Chapter One
Walter sits at his desk, the quiet of the empty garage deafening.
Seven months have passed since everyone trooped out that calamitous night. Not one of those that filed out had made any contact since. Seven months since the last time Ralph contacted Walter.
Six months since Centipede Partners was formed.
Five months since Homeland canceled the Scorpion contract and transferred to and assigned agent Gallo as handler for Centipede Partners.
Four months since the door was shut in his face at the Gettleman office.
Three months since Florence returned to Texas to teach at a college there.
Three months since there was any reason for Walter to even open the garage door. Three months of sitting in the garage alone without seeing or speaking to another person. Three months of watching the garage go from dark night to sunlit day and back to dark again. Three months of reliving the cause and effect of his actions- a simple action of taking an acquaintance to a lecture that led to the end of his idyllic life. An action that resulted in the end of his entire life's work and planned future.
Three months of allowing random thoughts to roam freely without coalescing into any plan for his future; he remains adrift in a raging sea of thoughts. The love of his life is gone, his much beloved 'son' is gone, his 'family' is gone, his team is gone, his business failed and ended. Walter sits at his desk looking into darkness- figuratively as well as realistically. Whether it is day or night all Walter sees is darkness going forward.
Three months in limbo and Walter finally sits up to do the actions that need to be done- reality needs to be attended to so he opens his laptop to send a message to his attorney to start the transfer of Scorpion assets to Centipede Partners, patents, contracts, everything, then cancel the retainer for the law office, give date and time for any paperwork signing that need to be done and the bill for the final actions.
Walter then looks through his finances once that legal action is completed, he has just enough to pay off the garage so he can at least retain his home…. may have a hard time eating, but, as long as he has coffee he is good to go…. for a while, anyway. He sits back thinking here he is, at thirty-four years of age and right back where he was prior to gathering the funds to start Scorpion. Back to the proverbial 'square one'.
Walter again sits up to type on the laptop to send a message to the real estate agent to get the final amount needed to pay off the garage. Once that final tally is known he will know what will remain in his accounts so how long he can keep monthly utilities paid to keep the servers and computers powered up- so much more important than eating.
One month since all the legal paperwork from the attorney and real estate office has been signed. Walter remains alone sitting at his desk- saving electricity so even the Scorpion Explosives sign is dark. Did splurge and spent fifty bucks to a local enterprising pick-up owner to have the Proton Arnold console delivered to Ralph at Centipede Partners office. That was the last tie to Ralph.
Today- here and now, Walter is sitting at his desk, laptop open while using the desktop unit to review numerous scientific sites for what is new, when his laptop alerts new mail. He opens the message from Richard Elias:
Walter- the cobbled together banking enterprise needs to be fixed- interested? Richard
Walter sat back thinking. He had countless programs already written- many lines of code that could be incorporated into the on-line banking program to salvage the system until the entire enterprise could be relaunched with a pristine system and security. The problem system now being used could be segmented making it safer, 'user-friendly', and geared more precisely to the users while patched up to keep it from crashing.
Walter hit reply:
Richard- Have needed code written to salvage present system. Two weeks entire new system with security possible for relaunch. Stop in the garage to discuss- Walter
Within a few minutes another alert for new mail- from Richard:
Walter- will be at the garage within the hour- Richard
Walter read the message, went into the kitchen to start the coffee maker, opened the garage door so Richard could walk in, put a chair next to the desk, got a cup of fresh coffee and sat down at his desk. He pushed the laptop out of the way and pulled the desktop keyboard closer to start typing to bring up files of programs to await Richard's arrival.
In forty minutes Richard walked into the garage.
"Richard, have a seat and let me know what your problem is."
"Walter, I will not gild the lily," Richard said sitting at the desk chair. "I am desperate. It has just been the past two days that the banking enterprise on-line segment has been crumbling. The numbskulls have been attempting to shore it up and never made me aware of the problems. Some of those people will be GONE for not informing me of the status of the enterprise. Like I said, I am desperate. My commercial side of the enterprise is what funds the science, specifically the space endeavor. Had I KNOWN of the real condition I would have gotten hold of you long ago. I have countless customers depending on this enterprise- can you save it?"
Walter sat back, "you need something quick- it will have to be segmented. I can keep things from crashing one by one- once things are salvaged, it will take a while to produce a full program with attendant security drawn up- maybe two weeks and a full relaunch done." He then turned to his desk and brought up some files of already coded programming. "When the system is least in use, evening and night, the new patching program can be installed and restarted. The few customers using the system at the time may have to re-enter their log-in, but 98% of those few will figure they 'fat fingered' something and start over which will then work OK."
"You can keep it from crashing?" Richard asked.
"Yes, I have programming already on hand that, with little alteration, should fix the immediate problems. I will need to scope your present programming- access to your servers- see what you have and go from there. Shall we go to your main servers?" Walter rose, put his laptop in its case, went to the kitchen to turn the coffee off, and waved Richard to the door. Richard led the way out and, after closing the garage, Walter got in the car and Richard drove them to his main headquarters.
Walter and Richard entered the massive server facility, went to the commercial section, and from there to the banking sector. Walter pulled his laptop and the needed cable and plugged in. He then sat at the worktable and started going through the system. While Richard watched from another chair Walter scanned code faster than Richard could follow. For an hour Walter went through- totally focused on the flowing code. Richard sat back with a frown forming while the code continued to flow on Walter's laptop screen. Another seventeen minutes and Walter smiled and the flow of code halted.
"Simple mistakes, never fails. Single stage thinking," Walter murmured turning to Richard. "One segment can be salvaged and relaunched tonight. Do I need to explain or just do it?"
"No, do what must be done." Richard said.
Walter turned back to his laptop, brought up his servers under the garage and scanned his already written programming. Found and brought up the one he needed. For forty-seven minutes he scanned through deleted some code, rewrote to patch the system presently in place. When finished he turned again to Richard.
"Shall I launch?"
"What will happen to those presently using the system?"
"It will 'hiccup'." Walter said. "Most users will think they hit a wrong key and start over which will then function as it should- probably faster, and they will continue with their day."
Richard looked at Walter, but could read nothing in that steady, dark eyed gaze. "Launch," he said throwing the dice and watched Walter start the download.
While the download was in process, Walter sat back in the chair and looked at Richard. "Interesting move you just made."
Richard looked at him questioningly. "How so?"
"You have absolutely no idea what I am doing to your commercial enterprise- fixing it or totally destroying it, yet you 'threw caution to the wind' as it were and took the risk. What were the data points you used to make such a decision? Especially such a decision that could lead to incalculable loss."
"I have some idea of your character- I have first-hand witnessed your ability to get a job done when you retrieved Zoe, I have seen and read of the Scorpion exploits and am well aware the basis of all that was due to you. Your intelligence, integrity, ability. Let's face it, while the rest of the Scorpion team made the necessary equipment, figured the needed ways and means of getting the job done, it was you who came up with the initial plan. Those plans you devised saved lives, prevented crimes, took care of what was needed to be done to improve or alleviate the problem."
"You are well aware Scorpion is no more, the team is gone. That should have caused you to pause and rethink about my 'character', and the computer science departments of USC and UCLA surely could have helped with your problem."
"Would you have preferred it if I had NOT asked for your help? And to be honest, any time I have requested input on anything from any university the result was less than positive- I am deemed much too commercial, free enterprise oriented for them to deal with."
"That isn't the reason for my asking- I inquire for the data you used to make your decision. I need information. You are an exceptionally successful businessman," Walter said waving his hand at all the servers and the entire facility they are sitting in. "I started a much smaller concern, handpicked a handful of employees, thought I made good decisions, yet, after years of working together with very successful cases, every one of my employees walked out over a relatively trivial issue. Not only walked out but made a concerted effort to drive me out of business and practically into homelessness. I admit to being unaware of the emotional forces behind people's actions and am totally unable to discern emotional needs, but never having such 'driving emotional needs' to destroy others, I am seeking information to understand decision making for my own future." Walter said. "The information is what I need for going forward."
Richard sat back thinking. "Interesting line of thought, Walter. To be honest, I obviously did not do so good with the numb skulls of this section of my business- I gave them my trust and they withheld necessary information on the real status of this sector which could have adversely impacted the entire enterprise."
"So it is nothing more than a roll of the dice as to being a success or a failure? That is rather disconcerting," Walter said. "Download and relaunch complete. On to the next section." Walter turned back to his laptop to scan another sector then bring up his servers for the necessary programming to then scan and make the necessary alterations. Two hours for this issue then another look to Richard, "Launch?"
"Launch."
"This is going to be a long night. But the overall system should be salvaged and no crash will happen. Then I can work on the entire systems programming with the necessary security and have it done within a couple weeks at most." Walter told Richard. "Would be nice to have some coffee, like I said, going to be a long night. You need not remain if you give the OK to launch for every sector I patch and reprogram."
Richard stood up, "coffee will be on its way shortly, permission given for anything you need to do. I will see you when completed- message me before you are ready to leave." Richard left, within thirty minutes a carafe of coffee and a large cup with Elias Enterprises on it was delivered.
"I will have fresh coffee every hour as long as you are here, Mr. O'Brien," the young attendant said. "Would you like anything to eat, sir?"
"No, just coffee, thank you."
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By nine-seventeen the next morning Walter was finished patching the cracks of the 'cobbled together' system and was ready to leave. He sent a message to Richard he was finished and ready to be escorted out to an Uber he had called to return to the garage. He rose from the worktable, disconnected his laptop and put it in its case, drained the last cup of coffee and turned to leave.
Richard met him at the door, "I think you could go for a good breakfast before leaving. Plus we need to discuss contract terms for the work done over the past night and future programming to correct this present mess."
"Not hungry, as far as a contract goes for this night's work- whatever you think it is worth. I will work up a new program in the next week or so for the entire system with added security and once your test people OK it for use, we can discuss its worth." Walter said. "I just called an Uber to pick me up so an escort to the gate and I will message you when the program is ready."
"I'll walk you to the gate, Walter. You know the space guys are still going with your booster system- they have been trying to 'tweak' it for better efficiency, but have not had any luck so far. Did you ever patent any of that design?"
"No, put it out on open domain, so they can do as they please. I have tinkered with the design myself since I haven't had anything to do the past few months and my computer modeling shows a 7.34% improved fuel usage, but that isn't actual, just been some late night exercises when I can't sleep. There is my Uber, I will message you when the programming is ready," Walter said turning to walk to the Uber for the ride to the garage.
"Thank you, Walter," Richard said watching Walter walk to the car and get in before returning to his office.
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