Perhaps because of jet lag, Sophia Fache did not sleep well all night, yet she felt surprisingly alert in the early morning.
The nighttime intrusion, of course, never happened.
She did not know whether to feel relieved or disappointed, and part of her suspected it might have just been one of Janet's pranks.
As the sky brightened, the housekeeper got out of bed. After a brief deliberation, she changed into a slightly professional outfit, a white blouse and fitted black trousers. She examined herself in the mirror with satisfaction, then stepped out of the guest room.
It was just past six in the morning.
Unexpectedly, she ran into Simon in the hallway, apparently just getting up. He was wearing a black tank top, shorts, and sneakers, clearly heading for a workout. Her gaze instinctively flicked over the well defined muscles beneath his tank top, no less impressive than those of a professional athlete. Sophia Fache felt inexplicably flustered, yet forced herself to stay calm and greeted him. "Morning, Simon."
"Morning," Simon replied, also a little surprised. He paused and looked her over, then teased, "Heading to work already?"
Normally very talkative, the housekeeper suddenly did not know how to respond to his joke under his gaze.
Sensing her unease, Simon quickly added, "You look great. I actually really like women in professional outfits."
Sophia Fache finally reacted. "Oh, thank you."
Simon smiled and said, "Since you're already up, help prepare breakfast. I'll take the chance to be lazy for once."
"Sure," Sophia Fache nodded. Walking with Simon toward the living room, she asked, "What do you and Janet like to eat in the morning?"
"Just use whatever ingredients are in the kitchen. Neither Janet nor I are picky," Simon said, then joked, "Of course, if it tastes too bad, as your boss I'll have to dock your pay."
After half an hour of exercise, Simon showered and changed. With breakfast taken care of, he sat in the living room and read the day's newspaper.
It was already Tuesday, August 30.
The debate stirred up by last week's Forbes list was still ongoing. Simon had dined with Peter Butler the night before, and today the Los Angeles Times published a lengthy exclusive interview.
In addition, although only a preliminary agreement had been reached with Terry Semel, Warner was eager to announce in today's Hollywood Reporter that Warner Bros. would soon begin cooperating with Daenerys Entertainment on projects beyond Batman.
Over the past few months, Warner Bros. had officially begun merger talks with Time Inc. As a publicly listed company, releasing such positive news in a timely manner was clearly beneficial for boosting Warner's stock price.
Obviously reacting to the day's headlines, Simon received probing calls one after another from Disney, Fox, Orion, and several other companies even before breakfast. With six consecutive films ranking among the year's top ten box office hits, Daenerys Entertainment had become the most eagerly pursued partner among all the major Hollywood studios.
Simon had no intention of completely cutting off cooperation with the Big Seven in the coming years, but neither did he plan to expand it too much. He merely brushed them off over the phone.
After seven o'clock, Sophia finished preparing breakfast. Janet was also up, and everyone gathered in the dining room.
Because of Sophia the night before, Janet had been thoroughly "dealt with" by Simon. After a good night's sleep, she still looked radiant, clearly the type who forgot the pain once the wound healed. Tasting the creamy pancakes, sweet corn soup, and fruit salad that Sophia had carefully prepared, Janet could not help praising her. "This is really good, Sophia. I almost want to keep you here as our personal chef. Simon's breakfasts are usually way worse than this."
Simon glanced at Janet. "As my girlfriend, don't you feel ashamed saying something like that?"
Janet blinked innocently. "Why should I be ashamed?"
Simon rolled his eyes helplessly.
Sophia smiled quietly, not joining in.
After a few sips of sweet corn soup, Simon turned to business. "Five people from the company will be traveling to Australia with us this time. You said you'd be in charge of the itinerary. How's the preparation?"
Janet nodded. "All done ages ago. I rented a Boeing 767. If you're sure we're not delaying anymore, we can leave at seven tomorrow morning and arrive in Melbourne at five in the afternoon on September first. Direct flight. No stops."
Recalling some information he had seen before, Simon said, "A Boeing 767? That's a mid size jet. Are you sure a direct flight to Melbourne won't be a problem?"
"Of course," Janet said confidently. "It's a long range Boeing 767 200ER. Its standard full load range exceeds twelve thousand kilometers. As a private jet, it can easily reach sixteen thousand kilometers. Los Angeles to Melbourne is less than thirteen thousand."
Hearing this, Sophia said, "The Boeing 767 is a twin engine aircraft. Wouldn't it be subject to extended range twin engine operations limits?"
Extended range twin engine operations were regulations set by international civil aviation authorities to ensure the safety of twin engine aircraft. They required that, in the event of an engine failure, the aircraft could reach an alternate airport within 120 minutes on a single engine. Subsonic jets typically cruised at under one thousand kilometers per hour, making it difficult to meet such requirements on trans Pacific routes spanning over ten thousand kilometers.
Janet shook her head. "Private aircraft aren't subject to that restriction."
Simon had a rough understanding of the matter and did not dwell on it. He asked Sophia, "When do you plan to return to Europe?"
Sophia paused and looked at Janet.
Janet said, "A few days ago I intercepted a draft from a nurse at that hospital in Watsonville. To keep those people from continuing to talk nonsense, I want George and Sophia to contact some people and have them sign confidentiality agreements."
Simon paused. He was not particularly sensitive about his past time at the Watsonville psychiatric hospital, but he did not want it constantly dragged out for discussion either. After thinking for a moment, he said, "I'll call Dr. Chapman later. He took very good care of me back then. If George and Sophia go over there, he can help coordinate things."
Janet nodded. "That was my plan too."
If George and Sophia went directly and demanded that Dr. Chapman sign a confidentiality agreement like everyone else, it would certainly hurt feelings. But involving Dr. Chapman in the process meant bringing him onto their side while preserving a favor.
Since Janet had already thought this through, Simon said nothing more.
Though she usually seemed lazy and carefree, Simon knew Janet was sharper and more attentive than most people. If he had not happened to ask, she might already have quietly taken care of everything.
Because this trip to Australia was not purely for work, Simon returned to Malibu early that afternoon to prepare with Janet.
They woke up very early the next day, arriving at Los Angeles International Airport at six. At seven, everyone was present, and a Boeing 767 taxied down the runway and lifted into the sky on schedule.
Compared to Simon's Gulfstream IV, which carried only twenty passengers, the Boeing 767 200ER that Janet rented had a standard capacity of over two hundred. However, the leasing company had converted it into a combined passenger cargo aircraft. Aside from a luxury cabin at the front seating around thirty people, most of the interior space had been cleared, significantly reducing the aircraft's base weight and maximizing fuel efficiency and range.
At this moment, besides the flight crew of four pilots and four flight attendants, Simon's group consisted of nine people. Simon and Janet, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon, plus five employees from Daenerys Entertainment, including Simon's personal assistant Jennifer.
In the 1980s, there were no commercial flights flying directly from Los Angeles to Melbourne. For ordinary travelers, such a journey usually required two layovers via Hawaii and Sydney, taking over twenty hours in total.
Without the need to stop, Simon's group's journey would take about sixteen hours.
There was an eighteen hour time difference between Los Angeles and Melbourne. Departing at seven in the morning on August thirty first, they were expected to arrive at five in the afternoon local time on September first.
Simon naturally did not intend to waste sixteen hours in the air.
Inside an office cabin.
Just as Simon was about to go through a stack of materials he planned to read during the trip, Jennifer took out a package. "This was delivered from San Francisco yesterday afternoon. You had already left by then."
Simon took the package and examined it. It was not a business courier. On the square box, someone had simply written a signature with a marker: Steve Jobs.
Raising an eyebrow in surprise, Simon opened the package. Inside was a videotape and a single note.
He handed the tape to Jennifer and picked up the note himself. It contained only a short sentence. Simon, if you're interested in Pixar, give me a call.
Below it was a phone number.
Jennifer put the tape into the office VCR. On the television screen in the corner, a 3D animation soon appeared, titled Tin Toy.
After it played for a bit, Jennifer turned around and explained, "I looked it up. This short was attached to Fox's Die Hard when it premiered early last month. The industry response has been very positive. Also, Steve Jobs's NeXT computer launch has been delayed again, and Pixar's image computer sales are doing terribly. He urgently needs to get rid of this burden. Back then, Jobs bought Pixar from Lucas for five million dollars, then invested another five million to keep the studio running, acquiring seventy percent of the shares. The remaining thirty percent is held by Pixar employees. Considering the rendering tools like RenderMan that Pixar has completed over the past two years, its current value should be around twenty million dollars."
Listening to Jennifer's explanation, Simon looked at the still very rough looking baby model on the screen and understood that, given Pixar's financial constraints, reaching this level was already quite remarkable.
When the short finished, Simon did not deliberately delay. He picked up the phone on the desk and dialed the number on the note.
The call connected and was quickly transferred to Jobs.
The two were not familiar with each other. After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Simon went straight to the point. "Steve, you can give me a quote… Thirty million dollars? That's too high. You and I both know that's impossible… Of course I'd like to acquire Pixar, but you should also know about Daenerys Effects. To be honest, what I'm really interested in is Pixar's RenderMan rendering system. With that software, Daenerys Effects can save more than half a year of development time. If you called me after March next year, I might not even need this company anymore… Twenty million dollars. That's my highest offer, and it's for all of Pixar. You'll need to convince the Pixar employees to give up their existing shares."
Simon had no intention of conceding much on price. Jobs was clearly eager to offload Pixar and did not haggle excessively.
After some back and forth over details on the phone, the deal was essentially settled. Simon hung up and immediately called Jennifer's father, asking James Rebould to formally approach Jobs with an acquisition proposal. With that done, Simon felt no particular thrill at having snapped up a bargain.
When he decided not to tie his animation film plans to Pixar, Simon had already resolved that if he could not acquire the company, he would do his best to destroy it.
With his current strength, that would not be difficult.
From memory, the main reason Pixar managed to survive into the mid 1990s and eventually produce Toy Story was that its image computers gradually found a market, with Disney as the largest customer. Thus, if Simon wanted to suppress Pixar, all he needed was to reach an agreement with Disney to stop purchasing Pixar image computers. By comparison, Silicon Graphics, in which Westeros Corporation held a major stake, also produced top tier graphics workstations. Doing this would not even require an excuse. It would be entirely legitimate business competition.
That said, acquiring Pixar was undeniably a good thing.
Daenerys Effects would no longer need to spend time developing its own rendering system. Pixar's 3D animation technology could also serve as an excellent complement. Most importantly, there was John Lasseter's team, whom Simon had already been considering poaching.
In the original history, after Tin Toy won an Academy Award, John Lasseter turned down Disney's recruitment. Rumor had it that Disney made repeated efforts, and when they could not secure him, they ultimately chose to collaborate instead, leading to the birth of Toy Story.
Throughout that process, Lasseter was said to be unwaveringly loyal to Jobs.
But in reality, things were not that legendary.
Tin Toy was released in 1988, while Toy Story was not greenlit until 1991, and then went through repeated setbacks over several years before being completed. Clearly, if Disney had truly been that desperate for talent, there would not have been a three year gap, nor would Toy Story's production have suffered repeated halts.
Therefore, with Daenerys Entertainment's current standing in the industry, Simon would likely not even need to offer especially generous terms to recruit John Lasseter. Of course, now that he had acquired Pixar outright, there was no longer any need for such extra effort.