I’ve done my absolute best to tidy the space for this meeting. There are still large piles of spare tech around the room, overly full drawers I can’t quite shove closed, and a precarious stack of mail perched on the edge of my desk??1, threatening to topple over.
I glance past the two cryptids, for a third figure to walk through the door. No one shows up. It’s kind of disappointing. I was hoping Pontius would come too. I’ve admired his work and I was looking forward to meeting him.
“Mr. Pleasant isn’t here?” I ask.
Magnes grins widely. “You wanted to meet him as well?”
“I just assumed he’d be with you.” I feel a little sheepish, of course I wanted to meet the head programmer of the most famous tech company in the city.
Magnes shakes his head. “Afraid it’s just me and Sacha. Pontius is out of town for the season visiting family. He doesn’t usually come to these kinds of meetings anyway. He’s more like the wizard behind the curtain. Sacha is just our heartless Tinman.”
“And Magnes is our brainless Scarecrow,” Sacha grumbles. I laugh at his joke, but the Bigfoot is quiet as he examines the room. “Just the four of you?”
“Just the four of us,” I agree with a nervous smile. “Getting a larger, more accessible space would be our first priority if you agreed to a sponsorship.” I admit as Sacha bumps his shoulder against a storage cabinet, if he spread his arms he could probably touch every corner of the small room.
Magnes nods. “We could certainly make that happen for you.”
“If you accomplished everything you’ve done so far from this insufficient space, I imagine you’d be far more effective in an adequate office.” Sacha blows air out of his nose.
“We’d love to expand. Lex has been eager to work on physical interfaces.” I gesture to Lex sitting in the corner. “With more space and money, we could invest in injection molding and 3D printers for fabrication. They can probably tell you more about that themselves.”
Lex practically leaps to their feet to explain their wildest fabrication dreams. Even though I asked them to keep it relatively realistic, it’s great to see them excited about work they are passionate about. There’s a lot more boring technical chatter, and to my relief both cryptids seem to be on board. Loch is visibly excited and Kwatch at least seems not to despise us.
“We’re excited to work with you, Ms. Hamilton.” Sacha’s face is still grumpy but his voice is gentle enough. “You can expect to hear from us soon.”
“We should put a meeting on the books now.” Loch’s fingers flying across his phone as he speaks. “We have some free time on Wednesday. If you could meet in our office.”
“Oh, that soon?” I ask.
“This is an opportunity we don't want to miss. I expect you’ll have a dozen offers any day now.” Loch says without looking up, my phone buzzes with a notification, I glance down to see an email arrive in my inbox from the cryptid standing directly in front of me. “I’d like to move on this quickly so we can have the buzz in the news before the holidays really hit.”
Kwatch raises an eyebrow in his partner’s direction. “You want to do it before Pontius gets back?”
“He won’t care, he never gets involved in these kinds of acquisitions anyway.” Loch says.
“I can definitely be available,” I say, surprised they are offering to move that quickly. I glance between the two males.There’s some unspoken communication between them, but I am not going to kick a gift horse in the mouth.
“Excellent. The quicker we can move them into a larger space, the quicker they can expand. Announce new projects, scale up. With our guidance, of course,” Loch concludes.
“If that’s what you think is best.” Sacha gives him a half-hearted shrug. While I’d love for the CFO to have a little more enthusiasm for our cause, I’m willing to accept any level of commitment if it means money and the ability to expand.
“We’ll have the details drawn up this week. Bring your lawyer with you, Ms. Hamilton.” Magnes is grinning like he just got a new toy for Christmas. “I think we’re all excited to move forward with the project.”
The Bigfoot shrugs, he really doesn’t seem excited.
They give polite goodbyes and leave.
“Holy shit,” Josh mutters as the two imposing figures walk out the door. “Holy fucking hell! You did it, Piper!”
The tension drops from my shoulders and I sink into a chair. An old beaten up office chair, with a broken arm and squeaky wheels, and in a few weeks, I’ll never have to look at it again. We did it.
Kara is practically bouncing in her seat. “Does this mean I’ll have a real desk and not just a folding table?” she asks with a laugh.
“I expected a lot more back-and-forth than that!” Lex laughs, and they’re right. But, we aren’t a big operation, maybe the cost is nothing for a company like Cryptech. They offered to sign with us the same casual way that I decided to get a muffin with my morning coffee run.
“No more cramped basement office? Or Lex kicking me under the desk?” Josh jokes.
“We’ll haveleg room,buddy.” Lex high fives him over the table. “And resources! A 3D printer, a laser cutter, a painting studio! I’m going to start making a list now!”
