Installment 14 of our featured novel “Relentless” is here! If you’ve missed the earlier installments and would like to join our readership, be sure to check out the novel’s home page HERE.

We are publishing the novel in small installments, so it takes only minutes to keep up with the story. Many years ago, we were fans of Stephen King’s installment-based publishing of “The Green Mile” over many months, so we are following in that vein as a feature on Moteventure.

Header Image: Creative Commons

Be sure to let us know what you think in the comments and share the story to help us grow!

SCROLL DOWN TO READ THE NEXT EXCERPT OF “RELENTLESS” BY D.S. FACTOR

Subscribe below to be notified when we post new content. You’ll receive an email asking to verify your request. Once that is done, you’re all set. Welcome to Moteventure!

New to the novel? If you’ve missed our first posts of “Relentless”, you can find them here!

RELENTLESS – D.S. FACTOR

“Seriously, think about what you’re saying for a moment Maxwell. We take a technology that should be locked down within a secure network and virtually turn it loose on the entire globe. From a compliance, transparency, and legal perspective, there is no way in hell that something of that magnitude would be approved without years of trials. We are not Facebook!” Caroline opined with a frustration level quickly reaching its limit.

Thrasher took a deep breath, caressing the polished metal of his chair’s directional control stick. “Caroline, while I understand your reasons for moving slow and steady with MARQ, you in turn must attempt to understand my reasoning for pursuing the exact opposite course of action. Technology companies are moving at lightning speed, introducing new products and new versions of old products in an ever rapidly increasing pace. We must ‘keep up with the Joneses’ so to speak or risk the wrath of our stockholders…or even worse…irrelevance.”

At that, Caroline cracked an enigmatic Mona Lisa smile. Thrasher was very fond of speaking in clichéd idioms and sometimes there was nothing for a person to do but smile and regroup for another round of verbal confrontation.

“Let’s get down to brass tacks. David, what are your thoughts?” Thrasher addressed Dr. David Kennedy, whose opinion as the scientific/technical half of the original co-founders (along with Thrasher himself) carried significant weight in the boardroom.

“I would be inclined to error on the side of caution. The company is not in dire straits, and to pour a vast sum of capital, while not a financial hardship, could render more stable opportunities inaccessible.

“That is just bullshit and you know it,” Thrasher countered. “Funds for those other opportunities are already allocated by finance and MARQ Global would have zero impact on them, other than to further fuel their future success. What is your real reason for attempting to eighty-six this project?”

“I don’t intend to “eighty-six” anything Max. I’m only advocating a more nuanced approach to its implementation. Perhaps you’ve heard of Target, LastPass, Dropbox, The Fed, Health Net, RSA Security, VeriSign, hell, even Sony PlayStation. All companies with major data breaches in just the past few years. Would you like me to go on or perhaps just email you the list?”

Glaring dismissively in Kennedy’s direction, Thrasher completed an almost unperceivable eye roll before replying.

“As expected, we find ourselves in the company of David Kennedy, king of pessimism. So predictable and so backwards focused. For God’s sake David, the government tracks every phone call, every text, every webpage accessed by every person in the country…do you really believe they are deeply concerned with privacy? In the grand scheme of things, the penalties and fees for breaches are a mere slap on the wrist when compared with the potential flood of revenue from a product like MARQ.”

Caroline could no longer be silent and interjected. “Max, it’s more than just privacy. What if information stored on the device is wrong or incomplete? Allergies not listed, history truncated, misspellings alone could result in adverse impact. It’s still data input sourced from a huge number of people and institutions. Human error is a real concern. I have to insist on select implementation and further testing. It’s the responsible thing to do.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Thrasher calmly stated. “I’m ready to jump in feet first before the opportunity is lost. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

With that, Thrasher pressed a button on the phone and after a moment or two, doors separated to reveal a team of individuals donning white lab coats and pushing a cart containing what appeared to be a number of hypodermic needle-like devices.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.