Unter

When Laurel would actually tell me anything about her project, she would only tell me rudimentary things about it, as she had from the beginning. She did reveal, however, that XLT was not really developing a single application, but a prototype framework as a sort of 'software power tool' for use by others in applying it to their business models that involved online goods and services in many other applications.

The app framework would also allow for apps to be developed that offered selected individual customers a sort of priority, or "first dibs," on certain items or services provided by the company or other entity using the app. This capability also allowed these preferred members to opt out as well. This "first dibs" feature could be based on established priority to any given member, or based on his or her geographical proximity to the one soliciting the service or product. The GPS locator feature was particularly helpful in this regard.

XLT would receive royalties from every business, social group, or government entity that bought a license to use this app framework tool, or "application engine," for want of a better term. Of course, this would keep the intellectual property lawyers very busy and happy with all the work they were given by XLT in suing those entities that tried to infringe on the copyrighted and trademarked products developed by XLT.

XLT was calling this product and service Project Zirka; 'zirka' being the German word for 'about' or 'encircling.' When I asked her about that, Laurel informed me that the metaphor kept the basis for the app framework's name in a similar vein of that of the ever-increasingly-popular internet ride-share service called 'Uber' that was giving commercial taxi cab companies and independent taxi operators may cases of absolute conniption fits.

Apps and services like Uber, or those that would soon be using this new enhanced Zirka application framework that my wife was helping to develop, required the use of several of the emerging common technologies necessary to make this happen. They needed GPS navigation services, of course; Smartphones or other mobile devices; and a social network with reliable feedback capability. The last item was required in order to establish trust and accountability between customers and service providers. The app framework also required a secure network service to handle payment and to match client/service pairings for location, type match, and acceptable business practices.

Profiles for registered members would be set up to allow for either one-time transactions, recurrent transactions, or other custom forms of scheduled transactions.

The advantages of a web service such as the one that Zirka's app framework offered were readily apparent. The service or product provider could charge lower fees than a provider operating under the traditional business model could. Then, there were the added advantages of automatic billing, speed of transaction, ease of use, computer match of preferences and availability, and guaranteed privacy.

Well ... mostly. Once the transaction was under way, the client and the service or product provider would interface more closely; and, if the transaction involved personal interaction in any way, then they could become, if not acquainted, at least more aware of one another.

* * * *

The coincidence in the details of what my friend, Wick, was telling me now about this "pussy-trolling" app, and what my wife had been able to reveal to me a year ago about the Zirka Project, was simply getting to be too coincidental. My expression and 'tell me more' attitude encouraged him to continue.

"Okay," Wick went on, "for the Unter service's subscribers, modern technology allows them to 'hook up' with suitable companions, based on several parameters. The Unter subscriber is required to have a Smartphone or tablet computer using either the Apple of the Android interface. He or she needs GPS Navigation to be enabled on his or her phone.

"Now, I know this causes some heartburn with some of the folks concerned with privacy, since the device's location is somewhat exposed when the GPS service is set to the active mode. The user is also required to belong to the Unter social network online. This operates almost the same as the Google-Plus Circles." He glanced at me to see if I was absorbing what he was telling me; I nodded for him to continue.

"The Smartphone interface and navigation capability allow for quick matches based on geographical proximity at the appointed time of the planned rendezvous. The social network allows for establishing a profile with an optional picture, and a mandatory evaluation and feedback capability in order to establish mutually-agreed-upon-pricing, provisions for payment, some degree of trust, and accountability between customers and those who were providing the escort services.

"The rating scheme connected to the accountability feature involves a 'star' system that rates a rendezvous with from one to five stars for after the event," Wick said. "If you don't rate or provide feedback for an event, you will get locked out of any Unter scheduling services until you comply."

That cold tingling running down my spine as I listened now intensified. The similarities between the app capabilities that Wick was describing about this Unter service and the capabilities that my wife, Laurel, had attributed to the Zirka Project under development at XLT in the previous year, were simply uncanny. But, surely, Laurel and her company and their products would not be associated with an app that was this edgy; or pushing the envelope of legality.

* * * *

I'd voiced my initial observations to Laurel the previous year about her team's initial efforts to develop XLT's Zirka application framework using my very best 'Engineer Approach' to any problem that I encountered. She listened and processed what I was saying with her keen analytical mind. We even found that we saw things very much in a similar light. I guess the 'geeks that flock together' rule applied to my wife and me in the same way as the 'bird rule' applied.

Laurel actually began to capture and type some of the things we talked about in our early discussion of the Zirka Project while she sat at her keyboard. She told me that she appreciated my engineering and business insights into what she was now describing from a purely software development approach. She especially liked my recommendation for modules that mandated feedback from the consumers or users and considered premium services in the design and for recommending the feature that took advantage of such things as special event coverage.

For example, if the app using the Zirka Project framework involved an entertainment service, or ticket search-and-provide-or-swap service, then its business rules should consider a surcharge for premium members needing special consideration such as, for example, products, events, group needs, or services associated with calendar events, such as Christmas, Chanukah, New Year's Eve, and Kwanza; or even Saint Patrick's Day, West Point Founders Day, and Mardi Gras.

Premium membership might also come with the benefit of protection from surge pricing; for example, if NC State's basketball team, by some strange occurrence, were ever to resurrect the miracle year of 1983 and make it into the NCAA finals in March of any given year in the near future; ha, ha.

Possible problems that I saw in the apps based on the Zirka Project included the general lack of regulation of apps based on it, the potential for leaks of privacy information by insiders, and the need to provide protection from outside threats to the business. Cyber-Security is always a concern, especially with so much personally identifiable information, or PII, available to a determined cyber-criminal.

Also, old ways die hard. And they usually go down fighting. I reminded her of the legal and regulatory challenges that the taxi companies and independent cabs, or gypsy cabs, had thrown up all over the U.S. in protest, in order to try to keep Uber from taking down their way of life under the old commercial transportation model. Some commercial cab operators had even been known to vandalize the vehicles of those they identified or even suspected as Uber operators.

Use of this type of online mobile service was also rapidly becoming part of the repertoire of criminal enterprises. If the service or product was one that operated in that shady realm, I reminded Laurel that there would exist the constant threats from law-enforcement as well as threats from unsavory competition. This was especially true of those who carried on business in the new technology arena, but conformed to the 'old school' criminal model, including violently shutting down the competition through intimidation or elimination.

If anyone were deliberately, or even accidently, to start up an online enterprise that "moved into Carmine's turf," so to speak, he or she could probably count on a visit from "Salvatore and Guido." These days, though, they might even receive visits from "Ramon and Enrique," or even "Janos and Dmitri," with the expansion of criminal enterprises in America originating with Latin American and East European families.

In fact, ethnic gang activity was getting so bad these days that I laughingly told Laurel that I would not be surprised to see someone in a dark parking lot having to deal with "Sven, Lars, and Ragnar" any day now.

Then, there were issues of enforcement of safety for the network's members against violence, theft, or blackmail; as well as subpoenas during any litigation events that might spring up surrounding any unpleasant or perceived harmful outcomes to the use of the service.

* * * *

I now asked Wick, "So, tell me a bit about the service providers on the back end of this whole thing; the 'commodities' of this Unter business model; you know, the potential sex partners. Just how is the service able to keep so many of them available?"

Wick just about floored me at that point. He said, "The service providers are actually all local women and non-minor girls all over the country who subscribe to Unter as 'providers' as well as 'users.' They are either hot young professionals or hourly workers who do this to supplement their income; or maybe they are students trying to offset school expenses."

Then he really hit me with a figurative hammer. "Some of the service providers even fall into the category of bored, hot, or simply desperate housewives; looking to add a little spice to their lives; along with the income that comes from engaging in these types of ... uh ... social activities."

Wick continued, saying, "I asked around discreetly on Unter's web forum, and found out that there are also men out there offering themselves on this network as escorts to the business women that subscribe to the service. I even verified this by using the app's search engine; it allows for a variety of search parameters in its 'discovery' process.

"So," Wick asked me finally, "Do you want me to refer you, so that you could get in on the action; or at least see what kind of action is out there?"

I started to thank him and decline, thinking that I just could not do anything close to what he was suggesting. I was simply too happily married to want to stray while away from home on business. And, I did not want to do anything that could jeopardize my current and future happiness with Laurel.

But I was curious as well. I asked Wick, "I hear what you are saying about how this thing is supposed," finger quotes in the air, "to work. Just how does this whole thing really work out in practical terms? For example, how did you use your phone to get the services of a woman for the night here in Milwaukee, when you are really based out of North Carolina?"

Wick grinned and said, "The GPS feature in the phone informs the Unter app of my location and gives me notice of candidates within my current geographic proximity who are actively indicating online to the Unter service that they are available. I could also set the app to search for those who normally reside and operate within any particular geographic area in which I plan to be at some future point; whether they are online right now or not.

"Here's what the icon looks like." Wick then showed me the icon for the app he was using for this unique service. The icon appeared to be a square with rounded corners. Dead center was a large white capital letter "I" surrounded by a sea of blue (ironically, it was a Carolina Blue, the primary color of NC State's college rivals at UNC).

Wick told me, "Normally the color around the Yota symbol is black. It only turns blue, as it is now, whenever a heterosexual contract is in place between two consenting parties, with a male seeking female companionship."

I was momentarily confused. I asked him, "What does the Star Wars character, Yoda, have to do with the design of the icon for the app?"

Wick laughed and said, "Dude; that is the Greek letter Iota, and is generally pronounced as 'Yota.'"

Wick continued to inform me, "The ladies that I have encountered so far as members in the Unter service use a very similar app, but the icon for them is black with the Greek letter Lambda centered in it. That is sort of an upside-down V. But, whenever one of the ladies is 'working,' her app background changes to a deep pink color, one that the ladies say is actually Hot Magenta. But, hey; Dude, for guys, pink is pink; know what I mean?

"And," Wick continued, "There is even an option for those that bat for either team. If they set up THAT kind of meeting, then their app icon is supposed to be some sort of rainbow design."

I had a sudden fleeting mental image of just what that might look like. At the moment, though, I was approaching the point of too much information. Wick added to that by saying, "I even read in the forum on the web site that you can set up for threesomes, or even more; all the way up to out-and-out orgies. In those cases, the number of the participants signed up to join in the scheduled event shows up along the lower edge of the app's icon."

I had heard enough now to begin to see that what Wick was showing me melded with what I already knew from my experiences with my wife, Laurel, and her company's efforts to help other partner companies develop their own specific apps for their niche industries.

"Let me give you one more example," Wick went on, "Suppose I wanted to set up a 'rendezvous' in the Raleigh area for this weekend." He then tapped the screen a couple of times as he gave me a running commentary.

"I simply enter one of the Zip codes for Raleigh ..." I saw Wick type in '27607' and tap the 'Search' hotspot.

Within fewer than fifteen seconds, his phone screen changed to reflect a list of more than ten candidates within a short five-mile drive radius from the New Bern Avenue post office in the western part of the city of Raleigh, right near where we lived in Cary.

Another clue to this mental 'melding' as I had called it to myself a few seconds earlier was the trademark disclaimer at the bottom of the search page that Wick had shown me. It stated its case plainly and clearly.

"Unter, Trademark ® Star Power Developers, Houston, TX; Zirka Application Framework, Trademark ® XLT Software, Cary, NC."

Wick took a sip of his drink a second later. Thus, he missed the look of recognition on my face as I noticed the details of one of the search 'hits' that was highlighted on his phone screen as it lay on the bar between us. It reflected the 'Nom de Noir' of one of the ladies available in the Raleigh/Cary area; one who was available for meeting someone for a discreet sexual rendezvous there tonight, while I was here drinking with my long-time friend at a bar in Milwaukee, hundreds of miles away.

The alias that I saw on Wick's phone screen, 'PackLover721,' was a perfect match to the email address 'PackLover721' at our home email domain dot com. That was one email address with which I was very, very familiar.

* * * *

Laurel's development team at XLT had begun their Zirka project by working with their software architects for a while and had then begun to develop generic modules that would be necessary once the overall architecture had been briefed to XLT's management team and approved. Then, the real development efforts began.

They would tie all of the app framework's interfaces in with the database server being used as the data back end by the company's database administrators, or DBAs. Then, with functionality and data connections in place, the graphic artists would take over to make a professional, but visually appealing user interface.

So, now the framework was in place and everyone could relax; right? Huh! If only ...! Not on your life! Phase Two of all the craziness would soon be under way.

Once the developers were satisfied with a beta version of the app framework, they began to extend invitations to development teams at other companies from all over the country. Then the actual app development carnival started, with everyone trying to out-do the other in providing desired goods and services with the best ease-of-use specific mobile apps that they could put out there; with XLT getting a slice of the pie from each of them for having developed the basic app framework engine behind all of their mobile service apps.

When Laurel started to become so deeply immersed in this new project, I objected to her about her coming home later when she worked with the XLT development team in person; and her staying at the console longer whenever she worked from home. I had specifically complained when I noticed our sex life begin to suffer.

Laurel appeared to take my complaints to heart for a while. This was during the lull between the issuance of the Zirka framework and the point where other companies would become familiar enough with Zirka that they would begin to develop their own service apps that used it.

That lull lasted only about two months.

And now, the partnering software development companies with teams who desired to use the XLT Zirka framework had begun to seek out and engage XLT, requesting one of the initial development team members to help with their own newly emerging apps and services more often. That meant even more time during which Laurel was engaged in work-related requirements that seemed to eat into our seemingly collapsing window of time together during any given week.

"Oh, Grady, Honey," said Laurel to me after we had just finished having sex for the first time in the two weeks that she had been heavily engaged with one of the customer development teams. "I know that things are hectic right now. But they will get better soon -- I promise." She nuzzled my ear and licked it seductively in an attempt to hurry my recovery process along for a possible second round of lovemaking.

"Come on, Laurel," I said, but not harshly. "I might have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night. You and I both know that this new software framework of yours is a potential gold mine for XLT. As such, they are going to milk it for all it's worth. And if that means hanging all of you developers out to dry in an effort to get as much return from it as possible, then so be it. I just know that they are putting together enough of a portfolio in order to go public within the next year or so."

No, I had not heard anything definitive about XLT's actual plan for an IPO. But, as a practicing Industrial Engineer, consulting with new companies and their processes and motivations all the time, I was very familiar with the aspirations and maneuverings within the typical management circles of these types of companies. And XLT was beginning to conform almost exactly to that model these days.

"Well," Laurel said as she began to lick below my ear along my jaw line, "I don't know about IPOs and things like that. But I do know that my supervisor, Jerry, has promised me that this heavy schedule should settle down for all of us in just a little bit; that is right after we deal with all these Newlies who are using Zirka to get their apps into initial development."