Interlude: An Excerpt
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Excerpt from the transcript of Prometheus Labs board meeting on [DATE REMOVED]

CEO, D. del Rey: "Now for the next piece of business: Dr. Wondertainment."

CFO, A. Anderson: "Oh lord, what debacle has R&D involved itself in now?"

VP of Research & Development, Dr. K. Prelambrian: "*ahem* We're about a month away from completing the reverse engineering of the additive supplements Wondertainment provides in those science kits, and we should be able to use them in production within three months-"

COO, F. Park: "Assuming it doesn't blow up in your faces, like the last four times you've tried reverse engineering those damn things. What were they? The candy we were going to use to eliminate blood pathogens? The robots we were going to get A.I. kernels out of?

VP R&D: "I am well aware of the less than outstanding results with regards to Wondertainment products, thank you. But as you well know, if we can adapt even one of their methods to our products, we could do, well, wonders."

CFO: "And in the meantime you're burning through easily 15% of the budget on those damnable things. After that little… incident last year, we don't have the resources to keep funding projects that aren't producing."

VP of Sales, J. Smith: "I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but the market research department estimates that Wondertainment has sales in excess of thirty-seven million dollars per year. If we can adapt that into profit for us…"

CEO: "There's another wrinkle to this that came up earlier this week. Jennifer, if you would?"

VP of Legal Affairs, J. Wilkins, Esq.: "On Tuesday, we had a little message delivered to the production facility in Perth. Apparently we have a cease-and-desist from Wondertainment, in their usual delightful way. In short, if we don't stop trying to breach their trade secrets, they're going to sue us. Or as they so colorfully put it, 'get a visit from Mister Law-and-Order.' We already have enough trouble getting the production permits in Australia right now; the last thing we need is a major industrial espionage suit on our hands. I strongly recommend halting development on Wondertainment products."

VP R&D: "What?! NO! Do you have any idea how close-"

CEO: (interrupting) "Kumar, stop. You've already said your team is at least a month away from completion and frankly, we don't need another situation on our plate right now like what happened in Adelaide. I'm calling a formal vote to halt operations with regards to Wondertainment products and redirect resources to other product development. All in favor?"

CEO, COO, CFO, VP Legal: "Aye."

CEO: "All opposed?"

VP R&D, VP Sales: "Nay."

CEO: "The ayes have it. Kumar, wind down that unit as soon as possible. I want you to provide an update to me and Frank in two weeks. Next on the agenda, market penetration into Indochina."

End of excerpt.

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