Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future

Author:Ed Finn & Kathryn Cramer [Finn, Ed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780062204707
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-09-08T20:00:00+00:00

GAJADHAR MISTRY HAD BLOW-DRIED silver-gray hair that made him look like the uncle character in a Bollywood thriller. But other than that, he still had the body of a much younger man, muscles showing that he regularly worked out with his personal fitness trainer. He wore a T-shirt and jeans. When you’re a billionaire who owns top-end hotels in twenty countries, apparently you don’t care what anybody thinks of how you dress.

“My friends tell me that I should talk with you,” Mistry said. “So, tell me. Why should I talk with you?”

“I want to tell you about an idea—”

“Yes, yes.” Mistry waved his hands. “You want to build a space colony. I read the package you put together. It’s crazy.”

Zak interrupted. “It’s not a crazy idea. The space colony is just an example. It’s about a self-sustaining biosphere to live in a hostile environment. Antarctica—”

Mistry raised a hand. “I have no problem with crazy ideas. The fact that your ideas are crazy is not a downside for me, Mr. Cerny—” He broke off. “Mr. Cerny, that’s formal, and I am not a formal kind of guy. May I call you Izak?”

“Just Zak.”

“Zak. Excellent. Please call me Jerry. Now, Zak. Your ideas are crazy. Antarctica! Space hotels! Crazy indeed. But I like crazy ideas. I will let you convince me. And maybe your idea is not so completely crazy at all.”

“It’s not.”

“Let me tell you,” Mistry said. “I have made a small fortune building luxury hotels catering to the extreme tourism market. My first hotel was for the jungle-trekking tourists, in Chiang Mai. You already knew that? Ah, you’ve read my book. Excellent, I see you do your homework. Tourists love elephants.” He waved his hand at the wall of the office. It was covered with photos taken at his various hotels, half of them featuring wild animals, with tourists on elephants in two of them. “The hotel in Chiang Mai was built on the backs of elephants—not literally, of course. Everybody loves elephants. Wonderful beasts. Penguins, now—I expect that some people would pay something to frolic with penguins, yes. And skiing, of course. Especially when it is summer in Japan and America.

“Now. Space colonies I have no interest in. But Antarctica? Crazy, but maybe crazy in a good way. Crazy the way I like.”

Mistry leaned back in his chair and folded his hands together, fingertips to fingertips. “But my question is, why should I talk to you? You already gave me your idea.”

Zak started to object, but Mistry raised his hand for silence again. “Yes, you gave it to me. Ideas can’t be copyrighted. Once you sent me your package—thank you, and you have no ownership. I read your résumé. You have a physics degree from MIT, very impressive, you worked for several small technology businesses. Then you broke away to form your own company, which I see failed and went bankrupt in a most spectacular fashion. Now, maybe I like your idea. A hotel in Antarctica. I like the audacity.

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