Billion-dollar flaw

Sci-fi short story - A genius inventor cannot solve a flaw in his latest invention, until a mysterious man walks in to license it

“It is a brilliant piece of kit, no doubt about it.” The tall man had a devious smile.

“It does teleport people and materials over much larger distances. We have tested it over five thousand kilometers and it was successful.” I really needed this investment.

“You had actual human participants?”

“Yes I was one of them. Every single one of the participants is completely fine.” I could feel sweat forming on my temples.

“How many prototypes are there?” His smile widened.

“Only these two.” The skin on my forehead was slick.

“I can tell when you’re lying.” His face turned serious.

“Let’s level with each other. You have made many versions of this attempting to correct that flaw of yours.” He stared straight into me as if commanding my neurons to tell him everything.

“Yes.” My voice wasn’t as shaky as I felt.

“I have quite a few copies of the teleporters. I don’t really know, maybe thirty of these. All of them have that one flaw. I have never been able to iron it out.” It had cost me all of my savings and most of my parents money too.

“Without covering up anything. Tell me every little detail of your flaw.” His voice was sharp.

“I have not told any lies other than the number of the prototypes.” I stopped and drank some water.

“The flaw is quite straightforward. When a human or an animal steps out of the teleporter, they are completely fine until they drink some water. Then they start to feel tipsy. The more water they drink, the more drunk and inebriated they feel. Something about the abundance of hydrogen in water messing with the realigned brain chemistry.” I stopped speaking and searched his face for some sign of dismissal. He kept his gaze even.

“They only need to sleep it off. A nap of two hours should do it and they’ll be perfectly fine. They won’t even feel hungover.” His smile had returned. I felt a dash of relief.

“I am sure that I can solve it with another year’s worth of research. Five million dollars of funding should do it.” I liked to start with a higher number.

“Have you filed for a patent?” His smile was warm, almost friendly.

“Yes. EP 5105334 B1.” I didn’t hide my delight.

“Good. I’ll license it. Ten percent of the operational profits before taxes plus a minimum annual guarantee of one million dollars per year if you grant us a sole license.” The corner of my left eye twitched for a few seconds.

“What.. What are you..”

“I’ll offer two million as the minimum annual guarantee if you ask no questions and never talk about this agreement with anyone outside this room. This also means that no one, absolutely no one sees or comes to know about the other prototypes.” My left foot started shaking. I took a minute before responding.

“Twenty-five percent of the operational profits before taxes plus a minimum guaranteed amount of two million dollars per year. You have the sole license and I will keep my mouth shut.” I forced my leg to stop shivering.

“You drive a hard bargain Mr. Baccay. Consider this deal done. I’ll have my people get in touch with you.” He shook my right hand with both of his and that warm smile never left his face.

Over the next year, I received over 400 million dollars in royalties.

True to my word I kept my mouth shut. I had gotten my parents a new house even though they insisted on moving back as soon as the renovation of our old home was done. I spent a cool four million on a swanky penthouse in Parañaque.

I often wondered what it was that tall dark skinned man did with my patent but I didn’t make any attempts to find out. One does not look a gift horse in the mouth, as they say.

One sultry day in June my cousin came to see my new place. He lived in the US or Canada, I could never remember which one it was.

“Jayson, it's a real shame that you don’t drink.” Alon was about the party life.

“You know, I don’t enjoy that feeling of being uninhibited, even a little bit.” I gave him a smug look.

“I know, I know but you should come to the States man. There is this new club called Club Agua.” His earnest voice told me that he really wanted me to show some interest.

“Oh! Yeah. Club Agua. Ok, maybe we can check it out when I come over.” I tried not to sound too dismissive.

“It is an exclusive club and not everyone gets an invite to be a member. I managed to snag one through the wife of my boss.” There was some conspiratorial undertone to that statement but I didn’t want to pursue it.

“That’s cool bro. So you’ve been to this place then.” I knew that he wouldn’t bring it up if he hadn’t been there.

“Yes, yes. They scan you when you walk in with these advanced high tech scanners. You can feel a little prickle on your skin when you walk in through that scanner.” He laughed.

I sat up straight.

“Do you feel like you are being brushed by cat whiskers?” I knew of only one machine that could make you feel like that.

“Oh my God, bro. That is exactly what it is. I knew you were a top notch tech guy but man you are also the Picasso of words.” His face was a mixture of elation and astonishment.

“So what happens at Club Agua?” Now, I had to know.

“So you walk in right. They have that scanner. They only let in one person at a time. They tell you beforehand that if you have any weapons or other dangerous substance on you, it will be removed automatically by the scanner.” He paused and waited for a reaction that he did not receive.

It made him a little less enthusiastic but I was processing what he had described to pay too much attention to his attitude.

“Then once you are in there, you get all kinds of booze. They have much lower prices than any other bar or club that you can go to. You have to pay a hefty annual subscription though unless you have the privileged card. You get the privileged card by going there once a week for at least eight months. Guess who’s a privileged cardholder?” He had a wide grin on his face as he looked at me expectantly.

“The boss's wife?” I blurted the first thing that came to my mouth.

“Nope. The boss. His wife gets a pass as a female family member of a privileged cardholder. They both can invite new members to the club and she got me in. I was on track to get my privileged card but I had to fly out here for my parents.” Uncle and Aunty insisted on having him over for a month in the summer.

“Aw! That sucks bro. What else is special about the place?” I was only half-teasing him. I had a sneaking suspicion about what he was going to say next.

“They have an exclusive brand of clear spirit. It's called Agua Marina. They don’t sell it anywhere else and they don’t even let you take it out of the club. It is some type of vodka or neutral grain spirit. It is expensive but man does it hit hard.” He was too engrossed in his own tale. His face had become animated like some slapstick cartoon character.

“I’ve never seen a guy or girl that could take more than one bottle of it. It doesn’t have much of a taste though, it is like…”

“Almost like pure water.” I completed the sentence for him.

“Yes bro. That is exactly what it is. Telling you man, you are the Picasso of words. You really need to come to CA with me Bro. I can take you in as soon as I get my Privileged card.” He kept on for another couple of minutes about the large parking lots and the upper floors of the club with exotic dancers, poker tables, slot machines and such.

“So it is a bar, a strip club and a mini-casino all rolled into one.” I summarized it trying to get him to stop.

“Not just that bro, they have luxury hotel suites in the upper floors and top clients have permanent accommodations there. Like CEOs have their second offices up there. I mean, makes sense right. You can’t sneak anything past that scanner. It is one of the safest places to be.” He was on a roll and he didn’t care to see if I was listening.

It was clear to me that the Club Agua had my teleporters installed as their scanners and they were selling overpriced water to their customers. The only mystery was how they managed to target any weapons or other ‘dangerous substance’.

The teleporter worked by atomizing and reassembling anything that was placed in it. Maybe they were choosing to not reagglomerate certain objects. I could figure out how that worked if I spent some time in the lab. Yet, they would have a pile of waste atoms or some form of wasted material.

“Wait, what are these ‘dangerous substances’?” I cut through my cousin's monologue.

“What? Oh! Well drugs of course and stuff like batteries or I don’t know explosive or potentially hazardous chemicals. They have a list. I don’t remember all of it but if something can’t be taken to the airport, it sure can’t go into Club Agua either.” He had stopped for the moment.

“Right, by any chance do you know anything about their waste disposal systems?” It was worth a shot.

“What? No. Why would that be anything special? They must be connected to the sewage grid. They must have garbage collection trucks coming over. The only thing that I have seen other than customers' cars are those security vans. The ones in which they bring money and stuff like that.” For a guy who didn’t seem to pay much attention, my cousin seemed to have a decent memory.

“Considering that they have a casino, that makes sense.” I smiled at him.

“Yeah, I heard that they are opening up in various South American, North African and Middle Eastern countries. Truth be told, I don’t understand how they might find premium clientele in some of these places.” My cousin stood up and walked to the balcony as he spoke.

“Yeah that would be difficult.” I replied, but my mind was elsewhere.

A global network of teleporters. Anything could be moved from anywhere to anywhere under the guise of a multi-purpose entertainment hub of some sort. A hub where no weapons or other dangerous substances could be brought in. A secure fortress of an international transportation and entertainment hub.

I finally appreciated all that was behind his devious smile.

A brilliant piece of kit in the hands of a master schemer. No wonder why he didn’t care for the flaw. He made it sound like I pushed for a hard bargain. Only that he had played me like a fiddle.

I didn’t mind too much though. I could continue my research at will and I had secured the future of my family for generations to come with a billion dollar flaw.

I stood up and walked to the balcony with a sly smile.