options the secret life of steve jobs phần 9 pdf

Everyone.” “Steve, we’re not going to kill anyone.” “But you said ‘drastic measures.’” “Look,” he says.. Right now my biggest concern is taking care of you.” “I still can’t believe we’re

“Do what?”

“Kill Zack.”

“We’re not going to kill Zack.”

“Who are we going to kill then? Sonya?”

“We’re not going to kill anyone.”

“Why not?”

“Well, for one thing, it’s against the law.”

“I’m not saying we admit to doing it.”

“We’re not doing it, period.”

“But it’s a good idea It’s the most obvious solution I mean,okay, it sucks for Zack But for everyone else I think it’s the bestsolution Not just for me But for the shareholders, the board ofdirectors, the customers Everyone.”

“Steve, we’re not going to kill anyone.”

“But you said ‘drastic measures.’”

“Look,” he says “Be quiet for a minute Okay? Don’t talk.Just listen.” He takes a big drink of his Glenlivet, then pauses andtakes another gulp, draining his glass “There’s this program,” hesays “Sort of like the witness protection program You can getout of the country You can get a new identity, change yourappearance There are people I know who can help you do this.I’m telling you this as your friend.”

“I’d rather just kill Zack Seriously You sure we can’t dothat?”

“I know it’s a lot to digest,” he says “Think about it Justdon’t think too long.” He hands me a piece of paper with a nameand phone number on it “That’s someone you should see He’s aplastic surgeon in Scottsdale He’s the one that did PrincessDiana.”

“But she’s ”

“No Not dead.” He shakes his head “Living with Dodi Fayed in Qatar This guy did Ken Lay too Same thing He’s in

Al-the South Pacific someplace, banging Polynesian girls Living Al-thegood life The heart attack was staged.”

“No way.”

“Why do you think they cremated the body? You rememberwho went to his funeral? Bush Forty-One and James Baker.”

“You’re messing with my head.”

“It’ll cost you a fortune But it will keep you from going tojail And if everything blows over, who knows? Maybe you cancome back.”

“I thought you told me the company was going to protect

me You said you had no choice They couldn’t survive withoutme.”

“I did say that It’s true They can’t survive without you But

I don’t see any way around it Either you go to jail, or you fakeyour death and flee the country Either way the stock gets killed

In which case you might as well save your own ass, don’t youthink? Right now my biggest concern is taking care of you.”

“I still can’t believe we’re having this conversation.”

“We’re not,” he says “Remember? By the way, this guy inScottsdale also did Sam Palmisano from IBM.”

“Sam’s not dead He visited Apple six months ago Hethought the iMacs were flat-panel TVs.”

“That didn’t tip you off?”

“I figured, Hey, he’s from IBM What does he know aboutcomputers?”

“The real Sam died a year ago Heart attack, at home, in bed.They didn’t have a successor So they created a Fake Sam Givesthem time to do a search for the next CEO Soon as they findsomeone, Fake Sam gets the boot.”

He opens the car door Nearby, on the front lawn, Bobby D

is talking to an incredibly attractive bag lady who I would guess

is some kind of PR flack Something about the vacant look in her

eyes, the fake smile They all look like this I think they go to aschool someplace to learn how to do that smile.

Tom whistles Bobby looks over and holds up one finger, as if

to say, Just a minute

“Guy never stops chasing pussy,” Tom says “It’s his oneweakness.” He glances at my layers of pants and sweaters “Niceoutfit, by the way First step toward your new identity I like it.”Back inside the party, Mrs Jobs is looking worried

“It’s nothing,” I tell her “No big deal.”

She just looks at me We’ve been married way too long for

me to get away with whoppers like that

PART THREE

Enlightenment

“ I ’m n o t g o i n g t o m ove, ” Mrs Jobs says “I’m not going tochange my identity and have plastic surgery and get a new pass-port and go live in hiding I’m sorry I’m just not.”

We’re sitting in the kitchen, eating kiwi fruit for breakfast.I’ve been eating nothing but kiwi fruit for seven days and I feelamazing

“We could go to Bali,” I say

“I’ve been to Bali There’s bugs.”

“There’s bugs everywhere.”

“Well I don’t need to live in Bali I can go back to Bali time I want I can go anywhere I want to go But I’m not going tomove I love the Bay Area It’s the most beautiful, perfect, holis-tic, organic, self-righteous place on the entire planet And theweather is sooo amazing No I won’t move.”

any-“We could live on a boat We could travel the world.”

“Why don’t you go live on a boat Go live on the moon.”

Fair enough She’s angry She says I must be guilty because if

I were innocent I would stay and fight the charges and clear myname I’ve told her it’s not like that The reality, I’ve told her, isthat our government has been hijacked by fascists, and they’vedecided to target entrepreneurs and wealthy people

“It’s the same thing the Russians did in Czechoslovakia,” Itell her

“Honey,” she says, “what you don’t know about vakia could fill volumes Anyway, I talked to Nancy Johnson

Czechoslo-46

Zack told her what you guys did You cooked the books.”

“We did not cook the books That is an absolute lie.”

“Well that’s what Nancy says.”

“And you believe her? Did Nancy also tell you that she eatsmeat? Did she tell you that? It’s true She sends away on theInternet for those Omaha steaks She cooks them when she’salone, when there’s no one around Zack caught her doing it.”

“Look,” Mrs Jobs says, “I’m not moving to Bali I’m not going to live on a boat like some fugitive If you want to go, go.”Obviously things are not going well Nevertheless I agree tomeet with the CIA guy that Tom Bowditch recommended We dothis at the Garden Court, in the penthouse, which the guy hasreserved under the name “Reinhardt.”

We set the meeting for midnight, and I park down the street,hoping to avoid being seen I enter through a side door, wearing

a bulky coat and a baseball cap—and I’m spotted right away, assoon as I walk into the lobby

“Good evening, Mr Jobs!” beams one of the well-scrubbedkids whose job, it seems, is simply to hang around in the lobbyand find ways to be annoying This one, whose badge declaresthat his name is brad, and that he hails from san francisco,

ca, holds the elevator door open for me and even offers to pushthe buttons for me I assure him I can do this myself

The elevator opens into a small foyer, opposite a door I ringthe bell My host is about sixty, lean and tall, with gray hair cutshort and the kind of anonymous, generically handsome face yousee on Lands’ End catalog models Khakis, button down shirt,navy blazer East Coast accent Extremely formal Offers me adrink I take a bottle of water He’s having Scotch

He introduces himself as Matt Matt the part-time spy andpart-time male model, I think I assume that Matt is not this guy’sreal name He doesn’t mention credentials, and to be sure, Tomhasn’t said explicitly that this guy is with the CIA, but I figure

that must be where he’s from There’s no small talk, no chit-chat,

no discussion of my circumstances The television is turned onand tuned to a Lakers game, with the volume turned up high—aprecaution, I suppose

“It’s good we’re talking now,” he says, as we sit down acrossfrom each other in leather chairs “Because as you can probablyimagine, the sort of arrangement you’re looking for can take a bit

of time to set up It’s also expensive.”

“How much?”

“If you have to ask, don’t bother This is last resort kind

of stuff.”

“Just give me a number.”

“Five hundred million at the low end Triple that is morelikely in your case More depending on how many family mem-bers are involved Before you complain, remember what you’reasking for Remember what happens to anyone who gets caughthelping you.”

I suggest to him that it really would be much easier and muchless expensive simply to have certain key people, for exampleZack Johnson, terminated

“Terminated?” He acts as if he doesn’t understand

“Terminated,” I say, “with extreme prejudice.”

He sits for a moment “We don’t do stuff like that,” he says,and gives me this look that lets me know I’m lower than whaleshit for even mentioning it “Anyway, from what I understandabout your situation, terminating people isn’t going to solve yourproblem There are records Paper documents Material on harddrives and tape backup systems.”

I suggest that we could start a fire We could burn down theApple campus “We’ve got insurance.”

He tells me he’s sorry but this is not the conversation he camehere to have The conversation he is here to have involves the insand outs of how I disappear without leaving a trace Easiest thing

is to go on vacation and stage my own death Heart attack worksbest Accidental drowning isn’t bad either, he says Taking thefamily is an option, but it will cost me.

He goes on for a while, like a travel agent pitching tions and package deals, explaining things about passports andpaperwork, transportation and housing, front companies and pri-vate jets

destina-“So,” he says, wrapping up, “lots to think about, right?”

“You might say that.”

“You know how to reach me,” he says, and shows me to thedoor

The whole meeting takes less than half an hour

“ W h a t ’d I t e l l yo u ? ” Larry says “It’s a government down, plain and simple Either they make you pay a fine, or theycharge you up the ass to get you out of the country Either way,the fuckers in the government get paid Bottom line is, you’ve gotmoney, and the government wants it.”

shake-Strictly speaking I’m not supposed to tell anyone about themeeting with Matt But I need to talk to someone and Larry isthe closest thing I’ve got to a friend It’s two in the morning andI’m at his Zen palace I knew he’d be awake Larry’s like a vam-pire He stays up all night and goes to bed at dawn He sleeps in

an oxygen-enriched room, which he claims gives him as muchrest in four hours as a normal person gets in eight

We’re sitting in his home theater When I arrived he was

watching 9 1 ⁄ 2 Weeks with his girlfriend Now he’s sent her away

but the movie is still playing, with the sound off Kim Basinger iscrawling around on her hands and knees

Larry says he’s surprised that they won’t even consider killingZack He offers to make a few calls for me on this I shake myhead He passes me the bong He’s smoking this incredible redbud dipped in hash oil

“Look,” he says, “before you go all weird and radical andstart thinking about disappearing off the face of the earth, haveyou at least considered meeting with Doyle?”

“I’m having urinal cakes made up with Doyle’s face on them Did I tell you that? I found a place in San Leandro that makesthem.”

“Go talk to him See what he’ll settle for.”

“The guy wants my head on a plate.”

“Correction The guy wants to be governor So give himwhat he wants Let him win Let him be the big hero whobrought Steve Jobs to justice Admit you’re a bad guy, take yourpunishment, pay your fine Do some community service, pretend

to be sorry What do you care? If you’re smart you can turn

it into a publicity stunt and end up coming out of it better thanyou went in Plead guilty, pay a fine, go back to running yourcompany Fuckface can go run for governor and get his asskicked by Arnold I guarantee you the whole thing will cost a lot less than a billion dollars I mean, what’s at stake here? How much are they saying you made on these options? Twentymillion bucks? So pay triple damages, sixty million, and throw inforty more as a tip for Attorney Shithead, and you’re talking ahundred million You can find that in the cushions of yourcouch.”

“Uh huh.” I’m kind of distracted by the weed Or maybe bywatching Kim Basinger with no clothes on I’d forgotten how hotKim Basinger used to be I’m trying to remember if I dated her Ithink I might have

“One thing I do know,” Larry says, “is that no way couldyou go live on an island and not do any work You’d go nuts.Hey.” He snaps his fingers in front of my face “You there? Canyou hear me?”

It takes me a long time to formulate a response

“Dude,” I say, “this stuff is amazing.”

Th i s t i m e w h e n we v i s i t the U.S Attorney’s office we gostraight to the conference room This time it’s just Doyle andPoon versus Bobby and me No assistants.

“So you wanted to talk,” Doyle says

“No bagels this time?” I say “No small talk?”

He gives me a tight smile Bobby DiMarco has told me inadvance to let him do all the talking, especially because last time

I managed to antagonize Doyle and Poon so much that theyalmost refused to take this meeting But then Bobby starts talkingand he’s just blabbering on, going mwah mwah mwah aboutabout certain inducements and opportunities and risk assess-ments and benefits versus costs, and then Doyle starts doing thesame thing back, and it must be some kind of lawyer-speakbecause they both really seem to be getting off on it

Finally I just can’t take it anymore and I go, “Look, can weplease just speak English? This is very simple All I want to do iswork It’s the only thing that makes me happy I don’t care aboutmoney This problem that I’m having with you idiots is a distrac-tion I just want to make it go away I don’t want to have to seeyou again Okay? Nothing personal But I’m busy All I want toknow is how much it will cost to make that happen.”

Doyle says it’s really not as simple as just walking in here andbuying my way out of trouble

“It’s not like paying a traffic ticket,” Poon says

“Sure it is, Poontang And here’s an offer Whatever profitsyou frigtards think I made that were inappropriate, I’ll give them

47

back Plus I’ll pay a fine of one hundred million dollars I’ll admitwrongdoing I’ll do community service.”

“Wait, wait!” Bobby’s in a panic He turns to Doyle “We’reoff the record, right? That’s not an official offer.”

“It is official,” I say “I’m sick of this shit.”

Doyle sits there smiling I guess he’s amused to see DiMarcounable to control his client

“So?” I say

Doyle says he appreciates my candor, and he’s glad that I’veadmitted to doing something wrong, but as he said before, thisisn’t a problem that I can make go away by paying a fine

“We’ve been talking with Zack Johnson,” Poon says “Webelieve there may be more to this case than we realized We’reconvening a grand jury.”

I ask them how much money they think I could have madethat I shouldn’t have made They both say they have no idea

“If you have no idea,” I say, “then what are you hassling mefor? It’s like arresting me for stealing a car, but saying you don’tknow which car I stole Like, you’ll figure that out later, afteryou’ve got me convicted.”

“We’re not going to get pushed into settling on a number,”Poon says

“Well, let me help you My team figures it’s about twentymillion,” I say “I’ve offered to pay a fine that’s five times thatamount.”

“And as we told you,” Doyle says, “it’s not that simple.”

“So how about this How about I pay a fine of one billiondollars?”

Bobby gasps

“You can’t just buy your way out of trouble,” Doyle says

“He’s right,” Bobby says “And there’s no way you’re givingaway a billion dollars.”