The light through the windows of Trager house was tinted by the coming late spring sunset. The Trager family was sitting around the dining table having just finished dinner.
Josh pushed back his chair, "I'm going to go see if I can talk to Andy, there might be time to talk for a few minutes before she goes to bed." He got up and headed for his room.
"Don't keep her up too late," Nicole reminded him.
"I'm going to work on my songs," Lori announced. "I have a lot of practicing to do before I'm ready to perform them in public." She left for her room as well.
Jessi turned to Stephen, "Kyle and I are working on a project and we need to do some computer modeling to see if our idea is going to work. We need to have more computing power. Could you help me get it?"
Stephen was puzzled, "You want me to help you pick out a new computer? You both already know far more about computer hardware than I do."
"We want to build a blade based cluster," Jessi explained. "But it will need more electrical power than we have available in the house. I think we are going to need to rent some industrial space with higher power availability."
"How big a cluster are we talking about?" Stephen frowned.
"We want to start with a 512 cores. We will probably want to expand it in the future."
"You're talking about the kind of capacity that Madacorp has," Stephen raised his eyebrows.
"It's a very complex model," Kyle said. "We don't need to support a large infrastructure, we mostly need processing power."
"Would you be able to get space at the Latnok facility at UDub?" Stephen asked.
"We want this to be something we control," Jessi said. "I don't trust Latnok."
"I can understand that," Stephen nodded. He thought for a moment, "You'll need power, air conditioning, and don't forget security."
"We should probably talk to Foss about security," Kyle agreed.
"Maybe Foss would like to move his base there," Jessi suggested, "Instead of that warehouse he currently stays at."
Kyle looked at her in surprise, "How did you know about Foss's warehouse?"
"I visited him once," Jessi said. "I had something I wanted to talk to him about."
"This will be expensive," Stephen warned. "Are you sure you want to spend this much money?"
"It's an important project," Jessi said. "Kyle and I are working on it together." She smiled at him.
"Of course, I'll be glad to help, it sounds like a lot of fun actually," Stephen said.
Jessi told him, "I'll give you the plans and the requirements we have figured out. We want to get started on this soon. Our project is stopped until we can model our idea."
Nicole had been drinking her tea and watching the exchange with bemusement. As it came to a conclusion she interjected, "There is something else we should talk about. I had an unexpected visitor this afternoon."
"Who was it?" Kyle asked.
"Brian Taylor," Nicole said.
Jessi, who had been confidently and excitedly discussing their plans, seemed to shrink into herself, "I don't want to live with him again. I like it here." She looked at Kyle. Reluctantly, she turned to Nicole, "Do you want your space back? You don't need to have me here anymore if I have a place I can go."
Kyle objected, "Jessi shouldn't have to live with him if she doesn't want to. He wasn't good for her, he pushed her too hard."
Nicole held up a hand, "Jessi, this is your home. You are a part of this family. I told you that I would be there for you and I will be. You can count on me. Brian doesn't want to interfere with you living here – if that's what you still want."
"I have a home," Jessi said. "I have a family. I don't want to leave."
"Then you don't have to," Nicole assured her. "He couldn't take you away even if he wanted to. At your age, your wishes would be paramount in a court of law."
Stephen commented wryly, "And no one involved is going to let this situation get anywhere near a court of law."
Jessi began to relax, "Thank you, Nicole."
"Of course you have to stay," Stephen said. "I don't want to go back to making the pancakes." Jessi smiled gratefully at him.
"So why did he come back?" Kyle asked. "Why did he come to see you?"
"Grace Kingsley has asked him to take over for her at the UDub Latnok group," Nicole explained. "He said that it had to be someone who knew about the two of you which he does. He came to tell me so that I could let you know ahead of time. And to assure me he had no intention of trying to take Jessi away from her home."
"At the last board meeting, Grace did say that she wanted to find a replacement," Kyle acknowledged. "So, now are we going to work for him?"
"That was my understanding," Nicole said.
"I don't think I want to," Jessi still hadn't regained her confidence.
Nicole gestured with an open hand, "Jessi, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. I think you should give Brian a chance, though. He seems genuinely interested in your well being. And, he can't make you do anything. It might be better than working for Grace."
"If you think so, Nicole," Jessi said.
"Well, I don't trust him," Kyle said.
"That's probably wise," Nicole nodded. "I don't really trust anyone associated with Latnok, except for the two of you, of course. But then you are already working with Grace."
"This will mean we can't watch her as closely anymore," Kyle commented. "That's probably part of her plan."
"And she can't watch us," Jessi said.
"I should call Foss," Kyle said. "He'll be unhappy to see Brian back."
"They've already spoken," Nicole told them. "Brian sat in his car in front of the house until Tom Foss showed up. They spoke for a while and then separated. Neither seemed the worse for wear. You should call him and talk to him, anyway."
"That's a good idea," Kyle took hold of Jessi's hand and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Don't worry," he assured her. "We can handle him, we're a great team."
Jessi smiled gratefully at him.