AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He started the company not long after leaving university. You know that Mack Hart created New Zealand’s fastest supercomputer?”
“Yes, I knew that.”
“Well, Titus works with him in developing Artificial Intelligence. At the moment they’re also working with Elizabeth on an IVF project. Something to do with using AI to choose the best embryos or something. Elizabeth did explain it to me, but it went a bit over my head.”
My brother’s fiancée, Elizabeth Tremblay, is a chemist who runs her own pharmaceutical company. He told me about her IVF project the last time I talked to him, a few weeks ago. “Didn’t they get an offer of some serious funding from an English company?”
“Yeah,” Chrissie says, “and they wanted Elizabeth to move to the UK and head the project from there, but she decided not to go. That’s why Titus is over there. He’s meeting with the company to discuss it.”
I blink. “Wait, what? He’s here, in England?”
“Yeah,” Chrissie says. “Sorry, I assumed you knew.”
“No! I had no idea. Where is he?”
“Don’t know. London, I’m guessing. When Elizabeth turned Acheron down—that’s the name of the pharmaceutical company—they asked Titus if he’d spearhead the project instead. They want him to move there for two years, but obviously he has his own company to run, so I guess he’s trying to talk them out of it while keeping the money.”
“How much is the funding?” Evie asks.
“Oliver said it was five hundred million dollars,” I reply.
“Wow. That’s a lot to turn down. Mind you, I think he’s a billionaire. He could just pay for it himself.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Chrissie says, amused. “He’s like Dad and Hux—a lot of their money is tied up in stocks and shares. Besides which, I think Acheron is promising more funding if the research goes well.”
“Hence Titus’s trip, I guess,” Evie says.
“I still don’t understand why he wants to talk to me,” I comment.
Evie shrugs. “You might be the only person he knows over there.”
“I doubt it,” Chrissie says. “He’s got a lot of connections. All joking aside, he’s big news in the AI industry. Have you heard ofAtamai Tuatahi?” When we shake our heads, she continues, “It’s the Aotearoa AI Summit. It features leading industry speakers, panel discussions, all that kind of thing. It’s a huge event.”
“He went to it?” I ask.
“He was the keynote speaker last year.”
“Oh.” Now I’m impressed.
“He also spoke at a conference on Robotics and AI in Melbourne, another one in Toronto, and the AI Summit in Seoul. He’s big news in the industry.”
“Didn’t you snog him at Hux’s twenty-first?” Evie wants to know.
I blush. “Might have. That was a long time ago, though, before he became so intimidating.”
“He’s not that scary,” Evie says. “I chatted to him at Mack’s wedding on the yacht. He got drunk, knocked over Mack’s grandmother’s wine glass, then fell asleep and snored for the rest of the night. They left him there when everyone went to bed, and he was still there in the morning, apparently, covered in dew.”
I chuckle. “Sounds like he needed a rest.”
“He works hard,” Chrissie says. “Twelve to fourteen-hour days usually, like Mack.”
“So what’s he like?” I ask curiously. “I remember him being really tall and kinda gorgeous.”
“He’s still tall and gorgeous,” Evie says with a smile. “He plays a lot of rugby.”
“Didn’t he trial for the Auckland Blues at university?”
“Yeah. They wanted to sign him, but he said no because he thought it’d take him away from his studies.”
