CHAPTER 210: LUNCH WITH ORIN (2)

"And you’re not interested?" asked Orin. "She’s only three... ’ish years younger than you."

"She’s selfish and self-centered to a degree I find unhealthy," replied Jack. "And by that I mean unhealthy for anyone that chooses to enter a relationship with her. At the yacht party, she latched onto Darrel’s arm just to spite my lack of interest and despite the creep vibes the man was exuding."

"Ah. And the hotel? Does that not interest you? It’s probably worth at least one and a half billion credits."

"How much do you want to bet that whoever marries Lily will find that they either cannot sell the hotel, or if they did, the vast majority of the profit would flow to a trust in Lily’s name?"

"That’s a sucker’s bet," chuckled Orin.

"I’m not interested in running a hotel, or watching Lily fritter away the profits. So, it’s a bad deal as far as I’m concerned."

"If you’re not interested in running a hotel. Why buy rental properties near NSU?"

One of the first things his soul space self asked the Orin copy was if he knew about Jack’s lottery winnings. The man didn’t know and said that if he learned about it he would be pleased his daughter had snagged such a good catch and would not do anything to fuck that up.

"I want to try and live a normal life during college, and that means hiding most of my wealth. So I started a real-estate investment company and purchased some rental properties near NSU, including the mansion on Lakepoint drive."

Orin nodded. "You intend to live in the mansion and claim you and your friends are just renting it."

"That’s the idea. To the average person, I’ll just claim I’m living off the settlement. To a few, I might hint at or claim that the settlement was quite large. But very few will learn just how much I really have or where I got it."

When Jack stopped talking, Orin was leaning forward, eagerly waiting for Jack to continue. But instead, Jack picked up his fork and started to eat his salad.

Soon Orin was looking constipated as Jack continued to ignore him and eat his salad.

Jack felt Katie open her mind gate. "Are you going to tell him?" was the first thought she had when he checked.

"Eventually," was his reply.

"Do you mind if I tell him?"

"No, go ahead if you want."

Katie turned to her father and said, "Jack won the Redball lottery. The one with the one point five billion credit jackpot."

"That was you in the disguise?!" asked Orin, a look of delight on his face.

"Yup. I also made a point not to talk to the cashier. Good thing too. Turns out the store surveillance system records audio."

"Yes. That was a smart move. And using a corporation formed in New Sonora was a wise choice as well. There are ways of peeling back the corporate veil on New Dalsland corporations, but not with New Sonora. So, what do you plan to do with the money? Besides buying a few houses."

"For now, I’ve hired a competent money manager to help me grow my wealth while I study at NSU. I have a few plans in the works, but it’s too early to be discussing them."

"Oh? If you don’t mind my asking, who’s your money manager?"

A quick question to copy Orin reassured Jack that he could answer this question without risk.

"Natalie Bykov."

Seeing Orin’s look, he added, "Yes, she’s one of those Bykovs."

"If she’s one of those Bykovs then I can assume she’s competent. But is she good?"

"If I told you how much money she is making me, you would weep bitterly and your soul would be consumed with envy."

Realizing Jack was not exaggerating, but being dead serious, Orin said, "Damn. How did you find her? Where?"

Orin was probably hoping there might be more where she came from. Like some secret hedge fund or something.

"She’s a friend of a colleague, and through them I learned that she was being sidelined by a sexist boys’-club idiot. They wouldn’t give her more money to manage despite her performance record, so she was easy to poach."

Orin shook his head. "Fortune favors the bold."

Jack smiled. "I prefer ’Fortune favors the prepared’."

Orin nodded. "Yes, that works too." Then he picked up his fork and started eating his salad.

Soon their plates were empty, and while they waited for the second course, Orin asked, "What do you think about the growing influence of AI?"

Jack had given this question a lot of thought.

"The AI companies seem to be madly rushing towards a future where most human workers are replaced with AI. And each AI company wants to be the one to provide that replacement, thus reaping all the profits.

"The pessimists claim AI will destroy the job market and eventually 80 percent of humans will be jobless, forcing governments to implement some form of basic living allowance.

"The optimists claim AI will free humanity from drudgery and depression and grant everyone all their creative dreams.

"Then there is a minority warning that there will be a period of significant disruption that will lead to riots and new regulations and only after many years, possibly decades, will things settle down to a new normal."

Jack sighed, "I suspect the minority view is the correct one. What worries me more is the possibility that some company will succeed in their AGI dreams only to lose control of their own creation."

"You’re worried about a skynet situation."

"Yes."

"I suspect you are right about the minority view. Far too many people have a Pollyannaish view of AI and think it is the silver bullet solution for everything."

Because of his interrogation of copy Orin, Jack knew Orin’s statement was more than just a general complaint.

"Like the government pressuring you to put fully autonomous AI in your drones?" said Jack.

The information Jack had just revealed wasn’t classified information, but it was also something only a few people knew about.

Orin rocked back like Jack had slapped him, a look of stunned disbelief on his face.

Orin had started the dick-measuring contest by investigating Jack and then taunting him with the evidence.

Well, two could play that game, and Jack’s metaphorical cock was larger than the fucking solar system!

"How?!" blurted Orin, before getting ahold of himself.