set of ‘goggles’ that would allow him to ‘see’ during a white out or at night. This way he could continue to pursue his passion of snowboarding no matter what the conditions.

Will had convinced a few of his snowboarding friends at M.I.T to help him create a working model. The heart of the system was a computer unit. It used the basic topography of the mountain, and extrapolated the surface of the snow based on the current amount of hardpack base and covering powder announced by the resort. It then factored in all known obstacles such as trees, major rocks and man-made structures such as buildings and lifts. The group incorporated video game graphics into the ‘mapping’ of the presumed terrain in front of the snowboarder. The computer then fed all this information to the goggles. The results allowed the students to continue snowboarding long after the hardiest of souls had quit for the day, and until the lifts finally shut down.

Naturally, this required a fantastic amount of miniaturization. The computer had to incorporate satellite receiving equipment to tap into NAVSTAR and other navigational satellite systems. It also used computational gridding in a pseudo three-dimensional digital display on the inside lenses of the goggles that factored in the ‘boarder’s speed, rate of descent and angle and degree of their maneuvers. The kids had discussed simply attaching miniature halogen lighting to their goggles for night skiing. They had decided this solution would be more ‘rad,’ as well as useful for all weather conditions. It was certainly more precise.

I was introduced to the group by Harley Hill. Harley was a money broker who found companies seeking funds for either start-up or expansion and then hooked them up with an investment group. In many cases, Harley would put together the group and the deal as well, trying to ensure fairness for both sides.

Our first meeting was actually held at the country house of Will’s parents, located about forty miles outside of Boston. As soon as we arrived, we went out to the garage to see the equipment. They had worked in the Tamarra’s garage primarily because it was relatively close to M.I.T. I thought Will’s parents had been incredibly indulgent about keeping their cars outside in the winter weather of Massachusetts.

The youngest of the four at nineteen, Will had just received a dual degree in computer engineering and physics. Will was unsure of what graduate program to pursue because he had so many interests. Harley then introduced Cuong Thieu. Cuong was a first-generation Vietnamese boy who was in his third year of studying civil engineering with an emphasis in Geographical Information Systems (G.I.S.) Sciences. Next was Tommy Sanders, a lanky black kid who was a senior majoring in electrical and mechanical engineering. Tommy was also the star point guard on M.I.T.’s basketball team. The oldest member of the quartet was Mary O’Brien, who was just finishing her master’s degree in physics. Mary had the fiery red hair and green eyes that were stereotypical of her heritage. As we sat at the table drinking our morning beverages, the group discussed their various roles in the project.

Will had conceived the idea during their last snowboarding trip the past winter. The group had been unable to ‘board for two days because of white-out conditions. As they sat around their cabin discussing the concept, they fleshed out what they would have to do to make it work. Using general topographical maps and existing locations coordinate data, Will and Cuong surveyed two areas in great detail. They mapped out a gentle slope not far from Will’s house to use as a test site, as well as a simple run at one of their favorite snowboarding sites.

Tommy started in on the electronics they would need. He designed an integrated system of navigational satellite signal receiving equipment, a continuous feed mechanism for both the velocity and the altitude, and a digital display system that could process all of this information and provide a simulation of the slope in front as well as all of the known obstacles. All four used computers extensively, and all but Mary were avid video game players. Consequently, they worked together to write the program that would mesh the real-time data of the descent down the hill into the fixed information regarding known terrain, and then translate this into a displayable image. Will helped Mary write the math formulas that would do all of the computations, and he also added a few refinements to Tommy’s design. One of the refinements was a tiny radar to trigger an auditory warning in the part of the goggles that covered the ears whenever the ‘boarder had a solid object fifteen feet in front of them. That way, the ‘boarders could veer in case the goggles had somehow not displayed the object, such as another person ahead of them on the slope.

In the meanwhile, Cuong and Mary worked on refining the program integration of previously inputted terrain data with the continuous feed of navigational satellite information that plotted location to within a few feet. They also refined the on-board sensing devices for speed and altitude. The young men then added a form of ‘night battle’ graphics to the program. This was meant to provide outlines of the approaching terrain rather than pretending to simulate the actual scene in front of the user. All this equipment had to be reduced in size to be able to be carried on their back by an average-sized person as they skied down a hill. Because the display could not ‘see’ irregularities of less than two feet, the snowboarder or skier was left to react to any small moguls or dips in the snow.

As they had described the project, each became more animated, and less worried about me and whatever money I might provide. Their enthusiasm fed on describing the role each of the others had played in their creation. The prototype was first meant to get them down the nearby gentle slope on a modified go-cart, and then later down the bunny slope at the resort on actual snowboards. And all of this research, development and experimentation had been done while the four of them were maintaining high grades in very demanding classes. In Tommy’s case, it was also done while playing on the college basketball team. Quite frankly, I was more impressed with their relationships, especially their admiring attitudes towards the intelligence and contributions of the others, than I was with the actual mechanism itself.

As we looked the invention over in the garage, I understood the warning Harvey had given me on the drive from the airport. The basic unit was a backpack the user had to strap on and carry the entire time. The ‘goggles’ were pretty large and cumbersome, actually more like a box wrapping around the entire head. The ‘lenses’ were a very bulky, squarish screen that was not only clumsy to wear but unattractive. Not counting all of their time, computer costs and travel, just the raw materials costs involved in producing a simple prototype of the mechanism was over fifty thousand dollars. They had collected this sum out of their own pockets and from whatever their parents would contribute to the project.

Who knew what the retail models might cost to produce? More importantly, how many skiers or snowboarders would be so eager to venture out into a blizzard that they would spend the hundreds, or maybe even thousands of dollars required to strap this bulky and ugly equipment on to pursue their hobby? Working out the few remaining technical bugs in the equipment would be a relative snap. Making it more compact, and especially more attractive, would be the real challenge.

Nevertheless, I genuinely enjoyed my time with these eager and brilliant young people. As we drove away, Harley tried to lay it right on the line.

“You know, Barney, there really doesn’t seem to be a great market for this product. In fact, I’d venture to guess it doesn’t have a whole lot of potential for adapting to other markets, either. Are you sure you want to get into this?”