Page 106 - Esquire - USA (Winter 2020)
P. 106
“The cornerstone of differently from what you’re used to. They’re Some eighteen months later, a piece of that
more into what’s going on in their heads than acceleration walks the sun-splashed, tran-
any COIN effort is what’s going on around them. Some are prob- quil campus of Big Tech Firm, waving, smil-
establishing security for ably geniuses, though it’s hard to believe that ing, observing. Combat veteran Mike Rios,
thirty-four, proud south Texas native and for-
right now, when half seem to be studying the
the civilian populace. concrete and the other half are buried in their merly of the United States Army infantry, is
phone screens. “Go,” you say. The light has making the rounds, checking on his teams.
Without a secure changed. The cars have stopped. “Cross He seems to know everyone—the software
the street.” engineers, the sales managers, the vendors.
environment, no At times, it resembles your former life. No Most smile and wave back in recognition. All
permanent reforms can rifle now, of course. Equipment’s mostly just part around Rios’s stocky frame like shad-
a cell and a handheld radio. A medical kit with ows under a flashlight. “What can I say?” he
be implemented and Band-Aids instead of burn dressing. But the says, grinning. “Winning hearts and minds.”
feel of it. The structure. The camaraderie, es- Rios works for Surefox Consulting, a
disorder spreads.” pecially. The team—they get you. You get physical-risk-management firm—protec-
them. That fucking matters. You didn’t know tion for hire—that’s part of Big Tech Firm’s
—U. S. ARMY COUNTERINSURGENCY FIELD
how much you missed it until you had it again. multilayered security apparatus. There’s
MANUAL NO. 3-24
Still, there’s no such thing as a half soldier. in-house security and other private security
Out of the corner of your eye, you see move- firms, all tasked with different roles and re-
ment. A squat shape, an engineer with his face sponsibilities. This is standard fare in a world
Somewhere in Silicon Valley... deep in a tablet. He steps off the curb. Five, six shaped by Darwinian hypercompetition and
feet away, you estimate. It’s too late to shout. mass contracting. Surefox’s niche is “incident
OU’RE NOT SURE how life took There’s only one choice. That choice is action. command,” a nice way of saying it handles the
you here. A few years back, you “Whoa!” says a voice from behind. You emergencies. Its pitch is straightforward and
Y walked point on combat patrols spin around and see another engineer, mouth convincing: Of the 271 people in the compa-
through the gnarliest, darkest shadows of the agape, staring at your hand, which is clutching ny’s full- or part-time employ, approximately
war, always with a sleek, black rifle pressed the squat engineer’s shirt collar. You grabbed 90 percent are military veterans. At a time
tight against your shoulder. Thirty golden him just in time. A large truck rolls by, a stri- when suicide and unemployment numbers
rounds of ammunition just a trigger squeeze dent honk filling the space between. The among veterans remain stubbornly high, es-
away. Platoon mates at your back ready to squat engineer turns around and looks at you, pecially among those who served in Iraq and
carry out foreign policy through sheer force. eyes blinking. “Thanks,” he mumbles. Then Afghanistan, Surefox holds particular appeal
Seventy-five or so pounds of equipment he’s gone, because the light has changed, and to a community that worships disruption.
packed on your body, holding water and extra the cars have stopped, and the crosswalk once (Big Tech Firm did not want to be identified
ammo and that medical kit you never wanted more belongs to the clients. in this story. I was granted access to Sure-
to use but did, because the moment came for Adrenaline’s juicing your veins. There it fox’s operations in part because I served in
you and you did what you’d been trained for. is, you think. The old rush. You take a deep the same infantry battalion as its director of
That was then. Now? breath and check your watch. Lunch is three operations in Iraq in 2008. Rios belonged to
“Go,” you instruct the techies, in their hours away. that battalion as well.)
plaid shirts and pastel Converses. It’s a bright Founded in 2016 in Texas, Surefox is an
autumn day in California. The traffic light ON APRIL 3, 2018, in the quiet city of up-and-comer, a lean mako shark in a sea of
has changed; the cars have stopped. “Cross San Bruno, California, a thirty-eight-year- whales. One of the industry’s mainstays, Se-
the street.” old woman named Nasim Najafi Aghdam curity Industry Specialists, has operated in
They’re not techies, you correct yourself. entered the headquarters of YouTube and Silicon Valley for years. So has another, AS
Most of them are software engineers. More opened fire with a 9mm Smith & Wesson, Solution, which recently got caught up in an
than anything, they’re clients. They’re cus- emptying a full magazine of rounds. Then investigation by the Santa Clara County dis-
tomers. You’re glad to be here, not on cross- she turned the weapon on herself, dying via trict attorney’s office involving concealed-
walk duty, exactly, but at the job in general. a gunshot to the chest. As far as shootings go carry permits that, allegedly, may have been
It’s good, honest work, and it pays well. You in twenty-first-century America, the one at given out by the county sheriff in exchange for
have benefits and steady hours. You know how YouTube scored low in terms of victim body campaign donations. (AS Solution, in a press
hard it is to find such a gig after the military. count: four injured—three by gunfire, one statement, said it is cooperating fully with the
Turns out American employers tend not to hurt fleeing the scene—and zero deaths. investigation as well as launching an inter-
value skills like walking point on combat pa- Some of the techno-utopians of Silicon Val- nal one.) The techno-utopians pride them-
trols in the most dangerous parts of the world. ley, who so often position themselves as hu- selves on valuing new ideas and approaches.
You don’t take this for granted. Even today. manity’s best hope, used the moment to call Enter Surefox.
“Stop,” you tell the next batch of engi- attention to gun regulation or mental-health While the older security firms and oth-
neers approaching from the parking lot, to- initiatives. But mostly the incident acceler- ers hire veterans and run veteran-transition
ward the headquarters of their employer, Big ated in the tech sector a process that’s been programs, going veteran heavy was, as they
Tech Firm. The light has changed, and the taking hold of many American industries with say, a white space—an unfilled niche, an op-
cars are moving. deep pockets in this mass-shooting era, from portunity. Contracted security can summon
One company lost an employee several pro sports to casinos to Wall Street: the pro- thoughts of overseas firms like Blackwater,
months back. Hit by a bus, was sent straight fessionalization—some would call it the mil- accused of massacring Iraqi citizens in 2007,
into the far beyond. That’s why you’re here. itarization—of the security business. “You- or the private contractors fighting in Yemen’s
To protect the clients, even when it’s from Tube opened up their eyes,” one security brutal, ongoing civil war. That’s not Surefox.
themselves. They’re fine, you know. Just peo- specialist told me. “Showed them there’s ac- Its CEO, Josh Szott, thirty-six, and its direc-
ple. But...different. They carry themselves tual evil in the world.” tor of operations, Brian Sweigart, forty-two,
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