sister.'
'You and Dr. Masters now own seventy-three percent of the outstanding stock,' Cheryl Duffield said. 'You will sell thirty-three percent of it to Sierra Vistas Partners and then divest seven percent back to the company. You will then cancel all other stock option deals you have with the corporation so you can have no more than one-third of the outstanding stock. We will reapportion the board accordingly-one-third controlled by you, one-third by Sierra Vistas Partners, and one-third by the other shareholders.'
'What kind of crazy scheme is this?' Jon retorted. 'This is my company. I didn't just acquire the stock-I didn't even buy most of it. I earned it. I took my compensation in stock when the stock was worth less than a dollar a share. I'm not going to just give it up, especially to strangers.'
'The stock options that you've negotiated in place of salaries and other compensation have ensured you total control of the company for many years, Dr. Masters,' Hudson said. 'Good or bad, you control the company because you control the stock-'
'I'm also the chief designer and engineer,' Jon interjected. 'I built this company by taking chances and by developing technologies that work and remain on the cutting edge. I've given my life to this company, and I've taken nothing but the paper value out. My shareholders are my shareholders because they like that arrangement.'
'That's not what I hear,' Cheryl Duffield said. 'Your shareholders are not happy about this, but there was nothing they could do about it-they either stuck with you or got nothing. But now they're riding the company with you into the ground.'
'That's your opinion,' Jon said heatedly.
'It's a fact,' Cheryl said. 'Well, the tables are turned. Refuse this tender offer, and you risk losing all your shareholders, bankrupting your company, and opening yourself up to a lawsuit. Sierra Vistas Partners will be there to pick up the pieces. If you accept our offer, you recoup some of your losses, you gain my daughter's knowledge and wealth of ideas, and your company survives. No corporate raiders I know will give you a better deal.'
'The stockholders won't go for it,' Jon said. 'The board will never vote to approve it. None of this will stand up in court. You'd be wasting your time.'
'I think we can make an offer attractive enough for most of your shareholders,' Cheryl said. 'As far as the courtswell, the last thing you need in this market climate is a lawsuit. It'll sink your company fast.'
'What's stopping me from just taking the cash you give me and buying more stock?'
'Your promise not to do so, not to upset the one-third balance,' Hudson replied. 'This arrangement is based on trust…'
'You have a funny way of showing it, Mrs. Duffield.'
'We feel a one-third split is best for the company-neither of us gains a majority unless our ideas and proposals sufficiently sway the other shareholders to side with one or the other,' Hudson went on. 'Once news hits the street that you've given up your stock options, the value of the stock will soar.'
'So what's preventing you from selling your shares and cleaning up?'
'We restrict the stock we own for one year,' Cheryl Duffield replied. 'If either of us wants out, we have to promise to offer it to the other shareholders first, at a prenegotiated price. But that's not what we're doing this for. We certainly don't need the money, and we're not stock speculators. We're building a future for ourselves and Kelsey by building a partnership with you and Helen and the other talented folks you have here.'
'We'll work together, Jon,' Kelsey said. 'It's more fun that way.'
'Fun? You think any of this is fun? Do you have any idea what we do around here, little girl?'
'I'm Kelsey,' she said, smiling at him. 'We'll make things, Jon and Helen. We'll make things other people have never dreamed of. Fantastic, unbelievable, wonderful things. We'll make people happy and make people's lives better.'
'Are you for real?' Helen Masters asked. 'Do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?'
Kelsey Duffield walked over between Jon and Helen and took their hands into hers. 'We're friends now, right?' she asked. 'We're going to be together and build things so incredible, no one will believe it. Right?'
Neil Hudson opened his briefcase and extracted several documents-including a check. 'Value of your stock at its thirty-nine-week average price per share-exceedingly generous given the current stock price. You agree to sell the seven percent back to the company at the same price, you give up your stock options, and you agree to make Sierra Vistas Partners your partner. Dr. Duffield comes on board as co-chief operating officer and co-chief engineer, sharing responsibilities and privileges equally with Jon
Masters. Dr. Helen Masters stays on as president for one year, at which time there will be elections for officers.'
Jon took the check, looked at all the zeroes typed on it, then looked at the Duffields. 'I… I have to think about it.'
'Please, Jon?' Kelsey asked. 'It'll be fun. I promise.' Jon hesitated, looking at Helen, then staring at nothing. Kelsey smiled and said in a low voice, almost a whisper, 'I'll tell you about the laser field, Jon. When I tell you, you'll be so mad.'
'Mad? Why?'
'Because you already know how it works.'
'What did you say?' Jon asked. 'Know how what works? How can I know how it works if I've never even heard of it before!'
'You already know how it works, I'll bet,' Kelsey said. 'You just don't believe it. You keep on saying 'no' because you don't believe it could be so simple. I'll tell you, Jon, and then we'll build it, and then we'll build other things you've already thought about but don't believe either. It'll be fun.'
Jon sat back in his chair, visibly deflated. That was the last word he had expected to hear this morning: the word 'fun.' He wanted so badly to tell this little superbrained girl that he had already lost a friend, may have lost another close friend, and several more friends were in serious danger. He wanted to tell her that what happened to the company didn't matter-it was what his company was trying to do for the people of the United States and the world that was important. But she was here, with her mother and CPA and her father's SumaTek money, ready to create alternate universes inside lasers and other such fantasy gadgets. He wanted to tell her to just go away and let the adults get back to work.
But then Jon's brain registered the feel of the check between his fingers, and he thought of all those zeroes on it. He couldn't do a thing if he went bankrupt or if this cute little savant walked off with his company. Paul would still be gone, Wendy would still be missing, and' the others would still be in trouble-except then they wouldn't have any of Sky Masters's technology to help them.
'I need to tell you something,' Jon said slowly. 'I need to verify your security clearance, so I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you this: Your security clearance is not going to prepare you for what you'll learn. We do a lot of very interesting things here, but it's not what I would call 'fun.' In fact, I'd say most of it is downright horrifying.'
'My daughter doesn't design talking dolls and little robot voice-controlled dogs and dream about a life filled with roses and sunshine,' Cheryl said. She reached over and stroked Kelsey's hair and shoulders, smiling warmly at her. 'She designs laser weapons and dreams about stopping enemy airplanes with force fields. No one ever told her what to do, what to focus on. She just did it.
'My husband and I brought her up like any other young girl-at least, we tried to. We dressed her in pink dresses and little black shoes and put ribbons in her hair. We read Dr. Seuss and Goodnight Moon and Harry Potter books to her.
'But by the time she was one year old, at the same time other kids were just starting to walk, she was reading the Wall Street Journal and Aviation Week & Space Technology. The first book she read wasn't Nancy Drew or Powerpuff Girls at six years old-it was Drexler's Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation at thirteen months. The year after that, she was one of the contributors to Drexler's updated edition.'
Cheryl paused, her eyes adopting a far-off look as if she was replaying all the many moments, pleasant and otherwise, in her memory. 'We knew we couldn't treat her like an ordinary child,' she went on. 'By age six she was discussing weapons, theories, devices, and formulas that were making advisers to presidents sweat and four-star generals lick their lips. She's been asked to teach nanotechnology at comell's Duffield Hall, the engineering research facility my husband built-a nine-year-old professor of nanoengineering, teaching at her father's school. Do you think
