Feyland: The Bright Court

Chapter Ten

Jennet got home a few minutes before her dad, which was a relief. He didn’t mind her spending time with Tam, but her going into the Exe would have made him furious. Luckily George, the chauffeur, was on her side - sort of. He wouldn’t tell Dad where she’d been unless directly asked.

When Dad walked in the door, it was clear that asking about her afternoon was the last thing on his mind.

“Welcome home, sir,” HANA said. “Dinner will be served in fifteen minutes.”

Instead of responding like he always did, he just stood there in the entryway holding his briefcase. His face was set in a grim expression.

“Dad?” She went over to him. “Are you all right?”

“Jen.” He gave himself a little shake. “Sorry, I didn’t see you.”

Moving like his bones hurt, he put his briefcase down and slowly removed his coat. One of the maids bustled up - no doubt alerted by HANA that Mr. Carter was home - and whisked the coat away.

“Sit down.” Jennet took his arm, worry pulsing through her. “What happened? HANA, send my dad something to drink, please.”

“Whiskey,” her dad added.

“Right away,” the house replied.

When he got to the couch, Dad sank down and stared at his hands. “I can’t believe it. After all that work, all those years…” He shook his head.

“What?” She sat beside him, suddenly chilled. “Did VirtuMax fire you?”

“No - it’s worse than that.”

“How could it be worse?”

“They pulled me off the project.”

“You’re…” she swallowed, her throat dry with worry. “You’re not in charge of Feyland any more?”

This was bad. Even though Dad hadn’t been able to stop Feyland, he had done what he could. Now there was nothing standing in the way of the company releasing the game.

He gave a thin laugh. “It would be better in some ways if they had, in fact, fired me. But no - they’ve shunted me off to work on the Virtual Conferencing beta.”

“What happened?”

“They’re moving the Full-D release forward, again. When I heard that… well, I lost it. I’m the project manager and they’re making all these decisions without me. I stormed into Dr. Lassiter’s office and demanded she listen.”

Obviously, she hadn’t.

One of the maids came in and set a glass of amber liquid on the low table. Dad grabbed the glass and took a long swallow.

“I told Dr. Lassiter the equipment is dangerous,” he continued, “told her she’s opening up the company to enormous lawsuits in the future. She shook her head and said the Full-D is perfectly safe - that her own son has played it for almost a year now, with no problems.”

“Right,” Jennet breathed.

It explained a lot about why VirtuMax was so determined to go ahead with the launch. The CEO’s own son had been playing, and hadn’t had any issues with the system. No wonder the company wouldn’t listen, not with that example in front of them.

“I…” He took another drink, then set the glass down. “I started yelling at her then. How the hell could she tell me it was safe? She wasn’t there in the hospital, she didn’t see the burned hands, the boy in a coma.” His voice broke. “Her best friend dead in his sim chair.”