With a curse, Foster threw off his XR goggles, and they went clattering away across the Skunk Works boardroom table. The meeting had lasted just over an hour, and it hadn’t gone well.
“That guy is going to ruin this project!” He made a show of ripping a USB cable from its adaptor port and casting it away too. “He’s saying that our airships aren’t performing up to specifications without acknowledging that the government didn’t purchase half the equipment he needs. Did they expect us just to give it away?”
“I need you to relax, Vern.” All pretense of serene corporate acumen was now absent from Vaughn’s features. She scolded her teammate. “We can still fix this.”
“How can we, Cora?” Foster threw his hands in the air and rocked back in his seat. “We’re on the verge of a major war, and they’re talking about cutting the PDI budget!” The Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI) was a major component of the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
“They’re not cutting the PDI,” Vaughn waved a finger menacingly to indicate Foster should shut up. “They are actually increasing it… just not as much as we expected.”
“Please,” Ranell interjected. Not for the first time Ranell thought, I wish I had a better financial background. But since the tragic death of GML’s Chief Financial Officer, these duties had fallen on him. “Can you just help me understand the bottom line here? What’s going to happen to this project? They’ve only retrofitted three of my airships so far. Are they still planning to retrofit the other three? GML’s got a lot riding on this.”
Choose Option 1: Contracts Delayed
Choose Option 2: Bought Enough Time?