Jakob had gone into the meeting with his best "school boy going to the principal's office" impression. “Finally, we were worried you'd never get out of that thing,” A stocky cuban man sporting a bushy mustache had declared upon his arrival, “Fuzzy lip” as Jakob liked to call him. Angelo was a shark of a salesman who Jakob had agreed to let on the team to appease the more money orientated of his stock holders. “Oh i'm so sorry, how may I serve my dear overlords today?” Jakob quipped, his voice dripping with scarcasm, as he took his seat at the head of the table. Around the table were many of the Stockholders of Jakob’s company. The combined wealth of the people in this room put most nations to shame. Jakob was a black sheep among them as he was entirely self made, His expertise in programming, physics and neurology making him invaluable. Because of that he knew they would endure his teasing. Jakob was never intentionally antagonistic, but found himself in the role of the jester - Trying to make them acknowledge their faults though his antics and jibes.
“We’ve called this meeting to congratulate you” Angelo stated cordially, his accent thick, an affable smile affixed to his face. This announcement forced Jakob to raise an eyebrow in confusion. Noticing that, Angelo continued “You see, InterTech loved their experience with your game so much that they wanted to sponsor the creation of more than fifty thousand pods. In exchange they only requested that they get a six month lead to establish a shop chain in your game, meaning they would join the beta players we have lined up. This would allow us to have a captive market !. Anyone that buys the pods, for a markedly lower price, has no option but to pay the reasonable subscription fee that we have arranged.”
Jakob’s face flushed with anger at Eraven, the world he and Alice (the A.I) had painstakingly cultivated, being called a “game”. “No, I will not let half a million people run amok and destroy the balance of Eraven. Let’s tell them we are grateful for the offer but as we previously stated we will only be offering it to the infirm for now.” Jakob stated as a matter of fact, he was the majority shareholder for the company so there was no wiggle room for Angelo and the rest of his stockholders to try going around him.
The room fell into silence as Angelo and Jakob stared at one another, a battle of wills so powerful that it was almost suffocating to the others present. “Is it that important to you, surely you can create another one for them” Angelo queried, tilting his head and raising an eyebrow as though it was an obvious conclusion. Jakob met his question with a voice full of unhesitating determination: “I could, but then I would have two to defend from you jackals.” Angelo looked around the conference room at the other stockholders, who all seemed to find their drinks or the upholstery interesting all of a sudden.
Angelo stood up and strolled over to the window, looking out from the eighty fourth floor of their headquarters. Looking out at the sun setting over London for just a moment before turning around to address Jakob “Then, I guess, I must be offering my apologies,” he said shrugging his hands in a gesture of surrender. Jakob breathed deeply relieved that Angelo had backed down. Angelo and Jakob were cut from the same cloth, Angelos values were just more orthidox than the free thinking Jakob. Profit was always the bottom line for an investor and It had taken Jakob a long time to accept that. He had been thrown out of companies for his drive to help those in need over profit many times in the past. He fought both tooth and nail, over many years, to establish his own company where he could finally put his creations to use, for those who needed it.
Upon seeing Jakob relax Angelo spoke once more “Oh, I think you may be misunderstanding me Jakob. I am not apologising for the InterTech offer. I am apologising for what you are forcing us to do…” a heavy silence once again enveloped the room “You see, I have some friends in your government and while you were playing around and napping in your own little world for the last few days, I asked them for a favour... They were reluctant at first, but after hearing what you had made and that you refused to share, They became much more co-operative.” The statement felt like a bad omen being summoned to Jakob “They passed a law stating that tech companies, that have their headquarters in a skyscraper , worth more than ten billion pounds can call a vote among the top shareholders to select a leader for the company, who has the right to veto any would be decenters that, and I quote “ use their majority share to oppose the prevailing opinion of the shareholders”” Angelo concluded slowly, as if twisting a knife in Jakobs side. Jakobs eyes went wide and, as if seeking an escape, his eyes darted around the conference room seeking assistance, not a single person would meet his gaze.
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-Hours later
In the café of the headquarters, Jakob stared vacantly at the bubbles rising in his glass of coke, as if frozen in time. His brain conversely was in a flurry of activity, processing what had happened. Jakob was in a deep state of flow, the same one he always entered whenever he was trying to solve an intense puzzle. He had initially thought about legal recourse, any case was likely to go in his favour due to the sheer absurdity of the law Angelo had pushed through. Angelo had to have known this, which led Jakob to realise that Angelo didn’t need to win. He just to tie Jakobs hands long enough to make a killing off the game and sell off all of the companies’ assets. All the people in Eraven were likely going to become fodder for over zealous players in their greed for more power. At that realisation Jakob felt like a yawning cavern of dread was forming below him, his vision becoming blurry and his mind going into overdrive considering the ramifications.
“Hey Dr. Mulder, are you alright” asked Gideon, A barista at the café, clearly concerned by the ghost white and somewhat disheveled older man. Jakob didn’t answer, his breathing becoming shallow and rapid. Jakobs chest felt tight and he began to sway before collapsing upon the table at which he was sat. His glass of coke shattered on the floor.
Gideon, the barista- 1st person
I stocked the drinks cabinet as my coworker, Jenny, packed up her stuff before heading out. I had made a game of stocking the shelves by pretending that I was a machine that had to input data, the drinks, in order of date, their expiry date. It a stupid way to pass the time but had acutually caught on with my coworkers. Jenny had clearly done the same as she stacked the boxes of drinks ordered by colour. I considered this work kind of degrading, manual jobs had become almost entirely automated in the UK almost two decades ago, and we lagged behind the rest of the world in that regard due to tradition.
“Catcha later” Jenny shouted to me, as she went off to her other job as a mods engineer. We were both vastly over qualified for this sort of work, however I had only just managed to secure it by the skin of my teeth, working here was just that incredible an opportunity. I had to compete against other A.I specialists and even a guy with two doctorates, fortunately the final test had been in my wheelhouse and I didn’t crack under the pressure like some of the contenders. We had to create, from scratch, a self-learning program that could adjust a coffee machine to output the perfect coffee based on a live biometrics feed. I was shocked that my program was used for a coffee tap that Dr. Jakob Mulder had installed in his desk. It was a really weird thing to be proud of, but all my friends had flipped when they found out. Recalling the memory I let out a little laugh.
Not long after thinking after restocking I went to sweep the floor only for my jaw to drop, Dr. Mulder was sitting at one of the window side tables staring out of the window. I had to quell my excitement, I could see in his reflection that he had a really serious look on his face. Before I could stop myself my right eye winked causing my optical implant to take a photo, I quickly pretended I was busy sweeping the floor. I had heard, like everyone else, a rumor that Dr. Mulder, having created the foundation of the mod technology, was more than 70% modified and could detect when people around him used their mods.
After nearly two hours of watching Dr. Mulder out of the corner of my eye, I built up enough courage to pour him a drink. I heard he liked anything with caffeine so I silently placed a glass of coke in front of him, determined not to interrupt him too much. I held my tongue and quickly retreated back to the safety of my counter. To my surprise he noticed the drink and just stared at it, I wanted to check if he wanted something else when I heard him mumble “Thanks Gideon”. I quickly responded “My pleasure Dr. Mulder”, I don’t know what I expected past that, but I didn’t expect him to just keep staring at the glass. It was strange, he looked as though he was hollow, his famously jovial personality nowhere to be seen.
I looked over at him every time I came back to my counter between chores, Every time he looked a little worse, as if he was aging rapidly. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him in this state and called out to him “Hey Dr. Mulder, are you alright?.” I started to grow really concerned when, suddenly, he collapsed, like my question had literally killed him.After that terrifying thought, I sprung into action when I realised what was going on, slamming my hand on the emergency button under the counter. I ran over to Dr. Mulder and tried to sync my optical mod with his biometrics, unsurprisingly they were under an insane level of security. Before I could do anything else, A medical team with a security detail barged through the café doors and took over. I watched them as they loaded Jakob on a med drone. My role model just lay there unconsious, looking frail and weak as if the slightest touch would cause him to shatter.