Since early spring this year, the company had started using the twenty-four-story building next door. The bottom fourteen floors still had a few old tenants who hadn't fully moved out yet, but the top ten floors were completely renovated and ready. So several departments from the main campus were moving over there, freeing up space here.
After some internal discussion, Marketing, HR, and External Communications had all finished relocating.
These days, aside from the core research labs, the only departments still on the main campus were Finance & Admin, Production, Security, the Confidentiality Office, and Legal.
The heart of the company was still here, of course — Nick's office, Tyler's, Zack's. Eventually the rest of the departments would move over too, once the new building was fully done, leaving just the labs behind. Makes sense — big research equipment doesn't exactly transport well or install easily in a high-rise.
Ever since Nick got back from his east coast trip, local Texas officials had been reaching out nonstop. Beyond the local guys, reps from other regions kept dropping by too.
Their goal was obvious — trying to lure the company somewhere else. Not exactly subtle about it either.
That made the local Texas leaders pretty anxious. They kept calling to reassure Nick's team, and Nick, Tyler, and the other execs kept getting pulled into "coffee meetings."
Nick had said repeatedly they had no plans to relocate, but the local officials still weren't fully convinced.
The courting from outside never let up, and neither did the reassurance efforts from Texas, which honestly had Nick pretty worn out.
But Nick kept deliberately staying vague — he wanted to see everyone's real intentions and bottom lines first. Everyone claimed to be coming in with sincerity, and Nick wanted to see what that actually meant in practice.
To lock things down for good and stop the outside interest, the Texas local government pulled out all the stops this time.
Bill Ferguson, the city's top official, personally showed up for an on-site inspection.
Amid a wave of camera flashes, Nick led Bill Ferguson and his delegation onto the company campus.
"Nicholas, I brought department heads with me today — we want a proper look at what Texas's flagship tech company is really accomplishing, day to day. If you're running into any snags, just say so. My team and I are here to help sort them out," Bill Ferguson said warmly.
"Thank you, Secretary Ferguson, and all the local leadership, for your continued support. Militech wouldn't be where it is today without the city and the development zone backing us the whole way. Honestly, our growth's owed almost entirely to that support," Nick replied, smiling. With cameras rolling and this many people watching, Nick knew exactly how to play it.
And it was mostly true — early rent waivers on the office building, favorable policies, all of it had genuinely helped them scale as fast as they had.
"Ha, what you just said barely covers it," Bill Ferguson said, shaking his head as they walked past the display panels showing the company's growth. He addressed the crowd behind them too. "A major tech company like this has a massive ripple effect on a city — even a whole region.
It's not just tax revenue and immediate economic benefit — think about the whole industry it drags along with it.
Setting everything else aside, Militech alone has created jobs for over two thousand people right here in Texas. That's two thousand families, and all the spending that comes with them.
That's before you even count the ripple effect on other businesses providing services to this company, or the broader influence a company like this carries in its field.
So we stick to the principle: put people first, back great companies, offer full support, and cultivate the right conditions for companies like this to thrive."
Once the tour of the display panels wrapped up, Bill Ferguson joked, "Nicholas, you're not just gonna have us stare at info boards all day, right? With this many of us here, you've gotta show us something real."
"Of course, Secretary Ferguson, right this way." Nick led the group toward the lab lobby. "First, badges please."
"Ah." Bill Ferguson took the badge and looked it over. "Guest pass."
Nick clipped on his own employee badge and explained. "We've got a fully in-house intelligent security system running through the whole research building.
When you scan your badge and walk through the turnstile, cameras log your physical details — face, height, weight, body and surface temperature, gait, even the color and style of your outfit — and link it all to your ID.
The system assigns access based on identity and pre-set permissions. Different roles get different access, different zones.
Even if you swap badges once you're inside, it won't work — the system will catch the mismatch between your physical profile and the badge's registered data, and lock you out."
"That strict, huh?" one of the officials couldn't help but blurt out. In his head, this was just a private company — why was security here tighter than some research institutions he'd seen?
"Can't help it. There's no shortage of corporate spies these days, gotta stay ahead of them. We've been dealing with attempts like this since day one.
So far, working with security authorities, we've caught seven or eight people running various kinds of espionage — corporate spies, and a few tied to foreign intelligence."
Nick's tone turned serious. "Even though we're a private company, we're also involved in defense and military research projects. So our confidentiality standards are extremely tight, and we appreciate everyone's understanding."
Bill Ferguson waved a hand. "Completely necessary — everyone's got a role in confidentiality. Nicholas, would it be a hassle for us to go in? If it's an issue, don't feel obligated to bring us along."
Nick smiled. "It's fine. Everything open today is fine for public viewing. The stuff that needs real confidentiality, you naturally won't have access to."
"Ha, then I'm genuinely looking forward to the 'secrets' we're actually allowed to see today." Bill Ferguson took his badge and walked through the turnstile. Nick and the rest of the group smiled and followed close behind.