Page 134 of Crocodile Tears

Tyler sighed. “It’s impossible, Alex. People look at the fancy limos, the helicopters, and the floating cities, but they don’t see that all the projects I’m involved in cost billions. I can’t afford to invest any more in this project. Either make it work, and then we can look at getting it into production, or give up and walk away.” He got to his feet. “For what it’s worth – I believe in you.” He gave Alex an encouraging pat on the shoulder before leaving.

Alex stared after him glumly. There was no way he could make the design work without more money. He’d gambled on charming Tyler into investing more, considering how close they’d become over the past few months, but Tyler had never made any secret of the fact that he was a hard-headed businessman.

Alex worked day and night for the next two weeks, but it was no use. He was sure his designs were sound, but he couldn’t get the duck to work within the specs. He had to have more money to create a fresh prototype.

Deciding he needed some time away from the workshop, he returned to his flat, where he continued poring over the specs from the holopad Tyler had gifted him, looking for some way to pull it back from the brink of disaster. For the first time, he contemplated failure.

“Alex? Is that you?” Neil walked into the kitchen, tying up his bathrobe, looking surprised.

He’d barely seen his flatmate for the past few months – he’d spent most of his time either sleeping in the workshop or at Solange’s.

“Are you okay?” Neil asked. “I saw the light was on… You do realise it’s one a.m.?”

“I’m fine.” He stared at the spreadsheets hovering above the table in front of him. “No, I’m not – I’m fucked.” He buried his head in his hands.

“What are you talking about?” Neil studied the holograms. “Is this the project you’re working on with Tyler?”

“The project I’m screwing up, you mean.” He looked at Neil in despair. “My duck design is a failure. I can’t get it to work without more money, and Tyler won’t give me any more.”

“Well, what’s the worst that could happen?” Neil asked, rubbing his shoulders.

“I lose my designs to Tyler and have to go crawling back to my father?” He slammed his fist onto the dining room table. “Damn it, Neil, I worked bloody hard on them, and they should work. I don’t know why they don’t.”

“More money would help?” Neil’s fingers dug deep into his shoulders, massaging firmly.

“Well, yeah. It would mean I could redo this whole section instead of trying to make what I’ve already done fit – which it doesn’t.” He pointed at the specs.

“Why don’t you go to the bank and take out a loan, or find another investor?”

“I can’t – Tyler made it central to our agreement that only he and I have a stake in the product. He doesn’t want to share. Anyway, I’ve spent all of my own money on it already. I know this duck will be a huge success if only I can work out these few issues. I’m so nearly there.”

“Then you just need a bit of money for the final few weeks – nothing more than a loan, really,” Neil told him. “Tyler doesn’t need to know about it. If you bring him a successful product and pay back the loan out of the bonus you get for making it work, then you’re fine.”

“Who is going to give me a short-term loan on that basis?”

“How much do you need?”

“A hundred and forty million.”

“I could get it for you,” Neil said quietly.

“Don’t be stupid.” Alex shook off Neil’s fingers. “How?”

“I’m an accountant.” Neil shrugged. “Look – you only need a short-term loan. I could get that for you from Lytton AV’s reserves – as long as you return it within a few weeks, nobody will even notice.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. That’s the most underhand, ludicrous plan you could have come up with, Neil.”

“Fine.” Neil shrugged again. “But there’s enough money in the Lytton AV indentured servant account to cover it. We pay a chunk in each month out of profits, and a chunk out to pay for health insurance, food, Lytton Village upkeep, and other IS-related expenses. We have to keep it separate for compliance purposes, but the IS Agency never inspects us, so nobody pays it much attention. The money is just sitting there. You could have it, then pay it back and nobody would notice. I could cover the transaction at our end – make it look like a routine transfer.”

“That amount of money – you’d need two authorisations,” Alex said slowly.

“Well, I can authorise it – I move large sums of money around in our accounts all the time – and your father never took you off the list of people who can authorise payments, so…”

“No. Just… no.” He held up his hands. “We are not doing this. It’s stealing.”

“Your choice. I only want to help. Good night, sleep well.” Neil pressed a kiss to his head and left the room.

Alex continued to stare at the spreadsheets in despair. Finally, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep, he drove over to Solange’s house to do some croc and have sex instead.

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