Spherion

by J. Scott Garibay

Evangeline held her thumb down on the link in the text on her phone and confirmed its URL as the link she had requested from her brother, Myles.

Evangeline looked up and across the tablet. “How did you find out about my work?’

The speaker droned. “One of your hand-picked players for ‘American Gunslingers’ had loose lips.”

A breeze tousled her blond hair and she squinted as the sun reflected off the mirror finish of the tablet.

She looked at Derek, the smartly dressed aid who had contacted her initially and set this meeting up, for an answer as well. Derek shook his head, flashed a winning smile and pointed at the tablet, indicating that his job, bringing Evangeline and the tablet that carried ShardShark’s words here, to this spot, for this conversation was done.

“What is your ask and what is your offer, ShardShark?”

The speaker droned again, tinny and clipped. “Here is your situation, my ask and my offer. They are all key to your decision. Your situation is that you and your brother, Myles, have created three bespoke worlds - American Gunslinger, American Witch Ace and Shroud Paladin. You are currently running Shroud Paladin for 5 to 25 hand-picked players hosted from an illegal source, servers that reside within the server-farms of an international corporations that neither your you or your brother work for or are affiliated with in any way. You lost the entire American Gunslinger bespoke world, last month when the game was discovered and deleted from the servers of another international corporation you had absconded server resources from. This halted all play for all 8 of the invitation only players you has set that custom-crafted video game up for. American Witch Ace is currently being held up because neither you or your brother are confident you can safely, secretly host it. My ask - I want you to drop out of college within 7 days. I want your brother to move out of your parents’ home within 7 days. Seven days from today, you and your brother will become my agents. Once you are my agents, your brother will move all of your bespoke worlds to new servers that I will supply. You will then create one new bespoke world every three months. (You will be free to make as many bespoke worlds as you choose, all of which will be hosted on my servers, but you will be required to make at least one every three months.) I will share admin rights with your brother to all servers. I will only use those admin rights for Read, no Write. I will make no changes to your bespoke worlds and I will make no requests on their creation, maintenance or improvement, but I will always use Read access on all bespoke worlds going forward. You will continue to retain full control of hand-picking your players and I will not ask for any changes (additions or subtractions) to your player lists for each bespoke world. My offer - you and your brother will receive 1) cash payments of $9,999 USD every two weeks going forward, 2) paid rent and expenses for wherever you choose to live, 3) one vehicle of your choice, 4) paid travel expenses to wherever you choose to travel and 5) one boon (a non-cash favor) based on your request every three months.”

Evangeline continued frowning. “What about Chunhua?”

The speaker hummed and no words reverberated from it for quite a while before it droned. “Your adopted chinese sister that is in junior high school?”

“Yes.”

The speaker droned. “She does not do any of the ideation or the coding on your bespoke worlds.”

“That is correct, but I want her to have a package as well.” Evangeline smiled.

The speaker droned. “Agreed. I will discreetly arrange for your father to receive a promotion and I will arrange for Chunhua to receive enough grants to attend any US university she is accepted into.”

Evangeline rub her chin for a moment. “Agreed. I accept your offer fully. I will talk to my brother, Myles. Do not contact him. I will bring him on board. Do you understand?”

The speaker droned. “I understand. Evangeline, thank you for accepting my offer.”

“Your welcome. And we don’t call them bespoke worlds, we call them Spherions.”

Evangeline forwarded the Spherion Navigator link to the number displayed on the bottom of the tablet. “You will have read access on all our in progress Spherions through that link and you will be able to see how we build them from Sprout, Seedling, Flowering to plant. Myles, will work with you on the server moves.”

Evangeline stood, put her phone in her back pocket and walked away from the table. After a few steps, she turned and said to Derek, “I want a pristine 1990 Honda CRX SiR with a Spoon engine on Dub rims in all white on Day One.”

Derek grinned and gave a thumbs up.