Chapter 22

Posted: October 03, 2006 - 09:29:49 am

By the end of the first month, I had turned down several carefully disguised offers. They would have left me tied in knots, and were not really as good as first glance implied. One of the first things I insisted on, was that I desired to retain my own personal copy of my search engine. I wanted to use as I pleased, for my own surfing. I didn't want to go through or paying for this same engine commercially, from whoever wound up producing it, either.

I had eliminated several companies as they were adamant about unauthorized uses once they had it. I wanted to make sure it was stipulated in the contracts that I was allowed to keep and use my own copy, to use, or not use on any computer I desired. This seemed a sticking point for several of the contenders, and a couple dropped out when it was clear I was unbending in this.

It didn't seem unreasonable to me. I was promising not to develop or research another engine for a specified time period, would not sell or give my copy away to others. I just wanted to be able to use it on any computer I happened to use.

Hell, Tom and his computer didn't need my search engine; they got around and through the net in a different way, apparently. He could always put his version of whatever his computer did into mine. But hell, it was fun dickering and playing with the big boys! A person could get addicted to this kind of life... high finance, and making deals!

I ended up giving Time Warner my final offer, making it clear it was my final offer. Part of the deal was that I would receive five million dollars down, and Time Warner would pay me 1.5 million a quarter each quarter, for five years. I had lost my chance at the bigger deal when I told them I wanted to keep some rights. So, call me stupid, but I wanted something more than money from this.

They had agreed to let me retain a copy of the engine for my own personal use, with the understanding that I not give it, loan it, sell it, or leave it accidentally... in whatever other computer, other than my own, that I happened to use. I would not develop or release another such engine or any other search engine or internet search tool until the company realized certain goals of their own. I would refrain from informing or consulting with any other company, service, or internet provider, regarding the intellectual secrets associated with my search engine. I took their offer home with me, and studied it.

My attorney was there, as was my half sister Debra. They were pouring over the final agreement, and they were taking it line by line. It was couched in the legal language that confused the average person... deliberately, I thought.

They waded through it like champs. They made a list of words found that were obscure, even to them. They had to look them up. Most were harmless or innocuous, but two were positioned and used in such a way as to change a couple of points in the contract at Time Warner's discretion. Hmm, a carefully 'loaded' contract!

Well, well. I smelled a penalty being attached to the sale of my engine, if they wanted it. Meaning, I was going to penalize them!

It took some time to wade through it all, a lot of it, but we finally finished. They already had called a few times. I got on the phone with their rep. I told him point blank, that I would not brook any hurrying of the reading or understanding of the document in question. I told him there were a couple changes I wanted to make, and then hung up on him.

After we checked it, we ran it through Tom's computer, and since it had contract law in its storage, and had connections to the libraries it need to use, it was able to digest it faster and give us a summarized report on what the contract said.

All together, I was getting a total of five million at the signing of the contract, and thirty million paid out over five years. A far cry from the nine figures I had been dreaming of, but still, with this much money, I could buy Tom the helicopter of his dreams if he so desired. Well, within reason. And it was legal money. We were able to show it had been earned. That was the best part.

So that's how I became a millionaire. Tom and the rest counseled me to take the deal, as it was basically free money. Even if it wasn't the original nine figures I had hoped and been led to believe I would get, at first. They had wanted too many restraints on me for the extra money to be worth it.

"All right, people. Let's get this meeting started. It has been brought to my attention, that Tom's computer has found us several likely candidates as talents! One is a young child. We will have to wait until we can even approach him. So far, he shows promise, with a TK ability similar to mine.

"The second prospect is more interesting, but is in prison right now. The question is, do we want to spring him? Do we even want to train a talent who is already a proven felon? His crime is minor, actually, but it was done deliberately. His talent makes him very desirable though. He can camouflage himself in an unbelievable way. He somehow seems to blend in with his background. He disappears totally from sight if he stands still. If he is careful and slow, he can move without revealing himself. He does not actually disappear, it just seems he somehow convinces or encourages people to forget he is there.

"Unlike our Tom's 'almost there' place, this guy is detectable by regular cameras, infrared cameras, and motion sensors. While he has been careful not to reveal himself and his ability to the government or local authorities, some are getting suspicious," I reported to them.

"I want to know what his crime was, before I make any decision," Debra told me.

The others parroted this sentiment, and I continued.

"He was caught breaking and entering into a company that held high interest mortgages, on a lot of people in his neighborhood. The interesting part of this, is that when the police took him into custody, he had several items belonging to the company in his possession. They have proven very incriminating to the company in question.

"Our man, Roger Schmidt, previously had lost his house to these people, when he was laid off, and missed one, just one, mortgage payment. It was theorized at the time of his capture, that he let himself be caught. He received a six month sentence, and he is serving it in the county jail. He will do three years probation when he is released," I said, reading from my notes.

I gave the others some time to talk it over. It didn't take long. If it came down to it, none of us could say we were total innocents. We had kidnapped people and done other things that definitely broke laws. The thing was did you feel justified in doing it? How long do you continue to flaunt the laws you supposedly agree with? How far, is going to far? All good questions, and hopefully there was a philosopher out there that could answer them. I just knew we were in the right each time, so far.

"If that's all he was guilty of, I say we interview him, and then if he satisfies us, we hire him, and send him off to 'La La Land', for training," Debra said with a grin.

"'La La Land'?" Tom asked with feigned hurt.

"You know what I mean... that other world you train us in," Debra said with a wave of her hand.

Tom snorted. Apparently 'La La Land' was not his first choice of what to call his little piece of that other reality. He was very cagey about that, too. I often wondered how he came to be such a bigwig over there. Maybe he would tell me, or the group, someday.

Roger was getting close to his parole date. We set up a company to hire him. We would put in a request that he move to the new area where I lived. I knew those things could be arranged legally. If not, we could hire him, and give him a good salary while he was on parole and reporting to his parole/probation officer. Tom could shift him to any part of the world where he was needed. That would prove no problem for us.

So it was that we were in a position to offer Mr. Schmidt a job when he needed it. In his regular work, he had been a machinist, and had made precision parts. That could actually prove useful to us.

He had been crazy about making things, ever since he was a kid, and now he was in his forties, and a master craftsman. What held him back was that piece of paper that said you were trained to think: a college degree.

Well, the 'good old boy' system's loss was our gain as far as I was concerned. After all, no one could possibly build the pyramids of Egypt with out having graduated from MIT, right? I am sure MIT has been going since before the pyramids in Egypt were built. Yeah, and pigs fly!

I don't mean to knock a college education. I mean, I do some studying on my own, but some people just aren't cut out for the campus life and the classroom. There are some great inventors of the past, who would never be taken seriously today, because they had no formal education.

Ben Franklin and his idea of bifocals would never have gotten anywhere. Ben was a typesetter when he was very young. He had a very modest grade school education, but hadn't even finished that. In today's society, since he did not have half the alphabet behind his name and a DR. in front of his name, he would never have been given more responsibility than a broom handler or burger slinger, let alone become the Ambassador to France, as he had been.

It is a very sad commentary on the elitist mentality that has taken over this and other countries. I think some of it has to do with protecting your business by hiring the most educated and qualified, so when the building you built collapses, they can't sue you for hiring an idiot. At least the idiot you had hired was college trained.

And so Tom, Debra and I went to Kansas City. We met with the correct officials to start implementing the hiring of Roger Schmidt. We still had to interview him, but we wanted the ground work out of the way.

I had already registered for a business license in my name, in the area I lived close to, now. After getting over the sticker shock of the legal costs associated with running a small business, I still had to find a place to work out of, and conduct my business. I hadn't taken long. Soon, Garner Precision was born.

I now had a slightly older building on the edge of the business district, in a town which was slowly dying. They were so happy to get me in there, that the local mayor/chief of police stopped by, to see if there wasn't anything he or the town could do. He wanted to know if I needed employees.

I had responded I had one man I wanted so far, but might need a secretary to answer the phones and such, a little later in the evolution of the new business. I asked who was the best around, for redoing electrical work. I had an idea I would have to upgrade the wiring for a very heavy electrical load, if the business took off as I hoped it would. In the meantime, I had local carpenters, handy men, and plumbers doing renovation. The place needed it. The heating system was being replaced, and central air was added.

A week before Roger was scheduled for release, he met with Tom, myself, and Debra, for an interview in the county jail's visiting area. The 'powers that be' were happy a man getting out had such good prospects. I'd had to present credentials to them, and they had checked me out.

They were just worried about my ability to keep my business going long enough to make hiring Mr. Schmidt worth it. A lot of new places folded within the first year or so, as they didn't make much profit in the beginning. I had money. I could afford a red ink year, maybe two. I was actually wanting to make a go of this business venture. I was getting excited about it!

We met Roger Schmidt at exactly 9:30 AM the on the Monday a week before he was being scheduled for release. The visiting room was heavily monitored of course, not that it bothered us. If we really objected to being monitored, we could have brought one of Tom's nifty devices. They would play hell with any listening devices.

"Ah! Mr. Schmidt. It is a pleasure to meet you, sir. I am Scott Garner, owner and operator of Garner Precision. We are here to see if you would consider working for my company. It is a small start up, but I think we will be going places in the near future.

"You would start off with a salary of forty thousand dollars a year. Your title would be Master of Precision Design. You would be making fine precision instruments from my designs. You would also have to make dies, so we could cast the products right there on the property.

"Your record indicates you can make the required dies for us, so that will be no problem. You would have to relocate from here to Oregon, though. Would that be satisfactory with you? We would pay all relocation costs, of course," I said and asked at the same time.

He had been busy looking at the contract in his hand, trying to read it, and listen to me at the same time. We only had an hour before they moved him out of the visiting room, and back to his cell.

"This is totally unexpected. Why me?" he asked, looking at each of us intently.

"Well, you were an interesting case. You're a maverick. I am somewhat of a maverick, myself. I have bought five homes around the town where the factory is situated. Two are being renovated, now.

"I will provide you with housing in a small single bedroom dwelling at a low rent, with an option to buy if you desire, at a later time. The utilities and all associated expenses will be borne by you. Trash, sewer, water, electric, etc, all are on your dime.

"As you can see, this contract is for three years, and is a firm offer. Money has been set aside by my company in the event I fold, to pay you off as stipulated on page two. You would be paid one year's salary as severance, up front, in that eventuality," I said.

"Take your time to decide, Roger, but we are running out of time in here. We have about twenty minutes left. It would take almost that long to fill out the insurance forms and employment forms," Debra added, opening her briefcase and looking hopeful.

We had decided to tell him about the other aspect of working for the company if and when he agreed to work for us. One of the things in the contract, was a 'secrets' clause. While it was there basically to protect the designs and such, it didn't exactly limit us to the designs only. I watched as he picked up a pen. It took him only fifteen minutes to sign everything and become the first employee of Garner Precision.

We stood and shook hands, and I welcomed him to the company and the family.