The Third Richest Man c5

Chapter 5
Two days after the funeral, we came home and found some newspaper reporters going through our trash. We called the Highland Park Police who promptly threw the whole gang into the Lew Garrett Justice Center. We hired four off duty Dallas policemen to act as security guards until things settled down. They were able to hold off the nuts, jerks and paparazzi.
On Friday after dad had died on Tuesday, we gave off the three members of the household staff and sat down to have a serious discussion about our future and which way we should head. The weather outside had taken a turn for the worse and thunderstorms covered the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex. Fitting weather for our situation. Lost in a storm. Marcy had taken Dad's death hard and I guess I had as well. Maybe I didn't show it as much as Marc. Funny how much you could miss someone that you never saw or talked to. Fact of the matter was that one of us had to be strong because we had work to do and I didn't have a clue of how to start other than just to dive in.
I opened the box containing the videotape. It seemed innocent enough. A small black diary to be opened and inspected.
I pulled a couple of beers from the refrigerator and handing one to Marcy and said, " are you ready for this?
"Ready as I will ever be." She took a pull off of the beer while I was inserting the tape and setting up the equipment.
"ty, will this affect me and you?"
" How so??"
"You know all of this money and power and all. Stranger things have happened. "
"Marcy, you are as close to me as any person can possibly be. As far as I am concerned you can have the whole mess and I will go back to Colorado and fall off rocks. Hell, I love you and I know you love me. Besides unless I am mistaken we are all each other have".
She stood and walked over to me hugged my neck and kissed me on the cheek.
"Lead on Mcduff. "She said.
I walked over to the VCR and started up the tape. The first thing you saw was my father sitting in his favorite rocker smoking his pipe. He looked a lot better than the last time we had seen him. Here he was rosy and cheeky and full of piss and vinegar. Not hooked to tubes and machinery. This was the dad that I wanted to remember. He was sitting at his desk and staring straight into the camera.
"I can only assume that I have passed on to the great beyond and you two are now watching this video and feeling totally lost. I don't know that I have told you enough but I love you both with all my heart. That having been said, Lets get to it.
The Jensen family trust has controlling interests in 376 companies with a net worth of over a trillion dollars. Our percentage of that is almost $50 billion dollars but the cash on hand will probably not go over 12 billion. Of this money, the two of you control all of the day-to-day operations of the boards. Most of the companies have capable management in place that does not need to be baby sat with."
"I would like you two to devote your selves to making the world a better place with this money. Never forget though that these companies have several hundred thousand employees that depend on you to make sure that you do the right thing. "
Marcy, you are the smartest person that I know. You will be in charge of making sure that the numbers are in line and that things click along as they should.
ty, you are to make sure that the right people are in the right place to grow the companies and to make sure that no one gets their feelings hurt. We want to have the companies put society in the right frame of mind.
To assist you in this endeavor, there is a man waiting outside of the house He doesn't look like much. He is a full-blooded Apache Indian. He is also an ex Navy SEAL, who has fought in more wars both hot and covert than most people will ever know about. It is his function in life to protect you both. He also makes sure that there is no surveillance microphones around and that you are not overheard. For this service, he owns and operates the Jensen Security Service, which has employed more veterans of wars than any other company around. He is totally trustworthy. I am going to ask him to come in a minute but first the second of your immediate family staff.
Willow Johnson is a lady that I met while I was in the hospital. She is an organizational wiz and speaks eight languages. She will serve as an aide to you both. Please try and not fall and love with her. That goes double for you, Marcy."
Marcy gasped.
"Marcy," the tape went on, "did you really think that I wouldn't know that you are gay?? Did you really think it matter one iota to me?" You are my daughter as much as I had borne you myself. You have always made me proud of you and I can see no reason to stop loving you now just because you have a different feeling about life.. If that means a different way to go, then so be it." The tears had started to well up in Marcy's eyes again. I stopped the tape and turned to her.
"Are you ok?? Yeah, Lets get it over with. The tape had just started to run again when the lights went out. The lights flickered on and off , the tape stopped and the lights finally caught on and lit.
Standing besides the bookcase was a tall black haired Indian with a long ponytail wearing a long gray duster carrying a black hat. I almost fell out of the chair.
"I am Wolf'" the figure said.
The figure scared me so bad with his magic appearance that I was speechless. Marcy on the other hand was Marcy. "Wolf, how did you get past the guards outside?"
They look but they don't see. It s a terrible habit with the Police.
"Wolf, do you think that from this point on, you could enter in a more normal fashion?
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare." " I am going to check the rest of the house now." And he walked out the doorway leading to the spare rooms.
"Makes an entrance doesn't he," said Marcy.
"Wordy Bastard.... I could only add.
"Curiouser and curiouser," said Marcy.
"True." Said I.
I started the tape again.
"Father's voice started again.
"Enough about Marcy, Grady, if you look in my upper left hand drawer and press the button at the bottom with your right thumb. A false drawer will open. It's keyed so that only your thumb print and DNA reading will open it.
In the back are two small silver boxes. If you open them you will find what appears to be contact lenses. I know both of you wear contact lenses so this should be no problem. Please take the time to put them in now. Please take out yours first. Stop the tape now and do so.
With a great deal of reluctance I took out my contact lenses and put in the new ones. I watched as Marcy did the same.
Everything seemed the same with the possible exception that I could see better. Matter of fact, I could see a whole lot better.
I started the tape again.
"Good, said my deceased father. I didn't think that there would be any problems.' The tape will now end and self destruct, just like in Mission Impossible. Take care and remember that I will be with you always. The tape machine cut off and smoke started to wisp out of the machine. I pulled it out but the tape was just ashes.
Marcy and I just looked at each other.
"What do we do now"?? Marcy asked to herself.
"What indeed? "Came a voice. A figure slowly materialized in the air. It was a figure of a woman dressed in a plain blue suit with a white silk blouse. She had shoulder length blonde hair and wore a pair of horn rimmed glasses. She was obviously a hologram as you could see through her the wall opposite.
Marcy and Grady, I am glad to see you but I deeply mourn the passing of your father. If he was not deceased then I would not have been summoned up.
I am your guide and mentor and a focal point for your father's last and probably greatest invention. I am an Analogous Lifeform Intelligence Effigy but please call me Alice. The contact lenses that your father has given to you have now merged with your retina and the codes have been transferred to your cerebral core. You will have no physical effects other than the fact that your eyesight is now 1000% better than it was. Lets see where should we start??
Alice, you are obviously a computer but where are you?
An excellent question, Marcy, Dr. Jensen always told me that you are smart as a whip.
I am merely a manifestation that you can relate to instead of a box. My main machinery is located deep within the earth in a secret location. Dr. Jensen took great pains to make sure that the location and the exact nature of the machinery was never known to anyone. I am self sustaining life form and will continue to function for the next 26.8 million years. Unfortunately, I believe that there is a comet that will hit earth on its 10th pass through the solar system but as they say on TV, "Thems the breaks. "
As you both know, Dr. Jensen was a genius unparalleled within the history of the earth. In 1955, when Jobs and Gates were fiddling around in school, your father manufactured the first computer. One of his favorite sayings was fish for a man and you will feed him for a day; teach him to fish and you can fish him forever. Your father merely modified this to fit the computer world. He invented the first computer and then taught it to build another and then to improve on the process. By the late 1990s, the computers that your father was using were literally light years ahead of what he would allow to be made public. His laboratory was kept under lock and key and Wolf. By the way, please don't underestimate Wolf. He is a very literal figure and the only human being that you can trust in the world. He has been loyal to your father for many years and is now totally loyal to you. The computers that your father used managed all of his affairs and his holdings. In this manner, he was able to oversee his holdings and companies and to maintain his fortune. As you know, he never attended meetings or conferences. All were done through the phone or computer. In reality, these were really manifestations made by the computers. The shape glimmered and my father was standing there. I was taken aback but the computer said, its not really him, just what he sent on his little errands so that he could spend some time with his family. Another little shimmer occurred and the girl was back.
"You look vaguely familiar, Alice. I said."
"Grady, I should. Your father programmed me to be a duplicate of your mother as a young woman when he was the happiest."
I can appear to be anyone or anything that you would like.
Alice, I like you just fine just like that. She smiled.
Your father build a certain amount of emotions into me so this makes me happy.
I am to help you in any way possible any time that you wish.
To summon me, you merely rub the lamp.
"Your kidding, said Marcy.
Yes, I am said Alice. A Joke. Very funny.