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The Last Network - Chapter 70

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One Year Later

Rabbit started Peared to show LA they made a mistake. They had cut the wrong guy out sooner than he deserved. So, he waited and watched. He stayed in the place he loved, and he took what they gave him.

That all changed when his father passed. He finally had the money to create the product that kept him up at night. The special idea, the one that someone would back despite Rabbit’s past sins. Only, he had been too paranoid to share it, so kept it to himself until he had the means to make it on his terms.

It was paranoia well served.

Peared was the right idea at the right time. It had been squirreled away in Rabbit’s brain, waiting until the moment when the world was ready to walk with the internet in their eyes. Everything came together perfectly, and Peared became a monster. The monster had served him well, that is until the Valley saw what he had done.

They wanted his creation and wouldn’t leave him alone.

Rabbit’s father taught him there was no satisfaction in sharing, only people who wanted to take your best from you.  He didn’t want to be the godfather of an idea. He wanted to be the sole proprietor. Teleportation belonged to him.

Only when an idea this big comes along, the Valley doesn’t see an owner. It sees a new cash cow, and everyone tries to milk it. Except this time, the inventor didn’t fit the neat little narrative of the hero founder. Rabbit was crass, he had an ugly past, and he didn’t belong on magazine covers. When the Valley came calling, looking to buy, he turned down generational wealth.

They were trying to buy him off.

His idea was amazing, but he wasn’t good enough for it. Rabbit couldn’t stomach that, so a fight for LA became a fight for California.

Who was Peter Thorn? Why did he feel entitled to what Rabbit willed into the world? That’s where Rabbit stopped and asked, just exactly what did he want.

Rabbit was a man who wanted to dominate. He wanted his fiefdom and the freedom to rule it.

So, it got ugly.

No one who launched Peared worked there anymore. Frank Meyers was in jail. Paolo dead. Kendra selling condos. The SEC was investigating Automata. Rabbit was on his third lawsuit against Thorn Capital.

Now he was in Mexico. He was protected. Rabbit had given the country a new border industry to go with the maquiladoras and call centers. He had brought tech to a place where no one gave a fuck about Peter Thorn. Rabbit had serious weight, and a lot of money. He could stay here and do this forever.

People had said Rabbit was paranoid, but he had been right all along. They had all been after his special idea. Now they couldn’t touch him.

It had given him such sweet satisfaction to watch Rizon go up in flames.

One more thing Rabbit saw from miles away.

All that stood between Rabbit and his goal was Thorn and Together. Together was ground down. Omar had done his job. It had barely two million active users, the churn rate was abysmal, and the Sams estimated customer acquisition was now around $180. That company was going broke.

He hit play on the video for the fifth time this morning.  Peter Thorn was on a stage in New Zealand announcing a $250 million-dollar investment in Together. This time he noticed that Aussie giant in the background, DuBour. How had Rabbit missed him before? He’d been in the shadows this entire time. Kendra, Paolo, and NAM all wiped off the map, and this fucker was there. Now he’s on stage as Thorn triples down on his bad bet? Fuck. He had missed something, but now he knew DuBour was an enemy.

Rabbit had miscalculated. He thought Thorn was one and done, that he wouldn’t throw good money after bad. Rabbit had been thinking too small. All this fighting had been personal. He wondered what else he’d missed. He never considered the broader implications of his creation. Now he realized just how valuable Peared was. Rabbit was no longer fighting against California. He wasn’t just fighting against Thorn. He was fighting for his place in history.

Thorn was throwing good money after bad because he couldn’t afford to lose something as important as teleportation.

With Peared, Rabbit had the chance to be a conqueror on an unparalleled level. Fuck Alexander, fuck Khan, fuck Thorn. Rabbit’s product was in the eyes of 400 million people, telling them what to do, where to go, how to act. That was true power.

Now that he understood, he would never give it up. He leaned back in his chair and thought about how right that was.

“This is the last network, and it’s mine.”

What he didn’t think about was the statistical improbability of it all. Rabbit had defied the odds. He’d never given a thought to the hands of fate. Was Rabbit right because he was smarter than everyone, or had he just won fifty consecutive coin flips?

What about all those people who only got one flip and lost?

He didn’t think about those people because they didn’t matter.

Only Rabbit mattered.

Fuck everyone else.

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Scene 70


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