Built to Serve: A Catgirl Harem Adventure (Build-A-Catgirl Book 3)

by Simon Archer

  “Okay, timeline aside, how much would the charges be for that type of analysis?” she asked him. Clint leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. He folded his hands and looked directly at Leah.

  “I know you have been working tirelessly to get both cat girls and this saliva in the hands of the medical field. It is one of the things I love most about your foundation. I understand that you want to do this as fast as possible, but, before going over costs, be straight with me, why such a rush?” Clint kept his gaze steady. Leah glanced over at Charlie. He nodded for her to answer Clint’s question.

  “Because, unless we do this now, and fast, Omnicorp will end up with a hand in each of our businesses, one way or another. They have kept cat girl saliva to themselves for years when it could be helping other people. Now, we are looking at the threat of them undoing all of the good we have done for the CG industry,” she summarized for him.

  “I see,” Clint started. He shifted in his chair, and I noticed his neck was getting warmer. There were tiny beads of perspiration at the base of his hair. “Look, I want to help. What’s more is that I have been wanting a bigger part in improving the CG industry for a long time. I wasn’t sure how I would be able to do that, but you bringing this to me answers that question.” Clint swallowed harder than he had up to that point.

  “Please clarify,” Charlie requested.

  Clint pursed to his lips together quickly before answering. “I would like to do the analysis for you, and the experiments, but I don’t want cash for the project. I want to be part of what you all are doing here. Your purpose. Your efforts.” His eyes shifted from Charlie to the paper Leah had given him and back. Clark tipped his head to the side and squinted slightly to look at Clint.

  “What are you proposing?” he demanded to know, sounding a little stronger in voice than I think he meant to.

  “I want to be UsForThem, and VGS’s associated biotech company,” Clint stated plainly. Clark’s face did not move. Neither did Charlie nor Leah’s. It was as if everything in the room froze for a moment. Finally, Leah started to open her mouth to speak. Before she had a chance to say anything, I sat forward and lightly hit the table with my hands. Although the sound was not that loud, it made everybody at the table jump. Clark’s head snapped in my direction. I just stared at him. I knew he could tell what I was thinking.

  “Clint,” he said loudly. “Do you know what Kennedi’s special skill is?”

  “I do not,” Clint answered, looking puzzled.

  “To sum it up, she is a human lie detector. What are you not telling us?” Clark stared at him. I saw the sweat beat up on Clint’s neck, and could hear his heart rate increase. He leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. He sighed, and his whole body slumped just a little bit. He never broke eye contact, though.

  “I haven’t told you anything that isn’t true,” Clint started. “But Kennedi is correct. I haven’t told you everything.” Leah and Charlie exchanged worried looks while Clark kept his eyes on Clint.

  “Go on,” Clark instructed.

  “I have known about UsForThem, and VGS for much longer than the day I stumbled upon Reina,” Clint said tentatively. “I used to work with Omnicorp.” Although not audible to most humans, I could hear Charlie, Leah, and Clark all inhale sharply before Clint continued. “I was a biotechnologist for them and developed the special mesh component that makes the skin for cat girls.”

  “If you worked for Omnicorp, then you knew that we are practically enemy number one to that company,” Clark said angrily. Clint held up his hands.

  “I did know that, and I worked with them, not for them. I was not an employee,” Clint started. “That is why I wanted to meet all of you. When I developed the mesh, I could see the vision of how many people it could help. Its medical value, healing-wise, is immense. Doctors could use it for surgery recovery. Plastic surgeons could use it for burn victims. You name it. I was so excited. However, when I took my enthusiasm to the Omnicorp board of directors, they immediately put a gag order on me. Not long after that, I started being harassed both at work and anonymously. The situation got so bad that I had to get out, even if it meant leaving my mesh behind. So, I decided to let my contract expire and leave quietly.” Clint leaned forward and again. His heart rate was back to normal, and it appeared his confidence was steadily climbing.

  “What does that have to do with us?” Charlie chimed in sternly. Clint looked at him and nodded slowly, acknowledging that his explanation was not yet over.

  “I did end up leaving the mesh I’d created behind, but that spurred me to make a better version. You see, just because I left Omnicorp, doesn’t mean I stopped wanting to do some good with what I had,” Clint looked from Charlie to Clark. “I researched VGS and saw what you were doing to help the cat girls on a technical level.” His gaze shifted to Leah. “I also researched UsForThem and saw what you were doing for them on a humane level. When I found out that a common goal was to help cat girls provide value to the medical community, I decided to meet you all in person. I had just been burned, harassed, bullied, and humiliated by an extremely powerful company. There was no way I was going to consider getting involved in something like that again, so I needed to know who you all were as people.” A sort of pleading had crept into Clint’s voice.

  “So, if we hadn’t asked you to analyze this saliva, what was your plan to become involved?” Leah asked, rather coldly. Clint’s head tilted ever so slightly as he leaned back in his chair once again.

  “I didn’t have one, initially,” he answered. “I knew I had some time before I could really do anything because I had a non-compete clause in my contract with Omni. That has long expired now. I simply wanted to know if your companies shared the same core values surrounding CGs. Thinking any further ahead than that would have been mere speculation and could possibly have set me up for a lot of disappointment. So, I started at step one and figured I’d come up with the rest as I went.” He shrugged his shoulders and exhaled as though he was waiting for a verdict to be passed about him.

  Clark looked at me, and I smiled at him. Clint had told the truth. There was a long silence that seemed to cover the entire penthouse like a blanket. Finally, Clark folded his hands and put them on the table. He looked directly at Clint, whose gaze was fixed on the table in front of him.

  “Charlie, Leah,” Clark started. He looked at each of them. “Clint is telling the truth. What’s more is that he never lied outright. Lying by omission isn’t far off, but it is still not the same thing in this case.”

  “I can understand that,” Charlie agreed. “Due diligence is something a lot of people don’t take the time to do, especially when they should.”

  “What about Reina?” Leah asked Clint, her voice still icy.

  “I was on my way to the foundation to see if you had volunteer opportunities when Reina was pushed out of the car in front of me. It was a complete coincidence, and one that I am grateful for,” Clint responded confidently. Anyone who had seen him with Reina could tell that his care for her was genuine. Leah slowly looked over at her husband and gave him a nod.

  “Alright, Clint, so tell us what you would like to see happen,” Charlie instructed him.

  “It is so simple that it nearly sounds uneducated. I want to help. I want to help cat girls. I want to help the medical industry, and I want to be of support to those who share my vision,” Clint stated proudly. I watched Clint's eyes follow the different looks that Charlie, Leah, and Clark were giving each other. He cleared his throat and pushed back his chair. “I’ll excuse myself to your restroom if you do not mind. That will give you three some time alone to discuss if you would like to move forward.”

  “Sure,” Leah replied. “Straight down the hall on the right.” Clint left the table.

  “I don’t know what to think right now!” Leah said in a cold whisper. She sat back and rolled her eyes.

  “I understand that you feel betrayed, babe,” Charlie started. “But crazily, I actually respect the gu
y for keeping things close to the vest. If nothing else, it proves that he is good at keeping his mouth shut, which is a quality we desperately need right now.” Charlie had a very good point.

  “Yeah, I suppose you are right,” Leah conceded. “When in life did everything become gray, instead of black-and-white?” She let out a sigh and shrugged her shoulders.

  “Clark?” Charlie wanted his input.

  “I straight up like the guy,” Clark said matter-of-factly, all traces of anger gone. “Charlie, I am with you on the due diligence issue, and him not being a blabber-mouth. He was not trying to cover anything up, he simply did not offer details or a back story, and none of us thought to ask him. There is a good chance he could teach us a thing or two about scoping out our endeavors ahead of time.”

  “But what are you willing to offer him, from a business perspective, though?” Leah asked Clark.

  “He wants to have a stake in the process. He wants to make our cause part of his life’s work. I think we should give him the opportunity. Let’s offer him a results-based partnership,” Clark proposed.

  “What do you mean exactly?” Charlie’s brow was furrowed, and his shoulders were tense.

  “Let’s have him analyze the saliva and run the experiments. If he can produce a way for us to get around Omnicorp and still use the saliva, I say we make him our biotechnology partner company. Hell, we were talking just the other day about opening our own biotechnology lab so that we could make the special features I’ve been wanting to make. Clint may be a huge shortcut to that,” Clark explained.

  “And if he doesn’t find a way?” Leah asked, curious.

  “Then we pay him the fee for the work that he did and call it good. At that point, his opportunity would lie with volunteering for your foundation and doing contract work for us in the future possibly,” Clark told her. Leah thought for a moment and then started nodding her head slowly.

  “If I had not seen him with Reina personally, I don’t know if I would be willing to move forward. However, I have seen how he cares for her and how he considers her so deeply that although he would love to, he won’t adopt her because he doesn’t want her to be alone all the time while he is gone traveling. That really does speak to his character,” Leah reflected.

  “So, are we in agreement?” Clark asked Charlie and Leah. “If he gets us what we need, he is in. If not, he is auxiliary support.”

  “Yes,” Charlie and Leah answered in unison. Their discussion came to an end just as Clint walked back up to the table. He sat down and smiled at each one of them, and me.

  “What is the verdict?” he asked lightheartedly. I suppose, by that point, he realized that his next steps weren’t up to him, so there was no use being upset just yet.

  “I’ll be blunt,” Clark started. “If you can produce the results we need, then VGS and UsForThem will make you our biotechnology partner. If not, we pay you for the work your lab did, and that is it. After that, your support could be shown through volunteering and such. What do you say to that?” Clint did not hesitate for even a split second.

  “Done,” he responded. “I will get started on the analysis right away. Where would you like me to acquire the saliva sample?” Clint was not going to get Charlie, Leah, or Clark, the opportunity to change their minds.

  “I have one here for you. It’s fifteen milliliters,” Leah told him. “Macy donated it this morning. Will that work?”

  “That will work perfectly,” Clint answered. Leah got up and walked away to retrieve the sample. Charlie stood up and held his hand out towards Clint to shake.

  “I will have our lawyers start drafting paperwork for the partnership, should it come to fruition,” he told Clint. Clint nodded and shook his hand as he got up out of his chair. Clark and I stood as well. Clint shook each of our hands, took the sample from Leah when she returned and hurried out of the penthouse like an excited mad scientist. He left so quickly that Leah started giggling.

  “I guess ‘eager’ could be used to describe him currently,” she joked. She turned to Clark and me. “Cross your fingers that his eagerness produces results!”

  “From your lips!” Charlie replied.

  “Alright,” Clark started. “Kennedi and I have some errands to run. Then we are going to stop by her art studio later. If we are to get everything done, we had better be moving.”

  Charlie and Leah walked Clark and me to the door. We bid our goodbyes, and Clark and I left. As we walked to the elevator, Clark looped his arm through mine and pulled me close. He kissed the top of my head.

  “Thank you,” he said sweetly before we got started on the rest of our day.

  16

  Floyd

  I finished reading the letter and set it down to the side of the file I had open on my desk in front of me. I could not help but smile as the warmth of victory rushed up into my face. The letter I had sent to Clark Watkins had more impact than I had expected it to. It had caught me unawares when I opened an envelope from Brody Woodin’s law office to read that VGS would be stopping the sales of CGs that contained healing saliva. That, of course, meant all of them. As though that weren’t enough cause for a great day, Clark and Charlie Lindy had agreed to mediation regarding nano-glass sales. I had not pegged those two for easy pushovers, and I had read Brody’s letter three times before it truly sunk in that they would be complying with the cease and desist notice I had sent.

  I picked up the file, stood up, and walked to the large picture window at the back of my office. It was a cloudy day outside, which was rare for Elko. Still, I found the varying shades of gray and black that the clouds’ shadows cast on the ground soothing. As I stood there, I flipped through the pages of the file. I had compiled complete histories on Clark Watkins, and everybody he knew after Omnicorp’s board of directors told me about how miserably their last attempt at pushing Clark out of the CG game had been. Their operative at the time, Trevor, used to be a favorite for cleaning up messes, but when it came to Clark and VGS, he had been outsmarted. That was something I was confident in promising the board would not happen again. Clark and his crew might be savvy businesspeople, but they did not know the law. As much as I wished that cutting them down through the legal system had been my idea, unfortunately, it hadn’t.

  My mind flashed back to the phone call I received the night Trevor failed in his mission. His CG, Leila, contacted me, saying that she knew of a way that nobody else had tried to stop VGS and make the UsForThem foundation nothing more than an abandoned cat girl’s shelter. Her idea to leverage patented parts of cat girls to restrict VGS from operating as they desired was simple and clean.

  The board of directors had said they had tried to avoid any legal action for purely public relations reasons. After all of the bad press from the Platform being busted and shutdown, the data mining being discovered, and their nano-glass contract being taken away, the company wanted everything about it to be presented in the best light possible. A messy, drawn-out, legal battle could only be construed as messy in the public eye. However, after Trevor, they didn’t really have many options. When Leila came to me with a unique strategy, I presented it to them, and they decided to have me move forward with it. I had managed to keep Leila out of sight of the board.

  I decided that the letter from Brody’s office was cause for a cocktail. I walked from my window to the small wet bar behind my large oak desk. As I pulled out a tumbler, dropped a few ice cubes into it, and poured myself a glass of whiskey, I chuckled at how naïve and stupid Leila had been. It had not taken me very long to figure out how to use her and get rid of her. There was no way I was going to share credit for taking them down with her. I carried my glass of whiskey, and the file to an overstuffed, leather recliner that faced the window. I sat down and felt the tension drain from my body as I sank into the cushions. Where so many others had failed, I was succeeding. I had taken it upon myself to start networking with certain individuals that had significant influence over policies involving the medical industry. I knew that havi
ng medical policymakers on my side in the case of a legal battle would carry significant weight. After all, the whole point was to make it look like Omnicorp was going to allow the use of the saliva by the medical industry, which had not been done before.

  I took a drink from my tumbler and closed my eyes as the bitter-smooth liquid ran down my throat. I opened my eyes and gazed out the window again. Now that I had effectively stopped VGS from selling catgirls, the next phase of my plan was to stop them from being able to modify CGs. That would essentially put them completely out of business. The seven-hundred-thousand-dollar bonus that the Omnicorp board promised me was only for the part of my plan that got VGS to stop selling cat girls. After I collected on that, I would go to them with my additional plans for the modifications to be stopped as well. If they paid me that much for one success, it only made sense that they would most likely pay that for another of equal value. Hell, they may even make me a board member. The thought made me smile.

  My thought process was interrupted by the beeping of the intercom on my desk.

  “Mr. Monarch, Brody Woodin’s office is on line one to schedule mediation,” my secretary's voice said. I laughed out loud as I stood up and walked over to my desk. I had to take a moment to collect myself before I picked up the phone.

  As much as I knew my victory was in the bag, Mr. Woodin’s office didn’t need to get the impression that I was hiding something, and I was definitely hiding something.

  17

  I hadn’t visited Kennedi in Samuel’s art gallery since their last show. When we walked through the door, the entire place looked completely different. The room itself was a large rectangle and had almost black hardwood floors. There were two beams from floor to ceiling on each side of the room. Kennedi had built display shelves that wrapped around the beams so that she could show her smaller items on them. At the far end of the room, there was a section completely closed off with plexiglass. Behind the plexiglass was where she and Samuel did their actual glass blowing. One of the reasons the gallery was so successful is because the two of them would blow glass during art shows. Even if the attendees saw all of their displayed pieces, they would stay to watch the creation of new ones.