The Maître d' led Kyle and Jessi to the elegantly set table where Mike Kasperson waited. He seated them and handed them menus, leaving them with the promise that their waiter would be with them momentarily. The restaurant was intimate and warm with solid wooden tables and chairs. The stucco walls were warmly lit with a yellowish light from the lamps and the fireplace in the brick wall to one side of the room gave the feel of a country inn.

Mike said, "Kyle, Jessi, thank you both very much for coming. I've been looking over the report you sent." He shook his head in wonder, "I'm amazed at the depth you've been able to achieve in such a short time."

Kyle said, "We wanted to make sure that we didn't miss anything."

"Well, you've done far more than I expected when I asked you to do this," Mike said. He noticed the waiter approaching, "Let's get dinner ordered first, and then we can get into this in some detail."

The waiter took their orders. Kyle opted for the Idaho Trout and Jessi the Quail with Black Truffles while Mike Kasperson chose a more prosaic Ribeye Steak.

After the waiter left, Mike said, "There is so much I want to talk to the two of you about, but let's start with the assignment. I told you I had been embarrassed by Julian Ballantine's CIR project. I wanted you to see if the project has been cleaned up and whether there were any similar liabilities still at Madacorp. Your report indicated that you were satisfied that the project had been mothballed and that there were no further risks, is that correct?"

Kyle nodded, "Yes, we looked for any signs that the CIR project was still active. That project has been completely terminated and its assets placed in storage. There could be legitimate uses for some of the technology but it has a serious risk of misuse."

"I agree with you," Mike said. "For now, I would rather make sure our house is in order and that what we are doing is going in the right direction. We can try to recover some of our investment in that sometime in the future when we have solid management controls in place. Did you find anything else that concerned you?"

"We didn't find any similar projects," Kyle assured him. "We looked at all of the financial data to look for money being spent in areas that weren't reported in the normal reporting structure but everything was accounted for. We think that Madacorp could be doing a better job of working to promote positive benefits for people, but there was nothing we thought was like the CIR project."

"There was a lot of waste and some small misappropriations that we found," Jessi said. "But we didn't see anything that represented a threat."

"That's what I concluded from your report," Mike said, nodding. He turned over his hand, "So, let's talk about the second half of your assignment. I asked for your opinion on whether to confirm Emily Hollander in her position. What is your advice?"

Kyle looked to Jessi, who said, "Emily has done a good job of cleaning up the CIR project. She also did a good job of dealing with the publicity from the large blackout that Kyle caused when he took down the CIR project."

"I couldn't have done it without your help," Kyle smiled at her.

She smiled in return, "From what we've been able to see, she's been doing a good job of managing Madacorp," Jessi said. "We think she should keep doing so."

"That was my conclusion too," Mike agreed. "I'll recommend to the rest of the board that they confirm her. I'm sure they'll do so." He paused for a moment and pulled a disk out of his folder, holding it up. "This part of your report is an amazing bonus. You have identified hundreds of places where we could save money or otherwise improve our operation. Your ability to see the scope of the entire operation is breathtaking."

"We have the ability to analyze a large volume of data," Kyle said. "Following your instructions, Emily gave us complete access. That let us look into everything. There were places we could see inefficiencies and some synergy between departments that were not communicating with each other."

"This disk is going to be worth millions to the operation," Mike said enthusiastically. "The biggest single line item is the problem that Jessi found with our antidepressant drug candidate. If that had not been found we would have spent millions on a failed clinical trial. The resulting publicity would probably have killed prospects for the drug, even if we could have reformulated it. It's hard to calculate how much the total amount you saved was." He looked at Jessi, "How did you see that?"

"From the data provided to the FDA to get permission for the trial, I was able to find the chemical structure," Jessi explained. "I looked at other clinical trials for comparable compounds and noticed one that had caused liver failure in a number of subjects. It was similar enough that I thought it could also happen with Madacorp's drug. It wasn't in the active part of the compound but part of the delivery mechanism. They should be able to structure it differently with the same effect.

"I don't know how the Madacorp people missed that," Mike frowned. "They're supposed to review the literature."

"They looked at all the studies in the area of anti-depression," Jessi said. "I looked at all clinical trials on record."

Mike stared at her. "My first reaction is to say that no one could do that, but, obviously, you did." He shook his head wonderingly. "You saved us millions and probably a few lives as well."

It was clear that Jessi hadn't considered the fact she had saved lives. She sat up straighter and looked at Kyle. He smiled approvingly at her.

Mike continued, "I asked you to do this as a favor to me and to Latnok and I'm extremely grateful. You can certainly call on me for any assistance you need in the future." He paused and waved the disk for emphasis, "This deserves more than simple thanks. I'm going to be sharing it with Emily Hollander to implement your suggestions and we'll be discussing appropriate ways of compensating you for your work."

"We just wanted to do a good job," Kyle said. "When we looked at the data we saw places that improvements could be made."

"Well, consulting at this level and this detail would not come cheap," Mike said. "And, frankly, it's hard to imagine finding a consulting firm that could have done this."

Two waiters arrived with their dinner. Kyle looked uncertainly at his whole trout, covered with pine nuts and a thin red sauce. Jessi was more comfortable with her quail.

After the waiter's had left, Mike said, "Now that we've got your report out of the way, there's a lot of things to talk about. At the Latnok meeting you said that you had found evidence of a number of projects such as biological warfare, supporting mercenaries and so on. Have you found anything more on that?"

Kyle said, "We've been focused on Madacorp. Because we were trying to answer your questions we only looked at Madacorp itself as well as directly owned subsidiaries. We think that the things we most object to are not in direct subsidiaries but operations that Madacorp or other Latnok facilities have invested in without direct control, or direct reporting. We've not had time to follow those trails."

"But you still think they exist?" Mike asked.

"Probably," Kyle said. "But it's going to take us some time to do the research." Kyle paused for a moment and then said, "I only got to spend a short time with Adam, but he seemed intent on making the world a better place. He told me that Latnok was made up of visionaries, great humanitarians, but it seems to have drifted far from that goal." He looked at Mike, "How did this happen?"

"There's a one word answer," Mike answered. "Money. Well, maybe two words, money and power. When we were young and idealistic, Adam inspired us all. We wanted to change the world. But we needed money to make our ideas become reality. So we needed investors. They weren't as committed to idealism as Adam. When I was helping him set up Madacorp …"

"Adam Baylin set up Madacorp?" Kyle was surprised.

"Yes," Mike nodded, "the mada in Madacorp is Adam spelled backwards. We needed money to pay for the research facilities. We wound up having to exchange the majority of the equity for the capital. That's why Latnok only owns thirty two percent. Their corporate mission statement talks about integrating technology, science and art for the benefit of mankind. That was Adam's vision. It sounds like typical corporate platitudes now, but he meant it. With other people's money representing a controlling interest, making a near term financial return assumed higher priority. We found ourselves slowly shifting our focus away from more long term thinking. Adam founded Zzyzx as a subsidiary to focus it, but once again, the need for backers left him no longer in control."

"Latnok should have fought for him," Kyle said. "Didn't he create the group to make his vision a reality?"

"Unfortunately, once money got involved some of the members of Latnok became more interested in it and the power it gave them than in Adam's vision. It was easy to be idealistic when we were all grad students and our idea of a good time was a pizza and a bottle of wine." Mike smiled in memory, "But when rides on corporate jets became part of the picture some of us lost that idealism. By the time Adam got pushed out of Zzyzx, the board was fragmented into power groups. Adam became distant and spent most of his time in hiding."

Jessi said, "Adam told Kyle that Brian Taylor had been working in his own interests for years. Was he one of the ones who lost that idealism?"

"I didn't think so," Mike frowned. "He was Adam's best friend and confidant. For many years, he was Adam's primary conduit to the world. I don't know the details but I know it had something to do with his creating you, Jessi. After your existence became generally known within Latnok, Adam insisted that we banish him from the organization. Brian was trying to get us to reconsider and had set up a meeting with you, but that never happened for some reason."

Kyle said, "You said that the board fragmented into power groups. So what are the groups?"

Mike grimaced, "That's the tough question, of course. If you ask any of us outright, we will say that we still share Adam's vision – but we have to be practical. That 'but' can cover anything from simple growing up to building a personal empire. We all play our cards pretty close to the chest. There have been rumors of physical danger from time to time." He sighed, "We've gone a long ways from grad students sharing pizza."

"What about you," Kyle asked.

"I still share Adam's vision, but we have to be practical," Mike laughed. He shook his head in frustration and continued, "I am encouraged by the two of you being on the scene, young and idealistic. I'm hoping you can make a difference. You can count on my help. I already said that I owed you, but this is something I owe Adam, too."

"Who else do you think we can count on," Kyle asked.

"Allana Sellars is one of your most outspoken advocates," Mike said. "I also think that Ryan Melland is in your camp. Ben Crossgate has been pushing for us to follow Adam's vision, but frankly, he lacks the power to make it happen. That's really why he currently chairs the board. The people who only want to give lip service to the cause pushed him knowing that he would talk a good game but support the status quo. I think Abby Hawkins would be supportive as well."

"Who do you think we have to worry about?" Kyle asked.

Mike grimaced, "These are all my old friends, but I haven't trusted Brad Keels or Robert Lukeson for years. Grace has become bitter and I know she's playing the personal power game. I'm not confident enough about any of the others to say, but I would advise caution in dealing with them. Hell, I'd advise using caution in dealing with any of us."

"Don't worry, we will," Kyle said with an engaging smile.

They looked at each other for a moment, then Mike said, "Thank you for having dinner with me. This has been really encouraging." He looked down at the Latnok ring on his hand, then looked back at them and said, "I'm becoming excited about getting back on track. I hope we can do this again sometime."

"Maybe next time we'll have pizza," Kyle said with a smile.