Chapter 187: Horizon CEO Interview (1)
With Jeeves’ help, he located Phineas Dermot, the founder and CEO of Horizon. Then he templatized and summoned him, setting him to unconscious obedience. As soon as the CEO appeared, he told the man to speak truthfully but to forget the instruction.
Phineas gazed around the small, plain room and asked, "Where am I and who are you?"
"I have a divine artifact that allows me to create copies of people. You are a copy, and your original self has no knowledge of this conversation."
"Oh wow, that’s amazing. Is this some sort of virtual reality?"
"Honestly, I’m not sure. I suspect it’s more like a separate reality than a virtual reality. But let’s focus on why you are here. I want to talk to you about your company."
"Why? With an ability like this, why would you even look at my company?"
"Here, try this," said Jack as he handed the VR headset to Phineas.
"This looks like a Viper HDR," he said, looking at the headset in his hands.
"It is, mostly. We replaced the displays with our tech. It was easier than building a whole new headset from scratch. Try it. I think you’ll be surprised."
Phineas put the headset on and immediately gasped, "Holy shit! This is incredible."
He turned his head slowly, then faster.
"It’s a little laggy at high motion rates, but it’s still better than anything out there now."
The man moved around, and Jack could tell that he was leaning in to look more closely at a leaf of something.
After a few minutes, Phineas took off the headset and handed it back to Jack.
"The resolution of your displays is insane. There are almost no display artifacts, and the only reason I could find any at all is because I know what to look for. With tech like this, I have to ask, why are we talking?"
Jack explained his vision for the future and his more immediate plans to release a superior VR headset as a precursor to later VR products.
"Well, you certainly think big. I like your vision. Starting with VR headsets is a reasonable way to enter the VR market, and buying Horizon instead of building a company from the ground up will save you a lot of hassle."
"Yep. We also want to buy Jensen Manufacturing and have them make the new displays. We’ll provide them with special fabricators that can make our new displays."
Phineas nodded. "Jensen Manufacturing is a good choice. And now is the perfect time to snap them up. They haven’t started serious layoffs yet, so if you close the deal in the next few months, you can retain most of their staff."
"So, do you see any issues with our plan?" asked Jack.
"No, it seems like a reasonable plan."
"Okay, great. Now, the hard question. What is the best way to approach buying your company? Would your original self object to the purchase? And we want to take the company private so we can avoid activist shareholder interference. So, are there shareholders who will oppose the sale?"
"Hmm, that’s a good question. You’re an unknown, so even getting a meeting with me would be difficult. And I would probably laugh at you if you told me your grand plan. Worse, if you went through a well-known mergers and acquisitions law firm, I’d probably try to fight the sale."
"How would you respond to a hostile takeover?" asked Isabella.
"Badly. Worse, most of our key employees have golden parachutes and would bail if they thought the takeover would succeed."
Jack looked between Phineas and Isabella. "Golden parachute?"
"Ah," said Phineas, "it’s a clause in an employment contract that grants the employee a hefty severance package if certain conditions are met. In our case, all our key employees have a clause that allows them to activate the golden parachute in the event of a hostile takeover."
"So...how do we solve this?" asked Jack.
"That depends. What would you do with me once the sale is complete? Do you plan to restructure? Replace the C-suite executives?"
"No. I would prefer to leave you as CEO. You already know how to run the company and know more about the VR market than me, so replacing you would be foolish. Besides, I like your dedication to quality and customer service."
"Well, in that case, if you can make a copy of me, is there a way for you to transfer my memories back to my original self? Then I, or rather my original self, would happily work with you to accomplish the sale."
"There is a way, but you probably won’t like it."
"Oh?"
"If you agree to a soul bond, then your memories and those of your original self will merge. The two primary effects of the soul bond are that it makes it impossible for you to divulge my secrets to anyone, not even under duress, and it also prevents you from harming me or acting against me."
"That doesn’t sound too bad," said Phineas. "But you said primary effects. Can I assume there are other effects?"
"Yes. There are three additional factors to consider. First, is that the bond will cause you to become loyal to me more easily than normal. But if I mistreated you, that loyalty would evaporate just as it would without the bond."
"That...is okay, I guess," he said.
"The second is that the bond is permanent. When you die, your soul will remain bonded to me, and I will be able to summon or dismiss you within my soul space."
He paused, a sudden realization hitting him. Once soul bonded, the person’s soul remained attached to him forever. If the person died, their soul remained, and the person could still manifest inside his soul space. His soul space effectively became their afterlife!
"Um, I hate to say it this way, but when you die, your afterlife would be whatever I want it to be."
Phineas’ eyes widened. "Um, what? Are you saying this soul bond would make me immortal?"
"Kind of. Once soul bonded to me, your soul will continue to exist as long as my soul continues to exist. While alive, you will have access to my soul space, if I allow it. But when you die, you revert to a state where I have full control over your manifestation here in my soul space."
"Worse," he continued, "I could choose to delete you if I wanted."