Sanskrit Cipher: A Marina Alexander Adventure Read online

  His landing as CEO at EcoDraft | HydroPure only three years ago had been the high point of his career thus far. And now he was about to take the next step, propelling the company he ran into the next phase…a phase that would cause profits to skyrocket, market share to explode, and, most certainly and in short order, result in an IPO that would make him almost as rich as Jeff Bezos.

  All because of an article he’d read while stranded on a plane with a laptop he’d dropped just before boarding and, to top it off, with no Wi-Fi on the flight. The computer was toast, and without Wi-Fi, he couldn’t even use his phone. That left him with little to do but flip through the flight magazines one of the attendants brought him, because it was a short trip that offered no in-flight entertainment.

  And it was then he’d happened upon a benign article about glacier ice melt.

  Even today, after twenty months of secret maneuvering, careful negotiation, and a lot of under-the-radar scientific testing, he was still keeping a lid on the most important move he’d ever make in his career. He was going to take this company to the stratosphere, but only three people knew of his plans. And of those three, one was his wife.

  One of the other two, Hedron Burik, was going to be in the room when Schleuter announced his plans to the rest of the executive staff at EcoDraft.

  His admin buzzed through on the intercom: “Mr. Schleuter, Mr. Burik has arrived. The rest of them are in the conference room.”

  “Thank you, Hailey.”

  He smiled to himself, checked the mirror to ensure that his wispy frizzle of hair was as flat as he could make it, and tightened his five-hundred-dollar tie. Let’s do this.

  “Good afternoon, everyone,” Schleuter said as he and Burik strode into the conference room.

  The seven members of his executive team were seated around the long table, all facing the screen where he would eventually show them the numbers and the potential explosion of growth they could expect with the new product that was going to blow their minds.

  But he wasn’t going to begin with a slide presentation, because he’d dared not put any of the strategies and information in writing anywhere. Having been a corporate spy himself (that had been the launch pad that moved him from director of product development at Helmsley Corp to vice president of operations at Wherring Industries), he knew that the best way to keep secrets was to keep them in one place: inside his brain.

  The numbers, once he showed them to his team, would mean nothing without the background and backdrop of his brilliant idea.

  He smiled expansively at everyone, taking note of the curiosity about his companion. Instead of introducing him, however, Schleuter said, “Everyone comfortable? Have something to drink? There’s coffee, tea, soda… Please, help yourselves. This is going to be intense.”

  There was a low-key nervous chuckle among the executives, as if they weren’t sure whether to believe him or not, and since Schleuter hadn’t told them the purpose of the meeting or even its topic, he could understand their trepidation.

  Good. That meant they’d be listening closely…and what he told them would be a pleasant surprise.

  Once everyone was settled again, their seven pairs of eyes trained expectantly on him, Schleuter began to speak. He took his time, wanting to paint the picture and bring them along with him.

  “Do you all remember when I first started here at EcoDraft and I dropped my laptop? Broke the damned thing just before I got on the plane from Cleveland to New York.” He smiled as he looked around the room. “Ron, I know I gave you an earful about it, didn’t I?”

  His executive VP of legal affairs chuckled, nodding. “As I recall, you blamed yourself for your ham hands about three minutes, then went on to bitch about the airline not having Wi-Fi on that particular flight. About thirty minutes later, I finally escaped and went into a meeting about a potential lawsuit—and I considered myself lucky.”

  The others in the room chuckled—a little less nervously this time.

  “Well, as it turns out, that very frustrating moment was the impetus for some extremely exciting information I’m going to share with you today. Because while I was stuck on that damned puddle-jumper, I had only a few magazines to look through. And one of them was a National Geographic that had an article about glacier melt.”

  Schleuter smiled, watching the way his audience reacted to this news. Glacier melt equaled water, and EcoDraft was, of course, a beverage company.

  Cynthia Belcher, his chief marketing officer, tilted her head sharply, her eyes narrowing with interest.

  Bradley Wisniewski, the EVP of operations, sat up straight and stopped fiddling with the stylus for his tablet.

  Warren Ott, director of logistics, put down his coffee cup.

  And so on.

  “Did you know that the melting glaciers have a number of interesting characteristics?” Schleuter went on, spinning his tale like a bedtime story. “Not only are they melting faster due to climate change, but they are also revealing some very interesting things. Yes, I know, everyone is interested in what’s being exposed in the Arctic by the melting glaciers—the electronics companies are all salivating at gaining control of the land up there so they can mine for the rare earth metals required to manufacture our tablets and phones and computers…” He made his smile a little crafty, a little condescending. “But we’re not an electronics company, so we’re not going to be in that battle. I’ll leave that to Elon Musk and his ilk.”

  Jon Parker, the product development VP, relaxed a little, and Schleuter smiled at him. “No, you have nothing to worry about, Jon—we’re not going to expand into making digital watches or gadgets or anything like that.”

  Again, the members around the table laughed lightly. Some of them glanced at Hedron Burik again, and Schleuter smiled to himself. He could see the curiosity growing in their eyes, and he was close to reeling them in.

  “No, we’re going stick with what makes us who we are now—the number one premier bottled-water company in the world. The Evians, the Fijis…all the rest of them might have a larger market share in the high-end bottled-water market—right now, anyway—but we’re about to blow them away.” Schleuter didn’t spare even a moment of thought to the ridiculousness of their collective pitch—“the high-end bottled-water market.” The very concept was ludicrous—how was water, a plentiful natural resource, ever “high-end” in First World countries?

  Yet EcoDraft had that special flair, that sense of elan, that element of style that made it worth spending five U.S. dollars for a twelve-ounce plastic bottle.

  A plastic bottle that, EcoDraft | HydroPure claimed, was made from fully recycled material and was compostable. Another ludicrous assertion, but, by Jove, it worked. The eco-sensitive and greenies all bought EcoDraft compostable bottled water in droves.

  And that was why Schleuter no longer flinched internally when he talked about the high-end bottled-water market. Because the public would buy anything you wanted them to—as long as you sold it to them.

  “Along with the accelerated glacier melt in the Arctic exposing landmass or ocean floor that will be prime real estate for mining rare earth metals like terbium and cerium, there are also other interesting consequences of the melt.

  “For example, there have been instances of fossils and other archaeological finds, such as burial and home sites. Fascinating for those who have interest in anthropology, which doesn’t include EcoDraft except relative to how man acts, reacts, and lives his—or her—daily life…so we can better learn how to appeal to the buy, buy, buy gene!”

  Another little patter of laughter.

  “A quite interesting outcome of the rapidity of glacier melt is that there are also new—or perhaps one should say old—bacteria being revealed and released by the melt. Bacteria that are unique and unknown to science because they’ve been trapped within the glacier and inert or otherwise inaccessible for millennia.

  “With all of this in mind, imagine what these melting glaciers might reveal that could change our w
orld…change the way we live…change the way we age.” Schleuter knew his eyes were sparkling by now, and he saw the same spark of interest beginning to flare in that of his team. “It could change our health—for the worse, if these bacteria are dangerous—or, more interestingly, change our health for the better. To improve it.”

  He removed the piece of paper that had been blocking the light of the projector, instantly revealing the image of his brainchild.

  The words on the slide said: GlacierDraft HealthH20

  The container was gorgeous—stylized almost like a bottle of Willett’s—or like the djinni’s bottle in I Dream of Jeannie, which Schleuter remembered fondly from after-school viewing as a child. Made from plastic (compostable, of course, as all EcoDraft water bottles purported to be, and oftentimes actually were) of a clear, faintly aqua blue, the bottom third bulged out like a flat turnip bulb while the neck stood straight up, tapering slightly toward the top. But what made the packaging so stunning was the texture of the plastic itself: the bulbous bottom had divots in a pattern that made the bottle look like cut crystal glass, while the neck was striated up and down. There were slender rings around it that separated the two different textures, adding a tastefully decorative element to an already stunning package with a sort of Far Eastern look to it.

  Schleuter waited while the others in the room took in the image and all of its detail. Even Jon Parker, who managed all elements of product packaging, hadn’t previously seen the image, although one of his staff had designed it without knowing what it was for.

  “It’s a stunning package. But that’s going to be ridiculous to produce—and stocking it on the shelves will be a nightmare. The base is too big and the grocers won’t allow that much shelf space,” said Warren. “For bottled water?” He scoffed, shaking his head. “So what’s the pitch, Allen?”

  Schleuter had been waiting for this. He was surprised they hadn’t put it together yet, even with the way he’d built the narrative. Although Cynthia was smiling a little—she probably got it. She had the most vision of anyone on the executive team, which was why she was so good at her job.

  “I’m pleased to announce that EcoDraft is about to finalize a contract with the government of a small region near the Pangong mountains in what’s called Little Tibet to bottle the water sluicing from the melting Tazhnev Glacier. Exclusively bottle the water, I mean to say,” he went on, well aware of the dramatics of his presentation.

  Princeton Fairmont, the CFO, wasn’t convinced. “All right, so we’re going to sell glacier melt as drinking water…so what? That’s been done countless times over. Springs, glaciers, whatever you want to call the source…that’s old news. Even if we put it in a bottle like that, no one’s going to pay whatever it’s going to cost for us to produce that. The economies of scale will destroy us—we’d have to sell it for ten U.S. dollars a sixteen-ounce bottle to make any money.”

  “Oh, but this water is special, Prince,” Allen said. “Remember what I said about the melting glaciers revealing unknown bacteria? Well, this particular meltwater has a colloidal compound in it that not only contains a unique type of electrolyte that is beneficial to humans, but also collagen enhancing—a natural, vegan collagen support! The greenies will love that!—as well as additional antibacterial minerals like copper and silver. All in trace amounts, of course, so as not to be of a concern for the FDA. And it all occurs naturally. And we are going to have the exclusive rights to bottle and sell this miracle water. The cleanest, purest, healthiest, most age-defying water in the world.”

  The room was silent as the members of his team digested this information.

  He glanced at Burik, who was watching with a satisfied smile. If it hadn’t been for him and his connections, Allen wouldn’t be here making this announcement.

  Then the questions came like the pounding of hail in a storm—or like the ones he knew he’d be facing at the future press announcement.

  “Is it safe?” was the first one. From Ron, the lawyer, of course.

  “Absolutely. Even in large quantities. The makeup of these inorganic colloids in the water is balanced and safe to ingest in high quantities—high quantities meaning,” he went on before the question could be asked, “up to twenty ounces a day, every day, indefinitely.”

  “And this unique electrolyte…what exactly is it supposed to do—and what claims are we going to make?” asked Ron, obviously with his legal hat still firmly in place.

  “Brings extra oxygen to the blood while assisting with detoxifying the organs. It’s like a flush, if you will, a—”

  “Like a douche for the entire body,” said Warren. Everyone laughed, and Schleuter was pleased to see that they were on his side.

  He was gratified that they were—as a whole, as a body, as a team—on his side in this concept. Intrigued, curious, and, he saw, greedy.

  That was precisely what he was hoping for.

  “The vegan collagen support…that’s going to be huge,” said Cynthia. “When can I get a sample?” She preened exaggeratedly.

  Again, the room erupted with laughter, and Schleuter replied smoothly, “Not that you need to worry about that, Cyn, but I’ll make sure you get a generous supply delivered to your office. Then you can try it out for yourself and report back on the skin glow and firming, hair growth, and energy. Oh, yes, I know the benefits of collagen. You’re not the only person who wants to protect her youthful beauty.” He indicated his homely self, knowing that would cause another round of laughter. And it did.

  “In all seriousness, folks, let me just say that we are about to embark on an entirely new take on the bottled-water market. We’re going to bring to the market a way to improve health and vitality—naturally and, more importantly, exclusively—in the most basic, wholesome way.” Schleuter smirked. “And people are going to pay for it. They’re going to pay for this fountain of youth elixir. Hence the high-end packaging.”

  Warren said, “I notice it has a sort of Oriental look to it—”

  “Not Oriental,” Cynthia said. “Don’t use that word. It’s very outdated and not PC. We say Asian or—in this case, it looks almost like it was inspired by Hindu or even Muslim art?” She looked at Allen with a raised brow.

  “Indeed.”

  “We’ll have to take care not to be accused of cultural appropriation,” she went on, but she was making notes on her tablet’s attached keypad with the clickety-click of her long pink nails.

  “No worries there,” Allen told her. “The glacier melt is being collected in the mountains that border northern India, Nepal, and Tibet. Ladakh, India, is the name of the region—also known as Little Tibet.”

  “Oh, great—we’re going to have to deal with the Chinese, then,” said Ron.

  “Our contract is with the lieutenant governor of one of the regions of India, so China is not involved.”

  “Yet,” Ron said cynically. “They’ve always got their noses in everything over there related to Tibet and Nepal. It’ll only be a matter of time—”

  “We’ve kept this under the radar for over a year now,” Schleuter said. “And one of the most important elements of our contract with the government official is the complete and utter secrecy of the agreement. The source of our special elixir— I like that term; maybe we should make that part of the marketing campaign? Or even the product name? Can you work up some ideas, Cyn?”

  “Already on it. I like trying for a play on ‘fountain of youth,’ too,” she said. “Because ‘elixir’ might sound too…magical or witchy-like. Or, you know, medievally alchemical. Or even juvenile, like Harry Potter.”

  Schleuter nodded. “You’ll figure it out. I leave that in your capable hands. As I was saying—of paramount importance to our agreement and the launch of this product is the complete and utter secrecy of the arrangement. We cannot allow anyone to learn of the source of our special elixir—for obvious reasons—and at the same time, the entity with whom we’re making the contract is likewise intent on secrecy. It would cause great politic
al upheaval in the region—as well as with their own people, who rely on the glacial ice melt for their own farming and ranching—should anyone learn of the diversion of that water stream. Therefore, I will not, at this time, divulge the precise location of our source. And even after the contracts have been executed, that information will be confidential and on a need-to-know basis.”

  He looked around the room and saw agreeable nods, lights of interest, and the blank-eyed look of mental calculations and estimations. Good. Just as he’d expected.

  “Would you all like to try the water?” he said, beaming. Without waiting for the positive reactions—of course they all wanted to taste the miracle water—he buzzed the intercom to the anteroom. “Hailey, bring in the glass pitchers—the cut glass ones on the side table there.”

  He watched with delight as his executive team poured, examined, tasted, and swished as if they were sampling a fine vintage of wine.

  Jon put his glass down. “It tastes different,” he said. “It really does—I admit, I wasn’t expecting much of anything, but this is really… It’s different.”

  Cynthia nodded. “Agreed. It’s very crisp and clean, with the slightest metallic hint—but in a pleasing way. And I even get a little floral on the back end. Anyone else?”

  “Definitely a little earthy—that’s the metallic part, I think,” said Princeton. “And yes, a hint of sweetness, even—and there’s a sort of different body to it. You know? It’s…difficult to explain, but it’s lighter without being effervescent?”

  “Oh, yes, you’ve noticed one of my favorite elements of the water—it has microscopic bubbles in it which gives it that effervescentness—is that a word, Cyn?—without being bubbly or giving you added gas.” Schleuter lifted his own glass and admired the way the light filtered through it, spreading through the unique makeup of the water in a subtle kaleidoscope of color. “The first time I tasted this, I knew it was something different. I knew it would blow the market wide open.” He raised the glass to his team, but it was Burik to whom he gave a brief nod. Thanks to the man who would make his career. “Cheers.”