"Right," William said, knowing he couldn't just pop Byron's cap open without a little playing. "And in your spare time, how's your hobby coming along?"
"Well, now, Billy, is there something you're curious about?"
"Yes, there is." He decided to come right to the point with his old friend, to simply ask for his help. "I'm very interested in what you and Peter Jones are working on."
"It's good stuff, Billy, though we've had a little bit of a pause."
"What kind of pause?"
"Petey had to go back to California. Had some business to deal with."
California: Wallaby. Was there more to Matthew Locke's scheming? Had he persuaded Jones to come back to Wallaby, to rejoin him in leading the company? That would explain Matthew's newfound resolution to go it alone, without ICP. After all, wasn't Jones the one who had been so resistant to ICP all these years?
"Back to Wallaby?"
"Hell, no. Quite the contrary. Petey started selling off his
Wallaby stock yesterday to fund our project."
William knew that Jones's stock sale would yield millions of dollars, many digits, the sort of lengthy figures required for serious development. Things were coming along, then. Which meant that they were probably well on their way to a real product design after all.