Gamer Girl (16 page)

Eamon, Martin and Dan met in the executive boardroom on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the
Wickerworld
DLC project. They spread the materials out in front of them.

“Okay. First of all, do we agree that the numbers look right?” Eamon asked
.

“Full disclosure.
I helped Sarah run her estimates so I’m biased,” Martin said.

Dan nodded. “
I double checked the figures. The estimated costs to finish production and market this look solid.”

Eamon ran his hand down the spreadsheet. “
Worst case scenario is that we waste two and a half million on a DLC that fails miserably.”

“
You’re going to have to infuse some capital into this, at least until
Mirrored Nation
’s rollout. It’s borrow, or sell off some assets,” Dan explained. “
Mirrored Nation
’s pre-orders are looking good, but we all know that may not hold. Until we have hard data…”

“Okay, so we don’t have our primary series in the bag yet.” Eamon scratched his chin. “He looked at Martin, “Do you think the DLC team can meet their deadline?”

Martin shrugged. “Rainwhite was noted for being good about that sort of thing. And
a lot of this was already completed. I will never understand why Aaron didn’t include this in the vanilla game.”

“
It was a mistake, but it’s his loss, our gain.” Eamon thumbed through the papers once more. “Shop for some decent rates on the two million and then get back with me, Dan.”

Martin looked up from his papers. “So we’re going to make the DLC?”

Eamon nodded. “Yeah.”

“Who’s going to lead the team?”

“Miss Adams.”

“Miss—”
Martin stopped speaking.

Eamon looked at Dan. “Dan, give her a small raise, and a thousand dollar bonus. Give each of the four Rainwhite folks a five hundred dollar bonus.
That’s all for now.”

Dan rose from his chair. “Sure. See you later.”

Dan left the boardroom, but Martin stayed behind. “Eamon, are you sure about Sarah? I mean, aside from the fact that she’s totally inexperienced, there’ll be talk and a certain amount of resentment.”

“
I know, but people will get over it. You and I both know we can’t spare anyone on the existing
Mirrored Nation
team, and
Eigenstates
is running full bore with the MMORPG. None of the people in Memphis have a clue about RPGs. They’d be as green as Miss Adams is,” Eamon explained.

“
I
get that Eamon, but
they
won’t.”

“Martin, explain it this way: If this work
s, we will have another title, and our best and brightest subordinates can populate the new team. If this fails, then their names won’t be in the credits of a flop. If this fails, the credits will show the names of people from Rainwhite including Miss Adams’.”

“Is that your real reason
?” Martin asked quietly.

“
No.” Eamon admitted.

“So what is it?”

“I want to see what she can do. I’m curious. And if she starts to screw it up, I’ll fix it myself.” Eamon gathered the papers together.

Martin said nothing fu
rther. Relatively speaking two and a half million was small potatoes. He suspected that no amount of rational argument would reach Eamon. Not now at least.

“All right, play Pygmalion if you must. Dan will keep an eye on the books, you keep an eye on her and I’ll keep an eye on you.
We’ll make it work.”

Eamon called Sarah
from his desk. Decision made, there was no reason to postpone the news. He noted with pleasure and amusement that she was once again wearing skinny jeans and a fluffy hairstyle.

“Yes, Mr. Byrne?” Sarah said as she stood in front of his desk.

“Good news. You have the go ahead to complete the DLC. Get your team moved to the sixth floor and figure out how many more people you’re going to need to finish by your target date. I want you up and running in the new space by Monday.”  Eamon turned to his computer but then he realized that Sarah was still standing there. “Well? Get to work.”

“You haven’t told me who
’s to run it, sir,” Sarah explained.

“You are. Bri
ng it in on time and within budget, Miss Adams. If you have questions, you can ask me. I expect you to report regularly and let me know at once if you hit a snag.” He studied her from the corner of his eye. He could see the wheels spinning in her head and he worked hard to suppress a smile.

“
Your family’s Fourth of July party?”  Sarah asked.

“Nicole can handle it.”

Sarah shook her head. “No, she can’t.”

Eamon looked up at this. “Of course she can, she’s done it before.”

“But I need her for this project, at least part time. She’s the one who came up with the faces and hairstyles for the four companions. I need her to develop their base costumes and make sure it translates well in game,” Sarah insisted.

“Wait a minute! You had Nicole do some of the art work on this project? Why?” Eamon asked.

Sarah was astonished and a little confused. “She holds a Bachelor’s in Art History, and she’s a very good artist. Didn’t you know that?”

Now it was Eamon’s turned to look bewildered. “No, I didn’t. When I interviewed her all I asked her about
were her office skills. That’s what I hired her for.”

“Well, if you want those companions to look as good as you saw in the
storyboards, you’re going to have to at least lend her to me,” Sarah insisted.

Eamon’s response was to call Nicole into his office.

“Yes, boss?” Nicole asked him.

“Sarah tells me you did some of the art work on the DLC. That true?” Eamon asked
.

“Yeah, I did.” Nicole looked uneasy as if she expected him to be angry.

Eamon leaned back in his chair a moment and stared at nothing for awhile. Then, he leaned forward. “Okay. Here’s the deal: Nicole, you can give the DLC team the work you’ve done so far and continue to be my administrative assistant or you can become a member of the DLC team and continue to work on the art. But before you move over, you’ll need to find me a decent administrative assistant.”

“Really?
”

“Yeah.”

He turned to Sarah. “You get to finish the Fourth of July party.”

“We
’ll get it done,” Sarah assured him. “All of it. We’ll make sure both projects are great.”

“W
e’ll see. You two better get to it. You have a lot of work to do.” Eamon watched as Sarah and Nicole left his office. When the door closed, he could hear the faint sound of women squealing in delight. It occurred to Eamon that perhaps he really was going crazy. But then it occurred to him that he hadn’t had this much fun in a long time.

Sarah and Nicole got to work. Sarah let the team know they were
a go. She checked out the sixth floor. A quick look told her she needed to move everything left at Rainwhite over to the Gryphon building. She set up the move and told the Rainwhite folks to pack.

Nicole placed the advertisem
ents for the administrative position and contacted local employment agencies.

Sarah con
tinued working on the party for Independence Day. By Friday afternoon, the DLC team was housed on the sixth floor of the Gryphon building.  Rainwhite’s office space was now deserted. On a hunch, Sarah brought up the lease agreement. She printed it out and took it to Martin.

“I think you should take a look at this,” she told him as she held out the copy of the agreement for him to see.

“Have a seat Sarah,” Martin said. He looked over the lease.

“As you can see, you have the right to sublet that space,” Sarah told him. “Since the lease has another three years to run, finding a reliable tenant could bring in a little bit of income.”

Martin read the pertinent paragraphs, looked up at Sarah and smiled. “Good catch, Sarah. I’ll see what I can do.”

Sarah went back to work, and work was all she did for the next two months. She was
in the office by seven every morning, and she didn’t leave until eight o’clock at night. She came in on Saturdays as well, often for the entire day. Thursday choir rehearsal was sacrosanct, but other than that, Sarah lived at work.

Things weren’t as easy as she had hoped when they started out. To begin with, the Rainwhite team was not happy that she’d been named team lead. Like a number of people in the organization, they suspected that she had slept
her way to the job. When it was obvious that the team was digging in its heels, she called a private meeting.

“Okay guys, let’s have it out. You don’t think I should have this job, I know that. Let’s he
ar your reasons.”

“Well, you’re inexperienced for one thing,” John said.

“I hear that, but let’s look at what my job really entails, okay?” Sarah began. “First, it is my job to coordinate the day-to-day acquisition, function and repair of your equipment, furniture, and supplies. It is my job to make sure you have adequate help. Then it is my job to compile data and make reports to the bigwigs. Finally, it is my job to settle any disputes that arise. Now, who among you wishes to be responsible for finding out why the post-it notes weren’t delivered?”

The four of them were silent.

“Let’s look at my experience. As a paralegal, it was my job to meet with clients and keep them happy. It was my job to gather data, keep my attorney on track and on schedule. I also had to coordinate his trials, set up computers, make sure the equipment in the courtroom was compatible with our stuff, keep documents and other evidence in order, buy lunch and make sure it got delivered, write reports, memos, and legal documents for my attorney’s review.” Sarah stood up and moved around the room. “This should sound pretty similar to what I am doing now.”

“W
e’ll give you that, but you also have the final decision making authority now,” Brad said looking at the others, “and that worries us.”

“And so far, have I arbitrarily made a decision that affected this DLC?  As I see it,
I consistently ask for your input and use it. After all, we’ve managed to reach consensus on everything important that we’ve done so far. And if the day comes when we cannot reach consensus, then I will make the final call and I will take the blame if it goes wrong. Think about it, Brad, I’ve even sought your counsel on who we hired. I want to be a Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise here not Captain Bligh on the Bounty.”

The four of them laughed at that.

“I want us to succeed. I see my job as keeping the crap out of your face so that you can be creative and productive.” Sarah didn’t wait for their agreement. “Guys, I have to run to a meeting with the CFO to make sure we get our full budget.”

To Sarah’s great relief, the rebellio
n went away and the team began to chug forward. Nicole was thrilled.

Sarah worked harder than ever. She got home late Friday night and went back in early Saturday morning to look at the latest progress on the beta files. Sarah had them up on the screen and was sitting in a chair, playing a little of the beta version of the DLC when she nodded off.

Eamon had come in to pick up some things he’d left on his desk. He saw Sarah’s car in the parking garage and went looking for her. He found her sleeping, the controller in her hand and the DLC up on screen waiting for orders.

Eamon gently pried the controller from Sarah’s hand and played with the beta version a little before shutting it down. Then he knelt down and gently shook her shoulder. “Wake up, Gamer Girl,” he said softly.

Sarah, half awake saw Eamon and smiled. “Hi,” she said. Then, she realized where she was and sat up. “Oh. Sorry, I must have dozed off.”

Sarah looked up at the screen. It was blank.

“Don’t worry, the game didn’t crash. I turned it off,” Eamon told her.

“I’d better get back to w—“

“No.  No, you are done working for today, Miss Adams. Time to go home,” Eamon told her.

Sarah, flustered stood up. “I have too much to do, I—”

“Whoa, let’s compromise here, okay?” Eamon suggested.

“What sort of compromise?” Sarah asked him.

“I was planning to go
out to my place in Johnson County. Why don’t you go with me? Since the Fourth of July party is going to be held there, it would be to your advantage to get a good look around the place, don’t you think?”

“Well…” Sarah thought about it. She did need
to see the farm, ranch, estate; Sarah wasn’t sure what to call it.

“I’ll drive, you rest, you get a good look at the place and I’ll bring you back to town in time for supper,” Eamon suggested.

Sarah didn’t need too much convincing. She was tired and she was stale. Her brain was on shut down. She needed time away and a ride out to the country sounded great. “Sounds like a plan,” she said.

“Okay, get your purse and let’s get out of here.”

Sarah grabbed her tote and her tablet and followed Eamon to the parking garage. When they got in the car, Eamon said, “That seat goes back a long way. Why don’t you take advantage of it?”

Sarah let the seat go back and within moments she was
fast asleep. About an hour later, Eamon was shaking her awake once more.

“Sarah, wake up. We’re here.”

Sarah came awake and sat up. She found the button to raise the seat at the same time she looked out the passenger window. What she saw there was stunning.

They were
in front of a sprawling two-story home. It was brick and built in the style of the Midwest, with multiple hip roofs and double hung windows. It stood at the apex of an arched driveway. Native trees: pin oaks, American basswoods and red maples lined the drive and shaded the front of the house from the afternoon sun.

A stand of b
ald cypress lay to the far left of the house, a cluster of redbud trees to the right and flower beds of native flowers hugged the foundation of the house. The house itself sat on the top of a gentle hill, and another driveway led off to the right side of the house and went around and down, disappearing from view.

Sarah followed
Eamon into the house and stopped dead. The interior was huge and open. From the foyer, Sarah could see the great room and hall floors which were wide-planked hardwood and there was a multicolored brick fireplace to the far left. To the right was a massive kitchen with a central food preparation area that was also a breakfast bar. It could accommodate about a dozen people easily, but there was a dining area to the kitchen’s left that seated even more. Expensive porcelain tile ran throughout the two rooms.

The back
yard of the house was visible because the back wall was a large bank of windows and French doors. A flagstone patio with flowerbeds and a beautiful water treatment lay beyond. To the left was an area for outdoor cooking with the most up to date equipment, and to the right was a broad stair case that led downward.

Inside the house was
a stairway that led to the bedrooms. Sarah suspected that there was also a set or two of stairs that led to more rooms below.

The furniture was comfortable and homey. A big sofa that looked out on the patio was the cent
erpiece. There were large recliners and a grouping of sofas around the fireplace. There were paintings on the walls and photographs of what appeared to be family members and pets.

The colors were greens and browns and beiges in the great room with warm walls in a creamy color that just missed being yellow.

“It’s beautiful,” Sarah said as she looked around. “This is a beautiful house.” She looked up at Eamon and added, “This house is real. I mean, it seems more…”

Eamon remembered the conversation from all those weeks ago and he acknowledged it with a smile. “
Yeah, I know. I wanted to build this place for my Mom and Dad, but Mom took one look at the plans and said she’d kill herself trying to keep it clean. She wouldn’t hear of a live-in, so I ended up building a smaller version for them down the road. We’ll go down there a little later if you want.” He touched her elbow. “Come on, I’ll show you the pool area.”

They walked through the great room to the French doors and went on out to the patio and then down the wide steps that curved around. At the bottom of the stairs, Sarah turned back and could see a large room with glass windows. As she suspected, there was a basement area to the house that opened out to this smaller patio they stood on now.  This area had a large pool surrounded with a sturdy but attractive fence that was designed to keep small children and pets out of
the water. Also enclosed in the fenced area was a pool house that was more a guest house. This area also had a state of the art gas grill and a place to eat. Beyond the pool was a large, flat, open grassy area, and beyond that, in the distance were what appeared to be a baseball diamond and a sand volleyball court.

“Did you design this place?” Sarah asked him.

“I had help, but yes, I did. I wanted this to be a place where my whole family could come and play. My brothers and sisters are all either at school or working halfway across the country, but we all come together for the Fourth of July. My Dad…my Dad loves Independence Day, naturalized citizen and all that,” Eamon explained. “Come on. Let’s grab a cart out of the workshop and go on down to my folks’ place.”

Sarah looked down at her clothes. She had on a worn pair of boot cut jeans
, a stretch t-shirt and old pair of walking shoes.

“You look fine, Sarah. Don’t worry.” Eamon touched her elbow again and they went on down to a workshop that also served as a garage for the lawn mowers and garden tractors.
There were a couple of golf carts inside as well. Eamon fired one up and Sarah hopped in. They took the cart down the hill and around the bend.

About a half mile down the lane, Sarah saw another house, similar in style to the big house on the hill but smaller, simpler.
Eamon pulled the cart up in front of the house. They hopped out, and Eamon opened the front door. “Hey Mom! Are you home?”

A woman walked out from the kitchen to their right. She smiled and held out her arms. “Eamon,” she said.

Eamon went and gave his mother a hug and then turned toward Sarah. “Mom, this is Sarah, Sarah Adams. She’s working with Nicole on the Fourth of July party this year.”

“How do you do, Mrs. Byrne,” Sarah said, holding out her hand.

Eamon’s mother took her hand and put her other hand over Sarah’s. “Good to meet you Sarah. Call me Catherine. Come on in. Let me get you something to drink. You want coffee or a pop?”

“Diet anything would be fine, thanks.”

Catherine went to the refrigerator, pulled out a diet Sprite and gave it to Sarah. “Eamon, you can get your own.” She pointed to a chair. “Have a seat.”

Sarah sat down while Eamon went
and got a bottle of water to drink. Sarah looked from Eamon to Catherine and back. She could see a little of Catherine in the shape of Eamon’s nose and in his forehead, but she thought that he probably took more after his father than his mother.

Catherine poured herself a cup of coffee and sat down as well. “So, what’s in store for
the Fourth of July?”

Sarah took her tablet out of her tote bag. “We’ve hired the same fireworks company. Nicole said they did well last year. We though
t ribs, steaks, hamburgers, hot dogs, the usual meats, but I thought you might like something different for the green salad. I thought spinach with mandarin oranges or strawberries, or if that doesn’t suit perhaps a fresh shrimp salad? My mom has a great recipe that we could use.  We could add a Watergate salad and potatoes with onions and bacon baked in foil, three bean salad or baked beans. My understanding is that chocolate cake is traditional, but perhaps we could add something like a gooseberry pie or some other seasonal fruit pie.” Sarah took a breath. She realized she was a little nervous.

“It
sounds good, Sarah. You don’t need to worry about fussy eaters with my crew. They’ll demolish just about anything you serve them,” Catherine said.

“Is there anything in particular you would like for me to have served? Aside from the chocolate cake that is?”

Catherine laughed. “I have cooked so many meals…anything I don’t have to cook will be fine. You choose. You sound like you know good food. I’m sure everything will be great.”

Sarah looked at Eamon who wink
ed. He spoke up. “Mom, where’s Dad?”

“Oh, come on, you know where he is. He’s down at the kennels.”

Eamon pushed back his chair. “I hate to drink and run, Mom, but we’re on a time schedule.”

“Eamon, why don’t you and Sarah stay for supper?”

“I promised Sarah I’d have her back to the City by supper time, Mom, so it’s up to her. After all, this is her day off.” Eamon looked her way.

“I’d love to stay for supper. Thanks.” Sarah looked at Eamon again
. He was pleased.

“Well, that’s settled. Go and find your father, then.”

To her surprise, Eamon took hold of Sarah’s hand and pulled her gently up from the chair before leading her out the back door. They went down a path to a group of kennels. Eamon kept hold of her hand the entire time. To Sarah, it felt wonderfully familiar.

Their approach set off a cacophony of barking as daschunds of all sizes, colors and coat lengths came running out of their dog houses and into the runs.

A man came out of the out building. “Hey now, what’s this?” The man spotted Eamon and his face lit up. “Ah, now there’s my boy.”

Eamon gave his father a hug. “Hey Dad.”

Mr. Byrne was shorter than his son, but
the resemblance was uncanny. Sarah had a vision of how Eamon would look in thirty years, and she realized that he was going to look pretty damn good.

“Dad, this is Sarah. Sarah, this is my father, Riordan Byrne.”

Sarah offered her hand and started to speak, but Mr. Byrne beat her to it. “Sarah, it’s good to meet yah. Have you been up to the house to meet the missus?”

“Yes, Catherine invited me to supper.”

“Ah, good, good. So, what do you think of me dogs?”

Sarah came over to the kennels and knelt down. “Are you breeding
for show or do you run earth dog trials?”

“I do a little
show breedin’, but most of these dogs aren’t for show, they go down the runs, these dogs do.”

Sarah was petting one of the short hairs through the fence. She looked up at Mr. Byrne. “I love doxies; they were our dog of choice at home. We never put our babies through their paces
though. They were always pampered pets.”

Riordan knelt do
wn beside her. “So which are yer favorites then?”

“I have tender spot for the short-hairs. They have such definite personalities, but the sweetest doxie we ever had was a miniatur
e long-hair. He never met a stranger.”

Riordan grabbed the fence and got back to his feet and held out his hand for Sarah. He hauled her back up. “Don’t you have a dog now?”

Sarah shook her head. “Dogs aren’t allowed at my apartment building.”

He patted her cheek. “Well, if you’re ever in a place where you can have one, let me know.”
Mr. Byrne turned to his son. “So what brings you out today, son?”

“Sarah’s working with Nicole on the Fourth of July party, Dad. I t
hought she should see the place.”

“Good.” He turned
back to Sarah. “So, what do yah think? He’s got about fifteen hundred acres out here. Good land too. We run some cattle and the fields they don’t need, we rent for hayin’.”

Sarah shrugged her shoulders. “Now you’ve moved way beyond my area of expertise, Mr. Byrne. I’m a city girl from the West Coast. I don’t know a thing about cows.”

“Well, Miss Adams, at least you don’t pretend to know what yah don’t know. I like that.” He offered her his arm. “Come on then, let’s head back up to the house and see what Catherine’s plannin’ for supper.”