Free The Broken Universe by Paul Melko

glared at them. “All in favor, raise your hands.” He glared at Banks when the man didn’t raise his arm. He sat there with his arms across his chest.
    “Vote!” Gesalex shouted.
    “You asked me to be on this board, and I will do so in as best a capacity as I can,” Banks said.
    “I will replace you!”
    “Not today you won’t.”
    “Why?”
    “I want to hear what these people have to say before I rush to any vote,” Banks said.
    “The motion doesn’t carry,” Grace said.
    “I table the motion,” Gesalex said. “Until later.” He glared at Banks.
    “We’ll present our pro forma financial statements,” Grace said with a smile. “Casey?”
    Casey stood and handed out a thick packet of financial statements, prepared the night before with as much of the data as they could include from recent sales figures.
    As Casey walked through the charts and figures, John was attuned to her words. Not only was she the woman he loved, she had a way about her that drew in anyone listening. Or maybe it was just him. Gesalex wasn’t listening, fidgeting with the pad of paper in front of him. But Banks was listening, and perhaps that was all that mattered. Gesalex had expected a yes-man. He’d gotten a free-thinking, honorable servant. This would have been an entirely different meeting if Banks hadn’t been there.
    “This is our projected revenue,” Casey was saying. “Our conservative estimate shows us recovering the invested capital by the end of year two.”
    “How conservative is that estimate?” Banks asked.
    Casey turned to Henry, who cleared his throat. He was clearly uncomfortable with the idea of speaking. “Um, exponential growth through year one, followed by linear growth in years two and three, doubling each year. We’ll saturate the market in the fourth year, and see competition of the base models.”
    “You have a bit of a dip here these last few months,” Banks said, pointing at the sales history and projections.
    “We had some personal issues to deal with,” Grace said calmly. She stared pointedly at Gesalex. “Those have been cleared up now.”
    “Certainly the recent sales look good,” Banks said. “But what assurances do we have that these personal issues won’t rise again? A CEO and her staff need to be stable, especially in a start-up.”
    “Please note that we’ve added a succession plan for all the major positions in the firm,” Grace said. “This was something we hadn’t done before, since we thought nothing like that would ever happen to us.”
    “Excellent,” Banks said. “It’s always good to have your backup around, isn’t it?”
    “It is, sir,” Grace said with a smile.
    Casey ran through the income statement, balance sheets, and cash-flow statement. As far as John could tell, she did it perfectly, with only a handful of business classes behind her. No wonder people were willing to buy anything from her.
    When she concluded her presentation, Banks asked several more questions.
    “Fine presentation,” he said finally. “Seems like a good investment, Mr. Gesalex.”
    “I have little care for that,” Gesalex said. “EmVis wishes to recover its investment, immediately.”
    “Well, Mr. Gesalex, you can certainly liquidate the company,” Banks said. “But in this case, you’ll recover, as far as I can tell, some intellectual property—patents and such—about thirty thousand dollars in cash, a few leased buildings, and assorted accounts receivable of maybe a hundred thousand dollars. More trouble than it’s worth. In a year or two, you might get your millions back, with interest.”
    Gesalex slammed his fist on the table.
    “No! We won’t allow these vermin to continue on!” he cried. “They have something of ours. We demand it back!”
    John leaned back and laughed.
    “Vermin? Not singletons?”
    Gesalex cursed in his own language.
    “Really, Mr. Gesalex,” Banks said. “That’s enough. They seem earnest enough kids. What’s your problem with