The Ice Moon Explorer (9 page)

“Yes, yes I am.”

“Take your time with that answer, Daryl.
You’re selling your soul here. And a lot of other people’s as
well.”

“No, this is how I want to buy my soul, back.
The world’s most desperate need hope. However, they are not the
only people in the world. We need to invest in our future, but we
must also be true to ourselves.”

“Are you sure you’re not really saying that
you resent those people? The world’s most desperate? The ones who
take resources away from how you’d like to see them used?”

“No, I don’t resent them. But without
something to hope in, I think I would start to. I think my attitude
speaks for many.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll call you up and see if you
still feel this way. If you do, I’ll start drawing up some focus
groups.”

“Focus groups?”

“Just in the US. We’ll do every state. If the
data for the US is promising, then we can test in the rest of the
Big Four.”

“Thank you Sam. Isn’t it a bit early to be
doing focus groups though?”

“I don’t think so. The sooner we find out if
people would support this or not, the better. It’ll determine the
potential budget. Your engineers will want to some idea what that
is.”

Spektorov sat back and sighed. “I’m glad
you’re onboard with this.”

“We’ll see what you say tomorrow. I want you
to have a good think. Would you do that for me?”

“I will.”

“That’s all I can ask.”

“Do you want to meet the team?”

“The designers of this – what’s it
called?”

“We’ve been calling it the Pathfinder.”

“Yes, let’s go meet them. Maybe at least I
can talk them out of that stupid name.”