“There’s more to my purchase of VI,” I say. “It wasn’t just a good business opportunity. I’m going after something a lot bigger.”
She leans back in her seat and crosses her legs. I can see the skepticism in her eyes.
“Hear me out,” I say. “Edge Gear was always a tongue-in-cheek name, but we’re working on things that are downright revolutionary. I bought VI because I want to integrate your technology with what we’re doing at Edge. I plan to integrate the dev teams. I’m going after a contract worth tens of millions, possibly more, and I think we have a solid shot at it.”
Her eyes widen. “Tens of millions? Contract with who?”
“It’s a government contract,” I say. “Military.”
“Military?” she asks. “You don’t want to weaponize VI’s technology somehow, do you?”
“No,” I say, putting up a hand. “The opposite, actually. We’re developing state of the art protection gear—body armor, without the armor. I’m having some of the latest samples sent up and, honestly, it’s going to blow your mind. If we integrate that with VI’s data capture technology…” My mind swirls with the possibilities, and I get a jolt of adrenaline running through my veins. “Think of what that could do for soldiers in the field. State-of-the art protective gear with data about their physical state being constantly fed to a central location. This is sci-fi shit we’re talking about here.”
She keeps her eyes on me as she sips her drink. I can tell she’s not sure—but she’s not arguing with me, either. I’ll take that as a win.
“This isn’t about toys,” I say. “It’s not about athletic gear. This is a new direction for both companies, but you have to see the potential. Edge and VI are a perfect match for each other. And this contract…” I take a sip of my drink before the adrenaline overtakes me and I start talking too fast. “This contract could be the first of many. There are applications in all branches of the military, not to mention law enforcement and private security. This is going to be huge, Selene.”
“If you’re taking all our resources away from our current projects—”
“No, this would represent an expansion. We’ll still move forward with the next VI product, although of course the timeline to market might have to change.”
“So why are you telling me?” Selene asks.
“Because I need your support,” I say, meeting her eyes. “I need someone from VI on my side. I know the dev team is going to balk, but they respect you. They’ll listen to you.”
“I’m going to need more details before you can expect me to get on board with this,” she says.
“Absolutely,” I say. “When we get back to the office we can go over everything. I’m an open book when it comes to this. I’ll be totally transparent.”
“That’s refreshing,” she says.
I smile. I really do like working with Selene, and not just because I enjoy fantasizing about her. Granted, I do that all the time—all the fucking time, because god, it’s a special kind of torture to spend so much time with this woman and have no access to her in the way I really want. But I feel like I can rely on her, and the list of people I can say that about is very short.