Preserving Will

by Alex Albrinck

  Will heard her enthusiastic comment to Josh and sighed. He didn’t hear Josh’s excited mental chatter at taking in the completely rebuilt city of Pleasanton in person for the first time. Hope crushed Josh’s external exhibition of excitement while encouraging the boy’s internal enthusiasm, all while offering a sympathetic gaze to her husband.

  She couldn’t stand this duplicity. The next few years would seem to last a full century, and she knew what that was like. The only solace was knowing, in an unoffered commentary years earlier, that the older Will now knew why things had worked out as they had, and he bore her no ill will for keeping from him the secret of his son’s true nature. He told her she must do exactly as she was doing, and, where possible, the older version of Will would provide his own aid in that effort.

  The downtown area was surrounded by a decorative brick wall, punctured by a dozen openings for foot traffic into and out of the city. Even at this relatively early hour of the day, people swarmed through those openings, looks of anticipation and excitement on their faces. Shuttle buses parked near each entry, transporting people to and from the airport, distant shopping malls, and various residential areas of town. Digital advertising billboards announced all manner of excitement inside, ranging from tours of various businesses, to open air concerts by local bands Untamed Thoroughbredz and Naked Prozac, to food specialties available that day.

  The limousine bypassed the pedestrian archways and approached one of four vehicular entries to the underground parking garage. The bright sunshine was replaced by muted ambient lighting, not quite so bright a light as the solar variety, but far more cheerful than the lighting in most garages Hope had visited in her long life. The bulbs were the product of a company she and Will had funded in its infancy, a business that had successfully produced a new variety of bulb that both reduced the cost and increased the brightness of the light produced.

  That was the way they did things in Pleasanton now. New innovations to drive down costs and improve the standard of living provided to residents, visitors, patrons, and workers inside were announced almost weekly.

  They came to a stop at the private entrance to Stark Enterprises International headquarters. The driver opened the armor-plated door of the limousine and the family stepped out. Lance Maynard and his team stepped forward, and Hope sighed. Humans wanted to kill her husband, the Aliomenti wanted to kill her husband—the older one, not this one—and the Alliance was trying to keep him alive for another three years so the boy whose hand she held, and his unborn sister, could retrieve him from the future and propel the man on an incredible journey through time.

  Surely, that wasn’t normal. Surely, understanding and living through these times entitled her to a few moments of well-earned fatigue and silent tears.

  The entry system to the business was similar to that used at De Gray Estates, using locked doors to ensure individuals entering the building did so only if approved. Will used a palm print reader to allow his family and security contingent into a staging room, and the door locked behind him. Every person entering the staging room was photographed, and every person in the room had to be individually buzzed into the small “man trap” room that led into the headquarters building. In the event Will was kidnapped by a single person seeking access to the hidden parts of Stark Enterprises, the criminal would find themselves trapped inside this entry system. If those watching and verifying the entry process identified any sign of wrongdoing, they could flood either room with gases that would render those inside unconscious, and an easy arrest target for the security and police forces working above.

  Hope had worried about another possibility. “What if someone shoots you? How does that room help?”

  “They’ll suffer through being trapped in a room with a dead body.”

  She smacked his arm. “That’s not funny.”

  “No, but it’s true. If I’m dead, they’re stuck in a room and we have irrefutable video evidence of their crime. They’ll be knocked unconscious and wake up in prison. Permanently.”

  “But you’re still dead.”

  “We all die someday, Hope. It’s what we do with the days we have that matters.” He looked at her, saw her face lined with concern, and smiled. “There’s no such thing as a life without risk, Hope. I won’t take any that are unnecessary. I have no interest in turning you into the world’s best looking widow.” The smile turned into a devilish grin. “People thought Penelope had it rough when the world thought Odysseus dead. She’s got nothing on you.”

  Hope smacked his arm again, but this time, her smile was tinted with a blush.

  Today, there was no sign of an impending attack, whether human or Aliomenti in origin. Maynard went through the door into the single-person man trap after Will’s palm print unlocked it. Once the door snapped shut behind Maynard, Will pressed his palm to the panel again, and Maynard was able to walk out into Stark Enterprises International headquarters. Hope followed, and then Josh moved robot-like through the process. The final two guards went, and Will followed. It was tedious, but their security policies, defined by a man named Cain Freeman, mandated that they separately screen and assess each person who entered the private side of the building.

  The group entered an elevator that whisked them silently to the top floor of the tallest building in Pleasanton. Will generally avoided the penthouse office, preferring to walk around the building and the businesses populating the city. He believed he could make better decisions and develop better plans by seeing the people and process in operation, rather than sitting far from where the action occurred and speculating about decisions based on theories.

  Today, though, Will made an exception. His wife and son would have the opportunity to take in the spectacular, panoramic view of the city and the environs available only here. In the distance, Hope could just make out the walls surrounding the De Gray Estates, easily identifiable by their size and the adjoining guard tower.

  Below, a rejuvenated Pleasanton teemed with color and activity.

  Moving sidewalks curved and meandered through a mix of green space and buildings. Visitors could go on a slow tour of the city aboard the built-in transportation system, giving them ample opportunity to view the wares on display in the colorful shops dotting the city. Larger corporate entities occupied the taller buildings, and the sidewalks acted like aboveground, outdoor subway systems, moving employees from garage or archway entry to office door in mere moments. Manufacturing facilities took advantage of the clean, cheap energy produced by the city’s dual power plants, and the safety allowed by the unique construction methods of all the refurbished and rebuilt buildings allowed most businesses to provide tours to the curious.

  Stark Enterprises International owned or held investment interests in nearly all of the businesses operating inside the corporate city, which amplified Will’s interest in walking around the lively city.

  “It’s amazing to see it from this angle,” Hope said. “I’ve been through on foot before, of course, but this view gives you a new appreciation of what’s been done.”

  “There are a hundred thousand people working here every day, and we’re getting more and more tourists coming through each month,” Will told her. “We have a huge waiting list of companies that want to expand here. We’ve had to pay to move people to Pleasanton to fill all of the available jobs.” He shook his head. “I get an average of three emails a day from government officials asking what legislation they can pass to mimic the Pleasanton miracle.” He offered an amused nod toward a bookshelf, which held stacks of thin books titled The Pleasanton Miracle. “It’s all right there. There’s no secret as to what makes this work. We make it easy for people to get work done, we show the profound impact that work provides—for example, using products made here to enhance the whole city, like the parking garage lights—and seeing everything that happens inspires greater creativity, innovation, and success.”

  There was a knock at the door, and a smartly dressed woman stepped in, her nose buried in a folder a
s she shuffled papers. “Mr. Stark, I saw that you were here. I have the operational reports from yesterday and…” She looked up and broke off, realizing others were in the room. Her gaze fell upon Hope, and her face lit up. “Mrs. Stark! I didn’t know you would be here today! It’s such a pleasure to see you!” She dumped the folder in Will’s hands and rushed forward to pump Hope’s hand, beaming.

  Her face clouded when she realized what she’d done. She turned to Will, her face turning a deep crimson. “Mr. Stark, I’m… I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”

  Will laughed. “I completely understand. I have the same reaction when I see Hope. I just forget everyone else exists.” He flipped open the folder. “Two package mix-ups yesterday? That’s an improvement, but not good enough. Did we get the root cause identified?”

  “Visual identification error. Clerk couldn’t tell identical twins apart.”

  Will snorted. “Go figure.” He paused. “How did that cause a problem, though?”

  “Delivery to the drop-off point and sorter was fine. It was the pickup that caused the problem. The print reader system isn’t online there yet, so we’re still doing visual identification to match and confirm packages and owners. The pictures work well, but the clerk matched up the wrong twin for the two bins.”

  Hope glanced to both of them. “Something new?”

  Will nodded. “Rather than having people carry purchases around, we’ve built something akin to an airline luggage processing system. You buy your items, state that you want to pick it up when you leave, and that’s it. The purchased items go onto underground conveyance systems and get stored in a climate controlled underground warehouse. When you leave, you go to pickup spots near the entrances and in the garages to get your purchases. We’re looking for total automation; palm print to purchase, palm print to trigger the delivery of your packages to you at those final depots. But the palm reading systems aren’t online just yet in the pickup areas. Our workers have to ask for a name, verify identity via a digital photo attached to bins holding purchases, and hand over purchases once payment is confirmed. That works well as a temporary system, but if you get people with the same last name who look exactly alike, mistakes can happen.”

  “Twins,” Hope said, nodding. She paused for a moment. “The palm print purchasing system works, then?”

  Will nodded, though he glanced at his assistant. “Any issues there, Sheryl?” He flipped through the papers in the folder she’d given him.

  Sheryl shook her head. “Yesterday was a good day.” She started for the door. “I can come back later, Mr. Stark. I suspect you’d like to spend time with your family.”

  Will nodded. “Thanks, Sheryl.”

  After she left, he turned back to Hope, who stood watching Josh. To Will, the boy was simply facing in the direction he’d been left after entering the room, but Hope knew he was amazed at his father’s creation, marveling even at the age of three at the imagination and planning required to enable the organized chaos unfolding below. Will watched his son for a moment, and then nodded at Hope. “Let’s go meet a few people, and then we can head outside and get something to eat.”

  She sensed wariness from him, invisible on the surface, a concern that venturing from this sanctuary might be dangerous for his wife and son. Inwardly, she smiled. If any threats materialized, it could be neutralized in an instant—and with it, the entire city—if she merely dropped the Shield from a frightened Josh. He need not worry about them.

  But of course, she couldn’t tell him that.

  She glanced at Will as they moved. “How are you getting people to use the palm print payment system? And by the way, that’s an awful tongue twister.”

  Will chuckled. “Everyone entering the city has to provide a palm print and have a three dimensional picture of their face taken,” he replied. “We do that mostly as a deterrent to theft or other crimes; that information gets fully erased unless the person asks us to retain it for a future visit to the city. But we also realized that it gives a chance to offer something to those entering the city and thus raise operational funds. We can’t tax anything, and we don’t want to implement anything like a cover charge, which leaves us with transaction fees. Simply put, the more people buy here, the better the city’s financial position. We provide a lot of conveniences for people who pay for things our way. We can’t require it due to legal tender laws, and people can and do pay with cash or credit cards at the point of sale. But fewer and fewer are choosing to go that route, now.”

  The elevator opened, and the group of six moved inside. “When they do their scan prior to entry, each person is given the option of swiping their credit card or depositing cash into something like a debit account. We tie their palm print to the credit card or cash balance. When they go to make a purchase, they can use a palm reader and it automatically treats that palm print like their credit card or cash. No need to get out a card, fumble with cash and coins, sign receipts, and so on. At the end of the day, when they leave, they get receipts for all purchases at once. We charge a transaction fee and a merchant fee for vendors who use the system. Given the volumes that we work through, though, and the way we work with the credit card companies, our combined fees are less than what the individual merchants would pay on their own, and they can charge people less than if they paid with cash or a credit card at the point of sale. It’s a win for the businesses in the city and for the people who buy goods and services here. But it’s also a win for us, because those fees and the rent we charge building occupants provide enough revenue to operate this city. We ran at a loss the first six months in operation when we just collected rent, even though the waiting list of businesses looking to move in meant we could have raised the rents. We wanted to keep those costs down, however, so that our businesses could offer better prices here than people get outside. Once we added the payment fees, we started to break even and even earn a bit, despite adding more services in the city.”

  She looked intrigued. “You’d talked about that, but it still surprised me that it works. Don’t you need to collect huge amounts of money?”

  “No, not really, because we have no debt, and all of our expenses are current,” he replied. “The Pleasanton city council before reached the point where they paid for everything with credit, and then had to start borrowing to pay interest, and so on. That’s why they’d gotten so desperate; they were reaching a point where they couldn’t collect enough in taxes to pay even the interest fees, let along new and current expenses like payroll. If we don’t have cash, we don’t buy anything new or hire anyone else for our city operations. Our expenses are tightly monitored and if we see an area creeping out of control, we devote the time needed to fix it. Innovations like the payment system are one-time efforts we fund from a special projects account we established with our fixed rental income. It’s more than paid for itself.”

  They elevator doors slid open on the second floor, and Will led the way to a door marked Security. “You have to fund police, fire, schools, and all of the other services of government with that money, though,” Hope said. “How can you do that without taxing everyone? It seems like those expenses would take more than you could obtain from rents and transaction fees.”

  “We handle things differently,” Will said. “One of the challenges we saw in looking at how things worked before was that expenditures were handled in a manner that was actually least beneficial to all involved. Firefighters would sign longer term contracts but that meant the city had to offer lower wages because they didn’t know what the future would hold. Teachers might seek a healthier retirement package, but because the total amount of money the city could pay in total was finite—salary and benefits couldn’t go over a certain total—we saw they’d get paid less in current dollars as more and more needed to go to fund pensions or something… and if the projections on returns didn’t pan out, they’d be in huge trouble down the road. Or the city would bankrupt itself trying to refill funds.

  “We made a decision u
p front: pay top current dollar for top talent but keep those expenses current. If we could afford to budget, say, one hundred dollars per firefighter, for example, it used to be that fifty dollars would be current salary and benefits, and fifty dollars would go to fund future benefits. The firefighters would look at their salaries and wonder why they only made fifty dollars. We agreed. Now, if we can afford to pay one hundred dollars in total to each firefighter, then we get to put eighty or ninety dollars to current salary and benefits, and the remaining can go, at the employees direction, to a private personal pension, a retirement investment account, college savings funds for their children, or just additional salary. Suddenly, they’re making ninety dollars instead of fifty and can decide how to handle their future individually. And we have a sustainable expense model. Win-win.

  “We use the same approach to deciding about new tools or technology for our public servants. If there’s a new type of fire extinguishing material, or a piece of technology that helps police track down criminals more quickly, or a new teaching tool shown to be effective in educating students, we make every effort to get them, if we have the cash available and if we can make a one-time purchase. We have to prioritize and let each group decide which expenses of those types are best—they do the work, right, so they know—based upon the funds available.”

  “I wish more cities would follow that example,” Hope mused.

  Will shrugged. “It may not work everywhere. The nice thing is that we’ve had the chance to try new things here, and thus far, those experiments have worked well. Maybe the whole model won’t work elsewhere, but people can pick out pieces and test them in their localities.”