Abacus Brief Ch 7: cyber hug

"Our first project will be a testbed for our new capabilities. I will officially fly in next week, I'll be staying in the boutique hotel next to the restaurant where I met Shawny."

A security expert speaks up, "That's a dangerous place, a criminal syndicate is pressuring them."

"They will be patient. I'll fall in love with the place and see if I can get the owner to sell. It would be a nice way for her to spite the mob, and live to tell about it. I'll let her know I intend to spend a great amount of money on it, she can relay that. I'll probably have little opposition as the mobsters wait to drain me, for more, later."

"You might end up a target."

"True. I trust we can set up defenses that will confound them. I hope we can confound them. We should get no interference from politicos yet, they will be happy to see their smaller competition discomforted. With murders. kidnappings, and extortion limiting tourism to this island, I expect fresh investment will be most welcome."

"We architects aren't eager to work within the confines of Other's restrictions."

"Any violations of codes, regulations, rules, union demands, etc. can be mitigated. These are not immutable laws of nature or human rights, but sly artifices. All such restrictions were instituted out of leadership's self interest. In their short term self interest, they will be re-written. Some look at business and call it evil, others look at unions and call them evil, few choose to look at leadership of all too-big-organizations -- afraid to discover they can be very evil. A side benefit is the more awake members of their constituencies will see leader's hypocrisy and remove support. Let the architects design as if there are no rules but the known laws of physics."

A civic planner looks uncomfortable. "What good will confrontation do, we can't beat everyone. We've been stymied for centuries trying to discover how to fight so many, and with even more difficulty, retain and use any victory."

"I'm sure many of you are familiar with an ancient form of transport called trains." There are questioning looks or nods all around the room. "A few engines called locomotives would be connected to a hundred or more cars, more than they could start moving all at once. There was a solution, they backed up first pushing couplings together. When they started forward, the coupling to the first car would expand, then jerk the car forward, expanding the second coupling. Now the first car and the locomotives had momentum, which made starting the second car easier. As each car was added, the train gained speed and momentum."

Grandfather actually applauds. "The restaurant is our engine, the small hotel the first car. We can't take on everyone at once, but we can build momentum that overwhelms them all... eventually."

"My plan is to open the throttle of our capabilities:

First we design the restaurant and hotel to use as much of Waterfall City's technology as we can.

Second we develop defensive and offensive weaponry into all those amazingly functional works of art you have created.

Third we build working models with fully operational technology - lasers, ultrasound, spritzers in the parking lots that spray tracking chips on the bottom of transport spheres, nets, goo, focused EMP, and anything else we can dream up.

Then I run our plans past ethical hackers that know how to bypass systems, and have them attack our models, again and again, exposing weaknesses and suggesting improvements.

Finally we build the blasted things."

An artist protests "Why should we share our beautiful creations with a violent world?"

Shawny answers. "Because all free men will gain, we will gain respect we can use later, and bigger projects that my husband has planned will work toward our winning this island back."

The Security expert speaks up again. "What are those other plans?"

Shawny nods at me. My turn. "Flexible, all further plans are flexible. Let's see how well this works, then we can perhaps go to a next step."

"And if something happens to you and Shawny?"

"That's a valid question. We will share our outline with grandfather, and he can share it with two others he knows and respects as doers rather than obstructions to progress. I will also create a file on hacker's darknet that will only be forwarded to the Bills if all of us are lost, and either King Jacob or Prince Pahl approve. I think wider distribution would be unwise."

"You don't trust us."

"Many of us have worked and developed relationships outside the tribe. It is impossible to know the limits of an individual's resistance to pressure before they are tested. As we succeed, tests will come. Let's say instead: 'An obvious lack of knowledge can avoid severe testing."

One who has looked uncomfortable the whole time finally speaks, "We are doing fine in our beautiful and hidden cities, why change anything?"

Once again arguments and discussion break out. I look at grandfather, he winks; he included obstructionists on purpose, letting others hone their internal arguments verbally against them. I look at Shawny; together we head for the buffet. The Lobster Newberg is wonderful, perhaps with some thin slices of beef this time.

When we are done, more questions.

"Are you going to try to raise money for this enterprise within the tribe? That may be difficult for someone without a track record."

"I plan on buying the properties in my name. I'll pay tribal architects, contractors, craftsman, etc. from my own pocket. I expect this speculation to be highly successful. Unless one of you that understands this project insists on being involved and sharing the risks, I will be happy to cover all expenses."

Grandfather says. "Put me down for a piece if you don't mind. Why didn't you mention Shawny as a co-owner?"

"Silly laws. I plan to have them changed as soon as possible. In Eldee she is already listed as my wife and co-owner of all my assets.

"Yet here you keep your marriage quiet."

"For now. That too will change. To keep out spies I want the staff to all be part of our extended family. As a family owned and operated business we can avoid laws requiring hiring of relatives of politicians -- although that's not how the laws are worded. I will also want relatives as top managers, another unjust law to beat down."

"How will you explain a fully native staff, until your lawfare is won?"

"By skill sets as we are building. By venue once complete. The restaurant will be called The War Club, so there will be lots of reasons to have native islanders. Tax generation in bad times will get us room to maneuver. Due to the risks, jobs will require familiarity with battle tactics. The employees will carry war clubs - for atmosphere of course. I imagine we will be asked to replace them with soft replicas. I'd like to get some extraordinary devises built into some of those replicas. We don't need a hand lifting our clubs out of a lake, but pulling them from an anvil or rock should be technically feasible."

"Any more questions of a general nature?" All are quiet. "I'll hang around until the owner throws me out, since I'm home that should be long enough to talk with all of you. Feel free to stay, eat, and figure out some problems with my ideas. I'll finish with a thought from Shawny, "We are again facing pirates, settlers are welcome but we will expel the ruthless thieves and murderers."