New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

They now had to find a way to make Violette prove to her mother that she was powerful enough to take care of herself.

Usually, it would be an easy task, as Violette was pretty strong. But this was her mother, judging.

Would she even consider anything strong enough? That much, he was having trouble figuring out.

"How do you want to go about this?" Kary asked him, since he had proposed this solution.

"Uh… I was hoping you could think of something, heh heh…"

Kary glared at him.

Then she sighed, rubbing her eyes.

"I'll think of something. For now, even if we don't get the Bellemares' help, we would still need to assemble a team. We should start calling our contacts and see who is available to help us. I don't think we should limit it to those near us, either."

Alex nodded. He agreed that this would require a lot more people than what they could muster up near here.

"I'll start making calls. But I feel like the first person we should call is Jack. I don't think he'll be happy that we break our deal to go cruise around the world for problems when there are plenty over here…"

Kary paused. She hadn't thought about this.

"You're right. Should I break the news to him? Or will you?" she asked.

Alex sighed.

"I'll do it. I don't know how much he'll scream, but I feel like it's better if he screams at me instead of you…"

Kary nodded, heading into the kitchen so they wouldn't be talking over each other during their calls.

She stopped next to Alex on her way and kissed him on the cheek.

"You look stressed. We'll pull through. Stop worrying about everyone and focus on yourself for once."

Alex stayed mum, smiling at her weakly.

'If only it were that simple…'

He sat back down, going through his contact list, and called directly Jack's cell phone. It was new that he had this number, as he always went through Mr. Gu, before.

But this was a matter for him and Alex to discuss.

The phone rang a couple of times before Jack picked up.

"I was wondering when you'd call me, son. Especially with what just happened at the EG headquarters. Did Katherine call you, too?"

Alex chuckled.

"Hello to you too, Jack. Yes, Katherine called me. Sorry if it took so long for me to call you; I've been swamped with calls ever since the servers went down. But I was going to call you eventually. We have to talk."

Alex almost heard the skin on Jack's forehead crease when he said that.

"What stupid idea did you come up with this time?" he asked, worried it would pull more people into their tight circle.

"It's not a stupid idea, or at least I don't feel like it is. But it is an idea. One that you might not like hearing about…"

There was a pause before Jack impatiently replied, "Well? Spit it out already."

Alex decided it was better to come clean and told Jack all about the plan he, Kary, and David had come up with. It was better if he knew everything than if he was left in the dark and started prying.

After explaining what had happened inside in the last moments of the game, and hearing what Jack had to say about it as well, he covered the entire plan, in the most minute of details, and even explained that Katherine Bellemare had already offered her help.

It took a dozen of minutes to go over everything, and a few more for Jack to wrap his head around it all.

"So you won't be staying here and taking care of the troubles in your garden… That's quite an oversight from you," Jack said, sounding disappointed.

"Listen, Jack. I know this isn't ideal for your plans. But the world is larger than just Montreal. If we want to survive in the long term, shouldn't we help everywhere we can?"

"Not ideal? You mean you are throwing the mother of all wrenches into my plans, son. But I get it. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed that everything I carefully planned for is going out the window."

Alex could hear the disappointment in his tone, and it bothered him.

"I'm not saying we'll never come back here, Jack. But we will go where our help is most needed first. Humanity is at stake. Not just our home…"

"I know…" Jack replied, sighing heavily.

"Look. I don't like that you accepted Katherine's help before asking me what I could do for you, but I can't deny that her deal was a sweet one. But let me help. Let me get my name in that pot, too.

"Katherine may have eyes and ears everywhere and access to stuff I don't. But I have something that Katherine and her husband don't. I'm filthy fucking rich. More money than I could ever spend in ten lifetimes. And David made sure of that with his little insider trade trick.

"Let me be the one that makes sure you never go wanting for anything. Money to hire help. Money to buy food, fuel, weapons, ammo, you name it. I'll be your bank. But I expect this to become a trade relationship.

"I'll be your payroll, but I want you to spread my name across the globe. Promise me that, and I will open my bank accounts to you." Novel Fire - novelfire.net

Alex had his breath punched out of his lungs momentarily. He knew Jack was rich.

Hell, he'd seen his face on top of those fancy one-percenter magazines more times than he could count. But what he was promising was not just a wealth in money.

It was a guarantee that they would never be caught short-handed. This was more than he would have ever asked of him.

More than he would have ever expected him to offer, too.

"As simple as spreading your name? What's the catch?" Alex asked, wary.

"No catch. Just tell the people you save where you're from, and who's making this possible. That'll be plenty. You have no idea how saving lives affects a wallet. I'll get a return on investment a hundredfold. I don't need to ask for more."

"Deal," Alex said, with no hesitation.

'With this, our plan is as solid as it can get.'