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Meanwhile, in the base.
The great Crimson Typhoon cake was cut apart and shared out piece by piece, and the cafeteria's serving windows opened in step, handing out portions on the spot to the colleagues who hadn't gotten a slice.
The atmosphere on-site was easy and light. People cradled their share of cake along with cocktails and other drinks, or other food, clustering into knots to chat and laugh, releasing their pressure without even noticing they were doing it.
Rather than calling this Ryan's birthday party, it would be more accurate to call it a decompression session for everyone.
The researchers and technicians in the base, every last one of them except Ryan, carried enormous pressure on their shoulders.
They were like the parts of a Formula One car. They worked hard day in and day out, and the moment any one of them had a problem, the whole car's speed would suffer badly for it.
Patricia had picked this exact opening to hold the birthday party, and while she was at it, to drum up a few chances for the base's still-single men and women.
For this base, she had truly worn her heart to pieces.
"Wonder Boy! Happy birthday!" Chloe pulled Ryan off to one side and gave him an enormous hug.
Ryan reflexively asked the least romantic question possible. "So where's this year's present?"
Chloe gave two smug little hums and slung an arm over his shoulder. "As for the present, I'll bring it by your room tonight. Go ahead and look forward to it!"
Before Ryan could say anything back, his parents had already tracked him down.
"Son! Come over here!"
His mother waved to him from a distance, while his father stood beside her, smiling.
Ryan towed Chloe along to his parents' side.
His mother spoke with an air of great mystery. "You're sixteen this year, which practically counts as a grown man, so your father and I decided that this year, you're getting a special kind of birthday present!"
As she said it, she drew a thin envelope out of her bag.
Ryan eyed the envelope in her hand and ventured a guess. "A check?"
His father arched an eyebrow at him. "Can't you let your thoughts run in any other direction?"
"This is a gift that only adults get to have!"
Listening to his father, Ryan gave the thin envelope another look. "Please don't tell me that's a credit card!?"
He'd never bothered applying for one, and if it really was a credit card...
Then...
Then he supposed he'd have nothing to say about it.
His father rolled his eyes despite himself. "Forget it. I don't think this kid is ever guessing it. Let's just open it and show him."
He shook his head, the picture of a man deeply let down.
His mother swatted him once, then held the envelope out.
"Open it and see for yourself!"
Ryan took it and gave it a couple of squeezes first. There was a sheet of paper inside, and a card of hard stock.
Then he looked at his father's face, where a smile was being strenuously suppressed, and got the distinct feeling that this present was not going to be a serious one.
"What is it, what is it? Hurry up and open it!" Chloe stood at Ryan's side, already dying to see what was in there.
Ryan opened the envelope and slowly drew out the sheet nearest the flap.
He'd pulled it barely halfway free when he saw the Prism logo, and that sinking feeling shot straight to its peak.
By the time it was all the way out, one glance was enough to leave him speechless.
A letter of appointment:
This letter confirms the appointment of Ryan Mercer as Chief Scientist of the Prism Sciences Research Center.
Term of appointment: November 21, 2022, through December 31, 2099.
Ryan's face went perfectly, utterly flat.
Beside him, Chloe's expression cycled through several distinct shades of secondhand embarrassment.
He drew out the hard card underneath next. It was a special-issue work badge in silver-gray, his title and photo on one face, the giant Prism Sciences logo on the other.
So this was what they meant by evil capitalists?
"Haha! Well? This is a letter of appointment that only an adult can receive, and it's also the very first job you've landed since coming of age. Meaningful, isn't it!" his father said, laughing away beside him.
Even his mother was covering a smile as she watched Ryan's reaction. "Speaking strictly by the letter of the law, a sixteen-year-old who supports himself through his own work can be declared a legal adult. You draw a salary. Congratulations, you're officially grown!"
"Right. Well. In any case, thank you both very much. I am delighted to receive this gift..." Ryan delivered the insincerity without the slightest strain.
Chloe, meanwhile, had puckered up her lips beside him. "That's IT!?"
Ryan's father burst out laughing. "Of course that's not it!"
Only now did he produce a thick document folder from the briefcase behind him.
"Open it and take a look. It isn't the sort of thing you like, but honestly, besides this, there isn't much left I could possibly give you."
Ryan's father let out a sigh. This son he'd raised was simply too far off the standard model.
Other people's children finished their college entrance exams, got handed a mech model kit, and jumped around the room with joy. His child finished his entrance exams and built a mech with his own two hands.
Everyone else envied him for having a son like this, assuming his days must be spectacularly worry-free, spectacularly happy.
What they didn't know was the pressure of having a genius for a son.
Every time the boy's birthday came around, there was simply no knowing what to give him.
For Ryan's eighth birthday, he'd gotten him the most powerfully specced computer on the market. At nine, he'd had a factory machine the boy's first mechanical part. At ten, he'd renovated the mech warehouse beside the house. At eleven, he'd given him the first ton of Scrapper's materials...
And now what? Was he supposed to gift him a ton of titanium alloy?
For Ryan's father, pressure like this was, honestly...
Way too damn small!
Those people simply couldn't grasp it. Having a son like this wasn't spectacularly worry-free and spectacularly happy at all. It was worry-free with the total doubled, happy with the total doubled again!
Ryan picked up the new document folder and drew a page out of it, and the five bolded words across the top hit him at a glance: Equity Transfer Agreement.
He shook his head. "I think the cake was already a wonderful present!"
With that, he handed the folder right back to his father.
He had no interest in company equity, and it wasn't as if he held no stake in the company either. When his research bonuses had been invested into the company earlier, they'd been converted into shares, and the same had gone for technologies like the brain-control device.
His stake in the company was hardly small to begin with, which made him even less interested in these shares.
Seeing this, all Ryan's father could do was spread his hands at his wife.
You see? Nothing I can do!
Ryan's mother shot him a glare. "Look at yourself. You can't even pick out one decent birthday present!"
"Heh heh!" Watching this scene unfold, Chloe folded her arms, boundlessly confident in the gift she had chosen...
The birthday party ran on until the afternoon, and then the base went on holiday, with most people choosing to unwind inside the controlled zone.
Hargrove called in the afternoon to report the good news, and Ryan's parents expressed their satisfaction with Argus's first public showing.
On into the evening, Ryan sat writing algorithms with one hand while waiting for Chloe's present.
"Wonder Boy, open the door already!" Chloe's voice sounded from outside.
Ryan left the computer and pulled the door open.
One look, and there she was in the doorway, hugging a squared-off box bigger than she was!
And inside it, unmistakably, was a Crimson Typhoon mech model.
Another one of these damned bootlegs...
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