The 13th Enumeration Read Online Free Page B

pure water an hour from the sea at ninety-five-percent efficiency. A world-changing invention, and Alexandra was intelligent enough to see the implications. She had been the last addition to his little group.
    Next to Al exandra sat Gavin Matthews . He was the son of one of Darius’s old classmates at MIT. Darius had shared a dorm room with Jake Matthews during his first year at MIT and he was one of the few people Darius still talked to from his old college days. In passing, Darius had mentioned to Jake that he was looking for a good software programmer for his company.  Jake told Darius his son worked at Google and suggested he give him a call.  Gavin, like his father was a computer genius . He had made several innovations in chip architecture while at MIT . His software programming and encryption skills were also first-rate. Google paid him well into the six figures to write software code. Darius called him up and asked if he could have a few minutes of his time. When they met, Darius told him, “ Your father says you are a computer genius. I would like you to work for me, and I will pay you fifty thousand dollars the first year. After that I believe you will be so convinced of what we are about to do that you will be willing to waive your salary.”
    Gavin laughed out loud, but at the same time he searched Darius’s face to see if he was serious. Darius just sat there and stared back. Finally he said, “Gavin, I am completely serious. All I ask is that you come and see how serious I am. Here is a round-trip plane ticket if you care to find out.”
    As Darius picked up his briefcase to go, he said, “Gavin, if what I hear is true, you are a maverick. You dance to your own tune and have a problem with authority. What I am offering you is an unlimited budget with very limited oversight. You will be in charge of computer programming and security for our project. What have you got to lose? A long weekend? I know you may find it hard to believe, but I am offering you a once-in-a-generation . . . no,” Darius corrected himself, “a unique opportunity in the history of mankind.”
    Two weeks later Gavin Matthews arrived in Dubai, and Darius showed him the technology and gave him an overview of what he needed. That was five years ago, and Gavin Matthews had worked without compensation for the last four years.
    Ralph Scholz had been a facilities design engineer for Intel, instrumental in automating their factories with robotics. He had the prototypical German attention to detail and precision but with an ability to think outside the box to come up with new and innovative solutions. He was in his midforties and loved his work. He had designed and built, at an unheard-of low cost, an almost totally automated production facility for Darius’s invention. He and Gavin had also worked together on the design and construction of the commercial version. Once he had seen and understood the idea, he too had joined the venture with absolute commitment.
    Dylan Gallos was the next member of the team. He was at the top of his field in theoretical and analytical mathematics. As with many of the modern-day mathematical geniuses, he was approached by most of the big names in the financial world. In today’s high-tech financial realm, it was mathematicians who ruled the world. They created black-box algorithms that were used in everything from financial modeling to high-frequency trading, the real wild west of the financial world. Fiber-optic data networks were created to accommodate this shift in electronic trading. In 2007, the London Stock Exchange launched TradElect, able to process three thousand orders per second for an average turnaround time of ten milliseconds. Latency had continued to be reduced since then and was now in the low single-digit milliseconds. Each time a company or hedge fund was able to reduce its latency and gain an edge over the competition, it skimmed millions of dollars off the difference in price between the bid