“We didn’t talk about it.”
“What?”
She shrugged and put the cup on the table. “We never talked about what she does. Outside of her acting in school and working for your brother.”
“But that was the reason you went to see her!”
“Well, yes. We did talk about you and your relationship. But the movies just never came up. David, she hardly knows me. If I’m ever really going to understand her and help her, she has to trust me—and for real reasons. It’s a guy thing to walk in and ‘solve problems.’ But women would rather get to know each other. I genuinely hope I can go back and spend time with her. She likes to shop and has a better eye than I do for putting the right stuff together. And I never have time to look for clothes when I’m here. So maybe if we can start there and get along, eventually something will come of it.”
“Did you learn anything?”
She leaned back again and smiled. “Oh, definitely. She looks fine, though she’s eating like a horse. Anyway, she made excuses about being up late to study, and I didn’t question her. She mentioned Alex, but I didn’t meet him. No details. She knows some great shops and a wonderful stretch of beach.”
“But you have no idea when or if she’ll ever quit making these movies?”
“No, I don’t. But once I earn the right to be let into that part of her life, I’ll do my best, as I promised, to help her get out of it. Anyway, isn’t the Senate supposed to pass President Harper’s reform bill this week, making it illegal for anyone under twenty-one to participate in creating porn?”
“Yes, but there’s already a long line of lawsuits ready to challenge the President’s entire package of reforms as soon as she signs them into law. And to carve ‘homemade’ movies out all together.”
“We regulate the legal age to drive, to drink, to go to war, to get married—you’d think it would be OK to move the age to work in porn movies.”
“I know. But others think it’s censorship, or a loss of human rights.”
“The right to copulate at eighteen for thousands of guys to watch? I’m sure Jefferson, Washington and the others were thinking just that when they risked everything they had to birth our nation.”
“Kristen, don’t get started.”
“I won’t.” She took a sip. “But it’s your daughter who’s caught up in it. And I imagine that USNet is funding at least some of those lawsuits.”
He looked down. “I don’t know.”
She put her mug on the table and stood up. “Well, you’re right. No need to get wound up this early on a beautiful Monday. God’s in charge, not me. I meant what I said about hoping to go back to visit Callie. She’s a good girl who needs someone outside her small world whom she can trust. Maybe I’ll be that person. I don’t know. But we’ll see.”
“What should I do?”
“Now? I don’t think you should do anything about Alex or their movies except call her, and see her if you can. Listen to her without pushing her. She already knows exactly how you feel about Alex. You’ve made your point. So now just be her father in every other way. And maybe I, or other people, can reinforce what you’ve told her.”
She started to move toward the door, and he stood up. “Kristen, in my background, a father has to enforce what is right, not ignore wrongdoing, especially when it is so gross and so public.”
She stopped and nodded, then returned to her chair. He did the same.
Kristen thought for a moment, then spoke. “Yes. I understand. In my background, a father is supposed to somehow both enforce what is right and give grace whenever it is needed. We have the story of the prodigal son, but it is really as much about the father. After his son grossly and publicly dishonors him, the father still so longs for their relationship that he runs to meet his returning son, while he is still a far way off. Your family is from the Middle East, mine isn’t. But I understand that no older man ever runs for anything, much less to embrace a wayward son. Jesus tells this story to illustrate the truth about our God, that He is both lawgiver and grace giver, requiring right actions but providing love and grace when we fall short.”
“The Allah of my parents never heard about love or grace. Instead, he watches what we do, enforces his will, and keeps score on who obeys and who doesn’t. That’s why I can’t act with Callie as if nothing has happened.”
“I understand. Left to our own devices we would never imagine the concept of grace. No other religion ever has. All of them are based on keeping score and earning your way by what you do. Win or lose. And that’s what is completely unique about Christianity—which is why I believe it must be divinely inspired. If you bring grace into any human situation, it instantly changes everything. It’s amazing. People are simply overwhelmed by true grace.”
“It seems like weakness to me. I don’t think I could or should forgive her, or even talk with her. She’s made her own bed.”
Kristen smiled. “Actually, true grace and forgiveness are much harder than paying back. That’s why it changes everyone. Because it’s from God. He let his son pay the price for us, and he forgives all who believe. Unconditionally. And runs towards us, calling our name, even when we are still a far way off. Imagine that.”
He paused. “It’s impossible for God—Allah—to be like that. He is all powerful and would never care that much for us.”
“Maybe not Allah, but God did—two thousand years ago. And He does every day. No more score-keeping. It’s amazing. You should check it out.”
“Well, I’ll think about it. Anyway, thank you. I owe you a lot—both for Callie and for Singapore.”
She turned slightly and smiled. “I had a chance to say a little bit to Callie about what a good man her father really is.”
“Thank you. We’ll see. And I just remembered something: before you get into everything else, you need to know that the police came by last week to talk with us about Bill Porter’s disappearance.”
“He’s still missing?”
“Yes.”
Kristen frowned. “That’s not good. Not good at all.”
“I know. The police were checking with everyone on his appointment calendar for the previous month. I told the police about the voicemail he left us, and I pointed out that other buyers could be just as angry.”
“So, what happens next? Do they have any leads on where he may be?”
“No. They definitely think he’s dead. I’m still not convinced. Anyway, they might call you, since you weren’t here, and I just wanted you to know.”
“OK. Thanks. One thing, David.”
“Yes?”
“I won’t lie over this. We had nothing to do with whatever might have happened. But if they ask me a straight question on any aspect of this, I’ll give them a straight answer.”
He nodded. “Yes. Of course. That’s what I want you to do. Just wanted you to know.”
“Thanks. I’ll send you an email with the full report on Singapore.”
“Good. And I’m glad you’re back.”
After Kristen left, David dialed Omid’s number on his cell phone. Following the connection in Estonia, the phone in Tehran rang and rang.
“I’m sorry that Stan couldn’t make it tonight,” Mike Campbell said, as he sipped his double Scotch. He and Todd were at a table in the bar at one of Minneapolis’s most exclusive clubs. “But he’ll see you in the morning when we sign the lease.”
Todd smiled and raised his drink to his old friend. “No problem.” He lowered his voice. “But I want to talk to you about the balance of the financing fee.”
“You’ll have earned it as soon as we sign tomorrow, as we agreed.”
Todd took a long sip. “Good. No, actually, great! But here’s the thing. I may seem paranoid, Mike, but I don’t like the paper trail in the islands, or all of our emails and calls. Can you just give me the second half in cash?”
“Sure. It’ll take a few days.”
“That’s fine. We’ll be getting together again soon.”
“Listen, Todd, along those lines. We’re looking at several great development opportunities in Chicago, Denver and Kansas City, but we need a strong prelease in each case to get financing. Do you have any requirements coming up in those cities?”
Todd thought for a moment. “We almost always have a need in Chicago. And I think Cheryl left this morning for a telecom requirement in Kansas City. I’ll have to check. But no more calls or emails. Let’s just communicate about the leases themselves, and we’ll agree now that I’ll earn this same percent for new ones in the future, in cash.”
“Well, now that we know that our private financing system works so well, that sounds fine to me.”
Todd tried not to grin but couldn’t help it. He looked at his friend. “You mean, this same sort of arrangement?”
“Perhaps adjusted a bit for project size—a bit smaller or larger. But of course with a minimum to keep it interesting. You know we’ll do a great job for USNet. Your folks will like any space we build for them.”
“That’s what’s so good—getting paid a little extra to make the decision I would make anyway, because you guys are so good.”
“Exactly!”
“Well, I’ll check with Cheryl, and look into Chicago and Denver. But I’m serious about no more phone calls or emails. We’ll just talk in person. And you know, I’m really starting to like having gone to business school with you.”
Mike drained his glass. “Excellent. Excellent. It’s early, so why don’t we grab some dinner, and then maybe go back to Cabaret later tonight?”
Another grin. “I thought you’d never ask. I could get used to regular trips to Minneapolis to sign leases.”
Callie,
I enjoyed being with you last week. Both the day in town and the day at the beach were wonderful. Thank you for taking time from your busy study and work schedule to show me around.
Enclosed as a small thank you is a gift certificate to Dave’s Restaurant, which I downloaded. I hope that you enjoy some more fish tacos. They were delicious.
I also hope that I’ll have a reason to get back to L.A. again soon. And if you visit your parents, I’ll show you some great new shops here.
Good luck with your acting.
Yours very truly,
Kristen
Late the next evening at the RTI command bunker, Todd Phelps and Victor Mustafin were in an area next to the control room in a special cubicle with two chairs and keyboards.
As directed, Todd took the left seat. Mustafin followed, and they put on their headsets.
Mustafin said, “I’ll log on with my code, and we’ll walk through the process. The goal today is to show you how it all works, and maybe in a while you’ll try handling some messages yourself. Remember that this is the lowest level of review. We’ll be seeing and hearing raw data that the computers have pulled out because of key words, or in the case of about five thousand names worldwide, because of who is involved.”
“You mean there are some people for whom we basically listen to all their conversations?”
“And their emails, of course… OK, now look, the screen is coming up, and you’ll see that it’s divided into a top third and a lower two-thirds. The top third shows the word or words that interested the computer, plus what is immediately before and after them. It prints a cell phone conversation in the same way.”
“So we don’t actually listen?”
“We can, which I’ll show you in a minute. But since we read faster than we hear, the computer translates to a written format. That brings us to the lower portion of the screen, where you see several options you can select for what to do with the passage. Notice in the lower left is the option Audio, which you can click for intercepted phone calls, in case you want to hear the speakers’ tones of voice or inflections to understand what they really mean.”
Todd smiled. “Amazing.”
“Yes, it is, but you haven’t seen half of it yet. You can send the same passage to several people. So, for example”—he moved the mouse as he spoke—”if we have an email that is discussing government plans to allow drilling for oil in a new part of Alaska, you could send it to this address, which is preset for the oil industry, and to this one, which says ‘State’, but then lets you scroll through a list of all fifty, and to this one, which says ‘Federal’. At the other end are individuals who specialize in these areas and will be in a better position to know whether this is truly new information, and what, if any, action to take.”
Todd just nodded.
“It’s your decision what to do. You wind up tossing the majority. But in general at this first level you want to err on the side of passing them along. You’re like a gatekeeper, routing the passages to others. For brief periods it can be boring, but there are usually quite a few gems on every watch. I love the emails from the free wireless airport and coffee house systems that we offer. Remember, these people have no idea that we’re reading and listening, so they say incredible things to each other. We’ll connect to the flow. See this icon? Just click here.”
Immediately a message appeared in the upper third of the screen.
“The highlighted envelope in the upper left corner signifies an email; if the handset were lit in the upper right corner, it would be a cell phone call. Notice the key word highlighted in the middle is ‘earnings.’ That’s one of about twenty key business words that the computer always searches for. What does it look like to you?”
“Well, looking at the lines just before and after, it appears to be a father inquiring about how much money his son has made since moving to a new city.”
“I agree. So we’ll toss it. Hit the trashcan there on the right, twice. And it’s gone. But we keep a rolling seventy-two hour back-up in case you suddenly have a different take on something you’ve read and want to check again.”
“That’s good.”
“The next time you see the word ‘earnings’ it could be a CFO giving his boss an internal heads-up that their earnings are about to be significantly higher or lower than was expected. That’s the kind of earnings information we’re interested in. In that case, you can send it to one of these pre-designated areas—” he pointed to the screen—”like oil, airlines, telecom; or else type in an industry name, and the computer will find the right expert.”
“Impressive,” Todd said, smiling.
“Yes, it is. Imagine all the screens overseas, continually snagging all of this information. Let’s do the next one.”
Todd nodded and turned again to the screen, reading the next highlighted message intercepted by the computer. This is going to be incredible.
It was late the next afternoon, and David was about to switch off his computer and leave the office.
He, Elizabeth and Rob were to attend a graduation party that evening for the daughter of a noted architect whom David had employed on several projects. The young woman attended Rob’s school, and David was looking forward to the mix of family and professional friends who would likely be there.
His phone rang, and he could see that it was Paul Burke.
“Hey, Paul. Working late on Wednesday afternoon. Are you going to make it to Pat’s party tonight?”
“I think so, but that’s not why I’m calling.”
David could hear the turmoil in his friend’s voice.
“I’ve just emailed an article to you that someone in News downloaded and sent to Trevor. You’d better read it and then call me back immediately. The article will be out this weekend in the print version of Journal. He’s going crazy.”
“Give me a minute and I’ll call you back.”
He clicked to his email and opened the attachment to Burke’s message.
USNet expands in Adult Entertainment
Internet Giant will soon be the “King of Porn”
By Claudia Coleman Los Angeles
On the same day that President Harper signed her landmark Media and Entertainment Reform bill, at least one company is moving to take advantage of the recent uncertainty in the adult
entertainment industry.
Through a series of quiet acquisitions, internet and communications giant USNet is set to become the world’s largest producer and distributor of “adult movies” and related goods and services.
USNet is widely known for its large market shares in internet hosting, email, cellular telephones, broadcasting, and other industries, most associated with high tech applications.
It is not so generally known that through its wholly owned subsidiary, XXXtra Cinema, USNet is also already a major factor in the adult entertainment industry. But industry sources, most wishing to remain anonymous, report that over the last sixty days USNet and its flamboyant chairman, Trevor Knox, have quietly penned deals to purchase almost all of the remaining independent production houses in the San Fernando Valley.
Neither Knox nor USNet would respond to inquiries about these acquisitions, but it is believed that the company’s goal is to reduce costs and increase prices by virtually controlling every aspect of the industry, including the actors, production, distribution and even showings through its internet, DVD and dedicated satellite systems.
Since XXXtra Cinema and its parent USNet are private companies, exact figures are not published, but it is widely believed that if this type of vertical integration could be achieved in the adult entertainment industry, the profits would be enormous.
While the acquisitions are being made through dummy companies to avoid notoriety, a USNet real estate executive confirmed that a senior member of the company’s real estate group has recently spent significant time in the San Fernando Valley, evaluating the targeted assets.
Although content censorship seems an unlikely possibility today, even with President Harper pushing for reform, one industry watcher quipped that these acquisitions may spur the government to consider anti-trust investigations into the mostly secret world of legal pornography.
Several attorneys familiar with the purchases report that they are set to close over the next thirty days.
Enemy In the Room Page 21
