"Aaron, this game is awesome!" whispered Harry in awe.
"It gave me the
chills" said James.
"I don't
normally play Visual Novels, but this was so good. I couldn't stop"
said Mario.
Aaron nodded
somberly. "I am gratified that you believe this game is worth
playing. Let's see what the wider internet thinks" he said and
hit the publish button.
"Well let's
celebrate!" shouted James, and they quickly ordered dinner and
cheered with soda.
----
"Hey Daphne!
You've got to check this out!" said Richard excitedly, showing
her his laptop screen.
Daphne looked at the
screen, mildly interested. "That looks quite interesting,
Richard." she said, boredom evident in her voice.
"Interesting is
an understatement! This game is amazing! The art is beautiful, the
music is great and the story is so dark and twisted! Oh! I've
finished it" said Richard torn between satisfaction and longing
for more.
Daphne's eyes
widened in shock as she saw the end credits roll.
"Richard! Pause
it!" she shouted, her heart racing.
Richard quickly
paused the game and looked at her in confusion.
"What's wrong
Daphne?" he asked, seeing her go pale and tremble.
Frozen on the screen
was a name that Daphne had never expected to see again.
A vein throbbed in
Richard's forehead as Daphne fumbled and pulled off her engagement
ring.
"Richard, I
need to talk to you about something" she said, her voice
trembling.
Richard looked at
her in confusion. "What is it Daphne? You look like you've seen
a ghost." he said, his voice laced with concern.
"That name.
Aaron Zakhrov. He is a ghost from my past." said Daphne. She
placed the ring in Richard's hand and closed his fingers around it.
"Richard, I
need to tell you the truth. Before I came to England, my name was
Daisy Eddington. I was Aaron's classmate and girlfriend. My parents
were able to escape the clutches of a Senator Clarke. Everything I am
today, I owe to him. He saved my life." she said, tears welling
up in her eyes.
Richard pulled her
into a gentle embrace. "Daphne, I don't care about your past. I
love you for who you are now. You are my everything." he said
softly.
"Please
Richard, you need to know this." she said, her voice trembling.
"All right
Daphne. I will listen" said Richard, his voice gentle and
reassuring.
Daphne took a deep
breath and began to tell Richard everything. She told him about her
life in St. Ignatius Academy, her friendship with Aaron, and how he
had saved her from the bullying and harassment of Emily Clarke. She
told him about her family's escape from the clutches of Senator
Clarke, and how they had to leave everything behind to start a new
life in England.
Richard listened
intently, his heart aching for Daphne as she recounted her painful
past. He could see the pain in her eyes and the tears streaming down
her cheeks.
He was silent for a
minute as he fought down the surge of jealousy, and finally asked:
"Aaron would be 15, now that you are 19. Would you like to wait
for him Daphne? Or should I say Daisy?"
Daphne shook her
head and dried her tears.
"No, Master
Richard. Aaron may have been my first love, and I own him a great
deal. But I am now Daphne Devereux. I am yours. Mind, body and soul."
she said, gently kissing the fist that held her engagement ring.
Richard smiled and
kissed her forehead. "Thank you for being honest with me,
Daphne. I love you even more now that I know the truth." he
said, his voice warm and loving, before his expression turned sly.
"And I think I
know just how we can repay Aaron for all that he has done for you."
he said, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
Daphne's heart raced
as she looked at Richard.
"What do you
mean Richard?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Richard slipped the
engagement ring back onto Daphne's finger and smiled wickedly.
"Well, I do
some criminal profiling work for Interpol, so I know that they have
been investigating Sarah Clarke for a while now. With your testimony,
we can finally bring her to justice. And as for Aaron's game. My new
adult video game streaming platform would be the perfect place to
make it shine. It has just the right amount of suggestive content and
dark violence to resonate with my target audience." he said.
Daphne knelt before
him, fresh tears of gratitude streaming down her cheeks.
"Richard, I
don't know how to thank you. You are so good to me. I love you so
much." she said, her voice trembling with emotion.
Richard smiled and
gently lifted her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"Sarah Clarke
hurt what is mine. And Aaron protected what is mine. I crush my
enemies and reward my friends." he growled, deep into his
"Master" persona.
"Give me a few
minutes to slip into something more comfortable, Master Richard"
said Daphne, shuddering at his tone.
Richard grinned and
nodded, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
Daphne quickly
slipped into her walk-in closet, and willed her pounding heart to
calm down.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
"Daisy
Eddington was Aaron's girlfriend, and she's dead now. I'm Daphne
Devereux, and I belong to Master Richard now," she thought as
she slipped into a black leather corset and matching skirt, and
pulled on a pair of thigh-high black leather boots. She then
carefully applied her makeup, and fastened a black leather collar
around her neck, and clipped a leash to it.
She carefully placed
the leash in her mouth, got on her knees and crawled out of the
closet, her heart racing with excitement, for the things that Master
Richard would do to her.
----
Aaron awoke to
several messages from his bank.
"Holy Hell!"
he yelled unable to contain himself.
With a deep breath
and massive effort, he contained his excitement and calmly knocked on
Andre's bedroom door.
"Hey Aaron
what's up?" asked Andre sleepily opening the door.
"Master of
Arcadia just grossed forty million," said Aaron.
"What the hell?
We didn't even market it!" yelled Andre.
Aaron's phone buzzed
with a group call from Harry, James and Mario.
"We went
viral," he said answering the call.
"We did more
than that! It's all over YouTube and mainstream gaming outlets!"
said Harry excitedly.
"It's not all
good press though, lots of them are slamming the art saying it's
misogynistic," grumbled James.
"That's SJW
snowflakes for you. Pay them no attention," said Mario.
----
Andre entered the
loft with a Japanese man in tow. "Gentlemen, this is Mr. Kazuya
Honda. He represents SEGA," said Andre, introducing the man who
bowed politely.
"Hello Mr.
Zakhrov I have heard that you are the mastermind behind this game,"
said Mr. Honda with a heavy Japanese accent.
Aaron nodded. "I
thank you for your interest Mr. Honda, but we are still students. I
cannot speak for my colleagues, but I wish to finish my education. I
cannot commit to a sequel or a contract for any other games at this
time." he said
"I understand
Mr. Zakhrov, and we are not looking for an obligation at this time.
We wish to acquire the rights to publish and localize your game for
the Japanese market,"
Aaron thought for a
moment. "Very well, SEGA will have exclusive publishing and
localization rights to Master of Arcadia and any other future
projects Sirius Software develops for the Japanese market. However,
we retain all source code and intellectual property rights. SEGA will
also manufacture and sell physical media for our games in both the
Japanese and International markets. Does that sound good?" he
asked.
Honda's eyes widened
at the mention of physical media.
"That sounds
excellent! Mr. Esposito and I will handle the paperwork." he
said shaking Aaron's hand.
----
"What the hell
do you call this?" demanded Sarah Clarke slamming a tablet
showing screenshots of Master of Arcadia in front of Ivan in the
staff room at MIT.
"None of my
business. Aaron Zakhrov has been legally emancipated. I have no
responsibilities over what he does," said Ivan.
"Do you have
any idea of what I can do to you?" hissed Sarah.
"What? Are you
going to whip me half to death like you did Michael Eddington? Go
ahead, I daresay I deserve it for abandoning my precious son when he
needed me the most," said Ivan bitterly.
Sarah raised her
hand to strike him, but it was caught by a large, hulking man in a
black suit. "Sarah Clarke. I am inspector Duncan from Interpol.
You are under arrest for human trafficking," he said in a
British accent, twisting her arms behind her and into handcuffs.
----
"Talk about
poetic justice," chuckled Andre putting down the newspaper. The
headline was that Senator Clarke had been arrested by Interpol for
running a massive human trafficking ring in Europe and Africa.
He looked at Aaron.
"Would you like to reconnect with your parents? Now that Sarah
Clarke has been arrested, there is no further need for estrangement,"
he said.
Aaron shook his
head. "Ivan and Annette seem happy with their daughter. I will
not disrupt their happiness," he said.
----
"Aaron, are you
sure you want this site as Sirius Software's headquarters?"
asked Harry, nervously looking around the eerie abandoned lead mine,
Aaron had just spent nearly 4 million of Sirius Software's game
revenue on acquiring.
Aaron casually
brushed dust and cobwebs away from a small metal table and placed his
laptop bag on it. "I'm thinking ahead Harry. This mine will be
the perfect spot for our in-house nuclear reactors." he said.
"Are you living
under a rock or something? We're barely making any new sales from
Master of Arcadia. How are we going to get the cash or even the
permits?" asked Mario.
Aaron gave Mario a
long stare. "Small modular reactor." was all he said.
"Wait, you want
my prototype modular heavy water reactor? I was laughed out of the
room when I presented that proposal to my professors!" said
Mario incredulously.
"So what? They
were renewable lobby obsessed morons anyway. So are you in or out?"
asked Aaron.
"Are you
building a game studio or a nuclear power company?" asked James.
"I can't
believe that you boys are about to graduate, and still don't
understand the concept of vertical integration and grid
independence." scoffed Aaron, as he walked around the mine
shaft, checking the walls with his flashlight.
"Wait. Let me
get this straight. You want to build a nuclear power plant inside an
abandoned lead mine to power a game studio HQ?" asked James, his
voice rising to a squeak.
"You can
pretend to be Lex Luthor all you want, but Sirius Software isn't
Lexcorp! Heck, you barely have enough cash left after you blew $4
million on this dump!" snarled Harry.
Aaron gave them a
smirk, pulled out his laptop and showed them a map of the mine and
the surrounding area:
"This land
parcel is four square kilometers. This here is the abandoned lead
mine that we're standing in." he said, pointing to a section of
the map.
He zoomed into
another section and said: "This area here is a lead contaminated
groundwater source, and an uncontaminated aquifer over here."
"OK, so we have
a lead mine and a water source. What does that have to do with a game
studio?" asked Harry, still confused.
Aaron pulled up the
schematics for the small modular reactor. "We stick four of
these puppies here in the mine, and hook up the groundwater source to
a heavy water distillation plant. Poof, we have an always-on power
source for the render and server farms." he said.
"And where are
you going to get the Uranium from? The local hardware store?"
scoffed Mario.
"From the
appropriate channels. Just like everyone else Mario." countered
Aaron.
Andre pinched the
bridge of his nose. "I need a stiff drink. Or maybe lead
poisoning. Do you have any idea the kind of legal and political red
tape this harebrained idea of yours is going to need to cut through?"
he thundered at Aaron.
Aaron gave a smile
that sent a chill down Andre's spine. "That's where you come in
Andre. If you boys are on board, we can spin off new nuclear, energy
and construction companies that you can have full reign over, with
Sirius Software being your first client, and this being your first
project." he said.
"You're still
going to need super-villain levels of money and political clout to
pull this off, which you don't have boy." blustered Andre.
"That's why
we're going to do this in phases, and use the new companies to secure
venture capital funding on their own merits." said Aaron.
"Phases?"
Mario asked.
"Phase 1 would
be to secure this mine and start working on the small modular
reactor. Once you demonstrate commercial viability, you can secure
funding for production, so money in your pocket Mario." said
Aaron.
"And I suppose
phase two would be to build the water treatment plant and the heavy
water distillation plant?" asked Harry.
"Can you think
of a better construction project to sink your teeth into Harry?"
asked Aaron rhetorically.
"And I suppose
tying both those phases together would be the build out of a local
energy grid?" asked James.
"But of course.
And what better way to prove that you're the best energy company in
the business?" asked Aaron.
"Stop! Stop!"
shouted Andre, holding up his hands. "Aaron, I'm just an IP
lawyer. You're going to need a full-blown legal army and maybe even a
few senators and congressmen in your pocket to pull this off. I can't
help you with that." he said.
Aaron just gave
Andre a predatory smile. "I'm sure I'll be able to find at least
one senator and congressman smart enough to see how this project
would act as an economic and industrial force multiplier." he
said.
Harry, James and
Mario went into a long huddle, while Aaron nonchalantly packed away
his laptop. After several minutes of deliberation, they broke and
then nodded together.
"All right,
Aaron. We're at your disposal. But if this goes south, we want a
clean escape plan." said Harry.
"In that case,
we'll make the new companies private limited liability companies, and
Sirius Software will be the sole shareholder initially, and will
still have a 90% stake regardless of who decides to put venture
capital in. Andre, can you do that?" asked Aaron.
"Well, it's
your money, and your neck on the line here, so fine. I'll do it"
grumbled Andre.
"Good. Then
incorporate them as Sirius Energy, Sirius Construction and Sirius
Nuclear. And get the paperwork done by the end of the week."
said Aaron.
"Yes sir"
said Andre, rolling his eyes.
"Harry, I want
a full Environmental Impact Assessment, and come up with blue-prints
for the reactor facilities with Mario. James, I want a power grid
plan as well. Let's get the design phase done before graduation."
said Aaron.
"Yes sir"
said James and Mario, seriously, as they all piled into the minivan
Andre had rented for this "inspection" trip.
