A couple days later, dressed in my finest jeans and cleanest t-shirt I make my way towards the Hilton at 11am ready for the mid-day meeting with Apple. My laptop at home is working it’s way though more systems and putting together reports on their vulnerabilities for future use.
Deciding to treat myself I hail a taxi and head toward the hotel. Getting out of the car I notice a beautiful woman I recognise as Catherine standing on the sidewalk smoking a cigarette while holding a briefcase, evidently waiting for my arrival.
“Hi Catherine, how have you been?” I ask
“It’s been busy at the office, I had to cancel a couple appointments just to get this contract put together in time you know. Next time let me organise the meetings so I can get this done with time to spare” she jokes while putting out the cigarette with the toe of her high heels.
“Sorry about that, I’ll let you know now that Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet and Dell’s reports are ready for them to use. Do you want me to email them through or hand over a USB like last time?”
“How the hell are you so quick? Do you have some sort of special team behind you?”
“While you are my lawyer in this case I’d rather keep this a secret” I reply with a small smile on my face as we walk up to the door of the hotel.
Walking into the hotel I’m greeted with a divided lobby with a restaurant on the left and the reception on the right. Following Catherine’s lead I turn right.
“Hi there, we have booked out the meeting room for mid-day, we are wondering if we can head up now?” she asks the receptionist.
“Sure, what’s the name on the booking?”
“Amari Khan” I reply.
“No problem, go towards the elevators and turn right at the end of the corridor. The meeting room is there and ready for you now.” The receptionist replies.
Turning around and heading towards the meeting room the nerves start kicking in and I start getting nervous. Catherine notices this and reassures me.
“No need to get nervous, and there’s certainly no backing out now with the email you sent them earlier in the week” she chuckles while patting me on the shoulder.
“I know, just sort of unreal that this is actually happening.”
“Haha it’s fine, let me do the talking and we can both come out of this as millionaires.”
I sit down at the meeting table in the isolated room and play with my phone while waiting for the representatives from Apple to show up. Around 20 minutes later the meeting room opens, and I see David enter with what can only be described as a gaggle of lawyers.
“Hi, I’m David MacGintyre from Apple’s cybersecurity division, which one of you is Amari Khan?”
“That would be me Sir, a pleasure to meet you” I say while standing up to shake his hand.
“A pleasure indeed Amari, it’s nice to finally put a face to the name that haunted my inbox a few days ago. You do realise, that email only accepts emails from internal sources, right?”
“I had to get your attention somehow” I say while laughing nervously.
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“No need to be nervous, it certainly did get our attention. Let’s get down to business” he says while sitting down.
Going around the table everyone introduces themselves.
“I’m Amari Khan, I supplied the information to Apple and started this process.”
“I’m Catherine Samson, Amari’s legal representative for this meeting.”
“I’m David MacGintyre, but no doubt you both already know who I am. I’ve brought a few lawyers with us today to oversee our discussions and a representative from finance so we can get through things quickly.”
Going around the table the rest introduce themselves and the meeting starts with David.
“We would like to purchase the information on the vulnerabilities and the solutions mentioned in the initial email from you as soon as possible. If the information you supplied was correct, we want to waste no time at all.”
“Certainly” replies Catherine, “We have a contract here discussing terms and price. One of the conditions is that the information will only be released to Apple and will be removed from all unrelated systems including my clients upon purchase, ensuring Apple is the only holder of this information at the time of purchase.”
“Excellent. What price are you proposing?” replies David.
“We would like to put forth a price of 200 million US dollars for purchase of this information and all solutions to the vulnerabilities. Based on the bug bounty program payouts for this information, the price would be around 100 million, however given the solutions provided we believe this cost is fair.” Says Catherine.
“Let’s discuss this further, thankfully Finance is here today” laughs David.
After going back and forth for over two hours, with Catherine and the Apple lawyers getting into heated arguments around a few items in the contract the final contract is edited, printed using the hotels printer, and signed by myself, David, and the lawyers from each side.
“So it’s settled, when can we expect the full set of information?” says David.
“Right here” I say while passing over a USB drive containing the full reports from SoftMiner. “Everything is on this USB in the form of two PDF files, one containing the vulnerabilities and how to exploit them, the other being the solutions with specific references to which source file needs changing.”
“I’d love to ask how you got this level of information but I doubt you’d answer as that wasn’t mentioned in the contract. Anyway, expect your bank account to have a deposit come through in the next hour with our agreed price.” Says David while he glanced at the representative from Finance.
“Sounds great, while it wasn’t as much as we initially hoped it’s still more than enough” I say while thinking back to the brutal negotiations that eventually lowered the price to 140 million.
We shake hands and David leaves the meeting room. I lean back in my chair feeling the sweat on my back and am left exhausted.
“I don’t ever want to be in a meeting like this again” I say while reaching for a water bottle.
“Tough luck kid, this is the cost of becoming one of the richest people in the country, although you’ve done it a lot faster and a lot easier than nearly everyone else out there” replies Catherine.
Heading out of the lobby Catherine turns to me and says, “Don’t forget that 5% you owe me when you get the cash, you know that lawyers know how to get your money better than anyone else out there” she says while lighting a cigarette.
“No problem at all. How about lunch?” I say.
“Sounds good, here or somewhere else?” she replies.
“Here is fine. Might as well go over our plans for the other companies.”
After waiting for Catherine to finish her cigarette we walk inside and sit down in the restaurant. After looking through the menu I decide on what to have. Calling over a waiter I ask if Catherine has decided.
“I’m leaning towards the pasta, a nice fettuccine sounds good today.” She says.
The waiter arrives and takes our orders. I go for the sirloin steak and Catherine places her order as well, accompanied by a whiskey.
“A bit early in the day to be drinking isn’t it?” I ask.
“With the money I earnt today I can retire” she says while looking at me with a smile on her face. “I’m sure it won’t make a difference.”
Over lunch we go over organising meetings with the remaining companies which are mostly located in California, easing the process significantly. Catherine goes to the reception and asks about the process for booking the meeting room due to it’s convenient location while I sort out the bill for the meal.
“$117 for a lunch and drinks? What a rip off” I mutter as the last $135 I had in my account is drained after including a tip. I pause for a moment realising that soon I would be able to buy a million of these lunches and still have enough to retire on.
Laughing to myself as I swipe my card and walk away, I say goodbye to Catherine and head home.