The Game Before the Fall

Chapter 20: Progress. (Part 2)

Since the big deal with GrayTech our lab facilities had changed significantly. Unlike before where our lab only had three members plus a manager, we know had ten, all of who the Professor had handpicked himself and I had double checked. Though we were still in the basement, we now controlled most of it. The University was more than happy to add funding to our project as they'd get a nice kickback themselves plus the free advertising.

I sat in our now much cleaner and wider meeting space. Professor Grayton and Sarah sat opposite of me, our long awaited package soon to arrive.

"I'm nervous," the Professor laughed as he wiped off some sweat from his brow. "In a good way I think. Really I never expected this to happen so quickly."

Sarah remained calm, "We ran all the tests we could and had good results from the alpha testers. We deserve it."

"I agree," I added. "I'm sorry I couldn't help as much but with the effort you two put in, we can't go wrong."

"No, no," the Professor shook his head. "Please don't sell yourself short Ardent. Without you, even if we had made a working model, we'd be struggling to find support still. I hear the new tournament is coming soon, it must be a lot of work."

"It's fun work at least and you can bet I'll be showing the VBH off," I smiled. In my other life, our lab had a similar moment. Of course back then we had a lot less control to the point we were wondering if it had been worth it. The answer was no as the Merge happened not long after our release date.

A knock on the door alerted us that our guest had arrived and we quickly let them in. We expected a delivery man, instead an older man with greying hair greeted us. He stood beside one of our lab members in a fine grey coloured suit, holding a large box in his hands.

"Delivery for Professor Grayton?" the man smiled.

"Yes?" the Professor looked confused. "Sorry I wasn't expecting a well-dressed man to come with the box. Come in."

The lab member who had guided the man whispered something to the professor before hurrying away. Whatever he had said caused the Professor's eyes to open wide.

The man cheerfully looked around the room, "Your friend Sanders who guided me here showed me quite the bit of your lab space. You really are doing amazing work."

"Thank you," Sarah took the compliment politely. "Sorry, who are you?"

"Oh where are my manners," the man remarked at his mistake. "The name is Xavier Gray, CEO and creator of GrayTech Industries."

The Professor who had been keyed in only seconds earlier smiled awkwardly. I was the same. Though we had communicated with him several times it was always through email or phone calls. None of us had expected that he'd appear himself.

"W-well, this is a surprise," Sarah quickly tried to catch herself. "Sarah Colony, I'm Professor Grayton's assistant."

Xavier shook her hand and winked, "Not just an assistant but an excellent researcher as well. I read your PHD thesis, amazing insight into the workings of the spinal cord. I can see how you applied it."

The Professor was next, "It's a pleasure to finally meet you face to face. Carlos Grayton. If we had known you would be coming we would have prepared something."

"The pleasure is mine Professor. I do apologise for the surprise however I couldn't wait to meet you. Besides I'd rather see you genuinely like this rather than make it an entire affair." His eyes landed to me who had stood up, next in line. "You must be Ardent."