My Only Talent Ch. 49

There was a pause as Rachel caught her breath, and then Lara sat on Rachel's face. Nora tweaked one of Lara's nipples with one hand while I attended to the other, and soon Lara was making some wonderful noises of her own.

............

Roger and Khalan had taken Chrissy to new heights at Lakeway. They both wore her out several times, when usually it was the other way around. Khalan was pumped up about becoming a real NFL player, and Roger had managed to channel his hatred for Big Bones into passion for pumping his cock into Chrissy. Chrissy was feeling amazingly satisfied, but she could tell something was bothering Roger. When they left the condo, she adjusted her route back to campus to drop Khalan off first. After he said goodbye, she drove about a block and then pulled over.

"Okay, Roger, spill it! What's bothering you?"

"Big Bones!"

"I told you I about that. You shouldn't be jealous of him. I am through with him."

"I know that. But I don't think he is through with us."

"What does that mean?"

He told her about his suspicions. She realized he was onto something. Male intuition, she supposed.

"You may be right, and I also think Khalan is not ready to listen. But maybe someone else will."

............

Jay Kincaid was learning the lay of the land at the Texas Capitol. His grandfather's old politico buddies were doing their best to hook him up with lobbyists and consultants, but Jay had built his own staff and their connections were good too. His wife Millie had leveraged her Panhellenic connections to the max and was tied into things Jay had never imagined. Ashley Armstrong had come up with a communications strategy that took advantage of Jay's unique talents and was keyed into the demographics of the changing Texas voting pool.

The Texas legislature only met once every two years, and there were lots of unique characters in the state house and senate. Most people discounted the importance of the statehouses, but they made a huge difference beyond redistricting for federal elections. Employment law, land development, energy and insurance regulations, and bank charters all happened at the state level, and there were big differences between the states and big money tied to changes in legislation and state bureaucracies. The Texas economy alone was bigger than many foreign countries, and lots of firms were moving away from California and New York for the lower taxes and living costs that the Lone Star State offered. The younger voters wanted the Texas economy to stay strong, and the older voters wanted to make sure it did not change enough to become like New York or California with a bloated government, high taxes, and choking overregulation. Between these two walls Jay was prepared to walk tall.

............

Reginald King did not recognize the number that was calling him. Area code 737, like the airplane. Where was that? He was on his break, so he might as well answer. It would save time over letting it go to voicemail. Probably some telemarketer?

"Mr. King, my name is Chrissy Connor. I am calling from Austin. It's about Khalan."

Oh shit! He's in jail or the hospital or got kicked off the team. Oh shit!

"You don't know me, but Khalan and I are friends, and I'm worried about him."

"Is he okay?"

"Yes, he is fine now, but I am a little worried about his future. Some of us want to warn him about something, but we don't think he will listen to us on this subject. But he might listen to you. Here's what we think...."

When she finished, Reginald called his boss to get time off on Saturday. Austin was just a little more than a two-hour drive from Goliad. That was the easy part. Talking to Khalan would require a little more planning than the drive.

............

Ambassador Pliskin was pleased that the Suzanne situation seemed to be handled, and his daughter and her husband Mike were now getting along fine, but he could not stop thinking about Robbie Roberts. How did this kid get involved in so much wild stuff? The Ambassador had a trusted analyst that was just coming off another project, and he put her to work on Robbie. She was to track and analyze everything she could find about Robbie Roberts, his family and friends and build a timeline and metadata mapping. When the request came in from Millie Kincaid to help Lara, Nora, and Robbie with their wedding plans, the Ambassador decided to help, to try to get them in his debt. It might be useful in the future.

............

Reginald King left Goliad very early Saturday morning, and met Chrissy at the Kerbey Lane Café on the drag at 7 AM. There was a tall skinny white boy with her.

Chrissy waved from a booth in the back, when she saw a guy who looked like an older version of Khalan, but not quite as big. "Mr. King, I'm Chrissy, and this is Roger. We want to talk to you about Khalan."

Chrissy was a super-hot dirty blonde country girl, and Roger looked like a runner, or some track thing. Reginald tumbled to what they were saying immediately, but he let them go on for a bit while he thought through how best to talk to his son. He thought they were right to be worried, and that he knew exactly what Big Bones was trying to do. But he had another question first.

"Why is Big Bones so unhappy with Khalan?"

Roger and Chrissy shared a guilty look. Then Roger answered. "Jealousy. Big Bones wants to date Chrissy, but she won't see him."

Reginald waited for the obvious next sentence, but they didn't say it. He asked instead. "Is she with you, Roger?"

Reginald could not read Roger's expression, but Chrissy looked guilty. Chrissy spoke first. "Big Bones is mad because I want Khalan, not him." Roger's expression got even weirder.

Reginald thought about it. "So, Roger, you and Chrissy are just friends?"

Roger gulped, but he looked Reginald in the eye. "Khalan and I are just friends."

Reginald never finished college, but he could handle logic. "I think I understand. Things are a little different sometimes in Austin, eh?"

Chrissy and Roger smiled again, and this time Chrissy spoke first. "You can be sure we both want the best for Khalan, and Clarence does not."

"Who the fuck is Clarence?"

"That's Big Bones Jones real first name." Chrissy said. Roger looked just as surprised as Reginald did.

"I will talk to Khalan about this, but not about you two, and I won't tell him we talked. Your bed life is your bed life. Just treat him right."

Now Chrissy smiled widely. "Don't worry about that, Mr. King!" Even Roger smiled at that one. Reggie smiled too. Khalan had always been a lucky kid.

Reginald met his son for lunch at the Brazilian steak place where Khalan could get his protein fix, letting him think he had just arrived from Goliad. Khalan was pumped up and between bites of meat, related excitedly his experiences from school and workouts, all the stuff he had already learned, that there were two starting cornerback spots wide open on the ESU football team, and that sports agents were already talking to him.

"That sounds good, except do not talk to any agents, at all, until you are about to graduate, and you are sure you are a draft choice, and even then, let me and/or an attorney talk to them instead."

He told Khalan all about Ricky Williams, Master P, and the worst football contract ever, where Ricky got the least money for the most talent anyone could remember. He went on about the NCAA rules and all the football and basketball players that had lost their eligibility because they took pittances from agents during college, and the other guys that ended up blackmailed and had to sign a bad deal with a bad agent that had loaned them money in college.

Khalan's excitement ebbed, and then his face took on a hard edge. "So, since Big Bones can't fuck Chrissy, he really is just going to fuck with me?"

Reginald smiled. Khalan has always been quick, but Reginald had to keep up his cover story. "Who is Chrissy?"

Khalan looked really worried, and Reginald continued. "Khalan, you know what I've always said. Your bed life is your bed life. I don't need to know the details.

Khalan looked grim. "Big Bones wants Chrissy, but she does not want him. So, he is going to fuck me over."

"Only if you let him, son. Only if you let him. Steer way clear of Big Bones and his entourage and agent buddies. Stay clear of all the groupies, hangers on, and druggies and keep your eyes on the prize. Sounds like you already got the girl, player. Tell me about her."

"She's the kind of girl you told me to wait for. I met her going to class. She is the best thing that ever happened to me!'

He let Khalan go on and on all throughout the meal. If Khalan didn't mention Roger, he wouldn't either.

............

The NeuroSignal postdocs had the specific market validation interviews ready to go, and they ran me through virtually interminable rehearsals so 'management didn't screw up the product demo". We found some unsuspecting undergrads and used them as a test audience: their questions should help us predict the ones our real audience might ask. We built up an FAQ and further slides to respond to the questions, and I rehearsed it all again. From Boston Logan, especially if you are willing to travel at inconvenient times and with longer layovers, even my limited budget allowed me to hit the shipping firm offices in Italy and the Netherlands and do the presentations.

I was nervous, but doggedly determined, and I made it thought the first pitch in Italy okay. I could not read the audience reaction, and they said, "we'll take it to our team and see". The second one went better, and I got them to agree to sign an MOU to conduct a test over their actual satellite links with real data. When I got back to Boston, I had an email from Brujo, who was now running all of the conglomerate's operations, to do a telecon on their secure system next week.

Meanwhile, the VC in California said it was time to raise another round of financing, and our preliminary results would support a decent valuation. They wanted a new and experienced CEO in place so they could complete the raise in October. His basic message was "good job, kid, but we'll take it from here." That pissed me off.

"How about me staying on as CEO?"

"Sure, if you can close two beta customers and raise $4M before September 1!" The way he said it meant he thought I had as much chance of doing that as I did of winning an Olympic gold medal. That made me even more angry.

The next day I got the call. The first demo must have gone better than I thought. Brujo's guys liked it so much that he wanted to invest. I didn't know any better, and I had nothing to lose, so I said $5M. There was total silence on the other end of the line, and I was afraid I had screwed up.

Then Brujo said, "At what pre-money value?"

Oh. This was more complicated than I thought. Let's see how quick I am at arithmetic. Better than calculus, anyway.

"I mean after you put in $5M, you will own 10% of the company."

Silence again, then "Send us a term sheet, Robbie." I assumed the VC could generate that. I sent him an email.

............

Lara had been demonstrably confident in speaking to Rachel about making legal arrangements for their tripartite marriage on time, but inside she was getting frantic. She had the logic all laid out, and all the paperwork ready. Getting on the court calendars in the right sequence was the problem. Some of them were backed up for years, and she needed to dance through them like a ballerina and get just the right result in each one. She was just sitting and fretting when Jay and Millie Kincaid called.

"I can't believe I get to talk to both of you at the same time. How are you?"

"Happily married and working on accomplishing the same thing for you. We called in a favor and we have a number for you to call. Just explain your legal plan to him. We think he can help. What's that line from the movie? At some point in the future, we may ask a favor of you."

Lara was willing to try anything, but she wasn't sure how it could be done.

Millie thought it could. She had called Ambassador Pliskin, who had met with the White House Counsel and the AG, who had read Lara's plan and were impressed. They told Pliskin it was legally brilliant, but she couldn't possibly get on the dockets and work the courts in several years, much less a few days, even if she was really lucky. Pliskin just smiled. They thought he must know something they didn't. He usually did.

A few hours later, a guy named Wally called Lara from area code 202. She was amazed at how much he knew about her plan and his in depth knowledge of the innerworkings of the courts involved. He gave her instructions so fast she could barely catch it all, but she did. He talked about treaties of reciprocity, the Religious Freedom Act, the historical non-enforcement of the bigamy statues, crossing powers of attorney, the Defense of Marriage Act, community property states, a legal spouse versus an accessory spouse, and several other connected ideas. She would start in Somerville Monday morning, then Boston Monday afternoon, and then DC on Tuesday. Wally told her to wear her walking shoes on Tuesday, as they would be visiting three different courts and running documents back and forth as required.

She called Robbie and Nora, and they planned their road trip.

............

Steven Byers was a jolly fellow in England. He liked his job as security liaison for the New Chunnel but didn't yet fully understand why it was such a big deal and why he was really needed here. The plain but somehow hot Gertrude Gastrell introduced him to Drummond McFadden, who was apparently a big cheese around here. He soon knew a lot of the people he would be working with. Drummond then introduced him to his super-hot wife, Summer, who looked at Steven with great interest, and in turn took him around to a host of nice young women.

The local girls took an immediate liking to Steven. There were men from all over the world in England these days, but a young and very fit American was exotic enough to be exciting, yet familiar enough to be comfortable with. Many of the local lads were a bit pear shaped and pudgy and interested mostly in smoking, drinking and videogames. Steven was different, and he did not disappoint. He was happy to be back in the game, and his time with Suzanne Pliskin had taught him to be a bit of a tease and to make a girl wait and work for her release, but also how to make sure she got it. Everybody wins! Best posting he ever had.

............

While Robbie, Nora, and Lara were planning their road trip to DC, Asa Weltschmerz, MD, PhD was planning a little trip of his own. He wanted to be there when Robbie's first-born arrived, and he had contrived to teach two grad seminars of a few weeks duration bracketing the expected due date. Once he had it all arranged, admittedly at the last hour, he emailed Robbie and the OB doc in Cambridge about his plans.

The med schools had combined to arrange a place for him to stay in a nice private house near the corner of Kent and Longwood only a few minutes from any of the hospitals and not far from Nora's apartment in Sommerville. The OB was pleased to have him assist in the birth, and it didn't hurt that he got great status by association with the famous visiting lecturer. He also brokered favors with a lot of promising residents and postdocs who were hot to be recruited to the new med school and hospitals in Texas.

Asa was going to speak on neuroscience and faculty development, his most recent challenges, but was spending most of his time speculating about the genetic basis of Robbie's talent. His working hypothesis to explain things so far was a weird combination of Mendelian genetics, mitochondrial inheritance, and something passed in sperm that's not chromosomal either. Like Daffyth Gastrell, whom he had never met, he was speculating about Robbie's children to be born from Nora Upman. He was doing it in much greater detail, with guesses about the mix of their talents, hybrid vigor, multiple alleles, partial penetrance, and projecting childhood traits and observations that would foreshadow a very interesting adolescence. He couldn't wait to observe and examine the new arrival.

............

When the first phone call came in Sunday night, I thought it might be my mother. She had a bad case of the prospective grandma's and was calling frequently. But she had held off for at least one Sunday night. It was the VC from California.

"You surprised me, Roberts. I figured your investor would be a fly by night puffer, but it's a real shipping company. Your valuation was a little light, and we really wanted more than one co-investor, but perhaps they can stand for several more rounds and if you can make the plan work, they may be a referral for more customers. Are you registered for school in Austin in the fall?"

"Yes, but I can do this too. Maybe I can get this to count as a seminar class on my schedule."

"This Brujo guy is a real dick of a negotiator. He knew every trick in the early round term sheet book and said he wouldn't invest unless you stayed on as CEO. What's his story?"

I realized he had looked up the shipping company but had not made the connection to Sapiento's estate and Erminia and how big a deal it was. No reason to wise him up yet.

"He is someone I met at a party in Austin. He was a market validation prospect, who turned into an investor. I think he has some other good connections, too. He knows I would never bullshit him."

"Would you bullshit me, Robbie?"

"Only as a defense mechanism. Not if you don't game me or try to handle me like you did previous management. Let's be straight with each other."

"Okay. HR will be in touch on your paperwork. Get with Professor Tappert and use his IP guy for licensing agreements. Don't give anybody an exclusive on anything yet."

"Understood."

The second phone call was from Asa Weltschmerz. He was going to be in Cambridge early next week.

Things were accelerating at an accelerating rate. I think you call that 'creep', something I have also been called.

............

Our extended evening with Rachel seemed to calm Nora's hormonal storm for a while, and she and Lara giggled about the episode right up until we were ready to leave for DC. Today, it felt a bit like a military operation with the initial point being the "old high school' as Rachel described it, which now was functioning as City Hall. Smiling and filing, not drawing any particular attention to ourselves and then on to the State House on Beacon Hill for more paperwork -- this time a petition that Lara had drafted with help from some mysterious guy in DC, and another smiling visit to one sympathetic representative and one senator who would shepherd some resolutions through. We then headed for the I90 and DC, an eight hour plus journey. We hit the NYC metro area in early evening and made our way through the traffic, arriving at Alexander and Carmencita Walton's place two hours after dark.

They were both very curious to see Nora, and when they did, her Suzie lit up and the womb rat's Suzie sender sounded like a carnival calliope. They had ordered an array of Thai takeout food which was just as varied and spicy as the signals I was hearing. Was I hearing anything direct, or was it all being relayed through Nora? I thought it was mostly through Nora, but something else was happening too.

Alexander was geeking out on mission planning. He had some kind of software system that was like Google Maps on steroids that could plan our movements to the second and even show 3D views of the weather forecast, position of the sun in the sky, visibility, humidity, traffic density, surveillance camera looks, cell signal coverage, perches on neighboring buildings, and God knows what else. That's a very interesting job you have now, Dwight. He was incredulous that Lara had lined up all those judges and got on their dockets.