Patent Pending (closed)

[GypsyGirl84]

Name: Nadia Moustas
Height: 5'2"
Weight: 110 lbs
Age: 21
Measurements: 34DD-24-36
Description: Light olive skin, slightly oval face, her light blue eyes appear more startling because of her skin tone and dark, straight hair that falls to the middle of her back. Usually has a very stern look of concentration on her face. Fit but not obsessively so.

-----

Nadia was the company ice queen.

She didn't want to be, but circumstances had required it.

First there was her position. Nadia was the comptroller at a small company called Vinci Ventures. Basically, Vinci provided workspace and support for inventors whose visions were on the edge without being off it. If and when an invention proved successful, it was licensed out and Vinci got a big cut.

But super successful inventions weren't happening every day, so it was up to someone like Nadia to watch the purse strings, which made her unpopular with people whose projects didn't get the backing they wanted.

Then there was Nadia's youth and attractiveness. The combination made a number of people think that Nadia couldn't possibly be any good at her job, even though she had proven time and again that she was.

And once again, there was Nadia's youth and attractiveness, which made her the focus of more than one amorous attempt. It didn't matter that Nadia has made it clear that she didn't date coworkers. It didn't matter that she dressed to play down her looks. It didn't matter that Nadia had never dated anyone at Vinci, inventor or administrative. People only stopped asking her out when she rudely and publicly rejected their advances.

It might have surprised a number of her coworkers to know Nadia had no social life to speak of, and that she hasn't even been properly kissed. It had always been school and sports for Nadia. Now it was work and the gym.

People were happy just to let Nadia be in peace in her office. And hope they didn't get frostbite when they had to talk to her.

 

[jc199123]

Name: James Vahnbran
Height: 6’4.5"
Weight: 250 lbs.
Age: 20
Description: Light tan skin, brown eyes, short dark brown hair (so dark that it looks black in some light), he has a care free attitude, a little chubby but he has some muscle.
___

James was the company class clown if you will.

He often felt at time the office needed a good laugh.

James was a newly added inventor for a company called Vinci Ventures. He basically thought up things that could make Vinci money. If and when they were successful Vinci would license it out for a fee.
Well that’s all good in theory but this company was smart and hired a bank account watch dog that made Cerberus look like a puppy to keep inventors inline.

Then there was James’s playfulness that either made colleges not take him seriously or got him on multiple people’s bad side, which didn’t make him popular with the board either.
James’s attitude helped/hurt him in the relationship department. He would get a first date maybe as far as a kiss but that was it. He never dated anyone at the office he figured his antics had pretty much hurt his chances with anyone there.

To none of James coworkers surprise he didn’t have much of a social life besides the occasional date he didn’t do much of anything but read comics play video games and fix electronics on the side for some quick cash. In his younger life it was school work then games either with friends or alone not much else he wanted to do. Now it’s pretty much the same thing just older.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

A good week and a good quarter, Nadia thought to herself as she shut her computer down for the weekend. Nadia may have not been universally loved by the various project managers, and she had shot down all the potential Lotharios in the company, but she certainly had the approval of her bosses and the board. Another quarterly bonus padded her already substantial bank account quite nicely.

As Nadia closed and locked her office door, her administrative assistant reminded Nadia thst the Review and Growth workgroup met next week. Or what was unofficially referred to as "culling the herd" workgroup. The workgroup would decide which inventors were not contributing to the company's bottom line and order their employment terminated.

Time enough to make those decisions next week, Nadia decided, as she headed out to the parking lot toward her British racing green Jaguar convertible.

 

[jc199123]

Another quarter gone James thought, sighed while he cleaned his area before his shift was over and thought about his three day weekend. James may have been liked by the inventors in the company but the figure heads didn’t like him much. What am I going to do for my three day weekend? I could ask Nadia out. James had a huge crush on Nadia, he loved everything about her. He loved her blue eyes, olive skin, dark hair that stops at the middle of her back. The only thing James hated about Nadia was the stern look of concentration she always had on her face.

James pulled out his phone to use the bank app so he can see if he got his living expenses. He got just enough to cover his rent again good thing I have about two grand in electronic repairs finished to live on. He was snapped way from his phone by a voice it was Nadia’s assistant telling her that the quarterly Review and Growth workshop aka the project beheading was next week. James thought to himself I better ask Nadia out I may not be here next week to ask. Then he thought to himself he should still be there James couldn’t help the comptroller rolled his many projects into other ones.

James headed to the parking lot and see that Nadia wasn’t far ahead so he called out to her Nadia hey Nadia. He hoped she would stop and answer he had a crush on her since he had joined the office. James hoped he would be the one guy who would thaw out the ice queen and get a date with her.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Nadia stopped, her shoulders drooping as she mentally sighed. She could tell by the tone in the voice calling out to her that the person either wanted assurances that he would still have a job after next week or they wanted a date with her. She turned around to see a tall, lanky man about her age chasing after her. He could do with a little more running, she thought, noticing the hint of a "muffin top" around his waist.

For the most part Nadia like the folks on Vinci's development side. They were the company's bread and butter, after all. And they tended to be more straightforward than the lawyers, accountants and bureaucrats she had to deal with most of the time. Still, it didn't mean she was going to abandon her strict personal policy of professionalism, regardless of where the guy worked in Vinci.

"May I help you, Mr. ---Vahnbran, isn't it?"

 

[jc199123]

To James’s surprise Nadia actually stopped. He could tell she wasn’t really excited about stopping but he didn’t care he was going to go for it. Yes it Vahnbran but please call me James. I was wondering if you weren’t busy this weekend maybe we could do something together this weekend? James noticed as he got closer to her she was wearing a more form fitting attire than usual. Nadia usually wore something that you can barely tell she was a lady at all.

James had heard rumors that Nadia actually liked the R&D side better than she did the legal/figure head side it was something to do with straight forwardness that we had. James hoped he heard right because there was no turning back now he said what he said that was it. He waited nervously for an answer because her turn down rate was 100% across the board. James thinks to himself how bad is Nadia going to let me have it?

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Nadia's mouth went into a frown as she saw Vahnbran try to subtly check her out. He's probably trying to imagine me in a more revealing outfit, she thought, even though Nadia was wearing a very conservative outfit like she did every day.

"I don't date coworkers, Mr. Vahnbran," she said in a frigid tone. "If there is nothing else?" Nadia didn't wait for an answer, but instead turned around and headed for her car.

 

[jc199123]

James thought to his self that one she must have caught him checking her out even though all I was doing was admiring her curves that’s it. Two she didn’t let me have it that bad. James asked Nadia will you please reconsider your stance on this. Heck I may not even be a coworker anymore.

He stood there waiting again now noticing her car a green Jaguar racer and a convertible at that. He was more into American muscle. James had invested most of his extra money into a black on black hard top Pontiac GTO ghost built to race on the road or the track. He often pictured Nadia in the seat next to him while he tore through the streets that now had mostly hybrids only a few were allowed to apply to have anything else. The application process was enough to make most people quite the endeavor of having a real car not a toy.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Nadia made no reply, but silently climbed into her Jaguar and drove off. The man was clearly an inept buffoon. He was also right about his lack of future prospects at Vinci. At least he wouldn't be able to harass her anymore, she mused.

When Nadia arrived at the guard station at the entrance, the guard outside directed her to park her car. Another guard handed her a phone. She took the phone, exchanged a few words with whoever was on the other end of the conversation, then handed the phone back to the guard. She got out of her car, handed her keys to another guard, and waited. After a few minutes, a helicopter could be seen coming from the west. As soon as it landed, Nadia ducked down and ran to a door opening up. In less than a minute, the helicopter (and Nadia) disappeared, leaving two befuddled security guards who went back into their guardhouse.

 

[jc199123]

James thought to himself that seeing how she made no attempt to say no again he could ask her out again next week. Time to head home James thought while he entered his old beater he took to work. Looking up he seen the chopper land in the distance surely they are not going to the meeting by that, for some reason the figure heads think a helicopter over town is going to remain secret . The R&D team figured that out a long time ago and started to track any and every way/place possible the review board could use to hide.

When James gets home and sets down to relax his doorbell rings and its one of the guys here to pick up the electronics he fixed. After about 10 times James finally has everything squared away and is paid what he was owed. Not bad for 3 days work James thought while he found stuff to watch while he tinkered on side projects while he was off. James had one he nicknamed the helper it was a mind controlled box that had self-replicating tentacles that did whatever the owner could think up. He needed someone to volunteer to test more personal functions on. James looks up and notices a veg red dot on his window, he thinks is one of Vinci’s project hunters as they were nicknamed check to see if he has any projects Vinci hasn’t seen from him. “Trey passed this up” he mutters as he gets up to turn on his anti-spy countermeasures “they turned it down because they didn’t see any practical application for it” James said mockingly. James now continues to tinker with the box improving things like response time, interface and power consumptions. After all the tinkering then the cooking he did James finally gets to unwind and think. He thinks about his approach in asking out Nadia was he to direct? He also figured staring at her like I was picturing her in something skimpier was bad even though he wasn’t. Over the weekend James doesn’t do much besides hang out with friends, visits his local comic book store and played video games waiting to go back to work so he can ask Nadia out again.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

The weekend had certainly been more interesting than Nadia had expected. It appeared that the government had recently picked up one of the licenses that Vinci had produced, and had gotten interested in the rest of their products.

The government had also gotten very interested in Nadia, and her ability to pick the winners and losers at Vinci. So the government had asked Nadia to meet with one of their men from the Commerce Department, a man by the name of Jonathan Eastwood.

Jonathan (or Jon) as he liked to be called, was a tall, imposing man, athletic, with steel gray eyes, perfect tan, dark, stylishly cut hair, and generally well groomed. He moved with the grace of a large cat, had impeccable manners and a dignified bearing.

He was also gay.

Nadia discovered this when one of their meetings was running late, and Jon asked Nadia if she would like to join his fiance Kyle and him for dinner.

The three of them instantly hit it off. Kyle was a freelance tech writer who soon had the usually aloof Nadia laughing so hard that she was wiping tears from her eyes.

"I should warn you that Kyle is something of a Yenta," Jon told her.

"Once. I did that once," Kyle protested with a laugh. "And I promise to ask first before setting you up with anyone," Kyle said, patting Nadia's hand. Nadia just smiled as she replied, "I'm sure I can rely on your taste."

"And speaking of taste," Kyle began. Jon just shook his head and Kyle admonished him with a Hush. "Perhaps we can spruce up your wardrobe a little, Nadia. Nothing slutty, but there doesn't have to be a reason that you always have to wear sackcloths either," Kyle decided. "Anyway, Jon will be with you for the next three weeks. I officially loan him to you during office hours as your faux boyfriend, with the caveat that you bring home for the weekends, and that you let me show you what a city's cultural life is supposed to be like. I'm sure all those guys at the place you work at could only show you singles' bars and comic conventions." Kyle dramatically shivered at that pronouncement.

"Deal," Nadia said, giggling.

Jon arched an eyebrow. "Do I get a say in this?"

"Of course not," Kyle replied with a laugh. "Better get used to it. That's what married life is all about." Jon shook his head with mock dismay, before his partner gave him a kiss that put a smile back on his face.

-----

A lot of people were doing double takes as Nadia came into work on Tuesday. The first thing that they noticed was that she was smiling. Not a Mona Lisa hint of a smile. But a "Damn but it's a nice day, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it" smile.

And then there was the outfit she was wearing. It was, all things considered, still a fairly conservative dress, but its hem was just above her knee now, rather than below it. There was a hint of cleavage, as well as the fact that the dress advertised, in a modest way, that Nadia not only had a shape, she had a very nice shape.

And finally there was the man accompanying her, a government representative by the name of Jonathan Eastwood. The man moved like a jungle cat, and emanated the same amount of prowess and virility. His suit looked like it wouldn't dare have a wrinkle on it And the body language between the pair screamed "Couple." By lunchtime, it was all over Vinci that someone had melted the Ice Queen.

The government guy sat in on the meeting of the Review and Growth workgroup, to see how Nadia worked. James Vahnbran's name was one of the first to come up. Nadia remembered her encounter with the man from the week before. Vahnbran was on the bubble and, if she hadn't had her encounter with him last Friday, she would have recommended his termination. But Nadia was worried that her disdain for the man was making her unduly prejudicial toward him, and instead recommended that the group issue Vahnbran a performance warning, and review his case after the next quarter.

Jon and Nadia spend the rest of the day in her office, the doors closed, going over her files and past decisions. At the end of the day, Jon offered Nadia dinner at a local restaurant, and she accepted. The pair made their way to the parking lot, sharing a laugh, and Nadia tossed Jon the keys to her Jaguar.

 

[jc199123]

Monday was interesting a bunch of James old collage engineering friends visited and mad him drag out an old finals project they made together. The project was a couple of old robots meant to fight each other without human control. So James and his friend decide to go to one of James secret labs he used to tinker with stuff too big to hide at home and he didn’t want anyone to know. At the lab they tinkered with the robots and fixed many of their mechanical as well as the programming issues. James asks the group if we should test them now or find a remote spot to test. The answer he got was to his surprise was a chanting of “test them now”. So James and another Friend named Alac went to the two robots and stood behind them and waited for the others to count down to one. When the preverbal bell hit Alac and James turns on the robots. Then James hears another friend named alexander ask “did we ever fix the issue that got us a B+ on this”. James asks “the one where they won’t quite or the one where they destroyed the technology head’s workshop”. Alexander answers “both really” not long after that one of the robots throws the other against the wall. When this happens all of the friends run out of the lab fearing that the robots may end up hitting them by mistake. While outside with the door closed James hears “I wonder how long till this stops” James answers with a devilish grin “the same amount of time it took when they destroyed the tech head’s workshop”. After about 4 hour went by James and the only friend that didn’t leave Alac went back into the lab and seen oil and hydraulic fluids all over the walls and floor, the wall cracked or broken out and two broken robots Alac ask “can they be fixed” James answers “yea I should have spare parts at home given they didn’t damage the control boards. “Hey want to head back to my house after all this excitement I couldn’t handle much else” James asks Alac “sure why not” answered Alac. After a few more hours of reminiscing about the old days and the stupid stuff they made try to make end meet while in school Alac left. James then began to wonder if he still had a job at Vinci and was wondering who was spying on him. After about an hour or so thinking James figured he would ask the review board if the sent project hunters after him.

When James returned to work so he can hear if he still had a job he hears that Nadia now has a boyfriend. James has seen Nadia’s new boyfriend but something was of but he couldn’t really figure it out. James figured better to leave it alone for now he still had the review to worry about given the said they would call him meaning that it would be a lengthy chat. He began to somewhat clean around his area so if this was the end of working here all he would have to do is empty the desk that’s it.James sees nadia leave and thinks to himself the review must be after lunch oh well nothing more he can do the ball is in the boards court now.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

Jack Sprouse was a legend in the field of innovative technology. Whether it was robotics, exotic metallurgy, nanotechnology...you name it, and Jack had a hand in its infancy.

Jack was one of the founders of Vinci, and was not only a board member, but active on the "floor" as well. Jack held the title of Senior Project Coordinator, which meant that he kept on an eye on all the projects going on at Vinci and shifted personnel around as needed. He was also on the Review and Growth Workgroup. and was usually the one tasked with talking the guys on the research and development side of Vinci.

At 65, Jack looked like a man twenty years his junior, and there was no mistaking the fact that Jack was just as physically active now as he had been all his life.

Jack was sitting in his office, reviewing the decisions of the workgroup, when he decided he might as well start talking to the guys and girl who were under scrutiny. He'd start with James Vahnbran first. Vahnbran struck Jack as a generally likeable young man, but he had a reputation around Vinci as the class clown. He'd have to talk to the young man about that.

"Mac," Jack told his administrative assistant, "Tell James Vahnbran I want to see him in my office."

 

[jc199123]

During lunch James sat his desk ate and read comics until his lunch was over. He dreaded this meeting because what was going to be brought up during was his performance during work. James work hard but he did more clowning around but it couldn’t be help. His teachers have all tried to break his attitude and his way but even the most hardcore teachers couldn’t break James. James sat at his desk he sigh thinking of all the stuff he did. As James was thinking about the meeting he realized Nadia was wearing a more reveling outfit still conservative but more revealing weird he thought to his self.

“I wonder when they are going to start the beheading” James thought. No sooner did he think that James hears MR. Sprouse’s assistant Mac tell him that MR. Sprouse wanted to see him. James got up adjusted his shirt and mental prepared himself for verbal warfare. He walked into MR. Srpouse’s office and said “hello boss”.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

"James," Jack began, a grimace on his face, "The good news is that you've got another three months here. The bad news is you probably only have three months here. I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass," Jack said gruffly. "If it wasn't for me and Nadia Moustas, you'd probably be packing up your stuff right now. You're lucky that people trust Nadia's judgment on this sort of thing." Jack Sprouse was one of those people who trusted Nadia, and it was well known that Jack was one of the few people at Vinci who Nadia had a personal friendship with. "But you got three months to get your act together or you're gone," Jack told James.

Jack took a sip out of a mug of his coffee on his desk and continued. "James, this is a great company to work at. Ideas that nobody else will touch get funded here. And if those ideas take off, the guys who thought them up and worked on them get rich. You could be one of those guys, Jack. You're smart enough. People don't mind you on their teams. You could probably head up your own team. But all you want to do is clown around and read comic books on your lunch break."

"So tell me, James," Jack asked, "What do you want here at the company?"

 

[jc199123]

“Crap” James thought to himself MR.Sprouse isn’t happy. The good news is I have three more months here. MR.Sprouse wasn’t giving James any space to talk at all so James did the only thing he could listen. When James hears Nadia’s name he thinks I have to do something to thank her for this. He figured she would have canned him especially after last week.

The only down side to coming into Mr. Sprouse office was that it smelled of coffee and James hated coffee. The only way James got caffeine was through energy drinks.” Yea a great place to work” James thought to himself mockingly “yea if you don’t mind getting rolled into other projects”. He knew if he said that now he would probably get canned right there.

“First off boss I would like to thank you for your part in keeping me here” James stated.James giving it some thought then said more of a bonus would be nice.I actually have some questions one who is the new suit in the office is he some type of government suit? Two did Vinci send some project hunter to spy on my apartment last night?

 

[GypsyGirl84]

"You heard about him?" Jack said when James asked about the government representative. "His name is Eastwood. He's from the Commerce Department. They want to do a study of our management style here. I believe he and Ms. Moustas have hit it off." Jack had already talked to his wife about Eastwood, and she wanted to have Jon and Nadia over for dinner as soon as possible.

"And Vinci doesn't spy on its employees, James. We don't have to. We have more than enough successful projects as it is." Jack took another sip of his coffee before continuing. "Think about what you want to accomplish in the next three months. Or if you actually want to remain at Vinci. You might be happier somewhere else. Or maybe you want to start off on your own. But if you want to stay here, you need to get into shape. Speaking of which," Jack added, his gaze falling on James' gut, "You might want to think about hitting the gym. Human Resources can hook you up with the gym in the area we have an agreement with for our employees. If you haven't got any other questions, James, I got some more people to say," Jack added.

 

[jc199123]

“No sir” James says to Mr. Sprouse “I only had an inclination about him”. When James heard Sprouse say no on the project hunters he gave a mental Ace Ventura style really. “The only other project I had” James stated “was a gaming suit that connected with games to give you the complete experience included the pain aspect of the game but the department heads canned it because it sent me to the E.R. when it shocked me I stayed there for three day under observation”. He also stated that” we didn’t know if the suit short out or the Capacitors were too big and let me have it”. “Maybe you can have the figure heads let me reopen that project again” James asked. Then James realized that Sprouse’s gaze was at his gut he hates for people to stare at him. James calmly replied “I’ve already told H.R. that I don’t do gyms maybe if they would do a deal so I could join martial arts gym I would do it maybe boss you could see if they will consider it ”.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

"As one of those figureheads, James, I'll certainly consider giving you your own project again. Once I've seen a change in your attitude. As to the martial arts gym, that's your choice, but you'll have to pay for it yourself. As for everyone else, the majority of our employees are very happy with the free gym membership Vinci provides. As far as your inclination toward Mr. Eastwood is concerned, well," Jack paused, taking another sip from his coffee mug, "I'd keep it to myself if I were you. Professionally speaking, he won't have any effect on your position at Vinci, and personally, he doesn't seem to be interested in any type of social interaction with anyone at Vinci besides Ms. Moustas. And since you and Ms. Moustas are practically strangers, she probably wouldn't appreciate you trying to involve yourself in her personal life. That'll be all, James," Jack said, gesturing toward the door with his coffee cup.

 

[jc199123]

James left knowing that Sprouse didn’t really want to hear more. As for keeping my thoughts on the new G-man in the building James figured as much but he could place a finger on it but there was something more to him that he lets on. James put in more effort than usual that day. At quitting time James remembered he had to figure out what to get Nadia as a thank you gift he’ll have to go home and figure something out. Later that day James finally got home he threw his thing on the couch and powered up his PC and search for local Martial Arts studios near him especially ones with gyms included. He also looked for thank you gifts for Nadia but came up with nothing “maybe I will just get her a card James thought to his self”. James posted a photo of the carnage the robots had left and was in on a social media site for his collage friends to see then left to go to the store to get Nadia a thank you card.

While at the store James pick up a thank you card then went to the electronic section to see if there was anything to buy he found a 36th chamber of shaolin box-set that had all three movies in it and an electronics magazine. When James got home he popped on of the 36th chamber of shaolin DVDs. The card James got for Nadia was a relatively plain card all it had on it was thank you on the outside and room to write on the inside so he wrote I wanted to say sorry for last week and I also wanted to thank you for talking the board into keeping me I’m defiantly changing my attitude some at work Sincerely James. He wrote down everything he needed to mail it out and put it in his mailbox. James then started to work on Helper he wanted to see if it could crush anything so James put on the head probes and got a piece of steel pipe about a quarter inch thick it took longer than expected but it did the job without failing. James finish of the rest of the DVD box-set and went to bed early because it going to be a long day he thought to his self, seeing how I’m going to be under a microscope for three months.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

It wasn't until the following Monday that Nadia got James' card in the mix with the rest of her office mail. Nadia had had a good weekend with Jack and Kyle, and she had even told Kyle that she would consider being set up on a date with one of his straight friends. But only after meeting said friend in a group setting, of course.

Jon ended up not accompanying her back to Vinci this week, but his presence had did its job. None of the creeps who constantly hit on her came around anymore. She was still getting the job done to everyone's satisfaction, but was getting along better with everyone in the office.

She was going through her mail that afternoon when she came across the thank you card. She opened it up and read it while trying to remember who this James Vahnbran was. Then she got to the apology, and the memory of that Friday afternoon in the parking lot came back. She held the card this Vahnbran had sent her, and let herself smile. If her life were a symphony, Vahnbran would be the last notes of the previous movement, while her friendship with Jon and Kyle represented a new movement, a new page in her life. If this apology helped this Vahnbran get closure in his life, she was happy. Because she was putting the part of her life where near-strangers were constantly hitting on her behind her, and moving on to new things.

"You're very welcome, Mr. Vahnbran," Nadia said to the Thank You card before putting it in her wastebasket. She had a lot of work to get done today. Because, for the first time at Vinci, she had decided to participate in a Ladies Night Out! Nadia had to suppress a giggle of giddiness at the thought of the outing. She got back to her work, and soon she had her focus back.

-----

(A month after the meeting between Jack and James)

Amazing what a difference a month makes, Jack mused. In the front office, Nadia had actually become popular, at least with her female coworkers. She still gave the professional relationship only cold shoulder to the guys, with a few exceptions, like Jack himself. And, if anything, Nadia's productivity had improved.

And speaking of improvements, James Vahnbran had started coming around. Jack was fairly sure that the kid would be out the door at the end of the three months, but the kid was trying. He might even become an asset to Vinci, Jack mused.

"Hey Mac," Jack yelled to his assistant. "Get James Vahnbran in my office." Jack smiled. He might have some news James would appreciate.

 

[jc199123]

The weekend James sent Nadia the card he found a martial Arts gym to join it was a weng chun class. He didn’t lose weight but he did lose some fat. James also tinkered with Helper but there wasn’t really any way to put it through its final paces because he couldn’t find any woman to test what he needed to test. He also thought about way he could ask Nadia out again something more subtle then he gets the idea of trying to get to know her first.

James tried to set a new precedent on the quickest improvement by one person at Vinci. The only thing James didn’t change was his habit of eating and reading comics during his lunch break. James seen Nadia around the office she was getting along with people a lot better. James incurred some injuries from practice he never let it affect his work even though he had to limp into work one day.
James still couldn’t figure out “G-Man” he thinks that Eastwood was a cover but didn’t care. James thought to himself Nadia was going to a girl’s night out finally she was hanging out with people from work he wondered what changed Nadia so much. James put in some work on repairing his lab and the fighting bots and others people’s electronics. Week in and week out James worked as hard as he could so he could maybe lead a team or get work on his own projects. James even saved up enough money to get a new apartment a spacey on at that. It had enough room where he could dedicate a room for his at home lab/workshop. James even had a vault built in so he could keep valuables in like Helper and his Identification documents and other legal papers in it
-----------------------------

James is setting at his desk nervous because he hears there is going to be a review today even though it has been only a month or so after the last. He sits there wondering if they are going to terminate him or tell him a project he has been working on flopped .James thought to his self “the month has been good at least on his part there should be no way for the board to can him”. He began to relax when James hears his name called my Mac. “Crap” he thought “why does it always have to be me”. Mac told James that Sprouse want to see him. James nervous on the inside but didn’t try to show it got up and walked into Sprouse’s office.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

"James, I got some news on a project you might be interested in," Jack began, as he motioned James to take a seat across the desk from him. "One of the gaming companies that we sell licenses to has had a setback on their virtual reality development. They don't want anything new, they've got everything in their production line geared up for how they've developed their VR sets so far. They're wondering if we have someone with some expertise we can lend them. I thought of you and, in light of your turn around in the last month, I'd have no problem recommending you. It would mean a big bonus once you're finished, and maybe you're own project when you get finished." Jack took a sip of coffee before continuing. "Let me make this real clear, James. They don't want your VR invention. They want you to make theirs work. You interested?"

 

[jc199123]

A gaming company is having trouble with their VR equipment James thought as he sat down. “Yes I do I have a few question two ask one they don’t have people on staff to fix it”. ‘Two what is it I exactly dealing with and three how long do I have”? “I almost forgot how it interfaces with the human element and what’s wrong exactly”? James thinks to himself while he wait for an answer he doesn’t think his VR device is going to ever leave Vinci he also thinks “I’m going to have to see if anyone wants to celebrate my getting a lone project but who he pondered”. James ponders what setup do they have a head set that puts you into a catatonic like state while you play or a room where you play or is it a suit like his. James began to think maybe one of the people he could invite to celebrate with him as Nadia but he would have to be careful even in her enlightened state she may not be as receptive to going. Then James heard Sprouse began to talk.

 

[GypsyGirl84]

"Actually, they do have people on staff who can fix it, but not in the timeframe their company wants," Jack began.

Just then the head of a lovely woman with luxurious chestnut hair and hazel eyes stuck her head into the office. "Sorry, Jack, didn't know you were busy. I got those numbers on the nano project. I'll drop them by later."

"Thanks, Caroline," Jack answered. Caroline gave James a curt nod before disappearing.

"New kid on the block," Jack replied to James' unasked question. "Lot of research projects and institutes wanted her, but we offered her the freedom of her own project and her own hand picked team. I would not be surprised if that girl has my job in ten years, and owns the company outright in twenty. But as I was saying, Jack, the company has good people, just under a time crunch, and development has gone slower than they expected. They need something done by the end of August, so they can get their product on the shelves for the Holidays. I'll send you an email with all the information you need. You got two months. And when you get back, if you're successful, you'll find yourself with your own project. You'll be in a new Division of Research and Development, dedicated to advances in electronic gaming. How's that sound?"