Balance of Power Shifted (43 page)

It wasn’t until a week later that members of the FBI and CIA’s joint taskforce analyz
ing data harvested from the Chinese systems came across information regarding ‘
Operation
Deep Dive
is what it loosely translated to in English.  Using very powerful computers, the analysts were able extract information related to
Operation Deep Dive
from Terabytes of data in seconds.  The lead analyst after sifting through the documents automatically escalated it up the chain based on the criticality of the content.  Within minutes Agent Matt Morgan of the FBI and Carl Osborne of the CIA were reading identical reports.  Both began cursing as they read details.  Matt speed dialed Carl’s cell as Carl was finishing the report and said, “Well, what do we do now?”  Ten minutes later Matt was assigning agents to track down the details regarding the professor, while Carl was on the horn asking for a meeting with his boss.

T
hinking about the inquisition that he and Julius had gone through in DC a couple of days ago, he had decided he was not going to get to consumed worrying about it.  He thought he had stifled their aggressiveness by telling them about their failsafe plan, but you can never be too sure.  His philosophy was ‘always focus on the things he could control and not get caught up in things outside of his control’.  Right now Kristen’s voice penetrated his thoughts as she gave Taylor, Julius, Iris and me a breakdown of finances.  The formula we had come up with for licensing was simple.  For the annual fee of 1 Billion dollars car and truck companies can build 325,000 units a year, which comes out to about a $3000 cost per unit.  In addition, another 100,000 vehicles built at $1500 per unit were contractually permitted.  Efficio would supply an agreed upon amount of Electricus per each contract and the car companies were responsible for manufacturing the Power Pads as part of the same license agreement.  Home manufacturers could purchase rights on an as unit basis for $4500 per unit.  Builders would need to contract with their own suppliers who in turn must purchase the rights to produce Power Panels and Power Pads from Efficio at approximately $400 per system capable of 400 kilowatts per day, which should be almost twice as much as the average home would use daily. 

Kristen and the Filamore team had been really busy and had signed contracts in place for
twelve car and light truck manufacturing companies and had preorders at 20% down for enough Electricus to build 5000 homes.  For a total projected revenue of 12 Billion and 25 million dollars minimum.  If you count the contract just signed with the Army we could add another 8 million dollars.  Kristen ended up by saying, “and this is just the beginning.  We have hundreds of companies calling us each day, but we just don’t have the ability to commit anything to them at this time.”  Iris said to Kristen, “why don’t you tell Mike what your 2-year projections are?”  She hesitated and then hit them with a bomb by saying, “If we can manage to produce and ship Electricus on a large scale, we can expect year two revenues to exceed 55 Billion dollars?”

Mike just nodded his head in deep thought while everyone watched him.  Looking up he asked Kristen “when can we start shifting 20% of revenues over into our goodwill fund?”  Thinking for
a couple seconds Kristen said, “Based on my estimate once accounts receivable is in possession of about 2 Billion dollars, which should give us enough capital to continue to build out the company and meet all our obligations.”  Excellent Mike said, feeling his face lighten up with a big smile.  Let’s plan on it then and get those accounts set up to create our non-profit organization and let’s get the word out about the need for manufacturing centers around the globe to build Power Pads for field use and focus on the poorest such as orphanages or medical organizations supporting the needy. 

It seemed that everyone in the room took a deep breath as realization set in that their dream was now in motion.  As I started to get up, Iris stopped me and looking at Kristen she said with an impish grin
“Kristen don’t you have another important piece of business to discuss with Mike?”  Kristen just sat there with a confused look, however when Taylor laughed Kristen caught on.  Looking at Mike, she said, “We’re pregnant.”  Surprised, I sounded like an idiot, as I repeated, “pregnant, holy shit you’re pregnant.  That is fantastic.  Does Fiona know?”  Sorry Mike, but I told her this morning…you are actually the last to know.  Looking over at Taylor, Mike said, “That hurts Taylor I can see Kristen doing that to me, but you.  Well I can see now who the boss really is in your house.”

Twenty minutes later Mike was sitting across from Fiona in her
office, which looked more like a network operations center than an office.  She had four 50-inch LED flat screens on her wall directly in front of her desk.  One of the screens had a series of tiled live videos going on monitoring activity at our New Jersey and California Electricus Production sites.  The New Jersey site would be up at 50% production by the middle of next week and 100% production in three weeks.  The biggest delay was getting the 8000-gallon fiberglass storage tanks built and delivered.  These tanks were the same ones buried at gas stations around the country and had to pass stringent structural testing before approved for use.  Our tanks were going to sit on aluminum braces set into the cement floor.  Each site had a dual pump system for pumping into tanker trucks as well as a dual pump system to bring in seawater.  Remarkably, it was a simple, safe and effective system.  Each site had three employees and three Clavis guards per 8-hour shift. 

Fiona said
, “Mike look at the bottom screen on the right.”  Looking behind me I saw a beautiful Mack truck with an overnight cab and attached was a gleaming stainless steel tanker body.  Fiona said “the tank capacity on that one was about 4800 gallons and the capacity of this straight body is 2200 gallons” as she put up a second picture.  “I worked up the numbers with Kristen and it looks like we would be much better off if we purchased our own trucks.  Using an average of 8 gallons of Electricus to the average car, one tanker truck will support the outfitting of 600 cars per tanker.  To outfit 100,000 cars we would have to make 166 deliveries to each major car company.  We have 100 tanks on site when fully-operational, and the full reaction process and pumping process cycle is two days, so every 2 days we can ship 500,000 gallons enough for just over 62,000 cars.  That’s 100 tanker trucks every 2-days and that is if everything is working like clockwork.”  “Wow”, I said.  “Logistically we do not even know how long a truck will be on the road for a round trip.  I think we need a person trained in logistics and fleet management as soon as possible!” 

Luckily we built into our contracts a ramp up period, which was mutually beneficial since the car companies have to re-tool their production lines however they are raring to go since the average consumer is now holding off buying gas powered vehicles knowing that Electricus powered vehicles are just around the corner.  The drop off is so severe, that the car companies are working 24 hours a day to re-tool and are already prototyping the Power Pad component and testing power controls.”  Fiona then added
, “Mike, we need to place truck orders as well as rent trucks until we have the new trucks as well as certified drivers.  I want to put in a 50 million dollar order across three truck and tank manufacturing companies, or we could just buy a freight company and change them over.”  “Put the orders in, and get that logistics person onboard ASAP and pay them whatever they are asking. I think this is an area, I totally let fall through the cracks.  Thanks for catching it.”  You probably will not see me for a few days since I need to be at the New Gretna and San Diego sites getting them up and running.  Is there any way you can get away and come out to San Diego with me?” Fiona asked.  “Ummm, let me think about that and I’ll call you later,” I said as I thought about my old pad out there and wondered if my roof top plants were still alive.

As I was walking out of Fiona’s command center, Sean was walking in so I stopped and asked him how it was going.  Sean immediately started babbling saying “I’ve finally worked out the safety issues with Electricus and how to safely store it, transport it and transfer.  We, when I say we
, I mean Efficio and anyone storing Electricus should do so in a non-conductive container.  I think we have been very lucky to date not having anyone injured or killed.  It was pure luck that our culture containers were fiberglass and the tanker used for the Army delivery, lined in ceramic.  “Damn” I responded, “I had no inclination that it was dangerous, but how can it not be with all that electricity involved.”  “I think we were lucky the whole time because Electricus formed this neutral zone between the positive and negative charged organisms which helped provide some kind of buffer,” said Sean with a roll of his eyes.  “I’m going to finalize safety requirements with Fiona and make sure our contracts are clear on it with our customers.  See ya later.”  I had five minutes to get to a special soundproof room to connect to Bill over an encrypted voice channel.  This was their daily meeting to keep each other up to speed on the day’s events.

Slipping into a conference room with acoustic sound tiles on the walls, specially lined glass to block electronic signal
s and prevent lip reading and sound vibrations, I sat down to a special workstation that allowed me to establish a voice and video call to a similar device in Bill’s Vatican office.  In the event we could not be in these spaces, we each carried and encrypted satellite phone.  I initiated the connection and in seconds, Bill’s face appeared on the screen.  I said “Yo Mr. Bill how’s it hanging?”  Bill laughed at Mike’s innuendo and responded, “Further south than yours Rico.”  Slipping to the first item on my agenda, I said to Bill, “You know both of your parents are becoming a pain in the neck. They are suing us for your share of the company, even though our contract clearly states that all shares would be transferred to the other partner in the event of a death or severe mental disability.”  “Sorry about that partner, but they really don’t have much.”  Don’t be sorry, your parents are good people, which is why Julius and I worked out a payment of a million dollars each over 10-years.  I hope you know this is coming out of your end.”  Bill smiled and said, “Thanks man, I appreciate that since after all I am dead as you know.” 

“Why don’t I run through my items and then let you run through your
side after that?” I offered to Bill.  Bill just shrugged his shoulders in agreement so I proceeded to relay the conversation I just had with Fiona and Sean. At the end, I recommended hiring a comparable logistics and fleet guy over there and use similar metrics for trucking product. I added, “And learn the metric system so you can explain it to me.”  I then slipped into finances and talked about the accounts receivables based on the contracts signed to date.  Bill let out a long whistle to the numbers especially the year two projections and added jokingly “maybe we should have given my parents 2 million dollars each.” 

The last thing I discussed was the 20% of revenue funding for our needy projects and the series of bank accounts to be setup in international banks with deposits once we had 2 billion dollars in the bank for operating costs.  This included a payoff of our initial investors who made a cool 20% on their investments.
  “Perfect” Bill excitedly spoke, “that fits in nicely with the efforts over here by my Vatican friends to create dialog with the spiritual and secular movers and shakers around the globe.  To say there was interest in what we are trying to do would be an understatement.  The acuity of all those involved in what this means to the traditional poor has helped foster a groundswell of support.  I think one of the first things I would like to do is subsidize the building of manufacturing plants in poorer areas to create the Power Pads and power modules needed and provide training and decent paying jobs.” 

Sean finished up with a summary of efforts to build Electricus production sites and had one site almost complete, two more under construction and five in contract discussion
s.  He also made a note to retrofit the designs for the new safety requirements from Sean. He added that Charlene has been an immense help and has become a proficient contract negotiator.  Did you know she speaks French fluently and is already doing well learning Italian.  Who would have thought?”  Lastly Bill added in a conspiratorial tone, even though we were the only ones on the call, “our security here at the Vatican has identified at least two individuals who have been spying on the team.  We don’t believe they have put two and two together and are just tracking our people coming and going.”  “Are you sure about that Bill, we can’t have you or Charlene put in any more danger?”  No man, we’re cool here.  It is amazing how well they do security around here and you never even know it was going on around you.” 

Bill seemed to have a revelation and said hey
, “you or Fiona should look up Donny when out in San Diego.  He was, if I remember correctly, high up in the food chain for a large chemical company and I believe he was in charge of fleet services.”  “Absolutely,” I said, “Donny is a good guy and I would love to have him on our team.  We could probably make him responsible for West Coast operations as well.”  “You got my blessing on Donny,” Bill said and have you heard anything from those airbags in DC?  “Not a peep to be heard from them.  I think I messed with their heads by telling them some of the details on our fallback plan.”  “Got to go Mike, Charlene has made some homemade beef Braciole which if it tastes half as good as it smells will be to die for,” Bill bragged and dropped the connection.

Looking at my watch, I decided to call Donny right away since he was probably sitting at his desk drinking his second cup of coffee.  Telling Siri to dial Donny, I heard the
‘ringing Donny’ and a few rings later I heard, “Fleet Services, this is Don speaking.”  “Man, you sound like you clean up nicely and I can’t believe that they actually let you answer the phone, “I led into the conversation with to see if he recognized my voice.  It only took him a couple of seconds until he burst out with “Mike is that you?  I cannot believe such a big shot like you would take the time to call a peon like myself.  How are you?”  Doing pretty good Don, life is a little hectic as you might guess.”  “I know, you and your company are in the news constantly and I am really sorry about Bill,” he responded sadly since he had gotten to know Bill well.  “So what can I do for you” Don asked?”