"Is this the next generation Apple phone?"
Gilbert toyed with the concept handset in his hand and asked Steve Jobs.
"Yes. Ever since you proposed the smartphone concept, our Apple labs have been researching the idea. After releasing several feature phones, we finally made the first true smartphone. How do you feel about it?"
"Not bad," Gilbert nodded, "but it is still short of our original vision for a smart device. It has buttons, not a touchscreen. Entertainment features are lacking, the camera resolution is too low, and the phone cannot link with a computer…"
Gilbert's relationship with Steve Jobs was not ordinary. As a major Apple shareholder he took responsibility for Apple's future. So he pointed out every flaw he saw in the concept device.
Steve Jobs did not take offense. On the contrary he was pleased. It showed Gilbert really cared about Apple's business.
"You are right," Steve Jobs said. "We will fix these problems in future Apple phones. For example, add entertainment features in the second generation, upgrade the camera in the third, implement touch in the fourth, and so on."
Beyond being an engineer, Steve Jobs was an excellent businessman. He used incremental feature upgrades to keep users replacing devices. Apple in the Jobs era was far more energetic than Apple under Cook. That was one reason Gilbert wanted to keep Steve Jobs around.
More importantly, Steve Jobs absolutely could not stand that politically correct nonsense. Having a tech titan of that influence allied with Gilbert was much better than Gilbert fighting alone.
The medical center they had set up in Sacramento, whether by design or by chance, had become a thorn in the side of Western medical capital groups.
Because so many wealthy people received treatment there to extend their lives, it was hard for medical capital to move against the clinic.
On the surface many congress members had ties to Gilbert and Steve Jobs. Plenty of political heavyweights also received treatment at the center. The higher up you go, the less anyone objects to living longer.
If you control life, you control the wealthy.
Of course medical capital could try to seize the center from Gilbert and Steve Jobs. Since the clinic opened, lobbyists had tried everything. Offers ranged from shares in military contractors to stakes in Middle Eastern oil fields and mining concessions.
The more desperate they were to acquire the clinic, the more it showed how effective it was and how threatened medical capital felt.
They also had similar centers, but none worked as well as Gilbert and Steve Jobs' place. Treatment outcomes were what mattered.
Many intractable conditions that other facilities could not handle were resolved at the Sacramento center. Word of mouth spread.
Still, medical capital tried other means, such as smearing the clinic in the press.
For example the Washington Pioneering Gazette ran a piece claiming experts said the Sacramento center used Eastern sorcery. The article alleged the clinic had struck a deal with an evil Eastern empire to research genetics and to develop targeted genetic weapons.
To a sane person this was nonsense. But in North America such things were not unheard of and some people believed them, because there are indeed people who have done such things and still do.
Gilbert read the report and laughed out loud. It seemed not only in China were there bogus so called experts, but across the ocean there were even more.
That country was one where truth was not always the goal. As long as nonsense could fool people, it could succeed. Strange things happen there and no one was surprised.
When politics and debate failed, the remaining option was violence.
Hire a few assassins to take Gilbert and Steve Jobs out. People had done this before. After the killings, deal with the related operatives to ensure no one dares investigate.
But Gilbert, who took personal security very seriously, never neglected such risks. His security was more professional than federal protective services.
Fearing Pentagon-recommended bodyguards might not be trustworthy, Gilbert had even recruited retired members of certain confidential units to work for his security company.
If he could still be killed under such tight protection, then fate had simply run its course.
Money breeds greed. If someone blocked another's income, using any means to fight back was understandable.
If one should give up resistance just because one had power and influence, then many things in modern China would never have happened.
In the past century many small powers grew by resisting the strong. The same logic applies to individuals and groups. If you do not want to wait to die, you must fight.
So medical capital did not want to coexist peacefully and share profits with Gilbert. They thought about killing him and divvying his assets.
Wall Street capital also had their eyes on Gilbert's shares in various Internet and tech firms.
Hollywood companies coveted his talent, his film rights, and his stakes in film and media groups.
Owning any one of those things would make someone a power in high society. Gilbert possessed them all. That made him a public enemy of the upper crust.
This was also why Gilbert sought alliances with Disney and Time Warner in the media field, created giant enterprises through Internet capital, and collaborated with Steve Jobs on the medical center.
Simply put, these were his talismans. The greater his power grew, the more people resented him, yet that same power also made others too afraid to make a move.
That day Gilbert visited Steve Jobs because they were attending the inauguration ceremony of their new medical center in New York.
For this project, Gilbert had even brought Bill Gates in, making him one of the shareholders as well.
On the day of the opening ceremony, nearly every powerful figure in New York attended. Smiles of enthusiasm filled every face.
Amid the constant flashes of cameras, Gilbert, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates together cut the ribbon, officially declaring the New York Medical Center open for business.
..
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