Jeremy's power high from the Ethernaut meeting lasted well into the next day. The combination of Zeke's programming skill and Dr. Donaldson's research had produced the perfect weapon for Jeremy. Perhaps the best thing about it was that Jeremy could feel so comfortable using it. After all, it wasn't completely new or foreign to him. Jeremy had been skillfully influencing and manipulating people for most of his adult life. The technology was a powerful magnifier of his innate capabilities. He could easily utilize it in personal appearances such as last night's meeting, but to Jeremy the real power was the ability to project his will across great distances and enormous numbers of people.

Jeremy allowed himself a few minutes to look out the window of his living room. He followed the shapes of the white puffy clouds as he thought about his suddenly bright future. But his competitive nature would not leave him alone. Soon Jeremy began a mental list of the things that might get in his way or slow him down. Would Zeke stay with the program? He'd shown signs of weakening already. Jeremy concluded that another programmer could easily be found if Zeke wanted out. But if Zeke bailed, what would keep him quiet? That too, could be dealt with at the proper time. And what about Molly? Where did her loyalties lie? Was there really any time for a relationship anyway? Jeremy began to see that some changes would be occurring over the next few days. Shaking things up once in awhile was good for everyone, he figured.

Zeke broke through the quiet and Jeremy's internal conversation. It was after 11:00 AM, but Zeke still looked pretty bad. The dark sunglasses filtered the majority of light from his hung-over eyes. Jeremy had kept him out late; it wasn't Zeke's style. Together they had put a serious dent in a fifth of scotch, Johnny Walker Black. Zeke's throbbing brain couldn't help but wonder why Jeremy never did seem to have a hangover. Was there anything normal about this guy?

Jeremy: It's alive! Hey, how you doing?

Zeke: Not too bad really. I think I feel okay.

Jeremy: Did you wake up with those sunglasses on?

Zeke: Found them in the bathroom. It was like God put them there for me.

Jeremy: Speaking of God, was I great last night, or what!?

Zeke: So I guess that really did happen. It wasn't just a horrible nightmare I had, huh?

Jeremy: It was great, Zeke.

Zeke: How did I know you were going to think so?

Jeremy: I've never felt so much power in my life. They just got up and did what I told them to do. Do you know some of those losers had been in the same relationships since high school? And they just kissed 'em off! It was pure!

Zeke: What are you going to do when it starts wearing off?

Jeremy: What do you mean?

Zeke: It's going to wear off, Jeremy. You didn't think of that?

Jeremy: Yeah, I thought of it. I don't think it's going to be a problem.

Zeke: Let me paint you a little picture. Between six and eight o'clock tonight, a few dozen people are going to start asking themselves what they've done. They're going to stop defending it. They're not going to say that they've been meaning to dump their girlfriends for weeks. They're going to call up their boyfriends and apologize. And when people like their parents ask them to explain what happened, you will be heading for the provost's office to make your final appearance there.

Jeremy: All right, so I may have taken it too far. But I know how to get us out of it.

Zeke: What do you mean, 'us?' Never mind, I get it. Let me hear the plan.

Jeremy: We need to give them another dose. This time with a counter-balancing program. I want them to crawl back and beg forgiveness, forgiveness for themselves. We'll program them to take the blame.

Zeke: It might work, I don't know.

Jeremy: It will work. All we need is a buffer zone. A couple days of time going by from the meeting. Then I can tell everyone I made a mistake. I'll withdraw from the election. If administration is on the war path, that will satisfy them. After another couple weeks, I'll re-enter the race. Spin the problem down the calendar and let it peter out as time goes by. Have you ever read G. Gordon Liddy's book?

Zeke: I'll get to work on the program. You're going to have to phone some people to get them to call it up on their screens though. Maybe we can post an announcement of some kind as the excuse.

Jeremy: There's something else I've got to tell you about. I've arranged for a friend to come in and look at what we're doing with this thing. Bob Jackson is one of the top advertising men in San Francisco. I told him a little about it. After he stopped laughing and realized I was serious, he figured it out... Bob can't afford not to check it out.

Zeke: You must be crazy. We need to dig a hole and crawl in it, so what do you do? Start calling people and inviting them down here to look us over more carefully. Perfect.

Jeremy: Listen Zeke, I'm taking this thing to the big time. As soon as I can write my ticket out of here, I'm dumping the books, the administrators, and the Ethernaut Club. You're going to have to decide if you're with me or not. Tell me, what are your plans for that history degree you're working on?

Zeke: So you're going to sell the technology to the advertising people?

Jeremy: I'm selling us to the advertising people. You and me. We're part of the package and we're the only one's that are going to know how it works, Zeke. We'll be able to write our own ticket and keep raising the price.

Zeke: So we'll be in control of it? We can keep it from getting out of whack?

Jeremy: Exactly! It's a perfect deal. We'll come back to Santa Cruz and buy these degrees in a year or two. What do you say?

Zeke: What do I have to do?

Jeremy: The first thing is we've got to get it upgraded with the missing command from Dr. Donaldson. I want it to pack all the punch possible. I'll go over to his lab this afternoon while you take care of getting the other posting up on the Web site. Then tonight we can pull together the first version of the complete design. We demo it for Jackson tomorrow.

Zeke: Tomorrow!? What if it's not ready? What if something goes wrong?

Jeremy: Zeke, what have I told you about positive thinking? Are you going to go negative on me just when we're lined up for our first run at the big time? Hold it together. We're going to do it. Nothing is going to stop me. I promise you that. Even if you don't believe in yourself, all you have to do is believe in me.



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