Turn of the Century by Kurt Andersen

Author:Kurt Andersen [Andersen, Kurt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78557-2
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-03-09T05:00:00+00:00

They are practically wheelbarrowing in the stock certificates. This is so easy, Lizzie thinks. This is really happening. When Thernstrom mentions that “folks here” aren’t crazy about the title Range Daze for the new game, she says no problem, she’s already chucked it for Warps, and he says he’s thrilled they’re all plugged into the same port on this and suggests Real Time as another possible name.

“Just think about it.”

“Real Time is not a bad idea,” Lizzie says sincerely, thinking the title sounds so right and familiar because she and they are plugged into the same port.

“I’ve heard on the grapevine,” Howard Moorhead says, “that y’all are exploring some exciting new user interfaces and AI?”

She assumes he means the iZ device, and the new Yo! Friend! software that will allow players online to talk and shout to each other while they’re playing Warps. Or Real Time, or whatever they name it. But in fact, of course, he means Grinspoon’s patents.

“Uh-huh,” she says. “I was just downtown meeting with one of our partners in that area.” Goat Rodeo is in no sense a “partner” of Fine Technologies, but that is the expansive corporate term of art—like “friend” and “creative” in Los Angeles.

“Okay!” Moorhead says. “Great! We’ll have a draft deal document for you at the meeting tomorrow, won’t we, Scott? Is there anything else we need to know before we start dotting i’s and crossing t‘s?”

“Well,” Lizzie admits, “when we started these conversations six months ago, my revenue expectations for our ShowNet system were more bullish than they are right now. And you know our royalty rate on Speak Memory cuts back at the end of the year. And I am still leaning on the game team for the deadline, but, well, you know, it could get pushed into the summer.”

“Doesn’t sound like anything fundamental,” Moorhead says.

Lizzie runs through her standing mental checklist of worries, trying to be scrupulously honest. It’s like at Newark this morning, when the Continental woman looked her in the eye and asked if she’d packed her bags herself, and Lizzie felt obliged to say that her six-year-old had packed and repacked the carry-on bag several times. “I’ve also got an insane former employee suing me. For discrimination against insane people.”

Everyone smiles sympathetically. Lizzie feels a little Republican. “If lawsuits by disgruntled staff were deal killers,” Moorhead says, “M and A would come to a screeching halt, wouldn’t it? Now, you’re planning to have an office out here?”

“I’ve been interviewing. My leading contender is someone who used to work for Microsoft. Charles Prieve?”

“Chas Prieve was my assistant!” Thernstrom says.

“I remember Chas,” Moorhead says. “He was that boy who loved the movies and gaming so much? Ambitious.”

“Very ambitious,” Thernstrom says. “He’d be perfect for you.”

Moorhead stands. “Well, I look forward to finishing this up tomorrow morning?” They begin making their way out. “Do you need directions anywhere?” he asks Lizzie. “Or if you don’t have dinner plans this evening, why don’t you come over to Madison Park and

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