Chapter 10
Anders Goes Off-Script
Cerium has a big announcement here. Tonight, at the opening night show, we are releasing a trailer for our upcoming game.
Hopefully, it will garner a ton of interest and registrations for early access, bringing in much needed cash.
It will be Piotr and Ginny’s job to keep that excitement going until the launch later this year.
Meanwhile, Scarlett and Anders are schmoozing and pressing flesh as Cerium inches toward signing a distribution contract with a big game console company.
If they can close that deal, there is a chance of more investment.
But before I do anything, I videocall Dana. “How is she?” I ask.
“Happy as Larry.” Dana turns the camera to show Max and Effie on the floor playing with a farm set. I remember Anders talking about growing up on a farm. Effie would love that. Then I think about having to explain to her what happens to all the animals and decide, maybe not.
“And you?” Dana turns the camera back.
“Missing her already, but…”
“You’ve got a hot young blood to jump instead?”
“Hush!” I urge. “Effie will hear. And no! I was going to say it’s going to be really busy. But I’ll call before bedtime every night.”
“Effie’s far too invested in that cow to pay us any attention,” Dana says, but I’m unconvinced. Effie salts everything away, waiting for the day she can interpret it. “But I’ll give you to her.”
The image bounces around until Effie’s serious face appears.
There is no outward sign of joy and the first few minutes of our conversation is occupied with introductions to every animal in the farm set.
Again, I’m grateful to Rob for explaining she still feels emotion it even if she’s not showing it.
She’s communicating her love for me by sharing her passionate interest with me.
It’s a different language for love, but it is love.
When she’s finished, I ask her, “What was the best thing about school today?”
Her face lights up, and I experience a small pang of jealousy. “We found dinosaur footprints!” she breathes. “Liam said his was the biggest, but everyone could see Priya’s was.”
I guess today my daughter has learned two valuable lessons and only one involves measurement.
We talk about school for a few minutes before Dana reappears.
“I love you to the moon and back,” I say before Dana shepherds both children off to bed.
Effie gives me a half smile. “Me too.” And it’s enough to make my heart explode. When those moments of affection are rare, you treasure them more.
After closing down the call, I collect my things and make my way to Anders’s room.
I’ve booked him a suite with a lounge area which we can use as a private meeting room and staging post. Everyone is there.
Scarlett frowns as she opens the door to me, her disapproval of my tardiness evident.
But Anders looks up as I enter and asks, “How was Effie?”
It’s a sign of how well he knows me; he realises why I’m late.
I’m also touched he remembers her and thinks to check on me, but I don’t want to show any of that.
At work, I’m a professional, not a mother.
“Fine,” I say in as unconcerned a tone as I can muster, as if I leave her overnight all the time.
“Good.” But my heart beats a little harder at his words. Not the fire of lust, but a gentle warmth at his thoughtfulness for a child he’s never met.
We get through the remaining planning, ordering room service so we don’t have to break.
Then we each head back to our rooms to leave Anders in peace and to get ready for the evening’s show.
The audience will be industry professionals, overwhelmingly dressed in jeans and t-shirts.
There is no need for anything fancy, but I change my wrinkled, travelled in clothes for clean black trousers and one of our promotional t-shirts. I slip a jacket over to style it up.
The others are waiting in the lobby. I blink my eyes.
Scarlett didn’t get the memo. She’s in a tight-fitting black dress and a push-up bra that adds two cup sizes.
Around her neck, nestling in her cleavage, is the titular icon from our game, The Obsidian Sigil.
She looks stunning; every gamer's wet dream. I’m worried about how safe it will be to take her into a room with hundreds of them.
If Anders is anything to go by, not safe at all.
He can’t seem to take his eyes off her chest. So much for his proposal to me just a couple of weeks ago.
Inexplicably angry, I stalk between them on the way to the hotel exit and it seems to break the spell.
Anders steps back and Piotr offers Scarlett his arm in a display of gentlemanliness.
It’s a wasted effort on his behalf. She was pleased as punch with Anders’s attention. She only has eyes for one man. My boss.
At the venue, we separate. Anders is making an appearance after the trailer, and he disappears behind the scenes.
The rest of us enter the enormous hall, which is dominated by the massive screens on the stage.
The lighting gives the illusion we are stepping into a crystal, all bright white, blue, and deep black shadows.
A multitude is threading its way among the seats. We take ours and wait.
This is a major coup for us. The big AAA game releases will always have the money and clout to buy showtime.
Indies like Cerium would normally be relegated to the pre-show.
But we were lucky enough to score one of the wildcard slots and even luckier to have a short interview segment.
Although I suspect that may be down to Anders being good video candy.
As the main show starts, the auditorium lights dim, and a hush descends.
The host walks out onto the stage to polite clapping.
This is an audience of professionals, not rabid fans.
Each interviewee and trailer will be met with the same level of applause, only varying slightly when a big studio has a major presence here.
The big guys go first and I wait. After years with Cerium, I’m familiar with the most significant games and their universes, even though I don’t play.
Mostly, I don’t have the time or the energy but also it doesn’t appeal.
I’ll swap sweets on a phone screen if I’m bored and stuck in a queue, but I don’t live to game like most of Cerium’s employees.
I came to the company as a temp replacement for Anders's previous assistant. I’m not sure anyone expected me to last long, least of all Anders, so I was never properly interviewed.
I suspect I wouldn’t have passed the keen gamer quotient if I had been.
But after two months, my contract with the agency was quietly ended and replaced with a full-time one with Cerium.
Three years later and I’m sitting with some of the movers and shakers in the company, watching the culmination of years of work.
A name catches my attention because I’ve heard it recently; Wobbegong.
Their trailer starts to play mostly a movie trailer with very little game footage.
I’m not sure what this means, or if it means anything.
But as it draws to a close, I can’t help giving a shocked gasp, echoed by Piotr and Scarlett beside me.
Their release date is featured prominently across the screens. It’s two days before ours.
“Fuck me!” Piotr mutters. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“But how could they have known?” Scarlett whispers. “Only a handful of us know.”
“We’re fucked!” Piotr groans. “If we release on our planned date, we’ll tank.
The focus will already be on Wobbegong. If we pull the date forward by a few days, we look like the bad guys.
The community will trash us. If we push it back, we haven’t got time for the game to generate enough momentum before the holiday season. ”
It’s not good news and my mind flits to how Anders is faring, alone behind the screens.
He must be feeling sick to his stomach, but he can’t let any of that show.
The next trailer is ours and he’ll be on immediately afterwards.
The video plays. As the demons swoop and snarl, the cinematic quality of the game is dramatically evident.
The scenes cascade and the ultimate threat is revealed, the epic breadth of the world unveiled.
It’s not far short of brilliant. Anders might just be a genius.
As the trailer draws to a close with an invitation to pre-order, the host steps back into the limelight and announces Anders Anderson.
His black-clad figure appears. He takes a couple of paces, then swings up his arms and cartwheels into position beside the host. A laugh whips around the audience, and a spray of spontaneous clapping breaks out. The host grins. “Well, all I can say is, wow!”
“I’m just so excited to be here, I might have gotten a little carried away.”
Some of those interviewed have come across as smug, some as inarticulate.
Not Anders. He’s relaxed, seemingly unconcerned by the bomb that Wobbegong has dropped as they chat back and forth, talking about the game footage.
Then the host says, “So the game is on pre-order, but any update on when it’s going to be released? ”
Anders grins, his dimple winking, and says, “We haven’t finalised a release date yet, but it won’t be long now, folks. The Obsidian Sigil will be out by the end of this summer!”
I freeze. Beside me, Piotr chokes as the crowd claps and cheers. “Did he say summer? No! We agreed on October. Summer is two months earlier. No-one releases in summer. Everyone’s on vacation.”
I hope Anders has turned off his phone because half of our developers will be calling him.
The other half will be busy having a heart attack.
Even I’m astounded at how casually he’s moved the release date, especially when he’s the one demanding a game with fewer bugs.
But I’m also objective enough to realise he had little choice.
“Ballsy.” Scarlett’s comment is full of admiration. And I have to agree with her. This is the job of a CEO: to make the hard decisions, to make them fast, and then to make them happen. Although Anders might find the last of those far more difficult than the first.
Anders retreats, the host moves on to the next trailer, and Piotr collapses with his head back, puffing through his nose. I hope Ahmed is handling it better back home, but I doubt it. He had to be pushed to October as it was.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out. Ginny. WTF?
Exactly.
I’m up early the following morning, although as I’m in charge of Anders’s diary, I know he and Piotr have already left. I’m relieved to see no sign of Scarlett at breakfast. I make sure to eat well – there’s no guarantee I’ll have time for food once my feet hit the deck of the exhibition hall.
It was a subdued group from Cerium that made its way back from the venue last night as the enormity of Anders’s promise to the gaming community soaked in. We parted ways in the hotel lobby, but when I reached my room, I saw Anders’s sweater.
Figuring he wouldn’t have made it to bed yet, I turned around and took it to him. He answered my knock, his demeanour upbeat. When he saw it was me, all pretence of false cheeriness left his face. He looked drained. This is the hard part of leadership.
“Come in,” he invited. But I dared not. The temptation to offer him a different kind of comfort was too great.
I shook my head and held out his sweater. “I need my bed. You need yours.”
“Not sure how much sleep I’ll get. I’ve no idea how we’re going to bring this game in two months early.”
“Why did you do it?” I asked.
“Because I had to. What you’ve got to understand, Cora, is that when a thing is worth doing, it’s worth going all in.”
I stood in that hotel corridor and considered his words. “Is that why you decided to propose? How many women did you ask?”
He sighed, ran a hand through his already messy hair, and said, “Only you. You’re the only one I want.”
“Why? Why me?”
“Because you say no to me. The bravest thing I’ve ever done was to ask you to marry me.”
I forced myself to walk away, but I thought about his words all night.
Now as I drop my pass around my neck and push through the venue doors, I put my game face on.
As it’s the first day, the noise and energy are immense even this early.
At the moment, it’s mostly professionals manning exhibits or trawling the stands.
The fans won’t surface until later. As I make my way to our space, I spot Scarlett.
She’s cradling a cup of coffee, talking earnestly with a bearded guy in round black spectacles.
She tosses her head, sleek locks flying, and moves off.
Something about the exchange seems off but I don’t have time to analyse it further.
“Cora!” I turn as I hear my name. Piotr is gesticulating wildly.
Before he gets stuck in, I ask, “Who’s that? Baldie with the beard and glasses.”
“That, dear Cora,” he says, “is the devil himself, the RuinLord.”
“The RuinLord?”
Piotr shrugs in a way that says Go figure. “It’s a gamer tag,” he explains. “That’s Conrad Mars, the CEO of Wobbegong. Now, can you sort this out?”
And that is the start. I sit at a tiny table in the corner of our stand, working away, co-ordinating everyone.
It keeps me busy and I’m glad, because if I had a moment to think, I’d be scared to my toes that my job, my life and my hard-won stability, is careering towards a cliff-face and I’ve no safety net.