Page 33 of Bad to the Bone
“Holy shit,” Ricky Lee said reverently as he slid into the passenger seat. “You still have it.”
“Who in their right mind would get rid of a car like this? Especially when my dad always took such good care of it. Not that I appreciated it the way it deserved when he gave it to me at the start of senior year. Back then it was just an old car. Now I recognize it for the classic it is.”
“I was watching for the pickup truck.”
“This isn’t exactly practical for making deliveries, so I tend to use the truck for day-to-day errands. But whenever I have the chance, I take this out on the open road and let it fly.”
“That’s the way I feel about the Harley.” Ricky Lee ran a caressing hand over the dashboard.
Alex navigated out of the hotel lot and made his way to the Danish Coffee Pot.
“It would be a sin to drop crumbs in a beauty like this,” Ricky Lee said when Alex parked outside the diner. “We can have a quick breakfast inside. You’ll be able to make up the time on the way to OKC.”
“I have to be careful to watch my speed,” Alex admitted as they went in. “Cars like this tend to get pulled over just because they look like they might be racers.”
It was early enough that most of the usual breakfast diners hadn’t arrived yet, so they were able to get in and out quickly. Less than half an hour later, Alex turned the Challenger onto the entrance ramp for I-44, the Bailey Turnpike.
They rode with only the grumble of the hemi engine breaking the silence until they reached the outskirts of Lawton. “Did you get all your calls taken care of yesterday?” Alex asked, realizing he didn’t know exactly what Ricky Lee’s business involved.
“Crae can handle anything that comes up today. We’ve got a development team working to adapt the GameFit software to interface with VR—virtual reality—and it’s almost ready to start testing.”
“That sounds exciting.”
“Not as much as you’d think. We’re finalizing the test plan now, which means writing hundreds of test scripts to cover every element of the design requirements and defining what qualifies as a pass or fail. Then we have to set up multiple test environments to mirror every conceivable end-user configuration before we can turn the testers loose in them. It can be mind-numbingly tedious at times.”
Alex shook his head. “I suppose any job has its tedious elements, but it must be thrilling to see the end result in action. How did you come up with the idea in the first place?”
“It started as an assignment for a programming class to outline the development plan for a computer game. My college roommate spent as much time gaming online as he did studying, and he never got any exercise, so I thought I’d give him an incentive to work up a sweat. When Jerry kept using it after I had him test the prototype, I knew I was on to something.”
The drive to Oklahoma City didn’t seem nearly as long with Ricky Lee describing how GameFit grew from an indie program to a multimillion-dollar licensing deal and what other programs Polynomial Software had released or under development.
“You must be sorry I invited myself along,” Ricky Lee said as Alex found a parking spot not far from the capitol building. “I forget not everyone finds software design as interesting as I do.”
“Wait until you listen to me go over our talking points on the increase in earthquakes and the risks of groundwater contamination with the dozenth apathetic state representative,” Alex countered with a smile. “You’ll be the one wishing you were still reviewing test plans.”
To Alex’s surprise, Ricky Lee hadn’t been joking about doing research on fracking. While he let Alex and his former colleagues from OCA approach the legislators and other capitol visitors, he handed out literature and answered questions when asked with an impressive depth of knowledge. By the end of the day, Alex knew he was in big trouble. Ricky Lee wasn’t just devastatingly sexy. He was intelligent and articulate, and Alex was finding it hard to remember why letting things go any further would be a bad idea.
“Can I give it a spin?” Ricky Lee asked when they returned to the Challenger. Knowing Ricky Lee would enjoy driving the powerful car as much as he did, Alex couldn’t refuse. He tossed him the keys and settled into the passenger seat, prepared to navigate since he wasn’t sure Ricky Lee was familiar with the route back to the turnpike.
“If you take a right at the next light, you can pick up 235 and take that to I-40 over to I-44.”
Ricky Lee gunned the engine and squealed as he pulled out of the parking space. “We’re not going back to Freeland, Alex. You’re being kidnapped.”
