Page 2 of The Focal Point

“Go home. Eat dinner with Fred. We’ll all be working long hours when we launch the new product next month, so get it in now while you can.”

Another raspy chuckle. “Fred likes when I stay out of his hair. You know that.”

“Gloria—go. Home,” I repeated, enunciating each word. “I’ll call the building and have them turn off the power to your office if you don’t.”

“Oh, all right.” My assistant heaved a sigh. “I’ll log off in a few minutes.”

“You better keep your word.”

“I will. See you tomorrow, Liam.”

“See you tomorrow, Gloria.”

The smile on my face was one of fondness as I touched the button on the screen to disconnect the call. I didn’t want the older woman to work too hard, but I also didn’t know what I would do without Gloria. She kept me on schedule and on task when my absentmindedness and lack of attention would have me fixated on a single piece of code for hours at a time. When I started my company, I’d missed several meetings with important investors for just that reason. With the possibility of failure hanging over my head, I’d immediately hired an assistant. And so it had been between Gloria and me ever since.

The front door opened just as I closed the car door, and a black-and-brown shape came barreling out of it at me. A German shepherd puppy, all awkward angles, baby fur, and floppy ears, jumped up and put his paws on my chest, his tongue lolling with a happy grin.

“Hey, Scout,” I laughed, scratching the puppy’s head.

“Scout! No!” The shout, too late to do much of anything, came from the guy running after the puppy.

The German shepherd flopped his head to the side to glance at his owner, but he didn’t move from his position. I had to gently replace his paws on o the ground as Tom grabbed hold of his collar.

“I see the training is going well.”

Tom rolled his eyes. “He’s too smart for his own good. He knows what he’s supposed to do and performs perfectly for the trainer. And then he gives me one look and does his own thing the rest of the time.”

I laughed and gave the puppy, more an adolescent now, another scratch on the head. “Good boy.”

“Annoying pain in the ass,” Tom groused.

Scout ran off as soon as we were in the house, though I didn’t know where to, and Tom sighed as he shut the door, sagging against it for a moment. “He’s driving me nuts.”

“Regret adopting him?” I asked, but I knew Tom, and he would never give an animal up.

Indeed, a small smile curved at his mouth as he straightened and pushed away from the door. “Nah. He drives me up the wall, but he’s my buddy.”

I smacked him on the shoulder. “Are you going to show me the prototype?”

“Do you have to ask?”

He didn’t, really. Thomas Kinnear and I had been best friends since elementary school, two odd kids who didn’t quite fit in and had somehow found one another. We had been through everything together, ups and downs, failures and triumphs, and I knew his house as well as I knew my own. I still followed Tom as he led me to the kitchen.

“I installed the pad here since families spend so much time here. I figured it was the best place to put it, although the fully functional product will have a portable touch screen.”

Tom indicated a tablet-like device on the counter of the island. A swipe brought the screen to life, and he flipped through the various displays.

“Here you have the monitor for each room—heart rate, oxygen level, status.”

I saw Tom and myself indicated on the screen, another presence flickering in and out of different rooms—Scout—but there was a fourth indicator, too. Before I could ask, Tom continued his presentation.

“I obviously haven’t been able to test its full capability personally, but it will monitor anyone in the house for abnormalities—erratic heartbeats, heart attacks, unusual activity that could be a seizure, oxygen levels dropping, and even falls or fainting episodes.”

Tom turned to me, an enormous grin on his face. “Reports for our prototypes have accuracy at 95 percent, and development thinks it can up that to 97 or 98 percent before our release next month.”

“Wow, Tom, that’s amazing.” And I truly meant it. I had seen the health monitoring system first on paper as a rough idea, then the tech aspects as it had passed to development and our engineers. And here it was, even better than I could have imagined. And it had all been Tom’s idea. I clapped him on the shoulder so hard he jerked forward, but his grin only grew. “Seriously, amazing. This is going to save so many lives.”

“Yeah, absolutely.” I was surprised to see a slight flush creeping over my oldest friend’s face. “No watches to wear or charge up, no forgetting a device somewhere. Just constant monitoring and nearly-instant response from emergency.”