James Walker, Father of Two, Broker for Hire

"Canceled? Now!?" James paced around his hotel room in Busan, desperately looking through the list of flights available today. Even as he scrolled through it, the updates were still occurring; green dots indicating available seats suddenly turning to large, red X as the flights were immediately canceled due to weather. The storm outside, also known as Typhoon Goguma, was going to rage on for the entire week, and any flight in and out of Korea had been delayed for safety purposes.

James Walker, broker for hire, and away from his home for 11 out of 12 months within the year, found himself in a predicament as he was stuck in Korea for the remainder of the week. His deal within Korea was done: he had managed to secure the deal with Saeya Electronics on a new routing software infrastructure that ran on its own network. All he had to do was to report back to commissioners who would be more than willing to take part on using it. With Hideki Ascend becoming a popular method for substituting travel, latency and security issues involving them were ripe jobs for the taking. Especially since it paid well.

"I swear Hilbert better appreciate the work I'm doing for him just because he wants to go jumping off planes..." Rubbing his temple, he sat down on the bed, remembering that the only reason why he was in Korea was the large amount of commission placed on him to provide a zero-latency service for the risky vacationers. Hildebert Everwin, a billionaire entrepreneur by his own right, placed it on the new tourism market, but the government was having none of it. With most of the previous problems that had risen out of long-distance Ascension use, it was far too risky for people to indulge in dangerous sports. Headband could easily come off when a wave crashed into a surfer. A second late for a parachute pull may be a difference between a safe landing and a splatter on the ground. Saeya Electronics was supposed to solve this issue, and now that James had it in his hand, he didn't want someone else to seize the opportunity just because of flights being cancelled.

Tip about being a broker: There's always competition, and if he didn't get home in time, someone else will submit the proposal for him.

There wouldn't be an issue for that if it wasn't his bonus in the line.

A thought struck him as he glanced at the Hideki Ascend model that had been used for his presentation. It was perfectly functional, just in case of live experimentation being an option on the spot, but he never thought of using it until now. After all, business meetings sometimes tend to be more passionate when it was in-person instead of through the screen. Now... He just needed to find the right person back home.

If he really couldn't find anyone else, he could always ask his kids about it. They were in their twenties already, and surely James couldn't buy them off with just allowance. No. He had to sweeten the deal first. A new computer? That new gaming console just around the corner? If they themselves won't do it, they will find someone for him.

A quick text was sent out, and it wasn't a minute later that he received a response from a potential host.