Borrowing Luster

"Understood. The Finance Department has already prepared a trading plan. We'll spread the operations across several offshore accounts, so it won't alert the market," Frank replied.

"How are talks going on Tom's DND authorization?"

"It's almost done. TSR hasn't been in great financial shape lately and urgently needs cash flow. As long as our price is right, they're willing to transfer the exclusive online game adaptation rights."

"Good. Establish the DND project, and build the technical architecture directly on the 32-bit environment of Windows 95. We need to get ahead of everyone and draw hardcore players into our community."

After hanging up, Frank finished the coffee in his cup.

He walked over to the office area and clapped his hands.

"Guys, stop what you're doing in ten minutes. We're having a short meeting." He looked at the engineers staring at their screens. "About how we're going to transition fully to development on the Windows 95 platform. We're about to greet one hell of a storm."

Tokyo, Sega Headquarters.

Nakayama Takuya set down the telephone receiver.

Spread open on the desk was a copy of A Detailed Explanation of Japanese Tax Law.

With the outside world seething like winds and clouds, his top priority now was to straighten out Sega's internal accounts.

Director Hoshino pushed the door open and came in, holding a fax.

"The PricewaterhouseCoopers New York team's entry time has been finalized." Director Hoshino handed over the fax. "Next Monday, five senior auditors will fly directly to Tokyo. They're asking us to prepare detailed account records for all major overseas clients from the past three years."

Nakayama Takuya took the fax and glanced at it. "What's Yoshimura's reaction?"

"The Sales Department has been frantically chasing payments these past two days. Several regional managers called North American distributors overnight,"