Encounters Read online

  Munching thoughtfully, Kano checked the wall clock and then hurriedly plowed through the rest of the bowl. Hunger satisfied, he washed his dish and spoon, set them on the now-full dish rack and hurried to get ready for his students.

  Living as a snowboarding instructor for a year, cut off from any parental help, the only valuable possessions Kano had were his snowboarding gear and beat-up ten-year-old Toyota Rav4. He had bought it when he made the decision to become a snowboarding instructor while he figured out the rest of his life. When he was on the mountain, feeling the cold, crisp air in his face rushing by, nothing else mattered. Adulting could wait. He was living.

  After finishing his preparations to leave, he made a point of clattering a few dishes together, grinning impudently when Charlie frowned at the noise. "Look, seriously, tomorrow this place has to be less disgusting. When I get home tonight, I'll keep cleaning, but you need to help, okay?"

  "Okay," Charlie said. "Besides, I've come to realize being a slob is keeping me single. I’ll never get a girlfriend like yours as long as the house is such a mess. Trust me, you won’t recognize this place when you return."

  "Ha," Kano said, ducking outside. He walked down the hallway and practically ran down the stairs, despite the weight of his gear. The mountain was calling him. The cold, clear January day was just getting bright.

  Snow covered the sides of the road and the small parking lot allocated to residents of the building was still full. The mountain air smelled clean as he tromped, his boots making crunching sounds with each step. He had to walk carefully through the packed snow and slush to reach his vehicle.

  The Rav4 was a little rusty in spots, had a ton of miles, but still ran like a charm. Getting the door open was sometimes tough, an adventure in willpower, but when Kano pulled it open, he got his gear sorted and started revving the engine. Ten minutes later, windows defrosted, Kano pulled out of the driveway and headed up to the Lake Tahoe Resort where he worked. Driving up to the mountain resort was sometimes a crazy ride, other times, easy as pie.

  Tourists clogged the road in the morning on the way up the slopes. Radio pumping out the latest hit from the pop star of the moment, Kano almost hit a sedan as it floundered, spinning halfway around in the road before plowing into the side of the mountain. He spun the steering wheel, sliding the Rav4 along the ground to the side. The SUV went sideways and swerved, nearly going off the embankment. Kano pulled the wheel slowly to correct himself, careful not to over-correct while pulling back into his lane. He pushed a foot on the gas, accelerating up the hill and finally straightened out, just missing a car barreling down the slopes the opposite way.

  In the down slope lane, the hatchback plowed past, having avoided Kano's four-wheel drive.

  His pulse pounding, Kano drove the rest of the way up the slope carefully, both hands on the wheel, ignoring the music. As Kano pulled in to park in the employee lot, he laughed off the near death experience with a rueful headshake. Accidents so close to work were a frequent occurrence but that didn’t make it any less intense for the handful he’d avoided. Sometimes, Kano felt like he enjoyed danger a little too much.

  But like always, the same thing happened. He'd survived.

  Snowboarding was his way of getting a full serving of adrenaline daily. Some days, he got it even before hitting the slopes. Like today. With the car parked and the engine off, Kano bounded outside, grabbing his gear.

  Freezing air blew across the parking lot filled with a few dozen SUVs and sedans, almost every one a four-wheel drive. Early risers were already inside the cabin and Kano trudged across the short distance of the small employee lot to check in. Another heavily wrapped figure trudged through the parking lot behind him when he stomped up the stairs to the cabin. Cold wind blew down from the mountain, bringing with it the fresh smell of newly frozen snow.

  Kano stared at the mountain and smirked, as if answering a challenge from the silent goliath. Lowering his scarf and taking a deep breath, he could taste the clean air. Shivering, Kano quickly pulled the scarf back over his frozen cheeks and continued walking, reaching the door and entering the cabin.

  Inside the building, there was a set of plain green stairs leading down to the employee locker room. Kano changed, getting into the last of his snowboarding gear with practiced agility. Five minutes later, he was standing outside the building, snowboard in hand, waiting patiently. The first lesson was usually late, given the amount of paperwork new students needed to fill out on arrival. Why people never understood that the first trip would always be slow was beyond him. For the hundredth time, he thought about asking his manager again about getting new students their forms online, so they wouldn’t be delayed after arrival. The digital migration would save them money and fall into their corporate Green Mission, however, Kano’s manager had ignored his many recommendations.

  "Good morning," a young boy said. Two kids standing in front of him, clearly brothers, interrupted his thoughts. The same twinkle of mischief dotted both their eyes and they wore new gear. The taller, older boy was tanned, dressed in green and black. The younger boy had blue and gray gear of a similar style. Burton clothing, Kano was certain, as he knew most winter clothing brands on sight from his time on the mountain. Also, it was the same brand Kano himself wore.

  "Morning," he said, smiling at them. Teenagers, or close to it, he guessed. That would be easier than really young kids on their first day out. "I'm Kano," he said. "What are your names?"

  "Jack," said the older one, at the same time as the younger said, "Seth."

  "Good to meet you both," Kano said.

  The older one cocked his head to the side and looked at him, only half a head shorter than Kano’s own almost six-foot frame. "Are you any good?"

  "Yep," Kano said, laughing. He liked the attitude. "Are you?"

  "If I was good, why would I need lessons?" Jack laughed and his brother joined in.

  "Can we see you do a three-sixty?" The younger one asked with an innocent smile once they stopped laughing.

  "Let's start with the basics to begin," Kano said and their faces fell slightly. "We’ll see where you are at now and then we'll hit the jumps, if you are good." The kids smiled wider and Kano knew he was trapped. The jumps did not bother him; of course, it was just that aerials such as the kids asked for were not allowed during a lesson. Still, seeing the two kids, Kano knew that he would do the jumps.

  Twenty minutes later, after they geared up, Kano was sitting on the chair lift, one child on each side. The kids had shown clear ability and had no trouble adjusting to the rental equipment. Smiling and laughing, Kano imagined what it must have been like to have a brother like they had growing up. He was an only child and a twinge in his chest bit at him about his conversation with his dad that morning. Emotionally, Kano was not feeling up to snowboarding for a few reasons, on thinking about everything in his life. But on the mountain with two kids determined to see what he could do, Kano pushed the thoughts aside.

  "Ready?"

  The two children nodded at him and he said, "We’re heading down that run off to the right, so you two need to take that path along the side, there. Once we dismount the lift, follow me and we’ll pause to get setup, okay?”

  “Okay,” the kids said, in unison.

  A moment later, the lift crested the hill, and they all disembarked without a hitch, gliding smoothly across the frozen snow to a stop off to the side of the pathway. Sitting down, Kano started to get his board into position and looked at the children to see if they needed help. Seeing they were good, Kano smiled, looking forward to the ride downhill.

  He pointed, strapping into his second binding on the board, calling for Jack and Seth to listen. Kano winched the boot tighter as he spoke. "Just stay on your back heels and stop on the flat part. I'll do a jump here as a demo, as this is one of the easier spots, and I’ll ride over to you after. Stay clear of the landing, okay?"

  The two children nodded and then Jack stood up followed by Seth. They took off down the slope, f
irst the older one, then the younger. Rocking on their heels with their backs to him, the children carved and slid on their heel edge to a stop, twenty yards away from the jump. They stood near an orange hazard wall where, further on, the mountain dropped off and was forbidden to riders and employees alike. Smiling, happily that the children managed to ride down and stop without falling or crashing, Kano waved at the children. They twisted in the snow to look uphill, on their knees with their boards still strapped to their feet. Jack and Seth both waved back, giving thumbs up signs with their gloved hands.

  Dusting his hands free from icy particles, Kano jumped up on his board. Fastened to his feet tightly, the material flexed on the rough packed snow, bending under pressure. The icy air was chilly against his cheek as he slid forward, bending the board on his front foot then on his back heel. Kano had broken more boards than he could count with a mistimed landing, so his first moments of the day always started with a bit of a stress test first. It was like riding a bicycle, but the road underneath was something that you couldn’t just judge visually, he needed to feel it before he was confident to push.

  With so many years worth of experience it looked casual how Kano hopped, bending the board on one tip then the other, bouncing back and forth. Satisfied the board was still sturdy, Kano let the slope of the hill pull him forward, moving from his heels to his toes, carving a winding path down the hill to the kids.

  The children watched, in awe, at the simple warm up before their instructor started forward. Jack punched his brother in the shoulder. "Bet'cha can't do that," he said, laughing.

  Seth punched him back, harder than his little frame suggested was possible, and laughed. "You can't either."

  "Look!" Jack said, as the younger one looked back to see their instructor take flight.

  Kano felt the exhilarating rush when the board flexed under his feet at the jump. Curving upwards, the momentum he had slid the board faster into the air than he expected, rocketing him straight up. Frantic, he barely managed to get his back knee under him to push himself off the lip. Unnerved, he went with the momentum, spinning backwards. He could feel the air freezing against his cheeks, the goggles shielding his eyes from the brunt of the cold. Thinking quickly, Kano tried to orient himself in the spin, seeing nothing but blue sky. The awkward launch off the jump had him twisting and spinning, a backflip and a three-sixty in one. Twisting, he went sideways as the backflip carried him around in a full spin.

  “Wow!” Jack shouted, watching his snowboarding teacher perform the craziest stunt he had ever seen in person.

  “That’s amazing!” Seth agreed, clapping his hands together in glee.

  By the time Kano could finally see the snow again, only a second later, a wave of panic swept through him. The board slapped into the mountain, tip first.

  "Sh-!" Kano tried to yell, but his momentum was too fast to shout the whole word as he slammed into the mountain. A brief, shattering pain ripped through his legs and chest when the board slapped down onto the snow too early. Kano’s head cracked on the icy morning snow and his world went black.

  "Ouch," Seth called, after the instructor crash-landed. "Dude, you missed that jump by a lot," he chuckled. Jack joined in, laughing, while they stared at Kano's prone form.

  "Hey, Kano?"

  When the instructor didn't move, Jack sighed and pulled his iPhone out of his pocket. "We should have taken a video," he said. "That would've gone so viral on YouTube."

  Feeling chilly in the cold mountain air, the younger boy watched, sad, as the instructor continued to lie still in the snow, a small red stain leaking out below his head.

  Two - Board Meeting

  Sometime after Kano's accident, Platnam, the mega-corp that acquired the assets of G and L, was having their most important board meeting in decades. All the key players, powerful, wealthy and connected individuals each, were present as their leader gave his prepared speech.

  "You know we have to do this," he said, looking around the room. Harry Smith was in his prime at seventy-five, or at least, as much as any man could achieve at that age. His wits were still sharp and his thick, silvery hair was immaculately combed. Harry’s height, a full head taller than his colleagues, was something he was keenly aware of and used to punctuate his words. Harry’s suit, matching his silver hair, accentuated his tall frame against the high-backed black leather chair he sat in. "Tell me if any of you see another way forward."

  Seated at the head of the conference room lined with dark, old wood panels, the longest ever serving CEO of Platnam looked around the room, staring into the eyes of each executive in turn. The board comprised a team of six, three men and three women, who all nodded eventually.

  "Besides," Harry said, smiling, "if the serum doesn't work, you will each have a shot at taking my seat. Doesn't that count for something?" His deep baritone chuckle set the team slightly more at ease, but not enough to make them relax visibly. Each member of Harry's team had been with the company more than two decades. They had all shed blood, made personal sacrifices and done horrible things to get where they were seated. His grim humor did little to dispel the somber mood of the room but he stood up, vigor in every move.

  The screens lining the large wall behind him lit up with a flick of his wrist and Harry pointed to the screen, gesturing. "This will enable us to know, given a human trial in the future, our odds of making an improvement in decelerating the aging process." He gestured to himself, self-deprecating despite the hardness of his eyes. The planes of his face were sharp cliffs, wrinkled and thin over the cheekbones. "With this advancement, the long-term potential is bigger than anything." Harry paused, dark eyes glittering. "We are standing at the entrance of a new chapter," he said, looking back at the screen, a spinning molecular diagram moving, exploding and reforming as he spoke.

  "The future belongs to those with time," Harry said, smiling wider.

  Gina looked sideways at Omar, surveying his face. The dark skinned man showed little of his emotions, as usual. Omar was the second in command and had been since long before the Platnam IPO. Gina knew, as the head of marketing, how the numbers would shake out, after working with Jose, the CFO, and then taking in the input from their European operations with Francois. So far, Harry's plan seemed perfect. The only thing she could not understand, watching the old man, was what if he was wrong?

  The miracle drug seemed, from their data, to be certain to work. But a DNA-altering substance that had untold effects on brain chemistry? It seemed like too big of a risk, to her, which is why she had secured everybody's help. Once Harry ended up in the hospital, she intended to take over until he woke up. If he wakes up, she thought, as she listened to him speak.

  Apart from Gina, the only other person of sufficient ambition to consider replacing Harry as CEO was Song Luwein, the head of research. She sat watching the old man with a smile on her face as Gina looked at her, smiling in her head. Gina knew Song and Harry were having an ongoing affair. Gina expected opposition, but if Harry did not return after taking the experimental drug that might mean Song could make a play for the CEO role. However, from what Gina had observed so far, Song was genuinely interested in her work. Gina planned to expand Song’s department and throw enough money at her to ensure compliance. Gina smiled, thinking to herself that she had at least half the room in her hand.

  Andrea, their independent board member who represented several mutual funds, would follow the money. She had never been squeamish before, so long as the returns were solid and not probably illegal. Gray area was her favorite.

  Finally, Gina took a long look at Omar once more, seated across from her, his dark face calculating. The man had grown up in the South, his drawl humorous, even though it never touched his eyes. Omar, without an official COO title, was the President of Mercury Protection Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary. The majority of the Pentagon and Department of Defense contracts went through Mercury. For some reason, Omar had never used his existing position to push himself forward, instead, relying on a thick, s
easoned leadership bench. That management style told Gina that, if given a choice, Omar would rather remain the power behind the face of Platnam, rather than the one in the spotlight.

  Platnam was a highly diversified company and had provided results comparable to Apple, Berkshire Hathaway and few other companies on the S&P 500 Index. Gina would risk nothing to change that, even though she wanted more. Much more. Her plans might dilute the importance of the core business; she was determined to expand their military efforts in robotics, as well as advanced neuroscience and eugenics. In that, Harry’s own corporate interests, as well as Song’s, matched her own. Gina's musing was interrupted as Harry continued to speak.

  "Omar," Harry said, nodding to the man, then looking at Song, "you will help Song while I'm gone with anything she needs." Omar nodded.

  Harry looked around the room, his dark eyes shining with intensity. "The test and the recovery period are supposed to last a week, at the most." Coughing, he covered his mouth with an age-spotted hand, thinner than in years gone by, and grabbed the water bottle next to his laptop. Taking a long swallow, he looked at the room, noting Gina's ambition, Andrea's calculating stare and the others, too careful with their expressions to let anything show. Harry knew what kinds of people were on his board and where each one's ambitions lay.

  "What about me?" Gina asked, as Harry knew she would.

  "The press statements we prepared will do just fine," he said, pointing from Gina to Omar. "If anything new comes up, get his approval before releasing anything public. Is that clear?"

  Gina coughed, covering her mouth with one hand, and looked at the stone-faced CEO with barely concealed irritation. "Yes, sir. It’s clear."

  Harry smiled, checking his smartwatch for the time before picking up his laptop. "That will be all," he said. "See you in a week." He gave the room a smile that didn't touch his eyes. "Next Friday's meeting, you'll see a whole new me, and Platnam will be set to make history."