Abraham used to be Jacob's best friend.
When they met Jacob was past the age where he expected to be friends with his coworkers. However the more he got to know the new guy at the Downtown Detroit technology incubator the more they hit it off. Here was someone else who was looking to make a better world not just secure a lucrative patent.
Soon they had decided to team up. Abraham was a little younger, a little greener but very driven. The man had had demons even then. But they lived in a dying city on a dying world and calm untroubled souls were hard to come by so Jacob didn't think much of it.
They made a great team too. Abraham had grandiose ideas and Jacob could figure out how to actually make them work. Their combination of vision and pragmatism propelled JK Robotics to early success. In addition to his technical skills Abraham also had charisma. He could convince investors to put their trust and money in two guys running a lab out of an old warehouse. Jacob began letting Abraham deal with all the people side of things. Only later did he realize this might have been a mistake.
Soon they ungraded the warehouse. They started working with new equipment instead of things they'd gotten at fire sales and business closings. It began to look like a state of the art facility and not a made over factory.
The company grew until it had more employees than Jacob could easily keep track of. It didn't help that they all dressed alike. He mentioned as much at a meeting. JK Robotics chief safety officer responded, "They're the new uniforms. Antistatic, antimicrobial and the blue provides a nice contrast to the comp displays and helps prevent eyestrain."
He then looked pointedly at Jacobs's old T-shirt and denim vest. "We sent out memos about this months ago. Everyone was supposed to switch over."
Jacob shrugged. "I just don't see how I'd be a better mechanic by dressing like a dentist."
Abraham just laughed. "I think when you've contributed as much to the company as Jacob has you've earned the right to wear whatever you want."
There were some setbacks of course. Like the computerized self-driving cars that had a tendency to stop to reboot in the middle of the road. Jacob's Utility bots didn't go over very well either. Almost indestructible intelligent robots had seemed like a good idea at the time. They were nice to him; it was everyone else they didn't like. The attempt to deploy them building wide had been a disaster.
Abraham thought the project was still salvageable but seeing his friendly helper go into attack mode had shaken Jacob. Abraham asked "Couldn't you just tweak them? Make them amenable to someone else?"
"And have them attack the mail carrier? Or the window washer? It's too dangerous. We need to shut it down." Jacob had replied. He helped round them up and was ready focus on to other projects that didn't involve artificial intelligence.
They began working with headhunters to track down the best talent. A contact at Wayne State passed on the names of promising students. Hudson was snatched up before he'd even completed his thesis. And then there was Rachel. Her work on antigrav technology was nothing short of revolutionary. She was in the graduate engineering program but Abraham had plans to change that.
Jacob noticed that when Abraham came back from a meeting with her he wasn't talking about the possibility of affordable levitation equipment. Instead he went on and on about her smile, her eyes and her sly sense of humor.
"Are you sure you're wooing her for the company?" Jacob asked.
"Just what are you implying?"
"I'm suggesting you ask her out on a real date you idiot."
Jacob was best man at their wedding six months later.
Abraham started making even bigger plans. If they were trying to improve people's lives why not start with where they lived? He wasn't just talking about an apartment complex; he wanted a whole new city. As always the details escaped him but Jacob was good at filling those in. For starters where would this city of the future be? Detroit was one of the few untouched areas in the Midwest. They didn't even have to wear gas masks most days. Anywhere they built would require long distance transport of materials and workers or lots of environmental cleanup. When he brought that up Abraham just brushed his concerns aside "We'll build it here."
"What we're just going to bulldoze the city? That alone would take years"
"Then we'll go over it. Think of it-we could have a plan make sure everything works right. There would be no pollution, no overcrowding, no urban decay."
"You're serious about this? Building an entire city?" Jacob asked, the gears already turning in the back of his mind.
Abraham nodded. "There needs to be a safe place for children to grow up."
He seemed so intense that Jacob couldn't resist poking a little fun "Is that why you got married so quickly?"
Abraham glared at him "I'm thinking of the future."
Jacob's suspicion was wrong. There was no baby that year. Or the year after. Eventually he stopped teasing Abraham about it.
JK Robotics became Deluxe Innovations. They moved out of the old warehouse and opened up one factory, then two. They set up a Research and Development department and Jacob oversaw the labs. Abraham started buying up land.
Detroit was doing well, thanks in part to them, but it was hard to tell about other places. They lost communication with Newark and they weren't sure if it was just because of the solar flares. At least there was one safe place left and if their plans worked out it would only get better.
A city was by far the largest project they'd undertaken. The sheer scale of it was staggering. You could drive a Mack truck through the vents without even scraping the ceiling. And the beams-they'd need a specialized factory just to forge them. An enormous amount of raw materials and energy were required.
One of his protégés, Hudson, had some ideas about alternate energy sources. Jacob listened in disbelief. "Are you saying you've figured out cold fusion?"
"Not exactly, more like lukewarm. But if I could run some real life trials I could perfect it and we could vastly reduce the amount of radioactive waste we produce."
"Or destroy what's left of Michigan." Jacob sighed. For a company dedicated to the peace and safety of the populace we sure seem to stumble onto a lot of potential weapons.
As the company was growing their partnership began breaking down. Jacob just wanted to fiddle in lab while Abraham liked telling people what to do. This arrangement had worked at the beginning but now it seemed like they had different goals. When Jacob complained that he hadn't been informed of the last board meeting Abraham merely said "you skip them more often than you attend, I thought you weren't interested anymore."
"Just because I don't always go doesn't mean I never want to go again. I am still partner in this company." Jacob snapped.
"You asked me to handle the business side of things!"
Jacob had. He just hadn't thought his partner would be quite so good at it.
They couldn't scavenge the abandoned parts of Detroit for metal much longer. It became clear that they would need to start mining their own ore. They started working on a prototype mining bot. Well Jacob's team was working on it but Abraham insisted on stopping by to supervise. Jacob was on his way back to the robotics lab with his previously forgotten ratchet set when he ran into Rachel Kane. She smiled at him "Hello, Jacob. Do you mind if I kidnap my husband and make him take me to lunch?"
"Not at all. In fact why don't you two catch a matinee and go to dinner while you're at it?"
"That bad?"
"I think we would get this done faster without Abraham micromanaging everything."
She sighed and her hand moved to the bump under her coat. "You know how he gets when there are things he can't do anything about; he overcompensates on the things he can control. And even though we made it through the first trimester this time he's still worried."
Jacob nodded but privately he had his doubts. He guessed that Rachel would be honor bound to see her husband in the most sympathetic light. Abraham had gotten worse lately but this had been going on for more than the past few months. Still with any luck finally becoming a Father would mellow Abraham. Or at least distract him.
They entered the lab and Abraham looked up from his investigation of different bits "Rachel, this is a pleasant surprise."
"Really? Because I reminded you about it at breakfast."
"Let me finish this and then we'll go." He said and turned back to the bot.
The silence felt awkward to Jacob so instead of resuming his own work he tried to make conversation. "Abraham told me you're having a girl. Do you have a name yet?"
"I was thinking Candice, and then we could call her Candy for short."
"That's cute."
"We are not naming our daughter Candy Kane." Abraham interrupted
"Oh, so now you're paying attention." His wife responded.
Abraham wanted to try Hudson's experiment. Jacob argued that it was unsafe "Plus aren't fission experiments illegal in populated areas?"
"I doubt the government is going to go after the biggest employer in town."
Something about the offhand way Abraham said it disturbed Jacob. He'd never been a stickler for rules but this was taking things a step too far. It used to be he couldn't wait to brainstorm new ideas with Abraham but now Jacob was counting the days until his partner went on paternity leave.
Eventually Abraham agreed to run the experiment on a weekend when the building was almost empty. Whether it was out of concern for safety or secrecy Jacob didn't know.
It went well at first and then the reaction started breaking down. One of the lab techs burst in with a phone in his hand and ran up to Abraham.
"Sir, it's your wife."
"Tell her I'll call her back."
"No, it isn't her on the phone. It was the hospital. She was in an accident."
Abraham was out the door without even a second look.
It took Jacob a little longer. Someone had to make sure the experiment was safely shut down. When Hudson hesitantly asked what to with the core Jacob snapped at him to destroy it.
Once he got to the hospital he had to convince the receptionist that even if he wasn't related by blood or marriage he was still family and he need to know what was happening with Rachel Kane. Finally she relented and brought up her records. "It doesn't look good. There was head trauma and internal bleeding. They've rushed her into surgery."
"Surgery? That means there's still hope, right?"
She looked back at the file. "Yes, but not for her."
He located Abraham in the newborn intensive care unit standing over an incubator and staring at the tiny occupant as if he could keep her alive by sheer force of will. He didn't look up even when Jacob touched his shoulder. "We hadn't settled on a name yet. Rachel said she wanted to be able to see her first and now. . ." his voice trailed off into a sob. Jacob had seen Abraham determined, frustrated and triumphant but this was first time he'd seen him broken.
He stayed with Abraham that night in the NICU. He didn't have much comfort to offer besides company and bad hospital coffee. Their friendship had been waning but no man should have to go through something like this alone. He thought the baby looked impossibly small and impossibly frail but she made it through the night.
In the morning Jacob got together with Abraham's secretary to set up Rachel's funeral. It was a small affair. Neither of the Kanes and had much family. Abraham sat through the whole thing silent and hollowed eyed. He was back at work the next day. With his personal life shattered he focused on the things he could control.
Abraham continued to behave as if nothing had happened. Jacob was very concerned. He didn't know who to talk to. He needed to do something. He went to the hospital over his lunch break one day. At least he could check on the kiddo.
He went to the NICU and told them he was here to visit baby girl Kane. The attendant asked "Are you her grandfather?"
"Godfather." He replied although he didn't know if that was even true anymore. It had been Rachel's idea.
The attendant had him scrub his hands and put a paper gown over his work clothes. Jacob was half surprised they didn't make him wear a hairnet. Then a nurse led him over to a clear bassinet. "You've got another visitor sweetie." He looked at her questioningly. "Her father is here every night."
Well, that explained when Abraham saw his daughter but when did he sleep? Did he sleep anymore?
He turned his attention back to the baby. Some of the tubes and wires were gone and her skin looked more like skin but she was still smaller than any human ought to be. "Do you think she'll make it?"
The nurse shot him a look. Okay, that might not have been the most tactful question.
"She's not gaining weight as fast as we'd like but she's breathing on her own now and that's a very good sign. Besides she's a fighter. I think she'll be just fine." She turned and left him alone with the infant.
Now that he was here he didn't know why. What could he say? Sorry about your mother? Not much of a world you're getting? He sighed and reached out to touch her tiny fist. "Keep on fighting little girl. I don't think your dad could take it if you died."
Abraham had never had the best temper but now anything could set it off. In the end it was an act of kindness that did Jacob in. The final blow came when he suggested Abraham take leave to mourn his wife and spend time with his daughter while he still had the chance. His friend needed to admit he was human and hurting.
Abraham's response was immediate and ugly. Kane accused Jacob of trying to force him out of the company.
Jacob told himself that Abraham was lashing out from pain, that the man wasn't himself, and that things would improve between them again. This was harder to believe when he tried to go back to work the next day and found all his passwords had been changed.
He tracked down one of the IT staff. She recognized him as the company's cofounder didn't even check with the main office before resetting his accounts and letting him back in. When she left he brought up the company files and noticed there were more than there had been the day before. He never would have agreed to that experiment or that one. Was that a Trojan horse protocol in the new technology? It looked like he'd been shut out of some areas for a while. What had Kane been up to? Jacob sighed. Things were even worse than he'd thought. He was going to have to take a more active role in the company from now on.
He heard a throat clearing and looked up to find the head of security in his office doorway. That is if he had the chance.
"I suppose you're here to escort me out."
"No, I'm here to make sure you don't try to leave" the guard said his hand on his holster.
Jacob picked up his wrench.
There was only one place left to hide.
For a while people had lived on two levels. Sleeping in Detroit, and working on Deluxe. Now Deluxe was finishing and the ladders were being pulled up. He settled to the ruins of old Detroit and watched the dome block out the sky.
Detroit became Detroit deluxe, safe and stifling. Deluxe industries became Kane Co. The security force became an army. When the government collapsed Kane-co stepped up to take its place so seamlessly Jacob wondered if it had been planned. He saw the company he had helped found twist into something else. He berated himself over not noticing the signs earlier.
The depths were not unpopulated. There were people who refused to leave Detroit and those who refused to stay in Deluxe. They'd cobbled together a society down there. It reminded Jacob of when he'd taken some time off after college, refurbished an ancient Harley and lived on the road traveling to places that might not exist anymore.
Kane wasn't happy with those who managed to stay outside of Deluxe. Jacob took some measures to prevent incursion but it was never quite enough. It was like they were playing cat and mouse. He could slip away but all he was doing was reacting. Kane was still a better big picture person.
Jacob set up the gates, helped refugees and took up gardening. Eventually it became more than a hobby. He began to work on an abandoned truck. He wondered if Abraham realized that his power conduits made excellent highways.
Abraham really had done a lot to save Detroit. And that made him more dangerous. Another man probably couldn't get away with the kinds of laws and reforms he passed but he had accumulated good will. When Abraham Kane said it was for the good of the city people believed him. He had become its jailor and nobody noticed.
Jacob kept tabs on his former partner. He scoured the news feeds and hacked into the system trying to figure out what Kane would try next. Most of what he turned up on Abraham was awards and adulation. It would be easy to assume Kane had everything he ever wanted but Jacob knew Abraham too well. He found no mention of Kane's daughter, no matter how hard he looked. There are some things you don't wish even on your worst enemy.