CHAPTER 3Levi
Levi
There was yet another Neuronix, Inc. Board of Directors meeting scheduled for today, and Levi Lockwood was trying to find a way out of it. As the CEO, he knew nothing short of being in the hospital could get him out of it—and even that was a strong maybe.
Though faking a coma did cross his mind.
He sighed heavily, resisting the urge to run his hands through his wavy dark chocolate hair, as he sat behind his hunter green executive desk. He had been going over his notes in preparation for this meeting for the past few hours.
Levi had been up before sunrise despite going to bed late last night, trying to absorb everything. It was extremely important to be ready for any questions that came up.
It took him longer than the average person to go through documents like this, often requiring him to be up exceedingly early after a late night. The document text was blurring more than usual, his dyslexia amplified by his exhaustion.
The lack of sleep, among other things, was starting to catch up with him.The dark circles under his green eyes were extremely noticeable, despite his bronzed skin. There was no time for a full shave this morning either, so that didn’t help.
Attention buried in the financial report on his laptop, he was interrupted when one of his best friends, co-founder of the company, and Chief Technology Officer, Isaac Nolan, walked into his office, carrying a drink tray with two tall steaming coffees on it in one hand, and his tablet in the other.
Levi perked up and looked longingly at the coffees. “Please tell me at least one of those is for me,” he pleaded.
Isaac set them down on the desk and cast his deep blue eyes at his watch, frowning. “What time did you get here? The workday has barely begun, and you're already whining for more coffee.”
“Too early,” Levi grumbled as he reached for his coffee. “Every time Tyler calls for one of these useless Board meetings, I end up having to prepare more just to make it through them. Is it me, or have they become unbearable?”
Isaac sat in a chair across from his desk and took a sip from his coffee before replying.
“He’s an ass, so no, it’s not only you.” His expression darkened.
“Speaking of Tyler, yesterday, I found out that the development team was working on changes to Project DL that weren’t authorized by me or any of my direct reports. ”
Levi furrowed his brow, “What do you mean by 'changes'?”
“Oh, you know…just the Chairman of the Board somehow convincing one of my employees to make changes to the underlying code without approval from literally anyone,” Isaac casually said with an edge to his voice.
Levi completely stilled as the severity of Isaac’s message settled over him.
Neuronix was born when he was still a computer science major in college, sharing a dorm room with Isaac and his Chief Security Officer and childhood friend, Owen Voss.
It was there that Isaac met the love of his life, and now wife Grace, who had been studying marketing and communications.
She dragged her best friend, Ivy Blake, into their group.
Ivy served as both Levi's Executive Assistant and Chief Operations Officer, and together they founded and built the company from the ground up.
Levi was no stranger to struggle and how cruel people could be to those they didn’t understand.
This small group of friends witnessed many of those situations firsthand.
They channeled their anger by pooling their talents to not only build a successful company, but one that created technology to help others like Levi.
Since then, Neuronix has been at the forefront of developing state-of-the-art assistive technologies that provide life-changing support for individuals with disabilities, especially those with dyslexia.
Many of their applications and software aim to make reading, writing, and learning more accessible and efficient.
The company grew exponentially, finally satisfying a desperate need in the disability services market.
This growth took them from being a small private company run out of someone's dorm room to a large publicly traded global company.
Answering to a Board of Directors took some getting used to, but after a time, it became second nature.
At least until Tyler Faulkner joined the Board a little less than a year ago.
After Tyler somehow managed to earn enough votes to become the Chair of the Board, the other members forgot they were allowed to have opinions and a voice…or that they had equal decision-making power as Tyler.
Tyler had become more emboldened since amassing thousands of company shares during the last couple of months.
The added increase to the stake he previously owned positioned him as one of the majority shareholders in the company.
Then he gradually began inserting himself where he shouldn’t, single-handedly trying to run the company.
Yet the rest of the members had remained silent, turning a blind eye as they allowed it to happen instead of intervening.
Just the thought of Tyler having this much individual control over the company Levi co-founded grated on his nerves.
Levi had always been a hands-on CEO. When time allowed, he often took part in the development and quality assurance processes of any of their software products before launch.
Being in the trenches with the developers helped him stay grounded and connected to the team.
Interacting with the team made Levi happy, particularly because the majority were exactly like him.
Neuronix was dedicated to hiring the best talent, with a focus on creating employment opportunities for individuals of all abilities. He believed it to be a key differentiator that set the company apart from the competition while making it a safe place for people to grow and innovate.
However, he never used his status as CEO to do whatever he wanted and would go through the proper channels with Isaac's approval. While they were all friends, keeping strict professional boundaries was critical to ensure smooth company operations.
As CTO, this was technically Isaac's domain, and Levi felt it was important that everyone—including himself—respected and enforced this.
Especially in front of Isaac's team. Otherwise, it undermined Isaac’s authority as a leader.
He was too important to Levi as a friend and as the CTO of Neuronix to disrespect him or any of his other friends like that.
So, to learn that the Chair of the Board himself was acting outside the scope of his authority like this made Levi's blood boil.
It was probably because Tyler seemed to have an opinion about everything …and had made it clear that he could do a better job of running the company than Levi.
“I’ll address this during today's Board meeting. You know he’s going to bring Project DL up again, right?” Levi asked. A headache was taking shape behind his eyes.
It’s way too early for this shit.
Isaac nodded his head slowly, his jaw clenched beneath the thin beard coating his ebony chin.
“I've already reprimanded Harris Wilkerson, the director who took instructions from Tyler, and made it clear that unless there is a communication specifically from me, they are not to deviate from the project plan. I put him on a leave of absence while we conduct an internal investigation. Based on the seriousness of the findings, it’ll be grounds for immediate termination…I’m sure you can imagine how well he took that news. ”
Levi angrily shook his head and gripped the armrest of his chair. “If you haven't already, schedule a mandatory meeting with your entire team this afternoon about it. I can attend to reiterate the message if you need me.”
“Consider it done,” Isaac said. He whipped out his phone and sent a message to his administrative assistant asking him to prioritize scheduling the meeting.
“We need to tighten security here. Board members shouldn’t have access to freely roam the building, especially in any area where proprietary code is openly worked on. Please work with Owen on that,” Levi added.
“Already on it. I dragged him into my office yesterday right after I tore Harris a new one,” Isaac said, taking another casual sip of his coffee.
Of all his friends, Isaac was the most logical and put together…
and also why Owen often called him a robot.
In times like these, Levi sometimes envied his ability to be so levelheaded.
Levi sat back in his chair. “What’s the project status now? Hopefully, we caught Harris's interference before they implemented anything.”
Isaac visibly tensed, “The project itself is on track, but the problem is we don't know the full extent of what changes Harris made. I've removed his access to everything so he can’t do it again, but this is also why I haven't terminated him yet. We’re actively investigating exactly what happened.”
Levi raised both eyebrows.
“My understanding so far is that Tyler somehow followed Harris down to that area after the meeting last month. According to other team members, Tyler was asking questions about the progress and certain confidential solution attributes…but the part that caught my attention, and really concerns me, is how focused he was on the type of data it would capture from the user.”
Levi narrowed his eyes and tilted his head as he thought through the potential implications of this.
“On top of that, the team is reporting various issues in the code that continue to pop up,” Isaac continued with a frown. “My gut is telling me that he’s been modifying it for a while, and there’s a lot buried within layers and layers that we need to uncover.”
“ Shit ,” Levi whispered, leaning against the back of his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose. This is really bad.
Project DL was focused on deep learning for text prediction to integrate artificial intelligence into their existing text solutions.
This would revolutionize their product offering because it learns how dyslexia uniquely affects each user based on the type of mistakes they make, allowing them to more accurately predict the text they are trying to type with fewer mistakes.
Neuronix was also conducting ongoing research in brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies, which would enable dyslexic individuals to interact with computers using thought patterns, bypassing reading and writing challenges altogether.
There was still so much work to be done in this space, but they were leading the charge.
The biggest issue with Harris and Tyler’s interference with the project was the impact on the user’s personally identifiable information, or PII.
This type of highly customized technology creates a need for a lot of PII, and not only to differentiate between each user, but because it's directly tied to their medical history. With identity theft and data breaches increasing, Levi couldn’t help but wonder why Tyler was so interested to learn what PII would be collected with this new solution.
Levi looked at his watch and grimaced. “Well, unfortunately, it's time for the meeting. Let's see what Tyler has to say about it.” Isaac schooled his features back into that impenetrable wall he was skilled at building.
Together they stood, collected their things, and left for the Board meeting.