The Hummingbird Project

- (Bryan): How long does it take

to drive from Kansas to New York?

- (Vincent): Uh, 2 days?

- You wanna do this in 16 milliseconds?

Yeah, but round trip.

- You know, we're talking about a lot of money here, Vincent.

I know.

Why me?

Why didn't you go to Eva Torres?

Eva Torres?

Eva Torres uses human beings like disposable assets.

And I heard that you once bought 200 tower cranes

for $1 million a pop

after a 15-minute interview with some guy

who was desperate for cash.

Is that right?

- They were worth a million, but I got 'em for 500.

Well, whatever it is,

it tells me you're a man of your word,

and I have a lot of respect for that, sir.

These numbers are good.

And I am very tempted.

It's nuts, but I am very tempted.

But?

Why should I trust you

to build this fiber tunnel?

- You don't need to trust me!

This is like buying a time machine.

It's like getting the winning lottery numbers

at the stock market even before they're drawn.

No.

What?

Why should I trust you?

All right.

Uh, this is gonna sound stupid,

but, uh, all right, whatever.

Um...

When I was 18, I worked as a plumber's assistant,

you know, to pay for school.

And my boss takes me to this basement in Queens.

I mean, I could smell the fungus.

And he asked me to unscrew this, like, 100-pound steel pipe.

You know, he's sipping coffee in the corner of the room

while he asked me to unscrew this massive thing by myself,

you know, for minimum wage, OK?

And the pipe comes loose.

It hits me in the head, and I'm knocked unconscious.

I swear to God, all right? And...

I open my eyes.

And hovering above me is this shadow, OK,

and it's, like, this weird man.

And he's saying...

He says: "The line.

"The line. Don't let go of the line."

OK, then I get slapped in the face,

and that's just my dumb boss, you know, over me.

But that message is, like, imprinted in my brain.

- That's a good story, Vincent.

Mm-hmm.

A little over the top.

Yeah.

But it's good.

Thank you.

But I just know

that until I build this one quintessential line,

I'm not gonna know the answer.

What answer?

- What's at the end of the line.

- (Man):The Wall Street panic, in my opinion, is over.

It had to come.

Stock speculation had become crazy.

- (Woman):There have been dozens of stock-market crashes

since the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Although most brokers tend to have a short memory,

it was bound to happen again.

Last week, after Standard & Poor's downgraded

America's credit rating from AAA to AA+,

the markets plunged across the planet

from the US to the Middle East, all the way to Asia.

The speed of transactions has become

such an important variable in the market economy,

that faster algorithms can make millions

in a matter of milliseconds

or can crash entire markets

by triggering mass defensive responses

from automated computer systems.

According to Marks, the word on the street

is that millions are now calculated in milliseconds.

The ripple effect was felt all over the world...

(Woman continues talking, indistinct)

Oh, shit!

Hey!

- You don't lock your station,

you don't own your station!

- Fuck off! - It's too late!

I owed you that one.

- What the fuck did you do?

I'm gonna fuck you up!

Mark!

Hey, how are you?

- Hi! Come on. How you doing?

Good, you?

- Vincent. My cousin, Anton.

- Hi. - Nice to meet you.

- You OK? Did you eat? Are you hungry?

- No, I'm fine. Thank you.

So, did you bring the NDA?

- It is probably the longest document I've ever seen.

Sorry about that.

- I never had to sign one before.

- No? - No.

- Let's see. Uh, you did here.

Uh, all right, looks good.

So, I spoke to Greg, who said you're great

and that you could handle any kind of shit that hits de fan.

- Oh, thank you. Yeah, we saw some funny stuff, Greg and I.

So, what is this tunnel project about?

- Right, so, OK, we want to dig a 4-inch fiber tunnel

from the Kansas Electronic Exchange Data Centre

to the New York Stock Exchange servers,

which are in New Jersey.

- Kansas to New Jersey, that's like...

- Yes, it is a straight, 1,000-mile long,

4"-wide fiber tunnel

that has to pierce right through the Appalachians.

- Wow! And can I ask what the purpose of that line is?

- Our purpose is to get the stock market quotes

in 16 milliseconds,

which is one millisecond faster than everybody.

It's gonna be very fast,

and it's gonna make us all very successful.

When you say straight,

how straight are we talking about here?

- From the KAX to the New York Stock Exchange.

Whatever's in the way, we dig through.

It's gotta be a totally straight line.

- Swamps? - Straight.

- Rivers? - Straight.

Mountains?

Straight.

- Straight, straight, straight.

Did you bring what we discussed?

Wow! Yeah, I did.

So, this is 390 miles,

the line I did from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

I ran 16 crews for 6 months.

Prior to that, 6 months analyzing the soil,

securing the real estate.

So, from the start to finish, about a year.

And we delivered 15 days ahead of schedule on this project.

- Good for you! - Thank you.

I did everything, digging, piping,

the soil, real estate and telecom crew.

- My cousin Anton here has a little test.

I was hoping you wouldn't mind looking at it.

Sure!

- All right, let's say you wanna dig a tunnel

from Stockholm to Madrid.

You wanna run fiber through it. - Yeah.

How many regenerators do you need to put up on that line?

Taking refraction into account, obviously.

Of course.

You OK?

Yeah.

Do I have to take in consideration

the curvature of the Earth,

or can I dig straight, hub, straight, hub, outside,

in sort of like an octagon?

Now, if you're using really powerful machines,

which cost more money,

you can dig straight,

come out for air less often

so you'll have a straighter line.

And, roughly, we're talking a difference between,

let's say, a 1,800 miles and 2,000 miles.

- We're not putting anything online, OK?

This project is very secret, OK?

I'm gonna be there every step of the way.

I wanna be on site for meetings, plannings, interviews.

Whatever it is, I'm there, OK? No middle man.

Our employer cannot find out about this.

I can't stress that enough.

- What about real estate contracts?

- About 90% percent will be taken care of by me and my team,

and, well, you can handle the rest.

- Are you sure? 'Cause we're talking about, like, forests...

- Yeah. - ...mud, dirt, swamps.

And, like, thousands of contracts.

- I am very sure. I am very aware, yes.

- You know, I have to say you guys might be crazy,

but I am very excited.

It's a really interesting project.

Yeah, just think of it

as David walking onto the floor of the stock exchange,

taking out the biggest slingshot ever,

and bringing Goliath down to his fucking knees.

David and Goliath?

Yeah.

- I like that. - Good.

We're David?