Balance of Power Shifted (21 page)

Bill was beginning to feel the stress of success.  The few months working with Rico were exciting
and comparatively stress free when no one else knew about Electricus and it had been a blast working on the prototypes and brainstorming new conceptual uses of Electricus.  Now was a different story.  The information that Rico just told him was unsettling.  Bill knew that he was generally paranoid, but he did not feel his trepidation was unwarranted.  Steve and he had been stockpiling Electricus fluid in 50 gallon drums and had about 20 drums filled.  Each day Steve and he tested the barrels to see if anything had changed.  Essentially even the oldest sample showed the exact same characteristics as it had shown from day one.  Overall, it was remarkably stable.  Bill’s greatest fear is that someone would break in and steal it.  Locking up the smaller samples in the safe during the nighttime is required however; the large barrels could be a tempting target.  The good thing was that Rico was heading out here to talk about it as well as to begin production on the Power Pads and Power Units for use in homes and offices as well as portable systems.  We were still perplexed on how to engage a car manufacturer to build us a car minus the engine and standard components and controls associated with a combustion engine vehicle.  The current burn rate of Rico’s money for funding Efficio got us out another nine months without any surprises, however this did not include and large inventory costs such as buying a line of modified cars, shipping and outfitting them.  This would take significant amount of initial funding.  There should be some interesting discussions when Rico gets here tomorrow.

Rico’s mind was racing once again, which
now seemed to be every waking moment of every day and maybe during sleep.  Right now, he was speculating on the impact of what he just learned as he sat in the airlines waiting lounge.  Using his aircard, he had just finished checking the latest sport stories online and then went over to the business section, where he caught sight of the lead headline that said ‘
Future World?
’  He quickly clicked on the headline link, and started reading the story and was immediately shocked to his core.  It was a short article and quoted a different story as a source, but it clearly mentioned Efficio and Bill being behind the brief Internet sensation that drove more than 300,000 people to view a video during a 5-day span.  Rico could see his hands shaking as he typed in Efficio into a Google search and found a slew of links all with Martin Schiner as the author.  Picking one, he opened up the link saw the front of the Summit office building with employees standing around the Camry.  Using the telephoto lens, Martin was able to show in some detail the hood modifications.  In the article, he provided whatever public information about Efficio was available, a short bio on Bill and myself and reported that the Camry in the picture was an actual working prototype of a solar driven vehicle that would work in low light and manmade light situations.  The last thing he mentioned was that he had been unable to contact Efficio for any statement.  The good thing was that the article did not have any real specific information or details.

Future
World?

Recently a video surfaced on YouTube
that created much interest.  This video, posted by an unknown source and mysteriously removed 5 days later, caught my attention.  In those 5 days, the video went viral garnering over 330,000 hits and many positive comments.  So what was the content of this video that had such a widespread impact?  The video narrated by a William Bates, a senior executive at Efficio, discussed what appears to be a revolutionary new source of clean renewable energy not tied to the confines of current technology and included a simple demonstration.  If I understood it correctly, the source of energy was an organism that generated electricity in the presence of a light source.  Caught on camera is Michael Carter, reported to be another senior executive at Efficio.

In an effort to determine if this is just another Internet myth or
fraud I unleashed my investigative talents and discovered Efficio.  While observing Efficio’s Summit, New Jersey headquarters, I caught on camera, a car that drove up with modifications covering the hood and roof.  As this car went by, I did not hear any engine noise.  You the reader can make your own conclusions.   The car pulled up in front of the building, and what appeared to be a group of Efficio employees, excitedly surrounded the vehicle.  A presentation to the employees by Michael Carter, one of the founding owners followed.

Was I able to debunk this video?  I have to say I could not find a smoking gun on this one and actually saw some substance that there might be more of a story coming your way in the future.

Just as I was grabbing my phone, it rang.  Seeing it was Jeremy, I answered and said “hello.”  “Rico,” Jeremy said as he laughed lightly.  “I guess anonymity is not an option anymore” he joked.  “I think that is quite the understatement and by the way its 4 am there, don’t you ever sleep” I said?  “I ‘m at the airport and had just finished reading about it.”  “My recommendation is that you do not respond in any way at this time.  Today is Wednesday, so wait to see how the story travels and how much life it has.  If it dies down great, if not prepare a news conference for Monday sometime at a neutral location.  At that time provide as little or as much information as you want, but at least you should have it all scripted out” Jeremy finished.  “Good idea Jer, by the way I am heading out there to talk to Bill and we can figure it out then.”  Jeremy smugly said, “I already knew that and Bill is setting up a meeting for this afternoon when you arrive.”

After a quick call to Julius to let him know what was happening I boarded the plane and for the bulk of the
ride, I jotted down all kinds of scenarios and thoughts.  If the story continued to build, I wanted to hold a press conference and introduce Efficio as a company and allow the reporters to see firsthand some of the prototypes.  The main reason was to generate interest for financing needed to move the company to the next level.  Like Bill, he was also feeling the pressure.  We just don’t know what will come out of the woodwork when people realize we have a ‘game changing’ solution.  For the last hour of the flight, Rico worked on a wholly different plan.  This plan would help to ensure that no person, entity or country could derail Bill and his ultimate goal for Efficio.

As Rico exited the secured area of the airport into the waiting
area, he saw Steve.  As a joke, Steve was holding a sign with ‘Mr. Carter’ emblazed on the front, and to make it even funnier he had on a tie and was wearing a white dress shirt.  As I approached him he nodded to me and said “good afternoon sir may I help you with your bag?”  If I had more than my backpack, I would have handed him a bag.  “That’s funny Steve” I said and meant it.  I gave him a pat on the back and said thanks for picking me up.  As we were walking Steve said, “Bill is the one that wanted me to give you a laugh, since he did not think you would be laughing when you saw how much press our company was getting.”  “I know” I said.  As soon as we landed, I had checked my emails and saw that the main number was ringing non-stop and Ty and another Clavis employee were staffing the two doors into the building.  I heard that they were dealing with the press as well as the curious.  Steve looked a little guilty as we walked out to the short-term parking since he was driving my Camaro.  He stammered a little when he asked me if I wanted to drive, but seeing that he got a kick out of driving the car I feigned  being tired and said go ahead, you drive, even though I would have preferred to be behind the wheel.

Maybe it was being away from the continual demands back at the home office, but I did feel somewhat more relaxed walking in
side my home.  Fiona after visiting last time told me never to get rid of this place.  She thought the place was fantastic and the rooftop an absolute oasis during a California sunset.  If I had to say so myself, Chez Rico was a nice place to hang.  Once inside the bay, Bill and Jeremy met me as I stepped out of the car.  Bill looked his normal harried self and Jeremy; well let’s just say I do not think Jeremy ever became frazzled.  As we walked through the lab to go upstairs I saw Jeremy checking out the inventory.  He knew that these barrels were very valuable and I could see his mind assessing the situation.  He did not know the details on how the contents of the barrels got valuable, just that they were. 

Steve caught up to us as we headed up the stairs and the four of us grabbed a beer out of the fridge and sat down around the
counter, which would be today’s conference room table.  “Bill, start us off regarding what we are seeing around the company, and Jeremy why don’t you review the status of security?”  With that, Bill got into a fast but concise review of events that day.  We were getting quite a number of phone calls and vehicles driving though the parking lot.  In fact, there were several vehicles showing logos for local television stations.  Ty and the security detail have handled things without incident. 

Jeremy
provided specific details on security back in New Jersey and detailed what the showroom site implemented.  “Gentlemen,” Jeremy continued, “I would like to add the following security for this site and before I do, I just want to recommend that we move the inventory here to a more secure location in the future.”  He went on to recommend bomb proofing the place in a manner of speaking.  He recommended a special grade of loading dock doors that would be hard to circumvent as well as some deterrents at the roof level since it was only a two-story building and entry from the roof was possible.  There were a few other items and we agreed to them all.  Bill and I tried not to do a double take for the monthly cost estimates for Clavis services, but we felt this would be money well spent.

I took the floor and wanted to talk about a possible press conference. 
I started by saying that the amount of attention was already high for the first day of the event.  My recommendation is to monitor activity and if it continues to rise as well as become more aggressive, we should have a proactive press conference complete with a demo of the products.  I reiterated that we could leverage the information to attract a select group of investors so that we could get into a manufacturing mode.  I ended with a “well, what do you think.”  There was not an immediate reaction; however, I could see that the concept was percolating with both.  Bill spoke first and tentatively said, “We need to do it, and I think we are close to that point where we have to do it.”  Jeremy then spoke up and said, “it’s up to you guys on how to handle this.  Sometimes it is better to have things out in the open and I have to say that having more people know about Efficio may make it harder for anyone to take action against your company or employees.  On the other hand,” he added in a quieter tone, “people will still come after you for a wide range of reasons and security will be our number one priority.”  Jeremy asked our permission to start providing employees with security awareness training and to establish special ‘duress’ code words and phrases, which we endorsed emphatically.

When Jeremy left, Bill and I had a frank discussion on what we have gotten ourselves in
too.  As a couple of twenty something year olds, we should be hitting concerts, worrying about the best cars and here we are putting in duress phrases in case someone is kidnapped or even worse.  We agreed that it sucked, but we also knew there was nothing to dissuade us from staying our course.  With a quick fist bump to reaffirm our dedication, we started to discuss mass production.  Bill’s first idea was a doozy.  He wanted to approach GM about buying up the Hummer trademark name and resurrecting that line. We did a quick Google search and realized that GM had already dismantled the plants when a deal had fallen through back in 2010 when talks with a Chinese company had failed.  We then looked at car companies around the globe and determined we would have to have separate discussions with each car manufacturing company interested.

“Rico” Bill asked. “Do you want to see the design drawings that
Fabricated Industry Group
in Jersey came up with as well as what our buddies building our Power Mats in Detroit are doing?”  Bring it on Professor I said.  Bill brought up a series of diagrams on the large monitor from
Personalized Circuitry LLC
, which showed detailed drawings of what vaguely resembled our original Power Pad design.  Bill walked me through the different designs, which were similar on one level, but depending on the application, had a number of significant design changes.  I was very impressed as well as glad to see that the cost per unit price was very good when built in units of 100 or more.  “Look here Rico,” Bill said as he zeroed in on the connection area that went to the Power Pad.  “They recommended that we change the design to this connector type since it is better suited for all weather applications.  I have passed the specs over to
FIG
to incorporate it in the Power Pads.  Their designs up on the screen do not show it yet, but the next round will.”  “This is great stuff.  You and Steve deserve a huge thank you.  I heard you say that both companies can start shipping product within 3 weeks.  Is that still true?”  Bill shook his head yes smiling the entire time.  I know he felt good about how things were going as I was.  My last questions and the hardest to ask were how we were going to handle Electricus and how we would fill the Power Pads.  We spent hours discussing options in this area and left it undetermined and to be picked up in a later conversation.

By the time I landed back in Newark Airport
around 3 pm Friday, things had not gone along as hoped.  The article instead of fading away got legs and the office was fielding even more interview requests.  I asked Taylor to get the management team together for a 4:30 meeting to discuss our options.  The limo dropped me off at the office right at 4:15 and I walked into the first floor conference room bags and all.  By 4:30, everyone was sitting in the room and the ‘Bill and Steve Show’, were on our video conference system.  “Sorry, for the late meeting notice, but his should not take long.  The big news is we are going to hold a press conference.  The questions that need to be answered are when, where and what should be discussed.  Bill and my own recommendation are to use the new warehouse site to highlight Electricus.  With the recent installation of multiple Power Pads to run the warehouse site, we will be able to show how a building that size can operate with Electricus. Of course, we have the converted cars already there as another fine example of our product.  We would also like to have it in the evening to show off how Electricus performs in low light situations and will have refreshments since we expect that it will take time for the reporters to go through the demonstration process.  We will need a few of you trained to drive the cars so that people can be taken out as needed.  Bill, Steve, Sean and me will answer technical questions and only Bill and I will answer questions regarding Electricus the organism.  What ideas do you all have?”