Shimmer Synopsis
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THE SHORT VERSION
In just three years, CEO Robbie Case has grown Core Communications, a data technology company, from 30 people to over 5,000. Now a $20 billion company made legendary by its sudden success, Core is based on a technology no other company can come close to copying, a revolutionary breakthrough known as drawing blood from a mainframe. And Robbie, its 35-year-old CEO, is acclaimed worldwide for his vision, leadership and wealth.
Except that all of it is based on a lie.
The technology doesn't work, the finances are built on a Ponzi scheme of stock sales and shell corporations, and Robbie is struggling to keep the company alive, to protect the friends who work for him and all that they ve built. Each day, Robbie tries to push the catastrophe back a little further, while his employees believe that they are all moving closer to grace, the day their stock options vest, when they will be made rich for their faith and loyalty and hard work. The details of the lie are all keyed into a shadowy interface that Robbie calls Shimmer, an omniscient mainframe that hides itself, calculates its own collapse, threatens to outsmart its creator and to reveal the corporation's illegal, fragile underpinnings.
Shimmer is the story of a high-tech crusade nearing its end. The shell game Robbie has created is finally running out of room. And Robbie is the only one who knows. And he's the only one who has a chance to make things right.
THE LONG VERSION
In only three years, CEO Robbie Case has led Core Communications in growing from just 30 people to over 5,000. He has led sales to $20 billion a year. Legendary for its sudden and complete success, Core is based on a technology no other company could could come close to developing or even repeating. And Robbie, its 35-year-old CEO, is acclaimed worldwide for his vision, his leadership, his wealth.
Except all of it is built on a lie. Robbie’s lie. The technology does not work, the finances are built on a Ponzi scheme of stock sales and shell corporations, and Robbie is struggling, every day, to keep the company alive.
Shimmer is the story of a high-tech crusade nearing its end. The shell game Robbie manages is finally running out of room. Finally Core is nearing its end.
Only two people know the truth: Robbie and his cousin Trevor, the head of sales and another owner of Core. It is Trevor who introduced the scam to Robbie. Trevor who sees nothing wrong in what they’ve done. But Shimmer is a novel about Robbie and Robbie’s choices. Because always Robbie must make his own decision: Do I stop this or continue?
For three years, Robbie has chosen to continue. Not for the money, or for the acclaim. But because he wants to save the people who work at Core. Because he wants to help the friends who’ve helped him lead the company every day. And because Robbie thinks there must be a way. A way to undo the scam. A way to make this work.
If you try hard enough, Robbie believes, think harder, work more, Core can be saved.
Yet as Robbie draws closer to the end he’s fought to prevent, he also finds there is relief. Relief from the constant battle, the endless work, the relentless effort to keep the company alive. Let Core go and maybe he can sleep. Let it go and maybe he can leave his office.
Core is more than a company -- it’s a place, a way of life not just for Robbie, but for all the people who work there. They are people who seem to live in the building, wandering the bright and shadowed halls, breathless and exhausted as they move from conference room to office to another meeting and another, only for a moment finding an empty, unused space, a vast swath of vacant desks and unused chairs, each seat waiting for another person to join Core.
And of the people who work there, there are a very few closest to Robbie. His cousin Trevor, enemy and friend, enabler and confessor. The self-serving conspirator who seems to find no problem with the choice to continue the lie to the very end. To make as much money as possible before crashing and burning, filing bankruptcy, fleeing with whatever money they can keep.
Perry, Robbie’s friend and the head of R&D, a tired burnout living in a darkened office on the 8th floor, haunting meetings, roaming unauthorized through computer systems, offering simple guidance to Robbie as much in the silences he leaves as in what he says out loud.
Leonard, the head of technical development, the smartest person Robbie has ever known and the largest person he’s ever met.
Cliff, the CFO, eating donuts and shaking with excitement, carrying airsick bags to meetings when the tension gets too high.
Julie, the head of production, meeting with Robbie in the mailroom, the two of them finding calm in the synchronized order of the massive copiers and tall printers.
And there is Whitley, the COO. She is day-to-day manager of Core Communications, driving the ever-faster pace, asking for everyone to work that much more. She is the only person who ever tells Robbie no. And as head of corporate security, it is Whitley who leads security reviews of every system in the company, every server worldwide. Whitley, each day coming closer to finding Robbie’s lie. Whitley, the only person who Robbie, even Trevor, may actually fear.
Core, and the people who work there, and the choices Robbie makes in leading that place, all of it will come to an end. Marking each person who has worked there. Marking Trevor, marking Robbie. Marking everyone who’s been drawn into the lie Robbie has created.
