Air-Gapped Lab | Curie Motors Facility
They were alone in one of the small offices within the air-gapped lab. Kayne had taken Eckhart up on his offer to let him lead her to some place where they could chat comfortably. She was under no illusions, though. He was being courteous to the point of making her feel nauseated, but she knew that if she tried to run, she’d find herself trapped. The deadlocked door had been her first and final clue.
She sat in a chair on one side of a round table, and Eckhart took a seat opposite. He was still smiling and occasionally shaking his head. “I can hardly believe it,” he said.
“Same here,” Kayne replied.
Eckhart laughed. “Yeah… Ok, I’m sorry for the circumstances. But it’s just… it’s hard to believe this is happening right now. I’ve kind of pictured this for the past couple of years.”
Kayne made a skeptical expression. “This?”
“Meeting you,” he replied. “And, honestly, I kind of pictured it a little like this.” He nodded to their surroundings.
The office was utilitarian. There were no photos or decorations, no art on the walls, not even on one of those employee motivation posters. It was just a desk, a meeting table, and a video screen mounted on one wall. It was the kind of place someone would use for an impromptu meeting, to discuss a project or some findings from an experiment, or to duck into when they needed to make a quick, private call. Not exactly an interrogation room, but not far from it. “You certainly have low expectations,” Kayne said.
“I’m sorry, did you want anything to drink? I saw you had coffee, earlier.”
“You… saw?”
Eckhart smiled and nodded. “Yeah, though I admit, that wasn’t easy.”
“It…” she started, but stopped. She still wasn’t sure how much she should be saying to this guy.
“It shouldn’t have been possible?” Eckhart asked, echoing exactly what she’d been thinking.
“Mind reading now? Are you, like, a wizard or something?”
Eckhart laughed. “Well, no. Ok, sort of. But… listen, I know you have some wizardly powers of your own. You have a way to live-mask yourself out of security footage, and walk through scanners and security like none of it is there. I have some theories about that, mostly based on rumors I’ve heard. But you do sort of have an obvious weakness.”
She thought about it, about the deadlocked door and the server room with no WiFi. She got it. No point hiding it now. “If it isn’t on a network, I can’t do anything with it.”
Eckhart smiled and nodded.
It was more than she’d really wanted to admit or confirm, but he was right. It was obvious. At least, in this setting. She might come to regret the confession, but seeing as how she was probably headed for a dark hole buried at the very bottom of a maximum security prison somewhere for the rest of her life anyway, she couldn’t quite see the harm in giving a bit of intel to the guy who caught her.
All those federal agents, all those police and foreign security people, and I’m caught by the guy who makes electric cars. I wonder what Eric will think?
Agent Eric Symon, she knew, would play the stoic card. But she secretly hoped it burned his soul to see her caught, much less by someone like Ross Eckhart.
“We have cameras in that stairwell that link directly to a DVR,” Eckhart said. “No network. When someone noticed you were in the stairwell, but weren’t showing up on the networked cameras or on the infrared system, they shot video of you on one of the monitors using a smart tablet. Gotta give you credit, though. Every time they tried to send me a copy of the footage, you disappeared from it. So they got clever and took video of the playback from the DVR, recording the monitor.”
Kayne was impressed. “That… really is clever.”
“I pay a lot of money for clever,” Eckhart smiled.
“Ok, then,” she said, leaning back. “No, to the drink, thank you. I kind of regret the coffee, now that I have a full bladder and I’m probably going to prison. But I’m curious why that isn’t already happening. You have a lot of security people on site here. I’m trying to figure out why you didn’t bring any of them with you. Not to brag, but I’m kind of a big deal. At least, I’m on top of all the most-wanted lists. Dangerous fugitive. I guess you have a team of people waiting outside?”
“Well, there really isn’t any way in or out of here that we can’t cover. So yeah, in a way, I do have people waiting for you out there,” he admitted.
“And they just let their CEO come in here with a known fugitive?”
“I’m not the CEO anymore,” he said, a slight smirk on his face.
“Oh yeah, that’s right… I was at the press conference.”
There was a brief pause.
“You’re dying to ask,” he said.
That irritated her. “What makes you think so?”
“Because everyone is dying to know why I stepped down. I spent most of an hour avoiding the question, giving all kinds of vague and pithy responses that make better soundbites than answers.”
“So there’s very little chance you’ll answer me if I ask, then,” Kayne said.
“A better chance than you think,” Eckhart said, and there was something in his voice. A dare, maybe. A hope.
She blinked, then shrugged. “Ok, why did you step down?”
He smiled. “Instead of answering you, how about I show you?”
Eckhart led her deeper into the lab, and she followed without a word. This wasn’t the first time she’d been trapped by a guy who was all smiles, with every exit covered. It hadn’t been so long ago that she’d been lured into a trap, set by a guy calling himself Reed Harltan. Harltan had actually turned out to be a thief named Roger Bale, who was working for a massive man-mountain named Victor Stanley, who was hiding himself in plain sight, posing as Harltan’s bodyguard. The two of them had set her up, kidnapping her client to use as leverage, so that she would steal a rare book for them. Which, of course, she did. And brilliantly, she might add.
It was the sort of thing thriller novels were made of, but Kayne couldn’t say she’d been all that thrilled with experience, while it was happening. Or once it was done, for that matter. She didn’t like being manipulated, and she certainly didn’t like her clients being put into jeopardy.
And now, as Ross Eckhart, the famous billionaire industrialist, smiled and led her deeper into his web, she was feeling a profound sense of déjà vu. She pictured Reed Harltan—née Roger Bale—blandly back at her smugly as he walked her through a suite of offices, just to show her he’d outsmarted her. Or that Victor Stanley had, as it turned out.
It was too similar. Too close. She felt her pulse speed up and adrenaline start revving. She calmed herself, or tried to. Right now she had nowhere to run. Though she did have QuIEK working on it.
Eckhart stepped through a secure door and held it open for her. As she entered he said, “Lights.”
The lights came on, revealing a workspace brimming with the detritus of hands-on engineering. Equipment lined every wall and covered most flat surfaces. A large, steel table dominated the center floor space. And on it was an entire chassis for one of Curie Motors’ electric vehicles.
Kayne didn’t recognize the model, though that may have been due to the fact that the car had no side panels, doors, hood, or trunk. It did have an engine and a significant amount of cabling and technology woven through it, however. With its barebones, skeletal frame and a weave of thick cabling that resembled entrails a little too closely, the whole thing looked sort of “tech-macabre.” It was as if a carcass had been picked nearly clean by some carrion creature, leaving only a jumble of nerves and sinews clinging to a skeleton. Though in reality, Kayne realized, it was sort of the exact opposite of that. This was new assembly. They were building it, not picking it apart.
“This will be the next model to roll off the line,” Eckhart said, gesturing toward it with what Kayne thought was affection. “The most advanced electric vehicle ever built. And a real game changer.”
“Why’s that?” Kayne asked. She really was curious. She loved technology, and particularly tech that fell into the “game changer” category. She wasn’t yet sure what game Eckhart was playing, though, much less which game he was trying to change.
“The short version? This model will have a proprietary set of features that won’t exist anywhere else, or with any other manufacturer. Not until other companies start leasing the patents from us, anyway. For a start, it will have an always-on internet connection, linked directly to the network of micro-satellites that Orbit X has been putting into orbit for the past few years.”
Orbit X, Kayne knew, was Eckhart’s satellite communications division. It was the key component in his publicly stated goal to provide high-speed broadband internet worldwide, to even the most remote areas of the planet.
“You’re going to use the cars as relays for the Orbit X internet,” Kayne said, nodding. “That’s… well, it’s pretty much public knowledge. Sorry.”
He laughed, nodding. “I never made a secret of it, so that’s ok. But there’s more happening than you think. This model is a proof of concept. We’ll offer to retrofit the Orbit X network to all of our previous models. And as we go forward, we’ll do the same for vehicles from other manufacturers. The big innovation there is that we’re going to make the whole network free.”
Kayne was nodding along, but stopped, blinking. “Free? You’re not going to charge for broadband access?”
He grinned and shook his head. “Not one penny. We’re also not going to charge for the upgrade.”
Kayne considered this, here expression shifting from skeptical to surprised. “I’m impressed. That’s gotta be a few billionaire dollars in revenue your shareholders won’t see. That’s a bold strategy, Cotton.”
Eckhart laughed. “Is that a movie reference?”
“It’s from Dodge Ball.”
Eckhart nodded. “Nice. I’ve never seen it. But yes, shareholders aren’t thrilled with this plan. Which is one of the reasons I resigned as CEO. I’ll be making the same announcement for Orbit X in a few weeks.”
“Why?” Kayne asked. “Wouldn’t you have more power to push this through if you stayed in charge?”
“I’d have more of an obligation to shareholders,” he said. “That doesn’t always equate to decision making power. But stepping back lets our biggest shareholder have more say.”
She blinked. “And… who is that?”
Eckhart held out his hands. “That would be me. I own at least 51% of both companies. Of all my companies, actually. Through various holdings, of course. I masked my ownership through dummy corporations and other corporate sleight of hand. I needed to gain a majority hold over it all before anyone knew it was me. It helped keep anyone from rushing out to buy out stock, or to try blocking me. Kept the costs down, of course. But mostly it kept me from dealing with the headache of having someone working against me the whole time.”
Kayne whistled. “I’m betting that still was a chunk of money.”
“Most of my money,” he smiled. “I’m in the ‘billionaire on paper only’ club now.” He laughed and shrugged. “I have a lot of liquidity, but rebuilding reserves of cash will take a minute. Worth it, I think.”
She shook her head. “Why? Why is it worth it? What’s the part you haven’t told me?”
He looked at her, a little surprised himself now. “Well, part of it is that I want everyone on Earth to have access to data and information. The internet is the great equalizer.”
She laughed. “Is it? I mean… lately it seems like it’s just opened up a path for the rise of new overlords.”
“Social media, and traditional media, and all the partisan BS,” he nodded. “You’re right. They all seem like they’re invested in creating more division, and scraping profit from the ruins they create. And there’s the whole World Economic Forum, and they’re ridiculous ‘Great Reset’ idea. Mostly they seem to want to reset the world to the point where only the wealthy elite had any say in how things worked. Not exactly the world any of us envisioned. But no, the internet really is the great equalizer, as long as you have access to it. And as long as that access is… unrestricted.”
She thought about this for a moment. “What do you mean?”
He studied her, then sighed and leaned against the edge of the steel table. “I saw you give a talk once, at Berkley. It was several years ago. You had founded Populus, and you were talking about some of the goals of the company. Your goals, I think.”
“So are you trying to tell me that I’m so much older than you that you saw me speak at your college?”
He laughed. “No, I was a graduate. I sat in as an Alumni. I was looking for any inspiration I could find, on what I should focus on. Where I should start. I hadn’t yet hit my stride with some of my businesses, but I was getting there. And I had been following Populus. I followed all the Silicon Valley crowd, trying to learn everything I could, to apply it all to what I was trying to do. But… well, I’m sure you’ve noticed, there’s a lot of altruistic talk from Silicon Valley. But they tend to drop it all when the money starts rolling in. They cut deals with the wrong people.”
Kayne thought back to the deals that Adrian Ballard had cut—deals with the Russians and possibly others, that ultimately resulted in her being framed for Ballard’s murder and accused of betraying her country. Deals that turned her life over like a car crash on a mountain highway, and made her a fugitive for the past three years.
“But you were different,” Eckhart said.
“Maybe you haven’t been following my career so closely since then,” she said.
He laughed. “Oh, I don’t believe a word of what they’ve been saying about you,” he replied. “I mean, it doesn’t really make any sense, in the end. Why would you murder your business partner? You gained absolutely nothing from it. And the whole espionage thing, trading secrets and dirty dealing with foreign governments—unlikely. Again, what do you gain? Money? I’d been following Populus almost since it was founded. You guys had money, and could have made billions more based on some of your patents. But instead, you gave things away. Which I’m guessing didn’t sit well with everyone at the company. I didn’t know Adrian Ballard, but every time I saw him in an interview his jaw was clenched so tight I thought his head might pop off.”
Kayne actually smiled at this. “He hated the public benefit programs,” she said. “He really did want to make those billions. So did our shareholders. It was kind of a thing—a fight we always had.”
“A fight you kept winning,” Eckhart replied.
She nodded. “But only because I was the only one who controlled…” she stopped herself.
It was clear that Eckhart knew at least a little about QuIEK, but she wasn’t clear on how much. And she wasn’t sure how much she should share. Federal law enforcement knew, at least to some extent, some of the more choice details about her quantum-based AI and what it could do. There were plenty of foreign governments that also knew about it. But they would all keep mum on the particulars. Letting a secret like that out into the wild meant inviting more scrutiny and, frankly, more competition for getting their hands on it.
Some billionaires in the world were powerful enough to be their own nations, however. And if keeping foreign governments, especially the enemies of the US, from getting their hands on QuIEK was a priority, it would be no less so for keeping it from the private sector. Imagine Apple or Google or Microsoft having the power to breeze past any and all digital security measures, any time they wanted. Fair trade, fair competition, personal privacy, even government sovereignty would be a thing of the past.
This was why Kayne had been running all these years. Her freedom was top of mind, of course. She didn’t like the thought of being locked in a cell. But it was about more than that. She had the freedom of every soul on Earth in mind. She ran so that no one could enslave humanity, using QuIEK. A lofty-sounding mission, but it was the truth.
“… controlled our patents,” she finished. And if Eckhart thought there was anything odd about her answer, he simply nodded and accepted it without question.
“So, my big plan is to be one of the first tech industry powerhouses to actually do something for the good humanity. Ta-da! And I’m not entirely alone. I’m working with Ethan Patterson on the launches for Orbit X, and he’s not even charging me. Well… he’s not charging me money. He’s basically just asking for access to some of the tech for his own big, super-secret project that no one thinks is all that secret.”
“Ethan Patterson… Athena Astronautics?”
Eckhart nodded.
“The guy who wants to start colonizing Mars?”
“Among other planets,” Eckhart shrugged. “And other goals. I’ve set him up with licenses for our solar and battery tech, as well as the communications network I’m building. He’s… well, this will seem kind of crazy, I know, but the whole relay plan I’m putting into cars, here on Earth? He’s going to do the same thing with spaceships. And satellites. Relays, really, between here and Mars, and then on into the rest of the solar system. And then on into the galaxy. The guy’s got some big plans. You should see the work some of his people are doing on this cool light-beam propulsion thing…”
“Wait,” Kayne said, shaking her head and holding up a hand. “Wait… what… what does any of this have to do with me?”
Eckhart inhaled and blew out the breath, shrugging. “Well, nothing, really. I had no idea you would be here, so it’s not like I planned for us to meet.”
“So why are you telling me all of this?” Kayne asked. “Why aren’t I in jail right now?”
“How long would a jail hold you?” he asked, curious.
“Plenty long if they know they need to deadlock me in place,” she said. And keep me away from cameras, she thought but did not say. No need to give Eckhart any more details to work with.
He shrugged again. “So… maybe they don’t find out.”
She studied him, shaking her head. “What is it?”
“What is what?” he asked.
“What is it you’ve decided you want from me, in exchange for not sending me to prison?”
“That depends,” he replied.
“On what?”
“On what it was you came here for, and why.”
She studied him.
He studied her.
“My client,” she said, deciding. She was going to trust him, at least this far. She wasn’t sure why. Gut instinct again. If she had listened to it before, she might not be in this situation. So it could be the only way out. “Shai Salide.”
“The engineer?” Eckhart asked.
Kayne was surprised. “You know her?”
“We bought her patents,” he said.
“You stole her patents,” Kayne corrected.
He made a curious face. “No… I…” he paused, then fished in his pocket to take out his phone. He swiped for a moment, searching, then showed her the screen. “We bought the company she worked for, and all the patents they owned. She was a named patent holder, so I had my people cut her a deal for her ownership. She accepted. Pretty lucrative deal, too. About thirty-million.”
“She’s currently working as a customer support operator because she’s been blacklisted from the industry, and she can’t get work in her field. She’s broke.”
Eckhart looked surprised. “That’s… that isn’t what I was told.”
Kayne studied him for a moment, trying to figure his game. But the more she looked, the more convinced she became that he wasn’t playing at anything. “You didn’t know.”
He shook his head, then made a face, his features going a bit dark. “You’re saying we cheated her out of her IP, and then left her to rot? Blacklisted her from the industry?”
Kayne nodded, unsure what to think of this. She’d been working this one with the assumption that Eckhart knew everything.
Eckhart shook his head and stood. “I’ll figure this out,” he said. “I think I know where to start.”
He walked away, slipping through the door of the lab and moving at a brisk pace toward the exit.
“Wait!” Kayne said, rushing to catch up. “Are… are you going to have me arrested?”
“You came here for this?” he asked. “You came here to find a way to get her IP back?”
“Yes,” Kayne said. “I’ve already copied the files from your server, so that… so that a friend outside can find anything related to her. It’s done.”
“What about the rest of the files? Did you take anything else?”
“All of it,” Kayne confessed. “Everything.” There was no sense in hiding it.
“Ok,” he said, nodding and considering as he kept up his pace. “Are you planning to use those files against us? You’re going to take down the company? Sell secrets to our competitors?”
“No, I’d never do that,” Kayne said. “Unless…”
“Unless you discover that we’re exactly as crooked as you assumed we were,” he said.
“Yes,” she said. Again, no sense denying it.
He stopped and squared off with her. “We’re not. At least, I’m not. And if someone here did do this, they’ve probably done it before. I want to find them, and I want to hold them responsible. So to answer your question, no. I’m not going to have you arrested.”
He turned and strode toward the door. There was another loud clunk as he approached, the lock disengaged as he pushed through to the outside.
“I’m going to hire you to help me find them and make this right,” he said. “I’m your new client.”