Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Jamie
After begging Shannon to take me back, I rushed over to my dad’s office in Center City. I ride the elevator to the top floor, fly past his secretary, and hurry into his office, slamming the door behind me.
My dad spins around in his leather chair, a confused look on his face. “What’s wrong?” He gets up from the chair and meets me in the center of his oversized office.
“I need your help.”
“Okay, what’s going on?” He leads me over to a small sitting area. A wall of windows spans the entire left side of the room, exposing perfect views of the city. “Are you in trouble?”
“No, it’s nothing like that. I need your help with a game I’m working on.”
He lets out a sigh of relief and leans back against the leather couch. “Don’t scare me like that, J. I thought something happened at school. Why did you run in here like it was important?”
“Because it is,” I challenge. “If I don’t get this demo working by next week, I’ll lose my shot.”
“Shot at what?” He seems confused, as he should be.
“With Shannon.”
“What does the game have to do with her?”
“You’ll see.” I drop the bag from my shoulder to the floor and remove my laptop, handing it over for him to see what I’ve been working on.
Something’s missing in my code. If anyone can figure it out, my dad can. Dad studies the code without speaking. We sit in silence for several minutes before he sets my laptop on the glass table in front of us.
“You have a winner on your hands with this game. Mind if I make a few changes?”
“Yeah, go ahead. That’s why I’m here. I can’t get the loop to repeat without it stopping here,” I say, pointing at the screen.
He nods. “I can fix it.”
As he turns to look at the computer, I clutch his wrist to steel his attention. “One more thing… I want to talk to you about the merger.”
He clears his throat, his expression darkening. “What about it?”
“I was planning to come work for you after graduation, but now I don’t know if it’s the right move.”
“Why? Because of Cecelia?”
“Yes. I can’t work for her dad. And I can’t work with her. Not anymore. She’s the reason Shannon broke up with me,” I admit. “Cece is toxic, and she had something to do with the merger. What does her dad have on you? None of this makes sense. You don’t need the money, so why sell to Carmichael?”
Dad lets out the breath of air he was holding and sinks into the leather, glancing out the window to avoid my gaze. “It’s a long story.”
“Please don’t tell me Cece’s right. I know you didn’t copy Diablo and Doom.”
His head snaps in my direction. A nasty look scrolls across his face. “What are you talking about? I didn’t copy from anyone. The Fallen Universe is mine. I created it while I was in college and then expanded on it after I met your mother.”
“Isn’t that what she has on you? There’re a lot of similarities between your games and some classics.”
He shakes his head. “If you look close enough, every game has at least one thing in common with another. You can’t exactly reinvent the wheel, only come up with your own version.
The merger has nothing to do with my games.
” He waves off my concern. “I’m merging with 10X Games because it will take our company from three billion to over twenty after we launch our first joint game. ”
“But you don’t care about money.”
“I don’t, never did. But I have shareholders who care, and they voted for the merger. I had no say in the matter.”
“How did you vote?” I ask.
“I voted yes. If I hadn’t, the board would have removed me as CEO.”
“But it’s your company,” I whisper.
“That’s the problem with taking a company public. The board controls everything. They can replace me if they want. If I hadn’t voted in favor of the merger, I would have been doing our shareholders a disservice. The board could’ve made a case that I’m an incompetent CEO.”
“So, now what? You just hand your company over to Cece’s dad?”
“No, I’ll still be part of the company, but I’m working on something else for you, Mike, and Grace. I hope you will consider joining us.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“A new company.” Dad reaches across the couch and squeezes my hand. “I want you to be the lead developer and the CTO. What do you say?”
My mouth falls open in surprise. All of this is so… sudden. He wants me to be the Chief Technology Officer of his new company, and I haven’t even graduated from college yet.
“Who’ll run the company?”
“Mike will be the CEO and Grace the COO. They will handle the day-to-day operations. I want you to focus on developing new games.”
“What about you? Kevin Carmichael is the CEO of 10X. So where does that leave you?”
“I’ll retire after the merger and let Kevin handle everything.
” He moves his hands to my back and pulls me closer.
“I was thinking we could do this together, you and me. Like it used to be when you were younger. I have a few more billion-dollar ideas up my sleeve. So what do you say? Want to do this with me?”
I lean into him, hugging him tight. “I knew you didn’t rip off those games,” I say against his neck, and he laughs. After his body stops shaking from laughter, I continue, “There’s nothing I want more than to work with you.”
He kisses my cheek, squeezing the life from me.
“You want to ease up, Dad?” I ask, laughing.
He chuckles, releasing me from his grip.
I learned everything I know from him. Before I went to college, we spent hours together every day, and when he couldn’t be with me in person, he always video chatted with me. Just thinking of sketching out new worlds and ideas together brings a smile to my face.
“Are you ready?” he asks.
“To boldly go where no man has gone before…” I joke, quoting the opening of Star Trek: The Original Series, our favorite television show.
Our laughter fills the room, shaking through us.
“So, you think you can fix my game?”
He lifts my laptop from the table and scans the code in front of him. “I’m giving her all she’s got, Captain,” he quips, referring to Scotty from Star Trek.
I shake my head, laughing, and my dad joins me.
Man, we’re legit nerds. You wouldn’t know it by looking at us, though there’s no denying it.
“I can’t wait to get started,” I tell him.
He slaps my back. “Me, too, Jamer.”