Old Wounds (1)

The next day was bright and sunny, and Kyro enjoyed the warm weather. Iris had fallen asleep right after waking him up and turning off his alarm clock, so he'd left her sleeping. As he thought of her, his promise to take her back to her country surfaced in his mind.

It was something he'd himself had wanted her to do, but when the time came… His mind wasn't in alignment with his feelings.

At least he would be going with her. With what was currently happening, there was no way she could leave with her counterfeit passport, even if it would have worked. Her only option to leave the states was as the fennec.

He couldn't leave right away, so they had agreed to do it in a couple weeks. Based on his plans, Dioscuri should be fine enough for him to have a week long trip abroad at that time. Or more like, there would be only waiting left.

"Welcome to Snowstorm Games, Mr. Hemming," a woman's voice said, and Kyro raised his eyes. The woman was around his age, nearing thirty, but her prim attire could not cover her youthful looks. She didn't seem to fit the image of a business woman nor a game designer. "I'm Janette McNaught."

Kyro shook her extended hand and sat down in the chair at a table. It was a bit surprising to see a woman as a founder of a game, but it wasn't impossible. If some of them could turn into foxes, then programming a game was in no way a shocking matter.

They spoke the expected niceties, then moved onto their partnership. The people under them had examined one another and found the collaboration a good move for everyone. Just that morning Frank had come to Kyro to enthuse about how amazing everything would end up being. There supposedly were no downsides to it.

Kyro didn't buy that, but Frank was currently his only somewhat trusted employee; all the rest were still under consideration. That was why he could only trust in him and hope for the best.

Before signing however, he looked up at the smiling woman, "You're sure of it? Not afraid of failure?"

"Failure?" Janette narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you have so little trust in your people? I've tested everything a number of times, and it all came out positive. All the in-house testers and the high-level players were ecstatic about receiving that mouse as a reward."

A smile touched Kyro's lips. "I trust my people, but I was wondering how you feel about our reputation. I don't want to waste time if you'll falter midway under the pressure. Not everyone's gonna be happy that you've partnered up with us."

The woman's face relaxed at his words. She put her hands on the table and clasped them before herself. "All that's bothering you are your scandals; there hasn't been any problems with your products. And even the scandals are just pathetic. Getting a girlfriend? Wow, that's so unbelievable! Backstabbing a friend? Yet you're still friends, meeting up from time to time to chat, so what was that about?"

"You're well-informed." Kyro had to give it to her—she was certainly not going into their collaboration blind. A good sign, if there was any to be found.

"I like to know who I'm dealing with, and I was lucky enough to be eating at the restaurant you visited yesterday. Truth be told, I was a little worried about that backstabbing business, but after you two acting like the best buds, I knew it was some kind of stunt you'd played for the media and nothing real. Don't know why you did it, but it's your business. All I care is that it's not how you operate."

"It's not," Kyro agreed, nodding. He was coming to like this straightforward woman. She volunteered all she knew right away, not even hiding her sources, or lack thereof, in regards to what happened between him and Gale. If that was her real personality, they might have a pleasant work relationship.

After that, he signed the already screened agreement, and she did the same. They shook hands afterwards, and Kyro stood up to leave. It was around lunchtime, so he needed to catch Gale. The day before he was planning to have a conversation, but things had went a bit haywire and he never got to mention his reason for calling him over.

"I'm a bit busy, can we meet later?" Gale said on the phone. There was lots of background noise around him, most of which belonged to a private jet landing. "I've got a meeting in half an hour whose place I still need to reach."

"All right."

A bit disappointed, Kyro returned to the company. He ate lunch by himself and gave Frank the good news that he could start with their campaign. All testers had been under NDA before, since nothing was official, but from then on they'd be free to spread the news about something coming. It wasn't full disclosure yet, just building up the hype.

Most people wouldn't like being used like that, but that's where the rewards would come in. All those who'd participate in the three step plan to build the hype would receive the mouse or some other stuff that would interest them.

Frank almost jumped up and down at the news of the signing and ran off to start contacting people. It wasn't exactly part of his job and should've been done by someone lower down the chain of command, but he didn't seem to be aware of it. Kyro thought to tell him, but then changed his mind.

Why dim the man's enthusiasm? If he really wanted to talk with all those people personally, then he may as well do it. From what Kyro had seen, no other, smaller, projects had suffered from negligence due to that. Everything was still happening as normal.

There wasn't mass hysteria or people dropping out in the marketing department, either. Sheila had told him that Frank had promised nice bonuses to all whose results would surpass the average. And those bonuses were being giving out every two weeks, so no one would fear they wouldn't receive theirs since the company was just tricking them in a last ditch effort to save itself.

This used up the already quickly running out reserves, but at least people were staying. Everyone sat in their work stations and did their parts, giving Kyro and Gale the time to right the ship. Without it, even if they solved their problems, they wouldn't have the trained workforce to immediately resume all the workload and would fall into a deep ditch again. This time due to lack of trained personnel.

That was why Kyro let it be and focused himself on looking for more partners, investors, and anyone else he could find. The game company was great, but it'd take time and it would all depend on the success of the gambit with the players' level of satisfaction.

Mark was a great target as well, but that needed Gale, who wouldn't want to do it. While thinking about it, Kyro wondered if it was even worth wasting time with a conversation. Maybe he should just send the cavalry right in and hope it would take Gale by surprise?

With that thought in mind, he called Iris. Lily would never trust him, but it was a different story if he came with Iris. And if there was one person who Gale could never refuse, it would be his little sister.