by Sadie Hayes
Amelia picked up Patty’s pink-bejeweled iPhone and tapped the text message that had just come through.
“FYI. More where this came from. You are such a naughty girl.”
The message was from T.J. Bristol and came with a video attachment. Amelia looked at Patty, who was dead asleep, then back at the phone before tapping to open the attachment. A twenty-second video clip played, showing a guy and a girl—oh, God, it was Patty—on top of each other, aggressively making out, in the front seat of a Lamborghini. The guy in the video pulled off Patty’s shirt and the clip cut out.
Amelia felt her jaw drop as she looked at her sleeping roommate. Not good, indeed. She tucked the phone next to the pillow and gently removed Patty’s shoes, bracelets, and earrings and pulled a blanket over her. She brought the trash can next to the bed in case Patty woke and threw up, and filled a glass of water to place on the dresser. Then she turned out the light and crawled into Patty’s bed, exhausted.
5
Information Gathering
The bright California sun streamed through the window and woke Amelia early. She got out of bed to head to the hall bathroom and, when she opened the door, found Adam passed out in the hallway. He was cradling something in his arms, like a teddy bear. It was a Tupperware container full of the dessert he’d promised Amelia.
She didn’t know whether to laugh or scold him as she shook him awake.
“Wha…?” he said as he blinked open his eyes. “Ohhhh…” He moaned and put his head back down on the floor. “Do you want some cake?”
“Adam, what on earth? Did you sleep here all night?” Amelia couldn’t conceal a smile at her brother’s rough-and-tumble state. His dirty-blond hair was shaggy across his forehead, his dark green eyes puffy and a little bloodshot.
“Umm…” Adam looked at her but didn’t make any attempt to lift his head from the floor. “I must have. Oh, wow. I do not feel well.”
“Come on, let’s get you out of the hallway.” Amelia giggled as she helped him into her room. “Quiet, though. Patty’s sleeping.”
Adam took a deep breath, shook his head and blinked his eyes, and snapped back to life, crawling up from the floor and into Amelia’s room. “Man, have I got a lot to tell you. I’ve had a total breakthrough, Amelia.”
“Me too! You won’t believe what I did at the computer lab last night.”
“Why is Patty sleeping in your bed?” he whispered, noticing that Patty was still clad in the dress she’d been wearing the night before.
“Long story,” Amelia said as she walked over to her computer. “Come here; let me show you—”
“What time did she get home?” Adam was still stuck on Patty. “Amelia, you would not believe this party. I have never seen so much booze. And all the kids were drinking with their parents like it was totally natural. But here’s the thing, Amelia, these millionaires—no, billionaires—they’re smart, they’re super smart. But you know what? They’re no smarter than you. And I realized last night, Amelia, that you could program something and we could get a venture capitalist to invest. We could be one of them, Amelia. We could start a tech or Internet or computer or whatever company and be freakin’ millionaires.”
Amelia looked up from her computer. “What are you talking about? Why on earth would we start a company?”
“To make money, Amelia! And get out of the shit life we’ve been living. Why should we be on scholarships, riding our bikes around because we can’t afford a car, when you’ve got all the brains—probably more brains—than any of the guys that are making billions off of deals like Gibly?”
“What’s Gibly?”
“It’s the software behind mobile payments, like for the iPhone. Gibly makes buying stuff with your phone easy; that’s why they do the voice-to-text software, so you can just speak and buy. Last night, Gibly was sold to some company in England for, like, three-point-eight billion dollars and all these guys at this party made crazy money off of it.”
“That doesn’t sound so complicated. Why did someone pay so much for it?” Amelia went back to her computer and started typing something.
“Exactly! It’s not that complicated.” Adam’s hangover was replaced by excitement as he leaned against his sister’s desk. “It’s not that complicated for someone like you. You could do something like that in your sleep, and we could build it into a company and make a killing and never have to worry about anything again.”
“Adam.” Amelia stopped typing and took a long look at her brother. “Money causes problems. The pursuit of money causes problems, and I don’t like the way you’re thinking.”
“But…”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she snapped. Adam looked at his sister, stunned. “We haven’t had the best luck, Adam. The way you’re speaking, the way you sound … You sound like…” She trailed off. “This type of thinking has gotten us into trouble before.”
Amelia turned back to her computer and lowered her voice so as not to wake Patty. “In our new life, I program because it’s the one thing in the world I absolutely love doing. It’s interesting and inspiring and occasionally creates something that makes the world an easier place to live in. Money ruins everything. It will ruin our lives.”
“Don’t be selfish.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You’re being selfish, Amelia. You have talents that you can share with the world. Sitting in a lab by yourself, creating programs that could help people but don’t because you’re too stuck on not exposing them, is selfish.”
“I didn’t say—”
“And not using your talents to help us get out of where we are—I mean, I would do it for you, Amelia. In a second. If I had your talent, and I knew it could help us, I wouldn’t hesitate.”
“I did try to use my talents to help us once, Adam, and it didn’t exactly turn out well,” Amelia snapped back.
“That was totally different. This is totally different. This is setting up a legitimate company that legitimately helps people and makes money—lots of money—in a totally legitimate way.”
Amelia had tuned her brother out and was busy looking at her computer. “That company was called Gibly, right?”
“From the party? Yeah, Gibly.”
Amelia was typing furiously, her brow furrowed in confusion.
“What is it?” Adam asked. “What’s wrong?”
“This is a little sketchy,” Amelia said to her computer screen, then typed some more.
Adam was staring at his sister, his face a mixture of nervousness and excitement. “What do you mean by ‘sketchy’?”
“Adam, if this is right—I mean, if I’m in the right place … Yes, I’m definitely in the right place. Adam, Gibly’s tracking their users’ information in a major way.”
“What do you mean? What does that matter?”
“I mean, they’ve put tags on all their users, and there are, like, one hundred million of them. And they’re not only tracking all the Web sites they go to, they’re using GPS to track users’ locations at every moment. Come look at this.”
Adam walked over to Amelia’s side of the computer screen, where she’d pulled up a database with lines of information.
“How’d you do that?” Adam asked.
“I went into their platform.”
“You mean you hacked in?”
“I’m just peeking in. Here, let’s find you. Give me your phone. Everyone’s phone has a unique number.”
Adam handed Amelia his phone. With a swipe she unlocked the screen and found the UDID, the string of letters and numbers that told the world “This is Adam Dory’s iPhone.” Amelia turned back to her computer and did a quick search, but then shook her head.
“Either I entered the number incorrectly or you were at a place called Hanky Panky in Redwood City at two A.M.”
Adam’s face turned beet red as Amelia looked up at him. “I … I,” he started.
Amelia giggled. “Oh my God! You were at a strip club?!”
“I went with T
.J. and his friends! It was T.J.’s graduation party, and he was helping me think through all this. Whatever. The point is, that’s totally right and totally weird. Why would anyone want to know where I was all the time?”
“How did you put it a moment ago? To make money? Adam, can you imagine how powerful you’d be if you had tabs on where one hundred million people were at any given moment? If you had that information, you could sell it for, like, three-point-eight billion or so.”
“But who would want that? I mean, who would care where I was at any given moment?”
“Beats me. What company did you say acquired it?”
“An English company. Alletto Company or Alice or A … Alice-Ter? Yeah, the Aleister Corporation.”
Amelia went back to typing. “Aleister is just a holding company. It looks like they own a grocery store chain and an auto manufacturer and a few other random companies in the U.K. and Europe. Why would they buy a technology company?”
Adam waited while his sister continued to search for the answer.
“Here’s a Wall Street analyst report that says they’re trying to diversify. That everyone’s getting into technology now. I guess that’s true. But why would you spend three-point-eight billion to get into a new industry?”
She typed some more. Adam could see the excitement on his sister’s face, and he loved it.
“Whoa!”
“What?” Adam couldn’t stand it. “What is it?”
“Aleister! These Aleister guys have been collecting ten-million-dollar payments from something called VIPER every week for the past … year.”
“No way. How did you find that out?”
“I hacked—I peeked into their company accounts,” Amelia said nonchalantly.
Adam looked at her, jaw dropped. “You’re ridiculous. You know that, right?”
Amelia rolled her eyes. “Just look at this.” She pointed to the accounts. “Ten million every week for a year—that’s, like, half a billion dollars. Who do you think VIPER is?”
Adam looked at his sister. “I’m guessing it’s someone interested in knowing the whereabouts of about one hundred million people.”
Adam and Amelia exchanged a meaningful glance, recognizing the danger of what they’d just discovered.
“Okay, let’s not get too excited. I’m sure there’s a good reason,” Amelia said.
“Yeah,” Adam said. “They just announced the sale. I bet all of this will come out in the papers soon enough, right?”
“Yeah, totally,” Amelia said, glancing nervously back at her computer.
“Come on.” Adam patted her on the back. “Let’s go get some food. I need something greasy to get me through this hangover.”
“Okay.” Amelia snapped back into focus. “I’m dying for a dining hall waffle.”
The twins grabbed their stuff and carefully closed the door so as not to wake Patty, who hadn’t moved throughout their whole conversation.
When she heard the door click shut and knew they were gone, Patty rolled over and picked up her phone. She had woken up before Amelia, and in a hungover stupor saw T.J.’s blackmail text message. She lay awake, simultaneously paralyzed by guilt and scheming to figure out how to stop T.J. from telling Shandi. Patty tapped the iPhone to compose a note to herself: “Gibly storing information / TJ and Adam at Hanky Panky / VIPER monthly payments to Aleister.” She wasn’t yet sure exactly how, but she had a feeling information like that would come in handy.
6
The Rules of the Game
“What time is it?” the girl in T.J.’s bed asked groggily as she stretched her arms above her head in a yawn.
“Eleven-fifteen.” T.J. stood at the full-length mirror next to the door of his fraternity room, the collar on his crisply ironed white shirt popped as he straightened an Hermès tie around his neck. He’d been up since eight o’clock studying the latest trends in Internet investing. He’d read that day’s Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Yahoo! Finance, and searched thirty Silicon Valley companies he’d been following on LexisNexis to make sure he was up to speed on any headlines that involved them. He’d showered, shaved, gelled his hair, and put on his favorite navy suit, one he’d had custom made last summer during an investment banking internship in Hong Kong. It looked great, he thought, but the navy made it more casual, like he wasn’t trying too hard.
“Eleven-fifteen? Oh my God, why are we awake? We just went to bed, like, four hours ago.”
“Six, actually. Five if you take out the hour we were hooking up before you passed out.”
“Oops.” She giggled. “Why don’t you come back to bed so I can finish what I started?”
He turned to face her. She’d tossed away the covers and was propped fully naked on her side, pushing her enormous breasts forward in a pose she’d probably seen in a magazine that told her it was irresistible. Her bleached blond hair was a mess and her eyeliner was smeared. She had a nice body but was overly tanned and he typically liked girls with thinner faces than her round cheeks allowed.
“Can’t,” he said as he turned back to the mirror to finish tying his tie. “Have a really important meeting downtown.”
“More important than me?” She pouted coyly.
“Listen, I don’t have time to take you home, but I left forty dollars and the number for a cab company next to your purse. They’re usually here in ten minutes.”
She let out a sigh, realizing she wasn’t going to get him to come back to bed, and searched the sheets for her underwear.
“Do you have shorts or something I can borrow so I don’t have to walk out in my dress and heels from last night?”
“When would I get them back from you?”
She stopped searching and looked at him. He was still looking in the mirror. She rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, “Um, I don’t know. The next time I see you?”
He finally turned and crossed the room back to his desk. “I really don’t know when that will be. I’ve got a ton going on. There’s a back door if you turn left out of my room; that takes you to the outside stairs. Just tell the cabbie to meet you in the back and no one will see you.”
The girl’s mouth fell open as she sat naked on his bed. “Oh my God, you’re actually serious.”
He didn’t respond.
“Oh my God,” she repeated, now covering her chest with the sheet while she hurriedly collected her clothes, feeling her cheeks burn and hot tears start to well.
T.J. was putting his things into a laptop case and running through a mental checklist of what he needed to bring. He really didn’t have time to deal with drama from a girl whose name he only knew because he’d searched her purse while she was sleeping and found a Santa Clara University ID card. She was a sophomore, apparently, and had been the most attractive girl at the bar he’d gone to after the party last night. She was an easy score—he ordered her a shot of Patrón and she was completely impressed. Three more and they were making out on the dance floor, his hand up her skirt for all to see. They were half undressed by the time the cab pulled up to his frat house, with that freshman Adam passed out in the front seat. He told the cabbie to take Adam back to his dorm and gave him an extra tip.
To defray her disappointment, he said, “Don’t get so stressed. It’s only sex. We used protection. It was fun.” Having collected all his things, he turned to face her and smiled a warm, charismatic grin. He touched her cheek. “It was really wonderful meeting you, Sandy. You’re beautiful, and I had a really good time getting to know you.”
She blushed uncontrollably, sniffled, and nodded, but couldn’t bring herself to say anything. He held her gaze for a moment, then turned away. “Will you lock the door on your way out? Thanks so much, babe.”
His BMW 3 Series Sedan beeped as he unlocked it and climbed inside. He loved this car, mostly because he’d had to earn it himself. His parents were adamant about not raising spoiled rich kids, so when he and Lisa had turned sixteen, they’d only been willing to buy each of them a “reasonable” car�
��a Volvo or Subaru or Saab—something safe and high quality, but nothing “brand-y.” So, he’d worked hard during summer internships in finance, first in New York and then Hong Kong, and then invested his earnings into funds he researched with a family friend who was a senior partner at Goldman Sachs. His investments had performed exceptionally well (beginner’s luck, he’d told everyone, though he was in fact incredibly proud), and he’d used the proceeds to upgrade his Subaru Outback to a BMW with all the highest-end features: built-in Bluetooth and navigation system, Bose speakers, and satellite radio. He’d been resentful of his parents’ frugality at first. It was hard being the only kid in high school without a nice car, and he thought the decision was incredibly hypocritical given the eight collector’s sports cars his father had in their garage at home. But, in retrospect, they were right. The satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten this car and its amenities on his own made him feel a lot better than if they’d been handed to him.
As he drove toward University Café, where he was meeting Roger Fenway, T.J. felt his heart racing with excitement. Roger was the founder and CEO of Kadence, a music content generator that he’d sold to Apple for a billion dollars in the late nineties. He’d since become an angel investor, giving money to early-stage start-ups he thought were promising, and growing his wealth in the process (more than a dozen of the companies he’d invested in had done as well or even better than Kadence).
T.J. had never met Roger—he was notorious for shunning the Atherton social scene—but knew through the gossip chain that Roger was starting an incubator on Sand Hill Road, the golden mile for the top venture capital firms in the world. Roger was eagerly selecting promising young talent and grooming them with money and advice to start new companies.
T.J. was determined to become one of Roger’s investments, and this was the meeting that was going to seal the deal.
7
The Secret Sauce
Roger patted the trunk of his Tesla Roadster affectionately as he clicked the door locked and headed toward University Café. He loved this car. Finally, smart engineering, smoking-hot design, and environmental consciousness had fused into a vehicle he could be totally psyched about driving. He’d met Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors, years ago at a Cool Product Expo, and they’d bonded over the Grateful Dead. When Elon called him a year later asking him to invest in his new company, it had been a no-brainer.
