6
It had been three weeks since the … ah… incident. Ianto stood at the doors of Harkness Enterprises with a mixed feeling, stepping forward to allow the Sims to open them for him with a flourish, one of them softly saying 'Father' before stepping aside.
It was like coming home.
The comfort of being in a place where he had known joy, delight and satisfaction all swelled to greet him and he closed his eyes as he stood in the foyer, taking it all in.
"Doctor."
Ianto opened his eyes and focused "Hello Dorothy. Where are we situated then?"
"Please follow me Father" she swung to lead the way and he was surprised at her slip of the tongue. I guess some if the insurgence lingered in her synopses? Ianto followed her to the meeting room he knew well, one for honoured guests and huge investors. It was strangely touching to find he was being treated like this.
He entered and Jack rose from his chair to greet him in a silent handshake, the grief on the man still lingering, but also a determined look Ianto knew well. His 'Let's get 'er Done' look. He motioned for Ianto to sit and he did, nodding to the legal personnel and HR to the side.
"You… you didn't bring legal council?" the firm's head lawyer spoke first.
"No need. I passed the Bar aged eighteen and am fully versed in employment law, Robotics Law and the real reason we are here…. Patent and Copyright Laws." Ianto said softly, leaning back to let them do their thing.
"Right." The man glanced at Jack who had yet to speak, then he continued "Right. Ah. Doctor, first of all, thank you for accepting our invitation to meet. We appreciate your time."
Ianto nodded.
"We know things are…. Fluid right now and we want to lock down the … ah… firm's relationship with you" the man was uncomfortable and clearly trying to find word that were appropriate. Ianto stared straight at Jack who rolled his eyes.
"For Fucksake Arron. Just speak to the man" Jack finally barked "What he is dancing around is the fact you own the patents and copyright to a lot of the shit we need to function and we also know, as per your contract with us, that you can pull our agreement to share resources at anytime leaving us up shit creek without a paddle."
Those around the table balked as Ianto nodded, finally relaxing as he had hoped this was the problem they wanted to address.
"I take it the contract there to be signed is a consulting one?"
"What we narrowed down were two contacts." The Lawyer blustered "Yes, one is a consultancy so you are not duty bond to us but kept on a retainer so if we need you, you will help us. Of course you are no longer obligated to be here, to interact with us expect in cases of emergency and… ah…."
"What do you want Ianto?" Jack cut thought the bullshit again.
"Well, let's start with the facts as they stand and move from there" Ianto said as he turned to face Dorothy "Dorothy, report."
Dorothy turned to the wall and started to speak, the wall flickering to life as it was a full length screen and the words were appearing as she spoke, like a narration.
"Father owns mainframe. The original mainframe for this company fried a decade ago during the Great Incident and Mister Harkness demanded a fix be made…." Her voice changed and to Jack's shock his own, long dead grandfather's voice coming from her lips "I don't care what you do Jonesy, just make the fucking thing work again. Work around it like you and Ifan always did man!"
She then turned to Ianto and said softly "Sorry Father. I do not have the voice recording of your grandfather Ifan replying anymore. Or your father Doctor Jones's reply either."
"That is OK, I scrubbed it in my presence as it was… no way to separate my Grandy's rely form my Da's and all of my Da's voice recordings were all taken from my hearing. He replied that the only Mainframe available was his personal one".
"Yes" she swung back to the board, back on track "The Mainframe used as a general backup for the servers of Harkness Enterprises was the Torched Wood Mainframe of Loyd Jones Inc and so, a patch was made and ever since then, any and all company business had been stored in the main servers as well as the back up on the Torchwood servers. Torchwood… torched wood… sorry Father. Torched Wood Dell."
"That's OK. I know you Sims shortened it when talking amongst yourselves. I accept Torchwood as the name going forward, as it is easer for you lot" Ianto said to her like they were a species of their own.
Jack felt a change in the room as those present also caught the inference "Go on Dotty."
She smiled, a soft loving smile and swung back "The patents, Intellectual property and the innovative steps that made it possible for mere Bots to become Sim were created by a Loyd or a Jones. All owned by Loyd Jones Inc. As Doctor Loyd was the founding member, along with Doctor Harkness… the company of Harkness Enterprises is twenty two percent owned by the direct descendant of Doctor Loyd, and his son-in-law Jones who was given another five percent shares by way of compensation for his wife's death during the Unfortunate Incident means Doctor Jones here currently owns Twenty eight percent of Harkness Enterprises."
Jaws hit the floor.
"What she is saying is that my Grandfather had twenty two percent shareholding, I inherited that, along with the other five from my father and add to that the three percent I gained due to the loss of my own Lisa… twenty eight precent. Jack here, now that his mother is gone has inherited a grand total of forty five percent. That means… I am the other major shareholder here today. If I can get the backing of another three or four shareholders, I can make life very uncomfortable for you."
"Well… fuck me" Jack softly said, his blood cooling to almost subzero as Ianto turned to slowly regard him.