David had also received a call from Mark Trent, asking what he knew about the system and whether it might be available for Elite 11. David pushed back on everyone, saying it wasn’t ready.
Then there were other applications they hadn’t even started to explore yet. The most promising ones were in gaming and movies. Gabe Francis wanted to see it once it was ready because their current VR technology wasn’t as advanced as Dare and Corvus’s.
Fritz, who came out of the blue, intrigued Dare. He asked if the VR cameras could be mounted on drones as they did security sweeps. With the swarm technology, Dare thought he could get it to work.
“That’s the problem. It can be sooner, but VRS
underestimated what it would take to put everything together. They need capital.”
“Can’t they show this to a bank and get a loan?” David asked.
“They said that because they’re a startup with no proven track record, they’ve been turned down.”
Red flags were going up for David. Maybe they’d picked the wrong company to manufacture, market, and distribute Dare and Corvus’s stuff.
“Let me call Grace. Hang on while I three-way us in.”
David was shocked when Grace answered her phone.
“I have Dare on the phone. We might have a problem with VRS. Hang on while I get him back,” David said.
Once he had them both on the line, Dare told Grace what was happening. She quickly figured out that Dare and Corvus had changed the hardware, which messed up VRS’s numbers.
“Is there a work-around?” David asked.
“No. To render the VR, we need the added horsepower,”
Dare said.
“It’s decision time, David. Either you need to pull the plug or find an investor. They will want an ownership
interest in VRS,” Grace said.
David got what she was saying.
“How much should I ask for?” David asked.
“I would hit them with fifty-one percent and settle for thirty-five.”
His jet fund would take a severe hit if he did this. He liked that Grace had suggested he ask for a controlling interest in the company. It would be a nonstarter, but he’d be making a statement about what his money was worth. If he was out of college, he might press it, but he didn’t want to be involved in the management.
“I think you should do it,” Dare said.
David and Grace both laughed because Dare wasn’t putting his money up for this.
“What do you suggest?” David asked Grace.
“I would pull the trigger or hire a firm to evaluate it for you. The question is, what’s the market for this? It’s not like this is a small-ticket item.”
He was well aware of that because of what he’d spent to get the two MIT boys everything they wanted to build it.
“What would be the advantage of having a third party look at this?” David asked.
“They could give you a better idea of valuation and tell you whether you should do the deal. They can also help you with structuring your offer.”
“Couldn’t you help David with that?” Dare asked.
“If he asked nicely.”
“Uhm, David? Try not to be a jerk,” Dare said helpfully.
He was convinced Dare thought he was mentally challenged.
“Thanks so much for the advice, buddy. The question is, what would I owe Grace if I let her help me?”
“Uhm, Grace …?”
The poor kid was so eager he couldn’t tell when they were playing with him.
“David and I will work it out,” Grace said.
“What should I tell VRS? Dare asked.
“Tell them Mr. Dawson will be in touch,” Grace suggested.
“And that he’ll fund everything?” Dare asked hopefully.
“Don’t worry about that part. Let me talk to them about it. You focus on your end,” David said.
“Does this mean we’re doing this?” Dare asked.
“We’re doing this,” David answered.
◊◊◊
Chapter 25
Crystal sat at David’s desk in his dorm room, where she’d been sitting for hours. She scrubbed her eyes, the dry, itchy feeling getting to her. The words on the screen were getting smaller and blurrier, and she blinked a few times. The next thing she knew, she’d blinked again, and it was morning. The alarm on her phone was going off, and a pen and sticky notes were stuck to her face.
“Dang it, I fell asleep.”
David had to be pissed with her because his bed was still covered with all her stuff. He must have slept on his couch.
She came out to the main room and found Alex.
“David said there’s coffee and a travel mug on the counter for you. Plus, a bagel and cream cheese are in the fridge, so you have something to eat before your presentation.”
Crystal had to stop for a second to let that sink in. No one she’d ever dated before would have taken care of her like that.
“I know,” Alex continued. “I feel like a bad boyfriend for not thinking of that myself. He let me hook up Chloe before she left this morning.”
“I guess he’s a keeper.”
Alex mimicked, zipping his lips closed.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he said and returned to his room.
She made her bagel, filled her travel mug, and hurried off to class.
◊◊◊
Her heart did its usual happy-to-see-you-David dance as he walked into the studio to do his Trojan Inquirer vodcast, but Tracy was upset.
“What’s up?”
“I had Coach Deneau set to do a talk about USC
baseball, but he had something come up. It’s just you and me today,” Tracy said.
David thought for a moment.
“Let’s do a mailbag segment. I bet Colleen has a bunch of questions people have sent in or asked at past events.
Have her pull out the goofiest ones, and we answer them.”
Tracy looked at him like he was crazy.
“But you know what would be a problem?”
“Is it me?” David asked. “It’s me, isn’t it?
“That you would want to look at the questions first and reject all the good ones. I say we have Colleen pick and read them,” Tracy said.
“I’ll go along with that if she promises none of those
‘How do you feel’ type questions. Tell her they have to be fun or something our fans want to know.”
“They also don’t have to be just about sports,” Tracy added.
“Fine,” David agreed.
A half-hour later, they were called to the set. Colleen took the guest chair.
“Welcome to Trojan Inquirer. To support our show, give us a follow because it really helps us out. Today, we’re going to do something different,” David said.
“Our special guest had a conflict, so we decided to ask our production assistant, Colleen, to dig into the mailbag so David and I can answer some of your questions.”
Colleen picked up the first card.
“On your soap opera, is that your real butt?”
David’s eyes snapped over to Tracy to see if she was punking him. She gave him a bit of a head shake to let him know she wasn’t in on this.
“I think the questions need to be for the both of us,”
David said to push back.
“Then you don’t want to tell us when we’ll see full-frontal?” Colleen asked.
Tracy knew that Colleen had dated David for a time.
Frankly, she hadn’t gotten it because Colleen was far from David’s usual type. Seeing her give him shit on camera gave a glimpse into why he’d liked her.
“I give. They have a butt model come in for those scenes.
I’ve told them that I won’t do full-frontal until they find the right porn star to be my stand-in,” David said with a straight face.