Regan's Reach (15 page)

"No, my friend, I kept the jump for
you. A couple of extra days on the journey hardly seemed important."

'Friend,' – the word took Regan by
surprise.
My friend!
Two words casually dropped into the conversation
and she was speechless.

"Remember we don't hit a crest, we make
the crest then surf it. Actually it's more like a bubble but the key things
are, contracted space ahead, expanded space behind and then we ride the wave
baby! There's no reason not to do it now. If you're ready, we'll make our wave
and then talk as we surf it, how about it?"

"Oh yes! Let's have a countdown?"
Regan fixed her eyes on the perfect, pin prick stars and star clouds that
filled the screen, no idea where they were heading, but totally relaxed,
expectant

"Yes ma'am, counting down: five . . .
four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . . . . . . ."

. . . Nothing . . .

. . . Nothing . . .

It really was nothing, no stars, no lights,
no flash, and no sense of acceleration.

She felt underwhelmed. "That's it?"

"That's it!" Ham replied,
incredulous. "That . . . was a marvel. That . . . was a miracle of modern
science. That . . . is something so far ahead of anything your scientists have
managed that their accomplishments rank only a little ahead of apes breaking
heads with bones? That's how far you are behind us. That . . ."

She jumped in, "That . . . was
underwhelming. That . . . was an anti climax. There was nothing to see! I'm
going to top up my coffee then I'll come back and you can tell me more about
executive decision making. Now
that
. . . should be a blast." She
stood.

Exasperated, Ham let out a long despairing
sigh. "Get it from the galley; I've put coffee in there too."

Regan skipped from the room.

Filling her cup she chuckled, "You
know Ham; I think I'm starting to find your limits . . . it's been fun!"

*

The War Room, Riverside, Hutt Valley, NZ

". . . So, how did it go?"
Stephanie asked.

She, Kevin, Mary, Mitch, Kutch and Marcus
all sat around the new central table. They had reorganized the room quickly
after Regan's call and there had been little reason for celebration since.
Events had continued to unfold disturbingly in the two weeks since Regan's
message and much of their time had been consumed by the developing situation.

The battle had developed on several fronts,
each needing to be addressed in its own way. The first challenge came three
days after receiving Regan’s message and they were grateful for the time they
had to plan. Kevin had received the call, from the US State Department. They
wanted to talk and a letter was on the way; the State Department advised them
to read it carefully as preparation.

Under the circumstances Kevin had no
intention of dancing to anyone else's tune and neither he nor Marcus was inclined
to travel. Instead they suggested a video conference which eventually was organized
for the US Embassy in Wellington.

For the meeting they had attended that
morning the Ambassador had been gracious and extended the usual hospitality
shown to guests. Although he seemed a little put out that Washington didn't
require him to sit in, it was Kevin's impression he knew nothing about the
reason for their visit.

In a private conference room the two had
found themselves facing Vice President Jim Walker and Secretary of State Anne
Marshall on screen. At any other time, this meeting might have been
intimidating, but all Kevin felt was quiet, controlled anger.

The Vice President had taken the lead. "Welcome
gentlemen and thank you for coming. I'm sure you know this is Anne Marshall and
I hope the fact that we are both here gives you some indication of how
seriously this administration views the situation. No doubt you've also
digested our concerns. We understand how you must feel, but, as you hopefully
can appreciate, our hands are tied on this one. The question is; how do we
proceed?"

Kevin and Marcus said nothing. They had
agreed it was better to give away as little as possible and get a feel for the
attitude of the White House on this. Ultimately they needed to gain as much
information as possible about US intentions before conceding anything.

The Vice President continued. "I can
understand how frustrating this must be. You feel that you have done nothing
wrong and, we don't deny you have performed to contract."

Boom! Strike one,
thought Marcus.

" . . . I can tell you, but probably
shouldn't, there is some sympathy for you in high places here. The thing is,
our friends in the Chinese Government are aggrieved. They have concerns that an
act of cyber terrorism has been perpetrated on them originating in the United
States and they are quite certain that Arteis is the aggressor . . . look, we
know this isn't the case . . ."

Boom! Strike two,
Marcus thought again.

" . . . but nothing is simple in
politics, particularly when it involves international diplomacy. You've done a
good job . . . ."

Boom! Strike three!

". . . but we need to move on, and
will . . ."

"Five hundred million." Kevin
interrupted.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" the
Vice President looked confused.

"Five hundred million dollars."
Kevin continued. "That's the price of getting out of this contract. Yes,
we have reviewed the points outlined in your communication to us. As you have just
confirmed today, all of the points you raised are irrelevant in terms of the ten
year contract we have with you. Arteis has performed to specification and
contract. We've fulfilled all your requirements and the US Government have
enjoyed the protection Arteis provides. Should you choose to expose yourself to
risk again, that's entirely your prerogative, but five hundred million is the
price of breaking the contract so early. Now, we may be able to reduce that
amount if you were to give say, five years notice?" Kevin smiled, knowing
that a reduction in term was impossible for them.

"Five years, that's simply not
reasonable, or possible!" Secretary of State Marshall spluttered.

"Then five hundred million it is."
Kevin answered.

Marcus intervened. "Mr. Vice
President, Ms Marshall, as legal counsel to STEIN, I'm bound to point out there
is no evidence of breach of contract from STEIN Arteis. In fact, it can be
shown that by your application of the product, serious cyber attacks have been
prevented. If your application of Arteis has led to problems for your
attackers, whoever they may be," he smiled, "then it certainly
performed as you intended it should and as STEIN designed it." He smiled
again.

"If there are problems then we always
like to work with our clients to find a solution that avoids unnecessary court
action, in this case possibly action in the United States and International
Courts. Usually there is a preference to keep this type of thing out of the
public arena and we would certainly recommend that. A fair settlement might
enable a win\win\win as they say. The Chinese can feel that they got their
pound of flesh, the US can preserve diplomatic relations, and STEIN can at
least be compensated. All parties, if not completely happy, will be at least
partially so. On the other hand, if we can't settle reasonably today bearing in
mind STEIN, as you have confirmed, are innocent victims of diplomacy here, then
certainly we will . . ."

"Five hundred million is outrageous!"
Walker interrupted.

Boom!
Marcus
thought, growing more confident by the minute.
They're prepared to pay and
they are embarrassed!
He and Kevin exchanged a look and a nod.

Kevin took over. "Mr. Vice President,
Arteis is a four billion dollar company. You may have heard of the partial sale
only a few weeks ago to USDynamics. There's a lot at stake here and this US
decision will have dire consequences for many shareholders. We
will
sue,"
he hardened his look, "not because we are bastard's, sir, but because it's
right that we do. However, we value our relationship with the US and appreciate
you are in a difficult situation. Bear in mind sir, that it is not a situation
of our making and we'd like to help you avoid the courts, as Marcus was saying;
no one needs this type of publicity dragged out. . . ."

Discussions had then continued throughout
the morning.

Now, back in the War Room, the group found
Kevin and Marcus difficult to read. "You asked how it went," Kevin
repeated. "It went well under the circumstances but they weren't telling
us the whole story, not by a long way."

"I had the distinct impression there
was someone in the background calling the final shots," Marcus added.

"I noticed that too, now that you
mention it," said Kevin, "The President, do you think?"

"Hard to say Kev, but it might just
have been. She wouldn't want to be seen to be involved in this; I doubt she's
even comfortable with it. This whole thing is the work of backroom dark arts
men, believe it!"

"So what happened?" Stephanie
asked, growing impatient.

Kevin took over. "Well, the first
thing is, neither in the letter we were sent, nor in the meeting today did they
reveal all the other background information Regan gave us. They didn't talk about
it and we weren't telling. They were uncomfortable and at the moment at least
are anxious to keep this whole thing out of the international courts. If they
do let it go to court they'll have to reveal they shut down China!"

"Strictly speaking Kev," Kutch
chipped in, "China shut themselves down, but never mind that, go on."

"So really it just got down to
negotiating reasonable compensation." Marcus said.

"So they paid, yes!" Mary looked
delighted, she was always counting the money.

"We came down a little," Kevin
conceded, "on the understanding that they paid immediately, and both sides
agreed to confidentiality. That's why we took longer than expected. We weren't
going to leave until the money went into our International Account."

"You came down!" Mary sounded
concerned. She was already tapping away on her tablet, checking the account.

"Regan said two hundred million
minimum!" Stephanie protested.

Kevin looked at her and smiled.

"Don't worry, babe," said Mary,
consulting her tablet, "It's three hundred and fifty million!"

They reacted with relief and muted
celebration as no one had any illusions that this was anything more than a
moral victory. Arteis was still under attack and more was probably still to
come.

"Mary?" Kevin asked and she
looked up, her fingers still working. "The money, shift it, as soon as
possible."

"I'm already on to it Kev, already on
to it!" She had been working the screen since he mentioned the transfer.

"Ok guys, Marcus and I are starving;
it's been a long day. Before we all grab a bite, let’s have a quick update from
everyone. Mitch? You start."

'Done!' was heard in the background and
Kevin smiled.

"Mitch? You were going to say?"

"Everything is on track," said
Mitch. "Separation of businesses in the States hasn't been difficult and
Marcus has already sorted the legal side. We use different offices to Arteis
anyway, and ours are in different states so I don't see that as a problem.
Generally people don't associate Ezas with Arteis or STEIN. We've always
marketed under the Ezas brand and that's how we're known out there. I think we're
good."

"We're good too." said Kutch. "We
only had five of our own staff in the States and they're all on the way home
with their families as we speak. The offices will still be open but only US
admin staff are there. None of them are involved in the technical side and they
don't have the expertise to be at risk themselves. I'm sure they won't be of
interest to authorities if the worst happens. All systems there have been wiped
and anyway, mostly we work through the cloud which is Arteis secure. Really
there is nothing left there."

"What do you see as 'the worst'?"
Kev asked.

"Kev, I really don't know. But Arteis
is about security and penetrative retaliation. The penetrative retaliation side
has proved very, very expensive for the attackers, far more than they might
have expected; they can't be happy."

Kevin turned back to his CFO. "Mary,
how did you get on with Hayden Joyce?"

"He was gutted." she replied. "He
didn't say it but I got the feeling he anticipates being the sacrificial lamb
for shareholders. The USD board is happy with us and wants to stay involved but
they're in a difficult position. Hayden feels that if what I told him is
correct, and I only passed on the information in the US letter, then he doesn't
see how they can be seen to associate with us. Not if we're still pursuing
business in Europe, possibly in conflict with the interests of the United
States."

"Oh how the world has changed."
said Stephanie with a sigh. "Who would have thought China's influence
would grow like this?"