“I didn’t think that we should sell, but I wasn’t technically one of the founders, so I didn’t get a say. I decided to stay on after the company sold, and after a year, we had almost two hundred people on staff. There was a little bit of everything from other programmers to environmental engineers to scientists. They helped us collect data and analyze previous fires.”

“What exactly does SureFired do?” asked Claire.

“Oh, right, sorry. Using all this data, along with information about wind patterns, dryness, topography and stuff, we could predict how the fires would spread, and what areas were most vulnerable. It can tell firefighters where to work, and most importantly, it’s supposed to give people a warning as to when they need to evacuate.”

“That is so cool, Marty!”

“Thanks.” He smiled. “After a while, I ended up getting promoted to manager.”

A swell of pride grew in Claire’s chest. “That’s so impressive.”

“Thank you.” He let out a sigh. “The firm that bought us wasn’t happy with our progress, though. We needed more time to make sure what we were doing made sense. We needed to test it with real fires and watch them play out. We definitely didn’t have the capability to accurately warn people – not yet.

“But the new CEO didn’t care. He secured a contract with the US government to sell them the technology, and he promised to have it ready for the wildfire season this year, this April. He said it would save money in firefighting, in damages, and in productivity, because people wouldn’t evacuate needlessly. He completely oversold it.”

Claire was familiar with the short-sighted policies that often occurred in large companies. “I see.”

He took another bite of the meal, talking with his mouth full. “I mean, this was a huge deal, and they stood to lose millions. Once that deal was made public, a private equity firm swooped in and offered to buy the company for a billion dollars. So, of course, the CEO didn’t want to hear that it wasn’t ready. He didn’t care if it would put firefighters and regular people in more danger than ever. I got into an argument with him and told him that if he didn’t slow down, he was going to get people killed.”

Claire was perched at the edge of her seat. “What did he say?”

“Nothing. The next thing I knew, I was accused of sending emails to China from my work account, trying to sell proprietary information from SureFired.” He rubbed his face. “Like I even know who to sell it to, or that I’d be stupid enough to send things from my work email.”

Claire frowned. “It sounds like it’s easy enough to explain, though?”