The Last Network - Chapter 9
Checkpoint Whiskey
“We’ve passed Checkpoint Whiskey.” Sonny Kumar announced.
Rabbit had his back turned to him, ear buds in, head shaking, fists banging on the desk. He’d been cooped up, pacing for the last hour, waiting on the results of the meeting a couple doors down. Now they were in and Rabbit was oblivious.
“Rabbit, we’ve passed Checkpoint Whiskey.”
Still no response. Rabbit began hopping up and down. His slicked back hair fell over his forehead as he rocked out. His fists rattled the desk, shaking things, making items bounce up and down to the driving beat in his ear buds. He was a ball of energy. Sonny heard metal coming out of the buds. He’d never seen this side of Rabbit before. He was always cool and in charge, keeping himself at a distance from the Immercast crowd.
The run up to launch does strange things to people. Sonny for instance, committed completely, rarely leaving the building. He slept in his office, came home on weekends, stopped shaving. He needed complete concentration and no distractions. No detail was too small to fuss over. His wife was used to life as a launch widow. They’d both been through IITs back in India, elite grad programs here, and then on to demanding careers. Pressure was a natural state of being. If he could, Sonny would live in a never-ending build out.
Rabbit, on the other hand, needed to burn his energy. If he hadn’t been waiting for Sonny to give him a date, he’d have been at the gym. The busier everyone else got, the less there was for Rabbit. He’d shared all his ideas, answered their questions, and signed off on everything. Now all he could do was wait. He paced, and he rocked out in his office.
Sonny tapped him on the shoulder. Rabbit jumped.
“Whoa!”
“Sorry, Rabbit. I’ve been behind you for the last minute, yelling for your attention.”
“What is it Sonny?”
“We’ve completed Checkpoint Whiskey.”
Rabbit pulled his hair back, removed his ear buds, and slowly wiped his face with a hand towel. The wild man should have never come out at the office. Rabbit made a note to never do that again. He sat behind his desk and motioned his COO to sit.
“You’ll have to excuse me. I wasn’t able to make it to the gym today. You were saying?”
“The teams had a very open and honest conversation about their statuses. We discussed blockers, workarounds, and timelines. For the most part, we are on schedule.”
“Do we have a launch date?”
“I have commitments from everyone for March 7th.”
“That’s good. Anything I should be worried about?” Rabbit crumpled the small orange towel and tossed it into his gym bag.
“There’s some interpersonal issues, but aren’t there always? Nothing we can’t manage. I’m trying my best to get our guys to play nicer with Paolo and NAM. Like I said, nothing we can’t manage.”
“What’s the issue?”
“Well, some of the access that Paolo is requesting is rather unorthodox. It gives him more power than we’d usually allow to a third party. Some of his requests are frankly beyond reason. Nothing you need to worry about.”
“You are accommodating him?”
“In most cases, yes.”
“Sonny, were my instructions to accommodate him in most cases?” Rabbit snapped to attention, ready to make a point.
“No.”
“What were they?”
“To give him what he wants. Rabbit, I take pride in managing my people and my shop. I don’t like to bother you with the inner workings, but it’s also important that you and I see eye to eye. When there are conflicts, like there are now, I have a duty to discuss them with you. Rabbit, Paolo is asking for things well outside the Silicon Valley Code of Conduct.”
“And?”
“I assumed we are following the code.”
“Why did you assume that?” Rabbit furrowed his brow, confused why Sonny was out of the loop on such a central concept.
“Because everybody does nowadays.”
“We are not everyone. We are playing by FriendZone rules. Is that a problem for you?”
Rabbit had wrongly assumed that Sonny knew about FriendZone rules. Now that it was laid bare, he watched as his COO processed the information and came to terms with Rabbit’s true intentions. Death or glory. Nothing in between. He fully expected Sonny to fall in line. His go around with Fox ended with nothing to show for it and after a year spent on the sidelines, Sonny wanted to get back in the game more than anything. Rabbit was offering another bite at the apple; sure there’d be a worm in it, but it was still sweet, especially the option package Rabbit dangled in front of him.
“Not at all,” Sonny said.
“Good. NAM’s AI has trained on a decade of data. That’s fifty client companies, a billion unique users, and over a trillion sessions worth of information. It has seen literally everything ever tried on the internet and can implement those practices into Peared. It keeps our headcount low and reduces risk on our side. Paolo’s team eats what they kill. I don’t pay them a salary. They take 30% of our ad revenue. The only limits I’ve given him are to not break local laws. I am backing Paolo all the way. Kendra and I have a history together. I trust her and her company completely. They are going to make Peared a monster.”