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Stories from the Verse
In Version
Chapter 193: Cooper 61
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Brown 353
That night was Cutter’s big party. William Keller attended, and Mister Justice agreed to watch outside mostly for potential villains. He got through the gate hiding in Keller’s back seat, and planned to meet the car when it was exiting to get back out again.
Exiting the car at a curve in the driveway, he passed between a pair of tall trees aligned on the edge of the lawn, and found himself on well-kept grass. He heard Keller’s luxury car continue toward the mansion as he scanned the area. There was little cover out here. His best hope was to hug this line of trees and hope no one coming down the drive spotted him. He began moving toward the house.
The sound of barking drew his attention across the lawn to a large German Shepherd running toward him. He took a deep breath. Generally he got along with animals; he was unsure about guard dogs--but it struck him that he actually was not frightened. He stood calmly and watched. As the dog approached it slowed, looked at him, and walked the last dozen yards. He held out the back of his hand, and the animal sniffed it, then panted in a friendly way.
“Good boy,” Justice said. “I guess we’re doing the same job tonight, keeping watch over the guests at the party. I’m betting that any thieves working tonight are finding the homes of the party guests; that’s a much easier crime than robbing the party. However, protecting all those homes is more than one man can do, so here I am.”
The two of them stood for quite a while watching the distant house, then the dog wandered away and Justice continued his vigil alone.
Eventually cars started departing, and Brian realized that he didn’t have a good way of knowing which set of headlights would be Keller. He returned to his position by the trees on the curve and waited until finally one large black car slowed as if looking for something, and he decided that must be him. He emerged, and the vehicle pulled up alongside him and stopped. He opened the door, glanced to assure himself that it was the right driver, and hopped in.
Barely had he closed the door when Keller began talking.
“I am very upset,” he began. “The party had been going for a few hours, and Cutter perhaps not unpredictably started ringing a glass with a spoon so he could make a speech. He began by saying that everyone knows he dabbles in a lot of things, but he has decided to launch a new company called Cutter Computators, with an office here in Berkeley and another up in Yellowstone City. I’m furious. I confronted him about it; I’m sure he’s planning on poaching our engineering talent and taking our ideas with them. He denies it, of course, although he admits that if anyone came looking for a job and had BBS on their resume, they would certainly be considered. I don’t know what he’s planning, but I’m sure he wants to take Berkeley Business Systems out of competition.”
“That would be awkward. I don’t know the law, of course, but he’s a stockholder, and a major one with a seat on the board, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has rules to prevent board members from sabotaging their own companies for their own personal profit.”
Keller nodded, but said, “I’m sure he knows that, but I don’t trust him. He’s probably got something up his sleeve, knowing him.”
Brian considered it. To his mind, Cutter couldn’t both take out Berkeley and beat IBM to the finish line. But then, Cutter doesn’t know IBM is in the running. He might think if he took out BBS he would have a clear path to victory. But it’s not just Berkeley. After all, not only IBM is working on this, but Texas Instruments, and AT&T’s Bell Labs, and Tandy Corporation’s Allied Electronics and Radio Shack divisions, and several other major players. Certainly a lot of competition will be wiped from the field when someone comes through with the first marketable computer, but, well, let’s say either Cutter is planning something genuinely big or he’s been very short sighted.
The latter seemed unlikely.
“I’m going to have to pray about this,” Justice said. “It doesn’t add up.”
As to the old stories that have long been here:
